IN THE TREE.
For a moment the two stood eyeing each other, with looks of dismay.
"Can't we burrow our way out?" queried the young man.
"I'm afraid not. Them rascals knowed what they were doin' when they
fastened us up. In my opinion, we are to be left in this hollow tree
to be swallered up with the island when it goes!"
Harry glanced up. The opening in the top of the trunk was about
fifteen feet above them. There was no way for them to reach it!
The young man bowed his face on his hand.
"I would have been willing--would have cheerfully died," said he,
"in helping poor Mary; but to perish far away from that girl without
having lifted a hand in her defense is very mortifying!"
"Ay, ay," said Turk, "and this is a lesson to me never to give advice
in the futur'--if there be any futur' left for me on this arth! I'm as
sorry as you can be, that I got you to give up follerin' the lass at
once!"
For several moments the two men stood, glancing up through the opening
in the trunk, which being directly beneath the volcano, afforded them
a good view of it.
The huge crater was spouting showers of flame and sparks, which seemed
to increase in quantity every moment.
Meanwhile the roaring noise of the subterranean fires was becoming
louder. The ground shook with the thunder in its bosom, until the very
tree in which the two men were ensconced began to tremble.
"The 'castrophy' must soon take place!" exclaimed Turk; "wish you'd
l'arn me to say a few prayers before we are swallered up! That is,"
continued the old tar, "I did l'arn my catechism, once upon a time,
but it's so long ago that the idee has been blowed out of my head by
the squalls and gales I've weathered, do you see!"
Harry answered not. His mind was full of bitter reflections, in the
midst of which his Mary, suffering in the hands of the savages,
occupied a prominent part.
"Perhaps we may burrow out of this!" he exclaimed, at length, "at all
events, let us try!"
So saying, he stooped, and went to work with hands and nails.
He made some progress, but he had not dug a foot, when his hands came
into contact with a hard substance, which resisted all his efforts to
move it.
It was a heavy stone, almost a rock in size, which had been shoved
against the opening.
"No hope!" he said, despairingly.
As he spoke, a wild yell was heard without, followed by the noise of
approaching steps.
The steps drew nearer; there was a halt made alongside the tree, then
followed a noise of dry branches being dragged along and piled round
the trunk.
"Ay! ay!" exclaimed Turk, aghast, "them heathens ain't even goin' to
give us a chance to die in them underground flames, but is agoing to
pile faggots and burn us at once."
Harry shuddered.
Then the thought occurred to him that perhaps Mary had perished in a
similar manner.
In a few minutes the crackling of flames, betokened that the old tar
had guessed aright.
The fire was wreathing and twining around the trunk of the tree, the
inside of which was every moment growing hotter.
"Ay, ay," moaned Turk, despondingly, "we are all a-goin' to be baked
alive, as if we were two clams instead of humanized bein's!"
Hotter became the seamen's narrow quarters every moment. Tongues of
flames were now seen creeping through crevices in the trunk.
The sap oozed with a hiss like a serpent's, while the smoke entering
the hollow, almost suffocated the occupants.
Heated, almost blinded, their flesh scorched, the sufferings of the
twain were becoming fearful.
In the lurid glare each could see the eyeballs of the other rolling
wildly in his head, and hear his panting breath drawn with difficulty.
"This is intolerable!" gasped Harry; "would that the rascals would
spear us, and thus at once put an end to our torment."
There seemed, however, no probability of their doing this.
Meanwhile there were none of the manifestations of exultation and
triumph peculiar to the North American savages.
Nothing was to be heard above the din of the roaring and crackling
flames, save a low, guttural croaking of quiet satisfaction, such as
might have been uttered over chunks of roast beef cooking on a spit.
"Ay, ay," muttered Turk, who for some time had been dancing up and
down with pain, "I feel as if the gravy was already a-oozing out of my
body."
As he spoke, he chanced to glance upward, when he was startled by
the apparition of a face, half concealed by a great green leaf,
(protruding downward from under an old cap) thrust through the opening
in the top of the trunk, while the rest of the body was screened by
the thick branches around it.
"Hist! Stand by! I'll save you both if I can!" said the stranger in a
shrill, penetrating whisper, "on one condition!"
For several moments the two men were so surprised that they could only
stand motionless, looking up at the intruding face, without uttering a
word.
Harry was the first to speak.
"Who are you! How came you there?"
"It don't matter. I am only half human, at any rate. On one condition
I said I'd save you."
"Name it, name it, my man!" cried Turk, "and you'll see how quick we'll
comply. But I'd think the savages would see you up there?"
"No; the branches and leaves are too thick. The leaf over my face
hides it from them while my body is in shadow."
"Name that ere condition of yours then, quick!" exclaimed Turk.
"Well, it is that you save my money!"
"Your money?"
"Yes I cannot get to it now. I beg you will save me my precious money."
"Where is it!" inquired Turk, "if you'll jist tell me that p'raps I
can----"
"It's in a little cleft in the right side of the trunk in a bag. You
may feel it by putting your hand there. Oh! my money--my precious
money! that must not be sacrificed!"
Turk felt along the trunk until finally his hand struck a deep cleft
notched in the wood, when he felt the bag and drew it forth.
It emitted a clinking sound.
"Ay, ay, that's it!" whispered the stranger; "now unfasten the cord
from it, and throw the end up to me, when I will draw you safely out
of the hollow!"
Turk instantly proceeded to do as directed. Unwinding the cord which,
though small in thickness, was as tough as a clothes-line, he was
glad to perceive that it was long enough to reach to the top of the
trunk.
Meanwhile, in spite of his sufferings, he could not forbear peeping
into the bag, which, he at once perceived was full of shining pieces
of gold.