but still recognisable brass of elaborate and curious workmanship was
disclosed. The lid was not secured in any way, otherwise than by the
hinges; and so perfect had been the protection afforded by the wax-cloth
wrapping that these worked without difficulty. The lid was quickly
raised, and the casket--which measured about fifteen inches long by nine
inches wide, and perhaps ten inches deep--was found to contain a number
of neat wax-cloth parcels. The first which came to hand--and which, by
the way, was by far the largest one--was at once opened, and there
before the eyes of the admiring pair, fresh as if just removed from the
shell, lay some two hundred or more magnificent pearls--magnificent not
only in respect of their unusual size, but also of their exquisite
lustre and perfect globular form. Needless to say that in presence of
these superb and incomparable gems Sibylla's admiration of the
embroidered muslins dwindled away to insignificance, and her minute
examination of the pearls plunged her into a perfect trance of delight.
The other parcels were found to contain rubies, sapphires, emeralds,
diamonds, and other precious stones, all in their rough state just as
they had been unearthed from the mine, but all without exception of
extraordinary size. At first the fortunate finders were not greatly
impressed at the sight of these stones, for neither of them quite knew
what they were--though they judged them to be valuable from the
circumstance that they had been deemed worthy of a place in the same
receptacle with the pearls--and it was only the gleam of the diamonds
which at last awakened in their minds a suspicion that the stones were
really precious. When at length, however, this suspicion fairly dawned
upon them Ned positively gasped for breath.
"Why," he exclaimed, "we are _rich_! rich beyond the power of
computation. There must be at least a hundred magnificent fortunes in
this veritable cave of Aladdin; and now all that we have to do is to
give those ruffians the slip, when I will find means to return here and
recover all this treasure. Now," he went on, "I'll tell you what we
will do. We will divide the contents of this box into two about equal
portions, one of which we will convey from time to time on board the
ship, whilst the other shall remain here; and in this way I think we may
make reasonably sure of securing one half of the gems whatever happens.
The gold we must leave, I think, as too cumbersome to be dealt with
under our present circumstances, but the dresses you certainly _shall_
have. Now, slip those pearls into your pocket, and I will take as many
of the diamonds and what not as I can stow away, after which I think we
had better see about getting back to the ship."
"But," interposed Sibylla, "have we any right to touch these things?
Surely they must belong to some one?"
"I have not the slightest idea who was the former rightful owner of all
this property," replied Ned, laughing; "but, whoever he was, he has been
dust and ashes ages ago, and so too have the rovers who, I expect,
brought them to this out-of-the-way place and hid them in this cave.
Why, by the look alone of the things, the arms especially, they must
have been here at least hundreds of years! There is no doubt a deeply
interesting story attaching to this hoard, but what it is we shall
probably never know. Of one thing, however, you may rest assured, and
that is that we, as the finders, have a better right to everything in
this cave than anyone now living."
The reasonableness of this argument satisfied even Sibylla's sensitive
conscience, and she made no further demur to Ned's proposed
arrangements.
An hour and a half later they reached the ship, just as the sun was
setting, and found her still deserted, though the men could be seen
mustering on the beaches and preparing to return on board. Advantage
was taken of this circumstance by Sibylla to stow away in her own boxes,
at Ned's request, all the jewels brought on board, thus leaving that
young gentleman free to meet Williams on his return to the ship and to
make such a report of his explorations as he might deem fit. Half an
hour later all the men had returned on board, and though they were
thoroughly fagged out by their unwonted exercise they had evidently
enjoyed the day just as much as though they had been so many schoolboys.
On the following morning work was begun in earnest, part of the men
being engaged in unbending sails and sending down the upper spars,
whilst a contingent under Williams landed and proceeded to cut down
trees for the purpose of building stores, a dwelling-house, a kitchen,
and so on, on shore. Williams' plans comprised no less than the entire
stripping of the ship down to a gantline; the thorough overhauling of
her hull, inside and out, including cleaning and scrubbing; and a number
of petty alterations in her rigging, which he thought would have the
effect of disguising the vessel. And in addition to this he also
proposed to construct on shore permanent buildings for the storage of
his booty, as well as for the residence of a small contingent of men to
guard it. This of course was not only a work of considerable time, but
it also involved the complete evacuation of the ship, a circumstance
which Ned foresaw would cause very serious inconvenience to Sibylla.
This, however, was at length happily surmounted by his obtaining the
very reluctant consent of Williams to employ some of the men in the
construction of a hut for her sole accommodation, he at the same time
locating himself in a small tent, which was pitched close at hand, so
that he might always be able to watch over her safety.
Meanwhile the _Southern Cross_ duly arrived at Melbourne after an
excellent passage; and Captain Spence was intensely gratified when he
found that nothing had been heard of the _Flying Cloud_. A week later
the _Southern Cross_ was lying with an empty hold, waiting for her
homeward cargo to come alongside, and still the _Flying Cloud_ had not
put in an appearance. Knowing what he did of the latter vessel's
sailing powers, Captain Spence could only conclude that after the
_Flying Cloud_ had parted company with him in the Atlantic, she must
have met with a streak of foul wind or light airs which his own ship had
happily avoided; but when a week later still, the _Flying Cloud_ had not
arrived, the exultation which the honest skipper had at first
experienced was converted into a feeling of incipient anxiety, which
increased as time went on without any appearance of his rival. The
_Southern Cross's_ cargo was slow in coming alongside; but, nevertheless
when she was loaded, and her hatches put on, and she finally went to sea
on her homeward voyage, the _Flying Cloud_ was still numbered among the
non-arrivals. And when, after a long passage home, the _Southern Cross_
arrived in London, and Captain Spence had time to inquire after his old
friend, Blyth, he was not only surprised, but deeply grieved to hear
that no intelligence of his arrival in Melbourne had up to that date
been received.
But there were others even more interested than Captain Spence in the
fate of the _Flying Cloud_, and these were by this time anxiously
watching the columns of the "Shipping Gazette" for tidings of the ship.
They came at last, in the shape of the following paragraph:--
MISSING VESSEL.
"The following vessel, previously referred to as overdue, was on
Wednesday posted at Lloyd's as missing:--
"The ship _Flying Cloud_ (Blyth, master), which left London for
Melbourne on ---, and which afterwards picked up the derelict barque
_Umhloti_, of Aberdeen, and sent her into port."
CHAPTER TWELVE.
MR. GAUNT GOES ON AN EXPLORING EXPEDITION.
It is now time to return to the little party of passengers, who, it will
be remembered, were left in a situation which was certainly the reverse
of pleasant.
Mr Gaunt, whose profession peculiarly adapted him to cope with such
difficulties as those which now environed the party, at once naturally
took the lead and assumed the direction of affairs--a position which Dr
Henderson most willingly accorded him, counting himself indeed fortunate
in being thus associated with a man of such infinite resource as the
engineer. In their present state, the first thing to be done was to
provide a shelter for the helpless women and children of the party; and
no sooner was the boat's cargo discharged upon the beach and conveyed in
safety above high-water-mark than was this task commenced. A suitable
position for the tent, which Gaunt proposed to put up, was soon found
among the trees, which grew thickly in clumps on the gentle slopes just
beyond the sandy beach. Two cocoanut-trees, growing at a convenient
distance apart, were selected as uprights; and a young sapling was then
cut down and lashed horizontally from trunk to trunk, at a height of
about nine feet from the ground, to serve as a ridge-pole. The sail was
next hauled over this sapling and secured to the ground on each side, in
such a form as to make an A shaped tent about twelve feet long by eight
feet wide, the spare canvas being so split that it fell down at the rear
and front end of the tent in such a way as to enable the little shelter
to be completely closed when necessary. And, this done, the bedding, as
well as such articles as it was important to protect from the weather,
were at once placed under shelter, and the interior of the tent made as
comfortable as circumstances would permit; thus completing the first
portion of their task. The next thing was to construct a shelter for
the powder--and in fact their little all, in the shape of worldly
possessions, which they thought it undesirable to put into the tent.
Two more cocoanut-trees were selected; another stout sapling was cut and
secured between them, as in the case of the tent, though not quite so
high from the ground, and then a quantity of other and somewhat lighter
saplings were procured to form a roof, which by sunset next day they had
succeeded in covering with a good serviceable thatch, quite impenetrable
to the weather. But before this was accomplished they were unexpectedly
reinforced by the sudden appearance of Nicholls, whose presence upon the
island up to that moment had been quite unsuspected by them. This
individual had been so anxious to avoid all possibility of recapture
that he spent the night in the woods, presenting himself to the little
party as they sat at breakfast next morning. His sudden appearance
created quite a sensation for the moment; but he was almost instantly
recognised.
"Why, Nicholls!" exclaimed Gaunt, "what is the meaning of this? What
are you doing here? I thought you and the rest of the mutineers were
far enough away by this time."
"Well, sir," said Nicholls, twisting his cap nervously in his hands as
he spoke, "I hopes the rest of the mutineers are, as you say, far enough
away by this time, but I am _here_, and here I intends to remain--with
your good leave, sir. The fact is, Mr Gaunt, I've cut and run! That
fellow Williams--as, perhaps, you may know, sir--is a rare good 'un to
talk, and he managed to talk me, as well as the rest of the hands, quite
into the idee that pirating was just the best thing a poor down-trodden
seaman could turn his hand to. Lord bless you, Mr Gaunt, if you had
heard that man I'm blessed if I don't think he would have persuaded
_you_ into the same idee! But after I had agreed to jine them I began
to think matters over a bit, and the more I thought about it the less I
liked it; and at last I made up my mind that I'd slip my moorings aboard
the _Cloud_ the first chance as ever I got. And when I got to hear that
Williams was going to turn you two gentlemen and your respected families
ashore here, I says to myself, `_Now's_ your time, Tom!' And so I
managed to get told off for service in one of the boats, and, watching
my chance, I sort of strolled up among the trees and then took to my
heels, quite determined not to show up again until the _Cloud's_
to'ga'nts'ls had sunk below the horizon. And now, here I am, sir, ready
and willing to ship with you. I'm nothing but a poor ignorant man--a
blacksmith, rightly, by trade--but mayhap I may be able to make myself
useful enough to earn my bread and cheese."
"Well, Nicholls," said Mr Gaunt, "I am heartily glad to see you, my
man. And, as to your earning your bread and cheese, a stout, handy
fellow like you, and a blacksmith to boot, will be a considerable
acquisition to us in our present circumstances. I have no doubt that
Williams managed to make his plans very attractive to you poor fellows
in the forecastle; but wait and see how they will all end. We know not
what is before us. We shall, doubtless, have to endure much hardship
and be exposed to countless perils before we once more reach the shores
of old England--if ever we are fortunate enough to do so. But, whatever
hardship or peril may fall to our lot, I feel confident that in the end
you will be better off with us than you would have been with Williams
and his piratical crew. But sit down man; sit down and take some
breakfast. You must be nearly famished by this time, if, as I suppose,
you have eaten nothing since you left the ship yesterday."
Nicholls, nothing loath, at once seated himself, and was served with
breakfast, which he devoured with an eagerness that at least spoke well
for the tonic properties of the air he had lately been breathing.
"I should like," said Mr Gaunt, "before we go any further, to say a
word or two, whilst we are all present here, upon our future plans. I
suppose you have all been thinking more or less upon this subject, and,
as for myself, I may safely say that since we landed upon the beach
yesterday my thoughts have dwelt upon nothing else. I do not know how
it may be with you, Henderson; but, delightful as is the climate of this
island, and fertile as its soil appears to be, I have no fancy for
adopting it as my permanent home. I am anxious to return to
civilisation at as early a date as possible. What are your ideas upon
the subject?"
"Precisely similar to your own," answered the doctor. "My tastes and
inclinations are, by no means, pastoral; and if they were I do not think
I should particularly care about indulging them in this lonesome spot.
With all its failings, civilisation has certain advantages which I must
say have a peculiar value in my eyes, not the least of which is the
ability to live a quiet and peaceable life, free from all possible
attacks by savages or the semi-civilised marauders which I have
understood infest these Eastern Seas. So, whatever may be your plans
for returning to civilisation, you may depend upon me, Gaunt, in aiding
you in every way I possibly can."
"Very well," said Gaunt. "Then I will now tell you in as few words as
possible what my ideas are upon the subject, and I shall be glad of any
suggestions which either of you may afterwards have to offer. When we
were in the act of leaving the ship yesterday, that noble fellow Ned
slipped into my hand a strip of paper, in which he had noted not only
the position of this island but also the important fact that he had
detected the presence of what he believed to be a wreck on the reef on
the western side of the island. About this wreck I shall have more to
say presently. The position of the island, as given by Ned, places us
at no very great distance from land; but that land is inhabited by
people who would not scruple for an instant to cut our throats if they
thought it would suit their purpose to do so; it is useless, therefore,
for us to think of making for a nearer port than either Hong-Kong,
Singapore, or one of the ports of Western Australia. At first sight it
would seem a simple matter enough to build a boat and make our way in
her to one or another of the places I have named; for we have wood in
abundance here, and apparently of many kinds, and Ned has, I see,
provided us with a stock of nails which, carefully used, might suffice
us for the purpose. But our island is, unfortunately for us, situated
in a sea which is swept at times by the most destructive hurricanes; and
it would be madness for us to think of leaving this place in anything
but a craft capable of living through the very worst of weather. I have
not the slightest doubt of my ability to design such a vessel; but, let
her be as small as we dare to make her, her construction will still be a
work of exceeding difficulty for our small party, and it will also be a
work of time. During that time we must all be housed, and clothed, and
fed. And I therefore propose that our first task shall be a thorough
examination of the entire island, for the purpose of ascertaining the
most suitable spot as a base for our operations; and, that discovered, I
think we should next go to work to construct for ourselves such a
dwelling as shall bid defiance to an assault by anything but civilised
troops; stock it abundantly with provisions, so that, if besieged, we
may not have famine to contend with; and, that done, I think we shall
then be free to begin our operations upon the boat. With regard to this
boat--for, in dimensions, she will not be much more--I think that, in
addition to being of a capacity sufficient to conveniently carry us all,
she should be fully decked and modelled upon such lines as will not only
make her a good sailer, but also a first-rate sea boat."
The doctor in his present situation found himself so utterly strange,
that, if left to himself, he would scarcely have known what to set about
first, and he was therefore only too glad to find that Gaunt was not
only so willing, but also so thoroughly able to grapple with the
difficulty. He said as much; and when Nicholls was asked his opinion it
turned out that, like a great many more of his class, he was quite
unable to advance one, but was perfectly willing to follow the lead of
his superiors, let them go where they would.
The next matter for consideration was that of the exploration of the
island, which Gaunt proposed to undertake alone. His idea was to
advance cautiously inland for a mile or so, and then, if he saw no sign
of their territory being inhabited, to make a push for the mountain at
about the centre of the island, and from thence onward to its western
side. It was, of course, rather hard upon Mrs Gaunt that he should be
left, as it were, alone in this way while the disagreeable novelty of
her position was still fresh upon her; but there was no help for it, so
the brave little woman plucked up her courage, and when her husband was
ready to start bade him a cheery farewell.
Gaunt thought it only prudent to start upon this expedition thoroughly
well armed, and in addition to his repeating rifle, and the revolvers
and hunting-knife which he wore in his belt, he carried an axe, which he
thought might be useful in a variety of ways. He hoped to return to
camp that evening, but foreseeing that he might meet with delays on the
way he cautioned them not to feel in the least anxious on his account
should he be absent that night and the whole of the next day.
On taking leave of his companions he at once struck inland towards the
mountain, which, looming vast and grey, formed the most prominent object
and landmark in the entire island. The ground sloped gently upward, and
was thickly covered with long, tangled, and luxuriant grass; and at a
short distance from the beach it began to be thickly dotted with clumps
of trees, among which the cocoanut, the date-palm, and two or three
varieties of the banana were prominent. On reaching the wooded portion
of the island, the engineer found, to his great gratification, that
although the soil appeared to be most densely overgrown with trees, such
was not in reality the case, as the clump-like arrangement which he at
first encountered still prevailed, although as he advanced inland the
clumps grew much more closely together than they did on the outskirts of
the wood. He had very little difficulty in making his way among the
boles of the trees, as, contrary to what he had anticipated, there was
not much parasitic undergrowth, and where it became inconveniently dense
his axe soon enabled him to clear a way for himself.
Advancing steadily and with tolerable rapidity over the gently rising
ground, he at length, when not more than about two miles from camp,
suddenly found himself upon the verge of a ravine with steeply-sloping
sides, through the bottom of which wound what he at first took to be a
river, but which, on close examination, he found was really an arm of
the sea. Descending the banks of the ravine he followed this stream--
which at the point where he encountered it was about a quarter of a mile
in width--and after pursuing a somewhat devious route for about another
mile and a half, came to a spot where this arm of the sea widened out to
a lake-like expanse of water, nearly circular in shape, and rather more
than a mile in diameter. Almost in the very centre of this lake stood a
small island of about eight or ten acres in extent and thickly wooded,
which the engineer at once fixed upon as a most suitable spot on which
to establish an encampment. He was very anxious to reach this island
and submit it to a closer examination, but he had no means of crossing
the intervening water except by swimming, and this, in consequence of
the distance to be traversed, would occupy more time than he felt
justified just then in devoting to it. But he promised himself that,
circumstances permitting, he would do so on his return journey.
So far he had met with no trace or sign of the existence of savages, or
indeed of inhabitants of any description, upon his territory; and he
therefore relaxed somewhat of the vigilant and anxious demeanour which
he had hitherto observed, and pushed forward, with as much rapidity as
circumstances would allow, upon his journey. Traversing the borders of
the lake, which lay embosomed in the midst of an amphitheatre of
steeply-sloping hills, he reached, after a walk of about a mile, a spot
where a genuine stream flowed into it. At the point of junction with
the lake this stream was about a hundred yards in width, having a
current which flowed seaward at the rate of half a knot per hour. Half
a mile further on, following the course of the stream, Gaunt found that
the channel narrowed very considerably, and, whilst still to all
appearance moderately deep, the current became much more rapid. It was
at about this spot that he discovered what he thought would serve as a
capital site for a mill, if, indeed, the little party should find it in
their power to undertake so important a work; and, making a mental note
of the locality, he passed on.
He now determined to follow the stream to its source, as his active mind
already began to see that it might prove a very useful ally to them in
many ways. The ravine-like character of the banks on either side of the
stream still prevailed, and this, in conjunction with its winding
course, continually opened up such vistas of sylvan beauty, that from
time to time the wanderer involuntarily paused in admiration, and once
or twice even caught himself asking the question whether, after all, a
man might not do worse than spend the remainder of his life in the midst
of such grandeur and beauty.
He now frequently encountered streams and brooks of more or less
importance flowing down into the main stream on either side of the
ravine, but they were scarcely sufficient in volume to account for the
large quantity of water which now went dashing and foaming and sparkling
over a bed of huge boulders. At length he came to the end of the
ravine, and there he beheld a sight which amply rewarded him for all the
labour which he had undergone in following the stream. The ravine
terminated in a vertical wall of rock fully a thousand feet in height,
from an immense fissure in which, near the top, there spouted a column
of water which he estimated to be at least twelve feet in diameter. For
fully a third of the distance this liquid column poured down unbroken,
to be dashed into spray and mist--in which a rainbow softly beamed--upon
an immense spike of rock which divided the flow into two nearly equal
parts, and formed two superb cascades one on each side of the projecting
rock.
At this point it was easy for an active man to cross the stream without
wetting his feet, by jumping from boulder to boulder; and this the
engineer did, for he saw that in order to reach the mountain he would
have to get on the opposite side of the stream and follow its downward
course for nearly a mile. When at length he climbed up the steep and
lofty side of the ravine and reached its brow, the nearest spur of the
mountain was only about a mile and a half distant, and for this he at
once made. His route now lay over a flat table-land, out of which the
mountain seemed to spring at once, and almost sheer. On reaching the
base of the hill, however, its sides proved to be not quite so steep as
they had appeared to be, but they were nevertheless steep enough to tax
Gaunt's muscles to their utmost extent before he finally reached the
bald summit.