THE SIGN OF DISTRESS
The next morning before she was awake he arose and made a tour of the
beach in quest of shell fish, took a plunge in the cool waters of the
bay, and again inspected the little footprints in the sand. He smiled as
he placed his own foot, a number nine, beside the dainty imprint. On his
way back to the cave he killed a huge turtle, the meat of which he
promised should keep them alive for several days, if nothing better
could be found. As he turned the bend he saw her standing on the ledge
at the mouth of the cave, the wind blowing her hair and skirts freely.
He called to her, and she turned her face eagerly in his direction. They
met among the trees some distance from the spring.
"Where have you been?" she cried, her cheeks glowing.
"Hunting wild beasts," he replied valiantly.
"Pooh! Wild flowers, you mean. I thought perhaps you had gone off to
join the monkeys for an old-time frolic in the trees."
"You won't be so frivolous when I tell you of the narrow escape I have
had. See that trusty club? See the blood on it?" They were standing
close to each other as he held up the blood-spattered stick.
"Oh, Hugh," she gasped, "is it blood?"
"Life's blood," he answered laconically.
"Not yours, Hugh? You are not hurt?" she cried.
"This is the beast's blood, Tennys. I am not so much as scratched, but
it was a frightful encounter," he went on, with well-assumed gravity.
"Tell me about it. Where was it? What was it? Tell me everything," she
begged. He took her arm and together they proceeded toward their
wild home.
"After breakfast I'll take you around the bend and prove to you my
valor."
"But I cannot wait and, besides, you have proved your valor. Do tell me
where the blood came from."
"That awful thing plunged from the underbrush upon me so suddenly that I
was almost paralyzed," he said soberly. "I didn't have much time to
think, and I don't know what I should have done if it had not been for
this excellent club, which I had cut for a rather inglorious purpose.
With one of the very best strokes a golfer ever made I cracked
his skull."
"His skull!"
"Likewise his neck. Then I cut his throat."
"Oh, Hugh!" breathlessly.
"And I'm going back after breakfast to carve him up into roasts, steaks
and soups enough to last us for a month."
"Oh, it must have been something gigantic. Was it a rhinoceros?" she
cried ecstatically.
"Rhinoceros soup!" he exclaimed in disgust. She was properly contrite.
"I'll tell you what I killed, if you'll promise to endure the shock--and
not tell any one else." He placed his lips close to her little ear and
whispered in awe-struck tones, "A turtle!"
"A turtle! Why, a baby could kill a turtle. You are no longer a hero.
Enough to last a month! Hugh Ridgeway, are you delirious?" she exclaimed
in fine scorn.
"Wait till you see him. He weighs a ton," he said proudly.
After their breakfast of nuts, fruit and water they started for the
little beach, Lady Tennys vastly excited. Her exclamations on seeing the
sea monster amused Hugh beyond measure.
"I never dreamed a turtle could be so immense," she cried. "This one
must be a thousand years old."
"If he is, we'll have tough steaks," observed he grimly. Later on he
carved several fine steaks from the turtle and cleaned the upper shell
carefully, wisely concluding to retain it for the usefulness it was sure
to afford sooner or later. "There is one thing to be done," said he,
when they sat down to rest. "I must climb up that mountain and plant a
white flag to show that we are here if a ship should pass. I'll do that
as soon as I have rested, provided I can find anything white that is
large enough to be seen from a distance."
She looked far out over the harbor for a minute, a tinge of red running
to her ears.
"A handkerchief would be too small, wouldn't it?" she asked.
"I'm afraid so," he answered glumly.
Soon afterward she left him and went to the cave, bidding him to await
her return. When she came back she carried in her hand a broad piece of
white cloth, which she laid before him on the grass. There was a look of
modest reluctance in her eyes when he glanced quickly up at them. A
cherished underskirt, ripped ruthlessly from waistband to ruffle, making
one broad white flag of the finest texture, was her offering.
"Use that, Hugh." She could not resist smiling as she pointed to it.
"It will be the very thing," he said, arising and taking the garment
from the ground somewhat carefully.
"It won't hurt you," she said, laughing frankly; whereupon he waved it
rudely above his head and pointed to the pinnacle of the rock.
"With this I shall scale the rock and skirt the bay!"
Within ten minutes he was on his way up the incline, carrying his stout
stick in his hand, another heavier and stronger one being bound to his
back with the white signal attached. She accompanied him to the point
where the ascent became difficult and full of danger.
"Be careful, Hugh," she said; "it looks so dangerous. If you find there
is any possibility of falling, don't attempt to go to the top. You are
so daring, you Americans, that you do not recognize peril at all Promise
me, or I shall not allow you to go on."
He looked down into her serious upturned eyes and promised. Then he
resumed the ascent, with a queer flutter of adulation in his heart.
From time to time he paused to rest. In each instance he looked below,
waving his hand encouragingly to the anxious one who watched him so
closely. On, over fierce crags, around grim towers, along steep walls,
higher and higher he crawled. Twice he slipped and fell back several
feet. When he glanced down, cold perspiration standing on his forehead,
he saw her bending with averted face, her hands pressed to her eyes as
if she expected his body to come crashing to her feet. With recovered
energy he shouted to her, and the quick, glad glance upward was enough
to make the remainder of the ascent glorious to him. At last, his hands
and knees bleeding, he crawled upon the small, flat top of the mountain,
five hundred feet above the breakers, three hundred feet above the woman
he had left behind.
The sea wind whistled in his ears as he arose to his feet. His knees
trembled and he grew momentarily dizzy as he looked out over the vast,
blue plain before him. Fear seized upon him; there came a wild desire to
plant his flag and hurry from the death-like summit. Sitting down, he
nervously unfastened the pole and flag, looking about as he did so for a
place to plant the beacon. For one moment his heart sank only to bound
with joy in the next. Almost at his elbow ran a crevasse in the rock,
deep and narrow. It was but an instant's work to jam the pole into this
crevasse, and the white flag was fluttering to the breeze. He was
certain it would be days before the winds could whip it to shreds.
A feeling of helplessness and dismay came over him as he gave thought to
the descent. In his eagerness to begin the hazardous attempt, he almost
forgot the chief object of his climb to the top--the survey of the
surrounding country. As far as he could see there stretched the carpet
of forest land, the streak of beach and the expanse of water. In the
view there was not one atom of proof that humanity existed within a
radius of many miles. Growing calmer, he scanned the wonderful scene
closely, intently, hoping to discover the faintest trace of aught save
vegetable life, all without reward. He was about to begin the descent
when a faint cry came to him from far below. Clinging to the edge of the
topmost rock, he looked downward.
Lady Tennys was pointing excitedly toward the little bay on his left. A
single glance in that direction filled him with amazement, then
consternation. Recklessly he entered upon the descent. Obstacles that
had seemed impassable as he thought of them on the summit were passed
safely and hurriedly.
How he reached her side so quickly, he could not have explained if he
tried, but in less than five minutes he stood with her, clasping her
hand and looking anxiously toward the sands on which the great back of
the turtle lay upward to the sun.