THE perplexity into which Hazel was thrown by the outburst of his
companion rendered him unable to reduce her demand at once to an
intelligible form. For some moments he seriously employed his mind on the
problem until it assumed this shape.
Firstly: I do not know where this island is, having no means of
ascertaining either its latitude or longitude.
Secondly: If I had such a description of its locality, how might the news
be conveyed beyond the limits of the place?
As the wildness of Helen's demand broke upon his mind, he smiled sadly,
and sat down upon the bank of the little river, near his boat-house, and
buried his head in his hands. A deep groan burst from him, and the tears
at last came through his fingers, as in despair he thought how vain must
be any effort to content or to conciliate her. Impatient with his own
weakness he started to his feet, when a hand was laid gently upon his
arm. She stood beside him.
"Mr. Hazel," she said hurriedly--her voice was husky--"do not mind what I
have said. I am unreasonable; and I am sure I ought to feel obliged to
you for all the--"
Hazel turned his face toward her, and the moon glistened on the tears
that still flowed down his cheeks. He tried to check the utterance of her
apology; but, ere he could master his voice, the girl's cold and
constrained features seemed to melt. She turned away, wrung her hands,
and, with a sharp, quivering cry, she broke forth:
"Oh, sir! oh, Mr. Hazel! do forgive me. I am not ungrateful, indeed,
indeed, I am not; but I am mad with despair. Judge me with compassion. At
this moment, those who are very, very dear to me are awaiting my arrival
in London; and, when they learn the loss of the _Proserpine,_ how great
will be their misery! Well, that misery is added to mine. Then my poor
papa. He will never know how much he loved me until this news reaches
him. And to think that I am dead to them, yet living! living here
helplessly, helplessly. Dear, dear Arthur, how you will suffer for my
sake! Oh, papa, papa! shall I never see you again?" and she wept
bitterly.
"I am helpless either to aid or to console you, Miss Rolleston. By the
act of a Divine Providence you were cast upon this desolate shore, and by
the same Will I was appointed to serve and to provide for your welfare. I
pray God that He will give me health and strength to assist you.
Good-night."
She looked timidly at him for a moment, then slowly regained her hut. He
had spoken coldly and with dignity. She felt humbled, the more so that he
had only bowed his acknowledgment to her apology.
For more than an hour she watched him, as he paced up and down between
the boat-house and the shore; then he advanced a little toward her
shelter, and she shrank into her bed, after gently closing the door. In a
few moments she crept again to peep forth, and to see if he were still
there; but he had disappeared.
The following morning Helen was surprised to see the boat riding at
anchor in the surf, and Hazel busily engaged on her trim. He was soon on
shore, and by her side.
"I am afraid I must leave you for a day, Miss Rolleston," he said. "I
wish to make a circuit of the island; indeed I ought to have done so many
days ago."
"Is such an expedition necessary? Surely you have had enough of the sea."
"It is very necessary. You have urged me to undertake this enterprise.
You see, it is the first step toward announcing to all passing vessels
our presence in this place. I have commenced operations already. See on
yonder bluff, which I have called Telegraph Point, I have mounted the
boat's ensign, and now it floats from the top of the tree beside the
bonfire. I carried it there at sunrise. Do you see that pole I have
shipped on board the boat? That is intended as a signal, which shall be
exhibited on your great palm-tree. The flag will then stand for a signal
on the northern coast, and the palm-tree, thus accoutered, will serve for
a similar purpose on the western extremity of the island. As I pass along
the southern and eastern shores, I propose to select spots where some
mark can be erected, such as may be visible to ships at sea."
"But will they remark such signals?"
"Be assured they will, if they come within sight of the place."
Hazel knew that there was little chance of such an event; but it was
something not to be neglected. He also explained that it was necessary he
should arrive at a knowledge of the island, the character of its shores;
and from the sea he could rapidly obtain a plan of the place, ascertain
what small rivers there might be, and, indeed, see much of its interior;
for he judged it to be not more than ten miles in length, and scarce
three in width.
Helen felt rather disappointed that no trace of the emotion he displayed
on the previous night remained in his manner or in the expression of his
face. She bowed her permission to him rather haughtily, and sat down to
breakfast on some baked yams, and some rough oysters, which he had raked
up from the bay while bathing that morning. The young man had regained an
elasticity of hearing, an independence of tone, to which she was not at
all accustomed; his manners were always soft and deferential; but his
expression was more firm, and she felt that the reins had been gently
removed from her possession, and there was a will to guide her which she
was bound to acknowledge and obey.
She did not argue in this wise, for it is not human to reason and to feel
at the same moment. She felt then instinctively that the man was quietly
asserting his superiority, and the child pouted.
Hazel went about his work briskly; the boat was soon laden with every
requisite. Helen watched these preparations askance, vexed with the
expedition which she had urged him to make. Then she fell to reflecting
on the change that seemed to have taken place in her character; she, who
was once so womanly, so firm, so reasonable--why had she become so
petulant, childish, and capricious?
The sail was set, and all ready to run the cutter into the surf of the
rising tide, when, taking a sudden resolution, as it were, Helen came
rapidly down and said, "I will go with you, if you please," half in
command and half in doubt. Hazel looked a little surprised, but very
pleased; and then she added, "I hope I shall not be in your way."
He assured her, on the contrary, that she might be of great assistance to
him; and now with double alacrity he ran out the little vessel and leaped
into the prow as she danced over the waves. He taught her how to bring
the boat's head round with the help of an oar, and, when all was snug,
left her at the helm. On reaching the mouth of the bay, if it could so be
called, he made her remark that it was closed by reefs, except to the
north and to the west. The wind being southerly, he had decided to pass
to the west, and so they opened the sea about half a mile from the shore.
For about three miles they perceived it consisted of a line of bluffs,
cleft at intervals by small narrow bays, the precipitous sides of which
were lined with dense foliage. Into these fissures the sea entered with a
mournful sound, that died away as it crept up the yellow sands with which
these nooks were carpeted. An exclamation from Helen attracted his
attention to the horizon on the northwest, where a long line of breakers
glittered in the sun. A reef or low sandy bay appeared to exist in that
direction, about fifteen miles away, and something more than a mile in
length. As they proceeded, he marked roughly on the side of his tin
baler, with the point of a pin borrowed from Helen, the form of the coast
line.
An hour and a half brought them to the northwestern extremity of the
island. As they cleared the shelter of the land, the southerly breeze
coming with some force across the open sea caught the cutter, and she lay
over in a way to inspire Helen with alarm; she was about to let go the
tiller, when Hazel seized it, accidentally inclosing her hand under the
grasp of his own, as he pressed the tiller hard to port.
"Steady, please; don't relinquish your hold; it is all right--no fear,"
he cried, as he kept his eye on their sail.
He held this course for a mile or more, and then, judging with a long
tack he could weather the southerly side of the island he put the boat
about. He took occasion to explain to Helen how this operation was
necessary, and she learned the alphabet of navigation. The western end of
their little land now lay before them; it was about three miles in
breadth. For two miles the bluff coast line continued unbroken; then a
deep bay, a mile in width and two miles in depth, was made by a long
tongue of sand projecting westerly; on its extremity grew the gigantic
palm, well recognized as Helen's landmark. Hazel stood up in the boat to
reconnoiter the coast. He perceived the sandy shore was dotted with
multitudes of dark objects. Ere long, these objects were seen to be in
motion, and, pointing them out to Helen, with a smile, he said:
"Beware, Miss Rolleston, yonder are your bugbears--and in some force,
too. Those dark masses, moving upon the hillocks of sand, or rolling on
the surf, are sea-lions--the _phoca leonina,_ or lion-seal."
Helen strained her eyes to distinguish the forms, but only descried the
dingy objects. While thus engaged, she allowed the cutter to fall off a
little, and, ere Hazel had resumed his hold upon the tiller, they were
fairly in the bay; the great palm-tree on their starboard bow.
"You seem determined to make the acquaintance of your nightmares," he
remarked; "you perceive that we are embayed."
Her consternation amused him; she saw that, if they held their present
course, the cutter would take the beach about a mile ahead, where these
animals were densely crowded.
At this moment, something dark bulged up close beside her in the sea, and
the rounded back of a monster rolled over and disappeared. Hazel let drop
the sail, for they were now fairly in the smooth water of the bay, and
close to the sandy spit; the gigantic stem of the palm-tree was on their
quarter, about half a mile off.
He took to the oars, and rowed slowly toward the shore. A small seal rose
behind the boat and followed them, playing with the blade, its gambols
resembling that of a kitten. He pointed out to Helen the mild expression
of the creature's face and assured her that all this tribe were harmless
animals, and susceptible of domestication. The cub swam up to the boat
quite fearlessly, and he touched its head gently; he encouraged her to do
the like, but she shrank from its contact. They were now close ashore,
and Hazel, throwing out his anchor in two feet of water, prepared to land
the beam of wood he had brought to decorate the palm-tree as a signal.
The huge stick was soon heaved overboard, and he leaped after it. He
towed it to the nearest landing to the tree, and dragged it high up on
shore. Scarcely had he disposed it conveniently, intending to return in a
day or two, with the means of affixing it in a prominent and remarkable
manner, in the form of a spar across the trunk of the palm, when a cry
from Helen recalled him. A large number of the sea-lions were coasting
quietly down the surf toward the boat; indeed, a dozen of them had made
their appearance around it.
Hazel shouted to her not to fear, and, desiring that her alarm should not
spread to the swarm, he passed back quietly but rapidly. When he reached
the water, three or four of the animals were already floundering between
him and the boat. He waded slowly toward one of them, and stood beside
it. The man and the creature looked quietly at each other, and then the
seal rolled over, with a snuffling, self-satisfied air, winking its soft
eyes with immense complacency.
Helen, in her alarm, could not resist a smile at this conclusion of so
terrible a demonstration; for, with all their gentle expression, the
tusks of the brute looked formidable. But, when she saw Hazel pushing
them aside, and patting a very small cub on the back, she recovered her
courage completely.
Then he took to his oars again; and aided by the tide, which was now on
the ebb, he rowed round the southwestern extremity of the island. He
found the water here, as he anticipated, very shallow.
It was midday when they were fairly on the southern coast; and now,
sailing with the wind aft, the cutter ran through the water at racing
speed. Fearing that some reefs or rocky formations might exist in their
course, he reduced sail, and kept away from the shore about a mile. At
this distance he was better able to see inland, and mark down the
accident of its formation.
The southern coast was uniform, and Helen said it resembled the cliffs of
the Kentish or Sussex coast of England, only the English white was here
replaced by the pale volcanic gray. By one o'clock they came abreast the
very spot where they had first made land; and, as they judged, due south
of their residence. Had they landed here, a walk of three miles across
the center of the island would have brought them home.
For about a similar distance the coast exhibited monotonous cliffs
unbroken even by a rill. It was plain that the water-shed of the island
was all northward. They now approached the eastern end, where rose the
circular mountain of which mention has been already made. This eminence
had evidently at one time been detached from the rest of the land, to
which it was now joined by a neck of swamp about a mile and a half in
breadth, and two miles in length.
Hazel proposed to reconnoiter this part of the shore nearly, and ran the
boat close in to land. The reeds or canes with which this bog was densely
clothed grew in a dark, spongy soil. Here and there this waste was dotted
with ragged trees which he recognized as the cypress. From its gaunt
branches hung a black, funeral kind of weeper, a kind of moss resembling
iron-gray horse-hair both in texture and uses, though not so long in the
staple.
This parasite, Hazel explained to Helen, was very common in such marshy
ground, and was the death-flag hung out by Nature to warn man that
malaria and fever were the invisible and inalienable inhabitants of that
fatal neighborhood.
Looking narrowly along the low shore for some good landing, where under
shelter of a tree they might repose for an hour, and spread their midday
repast, they discovered an opening in the reeds, a kind of lagoon or
bayou, extending into the morass between the highlands of the island and
the circular mountain, but close under the base of the latter. This inlet
he proposed to explore, and accordingly the sail was taken down, and the
cutter was poled into the narrow creek. The water here was so shallow
that the keel slid over the quicksand into which the oar sank freely. The
creek soon became narrow, the water deeper, and of a blacker color, and
the banks more densely covered with canes. These grew to the height of
ten and twelve feet, and as close as wheat in a thick crop. The air felt
dank and heavy, and hummed with myriads of insects. The black water
became so deep and the bottom so sticky that Hazel took to the oars
again. The creek narrowed as they proceeded, until it proved scarcely
wide enough to admit of his working the boat. The height of the reeds
hindered the view on either side. Suddenly, however, and after proceeding
very slowly through the bends of the canal, they decreased in height and
density, and they emerged into an open space of about five acres in
extent, a kind of oasis in this reedy desert, created by a mossy mound
which arose amid the morass, and afforded firm footing, of which a grove
of trees and innumerable shrubs availed themselves. Helen uttered an
exclamation of delight as this island of foliage in a sea of reeds met
her eyes, that had been famished with the arid monotony of the brake.
They soon landed.
Helen insisted on the preparations for their meal being left to her, and,
having selected a sheltered spot, she was soon busy with their frugal
food. Hazel surveyed the spot, and, selecting a red cedar, was soon
seated forty feet above her head, making a topographical survey of the
neighborhood. He found that the bayou by which they had entered continued
its course to the northern shore, thus cutting off the mountain or
easterly end, and forming of it a separate island. He saw that a quarter
of a mile farther on the bayou or canal parted, forming two streams, of
which that to the left seemed the main channel. This he determined to
follow. Turning to the west, that is, toward their home, he saw at a
distance of two miles a crest of hills broken into cliffs, which defined
the limit of the mainland. The sea had at one time occupied the site
where the morass now stood. These cliffs formed a range extending from
north to south. Their precipitous sides, clothed here and there with
trees, marked where the descent was broken by platforms. Between him and
this range the morass extended. Hazel took note of three places where the
descent from these hills into the marsh could, he believed, most readily
be made.
On the eastern side and close above him arose the peculiar mountain. Its
form was that of a truncated cone, and its sides densely covered with
trees of some size.
The voice of Helen called him from his perch, and he descended quickly,
leaping into a mass of brushwood growing at the foot of his tree. Helen
stood a few yards from him, in admiration, before a large shrub.
"Look, Mr. Hazel, what a singular production," said the girl, as she
stooped to examine the plant. It bore a number of red flowers, each
growing out of a fruit like a prickly pear. These flowers were in various
stages; some were just opening like tulips, others, more advanced, had
expanded like umbrellas, and quite overlapped the fruit, keeping it from
sun and dew; others had served their turn in that way, and been withered
by the sun's rays. But, wherever this was the case, the fruit had also
burst open and displayed or discharged its contents, and those contents
looked like seeds; but on narrower inspection proved to be little insects
with pink transparent wings, and bodies of incredibly vivid crimson.
Hazel examined the fruit and flowers very carefully, and stood rapt,
transfixed.
"It must be!--and it is!" said he, at last. "Well, I'm glad I've not died
without seeing it."
"What is it?" said she.
"One of the most valuable productions of the earth. It is cochineal. This
is the Tunal tree."
"Oh, indeed," said Helen, indifferently. "Cochineal is used for a dye;
but as it is not probable we shall require to dye anything, the discovery
seems to me more curious than useful."
"You wanted some ink. This pigment, mixed with lime-juice, will form a
beautiful red ink. Will you lend me your handkerchief and permit me to
try if I have forgotten the method by which these little insects are
obtained?" He asked her to hold her handkerchief under a bough of the
Tunal tree, where the fruit was ripe. He then shook the bough. Some
insects fell at once into the cloth. A great number rose and buzzed a
little in the sun not a yard from where they were born; but the sun dried
their blood so promptly that they soon fell dead in the handkerchief.
Those that the sun so killed went through three phases of color before
their eyes. They fell down black or nearly. They whitened on the cloth;
and after that came gradually to their final color, a flaming crimson.
The insect thus treated appeared the most vivid of all.
They soon secured about half a teacupful; they were rolled up and put
away, then they sat down and made a very hearty meal, for it was now past
two o'clock. They re-entered the boat, and, passing once more into the
morass, they found the channel of the bayou as it approached the northern
shore less difficult of navigation. The bottom became sandy and hard, and
the presence of trees in the swamp proved that spots of _terra firma_
were more frequent. But the water shallowed, and, as they opened the
shore, he saw with great vexation that the tide in receding had left the
bar at the mouth of the canal visible in some parts. He pushed on,
however, until the boat grounded. This was a sad affair. There lay the
sea not fifty yards ahead. Hazel leaped out, and examined and forded the
channel, which at this place was about two hundred feet wide. He found a
narrow passage near the eastern side, and to this he towed the boat. Then
he begged Miss Rolleston to land, and relieved the boat of the mast,
sail, and oars. Thus lightened, he dragged her into the passage; but the
time occupied in these preparations had been also occupied by Nature--the
tide had receded, and the cutter stuck immovably in the waterway, about
six fathoms short of deeper water.
"What is to be done now?" inquired Helen, when Hazel returned to her
side, panting, but cheerful.
"We must await the rising of the tide. I fear we are imprisoned here for
three hours at least."
There was no help for it. Helen made light of the misfortune. The spot
where they had landed was inclosed between the two issues of the lagoon.
They walked along the shore to the more easterly and the narrower canal,
and, on arriving, Hazel found to his great annoyance that there was ample
water to have floated the cutter had he selected that, the least
promising road. He suggested a return by the road they came, and, passing
into the other canal, by that to reach the sea. They hurried back, but
found by this time the tide had left the cutter high and dry on the sand.
So they had no choice but to wait.
Having three hours to spare, Hazel asked Miss Rolleston's permission to
ascend the mountain. She assented to remain near the boat while he was
engaged in this expedition. The ascent was too rugged and steep for her
powers, and the sea-shore and adjacent groves would find her ample
amusement during his absence. She accompanied him to the bank of the
smaller lagoon, which he forded, and waving an adieu to her he plunged
into the dense wood with which the sides of the mountain were clothed.
She waited some time, and then she heard his voice shouting to her from
the heights above. The mountain-top was about three-quarters of a mile
from where she stood, but seemed much nearer. She turned back toward the
boat, walking slowly, but paused as a faint and distant cry again reached
her ear. It was not repeated, and then she entered the grove.
The ground beneath her feet was soft with velvety moss, and the dark
foliage of the trees rendered the air cool and deliciously fragrant.
After wandering for some time, she regained the edge of the grove near
the boat, and selecting a spot at the foot of an aged cypress, she sat
down with her back against its trunk. Then she took out Arthur's letter,
and began to read those impassioned sentences; as she read she sighed
deeply, as earnestly she found herself pitying Arthur's condition more
than she regretted her own. She fell into reverie, and from reverie into
a drowsy languor. How long she remained in this state she could not
remember, but a slight rustle overhead recalled her senses. Believing it
to be a bird moving in the branches, she was resigning herself again to
rest, when she became sensible of a strange emotion--a conviction that
something was watching her with a fixed gaze. She cast her eyes around,
but saw nothing. She looked upward. From the tree immediately above her
lap depended a snake, its tail coiled around a dead branch. The reptile
hung straight, its eyes fixed like two rubies upon Helen's, as very
slowly it let itself down by its uncoiling tail. Now its head was on a
level with hers; in another moment it must drop into her lap.
She was paralyzed.