Blown to Bits: The Lonely Man of Rakata, the Malay Archipelago

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

  ENDS WITH A STRUGGLE BETWEEN INCLINATION AND DUTY.

  "Cave's blowed away too!" was the first remark of Moses as they rowedinto the little port.

  A shock of disappointment was experienced by Winnie, for she fanciedthat the negro had referred to her father's old home, but he only meantthe lower cave in which the canoe had formerly been kept. She was soonrelieved as to this point, however, but, when a landing was effected,difficulties that seemed to her almost insurmountable presentedthemselves, for the ground was covered knee-deep with pumice-dust, andthe road to the upper cave was blocked by rugged masses of lava andashes, all heaped up in indescribable confusion.

  On careful investigation, however, it was found that after passing acertain point the footpath was almost unencumbered by volcanic debris.This was owing to the protection afforded to it by the cone of Rakata,and the almost overhanging nature of some of the cliffs on that side ofthe mountain; still the track was bad enough, and in places so rugged,that Winnie, vigorous and agile though she was, found it both difficultand fatiguing to advance. Seeing this, her father proposed to carryher, but she laughingly declined the proposal.

  Whereupon Nigel offered to lend her a hand over the rougher places, butthis she also declined.

  Then Moses, stepping forward, asserted his rights.

  "It's _my_ business," he said, "to carry t'ings when dey's got to becarried. M'r'over, as I's bin obleeged to leabe Spinkie in charge ob deboat, I feels okard widout somet'ing to carry, an' you ain't muchheavier dan Spinkie, Miss Winnie--so, come along."

  He stooped with the intention of grasping Winnie as if she were a littlechild, but with a light laugh the girl sprang away and left Mosesbehind.

  "'S'my opinion," said Moses, looking after her with a grin, "dat if depurfesser was here he'd net her in mistook for a bufferfly. Dar!--she'sdown!" he shouted, springing forward, but Nigel was before him.

  Winnie had tripped and fallen.

  "Are you hurt, dear--child?" asked Nigel, raising her gently.

  "Oh no! only a little shaken," answered Winnie, with a little laugh thatwas half hysterical. "I am strong enough to go on presently."

  "Nay, my child, you _must_ suffer yourself to be carried at this part,"said Van der Kemp. "Take her up, Nigel, you are stronger than I am_now_. I would not have asked you to do it before my accident!"

  Our hero did not need a second bidding. Grasping Winnie in his strongarms he raised her as if she had been a feather, and strode away at apace so rapid that he soon left Van der Kemp and Moses far behind.

  "Put me down, now," said Winnie, after a little while, in a low voice."I'm quite recovered now and can walk."

  "Nay, Winnie, you are mistaken. The path is very rough yet, and thedust gets deeper as we ascend. _Do_ give me the pleasure of helping youa little longer."

  Whatever Winnie may have felt or thought she said nothing, and Nigel,taking silence for consent, bore her swiftly onward and upward,--with an"Excelsior" spirit that would have thrown the Alpine youth with thebanner and the strange device considerably into the shade,--until heplaced her at the yawning black mouth of the hermit's cave.

  But what a change was there! The trees and flowering shrubs and fernswere all gone, lava, pumice, and ashes lay thick on everything around,and only a few blackened and twisted stumps of the larger trees remainedto tell that an umbrageous forest had once flourished there. The wholescene might be fittingly described in the two words--grey desolation.

  "That is the entrance to your father's old home," said Nigel, as he sethis fair burden down and pointed to the entrance.

  "What a dreadful place!" said Winnie, peering into the black depths ofthe cavern.

  "It was not dreadful when I first saw it, Winnie, with rich verdureeverywhere; and inside you will find it surprisingly comfortable. Butwe must not enter until your father arrives to do the honours of theplace himself."

  They had not to wait long. First Moses arrived, and, shrewdlysuspecting from the appearance of the young couple that they wereengaged in conversation that would not brook interruption, or, perhaps,judging from what might be his own wishes in similar circumstances, heturned his back suddenly on them, and, stooping down, addressed himselfto an imaginary creature of the animal kingdom.

  "What a bootiful bufferfly you is, to be sure! up on sitch a place too,wid nuffin' to eat 'cept Krakatoa dust. I wonder what your moder wouldsay if she know'd you was here. You should be ashamed ob yourself!"

  "Hallo! Moses, what are you talking to over there?"

  "Nuffin', Massa Nadgel. I was on'y habin' a brief conv'sation wid amember ob de insect wurld in commemoration ob de purfesser. Leastwise,if it warn't a insect it must hab bin suffin' else. Won't you go in,Miss Winnie?"

  "No, I'd rather wait for father," returned the girl, looking a littleflushed, for some strange and totally unfamiliar ideas had recentlyfloated into her brain and caused some incomprehensible flutterings ofthe heart to which hitherto she had been a stranger.

  Mindful of his father's injunctions, however, Nigel had beenparticularly careful to avoid increasing these flutterings.

  In a few minutes the hermit came up.

  "Ah! Winnie," he said, "there has been dire devastation here. Perhapsinside things may look better. Come, take my hand and don't be afraid.The floor is level and your eyes will soon get accustomed to the dimlight."

  "I's afeared, massa," remarked Moses, as they entered the cavern, "datyour sun-lights won't be wu'th much now."

  "You are right, lad. Go on before us and light the lamps if they arenot broken."

  It was found, as they had expected, that the only light which penetratedthe cavern was that which entered by the cave's mouth, which of coursewas very feeble.

  Presently, to Winnie's surprise, Moses was seen issuing from the kitchenwith a petroleum lamp in one hand, the brilliant light of which not onlyglittered on his expressive black visage but sent a ruddy glare all overthe cavern.

  Van der Kemp seemed to watch his daughter intently as she gazed in abewildered way around. There was a puzzled look as well as meresurprise in her pretty face.

  "Father," she said earnestly, "you have spoken more than once of livingas if in a dream. Perhaps you will wonder when I tell you that Iexperience something of that sort now. Strange though this place seems,I have an unaccountable feeling that it is not absolutely new to me--that I have seen it before."

  "I do not wonder, dear one," he replied, "for the drawings that surroundthis chamber were the handiwork of your dear mother, and they decoratedthe walls of your own nursery when you were a little child at yourmother's knee. For over ten long years they have surrounded me and keptyour faces fresh in my memory--though, truth to tell, it needed no suchreminders to do that. Come, let us examine them."

  It was pleasant to see the earnest face of Winnie as she half-recognisedand strove to recall the memories of early childhood in that singularcavern. It was also a sight worth seeing--the countenance of Nigel, aswell as that of the hermit, while they watched and admired her eager,puzzled play of feature, and it was the most amazing sight of all to seethe all but superhuman joy of Moses as he held the lamp and listened tofacts regarding the past of his beloved master which were quite new tohim--for the hermit spoke as openly about his past domestic affairs asif he and Winnie had been quite alone.

  "He either forgets that we are present, or counts us as part of hisfamily," thought Nigel with a feeling of satisfaction.

  "What a dear comoonicative man!" thought Moses, with unconcealedpleasure.

  "Come now, let us ascend to the observatory," said the hermit, when allthe things in the library had been examined. "There has been damagedone there, I know; besides, there is a locket there which belonged toyour mother. I left it by mistake one day when I went up to arrange themirrors, and in the hurry of leaving forgot to return for it. Indeed,one of my main objects in re-visiting my old home was to fetch thatlocket away. It contains a lock of hair and one
of those miniatureswhich men used to paint before photography drove such work off thefield."

  Winnie was nothing loth to follow, for she had reached a romantic periodof life, and it seemed to her that to be led through mysterious cavesand dark galleries in the very heart of a still active volcano by herown father--the hermit of Rakata--was the very embodiment of romanceitself.

  But a disappointment awaited them, for they had not proceeded halfwaythrough the dark passage when it was found that a large mass of rock hadfallen from the roof and almost blocked it up.

  "There is a space big enough for us to creep through at the right-handcorner above, I think," said Nigel, taking the lantern from Moses andexamining the spot.

  "Jump up, Moses, and try it," said the hermit. "If your bulky shouldersget through, we can all manage it."

  The negro was about to obey the order when Nigel let the lantern falland the shock extinguished it.

  "Oh! Massa Nadgel; das a pritty business!"

  "Never mind," said Van der Kemp. "I've got matches, I think, in my--no,I haven't. Have you, Moses?"

  "No, massa, I forgit to remember him."

  "No matter, run back--you know the road well enough to follow it in thedark. We will wait here till you return. Be smart, now!"

  Moses started off at once and for some moments the sound of clatteringalong the passage was heard.

  "I will try to clamber through in the dark. Look after Winnie, Nigel--and don't leave the spot where you stand, dear one, for there are cracksand holes about that might sprain your little ankles."

  "Very well, father."

  "All right. I've got through, Nigel; I'll feel my way on for a littlebit. Remain where you are."

  "Winnie," said Nigel when they were alone, "doesn't it feel awesome andstrange to be standing here in such intense darkness?"

  "It does--I don't quite like it."

  "Whereabouts are you?" said Nigel.

  He carefully stretched out his hand to feel, as he spoke, and laid afinger on her brow.

  "Oh! take care of my eyes!" exclaimed Winnie with a little laugh.

  "I wish you would turn your eyes towards me for I'm convinced they wouldgive some light--to _me_ at least. Here, do let me hold your hand. Itwill make you feel more confident."

  To one who is at all familiar with the human frame, the way from thebrow to the hand is comparatively simple. Nigel soon possessed himselfof the coveted article. Like other things of great value the possessionturned the poor youth's head! He forgot his father's warnings for themoment, forgot the hermit and Moses and Spinkie, and the thickdarkness--forgot almost everything in the light of that touch!

  "Winnie!" he exclaimed in a tone that quite alarmed her; "I--I--" Hehesitated. The solemn embargo of his father recurred to him.

  "What is it! Is there danger?" exclaimed the poor girl, clasping hishand tighter and drawing nearer to him.

  This was too much! Nigel felt himself to be contemptible. He wastaking unfair advantage of her.

  "Winnie," he began again, in a voice of forced calmness, "there is nodanger whatever. I'm an ass--a dolt--that's all! The fact is, I mademy father a sort of half promise that I would not ask your opinion on acertain subject until--until I found out exactly what you thought aboutit. Now the thing is ridiculous--impossible--for how can I know youropinion on any subject until I have asked you?"

  "Quite true," returned Winnie simply, "so you better ask me."

  "Ha! _ha_!" laughed Nigel, in a sort of desperate amusement, "I--I--Yes,I _will_ ask you, Winnie! But first I must explain--"

  "Hallo! Nigel!" came at that moment from the other side of theobstruction, "are you there--all right?"

  "Yes, yes--I'm here--not all right exactly, but I'll be all right _someday_, you may depend upon that!" shouted the youth, in a tone ofindignant exasperation.

  "What said you?" asked Van der Kemp, putting his head through the hole.

  "Hi! I's a-comin', look out, dar!" hallooed Moses in the oppositedirection.

  "Just so," said Nigel, resuming his quiet tone and demeanour, "we'll beall right when the light comes. Here, give us your hand, Van der Kemp."

  The hermit accepted the proffered aid and leaped down amongst hisfriends just as Moses arrived with the lantern.

  "It's of no use going further," he said. "The passage is completelyblocked up--so we must go round to where the mountain has been split offand try to clamber up. There will be daylight enough yet if we arequick. Come."

  CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

  THE LAST.

  Descending to the boat they rowed round to the face of the great cliffwhich had been so suddenly laid bare when the Peak of Rakata was cleftfrom its summit to its foundations in the sea. It was a wonderfulsight--a magnificent section, affording a marvellous view of theinternal mechanism of a volcano.

  But there was no time to spend in contemplation of this extraordinarysight, for evening approached and the hermit's purpose had to beaccomplished.

  High up near the top of the mighty cliff could be seen a small hole inthe rock, which was all that remained of the observatory.

  "It will be impossible, I fear, to reach that spot," said Nigel; "theredoes not appear to be foothold for a goat."

  "I will reach it," said the hermit in a low voice, as he scanned theprecipice carefully.

  "So will I," said the negro.

  "No, Moses, I go alone. You will remain in the boat and watch. If Ifall, you can pick me up."

  "Pick you up!" echoed Moses. "If you tumbles a t'ousand feet into dewater how much t'ink you will be lef' to pick up?"

  It was useless to attempt to dissuade Van der Kemp. Being well aware ofthis, they all held their peace while he landed on a spur of the rivencliff.

  The first part of the ascent was easy enough, the ground having beenirregularly broken, so that the climber disappeared behind masses ofrock at times, while he kept as much as possible to the western edge ofthe mountain where the cleavage had occurred; but as he ascended he wasforced to come out upon narrow ledges that had been left here and thereon the face of the cliff, where he seemed, to those who were watchingfar below, like a mere black spot on the face of a gigantic wall. Stillupward he went, slowly but steadily, till he reached a spot nearly levelwith the observatory. Here he had to go out on the sheer precipice,where his footholds were invisible from below.

  Winnie sat in the boat with blanched face and tightly clasped hands,panting with anxiety as she gazed upwards.

  "It looks much more dangerous from here than it is in reality," saidNigel to her in a reassuring tone.

  "Das true, Massa Nadgel, das bery true," interposed Moses, endeavouringto comfort himself as well as the others by the intense earnestness ofhis manner. "De only danger, Miss Winnie, lies in your fadder losin'his head at sitch a t'riffic height, an' dar's no fear at all ob dat,for Massa neber loses his head--pooh! you might as well talk ob himlosin' his heart. Look! look! he git close to de hole now--he put hisfoot--yes--next step--dar! he've done it!"

  With the perspiration of anxiety streaming down his face the negrorelieved his feelings by a wild prolonged cheer. Nigel obtained thesame relief by means of a deep long-drawn sigh, but Winnie did not move;she seemed to realise her father's danger better than her companions,and remembered that the descent would be much more difficult than theascent. They were not kept long in suspense. In a few minutes thehermit reappeared and began to retrace his steps--slowly but steadily--and the watchers breathed more freely.

  Moses was right; there was in reality little danger in the climb, forthe ledges which appeared to them like mere threads, and the footholdsthat were almost invisible, were in reality from a foot to three feetwide. The only danger lay in the hermit's head being unable to standthe trial, but, as Moses had remarked, there was no fear of that.

  The watchers were therefore beginning to feel somewhat relieved from thetension of their anxiety, when a huge mass of rock was seen to slip fromthe face of the cliff and descend with the thunderou
s roar of anavalanche. The incident gave those in the boat a shock, for thelandslip occurred not far from the spot which Van der Kemp had reached,but as he still stood there in apparent safety there seemed no cause foralarm till it was observed that the climber remained quite still for along time and seemed to have no intention of moving.

  "God help him!" cried Nigel in sudden alarm, "the ledge has been carriedaway and he cannot advance! Stay by the boat, Moses, I will run to helphim!"

  "No, Massa Nadgel," returned the negro, "I go to die wid 'im. Boat kinlook arter itself."

  He sprang on shore as he spoke, and dashed up the mountain-side like ahunted hare.

  Our hero looked at Winnie for an instant in hesitation.

  "Go!" said the poor girl. "You know I can manage a boat--quick!"

  Another moment and Nigel was following in the track of the negro. Theygained the broken ledge together, and then found that the space betweenthe point which they had reached and the spot on which the hermit stoodwas a smooth face of perpendicular rock--an absolutely impassable gulf!

  Van der Kemp was standing with his back flat against the precipice andhis feet resting on a little piece of projecting rock not more thanthree inches wide. This was all that lay between him and the hideousdepth below, for Nigel found on carefully drawing nearer that theavalanche had been more extensive than was apparent from below, and thatthe ledge beyond the hermit had been also carried away--thus cutting offhis retreat as well as his advance.

  "I can make no effort to help myself," said Van der Kemp in a low butcalm voice, when our hero's foot rested on the last projecting pointthat he could gain, and found that with the utmost reach of his arm hecould not get within six inches of his friend's outstretched hand.Besides, Nigel himself stood on so narrow a ledge, and against so steepa cliff, that he could not have acted with his wonted power even if thehand could have been grasped. Moses stood immediately behind Nigel,where the ledge was broader and where a shallow recess in the rockenabled him to stand with comparative ease. The poor fellow seemed torealise the situation more fully than his companion, for despair waswritten on every feature of his expressive face.

  "What is to be done?" said Nigel, looking back.

  "De boat-rope," suggested the negro.

  "Useless," said Van der Kemp, in a voice as calm and steady as if hewere in perfect safety, though the unusual pallor of his gravecountenance showed that he was fully alive to the terrible situation."I am resting on little more than my heels, and the strain is almost toomuch for me even now. I could not hold on till you went to the boat andreturned. No, it seems to be God's will--and," added he humbly, "Hiswill be done."

  "O God, send us help!" cried Nigel in an agony of feeling that he couldnot master.

  "If I had better foothold I might spring towards you and catch hold ofyou," said the hermit, "but I cannot spring off my heels. Besides, Idoubt if you could bear my weight."

  "Try, try!" cried Nigel, eagerly extending his hand. "Don't fear for mystrength--I've got plenty of it, thank God! and see, I have my right armwedged into a crevice so firmly that nothing could haul it out."

  But Van der Kemp shook his head. "I cannot even make the attempt," hesaid. "The slightest move would plunge me down. Dear boy! I know thatyou and your father and Moses will care for my Winnie, and--"

  "Massa!" gasped Moses, who while the hermit was speaking had beenworking his body with mysterious and violent energy; "massa! couldn'tyou _fall_ dis way, an' Nadgel could kitch your hand, an' I's got my legshoved into a hole as nuffin' 'll haul it out ob. Dere's a holler placehere. If Nadgel swings you into dat, an' I only once grab you by dehair--you're safe!"

  "It might be done--tried at least," said the hermit, looking anxiouslyat his young friend.

  "Try it!" cried Nigel, "I won't fail you."

  It is not possible for any except those who have gone through a somewhatsimilar ordeal to understand fully the test of cool courage which Vander Kemp had to undergo on that occasion.

  Shutting his eyes for a moment in silent prayer, he deliberately workedwith his shoulders upon the cliff against which he leaned until he felthimself to be on the point of falling towards his friend, and the twooutstretched hands almost touched.

  "Now, are you ready?" he asked.

  "Ready," replied Nigel, while Moses wound both his powerful arms roundhis comrade's waist and held on.

  Another moment and the hands clasped, Nigel uttered an irrepressibleshout as the hermit swung off, and, coming round with great violence tothe spot where the negro had fixed himself, just succeeded in catchingthe edge of the cliff with his free hand.

  "Let go, Nigel," he shouted;--"safe!"

  The poor youth was only too glad to obey, for the tremendous pull hadwrenched his arm out of the crevice in which he had fixed it, and for amoment he swayed helplessly over the awful abyss.

  "Don't let me go, Moses!" he yelled, as he made a frantic but futileeffort to regain his hold,--for he felt that the negro had loosened oneof his arms though the other was still round him like a hoop of iron.

  "No fear, Nadgel," said Moses, "I's got you tight--only don' wriggle.Now, massa, up you come."

  Moses had grasped his master's hair with a grip that well-nigh scalpedhim, and he held on until the hermit had got a secure hold of the ledgewith both hands. Then he let the hair go, for he knew that to anathlete like his master the raising himself by his arms on to the ledgewould be the work of a few seconds. Van der Kemp was thus able toassist in rescuing Nigel from his position of danger.

  But the expressions of heartfelt thankfulness for this deliverance whichnaturally broke from them were abruptly checked when it was found thatMoses could by no means extract his leg out of the hole into which hehad thrust it, and that he was suffering great pain.

  After some time, and a good deal of violent wrenching, during which oursable hero mingled a few groans in strange fashion with hiscongratulations, he was got free, and then it was found that the strainhad been too much for even his powerful bones and sinews, for the legwas broken.

  "My poor fellow!" murmured Van der Kemp, as he went down on his knees toexamine the limb.

  "Don' care a buttin for dat, massa. You're safe, an' Nadgel's safe--an'it only cost a broken leg! Pooh! das nuffin'!" said Moses, unable torepress a few tears in the excess of his joy and pain!

  With considerable difficulty they carried the poor negro down to theboat, where they found Winnie, as might be supposed, in a half-faintingcondition from the strain of prolonged anxiety and terror to which shehad been subjected; but the necessity of attending to the case of theinjured Moses was an antidote which speedily restored her.

  Do you think, good reader, that Nigel and Winnie had much difficulty incoming to an understanding after that, or that the hermit was disposedto throw any obstacles in the way of true love? If you do, let usassure you that you are mistaken. Surely this is information enough forany intelligent reader.

  Still, it may be interesting to add, difficulties did not all at oncedisappear. The perplexities that had already assailed Nigel more thanonce assailed him again--perplexities about a negro man-servant, and ahousehold monkey, and a hermit father-in-law, and a small income--to saynothing of a disconsolate mother-poetess in England and a father rovingon the high seas! How to overcome these difficulties gave him muchthought and trouble; but they were overcome at last. That which seemedimpossible to man proved to be child's-play in the hands of woman.Winnie solved the difficulty by suggesting that they should all returnto the Cocos-Keeling Islands and dwell together there for evermore!

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  Let us drop in on them, good reader, at a later period, have a look atthem, and bid them all good-bye.

  On a green knoll by the margin of the lagoon stands a beautiful cottagewith a garden around it, and a pleasure-boat resting on the white coralsand in front. From the windows of that cottage there is a mostmagnificent view of the lagoon with its num
erous islets and itspicturesque palm-trees. Within that cottage dwell Nigel and Winnie, anda brown-eyed, brown-haired, fair-skinned baby girl who is "the mostextraordinary angel that ever was born." It has a nurse of its own, butis chiefly waited on and attended to by an antique poetess, who dwellsin another cottage, a stone's-cast off, on the same green knoll. Thereshe inspires an ancient mariner with poetical sentiments--not yourup-in-the-clouds, reef-point-pattering nonsense, observe but the realgenuine article, superior to "that other fellow's," you know--when notactively engaged with the baby.

  The first cottage is named Rakata, in honour of our hermit, who is oneof its inhabitants. The second is named Krakatoa by its eccentricowner, Captain Roy.

  It must not be imagined, however, that our friends have settled downthere to spend their lives in idleness. By no means. This probablywould not be permitted by the "King of the Cocos Islands" even if theywished to do so. But they do not wish that. There is no such conditionas idleness in the lives of good men and women.

  Nigel has taken to general superintendence of the flourishing communityin the midst of which he has cast his lot. He may be almost regarded asthe prime minister of the islands, in addition to which he has startedan extensive boat-building business and a considerable trade incocoa-nuts, etcetera, with the numerous islands of the Java Sea; also asaw-mill, and a forge, and a Sunday-school--in which last the pretty,humble-minded Winnie lends most efficient aid. Indeed it is said thatshe is the chief manager as well as the life and soul of that business,though Nigel gets all the credit.

  Captain Roy sometimes sails his son's vessels, and sometimes looks afterthe secular education of the Sunday-school children--the said educationbeing conducted on the principle of unlimited story-telling withillimitable play of fancy. But his occupations are irregular--undertaken by fits and starts, and never to be counted on. His eveningshe usually devotes to poetry and pipes--for the captain is obstinate,and sticks--like most of us--to his failings as well as his fancies.

  There is a certain eccentric individual with an enthusiastic temperamentand blue binoculars who pays frequent and prolonged visits to theKeeling Islands. It need scarcely be said that his name is Verkimier.There is no accounting for the tastes of human beings. Notwithstandingall his escapes and experiences, that indomitable man of science stillranges, like a mad philosopher, far and wide over the archipelago inpursuit of "bootterflies ant ozer specimens of zee insect vorld." It isobserved, however, even by the most obtuse among his friends, thatwhereas in former times the professor's flights were centrifugal theyhave now become centripetal--the Keeling Islands being the great centretowards which he flies. Verkimier is, and probably will always be, asubject of wonder and of profound speculation to the youthfulinhabitants of the islands. They don't understand him and he does notunderstand them. If they were insects he would take deep andintelligent interest in them. As they are merely human beings, heregards them with that peculiar kind of interest with which men regardthe unknown and unknowable. He is by no means indifferent to them. Heis too kindly for that. He studies them deeply, though hopelessly, andwhen he enters the Sunday-school with his binoculars--which he oftendoes, to listen--a degree of awe settles down on the little ones whichit is impossible to evoke by the most solemn appeals to their spiritualnatures.

  Nigel and Winnie have a gardener, and that gardener is black--as blackas the Ace of Spades or the King of Ashantee. He dwells in a corner ofthe Rakata Cottage, but is addicted to spending much of his spare timein the Krakatoa one. He is as strong and powerful as ever, but limpsslightly on his right leg--his "game" leg, as he styles it. He is, ofcourse, an _immense_ favourite with the young people--not less than withthe old. He has been known to say, with a solemnity that might ticklethe humorous and horrify the timid, that he wouldn't "hab dat game legmade straight agin! no, not for a hundred t'ousand pounds. 'Causewhy?--it was an eber-present visible reminder dat once upon a time hehad de libes ob massa and Nadgel in his arms a-hangin' on to his gameleg, an' dat, t'rough Gracious Goodness, he sabe dem bof!"

  Ha! You may smile at Moses if you will, but he can return the smilewith kindly interest, for he is actuated by that grand principle whichwill sooner or later transform even the scoffers of earth, and which isembodied in the words--"Love is the fulfilling of the law."

  Even the lower animals testify to this fact when the dog licks the handthat smites it and accords instant forgiveness on the slightestencouragement. Does not Spinkie prove it also, when, issuing at call,from its own pagoda in the sunniest corner of the Rakata garden, itforsakes cocoa-nuts, sugar-cane, fruits, and other delights, to lay itslittle head in joyful consecration on the black bosom of its benignantfriend?

  And what of Moses' opinion of the new home? It may be shortly expressedin his own words--

  "It's heaben upon eart', an' de most happiest time as eber occurred tome was dat time when Sunda Straits went into cumbusti'n an' Krakatoa wasBlown to Bits."

  THE END.