Stunned at first, for a few minutes, by the extreme violence of the
explosion, no one on board the _Sunshine_ spoke, though each man stood
at his post ready to act.
"Strange," said the captain at last. "There seems to be no big wave
this time."
"That only shows that we are not as near the island as we thought. But
it won't be long of--See! There it comes," said the hermit. "Now,
Winnie, cling to my arm and put your trust in God."
Nigel, who had secured a life-buoy, moved close to the girl's side, and
looking anxiously out ahead saw a faint line of foam in the thick
darkness which had succeeded the explosion. Already the distant roar of
the billow was heard, proving that it had begun to break.
"The wind comes with it," said Van der Kemp.
"Stand by!" cried the captain, gazing intently over the side.
Next moment came the sharp order to hoist the foretopsail and jib, soon
followed by "Cut the cable!"
There was breeze enough to swing the vessel quickly round. In a few
seconds her stern was presented to the coming wave, and her bow cleft
the water as she rushed upon what every one now knew was her doom.
To escape the great wave was no part of the captain's plan. To have
reached the shore before the wave would have been fatal to all. Their
only hope lay in the possibility of riding in on the top of it, and the
great danger was that they should be unable to rise to it stern first
when it came up, or that they should turn broadside on and be rolled
over.
They had not long to wait. The size of the wave, before it came near
enough to be seen, was indicated by its solemn, deep-toned,
ever-increasing roar. The captain stood at the wheel himself, guiding
the brig and glancing back from time to time uneasily.
Suddenly the volcano gave vent to its fourth and final explosion. It
was not so violent as its predecessors had been, though more so than any
that had occurred on the day before, and the light of it showed them the
full terrors of their situation, for it revealed the mountains of Java--
apparently quite close in front, though in reality at a considerable
distance--with a line of breakers beating white on the shore. But
astern of them was the most appalling sight, for there, rushing on with
awful speed and a sort of hissing roar, came the monstrous wave,
emerging, as it were, out of thick darkness, like a mighty wall of water
with a foaming white crest, not much less--according to an average of
the most reliable estimates--than 100 feet high.
Well might the seamen blanch, for never before in all their varied
experience had they seen the like of that.
On it came with the unwavering force of Fate. To the eye of Captain Roy
it appeared that up its huge towering side no vessel made by mortal man
could climb. But the captain had too often stared death in the face to
be unmanned by the prospect now. Steadily he steered the vessel
straight on, and in a quiet voice said--
"Lay hold of something firm--every man!"
The warning was well timed. In the amazement, if not fear, caused by
the unwonted sight, some had neglected the needful precaution.
As the billow came on, the bubbling, leaping, and seething of its crest
was apparent both to eye and ear. Then the roar became tremendous.
"Darling Winnie," said Nigel at that moment. "I will die for you or
with you!"
The poor girl heard, but no sign of appreciation moved her pale face as
she gazed up at the approaching chaos of waters.
Next moment the brig seemed to stand on its bows. Van der Kemp had
placed his daughter against the mast, and, throwing his long arms round
both, held on. Nigel, close to them, had grasped a handful of ropes,
and every one else was holding on for life. Another moment and the brig
rose as if it were being tossed up to the heavens. Immediately
thereafter it resumed its natural position in a perfect wilderness of
foam. They were on the summit of the great wave, which was so large
that its crest seemed like a broad, rounded mass of tumbling snow with
blackness before and behind, while the roar of the tumult was deafening.
The brig rushed onward at a speed which she had never before equalled
even in the fiercest gale--tossed hither and thither by the leaping
foam, yet always kept going straight onward by the expert steering of
her captain.
"Come aft--all of you!" he shouted, when it was evident that the vessel
was being borne surely forward on the wave's crest. "The masts will go
for certain when we strike."
The danger of being entangled in the falling spars and cordage was so
obvious that every one except the hermit and Nigel obeyed.
"Here, Nigel," gasped the former. "I--I've--lost blood--faint!--"
Our hero at once saw that Van der Kemp, fainting from previous loss of
blood, coupled with exertion, was unable to do anything but hold on.
Indeed, he failed even in that, and would have fallen to the deck had
Nigel not caught him by the arm.
"Can you run aft, Winnie?" said Nigel anxiously.
"Yes!" said the girl, at once understanding the situation and darting to
the wheel, of which and of Captain Roy she laid firm hold, while Nigel
lifted the hermit in his arms and staggered to the same spot. Winnie
knelt beside him immediately, and, forgetting for the moment all the
horrors around her, busied herself in replacing the bandage which had
been loosened from his head.
"Oh! Mr Roy, save him!--save him!" cried the poor child, appealing in
an agony to Nigel, for she felt instinctively that when the crash came
her father would be utterly helpless even to save himself.
Nigel had barely time to answer when a wild shout from the crew caused
him to start up and look round. A flare from the volcano had cast a red
light over the bewildering scene, and revealed the fact that the brig
was no longer above the ocean's bed, but was passing in its wild career
right through, or rather _over_, the demolished town of Anjer. A few of
the houses that had been left standing by the previous waves were being
swept--hurled--away by this one, but the mass of rolling, rushing,
spouting water was so deep, that the vessel had as yet struck nothing
save the tops of some palm-trees which bent their heads like straws
before the flood.
Even in the midst of the amazement, alarm, and anxiety caused by the
situation, Nigel could not help wondering that in this final and
complete destruction of the town no sign of struggling human beings
should be visible. He forgot at the moment, what was terribly proved
afterwards, that the first waves had swallowed up men, women, and
children by hundreds, and that the few who survived had fled to the
hills, leaving nothing for the larger wave to do but complete the work
of devastation on inanimate objects. Ere the situation had been well
realised the volcanic fires went down again, and left the world, for
over a hundred surrounding miles, in opaque darkness. Only the humble
flicker of the binnacle-light, like a trusty sentinel on duty, continued
to shed its feeble rays on a few feet of the deck, and showed that the
compass at least was still faithful to the pole!
Then another volcanic outburst revealed the fact that the wave which
carried them was thundering on in the direction of a considerable cliff
or precipice--not indeed quite straight towards it, but sufficiently so
to render escape doubtful.
At the same time a swarm of terror-stricken people were seen flying
towards this cliff and clambering up its steep sides. They were
probably some of the more courageous of the inhabitants who had summoned
courage to return to their homes after the passage of the second wave.
Their shrieks and cries could be heard above even the roaring of the
water and the detonations of the volcano.
"God spare us!" exclaimed poor Winnie, whose trembling form was now
partially supported by Nigel.
As she spoke darkness again obscured everything, and they could do
naught but listen to the terrible sounds--and pray.
On--on went the _Sunshine_, in the midst of wreck and ruin, on this
strange voyage over land and water, until a check was felt. It was not
a crash as had been anticipated, and as might have naturally been
expected, neither was it an abrupt stoppage. There was first a hissing,
scraping sound against the vessel's sides, then a steady checking--we
might almost say a hindrance to progress--not violent, yet so very
decided that the rigging could not bear the strain. One and another of
the backstays parted, the foretopsail burst with a cannon-like report,
after which a terrible rending sound, followed by an indescribable
crash, told that both masts had gone by the board.
Then all was comparatively still--comparatively we say, for water still
hissed and leaped beneath them like a rushing river, though it no longer
roared, and the wind blew in unfamiliar strains and laden with unwonted
odours.
At that moment another outburst of Krakatoa revealed the fact that the
great wave had borne the brig inland for upwards of a mile, and left her
imbedded in a thick grove of cocoa-nut palms!