THE UNPLEASANT AFFAIR OF HONOR.
When I awoke it was daylight. My mind was still harassed with the bad
dream concerning the Doubter. I had the most gloomy forebodings of some
impending misfortune either to him or my friend Abraham. Every effort to
shake off this unpleasant feeling proved entirely vain; it still clung
to me heavily; and, although I was now wide awake, yet it seemed to me
there was something prophetic in the dream. Unable to get rid of the
impression, I got up, and looked around upon my comrades, who were all
sleeping soundly after their rambles of the previous day. Instinctively,
as it were, for I was unconscious of any fixed motive, I counted them.
There were only nine! A sudden pang shot through me, as if my worst
fears were now realized. But how? I thought. Where was the tenth man?
What had become of him? Was it Abraham? Was it the Doubter? Who was it?
for the light was not strong enough to enable me to distinguish all the
faces, partly hidden, as they were, in the goatskins. I looked toward
the door; it was unbolted, and slightly ajar. I opened it wide and
looked out; there was nothing to be seen in the gray light of the
morning but the bushes near the hut, and the dark mountains in the
distance. It was time, at all events, to be on the look-out for the
ship, so I roused up my comrades, and eagerly noticed each one as he
waked. The Doubter was missing! Could it be possible that Abraham's
threats had driven him to run away during the night, when all were
asleep, and hide himself in the mountains? There seemed to be no other
way of accounting for his absence. "Where is he? what's become of him?
maybe he's drowned himself!" were the general remarks upon discovering
his absence. "Come on! we must look for him! it won't do to leave him
ashore!" We hurried down to the boat-landing as fast as we could,
thinking he might be there; and on our way saw that the ship was still
in the offing. The boat was just as we had left it, but not a soul any
where near. We then roused up every body in the Chilian quarter,
shouting the name of the missing man in all directions. He was not
there! All this time Abraham was in the greatest distress, running about
every where, without saying a word, looking under the bushes, peeping
into every crevice in the rocks, darting in and out of the Chilian huts,
greatly to the astonishment of the occupants, and quite breathless and
dispirited when he discovered no trace of our comrade. At last, when we
were forced to give up the search and turn toward Pearce's hut, where we
had left our host in the act of lighting the fire to cook breakfast, he
took me aside, and said, "Look here, Luff, I'm very sorry I had any
difficulty with that poor fellow. The fact is, he provoked me to it.
However, I have nothing against him now; and I just wanted to tell you
that I sha'n't go aboard the ship till I find him. If you like, you can
help me to hunt him up, while the others are seeing about breakfast."
"To be sure, Abraham," said I, "we must find him, dead or alive. I'll go
with you, of course. But tell me, as we walk along, what it was Pearce
said to you last night. How did you get him back when he went out?"
"Oh, never mind that now," replied Abraham, looking, as I thought,
rather confused.
"You gave him a dollar, didn't you?" said I; "what was that for?"
"Why, the fact is, Luff, he made those marks himself in some idle hour
as he lay basking in the sun up there. He told me that he often spends
whole days among the cliffs or sleeping in the caves, while his sheep
are grazing in the valleys. You may have noticed that he was rather
inclined to burst when he left the hut. The fellow had sense enough not
to say any thing before the company. I thought it was worth a dollar to
keep the thing quiet."
"It was well worth a dollar, Abraham; but the skull--what about the
skull?"
"Oh, the skull? _He_ said he picked it up one day outside the cave, and
hove it up there, thinking it would do for a lamp some time or other.
What excited me so when our shipmate spoke about it was that he should
call it a dog's skull."
"And wasn't it?"
"Why, yes; to tell the truth, Luff, it _was_ the skull of a wild dog;
but you know one doesn't like to be told of such a thing. However, we
must look about for the poor fellow, and not leave him ashore."
By this time we had reached an elevation some distance back of the huts.
We stopped a while to listen, and then began shouting his name. At first
we could hear nothing; but at length there was a sound reached our ears
like a distant echo, only rather muffled.
"Halloo!" cried Abraham, as loud as he could.
"Halloo!" was faintly echoed back, after a pause.
"Nothing but an echo," said I.
"It doesn't sound like _my_ voice," observed Abraham. "Halloo! where are
you?" he shouted again, at the highest pitch of his voice. There was
another pause.
"I'm here!" was the smothered reply.
"That's a queer echo," said Abraham; "I'll bet a dollar he's underground
somewhere. Halloo! halloo! Where are you?" This time Abraham put his ear
to the ground to listen.
"Here, I tell you!" answered the voice, in the same smothered tones.
"Down here."
"He's not far off," said Abraham. "Come, let us look about."
We immediately set out in the direction of the voice. The path made a
turn round a point of rocks some few hundred yards distant, on the right
of which was a steep precipice. On reaching this, we walked on some
distance, till we came to a narrow pass, with a high bluff on one side,
and a large rock on the edge of the precipice. The path apparently came
to an end here; but upon going a little farther, we saw that it formed a
kind of step about three feet down, just at the beginning of the narrow
pass, between the rock and the bluff, so that in making any farther
progress it would be necessary to jump from the top of the step, or, in
coming the other way, to jump up. It was necessary for us, at least, to
jump some way before long, for upon arriving at the edge we discovered a
pit about four feet wide at the mouth, and how deep it was impossible
for us to tell at the moment. We thought it must be rather deep,
however, from the sepulchral sounds that came out of it. "Here I am,"
said the voice, "down in the hole, here, if I ain't mistaken, but I
wouldn't swear to it; I may be somewhere else: it feels like a
hole--that's all I can say about it, except that it's tolerably deep,
and smells of goats."
"A goat-trap!" exclaimed Abraham, in undisguised astonishment. "By
heavens, Luff, he's caught in a goat-trap!"
"It may be a goat-trap, or it may not. I want you to observe that I
neither deny nor affirm the proposition. There's not much room in it,
however, except for doubt."
"How in the world are we to get him out?" cried Abraham, whose
sympathies were now thoroughly aroused by the misfortune of his
opponent. "We must contrive some plan to pull him out. Hold on here,
Luff; I'll go and cut a pole."
While Abraham was hunting about among the bushes for a pole of suitable
length, I sprang over to the other side of the pit, and, getting down on
my hands and knees, looked into it, and perceived that it spread out
toward the bottom, so that it was impossible to climb up without
assistance.
"This is rather a bad business," said I; "what induced you to go down
there?"
"I didn't come down here altogether of my own will," replied the
Doubter; "credulity brought me here--too much credulity; taking things
without sufficient proof; assuming a ground where no ground existed."
"How was that? I don't quite understand."
"Why, you see, I happened to come along this way about an hour ago, to
see if the sun rose in the north, and not dreaming of goat-traps, I took
it for granted that I could jump down a step in the path apparently not
more than three feet deep. There's where the mistake was. A man has no
business placing any dependence upon his eyes without strong collateral
evidence from all the rest of his senses. I assumed the ground that
there was ground at the bottom of the step. Accordingly, I jumped. There
was no ground for the assumption. To be sure I descended three feet,
according to my original design; but I descended at least twelve feet
more, of which I had no intention whatever. The fact is, there was some
rotten brushwood, covered with straw and clay, over the mouth of the
pit, which I went through without the least difficulty."
"Are you hurt?" said I, anxiously.
"Well, I was considerably stunned. Likely enough some of my ribs are
broken, and several blood-vessels ruptured; but I won't believe any
thing more for some time. I've made up my mind to that. I may or may
not be hurt, according to future proof."
By this time Abraham came running toward the pit as fast as he could,
with a long pole in his hand, which he had cut among the bushes.
"This is the best I could get," said he, nearly breathless with haste,
and very much excited; "there were some others, but I didn't think they
were strong enough." Without farther delay, he sprang across the pit to
the lower side, and thrust the pole down as far as he could reach. It
must have struck something, for he immediately drew it back a little,
and the voice of the Doubter was heard to exclaim, in a high state of
irritation,
"Halloo, there! What are you about? Confound it, sir, I'm not a wild
beast, to be stirred up in that way."
"Never mind," said Abraham, "I didn't intend to hurt you. Take hold of
the pole. I'll pull you out. Take hold of it quick, and hang on as hard
as you can."
"No, sir; it can't be done, sir. I'll not take hold of any thing upon an
uncertainty."
"But there's no uncertainty about this," cried Abraham, in a high state
of excitement; "it's perfectly safe. Take hold, I tell you."
"Can't be done, sir, can't be done," said the Doubter; "there's not
sufficient proof that you'll pull me out if I do take hold. No, sir;
I've been deceived once, and I don't mean to be deceived again."
"Now, by heavens, Luff, this is too bad. He doubts my honor. What are we
to do?" And Abraham wrung his hands in despair. "Halloo, there, I
say--halloo!"
"Well, what do you want?" answered the voice of the Doubter.
"I want to pull you out. Surely you don't think I'll be guilty of any
thing so dishonorable as to take advantage of your misfortune?"
"I don't think at all," said the Doubter, gloomily; "I've given up
thinking. You may or may not be an honorable man. At present I have
nobody's word for it but your own."
Here I thought it proper to protest that I knew Abraham well; that there
was not a more honorable man living. "Besides," I added, "there's no
other way for you to get out of the pit."
"Very well, then," said the Doubter; "I'll take hold, but you must take
hold too, and see that he doesn't let go. Pull away, gentlemen!"
[Illustration: THE DOUBTER BACK AGAIN.]
Abraham and myself accordingly pulled away as hard as we could, and in a
few moments the head of our comrade appeared in the light, a short
distance below the rim of the pit. I had barely time to notice that his
hair was filled with straw and clay, when Abraham, in his eagerness to
get him entirely clear of danger, made a sudden pull, which would
certainly have accomplished the object had the Doubter come with the
upper part of the pole. But such was not the case. On the contrary, both
my friend and myself fell flat upon our backs; and upon jumping up, we
discovered that the Doubter had fallen into the pit again, carrying with
him the lower end of the pole, which had unfortunately broken off at
that critical moment. There he lay in the bottom of the pit, writhing
and groaning in the most frightful manner.
"He's killed! he's killed!" cried Abraham, in perfect agony of mind.
"Oh, Luff, to think that I killed him at last! It was all my fault.
Here, quick! Lower me down! I must help him!"
Before I had time to say a word, Abraham seized hold of my right hand,
and, directing me to hold on with all my might, he began to let himself
down into the pit. It required the utmost tension of every muscle to
bear his weight, but the excitement nerved me. "Let go, now!" said he,
as soon as he got as far down as I could lower him without lowering
myself, which I narrowly escaped; "let go, Luff!" I did so, and heard a
dull, heavy fall, and a groan louder than before.
"What's the matter, Abraham--did you hurt yourself?"
"Not myself," said Abraham, "but I'm afraid I hurt him. I fell on him."
"You did," groaned a voice, faintly, "you fell on me. I'm tolerably
certain of that. It was a shabby trick, sir; it wasn't bad enough to
throw me down here, without jumping on top of me when I couldn't defend
myself!"
"I hope you're not much hurt," said Abraham; "it was all accident--I
swear it, on my sacred honor!"
"Honor!" groaned the Doubter, contemptuously; "is it honorable to drop a
man into a pit, and knock all the breath out of his body, and then jump
on top of him! Honor, indeed! But it was my own fault: I was too ready
to take things without proof."
"Now, by all that's human!" cried Abraham, stung to the quick at these
unmerited reproaches, "I'll prove to you that I didn't mean it. Get up
on my shoulders--here, I'll help you--and climb out. Would any but an
honorable man do that?"
"It depends upon his motives," replied the Doubter; "I won't take
motives on credit any more. I'm not going to get up on your shoulders,
and have you jump from under me about the time I get hold of something
above, and leave me to fall down and break my back, or hang there. No,
sir, I want no farther assistance. I've made up my mind to spend the
remainder of my days here."
"You _sha'n't_ stay here!" cried Abraham, exasperated to the last degree
by these taunts. "By heavens, sir, you _shall_ be assisted!"
Here there was a struggle in the bottom of the pit; the Doubter writhing
like an eel all over the ground in his attempts to elude the grasp of
Abraham; but soon he was in the powerful arms of my friend, who, holding
him up, shouted lustily, "Catch hold of him, Luff! Catch him by the hair
or the coat-collar! Hold on to him, while I shove him up!"
The writhing form of the Doubter at the same moment loomed up in the
light, and I called upon him to give me his hands; but he resolutely
held them down, protesting that he would trust no man for the future;
that he'd die before any body should deceive him again. In this
extremity, driven almost frantic in my zeal for his safety, I grasped at
the collar of his coat, and succeeded, after some difficulty, in getting
a firm hold of it. "All right!" I shouted; "push away now, Abraham!" In
spite of every exertion on Abraham's part, however, our unfortunate
comrade rose no higher, which I can only account for by the depth of the
pit. "A little higher, Abraham--just two inches--that's it--all right!"
It certainly was all right so far; I had drawn him partly over the edge,
and would eventually have drawn him entirely over, had it not caved in,
by reason of the united weight of both on it at the same time, and thus
the matter was prevented from being all right to any greater extent. The
consequence of this disaster was, that we both fell heavily upon
Abraham, who, unable to bear our united weight, fell himself under the
Doubter, while I, being uppermost, formed a kind of apex to the
pyramid. Our fall was thus broken in some measure; and, although
Abraham groaned heavily under our weight, yet, as fortune would have it,
nobody was hurt. The Doubter was the first who spoke.
"I told you so!" said he, faintly; "but you _would_ try. You would try,
in spite of all I could say, and now you see the consequence. It appears
to me that there are three men caught in a goat-trap now instead of one;
but I'll not insist upon it; there may be only one. My eyes have
deceived me already, and likely as not they deceive me now."
"No, they don't," said Abraham, in smothered tones; "I'm quite certain
there are two of you on top of me. Get off, if you can, for I can't
breathe much longer in this position. You may depend upon it, there are
three of us here."
"I shall depend upon nothing for the future," replied the Doubter,
gloomily; "I depended upon a pole just now, and was dropped; I put faith
in that pole, and both the faith and the pole were broken at the same
time, and my back too nearly, if not quite broken."
"But I'm not a pole," groaned Abraham, "you may depend upon that. Get
off now, do, for heaven's sake."
"You don't feel like a pole," said the Doubter, "but you may be one, for
all I know; there's no telling what you are. However, I'll get off, lest
you should break likewise."
I had already relieved Abraham of my weight; and being now entirely
free, he got up, and we began to consider how we were to get out of the
pit.
As good luck would have it, we heard some voices approaching, which we
soon discovered to be a couple of Chilians, to whom the trap belonged,
coming thus early in the morning to see if it had caught any goats. When
they looked over and saw the earth broken in, they were greatly
rejoiced; but no sooner did they perceive that the game consisted of
three full-grown men, than they ran away as fast as they could, shouting
"_Diabolo_! _Diabolo!_" Abraham, who had been studying Spanish during
the voyage, understood sufficient of the language to call out
"_Americanos! Americanos! no Diabolo! Per amore Deos, viene' qui!
Amigos! amigos! no Diabolo!_" This caused them to halt; and upon its
being repeated a great many times, they ventured to the edge of the pit,
where Abraham gave them every assurance that we were three unfortunate
Americans, who had fallen into the trap by accident, and that we were in
no way related to the devil. Upon this, they took a coil of rope, which
they had for pulling up goats, and making a noose on one end, they let
it down. The first man that was fastened on was the Doubter. It required
the united efforts of Abraham and myself to get him into the noose; but
we eventually had the pleasure of seeing him go up through the hole
without farther accident. I then yielded reluctantly to Abraham, who
insisted, as a point of honor, that he should be the last man. Being
light, I was whirled out in a twinkling; and, finally, through this
providential turn of affairs, we were all safely landed outside of the
pit. The two Chilians, unable to divine the causes which had led to this
singular state of things, looked on as if still half afraid that they
had pulled some very bad characters out of the ground, muttering, as we
shook the dirt off our clothes, "_Madre de Deos! Santa Maria! Padre
bonita!_" I considered this a fitting opportunity, in view of the happy
issue of the disaster, to effect a full and complete reconciliation
between Abraham and the Doubter, and therefore proposed that they should
shake hands on the spot, and forego all future hostilities. My friend
immediately held out his hand in the frankest manner; the Doubter
hesitated a moment, as if afraid that it might result in his being
pulled back again into the pit; but, unable any longer to resist the
hearty sincerity of his opponent, he gave his hand, and suffered it to
be shaken; and so rejoiced was Abraham in finding every thing was thus
happily settled, that he shook on with all his force for at least five
minutes, during which the two Chilians, knowing no good reason why a
pair of strange gentlemen, just pulled out of a goat-trap, should stand
shaking hands with one another, exhibited the utmost surprise and
consternation, exclaiming, as before, "_Madre de Deos! Santa Maria!
Padre bonita!_"
We contrived to make up the sum of a dollar between us, which we gave to
the men, telling them, at the same time, that they need not mention this
matter, should they see any of our companions before we left the island.
We then started for Pearce's hut, which we soon reached. The rest of the
party had finished breakfast, and were waiting for us at the
boat-landing. They had left directions with Pearce that we were to
follow without delay, with or without the missing man, as the ship had
made a signal for us to come aboard. While the Doubter and myself were
making a hasty snack, Abraham took a piece of bread and meat, and
started off to let our friends know that we had found the missing man,
and would soon be down. In a few minutes we concluded our snack, and
were about leaving the cabin, when Pearce said he reckoned some of us
had left a bundle, which he had found in the corner. The bundle
consisted of a handkerchief tied up, with something in it, which I
quickly discovered to be the relic we had found in Crusoe's Cave.
"Where did you get that?" said Pearce.
"We dug it up in Crusoe's Cave; it was made by Alexander Selkirk."
"No it wasn't; it was made by me. I lived there a while when I first
came on the island, and made it myself. I know the mark. I made it about
a year and a half ago."
"But how is that?" said I, greatly astonished; "it looks to be over a
century and a half old."
"It wasn't baked enough," said Pearce; "that's the reason it didn't keep
well. The name's broke off, but there's part of what I writ on it."
"Impossible!" said I. "Don't you see "A S.... 170--?' What can that be
but Alexander Selkirk, 1704, which was just the time he lived here!"
"No, 'taint; Alexander Selkirk never made that 'ere. I made it myself. I
put my name on it; but the name's broke off. I writ, '_A Saucepan maid
by W. Pearce, 17 Oct._' That's all. 'Taint no use to me now; you may
take it, ef you want to."
I took it without saying another word; tied it up again in the
handkerchief, and asked Pearce if he was going down with us to the
boat-landing. He said he would be down there presently. So, without
farther delay, we set out to join our companions. As we walked rapidly
along the path, my shipmate suffered strange sounds to escape from his
throat, indicative of his feelings. Suddenly he stopped, as if unable to
restrain himself any longer.
"Where are you going?" said he.
"Going aboard, to be sure; come on, they're waiting for us."
"You are, eh? going aboard, eh? Well, any thing to humor the idea. It
sounds very like reality, indeed--very."
"And why shouldn't it?" said I.
"Of course, why shouldn't it? Look here, Luff, you're rather a clever
sort of fellow."
"Do you think so?" said I, a little embarrassed at so abrupt an opinion
in my favor.
"Yes, I do," said the Doubter; "I always did. Will you just have the
goodness to look into my mouth (opening it at the same time as wide as
he could). Now, just cast your eyes into this cavity."
I did as he desired me, thinking perhaps the poor fellow was suffering
from his fall into the goat-pit.
"Well," said I, "there's nothing there, so far as I can see, except a
piece of tobacco. Your tongue looks badly."
"It does, eh? No matter about that. This is what I want you to notice:
that I have a tolerably big swallowing apparatus, but I'm not the style
of man that's calculated to swallow an entire island. Possibly I might
get down a piece of a skull, or an old saucepan, with a grain of salt;
but I can't swallow Juan Fernandez, with Robinson Crusoe and Alexander
Selkirk--two of the biggest liars that ever existed, on top of it. No,
sir, it can't be done."
[Illustration: SWALLOWING AN ISLAND.]
I thought myself that he was not a person likely to accomplish a feat of
that kind, for his throat was not uncommonly large, and his digestive
organs appeared to be weakly.
"No, I shouldn't think so," said I. "You don't look like a man that
could swallow so much."
"Very well, then; I'm willing to humor the idea. I'll imagine we're
going aboard from Juan Fernandez, if you like. But the island _doesn't
exist_! No, sir; it reads very well on paper; it's a very romantic
place, no doubt--if any body could find it; a very pleasant spot for a
small tea-party between a pair of wandering vagabonds; but it doesn't
exist any where else but on the maps. Don't you ever try, Luff, to make
me believe that any of these things which we imagine to have occurred
within the past three days have the slightest foundation in fact."
I was not prepared to go to the full extent of denying the entire
existence of the island; but, I must confess, there was a good deal in
our experiences of the past three days calculated to inspire doubt; so
much, indeed, that I hardly knew what to believe myself. Even now, after
the lapse of four years, and the frequent repetition of all these
adventures to my friends, which has given something more of reality to
the doubtful points, I would hardly be willing to swear to more than the
general outline; nor am I quite certain that even the main incidents
would stand cross-examination in a Court of Doubters. Such, reader, is
the deceptive nature of appearances!
While we were talking, Pearce overtook us with a bundle of goatskins
which we had bargained for the night before, and we all went down to the
boat-landing together. There we found our shipmates all ready to start.
The Anteus was lying-to about eight or ten miles off, outside the
harbor; and the sea being rather rough, we thought it best to agree with
Pearce for some seats in his boat, and hire a couple of the Chilians to
help us at the oars. In this way, having stored all our relics in the
bow of the boat except the earthen pot, which we had the misfortune to
drop overboard, we set out for the ship, bidding a general good-by to
Juan Fernandez and all its romantic vales with three hearty cheers. A
few heavy seas broke over us when we got outside the harbor; and we saw
the Brooklyn weighing anchor and preparing to stand out to sea, and a
small brig that we had met in Rio beating in; but, with the exception of
these little incidents, nothing occurred worth mentioning till we
arrived alongside the Anteus. The captain and all the passengers
received us in silence; not a word was spoken by any body; no sign of
rejoicing or recognition whatever took place as we stepped on board. We
thought it rather a cool termination to our adventures, and could only
account for it by supposing that this was the way people thought to be
dead and buried are usually treated when they come unexpectedly to life
again after a great deal of grief has been wasted upon them. Nor were we
wrong in our conjectures; for in about five minutes our friends on
board, including the kind-hearted captain, finding themselves entirely
unable to keep up such a state of displeasure, crowded around us in
different parts of the ship, and began shaking hands with us privately,
and asking us a thousand questions about Juan Fernandez and Robinson
Crusoe. We introduced our worthy host as the real Crusoe of the island,
and brought both him and the Chilians down into the cabin, where we gave
them as much as they could eat, besides honorably acquitting ourselves
of our indebtedness by paying our friend Pearce all the ham and bread we
had promised him, and loading him with sundry presents of clothing and
groceries. The captain then ordered the yards to be braced; the boat
swung off as we began to plow our way once more toward the Golden Land,
and before noon the island was blue in the distance.