From the point which they had now reached Sibylla and Ned commanded a
bird's-eye view of the entire harbour, with South Island--as it soon
came to be called--for a background, with the southern horizon showing
just clear of its highest portion. Ned was now able to form a very much
more correct idea of the entire locality than had before been possible;
and as he stood critically examining the two basins, a suggestion as to
their possible origin and that of the islands themselves presented
itself to his mind. Seen from where he then stood the group bore a very
strong resemblance to the crater of a long extinct volcano. To begin
with, the ridge-like summits of the islands swept round in a form that
was roughly circular, and they would have been continuous but for the
breaches or channels which separated the islands from each other. They
presented an appearance precisely similar to the rim of a volcanic
crater; and the inner and outer slopes of the islands were also strongly
suggestive of the inside and outside slopes of a crater. The two basins
conveyed the idea of two closely contiguous vents for the subterranean
fires, and the channels might very well be breaches in the sides of the
crater through which the molten lava had burst its way. And this theory
was confirmed by the colour of the water at the seaward extremities of
the several channels, which clearly indicated the existence of reefs
that might very well have been formed by the outflow. Some of these
reefs, it is true, were so deeply submerged that the sea did not break
over them at all, at least in fine weather such as then prevailed; this
being notably apparent in the case of the channel by which the _Flying
Cloud_ had entered the harbour. But the mouth of the north-east
channel, and that of the north arm of the south-east channel, were so
choked with rocks close to the surface that they showed nothing but a
wide expanse of white water. In a word, the more Ned thought about it
the more convinced he became that he was standing on the summit of a
volcanic mountain, the top only of which rose above the surface of the
sea. As to the period when the volcano had become extinct, Ned was not
scientist enough to form any opinion, but the whole aspect of the place
was such as to convince him that it must have been countless ages ago.
Having at length satisfied their eyes with the superb prospect which lay
spread out before them and beneath their feet, the happy wanderers--for
happy they somehow were, notwithstanding all the unpleasant
peculiarities of their position--set out to retrace their steps,
reaching their boat about an hour later; when, taking advantage of the
shade afforded by a few bushes which grew on the edge of an overhanging
bank, they seated themselves on an outcropping rock and did the fullest
justice to the luncheon which the friendly steward had put up for them.
It was two o'clock in the afternoon by the time that this meal was
disposed of, when Sibylla expressed a desire to have a nearer view of
the lofty cliffs bounding the outer basin than she had been able to
obtain on the previous day when the ship entered the harbour. The boat
was accordingly got afloat and leisurely pulled by Ned close along the
northern shore. In due time the dinghy passed between the northern and
southern bluffs and entered the outer basin, the water being still
smooth enough to allow of her keeping within oar's length of the shore;
and now they began to realise the majestic and indeed terrific character
of the nearly vertical rocky walls which shot sheer out of the water and
towered far away above their heads. The qualifying word "nearly" is
used advisedly in speaking of the vertical rise of these cliffs,
because, whereas when they were passed in mid-channel they had the
appearance of being absolutely perpendicular, it was now seen that they
had a slight--a very slight--backward slope.
The faces of these cliffs were, as has before been stated, so densely
clothed with vegetation, mostly in the form of thick-growing shrubs--
though trees of quite respectable size were by no means wanting--that
but little of the actual rock was to be seen; and here and there among
these shrubs and trees monkeys could be seen swinging from bough to
bough, whilst thousands of birds darted in and out and flitted to and
fro among the branches. One of these latter at length so strongly
attracted Sibylla's admiring attention that she pointed it out to Ned.
"By George!" the lad exclaimed rapturously, "that is a beauty, and no
mistake; I must have him. I have long been intending to make a
collection of tropical birds for my father, and I might as well begin
now; it seems to me that I shall have an opportunity of making a very
respectable collection here whilst the mutineers are busy carrying out
their plans at the head of the basin."
"You speak as confidently as though you deemed it an absolute certainty
that you will eventually succeed in making your escape from those
wretches. Do you still regard the project as a hopeful one?" said
Sibylla inquiringly.
"Yes, most certainly," answered Ned, as he carefully withdrew the bullet
from his carbine, and substituted for it a charge of small shot. "The
fellows are certain to grow careless, sooner or later, and afford us a
chance to give them the slip, even if we do not fall in with a man-of-
war and get taken. Keep up your spirits, Miss Stanhope; keep up your
spirits and your courage, I say, for I am always thinking and planning,
and I never mean to rest satisfied until I have taken you out of the
hands of those wretches and safe back to England again."
"You are very good to say so, Mr Damerell, nay more than good,"
answered Sibylla frankly, "and come what may, I shall never, _never_
forget your constant watchful care."
"Oh, don't say too much about that," answered Ned cheerfully. "I look
upon you almost as a second sister, you know, and I am only doing for
you just exactly what I should wish to be done for my sister Eva if she
were placed in a similar position to yours. And as long as you are
compelled to remain on board the _Cloud_, I hope you will trust me as
fully and as implicitly as if I were your brother; it will perhaps make
you feel less lonely, you know, if it serves no other good purpose. And
now, where is my bird? I am quite ready for him."
The creature was still hopping about among the branches of a tree almost
directly overhead, apparently feeding on the fruit or berries which it
found there; and taking careful aim, Ned fired. The report of the
carbine went echoing back and forth between the cliffs in the most
astounding manner, raising a tremendous disturbance, not only by its
reverberations along the cliffs on both sides of the basin, but also
from the cries of the countless startled birds which suddenly appeared
in the air, and the excited chattering of the equally startled monkeys.
As the smoke from the piece blew away, Ned saw his quarry tumbling from
branch to branch, and bough to bough, until it finally brought up in a
small bush which overhung the water some fifty feet above its surface.
"Killed him, by all that's lucky!" exclaimed Ned joyously. "Now, if you
do not mind being left in the boat a moment by yourself whilst I slip
aloft there--I will make the painter fast to this sapling so that you
may not go adrift--I will secure my prize."
"But will it not be dangerous for you to climb up there?" protested
Sibylla apprehensively.
"If I find it so I will not persevere in my attempt," answered Ned
laughingly, as he grasped a bough and swung himself up on to a
projecting ledge of rock.
For a few yards of the ascent Ned's figure was clearly visible; then, as
he ascended still higher, Sibylla caught sight of him only at intervals,
and soon afterwards he vanished altogether among the greenery, though
his upward progress could still be traced here and there by the swaying
of the bushes, but at length this also ceased, and then a dreadful
silence and feeling of lonesomeness seemed to enwrap the fair girl as in
the folds of a sable mantle. Minute followed minute with painful
slowness as it seemed to Sibylla, and _every_ instant she expected to
see Ned's outstretched arm appear from the midst of the shrubs clinging
aloft there to grasp the body of the bird. But nothing of the sort
occurred, and at length, after a long and tedious period of painful
apprehension, she ventured to call his name.
No answer.
Sibylla waited a minute or two, and then called again.
Still no answer.
She now became very seriously alarmed, and, quite losing command of
herself, called upon him in piteous accents to answer, or if anything
had befallen him to give her some sign of his whereabouts in order that
she might be guided to his assistance. Still calling him, she was about
to attempt the perilous ascent of the cliff-face in quest of him when
she heard him shout, and, looking up, saw him leaning over the edge of a
rocky ledge about a hundred feet above her.
"Are you all right, Miss Stanhope?" he shouted. "I thought I heard you
call."
"Yes," she replied, steadying her voice as well as she could on the
instant. "I am all right, thank you, but I _have_ been calling; you
were so long away that I began to fear some accident had befallen you."
"No," he answered back, "I am all right, but I have made a most
wonderful and interesting discovery that--However, I will come down."
And suiting the action to the word, he at once began to descend the face
of the cliff, not vertically, as he had gone up, but in a diagonal
direction, and, as Sibylla thought, at break-neck speed. Ned continued
his wild career until he reached the water's-edge, at a distance of
perhaps two hundred feet to the westward of the boat, when, from what
Sibylla could see of his movements, he appeared to break the bough of a
bush in such a manner as to leave the branch dangling from the parent
shrub, after which he began to make his way along the cliff-face toward
the boat.
A few minutes later he reached the dinghy--minus the bird, by the by,
which he had set out to secure--and stepping in at once proceeded to
cast off the painter. Then, as he stepped aft and tossed the paddles
into the rowlocks, he first got a glimpse of Sibylla's still troubled
face.
"I beg your pardon, Miss Stanhope," he said. "I am afraid I have
frightened you by my long stay aloft there. The fact is I was so
interested in my discovery that for the moment I forgot the flight of
time.
"I have made a most curious and important discovery, and one that may or
may not be of the utmost value to us. When I started aloft to get that
bird--by the bye, where is it? Ah! I see it! and I will have it, too,
before I go back to the ship; but I will tell you my story first. I had
not made my way very far up the cliff when I came to what looked so very
much like a flight of roughly hewn steps running up the cliff-face that
I determined to follow the indications, and investigate. I did so, and
soon came to the conclusion that, though the step-like projections were
just as thickly overgrown as the rest of the cliff-face--showing that
they had not been used for years, or possibly generations, they had
undoubtedly been wrought out by the hand of man. Pushing the shrubs on
one side I had no difficulty whatever in making my way upwards, until I
at length came out upon a flat platform of rock, in the outer edge of
which were two holes or depressions, some twelve feet apart, which I
imagined might have been hollowed out to receive the heels of a pair of
sheers, an impression which was rendered all the stronger when, on
looking more closely, I discovered a groove terminating in a third hole
which I immediately guessed must have been formed to receive the heel of
the back-leg. All this is, I suppose, Greek to you; but you will
perhaps comprehend me when I explain that sheers are used to assist in
hoisting heavy articles with. The rocky platform is about fifteen feet
square, the cliff-face overhanging it above; and at its back part there
is a sort of split in the rock about eight feet wide and nearly the same
height. I passed in through this crevice, and at once found myself in a
cave perhaps thirty feet wide and about fifty feet deep. And now comes
the strangest part of the affair. It is nearly half full of bales and
parcels, with several jars, apparently earthenware, their mouths tied
over with what looks like a coarse kind of cloth; but everything is so
thickly coated with dust and grime that it is quite impossible to guess
at the contents of these jars and bales without further investigation.
And in one corner there are stacked up a number of weapons--spears and
axes--so rusted and decayed that they may have been there for centuries.
There are also a number of what I took to be shields by the look of
them; but they, like everything else, are so coated with dust that I did
not touch them. But I must certainly give the place a thorough
overhaul, as it may serve us as a refuge and place of concealment at a
pinch. Would you like to go up and have a look at the cave and its
contents now?"
"I should like it very much, if you think I could climb the stairs,"
answered Sibylla.
"Oh, yes," answered Ned, "you can do that easily enough, I should think;
and I should like you to make the attempt, if only to find out whether
you could accomplish the ascent at some future time, if necessary. I
will go before and clear the way for you, using the axe if we meet with
any very serious obstacles; but I think you will be able to manage
without much difficulty. Ah, here, you see, is the landing at the
bottom of the flight"--and Ned indicated to his companion a flat ledge
about a yard square, close to the surface of the water.
The dinghy was carefully secured, and then, stepping on to the ledge,
Ned assisted his companion ashore.
There could be no doubt as to the fact that from this ledge or landing a
flight of step-like projections led diagonally up the face of the cliff;
and, thickly overgrown as they were, there could be as little doubt
that, if not entirely artificial, nature had been largely assisted by
the hand of man in their formation. The flight averaged pretty evenly
about a yard in width, each step being about six inches high; so that
but for the dense growth of shrubs upon them, the ascent would have been
exceedingly easy. Even as things were, Sibylla experienced far less
difficulty than she had anticipated; Ned going before and then pressing
the shrubs aside to facilitate her passage, using his axe here and there
to remove such growth as stood fairly in the middle of the way. Nor was
the ascent nearly so dangerous as might have been expected, the dense
growth all along the outer edge of the stairway forming a sort of
bulwark which rendered a fall almost impossible. So safe, indeed, and
comparatively easy was the ascent that it was accomplished in about
twenty minutes: when, after pointing out the holes in the upper
platform, and fully explaining the structure and uses of the sheers
which he believed to have once stood there, Ned led the way into the
cave.
For a few minutes after entering everything was so dark compared with
the brilliant daylight without that nothing could be seen. At length,
however, their eyes became accustomed to the soft twilight gloom of the
place, when Ned at once began to direct Sibylla's attention to the
various articles that were stored there. The first objects examined
were the weapons, all of which were stacked in one corner. The
shields--for such they actually proved to be--were circular, about two
feet in diameter, and made of a metal which, when cleared of its thick
coating of grime and a small portion of its surface scraped with a
knife, turned out to be brass. The outer and inner surfaces were both
perfectly plain, or, if ornamented at all, the ornamentation could not
be discovered without resort to a much more effectual cleaning process
than Ned felt disposed to bestow upon them. On the inside two leather
straps were rivetted, one for the arm to pass through and the other for
the hand to grasp; but so old and decayed were these straps that they
crumbled into black dust at a touch. This was also the case with the
wooden shafts of the spears, which powdered away like touchwood. And,
as for the spear-heads and the blades of the axes, they were so rust-
eaten that little more than a rough jagged indication of their original
shape remained.
The earthen jars, of which there were twenty-four, next claimed Ned's
attention. These vessels stood about two feet high, and were about ten
inches diameter, of peculiar though not ungraceful shape, and they were
singularly heavy; as Ned discovered when he seized one with the
intention of moving it forward into a lighter part of the cave. The
mouth was covered with four thicknesses of a kind of wax-cloth, such as
Ned had never seen before; the cloth being bound round the neck of the
jar with several turns of fine cord, which, like the cloth, seemed to
have been treated with a waxy coating, doubtless to assist in its
preservation. If such was the purpose of the treatment, it had
succeeded fairly well; but the outer or top layer of the cloth covering
the mouth of the jar had rotted and split here and there. The second
layer, however, was in a very fair state of preservation, and the other
two layers were perfect, proving on examination to be a coarse kind of
linen which had either been steeped in or painted over with a
composition which felt waxy to the touch, and imparted a yellowish tinge
to the fabric.
Ned's knife quickly severed the cord, which, however, was so rotten that
it came to pieces during the process of unwinding, and he then uncovered
the mouth of the jar and peered down into it. The vessel was full of a
coarse, dull, yellow glistening sand, a handful of which the young
fellow quickly removed and carried out into the daylight. He was back
again in a moment, exclaiming to Sibylla in a tone of exultant
astonishment:
"It is _gold-dust_, Miss Stanhope! gold-dust, and our fortunes are
made!"
"I am very glad indeed to hear it," answered Sibylla. "But are you
quite sure you are not mistaken? How do you know it is gold-dust?"
"I know by the look and weight of it," answered Ned. "I have seen too
much gold-dust in Australia to be deceived in such a matter. Look at it
and feel it for yourself--note the weight of a handful of it, and you
will be satisfied that I am right. I expect the contents of all these
jars are the same, but I will open one or two more just to satisfy
myself."
He did so, and found his conjecture to be correct--the additional three
which he opened were all full of gold-dust like the first.
"What shall we tackle next?" asked Ned. "That big bale looks as though
it ought to contain something valuable; I think I will pursue my
investigations in that direction."
The bale, which had an outer covering of wax-cloth of a much coarser
texture than that which closed the mouth of the jars, proved to be too
heavy for Ned to move unaided; so his knife was again brought into
requisition, and the cloth--which was still tough enough to offer a
slight resistance to the blade--was ripped open from end to end of the
bale. The orifice thus made disclosed to view a firmly packed mass of
several sorts of fabrics, neatly folded, and laid one upon the top of
the other. The first three or four layers consisted of fine linen cloth
dyed a deep rich purple hue. Then came several pieces of a heavy, rich
kind of brocade; then a quantity of thin filmy muslin, fine as if woven
of a cobweb, and exquisitely embroidered with a beautiful and intricate
design in very fine gold thread. The brocades had been greatly admired
by Sibylla, but these embroidered muslins simply threw her into
ecstasies.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands in almost childish delight,
"they are lovely; never in my life have I ever seen anything half so
exquisitely beautiful!"
"Then," said Ned, in the most matter of fact way, "I'll tell you what we
will do. The next time we come here we will be provided with the means
of carrying off enough of the stuff to make you a dress or two. We
cannot do so now, as the men would see it, and questions would be asked;
which would never do. But next trip we will contrive to carry away a
bolt or two of it."
Sibylla was a true woman; and even in her present predicament her
feminine love of things beautiful was strong enough to win from her a
ready assent to Ned's proposition. In the meantime the muslins were
carefully re-folded--a task of some little difficulty, owing to their
filmy texture--and replaced in the bale.
Quite a large pile of small brick-like parcels next came in for a share
of Ned's attention. They, like the bales, were enveloped in wax-cloth,
and like the jars were singularly heavy. Ned opened one, and on
removing the cloth wrapper disclosed to view a block of dull yellow
virgin gold. The block was about the same shape as, but a little larger
than an ordinary English brick, and stamped or moulded on each side was
a sign or symbol of hieroglyphic character.
Ned did not consider it necessary to open any more of the brick-like
parcels, as, after his experience with the jars, he felt fairly
satisfied that, if opened, each parcel would be found to contain a gold
brick similar to the one already disclosed. He was therefore about to
suggest a descent to the boat, under the impression that his inspection
of the cave and its contents had been completed, when it occurred to him
that he might as well strike a match or two and throw a little light
into the extreme corner of the cave, in which, now that his eyes were
growing somewhat accustomed to the gloom, he fancied he could detect a
pile or stack of some kind. He accordingly drew from his pocket a box
of matches, and, placing some half a dozen of them together, ignited
them. This afforded him light enough to see that there really _was_ a
stack of long dark curved objects piled in the angle. To get at these
it was necessary for him to climb over the heap of gold bricks, which
formed a kind of barrier across the corner, and in so doing his eye fell
upon one brick quite at the rear of the stack which was very
considerably larger than the others.
Reaching the mysterious stack in the corner he selected one of the long
curved objects and, brushing the dust from it as well as he could,
proceeded to scrape through the remaining coat of dirt with his knife.
By this means he soon reached a hard bone-like substance, upon which he
presently scraped a white surface, when the expenditure of a few more
matches revealed the fact that he had been operating upon an elephant's
tusk, of which nearly a hundred he thought must be stacked in that dark
corner.
On his return to the lighter part of the cave where he had left Sibylla,
his attention was again attracted by the extra large brick-like parcel,
which he thought he might as well examine. He accordingly raised it
from the floor to carry it further forward into the light, when, though
tolerably heavy, the comparative ease with which he lifted it at once
assured him that, whatever else it might be, it certainly was not gold.