CHAPTER THE FIFTEENTH
OF THE SEVERAL SURPRISES THAT AWAITED BILLY AND THE NARRATOR AND THECREW OF THE _LOVEY SUSAN_; AND OF OUR ADVENTURES IN THE CAVE
"I say, master," said Billy, as we toiled up towards our house, "youand me'll think twice afore we go a-cruising again. I ain't never beenso tired in my life, and I shan't be awake to eat no supper."
"Very well," said I, "we won't trouble to make up our fire, but----"
[Sidenote: Unexpected Visitors]
The words died on my lips, and we both stood stock still at the samemoment, for there had come to our ears on a sudden, from the directionof the house, the sound of loud and boisterous laughter. Little Johnyelped, Billy clutched my hand, and you will scarce believe it, but wewere both trembling like leaves in the wind; for imagine if you canwhat a shock it was to us, after our loneliness on the island, to hearthe laughter of men.
"They've got here first," says Billy in a whisper presently.
"Who?" said I.
"Why, the savages," he said. "They've spied on us. We'd better goback for our spears and things."
I agreed that this was a prudential measure, and we trudged hastilydown again to the canoe, and took our spears and bows and arrows, andthen retraced our steps, the dog accompanying us. We crept up withexceeding caution until we reached a spot whence we could overlook thehollow in which our house was situated; but or ever we got there wewere aware of a red glow, as from a huge fire, and when we came to thesummit of the crest and looked down the long slope towards the hut,near half-a-mile away, we saw that in front of it a very large fire waskindled, which lit up all the country around, and on the fringe, so tospeak, of the illuminated space certain dark figures moved.
"They've made the fire ready to cook us," says Billy, his voicetrembling very much.
"Nay, they're cooking already," I said, and showed him that they hadset our great tripod over the fire, and something dangled from itroasting.
Our Tripod]
"They've stole one of our pigs," said Billy in great anger; indeed, hisfirst fear was now swallowed up in this new emotion. He spoke prettyloud, and the dog, knowing from his manner that something was amiss,began to yelp. I bade Billy hold his peace, for we must creep silentlytowards the house and discover who these visitors were: and since thedog might betray us if he yelped as we approached, we thought it bestto tie him to a tree; he would doubtless yelp there, but the visitorswould suppose he was a wild dog. We had just left him tied up when Iremembered that if his yelping brought the wild dogs about him he wouldvery soon be torn in pieces, so we had to go back and loose him, andthen Billy took him in his arms and said he would keep him quiet, whichhe did.
We crept along, being careful to take cover from the trees and shrubs,and so not following a straight path, but working round somewhat untilwe came to the back of our fowl-house, whence we could see and overhearwhat was going on. But before we got there we had another amazingshock, and a very disconcerting one too, for as we were walking Billyall of a sudden clutched me by the arm and whispered, "That's Hoggett,"and then he uttered that profane word which I had never heard upon hislips since the first day we came to the island. And sure enough, whenwe came to the fowl-house, and could both hear and see them, groupedabout the fire beyond it sat or lay or stood a dozen of Billy's onceshipmates on the _Lovey Susan_, the mutinous crew of my uncle'sill-fated vessel. Some of them, being on the farther side of the fire,we could not see clearly: but on this side there was Hoggett, Billy'sespecial enemy, and Wabberley; and Clums the cook, attending to thefine pig, one of our best, that was roasting; and Chick, and Pumfreythe ship's carpenter, and others whose names I need not write. Billywas for fitting an arrow to his bow and shooting Hoggett that instant,but I forbade him, in a whisper but peremptorily, for the two of uscould not hope to get the better of a dozen, when they had firearmstoo, for I had spied a musket standing against the wall of the hut,near to where Hoggett was lying. Besides, I own I felt a certaintenderness towards these men, rough and brutal, aye, and treacherous,as they were; for they were men of our race and speech, and to hear myown language from the lips of Wabberley brought back to me thoseevenings when he feasted my uncle with his stories, so that he gave methoughts of home. However, I felt a natural indignation at seeingthese uninvited guests making free with our property, and after hearingsomewhat of their talk I ceased to feel any kindness towards them.
They were talking, I soon discovered, about the house and its owners,and Hoggett declared that he was certain sure it belonged to savages,an opinion which Wabberley instantly controverted.
"Have I, or have I not, been in these here South Seas afore, TomHoggett?" I heard him say, and Hoggett growled that he _said_ he had;whereupon Wabberley continued, "Well then, I ask you again, didn't weleave they two striplings on this very island?"
"You're right, there," says Hoggett, "and one of 'em the sauciest,snarliest son of a" (here a dreadful word) "that ever escaped hisproper lickings."
("That's me," whispered Billy, in a great rage.)
"True, but handy all the same," said Clums. "He could do a thing ortwo with his tools, and I warrant you he made this;" and so saying, hetook up Billy's toasting-fork, and held a yam to the blaze.
Billy's Toasting Fork]
"'Twas Billy made it, sure enough," said Pumfrey, "for the other chapcouldn't ha' done it."
"No, not him," said Wabberley. "He was a overgrown weed, he was, allstalk and no head to it, and I reckon if the truth was known he madethis; any fool could do it," and he took up, as it chanced, one of thetwo-pronged forks that I had made, and of which I was a little proud atthe time.
"That's true, Nick," says Joshua Chick, "and what's more, shipmates, nosavage ever made a fork in his life, and lor' bless you, didn't we finda hairbrush and a comb, and what savage ever wanted such, d'ye think?And that there pig-sty, now, ain't that like the one where you wasbrought up, Pumfrey, only a bit rougher, maybe?"
This question was very much resented by Pumfrey the carpenter, whodeclared hotly that he had built pig-sties, not lived in 'em, andwhoever made this pig-sty was a very poor hand at it. To thisWabberley assented, and went on to say that the dirtiest savage as everbreathed would have been ashamed of the miserable things we had made inthe way of pots and baskets and other things. It was plain that theyhad pretty thoroughly ransacked our hut, and I was on thorns lest theyshould have discovered our secret store-house below, which it appeared,from what followed, that they had not done, and thankful I was. One ofthe men asked what we lived on, for we couldn't eat, he supposed,nothing but pork and chickens, and they had found nothing else, exceptthe yams in the pig's trough, we having put all the rest of our fruitsand vegetables in the store-house.
"Ain't there plenty of trees on the island, donkey?" said Clums. "Youmay take your davy there's bread-fruit and bananas and cocoa-nuts andsuch like, and they pick 'em when they want 'em."
"But where are the young devils?" said Hoggett. "Ain't that there pigdone yet, Clums? The smell makes me want to get my teeth into him."
"One more turn," says Clums, "and then we'll have a better supper thanwe've had many a day."
"I say, where are the young devils?" says Hoggett again. "D'ye thinkthey see us a-coming and sheered off?"
"Like as not," said Wabberley, "but we'll find 'em to-morrow, and theyshall get our dinner for us, d'ye see. I believe in taking it easy andletting the youngsters do the work, I do. Did you get all the yams outof that pig's trough, Clums?"
"I did," says he, "and there must be some more growing somewhere, and'tis to be hoped things ain't so short as they are in our island,mates. Did you ever know food go so fast? There seemed enough forthousands when we landed there, and you wouldn't ha' thought a score ofmen would ha' made such a hole in it."
And then they fell a-talking of the eight or nine men they had left onwhat they called their island, and I judged from their discourse thatprovisions being short with them, these twelve had come away todiscover a more pl
entiful land, having promised, if they found one, toreturn and fetch their shipmates. Pumfrey reminded them of theirpromise, adding that the men would certainly starve if they were notbrought off, whereupon Hoggett declared with an oath that he for onewas not going to tug an oar for twenty miles in a leaky boat, to bringoff a lot of useless blockheads who would soon eat them out of houseand home. We pricked up our ears at this, Billy and me, hearing forthe first time that our visitors had made up their minds to abide withus, and Billy ground his teeth, and whispered that we should have tofight 'em. One of the men--I think it was Wabberley--asked what aboutthe mountain? and said he didn't like the notion of living where hemight be boiled or roasted any day. At this Hoggett made a mock ofhim. "Ain't it years since we left they boys here?" he said. "Does itlook like boiling or roasting, 'cept for pigs? These here burningmountains ain't always a-working, that's plain, and this one here maybe asleep for fifty years to come."
And then they ended their discourse for a time, devoting themselves tothe roast pork and the yams of which they had deprived our pigs,sighing also very heavily for beer; and finding no cocoa-nuts handy forquenching their thirst, and being too lazy to fetch any (besides, itwas dark), two of them went with pots in their hands to the lake, onwhich there was a very pretty reflection of their fire, and broughtthem back full of water. Billy chuckled so much at this that I wasafraid he would be heard; but I was amused too, for there having beenno rains lately, we knew what the effect of drinking the water wouldbe; and, indeed, the next night we heard the men condoling with oneanother, and it was plain that when they were seized in the middle ofthe night with griping pains, they believed one and all that they werepoisoned.
They had eat such a monstrous supper that they were fit afterward fornought but swinish slumber, and the most of them lay where they were,never intending to stir until the morning. Two or three, however, tookup their quarters in the hut. We did not observe that they set anykind of watch, which was certainly a point of carelessness, and Billysaid it would be easy enough to steal upon them in the night and killthem all, but this of course was not to be thought of. When we sawthat all was quiet we stole away back to the canoe, both to get our ownsupper from the surplus of our provisions, and also to have asleeping-place. Since we did not know how long this rascally crewwould remain on the island, we thought we ought to convey what smokedfish and salted pork we had in the canoe to the thicket on the side ofthe mountain; as for the bread-fruit and cocoa-nuts, there was no needfor us to trouble about these, the trees being exceeding well ladenwith them. And considering that it would be foolish to let the men seeour canoe, when we had taken the food up the mountain, very toilsomely,we being so tired, we worked the canoe round the island with extremecare, until we came to the little cove in the cliff which we had seennear the archway in our voyage of circumnavigation. There we slept byturns till break of day, finding it a matter of the greatest difficultyto keep awake when our turns came for watching; and when it began to belight we unshipped the mast, and clambering along the base of thecliffs we made our way gradually upward until we reached the thicket,where we deemed it best to remain in hiding. We heard nothing of themen all the morning, and guessed that they were not in very active trimafter their medicinal draught of the night before; but in the afternoonwe heard them talking to one another from various parts of the island,from which it was plain that they were searching for us. Once, indeed,they came so near us that we were fearful of being discovered, and keptvery close in the depth of the thicket; but they passed us by, and Iwondered that they had been brave enough to come so far up themountain, remembering their panic on the day they landed.
[Sidenote: Dispossessed]
Making our meals chiefly of salt fish, we grew very thirsty, and didnot dare venture down to the woods where the cocoa-nuts grew, lest weshould be seen. But we thought we might creep round the mountain,until we came to the place where the hot spring fell towards the RedRock, and there we filled some large leaves with the water, and let itstand until it cooled, and then drank it, without any harm. And as wereturned to our hiding-place I chanced to see some pieces of that rockI have before mentioned, what Billy called the fizzy rock, that whichbelched forth great clouds of poisonous fume when it was touched withwater. The sight of this set an idea jogging in my head, which I didnot tell at that moment to Billy because of his natural impatience; butwhen it was dark, and we had got down safely to the place of the formernight's watching, and assured ourselves from the men's talk that theyhad no present notion of leaving the island--at this time of night, Isay, I communicated my notion to Billy, and he applauded it with greatenthusiasm. As soon as ever the first glimmer of light came,therefore, we might have been seen very busy gathering lumps of thisrock, which we piled in two heaps, one about the spring near the top ofthe mountain, the other about the spring that flowed down the lava bed.We worked very hard at this, and I observed with great satisfactionthat the cloud of steam above the mountain was a trifle thicker thisday than it had been for some time past. Then we waited until the menwere at their breakfast (we could see them easily from the edge of thethicket, which commanded a view of the house and its surroundings), andwhen they were in the midst of it, we hasted to these springs, Billy toone and I to the other, and began to topple into them the fragments ofrock which we had gathered, being exceeding careful to keep to thewindward side. The wind was blowing, as it did nearly always, in thedirection of the house, so that when the dense and filthy smoke rosefrom the rock we had cast into the water, it was carried away into theinterior of the island.
[Sidenote: A Stratagem]
Having set this storm a-brewing, as you may say, we made haste toregain our place in the thicket, whence we could see what went onbelow. We were delighted beyond measure, and Billy began to caper, ashe always did when pleased, when we saw the men spring to their feetand, leaving their breakfast, set off in a mighty hurry toward thebeach. We had not seen the place where they had left their boat, butguessed from the direction of their flight that they had drawn it up atthe east end of the sandy beach, near the lava tract, indeed, at prettynearly the same point as they had landed at three years before. Weperceived that one or two of the men halted as they ran, and turningabout, looked up at the mountain and then called to their fellows.Though we could not hear their words, the distance being too great, weguessed that they were shouting to their comrades to wait a little, incase the apparent explosion turned out to be of no account after all.But the other men did not halt, nor even slacken their pace, and Billyand I laughed a good deal to see Wabberley, who was much the fattest ofthem, yet easily outstrip the rest, so much did panic lend lightness tohis heels. Their manifest terror appeared to shake the resolution ofthe few hardier spirits who were inclined to pause. Without anyfurther delay they sped on after the others, and when they haddisappeared for a little from our view behind the rocks, we saw a boatput off very soon after, going towards the south, whence we presumed ithad come. But it had not gone far when it stopped, and we saw at thesame moment that the fumes were being dissipated in the air, whichperhaps made the men think that the danger was over. We could notventure to go again to the spring above the lava tract, which wasplainly to be seen from the sea, but we went back to the other spring,where we were perfectly screened, and hurled great quantities of therock into the water, so that we were nearly overcome by the acridfumes. But we persevered until we had raised an immense cloud ofsmoke, much denser than before; and running to the thicket to see theeffect of our handiwork, we were almost beside ourselves with joy whenwe saw the boat proceeding at a good pace towards the south-east. Wewatched it until it had finally disappeared, and then we hastened downto our hut, wondering whether it had suffered any damage at the handsof our visitors, and also whether they had left any of their ownbelongings which would be useful to us, being exceeding jubilant alsoat the wonderful success of the trick we had played on them.
[Sidenote: We Regain our Own]
When we came to examine our little d
emesne, we were in a great rage,for the men had not only killed our finest pig and two or three of ourchickens, but had also turned the hut upside down, as people say, andransacked everything. Of course they got little for their pains exceptthe food, and they had not discovered our cellar, nor even the pitoutside the hut where our bread-fruit pulp was stored, what there wasleft of it, for since we had used the cavern for a store-house we hadbeen under no necessity to keep the pit replenished. They had leftbehind them nothing but one musket, which had no doubt been overlookedin their haste, and a cap which Billy declared was Hoggett's, though Imyself thought it was Wabberley's. The musket was useless to us,having no powder or shot, though it would make a capital club; and asfor the cap, whether Wabberley's or Hoggett's, neither Billy nor I wasin the least inclined to wear it, being very much worn, and filthy toboot, not fit to be compared to our own light and cleanly bonnets,which we wore pretty constantly now, to preserve us from sun-stroke.
Though we had not suffered any great damage, I was very much disturbedby this sudden visit of the seamen. We had heard enough of their talkto guess that they had been driven to make their expedition by scarcityof provisions, for had they been living in ease and plenty they wouldhardly have risked so long a voyage in a leaky boat. Whether they hadvisited other islands first we could not tell; but I could not helpfearing that if it was dearth that had impelled them, they would comeagain, braving the dangers of the volcano. Cowards though they were,they would certainly come to their senses before long, and when theyconsidered that we had a fair-built hut, and a plantation, and apiggery and fowl-house, which had plainly received no hurt from themountain, they would be pretty sure to come back if they found no meanselsewhere of stocking their larder.
"Perhaps they think we have gone away from the island," said Billy,when I talked over the matter with him. "They will think Old Smokerfrighted us too."
I saw there might be some truth in this, but I said that if it were so,they would probably keep a careful watch on the mountain for thefuture, and if they saw no signs of its breaking forth they wouldreturn, confident of enjoying the fruits of our labours.
"But we won't let 'em," cried Billy, stoutly. "Didn't they leave us,the brutes, when they believed we should certainly be boiled orroasted? Didn't they steal our raft? Did you hear 'em say they'd makeus fetch and carry for 'em if they caught us? We've done all the hardwork and they'll come and enjoy it, will they? Not if I know it."
"We shall have to fight them then, Billy," I said.
"Well," says he, "and so we will; and we'll make some more spears andarrows at once."
"But some of them have got muskets," I said, "and bows and arrows willbe poor weapons against them."
This made Billy look glum for a moment or two, but then his facebrightened again, and he said, "I don't believe they've got manymuskets. They were all put in the round-house, don't you remember,master? The Captain's orders. They stole one or two when we were allsixes and sevens in the storm, and I don't suppose they've got muchpowder and shot either, maybe none, for they're sure to have used some,and it's a long time ago."
This seemed to me very reasonable, and I thought that if we were withinour walls we might defend ourselves very well for a long time againstthe men, even if they had a musket or two. But I wished we could insome way strengthen our defences, and my mind went back to my notion ofcutting a moat around the hut, which would be of great assistance tous; but the difficulty of cutting it was no less than before, and I wasafraid if we started it we should never get it done. Furthermore, theonly condition of our making a successful defence at all was that weshould not be taken by surprise as we had been this time, and I said toBilly that we must never go a voyage again.
"Well, and I don't want to," says he, "unless we can sail to England.I didn't like the look of them brown fellows with the painted faces,and did you see the sharks' teeth stuck in a ring round their hair?We're better off here, master; and here we'd better bide."
[Sidenote: We Strengthen our Defences]
We had been putting our place in order while we talked thus, and thenwe had our breakfast, eating indeed some of the food which the men hadbeen preparing when we drove them away. And after we had done ourcustomary morning's work--fed the pigs and fowls, gathered ripecocoa-nuts, and so forth--we set to work at once to make some newarrows and spears, and bows and strings also, in case the others broke;and all the while we were doing this, Billy talked very bravely aboutthe great fight there would be if the rascals came back. I saidnothing to damp his ardour, but my thoughts were very busy with a partof the subject which he seemed not to consider, namely, what we shoulddo if it came to anything like a regular siege. I did not doubt wecould do much execution among the enemy from behind our walls if theystood to be shot at; but they could very well avoid this, and sincethere would be many of them against us two, they could strictlyblockade us; and though so far as food went we could defy them for along time, having our concealed stores below, yet the need for constantwatchfulness, day and night, would in a short time wear us out. When Iasked Billy what we should do in that case, he said, "Why, run out, andlet 'em chase us; we could dodge them big chaps well enough, and Ireckon we can run a deal faster." It was easy enough to show him thatthe hunted life we should lead would be most wretched and precarious;but he having suggested that we might escape set me on thinking whetherwe might not indeed elude the enemy, at least for such time as wasneedful to find some defence or shelter.
We had, of course, the means of descending into our cavern; and thiswas so well stocked with food that we might live there for a long time;but our disappearance would immediately be discovered by our besiegers(so I called them in advance), and they would know our whereabouts themoment they entered the hut. The cavern, therefore, could not be apermanent habitation. But it came into my mind again that we had neverthoroughly explored the tunnel leading from it, nor found whether ithad an outlet, though we suspected it had; and I thought that if therewas such an outlet, or if we could make one, our case would not be sohopeless as at the present time it seemed. Accordingly, we determinedto descend into the cavern, and make another exploration, goingtogether, as we did the last time, both for the company's sake and forbetter security in case of encountering any danger. So we heaved upthe covering of the shaft, and having made half-a-dozen torches, enoughto last us for several hours, we went down, leaving Little John onguard, passed through the cavern, and came into the low and narrowpassage.
[Sidenote: Adventure in the Cave]
When we arrived at the place where the second passage entered this fromthe right, we turned into it, and walked up an ascent, as I had done inthe darkness, until the floor suddenly took a dip downwards, and thenby the light of our torch we saw a considerable pool of water,extending farther than the light would carry. We debated for a littlewhether we should attempt to wade through this, and concluded that wewould not do so until we had failed to find a way out in the otherdirection. Accordingly we retraced our steps, and went down thetunnel, until we came to the wider part where on our last visit we hadseen water. The water was lower than it had been then, and we wereable to go farther, and when we came to the brink of it, we heard verydistinctly the sound of waves rolling in, so that we knew we could notbe far from an opening to the sea. And, indeed, peering across theimmense cave to which we had come, we saw far off a segment of bluesky, and knew that the object of our search was gained.
We stood at the edge of the water, surveying the cave by the light ofour torches. We saw that there depended from its roof certain shiningthings like icicles, of rugged form and differing in length, which Ihave since learned are called stalactites; and, moreover, there werelarge boulders and masses of broken stalactites standing up out of thewater. Billy gave a shout when he saw this, and cried that he wouldskip from rock to rock until he came to the mouth of the cave, anddefied me to race him; but the torch I was carrying was now burninglow, and I stayed to kindle another before going farther; and,moreover, I doubte
d the wisdom of such feats of agility, for it wouldbe easy to miss one's footing and fall into the water, and if we bothdid it our torches would be wetted and we should not be able to lightourselves home. I had, indeed, just called out to him to come back,when a dreadful shriek ran through the cavern, and raising my torchabove my head, I saw Billy scrambling up a tall and rugged rock thatstood ten feet or more above the water, a good way from where I stood.He had dropped his torch, and I saw him but dimly by the light of mine,and could not discern any cause for his terror; but that there must bea very great cause I knew well, for Billy was brave enough. Hecontinued to shriek and call, though his voice rang so in that hollowvaulted space that I could not at first make out any words; but havingstarted to approach him when I heard his first cry, going from rock torock as quickly as I could, I was presently able to see a number oflong tentacles clinging to the rock on which he was perched, and otherswaving horribly above the surface of the water, as if some blindcreature were groping for its prey. And even as there came to my mindthe recollection of that loathly monster from whom I myself had barelyescaped, and I stood as if fascinated by those hideous antic limbs, Isaw the vast bulk of the beast appear above the surface, and risegradually behind its tentacles up the rock.
Billy was by this time perched on the very summit of the rock, and whenhe saw the monster ascending towards him he let forth another dreadfulcry which roused me from the sort of trance into which I had fallen.Grasping the torch with my left hand and my axe with my right, I leaptover the low rocks that stood between me and Billy, scarcely keeping myfooting, and began to hack with all my strength at the shapeless mass,which made such a resistance to that poor clumsy axehead as a thing ofleather might make. It did not appear that my strokes were of anyavail, for the tentacles crept higher and higher; and looking up when Iheard another scream from Billy, I saw that one of them was beginningto twine itself about his leg. And then all of a sudden, while I wasbringing my axe down once more on the monster, Billy made a leapupwards, to catch at a stalactite that depended from the roof of thevault, not far from his head. He must have been pretty near besidehimself to do what he did, for if he had caught hold of it he could nothave held on long; and what did in fact happen was that the stalactitebroke off with a sharp snap, and down came Billy and it into the water.I thought this might be the best thing that could happen, for he couldswim like a fish, and the monster would take some time in lettingitself down from the rock; but when Billy rose to the surface, and Icalled to him, I saw by his feeble movements that he must have beenhurt, so I sprang to a low rock near which he had come up, and held outmy axe for him to grasp, which he did, and so I got him on to the rock,though not without some trouble, it being scarce broad enough for bothof us. And immediately afterwards I observed that the monster had leftthe big rock and disappeared into the water, on which I cried to Billyto be of good cheer, because I was sure my continual chopping hadwrought some damage on the monster and maybe killed it. But the wordswere scarce out of my mouth when we saw, by the ruddy light of mytorch, a tentacle appear above the water not three feet away. This putme in a shudder lest we were in a perfect den of the creatures, and Icalled to Billy to jump across the rocks, if he could, back to theentrance to the tunnel, so that he at any rate, being now the weaker,might be out of harm's way. His terror lending him strength, hegathered himself together and leapt from rock to rock as he had donebefore, while I seized upon the axe which I had dropped beside me whenI landed on the rock, and chopped away in a kind of frenzy at thetentacles which were brandishing themselves, you may say, at severalplaces around me. As soon as I saw that Billy was safe I gave up thecontest and sprang after him, and I was never so thankful in my life asI was when I stood beside him at the end of the tunnel.
We were neither of us in any mind to linger there, lest the monster andhis brood came to attack us, for we were now so terrified that we wouldhave believed them capable of anything. This was the second time thatwe had been baulked of finding an outlet to the sea, and our experiencehad been such that we should scarce attempt it again. We hurried backthrough the tunnel, and had not gone very far when we had anotheralarm, for whereas it had been dry when we descended, there was now alittle stream of water running down, which increased as we advanceduntil it became almost a rivulet. At first I thought that the plug hadcome out of the pipe leading from the lake into the shaft, but when wecame to the junction of the two passages, we saw that the water, whichwas now above our ankles, was pouring out of the right-hand passage,and not from the one that led from the cavern. This eased our alarm,but we did not stay to consider of any attempt to discover the ultimatesource of this little torrent, but hastened on until we were once morein our hut; and then we knew by the mighty pattering on the roof andall around that a very heavy rain was falling. Indeed, when we openedthe door we saw that it must have been raining ever since we departed,for the ground was exceeding sodden, and the trench about the hut washalf full of water, being scarce deep enough to carry off the drainage.Of course the rain had put out the fire which we kept constantlysmouldering in the grate a few feet from our door, and though a hotmeal would have been very comforting after our fright and the wettingwe had got, we could not make one ready, because we had no dry wood inthe hut, nor indeed did we care to light a fire in it, having nochimney to let out the smoke.
[Sidenote: A Mystery Solved]
It continued raining for two or three days, greatly to our discomfort;and we made up our minds to two things: first, to have a stock offirewood ready dried; second, to build ourselves a better grate, whichwe could cover in with pottery ware, and thus prevent the fire frombeing ever extinguished. During these days we observed, as we had donebefore, that the lake did not rise above the high-water mark, thoughthe rain was the heaviest since we had been on the island; and when Isought once more to account for this, and remembered the torrentpouring down the passage, it came all of a sudden into my mind that Ihad the true reason of it. The passage, as I have said, rosecontinually from the cave inwards. Well, I guessed that its upper endopened into the side of the lake, but it then rose until its highestpoint was pretty nearly on a level with what we called the high-watermark, and after that descended again. If it was so, it acted as asiphon, the water not flowing down the passage until the lake rose tothe same height as the highest part of the passage. When I tried toexplain this to Billy he said it was all gammon, because if there wasan opening from the lake into the passage the water would keep onflowing through until it couldn't help but run over. He could not inthe least understand that water could never rise above its own leveluntil I showed him by means of two tanks made of pottery, one large andthe other small, and then he owned that I might be right, though hesaid it seemed to him like saying that a ten-pound weight wouldn't sendup a five-pound weight if they were put in the opposite pans of abalance.
However, my discovery (supposing my reasoning was correct, and we couldnot prove it)--my discovery, I say, was of no practical advantage tous, indeed, rather the reverse, for it seemed to show that the tunnelfrom the cavern to the sea might be sometimes impassable, so that as away of retreat from our hut it was doubly useless. When I pointed thisout to Billy he said, "Never mind, master. We shall only have to fightall the harder inside, that's all," which shows how hopeful he alwayswas. The only comfort I had was to think that our fears and anxietiesmight never be justified, and that Hoggett and his crew would nevermore visit us.
Palm Tree Island Page 20
