XIV
In Communication
Now of the search which we made through the valley for the body ofTompkins, that being the name of the lost man, I have some dolefulmemories. But first, before we left the camp, the bo'sun gave us all avery sound tot of the rum, and also a biscuit apiece, and thereafter wehasted down, each man holding his weapon readily. Presently, when we werecome to the beach which ended the valley upon the seaward side, thebo'sun led us along to the bottom of the hill, where the precipices camedown into the softer stuff which covered the valley, and here we made acareful search, perchance he had fallen over, and lay dead or woundednear to our hands. But it was not so, and after that, we went down to themouth of the great pit, and here we discovered the mud all about it to becovered with multitudes of tracks, and in addition to these and theslime, we found many traces of blood; but nowhere any signs of Tompkins.And so, having searched all the valley, we came out upon the weed whichstrewed the shore nearer to the great weed-continent; but discoverednothing until we had made up towards the foot of the hill, where it camedown sheer into the sea. Here, I climbed on to a ledge--the same fromwhich the men had caught their fish--, thinking that, if Tompkins hadfallen from above, he might lie in the water at the foot of the cliff,which was here, maybe, some ten to twenty feet deep; but, for a littlespace, I saw nothing. Then, suddenly, I discovered that there wassomething white, down in the sea away to my left, and, at that, I climbedfarther out along the ledge.
In this wise I perceived that the thing which had attracted my notice wasthe dead body of one of the weed men. I could see it but dimly, catchingodd glimpses of it as the surface of the water smoothed at whiles. Itappeared to me to be lying curled up, and somewhat upon its right side,and in proof that it was dead, I saw a mighty wound that had come near toshearing away the head; and so, after a further glance, I came in, andtold what I had seen. At that, being convinced by this time that Tompkinswas indeed done to death, we ceased our search; but first, before we leftthe spot, the bo'sun climbed out to get a sight of the dead weed man andafter him the rest of the men, for they were greatly curious to seeclearly what manner of creature it was that had attacked us in the night.Presently, having seen so much of the brute as the water would allow,they came in again to the beach, and afterwards were returned to theopposite side of the island, and so, being there, we crossed over to theboat, to see whether it had been harmed; but found it to be untouched.Yet, that the creatures had been all about it, we could perceive by themarks of slime upon the sand, and also by the strange trail which theyhad left in the soft surface. Then one of the men called out that therehad been something at Job's grave, which, as will be remembered, had beenmade in the sand some little distance from the place of our first camp.At that, we looked all of us, and it was easy to see that it had beendisturbed, and so we ran hastily to it, knowing not what to fear; thuswe found it to be empty; for the monsters had digged down to the poorlad's body, and of it we could discover no sign. Upon this, we came to agreater horror of the weed men than ever; for we knew them now to be foulghouls who could not let even the dead body rest in the grave.
Now after this, the bo'sun led us all back to the hill-top, and there helooked to our hurts; for one man had lost two fingers in the night'sfray; another had been bitten savagely in the left arm; whilst a thirdhad all the skin of his face raised in wheals where one of the brutes hadfixed its tentacles. And all of these had received but scant attention,because of the stress of the fight, and, after that, through thediscovery that Tompkins was missing. Now, however, the bo'sun set-to uponthem, washing and binding them up, and for dressings he made use of someof the oakum which we had with us, binding this on with strips torn fromthe roll of spare duck, which had been in the locker of the boat.
For my part, seizing this chance to make some examination of mywounded toe, the which, indeed, was causing me to limp, I found that Ihad endured less harm than seemed to me; for the bone of the toe wasuntouched, though showing bare; yet when it was cleansed, I had notovermuch pain with it; though I could not suffer to have the boot on,and so bound some canvas about my foot, until such time as it shouldbe healed.
Presently, when our wounds were all attended to, the which had takentime, for there was none of us altogether untouched, the bo'sun bade theman whose fingers were damaged, to lie down in the tent, and the sameorder he gave also to him that was bitten in the arm. Then, the rest ofus he directed to go down with him and carry up fuel; for that the nighthad shown him how our very lives depended upon a sufficiency of this;and so all that morning we brought fuel to the hill-top, both weed andreeds, resting not until midday, when he gave us a further tot of therum, and after that set one of the men upon the dinner. Then he bade theman, Jessop by name, who had proposed to fly a kite over the vessel inthe weed, to say whether he had any craft in the making of such amatter. At that, the fellow laughed, and told the bo'sun that he wouldmake him a kite that would fly very steadily and strongly, and thiswithout the aid of a tail. And so the bo'sun bade him set-to withoutdelay, for that we should do well to deliver the people in the hulk, andafterwards make all haste from the island, which was no better than anesting place of ghouls.
Now hearing the man say that his kite would fly without a tail, I wasmightily curious to see what manner of thing he would make; for I hadnever seen the like, nor heard that such was possible. Yet he spoke of nomore than he could accomplish; for he took two of the reeds and cut themto a length of about six feet; then he bound them together in the middleso that they formed a Saint Andrew's cross, and after that he made twomore such crosses, and when these were completed, he took four reedsmaybe a dozen feet long, and bade us stand them upright in the shape of asquare, so that they formed the four corners, and after that he took oneof the crosses, and laid it in the square so that its four ends touchedthe four uprights, and in this position he lashed it. Then he took thesecond cross and lashed it midway between the top and bottom of theuprights, and after that he lashed the third at the top, so that thethree of them acted as spreaders to keep the four longer reeds in theirplaces as though they were for the uprights of a little square tower.Now, when he had gotten so far as that, the bo'sun called out to us tomake our dinners, and this we did, and afterwards had a short time inwhich to smoke, and whilst we were thus at our ease the sun came out,the which it had not done all the day, and at that we felt vastlybrighter; for the day had been very gloomy with clouds until that time,and what with the loss of Tompkins, and our own fears and hurts, we hadbeen exceeding doleful, but now, as I have said, we became more cheerful,and went very alertly to the finishing of the kite.
At this point it came suddenly to the bo'sun that we had made noprovision of cord for the flying of the kite, and he called out to theman to know what strength the kite would require, at which Jessopanswered him that maybe ten-yarn sennit would do, and this being so,the bo'sun led three of us down to the wrecked mast upon the furtherbeach, and from this we stripped all that was left of the shrouds, andcarried them to the top of the hill, and so, presently, having unlaidthem, we set-to upon the sennit, using ten yarns; but plaiting two asone, by which means we progressed with more speed than if we had takenthem singly.
Now, as we worked, I glanced occasionally towards Jessop, and saw that hestitched a band of the light duck around each end of the framework whichhe had made, and these bands I judged to be about four feet wide, in thiswise leaving an open space between the two, so that now the thing lookedsomething like to a Punchinello show, only that the opening was in thewrong place, and there was too much of it. After that he bent on a bridleto two of the uprights, making this of a piece of good hemp rope which hefound in the tent, and then he called out to the bo'sun that the kite wasfinished. At that, the bo'sun went over to examine it, the which did allof us; for none of us had seen the like of such a thing, and, if Imisdoubt not, few of us had much faith that it would fly; for it seemedso big and unwieldy. Now, I think that Jessop gathered something of ourthoughts; for, calling to one of us to hold the kit
e, lest it shouldblow away, he went into the tent, and brought out the remainder of thehemp line, the same from which he had cut the bridle. This, he bent on toit, and, giving the end into our hands, bade us go back with it until allthe slack was taken up, he, in the meanwhile, steadying the kite. Then,when we had gone back to the extent of the line, he shouted to us to takea very particular hold upon it, and then, stooping, caught the kite bythe bottom, and threw it into the air, whereupon, to our amazement,having swooped somewhat to one side, it steadied and mounted upwards intothe sky like a very bird.
Now at this, as I have made mention, we were astonished, for it appearedlike a miracle to us to see so cumbrous a thing fly with so much graceand persistence, and further, we were mightily surprised at the manner inwhich it pulled upon the rope, tugging with such heartiness that we werelike to have loosed it in our first astonishment, had it not been for thewarning which Jessop called to us.
And now, being well assured of the properness of the kite, the bo'sunbade us to draw it in, the which we did only with difficulty, because ofits bigness and the strength of the breeze. And when we had it back againupon the hilltop, Jessop moored it very securely to a great piece ofrock, and, after that, having received our approbation, he turned-to withus upon the making of the sennit.
Presently, the evening drawing near, the bo'sun set us to the building offires about the hill-top, and after that, having waved our goodnights tothe people in the hulk, we made our suppers, and lay down to smoke, afterwhich, we turned-to again at our plaiting of the sennit, the which wewere in very great haste to have done. And so, later, the dark havingcome down upon the island, the bo'sun bade us take burning weed from thecenter fire, and set light to the heaps of weed that we had stackedround the edges of the hill for that purpose, and so in a few minutes thewhole of the hill-top was very light and cheerful, and afterwards, havingput two of the men to keep watch and attend to the fires, he sent therest of us back to our sennit making, keeping us at it until maybe aboutten of the clock, after which he arranged that two men at a time shouldbe on watch throughout the night, and then he bade the rest of usturn-in, so soon as he had looked to our various hurts.
Now, when it came to my turn to watch, I discovered that I had beenchosen to accompany the big seaman, at which I was by no meansdispleased; for he was a most excellent fellow, and moreover a very lustyman to have near, should anything come upon one unawares. Yet, we werehappy in that the night passed off without trouble of any sort, and so atlast came the morning.
So soon as we had made our breakfast, the bo'sun took us all down to thecarrying of fuel; for he saw very clearly that upon a good supply of thisdepended our immunity from attack. And so for the half of the morning weworked at the gathering of weed and reeds for our fires. Then, when wehad obtained a sufficiency for the coming night, he set us all to workagain upon the sennit, and so until dinner, after which we turned-to oncemore upon our plaiting. Yet it was plain that it would take several daysto make a sufficient line for our purpose, and because of this, thebo'sun cast about in his mind for some way in which he could quicken itsproduction. Presently, as a result of some little thought, he brought outfrom the tent the long piece of hemp rope with which we had moored theboat to the sea anchor, and proceeded to unlay it, until he had all threestrands separate. Then he bent the three together, and so had a veryrough line of maybe some hundred and eighty fathoms in length, yet,though so rough, he judged it strong enough, and thus we had this muchthe less sennit to make.
Now, presently, we made our dinner, and after that for the rest of theday we kept very steadily to our plaiting, and so, with the previousday's work, had near two hundred fathoms completed by the time that thebo'sun called us to cease and come to supper. Thus it will be seen thatcounting all, including the piece of hemp line from which the bridle hadbeen made, we may be said to have had at this time about four hundredfathoms towards the length which we needed for our purpose, this havingbeen reckoned at five hundred fathoms.
After supper, having lit all the fires, we continued to work at theplaiting, and so, until the bo'sun set the watches, after which wesettled down for the night, first, however, letting the bo'sun see toour hurts. Now this night, like to the previous, brought us no trouble;and when the day came, we had first our breakfast, and then set-to uponour collecting of fuel, after which we spent the rest of the day at thesennit, having manufactured a sufficiency by the evening, the which thebo'sun celebrated by a very rousing tot of the rum. Then, having madeour supper, we lit the fires, and had a very comfortable evening, afterwhich, as on the preceding nights, having let the bo'sun attend ourwounds, we settled for the night, and on this occasion the bo'sun letthe man who had lost his fingers, and the one who had been bitten sobadly in the arm, take their first turn at the watching since the nightof the attack.
Now when the morning came we were all of us very eager to come to theflying of the kite; for it seemed possible to us that we might effectthe rescue of the people in the hulk before the evening. And, at thethought of this, we experienced a very pleasurable sense of excitement;yet, before the bo'sun would let us touch the kite, he insisted that weshould gather our usual supply of fuel, the which order, though full ofwisdom, irked us exceedingly, because of our eagerness to set about therescue. But at last this was accomplished, and we made to get the lineready, testing the knots, and seeing that it was all clear for running.Yet, before setting the kite off, the bo'sun took us down to the furtherbeach to bring up the foot of the royal and t'gallant mast, whichremained fast to the topmast, and when we had this upon the hill-top, heset its ends upon two rocks, after which he piled a heap of great piecesaround them, leaving the middle part clear. Round this he passed thekite line a couple or three times, and then gave the end to Jessop tobend on to the bridle of the kite, and so he had all ready for payingout to the wreck.
And now, having nothing to do, we gathered round to watch, and,immediately, the bo'sun giving the signal, Jessop cast the kite intothe air, and, the wind catching it, lifted it strongly and well, sothat the bo'sun could scarce pay out fast enough. Now, before the kitehad been let go, Jessop had bent to the forward end of it a greatlength of the spun yarn, so that those in the wreck could catch it asit trailed over them, and, being eager to witness whether they wouldsecure it without trouble, we ran all of us to the edge of the hill towatch. Thus, within five minutes from the time of the loosing of thekite, we saw the people in the ship wave to us to cease veering, andimmediately afterwards the kite came swiftly downwards, by which weknew that they had the tripping-line, and were hauling upon it, and atthat we gave out a great cheer, and afterwards we sat about and smoked,waiting until they had read our instructions, which we had written uponthe covering of the kite.
Presently, maybe the half of an hour afterwards, they signaled to us tohaul upon our line, which we proceeded to do without delay, and so,after a great space, we had hauled in all of our rough line, and comeupon the end of theirs, which proved to be a fine piece of three-inchhemp, new and very good; yet we could not conceive that this would standthe stress necessary to lift so great a length clear of the weed, aswould be needful, or ever we could hope to bring the people of the shipover it in safety. And so we waited some little while, and, presently,they signaled again to us to haul, which we did, and found that they hadbent on a much greater rope to the bight of the three-inch hemp, havingmerely intended the latter for a hauling-line by which to get the heavierrope across the weed to the island. Thus, after a weariful time ofpulling, we got the end of the bigger rope up to the hill-top, anddiscovered it to be an extraordinarily sound rope of some four inchesdiameter, and smoothly laid of fine yarns round and very true and wellspun, and with this we had every reason to be satisfied.
Now to the end of the big rope they had tied a letter, in a bag ofoilskin, and in it they said some very warm and grateful things to us,after which they set out a short code of signals by which we should beable to understand one another on certain general matters, and at the endthey asked if they sh
ould send us any provision ashore; for, as theyexplained, it would take some little while to get the rope set tautenough for our purpose, and the carrier fixed and in working order. Now,upon reading this letter, we called out to the bo'sun that he should askthem if they would send us some soft bread; the which he added thereto arequest for lint and bandages and ointment for our hurts. And this hebade me write upon one of the great leaves from off the reeds, and at theend he told me to ask if they desired us to send them any fresh water.And all of this, I wrote with a sharpened splinter of reed, cutting thewords into the surface of the leaf. Then, when I had made an end ofwriting, I gave the leaf to the bo'sun, and he enclosed it in the oilskinbag, after which he gave the signal for those in the hulk to haul on thesmaller line, and this they did.
Presently, they signed to us to pull in again, the which we did, and so,when we had hauled in a great length of their line, we came to the littleoilskin bag, in which we found lint and bandages and ointment, and afurther letter, which set out that they were baking bread, and would sendus some so soon as it was out from the oven.
Now, in addition to the matters for the healing of our wounds, and theletter, they had included a bundle of paper in loose sheets, some quillsand an inkhorn, and at the end of their epistle, they begged veryearnestly of us to send them some news of the outer world; for they hadbeen shut up in that strange continent of weed for something over sevenyears. They told us then that there were twelve of them in the hulk,three of them being women, one of whom had been the captain's wife; buthe had died soon after the vessel became entangled in the weed, and alongwith him more than half of the ship's company, having been attacked bygiant devil-fish, as they were attempting to free the vessel from theweed, and afterwards they who were left had built the superstructure as aprotection against the devil-fish, and the _devil-men_, as they termedthem; for, until it had been built, there had been no safety about thedecks, neither day nor night.
To our question as to whether they were in need of water, the people inthe ship replied that they had a sufficiency, and, further, that theywere very well supplied with provisions; for the ship had sailed fromLondon with a general cargo, among which there was a vast quantity offood in various shapes and forms. At this news we were greatly pleased,seeing that we need have no more anxiety regarding a lack of victuals,and so in the letter which I went into the tent to write, I put downthat we were in no great plentitude of provisions, at which hint Iguessed they would add somewhat to the bread when it should be ready. Andafter that I wrote down such chief events as my memory recalled as havingoccurred in the course of the past seven years, and then, a short accountof our own adventures, up to that time, telling them of the attack whichwe had suffered from the weed men, and asking such questions as mycuriosity and wonder prompted.
Now whilst I had been writing, sitting in the mouth of the tent, I hadobserved, from time to time, how that the bo'sun was busied with the menin passing the end of the big rope round a mighty boulder, which layabout ten fathoms in from the edge of the cliff which overlooked thehulk. This he did, parceling the rope where the rock was in any waysharp, so as to protect it from being cut; for which purpose he made useof some of the canvas. And by the time that I had the letter completed,the rope was made very secure to the great piece of rock, and, further,they had put a large piece of chafing gear under that part of the ropewhere it took the edge of the cliff.
Now having, as I have said, completed the letter, I went out with it tothe bo'sun; but, before placing it in the oilskin bag he bade me add anote at the bottom, to say that the big rope was all fast, and that theycould heave on it so soon as it pleased them, and after that wedispatched the letter by means of the small line, the men in the hulkhauling it off to them so soon as they perceived our signals.
By this, it had come well on to the latter part of the afternoon, and thebo'sun called us to make some sort of a meal, leaving one man to watchthe hulk, perchance they should signal to us. For we had missed ourdinner in the excitement of the day's work, and were come now to feel thelack of it. Then, in the midst of it, the man upon the lookout cried outthat they were signaling to us from the ship, and, at that, we ran all ofus to see what they desired, and so, by the code which we had arrangedbetween us, we found that they waited for us to haul upon the small line.This did we, and made out presently that we were hauling something acrossthe weed, of a very fair bulk, at which we warmed to our work, guessingthat it was the bread which they had promised us, and so it proved, anddone up with great neatness in a long roll of tarpaulin, which had beenwrapped around both the loaves and the rope, and lashed very securely atthe ends, thus producing a taper shape convenient for passing over theweed without catching. Now, when we came to open this parcel, wediscovered that my hint had taken very sound effect; for there were inthe parcel, besides the loaves, a boiled ham, a Dutch cheese, two bottlesof port well padded from breakage, and four pounds of tobacco in plugs.And at this coming of good things, we stood all of us upon the edge ofthe hill, and waved our thanks to those in the ship, they waving back inall good will, and after that we went back to our meal, at which wesampled the new victuals with very lusty appetites.
There was in the parcel, one other matter, a letter, most neatlyindited, as had been the former epistles, in a feminine handwriting, sothat I guessed they had one of the women to be their scribe. Thisepistle answered some of my queries, and, in particular, I remember thatit informed me as to the probable cause of the strange crying whichpreceded the attack by the weed men, saying that on each occasion whenthey in the ship had suffered their attacks, there had been always thissame crying, being evidently a summoning call or signal to the attack,though how given, the writer had not discovered; for the weed_devils_--this being how they in the ship spoke always of them--madenever a sound when attacking, not even when wounded to the death, and,indeed, I may say here, that we never learnt the way in which thatlonesome sobbing was produced, nor, indeed, did they, or we, discovermore than the merest tithe of the mysteries which that great continentof weed holds in its silence.
Another matter to which I had referred was the consistent blowing of thewind from one quarter, and this the writer told me happened for as muchas six months in the year, keeping up a very steady strength. A furtherthing there was which gave me much interest; it was that the ship had notbeen always where we had discovered her; for at one time they had been sofar within the weed, that they could scarce discern the open sea upon thefar horizon; but that at times the weed opened in great gulfs that wentyawning through the continent for scores of miles, and in this way theshape and coasts of the weed were being constantly altered; thesehappenings being for the most part at the change of the wind.
And much more there was that they told us then and afterwards, how thatthey dried weed for their fuel, and how the rains, which fell with greatheaviness at certain periods, supplied them with fresh water; though, attimes, running short, they had learnt to distil sufficient for theirneeds until the next rains.
Now, near to the end of the epistle, there came some news of theirpresent actions, and thus we learnt that they in the ship were busy atstaying the stump of the mizzen-mast, this being the one to which theyproposed to attach the big rope, taking it through a great iron-boundsnatch-block, secured to the head of the stump, and then down to themizzen-capstan, by which, and a strong tackle, they would be able toheave the line so taut as was needful.
Now, having finished our meal, the bo'sun took out the lint, bandages andointment, which they had sent us from the hulk, and proceeded to dressour hurts, beginning with him who had lost his fingers, which, happily,were making a very healthy heal. And afterwards we went all of us to theedge of the cliff, and sent back the look-out to fill such crevices inhis stomach as remained yet empty; for we had passed him already somesound hunks of the bread and ham and cheese, to eat whilst he kept watch,and so he had suffered no great harm.
It may have been near an hour after this, that the bo'sun pointed out tome that they in the ship had comme
nced to heave upon the great rope, andso I perceived, and stood watching it; for I knew that the bo'sun hadsome anxiety as to whether it would take-up sufficiently clear of theweed to allow those in the ship to be hauled along it, free frommolestation by the great devil-fish.
Presently, as the evening began to draw on, the bo'sun bade us go andbuild our fires about the hilltop, and this we did, after which wereturned to learn how the rope was lifting, and now we perceived that ithad come clear of the weed, at which we felt mightily rejoiced, and wavedencouragement, chance there might be any who watched us from the hulk.Yet, though the rope was up clear of the weed, the bight of it had torise to a much greater height, or ever it would do for the purpose forwhich we intended it, and already it suffered a vast strain, as Idiscovered by placing my hand upon it; for, even to lift the slack of sogreat a length of line meant the stress of some tons. And later I sawthat the bo'sun was growing anxious; for he went over to the rock aroundwhich he had made fast the rope, and examined the knots, and those placeswhere he had parceled it, and after that he walked to the place where itwent over the edge of the cliff, and here he made a further scrutiny; butcame back presently, seeming not dissatisfied.
Then, in a while, the darkness came down upon us, and we lighted ourfires and prepared for the night, having the watches arranged as on thepreceding nights.
The Boats of the Glen Carrig Page 14
