"Then I understand, Sir John, that you quite leave the choice to me?"
"Certainly. We have not sailed these thousands of miles for the sake of
visiting towns and show places. Take us to some one of the islands such
as you described to me; uninhabited if you can. If you could cast
anchor by one never yet trodden by the foot of man, so much the better."
"Ah, that I can't promise you, sir," replied the captain, "for the
people out this way are nearly all venturesome sailors, and for any
number of years have put to sea in the most crazy of bamboo craft, and
set sail to land where they could, some of them even going in mere
canoes. So you see we may come upon people in the most unexpected
places. But I have several islands in my mind's eye, between here and
the east end of New Guinea, where you gentlemen may collect to your
hearts' content."
"Birds?" cried the doctor.
"Birds, sir? Yes; some of the most beautifully coloured to be found on
the face of the earth. Parrots, cockatoos, birds of paradise,
sun-birds, something like the little humming-birds of the West Indies
and South America. Oh yes; you'll find as many birds as you want."
"Butterflies?" asked Jack.
"Yes, and moths, some of them bigger than a cheese-plate."
"Flies, of course?" said Sir John.
"Oh yes, sir, and beetles too, some of the ugliest you can imagine, and
some of them looking as if made of burnished metal. Then of course
you'll have plenty of fireflies and mosquitoes too."
"Of course we shall get them," said Sir John. "But what about
serpents?"
"Plenty, sir, sea and land; curious lizards too."
"There will be no animals to shoot," said the doctor rather regretfully.
"Tigers, elephants, or leopards? No, not unless we make for the
mainland. But there is a great deal of unexplored country on the coast
of New Guinea and Borneo, and there's no knowing what we might come
across. There are elephants in Borneo, and our old friend the
orang-outang."
"Let's try one of the smaller islands first," said Sir John. "I'm
getting eager to begin doing something."
"I can't exist much longer doing nothing but parade up and down this
deck. My joints are growing up. How do you feel, Jack?" said the
doctor.
"Lazy. I feel as if I could go on doing nothing for any length of
time."
"Here, this won't do," cried the doctor in mock horror. "'Bout ship,
captain, and let's get back home, or else to one of these wonderful
islands that make my mouth water. Let me see, something of this kind: a
beach of coral with the waves always rolling over and breaking in foam,
so that just within there is a beautiful blue lagoon of water, calm as a
lake. Across the lake stretched right and left golden sands, at the
back of which are cocoa-nut groves, with their great fern-like leaves
rustling in the sea-breeze, crabs and fish scuttling about beneath them;
and farther on where the land commences to rise the glorious tropic
forest begins, trailed with orchids and wonderful creepers. Great palms
rise like columns, and huge trees of the fig persuasion spread and drop
down at several spots to form green bowers, and capital places to make
huts. Monkeys climbing about. Birds swarming--nesting or swinging by
the rotan canes. Farther on the land rising and rising, and all forest
till it begins to be seamed with valleys, or rather deep gorges which
run up to the central mountain, from which they radiate all round down
toward the sea, and all of them forming glorious collecting grounds for
naturalists. Then higher up the air growing cooler, save for a peculiar
hot puff now and then with a taste in it of sulphurous steam. Then the
trees growing thinner and not so majestic, but the flowers more abundant
and the valleys more moist, where the streams trickle down; and here and
there are little waterfalls, over which in the spray enormous fronds
spread their green lace-work and sparkle with the fine pearly dew which
is formed by the spray from the falling water. Here an icy spring of
crystal purity gushes from amongst the mossy stones, and oddly enough a
little farther on we come upon another spring, from which steam rises,
but the water itself is of wonderful clearness, so hot that you cannot
bear your hand in it, and the basin is composed of delicate pinky-white
as beautiful as the inside of some of the shells which lie in the
glorious marine garden at the bottom of the lagoon which spreads all
round the island. We push on and at last leave the trees behind, to
find the vegetation curiously dwarfed, masses and tufts of wiry grass,
and we have to tramp over sandy, cindery stuff which gives way under our
feet, and sets some of the big stones in motion. For we have come upon
a slope which grows steeper and steeper, and runs up and up, till, quite
breathless, we stop short among the great grey masses of pumice-stone
and glassy obsidian which cut our boots. We look about and see from
where we are over one side of the island, in whose centre we nearly
stand. The forest is glorious, the lagoon looks like turquoise, and the
coral reef which forms a breakwater round the place seems from our great
height to be one mass of creamy foam, while beyond it stretching far and
wide is the glorious sapphire sea. We are terribly hot with our climb,
but the air here is splendidly invigorating, and we turn to finish our
last hit of a few hundred feet over loose lava, pumice, and scoria. It
is hard work, but we give one another a hand, and at last we stand at
the edge of a tremendous depression like a vast cup in the top of the
mountain, whose other side, similar to that on which we stand, is a mile
away, while below its the cup is brimming with the verdure which runs up
from a lovely blue lake a thousand feet below. All is beautiful, so
beautiful, that it seems to take away our breath, for flowers are all
about, the gorgeous butterflies are on the wing, noisy paroquets are
climbing head up or head down, and there is nothing to show that we are
on the edge of the crater of some tremendous volcano, but we catch sight
of a thin thread of steam rising to form a cloud over a bare rock-strewn
patch on one side. That tells us the fierce gases below are not quite
extinct, but are smouldering ready to burst out at any time, sending
forth the fiery rain to destroy the verdure, torrents of molten stone to
run in streams down to the sea, or a flood of boiling mud to turn the
lovely island into a wilderness. All is so beautiful that we can hardly
turn away to begin our descent to where the yacht is lying in the
lagoon, which forms a perfectly safe port into which it has been towed
by the crew. But go down we must, for we are choking with thirst--at
least I am, through talking; so long, and I'll trouble you, steward, for
another glass of water."
"Oh," cried Jack, who had been drinking in every word, his face flushed
and eyes bright with excitement as he pictured mentally the glorious
place the doctor had described, "what a cruel mockery to raise one's
expectations like that. It's like waking one suddenly from a beautiful
dream."
"Don't quarrel with him, my boy. I say, Jack! I did not know the
doctor could be so florid."
"I didn't either," said the doctor, laughing, "not till I tried."
"Capital!" cried the mate, clapping his hands softly.
"Yes, excellent," said the captain, smiling, with a peculiar twinkling
about the eyes. "But it seems to me, Sir John, that you do not need any
guide."
"Why not?"
"Because I see the doctor has been there."
"I never was farther from home than Switzerland in my life."
"That's strange," said the captain, "for that's the very island I am
making for now."
"Oh! won't do," said the doctor. "Mine was all exaggeration, built up
out of old books of travels."
"The description was perfect, sir," said the captain quietly. "Eh,
Bartlett?"
"Photographic," said the mate.
"Come, come, gentlemen, that won't do," said the doctor merrily. "I
gave rein to my fancy. I knew that the coral islands are very lovely,
and the volcanic islands very grand, and so I said to myself, I'll paint
a regular tip-top one, such as ought to please friend Jack here, and I
joined the volcanic on to the coral and astonished myself."
"And me too," said Sir John, laughing.
"And disappointed me horribly," said Jack; "I really thought there was
such a place."
"So there is, Mr Jack, and we're sailing for it now," said the captain
quietly.
"Aha! Which?" cried the doctor merrily, as he felt that he was trapping
the captain fast,--"coral or volcanic?"
"Both, sir," said the latter, and he looked at Jack as he spoke. "There
are plenty of islands where a volcano has risen from the sea, and the
coral insects in the course of ages have built a rampart of limestone to
act as a breakwater, and thus prevented the lava and pumice from being
washed away. The island I am making for is one of these."
"But not so beautiful," cried Jack.
"Well," said the captain, "our friend here the doctor did lay the paint
on very thick in the picture he drew, and used all the brightest colours
he had in his knowledge-box; but after all Nature's colours are purer
and lovelier than any we can mix, and well as he painted he did not
quite come up to the mark; and I think, sir, that when we've climbed up
to the top of the mountain you will say the same."
"Oh!" cried Jack rapturously, and he turned to his father.
"_If_!" said the captain, very emphatically.
"If? If what?" said Jack.
"There has not been an eruption, and the whole island blown away."
Jack felt as if some one had suddenly poured cold water all down his
back.