II

Whether Mrs. Maloney’s tent door opened south or east I think she

never discovered, for it is quite certain she always slept with the

flap tightly fastened; I only know that my own little “five by seven,

all silk” faced due east, because next morning the sun, pouring in as

only the wilderness sun knows how to pour, woke me early, and a moment

later, with a short run over soft moss and a flying dive from the

granite ledge, I was swimming in the most sparkling water imaginable.

It was barely four o’clock, and the sun came down a long vista of blue

islands that led out to the open sea and Finland. Nearer by rose the

wooded domes of our own property, still capped and wreathed with smoky

trails of fast-melting mist, and looking as fresh as though it was the

morning of Mrs. Maloney’s Sixth Day and they had just issued, clean and

brilliant, from the hands of the great Architect.

In the open spaces the ground was drenched with dew, and from the sea a

cool salt wind stole in among the trees and set the branches trembling

in an atmosphere of shimmering silver. The tents shone white where the

sun caught them in patches. Below lay the lagoon, still dreaming of

the summer night; in the open the fish were jumping busily, sending

musical ripples towards the shore; and in the air hung the magic of

dawn--silent, incommunicable.

I lit the fire, so that an hour later the clergyman should find good

ashes to stir his porridge over, and then set forth upon an examination

of the island, but hardly had I gone a dozen yards when I saw a figure

standing a little in front of me where the sunlight fell in a pool

among the trees.

It was Joan. She had already been up an hour, she told me, and had

bathed before the last stars had left the sky. I saw at once that the

new spirit of this solitary region had entered into her, banishing the

fears of the night, for her face was like the face of a happy denizen

of the wilderness, and her eyes stainless and shining. Her feet were

bare, and drops of dew she had shaken from the branches hung in her

loose-flying hair. Obviously she had come into her own.

“I’ve been all over the island,” she announced laughingly, “and there

are two things wanting.”

“You’re a good judge, Joan. What are they?”

“There’s no animal life, and there’s no--water.”

“They go together,” I said. “Animals don’t bother with a rock like this

unless there’s a spring on it.”

And as she led me from place to place, happy and excited, leaping

adroitly from rock to rock, I was glad to note that my first

impressions were correct. She made no reference to our conversation of

the night before. The new spirit had driven out the old. There was no

room in her heart for fear or anxiety, and Nature had everything her

own way.

The island, we found, was some three-quarters of a mile from point

to point, built in a circle, or wide horseshoe, with an opening of

twenty feet at the mouth of the lagoon. Pine-trees grew thickly all

over, but here and there were patches of silver birch, scrub oak, and

considerable colonies of wild raspberry and gooseberry bushes. The two

ends of the horseshoe formed bare slabs of smooth granite running into

the sea and forming dangerous reefs just below the surface, but the

rest of the island rose in a forty-foot ridge and sloped down steeply

to the sea on either side, being nowhere more than a hundred yards wide.

The outer shore-line was much indented with numberless coves and bays

and sandy beaches, with here and there caves and precipitous little

cliffs against which the sea broke in spray and thunder. But the inner

shore, the shore of the lagoon, was low and regular, and so well

protected by the wall of trees along the ridge that no storm could ever

send more than a passing ripple along its sandy marges. Eternal shelter

reigned there.

On one of the other islands, a few hundred yards away--for the rest of

the party slept late this first morning, and we took to the canoe--we

discovered a spring of fresh water untainted by the brackish flavour of

the Baltic, and having thus solved the most important problem of the

Camp, we next proceeded to deal with the second--fish. And in half an

hour we reeled in and turned homewards, for we had no means of storage,

and to clean more fish than may be stored or eaten in a day is no wise

occupation for experienced campers.

And as we landed towards six o’clock we heard the clergyman singing as

usual and saw his wife and Sangree shaking out their blankets in the

sun, and dressed in a fashion that finally dispelled all memories of

streets and civilisation.

“The Little People lit the fire for me,” cried Maloney, looking natural

and at home in his ancient flannel suit and breaking off in the middle

of his singing, “so I’ve got the porridge going--and this time it’s

_not_ burnt.”

We reported the discovery of water and held up the fish.

“Good! Good again!” he cried. “We’ll have the first decent breakfast

we’ve had this year. Sangree’ll clean ’em in no time, and the Bo’sun’s

Mate----”

“Will fry them to a turn,” laughed the voice of Mrs. Maloney, appearing

on the scene in a tight blue jersey and sandals, and catching up the

frying-pan. Her husband always called her the Bo’sun’s Mate in Camp,

because it was her duty, among others, to pipe all hands to meals.

“And as for you, Joan,” went on the happy man, “you look like the

spirit of the island, with moss in your hair and wind in your eyes,

and sun and stars mixed in your face.” He looked at her with delighted

admiration. “Here, Sangree, take these twelve, there’s a good fellow,

they’re the biggest; and we’ll have ’em in butter in less time than you

can say Baltic island!”

I watched the Canadian as he slowly moved off to the cleaning pail.

His eyes were drinking in the girl’s beauty, and a wave of passionate,

almost feverish, joy passed over his face, expressive of the ecstasy of

true worship more than anything else. Perhaps he was thinking that he

still had three weeks to come with that vision always before his eyes;

perhaps he was thinking of his dreams in the night. I cannot say. But

I noticed the curious mingling of yearning and happiness in his eyes,

and the strength of the impression touched my curiosity. Something in

his face held my gaze for a second, something to do with its intensity.

That so timid, so gentle a personality should conceal so virile a

passion almost seemed to require explanation.

But the impression was momentary, for that first breakfast in Camp

permitted no divided attentions, and I dare swear that the porridge,

the tea, the Swedish “flatbread,” and the fried fish flavoured with

points of frizzled bacon, were better than any meal eaten elsewhere

that day in the whole world.

The first clear day in a new camp is always a furiously busy one, and

we soon dropped into the routine upon which in large measure the real

comfort of every one depends. About the cooking-fire, greatly improved

with stones from the shore, we built a high stockade consisting of

upright poles thickly twined with branches, the roof lined with moss

and lichen and weighted with rocks, and round the interior we made low

wooden seats so that we could lie round the fire even in rain and eat

our meals in peace. Paths, too, outlined themselves from tent to tent,

from the bathing places and the landing stage, and a fair division of

the island was decided upon between the quarters of the men and the

women. Wood was stacked, awkward trees and boulders removed, hammocks

slung, and tents strengthened. In a word, Camp was established, and

duties were assigned and accepted as though we expected to live on

this Baltic island for years to come and the smallest detail of the

Community life was important.

Moreover, as the Camp came into being, this sense of a community

developed, proving that we were a definite whole, and not merely

separate human beings living for a while in tents upon a desert island.

Each fell willingly into the routine. Sangree, as by natural selection,

took upon himself the cleaning of the fish and the cutting of the wood

into lengths sufficient for a day’s use. And he did it well. The pan

of water was never without a fish, cleaned and scaled, ready to fry

for whoever was hungry; the nightly fire never died down for lack of

material to throw on without going farther afield to search.

And Timothy, once reverend, caught the fish and chopped down the

trees. He also assumed responsibility for the condition of the boat,

and did it so thoroughly that nothing in the little cutter was ever

found wanting. And when, for any reason, his presence was in demand,

the first place to look for him was--in the boat, and there, too, he

was usually found, tinkering away with sheets, sails, or rudder and

singing as he tinkered.

Nor was the “reading” neglected; for most mornings there came a sound

of droning voices from the white tent by the raspberry bushes, which

signified that Sangree, the tutor, and whatever other man chanced to be

in the party at the time, were hard at it with history or the classics.

And while Mrs. Maloney, also by natural selection, took charge of

the larder and the kitchen, the mending and general supervision of

the rough comforts, she also made herself peculiarly mistress of the

megaphone which summoned to meals and carried her voice easily from one

end of the island to the other; and in her hours of leisure she daubed

the surrounding scenery on to a sketching block with all the honesty

and devotion of her determined but unreceptive soul.

Joan, meanwhile, Joan, elusive creature of the wilds, became I know

not exactly what. She did plenty of work in the Camp, yet seemed to

have no very precise duties. She was everywhere and anywhere. Sometimes

she slept in her tent, sometimes under the stars with a blanket. She

knew every inch of the island and kept turning up in places where she

was least expected--for ever wandering about, reading her books in

sheltered corners, making little fires on sunless days to “worship by

to the gods,” as she put it, ever finding new pools to dive and bathe

in, and swimming day and night in the warm and waveless lagoon like a

fish in a huge tank. She went bare-legged and bare-footed, with her

hair down and her skirts caught up to the knees, and if ever a human

being turned into a jolly savage within the compass of a single week,

Joan Maloney was certainly that human being. She ran wild.

So completely, too, was she possessed by the strong spirit of the

place that the little human fear she had yielded to so strangely on

our arrival seemed to have been utterly dispossessed. As I hoped and

expected, she made no reference to our conversation of the first

evening. Sangree bothered her with no special attentions, and after

all they were very little together. His behaviour was perfect in that

respect, and I, for my part, hardly gave the matter another thought.

Joan was ever a prey to vivid fancies of one kind or another, and this

was one of them. Mercifully for the happiness of all concerned, it had

melted away before the spirit of busy, active life and deep content

that reigned over the island. Every one was intensely alive, and peace

was upon all.

* * * * *

Meanwhile the effect of the camp-life began to tell. Always a searching

test of character, its results, sooner or later, are infallible, for

it acts upon the soul as swiftly and surely as the hypo bath upon the

negative of a photograph. A readjustment of the personal forces takes

place quickly; some parts of the personality go to sleep, others wake

up: but the first sweeping change that the primitive life brings about

is that the artificial portions of the character shed themselves one

after another like dead skins. Attitudes and poses that seemed genuine

in the city, drop away. The mind, like the body, grows quickly hard,

simple, uncomplex. And in a camp as primitive and close to nature as

ours was, these effects became speedily visible.

Some folk, of course, who talk glibly about the simple life when it

is safely out of reach, betray themselves in camp by for ever peering

about for the artificial excitements of civilisation which they miss.

Some get bored at once; some grow slovenly; some reveal the animal in

most unexpected fashion; and some, the select few, find themselves in

very short order and are happy.

And, in our little party, we could flatter ourselves that we all

belonged to the last category, so far as the general effect was

concerned. Only there were certain other changes as well, varying with

each individual, and all interesting to note.

It was only after the first week or two that these changes became

marked, although this is the proper place, I think, to speak of them.

For, having myself no other duty than to enjoy a well-earned holiday,

I used to load my canoe with blankets and provisions and journey forth

on exploration trips among the islands of several days together; and

it was on my return from the first of these--when I rediscovered the

party, so to speak--that these changes first presented themselves

vividly to me, and in one particular instance produced a rather curious

impression.

In a word, then, while every one had grown wilder, naturally wilder,

Sangree, it seemed to me, had grown much wilder, and what I can only

call unnaturally wilder. He made me think of a savage.

To begin with, he had changed immensely in mere physical appearance,

and the full brown cheeks, the brighter eyes of absolute health, and

the general air of vigour and robustness that had come to replace his

customary lassitude and timidity, had worked such an improvement that I

hardly knew him for the same man. His voice, too, was deeper and his

manner bespoke for the first time a greater measure of confidence in

himself. He now had some claims to be called nice-looking, or at least

to a certain air of virility that would not lessen his value in the

eyes of the opposite sex.

All this, of course, was natural enough, and most welcome. But,

altogether apart from this physical change, which no doubt had also

been going forward in the rest of us, there was a subtle note in his

personality that came to me with a degree of surprise that almost

amounted to shock.

And two things--as he came down to welcome me and pull up the

canoe--leaped up in my mind unbidden, as though connected in some way

I could not at the moment divine--first, the curious judgment formed

of him by Joan; and secondly, that fugitive expression I had caught in

his face while Maloney was offering up his strange prayer for special

protection from Heaven.

The delicacy of manner and feature--to call it by no milder term--which

had always been a distinguishing characteristic of the man, had been

replaced by something far more vigorous and decided, that yet utterly

eluded analysis. The change which impressed me so oddly was not easy

to name. The others--singing Maloney, the bustling Bo’sun’s Mate, and

Joan, that fascinating half-breed of undine and salamander--all showed

the effects of a life so close to nature; but in their case the change

was perfectly natural and what was to be expected, whereas with Peter

Sangree, the Canadian, it was something unusual and unexpected.

It is impossible to explain how he managed gradually to convey to my

mind the impression that something in him had turned savage, yet this,

more or less, is the impression that he did convey. It was not that

he seemed really less civilised, or that his character had undergone

any definite alteration, but rather that something in him, hitherto

dormant, had awakened to life. Some quality, latent till now--so

far, at least, as we were concerned, who, after all, knew him but

slightly--had stirred into activity and risen to the surface of his

being.

And while, for the moment, this seemed as far as I could get, it was

but natural that my mind should continue the intuitive process and

acknowledge that John Silence, owing to his peculiar faculties, and the

girl, owing to her singularly receptive temperament, might each in a

different way have divined this latent quality in his soul, and feared

its manifestation later.

On looking back to this painful adventure, too, it now seems equally

natural that the same process, carried to its logical conclusion,

should have wakened some deep instinct in me that, wholly without

direction from my will, set itself sharply and persistently upon the

watch from that very moment. Thenceforward the personality of Sangree

was never far from my thoughts, and I was for ever analysing and

searching for the explanation that took so long in coming.

“I declare, Hubbard, you’re tanned like an aboriginal, and you look

like one, too,” laughed Maloney.

“And I can return the compliment,” was my reply, as we all gathered

round a brew of tea to exchange news and compare notes.

And later, at supper, it amused me to observe that the distinguished

tutor, once clergyman, did not eat his food quite as “nicely” as he did

at home--he devoured it; that Mrs. Maloney ate more, and, to say the

least, with less delay, than was her custom in the select atmosphere

of her English dining-room; and that while Joan attacked her tin

plateful with genuine avidity, Sangree, the Canadian, bit and gnawed

at his, laughing and talking and complimenting the cook all the while,

and making me think with secret amusement of a starved animal at its

first meal. While, from their remarks about myself, I judged that I had

changed and grown wild as much as the rest of them.

In this and in a hundred other little ways the change showed, ways

difficult to define in detail, but all proving--not the coarsening

effect of leading the primitive life, but, let us say, the more direct

and unvarnished methods that became prevalent. For all day long we

were in the bath of the elements--wind, water, sun--and just as the

body became insensible to cold and shed unnecessary clothing, the mind

grew straightforward and shed many of the disguises required by the

conventions of civilisation.

And in each, according to temperament and character, there stirred the

life-instincts that were natural, untamed, and, in a sense--savage.