Mr Rimmer gave way, and a few days after an expedition was made to try
once more to mount right up to the mouth of the crater. Taking
advantage of what had been learned in former expeditions, the little
party followed their last plan, rowed beyond the poisonous mist, landed,
and after securing the boat as before, they made for the old camp,
reached it and spent a delightful evening watching the faint glow upon
the cloud which hovered over the mouth of the crater, and then gazed at
the scintillating fire-flies, which upon this occasion made the low
growth at the edge of the forest below them alive with sparkling lights.
Long before daylight they were on their way, with the air feeling cold
and numbing as they climbed the loose ash and cinders which formed the
slope. The great cracks in the mountain-side were successfully passed,
and by sunrise they were high enough up to get a glorious view over the
island, while a couple of hours after, a point was reached which enabled
them to trace the greater part of the coast line and learn by the
barrier reef with its white foam that without doubt they were upon an
island.
"Now, then," cried Panton, after a brief halt for refreshment, "how long
do you say it will take us?"
"Two hours," said Oliver, gazing up at the remainder of the slope, and
thinking of how quiescent the volcano was: for save an occasional
trembling or vibration under foot, all seemed still.
"One hour at the most," said Drew. "Come on."
"I say the same," cried Panton. "Come on."
Oliver proved to be nearest as to time, for they all referred to their
watches when the above words were spoken, and again, when, after a long
weary scramble over the yielding ashes, from which came breathings of
hot, stifling air.
"Two hours, forty minutes," cried Drew. "I couldn't have thought it."
The hot, gaseous emanations had really seemed to be like breathings, and
as they neared the top, they were conscious, as they paused again and
again, of the mountain seeming to pant and utter sounds like weary
sighs.
As they mounted higher, the heat began to grow suffocating, and it was
at last so bad that Smith and Wriggs pulled up short and looked hard at
their leaders.
"Well?" cried Oliver.
"Think it safe to go any furder, sir?" said Smith.
"Safe or no, we mean to get to the top now we've mounted so high. Why
do you ask? Want to stop?"
"Well, sir, you see Billy Wriggs been thinking for some time as it was
getting werry dangerous, and he'd like to go down."
"Speak the truth, Tommy, speak the truth," growled Wriggs.
"Why, I am speaking the truth, Billy," cried Smith, in angry
remonstrance. "Didn't you say over and over again as it was werry
dangerous?"
"Nay, I said it was dangerous, I didn't say werry."
"Oh, well, that's nigh enough for me, messmate."
"You two had better stay here while we go to the top," said Oliver,
quietly. "Ready, you others?"
"Yes," said Panton. "Forward," and they started upward again, but
stopped directly, for the two sailors were trudging up close behind
them.
"I thought you two were going to stop back," cried Oliver.
"Not me," said Smith. "Billy Wriggs can, if he likes."
"What?" cried the latter, "and let you get puffin' and blowin' about
havin' done my dags. Not me, Tommy, old man. I'm a-goin' right up to
the top, and I'll go as far inside as he will, gen'lemen."
"Come along, then," cried Oliver, and the slow trudge, trudge was
resumed in zig-zags, till Smith halted once more, and stood wiping his
steaming face.
"Beg pardon, sir," he said, "but if you look uppards, you can see as the
smoke hangs over toward us."
"Yes, what of that?" said Oliver.
"Well, that means wind, though we can't feel none. Wouldn't it be best,
'stead o' doublin' back, if we was to go right on now, so as to get
higher and higher, and more round to windward?"
"I'm afraid that it will be the same all about the mouth of the crater,"
said Panton, "but we'll try."
It was a simple expedient that they ought to have thought of before, and
Smith proved to be correct, for as they wound on slowly upwards the heat
grew greater, but they began to be aware of soft puffs of wind, and at
the end of another half-hour, they had climbed to where a steady soft
current of cool air blew against them. This made the final part of the
toilsome ascent so bearable that as they reached a glistening vitreous
stream of greyish hue which looked as if the crater had brimmed over and
poured down this molten matter, Oliver leaped upon it and ran for a
couple of hundred yards. Then he disappeared suddenly, and horrified
the rest, who followed as fast as they could go.
But there was no cause of alarm. As they reached the top of the slope
there stood their companion some twenty feet below them on the rugged,
jagged and fissured slope of the crater gazing down at a dull glistening
lake of molten matter, but so covered with a grey scum that it was only
from time to time that a crack appeared, out of which darted a glare so
bright that it was visible in the full sunshine, while a tremendous glow
struck upon their faces, making their eyes smart as they gazed at the
transparent quivering gas which rose up from the molten mass.
A stronger breeze was blowing here, bearing the heat away, otherwise it
would have been unbearable, and they made their way on the chaos of
cindery rock which lay about in blocks riven and split in every form,
some glazed by the glass of the mighty natural furnace, some of a clear
vesicular silvery grey, while a hundred yards or so distant and about
fifty lower than where they stood, the lake of molten matter lay about
circular and apparently half a mile across. The rim of the gigantic cup
which from below had looked so regular was now seen to be broken into a
thousand cracks and crevices, some going right down through the greyish
ash and pumice nearly to the edge of the lake.
No one spoke, it was as if they were too much stricken by awe, as they
gazed at this outlet of the earth's inner fires, wondering at the way in
which solid rock was turned by the intensity of the heat into a fluid
which now in places they could see was in a state of ebullition, and
formed rings flowing away from the boiling centre like so much water.
Then, all at once, as if moved by the same set of nerves, they all
turned and fled, for without the slightest warning, a part of the lake
shot up some fifty feet in the air, like some great geyser, but instead
of boiling water it was fluid rock of dazzling brightness even in the
sunshine. Then it fell with a sound of hideous splashing, and as they
turned to gaze back there was a little rising and falling, and then all
was still once more, and the surface rapidly scummed over and grew
silvery and dull.
"I wouldn't have missed this for anything," cried Panton, breaking the
silence as they stood watching the lake, and then, amid many expressions
of wonder and awe at the grandness of the scene, they began to make
their way along the well-defined rim of the crater. But slowly, for
inside there was not a level space, all being a chaos of riven and
scattered masses of slag, obsidian, and scoria, ragged, sharp and in
part glazed by the fluid rock.
"It aren't what I thought it would be, Mr Oliver Lane, sir," said
Smith, scraping the perspiration from his face with a thin piece of the
obsidian which he had picked up, while Wriggs followed his example for a
few moments and then threw his piece down.
"What did you expect?" said Oliver.
"On'y a big hole, sir, running right down into the middle o' the world;
and I thought we should be able to see into the works."
"Works! What works, man!" said Oliver, smiling.
"Why, them as makes the world turn round; for it do turn round, don't
it?"
"Of course, but not from any cause within."
"I say, Tommy, mind what yer at with that there bit o' stuff," growled
Wriggs.
"Why?"
"It's sharp as ragers. I've cut my cheek."
"Sarve yer right for being so clumsy. You should use it like this
here."
"Well, I did, matey."
"I'm blest!" cried Smith, throwing down the piece of volcanic glass, and
dabbing at his nose, whose side was bleeding slightly.
"Cut yoursen?"
"Ay: didn't know it was so sharp as that."
Wriggs chuckled heartily, and the little party moved on as well as they
could for the great fissures about the rim, some of which went down into
profound depths, from whence rose up strange hissings and whisperings of
escaping gases, and breathings of intensely hot air.
There was so much to see, that they would willingly have gone on trying
to follow the edge all round, but before long they had warnings that the
whole of one side was impassable from the vapours rising from the
various fuming rifts, and that it would be madness to proceed; and at
last as Panton was pressing his friends to persevere for a few yards
farther, they had what Smith called "notice to quit," in a change of the
wind that wafted a scorching heat toward them, which, had they not fled
over the side and down the outer slope for a short distance, would have
proved fatal.
It was only temporary, though, for the fresh cool air came again, and
they stopped, hesitating about returning.
"We ought to have thought of it sooner," said Panton.
"Never mind, I'll climb back to yonder," said Oliver, pointing. "That
seems to be the highest point. Come with me, Smith," and he began to
climb the ascent once more, closely followed by the sailor.
"Whatcher going to do, sir?" cried the man, as Oliver took out what
seemed to be a good-sized gold watch.
"You'll soon see," replied Oliver, as he toiled upward.
"But can't yer see what's o'clock down where they is, sir, just as well
as up yonder?"
Oliver laughed, and kept on making for a conical rock needle, evidently
the remaining portion of a mass of the crater edge when it was fifty
feet or so higher, and being wider had remained, when other portions
were blasted away by the terrific explosions which had occurred.
"Yer not going to climb up atop there, are yer, sir?" said Smith.
"Yes, you stay below," said Oliver. Finding that, as he had expected,
it was an intensely hard miniature mountain of vitrified scoria, and
tolerably easy of ascent, he began to climb.
"He aren't my orsifer," muttered Smith, "and I shan't stop back. I
should look well if he had an accident. So here goes."
As Oliver mounted, he climbed after him, till they stood together, right
on the conical pinnacle, with only just room for them to remain erect,
the great boiling crater below on one side, the glorious view of the
fairy-like isle, with its ring of foam around, and the vivid blue
lagoon, circling the emerald green of the coast. There it all was
stretched out with glorious clearness, and so exquisite, that for a few
moments Oliver was entranced.
Then the fairy-like vision became commonplace, and Oliver started back
to everyday life, for Smith said gruffly,--
"Better see what's o'clock, and come down, sir, for that there big pot's
a-going to boil over again."
Even as he spoke there was a roar, a great gush upward of fiery fluid,
and a sensation of intense heat, while the pinnacle upon which they
stood literally rocked and threatened to fall.
"Quick! get down," said Oliver, taking out the watch-like object once
more, glancing at it, and then replacing it in his vest.
"Comin' too, sir?"
"Yes, all right; five thousand nine hundred feet."
Smith stared, but went on descending, followed by Oliver, while the glow
shed upon them was for a few moments unbearable. Then the huge fountain
of molten rock ceased playing, the glow scorched them no longer, and
they scrambled and slid down in safety to where their friends were
waiting, and commenced their descent after taking their bearings as well
as they could.
"What did you make it?"
"Just over five thousand nine hundred."
"And we've got nearly all that distance to go down," said Drew. "I'm
tired already."
But there was no help for it, and they toiled on down among the crevices
in safety, and finally reached the brig, but not till close upon
midnight, rejoicing, in spite of their weariness, upon a great feat
achieved.
"But it caps me, that it do," said Smith in the forecastle.
"What does?"
"Why, for that Mr Oliver Lane. I knows as we say they gents has got
tools for everything, but I never knowed as there was watches made as
could tell yer the time and how high up yer are all at once. Well,
there is, and I see it all, and it's quite right. I mean to have one of
them watches, and I asked Mr Oliver Lane about 'em. He says you can
buy 'em in London for thrippenten apiece, and I think he says as they
was made by a woman, Mrs Annie Royd, but I aren't quite sure."
"But yer can't afford to give thrippenten for one of they things,"
growled Wriggs.
"How do you know, matey? Mebbe I can, my lad."
"What yer want it for?"
"See how high yer are up when yer climbs mountains. I mean to say it
would be grand."
"Ah, well, I don't want one o' them," said Wriggs, thoughtfully.
"What do you want, then?"
"One o' them things as yer looks through into a drop a' water and sees
as what yer drinks is all alive."
"Not you," said Smith, contemptuously; "what you wants is plenty more
water in big tanks in our hold, and if I was Mr Rimmer, cap'en of this
here ship, I should make some, and keep 'em full."
"What for? Swimmin' baths?"
"Swimmin' great-grandmothers," growled Smith, contemptuously. "No, my
lad, I've got a sort o' sentiment as one o' these days the niggers'll
come and catch us on the hop, and if so be as they do, and we keep 'em
from gettin' in here, do you know what it'll be?"
"Stickin' knives and harrers in us, if they can."
"No," said Smith, laying his hand upon his companion's shoulder and
placing his lips to his ear, with the result that Wriggs started away
with his face looking of an unpleasant clay colour.
"Think so, mate?" he gasped.
"Ay, that I do, Billy. They will as sure as a gun." Oddly enough, just
about the same time as the two sailors were holding this conversation, a
chat was going on in the cabin respecting the lugger and how to get her
launched. Like Smith, the mate seemed to be suffering from a
"sentiment," and he was talking very seriously.
"I did not see it before," he said, "but it all shows what noodles we
are when we think ourselves most clever."
"Interpret," said Panton; "your words are too obscure."
"I mean about the lugger," said the mate. "I went well all over it in
my mind before I began her, and saw that it would be much easier to
build her here where everything was handy than to carry the materials
down to the edge of the lagoon."
"Of course," said Oliver. "That would have been very awkward, for the
men would have had to go to and fro morning and evening."
"But," said Panton, "a hut might have been run up for them to sleep in."
"Which means dividing a force already too weak. If the blacks make
another serious attack upon us we shall have enough to do to hold our
own here together, without having part of us defending a flimsy hut,
which they would serve at once as they will us here if we don't take
very great care."
"Eh? How?" said Oliver, startled by the mate's manner.
"Burn us out as sure as we're alive."