“DUKE 2D, PROPERTY OF H. SENLIS.”
As the wind next day was in the wrong quarter, I set deliberately about
lading my new boat, as far as my means went, with all the provisions and
appliances that seemed necessary for the voyage. This was all done by
noon, and I sat down idly to wait for a wind that should promise settled
weather, and be in the right direction. The first, second, and third
days passed without any prospect of change, and I grew very impatient.
Things seemed to have lost their interest for me. The one idea of
getting away drove all else out of mind. I walked to and fro along the
beach like a caged animal, overhauled my cargo, added to it, changed the
water in my storage jar, and did a hundred useless things. Still the
breeze blew softly and steadily from the south of east,--a head wind,
which would oblige me to ratch all the way to Martinique.
On the third night, as I was sitting out on the beach in the moonlight,
I bethought me of the ancient rhyme of the mariner who, cursed by
everlasting head winds, toiled on day by day only to be blown back night
after night. There was plenty of time now to plan what I should do when
I reached Martinique. Up to this time I had not thought it out very
carefully. So to pass the dreary hours I began to go over the whole
programme mentally. The more I thought about it, however, the less
prospect could I see of getting at Martinique what appliances and
assistance I wanted, even if I had possessed money enough. I should
have to go clear back to New York to get another diving apparatus, and
that of itself would consume the greater part of my funds.
When this conviction forced itself on my mind, I was aghast. Must I give
up the search for the treasureship merely for lack of funds, after all
my trouble and expense? I sprang up and began walking up and down the
sand at the very edge of the breakers, like a wild man. Abandon my
enterprise? Never, never! I would rather stay and die on the island than
do that. Why not, indeed, stay on the island and take my chances. I had
built a boat out of nothing, and why could I not contrive some means for
at least finding the sunken galleon and locating it accurately? Then,
with something definite in prospect, it would surely not be difficult to
go to Martinique and there interest somebody else to furnish the
necessary funds for the enterprise, and divide the proceeds. There
seemed to be wisdom in this course, and I resolved to adopt it
forthwith.
Even as I made this resolution a heavy cloud passed over the moon, a
faint breeze stirred through the rattling palm-leaves, and putting up a
moistened finger I found the wind had changed to the southwest; soon it
began to increase, and in an hour there was a fine steady breeze blowing
exactly from the best quarter for my voyage, if I had chosen to take
advantage of it. I was thankful at that moment that it had not come
sooner. I looked long and musingly upon the darkening water and it must
have been nearly midnight when, after seeing carefully to the security
of my boat, I turned into the hammock with a contented mind, and buoyed
up by a firm resolve to succeed.
In the morning, as I was going down to the stream, I saw approaching
along the sands a dog. Nothing could have been more astonishing to me
than this sight. What could a dog be doing on this island? When and how
did he get here? Where dogs are, there also are men. This dog could
never have come here alone. The animal saw me as soon as I saw him, and
came running up wagging his tail in the most friendly way, running
around in half-circles, and barking with delight. I called him up and
stroked his head. He was a fine black Gordon setter, with an intelligent
high-bred appearance. Around his neck a chain collar bore a plate
engraved “Duke 2d, property of H. Senlis.” “Duke, good Duke,” said I,
“where is your master?” But the only answer Duke could make was a series
of delighted contortions, jumps, and short barks. I went to the house
and got some dried turtle-meat, which he ate voraciously, and seemed to
call for more. When I had fed him all he seemed to demand he curled up
on the sand as contentedly as though this was a long sought
resting-place. With his head over one paw and one eye occasionally
opening to look at me, he was the very picture of contentment and
satisfaction.
As I sat eating my breakfast of parched-seed gruel and broiled bacon,
and looking at the dog curled up on the sandy floor of my house, I
speculated on the method of his arrival on the island. Was he
shipwrecked like myself, or left by some hunting party? Was he here
alone, or were those to whom he belonged still on the island; and if so
where were they? The whole island was not above six or seven miles in
length, and three or four in breadth. Yet the dense forest growth, the
jungles and cane-brakes, the central ridge of precipitous rocks could
easily conceal the presence of other people, especially if they were on
the other side. At any rate I thought it high time for me to take a
careful survey of the entire domain, and this, if for no other purpose,
to satisfy my curiosity aroused by the startling advent of Duke 2d.
When I first saw the dog he was coming up apparently from the southern
end of the island, and I concluded to start in that direction down the
beach, and go as far as possible along the sea,--quite around the whole
island if that were practicable. With this view I packed my haversack
with provisions, and filled my large bottle with fresh water, and swung
it by a cord under my arm. Taking my lasso and lance and burning-glass,
I started down the beach. Duke followed or ran on before, as much
pleased apparently as though we were on a gunning expedition. The beach
extended south from my house for a distance of about three miles, and
then terminated in a low, rocky shore covered with cactus and thorny
shrubs. Beyond this the southernmost extremity of the island extended in
a rocky headland, and there were some low rocks detached from the shore
and covered at high tide, forming dangerous breakers, to which a
navigator rounding the southern cape would wish to give a wide berth.
In the sand and among the rocks where the cactus grew I captured an
armadillo. This harmless little creature, about the size of a sucking
pig, was called to my attention by the dog, which had discovered it and
seemingly did not know what to make of such a strange customer, covered
with its curious, horny armor. Duke was sniffing and jumping back and
barking, when I caught sight of the hindquarters of the armadillo just
disappearing in the sand. The animal was burrowing itself out of sight
with astonishing rapidity in the loose soil. At first I could not
conceive what it was, as it appeared from the view I had more like some
sort of a reptile than an animal. But I speedily recognized it, and
pulled it bodily out of the tunnel it was excavating. The little fellow
did not attempt to run away, but curled itself up into a ball with its
head and feet tucked out of sight. Duke went up to it and turned it
several times over with his paw, but evidently could have inflicted no
injury upon it had he been minded to make the attempt. However, as roast
armadillo is noted as a savory dish I speedily put an end to its life by
inserting my knife blade between the joints of its armor, and it was
added to our larder at once.
We now crossed over through the rocks to the west shore, which was
formed, so far as I could see, of rocks and cliffs, which rose bolder
and higher toward the north. The travelling along these cliffs was very
bad, and at a break I descended to the narrow margin of sand and rocks
at their feet, left bare by the receding tide. Here the walking was
fairly good, and we made our way along at a good pace for a mile. Now
the shore rose boldly up in a sheer cliff nearly a hundred feet in
height, and the beach was little more than a mass of fallen rock. In a
shallow indentation or bay we, or rather the dog, discovered bubbling up
through the sand a spring of cold, pure water which must have been under
the sea at high tide. There was also an abundance of small oysters
attached to the rocks, and I ate of them for my lunch.
At this spring I refilled my water bottle and sat down to rest in the
shade of the rocks. The dog seemed very uneasy for some reason, and
thinking there might be some animal about, I got up and looked around.
To my great alarm I soon discovered that the tide had risen so far as
partly to submerge some of the rocks that were dry when I had passed a
half-hour before. It would be no trifling matter to be caught in this
place by the tide; but whether it were best to go on or go back I could
not tell. However, as I knew the road behind me I determined to retrace
my steps. I had not gone a quarter of a mile before I found that it
would be impossible to pass in that direction. Whether it would be
practicable to proceed in the other I could not foresee; it was so
doubtful that I had no time to lose. So I hurried back again to the
spring, where a margin of sand was still uncovered by the rising waves.
Here I soon found that advance as well as retreat along the water was
cut off. Above me frowned the perpendicular cliffs. The situation seemed
full of desperate peril, and was grave enough in all reason.
I felt much as one might fancy a rat feels when the door of the trap
snaps on him, and breathless he circles about and finds no exit. Duke
was crouched down and shivering as with an instinct of apprehension.
There was a sense of numb despair with it all--a sickening sense of
giving up the fight, as though it were useless to strive against brutal
ill fortune. Why did I ever come into this rat-trap? Now a man should
not waste any time or thought on vain repinings, self indignation or
accusation, under such circumstances, but turn his attention to the real
question, and keep his eye fixed firmly and singly on the main chance.
But it is not always easy to think when and of what you ought. Indeed, I
found myself speculating as to how the end would come. Inch by inch the
water would creep up. Duke would first be swept under, unless I chose to
support him for a while. Then little by little I would be submerged,
knees, middle, chest, shoulders, neck, chin, lips,--and then the final
struggle. I cast my eyes up to see how far above my height the water
would rise. The marks of high water were there plain on the cliff, and I
calculated that I should be submerged at least eight feet at high water.
All along, the rock rose sheer up without a break to the very top.
There was one place, however, where the cliff, undermined by the waves,
had split off and fallen down, making a ledge about twenty-five or
thirty feet above the water’s edge; but there seemed to be no way of
climbing up to this ledge,--indeed it overhung the base. Upon it grew
two or three small trees, and one of them leaned out over the sea. When
my faculties once more began to assert themselves, it occurred to me
that it might be possible to cast the end of my lasso over this
projecting tree-trunk and thus perhaps haul myself up to the ledge hand
over hand.
The conception of this idea was almost equivalent to its execution; I
felt that I was saved. To one end of the lasso I tied a stone, and
secured the other end firmly around the body of the dog. This stone I
cast easily over the tree trunk, and swung the rope in such a manner
that the weighted end would twist several times around the body of the
rope. I pulled and tested it with my weight, and it held firm. Casting
my lance up on the ledge, I climbed hand over hand up the rope,
occasionally steadying myself with feet against the rock, until I had a
firm grasp on the trunk and was safely on the platform. Leaning over I
called to the dog, and when he came up close to the rock I spoke to him
kindly to allay his fears, and then hauled him up. The platform was at
least ten feet wide at the middle part, perhaps forty feet long, and
tapered away to a mere ledge at each end. There was plenty of dry dead
sticks and wood which had fallen down from above, and, as the afternoon
sun shone hot and bright in the western sky, it was not long before I
had kindled a fire with my burning-glass, and had spitted the armadillo
for a roast.
I now sat and watched the sea rise and wash in breakers on the base of
the cliff, and shuddered to think what would have been my fate but for
the lasso and the timely aid it afforded me. I watched a glorious
sunset wherein long bars of purple cloud edged with molten gold, and
fleecy flakes of burning vermilion melted on a sky of gray-green light,
over an ocean of dark blue shot with violet, and here and there tinted
and gilded with crimson and gold from the red, flaming ball that was
just dipping to the horizon. And far into the night I sat awaiting the
rising of the moon, the novelty of the situation driving all inclination
for sleep from me. Duke was a good companion, and inclined to sit out
the company. He lay with his head on my knee, occasionally looking up
into my face in a truly sociable and friendly manner.
About nine o’clock at night, there being then a dead calm, I heard
distinctly the beat of a screw propeller, accompanied by the regular
blowing at slow intervals of escaping steam. I looked all about for the
vessel, and presently made out her mast-head light, like a star
quivering on the horizon. Gradually it lifted above the water in the
southern sky, and I knew it would pass me quite near at hand unless its
course were changed. There were still some embers of my fire alight, and
nothing would have been easier than to make a signal which doubtless
would have been seen on board. But though I gathered the embers together
instinctively, I took no step toward making the signal. She drew nearer
and nearer, and finally passed along the coast not half a mile distant,
trailing a long plume of smoke. So near was she at one time that in the
starlight and upon the light of the sea I could distinguish her form and
build, and conjectured that she was some ocean tramp, sliding along
stern deep down, and nose cocked out of the water, looking for a cargo
from port to port,--an iron steamer, such as are sent out by thousands
now-a-days to wander over all the seas and oceans, and which, going
from port to port, finally return to the home port, perhaps when it is
time to lay their sides and ribs into the junk heap for old iron.
When the moon rose the steamer was a pale, gray spot at the end of a
long stain of dark smoke far in the northern horizon. It finally
disappeared, the smoke fading away and mingling with the faint
mist-wreaths that stole up from the sea under the moonlight. I went to
bed on the rock with Duke coiled up beside me, and slept until broad
day. I found the water still too high for me to descend safely to the
sand; the tide had apparently gone out and was coming in again. I did
not much like the idea of descending again to the foot of the cliff if
it could be avoided, because there was no telling whether I could safely
proceed farther to the north; nor was I yet ready to go back home, for I
intended, if possible, to make the complete circuit of the island.
Therefore I turned my attention to that portion of the cliff that rose
above my ledge. After a careful scrutiny I concluded it would be
possible to reach the top by climbing a tree that grew close to the
rock. A narrow ledge could be reached from the upper limbs, and it led
along the face of the rocks for a few steps to a sort of crack or chasm
up which one might easily clamber to the top. I climbed down to the
beach as soon as the water was low enough, and filled my bottle anew at
the spring, Duke howling and barking all the time, as though in great
distress at being deserted. I returned to the ledge, fastened the end of
the lasso around the dog, and climbed up the tree with my lance,
haversack, and water bottle. With some difficulty I reached the chasm
safely, and proceeded to haul up the dog. From there the climbing was
not difficult to the top.
Here was a considerable forest, similar to the growth on the central
mountainous plateau of the island where I went for pitch. Indeed, as
well as I could then see, and as afterward I found to be the case, this
line of cliffs was connected with the central plateau by a ridge running
east and west. There was a valley between the cliffs and the plateau,
divided into two parts by this transverse ridge. The travelling through
the woods on the cliff was not difficult, as there was very little
undergrowth.
I made a discovery in this wood of several lofty trees which bore nuts
of the triangular variety known as Brazil nuts. They grow enclosed in a
hard outer casing like a small cannon-ball. One of these fell as I
passed beneath the tree. If it had struck Duke or me there is no
estimating the hurt that would have been occasioned. It fell fairly on a
projecting root, and burst open, scattering the loose nuts about. I
gathered a haversack full and filled my shirt and pockets, casting
uneasy glances the while up into the trees in fear of a possible
bombardment from above; nor did we linger long under those dangerous
limbs.
Pushing along, as near the edge of the cliffs as possible, we came, near
the middle of the island, north and south, to a well beaten path leading
down toward the sea through a break in the cliffs. Duke immediately
bounded down this path, and I followed him anxiously; for it did not
look as though made by pigs, but rather as if trodden by human feet. The
narrow gorge speedily widened out into a little bowl-shaped valley, open
to the sea on one side, and on three sides walled in by the cliffs,
which were hung with luxuriant vegetation,--a most lovely spot. A gently
sloping sward extended nearly to the pebbly beach, and a little stream
of clear water, which came frothing in haste down the glen, paused in a
quiet sweep and curve through the meadow, the long grass bending over
its narrow course, and dipping into the limpid surface, till finally it
flowed down over a bed of bright-colored pebbles to the little bay in
front. Here and there a wide-spreading tree cast a broad, purple shadow,
and many flowers sent forth fragrance to the pure, warm air. It was
truly a sylvan paradise.
What specially interested me, however, was the white gleam of canvas
shining through the foliage. A tent was pitched near the stream. I
called out to announce my presence, but nobody appeared, and going up to
the structure, I found it vacant and deserted. The tent was made of a
huge mainsail, stretched over a pole and secured to the ground by pegs.
It evidently had been long deserted, perhaps a month; the rains had
washed the ashes of a fire nearly all away. In the trunk of an adjacent
tree stuck an axe, buried to the helve as though by a powerful hand. The
metal was all covered with red rust, and so firmly imbedded in the gash
that I could not release it until I had pounded it out with a stone. A
further search disclosed a dish broken in half, a rusty case-knife, a
hand-saw, an iron kettle, a frying-pan, which lay in the tent, and
fragments of old newspapers and letters strewed about. In one corner
were two blankets rolled loosely together and somewhat mildewed. I
hauled these blankets and also an old topsail out of the tent, and
spread them in the sun to dry.
Then I wandered about seeking some clew as to who had been here and how
long since; but conjecture was idle. At the mouth of the creek there was
a tree with the marks on it of a mooring line; and the trace of the line
was still faintly visible on the earthy bank. The most probable
supposition was that a party of pig-hunters had landed here, and for
some reason had been suddenly called away. That they had left hurriedly
was evident both from the standing tent and its contents, and also from
the fact that a garden had been planted, which was now grown up to rank
luxuriance. In this garden was a great quantity of yams and sweet
potatoes, most of them just in a condition to be gathered; also peas and
beans quite dry and ripe, and some Indian corn, the last still green. A
rusty shovel and hoe were lying there just as they had been left. I made
no scruple to help myself to what I wanted of this abundant harvest that
chance had placed in my hand. It was not long before I had a fire built
and the kettle on, and some of the yams and sweet potatoes boiling.
These vegetables eaten hot, with salt and bacon, were to my unaccustomed
palate more delicious than I can describe. Duke also ate of them
ravenously.
About two o’clock in the afternoon, after packing up the new-found
property in the tent as securely as I could, I hurried away to the north
along the cliffs, anxious to reach home in order to get my boat and
return for these treasures; for treasures indeed would this abundant
supply of food as well as the other things be to me. About a quarter of
a mile north of this little haven, which I named “Farm Haven,” the
cliffs ran back from the sea, leaving a broad, smooth beach which gave
an excellent road quite to the northern extremity of the island,
excepting at one place where I was obliged to wade waist deep across the
mouth of a deep indenting cove. At the northern end were isolated rocks,
one of which rose boldly up to a height of fifty or sixty feet and was
surrounded by the water even at low tide. After clambering over the
rocks for an eighth of a mile I struck again the smooth, incurving beach
that margined the eastern shore, and before dark reached home.
Everything about the house was just as I had left it, and the boat was
gently heaving to the modified swell that penetrated in gentle
undulations to its safe harbor in the creek. I sat long that evening
enjoying the cool air, and speculating on the events of my journey. I
had not found Duke’s master, but could account at least in some measure
for his presence on the island; for he had been undoubtedly forgotten in
the hurried departure of the party whose camp I had just visited.