"I could scarce believe it wasn't a dream still, when, having been
called half-an-hour after daybreak, I first saw the change in the
appearance of things all about us. The horizon lay round as clear as
heart could wish--not a speck in sight save the little dingy islets at a
distance; the broad blue ocean sparkling far away on one side, and the
water to windward, in the direction we had come, showing the same
brownish tint we had seen the day before, while it took the island
before us in its bight, and turned off eastward with the breeze till it
spread against the open sky. The top of the land was high enough to shut
out the sea-line, and being low water at the time, it was plain enough
now why Jones wished to keep the white streaks overnight; for, where the
dingy-coloured ripples melted on the other side towards the blue, you
could see by the spots of foam, and the greenish breaks here and there
in the surface, that all that coast of the island was one network of
shoals and reefs, stretching out you didn't know how wide. White-water
Island, in fact, was merely the head of them--the milky stream that had
so startled us just washing round the deep end of it, and edging fair
along the side of the reefs, with a few creeks sent in amongst them, as
it were, like feelers, ere it flowed the other way: we couldn't
otherwise have got so near as we were. But the island itself was the
sight to fasten you, as the lovely green of it shone out in the morning
sun, covering the most part of it close over, and tipping up beyond the
bare break where it was steepest, with a clump of tall cocoas shooting
every here and there out of the thick bush; indeed, there was apparently
a sort of split lengthways through the midst, where, upon only walking
to the schooner's bow, one could see the bright greenwood sinking down
to a hollow out of sight, under the clear gush of the breeze off a dark
blue patch of the sea that hung beyond it like a wedge.
"As the tide made over the long reefs, till the last line of surf on
them vanished, it went up the little sandy cove opposite us with a plash
on the beach that you could hear; the place was just what a sailor may
have had a notion of all his life, without exactly seeing it till then;
and though as yet one had but a rough guess of its size, why, it
couldn't be less than a couple of miles from end to end, with more than
that breadth, perhaps, at the low side toward the reefs. Not a soul
amongst the man-o'-war's men, I daresay, as they pressed together in the
schooner's bows to see into it, but would have taken his traps that
moment, if I'd told him, and gone ashore on the chance of passing his
days there; so it wasn't hard to conceive, from the state it seemed to
put their rough sunburnt faces in, honest as they looked, how a similar
fancy would work with Master Harry Foster, even if it tried his virtue a
little.
"I had no more doubt in my mind, by this time, of its being the fellow's
intended 'hermitage,' than I had of its being the same White-water
Island I had heard of myself, or the spot which Jones seemed to know so
well; 'twas likely the foremast-man had got an inkling of it somewhat in
the way I did; and, lying, as it happened to do, between no less than
three channels which the Indiaman might take, after dodging us in this
fashion round the long cluster of the Maldives, she couldn't make
north-westward again for the open sea without setting Foster and his
mates pretty well upon their trip.
"Indeed, if she were to eastward of the chain at present, as I was
greatly inclined to believe, the course of the breeze made it impossible
for her to do otherwise; but there was one thing always kept lurking
about my mind, like a cover to something far worse that I didn't
venture to dwell upon--namely, that Captain Finch might get wind of
their purpose, and drive them on another tack by knocking it on the
head, either at the time or beforehand, without the courage to settle
_them_. Nothing in the world would have pleased me better than to pounce
upon ugly Harry at his first breakfast ashore here; but the bare
horizon, and the quiet look of the island since ever we hove in sight of
it, showed this wasn't to be. At any rate, however, I was bent on seeing
how the land lay, and what sort of a place it was; so, accordingly, as
soon as the hands had got breakfast, Westwood and I at once pulled
ashore, with a boat's-crew well armed, to overhaul it. We found the
sandy beach covered, for a good way up, with a frothy slime that no
doubt came from the water on that side, with ever so many different
kinds of blubber, sea-jelly, starfish, and shell, while the rocky edge
round to windward was hung with weed that made the blocks below it seem
to rise out of every surge, like green-headed, white-bearded mermen
bathing. Glad enough we were to get out of the queer sulphury smell all
this stuff gave out in the heat, letting the men take every one his own
way into the bushes, which they enjoyed like so many schoolboys, and
making ourselves right for the highest point. Here we saw over, through
the cocoa-nut trees and wild trailing-plants below, down upon a broad
bushy level towards the reefs.
"It was far the widest way of the island; indeed making it apparently
several miles to go round to the different points; and as the men were
to hold right to windward, and meet again after beating the entire
ground, Westwood and I struck fair through amongst the tangle of wood,
to see the flat below.
"We roused out a good many small birds and paraquets, and several goats
could be noticed looking at us off the grassy bits of crag above the
trees, though they didn't seem to know what we were. As for most of the
wood, it was mainly such bushes and brush as thrive without water, with
a bright green flush of grass and plants after the rain at the monsoon,
the prickly pear creeping over the sandy parts, till we came on a track
where some spring or other apparently oozed down from the height,
soaking in little rank spots amongst the ground leaves, with here and
there a small rusty plash about the grass-blades, as if there were tar
or iron in it. Here there were taller trees of different kinds on both
sides, dwindling off into the lower bush, while, to my surprise, some of
them were such as you'd never have expected to meet with on an island of
the size, so far off the land--bananas, mangoes, a shaddock or two, and
a few more, common enough in India; though here they must evidently have
been planted, the cocoas being the only sort natural to the place, and
of them there were plenty below. Suddenly it led down into a shady
hollow, out of sight of the sea altogether, where we came on what seemed
to have been a perfect garden some time or other; there were two or
three large broad-leaved shaddock-trees, and one or two others, with a
heap of rubbish in the midst of the wild Indian corn and long grass,
some broken bamboo-stakes standing, besides a piece of plank scattered
here and there about the bushes.
"Right under the shade of the trees was a hole like the mouth of a
draw-well, more than brimful at the time with the water from the spring,
for, owing to the late rains, it made a pool close by the side, and went
trickling away down amongst the brushwood. Every twig and leaf grew
straight up or out, save in a narrow track toward the rising ground--no
doubt made by the goats, as we noticed the prints of their hoofs on the
wet mud. 'Twas evident no human being had been there for heaven knew how
long, since, by the care that had been taken with the place, it was
probably the only spring in the island--perhaps for leagues and leagues
round indeed. Trees, branches, green grass, and all--they had such a
still, moveless air under the heat and light, in the lee of the high
ground, with just a blue spot or two of the sea seen high up through the
sharp shaddock-leaves, and the cool-looking plash of water below them,
that Westwood and I sat down to wait till we heard the men. Still, there
was a terribly distinct, particular cast about the whole spot, which,
taken together with the ruin and confusion, as well as the notion of
Foster and his shipmates actually plotting to come there, gave one
almost an idea of the whole story beforehand, dim as that was--the
longer you looked the more horrid it seemed. Neither natives nor a
single man could have brought the different trees to the island, or
contrived a tank-well of the kind, seeing it was apparently deep enough
to supply a ship's casks, while at the same time I couldn't help
thinking someone had lived there since it was made, or perhaps much
used.
"By the space taken up with the hut that had been there, and the little
change in the wild state of things, most likely it was by himself he had
been, and for no short time. It looked, however, as if he had been
carried off in the end, otherwise his bones would have been hereabouts;
probably savages, as Westwood and I concluded from the scatter they had
made of his premises. For my own part, I wondered whether Jones mightn't
have been the man, in which case most of that disturbed mind he showed
lately might come of remembering the dreary desolate feeling one must
have, living long on a desert island. No doubt they had 'marooned' him
for something or other, such as not being a bloody enough captain; and I
could as easily fancy one having a spice of madness in him, after years
ashore here, as in Captain Wallis after a French prison. Still it
startled one to see one's face in the black of the well; and we couldn't
make up our minds to drink out of it. Even the pool at its side had a
queer taste, I thought--but that may have been all a notion. All at
once, by the edge of this same pool, Westwood pointed out two or three
marks that surprised us both, being quite different from what the goats
could have made; and on observing closer, they were made out to be more
like the paws of a wild beast stamped in the mud. 'By Jove!' I said, 'no
wolves on the island, surely!' 'All of them seem to stick to the pool in
preference to the well, at any rate,' said Tom; 'they appear to have the
same crotchet with ourselves, Ned!' 'Strange!' said I, 'what the devil
can it be?'
"Westwood eyed the prints over and over. 'What do you think of--a
_dog_?' he asked. 'Good heavens!' exclaimed I, looking down--'yes!' and
there we sat gazing at the thing, and musing over it, with somehow or
other a curious creeping of the blood, for my part, that I can't
describe the reason of. At last we heard the men hallooing to each other
on the level beneath, when we hurried down, and coasted round till we
came upon the boat again, where the coxswain was amusing himself
gathering shells for home--and we pulled back to the schooner.
"My first resolve after this was to keep before the breeze again, try to
get sight of the ship, and tell Finch out and out, as I ought to have
done at once, what was afoot amongst his crew; or else to let Sir
Charles Hyde know of it, and make him a bold offer of a passage to
Calcutta. However, I soon saw this wouldn't do; and a regular puzzle I
found myself in, betwixt inclining to stick to the island and catch
Foster if he came, and wishing to know how the Indiaman stood on her
course if he didn't. Jones must have read my thoughts as I leant upon
the capstan, looking from White-water Island to the horizon and back
again; for he stepped aft, and said in a low voice, 'Lieutenant Collins,
there's one thing I didn't tell you about that island before, because,
as I said, I wasn't at first sure it was the one the men meant; it may
help to decide you, sir,' said he gravely. 'Ah?' I said. 'In that
island,' he went on, his ordinarily dark face as pale as death, 'there
is enough gold, at this moment, to buy half an English county--ay, and
better than gold, seeing that only one man knows the spot where it is,
and _he_ would rather sail round the world without a shirt to his back
than touch one filing of the--hell's dross!'
"I looked at Jones in perfect amaze as he added, 'You may fancy now, Mr
Collins, whether if a man of the kind happened to get wind of this, he
would not stir heaven and earth to reach the place? But, rather than
that gold should come into living hands,' said he fiercely, 'I would
_wait for them_ by myself--ay, alone--alone'; and a shudder seemed to
run through him again as he gave another glance to the island. For my
part, I drew a long breath. What he mentioned had all at once relieved
my mind wonderfully; for if this was Master Foster's cue, as I now saw
it must have been the whole voyage over, why, he would be just as sure
not to spread the thing widely, as he would be to get here some time, if
he could. On second thoughts, it wasn't so plain how the rest of the
crew might work with it, on the least inkling; but inclined as I
naturally was to look upon the best side of the matter, you needn't
wonder at my making up my mind as I did. The short and the long of it
was that, in an hour more, Jones and myself, with Jacobs and four other
good hands--and, somewhat to my annoyance, Mr Rollock, who persisted in
coming--were pulling back for the island; while the schooner, under care
of Westwood and Snelling, was hauled on a wind to stand up across the
Nine Degrees Channel, which the Indiaman would no doubt take as the
safest course for Western India, if all went well, and supposing I had
reckoned correctly why we missed her so long. In that case, three or
four days at most couldn't fail to bring her up; and on first sighting
her at the horizon, they could easily enough strip the schooner to her
sticks, keeping her stern on so as to let the ship pass without noticing
the loom of so small a craft; whereas if they didn't see her at all, in
that time, they were to bear up before the wind again for the island. Of
all things, and every circumstance being considered, I agreed with
Westwood it was best not to come across her again, if we could help it.
"For our own part, in the boat, we were fully provisioned and armed for
all the time we could need, not to speak of what the island itself
afforded; and after watching the schooner stand heeling off to sea,
round the deep end of it, we cruised close along, not for the beach this
time, but seeking for a cove in the rocks where the boat could be hauled
up out of sight, and safe from the surf at high water. This we weren't
very long of finding behind some blocks that broke the force of the
surge, where the wild green trailers from above crept almost down to the
seaweed; and after helping them a little to hide her perfectly, the
whole of us scrambled ashore. The first thing was to post a look-out on
the highest point, the sharp little peak next to the reef-side,
overlooking the spring and the level ground between; on the other side
of the long green valley, full of bush in the midst, was the flat-topped
rise towards the brown water, from which I and the planter watched the
schooner softening for an hour or two, till she reached the blue
sea-gleam, and lessened to a speck. By that time, the men had pitched a
little canvas tent on the slope opposite to us, over the hollow--Jones
evidently being anxious to keep clear of the spot, which somebody else
had picked out beforehand; in fact the highest ground was betwixt us and
it; and on coming down through the thicket to our quarters, after a
stroll in which Rollock shot a couple of rose-coloured paroquets,
declaring them to be splendid eating, we found Jones had had to send
over the other way for water.