Exploring Juan Fernandez.--The Cliffs.--The tangled Underbrush.--The
Fog Bank.--Is it coming or going?--The Steamer.--Vain Appeals.--New
Plans.
Starting off, as we have seen, to explore the island, Tom first
directed his steps towards the elevated land which has before been
mentioned. At first his path was easy, and the descent very gradual;
but at length it became more difficult, and he had to ascend a steep
hill, which was over-strewn with stones and interspersed with trees and
mounds. Up among these he worked his way, and at length the ascent
ceased. He was on the summit of the island. Here he walked to the
edge of the area on which he stood, and found himself on the edge of a
precipice that went sheer down to a beach, which was apparently two
hundred feet beneath him. The precipice seemed actually to lean
forward out of the perpendicular, and so tremendous was the view
beneath, that Tom, although not by any means inclined to be nervous,
found his head grow giddy as he looked down. Looking forth thus from
his dizzy elevation, he could see across the bay to the New Brunswick
shore, and could mark the general course which his drifting boat must
have taken over those deep, dark, and treacherous waters.
The sea was broad, and blue, and tranquil, and desolate, for even from
this commanding height not a sail was visible. There was nothing here
which could attract Tom's attention for any long period; so he prepared
to continue his progress. In front of him lay a wood, before plunging
in which he turned to see if there were any vessels coming through the
Straits of Minas. None were visible; so, turning back once more, he
resumed his journey, and went forward among the trees.
His path now became a difficult one. It was necessary to keep away
from the edge of the cliff, but still not to go out of sight of it. The
trees were principally spruce and fir, but there were also birch and
maple. He also noticed mountain ash and willow. Beneath him all the
ground was covered with soft moss, in which he sank to his ankles,
while on every side were luxuriant ferns and evergreen trailers. Tom
recognized all these with great satisfaction, for they showed him the
means of furnishing for himself a soft couch, that might be envied by
many a man in better circumstances. Progress soon grew more difficult,
for there were numerous mounds, and dense underbrush, through which he
could only force his way by extreme effort. Windfalls also lay around
in all directions, and no sooner would he have fairly surmounted one of
them, than another would appear. Thus his progress was exceedingly
slow and laborious.
After about a half an hour of strenuous exertion, Tom found himself in
the midst of an almost impassable jungle of tangled, stunted fir trees.
He tried to avoid these by making a detour, but found that they
extended so far that he could only pass them by going along close to
the edge of the cliff. This last path he chose, and clinging to the
branches, he passed for more than a hundred yards along the crest of a
frightful precipice, where far down there yawned an abyss, at whose
bottom was the sea; while abreast of him in the air there floated great
flocks of gulls, uttering their hoarse yells, and fluttering fiercely
about, as though trying to drive back this intruder upon their domains.
Once or twice Tom was compelled to stop, and turn away his face from
the abyss, and thrust himself in among the trees; but each time he
regained his courage, after a little rest, and went on as before.
At length he passed the thick spruce underbrush, and found the woods
less dense. He could now work his way among them without being
compelled to go so close to the edge of the cliff; and the dizzy height
and the shrieks of the gulls no longer disturbed his senses. The trees
here were not so high as those at the other end of the island, but were
of much smaller size, and seemed stunted. There were no maples or other
forest trees, but only scraggy fir, that seemed too exposed to the
winds from the sea to have much health or verdure. The underbrush was
wanting to a great extent, but moss was here in large quantities, and
thick clusters of alder bushes. Wild shrubs also--such as raspberries
and blueberries--were frequently met with; while ledges of
weather-beaten rock jutted out from amid thick coverings of moss.
Walking here was not at all difficult, and he went on without any
interruption, until, at last, he found any farther progress barred by a
precipice. He was at the lower or western end of the island.
He looked down, and found beneath him a great precipice, while rocks
jutted out from the sea, and ledges projected beyond. The gulls were
present here, as elsewhere, in great flocks, and still kept up their
noisy screams.
Tom looked out over the sea, and saw its waters spread far away till it
was lost in the horizon. On the line of that horizon he saw a faint
gray cloud, that looked like a fog bank. It had, to his eyes, a
certain gloomy menace, and seemed to say to him that he had not seen
the last of it yet. On the left of the broad sea, the Nova Scotia
Coast ran along till it was lost in the distance; and on the right was
the long line of the New Brunswick shore, both of which had now that
dark hue of olive green which he had noticed on the land opposite
before he had started.
Suddenly, while he was looking, his eyes caught sight of something
white that glistened brightly from the blue water. It was about midway
between the two coasts, and he knew it at once to be some sailing
vessel. He could not make out more than one sail, and that showed that
the vessel was either coming up the bay or going down; for if it had
been crossing, she would, of course, have lain broadside on to his
present locality, and would have thus displayed two sails to his view.
The sight of this vessel agitated him exceedingly; and the question
about her probable course now entered his mind, and drove away all
other thoughts. Whether that vessel were going up or down became of
exclusive importance to him now, if she were coming up, she might
approach him, and hear his hail, or catch sight of his signals.
Suddenly he reflected that he had no way of attracting attention, and a
wild desire of running back and setting up the longest pole or board
that he could find came into his mind; but such was the intensity of
his curiosity, and the weight of his suspense, that he could not move
from the spot where he was until he had satisfied himself as to the
vessel's course.
He sat down not far from the edge of the precipice, and, leaning
forward with his hands supporting his chin, he strained his eyes over
the intervening distance, as he tried to make out in which way the
vessel was going. It seemed fully ten miles away, and her hull was not
visible. It was only the white of her sails that he saw; and as the
sunlight played on these from time to time, or fell off from the angle
of reflection, the vessel was alternately more or less visible, and
thus seemed by turns to draw nearer and depart farther from his sight.
Thus for a long time he sat, alternately hoping and desponding, at
every play of those sails in the sunlight. The calm of the water
showed him that, even if the vessel were coming up, he could not expect
any very rapid progress. There was now no wind, and the surface of the
water was perfectly unruffled. Besides, he knew that the tide was
falling rapidly. How, then, could he expect that the vessel could come
any nearer, even if she were trying to? Thoughts like these at last
made him only anxious to keep the vessel in sight. If her destination
lay up the bay, she would probably anchor; if it lay down the bay, she
would drift with the tide. He thought, then, that if she only would
remain in sight, it would be a sufficient proof of her course.
Thus he sat, watching and waiting, with all his soul intent upon those
flashing sails, and all his thoughts taken up with the question as to
the course of that solitary bark. It seemed a long time to him, in his
suspense; but suspense always makes time seem long. At last, however,
even though he hoped so persistently for the best, his hope began to
die within him. Fainter and fainter grew those sails; at intervals
rarer and rarer did their flash come to his eyes, until at length the
sight of them was lost altogether, and nothing met his eyes but the
gloomy gray of the fog cloud on the far horizon.
Even after he had lost hope, and become convinced that she was gone,
Tom sat there for a long time, in a fixed attitude, looking at that one
spot. He would have sat there longer, but suddenly there came to his
ears a peculiar sound, which made him start to his feet in a moment,
and filled him with a new excitement.
He listened.
The sound came again.
A flush of joy spread over his face, his heart beat faster and faster,
and he listened as though he could scarce believe his senses.
As he listened, the sounds came again, and this time much louder.
There was now no mistake about it. It was a regular boat, which Tom
knew well to be the peculiar sound made by the floats of a steamer's
paddles. He had often heard it. He had but recently heard it, when
the revenue steamer was approaching the Antelope, and again during the
foggy night, when the whistle roused them, and the same beat of the
paddles came over the midnight waters.
And now, too, he heard it.
He gave a shout of joy, and started off to catch sight of her.
For a few paces only he ran, and then stopped.
He was puzzled. He did not know in which direction it was best to go.
He was at the west end of the island, but could not make out very well
the direction of the sounds. He tried to think whether the steamer
would pass the island on the north side or the south. He did not know,
but it seemed to him that she would certainly go to the north of it.
There was no time to be lost, and standing there to listen did not seem
to be of any use, even if his impatience had allowed him to do so.
Accordingly he hurried back by the way that he had come along the north
side of the island.
For some time he ran along through the trees, and at length, in about
fifteen or twenty minutes, he reached the place where the dense
underbrush was, by the edge of the cliff. From this point a wide view
was commanded. On reaching it he looked out, and then up the bay,
towards the Straits of Minas. He could see almost up to the straits,
but no steamer appeared. For a moment he stood bewildered, and then
the thought came to him, that he had mistaken altogether the steamer's
course. She could not be coming down on the north side of the island,
but on the south side. With a cry of grief he started back again,
mourning over his error, and the time that he had lost. On reaching
the more open wood, he thought that it would be better to hurry across
the island to the south side, and proceeded at once to do so. The way
was rough and tedious. Once or twice he had to burst through thickets
of alder, and several times he had to climb over windfalls. At length,
in his confusion, he lost his way altogether; he had to stop and think.
The shadows of the trees showed him where the south lay, and he resumed
his journey. At length, after most exhaustive efforts, he reached a
part of the cliff, where a fringe of alders grew so thick, that he was
scarce aware that he was at his destination, until the precipice opened
beneath him. Here he stood, and, pressing apart the dense branches, he
looked out.
There was the steamer, about two miles off, already below where he was
standing, and going rapidly down the bay with the falling tide.
Another cry of grief burst from Tom. Where he was standing he could
see the vessel, but he himself was completely concealed by the
clustering bushes. He now lamented that he had left his first
position, and saw that his only chance was to have remained there.
To stay where he was could not be thought of. There was scarce a
chance now of doing anything, since the steamer was so far away; but
what chance there was certainly depended on his being in some
conspicuous position. He started off, therefore, to the west point,
where he had watched the schooner for so long a time. He hurried on
with undiminished energy, and bounded over windfalls, and burst through
thickets, as before. But in spite of his efforts, his progress could
not be more rapid than it had formerly been. His route was necessarily
circuitous, and before he could find the desired point, many more
minutes had elapsed.
But he reached it at last, and there, on the bare rock, springing
forward, he waved his hat in the air, and sent forth a piercing cry for
help. But the steamer was now as much as four or five miles away--too
far altogether for his loudest cry to go. His screams and his gestures
did not appear to attract the slightest attention. She moved on her way
right under the eyes of the frantic and despairing boy, nor did she
change her course in the slightest degree, nor did her paddles cease to
revolve, but went rolling round, tossing up the foam, and bearing far,
far away that boat on which poor Tom had rested his last hope.
As for Tom, he kept up his screams as long as he could utter a sound.
He tore off his coat, and shook it up and down, and waved it backward
and forward. But none of these things were heard or seen. The
steamboat passed on, until, at length, even Tom became convinced that
further efforts were useless.
This last blow was too much. Tom sank under it, and, falling on his
face, he burst into a flood of tears.
Struggling up at length from this last affliction, Tom roused himself,
and his buoyancy of soul began once more to assert itself.
"Come now, Thomas, my son," said he, as he dried his eyes, "this sort
of thing will never do, you know. You're not a baby, my boy; you've
never been given to blubbering, I think. Cheer up, then, like a man,
and don't make me feel ashamed of you."
This little address to himself had, as before, the effect of restoring
his equanimity, and he thought with calmness upon his recent
disappointments.
He saw, by the passage of these vessels, what he had for a time lost
sight of, namely, that this island, though uninhabited, was still in
the middle of a bay which was constantly traversed by sailing vessels
and steamboats. The latter ran regularly up to the Basin of Minas from
St. John. As to the former, they were constantly passing to and fro,
from the large ship down to the small fishing vessel. Inhabited
countries surrounded him on every side, between the coasts of which
there was a constant communication. If he only kept patient, the time
must come, and that, too, before very long, when he would be delivered.
In order to secure this delivery, however, he saw that it would be
necessary to arrange some way by which he might attract the notice of
passing vessels. On this subject he meditated for a long time. It
would be necessary, he thought, to have some sort of a signal in some
conspicuous place. Among the drift-wood he might, perhaps, be able to
find some sort of a pole or staff which he could set up. One might not
be enough, but in that case he could put up two, or three, or half a
dozen.
The next thing to decide about was the choice of a place. There was
the east end, and the west end--which was the better? The west end,
where he was standing, was high; but then it was surrounded by trees,
and unless he could set up a very tall staff, it could scarcely be
noticed. The east end, on the contrary, was lower; but then it was
bare, and any kind of a signal which might be set up there could hardly
fail to attract attention. He could also pile up a heap of drift-wood,
and set fire to it, and, by this means, if a vessel were passing by, he
could be certain of securing attention. It did not make much
difference which end the signals were placed upon, as far as referred
to the passing of vessels; for all that passed by would go along the
island, so that both ends would be visible to them.
As to the signals, he felt confident that he could find a staff, or, if
one would not be long enough, several could be fastened together. The
coil of rope in the boat would enable him to do this. The sail would
afford material for a flag.
All these plans came to his mind as he stood there; and the prospect of
once more doing something which was to help him to escape from his
prison drove away the last vestige of his grief. His courage again
arose, hope revived, and he burst forth into a light and joyous song.
Very different was he now from the despairing lad who, but a short time
before, had been pouring forth his tears of sorrow; and yet but a few
minutes had passed since then. The steamer was yet in sight down the
bay, but Tom, who had lately been so frantic in his efforts to attract
her attention, now cast a glance after her of perfect indifference.
And now it was necessary for him to return to the east end of the
island, and look about for the means of putting into execution his plan
for making a signal.
He started off on his return without any further delay. The path back
was as rough and toilsome as the way down had been; but Tom was now
full of hope, and his elastic spirits had revived so thoroughly that he
cared but little for the fatigue of the journey. It was traversed at
last, and he descended the slope to the place from which he had started.
His exploration of the island had been quite complete. It seemed to
him to be about a mile and a half in length, and a half a mile or so in
width. The east end, where he had first arrived, was the only place
where it was at all desirable to stay.
Immediately on his arrival he examined the boat, and found it secure.
To his surprise it was now about sunset. He had forgotten the lapse of
time. He was hungry; so he sat down, ate his biscuit, drank his water,
and rested from the toils of the day.