Palm Tree Island

by Herbert Strang

  CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH

  OF OUR VOYAGE TO A NEIGHBOURING ISLAND, AND OF OUR INHOSPITABLERECEPTION BY THE SAVAGES

  We did not take another voyage for some days, for my dreams werehaunted by visions of the monster, and I felt a shuddering reluctanceeven to look at the canoe, upon which I seemed to see tentacleswrithing. And when we did again embark, it was only to paddle out tothe fishing-ground I have mentioned, though by and by, when therecollection of the monster had become somewhat dimmed, we cruisedabout the coast sometimes for the mere pleasure and exercise of it, andto make ourselves more expert in the management of our vessel. After atime the notion came to us of rigging up a mast and sail, and tryingwhat we could do in real navigation. We had some difficulty instepping the mast, which was a straight pine sapling; but the way we atlength hit upon was as follows: we fastened two straight logs athwartthe canoe, setting them parallel, and just so far apart as gave roomfor the mast. Having set up the mast between them, we lashed two morelogs, but shorter, crosswise upon the first two, close up against themast, which was then, as you perceive, gripped pretty firmly by thefour logs. The sail gave us little trouble, for we had become expertby this time in weaving, and we wove a sort of huge mat with longgrasses, which we found to serve excellently well. Spars and cordagewere also easily made, though they took a prodigious time, and we oneday hoisted our sail to see how our contrivances would act.

  Our Canoe]

  [Sidenote: Rigging]

  We were much disappointed when we found that as soon as the sail caughtthe wind our vessel heeled over, so that we had to lower the sailimmediately, or we should have been capsized. After some thought wehit upon a remedy, which was to make some alterations in the weight ofthe outrigger, and also in the length of the outrigger beam; and whenwe had spent a deal of time in making experiments, and running somerisks of losing the vessel, we managed so that she ran perfectly steadywith an ordinary breeze. And then we discovered that, our stabilitybeing assured, we could sail marvellously close to the wind and at avery fair speed, much faster, indeed, than we could paddle, and it thenbecame our delight to make little trips round the coast and somedistance out to sea, always very carefully looking out first from ourwatch-tower to be sure that no savages were in sight.

  [Sidenote: The Red Rock]

  On one of these expeditions we sailed round to the north side of theisland, and it came into our heads to see whether it was possible tomake an ascent of the big red rock, the sides of which, so far as wehad been able to examine them from the cliffs and the hills, appearedto be unscalable. We took care not to let our vessel drift into thecurrent that ran between the rock and the island, and running round tothe north side of it, we found that it was not near so precipitous hereas on the other sides--indeed, there was a very convenientlanding-place at the foot, and a little cove where the vessel mightsafely lie, tied by the painter to a crag, while we satisfied ourcuriosity by making the ascent. You may be sure that we tied thevessel up very securely before leaving her, for if she had driftedloose I do not know what we should have done, for we could scarcelyhave swum to the island, the current being so strong, and I suppose weshould simply have stayed on the rock until we were dead.

  There was no pathway up the rock, on which we were perhaps the firsthuman beings that had ever set foot, and we found the ascent a greatdeal more difficult than it had appeared from below. We had to clamberup from point to point with the aid sometimes of stunted bushes--verysturdy they were, too--that grew out of fissures; and choosing theeasiest way, we made a very zigzag course, sometimes losing sight ofthe sea altogether. Here and there we disturbed sea-birds which hadmade their nests in the face of the cliff, but there were not near somany of these as we might have expected. After climbing thus for aboutthree hundred feet, as I calculated, we came to a sort of broad terracethat ran in a fairly easy slope round the northern and eastern faces ofthe rock, and pretty well covered with shrubs and moss. From this wemade our way, rather laboriously, to the southern side, and came by andby to the ledge, or platform, which jutted out from the rock to theisland, and which I mentioned a while ago. Billy, you remember, hadspoke of leaping the gap, which would have been an impossible feat, fornot only was the distance too great, it being, I should think, at leasttwenty feet, but, moreover, the ledge on the rock was somewhat higherthan the promontory of the island. Looking down upon this latter as wenow did, the gap seemed even less than it had appeared from the otherside, and I had really to be very stern with Billy when he declaredagain that he knew he could jump it.

  From this ledge or platform we found the ascent to the summit of therock pretty easy, and when we got there, we saw that it was flat ingeneral, but a great deal cut up by fissures and jagged bosses, so thatit was not near so smooth as it appeared when we overlooked it from theside of the mountain. Some of the fissures were of considerable depth,and when I flung a small fragment of rock into one of them, to test it,there came a faint splash from below, by which we knew that itcontained water; and yet the splash was not so faint as to come fromthe sea, so that we concluded the water at the bottom of the fissurewas fresh, and had collected there from the drainage of the sort oftableland on which we stood. There were thin shrubs and lichen growingon the rock, but we saw nothing to interest us, and so, having got buta poor reward for our labour in climbing, we descended again, and foundthe descent little less laborious than the ascent; indeed, I thought itmore difficult, for the looking down made me a little dizzy. We wereboth pretty tired by the time we reached the canoe, which was just aswe left it; and I should not have thought it worth while to sayanything about this fruitless expedition but for some surprising eventsthat happened later.

  [Sidenote: Preparing for a Voyage]

  It was some little while after this, I think, that I suffered a spellof home-sickness, and was more miserable and down-hearted than I hadever been since we came to the island. I have no doubt it was becausewe had more time on our hands than heretofore, for with the making ofour canoe it seemed that there was little else left for us in the wayof handiwork, and the tending of our animals and plantations was by nomeans enough to fill all our days. The servant of the ingeniousgentleman in the tale--Sancho Panza is his name, I think--in hissimplicity invoked blessings on him that invented sleep; and I wouldmatch him by a similar invocation on the inventor of work, for I amvery sure that while we work we have no leisure to be discontented, andwhen our work is done there is blessed sleep to refresh us. I did notforget the saying that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,"and Billy and I, as I have said, did some little in the way of play,with skittles, and shooting at the running man, and in sailing ourcanoe, which was a very fine sport, I assure you; and we spent sometime in trying to teach our dogs, which were growing apace, to performtricks, with but little success. However, I mention my home-sicknessbecause it was when I was in that black fit that Billy spoke again ofsailing to England.

  "Why not make a bigger canoe, master, and put a great store of food andwater aboard, and sail away?" he said. "When our water was done, wecould touch at some of them islands we passed and get more, and maybeafter a bit we might fall in with a proper ship and get a passage home."

  I pointed out in answer to this that we should not find it an easymatter to launch a vessel large enough to carry provisions for alengthy voyage. "If we had a chart and compass," I said, "and otherthings useful in navigation, about which neither you nor I know much,we might perhaps set off and go from island to island on our stock offood, until we came maybe to one of the possessions which the Dutchhave, I believe, in the Indian Archipelago, or maybe to some place inSpanish America where we might find a friendly ship. But suppose ourfood gave out and we could not make land," I said, "what could we dowithout a chart or any means of taking observations? If luck wentagainst us, we might sail for weeks, and indeed months, without everseeing land at all. And besides," I went on, "suppose nothing of thissort happened to us, but we chanced upon an island where the nativepeople were hosti
le----"

  "We would fight 'em," says Billy, interrupting me; "that's what we madethem bows and arrows for, and we can shoot straight now, and we couldmake a few thousand arrows so that it wouldn't matter if we lost some."

  I could not help smiling at Billy's simplicity, admiring at the sametime his stoutness of heart; but I showed him that with all ourexpertness we could not hope, being two, to contend with great hosts ofsavages, who would very soon overwhelm us. However, Billy was not atall convinced that his idea of a voyage to England was impracticable,and he talked so much about it that I was in course of time prevailedon to consider it, at least so far as to consent to make a littleexperiment. In short, we resolved upon making a voyage of several daysfrom the island. We had to consider of the well-being of our livestock during our intended absence, and that gave us some trouble, forthough we might take our two dogs with us, we could certainly nottransport our pigs or our poultry, nor did we wish to do so. On theother hand, if we left them in their usual habitations, and we wereaway longer than we expected, they would certainly starve, while if welet them loose the fowls would as certainly be devoured by the wilddogs, and the pigs the same, or else return to their wildness, but mostlikely the former, for animals that have become domestic are no matchin fighting for wild animals of their kind. We might have left a largequantity of food, that's true; but knowing the nature of beasts we knewthat they would devour it gluttonously without any forethought, andmaybe kill themselves with over-eating, and at any rate there would benone of it left after the first day. It was a good while before we hitupon any way out of this difficulty, and then it was Billy who thoughtof a way, and very ingenious it was, in my estimation. As he verytruly said, we needed some contrivance that would enable the pigs toget their food, but not too fast, and his device for this was to make along trough with holes in the bottom of it, and to raise this above theground just so high that the pigs by lifting up their snouts couldnibble through the holes at what the trough contained. I say I thoughtit an ingenious notion, and we considered how such a trough could bemade, for we could not make one of planks, and it would be a tediousbusiness to burn out the inside of a tree as we had done with ourvessel. But it came into my head that we could make one by mouldingclay on such a tree, which we did, and having broken a number of holesin the clay when it was moist, we burnt it hard, and thus the troughwas finished, in much less time than the hollowing of a tree would havetaken. We put some yams into it, and made a trial of this newcontrivance, and we found it answered our expectations almost too well,for owing to the height of the trough when we had propped it up, thesmallness of the holes, and the unwonted postures to which the pigswere enforced, they could only eat very slowly, which must have been agreat trouble to animals accustomed to rapid gobbling of their meals.We saw that we should have to make a special trough for the smallerpigs, or else give them one end of the trough to themselves, forotherwise the larger animals would never have let them eat at all; andin the end we put up a fence between the smaller and the larger pigs,and tilted the trough a little, so that it was lower at one extremity;and this end also we filled with pounded bread-fruit as well as yams,as being more fit for the younger stomachs, besides being not so hardto get at through the holes. From the trial we made we saw that thetrough, when full, would hold enough food for three or four days, andif we were absent longer than that, the pigs must needs sing for theirsupper, as Billy said.

  As for the fowls, we could not for a long time think of any manner ofsupplying them with food. We were accustomed to fling their food tothem over the fence of their enclosure, and Billy said that what weneeded was some contrivance for dropping supplies down among them atintervals. I remembered having read somewhere of a device forreleasing a catch by a candle burning a thread passed through it at acertain distance from the top, but we could not make with ourcandle-nuts a candle that would last near long enough, and besides, ifwe could there was the danger that it would cause a conflagration. Butthis set us on thinking towards the plan which we resolved on, and thatwas to support a basket of food by a catch, and tie to the catch astrip of raw hide, which, when it contracted with the sun's heat, wouldrelease the catch. The manner of our doing this was as follows. Wesuspended the basket from the roof of the fowl-house by slings, one oneach side, and to one of the slings we fastened a long strip of rawhide, the other end of this being attached by a wooden peg to the wall,and the hide being stretched pretty tight in a horizontal direction.The contraction of the hide would thus pull the sling from under thebasket, and so cause it to fall. We found when we tried this at firstthat the basket fell too soon, which was due to the too rapidcontraction of the hide; but we devised a remedy for this by wrappingthe hide round with wet grass, which prevented it from contracting sosoon. We put enough food in the basket to last about two days, beingunable to put more because it would then be too heavy for the catch.

  "If we are away longer than two days, and they eat it all too soon,"says Billy, "they must make the best of it, and maybe it'll learn 'emnot to be greedy."

  The supply of water for our animals gave us no trouble, for with ournumerous pots and pans filled there was enough for over a week.

  [Sidenote: A Certain Lecture]

  All these arrangements having been made--and we grudged the time forthem, so eager were we now to go a-sailing--we determined to set forththe very next day. As we lay in our hut that night, before we went tosleep we talked over what was before us, and I own I was in a veryserious mood, for we were certainly braving the unknown. We might becaught in a storm, and knew not in the least how our vessel would thenbehave. We might encounter savages, who would be hostile to us, andmaybe kill us, or make us captives. We were leaving a comfortable andsecure home, and embarking on what might prove to be a very sea oftroubles; and when, in talking to Billy, the manifold dangers to whichwe might be exposed became more deeply pictured in my mind, I wasalmost ready to give up the design. But when I threw out sundry hintsto this effect, Billy spoke so slightingly of these imaginary perils,and so glowingly of the delights of roving and going a voyage ofdiscovery, that I resolutely stilled my qualms, and, indeed, felt somelittle ashamed of my timorousness. For an example, when I said that wemight never come home again, Billy said, "Why, master, you _are_ acroaker. We might have gone to the bottom with poor Captain Corke andpoor Mr. Lummis, and we didn't. We might have been took into that boatwith Hoggett and Wabberley and that lot, and we warn't, and mighty gladI am of it, for I wouldn't be within call of Hoggett for a thousandpound. And if so be they're alive anywhere now, and Mr. Bodger is with'em, he wishes to goodness he warn't, that I warrant you."

  "But suppose we come back and find our house ruined with an earthquakeor smothered under ashes from the mountain?" I said.

  "Why, we shall think ourselves uncommon lucky," says he, "as we was nothere to be ruined and smothered too. I call that nothing but croaking,master."

  I took some pains to defend myself from this charge, and to show Billythat there is all the difference in the world between a settled habitof looking on the dark side of things and a prudential survey when somegreat enterprise is in question; but I might as well have talked to thepigs, or to our two dogs, for all the impression I made. And it is aswell 'twas so, for his confidence and resoluteness to see only thebright side were wonderfully cheering to me; and I have often sincethought that it is a great affliction to be able to see too much. Touse a homely instance, the donkey in the tale starved because he couldnot make up his mind between the two bundles of hay; if he had seenonly one at a time he would have had a very good meal.

  When we rose in the morning I was quite as ready as Billy to embark onour voyage. At the last moment something put it into our heads toconvey all our spare provisions and some of our tools to the cavernbelow, which already held a great store, and to conceal the opening,which hitherto we had only covered with loose logs. We now laid theselogs very close together across the top of the shaft a little below thefloor level, and over these we laid
grass, and over this again aquantity of earth like that of which the floor consisted; and then werammed it down, and laid on it flags and rushes with which we were usedto strew the floor, so that no one would think, to look at it, thatthere was a cellar beneath. Then, having already strengthened thefences of our poultry-run and pigsty, to keep out the wild dogs, wecarried down to the vessel a good store of provisions and water, alsoour spears and bows and arrows, the arrows in neat quivers we had madeout of palm leaves. We then waited for the full tide to launch ourcanoe and set sail.

  [Sidenote: We go a Voyage]

  This happened in the afternoon. We had talked over the direction ofour course, and had resolved to sail to the westward, for no otherreason, I think, than that we had seen the seamen of the _Lovey Susan_make for the east, and we had no wish to meet them again if perchancewe had to land for any purpose. If any one says it was a foolhardything to attempt a voyage without a compass, and asks how we could besure of finding our way back again, I will remind him that it was veryrarely indeed Old Smoker had not a crown of steam or smoke upon hishead, and he stood so high that he could have been seen for a distanceof thirty or forty miles, I am sure, and we did not purpose to go nearso far as that. Our design was, indeed, to make direct for the islandwhich we had seen as a dim line on the western horizon, and we setforth in the afternoon because we thought it best to approach thisisland under cover of night, for if our coming was observed by thepeople of the island while we were still a great way off, they would beable, if hostilely inclined, to prepare an ambuscade for us, whichmight be our ruin; whereas if we surprised them by an unexpectedarrival on their coast, they would not have had time to get ready forus, and so we should not be in near so much danger.

  [Sidenote: A Coral Island]

  The breeze blew gently from the north-west, and the _Fair Hope_,beating up against it, proceeded but slowly, though she sailed with asteadiness which, now that we were farther from land than we had everbeen before, gave us much contentment. Our progress was so slow,indeed, that darkness was upon us before we had got half-way to theisland, and we had to steer by the stars, which shone out withexceeding brightness in a sky perfectly clear. There is somethinginexpressibly moving in sailing thus upon a calm sea, in the deepsilence of the night, and neither Billy nor I had much to say to eachother. We tried to sleep a little now and then, taking it in turns tosteer, for the vessel needed no other management, so tranquil were theelements; but neither of us could sleep soundly, and at length we gaveover the attempt, and were content to float idly on. Some while beforedaybreak we heard the sound of breakers on our leeward side, and weinstantly brought the vessel to, having no mind to run upon a strangeshore in the darkness. When the dark lifted, we saw that we werewithin a mile or so of a low island which, from our former experiencewhen sailing in the _Lovey Susan_, we knew to be a coral island.Between it and us there was a reef over which the sea was breaking, andwe could see no opening in it, but we knew that there always is anopening in such a reef, giving admittance to a broad lagoon.Accordingly, we hoisted our sail again, and, still beating up towindward, we came after some time to a gap in the reef at least ahundred yards broad, so that we ran through it with ease, to findourselves, as we expected, in the shelter of the lagoon. We sawimmediately that our coming had not been unobserved, for on the fartherside of the lagoon there was a crowd of naked brown people in a littleclearing among the trees, who we knew had seen us, at first by theirgestures, and then by the proceedings of some few of them. For whilewe looked, we saw a half-dozen or so running along the shore away fromus, and Billy cried that they were affrighted, and they must be a lotof cowards. But I very soon perceived that he was quite mistaken inthis, for the goal of the runners was plainly a little cove about amile up the coast, where there were certain long dark objects drawn upon the beach which I judged to be canoes, though I could not see themclearly at so great a distance, especially as we were on the sea-level.

  We were about two hundred and fifty yards from the place where thenatives were congregated on the shore of the lagoon, so that we couldsee them plainly, and we observed that the men were armed with clubsand spears, but we saw no bows and arrows. They made no signs ofwelcome such as were made by the people of the islands at which the_Lovey Susan_ had touched, nor did they make signs of hostility, sothat I thought they were waiting for some indication from us as to ourfriendliness or the reverse. Accordingly I stood up in the canoe, and,raising my hands above my head, waved them in the air, upon which manyof the natives did the same, only their hands held their weapons. Butthey shouted also, and there did not appear to be anything unfriendlyin the tone, so we continued our course towards the shore, to whichBilly had indeed been slowly paddling all the time. As we drew nearerthe shouts of the people grew more vociferous, and I observed that thewomen and children among them had now got behind the men, which Ithought might be out of nothing but shyness, but on the other hand itmight be for security; and when we were, I suppose, about sixty yardsfrom the shore, I directed Billy to cease from paddling, so that wemight hold a parley with the people, if we could, before venturing toland among them. But though he shipped his paddle, I observed that westill drifted shoreward, the tide coming into the lagoon through thegap in the reef; and being by no means ready to come within the powerof these people until we were sure of them, I caught up my paddle, andbegan to use it so that we might keep a constant distance from theshore. It was very fortunate I did this, as it proved afterwards, forit precipitated the attack which would have otherwise been made upon uslater, when we might not have been able to get away. The people, nodoubt, supposed from my action that we were going to paddle out of thelagoon, which did not suit their bloodthirsty minds, for at the firststroke I made they burst into a great roar, the ferocity of which wasnot doubtful, and a perfect cloud of spears hurtled through the air,one of which, narrowly missing me, struck Billy in the arm, and anothercompletely transfixed his dog Robin, which fell dying in the bottom ofthe canoe, and was immediately licked with every demonstration of griefby its companion. Other spears hit the canoe, and some stuck in itssides, but the most fell into the water.

  [Sidenote: An Attack]

  Billy was in such a rage at the loss of his dog that he seized his bowand arrows, and in spite of his own hurt was going to shoot among thesavages; but I saw that we were in very great danger and sharply badehim drop his weapon and help me run our vessel out of harm's way. Weset to with our paddles, therefore, making all haste to get out of thelagoon, and not at present hoisting the sail, for the lagoon beingsheltered by a thick belt of trees, we felt scarcely at all thenorth-westerly wind, and went much faster with paddles than we couldhave done with the sail. The savages cast more spears at us, but nonehit us again, and we were soon out of range and thought we shouldeasily escape through the gap, when I observed that three of the canoeswhich had been lying on the beach were now launched, and were comingtowards us very fast. It was plain that the native village was in thatdirection, for though not above half-a-dozen men had hastened thitheralong the shore, there were at least forty men in the three canoes,which now, I perceived, were making slantwise across the lagoon, withthe plain intent of cutting us off from the entrance. This sight mademe feel very anxious, for though we might very likely outdistance thecanoes if we could hoist our sail in a fair breeze, we were no matchfor them in the sheltered lagoon, our vessel being, I think, heavierthan theirs, and having only two paddles to their dozen at least. Wehad less distance to go than they, that's true, but they moved I doubtnot three feet to our one, so that I could not help thinking we had apoor chance of escaping, especially as Billy could use only one arm.We worked as hard as ever we did in our lives, I assure you, Billydoing the steering, and all the time he muttered terrible threats ofvengeance against the savages for killing his dog.

  We had been so intent upon the canoes that were speeding to cut us offthat we had had no eyes for a nearer danger. When the savages on shorehad discharged their spears, a good number of them leap
t into the waterand set off swimming after us, of which we were not aware until on asudden we saw their black heads on the surface not many yards away.They were very fine swimmers, that is certain, for some of them hadoverhauled us, and were indeed almost within reach of our outriggerbefore we saw them. I own I got a fright then, for if they oncemanaged to grip the outrigger, they could haul it beneath the surfaceand so upset our craft, and all would be over. In this extremity Icalled to Billy to keep them off with his spear or axe, though thismeant a slackening of speed which we could ill afford in face of thecanoes drawing nearer so rapidly to the gap; and besides, it gaveopportunity to others of the swimmers to come up with those that had atfirst outstripped them. You see, then, how desperate was oursituation, I having both to paddle and to steer, and Billy having torush from end to end of the canoe to beat off the men, which would soonbecome an impossible business, for while he jabbed at the men aiming atthe stern cross-piece, another made a dash for the bow-end, and therewere others ready to clutch at the beam.

  I was pretty nearly mad with despair when, as we came out of theshelter of the trees lining the land side of the lagoon, I felt thebreeze blow stronger against my cheek and a flush of hope within me.Crying to Billy to keep up for a minute longer, to which he answered,"Trust me, master," in a breathless kind of way, I dropped my paddle,caught at the halyard, and ran the sail up the mast. Instantly itfilled and took the wind, but in the moment when the vessel came to astop at my ceasing to paddle, two of the swimmers laid hands on thebeam of the outrigger, and I felt the vessel give a dreadful lurch. Myheart was in my mouth, as we say; but Billy, with a desperate stroke ofhis spear, drove one of the men away, and the next moment the suddenfilling of the sail caused the vessel to plunge forward, so that theman who still clung to the outrigger was drawn along and prevented fromexerting his strength to upset us. And while he still hung on Billyreached over, and brought his axe down with great force on the man'shead, almost losing his balance; and the man gave a yell and let go hishold, falling back among his companions, who had now abandoned thepursuit.

  "BILLY REACHED OVER, AND BROUGHT HIS AXE DOWN ON THEMAN'S HEAD."]

  Just as, before, our attention had been kept from the swimmers by thecanoes, so our tussle with the swimmers had prevented us from observingthe oncoming of the canoes. Being now free from the former danger, wesaw that our vessel and the canoes were about equal distances from thegap, and I perceived with a terrible sinking of the heart that thoughthe _Fair Hope_ was making much greater speed than when we drove her bypaddles alone, yet the canoes were going still faster, the men in themplying their paddles with amazing force and dexterity. Within a fewmoments it became clear to me that the foremost canoe and our vesselmust reach the gap almost at the same instant, and Billy, who seemed tohave forgotten the perils in the excitement of the race, cried out,"Don't let it be a tie, master. I'd rather be beat than come in atie." But I saw that to be even with them would be as good as abeating, for if we came so much as within spear-throw of them, we couldnot by any means escape as we had escaped from the men on shore. Andthough I now took to my paddle again, having fixed the sail, and strovewith all my might, I perceived that within a minute the savages' firstcanoe must reach the gap before us, and I was on the point of giving upfor lost, grasping my bow with the resolution to make the best fight Icould before being overwhelmed. Billy had already taken his, though Iknew by the set of his face that he was suffering much pain from hiswounded arm, and catching my eye, he said, "This is what we made 'emfor," and looked with great determination at the savages in the canoes.

  [Sidenote: Escape]

  But in that critical moment I saw something that set me on takinganother resolution, and carrying it out too, all in an instant, as itwere. We had been making, as I have said, for the gap in the reef,through which the sea flowed inwards very smoothly. Upon the reefitself the water was very much broken, more at some points than atothers, and in that flash of time I had observed that the part nearestto us, on our right hand, appeared to lie some little distance belowthe surface, for the water above it was not near so restless andfoam-crested as at some other parts. There were swells and eddies,indeed, but it seemed to me that the water was deep enough to take ourvessel, and, as a drowning man will catch at a straw, I seized on thisas a bare chance of escape. In the twinkling of an eye--for I saw andthought and acted all in a breath, so to speak--I thrust my paddle intothe water at such an angle as would divert the canoe towards this partof the reef, telling Billy what I was about, and bidding him be readyfor anything that might happen. The vessel's head swung round to thereef, we scudded across it with a scratching and scraping that made meshudder, and it was well I did not know then what I learnt from amariner afterwards, how if we had struck upon any small pinnacle ofhard coral we must have been overturned to a certainty; that knowledgemight then have made a coward of me. But I did not know it, and wescraped and bumped across the reef, which was very narrow, and so cameinto the open sea, where, feeling the full force of the wind, we spedaway right merrily.

  "You did that prime, master," says Billy, "and now I'll have a shot."

  But by the time the foremost of the three canoes had come through thegap, and Billy had adjusted his aim, we were clean out of range, whichrejoiced me as much as it disappointed him. "Can't we lay by and havea shot or two?" he said; "the wretches killed my little dog." But Ithought it was more pertinent that we should make good our escape,especially as it yet remained to be proved that the canoes could notovertake us. It was a mercy they had no sails, for the paddlers drovetheir craft along at a prodigious pace, so that for a time we did notdraw very much away from them, and when we did, immediately afterwardsthere was a lull in the wind which made them gain upon us, soalarmingly that I took to my paddle again to assist the wind. Thesavages shouted with joy when they saw the gap between us lessening,and even when the wind freshened again they did not give up thepursuit, taking encouragement, no doubt, from what had lately happened,and hoping that the wind would drop again, and for a longer time, untilthey came within spear-throw. In this posture of affairs I saw thatBilly might be right, and that it would be really a wise thing todiscourage them more effectually, especially as we had done nothing toprovoke them, but on the contrary had intended to deal with them in themost friendly way. Accordingly, I luffed a little, as seamen say, andso allowed the first canoe to make upon us, and then I fitted an arrowto my bow, and taking as good an aim as I could, let the shaft fly.Our vessel was not above sixty yards distant from theirs, and if I hadbeen shooting on shore I should have hit the mark as like as not; butbeing not at all accustomed to take aim while moving up and down Imissed the man at whom I aimed, and indeed did not hit any man, thearrow sticking in the side of the canoe.

  "Try again, master," says Billy; but I was afraid I should not get thechance of another shot, for the savages had stopped paddling, not beingsure, I suppose, whether I had done any damage or not; and our vesselbeing under sail, was carried on a good way. But when they saw that noone had been hit, they let forth a shout of derision, and set topaddling again as if determined to dog us. I dare say I was nettled alittle by the mocking note I heard in their shout, which as it were putme on my mettle; whether it was by greater care and steadiness or sheergood fortune I know not, but certainly my next shot took effect, thoughthe range was longer. The man in the bow of the canoe gave a greatyell, and at the same moment dropped his paddle, and we saw him tear myarrow out of his left shoulder and clap his hand to the wound,whereupon Billy gave a shout of delight, and cried, "There you are, olddirty-face, and I wish it was you that shot my little dog." The nextman in the canoe hurled his spear at us, but it fell some littledistance astern, and the other canoes having by this time caught upwith the first, we guessed by the loud chatter of the men that theywere taking counsel together, even while they still worked theirpaddles. The result of their deliberation was that they gave up thechase, a very reasonable course, for I am sure they could not havecaught us. They turned
their canoes' heads towards their island, whichwas now, I suppose, about two miles distant, and as soon as we saw thatthey were really leaving us we hove to, and I bathed Billy's wound withfresh water from one of our pots, observing as I did so that thelurchings and jerkings our vessel had suffered in crossing the reef hadcaused our pots to spill over, so that we had not left above a third ofthe water we started with. Billy's wound, though he made light of it,was an ugly gash, and I was a little anxious lest the weapon that dealtit was poisoned. However, this was not so, and when I afterwards put abandage of leaves upon the wound (for Billy would not hear of mytearing a strip from my tattered shirt), his arm was stiff for a fewdays, but then quickly healed.

  I bathed his wound, I say, and then we ate a very good meal, and Billygave my dog a double share of food, to comfort him, he said, for theloss of his companion. I asked him if double meals would comfort him,supposing I was killed, merely to tease him; but his face became sopiteous when he said, "Don't say such things, Master, for I can'ta-bear it," I wished I had never spoken the words. I had never toldBilly how the thought that he might die came to me sometimes, and whatintolerable anguish it caused me, and I did not know that he ever hadthe like thought; but he confided to me a long while after thatsometimes as he lay awake at night the question would repeat itself inhis mind: "What if Master should die?" and it gave him such a dreadfulfeeling of loneliness that he would put out his hand to touch me lyingnear him, to make sure that my flesh was still warm with the blood oflife. When he told me this I remembered having once felt his hand uponmine, and how it tingled, and when I spoke he tightened his grasp andsaid, "Good night, old king," and I knew by his tone that he had agreat affection for me; but I never supposed he was troubled in mind,or I might have shown him, perhaps, more plainly how great was myaffection for him.

  However, to return to our vessel. We ate a meal, and considered whatwe should do: whether continue our voyage in another direction, orreturn at once to Palm Tree Island. Billy thought we had better goa-cruising, "For," said he, "we don't know but what these savages willspy on us, and see where we go to if we go home at once, and then theymay come after us some day, and we shall have a deal of trouble."

  "But they may spy on us even if we don't go home at once," I said, "andnever leave us until they find out where we came from."

  "Not they," says he; "they won't have the patience."

  [Sidenote: We return Home]

  I thought Billy's reasoning far from conclusive, for if they meant tospy on us they would do so, and could not tell whether we were goinghome or not. However, it did not appear that they had any suchintention, for by this time they were out of sight, and very thankfulwe were that they had drawn away from us, for towards midday the winddropped, and the vessel lay almost idle for a long time, her sailhanging very limp and sad. If the canoes had been near us now, wecould not have got away from them, and thinking of this made me hauldown our sail and unship the mast, lest they should be seen from someelevated place in the island we had just left--a tree-top, maybe, forthe surface of coral islands is mainly flat. We could see our ownisland very clearly, the mountain standing up against the sky; but Ibegan to be afraid that we should not reach it that day, because of thecalm, and we could not go fast enough with paddles alone. I did paddlefor a while, in order to increase our distance from the coral island,which became dimmer on the horizon until we could scarce see it; but Ihad begun to think that we should have to spend the night out at seawhen, as the sun sank, a breeze sprang up, which, if it held, wouldbring us to our island, I guessed, very soon after dark. We hoistedthe sail, and sped along very merrily, being perfectly enchanted withthe qualities of the _Fair Hope_; but distance at sea is verydeceptive; we were farther away from our island than we thought, and itwas long after dark before we arrived at the little sandy beach, thoughnot so dark but we could see the giant form of the mountain uprearedagainst the stars, and so we did not lose our way. We were very tired,and when we had moored our vessel to the rock we employed for thispurpose, we left everything in her, food and weapons and all, beingdesirous of nothing but to get back to our house, eat our supper, andgo to bed.