Palm Tree Island

by Herbert Strang

  CHAPTER THE ELEVENTH

  OF OUR SUBTERRANEOUS ADVENTURE, AND THE MANNER IN WHICH THE WILD DOGSPROFITED BY OUR ABSENCE

  "Billy," said I, after we had stood silent a good while, "we must findout what is below."

  "What's the good?" says Billy; "and how can you do it? Neither of uscan scrooge ourselves down through this hole, and I ain't a-going totry, that's certain."

  "But you can help to make the hole wider," I replied.

  "And suppose I fall in," says he, "who'll pull me out?"

  "I should certainly do my best," said I.

  "And suppose you fall in too?" says he, being very persistent.

  "Then we shall help each other out," said I.

  "And suppose we find ourselves in the old smoker's kitchen, or getburied alive or something?" says Billy.

  "We won't suppose any more, but just set to work," said I. "I will digout the earth, and you can carry it away, and then there'll be nochance of your tumbling in."

  The matter being put thus, Billy would by no means agree to it, butinsisted that he would take his turn with me at digging. He asked me,however, how the earth was to be carried away, for if we did it withour hands it would take a month of Sundays. I answered that we mustcertainly make some baskets, which was a pretty easy matter after alittle practice, there being plenty of rushes and such-like thingsgrowing at the borders of the lake. Having made two very fair baskets,that would hold about a bushel apiece, we began with our spades to cutaway the earth around the hole, Billy carrying it outside the hut whenI dug, and I doing the same when he dug. This work was exceedinglaborious, since when digging we had to be very careful not to let theearth fall down the shaft and choke it up, and also the basketfuls ofearth had to be hauled up every few minutes. We were several days atthe work before we came to the bamboo pipe we had driven in from thelake side--not, of course, that we did nothing else, having our otherduties to attend to, and besides we now went up to our watch-towerthree times, and sometimes four, every day, so that the savages shouldnot come in their canoes and take us by surprise.

  [Sidenote: The Cavern]

  Having got down to the pipe, which, as I have said, was but a fewinches above the cavity into which we had broken, we saw that we mustbe even more careful, for if the earth should give way all of a sudden,as it did before, we might for all we knew be hurled into a bottomlessabyss. All the time we had been digging we had felt the current ofcool air striking upward against us, from which it was plain that thechamber below was not a perfectly closed vault, and the only comfort wehad of this was that we were certainly not coming to the old smoker'skitchen, as Billy called it, for then the air would have been hot. Toavoid this headlong fall, I considered we should now cease to stand onthe ledge of earth at the side of the hole, and rig up a rope ladderwhich we might attach securely to the doorposts above. Billy wasdigging when this idea came into my head, he being lighter than I, andafter I told him of it he scrambled up very quickly by means of stepswe had cut in the side, confessing he was glad to get out in safety.

  It took us some time to make a rope ladder, but when it was done, andfastened to the doorposts, I descended and hacked away with my spade atthe sides of the hole below me until I had made it big enough for mybody to go through. Then I got Billy to hand down to me a lightedtorch, and bending as low as I could, I clung to the ladder with onehand, and with the other held the torch in the space below, beingnearly suffocated by its stinking fumes. However, by moving the torchbackwards and forwards I made out that the space was a small chamber,oblong in shape, but not regular, and with a floor, but, so far as Icould see, no outlet, though I knew there must be one, because of thecurrent of air. Feeling by no means sure of the depth of the floorbelow me, I clambered up again and pulled the ladder after me, and welengthened it by some three feet before I descended again. By thelight of my torch I then saw that I could drop to the floor without anydanger, and I let go the ladder, and fell upon my feet on hard rock.

  "What cheer, master?" calls out Billy, with his face close to the topof the shaft above. I told him that I was safe and what manner ofplace I was in, and said I would explore further, and when I did so Ifound that we had no need to trouble ourselves about the safety of ourhut, because the walls of this underground chamber were of hard rock,like the rocks on the sides of the mountain, and the roof the same,except at the place where we had dug our shaft. How this came to be Idid not trouble to think,[1] nor did it concern us, the great matterfor us being that our hut had a solid foundation, which was a greatcomfort. When I told this to Billy, by shouting up through the shaft,the sound of my voice echoing very strangely, he cried back that he wasglad to hear it and that he was coming down to see. "No, no," I criedat this; "you keep guard above while I seek further; and besides, theladder does not reach the ground, and perhaps you couldn't get upagain."

  "Then how will you get up, master?" says Billy.

  "Why, you can draw the ladder up while I go exploring, and by the timeI come back you can lengthen it," was my answer.

  This he agreed to do, only he begged me not to be long.

  [Sidenote: A Tunnel]

  When I came to examine the chamber, I found it to be neither so largenor so lofty as I had first supposed. The general height of it was notabove five feet, though in parts it rose to ten feet or more. I hadsoon made a tour about the chamber, the compass of which was perhapssixty or seventy feet, and in one corner of it I at last discovered anopening, through which, I did not doubt, came the current of air I havebefore mentioned. It was, as I found when I held my torch to it, avery low and narrow passage, not above four feet high, and the draughtof air was so strong that it made my torch flare, and, indeed, was liketo blow it out. This made me consider whether I had not better restcontent and go no further; but curiosity was strong within me, and so Iwent into the passage, or tunnel, having to bend my body very low, andcrept along with great caution, holding the torch in front of me lest Icame unawares upon a chasm and broke my neck. The passage seemed to meto incline slightly downward, though I could not be sure of this, sincethere were not only several crooks and turns in it, so that not manyyards of it were straight, but also it was in some parts pretty nearchoked with rocks and stones, which I supposed had fallen from the roofand sides. However, I picked my way among these obstacles when theyoccurred, and found as I went on that the passage became both wider andloftier, so that I was able to stand upright.

  After I had gone some distance through this tunnel, wondering whetherit was natural or had been made by men's hands, and inclining to theformer belief, I perceived that it was joined by another passage whichran into it from my right hand, and the two passages thus joined in onebecame a tunnel which increased both in width and height the further Iwent. Whereas at starting from the cavern I had had to bend low, withlittle space on either side of me, I now found myself in a passagewhich in some parts was as much as twenty feet high, as near as I couldguess in the deceitful light of my torch, and so wide that five or sixmen could easily have walked abreast in it. And as I still kept myeyes cast down, being heedful of my footing, I perceived by and by onthe floor of the passage sundry small whitish objects which, when Istooped to examine them, I found to be shells, and they became morenumerous the further I went. I began now to question with myselfwhether this tunnel did not communicate with the sea, and whether thesea ever came up through it so far into the interior of the island, forthe cavern whence I had started on this journey was directly below ourhut, and that was situate at least half a mile from the sea-shore.

  I went on, being eager to satisfy myself on this point, and holding mytorch about the level of my head, when all at once I felt the skin ofmy hand scorched, and, looking up, saw that the flame was burning verylow, which had escaped me, so much were my thoughts taken up. I had nomind to pursue this journey in darkness, for though I had come verywell to this point, I knew not whereto the tunnel would bring me, norwhat perils might be lurking in the way. Accordingly I turned myselfabo
ut, purposing to acquaint Billy with what I had discovered, and tocome again, either with him or alone, with sufficient light to hold outto the end. But I soon saw, to my exceeding discomfort, that I hadalready presumed too much upon the endurance of my torch, which wasflickering lower and lower, and within a little, though I made whathaste I could, went out altogether. At this I was mightily vexed,though not alarmed, for the floor of the tunnel was perfectly sound,albeit rough, and I did not look for the least difficulty in making myway back to the cavern. Though not alarmed, I say, I was vexed, for Icould not go nearly so fast in the dark, and I began to think thatBilly might be a little uneasy at my long absence. As to myself, therewas only one thing to trouble about, and that was to keep to the righthand, so that I should not fail of re-entering the passage by which Ihad come when I arrived at the place where the other passage joinedwith it. To make sure on this point I felt with my hand along the wallat my right, and found this a help to me for some distance; but by andby I had to leave it, so as to get past some rocks that stood in myway, and in a little while after I returned to it I stumbled clean overanother obstacle, hurting my hands and knees, though luckily my headdid not strike the ground.

  [Sidenote: Lost]

  When I rose up, I could not find the wall at once, the passage herebeing exceedingly rough with loose rocks and stones. I stumbled on,and now for the first time the thought came into my head, how awful itwould be if a man were lost in such an underground passage as this, notat first thinking of this plight as likely to be mine, though soon Idid begin to be very uneasy, and indeed I was almost overcome withhorror when all of a sudden I thought, "What if there be a perfectnetwork of these passages in the island, and I can never light on thecavern again?" I wished now very heartily that I had let Billy comedown to me when he offered it, but there was no use in wishing, so Igroped my way onward, having now got my hand upon the wall again.

  I had noticed for some time that the floor of the tunnel was ascending,and it seemed to me steeper than I had thought it to be when I came theother way; but I paid little heed to this, because a hill always seemssteeper when you ascend than when you descend. But all of a sudden Ifelt that the inclination was downward, and I was trying to recollectif I had gone up and then down as I came from the cavern, when I feltsomething cold about my feet, and, taking a step forward, splashed inwater. Instantly I turned about and rushed back, stumbling andfalling, and in a great dismay, for I knew now that I had lost mybearings. There had been no water in the passage when I came; eitherwater had rushed into it suddenly, though how that could be I knew not,or else I had come into another passage. Whichever it might be, mysituation was exceeding serious, for I might be drowned, or I mightwander for hours and never come to the cavern. I picked myself up whenI fell in my haste, and as I leant against the wall to recover myself,something scurried past my feet, which made me shiver until I thoughtthat it could not be more than a rat or some other small beast. Butbeing now so confused that I knew not whether I had come from right orleft, I lifted up my voice and shouted the seaman's call "Ahoy!" for ifI was anywhere near the cavern, Billy might hear me, and that familiarword would bring him, I did not doubt, to my help. I was startled bywhat ensued upon my shout, for the whole space about me was filled withnoise, which at first I did not know to be the reverberation of my ownvoice. The noise, the like of which I suppose had never been heard inthat place before, terrified all the denizens of it, and I felt severalsmall animals brush against my legs as they scurried past. When thesounds had rolled away, I listened very intently for some answeringcry, but there was none, even though I shouted again, and I could notbut conclude that the din, great as it was, had failed to reach Billy'sears. And since it now seemed plain that I must depend on myselfalone, and to stay still where I was would not help me a jot, I beganin sheer desperation to grope my way along the passage, not knowing inthe least whether I was going right or wrong. But supposing that I hadovershot the entrance to the passage leading back to the cavern, andthat I was now retracing my steps, I crept along by the wall on my lefthand, every now and again stopping to shout and listen, but always invain. And it came into my mind presently that while the sound of myvoice might carry a good way along the portion of the tunnel in which Ithen was, yet it would not penetrate far along the passage that ranback at a very sharp angle from it, so that I would do better to savemy breath until I arrived at the fork, and I went on again, holding mypeace.

  The tunnel seemed to me now to be full of strange whispers and littlesilent noises which I had not perceived when I travelled along with mytorch. I have not a doubt it was my imagination playing tricks uponme, helped very much by the darkness; but I did not think of this atthe time, and my skin crept, and broke out into a cold sweat, at therustlings and echoes that I heard, or thought I heard. I stopped twoor three times to listen more intently, and then heard nothing but thebeating of my heart, and so on again, until I thought I must surelyhave come to the fork of the two passages. Halting, I groped with myhands to discover if the passage was wider, and then I felt sure Iheard a rustling, and another sound, as of an animal breathing heavily,and at that moment something cold and clammy touched my outstretchedhand. Instantly I drew back, and scarce knowing what I did let forth agreat shout, which rang, I doubt not, with the very accent of fear, andimmediately it was answered by a shout, which I took at first to be theecho of it, for the hollow tunnel prolonged the sounds so that nothingwas clear. But in a moment I heard, quite near to me, that ill wordwhich had wont to be on Billy's lips, but which, since I reproved himfor it, he had never used. I cried his name in a burst of joy, and hecalled back, "Is that you, master?" and the next moment we weretogether, and I confess I threw my arms about Billy, and would not lethim go until he asked me in a quavering voice what I was afraid of.

  [Sidenote: Found]

  He told me that, being uneasy at my long absence, when he had expresslycharged me not to be long, he had let himself down by the rope ladderinto the cavern, and came with a torch in search of me, and it was hishand that had so scared me. "But there you are!" says he. "First Iknocked my head against the roof, and then my funny-bone against thewall, and then I tumbled head-first over a rock that some one had putin the very middle of the way; over I went, and my torch was knockedout of my hand, and the flame was put out. I hadn't got flint andsteel on me, course not; and so I couldn't light the torch againwithout going back all the way, and I couldn't find the torch at first,and when I did find it, things had got so mixed up that I didn't knowno more than Moses which was for'ard and which was aft. But I set acourse straight ahead, and here we are."

  "But where are we?" I said.

  Billy of course could not tell me this, having lost his bearings justas completely as I had done. All that we knew was that the cavern wasnot reached by the passage along which I had been going, for neitherBilly nor I had encountered water in our outward journey. It seemed tome that we had both wandered into the passage which I had observed torun into the other from the right hand, and if this was so, we had butto go in the same direction as I had been going when Billy met me, andto cling to the wall on the left side, and we should by and by findourselves at the fork of the two passages. And, indeed, we had notgone above a dozen paces when Billy, who was in front, cried that thewall turned a corner, and when we reached it we wheeled round in thesame direction, and in due time came to the cavern, which, though ithad seemed dark to me before, was now light by comparison with theblackness of the tunnel we had left. I asked Billy whether he hadlengthened the ladder, and when he confessed that he had not, Iwondered how we were to ascend to our hut again, for the bottom of theladder was out of my reach. But Billy solved this difficulty bygetting on to my shoulders and then grasping the ladder, by which hevery nimbly climbed to the surface. There being no room in the shaftfor him to bend down and assist me, I had to wait until he hadlengthened the ladder, which he did very quickly, blaming himself fornot having done it before. Thus we came safely to our hut again, andb
oth having had enough of underground passages for that day, wedetermined to go on another expedition later, indeed, very soon, forBilly was eager to explore the tunnel to its end, when I had told himof the largeness of it, and of the shells on its floor.

  I did not tell him my tale at once, for the moment we came up into ourhut we were aware that it had been visited in our absence. Having madeour discovery of the cavern by accident, and gone down into it withoutpremeditation, we had not thought to shut the door of the hut, which,being open, those rascally dogs of which I have spoken more than oncehad made an irruption. By great good luck there was nothing that theycould destroy, but they had thrown down a pile of cocoa-nuts we had inone corner, and these lay scattered all about as if they had playedball with them. I doubt not they would have made an attempt, as theydid afterwards, to plunder our poultry-run, but it would appear thatthey had not discovered our absence for some time, and had beenstartled away by the sound of us returning. We determined, when weshould descend again into the cavern, to close our door very firmly.

  The discovery of the cavern made us alter our plan of bringing water tothe hut. We had intended to make a reservoir just below the pipe, intowhich we might let water from the lake whenever we needed it; but wecontented ourselves now with putting a plug into the end of the pipe,with a small hole in the middle of it, which we could stop or un-stopat will, so that by removing the stopping we should have a smalltrickle of water which we could collect in one of our vessels, and drawup into the hut. Having fixed these plugs, we went to the lake andfilled in with our spades the excavation we had made in the side,heaping rocks about the ground that had been disturbed, so that thereshould be nothing to betray our device to any one who might chance tocome. We then removed our V-shaped dam, and hastened back to the hutto see whether the plan answered our expectations. We found when wetook out the stopping that there was a continual drip of water, whichpleased us very much, for we now knew that, however long we might beshut up in the hut, we should never lack for water, and so we might bequite easy in mind.

  [Sidenote: Exploring]

  When we had finished our work in this matter of the water supply, whichwas a day or two after our adventure in the tunnel, we set off again,both together, to make a further exploration, only this time you may besure we took several torches of a large size, so that the same troubleof darkness and bewilderment should not overtake us. This time also wetook the precaution to close and fasten the door, for though there waslittle or nothing in the hut to which the dogs could do serious hurt,we preferred their room to their company, as the saying is.

  We went through the tunnel together, and came to the spot where mytorch had gone out, and had not gone very far from thence when we foundour way blocked by water, which came right into the tunnel, and whichwe knew by its salt taste to be the sea. It was quite plain from thisthat there was an outlet to the shore, but we could not tell how far itwas from us, the place being exceeding dark, so that the flames of twotorches held together scarce seemed to penetrate the blackness. Billywas greatly disappointed at finding our further progress thus checked,and asked me whether he should swim through the water until he came tothe opening on the shore; but this I would by no means consent to, forI could have given him no light, and we could not tell what perils ofsunken rocks or other things we might encounter in the darkness. Andit was a mercy that Billy paid heed to my words, and was not obstinate,for if he had done what he proposed, and entered the water, I doubt notI should never have seen him again.

  [Sidenote: The Dogs Again]

  When we came back to our hut we heard a mighty cackling from thefowl-house, which, as I have said before, was the smaller hut we hadused while the larger was a-building, and stood some little distancefrom the latter on the edge of the level space. Our fowls being in themain quiet birds, we suspected that something was amiss; indeed, Billydeclared at once that he was sure 'twas the dogs at their old tricks,and was for opening the door and sallying out upon them at once. But Ibethought myself of a better way, and moreover one that would help usto prove in some measure the efficacy of our defences; so I took outthe plug from one of the loopholes we had made in the wall facing thefowl-house, and peeping through I saw nigh a dozen dogs assembled aboutit, and some scratching diligently at the earth below the palisade.They had never molested our creatures since the time when they were sosore discomfited at the piggery, and I was not a little amazed at theircoming now, for none of them had seen us descending into the cavern.But I suppose it was as Billy said, that they were cunning beasts withthe second sight; indeed, he said he had heard of witches, andsometimes fair princesses, being turned into the shape of dogs, but heknew these villainous rogues were not princesses. However, they didcertainly seem to have discovered that we were no longer on the surfaceof the island, and were, as I say, striving to gain an entrance to ourpoultry-run.

  I whispered to Billy, so as not to disturb them, to take the plug outof another loophole, and then to shoot an arrow through when I gave theword. This he did, and our arrows flying forth almost at the samemoment, by great good fortune (and perhaps some little skill) strucktwo of the dogs, which fell writhing. I expected to see the rest ofthe pack take warning and flee instantly, but this they did not do,which shows that there is a limit to their reason; for seeing no enemythey did not connect the fate of the two with any external cause, butimmediately set upon them, tearing them in pieces with horribleyellings and snarlings. While they were at this cannibal businessBilly and I sent more arrows among them, and six dogs in all had fallento our weapons before the rest came to any understanding and soughtsafety.

  "We could hit savages better," said Billy, as we sallied out, "becausethey are bigger than dogs."

  "I hope we shall never have the need," I said, taking a long shot atthe rearmost of the dogs as they disappeared in the bushes.

  When we came to the poultry-run, we found that the dogs had alreadyscratched a good-sized hole beneath the palings, and within a littlethey would have been able to scramble through and work havoc among ourfowls. We set about recovering our arrows, and soon had them all butthe one I had shot last, which, when I came to the place where Iexpected it to be, was not there, nor could we find it, though wesearched for some time.

  "You must have hit the villain, master," says Billy.

  I could hardly believe this, for the range was long, and the dog wasmoving; but on looking closely upon the ground I saw a trace of blood,and suspected that I had in fact hit the dog, which had, however, runon with the arrow in him. Being curious on this matter, I determinedto follow up the track, and sent Billy back to the hut for a spear oran axe, as well to defend myself if the animal should turn upon me asto put it out of torment if its wound should be grave. The track wassometimes faint, but mostly clear, and ran in almost a straight line,so that I followed it with ease, where it led me through the woodeastward of the hut, bearing to the right round the base of the hill.But I did not see the dog for some time, until all of a sudden I caughta glimpse of it limping into the undergrowth some way ahead of me. Imade speed to overtake it, and the animal turned, snarling veryfiercely upon me, and standing as if to dispute my advance; but Iperceived that the creature was already far spent, for it tottered, andrecovered itself with great difficulty, so that I was very glad whenBilly came up, and with one thrust of the spear ended the poor beast'slife.

  "There you are, you villain!" cried Billy with a kind of savage joy ashe dealt the stroke; but I own I felt in a manner sorry for thecreature, and thought it a pity that we should have to wage war againstthem, though I saw it was a necessity, they being, in their wild state,as fierce and dangerous to us as wolves. Maybe my softness was partlydue to my recollection of a terrier we had at home, and I wascontemplating the beast Billy had slain, striving to make out somelikeness between her (for 'twas a bitch) and my uncle's terrier, whenBilly cried, "What's that?" and I was aware of a faint yelping near by.Penetrating a little further into the undergrowth, I saw three littlepuppies, their eyes
just open, but they were not yet able to crawl.

  "They are very pretty when they're young, Billy," I said.

  "Pretty!" says he. "I'll show 'em. They shan't never grow up toplague us;" and he was on the point of piercing one of them with hisspear when I stayed his hand.

  "But why and what for?" says he, looking at me in amazement. "They'llonly starve, or be eaten by the other rascals when they find 'em.Better kill 'em now and have done with it."

  [Sidenote: Our Pets]

  But I had been thinking that we were two lone creatures on this island,and we might perchance find some solace and amusement in keeping pets,which we could not do with pigs or poultry, the former being tooswinish and the latter too silly. And I confess the little thingslooked so pretty that I had not the heart to kill them, and so Iproposed that we should carry them back to the hut and do our best tobring them up.

  "What's the good?" says Billy. "They won't live. I had some rabbitsonce, and they died; and some guinea-pigs, and my mother drowndedthem--she wasn't my real mother; and they may be pretty now, though Ican't see it, but when they grow up, bless you, they'll be as fierce asthose other villains, and we may as well kill 'em first as last."

  "Billy," I said, "my aunt Susan used to say, 'Never climb up to thechimney-pots to meet the rain'----"

  "No one would but a fool," says Billy, interrupting, and when I triedto explain what my aunt meant he said that was all very well, but wheredid the chimney-pots come in? However, to shorten the story, he gavein to my wish, and we carried the puppies to our hut, and made them upa bed of grass and leaves in one of our large pans. We were hard putto it to know how to feed them, and indeed, the food we gavethem--bread-fruit made into pap, and scraps of chicken, and the like,as well as broth sometimes--did not agree with them very well, becausethey were so young, so that I doubted whether we should succeed inrearing them. One died in three days, but the others survived, and Iought to say that Billy was fully as diligent as myself in tendingthem, and showed a marvellous ingenuity in the preparation of theirmeals. As they grew up, we used to watch them anxiously, expectingthat one fine day they would leave us and join themselves to their ownkindred in the wilds, and Billy said he hoped his dog would not leaveus the first, for he would never forgive it. But we saw with greatsatisfaction that they showed no inclination towards the society oftheir kind; indeed, it was the contrary; they shunned them, and showedevery mark of enmity if they approached, so that we saw they wouldprove to be very good watchdogs when fully grown. Billy called his dogRobin, which he said was a good name for a dog but not for a man, and Icalled mine Little John to match; and they soon learnt to answer totheir names.

  [1] Probably the fissure had at one time extended to the surface, buthad been gradually filled up with soil brought to the spot by drainagefrom the high ground.--H.S.