THE ESCAPE FROM THE CAVE.
We sprang to our feet in genuine alarm. The guard of four armed men at
the doorway fled panic-stricken into the outer cave, crying in shrill
tones to their fellows.
“God preserve us from this awful danger!” exclaimed Mr. Triggs in
faltering tones.
His courage seemed to have deserted him in this strange emergency. As
for me, I felt completely dazed, and unable either to think or to act.
An atmosphere of stifling dust was filling our cavern from without.
The awful dangers that threatened us were, that the roof of the cave
might fall in and bury us in its rocky _débris_, or that the entrance
to the cavern might get blocked by a fallen crag and entomb us alive.
Ned Burton was calmness and coolness itself on this occasion. His voice
never faltered, nor did his cheek blanch. He at once took the lead,
and issued authoritative orders without consulting us. His splendid
bravery, his presence of mind, and his readiness of resource quickly
restored our confidence, and braced us up to meet the emergency like
British seamen—who, like their immortal Nelson, should not know what
fear is.
Our guards had dropped their weapons in their panic. This did not
escape Ned’s eagle eye. In an instant he had pounced upon them, and at
the same time he took a hasty survey of the outer cavern.
“Every mother’s son of ’em has skedaddled,” he remarked hurriedly to
us. “The entrance ain’t blocked, and the coast seems clear, so far as I
can tell.”
We had now joined Ned.
“Here,” he said, shoving a sword and a pistol into each of our hands,
and retaining a rifle himself, “stick to them weapons like grim death.
Follow me, but don’t utter a word. This here earthquake may be the
saving of us, and—”
My coxswain’s speech was drowned in the most extraordinary and
terrifying noise I had ever heard—many degrees worse than the late
subterranean thunders.
It was a loud but indescribable hissing and fizzing sound, mingled with
the deafening reports of continuous explosions. It was as if all the
fireworks and all the gunpowder in the world had been exploded at the
same moment. The solid earth under us shook with convulsive tremors,
but the oscillating movement had ceased.
Even these terrifying sounds did not disturb Ned’s equanimity. He did
not attempt to speak again, knowing how useless it would be, but he
beckoned us to follow him, and darted into the outer cave, where a
weird gloom seemed to prevail, and where the atmosphere was charged
with a strange, stifling, sulphureous smoke.
In spite of the semi-darkness, one glance showed us that the cave was
deserted. Hope welled up in my heart. There really was a chance of
escape! I grasped my weapons firmly, determined to sell my life dearly
if necessary. It did not occur to me at the moment that it would be
impossible to escape from the island without some means of crossing the
sea.
It was providential indeed that the entrance to the cave had not been
blocked by some huge boulder, for many of these fallen masses of rock
had in reality come hurtling down from the cliffs above. Indeed, as
afterwards came to our knowledge, two of the pirates were crushed and
killed by them.
It was characteristic of my coxswain’s coolness at this crisis in our
fortunes that, as we crossed the outer cavern, he saw my watch and
chain lying upon the ground amongst some other valuables, calmly picked
it up, and popped it into his pocket.
I have that watch still, and I never look at it without thinking of my
devoted coxswain—one of the finest specimens of a British blue-jacket
that I have ever known.
We hurried out with drawn swords in our hands. No enemies confronted
us, however, but a weird and awe-inspiring sight met our gaze. Never,
as long as I live, shall I forget that really terrible panorama.
The old extinct volcano had suddenly burst forth into renewed activity.
After perhaps thousands of years of quiescence, the awful igneous
powers of Nature had by some occult process in her dread laboratory
been kindled anew. Through vast fissures in the earth’s crust clouds of
steam were pouring forth, with sulphureous and other gases in clouds;
while torrents of ashes, lava, mud, and stones were shot high into the
air, darkening the very sun.
The pirates had all fled, and had taken the bloodhounds with them.
There could be no doubt about that. In their panic they had completely
forgotten our existence, and had only thought of saving their own
wretched lives. What a mercy it was that we were free of our bonds when
the crisis came!
I think it occurred instinctively to us all that this was only the
commencement of some vast and terrible convulsion of nature, and that
the sooner we got clear of the crater and its surroundings the less
chance there would be of being overwhelmed by torrents of boiling lava
and showers of stones, or of being suffocated by clouds of ashes and
the fumes of poisonous gases.
Picking our way carefully, therefore, through the masses of fallen rock
which strewed the terrace, we made our way under Ned’s guidance to the
little pathway which we knew led out from this inaccessible spot into
the open country.
I was rather alarmed lest we should meet with some of the pirates here,
who, I conjectured, might be in hiding among the adjacent rocks; but
fortunately my fears were groundless, and we emerged from the tortuous
pathway without having encountered any obstacles.
Ned paused for a moment, and looked about him keenly.
The light, as the reader may suppose, was exceedingly deceptive, and
the landscape had a darkened, ghastly aspect, as if an eclipse of the
sun were in progress.
Another violent earthquake at this moment shook the ground, making us
stagger like drunken men and nearly lose our feet. I distinctly saw
a huge fissure yawn on the slope of a hill near us. This was a new
danger; we might be swallowed up.
All this time, the volcanic forces were furiously at work, and the
sounds which proceeded from the dread crater seemed to me to be growing
louder and more threatening every moment. The atmosphere too was
becoming more deadly and pestilential, and once or twice I felt as if
I should have fainted, and I clung to Ned Burton’s stalwart arm for
support.
As soon as the violent oscillation of the last quake had passed away,
we took to our heels and ran for dear life. A rain of fine ashes had
begun to fall from the sky; but this did not inconvenience us much, and
we hoped soon to get beyond its influence. We occasionally heard stones
and other _débris_ striking the earth, but fortunately we escaped any
injury from these dangerous projectiles.
Every moment it grew darker, and a heavy pall, huge and sombre, seemed
to be gathering and hanging over the doomed island. There was no wind.
A deadly calm seemed to prevail among the air-currents, as if they had
been paralyzed by the awful convulsions that were going on below.
We stumbled on as rapidly as possible, but my breathing soon became
so affected that I was forced to cling to my companions for support.
The mephitic atmosphere did not seem to cause them any discomfort.
The gunner appeared to have regained his usual courage and presence
of mind, now that he found himself out of sight of the boiling and
seething volcano mouth, every moment increasing his distance from it.
My coxswain had a good bump of locality, and led us by an almost
unerring instinct. I soon saw, however, that he had no intention of
following the pathway down to the creek where we had disembarked; for
when we arrived within sight of the hut where we had seen the negroes
hoeing, he turned off abruptly to the left, and made straight for a gap
in a low ridge of hills just above us. Breathless and almost exhausted
we reached this spot, and passed through to the other side. Here some
huge boulders seemed to offer a temporary hiding-place, and I pointed
them out to Ned.
“We’ll lie low there for a few minutes,” assented my coxswain; “I’m
blest if I ain’t a bit done up myself.”
It was the first time he had spoken since we had fled from the burning
crater; indeed it was only in the last ten minutes that it would have
been of any use to attempt to do so. We were now, however, at a fairly
safe distance—or at least so we thought—from the destructive volcano;
and although we could still distinctly hear the hideous uproar that
was going on in that great natural cauldron of occult powers, it was
not loud enough to prevent our speaking to each other in peace. It was
still very dark, and a certain amount of fine ashes was still falling;
but from our present hiding-place the sky was almost obscured by
overhanging rocks.
We were all gasping for breath when we flung ourselves on the ground.
“So far so good!” said Ned at last. “We’ve slipped our cables and
got clear of them varmints of pirates, thanks to these mines and
countermines and fireworks from the lower regions. The question now is,
how we are to get clear of the island; for, to my mind, it ain’t a fit
place for a respectable Christian to hang out in no longer than he can
help.—What do you say, Mr. Gunner; for you’re the senior officer of
this here party?”
Mr. Triggs seemed buried in a brown study.
“I think you were quite right not to make for the creek, Ned,” I
remarked; “the pirates are certain to have gone in that direction, and
we should have been recaptured as sure as eggs are eggs.”
“I’m not so sure,” said my coxswain in a musing tone, “that it mightn’t
be a good plan to remain in hiding till nightfall, and then steal
down to the creek, and endeavour to seize a boat under cover of the
darkness.”
“Too risky, man, too risky!” exclaimed the gunner, suddenly chiming in;
“besides, who knows what may happen between this and nightfall? Why,
the whole island may be blown up, or overwhelmed by an enormous tidal
wave. I’ve heard tell of such cases.”
“There’s something in that, as the monkey said when he fell through the
skylight into a tureen of soup!” observed Ned gravely.
“I should propose,” continued Mr. Triggs, not heeding this
interruption, “that we make for another part of the coast of this
island, and endeavour to possess ourselves of a boat. We know that
there are a few negro settlers living here, and if we came across any
of them it might be possible to bribe them to assist us in our escape.”
“What should we bribe them with?” I asked; “we haven’t a dollar among
us.”
“Here’s a watch and chain at any rate,” said my coxswain, triumphantly
drawing those articles out of his pocket, and handing them over to me.
“Thank you, Ned,” I said; “you _are_ a trump and no mistake. All the
same, I’m afraid my watch and chain are not valuable enough to be of
any use as a bribe.”
“I take it those niggers we saw are the pirates’ slaves,” observed the
seaman; “and they’d be afraid of getting their weasands slit if it was
discovered that they had helped us to escape off this plaguy island.
And if we took a boat o’ theirn, how in the name of mischief should we
be able to return it to ’em? ’Tain’t as if we could pay ’em double the
value of the craft and have her for our own, you see.”
“I wonder if the chief is away cruising in the brig,” I said; “because,
if so, the pirates that are upon the island will find some difficulty
in escaping.”
“I very much doubt if they’ll want to shape a departure course from
the island altogether,” said Ned; “leastways I take it they’d hang
about a bit fust, and see what the wolcano is agoin’ to do. But if they
_do_ want to clear out, bag without baggage, I reckon they’ve towed
that there prize o’ theirn into the creek afore this, and could get her
under way in a brace of shakes.”
“What I’m very much afraid of is this,” remarked Mr. Triggs, “that when
their first panic is worn off, they’ll remember about us, and send out
search parties with the bloodhounds to hunt us down.”
“They won’t go within a good many cable-lengths of the wolcano, that
you may bet your bottom dollar,” said Ned with a laugh. “By the piper,
they was in a high old funk, and no mistake! I never see’d the like in
my life before. They ran like riggers, the swabs.”
“Small blame to ’em,” cried Mr. Triggs emphatically. “I felt as green
as a hadji’s turban myself, I can tell you; and as to running, I think
we ourselves put our best foot foremost when once we got clear of the
cave.”
“I don’t know about your feeling green, Mr. Gunner, beggin’ your
parding for bein’ personal, so to speak,” said my coxswain with a grim
smile, “but you sartinly looked a bit white about the gills.”
Mr. Triggs looked a little indignant at this facetiousness on Ned’s
part, but the current of our thoughts was suddenly turned into another
channel.
The volcano was evidently increasing in activity. The roar of the
reports, the hissing of steam, and other frightful noises doubled in
intensity, and the solid earth beneath us shook with violent tremors.
Even showers of stones and mud began to fall about us, and the
descending clouds of ashes became like a heavy rain or a fall of snow.
A really awe-inspiring darkness began to enwrap us as with a sable
cloak. It was no time to be talking. We must act, and that promptly, or
our fate would be sealed for ever.
We sprang to our feet, and it was at this moment that Mr. Triggs was
struck upon the right shoulder by a volcanic stone.
“Why, this is as bad as being under fire!” he cried, rubbing the
injured part. “Carry on, Ned. Act as guide, like a good fellow, and
try to steer for the coast on the opposite side of the island from the
creek.”
“Right you are, sir; I’ll do my best, and no man can’t do more than
that. We’ll give the lagoon a good wide berth most sartinly.”
“If we keep to this side of the ridge, and descend these slopes beneath
us,” I suggested, “we shall be on the right track.”
Taking the precaution to secure our weapons, we plunged out from our
rocky refuge, and under Ned’s guidance began to feel our way down the
boulder-strewn face of the hill, keeping as much as possible in a
direction opposite to that in which the volcanic fires were raging.
There was, of course, no sort of path, and the prevailing gloom made it
extremely difficult for us to force our way onward over such a rough
country, to say nothing of the stones and mud which continued to fall
about us from time to time.
However, our blood was up, and we pushed on strenuously though in
silence, hoping every moment that we should get out of that odious rain
of volcanic _débris_. In about ten minutes’ time we succeeded in this,
and halted for a minute or two to rest, and recover our breath. The
atmosphere being now clearer, we fancied we could detect a somewhat
extensive forest beneath us, and determined to make for its sheltering
trees as speedily as possible.
There had been no fresh shocks of earthquake, but the volcano seemed by
no means to have exhausted itself. A heavy pall of darkness hung in
its vicinity, and ever and again explosions seemed to rend the air and
to repeat themselves in endless echoing reverberations amid the chasms
and rocky ridges of the arid hills.
“Did I hear a shout?” asked Ned suddenly, in an alarmed tone.
Mr. Triggs and I had heard nothing, but I knew well how quick of
hearing my coxswain was.
We all listened intently.
“There it is again!” cried Ned; “I believe they’re upon our trail.”
This time my ear caught the sound of a human yell.
A moment later, to my unutterable horror, the baying of a bloodhound
became distinctly audible.