TWO GIRLS AND ONE ISLAND
Plodding along the narrow ledge of beach and constantly soused by the
waves, the girls began to fear, as afterward proved to be fact--that
the bluff covered the entire west end of the island. The water beneath
their feet grew deeper and the undertow stronger with every step they
advanced, but fortunately for their safety they finally came to a
crevasse that split the bluff in twain, and down this rift trickled a
rill of pure water.
They both exclaimed with delight as they crept into the shelter of the
crevasse. The fissure was not level, but extended upward at an acute
angle, yet there was room enough at its mouth for the girls to creep
above the wash of the waves. Examining the place carefully, Orissa
thought they might be able to follow the rift up to the top of the
bluff, and so at once they began the ascent. The two walls were so
close together that they could touch both by extending their arms, and
there was room, by stepping occasionally into the shallow brook, for
them to climb from shelf to shelf without much difficulty. At the very
top, however, they were brought to an abrupt halt. A waterfall leaped
from the edge of the bluff, dropping a good ten feet to the point they
had now reached, from whence there seemed no way of gaining the top.
Orissa and Sybil looked at each other and laughed, the spray from the
waterfall wetting their cheeks, which were now rosy from exercise.
"Trapped, Cap'n!" cried Sybil, merrily. "What next?"
"We can't go back, you know."
"Not unless we prefer Davy Jones' locker to this stronghold--which I,
for one, don't. Therefore, let's eat."
"That seems your resource in every emergency, Sybil."
"Naturally. Feasting stimulates thought; thought develops wit; wit
finds a way."
Orissa raised herself to a seat upon a projecting crag and then,
swinging her feet, proceeded to think while Sybil brought out the food.
"Could you climb a wire, Syb?"
"Not without years of practice. Have you positively decided to
establish a circus in these wilds, Ris?"
Orissa stood upon the crag, examined the face of the rock and then
drove the end of the bar she carried into a small fissure that was
nearly on a level with her head. Sybil observed the horizontal bar and
laughed gleefully.
"Have a sandwich, chummie, and curb your imagination," said she. "I
catch your idea, but respectfully decline to accept the hazard."
Orissa ate her sandwich and drank from the bottle of lemonade. Then she
rinsed her fingers in the brook, dried them on her handkerchief and
again mounted the crag.
"Listen, Crusoe: I'm going to make an attempt to break out of jail,"
she said impressively. "If I can reach to the top I'll find some way to
get you up. As soon as I get my feet on that bar, you are to come up on
this crag and hand me your lever. If I can find a pocket to stick that
into, the deed is done."
"Bravo, Ris! What a pity you haven't any spangles on your skirt. If you
fall, fall gradually, for I'll be afraid to catch you."
Orissa's fingers clutched at the rough projections of rock and with
some difficulty she gained a footing on the bar. Then, still clinging
to the face of the rift, she made a further examination. There seemed
a small hole at the right, about breast high, and she called for the
lever. This Sybil promptly passed up. Orissa thrust in the lever and
the next instant nearly lost her footing, for with a bewildering hoot a
white owl of monstrous size fluttered out and tumbled almost at Sybil's
feet, who uttered a shriek like an Indian war whoop. The creature was
blinded by the glare of day and went whirling down the incline of the
crevasse until it was lost to sight.
"First sign of life," called Sybil. "Don't look so scared, Ris; there's
nothing more harmless than an owl."
"Did you yell because _I_ was scared?" inquired Orissa.
"No, I was reproving the owl, who has a voice like a steam calliope. It
would take more than a blind bird to scare either of us; wouldn't it,
Cap'n?"
"I--I wish it hadn't been so--so unexpected," muttered Orissa, feeling
her way up to the second projection. With her feet on the lever she
found her head well above the edge of the precipice and the first
glance showed her a good hold for her hands.
Orissa Kane was no skilled athlete, but her experience in Steve's
workshop, together with her aërial exercises and constant outdoor life,
had given her well developed muscles which now stood her in good stead.
She drew herself up, got her knee on the edge of the rock, and a moment
later was on level ground at the top of the bluff. Then she leaned
over and called to Sybil:
"Can you manage it?"
"What a question!" retorted Sybil, indignantly. "I stood below to catch
you in case you slipped; but who is there to catch _me_, I beg to
inquire?"
"The owl," said Orissa. "Will you try it?"
"Is it worth while? Tell me what you've found up there."
Orissa turned and examined the scene now spread before her.
"Better come up, Syb," she said. "But wait a moment and I'll help you."
She attached one of the straps to the coil of steel wire and passed the
end down to her chum.
"Buckle the strap around you--just under your arms," she called. "I'll
hold fast the wire at this end. You can't fall, then; but be careful,
just the same."
With this support Sybil gained confidence. Exercising extreme caution
she followed Orissa's example in scaling the cliff and as fast as she
mounted her companion took up the slack in the wire and kept it taut.
As soon as Sybil stood on the upper bar Orissa grasped her arms and
drew her up beside her in safety.
"There!" she exclaimed triumphantly. "Where there's a will, there's a
way. It wasn't such a difficult feat, after all."
"There isn't enough money in the world to hire me to do it again,"
panted Sybil, trembling a little from the giddy experience.
"That may be true, but if our safety requires it we may repeat the
performance more than once," declared Orissa. "Unfortunately, we have
lost our weapons of defense."
"Can't we recover the bars?"
"Not without going down for them. If you think you could lower me over
the edge----"
"I just couldn't, Ris. Don't mention it."
"Very well; then we will proceed unarmed. Look, Sybil! Isn't it a
glorious prospect?"
"In point of comparison, yes," admitted Sybil, speaking slowly as she
gazed around her.
They were standing on a level table-land which lay between the base of
the mountain and the sea. The "mountain" was really a great hill of
rock, rising only a hundred and fifty feet or so from the table-land.
The level space before them was clothed with a queer sort of verdure.
It was not grass, but plants with broad and rather crinkly leaves,
so tender that wherever the girls stepped the leaves were broken and
crushed. Nor was the color an emerald green; it was rather a pale
pea-green and the plants grew not in soil but sprang from tiny cracks
and fissures in a sort of shale, or crushed slate, which was constantly
kept moist by the seepage of the little stream.
The island here made an abrupt curve to the west and a little farther
along the girls saw patches of bushes and several small groups of tall,
tropical trees, resembling plantains, or palms. There were vines, too,
which grew in rank profusion among the rocks and helped relieve the
dismal landscape by their greenery. But nowhere appeared any earth, or
natural soil; whatever grew, grew among the crushed rock, or shale,
which seemed to possess a certain fertility where moisture reached it.
"This part of the island seems by far the best," asserted Sybil. "Let
us explore it thoroughly."
They set out to skirt the edge of the bluff and on reaching the first
group of trees found they were bananas. Several bunches of plump fruit
hung far up among the branches, quite out of reach.
"We'll find a way to get at them if we are detained here long enough to
need them," said Orissa.
A half mile beyond the place where they had so laboriously climbed the
bluff they came upon a broad ravine which led directly down to the
water's edge. It appeared as if a huge mass of rock had at some time
become detached from the mountain and, sliding downward, had cut away
the bluff and hurled itself into the sea, where it now lay a few rods
from the water's edge and formed a sort of breakwater. The swirl of
the waves around this mass of rock had made a small indentation in the
shore, creating a tiny bay with a sandy beach.
"Ah," said Orissa, examining this place, "here is where we must
establish our camp; there is room enough to float our boat into the
bay, where the water is calm, and on that smooth beach I can repair the
Hy at my leisure."
"Also, from this elevation," added Sybil, "we can fly a flag of
distress, which would be seen by any ship approaching the island."
Orissa nodded approval.
"Here is also water and food," said she. "If we can manage to
navigate the Hy to this place we have little to fear from a temporary
imprisonment."
"We must wait for low tide before we start back," observed Sybil.
"Meantime, let's run down to the beach and see how it looks."
The descent to the water's edge was easy, and they found the little bay
ideal for their purpose. But they could hear the waves breaking with
some force against the face of the cliff, just outside their retreat,
and it would be hours before they might venture to return to the other
side of the island.
So again they ascended the bluff and selected a place for their
camp, beneath the spreading foliage of the tall bananas. Afterward
they sought the source of the little brook, which was high up on the
mountain and required a difficult climb to reach it. A spring seemed
to well up, clear and refreshing, from a cleft in the rock, but even
at its source there was no more water than would run from an ordinary
house faucet.
"Isn't it astonishing," said Orissa, "how much moisture is dispersed
from this tiny stream? I think it never rains here and this spring of
water supplies all the island."
"This part of it, anyhow. It's mighty lucky for us the babbling brook
is here," declared Sybil, drinking deeply of the cool water and then
bathing her heated brow with it. "But what stumps me, Ris, is the lack
of any life on the island. With water and green stuff both animals
and birds might thrive here--to say nothing of bugs and lizards and
serpents galore--yet aside from that great white owl we've not seen a
living thing."
"It really _is_ curious," admitted Orissa. Then, turning her gaze
seaward, she exclaimed: "See there, Sybil! Isn't that another island?"
"It surely is," was the reply; "and only a few miles away. It's a
big island, too, Ris--far bigger than this. Did you bring along your
glasses?"
"No; they are in the boat."
"When we get them we can inspect that island better. Perhaps we could
manage to get to it, Ris."
"We'll see," was the doubting answer. "I imagine, if that island is
so much larger, and proves to be more fertile than this, that we have
discovered the reason why the live things, such as birds and animals,
prefer it as a place of residence."
They made their way back to the bluff and waited patiently for the tide
to ebb. According to Orissa's watch it was quite four o'clock before
they deemed it safe to venture on the sands, and even then they went
barefooted, as an occasional wave still crossed their narrow path.
By the time they reached the bay and their boat the two girls were very
tired with their long tramp and as it was nearly sundown they decided
to spend the night in this location and make the attempt to shift camp
next day.