Absolutely none at all.  If, now, it were possible to raise the
schooner's bulwarks, or to render them unclimbable in some way!

As I considered this the thought of the trawl net which the skipper had
brought along for the purpose of dredging up the pearl-oysters occurred
to me, and I instantly decided that it might, with a little ingenuity,
be converted into an excellent boarding netting.  It was made of extra
stout hemp line, to resist the cutting action of the oyster shells over
which it was proposed to be dragged, and also to bring up a good heavy
load without bursting, and I at once recognised that if there was enough
of it to trice up all round the schooner--and I believed there was--it
might serve to keep the natives off our decks long enough to enable us
to give them so severe a punishing as to cool their ardour effectually
and ultimately beat them off.  The idea was too good not to be utilised
at once; and I gave instructions to have the net immediately routed out
and brought on deck.  It was a big, heavy affair, and it took the eight
of us the best part of half an hour to clear it out of the sail-room and
get it on deck; but when at length we had done so I at once saw that,
with a certain amount of cutting and contriving, it might be made to
serve its new purpose very excellently: and forthwith all hands of us
fell upon it, and by eight bells in the afternoon watch had converted it
into an exceedingly efficient boarding net.  Then we triced it up, and
felt that at last we were ready for whatever the fates--and the
natives--might have in store for us.

Meanwhile the jollyboat still lay abandoned upon the beach, and no sign
of her crew or of the skipper and his two companions had been seen; nor
had the strictest scrutiny, with the aid of the ship's telescope,
revealed any indication of natives ashore: in fact, so far as
appearances alone were concerned, the island might have been
uninhabited.  But the continued absence of our shipmates, now prolonged
far beyond all reasonable limits, left no doubt in any of our minds that
something very seriously wrong had happened to them; and but for the
circumstance that we were in complete ignorance as to what that
happening really was, and the hope that some of them at least might
still be alive, I would at once have got the schooner under way and gone
to sea.  But to do that was impossible while their fate was still in
doubt; for not even to ensure our own safety against the attack that we
were all convinced was impending could we do that which would amount to
the abandonment of possibly living white men to the mercy of the
savages.

With the tricing up and securing of the boarding netting our
preparations for the defence of the schooner were completed to the best
of our ability; and now all that remained was for us to sit down and
passively await events, which, in the present case, meant an attack by
the savages at any moment after darkness had fallen sufficiently to
conceal their movements.  But, that we might be as fully prepared as
possible, I gave instructions for the advancement of the supper hour, so
that we might partake of that meal while there was still light enough to
enable us to see our surroundings; and after that we busied ourselves
about a general straightening up of the decks and the removal of all
unnecessary hamper, in order that, if fight we must, we might at least
fight with clear decks.

Fortunately for us the night fell fine and clear, with brilliant
starlight which enabled us to see all round the ship for a distance of
about a couple of hundred yards; but inshore of us the shadow of the
island lay jet-black upon the surface of the water, completely hiding
all evidence of movement in that direction, even when I attempted to
probe the blackness with the night glass.  Therefore we were obliged to
trust quite as much to our ears as to our eyes for warning of the
approach of an enemy; but even they did not help us much, for the island
was but a small one, and the thunder of the surf upon its weather shore,
borne to us with almost startling distinctness, mingled with the sough
of the wind among the trees and the lap of the ripples alongside, making
with these a combination of sound that effectually screened any such
movement as the launching of a canoe or the distant dip of paddles.  I
foresaw that this was likely to be a wakeful night for me, for with such
a heavy load of responsibility upon my young shoulders I could not
possibly have slept, even upon a bed of down.  I therefore instructed
the men to bring their beds on deck and snatch such rest as might come
to them, while I kept a lookout.  Also I made a point of striking the
ship's bell regularly every half-hour, in the faint hope that if the
savages could be brought to realise that we were upon the alert they
might, after all, decide not to risk an attack.

With incredible slowness the laggard moments passed; the second
dog-watch came to an end; and then, still more slowly, as it seemed to
my impatience, first one, then two, three, four, and so on up to eight
bells of the first watch were tolled out, and still there were no signs
of the enemy.  And all this while I was continuously padding round the
decks in a pair of old felt-soled slippers, which effectually silenced
my footsteps upon the planking, pausing for a moment at every half-dozen
steps to peer anxiously but in vain into the shadow of the island for
some indication of movement.  Finally four bells of the middle watch
arrived, and their passage was duly recorded by the strokes of the
ship's bell.  Meanwhile the stress of the day's anxiety, combined with
my continuous and monotonous perambulation of the deck, and no doubt
assisted by the soft coolness of the offshore breeze, laden with the
odours of earth and vegetation, and the constant booming sound of the
distant surf, was beginning to tell upon me; my jarred nerves had become
steady, my breathing had become deep and regular, my limbs were growing
weary, and my eyelids began occasionally to droop; in short, I was
beginning to feel fatigued and in need of sleep.

This, then, was evidently the moment at which to attempt to snatch a
little rest, and I was debating within myself which of the men I should
call to relieve me, or rather which of them I could best trust to keep
an alert lookout, when I fancied I caught, just for an instant out of
the corner of my eye, a faint, silvery gleam, as of the phosphorescence
of disturbed water, deep in the heart of the darkest shadow in the
direction of the beach.  I looked more closely, and presently saw again,
this time quite distinctly, the rippling, moon-like gleam of water
disturbed as it might be by the launching of a boat or a canoe.  Yes,
there was no mistake about it, there was undoubtedly a movement of some
sort in there; and even as I came to this conclusion I saw the thing
repeated twice, thrice, five or six times, with spaces of a few yards
between.  That was enough; at last the savages were on the move, and in
a moment my fatigue fell from me like a garment, and I was once again
the incarnation of alertness.  Without making a sound I glided along the
deck in my old soft slippers, and, laying my hand lightly upon each
sleeper's shoulder, murmured in his ear: "The enemy is under way!  Go to
your station as noiselessly as possible, taking your gun with you; and
do not fire until I give the word."

By the time that I had awakened my little band, and had seen each man at
his proper station, it had become perfectly apparent that eight canoes
were stealing slowly out toward us from the beach; for although they
were still enveloped in deep shadow, and were being paddled so
cautiously that not the faintest suspicion of a sound could be heard, it
was possible for us to see distinctly, in the midst of the blackness,
eight separate points of disturbance, each indicated by short, wavering
lines of phosphorescent light, marking the slight ripple created by the
gentle passage of some object through the water, in addition to which an
occasional small luminous swirl indicated the stealthy dip of a paddle
in the water at infrequent intervals.  The excessive caution with which
they were making their approach seemed to suggest an intention on the
part of the savages to get as near as possible to the schooner
unobserved, with probably a quick dash at the end to cover the last
hundred feet or so of water.

Crouching low behind the bulwarks, and levelling the ship's night glass
over the rail, I kept the instrument slowly sweeping athwart the
advancing line of craft, and at length saw eight large canoes gradually
take shape as they drew imperceptibly out of the heart of the deepest
shadow.  I endeavoured to count the number of occupants, but soon found
this to be impossible in the dim light.  I made a rough guess, however,
and came to the conclusion that there were at least twenty in each
canoe; it was evident therefore that, despite our superiority in the
matter of weapons, there was a desperate struggle in store for us.  I
waited patiently until the canoes had approached us near enough to
enable us to distinguish the loom of them with the unaided eye, and
then, springing up on the wheel grating, I suddenly hailed:

"Canoes ahoy!  Keep off there!  If you attempt to come any nearer I will
open fire upon you."

A complete cessation of paddling immediately followed my hail.  Possibly
the savages were a trifle chagrined to discover that we were on the
alert, or perhaps they did not fully understand what I had said--
although I did not believe that, for most of the South Sea natives knew
enough of English to enable an Englishman to make himself understood.
Be that as it may, they paused long enough to enable me to call to the
little band of defenders a final instruction.

"Don't fire, lads," I said, "until you can see your mark distinctly.
Then aim carefully, and make every shot tell.  Much will depend upon the
effect of our first volley, which we must therefore make as deadly as
possible."

A low murmur of comprehension arose from the scanty crew ranged at wide
intervals along the schooner's port rail, that being the side which the
natives were approaching.  But before anything more could be said, a
loud shout--in a voice the tones of which seemed somehow familiar to
me--arose from one of the canoes, and was instantly answered by a yell
that, from its volume of sound, must have emanated from the throats of
nearly or quite two hundred savages; and then, without further attempt
at concealment, a whole host of paddles suddenly dashed into the water,
lashing it into long, swirling lines of luminous foam, and, with loud
cries of mutual encouragement from the occupants, the eight big canoes
surged forward and came rushing through the water at the schooner.

"Keep cool, men," I shouted above the din: "pick your mark; aim into the
thick of them; and load and fire as many times as you can before they
can get alongside."  And forthwith I led off with a shot aimed straight
at the centre of the dark mass which represented the nearest canoe, at
that moment distant about two hundred and fifty yards.  My aim was true,
and my bullet must have found a double mark, for two distinct shrieks
responded a bare moment before a ragged volley of seven shots rang out
from the rest of the defenders.  More shrieks followed this discharge,
but it did not stop the rush of the canoes, which now came sweeping
toward us like so many steamers.  Meanwhile I was busily engaged in
slipping another cartridge into the breach of my piece, calculating upon
being able to get in two more shots before the savages arrived
alongside.  And so, as a matter of fact, I did, as also did some of the
others, with disastrous results for the savages, if the shrieks that
followed upon each discharge were to be accepted as any criterion; and,
apart from that, there was a noticeable wavering and hesitation on the
part of the crews of two or three of the canoes after that third
discharge.  But the hesitation was only momentary; then the rascals
gripped their courage afresh and drove their canoes alongside, four
dashing up on our port side, and the remaining four essaying to board us
to starboard.  And when the canoes were within about four or five
fathoms of the schooner's side, with good way upon them, the savages
suddenly laid in their paddles and, rising to their feet, hurled a heavy
shower of spears at us, every one of which flew harmlessly over our
heads, luckily for us.

Then the heavy night air suddenly became vibrant with a medley of harsh,
discordant sounds, compounded of the yells and shrieks of the savages,
the fierce ejaculations of our own people, the quick, snapping
explosions of revolvers, and the gasping groans of the wounded, as the
natives swarmed up our low sides and suddenly found themselves
confronted by the barrier of our improvised boarding net, through the
meshes of which our lads pointed their revolvers and thrust furiously
with their cutlasses, while the savages unavailingly strove to tear the
stout strands apart and make an opening through which to pass, or thrust
at us in their turn with their spears.  Suddenly, in the dim starlight,
as I was busily reloading my revolver, I saw the cook emerge from the
galley with what looked like a bucket in his hand.  With a quick twirl
he seemed to throw the contents of this bucket through the net just
where the savages were crowding thickest on the other side of it, and
the next instant there arose a more than usually piercing chorus of
shrieks, while the great bulk of the savages at that particular point
appeared to melt away suddenly, and I heard the heavy impact of a number
of bodies falling headlong into the canoes alongside.

The "Doctor" paused a moment, apparently to note the effect of his
experiment, and then he hastily returned to the galley, presently
emerging again and repeating his former tactics with similar results.  I
subsequently learned that, when it became known that an attack of the
savages might be certainly looked for, the cook had lighted a rousing
fire in his galley, filled his coppers with a mixture of slush and salt
water, and brought the whole to the boil, so arranging the matter that
the mixture was in a state of furious ebullition by the time the savages
arrived alongside.  And wherever the blacks pressed thickest and most
determinedly, there Cooky intervened with a bucketful of his scalding
stuff, which he very effectively distributed over the naked bodies of a
round dozen or so of our assailants by giving the bucket a neat twirl at
the instant of discharge.

But despite the effective aid thus rendered, matters were, on the whole,
going rather badly for us, for two American forecastle hands were by
this time down, transfixed by spears which pinned them to the deck,
while the sailmaker and I were each punctured and bleeding freely, Sails
having received a bad prick in his left shoulder, while a spear had
passed completely through the fleshy part of my right thigh; in addition
to which a party of savages, by concentrating their efforts upon one
particular spot, had contrived to make a hole in the net, which they
were rapidly enlarging.  Of this last fact I was happily unaware, as
indeed I was of the critical character of our situation generally, for
it was forward, where Murdock, the ex-boatswain of the _Zenobia_, was in
charge, that matters were going so badly, while aft, where I was, we
were doing pretty well.

But Murdock was not the sort of man to be discouraged because for the
moment he happened to be getting the worst of it; on the contrary, it
was just that state of things that stirred him to extra effort, and it
did so now.  Perceiving that, unless something were done to prevent them
effectively, the savages would soon force their way through the net--and
thereafter make short work of all hands of us--Murdock sets his wits
going, and presently thought out a plan which he immediately proceeded
to put into operation.  Seizing a half-empty case of revolver
ammunition, he broke open about a dozen cartridges and arranged the
powder in a little heap at the bottom of the case, burying one end of a
length of extemporised fuse in the heap.  Then he piled the cartridges
on the top of the heap, placed the case on the windlass bitts, ignited
the free end of the fuse, and rushed aft, yelling to us to throw
ourselves flat upon our faces as he did so.

So urgent was his call that we all instinctively obeyed it; and there we
lay for perhaps ten or fifteen seconds, while the savages, seeing the
weak point suddenly deserted, swarmed about it in greatly augmented
numbers, finally enlarging the hole in the net to such an extent that at
length it was big enough to permit the passage of a man, when one after
another they began to force their way through.  It was at this precise
moment that the spark of the burning fuse reached the powder, which of
course instantly blew up, igniting the hundred or so of cartridges that
remained in the case, and scattering the bullets in them in all
directions.  There was a quick flash of the ignited powder, immediately
followed by the cracker-like reports of the exploding cartridges, a
horrible chorus of yells and shrieks of wounded men, and then--sudden,
complete silence, for the space of perhaps half a dozen breaths.  Then
came renewed groans and outcries, as the injured men felt the first
smart of their wounds, followed by a sudden wailing cry, and with one
accord the panic-stricken savages flung themselves back into their
canoes, seized their paddles, and headed for the shore in frantic haste,
being presently sped upon their way by the bullets which we poured into
their midst as long as they remained in sight.

Then, and not until then, we laid aside our weapons, mopped the
perspiration and powder grime from our streaming brows, bound up each
other's wounds, and went forward to inspect the results of Murdock's
little experiment.  It had been exceedingly effective, for scattered
round the spot where the explosion had occurred we found no less than
nineteen savages, of whom eleven were dead, five were more or less
severely wounded, and three appeared to be only stunned.  These three we
promptly proceeded to bind hand and foot, during which operation we
discovered that one of the trio was none other than friend Oahika, our
"bumboat man in or'nary", as the skipper had styled him.  I was
especially glad that this particular rascal had fallen into our hands,
for during the progress of the fight I had frequently caught sight of
him, by the light afforded by the flash of our revolvers, and had
noticed that he was taking an exceptionally prominent part in the
proceedings; while one or two circumstances which I had also noticed led
me to suspect that he might possibly be a person of some importance
among the natives of Roua Poua.

And now, as with the assistance of three lanterns we proceeded with our
investigations, the really desperate character of the struggle in which
we had so recently been engaged began to be borne in upon us; for, in
addition to the nineteen who had fallen victims to the boatswain's
contrivance, we found scattered about the ship twenty-six dead, and
thirty-three more or less wounded natives; while others--with whom the
sharks were already busy--were floating in the water near the ship.  As
for ourselves, we had lost two foremast hands, both of them Americans,
while the remainder of us, with the solitary exception of the cook, had
each his scratch to show, my own and the sailmaker's being, fortunately,
the only wounds that could be reasonably termed serious, while even they
were of comparatively little moment, provided that gangrene did not
supervene.

And now, the natives having been beaten off, our next task was to
straighten up after the fight, and a beginning was made by throwing all
the dead--except our own two--overboard, where the sharks might be
safely trusted to see to their speedy disposal.  Then we overhauled the
wounded savages: and such of them as had received only trifling hurts,
and might therefore perhaps yet give us trouble if we were not careful,
we bound securely; while the others we laid out on deck, and then
proceeded to doctor up as well as our means and our very limited
surgical knowledge permitted.

It was while we were all thus busily engaged that the boatswain,
happening to straighten his back for a moment and cast an alert glance
across the water toward the shore, suddenly stood rigid and staring, and
then remarked to me, in a low tone of voice:

"Just look over there for a minute, Mr Temple.  Ain't that a canoe or
somethin' headin' this way?"

I looked in the direction indicated, and at once sighted a small,
shapeless blot of deeper blackness in the shadow that enshrouded the
whole of the west side of the island.  But if it was a canoe it was
certainly a very small craft; moreover, it was not coming from the
direction of the beach, but from a point apparently about a mile to the
north of it.  We stood watching it for a full minute, or more, and then
I caught the now familiar phosphorescent gleam of water which indicated
the presence of a moving object.

"Yes," I said, "it certainly is a canoe, Murdock; but she seems to be
only a very small affair, such as need give us no very serious amount of
anxiety.  We will keep an eye upon her for a minute or two and see what
she is after.  Perhaps it is a messenger from the natives coming off to
treat with us for the surrender of the wounded.  I hope it may be,
because then we shall perhaps learn what has become of the skipper and
the rest of the missing men."

As the canoe continued to approach, we observed a certain eccentricity
in her behaviour, for instead of progressing in a straight line her
course was a decided _zigzag_, now heading one way and now another, to
the extent of about four points of the compass; still it looked as
though she was aiming for the schooner, for her general direction of
approach was toward us.  I procured the night glass and brought it to
bear upon her, and was then able to distinguish that she was indeed an
exceedingly diminutive craft, containing only one figure, who seemed to
be sitting in her stern, and was paddling somewhat awkwardly, first on
one side of her and then on the other, which probably accounted for her
eccentricity of movement.  Furthermore, as I continued to watch, a
certain suggestion of familiarity grew upon me in connection with the
appearance and actions of the paddling figure; and finally, when the
canoe had approached to within about a hundred fathoms of the schooner,
I put down the glass and hailed:

"Canoe ahoy! what canoe is that?"

"Hillo! is that you, Temple?" came the reply in Cunningham's well-known
voice.

"Ay, ay," I replied, "it is I, right enough.  And glad I am to see that
you are all right.  Do you happen to know anything about the skipper?"

"Got him here, in the bottom of the canoe," was the reply.  "The poor
old chap is rather badly hurt, I'm afraid.  Con-found this canoe!  Why
won't the wretched thing go straight?"

"It is because you don't understand how to handle her, I expect,"
replied I.  "Do you know anything about the three men who took you
ashore yesterday?"

"No," answered Cunningham.  "Didn't they return to the ship?"

"They did not; and I am very much afraid that we shall never set eyes
upon them again."

"Phew!" whistled Cunningham; "that's bad news, although I'm not very
greatly surprised to hear it after the way that the beggars ashore
behaved--Hillo! what's this?  Why--I say, Temple, there's a dead native
floating about out here.  What's the meaning of that?"

"It means that a determined attempt to capture the schooner was made,
about two hours ago, and was very near being successful," said I.  "Do
you mean to say that you did not hear the rumpus?"

"Not a sound of it," answered Cunningham.  "But of course that may be
accounted for by--but one can talk about that later.  Just heave me a
rope's end, there's a good chap, and--I say, how are we going to get the
skipper up on deck?  He's rather badly hurt, and can't manage without
assistance, I'm afraid."

The canoe was by this time close aboard of us, and a few seconds later
she was brought alongside with the aid of the line which I hove to
Cunningham.  Then I dropped lightly over the side into her, to see what
could be done to help Brown, who all this time had remained perfectly
silent.  I found him propped up in the eyes of the little craft, and
when I stooped over him I saw that his eyes were closed, as though he
slept.  But according to Cunningham it was not sleep, it was
insensibility, resulting from a blow on the head with a heavy club.  In
any case the poor old fellow was obviously quite unable to help himself.
I therefore took the rope's end which I had thrown to Cunningham, made
a standing bowline in the end of it, passed it under the skipper's arms,
and then sang out to those on deck to hoist away gently, while
Cunningham and I helped by lifting.  Thus presently we managed to get
Brown first on deck and then down into his own stateroom, where
Cunningham, who claimed to possess a certain amateurish skill and
knowledge in medicine and surgery, at once took him in hand, while I
returned to the deck and assisted the others in the task of
straightening up generally.

By the time we had finished the young dawn was paling the eastern sky,
and the island, from being a mere shapeless black shadow, had changed to
a deep neutral-tinted--almost black--silhouette, as clear and sharp of
outline as though it had been cut out of paper, its equally dark
reflection trembling on the surface of the water, and coming and going
almost as far out as where the schooner lay at anchor.  Then, even as I
stood watching, the pallor brightened to a clear, pale tint of purest
primrose, which presently flushed into a warm, delicate orange hue; a
long shaft of white light shot straight up toward the zenith, and an
instant later the topmast branches of the trees that crowned the island
became edged with a thin hair-line of burning gold, which spread with
marvellous rapidity north and south until every limb and trunk glowed
with it.  Finally a level beam of golden light flashed through a dense
clump of foliage that crowned the highest point of the island, and the
next instant that same clump became swallowed up and lost in a great,
dazzling, palpitating blaze of golden light, which was the body of the
rising sun; the colour of the island changed from neutral tint to deep
sepia, and from that to innumerable subtle tones of olive and green, as
the light grew stronger, and the masses of foliage separated themselves
from each other and became distinct, until the shape of each became
perfectly defined and took its proper place in the picture.  And while
these magical colour changes were in progress the deep shadow which
marked the junction of land and water dissolved until the beach once
more emerged into view, with the jollyboat still hauled up on it where
she had been left on the previous day, and round about her, to left and
right, eight big canoes, undoubtedly those which had been used in the
attack upon the schooner a few hours earlier.

While I still stood gazing, entranced, at the beauty of the new day,
Cunningham emerged from the companion way and joined me.

"Well," he said, "you will be glad to hear that I think we shall pull
the poor old skipper through, after all.  I started to give him a
thorough overhaul as soon as you left me; and I found that those
murdering thieves of natives had literally cracked the poor old chap's
skull for him.  I also found that a tiny splinter of bone had been
driven inward upon the brain by the force of the blow; and this splinter
I succeeded in extracting, with the result that he emerged from his
state of coma, and, after I had properly dressed his wound, went to
sleep."

CHAPTER TEN.

WE LOSE THE SKIPPER.

"I am delighted to hear it," I said, "for we have paid dearly enough
already for our folly in coming to this island, without being called
upon to pay the additional penalty of that poor old chap's life.  We
have lost two of our number in the attack upon the ship, while the three
hands who took you ashore yesterday are missing--and, by the by, where
is Maybury?"

"Dead, poor chap, I am sorry to say--murdered by those treacherous
scoundrels of natives," answered Cunningham.  "The way of it was this.
When we landed we were immediately surrounded by a mob of blacks; and
just for a moment I had a shadowy suspicion that things were not quite
all that they ought to be.  But as I looked round I saw that the natives
were all unarmed; and, moreover, they were all smiling and apparently in
the best of tempers--indeed, one of them, a girl, flung a garland of
flowers round my neck, either as a joke or a sign of goodwill, I didn't
quite know which--so I took it for granted that they were friendly
disposed, and we all got laughing and joking together.  Then the
skipper, Maybury, and I gradually worked our way through the crowd, and,
accompanied by the men who had wood to sell, walked up through the
village, which seemed to be inhabited chiefly by naked little
piccaninnies, playing in the sand with the dogs, and women.

"The village is about a quarter of a mile in length, and beyond it there
are about twenty acres of cleared ground, planted with manioc, cassava,
corn, and fruit trees--principally bananas, beyond which is the virgin
forest.  Toward this we made our way, and, entering it, followed a bush
path for about a quarter of a mile, until we reached a small open space.
We had scarcely entered this when the three pretended sandalwood
merchants simultaneously turned upon us, and, uttering a terrific yell,
seized each of us by the arms, which they tried to confine behind our
backs.  Taken unawares though I was, I struggled fiercely to throw off
my particular assailant, but the beggar was a big sinewy chap, with
muscles like steel, and ere I could wrench myself clear about a dozen
other blacks sprang into the enclosure, evidently in response to the
shout raised by our captors; and before I well knew what was happening I
found myself upon the ground, with three or four savages sitting upon
me, while others were binding me hand and foot.  While I was still
struggling I heard the pop of a revolver twice, the reports being so
close together that I knew at once they must have come from different
weapons; and the next instant I heard a dull crack, a groan, and the
fall of two heavy bodies upon the dry leaves and twigs which carpeted
the floor of the open space where the struggle had taken place.  Then,
when my captors had effectually secured my limbs, they raised me to my
feet, and I saw the skipper lying, face downward, about a yard away,
with his head bare, a small stream of blood trickling from it and
clotting among his grey hair; while close to him lay Maybury on his
back, quite dead, with a long spear driven right through his heart.

"The blacks turned the skipper over, examined him closely, and then,
finding that he was not dead, held some sort of consultation in their
own language, the purport of which of course I could not gather; but the
end of it was that they hoisted both of us upon their shoulders, carried
us back to the village, and thrust us into one of the huts, where we lay
untended for the remainder of the day and practically the whole of last
night.  Then some time--about the small hours I think it must have
been--a girl, who proved to be the same who had flung the garland of
flowers round my neck, stole into the hut as silently as a ghost, laid
her finger upon my lips--to indicate, I suppose, that I was not to
talk--and deftly proceeded to cast adrift my bonds; after which she
proceeded vigorously to chafe my ankles and wrists, in order to restore
the circulation, which had been practically suspended by the tightness
with which the ligatures had been bound.  And look here, Temple, if you
should ever chance to have an enemy, and have a fancy to torture him,
just bind his wrists and ankles tightly together and leave him for a few
hours--that's all!

"Well, when the feeling had come back into my limbs a bit, and I could
move them without screaming, the girl produced some food and drink, and,
although I don't in the least know what they were, I ate and drank
freely.  Then, in the curious `pidgin' lingo that these people use when
conversing with white men, the girl gave me to understand that my life
and that of the skipper was in the greatest jeopardy, and that if I did
not want particularly to die I must buck up and save myself and the
skipper.  Then, taking command, she bade me lift the old man by the
shoulders while she took his feet; and in this fashion we slipped out of
the hut, seeing nobody, and made our way slowly through the wood until
we emerged upon a little beach just on the other side of that headland.
Then she drew out from among the bushes a small canoe, in the bottom of
which she helped me to place the skipper; after which, with a warning to
me to be exceedingly careful and to make no noise, she handed me a
paddle, thrust the canoe afloat, and vanished.  And--and--well, that's
all!  And now you may as well pitch me the yarn of your share of the
night's doings.  If one may venture to judge by appearances you seem to
have had a fairly lively time out here."

"We have, I can assure you," said I; and then I proceeded to give
Cunningham a detailed account of all that had happened during the
absence of himself and the skipper.  I had scarcely finished when the
cabin boy came up with the intimation that breakfast was ready in the
cabin, and we accordingly went below, seated ourselves, and fell to.  We
did not dally long over the meal, for there was still plenty to be done
and thought about; but before returning to the deck I remarked to
Cunningham that I should like to look in and see how the skipper was
getting on, and we both entered the stateroom together.  To my surprise
we found that the old chap was awake and seemingly feeling not very much
the worse for the hard knock on the head which he had received; indeed,
he wanted to turn out and dress and go on deck.  But Cunningham, who had
assumed the role of surgeon, would not hear of such a thing--would not
even permit Brown to leave his bunk; so, as a compromise, I just had to
sit down and spin the whole yarn of our adventure over again to him.
The poor old fellow seemed very much cut up when he learned that we had
lost six men--all of them compatriots of his, too--and bitterly
reproached himself for having come to the island at all.  Of course we
comforted him as well as we could by pointing out to him that the
happening was due not so much to want of precaution on his part as to
the exceeding guile of the natives; and then I led the conversation
round to the prisoners, and asked what he proposed to do with them.
Cunningham was for taking the law into our own hands and inflicting upon
them a salutary lesson by hanging one of them at the yardarm for each of
our people who had been murdered; but Brown would not hear of this, and
we were all three still discussing the matter when the cabin boy came
down with a message from Murdock to say that a large canoe had just been
launched from the beach and was heading for the schooner, and would I be
pleased to go on deck.

Of course I instantly obeyed the call, for my first idea was that
another attack was possibly impending; but when I got on deck I found
that the canoe, although a large one, was manned by only four natives,
who were approaching us very slowly, and apparently with a considerable
amount of trepidation, and that a large palm-leaf was conspicuously
displayed in the bows of the craft, the latter being, as I interpreted
it, intended to serve the purpose of a flag of truce.  Naturally we at
once assumed our weapons, and saw that our firearms were fully loaded
and placed handy for use, lest further treachery should be contemplated;
and then I hailed the canoe and informed her occupants that if they had
anything to say to us they might approach within easy speaking distance,
but that they were not to attempt to come alongside without permission,
and that if any such attempt were made they would at once be fired upon.
And that there might be no misunderstanding upon this point I
flourished a loaded gun in their sight, to show that we were quite
prepared to carry out our threat.

Slowly and hesitatingly the canoe continued to approach the schooner
until she had arrived within about twenty fathoms of us, and then her
crew backed water and brought their craft to a standstill.  A short
consultation among them next followed, and then one of their number rose
to his feet and hailed.

"Master," he shouted, "we got it three mans ashore belong you.  You any
mans got it belong we?"

"Yes," replied I.  "We have eight of your people on board here.  Are the
white men unhurt?"

"No," was the answer.  "They all get it hurt leettle bit, not much.
Black mans along you not hurt, eh?"

"Three of them are unhurt; the others are wounded so they no can walk.
What for you not bring it off those white mans with you?"  I demanded,
adopting their peculiar mode of speech under the mistaken impression
that I could thus make myself the better understood.

"Those white mans no can walk too," answered my interlocutor.  "Suppose
you want it them, we bring them off, and you give it us those eight
black fellows belong we, eh?"

So it was an exchange of prisoners that they had come off to negotiate,
it appeared.  Well, I was more than willing to make the exchange, but I
did not care to appear too eager; so I temporised by enquiring as to the
nature and extent of the white men's hurts.  But they either could not
or would not reply in a manner that was perfectly intelligible to me,
and matters seemed to be approaching a deadlock when one of the canoe
men started to his feet, and in an eager, impatient manner, asked:

"Master, suppose you no got it Oahika aboard, eh?" which enquiry went a
good way toward confirming my opinion that the rascal was a person of
some importance.

"Yes," I replied, "we got it Oahika, all right, not hurt one little
bit."  Then, with some vague idea of trying the effect of a "bluff", I
continued: "He great blackguard scoundrel!  He attack schooner last
night, kill it two white mans!  By and by we hang Oahika up there until
he go dead!" and I pointed to the schooner's lower yardarm.

A yell of anguish immediately followed this announcement of mine, fully
confirming me in the belief that Oahika was likely to prove a valuable
asset if properly manipulated.  The next moment, however, one of the men
jumped up and shouted:

"Mine no believe you got it Oahika.  Suppose yes, you show it him, eh?"

"Murdock, Simpson," I shouted, "just hoist that swab Oahika up on his
feet and take him to the rail, so that those fellows in the canoe may
see him."

This was done; and the moment that the fellow's head and shoulders
appeared above the top of the schooner's low bulwark another loud howl
arose from the crew of the canoe, who incontinently flung themselves
down on their knees and began to kow-tow energetically.  But they were
quickly interrupted by Oahika, who shouted angrily at them, and then, as
soon as he had secured their attention, proceeded to gabble to them a
long string of what seemed to be instructions, in a language quite
unintelligible to me.  When he had finished, the occupants of the canoe
waved their hands, as if to indicate that they understood, then seized
their paddles and began to sweep the canoe's head round toward the
shore.  This sudden change of front rather puzzled me.  I did not quite
know what to make of it; it might mean anything, I thought, and among
other things it might mean that Oahika had given instructions to muster
every available fighting man in the village--or the island--and renew
the attack upon the schooner.  So I hailed the hastily departing canoe:

"Hillo, there, canoe ahoy!  Where are you going, and what are you about
to do?"

The men ceased paddling for a moment, and one of them flourished his
hand toward the island.

"We get it back along ashore plenty quick and bring it them three mans
belong you.  Then you give it us Oahika, eh?" he announced.

"You bring the three white mans, and then we'll see," I retorted.
"And--listen you--if you bring any more of your own men with you I shall
shoot Oahika dead!  Sabby?"

This threat, uttered upon the spur of the moment, seemed to disconcert
them very decidedly, for they remained inactive, staring each other in
the face.  It also seemed to disconcert Oahika; for no sooner had I
finished speaking than he began to shout a long string of further
directions, to which the canoe men replied from time to time by waving
their hands.  Finally Oahika brought his communication to an end with a
few words which, from the intonation of his voice, might have been an
injunction to the men to hurry up; and away the canoe sped toward the
shore.

As soon as it had gone I went down below and reported to the skipper,
who now seemed to be not quite so well as he had been half an hour
earlier.  He was, naturally, very pleased to learn that the three men
whom we had all believed to be dead were still alive; and he instructed
me to make the best terms I could for their ransom, and, as soon as I
had secured possession of them and the boat, to get the schooner under
way and proceed to sea without further delay.

The canoe had been gone about three-quarters of an hour when, watching
the shore through the ship's telescope, I perceived a slight stir upon
the beach, and presently became aware that a small party of natives had
gathered about the jollyboat, which they pushed off from the beach,
making fast her painter to the stern of the canoe.  Then other natives
appeared, bearing in grass hammocks the three missing seamen, who were
laid in the sternsheets of the jollyboat; and finally the canoe was
manned, apparently by the same four natives who had previously come off
in her, and headed for the schooner, whereupon I gave orders for the
windlass to be manned and the cable to be hove short, all ready for
tripping the anchor at a moment's notice.  This was done; and by the
time the canoe was once more within hailing distance the cable was so
taut up and down that a single additional revolution of the windlass
barrel would break out the anchor and free us from the ground.

And now came the really difficult part of my negotiation with the
savages; for, being themselves superlatively unscrupulous and deceitful,
they naturally suspected us of being the same, and would not come
alongside, or render up possession of the jollyboat and the three
wounded seamen whom she carried, until we on our part had released
Oahika.  And this I flatly refused to do, feeling that, as likely as
not, they would play us some scurvy trick as soon as they had recovered
possession of the man who, I now very strongly suspected, was the
paramount chief of the island, or, if not that, at least a chief of very
considerable importance.  We argued, stipulated, and made counter
stipulations, all to no purpose, and finally once more arrived at a
deadlock.  Of course I might very easily have settled the matter by
shooting the four natives in the canoe; but that would have been an act
of the very blackest treachery, and I was strongly of opinion that it
was just such treacherous conduct on the part of certain unscrupulous
white men that had made the natives of some of the Polynesian islands
the cruel, treacherous wretches that they had become.

I therefore once more resorted to "bluff", by hailing them and saying
that unless they came alongside at once and surrendered possession of
the boat and those in her, I would get the schooner under way and
proceed to sea, taking Oahika and the rest of our prisoners with me; and
to make my threat the more effective I turned away and gave the order to
man the windlass.  This was enough; with the first clank of the windlass
pawls, Oahika, who had thus far taken no part in our second palaver, let
out a yell at the men in the canoe which caused them to surrender
instantly at discretion and rush their craft up alongside the schooner.

And now I determined upon a bold thing.  These Roua Poua savages had
caused us a vast amount of trouble and loss; through them we were
short-handed to the extent of no less than six men; and I felt that for
the sake of my own satisfaction and self-respect I must get something,
though it were ever so little, back out of them.  Therefore, since we
white men were all armed, and therefore in a position to take good care
of ourselves, as soon as the tackles were hooked into the jollyboat's
ringbolts I ordered the four savages in the canoe to leave her and come
on deck to help to hoist in the boat; and this they did in a state of
the most abject fear and trembling.  Then I sent them for'ard to the
windlass to assist in breaking out the anchor; and it was not until the
schooner was actually adrift that I permitted them to begin the transfer
of their wounded from the _Martha's_ deck to the canoe.  They displayed
remarkably little consideration for the comfort and wellbeing of their
comrades in the performance of this duty; and indeed I have always been
of opinion that had I been foolish enough to liberate Oahika before the
others had been transhipped, he and his canoemen would have
incontinently made off at top speed for the shore, leaving the others,
sound and wounded alike, upon our hands and at our mercy.  But I was
careful to keep Oahika until the last, and it was not until the schooner
was fairly under way and heading out to sea that I cast him adrift and
permitted him to go over the side, which he did in a splutter of mingled
wrath and fear, pouring out a long string of what were probably native
curses as he seized the steering paddle and violently thrust the canoe
off the schooner's side.

By midday we were bowling merrily away to the westward under every rag
that we could set, and Roua Poua had sunk out of sight beneath the
eastern horizon.  Long before this, however--in fact, the moment that
they were safely aboard and comfortably bestowed in their bunks--
Cunningham had taken the three wounded seamen in hand; and when he had
done all that he could for them he came up on deck and reported to me.

"I am afraid," he said, "that there is not much hope for those three,"
with a jerk of his thumb in the direction of the forecastle.  "Sullivan
and Halpin have had their skulls cracked by blows inflicted with a war
club, and their cases are very similar to that of the skipper, but
worse; while poor Glenn has no less than eleven spear wounds in his
body, and though none of them is very serious in itself this heat makes
me terribly afraid of gangrene.  However, I have done all that I can for
them at present, and we must just hope for the best.  Glenn tells me
that after the skipper and I had left them the natives came swarming
round them, exciting their curiosity by exhibiting curios of various
kinds for sale, or barter, rather, at ridiculously cheap prices, and so
enticing them away from the beach toward the village, where, they were
informed, some really valuable articles might be seen.  And then, when
they arrived at the village, they were suddenly set upon before they had
time to draw their weapons, overpowered, and confined in a hut, where
they were left all day yesterday and all last night without food or
water, and with their injuries untended.  I am afraid there is not much
hope for them, poor fellows!"

This was bad news--so very bad, indeed, that I felt it my duty to go
forthwith to the skipper, report the matter to him, and ask for
instructions; my own idea being that we ought to head for the Samoa or
Tonga group, and procure properly qualified medical assistance with as
little delay as possible.

But when I got down below and began to talk to the Old Man I soon found
that he was, for some inscrutable reason, utterly opposed to any such
idea.  He would not give his reasons, but he positively forbade me to do
as I had suggested, instructing me instead to work out a Great Circle
track to Canton, and to get the ship upon her proper course at once.
And as he seemed to be in full possession of all his faculties, and to
know quite well what he was talking about, I had no alternative but to
obey.  And indeed, so far as saving the three men in the forecastle was
concerned, we might as well have been heading for Canton as anywhere
else; for Halpin and Glenn died within a couple of hours of each other
that same night, while Sullivan lingered only some twenty-six hours
longer.

I looked forward to a speedy and pleasant run to Canton, for I reckoned
upon carrying the Trades with us practically all the way.  But we were
unfortunate; for after a fine run of nine days to the northward and
westward we ran into the belt of equatorial calms in latitude 4 degrees
South, and for fully three weeks thereafter encountered such
extraordinary weather that we dared not ship our fins, from fear of
having them carried away, or of badly straining the schooner.  For
instead of the long spell of calms which one usually expects in those
latitudes the quiet weather generally lasted but an hour or two, and
then was succeeded by such furious squalls that, for the most part, we
could do nothing but run before them under bare poles; and perhaps the
most exasperating part of it all was that these squalls blew mostly from
the westward, or nearly dead in our teeth, so that it was only toward
the tail end of them, just when they were dying out, that we were able
to bring the little hooker to the wind for half an hour or so, and make
a few miles of northing.  And when it was not blowing with hurricane
strength it was usually just the opposite: a flat calm, with a black,
lowering, overcast sky, moist, steamy, overpowering heat, heavy storms
of thunder and lightning, torrential downpours of tepid rain--which, by
the way, enabled us to re-fill all our water tanks and casks--and
waterspouts _ad libitum_ constantly threatening us with destruction.

It was a month, to a day, from the date of our departure from Roua Poua
when we at length cleared the calm belt and got the first breath of the
north-east Trades in latitude 3 degrees 47 minutes North, and longitude
158 degrees 55 minutes West, having been driven back almost as far east
as Christmas Island by the baffling winds and furious squalls with which
we had been obliged to contend; and this brought the dangerous Marshall
group right athwart our track.  Therefore, the poor old skipper being
still unwell, and quite unfit for duty, I decided to make a good stretch
to the northward--say as far as latitude 10 degrees North--before
bearing up for Canton; by doing which I should have a clear sea before
me for the remainder of the trip.

I have spoken of the skipper as being unwell and quite unfit for duty;
but that scarcely conveys a correct impression of his condition.  The
fact was that he was well enough to be up and about on deck, but he was
constantly worried with headache of the most distracting kind, and, what
was still worse, his intellect seemed to be failing him: he suffered
from frequent total lapses of memory, stopping short in the midst of a
conversation simply because he forgot in a moment what he was talking
about; and he was subject, from time to time, to hallucinations, when he
would assure us, with the utmost gravity, that he was the King of
England taking a holiday "incognito", the re-incarnation of Morgan the
pirate, or something else equally ridiculous, while at other times he
would be perfectly rational.  For the first two or three weeks, while
these symptoms were in process of development, he caused Cunningham and
me a very considerable amount of anxiety, for we were constantly
dreading some new departure which would render him dangerous either to
himself or to others; but at length, as we were unable to detect any
such tendency, we grew easier in our minds, just allowing him to wander
about the ship at his own sweet will, and amuse himself by giving the
most extraordinary orders, which nobody ever even pretended to carry
out.  We came to the conclusion that he was suffering from some obscure
form of concussion of the brain, from which we hoped he might be
relieved upon our arrival at Hong-Kong, where we expected to obtain
efficient surgical assistance; but that, meanwhile, he was in no very
serious danger.  As the event proved, however, we were all woefully
mistaken.  We had made as much northing as I deemed necessary, and were
bowling along upon a west-nor'-west course, reeling off our ten knots
per hour, with all our flying kites abroad and a fine north-east breeze
over our starboard quarter, when, about four bells in the first; watch,
the skipper came up on deck complaining that he found it impossible to
sleep in consequence of the extreme heat of his cabin.  The night was
brilliantly starlit, and the air so clear that we could have easily
distinguished a sail at a distance of two miles, had there been owe to
see; but the light was not strong enough to enable me clearly to
distinguish Brown's features, even when he was standing beside me, while
the cabin lamp was turned low, so that there was not much light coming
through the skylight.  But when the old fellow fell into step by my
side, and began to talk quite rationally about the heat below, the
impossibility of sleeping, and his gratification at the fine breeze
which we had fallen in with, and so on, I was completely thrown off my
guard; for he appeared to be in precisely the condition that I had often
previously seen him in, when he had talked rationally enough for a time,
taken a little walk--as he was doing at that moment--and then, suddenly
forgetting what he was conversing about, gone below and slept for
several hours.

All at once, as we were walking to and fro between the main rigging and
the wheel grating, the old fellow halted, pulled off his cap, extracted
a big bandana handkerchief from it, and proceeded to mop his head and
face, from which--as in my own case--the perspiration was freely
pouring.

"Great snakes," he ejaculated, "but it is hot, and no mistake!  The
sweat's pourin' out o' me like water outen a sponge.  I guess that's
what's makin' me so all-fired thirsty.  Where's the water cask?  I'm
boun' to have a drink.  My tongue's so dry it's rattlin' agin my teeth!
Can't ye hear it?  Where's that there scuttle butt, I say?"

"Better not drink direct from the cask, sir," I said, for Cunningham had
strongly urged us all to drink nothing but filtered water, and even that
with a dash of lime juice in it, during the extreme heat.  "The filter
stands on the sideboard, and there is an opened bottle of lime juice in
the rack above it; you will find that very much cooler and more
refreshing than the water from the scuttle butt.  That stuff is really
not fit to drink."

"But I'm so tarnation thirsty that I must have a drink," he insisted,
"and I'd rather drink outer the cask than go below.  Why, man alive,
that there cabin is like a oven!"

"Oh," said I, glancing hastily round and noting that the weather seemed
fine and settled, "if that is all I'll very soon slip down and fetch you
up a drink!  Bring yourself to an anchor here on the wheel grating, sir,
while I go below.  I'll be back in a brace of shakes.  Just keep your
eye on him, Chips," I whispered to the carpenter, who was at the wheel.
"I'll not be gone more than half a minute."

"Right you are, sir," responded the carpenter, turning his quid in his
mouth as the skipper obediently seated himself on the wheel grating,
while I made a rush for the companion.  I turned up the cabin lamp,
procured a tumbler, and was in the act of measuring out a liberal dose
of lime juice when I heard the carpenter's voice suddenly upraised in
accents of panic.

"Man overboard!  Man overboard!!" he shouted.  "Mr Temple, come on
deck, sir; the skipper's been and throwed hisself over the lee rail!"

Flinging down the tumbler and bottle of lime juice, I mounted the
companion ladder in two jumps, nearly dashing my brains out against the
slide in my haste, and stared stupidly about me for a moment, being more
than half-stunned.  Then, as I pulled myself together, I heard Chips
repeating, parrot-wise:

"He just laid his han's upon the rail and swung hisself clean overboard,
like a boy jumpin' a gate."

"Down helm, man; down helm and round her to!"  I roared.  And rushing to
the main rigging I let go the lee braces and began to drag frantically
upon the weather ones in an ineffectual effort to back the topsail.
Then I remembered that the weather studdingsails were set, being
reminded thereof, in fact, by the snapping of the topmast
studdingsail-boom, as the schooner, with her helm hard a-lee, rushed
furiously up into the wind, and her topgallantsail, topsail, and
squaresail flew aback, and the broken spar began to thresh spitefully
against the fore rigging in the fresh breeze.  I saw at once that I had
made a mess of things to no purpose, and also stood to make a far worse
mess of them if I was not careful; for the amount of sail which the
schooner could carry while running off the wind was altogether too much
for her when brought to, and she was now lying over with her lee rail
buried, with the possibility that her masts might go over the side at
any moment if she were not relieved in one way or another.  As for
saving the skipper, that was impossible: for--as I had forgotten for the
moment--we were now, owing to the loss of six of our foremast men,
short-handed, and we could not possibly launch a boat until the schooner
was snugged down; and by the time we had done that we should be miles
away from the spot where the skipper had gone overboard, without any
certain, definite knowledge as to the precise direction in which to look
for him.  Therefore, all these circumstances coming to my mind in a
flash, I jumped to the wheel and helped Chips to put it hard up again,
luckily managing to get the little hooker before the wind once more with
no further damage than the loss of a studdingsail-boom and the splitting
of the lower studdingsail.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

THE WRECK OF THE "MARTHA BROWN".

This last fatality had the rather curious result that of the entire crew
who left Baltimore in the _Martha Brown_ only the cook and the cabin boy
now survived, the remainder of the existing crew consisting of
Cunningham, myself, and the boatswain, carpenter, and sailmaker of the
_Zenobia_; it also resulted in the destinies of the ship and those
aboard her, and the interests of poor old Ephraim Brown's widow,
suddenly falling into my inexperienced hands.  This being the case, I
decided to consult with Cunningham at once as to the proper steps to be
taken under the circumstances, although my own view of the matter was
perfectly clear and decided.  And that view, stated briefly, amounted to
this: that my obvious duty was to do the very best I possibly could for
Mrs Brown, and that, knowing quite clearly what the skipper's
intentions were, I could not do better than carry them out in their
entirety.  It was in this form that I laid the matter before Cunningham,
asking him to give me his opinion upon it, and requesting him to suggest
a better course if he could think of one; but he fully agreed with me
that, the schooner being practically full of sandalwood, and being also
within three weeks' sail of Canton, we could not do better than proceed
to our destination, dispose of our cargo, invest the proceeds in tea,
and then be guided by circumstances--or, rather, the state of the
market--as to whether we should take the tea to Europe or America,
ultimately returning to Baltimore, and there rendering an account of our
stewardship.  And upon this understanding being arrived at, the voyage
to Canton was continued.

It was on the afternoon of the third day following the suicide of the
skipper that the Trade wind, which up to then had been blowing with its
usual steadiness, began to weaken, and upon consulting the barometer I
found that the mercury was falling rather rapidly.  At the same time I
became aware that the aspect of the firmament was undergoing a subtle
change, the clear, brilliant blue of the sky gradually fading to a
colourless pallor, as though a succession of veils of white gauze was
being drawn across it, while the clouds, sailing up out of the
north-east, paused in their flight and began to bank up in the
south-west quarter.  These changes continued throughout the afternoon,
the result being that the sun gradually became blotted out, and was
entirely obscured about an hour and a half before the time of sunset.
And with the disappearance of the sun the wind sank until it died away
altogether and the schooner lost steerage way, while the heavens assumed
a dark, lowering appearance, and the atmosphere became close,
suffocating, and so oppressively hot that even the thinnest and lightest
of clothing was an almost unendurable burden, and every article was
dispensed with that could be discarded without outraging decency.  But
although the wind had completely died away, the swell did not diminish;
on the contrary, it seemed if anything to increase, for the schooner
rolled and plunged most outrageously, shipping water over her rails, her
bows, and even her taffrail, the water seeming to heap itself up
suddenly and fall aboard her in the most extraordinary and unexpected
manner.  It was evident that a change of weather was impending, and, as
the mercury clearly indicated that the change would be for the worse, I
caused the schooner to be stripped just before darkness set in, leaving
only the reefed foresail and fore staysail set, under which short canvas
I believed she could not come to much harm, let the impending weather be
what it might.

A quarter of an hour after the time of sunset the darkness was so
intense that for all practical purposes we might as well have been
blind, for at a distance of ten or twelve feet from the illuminated
cabin skylight it was literally impossible to see one's hand when held
close before one's eyes; while between the darkness and the violently
uneasy motions of the little hooker it was positively dangerous to
attempt to move about the decks.  As for staying below, it was out of
the question, for the cabins were like so many ovens; therefore, after
supper was over, Cunningham and I both returned to the deck, and,
seating ourselves on the wheel grating beside the lashed wheel, chatted
together while the engineer smoked pipe after pipe.

It happened to be my eight hours in, that night; therefore, since it was
hopeless to think of sleeping in my bunk on such a hot, breathless
night, I stretched myself out on the wheel grating, shortly after eight
bells of the second dog-watch, and was soon fast asleep, despite the
hardness of my bed, while Cunningham sat near me, keeping such a lookout
as was possible under the circumstances.

It was seven bells, or within half an hour of midnight, when Cunningham
awoke me.

"Sorry to disturb you before your time, old chap," he apologised.  "I
have been hoping that it might not be necessary to awake you until eight
bells, but--just look at that sky!  What on earth does it mean; and what
is going to happen?"

I had started up, broad awake, the instant that Cunningham's hand
touched my shoulder, and had at once become conscious of the very
extraordinary and portentous aspect of the sky; it was therefore quite
unnecessary for me to ask what he meant.  When, soon after the
expiration of the second dog-watch, I had stretched myself out and
fallen asleep on the wheel grating, the darkness had been as opaque as
that of Egypt when Moses stretched forth his hand and there was a thick
darkness in all the land for the space of three days, during which the
Egyptians saw not one another, neither rose any from his place; but now,
the moment that I opened my eyes, I saw that the plunging schooner, the
restless, heaving surface of the ocean, and the overarching dome of the
sky, packed with enormous masses of slowly working cloud, were all
suffused with ruddy light, such as might be emitted by a volcano in
furious eruption.  Yet no flaming crater was anywhere visible, nor did
the light flicker or wax and wane, as it would have done had it issued
from such a source; it was perfectly steady, and after I had gazed upon
it for a time I could come to no other conclusion than that it emanated
from the clouds themselves, which glowed with the colour of iron heated
to a low red-heat.  I had never before beheld such a weird,
awe-inspiring spectacle, but as I gazed upon it the memory came to me
that I had somewhere read of something similar, and I also remembered
that it had been described as the precursor of a hurricane, or some
similar atmospheric convulsion.

"I am afraid it means a heavy blow, a hurricane--or typhoon as they call
it in these seas," said I: "and I am very glad that you called me, for I
will take the hint and have the schooner battened down forthwith; also
this is the first time I have ever witnessed such a phenomenon, and I
would not have missed it on any account.  You might as well turn in now,
if you care to do so," I added, "for I see it is not far off eight
bells, and I shall not attempt to sleep again."

"Thanks, no--not if I know it!" answered Cunningham.  "Like yourself, I
have never seen anything of this kind before, and I intend to see all
that I can of it now that I have the opportunity.  It began more than
half an hour ago, the ruddy glare growing out of the inky blackness so
subtly and imperceptibly that it is difficult to say precisely when it
began, but I became conscious of it when I got up to strike six bells.
Then it brightened so rapidly, and seemed so altogether unnatural, that
at length I began to feel jumpy about it, and decided that the time had
arrived when you ought to be called."

"Quite right," I agreed.  "Well, if you won't turn in, perhaps you will
be good enough to keep a lookout here while I go for'ard and see to the
battening down.  There is not much to be done, but the little that needs
doing might as well be done at once."  And therewith I left him and
staggered along the squirming deck to the forecastle head, where Chips
and Sails were perched upon the windlass bitts, out of the way of the
water that was constantly slopping in over one bow or the other, talking
together in a low-pitched murmur, and staring awestruck at the
incandescent sky.

"Well, Chips," said I, "have you ever seen anything like this before?"

"Ay, sir, I seen the same thing once before, when I was in the
_Tenedos_, one of the China tea clippers," answered the carpenter.  "We
was in the Injin Hocean at the time, homeward-bound.  The skipper--Cap'n
Bowers, his name was--was down with dysentery at the time, and the mate
was one o' these here chaps that thinks they knows everything.  He
'lowed that the weather signs didn't mean nothin' partic'lar, and
wouldn't so much as take in the skysails--because, d'ye see, we was
racin' home with another ship, and Mister Mate reckoned he wasn't goin'
to be scared into shortenin' down just because the weather looked a bit
unusual.  Consequence was that we was on our beam-ends about a hour
a'terwards, with all three masts over the side and the ship threatenin'
to go down under us.  A nice busy twenty-four hours we had of it a'ter
that, I can tell ye, Mr Temple, and it ended up in our crawlin' into
Table Bay under jury-masts, and lyin' there five solid months before the
new spars comed out to us and we re-rigged the old barkie!"

"How did it come down upon you then--in the shape of a sudden squall?"
I demanded.

"Well, no, not exactly that," answered the carpenter.  "It began wi'
little whifflin' gusts that comed up from nowhere partic'lar, and was
gone again afore you could say Jack Robinson.  They comed moanin' along,
filled the canvas with a smack, and--there was an end o' that one.  Then
another'd come along same way, do the same thing, and go floatin' away
down to loo'ard.  It happened 'bout half a dozen times, and then, afore
we knowed where we was, away come the hurricane, screamin' and yellin'
like Billy-oh.  `Halyards and sheets let go, fore an' aft!' yells my
noble Mr Mate--Bryce his name was; but, Lor' bless you, sir, afore we
could cast off the turns from the belayin' pins the gale had hit us, and
there we was, on our beam-ends, wi! the deck standin' up like the side
of a 'ouse."

"Well," said I, "that can scarcely happen to us, I think, with the small
spread of canvas that we are showing.  But it will be bad enough when it
comes, I doubt not; so go below and call Murdock, the cook, and the
cabin boy, and say I want them to come on deck, as I am about to batten
down the fore scuttle.  And when eight bells comes, you will have to go
aft and stretch yourselves out on the cabin lockers, for the forecastle
will be closed until this breeze is over."

It took us but a few minutes to batten down the forecastle hatch
securely, for there was a good tarpaulin cover that had been specially
made to fit it; and when that was done I set our scanty crew to work--
myself lending a hand--to secure the galley and the boats with extra
lashings, so that they might not be washed away: and when we had
finished, the cook entered his galley and shut himself in, to finish the
night there.

As it happened, we were none too soon in the completion of our
preparations; for scarcely had we finished when the ruddy glow in the
sky began to die out again, and as it did so the first of those
scuffling puffs of which Chips had spoken came whining and moaning
across the surface of the ocean from the south-west, filling our scanty
spread of canvas with a resounding clap and then passing away toward the
north-east, its track across the glistening surface of the ocean being
marked by a dimming blur like a catspaw, which swept down toward us,
touched us for an instant, and was gone again.  This occurred some seven
or eight times at decreasing intervals, each succeeding rush of air
being of a few seconds' longer duration than the preceding one, and
coming with greater strength and spite, thus enabling us at last to get
steerage way upon the schooner and partially turn her stern toward the
point from which we expected the outfly to come.  And when presently it
came roaring and howling and screaming down upon us, with such a medley
of sound as might be expected from a legion of unchained furies, our
port quarter was turned towards it, with the schooner in motion and
paying off before it.  Yet, even so, it swooped down upon us with such
appalling violence that the little vessel careened until her lee
sheer-poles were buried and the water was up to the coaming of the main
hatch.  But with way on her, her helm hard up, no after canvas set, and
the hurricane dragging at her stout foresail, she could not help paying
off, and after a long minute of heart-racking suspense, during which we
momentarily expected her to keel-up with us, she suddenly righted and
went flying away dead before the wind, with the water boiling under her
bows up to the level of her head-boards.

One of the _Martha Brown's_ good points was that she steered as handily
as a little boat.  I therefore had no difficulty in keeping her dead
before the wind without assistance, although Cunningham stood by to lend
me a hand should I chance to need any help.  Also the water, apart from
the boiling foam into which its surface was scourged by the hurricane,
was perfectly smooth, the smallest suggestion of a wave crest being
instantly seized by the wind and swept away to leeward in the form of
fine, salt rain; indeed, the air was so full of spindrift and scudwater
that I believed, even had it been daylight, we could not have seen
farther than about two, or at most three, lengths from the ship.  As it
was, with the outfly of the hurricane that weird, unnatural, ruddy light
of which I have spoken almost immediately died out from the sky, leaving
the night as pitch-dark as before, save for the ghostly gleam of
phosphorescent light which arose from the storm-swept ocean, and which
gave the water, as far as it could be seen, the appearance as if
moonlight were shining up through it.

When we had been scudding for a full quarter of an hour before that
raving, screaming, howling fury of wind I began momentarily to expect
and look for some indication that the worst was over, and to hope that
the wind would moderate sufficiently to allow us to heave the schooner
to before the sea should acquire height and weight enough to render the
operation dangerous, for now every mile that we ran was carrying us just
so much farther from our destination.  But as time went on the gale,
instead of moderating, seemed to increase in strength, until I began to
wonder how much longer hemp and pine and canvas could endure the
terrific strain to which our foremast, its rigging, and the reefed
foresail were exposed.  Still, although the mast was bowed forward in a
curve that seemed to have approached perilously near to breaking-point,
and although the shrouds and backstays were strained until they were
hard as iron bars, everything was, so far, holding splendidly, and the
schooner was rushing along at a speed which I was firmly persuaded she
had never before approached.

At length, after I had been at the wheel nearly three hours, Cunningham
insisted on relieving me: and, to speak truth, I was more than glad to
accept his offer, for notwithstanding that it was by that time blowing
harder than ever, and that the wind continued to scoop up the water in
such vast quantities that the air was thick with salt rain, a high and
unpleasantly steep sea had gradually risen, chasing the schooner and
constantly threatening to poop her, or broach her to, so that at length,
in order to escape the one fate or the other, it became necessary to
keep the wheel perpetually in motion, now to port and anon to starboard;
and a couple of hours of that kind of work, combined with the heavy
strain upon one's nerves, is enough pretty well to tire out the
strongest--moreover, I was drenched to the skin.  Therefore I gladly
made way for Cunningham, and, having first gone forward and directed
Murdock to go aft and stand by the wheel, so that he might be at hand in
the event of Cunningham needing any assistance, I returned aft--finding
it necessary, by the way, to go down on my hands and knees and literally
crawl along the deck, in order to make headway against the buffeting of
the wind--and went below to my cabin, where I proceeded to strip off my
wet clothes and subject myself to a vigorous towelling preparatory to
donning a dry rig and my mackintosh.

Taking my time over the operation, I had proceeded so far as to have
donned a dry undervest and a pair of thin duck trousers; and, having
rolled the legs of these up to my knees, was in the act of unhooking my
long mackintosh coat from its peg, when a terrific shock hurled me
violently against the cabin bulkhead, and the next instant a deafening
medley of sounds, compounded chiefly of the crash of breaking spars, the
wild yells of Cunningham and Murdock, the seething smash of a perfect
mountain of water on the deck, the splintering of the glass in the cabin
skylight and the pouring of a deluge of water down into the cabin, smote
upon my ears.

Partially stunned by the violence with which I had been dashed against
the bulkhead, I made no immediate effort to rise, but remained passively
where I had fallen, stupidly striving to realise what had happened,
until a tremendous upheaval of the schooner's hull, by which she was
hove completely over on her beam-ends, and a rush of water that
half-filled my cabin awoke me to the consciousness that a catastrophe of
some sort had overtaken us, and I scrambled awkwardly and with
difficulty to my feet, pulling myself up by means of the knobs of the
drawers under my standing bedplace, when another furious shock again
upset me, and I fell squatting into the water violently surging to and
fro athwart my cabin.  By this time, however, full consciousness of the
serious character of the situation had come to me, and as the schooner
was again hove up and almost on to her opposite beam-ends, I let go my
hold of the drawer-knobs and went swirling out through my stateroom
door, lifted fairly off my feet by the rush of water, and found myself
swimming for my life in the main cabin, in the midst of a squadron of
cushions that had floated or been flung off the top of the cabin
lockers.  Then another mountainous sea swooped down upon and overwhelmed
the hapless schooner, another deluge poured into her cabin through the
smashed skylight and the companion, and had not a backwash of water just
then swept me into the companion way and stranded me on the ladder, so
that I could grasp the handrail, I should certainly have been drowned,
for that second downpour filled the cabin to the level of the beams.

As I pulled myself up and secured a footing on the companion ladder I
felt the hull of schooner again soaring aloft, up, up, until it seemed
to my excited imagination as though the little craft was being hove
right up among the clouds and at the same time being capsized.  Then
came the thundering crash of another mountain of water upon her deck,
accompanied by the sound of rending woodwork as the companion cover
parted company and was swept away; a whole Niagara of water poured down
through the opening upon my devoted head, and as I clung to the handrail
with the grip of a drowning man the schooner struck a third time, with
such terrific violence that I fully expected the hull to go to pieces
about my ears.  But no, the stanchly built little hooker still held
together, although I knew that her bottom must be stove in like a
cracked egg-shell; and presently, when I felt that I could not hold my
breath for another second, I found my head once more above water, and
saw dimly, close above me, the hole in the deck where the companion
cover had once been.  Another moment and I had again found footing on
the ladder, and, bruised all over and aching in every joint of my body,
I crawled out on deck.

Whether it was that my eyes had at last adjusted themselves to the
darkness, or that the darkness was less profound than it had been, I
know not, but as I emerged from the companion way and secured a footing
on deck I became aware that I could dimly perceive my immediate
surroundings.  The first object to catch my eye was the stump of the
mainmast within a few feet of the spot where I was standing, and the
instinct of self-preservation at once prompted me to make a dash at it
and fling my arms round it, in order that I might not be swept away by
the next sea which should break aboard.  And as I stood there gasping
for breath and staring about me I discovered that I could not only dimly
perceive my immediate surroundings, but that the entire hull of the
schooner was visible as an all but shapeless black patch in the midst of
a madly leaping chaos of swirling foam, which gleamed ghostly white in
the light of its own phosphorescence.  It was still blowing as furiously
as ever, and the air was thick with spindrift and scudwater, which
blotted out everything outside the radius of some thirty fathoms on
every side; but the schooner now seemed to be in comparatively smooth
water, and I was not long in guessing at the reason, for, glancing to
windward, I could dimly see, a few fathoms away, a great wall of
spouting, leaping white breakers, evidently marking the position of the
reef upon which we had struck so violently, and over which we now seemed
to have beaten, for there were no further shocks.  But imperfectly as I
could distinguish objects in the darkness, I could still see enough to
convince me that the schooner was a complete wreck and full of water,
for both masts were over the starboard side, still attached to the hull
by the rigging, while every scrap of bulwark, boats, galley, in fact
everything above the level of the deck, was swept away.

A single glance sufficed me to grasp these details, and then I turned my
gaze inboard again, wondering whether any of the others had survived
that awful passage across the reef.  And as I did so the sound of
someone vomiting close at hand reached my ears.

"Who is that?"  I demanded, looking in the direction from which the
sound proceeded, and as I spoke a figure uphove itself from among the
raffle of the port main rigging, which lay athwart the deck, and a voice
which I recognised as Cunningham's responded.

"That you, Temple?" it asked.  "Ugh!  Ouch!  Ow!  By the Piper, this is
awful!  I seem to have swallowed half the Pacific Ocean!  Ow!  Ugh!  I--
Aw!  I say, old chap--auch!--where the dickens are we, and what has
happened, eh?"

"Where we are I'll be hanged if I know," I responded, "for all about
here should be open water, according to the chart.  But it isn't, for
we've just beaten over a reef and in all probability smashed the bottom
of the poor little hooker to matchwood in the process.  And now the best
we can hope is that there is land of some sort close under our lee, for
if there isn't we are in a very pretty pickle.  Have you seen anything
of the others?"

"Yes," answered Cunningham, "Murdock is here; but I'm afraid he is badly
hurt, poor chap, if not killed outright.  When the schooner struck, he
and I were swept for'ard by the first sea that broke aboard, and the
next thing I knew, when the water had gone, was that I was clinging to
this rigging here with one hand, and that I had hold of somebody's leg
with the other, that somebody being Murdock.  But he was--and still is--
insensible, and I am afraid he must have been violently dashed against
some of the wreckage, so I lost no time in making him fast to the first
loose rope's end I could find.  But I say, if the schooner's bottom is
stove, as you say, I suppose she'll sink in a few minutes, won't she?"

"Sink!  With her hold full of sandalwood?  Not much!"  I retorted.
"Still, I hope there is land not far away, for I have no fancy for
washing about the Pacific on a crazy, waterlogged hulk, and that is the
condition of the _Martha Brown_ at this moment.  But where are Chips and
Sails and the boy?  I'm afraid we shall never again set eyes upon poor
cooky, for he was in the galley, and that, I see, is gone, together with
everything else that was on deck."

"Yes," said Cunningham, "it went, I think, with the first sea that broke
aboard us when we struck the reef.  And I don't know what has become of
the others.  I seem to remember having seen two figures emerge from the
companion way while I was busy with Murdock here, but I don't know what
became of them.  I wonder whether we could do anything for the
boatswain--the sea is no longer breaking aboard, and--"

"Yes, of course," said I.  "Where is he?  We can at least discover
whether or not he is alive."

"Here he is, among all this raffle," answered Cunningham.  "The first
thing, I suppose, will be to get him clear of it, and then--"

"Well, I am afraid that is about all that we can do for him at present,"
said I, as I moved across the sluggishly rolling deck toward Cunningham.
I stooped beside him, and at his direction lifted the tangle of rigging
beneath which the boatswain was lying, while he proceeded to cast off
the lashings that had saved the inert body from being washed overboard.
Then between us we dragged the man out to a clear spot on the deck,
where Cunningham knelt, supporting the head and shoulders, while I tore
open the front of the thin vest and laid my hand upon the broad, hairy
chest.  The heart was beating, although but feebly; yet as Cunningham
continued to support the man in a sitting position the beats gradually
became stronger, and presently, with a groan, consciousness returned,
and, heaving himself over on his side, with an ejaculation, poor Murdock
began to vomit violently, as Cunningham had done, having evidently, like
him, swallowed a great quantity of salt water.  For perhaps five minutes
the paroxysm continued with severity; then, having rid himself of most
of the salt water, the man, between groans, began to ask where he was,
and then, as memory returned, informed us that he had received a violent
blow on the top of the head which had knocked the senses out of him.
Fortunately there was no wound; and after a while the boatswain was able
to sit up unassisted, with his back against the stump of the mainmast.
And then, having placed him in a tolerably comfortable position, we were
free again to take cognisance of things in general, when we became aware
of the fact that the schooner, although still rolling heavily with the
movement of the water about her, had taken the ground; and upon looking
away to leeward I thought I could perceive, through the flying spindrift
and against the darkness of the sky, a darker shadow which could
scarcely be anything else than land.

When next we turned to Murdock, to enquire whether there was anything
more that we could do for him, we found that he had fallen asleep, which
was perhaps the best thing that could have happened to him.  We
therefore left him to finish his nap and fell to pacing the weather side
of the deck, between the main rigging and the taffrail, comparing notes
as to our experiences; and while we were still thus engaged we became
aware of two things.  The first of these was that the gale was breaking,
while the second was that the dawn was at hand, for far away to leeward
of us the sky was paling, down to a certain point, beneath which the
shadow lay as dark as ever, but was assuming, even as we stood, a
certain definiteness of shape, ultimately resolving itself into the
outline of what seemed a distant hill, with deeper shadows between
ourselves and it, which, in turn, developed into a low, bush-crowned
cliff, out of the base of which a sandy beach presently grew as the
light gathered strength.

Then, quite suddenly, the clouds to windward and overhead broke up into
detached masses, between which a few stars twinkled transiently before
they vanished in the fast-growing light of the new day; and the cloud
masses drove away to leeward and disappeared, revealing a sky of the
deepest, richest ultramarine, softening away down in the eastern quarter
to a tone of the palest and most delicate primrose, against which the
outline of the distant hill stood out, sharp as though cut out of paper,
so deeply purple as to be almost black.  Then, the light coming so
swiftly that the eye scarcely found time to note the multitudinous
changes of tint accompanying it, the sky behind the hill flushed from
palest primrose to rich, glowing amber; a few evanescent shreds of cloud
midway between horizon and zenith blushed rosy red at being caught
unawares by the sun's first rays, then vanished; a pencil dipped in
burning gold outlined the crest of the distant hill for a few seconds,
and then the upper edge of the sun's disk, palpitating with living
light, floated up into view beyond the ridge of the hill, and in an
instant the whole scene, save the beach, which still lay in the shadow
of the cliff, became a picture of brilliant, dazzling light and colour.
To seaward, about two miles distant, was the creaming surf, sparkling
diamond-like as it plunged down upon the reef over which we had driven
and then leaped and spouted thirty feet high into the clear air before
the wind caught it and tore it into mist; while shoreward there
stretched a line of curving sandy beach, about a mile in length, forming
part of the shore of a shallow bay into which we had driven and wherein
the schooner now lay stranded.  The beach was distant about half a
cable's length from us, and was backed by a rocky cliff averaging about
fifty feet in height, crowned by a growth of low scrub, over the top of
which appeared what now seemed to be a low, flat-topped hill, distant
perhaps three miles inland.

The beach immediately to leeward of the schooner was strewed with
fragments of wreckage, among which we recognised the galley and some
fragments of the boats; but what gave us the greatest satisfaction of
all was to see two apparently inanimate figures--those of the carpenter
and the sailmaker--rise slowly to their feet, walk down to the water's
edge, stare intently in our direction under the sharp of their hands,
and then wave their hands frantically in response to our waving, as they
recognised the fact that we were aboard the wreck, and for the present,
at all events, safe.  Then they put their hands trumpet-wise to their
mouths and evidently hailed us; but the roar and the crash of the surf
on the reef were so deafening that it was impossible for us to catch a
word of what they said, and, recognising this, they presently turned and
walked up the sand until they came to a dry spot, where they sat down,
with the obvious intention of awaiting events.  As for Cunningham and
myself, we could do nothing but abide in patience where we were until
the surf upon the beach should moderate sufficiently to render it safe
for us to swim ashore, the wreck being swept so clean that, without
breaking up the deck, there was not a fragment of timber left out of
which to construct a raft.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

THE ISLAND.

By the time the sun had been risen about an hour, Cunningham and I
became aware that it needed something more than a mere shipwreck to rob
us of our appetite, for we found ourselves rapidly developing a good,
wholesome hunger; but, alas! there were no means of appeasing it, for
the schooner was full of water and everything in the nature of
provisions was quite un-get-at-able: we should therefore be obliged to
wait for a meal until we could get ashore, which, we decided, could
scarcely be until the afternoon, if even then.  And we soon came to the
conclusion that our companions ashore were in like case with ourselves,
so far at least as hunger was concerned, for about half an hour later we
saw them rise to their feet, point first to their mouths and then to the
top of the cliff, and presently proceed to the cliff foot, evidently in
search of a spot at which it might be climbed.  And although, viewed
from the wreck, the cliff appeared to be quite vertical, they soon found
such a spot; for, as we watched, they began to ascend the cliff,
zigzagging to right and left and apparently following something that by
courtesy might be called a path, for they walked rather than climbed it,
reaching the top in about five minutes.  Then, with a wave of the hand
to us, they turned into the bushes and disappeared, returning about an
hour afterwards with what, as they held it up for us to see, looked like
a small bunch of bananas.

Meanwhile, the gale having broken, the wind rapidly dropped, until about
midday it fell stark calm.  But it was not until nearly sunset that the
surf on the beach had abated sufficiently to render it at all safe for
us to attempt the swim from the wreck to the shore, by which time we
were both so ravenously hungry that we were prepared to take quite an
appreciable amount of risk, if by doing so we could procure the
wherewithal to appease our craving for food.  And while waiting for the
sea to go down we employed our time usefully in cutting adrift the
rigging by which the broken masts remained attached to the wreck, thus
giving the wreckage a chance to drive ashore upon the beach, where we
should eventually want it.

At length, however, when the sun had dropped to within some fifteen
degrees of the western horizon, and was shining full into the bay where
the wreck lay, the sea had so far gone down and the surf on the beach
had so far abated as to render it possible for us to land without
incurring much risk of injury to our limbs; we therefore awoke Murdock--
who had passed most of the day in sleep--and, finding him in pretty good
form after his long rest, forthwith proceeded to make the attempt.  The
distance which we had to traverse was a mere trifle of about fifty
fathoms or thereabouts, and we did perfectly well until we reached the
inner line of breakers; but there, as luck would have it, something went
wrong with the boatswain, and without saying a word to either of us he
suddenly flung up his hands and disappeared, at the precise moment when
the comber had us in its grip and was about to fling us up on the beach,
and when, consequently, it was most necessary that each of us should be
perfectly free to look after himself.  Fortunately, however, we were all
swimming close together, and as Murdock disappeared, Cunningham and I
with one accord dived and made a grab at him, catching him just as the
breaker curled over and broke, hurling us all forward in a smothering
swirl of foam; and the next instant we were all being rolled over and
over upon the sand.  Then, as we came to rest, I dug my toes and the
fingers of my disengaged hand deep into the sand, ready for the
backwash, while, as it afterward appeared, Cunningham did the same; and
after a severe struggle of a few seconds' duration the water receded,
leaving us stranded and gasping for breath, when Chips and Sails, who
had been on the watch, rushed down into the water, and, in obedience to
a gasped request from me, seized the boatswain's insensible body and
dragged it up out of reach of the next breaker, while Cunningham and I
scrambled to our feet and staggered after them.

Once ashore the boatswain soon recovered from his fainting fit, or
whatever it had been, whereupon we all seated ourselves in a circle upon
the sand and feasted upon bananas, afterwards slaking our thirst at a
little runnel of deliciously cool, sweet water that the carpenter had
discovered, earlier in the day, trickling out of the cliff at no great
distance from the point at which the wreck had come ashore.  And while
we were eating, the carpenter informed us that he and the sailmaker had
been stretched out upon the schooner's cabin lockers, fast asleep, when
she struck upon the reef for the first time; and that, awakened by the
violence of the shock and the crash of the falling masts, they had
leaped to their feet, and, scarcely knowing what they did, rushed up on
deck, only to be swept overboard the next instant by a heavy sea which
broke over the ship.  Neither of them knew, at the moment, what had
befallen the other; but from what they told us it was evident that the
same sea which washed them overboard swept the schooner's deck of
everything and carried away her bulwarks: for when, fighting for breath,
they rose to the surface, each of them found himself close to a mass of
floating wreckage, to which he clung desperately, and so was eventually
flung up on the beach, with the life so nearly battered out of him that
it was just as much as either of them could do to crawl far enough up
the beach to get beyond the reach of the deadly backwash, when they both
collapsed, and so lay senseless until they were revived by the rays of
the morning sun.

There were, however, two still missing, namely, the cook and the cabin
boy.  The former of these we found, quite dead, shut up in the stranded
galley; but exactly what became of the cabin boy we never knew, for we
never found a trace of him, alive or dead.  We buried the body of the
cook that same evening in the sand, using fragments of splintered
planking wherewith to dig the grave, after which we flung ourselves down
upon the dry sand above high-water mark, and, completely worn out, slept
soundly until the following morning.

We awoke shortly after sunrise, to find the weather gloriously fine, the
Trade wind again blowing briskly, and, to our very great surprise, the
wreck but a few yards from the shore, in very little over two feet of
water.  But a single glance around us at the greatly altered appearance
of the beach, as compared with what we had seen of it on the previous
day, sufficed to explain the apparent mystery.  The tide had something
to do with it, of course, for it chanced that the schooner had come
ashore on the very top of the highest spring tide: but it was perfectly
evident that, apart from this, the water in the bay had been piled up to
quite an unusual height by the gale; hence when the storm had subsided
and the ocean had once more found its normal level the wreck was left
little short of high and dry.  This was quite a stroke of good luck for
us; for we subsequently discovered that the range of tide in that
particular part of the ocean was so exceedingly small that, even at
high-water, we were able to wade right out to the wreck, while the
wreckage which had been cast ashore on the previous day was now lying
high and dry far up the beach, and quite beyond the reach of the
ordinary tides.  We were thus saved a vast amount of trouble, for
although, when we began salvage operations, it was still necessary to do
a certain amount of rafting in order to convey heavy articles ashore,
light articles, such as we could carry, could be taken thither by the
simple process of lowering them over the side to one of our companions,
who then carried them ashore in his arms or on his shoulders.

But there were one or two matters demanding our immediate attention, the
first being breakfast, while the next was the settlement of the very
important question whether or not the island happened to possess other
inhabitants than ourselves, and, incidentally, if so, what would be
their attitude toward us.  And this last was a matter of the most vital
importance to us; for our experience, gained during the collection of
our cargo of sandalwood, was that while the natives of certain of the
islands were gentle, kindly disposed toward strangers, and perfectly
harmless, those of others were exceedingly jealous and suspicious,
fierce, treacherous, bloodthirsty, and in some cases actually cannibals.
Of course if it should so chance that we had been cast away upon an
island inhabited by natives possessing the last-named characteristics,
our prospects of ultimate escape with our lives were what poor old
Skipper Brown would have designated as "purty slim", and until the point
could be determined it behoved us to be exceedingly careful.  Therefore,
after discussing the matter at a sort of council of war, it was decided
that, important as it might be to explore the island and ascertain its
capabilities and limitations without delay, it was still more important
and urgent to provide ourselves with the means of self-defence.
Accordingly, while Chips and Sails again undertook to climb the cliff
and procure some bananas for breakfast, Cunningham and I, accompanied by
the boatswain--who seemed, after a good night's rest, to be little the
worse for the happenings of the previous day--agreed to wade off and
board the wreck, with the view of securing such weapons and ammunition
as were come-at-able, and had not been spoiled by sea water.

The arms chest, although actually under water, was secured without
difficulty and carried ashore, together with several bottles of oil
which we were able to rescue from the lazarette; and, this done,
Cunningham and I set to work, immediately after breakfast, thoroughly to
dry, clean, and oil all the weapons and put them in perfect working
order, although such ammunition as we had been able to find was
completely ruined by sea water.  But I seemed to remember having heard
our late skipper say that there was a reserve stock, packed in
waterproof zinc-lined cases, stowed away somewhere in the ship;
therefore, while Cunningham and I were engaged upon the task of cleaning
the arms, the other three men went aboard the wreck and proceeded
systematically to salve the entire contents of the lazarette, with the
result that, before the day's work was ended, they had found cases
yielding no less than one thousand rounds of gun ammunition and two
thousand revolver cartridges, all of which proved to be in perfect
condition.  We were thus pretty well provided with the means of
self-defence, and, given something in the nature of a fairly strong
defensive position, ought to be able to render a reasonably good account
of ourselves.

The next thing to be done was to find that defensive position; the
following day was therefore devoted to a thorough exploration of the
island by the entire party, the expedition setting out immediately after
breakfast, each of us being armed with cutlass, gun, and a brace of
revolvers, with a good supply of cartridges in our pockets.  Thus far we
had observed nothing indicating that the island was inhabited by others
than ourselves: but it must be remembered that the schooner had been
wrecked in a bay hemmed in on the land side by cliffs, and that hitherto
our farthest excursion had been to the top of the cliffs and just the
few yards inland which were necessary to enable us to procure bananas
from the trees growing right up to the cliff edge; the remainder of the
island was therefore, so far, a _terra incognita_ to us all, and might,
for aught that we could tell to the contrary, be swarming with savages.
We therefore decided to proceed with caution, all keeping close
together.

To scale the cliff proved a very easy matter, for the carpenter and
sailmaker had, on their first day ashore, found what might be termed a
sort of natural stairway zigzagging up it, consisting of a series of
rock projections, or ledges, up and down which it was possible to pass
with little or no difficulty, and which served our purpose admirably.

Having climbed this stairway, we found ourselves at the top of the cliff
and confronted by a dense undergrowth of jungle, consisting for the most
part of an inextricable tangle of tough creepers, interspersed with
shrubs and trees of various kinds, many of which seemed to be fruit
bearers.  Among these we recognised the plantain, banana, custard-apple,
loquat, granadilla, guava, pawpaw, and some others with which none of us
were acquainted; the fruit, however, was neither very plentiful nor very
fine, most of the trees being so completely smothered with creepers that
they could get neither sun, air, nor room enough to grow properly.  We
pushed through this brake for about a mile, working steadily uphill all
the time, and frequently being compelled to cut a way for ourselves with
our cutlasses, finally emerging upon a kind of ridge, bare of scrub, but
richly carpeted with guinea grass, with a few tall trees of various
kinds scattered here and there about it.  But although this ridge, or
plateau, was comparatively open, our view was still exceedingly
circumscribed, for we were hemmed in on every hand by the bush belt,
which seemed completely to cover the entire island, except the plateau
upon which we stood and the bald summit of the curious-looking hill or
mountain about two miles distant.  The summit of this hill, which
appeared to be flat, and which we estimated to be about three thousand
feet higher than the ridge upon which we were then standing, promised to
afford us a perfect view of the whole island; therefore, as the day was
still young, we at once decided to make our way to and survey our domain
from it.

The crest of the ridge upon which we stood appeared to lead straight
toward the mountain, moreover it was not nearly so densely overgrown as
was the lower ground; our progress, therefore, was tolerably rapid, and
in the course of an hour we found ourselves clear of the bush and
standing upon the lower slopes of the mountain.  And then we knew that
the towering mass in front of us could be nothing else than a volcano,
either dormant or extinct, for there was no sign of smoke rising from
its summit, although the nature of the soil around us, consisting as it
did of pumice stone, scoriae, and ancient lava, left no doubt as to the
character of the mountain.

And now began the really difficult part of our task.  Although the
ground was entirely bare of vegetation the surface was so exceedingly
rough and broken, and so loose, that progress was very slow, becoming
more so with every forward step; for while the lower slopes of the
mountain were of quite an easy grade, they rapidly steepened as we
advanced, until the last five hundred feet or so approached so nearly to
the perpendicular that at length further progress seemed to be all but
impossible, and we could only advance a yard or two at a time, climbing
upon hands and knees, with short spells of rest between the spurts.

But when at length, about midday, we finally reached the summit, it was
unanimously agreed that our toil was amply rewarded, for the entire
island lay stretched out at our feet like a map, with mile after mile of
the blue, foam-flecked ocean reaching far away to the horizon on every
hand, while away in the south-western quarter, a hundred miles distant
perhaps, there appeared a faint film of misty blue which indicated the
presence of other land.  But this last was much too distant to interest
us in any way; it was our own particular domain that absorbed all our
attention, and the first thing that we observed about it was that its
length ran practically east and west.  It was of very irregular shape,
the most graphic way of describing it being, perhaps, to say that in
general outline it somewhat resembled a rather acute-angled triangle,
with two large pieces bitten out of it near the base, one bite having
been taken out of the north side, while the other and larger had removed
the south-west angle and formed the bay in which lay the wreck.  The
acute angle pointed toward the east, and the sides of the triangle were
much twisted and broken.  The mountain, upon the summit of which we
stood, occupied the middle of the eastern half of the island, and proved
to be, as we had anticipated, the crater of an apparently extinct
volcano.  The interior of the crater was elliptical in shape, about a
mile long by half a mile wide, and was a funnel-like opening about five
thousand feet deep, with practically perpendicular sides.  It resembled,
as much as anything, an enormous well, for there was water at the bottom
of it, though probably of no great depth.  Also at the bottom, all round
the edge of the water and for some distance up the sides, there were
enormous quantities of what we judged to be sulphur.

The top edge of the crater, which from below presented the appearance of
a flat-topped hill, was about thirty feet wide and tolerably level; we
therefore had no difficulty in walking right round it, and so obtaining
a complete view of the entire island, which was everywhere covered with
verdure, save immediately round the base of the volcano.  But although
the outline of the island was very irregular, there were only two
indentations worthy of the name of bays in it, namely, the one in which
the wreck lay, and which we at once decided to name South-west Bay, and
another at the north-west extremity of the island, which we named North
Bay.  These two bays were the only portions of the coastline possessing
anything in the nature of a beach; and, that fact once established, we
knew that if natives existed anywhere on the island, we should find
traces of them on one or the other of the bays.  But we had already
learned that there were none on the shore of South-west Bay; and now,
carefully examining the other bay, we could see no trace of canoes on
its beach, or huts along its margin, neither could we detect the
slightest sign of a smoke wreath in any direction.  We therefore finally
came to the conclusion that, excepting ourselves, the island was without
inhabitants, and one source of anxiety was thereupon removed from our
minds.

Standing upon the edge of the crater and looking westward, we obtained a
perfect view of the whole of the western half of the island, including
both bays; and, looking down upon the land below us from a great height,
as we now did, we were able to form a very accurate idea of its origin,
which we at once judged to be volcanic.  The entire island, in fact, was
evidently the summit of a volcano projecting above the surface of the
ocean, the two bays above referred to having evidently been at one time
two craters or vents for the internal fires, since both were encircled
by reefs which had all the appearance of having been at one time part of
the lip of the respective craters.

As we stood up there, studying the conformation and general appearance
of the island, we fell to discussing our future prospects, and soon
arrived at the conclusion that, situated just where the island happened
to be, far away from all the regular ship tracks, its very existence
apparently unknown--since it was not marked upon the chart--it might be
months, or even years, before we should be rescued by being taken off by
a ship; and that therefore our wisest course would be, first, to save
everything possible from the wreck, and then carefully break her up,
using her timber to build some sort of a craft to convey us back to
civilisation.  This would at all events keep us busy and our minds
occupied, giving us an object in life--something to strive for, think
about, and achieve--and thus preserve us all from falling into a low and
despondent frame of mind; and if in the end a ship should happen to
appear and take us off, why, so much the better, while if nothing of the
kind occurred we should in due time be able to effect our own escape.
Cunningham was particularly enthusiastic over the scheme; yacht
designing, it appeared, was a hobby of his, and he promised us that if
we would only give him a free hand he would design us something which
would not only be fairly easy to build, but would also be safe and
comfortable, and quite capable of conveying us all to any part of the
world we might choose as our destination.  This struck me as a far too
ambitious project for five men to undertake; but when, later on, we
again discussed the matter, with a chart of the Pacific before us, and I
discovered that the Sandwich Islands, the nearest civilised land, lay
some fourteen hundred miles distant, I changed my opinion.  I had
already done one ocean trip in an open boat, and had no desire to
attempt another.

On our way back to the beach abreast the wreck, which now constituted
our temporary home, we took a look at North Bay.  With this, as a place
of residence, we instantly became violently enamoured: because, in the
first place, it was open to the north-east Trade wind, and was therefore
far cooler and more pleasant than the beach of South-west Bay, shut in
as the latter was under the lee of high cliffs, and opposed to the
afternoon sun; next, there was a little stream of delicious fresh water
falling over a low cliff into a small rock basin, affording an ideal
freshwater bath; next, we discovered a fine large, perfectly dry cave,
close to the shore, with an entrance so narrow that it constituted of
itself a perfect rock fortress; and, lastly, a large and varied
assortment of very fine fruit trees was discovered growing quite close
to the beach, only needing to be cleared of the undergrowth to make a
splendid orchard.  The one drawback to the bay was that it was about two
miles distant from the wreck, near which we should of necessity be
obliged to establish our shipyard; but its many advantages so far
outweighed this that we took possession of the cave there and then, and
slept in it that night.

And now ensued a particularly busy time for us all; for when we came to
consider the situation we found that there were several matters
demanding our attention, and they were all of so urgent a character that
it was rather difficult for us to determine offhand which should be the
first to receive it.  For, to begin with, we were all agreed that unless
something quite unforeseen and unexpected, in the nature of a call at
the island by a ship, should occur in the meantime, we must be prepared
for a sojourn of at least a year in our present quarters; and that, of
course, meant that we should be obliged to give serious consideration to
the question of the maintenance of our health, which, in its turn, meant
that we must carefully regulate our diet, and alter it as much as
possible, not depending too much upon fruit, but varying it by a
frequent change to fish, our only possible alternative.

But we soon discovered that in order to catch fish, as well as for many
other purposes, it was not only very desirable, but also almost
imperatively necessary _that_ we should have something in the nature of
a boat, which, of course, remained to be built.  Then there was the
salvage of everything contained in the wreck of the schooner, including
the timber and metal of which she was built; to say nothing of certain
gardening operations projected by Murdock, with the object of improving
the quality of the fruit growing in the immediate vicinity of our cave,
the cultivation of certain vegetables, and sundry other schemes having
for their object the betterment of our condition during the period of
our sojourn upon the island--Murdock's hobby happening to be gardening,
as Cunningham's happened to be yacht designing (and, as often happens
when men take up some useful occupation as an amusement, both soon
proved themselves to be exceptionally skilful in all matters relating to
their respective hobbies).  Therefore, while Chips, Sails, and I went
strenuously to work upon the operation of salving everything that we
could find aboard the wreck, the boatswain, with the assistance of poor
Cooky's fire shovel, and a few other iron implements which he converted
into tools, devoted himself to the production of a fruit and vegetable
garden in the immediate neighbourhood of our cave dwelling, clearing
away all the scrub which grew around and choked some two dozen fruit
trees, digging and hoeing up the soil, and planting therein every
potato, onion, and bean that we could find for him among the cook's
stores aboard the ship.  And while he and we were busy in the manner
described, Cunningham rescued a few sheets of paper and some lead
pencils from the skipper's cabin, carefully dried the former, sharpened
the latter, and, with an empty packing case for table, and a scale
constructed with the assistance of the carpenter's two-foot rule,
assiduously devoted himself to the task of designing what he called a
"catamaran" for immediate use, and then a small schooner by means of
which we were eventually to make our escape from the island and return
to civilisation.

The catamaran struck me as being a particularly simple and ingenious
affair, some of its many merits consisting in the facts that it needed
no moulds for its construction, that it could be built of any fragments
of wreckage that were too short and too much splintered and damaged to
be of use in the construction of the schooner, and that it needed no
very elaborate working or shaping.  It consisted essentially of two
oblong tanks or boxes, each thirty feet long by two feet wide by two
feet six inches deep.  These boxes were not unlike a Thames fishing punt
in shape, although they were, proportionately, much narrower and deeper.
The bottom of each was perfectly flat transversely, and also
longitudinally, except at the ends, where it curved up gradually in a
semi-parabola until it met the gunwale.  These two boxes, or punts,
having been decked over and made perfectly watertight, were then joined
together--with a space of eight feet between them--by stout beams, over
the after part of which was laid the schooner's wheel grating, to serve
the purpose of a deck; a broad-bladed steering paddle was fitted
securely into a grommet attached to the aftermost beam; the punts were
simply rigged with an enormous lateen sail made out of the schooner's
tattered foresail, and there we had a nondescript kind of craft, thirty
feet long by twelve feet beam, drawing only about eight inches of water
when light and on an even keel, buoyant, unsinkable, and uncapsizable,
which, when we came to try her, developed a speed under sail that was
positively astounding, and went to windward like a racing cutter.

She was wet, of course, particularly when driven hard to windward, but
in such a climate as we now enjoyed, to be drenched with salt water was
a pleasure rather than otherwise, and, regarded as a drawback, was not
worth a moment's consideration.  It took us a month almost to a day to
build and rig her complete; and after our first trial of her we almost
invariably used her to go to and fro between the two bays, although the
trip by water was about seven miles in length, as compared with the
short cut of two miles overland.  Yet we did it either way in a little
over half an hour, while the sail home in the evening, after a hard
day's work, was much the more exhilarating mode of travelling of the
two.  And what, perhaps, gratified us as much as anything in connection
with the construction of this exceedingly useful craft was that in
building her we had not been obliged to touch the schooner at all, but
had drawn for our material entirely upon the loose wreckage of bulwarks
and so on that we had found strewn about the beach on the day after the
wreck, together with four stout saplings which we cut down to serve as
beams, and which we found to be exceedingly tough and in many respects
to resemble elm.

And while the carpenter, the boatswain, Sails, and I had been
strenuously at work upon the construction of the catamaran, Cunningham
had been quite as industriously employed upon his design for the
proposed schooner, working alone, day after day, in our cave dwelling
round at North Bay, evolving his half-breadth and body plans, his
midship section, buttock lines, water lines, diagonals, and all the rest
of it; ruling in, rubbing out again, calculating, altering, modifying,
and patiently labouring to get his several drawings to agree accurately
with each other, and resolutely refusing to be satisfied until he had
got everything exactly to his liking: and at length he was able to
display to us, not altogether without pride, the completed draught of as
pretty a little ship as I think I ever set eyes upon.  He had taken, as
the foundation of his design, the shape of the _Zenobia's_ gig, in which
we had made our memorable Atlantic voyage, and out of which we had been
taken by poor old Skipper Brown, that fine little craft having produced
a profound impression upon him, in consequence of the splendid qualities
as a sea boat which she had exhibited.  But the new craft was of course
to be much bigger than the gig, for she was not only to be completely
decked from stem to stern, but was to be sufficiently roomy in her
interior to enable us to perform a voyage of over a thousand miles with
a very fair measure of comfort.  Her principal dimensions, therefore,
were forty feet on the water line by ten feet beam; and, in order to
provide a reasonable amount of headroom below, as also to make her
weatherly, she was considerably deeper in proportion than the gig, and
much sharper in the floor, this providing her with plenty of power for
her size, by means of which she would be enabled to make good way even
in a heavy head sea.  Her bow was an almost exact reproduction of that
of the gig, rather long and overhanging, with plenty of "flare" to lift
her over a head sea, and she was provided with an even longer counter,
which gave her after-body a remarkably smooth and easy delivery; while,
for the rest, her water lines were almost those of a racing yacht, so
that I concluded she would be exceedingly nimble under her canvas.
Altogether we were immensely pleased with, and not a little impressed by
Cunningham's effort; but I could not help reminding the others that it
was one thing to draught a smart little vessel on paper, and quite
another to build her with such resources as we had at our disposal.
Chips, however, who of course knew--or should have known--more about
such matters than any of the rest of us, while not exactly pooh-poohing
my reminder, was confident that--as he expressed it--we were men enough
to bring the scheme to fruition; and with that assertion I was obliged,
by no means unwillingly, to rest satisfied.

Meanwhile, however, a great deal still remained to be done before we
could start work upon the new schooner; for although we had by this time
salved everything from the wreck--and it was astonishing how much and
what a wide variety of things we found in her--she still remained to be
broken up; and we agreed that that should be our next job.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

TWO IMPORTANT EVENTS OCCUR.

It may be thought that there is little or nothing of interest to be
found in the operation of breaking up the wreck of a ship, but I, who
have assisted in such an operation, can testify most strongly to the
contrary; for when the work is undertaken as we undertook to break up
the wreck of the _Martha Brown_--that is to say, carefully, taking her
apart plank by plank and beam by beam, exactly reversing, in fact, the
several processes by which she was put together--there is plenty of both
interest and instruction to be found in observing the numberless
ingenious devices which have been resorted to by the shipwright to join
together the several members of the hull in such a manner as to ensure
the maximum of strength, so that, when once joined together, no strain
short of that involving the absolute destruction of the material should
be capable of pulling them apart again.  We who had been aboard the
schooner during the time of her passage across the reef, and had
experienced in our own persons the terrific violence of the shocks to
which she had then been subjected, were amazed that she had not been
shattered like an _egg_ shell; but when, later on, we came to dismember
her, we were still more amazed to find how little damage, comparatively
speaking, she had sustained while passing through that fearful ordeal on
the reef, and what extraordinary exertions were needed to wrench her
several parts asunder.  But a detailed description of the varied schemes
to which we were obliged to resort in order to effect our purpose would
be of no interest to the general reader; I will therefore content myself
with the bare statement that it cost us six weeks of the hardest labour
I ever performed in my life to reduce the _Martha Brown_ to her
component parts, and to stack the materials upon the beach in readiness
for use in the construction of the new schooner.

In fairness to ourselves, however, it must be said that during part of
that time there were only four of us engaged upon the work, Cunningham
being busy upon calculations of stability, the relative positions of the
centre of gravity and the metacentre of the new schooner, and I know not
what beside, in connection with the determination of the amount of
ballast that would be needed, the position of the masts, and the area
and proportions of the several sails--for now that the engineer was
fairly mounted upon his new hobby there was no possibility of dragging
him out of the saddle.  He had several novel theories which he was
anxious to test, and he was resolutely determined that the new schooner
should be as nearly perfect as his skill could make her; he therefore
simply scoffed at us when we pointed out that time was flying,
indignantly demanded to be told what mattered a few days more or less in
comparison with the importance of the matters with which he was dealing,
and returned to his figures with renewed zest.

But all things come to an end sooner or later, and the day at length
arrived when Cunningham completed his final calculation, drew his last
line, and carefully rolled up his completed drawings, to await the
moment when they would be called for upon the beginning of the important
task of laying the keel of the new schooner.

Now, if I have succeeded in portraying anything like a true picture of
our life upon the island, the reader will have gathered the impression
that, after the first day following the wreck, we were constantly in a
condition of breathless activity, due to the fact that there were so
many matters, each of apparently paramount importance, all clamouring
for our instant attention, and that, at the beginning at least, we
strove to attend to all these several matters at the same time, doing
first a little to this, and then a little to that or the other,
according to what we believed at the moment to be most pressing.  And
this state of affairs prevailed with us until we had salved everything
possible from the wreck, and until we had built our catamaran; after
which we felt that we might with advantage adopt some sort of system in
the arrangement of our work.

Now among a number of the things that we desired to do, but had
postponed in favour of other matters, which had seemed more pressingly
urgent, was the exploration of our cave.  This cave was situated only
some thirty yards from the beach, in North Bay, in the heart of a
steeply rising acclivity which gradually merged itself in the plateau
constituting the western extremity of the island.  It was only by the
merest accident that we had discovered the existence of the cavern on
that day when we undertook the exploration of the island--although there
is no doubt that we should have found it sooner or later--for the
entrance was so small that only one person could pass through at a time,
and even then only in a crouching position; and it was this latter
circumstance which at first so strongly commended the place to us as a
residence, for it was in fact quite a stronghold in its way, being
capable of defence for a practically unlimited period by a single armed
man.  Once past that low and narrow opening, however, one found oneself
in quite a spacious chamber of roughly circular shape, some thirty feet
in diameter by about twelve feet high, with a perfectly smooth, dry,
sandy floor, rendering the cave a most comfortable place of abode, as we
discovered when we had taken up our quarters in it.

Thereafter we had all been so strenuously busy that, with the exception
of Cunningham, we had used the cave merely as a sleeping place; while
the engineer, absorbed in his drawings and calculations, had never
thought of exploring the cave and examining its extent, resting
satisfied with the knowledge that the place was amply large enough for
all our requirements, while the situation of the island rendered the
presence of wild animals or noxious reptiles within it an impossibility.
And so, absorbed in our various occupations, we had allowed the matter
to go on from day to day, recognising, in an abstract sort of fashion,
the fact that it would be no more than an act of common prudence to
examine the cavern, but daily postponing the examination until a more
convenient season.  Thus the matter had been allowed to slide until the
day finally arrived when Cunningham reached the end of his labours--
rather earlier than he had anticipated--and, having put away his papers,
suddenly bethought him that here at last was his opportunity to give the
interior of the cavern a thorough overhaul.  He accordingly provided
himself with an abundant supply of dry branches, to serve as torches,
lighted one of them, and proceeded forthwith to investigate, with the
result that about an hour later he startled us all by unexpectedly
emerging from behind a thick clump of bushes on the beach of South-west
Bay and frantically waving a lighted torch in his hand, under the
influence of such violent excitement that when we dropped work, and ran
to him to learn what was the matter, we found him to all intents and
purposes incoherent for the moment.

"Hurrah, you chaps, hurrah!" he yelled, waving the flaming torch above
his head as he advanced to meet us.  "Aren't we a lot of lucky dogs, eh?
Cheer, you beggars, cheer, and split your throats!  Who wouldn't be
shipwrecked, if they could meet with such a slice of luck as ours?  By