Jack did not see the canoe, for his attention was taken up by the little
serpent which had suddenly flung itself upon his hand, as he disturbed
the cluster of flowers, and struck at his arm sharply--twice.
Sharply does not express the way in which the reptile attacked him, for
the whole business from its springing, coiling, and striking seemed
instantaneous. The effect upon the lad was peculiar. He had man's
natural horror of all creatures of the serpent kind, and as he broke off
the sweetly-scented bunch of flowers a pang shot through him--a
sensation of pain which made him turn cold and wet, while his senses
felt exalted, so that sight, smell, hearing, and feeling were magnified
or exaggerated in the strangest way, but his muscular power seemed to
have failed. His man's cries for help sounded deafening; the fragrant
odour of the orchids made him feel faint; the little serpent appeared
enormous, and its eyes dazzling, while the cold touch of its scaly body
against his bare hand was of some great weight, and when it rapidly
compressed his fingers with its folds, to give itself power to strike,
and struck twice, the concussion of the lithe neck and jaws felt like
two tremendous blows which paralysed him, so that he stood there as if
turned to stone, with his arm outstretched staring down at the--as it
seemed to him--gigantic head, which glided about over his enormously
swollen arm, the sparkling malicious eyes seeming to search into his,
and then about his arm for a fresh place at which to venom.
It was in its way beautiful, in its golden-brown and greenish tints,
while the back appeared to be shot with violet and steel, as the light
which flashed from the glittering sea was thrown up beneath the trees.
Jack was so utterly fascinated for the time being that his eyes took in
every detail, and he noted how the reptile's tightly-closed mouth
resembled a smile of triumph, and thought that the tiny forked tongue
which kept on flickering in and out of the orifice in the front part of
the jaws mocked at him as the creature laughed silently at his
helplessness.
"It has killed me," was the predominant thought in the boy's mind, as he
stood there for what seemed to be a long space of time, with Edward
shouting for help and calling upon him to act, the words thundering in
his ears.
"Throw it off, Mr Jack, sir. Chuck it away. D'ye hear me? Oh, I say,
do something, or you'll be stung."
But the lad did not stir, merely remained in the same attitude with his
arm outstretched. He was, however, fully conscious of what was going
on, and he watched with a feeble kind of interest the action of the man,
wondering what he would do.
For Ned, as he grasped his young master's peril, did the most natural
thing in the world to begin with, he called loudly for help; but fully
grasping the fact that as he was nearest the first help ought to come
from him, he dashed to Jack's side.
"Ugh!" he cried angrily, "I can't abear snakes and toads. If I touch
him he'll sting me too. Tied himself up in a knot too. Don't try to
chuck it off, Mr Jack, the beggar will only be more savage and begin
stinging again. If I could only grab him by the neck I could finish
him, but he'd be too quick for me. Here, I know. That's right! Stand
still, sir."
This last was perfectly unnecessary, for the lad could not have stood
more motionless and rigid if he had been carved in marble.
"What a fool I am!" muttered Ned. "Thinking about cutting sticks when
there's something ready here to be cut. I don't want a stick."
He whipped his long hunting-knife out of the sheath fitted to his belt,
and the light flashed upon the keen-edged new blade which had never yet
been used.
"Now then," he said softly, "if I can only get one cut at you, my
gentleman, you shan't know where you are to-morrow."
The plan was good, but not easy of performance, for he could not cut
straight down at the reptile's neck without injuring Jack's arm, and for
a few moments he stood watching and waiting for an opportunity, but none
seemed likely to occur, and the serpent still held on by the boy's
wrist, and the front of its long, lithe, undulating body kept on gliding
about over the brightly-ironed white duck sleeve, the head playing about
the hollow of the elbow-joint, turning under the arm, and returning to
the top again and again.
"I can't get a cut at him--I can't get a cut at him," muttered Ned; and
then a happy thought came: he stretched out the point of the glistening
blade toward the serpent's head, till it was a few inches from it.
"I don't like doing it," he muttered fretfully; "it's running risks, and
setting a dose myself, but I must--I must;" and he made the blade
glitter and flash by agitating his hand.
It had the desired effect, for the head was raised sharply from the
lad's arm till it was six or seven inches above it, and the reptile
seemed to be attracted for a moment by the bright light flashing from
the steel.
Then the head was drawn back sharply, and darted forward as Ned
expected, and with a slight jerk from the wrist he flicked the blade
from left to right.
"Hah!" he cried joyfully, as the head dropped at his feet, and the long
thin body writhed free from the lad's hand and wrist; "a razor couldn't
have took it off cleaner. Hurray, Mr Jack! He half killed himself.
But don't--don't stand like that. You're not hurt bad, are you?"
"Here, let me look," cried the doctor, who had now climbed up to where
they stood, closely followed by Sir John. "Snake, was it?"
"Yes, sir; there's his body tying itself up in knots, and here's his
head."
As he spoke, the man stooped down quickly, made a dig with the point of
his knife, and transfixed the cut-off portion through the neck just at
the back of the skull, and the jaws gaped widely as he held it up in
triumph.
"Here, let me see," cried Sir John excitedly. "Yes, look, Instow, the
swollen glands at the back of the jaw, and here they are like bits of
glass--the poison fangs. Jack, lad, where did it strike you?"
"Strike me?" said the lad feebly, and shuddering slightly, as he stood
with his eyes half-closed, and dropped the cluster of orchids.
"Yes; speak out, quick!" cried the doctor, grasping the lad by the arm.
"Where are you hurt?"
"Twined round my hand, and bit at my arm twice--just there."
He stood pointing dreamily at the thickest part of his forearm, just
where the jacket-sleeve went into wrinkles through the bending of the
joint.
"Yes, I see," cried the doctor. "Here, Ned, man, jump down there and
get my flask. You'll find it in my coat. A plated one full of
ammonia."
Ned leaped in a break-neck way down the lava wall, and the doctor forced
his patient into a sitting position and stripped off his jacket. Then
he snapped off the wrist button and turned up the shirt-sleeve, to begin
examining the white skin for the tiny punctures made by the two bites,
while Sir John knelt by him, supporting his son, who looked very white
and strange, and as if he were trying to master the sense of horror from
which he now suffered.
"See the places?" said Sir John hoarsely.
"No," replied the doctor, shifting his position and raising the arm a
little. "The fangs are like needle-points, and make so small a wound.
Can't see anything. Whereabouts was it, Jack?"
"Just there," said the lad, speaking more decisively; and he laid his
left finger on his arm. "Two sharp blows."
"And a keen pricking sensation each time?" said the doctor, looking
curiously at his patient.
"No; I did not feel anything but the blows."
"Here's the silver bottle, sir," panted Ned.
"Hold it," said the doctor. Then to Jack, "Did the snake strike at you
anywhere else?"
"No."
"Pray, pray give him something," cried Sir John impatiently; "the poison
runs through the veins so quickly."
"Yes," said the doctor quietly, as he wrinkled up his forehead, and,
dropping the boy's arm, he caught the jacket from where it lay.
"Nothing here," he muttered. "Pish! Wrong sleeve."
He hastily took the other, and turned the sleeve up to the light.
"Hah!" he cried; "here we are. Look, Meadows!"
"Never mind the jacket, man," cried Sir John passionately.
"Why not?" said the doctor coolly. "Nothing the matter with the lad.
Touch of nerves. Horribly startling for him. See this?"
He held up the sleeve, and there upon the puckered part were two almost
imperceptible yellowish stains, in each case upon the raised folds.
[Half a page of text missing here.]
"I couldn't help it," said Jack.
"Of course you couldn't," said the doctor.
"But father thinks that I was a dreadful coward."
"Then he ought to know better," said the doctor quickly. "Nothing to be
ashamed of, my lad. Imagination's a queer thing. I once fainted
because I thought I had cut myself, while I was skinning a dog which had
been poisoned. I was a student then, and knew the dangers of wounds
from a poisoned knife; and, by the way, we must take care of the wounds
from poisoned arrows. Well, when I washed my hand there wasn't a
scratch. You couldn't help it, Jack. Any man might be seized like that
after seeing Death make two darts at him and feeling him strike."
[Half a page of text missing here.]
"Is any one hurt?" said a voice then; and Mr Bartlett's head appeared
above the edge of the lava wall.
"No; all right. Only an alarm, and a narrow escape. How about the
savages?"
"They're gone in the direction of the yacht, gentlemen, and we must get
back as quickly as we can."
"Ah, look! look!" cried Ned excitedly, as he pointed out to sea;
"there's a canoe--two canoes--three."
They followed the direction of his pointing finger, and saw plainly
enough three long, low vessels full of men gliding by, with their
matting sails glistening in the sun, and not two miles out from where
they stood.
"Worse and worse," said the mate. "We must get back to the yacht,
gentlemen."
"Of course," said Sir John, drawing a deep breath. "Why, there must be
a hundred men in those canoes."
"Quite that, sir, I'm afraid," replied the mate. "Quick, please. It
will be terrible if they attack the captain while he is so
short-handed."
"But he has the big guns, and the men are well-trained," said the
doctor, as they hurried down to the boats.
"What is the use of them, sir, when a crowd of reckless savages are
swarming over the sides? He is lying at anchor too, and the yacht is
made helpless."
The men were soon in their places, pulling a long, steady stroke, and
thinking nothing of the hot sunshine.
"It is of no use to try and hide ourselves," said the mate, "for it is a
race between us who shall get there first."
"But they can't know the yacht is there," said Sir John.
"Perhaps not, sir; but they will soon sight us, and then run for the
opening in the reef, if they were not already going there."
"Well, there's one advantage on our side," said the doctor; "they can't
attack us till they get through the reef, so we're safe till then."
"Yes, sir," said the mate bitterly; "but I was thinking of the captain,
and his anxiety, alone there."
"Yes, of course," said Sir John; and he looked at the mate when he could
do so unobserved; and it seemed to Jack that he thought more highly of
Mr Bartlett than ever.
They had been rowing abreast, with the waters of the lagoon perfectly
smooth; but as they began to round one of the huge buttresses of lava
which had run down into the lake, they saw that the water all beyond was
disturbed by a breeze.
The mate started up and began to give his orders directly. The mast in
the bigger boat was stepped, the sail hoisted, and he shouted to one of
the men to throw a line from the bows of Jack's boat, to make fast to
their stern.
"We can take you in tow, doctor," he said, with the men still rowing and
the sail flapping; then a little spar was set up from the stern, and a
triangular sail hoisted from the bows to the mast in front.
"Four men in here," cried the mate; "unless you two gentlemen would like
to come."
"No; we'll stay here," said the doctor. "Eh, Jack?"
"Yes; we'll stay."
"You'll manage better with men who can work, we shall be in the way."
"I want them for ballast to steady us with all this sail up," said the
mate, smiling; and without any pause the second boat was drawn close up
astern, four men crept into the leader, and the rope was allowed to run
out again.
"Think we're going to have a fight, Mr Jack?" whispered Ned, as the
doctor sat forward trying to make out the canoes through the sparkling
cloud of spray here about a mile away; "It seems like it, Ned; but I
hope not."
"You hope not, sir?"
"Of course."
"Oh, well then, I needn't mind saying I hope not too. I never was
anything in that line, sir, even when I was a boy."
"What difference does that make?"
"Difference, sir? Oh, all the difference. Men can fight, of course;
but if I was a king, and wanted to have a good army, I'd make it of
boys."
Jack stared at him, and in spite of the peril of their position, felt
disposed to smile.
"Why?" he said at last.
"Because they can fight so. They're not so big and strong; but then
they're not so easily frightened. They're always ready for a set-to,
and 'cepting where there's snakes in the way, they never think of
danger, or being hurt. And when they are hurt, the more they feel it,
the more they go, just like horses or donkeys."
"Excepting in the case of snakes," said Jack bitterly.
"Oh, don't you mind about that, sir. I was as scared as you were, I can
tell you. I remember when I was a boy I wasn't good at fighting, and I
used to get what we used to call the coward's blow, and that was the rum
part of it."
Jack stared.
"Ah, you don't understand that, sir. But it was rum. You see it was
like this; t'other chap as was crowing over me because I wouldn't fight,
would give me an out-and-out good whack for the coward's blow, and then
he wished he hadn't."
"Why?" asked Jack, after a glance at the doctor, who was still in the
bows.
"Because it hurt me, and made me wild. And then I used to go at him and
give him a good licking. That's what I was when a boy, sir, and I am
just the same now; I don't feel at all like fighting, and, coward or no
coward, I won't fight if I can help it; but if any one hurts me, or
begins to shoot at us, I think I shall get trying what I can do. But
you see it won't be fist-fists."
"No," said Jack thoughtfully; "it will not be fists."
"Hi! look out!" shouted Ned. "You'll be over."
For a sudden puff of wind had caught the boat in front, and she heeled
over so much with the large spread of sail that the water began to creep
in over the leeward side. But at a word from the mate half-a-dozen men
shifted their positions to windward, and there were two or three inches
clear once more, as the boat with her three sails well-filled began to
rush through the water.
"And now they're goin' to take us under," said Ned, nervously seizing
the side with one hand. "My word, we are beginning to go."
"Yes; this is different to rowing," cried the doctor, as their boat
danced about and ran swiftly through the disturbed water left by their
companion. "But, unfortunately, the wind will help the canoes as much
as it helps us."
"But if it does not help them more, we shall be up to the yacht first."
"There's another side to that, Jack," said the doctor; "suppose they
sail faster than we do. What then?"
This was unanswerable, and they sat back in the boat, running through
the water with a little wave ever-widening on either side.
"I hope the painter won't give way," said the doctor at last, "and that
they will not leave us behind."
"They'd miss us directly," said Jack. "Their boat would go so much
faster."
"Couldn't go faster than she is. Why, Jack, it must be a clever canoe
that can beat us."
"Goes too fast to please me," whispered the man at the first
opportunity. "Strikes me, Mr Jack, that one of these times when they
swing over to the left so they'll drag us under, so that our boat will
fill and go down; and if we do, what about that there pig?"
"What pig?" said Jack wonderingly.
"Why, you know, sir, close in there as we came along. If there's things
in this water that can pull down pigs, won't they be likely to pull down
us?"
"There's plenty of real trouble to think about," said Jack quietly,
"without our trying to make out imaginary ones. The boat will not
fill."
"Eh? what's that?" said the doctor; "this boat fill? Oh no; she rides
over the water like a cork. Can't see anything of the enemy, Jack; the
spray along the reef makes a regular curtain, and shuts off everything.
I hope it hides us well from our black friends, for I don't want to get
into a row of that kind. Well, Ned, if it comes to the worst, do you
think you can manage a gun?"
"Cleaned Sir John's guns often enough, sir."
"Yes, but can you shoot?"
"That means holding the gun straight, sir, and pulling the trigger. Oh
yes, sir; I can do that."
"That isn't shooting: you have to hit."
"So I suppose, sir; but some of the governor's friends, who come down in
September and October, go shooting in his preserves and over the farms,
but they don't always hit anything."
"But you will try if we want you, eh?"
"Yes, sir, if the governor orders me. And what about a cutlass? Can
you handle that, do you think?"
"Don't see why not, sir. I'm pretty handy with a carving-knife, both
with meat and on the knifeboard."
"Well," said the doctor gravely, "I hope we shall not have to come to
anything of that kind, for all our sakes."
"How long will it take us to get back?" said Jack, after a silence,
during which the thoughts of the danger seemed to be chased away by the
beauty of the shore along which they glided.
"Hours yet," said the doctor. "This wind will not last. If it would,
we might be there before the canoes."
Very few greetings passed between the two boats, for every one engaged
in the race seemed in deadly earnest. There was the possibility of the
people proving to be friendly, but as in all probability these great
sea-going canoes belonged to a fighting fleet upon some raiding
expedition, the hope in the direction of peace was not great.
About half of the way had been accomplished, when, as Jack sat watching
the foaming waves break upon the reef, he caught sight of something
misty and weird-looking apparently just on the other side, but it was
too undefined for its nature to be made out.
He pointed it out to the doctor, who gave his opinion directly.
"One of the canoes," he said. "That's good, Jack. It shows that they
have not distanced us."
A hail from the mate told them that they too had sighted the canoe from
the boat in front; but though they gazed long and watchfully, they saw
no more.
Not long after the wind dropped suddenly, came again, and then fell
altogether, the appearances being so marked that the mate had the sails
lowered, and stowed after the oars had been going for some time, and now
they made out from the boat astern that Mr Bartlett had divided his
crew into two watches, one rowing hard while the other rested.
It was all plain enough to those astern that everything was admirably
arranged, so that the well-drilled men shifted their places without any
confusion or difference in the speed of the boat, the men changing one
at a time.
And so the afternoon wore on.
"We shall be no sooner," said Jack at last. "In an hour it will be
dark."
"Yes," said the doctor with a sigh. "It would not matter if the blacks
are not there first, but the worst of it is, as soon as it's dusk the
captain will be lighting up that firework business for a beacon, and
that will show the canoes where to steer."
It proved just as he said. The darkness came on with awful rapidity as
soon as the sun disappeared beneath the waves, all searching the edge of
the reef most anxiously during the last rays which flooded the sea; but
in vain; and then for a full hour they rowed steadily on, guided by the
gleaming of the fireflies against the black darkness ashore, but all at
once a bright star shone out.
"There she is!" cried Jack excitedly. "Look how Mr Bartlett has turned
the boat's head straight for the light."
"Yes; we shall follow the bright path straight away now," said the
doctor.
"How are you getting on there?" came from the boat in front. "Hungry,
or will you wait till we get on board?"
"We'll wait, father," shouted Jack.
"Yes. Only half-an-hour now. Mr Bartlett thinks we've distanced the
canoes."
They were soon to learn for certain, as they followed the bright path of
light which minute by minute grew clearer, till they could see as it
were right up to the anchored yacht.
"Shall we hail the captain?" said Jack.
He had hardly spoken when he felt a jar run through the boat, and found
that the towing-line had been hauled upon till the prow of the second
boat touched the stern of the first.
"Hist there!" said the mate. "Perfect silence, please. We must creep
alongside so as to give warning. There must be no hailing. This is the
most dangerous time."
"How far are we away?" said the doctor in a whisper.
"About five hundred yards."
"How is it the oars go so quietly now?" whispered Jack.
"Muffled, and the men are just dipping them, so as to keep a fair way
on."
The next two or three minutes were passed in silence, Jack's boat having
once more dropped astern to the full length of the rope.
The lad had risen to stand up and watch the line of light extending from
them right up to the source of the rays ahead, and from his position he
could look right over the foremost boat.
"How deceptive it is!" he thought. "One can hardly tell how near we
are, and--ah!--"
"What is it, boy?" whispered the doctor.
For answer Jack pointed right ahead to where something dark could be
seen crossing the line of sight.
"One of the canoes," said the doctor quickly. "We shall be right aboard
her."
He crept forward, but Jack forestalled him, and was hauling in the line
till they wore close up.
"Mr Bartlett--father!"
"Yes; what is it?"
"You are rowing right into one of the canoes."