CASTAWAYS
"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Orissa, sitting up.
After a moment Sybil said, sleepily:
"Go ahead and declare it, Ris. Only, if we're drowned, please break the
news to me gently!"
"How strange!" muttered Orissa, still staring.
Sybil stirred, threw off the blanket and also rose to a sitting
position.
"If it's a secret," she began, "then--Oh, goodness me!"
During the night the boat with its great overhead planes had gently
floated into a little bay, where the water was peaceful as a millpond.
Two points of black rock projected on either side of them, outlining
the bay. Between these points appeared an island--a mass of tumbled
rocks guiltless of greenery. There was a broad strip of clean, smooth
sand on the shore, barely covering the slaty ledge, but back of that
the jumble of rocks began, forming irregular hillocks, and beyond these
hillocks, which extended for some distance inland, there seemed to be
a great dip in the landscape--or rockscape--far back of which arose a
low mountain formed of the same unlovely material as all else.
"It's an island!" gasped Sybil, rubbing her eyes to make sure they were
working properly. "Now, see here, Cap'n Ris, I want it understood right
now which one of us is to be Robinson Crusoe and which the Man Friday.
Seems to me, I being the passenger and you the charioteer, the prestige
is on my side; so I claim the Crusoe part. I can't grow whiskers, and
I'm not likely to find a parrot to perch on my shoulder, but I'll
promise to enact the part as well as circumstances will permit."
"I can't see a sign of life," announced Orissa, regretfully. "There
isn't even a bird hovering over the place."
"Lizards and snakes among the rocks, though, I'll bet," responded
Sybil, with a grimace. "All these rocky Pacific islands are snaky, they
say. I wonder if I can learn to charm 'em. You don't object to my being
Crusoe, do you?"
Orissa sighed; then she turned to her cheery comrade with a smile.
"Not at all," said she. "But I'll be Columbus, the Discoverer, for I've
discovered a desert island while you were peacefully dreaming."
"There's no desert about your island," stated Sybil. "A desert would
be a relief. What you've discovered, Miss Ris Columbus--or what's
discovered us, rather--is a rock heap."
"Desert or not, it's deserted, all right," maintained Orissa.
"And you may not have discovered it, after all," said Sybil, musingly
examining the place. "These seas have been pretty well explored, I
guess, and although no nation would particularly care to pin a flag to
this bunch of rocks, the maps may indicate it clearly."
"Ah, if we only had a map!" cried Orissa eagerly.
"What good would it do us?" asked Sybil. "It couldn't help us to find
ourselves, for we don't know what especial dot on the map we've arrived
at. With Muggins' Complete Atlas in hand, and a geography teacher
thrown in, we wouldn't be able to pick out this island from the ones
that litter these seas."
"That is, unfortunately, quite true," sighed Orissa; "and anyhow it's
not worth an argument because we have no map. But we must be up and
doing, Sybil. If we are to keep ourselves alive, we must take advantage
of every favorable circumstance."
"What time is it?" yawned Sybil.
Orissa looked at her watch.
"A little after six."
"Call me at eight. I can't get up at six o'clock; it's too early,
entirely."
"But you went to bed at about seven."
"Did I? Well, how about breakfast?"
"We must inspect our stores and take inventory. Then we must plan to
make the provisions last as long as possible."
"How dreadful! Why, this is a real adventure, Ris--threatened famine,
and all that. We're regular castaways, like we read about in the
fifteen-cent story magazines, and I wouldn't be surprised if we had to
endure many inconveniences; would you?"
"Sybil," said Orissa earnestly, "we are face to face with privation,
danger, and perhaps death. I'm glad you can be cheerful, but we must
understand our terrible position and endeavor to survive as long as
possible. We know very well that our friends will have a hard time
finding us, for they cannot guess what part of the ocean we descended
in. It may take days--perhaps weeks--for them to discover us in this
dreary place, and meantime we must guard our safety to the best of our
ability."
"Naturally," agreed Sybil, duly impressed by this speech. "Your head is
clearer and better than mine, Orissa; so you shall take command, and
I'll gladly follow your instructions. You mean to land, don't you? I'm
tired of this cramped little boat and even a rocky island is better
than no refuge at all."
"Of course we must land," replied Orissa; "and that, I think, must be
our first task. The shore is only a stone's throw from here, but we're
fast on a sand bar, and how to get off is a problem."
Sybil began to take off her leggings, then her shoes and stockings.
"We'll wade," she said.
Orissa peered over the side.
"It's very shallow. I think we can wade to shore, Syb, and pull the Hy
in after us. We must get the whole thing high and dry on the beach, if
possible."
Sybil plumbed the water by tying a can of sardines to a cord from
around one of the parcels.
"I guess we can make it all right, Cap'n," she said. "It's not very
deep."
"It may be a lot deeper closer in. But I guess we'll have to take a
chance on it. And if the worst comes to the worst we _can_ dry our
clothes on the beach."
The sun was showing brilliantly above the horizon as the two girls
stepped into the water. Both could swim fairly well, but where the boat
was grounded on the sand bar the water was scarcely knee-deep. They
dragged Steve's invention over the bar with little difficulty, the
wheels materially assisting their efforts. Beyond the bar the water
deepened in spots, and once, as they drew the wrecked Hy after them,
the waves reached perilously high. Then they struck the shelving beach
and found hard sand under their feet.
By pushing and hauling energetically they managed to run the boat, with
its attached planes, to the shore, where the wheels on either side
enabled them to roll it up the slope until, as Orissa said, it was
"high and dry."
"Seems to me," remarked Sybil, panting, "we ought to have breakfasted
first, for all this exercise has made me ravenous. That'll diminish our
precious store of eatables considerably, I fear."
With the machine safely landed they proceeded to dress themselves,
after which Orissa arranged upon the sand the entire contents of the
aluminum chest. A kit of tools, adapted for use on the Aircraft,
together with some extra bolts, a strut or two and a coil of steel wire
were first placed carefully on one side.
"With these," said the girl, "I can easily repair the damage to our
machine."
"But what's the use, without gasoline?" asked Sybil.
Orissa had no reply to this. She proceeded to inspect the provisions.
Mr. Cumberford had a way of always providing enough for a regiment
when he intended to feed a few, so in ordering lunch for two girls on
an aërial voyage his usual prodigality had been in evidence. Perhaps
with an intuition that a delay or even an accident might occur to Sybil
and Orissa, the old gentleman had even exceeded his record, in this
instance. A big box of dainty sandwiches had been supplemented by three
cartons of biscuits, a whole Edam cheese, a bottle of pickles, two huge
packages of cakes and eighteen tins of provisions, provided with keys
for opening them. These consisted of sardines, potted ham and chicken,
baked beans, chipped beef and the like. In another parcel was a whole
roasted duck, in still another an apple pie, while two jars of jam
completed the list of edibles. For the voyagers to drink Mr. Cumberford
had added two half-gallon jars of distilled water, a bottle of grape
juice, two of ginger ale and one of lemonade.
The girls examined this stock with profound gravity.
"I wish," said Orissa, "there had been more bread and biscuits, for we
are going to need the substantials rather more than the delicacies."
"Thank goodness we have anything!" exclaimed Sybil. "I suppose we must
breakfast on the cakes and jam, and save the other truck until later."
"That's the idea," approved Orissa. "The cakes won't keep for long;
even the sandwiches will outlast them, I think."
"True, if I eat all the cake I want," added Sybil. "Cakes and jam make
a queer breakfast, Orissa. In New England the pie would be appropriate."
"Let's save the pie--for lunch."
"Agreed. Breakfast isn't usually my strong point, you know."
As they ate, seated together upon the sands, they cast many curious
glances at the interior of the island--a prospect forbidding enough.
"Do you know," said Orissa, "the scarcity of food doesn't worry me so
much as the scarcity of water. Grape juice and ginger ale are well
enough in their way, but they don't take the place of water."
"We may possibly find water on this island," replied Sybil, after a
little thought.
"I don't believe it. I've an idea that, hunt as we may, we shall find
nothing more than rocks, and rocks, and rocks--anywhere and everywhere."
"That's merely a hunch, and I distrust hunches. It will be better to
explore," suggested Sybil.
"Yes; I think we ought to do that. But--the snakes."
"Ah, the exclusive rock theory is already exploded," said Sybil, with a
laugh. "Yet even snakes can't exist without water, can they? Just the
thought of the wrigglers makes me shudder, but if they are really our
co-inhabitants here we won't be safe from them even on this shore. Have
we anything in the way of clubs?"
Orissa considered the question. Then she went to the machine and with a
wrench unfastened the foot-bar, which was long enough to extend across
both seats and was made of solid steel. She also took the bolts out
of one of the levers, which when released became an effective weapon
of defense. Thus armed, and feeling somewhat more secure, the girls
prepared to move inland to explore their new habitation.
They found the climb over the loose rocks adjoining the shore to be
quite arduous, and aside from the difficulties of the way they had to
exercise constant caution for fear of snakes. They saw none of these
dreaded reptiles, however, and when they came to the hillocks they
selected a path between the two most promising and began the ascent,
keeping close together. So jagged were the tumbled masses of rock and
so irregular in their formation that it was not a question of walking
so much as crawling, but with their leggings, stout shoes and thick
cloth skirts they were fairly protected from injury.
The silence throughout the island was intense. The girls spoke in
hushed tones, awed by their uncanny surroundings. From a clear sky the
sun beat down upon their heads and was refracted from the rocks until
the heat was oppressive. Added to this a pungent, unrecognized odor
saluted their nostrils as they progressed inland. "Reminds me of the
smell of a drug store," asserted Sybil; but Orissa replied: "It's more
like the smell of a garage, I think."
After a long and weary climb they reached the brow of the rock hills
and were able to look down into the "dip" or valley which lay between
them and the mountain. The center of the depression, which was three
or four miles across, appeared to be quite free from rocks except in
a few places where one cropped up in the form of a hummock. Elsewhere
the surface seemed smooth and moist, for it was covered with an oozy,
stagnant slime which was decidedly repulsive in appearance.
Looking beyond this forbidding valley they discovered the first
interesting thing they had yet observed. At the right base of the
far-away mountain, lying between it and the sea, was a patch of vivid
green, crowning an elevation that distinctly separated it from the
central depression of the island. It might be grass or underbrush, this
alluring greenery, but in any event it proved a grateful sight to eyes
wearied by the dull waste of rocks. From the point where the girls
stood they could also see the top of a palm tree which grew around the
edge of the mountain.
"Well!" said Orissa, drawing a long breath, "there is the first sign of
life--animal or vegetable--we have found in this wilderness. That tree
must indicate water, Sybil."
"Whatever it indicates," was the reply, "yonder bluff is a better place
for our camp than the bay where we floated ashore. How shall we get to
it, though? It will be a heart-breaking climb cross-lots over these
interminable rocks."
"An impossible climb," Orissa agreed. "I think our best plan will be to
go around the island, following the sandy beach. It seems from here as
if that bluff drops sheer down to the sea, but it will be much easier
for us to climb a bluff than to navigate these rocks. Let's go back and
try it."
Cautiously and laboriously they made their way back to the beach,
feeling considerably cheered by what they had seen and reassured by
the total absence of the dreaded "wigglers." After resting a little
from their exertions they prepared for the more important journey of
discovery. Sybil carried some food and the bottle of lemonade, while
Orissa secured two straps from the aëroplane and the coil of wire.
Then, still armed with their steel bars, they set out along the beach.
Their first task was to climb the rocks of the point which formed the
bay, where it jutted out from the shore. This being accomplished they
encountered another stretch of smooth beach, which gradually circled
around the north end of the island. Here it was easy walking and they
made good progress, but the coast line was so irregular that it wound
in and out continually, and in places huge boulders interrupted their
passage and obliged them either to climb or wade, whichever seemed the
most desirable.
"Already," sighed Sybil, "we have tramped a thousand miles. Did you
mark that place, Orissa, so we will know when we come to it?"
"Yes; I can tell it by the position of the sun. That side of the island
faces the northwest."
"And we haven't passed it?"
"No; but we must be drawing near to it. I've been looking for the bluff
the last half hour. The green place was quite elevated, you remember,
and must be well above the sea level. Look ahead; you'll notice the
rocks are gradually rising, from here on."
Sybil nodded and again they trudged on. As the rocks grew higher at
their left, the girls kept to the narrow strip of beach, which was
beginning to be washed by an occasional wave.
"The tide is rising," announced Orissa; "but we shall be at the bluff
very soon, and can then climb above this moisture. Feet wet, Syb?"
"Pickled in brine. Wet feet signify a cold; cold signifies la grippe;
la grippe signifies a doctor; the doctor signifies a depleted bank
account. Science of deduction, Ris. It's only a step from wet feet to
poverty."
"I prefer a doctor to an undertaker," said Orissa, "but as neither
profession is represented here I advise you to forego the pleasure of
taking cold."
"Right you are, Cap'n Columbus. No doctor, no cold. Banish the thought!
We can't afford the luxury of illness, can we? Oh, here's the bluff."
There it was, indeed; but absolutely unclimbable. It was sixty feet
high, at least, and overhanging the sea like a shelf, the waves having
cut it away at the base.
"Now, then," said Orissa, after a careful inspection, "we must either
go back or go on, in order to find a way up. As we haven't passed any
steps or easy inclines, I propose we advance farther and see what the
west end looks like."
"I'll follow the leader; but the waves are already covering the beach,"
asserted Sybil, with a grimace.
"Then let us wade; and don't lose any precious time, for the tide will
come in faster every minute. Shoes off, Crusoe!"
"Aye, aye, Columbus."
With shoes, leggings and stockings in hand they began the advance,
hugging the wall of rock and proceeding as swiftly as they could. At
times one or the other would cry out as she stepped on a sharp bit of
rock, but this was no time to shrink from petty trials and they bore up
with admirable fortitude.