A current of cool air was passing over the face of the rock, I conclude,
for, to my no small satisfaction, I discovered that I was alive, and
could very speedily sit up. The spectacle which met my sight, however,
was terrific in the extreme. Far as the eye could reach, the whole
country was in a blaze, the flames crackling and hissing as they
fiercely attacked clump after clump of the tall tussac grass, while the
ground over which they had passed was charred and blackened, the
globular masses of the bog balsam glowing with fervent heat. The flames
also still burned brightly close round us, and I saw no means by which
we could escape from our position. As soon as I had collected my
thoughts, I remembered my companion. I found a few drops of spirits and
water in our flask. I poured them down his throat. He looked up.
"What! am I still alive?" he muttered faintly. "Oh, the bulls and the
fire! what's going to happen next?"
"That is more than I can tell you exactly," I answered; "but I suppose,
in time, the fire will burn itself out, and then we may get away from
this. Let us watch it meantime. It is worth looking at."
In a short time, after a few sighs, Jerry lifted up his head from the
ground, and sat up. The sight at which we gazed was especially grand
when a fresh puff of wind sent the flames rolling along, and throwing up
forked flashes, as they found new fuel to feed on. All the beasts it
had encountered had, of course, fled, terror inspired, before it; but
numberless young birds must have been destroyed, and we saw hundreds of
their parents hovering over the spot where their nests had been, in the
vain effort to save their offspring. Some we saw fall into the flames,
either from having their wings singed from approaching too near, or by
being suffocated with the smoke. When we saw the effects of the fire,
we were doubly thankful that we had not attempted to make our way across
the island. Once surrounded by that fiery furnace, we must have been,
to a certainty, burned to death. Suddenly a dreadful thought occurred
to me.
"Jerry," I exclaimed, "where can our friends be all this time? Is it
possible that they can have been among the grass, and that the fire may
have caught them up? Good Cousin Silas, and Mr Burkett, and jolly Mr
Kilby. Poor fellows! we may be much better off than they are."
"Oh, don't talk about it," said Jerry, shuddering; "it is too dreadful.
I hope--I hope they will have got into a place of safety. Poor fellows!
and it was all my doing. Do you know, Harry, I think we ought to pray
for them. They may be requiring aid which no mortal man can give them."
"Yes, indeed," said I; "we ought--let us." And together we knelt down
on the hard rock, surrounded by the roaring flames, the thick black
smoke curling around us, and sometimes almost suffocating us; and most
earnestly did we offer up our prayers for the safety of our friends and
for our own; and most thankful did we feel that we had been preserved
from the dangers into which we had been thrown. I pity the person who
is ashamed to acknowledge that he prays for protection both for himself
and those he cares for. How should we go through the world without the
protection of an all-merciful God? Often and often I have had proof of
how utterly unable we are to take care of ourselves. Among the many
blessings and advantages I have enjoyed is that of having had parents
who taught me to pray, and not to be ashamed of praying. At school,
when some poor, weak, foolish boys were afraid to kneel down by their
bedsides to say their prayers, my brothers and I always persevered in
the practice; and very soon we put to shame those who tried to interrupt
us--and not only we ourselves, but other boys who did the same, were
from that time never interfered with. Sure I am that our prayers were
heard, and that the blessings we prayed for in earnestness and
simplicity were given us. When we rose from our knees we found our
courage much increased. The occasion had made us serious, and reminded
us of our duties. I wish that it had been always so, that it were still
always so; but even now as I write, I feel how much day after day I have
left undone of what I ought to have done. Is it not so with all of us?
Then what necessity is there for prayer for strength from above to
enable us to do our duty. I say again, don't be ashamed. Pray always;
and if it is for your good, what you ask with faith God will most
assuredly give you. He has said it, and his promises never fail.
Night was now approaching, but we could yet see no prospect of our
escaping from our present position. The darkness, as it came on, served
to brighten the effect of the fire; and as we gazed round on every side,
as far as the eye could reach, we could see only the bright glare of the
conflagration as it went on widening its circle round us. Now and then,
as it reached spots more thickly covered with clumps of tussac grass, we
could see the flames rushing upwards in pyramids of fire; but in other
places a dense fierce glow could alone be perceived as the fiery wave
receded from us. The sight we beheld was certainly a very grand one,
and not easily to be forgotten; but our position was far from pleasant,
and we would thankfully have found ourselves on board the schooner, or
even in the boat under shelter of a sail. Our clothes were scorched,
and so were our hands and feet; we were getting very hungry, and no fuel
remained to enable us to cook our provisions, while now that the fire
was removed from us the sharp wind made us feel very cold. When we
considered the small area of the rock which had been at one time like an
island amid the fiery ocean, we had more reason than ever to be thankful
that we had escaped destruction. On further examination of the locality
we discovered that the proximate cause of our escape was owing to the
position of the rock near a piece of water, the extent of which we
perceived when the fire in our neighbourhood had burned itself out. A
narrow belt of grass only intervened between the rock and the water, the
rest of the ground being a marsh covered with moist rushes, which did
not burn. As the wind had for the greater part of the time blown over
the pond, we were thus saved from suffocation. Had the rock been
thickly surrounded by high grass, I think that we must have been burned
to death; for, blown by the wind, the flames would have reached the very
centre of the rock where we lay; and had we not been roasted, we should
have been suffocated by the smoke. We crouched down on the rock, and
sat for some time without speaking, watching the progress of the flames.
The ground around us was still glowing with the remains of the fire.
How long we had sat silent I do not know, when Jerry exclaimed, with
animation--
"I say, Harry, why shouldn't we have a steak off our old friend the
bull? He must be pretty well done through by this time."
"We will try him at all events," said I; and descending the rock, we
very soon had some fine slices of beef out of him. Finding that the
ground was sufficiently cooled to allow our walking on it without
burning our shoes, we advanced with our steaks stuck at the end of our
ramrods to a glowing heap of bog balsam. Kicking it up with our feet,
it soon sent forth a heat amply sufficient to cook our already
half-roasted steaks. When they were done, collecting our guns, and
bags, and game, we sat down on the lee side of the rock, and speedily
silenced the cravings of hunger. We should have been glad of something
to drink, but we were not yet sufficiently thirsty to induce us to get
water from the pond. We felt very tired after all the exercise we had
taken, and the excitement we had gone through during the day; but we
were afraid to go to sleep lest the bulls should wander back, or
something else happen we knew not what; besides, the anxiety about our
friends kept us awake. At last, however, as we sat shoulder to shoulder
under the rock, sleep stole imperceptibly on us, and I do not think that
I ever enjoyed a sounder slumber than I did that night. When we awoke
we rubbed our eyes, not knowing where we were. It was broad daylight.
We rose to our feet, and after stretching our cramped limbs, we climbed
to the top of the rock to look about us. The fire still raged over part
of the island, which was enveloped in thick wreaths of black smoke; but
to the west we caught sight of the blue sea, sparkling brightly in the
sunshine, the intervening space being free from flames, though
presenting a surface of black ashes, not a blade of grass apparently
having escaped the conflagration. We thought, too, that we recognised a
point round which the schooner had come just before dropping us in the
boat. This encouraged us to hope that we might not be very far-distant
from the place where we had landed. Without waiting, therefore, for
breakfast, we determined at once to set off.
"Let us take some beef, though," exclaimed Jerry; "it will prove that by
our own prowess we have killed a bull at all events."
The slices of beef were speedily cut, therefore, and strung on over our
shoulders, and, like two young Robinson Crusoes, we set off in the hopes
of soon relieving our anxiety about our friends. Nothing could be more
melancholy than the appearance of the country through which we passed--
cinders and blackness on every side. Every now and then we nearly
tumbled into a glowing heap of bog balsam. It was sad, too, to see the
number of nests, some with eggs in them, and others with young birds
completely roasted; indeed, we passed many old birds burned to cinders.
At last we struck the shore; but the face of nature had been so
completely altered by the fire, that we were uncertain whether it was to
the north or south of the creek at which we had landed. At last we
agreed that we were to the south of the spot we wished to reach, so we
stood along the beach to the north. We had not got far before we saw, a
little way inland, where the grass had been, two black masses. We
grasped each other's arms. Were they the figures of men? Trembling
with fear we hurried towards them. Though burned to cinders, still we
had no difficulty in recognising them as two seals. The poor things,
stupified and astonished by the fire, had probably had no time to waddle
into the water before it had overtaken them. Perhaps seals, like fish,
are attracted by fire, and the foolish animals had thought it a fine
sight to behold. We had taken no breakfast, and were beginning to feel
the want of food, but, at the same time, we were so thirsty that we did
not feel as if we could eat. There was plenty of salt water; but that
was not tempting, and would only have increased our suffering. Jerry
sat himself down on the beach and said he could go no further; but I
urged him to continue on, in the hopes that we might come soon upon a
stream of water. I remember even then being struck by the immense
quantities of kelp which fringed the shore. The long leaves and roots,
where left by the tide, looked like pieces of thick brown leather; and
we agreed that cups and bowls, and all sorts of things, might be made
out of it. Kelp is a species of sea-weed of gigantic size, and its
sturdy stems have been known to reach the surface from a depth of nearly
three hundred feet; some of the wide-spreading weeds looking like tanned
hides extended on the surface. Its roots cling with a powerful gripe to
the rocks, on which alone it grows. Some of the stems are sufficiently
strong to moor a boat with. I had a knife, the handle of which was made
by simply sticking the hilt of the blade into a piece of the root while
it was wet;--when the kelp dried the blade was firmly fixed in it. We
had not gone far when a rippling sound saluted our ears; and running on,
we found a bright, sparkling stream gurgling out of the bank. We put
our mouths down to the spot where it gushed out, and oh, how we enjoyed
the cool pure draught! Nothing could then have been more gratifying to
our taste. We found this gave a remarkably keen edge to our appetites;
so we sat down by the stream and produced a piece of the steak we had
cooked the previous evening, and the remains of our biscuit. While
discussing them, Jerry exclaimed that he saw something galloping along
the shore.
"Is it a bull?" I asked, thinking that we might have to decamp, and
looking out for a place of safety.
"It comes on very fast," he answered. I jumped up, for I was sitting a
little below him, and looked in the direction he pointed.
"It's old Surley! it's old Surley!" I shouted. "Our friends cannot be
far-off."
On came the old dog, and was very soon jumping up and licking our hands
and faces, and wagging his tail, till it looked as if he would wag it
off. He seemed in no way displeased at receiving a piece of beef; and
as soon as he had got it he began to trot off with it in his mouth in
the direction from which he had come. After going a few yards, however,
he stopped and turned half round, and wagged his tail, as much as to
say, "Come along with me; I trotted all the way on purpose to fetch
you."
We took up our guns to show that we were about to follow; and on this he
began to jump, and frisk about, and bark, to exhibit his satisfaction,
and then he stopped and went on a little, and then stopped again to see
that we were following. In great hopes that he was leading us to our
friends, we went on as fast as we could walk. Our path led us under
some cliffs which were literally crowded with penguins and young
albatrosses, or mollimauks. There was a regular encampment or rookery
of them, extending for five or six hundred yards in length, and from one
to two dozen in breadth. The nests of the albatrosses were nearly a
foot high, and of a cup-like form. Feathers were just beginning to
spread on the backs and wings of the young birds, and to take the place
of the down with which they had originally been covered. Old Surley
passed by without taking any notice of them. When we approached the
spot they set up a loud gabbling, and spouted out an oily substance at
us. The penguins were much more dignified, and looked at us with silent
contempt. The surface of the sea near at hand was covered with the
parent birds, and the air was alive with them as they flew backward and
forward to carry food to their young; but as, following old Surley's
example, we did not attempt to molest their broods, they took no notice
of us. The penguins were the most numerous, and appeared to be the
original inhabitants of the spot. They were arranged with great
regularity, those having just broken the shell being together, as were
those with their feathers appearing, and also those expecting soon to
fly. Never had I seen so many birds together. However, we were too
anxious about our friends to stop, so we hurried on after old Surley.
From the steady way in which he proceeded, we felt sure that he was
leading us in the right direction. Nor were we deceived. Before long
we recognised the creek where we landed, and soon we reached the boat
drawn up on the shore. We rushed towards her to discover if our friends
had lately been there. We examined her thoroughly; but after all we
could not decide the point. Thus we remained as anxious as ever.
While, however, we were engaged in this manner, we had not watched old
Surley, and when we looked up he was gone. Just before we got into the
boat, Jerry's cap had tumbled off, and when he wanted to put it on
again, though we hunted about in every direction, it was nowhere to be
found. At first we thought of continuing our search for our friends,
but we soon agreed that it would be wiser to stay where we were; that if
they had escaped they would certainly return to the boat, and that if we
went in search of them, the so doing would only delay our meeting.
Being somewhat tired, therefore, we got into the boat, and drawing the
sail over the after-part, we lay down in the stern-sheets and were soon
fast asleep. We were both awoke by old Surley's bark, and jumping up,
we saw Mr Brand with his other two companions running along the beach.
We jumped out of the boat and hurried to meet them. Mr Brand had
Jerry's cap in his hand, which old Surley had carried with him to show
that he had found us. We speedily narrated our adventures to each
other. They had been dreadfully alarmed on our account. It turned out
as we had supposed--Mr Kilby had reached the sea-shore by himself,
thinking that we were with the other party, while they supposed we were
with him. However, they had not been very anxious about us till they
saw the conflagration burst out, and guessed that we were by some means
the cause of it. They were on their way to look for us, but the flames,
like some mighty torrent, rushed towards them. They had with frantic
haste to dart through the clumps of tussac and penguin grass to reach
the beach. They hurried to the boat, and had barely time to leap into
her, and shove off, before the flames, fanned by the wind, came
crackling and hissing up after them, and would very probably have set
her on fire. Cousin Silas was almost in despair about us, and Mr Kilby
told me that he said he should never forgive himself if we came to harm.
They were much interested with the account we gave them of our
adventures; and as it was time for dinner, we agreed to cook and eat the
trophies we had brought with us--the beef-steaks--before putting to sea.
We were amused at finding that we had committed an illegal act in
killing the bulls; but, as it was in self-defence, it was agreed that
the act was justifiable.
It had been arranged that we were to rejoin the schooner on the evening
of this day, at a point of land running out from an island a little to
the west of where we now were, unless the weather should prove bad; in
which case she was to come in for us. The weather, however, was very
fine, so making sail we stood across the channel. The station to which
she had gone was three or four miles further to the south. The water
was very clear, and as we passed through the kelp we looked down in some
places where it grew less thickly, and could see its vast stems and
branches, with their huge leaves, springing up from the depth of many
fathoms, like a forest of submarine oaks or Spanish chestnuts. We were
amused with the flight of some of the ducks we put up. Mr Burkett
called them loggerheads, racers, or steamers. Their wings will not lift
them from the water, but whirling them round and round, they went
scuttling and waddling away over the surface at a rapid rate, generally
two and two--the loving husband and his wife--leaving a deep furrow in
the water behind them. We burst into fits of laughter at the ridiculous
manner in which they moved. They are fat and fishy, and not at all fit
for food. I never expected to have seen more birds together than we had
passed at the rookery under the cliffs in the morning; but we sailed by
an island, of which birds of all descriptions had taken entire
possession. There were various species of ducks, and geese, and snipe,
and teal, and shags, and grebes, and penguins, and albatrosses, and
sea-rooks, and oyster-catchers, and gulls with pink breasts, and many
others, of whose names I have no note. As we believed that we had
plenty of time, we landed near some cliffs to have a nearer look at
them. So tame were they that we could knock down as many as we liked
with our sticks; but it was murderous work, and as we did not want them
to eat--indeed many were not fit for eating--we soon desisted from it.
Near where we landed the cliffs ran out into the sea, forming natural
docks, and in one of these cliffs we discovered a large cavern, which
seemed to run a great way under the ground. By climbing along the
ledges of the rocks, somewhat slippery with sea-weed, at no little risk
of a ducking, we got to the mouth of the cavern. The sides were
composed of ledges rising one above another, and every available spot,
as far as the eye could penetrate, was occupied by shags and divers, and
other sea-fowls. There were thousands--there might have been millions
of them, if the cavern ran back as far as we supposed it did. They in
no way seemed alarmed at our intrusion, but allowed us to kick them
over, without attempting to escape. However, at last, old Surley found
his ways after us, and his appearance created the wildest hurly-burly
and confusion. Such clapping of wings, and hurrying to and fro, and
quacking, and shrieking, and whirling here and there, was never seen
among a feathered community. They must have been very glad when we took
our departure.
We had got into high spirits with our walk, and had begun to forget all
about the bulls and the fire, when, as Jerry and I were in advance
scrambling along the shore, we saw basking, a little way inland, among
some tussac grass, a huge animal. "Why, there is an elephant!" I
exclaimed, starting back "or a live mammoth, or something of that sort.
I don't like his look, I own."
However, screwing up our courage, we advanced cautiously toward the
monster, as he seemed no way disposed to move at our approach. Then we
halted and examined him more narrowly. He was alive, for we saw his eye
complacently looking at us, as Diogenes might have looked out of his tub
at the passing crowd. He was fully twenty feet long, with a huge
unwieldy body and a big head. The most curious thing about his head was
a huge nose, or trunk rather, which hung down nearly half a foot below
the upper jaw. His skin was covered with short hair of a light dun
colour, and he had a tail and fins like a seal. While we were still in
doubt what he could be, Mr Kilby overtook us, and laughingly seizing
our hands ran up behind the monster.
"Are you for a ride?" he exclaimed; and before Jerry suspected what was
going to happen he found himself seated on the monster's tail! "There
you go, on the back of a sea-elephant," exclaimed Mr Kilby, giving the
beast a poke with his stick. "Hold on tight, and he can't hurt you."
Jerry did hold on, not knowing whether to laugh or shriek out with fear.
Away crawled, or whalloped rather, the elephant towards the water, Mr
Kilby and I keeping alongside, ready to catch Jerry should he fall off.
I soon saw there was no real danger, except the monster should roll
round, when his weight would kill any one under him. Jerry also
instantly entered into the joke of the thing, and was delighted with the
idea of being able to boast that he had ridden on a sea-elephant.
"I shall be carried off into the depths of the ocean, and you, Mr
Kilby, will have to be answerable to my disconsolate father," he sang
out, half laughing and half crying. "Good-bye, Harry; a pleasant voyage
to you round the world. May you not be spirited away by a sea-monster
like this. Oh! oh! help me off, though!--he'll have me into the sea to
a certainty, and then he'll turn round and gobble me up--he will. I
know he will."
As the beast approached the beach, lest the joke might be carried too
far, we lent him a hand to dismount, while his steed crawled on as
sedately as before into the water, and, as he swam off, turned round his
head, as much as to say, "Hillo, master, are you not coming too? Just
try it, and see how you like a swim with me." Mr Kilby told us that
this animal had probably been sick, and had remained behind while his
companions had taken to the sea, which they always do on the approach of
summer. In autumn they come on shore, and live in large herds in marshy
places by the sides of rivers, eating grass like cattle. The females,
which are without the snout, suckle their young, of which they have
generally two at a time. As they are very slow in their movements, to
afford themselves time to escape they have sentinels posted while they
are feeding, whose duty is to give notice of approaching danger. They
are very good tempered and inoffensive, though the mothers will attack
those who molest their young. Mr Kilby told us of a man who had his
leg bitten off by a female, while he was attempting to carry away her
cub. We now once more took to the boat. We had not been long under
weigh before I saw Mr Burkett looking up anxiously at the sky.
"I don't quite like the look of the weather," he remarked. He had been
a sailor, and had long been cruising about the islands. He was
therefore our pilot on the present occasion. "Brand, can you make out
the schooner anywhere?" Cousin Silas replied that he could nowhere see
her. "Then something has delayed her at the station," observed Burkett.
"As the tide is making in that direction, and the wind is fair, we'll
run down there instead of crossing the channel to the point proposed."
This plan was agreed to, though it might have been wiser had we kept to
our original purpose. For some time we made fine weather of it, but
getting into another channel, we found the wind first scant, and then
directly against us. We had consequently no choice but to attempt to
beat up to the station. This delayed us much beyond the time we
expected to get there. We of course kept a bright look-out for the
schooner, lest she should pass us; but evening was closing in apace, and
still we had a long way to go. However, Mr Burkett said he knew
exactly where we were, and that we should be able before long to make
out a light in one of the cottages, which would guide us to the station.
So we kept a press of sail on the boat, and looked out for the light.
The boat stood well up to her canvas, but after passing high cliffs, and
opening a channel from the sea, a sudden squall took her, and before we
had time to cast off the sheet, she was over on her beam ends. Cousin
Silas whipped out his knife and tried to cut the main-sheet, while I let
go the head-sheets, and Burkett jammed down the helm; but it was too
late--over went the boat. Our ballast, happily, consisting of
water-casks, she did not sink, though she turned bottom upwards. It was
a moment of intense horror and dismay. I felt myself under the boat,
entangled in the rigging! I had no time for thought. I felt that death
had come, far away from home and friends. The next moment I was dragged
out and placed on the keel--Cousin Silas was my preserver. Where was
poor Jerry, though? Again Silas dived, and brought him to the surface,
handing him up near me. Mr Kilby and Mr Burkett were clinging on to
the gunwale, and now they all climbed up; and there we sat, our lives
for the moment preserved, but with very grave apprehensions as to what
should become of us. Old Surley, when the boat capsized, kept swimming
round her; and when we climbed up on her bottom, be followed our
example, sitting as grave as a judge, thinking it was all right. Had we
been near inhabited shores, or in a channel frequented by vessels, we
might have had some hope of being rescued; but the schooner was the only
vessel we could expect to pass that way, and the chances of her seeing
us appeared very remote. Happily the wind fell, and there was not much
sea, or we should have been washed off our insecure hold. The current
was running very strong, and Burkett was of opinion that it would drift
us down towards the station; but it was a question whether we could
reach the place before the tide turned, and whether we should get near
enough to it to make our cries heard. These discussions occupied us for
some time, and perhaps assisted to divert our minds from the very awful
position in which we were placed. Jerry and I were sitting near each
other astride on the keel at the after-part of the boat. Cousin Silas
had climbed up over the bows, while Burkett and Kilby hung on, lying
their full length amidships.
"I say, Brand, don't you think we could manage to right the boat?" said
Burkett. "If we could do it we might paddle on shore somewhere, and we
should, at all events, have no fear of starving."
"We'll try what can be done," answered Cousin Silas, slipping off into
the water, and we following his example. "All ready now--heave away."
We hove in vain. The sail, and something else heavy, which had got foul
of the rigging, prevented us righting her.
"We must give it up, I fear," cried Burkett at last. "The oars went
adrift, I fear; and as we have no hats among us, we should have nothing
to bail her out with."
As it happened, we all wore light sea-caps, which would have helped us
very little in getting rid of the water. With sad hearts we had to
abandon the attempt, and again to climb up into our places, considerably
exhausted with the efforts we had made. Night was now coming on
rapidly, and the darkness which grew round us much increased the horrors
of opposition.
"One thing I have to tell you," said Burkett,--"there is always a light
kept burning at the station. If we sight it, we shall know whereabouts
we are, and be able to calculate our chances of reaching the shore."
This, however, I thought very poor consolation. The light could be of
no use to us unless the tide took us near enough to it to allow of our
voices being heard on shore. Fortunately we could still distinguish the
dim outline of the coast as we drifted by, or we should not have known
in what direction to look out for the expected light. Cousin Silas said
very little--he was anxiously looking out for the beacon, to us of such
vital importance. How dreadful, indeed, was our situation! I dared not
think--I dared not hope to escape--still I dared not turn my eye to the
future. I waited with a sort of apathetic indifference to the result.
No light appeared; the current was evidently setting us through the
centre of the passage out to sea, in the direction of that
storm-surrounded promontory, Cape Horn. We must abandon even the remote
prospect of being drifted on shore on one of the southern portions of
the Falklands. For some time there was a complete silence among us. It
was broken by Cousin Silas.
"My friends," said he, in a calm, grave tone, but without a sign of
agitation, "has it occurred to you that we may soon be called upon to
die? Are you prepared for death? Are you ready to stand in the
presence of the Judge of all the earth?"
No one answered him. What were their thoughts I do not know. Mine were
very terrible. I thought how hard it was for those young as Jerry and I
were, to be summoned to leave the beautiful world which we expected to
enjoy so much. I forgot that numbers young as ourselves had been called
away.
"It is a fact we should all of us attempt to realise," continued Silas.
"We must be judged. Have we gone to the Fountain which washes away all
sins, to be cleansed from our iniquities? Do you trust on Christ, and
Christ alone, as our Saviour, who will acknowledge us as his disciples--
who will present us purified from our sins for acceptance by the Father?
My dear friends, I put before you these great truths, because our
happiness or our misery for that eternity which we are now approaching
depends on them. On what do you trust? Oh, be able to give a
satisfactory answer before it is too late." I will not give the
conversation which followed. It was very brief. The result was, that
each of us turned ourselves to prayer, and prayed as we had never prayed
before. Had we even been more disposed to levity than we were, we could
not but have felt the earnestness of the appeal made to us--the
importance of the subject--the awful truths uttered by our companion.
Darker grew the night--the sea-birds screamed above us--the distant
cliffs grew dimmer, their outline less distinct--the rushing tide earned
us rapidly onwards--the cold wind pierced through our wet clothes, and
sent the spray dashing over us. Shivering, benumbed, hungry and faint,
I felt as if I could no longer retain my hold. Death--death, I thought,
was truly approaching. Still, notwithstanding all Cousin Silas had
said, I did not so much picture the future; I did not even dread it as I
mourned for what I was leaving--the distant home I loved so well, and
all those who so dearly loved me. I thought of the anxiety the
uncertainty of my fate would occasion, the grief when they learned the
truth; and bitter tears burst from my eyes, not for myself, but for them
I loved. I mention the state of my mind and feelings on this awful
occasion for a very important object. It agrees with my own experience,
and all I have heard from others placed in similar situations;--a person
who has been living unprepared for death, for eternity, cannot on a
sudden change the whole current of his thoughts, and fix them on the
awful state into which he is hurrying. If he has not before found peace
with God, there is little hope that he will seek it then. Oh no! the
time to do that is while we have health and strength, and hope to have a
long life before us to be consecrated to him. He has an eternity
prepared for us--are we to give him alone the dregs of our short span of
life? He gave us everything--are we to return him only a few hurried
prayers and ejaculations of sorrow? We cry out for mercy--on what do we
ground our expectations of receiving it? Remember that God is a just
God--what, in justice, do we deserve? Oh! remember also that "in such
an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh;" and as you value your
happiness for eternity, say not in your heart, "My Lord delayeth his
coming." I was thinking of home, and all I loved there. Suddenly a
shout brought my thoughts back to the sad reality of our own position.
"The light! the light!--there it is--I see it clearly," exclaimed Jerry,
whose bright eyes had been constantly on the watch for the looked-for
beacon.
"Where? where?" we all simultaneously cried out.
"At a right angle with the boat's keel, as she now lies, on the
port-side. There--there, it is quite bright."
All of us looked intently in the direction he indicated. There was the
light--there could be no doubt about it, beaming forth cheerfully
through the darkness. It was still a mile or more to the south along
the shore past which we were drifting, and we certainly were nearly a
mile, if not a full mile, from the coast.
"How near do you judge that we shall drift to the station?" asked Cousin
Silas of Burkett.
He considered a little--"Not much nearer than we now are," he answered.
"What chance, then, have we of making ourselves heard, and getting help
from them?" again asked Cousin Silas. "None," said Burkett, in a sad
tone.
"Then it must be done!" exclaimed Cousin Silas, in a firm tone.
"Friends, one of us must endeavour to reach the shore by swimming. The
risk is great. It is a long way, but it is the only means by which we
may be saved. The strongest and best swimmer must make the attempt."
"I wish that I were a better swimmer than I am," said Burkett, "but I do
not think I could do it."
"I am but a poor one--I know that I could not," added Kilby with a sigh.
"I'll try, Mr Brand," cried Jerry; "I can float for ever so long, if I
can't swim all the way."
"I'll go with you," said I, preparing to throw off my clothing as Jerry
was doing.
"No, no; neither of you lads must go," exclaimed Cousin Silas, eagerly.
"I was prepared for the risk when I made the offer. Harry, tell my
mother, if you escape, how I thought of her to the last. Never forget
what I have just been talking to you about. Gerard, your father will
understand that I died in the discharge of my duty. Friends, good-bye;
I trust that God, in his good pleasure, will enable me to bring you
Help."
Saying these words, he handed us his clothes, which we hung across the
keel of the boat, and then he slid off into the dark water, and struck
out directly for the shore. As soon as he was gone, old Surley seemed
resolved to follow his example; and though we tried to hold him, he
dashed off into the water, and away he went, swimming quietly by the
side of Mr Brand.
"One good thing is, the old dog will perhaps help him if he gets tired,"
remarked Jerry. "I've heard of them doing such things."
Cousin Silas calculated that, being carried to the south by the set of
the current he should thus land directly under the light. With calm,
steady strokes, he clove his way through the yielding fluid. Not a
sound escaped from his manly breast, nor could we detect the noise made
by his slowly-moving hands, as they separated the water before him. How
earnestly did we pray for him!--how eagerly did we watch him, till his
head was shrouded in darkness.