A Wreck--and Mirandola
Dennis, as he made his breakfast, pondered deeply on the situation,
taking the monkey in to his confidence. "Could we change parts, Sir
Monkey--if I were you, and you were Dennis Hazelrig, what would you do?
This is your island: we will call it yours; I am your guest. You seem
to be a solitary creature like myself: are you miserable, I wonder?
Does your loneliness trouble you? There is food for us both: it is so
warm that for the present, at least, I need no more clothes than you;
neither of us will starve. How old are you? You look wise enough to
be very old. Am I to remain on this island until I have a beard as
long and white as Sir Parson's at home? Oh, you cannot understand what
I say, for all your wise look: you cannot know what a wretched mortal I
am. What can I do?"
The monkey only blinked at him, and plucked a dark plum-like fruit from
the bough and munched it.
For a time Dennis sat listless, feeling too wretched even to move from
the spot. Then he got up and made his way back to the cliff. He stood
on the summit, scanning the whole circumference of the shining sea.
Not a sail was in sight. He scarcely knew whether he was disappointed
or not. Supposing a vessel hove into view, he durst not try to attract
the attention of some one on board. If it were English it would be
welcome as a spar to a drowning man. If it were Spanish, he might as
well jump into the maw of some sea monster. Yet how could he discover
its nationality without at the same time betraying his presence?
Several times during that third day he climbed to the same spot, and
looked out with the same eagerness; not one glimpse did he catch of a
white wing upon the water; and he always turned away with the same
uncertainty.
He spent hours in roaming, as aimlessly as before, along the beach and
through the woodland. Coming in the course of the day to the cliff
near which he had been cast ashore, he remembered that hitherto he had
not made a complete circuit of the island; the beach northward appeared
to be barred by huge masses of rock. In his present mood he had no
curiosity to see what lay beyond; he supposed indeed that, if he did
care to clamber toilsomely over the barrier, he would simply arrive at
a point of the beach which he had already reached from the other side.
But later in the day, when the tedium of inaction had become
unbearable, he started to explore the lower course of the streamlet on
whose bank he had slept. He found that the channel gradually widened,
the banks growing higher as he neared the sea. By and by he came upon
a wide pool on whose rim a mass of seaweed lay rotting in the sun, and
stooping out of sheer curiosity he dipped his finger and, tasting,
discovered that the water was salt, as he had supposed. Clearly at
high tide the sea came thus far up the gully. The entrance was as yet
hidden from him by the jutting shoulder of the cliff, but he could hear
now the light rumble of surf upon the beach, and he went on, feeling
some curiosity to learn whereabouts on the shore he would arrive.
He had taken but a few more steps when, rounding the projecting cliff,
he came upon a scene which petrified him with astonishment. Docked in
the sand, lying over on her side, was the battered hulk of a two-masted
vessel. Her stern was somewhat towards him, and he read, painted
there, the word _Maid_; but so familiar was he with her lines that he
needed not the rest of the name; this was in very truth the wreck of
the _Maid Marian_. Of her two masts only the stumps remained: her
deck, inclined towards him, was littered with a medley of rigging; her
rudder was gone, part of her bulwarks torn away.
There was an uncanny look about the hapless vessel as she lay there on
the sandy beach, at the head of a small bay bounded by the cliffs on
either side. Dennis felt just such a thrill as he might have felt had
he come suddenly upon the body of a friend. The solitude, the silence,
intensified by the rustling wash of the surf, the background of
boundless sky and ocean, combined to affect him with a sense of
desolation. He felt a shrinking reluctance to approach, and when he
had conquered this and stood beneath the vessel's quarter, it was some
time before he summoned up the resolution to climb on board. Then he
mounted slowly, hesitatingly, by the aid of a loose shroud, holding his
breath as if fearful of disturbing a sleeper.
All was intensely still. Multitudinous insects were crawling this way
and that among the litter of rigging: save for these there was no sign
of life--where for two months as merry a company as ever trod deck had
talked and laughed and jested. Dennis felt a lump in his throat as he
recalled the little incidents of the voyage: quarter-staff bouts with
old Miles Barton, wrestling matches with Harry Greville, sword-play
sometimes with the captain himself.
The hatchways were battened down. He shrank from going below. Evening
was drawing on; he would leave the wreck now, and return in the
morning. And as he set his foot once more on the beach, and began to
retrace his steps up the gully, he saw the monkey grinning at him from
a tree on the cliff, and was surprised to find how pleasant and
consoling was the creature's company.
Hard on his discovery of the wreck came another discovery. Retracing
his way up the chine, he noticed a green ledge on the cliff, some few
feet above his head, on the right-hand side. The thought occurred to
him to rest there for a little; he could reach it by an easy climb.
When he gained the ledge, he found that it ran back for a longer
distance than he had supposed below. At its further end grew a wild
mass of bushes and trees, some of which bore a plum-like fruit that he
had seen the monkey eating with enjoyment.
He went to pluck some of the fruit, and penetrating a little way into
the thicket, he suddenly perceived that the bushes appeared to grow
across an opening in the rock. He pulled the strands aside, and looked
into the dark entrance of a cave. The discovery interested him. Might
he not find here a better lodging than the rude shelter he had made on
the bank of the stream? It was far above high-water mark, and
conveniently placed for refuge, being accessible landwards only by the
rocky channel, and wholly hidden from observation at sea. Yet he
paused before stepping into the cave. Might it not be a wild beast's
lair? True, he had seen no animals which he could have any cause to
fear, but at this moment of overstrung nerves he felt a child's dread
of the dark.
"A proper adventurer, in good sooth!" he said to himself. "The skirts
of a nurse would befit me better than an island in the Spanish Main."
And without more ado he took a step forward and entered.
The daylight was quenched within a few feet of the opening. Striking a
spark from his flint, he kindled a mass of dried grass he had stowed in
his pouch for this purpose, and started as the brief flame lit the
interior, for there, almost at his feet, lay a human skeleton.
Incontinently he dropped his torch and fled,--scoffing, when once more
in the free air, at his lack of courage. But the wish to make this his
abode was vanished. He had no fancy to consort with skeletons, and
besides, the damp and musty atmosphere of the cave was unpleasant.
Without delay he set off to regain his former resting-place.
These new discoveries had introduced a disturbing element into his life
on the island. Uninhabited as it apparently was now, clearly it had
not always been so. What was the history of that skeleton? Were there
others further within the cave? It was not the remains of a castaway,
for not even in the fiercest hurricane could the sea penetrate so far.
Had some poor wretched fugitive fled there for refuge from a human
enemy, and been slain or starved? These questions kept him wakeful
long that night, and haunted him even while he slept.
With morning light he thought less of the cave and more of the wreck.
The _Maid Marian_ had left Plymouth well equipped with stores; the
hatchways had been battened down in the storm, and unless the sea had
poured in through holes stove in her sides, there must be below decks a
considerable quantity of materials that would prove serviceable if his
stay on the island was to be lengthened. As soon as he had finished
his breakfast he set off to return to the chine. It was no surprise to
him now to observe the monkey following, like an attendant lackey.
"Come, Sir Monkey," he said, with an attempt at gaiety, "let us go
together and inspect our treasure trove."
He felt again a strange sense of awe as he climbed into the vessel's
waist, and trod her planks delicately. But remarking that her position
had been shifted slightly by the incoming tide during the night, and
that little streams of water were escaping from holes on to the sand,
he reflected that it behoved him to lose no time if he wished to secure
her contents, for any day a tempest might spring up and shatter the
hulk irretrievably. Gulping down the timidity that still troubled him,
he climbed to the quarter-deck, and went forward through the broken
doorway into the main cabin.
The floor was littered with the possessions of his dear lost comrades.
Here was Harry Greville's sword; near it a pistol-case that had
belonged to Philip Masterton. He stepped over these and other relics
and entered the captain's cabin beyond. Here, too, all was ruin and
disorder. Garments, instruments of navigation, an ink-horn, trumpets,
a drum, Sir Martin's arms and breastplate, the big leather-bound book
in which he wrote his diary of the voyage, lay pell-mell on the floor.
Dennis could hardly bear to look upon these mementoes of the lost, and
he soon turned his back on them and returned to the open part of the
vessel, where he sat for a time, given up to melancholy brooding.
At last he rose, threw off the oppression, and ventured to force up the
main hatch forward of the mainmast and descend.
[Illustration: Insulae Virginis Charta]
Even now he could not bear to remain long below. He explored the whole
length of the vessel in sections, returning at short intervals to
breathe the fresh air and enjoy the cheerful sunlight. On one of these
occasions he was amused to see that his faithful attendant had now
ventured to quit the security of its tree, and was sitting on a rock
within a few yards of the vessel, an interested spectator.
His inspection of the contents of the vessel fully rewarded him. In
the steward's store abaft the mainmast he found a large number of
utensils--an iron pease-pot, a copper fish-kettle, a skimmer, several
wooden ladles, a gridiron, a frying-pan, a couple of pipkins, a
chafing-dish, a fire-shovel, a pair of bellows, trays, platters,
porringers, trenchers, drinking-cans, two well-furnished tinder-boxes,
candles, and candlesticks. There were casks of beer and wine, great
boxes of biscuits, bags of oatmeal, pease, and salt, whole sides of
home-cured bacon, several cheeses, a tierce of vinegar, jars of honey
and sugar, flasks of oil, pots of balsam and other salves, a pledget
for spreading plasters, a pair of scissors, and several rolls of linen,
these last evidently provided for the exigencies of fighting. In the
carpenter's store forward there were hammers, awls, chisels, files, a
saw, hundreds of nails, both sixpenny and fourpenny. In the armoury
were half-pikes, cutlasses, muskets, with bandoliers, rests, and
moulds, calivers, barrels of gunpowder and tar, and leaden bullets,
such as were to be bought at Plymouth six pounds for threepence. And
as to the other appurtenances of a well-found ship, Dennis was almost
bewildered by the quantity of them--bolts, and chains, and pulleys,
buckets, mops, sand-glasses, horn lanterns, faggots for fuel,
fishing-nets, articles of apparel, things for trade and barter: the
list would fill a page or two. And he rejoiced exceedingly to find
that all were in good condition, even the cheeses: there could not be
even a rat on board to commit depredations.
Surveying this great and substantial store, Dennis rubbed his head in
puzzlement.
"'Tis a month's work," he said ruefully, "and for one pair of hands.
The grave and reverend signor yonder will scarce assist, I trow,
indeed, 'tis to be feared he may be thievishly inclined, and needs must
I bestow the goods skilfully. Well, to it; time and tide, they say,
waits for no man."
He began by carrying the biscuits and other perishables from the hold
to the bulwarks, where he rigged up a running tackle, and lowered the
bags and boxes to the sand beneath. So intent was he upon his task
that it was with a start of surprise and alarm he noticed that the tide
was flowing in, and had almost reached the vessel. Threatened with the
loss of the precious stores, he was hard put to it to drag and carry
and roll them up the beach beyond the reach of the waves, and the sun
was far down towards the western horizon before he had them high and
dry. By this time the sea was several feet deep around the vessel, and
the thought struck him: what if the wreck were to float away on the
tide and all the remaining salvage be snatched from him? So grave a
misfortune must be prevented. At once he swam out to the ship, and
securely fastening to the stump of the broken mast one of the stout
cables he found below, he again plunged into the sea, and in a little
had wound the other end about two sturdy trees growing out from the
cliff.
While the wreck remained in its present position it was desirable that
he should have his lodging close by. There was no shelter on the shore
itself, nor did the cliff promise a comfortable abiding place; and his
thoughts returned to the cave, which was a good deal nearer than the
spot where he had rested the previous night.
Among the things he had brought ashore were a lantern, a tinder-box,
and a candle. Fortified with a light, he entered the cave with less
tremor than on the previous evening, and looked about him. The cave
was deep: his light did not reach the further extremity. The roof was
damp and green with moss. There was the skeleton, stretched on the
rocky floor. By its side, as he now saw, lay a hatchet of curious
shape: a little beyond were some coloured beads. But within the circle
of light he discovered no other remnants of humanity; these were not
very terrible after all, and he might have taken up his abode there but
for the fusty, humid atmosphere. He gave up the idea of sleeping in
the cave, but made for himself, just outside and across the entrance, a
couch of cloaks taken from the wreck.
Before settling himself for the night, he returned to the base of the
cliff, opened with the hatchet one of his precious boxes of biscuits,
and taking a handful, sat on a flat rock to make an unaccustomed
supper. He had barely eaten a mouthful when he saw a brown figure leap
from somewhere above his head, swoop on the still open box, clutch one
of the biscuits, and spring away with a long chatter of delight.
"Ah, knave!" he exclaimed, "my prophetic soul avouched that your
gravity cloaked an evil bent. You are a thief, Sir Monkey. But I do
not grudge you the biscuit; your constancy in attendance merits some
reward. A toothsome morsel, is it not? It pleases me to see your
pleasure, and--yes, I have it! You are my sole companion on this
island; why should we not be friends? You must learn a rightful
humility, to be sure. Regarding me as the dispenser of luxuries, will
you not love me, with the respectful love of a dependent? Come, let us
see."
Rising from his seat in time to forestall a second application to the
biscuit box, he went to it, took half a dozen, shut down the lid, and
returned to the rock.
"Now, Mirandola," he said--"I name you Mirandola for your wisdom, not
your larceny--here in my hand I hold one of the twice-cooked, the
fellow of the one you found so delectable. Come and take it, and give
thanks."
But the animal sat motionless on its branch, grinning and gibbering.
"You do me wrong to suspect me," Dennis went on. "Well, this is to
prove my good faith."
He flung the biscuit on to the sand a few yards away, and laughed
quietly to see what ensued. The monkey chattered volubly with
excitement, swung itself to a lower branch, then back to its former
perch, where it sat for a moment blinking and grinning. Then it
descended with extraordinary rapidity to the foot of the tree, crouched
behind the trunk while a man might count ten, and with frantic haste,
as though fearful its courage would not endure, it darted on all fours
across to the biscuit, looking in its movements like a gigantic spider.
Seizing the delicacy, it sped back to the tree, squatted on the lowest
branch, and set its jaws right merrily to work.
"That is your first lesson, Mirandola," said Dennis, placing the
remaining biscuits in his pouch, in full sight of the animal. "The
second begins at once; it enjoineth patience."
And heedless of the loud outcry made by the monkey when it saw these
choice comestibles disappear, Dennis returned to his couch, and laid
himself down for the night.