nought but swinish slumber, and the most of them lay where they were,
never intending to stir until the morning. Two or three, however, took
up their quarters in the hut. We did not observe that they set any
kind of watch, which was certainly a point of carelessness, and Billy
said it would be easy enough to steal upon them in the night and kill
them all, but this of course was not to be thought of. When we saw
that all was quiet we stole away back to the canoe, both to get our own
supper from the surplus of our provisions, and also to have a
sleeping-place. Since we did not know how long this rascally crew
would remain on the island, we thought we ought to convey what smoked
fish and salted pork we had in the canoe to the thicket on the side of
the mountain; as for the bread-fruit and cocoa-nuts, there was no need
for us to trouble about these, the trees being exceeding well laden
with them. And considering that it would be foolish to let the men see
our canoe, when we had taken the food up the mountain, very toilsomely,
we being so tired, we worked the canoe round the island with extreme
care, until we came to the little cove in the cliff which we had seen
near the archway in our voyage of circumnavigation. There we slept by
turns till break of day, finding it a matter of the greatest difficulty
to keep awake when our turns came for watching; and when it began to be
light we unshipped the mast, and clambering along the base of the
cliffs we made our way gradually upward until we reached the thicket,
where we deemed it best to remain in hiding. We heard nothing of the
men all the morning, and guessed that they were not in very active trim
after their medicinal draught of the night before; but in the afternoon
we heard them talking to one another from various parts of the island,
from which it was plain that they were searching for us. Once, indeed,
they came so near us that we were fearful of being discovered, and kept
very close in the depth of the thicket; but they passed us by, and I
wondered that they had been brave enough to come so far up the
mountain, remembering their panic on the day they landed.
[Sidenote: Dispossessed]
Making our meals chiefly of salt fish, we grew very thirsty, and did
not dare venture down to the woods where the cocoa-nuts grew, lest we
should be seen. But we thought we might creep round the mountain,
until we came to the place where the hot spring fell towards the Red
Rock, and there we filled some large leaves with the water, and let it
stand until it cooled, and then drank it, without any harm. And as we
returned to our hiding-place I chanced to see some pieces of that rock
I have before mentioned, what Billy called the fizzy rock, that which
belched forth great clouds of poisonous fume when it was touched with
water. The sight of this set an idea jogging in my head, which I did
not tell at that moment to Billy because of his natural impatience; but
when it was dark, and we had got down safely to the place of the former
night's watching, and assured ourselves from the men's talk that they
had no present notion of leaving the island--at this time of night, I
say, I communicated my notion to Billy, and he applauded it with great
enthusiasm. As soon as ever the first glimmer of light came,
therefore, we might have been seen very busy gathering lumps of this
rock, which we piled in two heaps, one about the spring near the top of
the mountain, the other about the spring that flowed down the lava bed.
We worked very hard at this, and I observed with great satisfaction
that the cloud of steam above the mountain was a trifle thicker this
day than it had been for some time past. Then we waited until the men
were at their breakfast (we could see them easily from the edge of the
thicket, which commanded a view of the house and its surroundings), and
when they were in the midst of it, we hasted to these springs, Billy to
one and I to the other, and began to topple into them the fragments of
rock which we had gathered, being exceeding careful to keep to the
windward side. The wind was blowing, as it did nearly always, in the
direction of the house, so that when the dense and filthy smoke rose
from the rock we had cast into the water, it was carried away into the
interior of the island.
[Sidenote: A Stratagem]
Having set this storm a-brewing, as you may say, we made haste to
regain our place in the thicket, whence we could see what went on
below. We were delighted beyond measure, and Billy began to caper, as
he always did when pleased, when we saw the men spring to their feet
and, leaving their breakfast, set off in a mighty hurry toward the
beach. We had not seen the place where they had left their boat, but
guessed from the direction of their flight that they had drawn it up at
the east end of the sandy beach, near the lava tract, indeed, at pretty
nearly the same point as they had landed at three years before. We
perceived that one or two of the men halted as they ran, and turning
about, looked up at the mountain and then called to their fellows.
Though we could not hear their words, the distance being too great, we
guessed that they were shouting to their comrades to wait a little, in
case the apparent explosion turned out to be of no account after all.
But the other men did not halt, nor even slacken their pace, and Billy
and I laughed a good deal to see Wabberley, who was much the fattest of
them, yet easily outstrip the rest, so much did panic lend lightness to
his heels. Their manifest terror appeared to shake the resolution of
the few hardier spirits who were inclined to pause. Without any
further delay they sped on after the others, and when they had
disappeared for a little from our view behind the rocks, we saw a boat
put off very soon after, going towards the south, whence we presumed it
had come. But it had not gone far when it stopped, and we saw at the
same moment that the fumes were being dissipated in the air, which
perhaps made the men think that the danger was over. We could not
venture to go again to the spring above the lava tract, which was
plainly to be seen from the sea, but we went back to the other spring,
where we were perfectly screened, and hurled great quantities of the
rock into the water, so that we were nearly overcome by the acrid
fumes. But we persevered until we had raised an immense cloud of
smoke, much denser than before; and running to the thicket to see the
effect of our handiwork, we were almost beside ourselves with joy when
we saw the boat proceeding at a good pace towards the south-east. We
watched it until it had finally disappeared, and then we hastened down
to our hut, wondering whether it had suffered any damage at the hands
of our visitors, and also whether they had left any of their own
belongings which would be useful to us, being exceeding jubilant also
at the wonderful success of the trick we had played on them.
[Sidenote: We Regain our Own]
When we came to examine our little demesne, we were in a great rage,
for the men had not only killed our finest pig and two or three of our
chickens, but had also turned the hut upside down, as people say, and
ransacked everything. Of course they got little for their pains except
the food, and they had not discovered our cellar, nor even the pit
outside the hut where our bread-fruit pulp was stored, what there was
left of it, for since we had used the cavern for a store-house we had
been under no necessity to keep the pit replenished. They had left
behind them nothing but one musket, which had no doubt been overlooked
in their haste, and a cap which Billy declared was Hoggett's, though I
myself thought it was Wabberley's. The musket was useless to us,
having no powder or shot, though it would make a capital club; and as
for the cap, whether Wabberley's or Hoggett's, neither Billy nor I was
in the least inclined to wear it, being very much worn, and filthy to
boot, not fit to be compared to our own light and cleanly bonnets,
which we wore pretty constantly now, to preserve us from sun-stroke.
Though we had not suffered any great damage, I was very much disturbed
by this sudden visit of the seamen. We had heard enough of their talk
to guess that they had been driven to make their expedition by scarcity
of provisions, for had they been living in ease and plenty they would
hardly have risked so long a voyage in a leaky boat. Whether they had
visited other islands first we could not tell; but I could not help
fearing that if it was dearth that had impelled them, they would come
again, braving the dangers of the volcano. Cowards though they were,
they would certainly come to their senses before long, and when they
considered that we had a fair-built hut, and a plantation, and a
piggery and fowl-house, which had plainly received no hurt from the
mountain, they would be pretty sure to come back if they found no means
elsewhere of stocking their larder.
"Perhaps they think we have gone away from the island," said Billy,
when I talked over the matter with him. "They will think Old Smoker
frighted us too."
I saw there might be some truth in this, but I said that if it were so,
they would probably keep a careful watch on the mountain for the
future, and if they saw no signs of its breaking forth they would
return, confident of enjoying the fruits of our labours.
"But we won't let 'em," cried Billy, stoutly. "Didn't they leave us,
the brutes, when they believed we should certainly be boiled or
roasted? Didn't they steal our raft? Did you hear 'em say they'd make
us fetch and carry for 'em if they caught us? We've done all the hard
work and they'll come and enjoy it, will they? Not if I know it."
"We shall have to fight them then, Billy," I said.
"Well," says he, "and so we will; and we'll make some more spears and
arrows at once."
"But some of them have got muskets," I said, "and bows and arrows will
be poor weapons against them."
This made Billy look glum for a moment or two, but then his face
brightened again, and he said, "I don't believe they've got many
muskets. They were all put in the round-house, don't you remember,
master? The Captain's orders. They stole one or two when we were all
sixes and sevens in the storm, and I don't suppose they've got much
powder and shot either, maybe none, for they're sure to have used some,
and it's a long time ago."
This seemed to me very reasonable, and I thought that if we were within
our walls we might defend ourselves very well for a long time against
the men, even if they had a musket or two. But I wished we could in
some way strengthen our defences, and my mind went back to my notion of
cutting a moat around the hut, which would be of great assistance to
us; but the difficulty of cutting it was no less than before, and I was
afraid if we started it we should never get it done. Furthermore, the
only condition of our making a successful defence at all was that we
should not be taken by surprise as we had been this time, and I said to
Billy that we must never go a voyage again.
"Well, and I don't want to," says he, "unless we can sail to England.
I didn't like the look of them brown fellows with the painted faces,
and did you see the sharks' teeth stuck in a ring round their hair?
We're better off here, master; and here we'd better bide."
[Sidenote: We Strengthen our Defences]
We had been putting our place in order while we talked thus, and then
we had our breakfast, eating indeed some of the food which the men had
been preparing when we drove them away. And after we had done our
customary morning's work--fed the pigs and fowls, gathered ripe
cocoa-nuts, and so forth--we set to work at once to make some new
arrows and spears, and bows and strings also, in case the others broke;
and all the while we were doing this, Billy talked very bravely about
the great fight there would be if the rascals came back. I said
nothing to damp his ardour, but my thoughts were very busy with a part
of the subject which he seemed not to consider, namely, what we should
do if it came to anything like a regular siege. I did not doubt we
could do much execution among the enemy from behind our walls if they
stood to be shot at; but they could very well avoid this, and since
there would be many of them against us two, they could strictly
blockade us; and though so far as food went we could defy them for a
long time, having our concealed stores below, yet the need for constant
watchfulness, day and night, would in a short time wear us out. When I
asked Billy what we should do in that case, he said, "Why, run out, and
let 'em chase us; we could dodge them big chaps well enough, and I
reckon we can run a deal faster." It was easy enough to show him that
the hunted life we should lead would be most wretched and precarious;
but he having suggested that we might escape set me on thinking whether
we might not indeed elude the enemy, at least for such time as was
needful to find some defence or shelter.
We had, of course, the means of descending into our cavern; and this
was so well stocked with food that we might live there for a long time;
but our disappearance would immediately be discovered by our besiegers
(so I called them in advance), and they would know our whereabouts the
moment they entered the hut. The cavern, therefore, could not be a
permanent habitation. But it came into my mind again that we had never
thoroughly explored the tunnel leading from it, nor found whether it
had an outlet, though we suspected it had; and I thought that if there
was such an outlet, or if we could make one, our case would not be so
hopeless as at the present time it seemed. Accordingly, we determined
to descend into the cavern, and make another exploration, going
together, as we did the last time, both for the company's sake and for
better security in case of encountering any danger. So we heaved up
the covering of the shaft, and having made half-a-dozen torches, enough
to last us for several hours, we went down, leaving Little John on
guard, passed through the cavern, and came into the low and narrow
passage.
[Sidenote: Adventure in the Cave]
When we arrived at the place where the second passage entered this from
the right, we turned into it, and walked up an ascent, as I had done in
the darkness, until the floor suddenly took a dip downwards, and then
by the light of our torch we saw a considerable pool of water,
extending farther than the light would carry. We debated for a little
whether we should attempt to wade through this, and concluded that we
would not do so until we had failed to find a way out in the other
direction. Accordingly we retraced our steps, and went down the
tunnel, until we came to the wider part where on our last visit we had
seen water. The water was lower than it had been then, and we were
able to go farther, and when we came to the brink of it, we heard very
distinctly the sound of waves rolling in, so that we knew we could not
be far from an opening to the sea. And, indeed, peering across the
immense cave to which we had come, we saw far off a segment of blue
sky, and knew that the object of our search was gained.
We stood at the edge of the water, surveying the cave by the light of
our torches. We saw that there depended from its roof certain shining
things like icicles, of rugged form and differing in length, which I
have since learned are called stalactites; and, moreover, there were
large boulders and masses of broken stalactites standing up out of the
water. Billy gave a shout when he saw this, and cried that he would
skip from rock to rock until he came to the mouth of the cave, and
defied me to race him; but the torch I was carrying was now burning
low, and I stayed to kindle another before going farther; and,
moreover, I doubted the wisdom of such feats of agility, for it would
be easy to miss one's footing and fall into the water, and if we both
did it our torches would be wetted and we should not be able to light
ourselves home. I had, indeed, just called out to him to come back,
when a dreadful shriek ran through the cavern, and raising my torch
above my head, I saw Billy scrambling up a tall and rugged rock that
stood ten feet or more above the water, a good way from where I stood.
He had dropped his torch, and I saw him but dimly by the light of mine,
and could not discern any cause for his terror; but that there must be
a very great cause I knew well, for Billy was brave enough. He
continued to shriek and call, though his voice rang so in that hollow
vaulted space that I could not at first make out any words; but having
started to approach him when I heard his first cry, going from rock to
rock as quickly as I could, I was presently able to see a number of
long tentacles clinging to the rock on which he was perched, and others
waving horribly above the surface of the water, as if some blind
creature were groping for its prey. And even as there came to my mind
the recollection of that loathly monster from whom I myself had barely
escaped, and I stood as if fascinated by those hideous antic limbs, I
saw the vast bulk of the beast appear above the surface, and rise
gradually behind its tentacles up the rock.
Billy was by this time perched on the very summit of the rock, and when
he saw the monster ascending towards him he let forth another dreadful
cry which roused me from the sort of trance into which I had fallen.
Grasping the torch with my left hand and my axe with my right, I leapt
over the low rocks that stood between me and Billy, scarcely keeping my
footing, and began to hack with all my strength at the shapeless mass,
which made such a resistance to that poor clumsy axehead as a thing of
leather might make. It did not appear that my strokes were of any
avail, for the tentacles crept higher and higher; and looking up when I
heard another scream from Billy, I saw that one of them was beginning
to twine itself about his leg. And then all of a sudden, while I was
bringing my axe down once more on the monster, Billy made a leap
upwards, to catch at a stalactite that depended from the roof of the
vault, not far from his head. He must have been pretty near beside
himself to do what he did, for if he had caught hold of it he could not
have held on long; and what did in fact happen was that the stalactite
broke off with a sharp snap, and down came Billy and it into the water.
I thought this might be the best thing that could happen, for he could
swim like a fish, and the monster would take some time in letting
itself down from the rock; but when Billy rose to the surface, and I
called to him, I saw by his feeble movements that he must have been
hurt, so I sprang to a low rock near which he had come up, and held out
my axe for him to grasp, which he did, and so I got him on to the rock,
though not without some trouble, it being scarce broad enough for both
of us. And immediately afterwards I observed that the monster had left
the big rock and disappeared into the water, on which I cried to Billy
to be of good cheer, because I was sure my continual chopping had
wrought some damage on the monster and maybe killed it. But the words
were scarce out of my mouth when we saw, by the ruddy light of my
torch, a tentacle appear above the water not three feet away. This put
me in a shudder lest we were in a perfect den of the creatures, and I
called to Billy to jump across the rocks, if he could, back to the
entrance to the tunnel, so that he at any rate, being now the weaker,
might be out of harm's way. His terror lending him strength, he
gathered himself together and leapt from rock to rock as he had done
before, while I seized upon the axe which I had dropped beside me when
I landed on the rock, and chopped away in a kind of frenzy at the
tentacles which were brandishing themselves, you may say, at several
places around me. As soon as I saw that Billy was safe I gave up the
contest and sprang after him, and I was never so thankful in my life as
I was when I stood beside him at the end of the tunnel.
We were neither of us in any mind to linger there, lest the monster and
his brood came to attack us, for we were now so terrified that we would
have believed them capable of anything. This was the second time that
we had been baulked of finding an outlet to the sea, and our experience
had been such that we should scarce attempt it again. We hurried back
through the tunnel, and had not gone very far when we had another
alarm, for whereas it had been dry when we descended, there was now a
little stream of water running down, which increased as we advanced
until it became almost a rivulet. At first I thought that the plug had
come out of the pipe leading from the lake into the shaft, but when we
came to the junction of the two passages, we saw that the water, which
was now above our ankles, was pouring out of the right-hand passage,
and not from the one that led from the cavern. This eased our alarm,
but we did not stay to consider of any attempt to discover the ultimate
source of this little torrent, but hastened on until we were once more
in our hut; and then we knew by the mighty pattering on the roof and
all around that a very heavy rain was falling. Indeed, when we opened
the door we saw that it must have been raining ever since we departed,
for the ground was exceeding sodden, and the trench about the hut was
half full of water, being scarce deep enough to carry off the drainage.
Of course the rain had put out the fire which we kept constantly
smouldering in the grate a few feet from our door, and though a hot
meal would have been very comforting after our fright and the wetting
we had got, we could not make one ready, because we had no dry wood in
the hut, nor indeed did we care to light a fire in it, having no
chimney to let out the smoke.
[Sidenote: A Mystery Solved]
It continued raining for two or three days, greatly to our discomfort;
and we made up our minds to two things: first, to have a stock of
firewood ready dried; second, to build ourselves a better grate, which
we could cover in with pottery ware, and thus prevent the fire from
being ever extinguished. During these days we observed, as we had done
before, that the lake did not rise above the high-water mark, though
the rain was the heaviest since we had been on the island; and when I
sought once more to account for this, and remembered the torrent
pouring down the passage, it came all of a sudden into my mind that I
had the true reason of it. The passage, as I have said, rose
continually from the cave inwards. Well, I guessed that its upper end
opened into the side of the lake, but it then rose until its highest
point was pretty nearly on a level with what we called the high-water
mark, and after that descended again. If it was so, it acted as a
siphon, the water not flowing down the passage until the lake rose to
the same height as the highest part of the passage. When I tried to
explain this to Billy he said it was all gammon, because if there was
an opening from the lake into the passage the water would keep on
flowing through until it couldn't help but run over. He could not in
the least understand that water could never rise above its own level
until I showed him by means of two tanks made of pottery, one large and
the other small, and then he owned that I might be right, though he
said it seemed to him like saying that a ten-pound weight wouldn't send
up a five-pound weight if they were put in the opposite pans of a
balance.
However, my discovery (supposing my reasoning was correct, and we could
not prove it)--my discovery, I say, was of no practical advantage to
us, indeed, rather the reverse, for it seemed to show that the tunnel
from the cavern to the sea might be sometimes impassable, so that as a
way of retreat from our hut it was doubly useless. When I pointed this
out to Billy he said, "Never mind, master. We shall only have to fight
all the harder inside, that's all," which shows how hopeful he always
was. The only comfort I had was to think that our fears and anxieties
might never be justified, and that Hoggett and his crew would never
more visit us.
CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH
OF THE ASSAULT ON THE HUT, IN WHICH BOWS AND ARROWS PROVE SUPERIOR TO
MUSKETS
The period of rainy weather which we suffered set me on to think again
of that project of digging a moat which we had formerly abandoned.
Several considerable rivulets flowed into the lake from the high ground
around, of which one, that came down the slope nearest the red rock,
had a pretty long course, and by the time it fell into the lake, forty
or fifty yards from the hut, was almost a river. Observing how it
washed the soil along with it, it came into my head that we might
perchance enlist it in our service, and make it do a great part of the
work of widening and deepening the trench. Of course Billy must ask
his customary question, "What's the good?" following this up with
another, more pertinent. "How _can_ we, master? The river--if you
call it a river: _I_ don't--don't run anywhere near the trench."
"That's true," I said, "but we can make it."
"How's that?" said he.
"Why, by building a dam across it, and so turning its course where we
please," I said.
"Oh, more building," says he. "What a one you are, master, for keeping
on a-doing things! What's the good? I lay you a cocoa-nut that before
you get your dam made, the rain stops, and then where'll you be?"