The four castaways had been asleep for a couple of hours, that is, from
the time that, following the example of the young Scotchman, they had
stretched themselves along the bottom of the ravine. It was not quite
an hour, however, since the commencement of the sandstorm; and yet, in
this short time, the arenaceous dust had accumulated to the thickness of
several inches upon their bodies; and a person passing the spot, or even
stepping right over them, could not have told that four human beings
were buried beneath; that is, upon the supposition that they would have
lain still, and not got startled from their slumbers by the foot thus
treading upon them.
Perhaps it was a fortunate circumstance for them, that by such a
contingency they might be awakened; and that by such they were awakened.
Otherwise their sleep might have been protracted into that still deeper
sleep from which there is no awaking.
All four had begun to feel, if any sensation while asleep can be so
called, a sense of suffocation, accompanied by a heaviness of the limbs
and torpidity in the joints; as if some, immense weight was pressing
upon their bodies, that rendered it impossible for them to stir either
toe or finger. It was a sensation similar to that so well-known, and so
much dreaded, under the name of nightmare. It may have been the very
same; and was, perhaps, brought on as much by the extreme weariness they
all felt, as by the superincumbent weight of the sand.
Their heads, lying higher than their bodies, were not so deeply buried
under the drift; which, blown lightly over their faces, still permitted
the atmosphere to pass through it. Otherwise their breathing would have
been stopped altogether; and death must have been the necessary
consequence.
Whether it was a genuine nightmare or no, it was accompanied by all the
horrors of this phenomenon. As they afterwards declared, all four felt
its influence, each in his own way dreaming of some fearful fascination
from which he could make no effort to escape. Strange enough, their
dreams were different. Harry Blount thought he was falling over a
precipice; Colin that a gigantic ogre had got hold of and was going to
eat him up; while the young Hibernian fancied himself in the midst of a
conflagration, a dwelling-house on fire, from which he could not get
out!
Old Bill's delusion was more in keeping with their situation, or at
least with that out of which they had lately escaped. He simply
supposed that he was submerged in the sea, and as he knew he could not
swim, it was but natural for him to fancy that he was drowning.
Still, he could make no struggle; and, as he would have done this,
whether able to swim or not, his dream did not exactly resemble the real
thing.
The sailor was the first to escape from the uncomfortable incubus;
though there was but an instant between the awakening of all. They were
startled out of their sleep, one after another, in the order in which
they lay, and inversely to that in which they had lain down.
Their awakening was as mysterious as the nightmare itself, and scarce
relieved them from the horror which the latter had been occasioning.
All felt in turn, and in quick succession, a heavy crushing pressure,
either on the limbs or body; which had the effect, not only to startle
them from their sleep, but caused them considerable pain.
Twice was this pressure applied, almost exactly on the same spot; and
with scarce a second's interval between the applications. It could not
well have been repeated a third time with like exactness, even had such
been the design of whatever creature was causing it, for, after a second
squeeze, each had recovered sufficient consciousness to know he was in
danger of being crushed, and make a desperate effort to withdraw
himself.
The exclamations, proceeding from four sets of lips, told that all were
still in the land of the living; but the confused questioning that
followed did nothing towards elucidating the cause of that sudden and
almost simultaneous uprising.
There was too much sneezing and coughing to permit of anything like
clear or coherent speech. The _shumu_ was still blowing. There was
sand in the mouths and nostrils of all four, and dust in their eyes.
Their talk more resembled the jabbering of apes, who had unwisely
intruded into a snuff-shop, than the conversation of four rational
beings.
It was some time before anyone of them could shape his speech so as to
be understood by the others; and, after all had at length succeeded in
making themselves intelligible, it was found that each had the same
story to tell. Each had felt two pressures on some part of his person;
and had seen, though very indistinctly, some huge creature passing over
him, apparently a quadruped, though what sort of quadruped none of them
could tell. All they knew was that it was a gigantic, uncouth creature,
with a narrow body and neck, and very long legs; and that it had feet
there could be no doubt, since it was these that had pressed so heavily
upon them.
But for the swirl of the sandstorm, and the dust already in their eyes,
they might have been able to give a better description of the creature
that had so unceremoniously stepped upon them. These impediments,
however, had hindered them from obtaining a fair view of it; and some
animal, grotesquely shaped, with a long neck, body, and legs, was the
image which remained in the excited minds of the awakened sleepers.
Whatever it was, they were all sufficiently frightened to stand for some
time trembling. Just awakening from such dreams, it was but natural
they should surrender themselves to strange imaginings; and, instead of
endeavouring to identify the odd-looking animal, if animal it was, they
were rather inclined to set it down as some creature of a supernatural
kind.
The three midshipmen were but boys; not so long from the nursery as to
have altogether escaped from the weird influence which many a nursery
tale had wrapped around them; and as for Old Bill, fifty years spent in
"ploughing the ocean" had only confirmed him in the belief that the
"black art" is not so mythical as philosophers would have us think.
So frightened were all four that, after the first ebullition of their
surprise had subsided, they no longer gave utterance to speech but stood
listening, and trembling as they listened. Perhaps, had they known the
service which the intruder had done for them, they might have felt
gratitude towards it, instead of the suspicion and dread that for some
moments kept them, as if spell-bound, in their places. It did not occur
to any of the party that that strange summons from sleep, more effective
than the half-whispered invitation of a _valet-de-chambre_, or the
ringing of a breakfast-bell, had, in all probability, rescued them from
a silent but certain death.
They stood, as I have said, listening. There were several distinct
sounds that saluted their ears. There was the "sough" of the sea, as it
came swelling up the gorge; the "whish" of the wind, as it impinged upon
the crests of the ridges; and the "swish" of the sand as it settled
round them.
All these were voices of inanimate objects, phenomena of nature, easily
understood. But, rising above them, were heard sounds of a different
character; which, though they might be equally natural, were not equally
familiar to those who listened to them.
There was a sort of dull battering, as if some gigantic creature was
performing a Terpsichorean feat upon the sand-bank above them; but
sharper sounds were heard at intervals, screams commingled with short
snortings, both proclaiming something of the nature of a struggle.
Neither in the screams nor in the snortings was there anything that the
listeners could identify as sounds they had ever heard before. They
were alike perplexing to the ears of English, Irish, and Scotch. Even
Old Bill, who had heard, some time or other, nearly every sound known in
creation, could not classify them.
"Divil take him!" whispered he to his companions; "I dinna know what to
make av it. It be hawful to 'ear em!"
"Hark!" ejaculated Harry Blount.
"Hish!" ejaculated Terence.
"Wheesh!" muttered Colin. "It's coming nearer, whatever it may be.
Wheesh!"
There could be no doubt about the truth of this conjecture; for as the
caution passed from the lips of the young Scotchman, the dull hammering,
the snorts, and the unearthly screams were evidently drawing nearer;
though the creature that was causing them was unseen through the thick
sand-mist still surrounding the listeners. These however heard enough
to know that some heavy body was making a rapid descent down the sloping
gorge, and with an impetuosity that rendered it prudent for them to get
out of its way.
More by an instinct, than from any correct appreciation of the danger,
all four fell back from the narrow trench in which they had been
standing; each as he best could retreating up the declivity of the
sand-hill.
Scarce were they able to obtain footing in their new position, when the
sounds they had heard not only became louder and nearer, but the
creature that had been causing them passed close to their feet; so close
that most of them could have touched it with their toes.
For all that, not one of the party could tell what it was; and after it
had passed, on its way down the ravine, and was once more lost to their
view amid the swirling sand, they were not a bit further advanced in
their knowledge of the strange creature that had come so near crushing
out their existence with its ponderous weight!
All that they had been able to see was a conglomeration of dark objects,
resembling the head, neck, body and limbs of some uncouth animal; while
the sounds that proceeded from it were like utterances that might have
come from some other world; for certainly they had but slight
resemblance to anything the castaways had ever heard in this, either
upon sea or land!