"Ah-e! Ah-e! Ah-e!"
A loud peculiar call, followed by a repetition from a distance, too long
after to be a reverberation, though strange echoes had been heard from
far up the mountain when a shot was fired well down in one or other of
the ravines which scored the slopes of the volcano.
There was a pause of a few minutes, another cry came again, and was
answered or echoed.
The first time it had no effect whatever upon Jack, who lay upon his
back fast asleep, in the deep slumber which comes to the hungry after
that hunger has been appeased.
But there was the strange instinct of self-preservation awake in the
lad, and that had started into watchfulness, though the body remained
inert, and when the cry was repeated the body was warned, and Jack
aroused into wakefulness, feeling, he knew not why, that something was
wrong.
It was close upon sunset, and the cap of the mountain glowed once more
as if it had burst into eruption, but all was perfectly still save the
whistling and shrieking of birds at a distance.
He did not move, but turned his eyes toward where Ned lay snoring
softly; then he cast his eyes toward the fire, which was apparently
quite out, but the next moment the soft sea-breeze came with a gentle
puff, and the embers glowed faintly, showing that with a little tending
there was enough left to revive the blaze again.
The silence in face of that wondrous glow overhead was oppressive, and
the feeling of danger at hand seemed to grow, and then began to die out,
for there was nothing visible, till all at once a peculiarity close up
by the glowing wood ashes took the lad's attention, and then he
shuddered slightly, for there, evidently attracted by the warmth, toward
which they had crawled, were several snakes, with the possibility of
there being more which he could not see. For the most part they were
small, but a part of the coil of one showed that its owner must be as
thick as his arm, and beyond lay in a kind of double S one that was far
larger.
Then all at once there came the peculiar cry which had awakened him, and
it had hardly died out when it was answered from the edge of the forest
beyond the opening, at one side of which they lay.
"All right, Mr Jack, sir," said Ned in a muttering, ill-used tone.
"We'll toddle on now. Needn't be so hard on a fellow. Only just closed
my eyes."
Jack turned his head to the speaker, but Ned had not stirred, and after
a momentary glance in the direction from which the call had come--
evidently the ravine leading down to the sea--he rolled over three
times, and brought himself close enough to touch his companion. But in
the act of turning he felt something move, there was a sharp struggling,
and a snake glided from beneath him hissing angrily, and he turned cold
at the thought that another of the dangerous creatures had been sleeping
coiled up closely to him for warmth.
Worse still, the hissing and rustling had startled those by the fire.
Two malignant heads suddenly started up a few inches, and there was that
peculiar gliding of coils in which the same serpent seems to be going in
several directions at once.
For a few minutes Jack lay perfectly still, feeling as if he were
yielding to that peculiar fear which paralyses in the presence of a
serpent. But he closed his eyes, set his teeth hard, and remained
motionless, mentally combating the sensation of horror and mastered it.
While upon unclosing his eyes and looking in the direction of the fire,
he saw that the coiling and uncoiling had ceased, and the raised heads
had been lowered as if to resume the interrupted sleep.
Jack felt that action was the best safeguard against the horrible,
paralysing sensation, and softly passing his hand along till he could
touch Ned's face, he tapped his cheek sharply.
"Don't!"
He tapped again.
"I'm awake, I tell you. Guv'nors' call?"
"Ned!--Ned!"
"Eh? yes!--all right. That you, Mr Jack?"
"Yes. Hush!" whispered the lad. "Don't move; don't raise a hand.
Listen. Are you quite awake?"
"Yes, sir. What's the matter?"
"We're in danger, Ned."
"Yes, sir, I knew that before I shut my eyes; but it was no use to
holloa about it. What is it now?"
The call was repeated and answered before Jack spoke.
"Oh, that's it, is it, sir?" said Ned quietly. "Pretty creatures.
After us again, eh? Well, if we lie still they won't see us, and--yes--
shadow's rising on the mountain, it will be dark directly. All we've
got to do is to make out which way they go, and then go the other, so
the sooner they show the better for us--I mean before it gets dark.
Such a stupid place too; there ain't no evening, it's dark directly."
"There's more danger, Ned," whispered Jack.
"Eh? what, ain't that enough, sir? Well, what is it?"
"Turn your head very gently, so that you can look at the fire."
"Yes, sir.--Well, it's out."
"Don't you see anything there?"
"Whoo!" ejaculated the man in a tone full of horror, "snakes, hundreds
of 'em! Oh, we mustn't stand that, sir; they're waiting till it's cool
enough, so as to get our 'taters."
"Nonsense: after the warmth. Now you see, Ned. What's to be done?"