Powder was easily got from Latten; they bought a pound of loose powder
at three halfpence the ounce. This is like black dust, and far from
pure, for if a little be flashed off on paper or white wood it leaves a
broad smudge, but it answered their purpose very well. While Bevis was
fretting and fuming over the lock, for he got white-hot with impatience,
though he would and did do it, Mark had made a powder-horn by sawing off
the pointed end of a cow’s horn, and fitting a plug of wood into the
mouth. For their shot they used a bag, and bought a mould for bullets.
The charger to measure the powder was a brass drawn cartridge-case, two
of which Mark had chanced to put in his pocket while they were at
Jack’s. It held more than a charge, so they scratched a line inside to
show how far it was to be filled. At night the barrel was got out of
the house, and taken up the meadows, three fields away, to a mound they
had chosen as the best place. Mark brought a lantern, which they did
not light till they arrived, and then put it behind the bushes, so that
the light should not show at a distance.
The barrel was now charged with three measures of powder and two of shot
rammed down firm, and then placed on the ground in front of a tree.
From the touch-hole a train of powder was laid along the dry ground
round the tree, so that the gun could be fired while the gunner was
completely protected in case the breech blew out.
A piece of tar-cord was inserted in a long stick split at the end. Mark
wished to fire the train, and having lit the tar-cord, which burned
well, he stood back as far as he could and dropped the match on the
powder. Puff--bang! They ran forward, and found the barrel was all
right. The shot had scored a groove along the mound and lost itself in
the earth; the barrel had kicked back to the tree, but it had not burst
or bulged, so that they felt it would be safe to shoot with. Such a
thickness of metal, indeed, would have withstood a much greater strain,
and their barrel, rude as it was, was far safer than many flimsy guns.
The last thing to be made was the rest. For the staff they found a
straight oak rod up in the lumber-room, which had once been used as a
curtain-rod to an old-fashioned four-poster. Black with age it was hard
and rigid, and still strong; the very thing for their rest. The fork
for the barrel to lie in was a difficulty, till Bevis hit on the plan of
forming it of two pieces of thick iron wire. These were beaten flat at
one end, a hole was bored in the top of the staff, and the two pieces of
wire driven in side by side, when their flatness prevented them from
moving. The wires were then drawn apart and hammered and bent into a
half-circle on which the stock would rest.
The staff was high enough for them to shoot standing, but afterwards it
was shortened, as they found it best to aim kneeling on one knee. When
the barrel was fastened in the stock by twisting copper wire round, it
really looked like a gun, and they jumped and danced about the
bench-room till the floor shook. After handling it for some time they
took it to pieces, and hid it till the cave should be ready, for so long
a weapon could not be got out of the house very easily, except in
sections. Not such a great while previously they had felt that they
must not on any account touch gunpowder, yet now they handled it and
prepared to shoot without the least hesitation. The idea had grown up
gradually. Had it come all at once it would have been rejected, but it
had grown so imperceptibly that they had become accustomed to it, and
never questioned themselves as to what they were doing.
Absorbed in the details and the labour of constructing the matchlock,
the thinking and the patience, the many trials, the constant effort had
worn away every other consideration but that of success. The labour
made the object legitimate. They gloried in their gun, and in fact,
though so heavy, it was a real weapon capable of shooting, and many a
battle in the olden times was won with no better. Bevis was still
making experiments, soaking cord in various compositions of saltpetre,
to discover the best slow match.
By now the cave began to look like a cave, for every morning, sailing or
rowing to New Formosa, they chopped for two or three hours at the hard
sand. This cave was Mark’s idea, but once started at work Bevis became
as eager as he, and they toiled like miners. After the two headings had
been driven in about five feet, they cut away the intervening wall, and
there was a cavern five feet square, large enough for both to sit down
in.
They had intended to dig in much deeper, but the work was hard, and,
worse than that, slow, and now the matchlock was ready they were anxious
to get on the island. So they decided that the cave was now large
enough to be their store-room, while they lived in the hut, to be put up
over the entrance. Bevis drew a sketch of the hut several times, trying
to find out the easiest way of constructing it. The plan they selected
was to insert long poles in the sand about three feet higher up than the
top of the cave. These were to be placed a foot apart; and there were
to be nine of them, all stuck in holes made for the purpose in a row,
thus covering a space eight feet wide and eight high. From the cliff
the rafters were to slope downwards till the lower and outward ends were
six feet above the ground. That would give the roof a fall of two feet
in case of rain.
Two stout posts were to be put up with a long beam across, on which the
outer ends of the rafters were to rest. Two lesser posts in the middle
were to mark the doorway. The roof was to be covered with brushwood to
some thickness, and then thatched over that with sedges and reed-grass.
The walls they meant to make of hurdles stood on end, and fastened with
tar-cord to upright stakes. Outside the hurdles they intended to pile
up furze, brushwood, faggots, bundles of sedges--anything, in short. A
piece of old carpeting was to close the door as a curtain. The
store-room was five feet square, the hut would be eight, so that with
the two they thought they should have plenty of space.
The semi-circular fence or palisade starting from the cliff on one side,
and coming to it on the other, of the hut was to have a radius of ten
yards, and so enclose a good piece of ground, where they could have
their fire and cook their food secure from wild beasts or savages. A
gateway in the fence was to be just wide enough to squeeze through, and
to be closed by two boards nailed to a frame.
It took some time to settle all these details, for Bevis would not begin
till he had got everything complete in his mind, but the actual work did
not occupy nearly so long as the digging of the cave. There were plenty
of poles growing on the island, which Mark cut down with Bevis’s own
hatchet, not the blunt ones they had used for excavating, but the one
with which he had chopped at the trees in the Peninsula.
As Mark cut them down, some ash, some willow, and a few alder, Bevis
stripped off the twigs with a billhook, and shortened them to the proper
length. All the poles were ready in one morning, and in the afternoon
coming again they set up the two stout corner posts. Next day the
rafters were fitted, they had to bring a short ladder to get at the
cliff over the mouth of the cave. Then the hurdles were brought and set
up, and the brushwood cut and thrown on the top.
Sedges grew in quantities at the other end of the island, where the
ground sloped till it became level with the water. In cutting them they
took care to leave an outer fringe standing, so that if any one passed,
or by any chance looked that way from the shore, he should not see that
the sedges had been reaped. They covered the roof two feet thick with
brushwood, sedges, and reed-grass, which they considered enough to keep
out any ordinary shower.
Of course if the tornadoes common to these tropical countries should
come they must creep into the inner cave. Against such fearful storms
no thatch they could put up would protect them. The walls took a whole
day to finish, as it required such a quantity of brushwood, and it had
to be fastened in its place with rods, thrust into the ground, and tied
at the top to the outside rafters.
At last the hut was finished, and they could stand up, or walk about in
it; but when the carpet-curtain was dropped, it was dark, for they had
forgotten to make a window. But in the daytime they would not want one,
as the curtain could be thrown aside, and the doorway would let in
plenty of light, as it faced the south. At night they would have a
lantern hung from the roof.
“It’s splendid,” said Mark; “we could live here for years.”
“Till we forgot what day it was, and whether it was Monday or Saturday,”
said Bevis.
“And our beards grow down to our waists.” Their chins were as smooth as
possible.
“Ships would be sent out to search for us.”
“And when we come home everybody would come to see us,” said Mark.
“Just think of all the wonders we shall have to tell them!”
“I wish Ted could see it,” said Bevis, “and Charlie, and Val.”
“Wouldn’t they be jealous if they knew,” said Mark. “They’d kill us if
we did not let them come too.”
“It’s a great secret,” said Bevis; “we must be very careful. There may
be mines of gold in this island, don’t you see.”
“Diamonds.”
“There’s a pearl fishery, I’m sure.”
“Birds of Paradise.”
“Spices and magic things.”
“It’s the most wonderful island ever found out.”
“Hurrah!”
“Let’s have a sail.”
“So we will.”
“Not work any more this afternoon.”
“No; let’s sail up farther--”
“Beyond the island?”
“Yes; unknown seas, don’t you know. Come on.”
Away they ran to the Pinta. The wind lately had blown lightly from the
east, and continued all day. These light easterly summer breezes are a
delight to those who watch the corn, for they mean fine weather and full
wheat-ears. Mark took the tiller, and they sailed southwards through
the channel, between New Formosa and Serendib. Not far beyond, Bevis,
looking over the side, saw the sunken punt. She was lying in six or
seven feet of water, but the white streak on her gunwale could be
clearly seen. He told Mark.
“I hope the governor won’t get her up yet,” said Mark. “Lucky he’s so
busy--”
“Why?”
“Don’t you see,” said shrewd Mark, “while the punt’s at the bottom
nobody can come to our island to see what we’re at.”
“Ah!” said Bevis. “What a jolly good thing I was shipwrecked.”
As they went southwards they passed several small islands or sandbanks,
and every now and then a summer snipe flew up and circled round them,
just above the water, returning to the same spot.
“Those are the Coral Isles,” said Bevis. “They’re only just above the
surface.”
“Tornadoes would sweep right over them,” said Mark. “That’s why there
are no cocoa-nut trees.”
Another sandbank some way on the left they named Grey Crow Island,
because a grey or hooded crow rose from it.
“Do you see any weeds?” said Mark presently. “You know that’s a sign of
land.”
“Some,” said Bevis, looking over the side into the ripples. “They are
brown and under water; I suppose it’s too deep for them to come to the
top.”
The light breeze carried them along pleasantly, though slowly.
“Swallows,” said Bevis; “I can see some swallows, high up, there.
That’s another sign of land.”
“Heave the lead,” said Mark.
“We’ve forgotten it; how stupid! Mind you remember it next time.”
New Formosa was a long way in the rear now.
“That’s Pearl Island,” said Mark, pointing to a larger sandbank. “Can’t
you see the shells glistening; it’s mother-of-pearl.”
“So it is.”
The crows had carried the mussels up on the islet, and left the shells
strewn about. The inner part reflected the sunlight. If examined
closely there are prismatic colours.
“There’s that curious wave,” said Mark, standing up and pointing to an
undulation of the water on the other side of a small patch of green
weeds. The undulation went away from them till they lost sight of it.
“What is it?”
“There are all sorts of curious things in the tropic seas,” said Bevis.
“Some of them are not found out even yet. Nobody can tell what it is.”
“Perhaps it’s magic,” said Mark.
“Lots of magic goes on in the south,” said Bevis. “I believe we’re very
nearly on the equator; just feel how hot the gunwale is,”--the wood was
warm from the sunshine--“and the sun goes overhead every day, and it’s
so, light at night. We will bring the astrolabe and take an
observation--I say!”
The Pinta brought up with a sudden jerk. They had run on a shoal.
“Wrecked!” shouted Mark joyfully. “But there are no waves. It’s no
good with these ripples.”
Bevis pushed the Pinta off with a scull, and so feeling the bottom, told
Mark to ease the tiller and sail more to the right. Two minutes
afterwards they grounded again, and again pushed off. On the left, or
eastern side, they saw a broad channel leading up through the weeds.
Bevis told Mark to tack up there. Mark did so, and they slowly advanced
with the weeds each side. The tacks were short, and as the wind was so
light they made little progress. Presently the channel turned south;
then they ran faster; next it turned sharp to the east, and came back.
In trying to tack here Mark ran into the weeds.
“Stupe!” said Bevis.
“That I’m not,” said Mark. “You can’t do it.”
“Can’t I?” said Bevis contemptuously.
“Try then,” said Mark, and he left the tiller. Bevis took it and
managed two tacks very well. At the third he too ran into the weeds,
for in fact the channel was so narrow there was no time to get weigh on
the ship.
“Stupe yourself,” said Mark.
He tried to row out, but every time he got a pull the wind blew them
back, and they had to let the mainsail down.
“It wants a canoe,” said Bevis.
“Of course it does. It’s no use going on unless you’re going to row.”
“No; but look!” Bevis pointed to a small branch which was floating very
slowly past them.
“There’s a current,” said Mark.
“River,” said Bevis. “In the sedges somewhere.”
“What is it? I know; it’s the Orinoco.”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Amazon?”
“No.”
“Hoang-Ho?”
“How can we tell, till we get the astrolabe and take an observation?
Most likely it’s a new river, the biggest ever found.”
“It must be a new river,” said Mark. “This is the New Sea. We’re
drifting back a little.”
“We’ll come again in a canoe, or something,” said Bevis.
They rowed out of the channel, set the mainsail, and sailed back, past
Pearl Island, Grey Crow Island, the Coral Isles, and approached New
Formosa. Mark looked over the side, and watched to see the sunken punt.
“It’s a wreck,” said he presently, as they passed above the punt. “She
foundered.”
“It’s a Spanish galley,” said Bevis. “She’s full of bullion, gold and
silver--”
“Millions of broad gold pieces.”
“Doubloons.”
“Pistoles.”
“Ingots.”
“You can see the skeletons chained at the oar-benches.”
“Yes--just as they went down.”
“There are strange sounds here at night.”
“Bubbles come up, and shouts, and awful shrieks.”
“Hope we shan’t hear them when we’re in our hut.”
“No; it’s too far.”
They sailed between New Formosa and Serendib, and homewards through
Mozambique to the harbour. The east wind, like the west, was a
there-and-back wind, and they could reach their island, or return from
it, in two or three tacks, sometimes in one stretch.
Volume Two, Chapter XII.