finding it a very laborious and tedious business, because the
narrowness of the first part of the tunnel, and the roughness of the
way, did not allow us to bear such heavy loads as we might have done in
the open. We felt an itching curiosity to know what the men were
doing, and how they took our disappearance, and Billy said it would be
great fun to sail round the island and show ourselves to them, for we
could run back to the cave at any time, and they would never know where
we had gone, the cave not being visible from above, and the cliff
unscalable. But our posture was too serious for mere fun, especially
as I did not wish the men even to know we were still alive, because of
that notion which had come into my head; and it was for the same reason
that I had resolved not to attempt to transport our stores to the Red
Rock until the dusk of evening, when the men would have given over
their roaming and returned to the hut. When we rested from our work,
and ate our meals, we paddled the canoe out to the mouth of the cave,
where we could be in the sunshine and fresh air, and away from the
exceeding noisome stench made by our torches; and it was really a
pleasant enough day, the seamen not being able to molest us.
[Sidenote: Retreat to Red Rock]
Accordingly, as soon as it was dusk, with a promise of a full, clear
moon, we set off, and paddled our well-laden canoe to the north side of
the Red Rock, where, as I have said, was the only landing-place.
Having moored our vessel securely to a peak of rock, we set to work to
carry our cargo up the steep path, and found this the hardest task we
had ever undertaken, so that though we toiled pretty nearly all night
we had not above half emptied the canoe by the morning. It was very
stupid of us to work so hard, as we saw when we had tired ourselves out
to dropping, for being on the side of the rock furthest from the island
we could not be seen from thence, and might have taken three or four
days over the work if we pleased. The manner of our carrying the
stores up was to load baskets and strap them to our backs; but one part
of the ascent was too steep for us to climb thus laden, and we then
tied the baskets in turn to the end of a rope, and one climbed up first
and hauled the baskets after him, with much bumping against the rugged
side, which made me fear lest we should lose a good deal. However,
nothing was lost save two or three cocoa-nuts and the lid of one of my
pots, which was full of bread-fruit paste, so that I was glad it was
only the lid and not the pot itself. The danger thus narrowly escaped
taught us a lesson, and when it came to our largest pots, instead of
trying to carry them up full, we emptied their contents into the
baskets, and so made several light loads instead of one heavy one, thus
avoiding a particular mishap.
When morning came, as I say, we had carried up but half our cargo, and
having by that time perceived that there was no need for haste, we
refreshed ourselves with one or two cocoa-nuts we had, not lighting a
fire to cook anything else, in case its smoke should be seen by the
seamen. This consideration somewhat damped our liking for our new
abode, for we had been so long accustomed to good and well-cooked meals
that the prospect of living on nothing but cocoa-nuts, as on our first
coming to the island, was mighty displeasing; and, moreover, we had
only a very few cocoa-nuts, not having stored many of these because we
could get them from the trees all the year round. However, I told
Billy that I thought we could light a fire at night, for it was scarce
likely that the men would be abroad in the darkness at one of the high
parts of the island, from which alone the top of the Red Rock could be
seen, and he was comforted at this, saying that he didn't mind cold
breakfast and dinner if he had hot supper. After our frugal breakfast
we laid ourselves down to sleep, under the shadow of an overhung rock,
and did not waken until the sun was very high. Being then exceeding
thirsty I remembered the water we had found at the bottom of a cleft
when we first came to the rock, and we let down a pitcher by a rope
into one of the clefts, and when we drew it up we found it full of
delicious cold water with scarcely any taste to it; and though,
remembering the water of Brimstone Lake, we drank sparingly at first,
we found that it did us no hurt, and indulged ourselves with more
copious draughts than we had ever taken since we had lived on the
island. We waited until the heat of the day was past before we resumed
our unlading, and we did not finish it until next day, sleeping pretty
near all through the night. When we had got everything
up--bread-fruit, yams, salted flesh and fish, ropes, spears, bows and
arrows, strips of hide and bark cloth, and sundry other things which we
thought we might find useful--we packed them as snugly as we could
under ledges and in hollows, and covered over the perishables with
cloth to keep off dew and rain, and then we thought about ourselves,
and how we could make the barren rock a habitable place. It would be
easy enough to build a cabin or lean-to against the rocky wall if we
only had the materials; but there was nothing serviceable to be found
on the spot, and to get them we must venture back to the island. This
we could only do in the hours of darkness, or immediately after dawn,
but the idea of this rather pleased us with its venturesomeness, and
being now equipped with our weapons we were bold enough. In the early
hours of the morning, therefore, we paddled round through the archway
until we reached the rock by the lava beach, where Billy had perched on
our first day, and leaving Billy and Little John to guard the canoe, I
went into the woods with my axe, carrying also my bow and arrows, to
cut some saplings and rushes, and some creepers to bind things
together. I promised Billy I would come back after a while and let him
take his turn, but I had not been working above half-an-hour, I should
think, when he joined me, saying he was sure the canoe would be safe,
because it was hidden behind the rock, and there was nothing to bring
the men to that part of the island, because he would take his davy they
never bathed, of which indeed I myself had had good evidence; and
besides, he said, he had left Little John to guard it. I was glad of
Billy's help, for between us we cut a good deal of material in a very
short time; but I did not like leaving the canoe to the sole charge of
the dog, and resolved not to come again in the morning, but only in the
evening, there being much less danger of meeting the men then.
Accordingly I did not wait until we had got enough material for our
purpose, but said we would finish the job another time; and we carried
the stuff to the canoe, making two journeys to do it, and so got back
to the Red Rock safely.
We spent the rest of that day in making, with the things we had
brought, a kind of trellis-work to serve as the front and side walls of
our lean-to, for the back wall was the rock itself. We had not near
enough to finish the job, but enough to keep us employed all that day;
and a little before dusk we set off again to paddle to the island to
fetch more. And this time, as soon as we had got enough saplings and
reeds and things, we went on to the smaller cocoa-nut grove, there
being a very good moon, purposing to carry away a few ripe cocoa-nuts
for our own consumption; but when we were gathering them from the trees
it came into my head that we might as well begin upon that notion I
have before mentioned, which was nothing less than to starve the seamen
into repentance and humbleness of spirit. I had not as yet told it to
Billy, but I had pondered it myself, and thought I saw my way to it,
and so I now began suggesting to Billy that we should strip the trees
of all the ripe fruit. "What's the good, master?" says he at once, as
I knew he would: "it will take us a long time to carry 'em all to the
canoe, and we don't want 'em, not really."
"No," said I, "but Hoggett does want 'em," and then I told him my
drift. I was afraid he would spoil it all with shouting, for he opened
his mouth wide to let it forth, but remembered himself in time, and so
shut his mouth on a sort of hoarse croak, which might have seemed to
any one that heard it the croak of some strange animal or bird.
"My eye!" says he, "that's prime, master. However did you think of it?
But we'll have to come pretty often, because these here cocoa-nuts get
ripe so fast. 'Tis lucky the bread-fruit ain't in season yet, and the
yams is nearly all gone; but there's the pigs and fowls, drat it, and
if they use all them up too we'll never get no more."
[Sidenote: Stealing no Robbery]
"That's true," I said, "but we shall maybe be able to get some of them
by and by. At any rate, let us get the cocoa-nuts now, and we need not
trouble to take them all to the canoe. We will take just what we need,
and hide the rest in the undergrowth."
Accordingly we stripped the ripe fruit from all the trees at this spot;
there were only about half-a-dozen; and having concealed all the nuts
but two or three that we wanted for our own refreshment, we carried
these to the canoe, and paddled back to the Red Rock, where we broiled
some fish steaks for second supper, our work having made us hungry, and
so to sleep.
Next day we finished our lean-to, making walls and roof of the
trellis-work I have mentioned, and being very tired we went to sleep
without paying another visit to the island. I thought we were doing
very well, and the only thing that gave me any concern was our canoe,
for we had no very safe harbourage for it on the rock, and if a storm
came I was afraid the sea might wash it from the ledge on which it lay,
and then we should be in a lamentable fix. However, as we usually had
some warning of bad weather, in the low flying of seabirds and other
signs we had become used to observe, we determined at the first warning
to take the canoe into the cave and lie up there until the storm was
past. Of course we could not do this if the storm broke upon us
suddenly in the night, but in that matter we must simply trust to
Providence.
All necessary work on the Red Rock being done, we began to find time
hang somewhat heavy on our hands. Our asylum (as I may call it) was no
more than some two hundred feet square; at least, the habitable part of
it was no more: and having explored every get-at-able corner of it, and
finding nothing to reward us except a few seabirds' eggs, we had
nothing to do; and to lie about looking at each other was vastly
uninteresting. We clambered to the highest point, and there, under
cover of a craggy rock that overhung the island, we looked over the
domain from which we had been expelled, and I scarce think Adam himself
was more grieved at the loss of Eden than we were now. We could not
see our hut, but a great part of the island between it and the sea, to
the westward and southward, was open to our view, and of course the
mountain, and the long slope that ran downwards from the crater to the
archway. Once or twice we caught glimpses of the seamen as they roamed
the island, and then Billy's wrath and indignation knew no bounds, and
he pleaded with me to land and post ourselves behind trees, and shoot
the men with our arrows, but this of course I would not consent to,
having besides in my mind a better way of dealing with them. And I
bade Billy remember that they must be very uneasy at not lighting on
any traces of us, to which he replied scornfully, "Suppose they are,
what's the odds? They'll soon believe as how we are drownded, and then
they'll be jolly enough, using our things and all."
"Maybe they'll be afraid of seeing our ghosts," I said.
"That would frighten 'em, wouldn't it?" says he. "Fancy old Wabberley,
now, seeing a thing all white come creeping along, making gashly
sounds, and all that; wouldn't he holla and cry for mercy! I wish we
could turn into ghosts for once, only I suppose we can't till we're
dead, and I don't want to be dead, do you, master?"
The next night chanced to be stormy, with a high wind, and we heard
that strange howling I have before mentioned, and of which we had never
discovered the cause, for it was clear no dogs made it, there being
none now on the island. But on sailing our canoe to the cave, for
safety's sake, we learnt at last what made the noise, which was nothing
less than the wind blowing across the mouth of the cave. Billy said
the sound would frighten the men as well as any ghost could do it, and
I think he was himself pleased to know that the explanation was so
simple and natural.
The weather cleared next day, and we returned to the Red Rock. Being
determined to set off for the island that very night, and begin to put
into practice the scheme I had been forming in my mind, we had a good
sleep in the afternoon, and embarked in the canoe just after sunset.
The moon was up, but we did not suppose the seamen would wander from
the hut at night-time, and the moonlight would help us. When we
landed, we went up to the cocoa-nut grove, and began to strip the trees
of all the nuts, ripe and unripe, starting with those that were
furthest from the hut, and so were the least likely to be known as yet
by the men. We conveyed the nuts, in the baskets we had brought on our
backs, to the canoe; and then, Billy being still mighty concerned about
the pigs, lest they should all be killed and eaten, we determined to go
very stealthily towards the hut, to see if we might anyways get a pig
from the sty, and also to learn what the men had done about our
settlement. Spying down upon the place, we saw that the door of the
hut was open, and that the drawbridge was not laid across the moat, so
that we supposed all the men were sleeping within. But as we drew
nearer, and came close to the fowl-house, we were surprised by great
snores proceeding from it, by which we knew that some of the men had
made it their lodging, though we could not guess what they had done
with the fowls which they had turned out. They had let them loose, as
we afterwards discovered, never supposing that they would have any
difficulty in catching them when they wanted them for food; and we were
very much amused when we learnt of their anger and amazement at finding
that the fowls had betaken themselves to inaccessible places, so that
they never had but two or three all the time they were on the island.
I thought there would be too great a risk in trying to purloin one of
our pigs, the sty being not above a dozen yards from the fowl-house,
but Billy would do it, and assured me he would get one of the young
ones as easy as anything. Accordingly I let him go, and sure enough he
came back in no long time carrying one of the piglets close in his
arms, and I had not heard above one feeble squeal, the reason I heard
no more being that Billy slipped into the little pig's mouth a bit of
cocoa-nut he happened to have in his pocket. But Billy himself was in
a furious temper, telling me, when we had gotten ourselves safe away,
that he had seen his best axe, and his own wooden spade, on which he
had carved the initial letter of his name, lying close by the pig-sty,
and he was perfectly overcome with anger at the thought that his very
own tools were being used by these sacrilegious hands. Nothing would
satisfy him but that he must go back and bring them away, which he did,
and we took them and the pig down to our canoe, and paddled back to the
Red Rock, very well satisfied with our night's work.
The next night we paid another visit to the island, and this time we
went to the plantation of yams, finding, as we half expected, that the
men had already made some depredations on it. Having brought spades as
well as baskets, we dug up a good many of the yams that remained, and
carried them to the canoe in two or three trips. We continued these
expeditions night after night, finding a certain fascination in them,
and being tickled with the thought that while the men were lapped in
slumber we were gradually depriving them of their means of subsistence.
"'Tis just like housebreakers, ain't it, master?" said Billy gleefully
once; "only there ain't no watchman to cop us. And what's more, it
ain't wrong neither, for a man ain't doing no wrong if he takes what's
his very own." Night by night we drew nearer to the hut, and had
worked so often without the least alarm that we flattered ourselves
there would soon be no more fruit to gather, and then, as Billy said,
Hoggett would begin to starve.
One night, the seventh or eighth, I should think, since we began, we
had brought our canoe to the strip of sand beside the lava beach, and
had gone up to a small clump of trees which we had not been able to
strip completely the night before. Billy had gone aloft, being nimbler
in climbing than me, and I was about to follow him, when all of a
sudden he called out, quite loud, his surprise making him to be off his
guard, that there wasn't a single cocoa-nut left. Immediately
afterwards I heard him say, not so loud, "Oh geminy, now I've been and
done it!" and began to slide down very rapidly; but in a moment I heard
a loud crackling of twigs close by, and then a shout, "Here's the
devils!" and I knew that the men were upon us; it was plain they had
observed how the fruits were disappearing night by night, and had been
on the watch for us. Billy came down the tree more quickly than any
monkey could have done, with great damage to his hands and still more
to his breeches, as we afterwards discovered, the bark-cloth with which
we had patched them being clean torn away, so that "the rent was made
worse," as the Bible says. His feet were no sooner on the ground than
we set off a-running with all our might towards the canoe, and we had
not got above fifty yards when some of the men broke from cover and ran
after us, shouting the most terrible curses. We had to go about two
hundred yards before we came to the edge of the cliff, but being much
more nimble on our feet than the seamen we did not lose ground, but
rather gained; and arriving at the edge, we immediately began to
descend towards the sea, in such haste that I am sure no two men ever
came so near to breaking their necks. The cliff, as I have said
before, was exceeding steep and rough, and the descent was all the more
perilous because it was night, though moonlit; and to this day I marvel
that we came safe to the bottom. There was nothing that could be
called a path; we could only scramble down as best we might, trusting
to luck, or rather to Providence; and though we escaped with our lives,
and our limbs sound, yet our feet and legs were pretty badly cut by the
sharp edges of rock. The seamen, when they came to the brink, did not
dare to follow us, but caught up stones and hurled them down upon us,
and if they had been able to take good aim we must certainly have been
killed. However, we came safe to the beach and to our canoe, into
which we leapt and paddled away as quickly as we could, and the men
spying us set up a great howl of rage, and I was vexed they had seen
our vessel, but it could not be helped. They ran along the top of the
cliff watching us, the moon being up, as I said; but we disappeared
from their view so soon as we had come beneath the cliffs, and then, so
that they should not know of our refuge on the Red Rock, we lay for a
good while in the entrance to Dismal Cave, not proceeding further until
we thought the men would have returned to their quarters.
Billy was exceeding vexed to think that his careless outcry had had so
untoward an issue. "I could knock my head off, master," he cried
passionately, and when I asked him what good that would be he said,
"Well, I couldn't stick it on again, could I? Only I have got a silly
tongue." I told him that he need not reproach himself, for I was sure
the men had been on the watch for us, having no doubt observed the
nightly disappearance of the fruits. "Yes," says Billy, "but if they
hadn't spied us they might ha' thought they was taken by goblins or
such," to which I replied that I did not think goblins fed on such
substantial fare, and so by degrees I brought him to a more tranquil
frame of mind. I thought it very likely that the men would now guess
what our purpose was, and gather in all the foodstuffs that were left,
so that there would be none for us to venture for; wherefore we must
leave the further working out of our plan to time. Accordingly, we
went no more from the Red Rock to the island, except once, and that was
to get another pig as mate to the one we had already captured. We
delayed to do this for several days, until we thought the men would not
be so carefully on guard as they would be immediately after their
discovery of us; but when we did venture to land and creep near to the
pig-sty, we feared our errand was impossible, because the men had lit
an open fire near the hut and we saw two of them on watch. However,
Billy said he was not going to be beat, and he asked me to go into the
woods and make a terrible noise, which he thought would draw the men
away, and so give him an opportunity of seizing the pig. I would not
consent to this at first, for it seemed like leaving the dangerous part
of the work to Billy; but he insisted that he could get the pig more
easily than I could, which was true, and so I agreed at last, but
thought of another way instead of making a noise, and that was to go
into a clump of trees on the other side of the hut from the pig-sty,
and there strike a light, which I doubted not would be seen by the men.
Knowing the country as I did, it would be easy to escape down to the
canoe, which we had left this time in the little cove on the east of
the island, guessing that the men would make for the sandy beach if
they suspected our presence. There was a risk, of course, that not all
the men would be drawn towards the light, but we had to chance that,
and so I departed, bidding Billy have a very great care.
The plan answered perfectly to his expectation, only it took somewhat
longer than he thought, for I was not so used to striking fire as
Billy, and I failed so many times that I feared I should never do it.
But at last I got a light, and set some dry grass on fire, and there
was a mighty blaze, and Billy told me afterwards that the moment they
saw it the men who were on watch jumped to their feet and ran towards
the hut, not being able to reach it because the drawbridge was taken
away. I myself heard their shout, and having thrown some more grass on
the fire, I sped away towards the east, and waited for Billy at the
edge of the wood on the cliffs, wondering how he would come, whether
across the lava tract or the very much longer way round the mountain.
I heard the shouting continue for some time, but it seemed to be going
away from me, at which I was very glad; and after what seemed a very
long time, I heard a little noise close at hand, and holding myself on
my guard I saw Billy staggering along under his burden, and when he
came near, he said he was sweating horrible, the pig being uncommon
obstinate. To deaden the sound of its squealing he had stripped off
his shirt and smothered the pig's head in it, and he had come right
across the lava tract, having seen that the men had all gone in the
other direction, towards the sandy beach. We carried the pig between
us down to the canoe, and lay there all night, not daring to paddle
away until just before dawn, for we could not return to the Red Rock by
the west side of the island while the men were astir, for they would
have seen us, nor could we go the other way because of the current.
But we guessed that not having spied the canoe where it had been
before, the men would imagine we had some lurking place on the island,
and after a time would not keep watch on the shore. Besides, the moon
would go down before morning; and so, when it was still very dark, we
left our hiding-place and paddled quietly round the island, and came to
the Red Rock without having been observed.
CHAPTER THE TWENTIETH
OF ATTACKS BY LAND AND SEA; AND OF THE USES OF HUNGER IN THE MENDING OF
MANNERS
We calculated, Billy and I, that there was enough food left on the
island to last the men for about a month, or perhaps longer with
careful husbanding; but from what Mr. Bodger had told me of their ways
on their island, and from what I knew of them myself, I did not suppose
they would practise any stint until they felt the pinch of want. I own
I hoped they would not, and if that seems a hard saying, you must
remember that I had a deep purpose, namely to recover possession of our
own, which was itself laudable, and also to teach the men a lesson
whereby they and all of us would profit. It was necessary to the
success of my plan that they should come to the verge of famishment
before the bread-fruit season, for if they endured until the fruit was
ripe, they would have plenty of food for three or four months
thereafter, and I could not view with patience the prospect of
remaining sequestered on the Red Rock for so long. Having done all we
could, it would have been simple foolhardiness to risk complete failure
by making useless visits to the island, and we endured what was a kind
of imprisonment on the Red Rock as patiently as we could, leaving it
only once to bring more stores from the cavern.