Palm Tree Island

by Herbert Strang

  CHAPTER THE SEVENTEENTH

  OF THE END OF THE SEA MONSTERS; AND OF THE EVENTS THAT LED US TORECEIVE THE CREW AS OUR GUESTS

  We had failed to destroy the monsters from the cliff top, and Iconcluded that we must still fail, unless we could, find some means ofattacking them in an enclosed space, where there was no current tocarry away the water as soon as it was rendered poisonous. It wasBilly who suggested the plan which we ultimately found successful.Though he had refused point blank to approach the cave in our canoe, hewould not mind, he said, "having a go" at the monsters from the tunnel,for there at least we had dry land to run back to, whereas if the canoewere caught in the embrace of one of the large creatures there would belittle chance for us. And since we had already learnt that themonsters came into the cave, as well as haunting the rocks outside, Iagreed, when Billy suggested it, that even if we could not kill themoutright we might make the water in the cave so exceeding noisome thatthey would depart thence and seek more savorous quarters. We saw greatdifficulties in the way, first, to the conveying a sufficiently greatquantity of the rock to the cave; then the possibility of heavy rainsfalling before we had accomplished our task, with the consequent riseof the water in the lake and the flooding of the tunnel, which wouldnot only render it a perilous place for us ourselves, but would use up,or decompose, as they say, the material we had collected before we gotit to the proper place. As to the first difficulty, we were already sowell accustomed to hard work of various kinds that we thought nothingof it; while for the matter of the rain we could only take our chanceand resolve to be as philosophical as possible if all our labour wasundone. With this in mind, we determined to collect the lumps of rockfirst of all in our hut, and not to begin to convey them through thetunnel until we had as much as we wanted: which accordingly we did,going backwards and forwards for many days between the hut and the spoton the mountain-side where we found an inexhaustible supply of therock. When we had got together a sufficient quantity, we carried abovetwo-thirds of it in baskets to the entrance of the cave, and verylaborious it was, because the way was so rough and in places so narrow,and we barked our shins and elbows pretty often. But it was done atlast, and then we laid up a similar heap on the cliff, at the same spotas we had put it before.

  Our Baskets]

  [Sidenote: End of the Monsters]

  When all things were in readiness, we went along the tunnel one day,carrying torches in our hands, until we came to the place where we hadput our heap of rock, at the brink of the pool. Now that the momentfor our great enterprise was come, we were in a fever, I assure you,both from the importance of what we had taken in hand to do, and fromour shuddering horror of the monsters. We held our torches above ourheads, searching the cave for signs of them, expecting every moment tosee the hideous tentacles emerge from the black water at our feet, andfancying we saw these dreadful enemies on all the rocks that strewedthe floor of the cave. "What are we waiting for?" says Billy in anawful whisper, and seeing that certainly nothing was to be gained bydelay, we stuck our torches into crevices in the wall, and then withtwo great heaves cast the pieces of rock into the water, and retreatedinstantly into the tunnel to escape the choking fumes that arose. Wehad to go a good way before we felt ourselves to be in safety fromthem, and indeed it promised to be so long before we could venture togo down to the cave again that we thought we might as well return toour hut and run down to the cliff, to see if any of the creatures hadbeen driven forth. Accordingly we made great haste, and when we cameto the cliff and looked over, we saw first several of the smallercreatures floating at the mouth of the cave, and quite dead as far aswe could tell; but immediately afterwards there came slowly swimmingout a huge monster that far exceeded in size and ugliness that whichhad seized me on that day when we climbed down the cliff for eggs.Whether it was the same that had nearly caught Billy I know not,because we never saw that clearly; but we were perfectly amazed at thehugeness of it, being as big round as my aunt's round table in theparlour, and its tentacles stretching on all sides like the roots of animmense oak. Though we were far above it, and in safety, we shudderedwhen we beheld it, and our cheeks became pale; I saw that Billy's did,and he told me afterwards that I was as white as a ghost. We both feltbeyond measure thankful that we had been so mercifully preserved fromfalling a prey to this terrible giant, which could have crushed thelife out of us in a few minutes.

  The monster swam slowly along until it came to the rocks I have beforementioned, and there it heaved itself up until the greater part of itwas out of the water. "He's going to sit there till he's got the stinkout of his nose," said Billy, "and then he'll go back, and all ourwork's thrown away." I feared that it would be as Billy said, and sawthat we should have no security unless the monster were driven cleanaway or else killed outright. We took up some of the lumps of rock wehad collected on the cliff and hurled them at the creature, but it hadso lodged itself that we could hit nothing but its tentacles, and ourmissiles seemed to do them no hurt. If the creature would only exposeits body, a great round bag of jelly as it seemed, we might shootarrows into it and perhaps find a mortal spot. I bade Billy run backto the hut to fetch our bows and arrows while I still kept the monsterin sight, and when he returned with them, we hurled pieces of rock justbeyond where the creature lay, on the seaward side of it, hoping thatthe fumes would drive it from its perch towards us, so that we mighttake a fair aim. And that is what happened, for the monster after alittle shifted its posture, and moved slowly away from the poisonousfumes that beset it, back towards its old haunt in the cave. "Nowwe've got him," says Billy, in great excitement. "You shoot betterthan me, master; you have a go at him while I keep on flinging the rockt'other side of him, to keep him on the move." Accordingly I shotarrow after arrow at the great central mass, as fast as I could fitthem to the bow, while Billy flung stone after stone just beyond it.He cried out in amazement when the arrows clean disappeared in thecreature's body, and yet it moved, and he asked me in a whisper whetherI didn't think it was the devil himself, and so couldn't be killed,except by God. But I bade him continue his throwing, and I shot atleast a dozen arrows, I think, before I thought the creature moved moreslowly, as if it had suffered some injury; and it being then close upagainst the cliff, directly below us, I said to Billy that we wouldtopple down on it the whole of the lumps that were left, and see ifthat would not deal the finishing stroke. This we did, casting overabove a hundred-weight of the stuff, some of which struck the creature,and the rest fell with great hissing and smoking into the water aroundit. The stench almost overpowered us even at the height we stood, andwe withdrew for a little, but returning and peering over we saw themonster floating without any motion, and its tentacles curled up moststrangely around it. "I do believe he's dead, the villain!" criedBilly joyously; and though we stood watching for some time longer,there was no motion in the beast, at least no motion of its own, for wesaw that it gradually drifted on the current towards the Red Rock; andthen we hastened away across that part of the island until we came tothe point opposite the ledge, where we could look down into the narrowrace between; and we had not been there long when the monster,perfectly inert, was swept around the corner and through the channel,and so carried along past the north side of the island until we lostsight of it, and knew that we should see it no more.

  For several days after this some of this family of monsters were castup dead on the shore, together with a great quantity of fish of allkinds, so that we were in no doubt of the efficacy of this remarkablemineral. Indeed, Billy startled me by saying one night, just as I wasgoing to sleep, "I say, master, what a fine thing that stuff would befor doing away with mother-in-laws and Hoggetts and such!" I told himthis was a horrible notion, and he owned that it was, and he supposedit would be murder and he would be hanged for it. "But," says he,"suppose Hoggett and that lot come back and fight us, and we kill oneor two of 'em--and we can't be sure our arrows won't go straight--wouldthat be murder, eh?" I replied that I thought it was justifiable tokil
l a man if fighting in self-defence. "Well then," says he, "I don'tunderstand it, not a bit. You kill a man when he's shooting at you,and might kill you if you ain't first, and that ain't murder; but ifyou kill him with fizzy rock, so that he don't have a chance to killyou, that _is_ murder. What do you make of that, now?" I own I couldmake nothing of it (though perhaps I might nowadays), but said he hadbetter go to sleep; and he cast that up at me afterwards, saying thatwhenever he wanted things explained I told him to go to sleep because Icouldn't think of what to say, which was not true in general, though itwas on that occasion.

  But to return to my story. We found that we had killed or driven awayall the noxious creatures which had made their home in the cave, andsince we took care to fumigate the cave at intervals, we were nevertroubled with them again. The having a direct and safe outlet from ourhut to the sea was a great source of satisfaction to us, for now if atany time we should be hard pressed above, we could very easily make ourescape and so free ourselves from immediate danger. To this end webrought our canoe round from the nook where we had kept it on the otherside of the island, and having taken it into the cave, we made what youmay call a dock for it by piling some rocks together above high-watermark, behind which we could lay it up without much fear that it wouldbe discovered if any one should enter the cave from the sea.

  [Sidenote: Daily Tasks]

  After this we resumed our normal way of life, going about our dailybusiness with a regularity which no new alarm interfered with for avery long time. We were accustomed to measure the time, so far as wedid it at all, by the bread-fruit season, calling it summer while thisfruit was ripening, and winter when we had plucked it all, for we werealways careful to lay up a good store of it, both for ourselves and ouranimals. Our pigs and our poultry throve very well, so that we had toenlarge their dwellings; and I will say here, in case I forget it, thatby devoting some part of our time to hunting, we came very near toexterminating both the wild pigs and the dogs; and we found that asthey grew less, the wild fowls increased mightily, because of theirgreater security. We did not put ourselves to any trouble to molestthem, both because they were still difficult to approach, and becausewe had enough of our domestic poultry to supply our own wants. We haddiscovered that these fowl were exceeding fond of a kind of small grainthat grew near our yam plantation, and to which we had given littleheed because it was no use for our own food. But seeing that our fowlsliked it, we began to cultivate it, and kept a good quantity of itstored in the cellar beneath our hut. We kept there also a largesupply of our other foods--yams, bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, smoked porkand fish, and so forth; and also all our spare implements which we hadnot in constant use, namely arrows, fish-hooks, pots and pans, in shortall the things we had made, keeping in the hut itself only those thingswhich we used constantly, and enough food for the day. I do not knowwhether I have mentioned one use to which we put our fowls. We keptthe feathers of those we killed, and also those that fell in themoulting time, and in fights, for they did fight sometimes; and havingcleaned these as well as we could we stuffed them into pillow-casesmade of leaves, and so had comfortable rests for our heads at night.We used to take advantage of rainy days to patch our clothing, whichwas by this time, as you may guess, the strangest motley that could beseen; and besides the overcoats I have mentioned before, we madeourselves leggings of raw hide, of which also we made covers for ourchairs.

  So another season passed over us. We were as happy as any two mencould be in like circumstances, I believe; we enjoyed perfect health,and had discovered for ourselves what great pleasure comes from simply_doing things_. We had quite given up any thought of being rescued orever seeing our native land again, and though there were times when Iat least pined for the dear ones at home, I was always inestimablythankful for Billy's companionship, but for which I do not think Icould have supported the loneliness.

  [Sidenote: A Chase]

  It was towards the middle of the winter season, that is, when we werejust beginning to think of planting our yams, when, going up onemorning to our watch-tower, a task we never once omitted, I spied anumber of dark objects on the sea to westward, which I very soondiscovered to be canoes filled with savages. They were approaching ourisland, and I thought at first they might pass us by as the fleet haddone before; but as they drew nearer I observed that there was a ship'sboat among them, or rather ahead of them, and with white men aboard,and when I had watched for a little while I could not doubt that thecanoes were chasing the boat and were very near overhauling it. IndeedI saw them spread out as if to envelop it, but then there was a shotfired and I saw the smoke hover over the boat, and the canoes paused intheir course, and the boat drew away from them, only, however, to bepursued again as soon as it was out of shot range. I counted tencanoes, and each held, as I reckoned, above twenty men; the white men,whom I had already guessed to be the seamen of the _Lovey Susan_, beingno more than about fifteen or sixteen.

  Billy was not with me on the watch-tower, it being his turn to cook thedinner; but seeing that it would be an hour or maybe more before theboat and the canoes could reach the island, I made great haste back toour hut, and acquainted Billy with what I had seen. "I hope thesavages will catch 'em," says he at once, but agreed with me that wemust prepare ourselves to meet a greater danger than any that had yetfallen to our lot, for we could not doubt that so great a horde ofsavages would easily overcome our few countrymen if they landed, andthen, if they found our hut, they would most likely turn their attackupon us. Indeed, it seemed to me that our only chance of safety lay inthe annihilation of the seamen before they could leave the shore, forwe did not suppose that the savages would come inland into the islandof the burning mountain, unless they had great provocation orincitement to it. All that we could do was to let the pigs looseagain, and take up the drawbridge from our moat, which latter, however,we did not do until we had been to the cliff to see whether the boatwas indeed making for our island. When we got there we found the crewat that moment landing, in the desperate haste of men frantic withfear, and after we had seen the first of them scrambling up the cliffswhere they were easiest to climb, we ran back to our hut very quickly,pulled up the drawbridge, and set up and barricadoed the door. We hadseen that the first of the canoes was but a few yards from the shore,and from the fierce outcries and war-whoops of the savages we knew thatthey were resolved upon blood.

  I considered with myself whether we ought to lend assistance to the menof our colour; but when I thought of the way in which they had treatedus, and indeed reckoned up the heavy score we had against them, I couldnot believe that their quarrel with the savages was any affair of ours,and so resolved to let them fight it out between them. And when theseamen began to appear on the top of the cliffs, and made straight forour hut, I saw that the fight would after all perhaps not be soone-sided as we had first imagined, for several of the men had muskets,and muskets were greatly superior to any weapons the savages carried,besides the fear they inspired in ignorant breasts. The seamen, I say,made straight for our hut, and I counted sixteen of them; Chick wasahead of all the rest, he being a little man and light of foot; butWabberley, big as he was, was not far behind, being as craven a soul asever I saw; and then came the rest in a group. When they reached theedge of the moat, and found there was no means of getting across itsave by leaping down and scaling the opposite side, which would havetaken a long time, they were in a great stew, and some began to runfrantically up and down to see if there was not some spot where thecrossing was easier. But Hoggett came to the part opposite ourdoorway, and cried out in a most affecting voice, "Master Brent, MasterBrent, sir, let us in, sir, for mercy's sake, or we shall all bemurdered, sir."

  "Yes, 'tis 'Master Brent, sir,' 'Please, sir, would you be so kind,sir!' now," says Billy with a sneer.

  "If you please, sir," begins Hoggett again, almost echoing Billy'smockery, "the savages are right on our heels, sir, and we'reChristians, and you wouldn't see us all slaughtered like pigs, sir."

  "Why shou
ldn't I?" I cried through a loophole. "What reason can yougive why we should interfere?"

  Here Wabberley cried out in terror that the savages were coming, and wesaw several dusky forms appear in the distance. Hoggett, who was notwithout a certain courage, and coolness too, turned to the men and badethem post themselves behind the pigsties and fowlhouse, and let thesavages have one shot to daunt them, but not more, from which I guessedthey were very short of powder and shot. Almost in the same breath hecontinued his pleading with me, and I own he sickened me when hedeclared he repented of the wrong he had done, and if I would only lethim in, like a "kind Christian gentleman," he would fetch and carry forme all the rest of his days. I think I might have yielded if he hadnot been so abject, which I did not need Billy's mockery to tell me wasmere feigning; but I resolutely refused, and then we saw Hoggett in histrue colours again, for the savages beginning to close round, he gave aglance at them and then poured out upon me the most horriblevituperation and foulest language I ever heard from the lips of anyman, and then ran to join his comrades who were ensconced behind ouroutbuildings.

  [Sidenote: A Fight with Savages]

  The savages came on in a pretty compact body, brandishing spears andclubs, many of them having bows and arrows, and all looking exceedingfierce, their skins being tattooed in strange and hideous patterns,their hair bushed up like a thatch supported on what seemed to be a rowof shark's teeth. There was much shouting and gesticulating amongthem, and from the manner of their pointing I guessed that they weremighty surprised at the sight of our hut and its surroundings, andindeed they came to a halt at some little distance from the moat, andseemed to be deliberating what course to follow; and all the time theseamen, who had regained something of their courage now that they werebehind cover, closely watched them, but never offered to fire. Theclamour of the savages increased to a wondrous degree, and I believedthey must be working up their courage to charge, and presently thegroup widened out until it was near a half-circle in shape, and thenthe naked warriors, near two hundred in number, rushed forward withmost furious whoops, their leader being a man of great stature andespecial intricacy of tattooing. They had come within about eightyyards of the seamen when I heard Hoggett give the word to fire, andthere were instantly several shots, but not so many shots as muskets,by which I saw that there was shortness of ammunition, as I suspected.The half-dozen shots, however, were enough to bring the savages to apause, not because of any damage done among them, for the muskets ofthose days were not near so good as the rifles which I hear some of ourmen carried of late in Spain; but because of the noise and smoke, whichare as terrifying to savage people as they are to animals. When theseamen had fired they began instantly to put in fresh charges, and thesavage chief stirred his people up to attack again; but I observed thatsome of them had already drawn back, in fear of the muskets. However,others, though they did not advance further, stood their ground andbegan to discharge arrows and spears, which at first did no hurt atall, because the seamen were pretty well hidden; which seeing, thesavages spread out so as to encircle the outbuildings, and then beganto discharge their weapons again, the white men no longer being allsheltered. What shrieks of joy there were when the savages observedthat one or two of their missiles had got home! Taking new couragefrom the sight, they surged forward with blood-curdling yells, and hadcome within about fifty yards of the pig-sty when Hoggett again gavethe word to fire, and this time they hit one or two of the savages, andagain brought them to a halt.

  "I don't think much of them for fighters," said Billy, who had beenwatching these proceedings very eagerly through his loophole. "Whydon't they rush in while the rascals are priming their guns? They'rejust a lot of donkeys, that's what they are."

  [Sidenote: Asylum]

  But I saw that this second halt of the savages was only as a gatheringup of strength, for they were now frenzied, as well with delight at thewounding of two of the white men as with anger at the damage done amongthemselves. Even before the seamen had had time to charge their gunsagain I saw the rush beginning, and I could not doubt that this timethe savages would overwhelm the little company of white men, or atleast do terrible execution among them. And in that moment my mind wasmade up for me, as it were without my consent to it, though I believe Imust have felt in my inmost heart that it would be a crime to standneutral while men of my own colour were butchered before my eyes.However that may be, certain it is that all of a sudden I ran very fastto the door and pulled it open, and then bidding Billy come after meand bring his bow and arrows, I caught up the drawbridge, threw itacross the moat, and leapt over, calling to Hoggett to bring his meninto our hut as quickly as might be. The sight of me suddenly sallyingforth seemed to strike the savages with amazement, for they paused inthe middle of their onset, and thus gave time to the seamen, not onlyto finish their priming, but also to make steps in retreat towards thehut; and as they came, Wabberley being first--as might beexpected--Hoggett and Pumfrey and two or three more of the braver sortformed themselves into a rearguard, covering the retreat with theirlevelled muskets. However, before the second of the wounded men hadcome over the drawbridge the savages got the better of theirastonishment and rushed on with horrible yells, whereupon I rangedmyself alongside of Hoggett and the rest, calling to Billy to come too,and wondering why he had not yet joined me. Then we shot all together,the men with their muskets and I with bow and arrow, but I could notsee what the effect of our shots was, partly because of the smoke, andpartly because the savages were now such a wild mob that everything wasconfused. But in a moment I saw the big chief leaping with greatstrides before his men, who were close at his heels and no more thanthirty yards from the moat. The seamen were helpless, for they hadfired their pieces and could not recharge them in time; but I pluckedanother arrow from my quiver, and fitting it to my bow took as good aimas I could at the chief; and thankful I was that I had had a good dealof practice at what Billy called our guy, for when I let fly the arrowit sped very true, and struck the savage in the left side of his chest,just below the shoulder joint, and he fell upon his face, though I knewby his howling that he was not dead. The fall of their leader fairlydaunted the rest of the savages, and they halted, and we seized thisbreathing space to get all the men across the moat, and then I caughtup the drawbridge and ran behind the men into the hut, and we had gotthe door into its place by the time the savages came to the moat. Whenthey saw that they were baulked they let forth the most astonishingcries I ever heard in my life, like the yelping of dogs rather than thecries of men; and while some carried their chief away, others ran roundtowards the lake side of the hut to see if there was any door there, orany weak spot there or at the other sides where they might attack us.And then, looking through a loophole, I saw seven or eight prostrateforms on the ground, the victims of the seamen's muskets.

  The hut was very dim inside, all the light being what came through theloopholes, we never having made a window: but little as it was it wasenough for Hoggett, and one or two more, to see to charge their pieces,and putting these through loopholes in different sides of the hut, theyfired and so scattered the savages, who ran swiftly out of gun-shot.We saw them meet together a good distance off, towards the cliff, andone of the seamen said they were holding a parliament, and he hopedthey had punishment enough and would make up their minds to go back totheir own island.

  [Sidenote: What I Owe Billy]

  Observing that the seamen were very intent on watching theseproceedings, I turned to find Billy, to ask him why he had not come outwith me when I bade him, for I thought his backwardness was due eitherto cowardice or to flat disobedience, and I was as much astonished atthe one as at the other. I could not find him at first, for the hutwas pretty well packed, and indeed the air already began to be foul andoppressive; but I did find him, and when I asked him in some heat whathe meant by it, he took me by the arm and whispered in my ear, "Why,you forgot we hadn't covered over the hole into the cellar, and Ireckoned we didn't want 'em to know about that, at least not
yet abit." And then I shook him by the hand and thanked him for histhoughtfulness, and when he said in great surprise, "Why, master,that's nothing," I did not dare to tell him the unkind thoughts thathad come into my mind, for I was sure he would have been very much hurtby them. Certainly it would have been a terrible calamity if the menhad discovered our secret chamber, and I dare say 'tis due only toBilly's presence of mind in that matter of hastily covering over theshaft that I am alive to pen these lines to-day.