It was in the gun-boat B--some few hundred miles south of Bombay in the
Indian Ocean. Lieutenant Archer was asleep in his cabin in the
afternoon, just after luncheon, and the day being fine and the weather
fair when he lay down, he had opened his little port for fresh air; in
other words, he had pulled the scuttle out. One of those sudden
squalls, however--so common in this lovely sea--came down on the ship
just as she was about to cross a coral bank infested with these
serpents.
The tramping noise on deck, the rattle of ropes overhead, and the
flapping of sails and shouting of orders might have failed to waken
Archer--he was used to it--but something else did. No, not a snake; the
snake comes in afterwards. But he shipped a sea through the scuttle
which deluged the bed. The officer sprang out, put in and fastened the
scuttle, shook the rug, and then himself as a big dog might have done,
and quietly turned in again. He got up to keep the first dog-watch, and
on putting his hand down to take up his jacket the terrible sea-viper
struck him. It is said he was almost instantly paralysed with terror
and pain. The doctor found him, pale, perspiring, with starting
eye-balls, and almost bloodless, and nothing could rally him, for he
sank and died.
Now I give the story as I got it. It _may_ be true. It may be like
some of Rory O'Reilly's yarns, worthy of credence as far as one half
goes, the other half being left for the story-teller himself to make the
best of.
It was strange now that, although far away among the woods they had seen
the smoke of fires, on landing with men to dig wells and search for
water, not a sight of a human being could be seen. They dug well after
well, but all were brackish.
So this island had to be deserted.
The next place they came to swarmed with natives, and very fine-looking
fellows they were, armed to the teeth, however. They obstinately
refused to hold any palaver with the officers or crew of the _Gloaming
Star_. Even the display of beads did not tempt them, and although here
were streams of fresh water, it was ultimately decided to sail away and
seek for it on other and probably more hospitable shores.
It is impossible to chronicle all the wanderings of our heroes in those
lovely islands, and their cruises round their coasts, but all summer
long off and on they voyaged in their midst. Then came the autumn--
which is contemporaneous with our spring--and higher winds began to
blow, and the weather got sensibly cooler and more pleasant.
There was no dearth of fresh provisions anywhere, there was fish in the
sea and game on shore, and although the dangers they had to incur in
search of water were sometimes great, they succeeded in getting it
nevertheless.
One day about the middle of February they found themselves approaching a
beautiful though small island, which, as it was well-wooded and hilly,
gave promise not only of water, but of a supply of good things for the
larder as well. The weather was not quite so clear, however, as usual.
As the wind seemed freshening and blowing towards the land, the
_Gloaming Star_ altered her course, and towards evening found herself at
the lee side of this _terra incognita_, when she dropped anchors, being
sheltered on one side by the rocks, and on another by a long spit of
land, covered with shingle, that jutted out into the sea.
There was no smoke to be seen among the trees, no huts near the shore,
never a sign of human life anywhere. The island was as much their own
as Robinson Crusoe's was.
Leonard and Douglas with a boat's crew of five men landed in the
afternoon, and after making their boat fast to the trunks of some
mangrove trees, that grew near the spit of land, they went away into the
interior on a prospecting expedition.
They found the island far more lovely than they could have imagined in
their wildest dreams. It was indeed a garden of nature--hills and
glens, woods and waters, and even inland lakes, foaming cataracts,
wondrous trees, and climbing flowers of every shape and colour. Birds
and strange beasts, but nothing apparently hurtful or venomous. And yet
all was in the smallest compass.
No wonder that the sun was almost setting before--laden with delicious
fruit--they began to make their way back to the beach.