"Well, Billy, my boy, how are you by this time?" I demanded.
"I believe I'm better, thank you, Mr Blackburn," replied the boy; "but
I feel very weak and--oh, goodness! isn't it hot?"
It was. I had just found time to become aware of the excessive heat and
closeness of the atmosphere. The perspiration was simply streaming from
every pore of my body, and I felt suffocating for want of sufficient
air. All the doors and windows of the bungalow were wide open, but the
atmosphere was absolutely stagnant, the naked flame of a newly ignited
lamp burning without the faintest flicker.
One of our native domestics was now busying herself arranging the table
in what we called the "dining-room", and in laying out the materials for
a supper for me--for it now appeared that I had slept for nearly
fourteen hours on end, and the good woman insisted that I must have a
meal at once. While these preparations were in progress I went out and
stood under the veranda to take a look at the weather.
The thunder-clap that had broken in upon my slumbers proved to be the
prelude to a terrific electrical disturbance which was now in full
action. The centre of the disturbance appeared to be almost immediately
overhead, for flash after flash of lightning was striking all round the
house, while the detonations of the thunder were continuous and so
violent that I felt the floor literally tremble beneath my feet. But
the lightning was not confined to discharges from the cloud overhead, it
was darting earthward all round us, and practically at all distances
from zenith to horizon; and so frequent were the discharges that the
illumination from them was continuous, revealing a vault packed with
enormous masses of heavy, black, writhing cloud. I stood for perhaps
five minutes fascinated by the spectacle of the vivid lightning-play;
and then, just as the native woman came out to announce that my supper
was ready, down came the rain in a perfect deluge; and in a moment the
eaves of the house, the foliage of the trees, and the earth itself
poured with soft, warm water. It was too good an opportunity to be
wasted, so I hurried to my own room, threw off my clothes, seized a
morsel of soap, and, dashing out to the midst of the downpour, treated
myself to a most delightful and refreshing bath, as a preliminary to
supper.
The rain continued for about half an hour, and then it ceased with that
abruptness which seems so characteristic of the tropics. But it had
scarcely come to an end when there arose a loud rustling of leaves among
the trees in the garden and round about the house, a blast of hot wind
poured in through the open doors and windows, violently slamming the
former and causing the latter to rattle furiously; and I had barely time
to rush and close them all when a terrific squall came roaring down upon
the bungalow. This squall was only the precursor of several that
followed each other at rapidly decreasing intervals until those
intervals became so brief as to be no longer distinguishable, and the
wind settled into a roaring gale from the westward that blew all night
and did not break until close upon noon next day.
As luck would have it, I had chosen the eastern slope of the peak as the
site upon which to erect the bungalow, consequently the structure was,
to a very great extent, sheltered from the gale by the hill behind it;
but, even so, the building quivered and shook under the stroke of the
blasts. And my heart sank as I thought of the wreck, for I felt that
she had not one chance in a thousand of weathering it out. She was on
what was now the windward reef--as it had been when she struck upon it;
the surf would pile up on the reef again, raising the level of the water
by perhaps three or four feet, and in that case the poor old _Yorkshire
Lass_ would be washed off the coral into the lagoon, and would there
sink. And with her would go all the material that I needed for the
completion of the cutter.
Then there was the cutter herself, or at least as much of her as had
thus far been put together. How would she stand the buffeting to which
she was being subjected? I was hopeful, for she was at this time merely
a skeleton, and a very imperfect skeleton at that; consequently there
would not be much for the wind to take hold of; yet I was anxious too,
for I feared lest the heavy rain might have displaced some of the keel
blocks and so let the craft down and perhaps strained her out of shape.
So anxious, indeed, was I that I would have gone down to the cove at
once, despite the fury of the wind, but the night was so pitch dark that
I could have seen nothing; nor, single-handed, could I have done
anything, whatever might have happened; so I was perforce obliged to
defer my visit until daylight. But when daylight came I fought my way
down to the cove, against the gale that was still blowing, and there
found, to my inexpressible relief, that nothing had happened but what
could be put right in an hour or two.
I was naturally most anxious to ascertain what, if anything had happened
to the wreck, but it was not until nearly a week after the gale that
Billy had progressed so far toward recovery that I was able to leave him
entirely to the care of the natives. When, however, that moment arrived
I took immediate advantage of it, starting for the scene of the wreck
immediately after an early breakfast, and enjoining Billy not to be
anxious should I be detained until the next day.
With a fair wind all the way the boat made short miles of the trip, and
I reached the scene of the wreck fairly early in the afternoon; but at
least an hour before my arrival my worst fears were realised, for where
the wreck had once been there was now no sign of her. But I knew pretty
well where to look for her, and, coasting along the inner edge of the
reef, I ultimately came upon her within a few fathoms of the reef, sunk
in six fathoms of water, and of course irrevocably lost to us. I
thought, however, that possibly some useful wreckage might be floating
about in the lagoon. I therefore worked the boat over to West Island
beach, near to which I did indeed find a few planks and some small odds
and ends that had broken adrift or floated off when the wreck went down,
and these I formed into a small raft which I towed round to Eden on the
following day.
But when I looked from the skeleton of the cutter to the small quantity
of material available for her completion, my heart sank within me, and I
felt utterly discouraged, for what I had was ridiculously inadequate.
It was not enough even to complete the shell of the craft; and where on
earth was I to get more? There were, of course, thousands of trees on
the group, and I had an axe with which to fell them; but when they were
felled, how was I to convert them into plank and scantling? It was a
problem which I puzzled over during the whole day succeeding my return
to Eden, seeking in vain for a solution, until at last it seemed that we
were really doomed to remain where we were until taken off by a ship,
even though we should grow old while awaiting her arrival.
Such a conclusion would doubtless have been terribly discouraging to
many people, but after the first shock its effect upon me was, on the
contrary, so provocative that I resumed work upon the cutter with more
resolution than ever, if that were possible, until, some six weeks
later, I had used up all my available material, and my work was perforce
brought to a standstill. But when this happened I had made such
progress that the cutter was planked up to the gunwale with the first
thickness of planking; and so thoroughly satisfied was I with my work
that I was determined _nothing_ should prevent its completion, even
though, to provide the necessary material, I should be compelled to pull
down the bungalow and break up our sailing boat. Such forcible measures
as those, however, demanded the most careful consideration before
adoption.
Meanwhile the rank luxuriance of tropical plant-growth had already
changed the fire-blackened areas of Apes' and West Islands to varying
tints of delicate green, the several varieties of new vegetation seeming
to find congenial conditions in the thick coat of ashes resulting from
the fire. But I learned from Bowata, whose people had been maintaining
a close watch upon both islands, that thus far no signs of animal life
had been detected upon either of them, although the chief agreed with me
that, whatever might be the case with Apes' Island, West Island--or at
least the unburnt part of it--must be simply swarming with living
creatures. And the conviction that this was so was causing him and his
people so much uneasiness that a permanent watch had been established at
the western end of Cliff Island, and the natives resident there, to the
number of forty, had all been armed with bows and arrows, that they
might be prepared to repel possible incursions of apes from that part of
West Island, the channel at that point being but little wider than that
which the apes were wont to swim when crossing from their own island.
The liability to incursions by the apes seemed to be the only source of
anxiety on the part of Bowata and his people. In all other respects
they appeared to be perfectly happy; for their wants were few, and so
fertile was the soil of their own island that it amply supplied all
those wants, with very little exertion on the part of the easy-going
inhabitants. The trouble was that the products of their industry
unfortunately appealed so strongly to the appetite of the anthropoids
that, to gratify it, the brutes were willing to swim a channel a mile
wide. And the trouble was serious enough, in all conscience, for--as I
gradually learned, in the course of frequent conversations with the
chief--the apes not only destroyed far more than they ate, but, until my
introduction of the bow and arrow as a weapon, they were only driven off
with the utmost difficulty, and frequently with serious loss of life on
the part of the savages. It was indeed to put an effectual end to those
frequent raids upon their property that the natives, in desperation, had
finally resorted to the drastic measure of setting fire to the island
that harboured the monsters.
The longer I meditated upon the problem of how to meet the shortage of
material for the completion of the cutter the more reluctant did I
become to resort to so extreme a measure as the breaking up of the
sailing boat, still more the bungalow, to supply the deficiency. In my
perplexity I visited East Island, and here a possible way out of the
difficulty was suggested to me by the discovery--as I then for the first
time particularly noticed--that certain of the trees flourishing on that
island appeared to be if not actually cedars at least a species very
nearly akin thereto. And if upon closer investigation this should prove
to be the case, here was a supply of timber admirably suited to my
requirements and ample beyond my utmost needs. It was a matter worthy
of my most particular attention; and accordingly I selected a group of
the supposed cedars, and forthwith proceeded to operate upon them. They
were three in number, of just about the right size for my requirements,
and they were within a quarter of a mile of the cove. I began my
investigation by hacking off a good stout branch, stripping off its
bark, and testing its working qualities. I found that the wood gave off
the characteristic odour of cedar; that it was close-grained; that it
was easily workable; and that it was, in short, everything I could
possibly desire. I therefore started work in earnest by felling the
tree that I had already attacked and trimming off its branches. This
brought my day's work to a close, and I returned to Eden with a mind
relieved of a heavy load of anxiety, for there was now no longer any
need to contemplate the breaking up of either the boat or the bungalow.
True, I had found the wood I required; but what I needed was thin
planks, not heavy balks of timber such as one might be able to hew out
of a tree trunk with an axe; and how was I to obtain those planks? I
considered the matter and suddenly remembered that cedar splits easily;
I therefore determined to ascertain by actual experiment whether it
would be possible to procure the planks I required by splitting the
felled trunk. The experiment was on the whole successful; for although
I wasted more timber than I anticipated I nevertheless succeeded in
securing several very fine planks that, when operated upon with the
plane, could be reduced to the exact thickness required. Thus
encouraged, I made an estimate of the quantity of planking required to
complete the hull of the cutter, and then proceeded to fell as many
trees as were needed to furnish that quantity.
It was while I was thus engaged that I one day received an urgent visit
from Bowata and his son, who came in great distress to inform me that
the watchers posted at the western extremity of Cliff Island, to guard
against a surprise attack on the part of the apes believed to have
retreated to West Island, had that morning reported that the anthropoids
were recrossing the Middle Channel to Apes' Island; and that, from
observation of the creatures' movements, it was strongly suspected that
they meditated an attack in force upon Cliff Island and its inhabitants.
Bowata concluded his communication with an entreaty that I would lend
my aid to repel the threatened attack. I at once acceded to this
request, and, with the two natives aboard the sailing boat and their
punt in tow, proceeded to Eden, where I collected all the arms and
ammunition we possessed, and, taking Billy with me, made sail for Cliff
Island.
As we approached the northern extremity of Apes' Island, from which
point the brutes usually started on their swim across the channel to
Cliff Island, my telescope revealed numerous apes clustered together
upon the beach, while many others could be seen wending their way toward
the same spot; but I could see none in the water, so concluded that the
threatened raid had not yet started. I inquired of Bowata how many of
his people were now armed with bows and arrows, and was gratified to
learn that every male above the age of fifteen had been so armed. This
meant that there were more than a hundred archers to defend the island;
learning which I came to the conclusion that the best form of defence
was attack, and made my plans accordingly.
Landing Bowata and his son to conduct the defence of their island, I
took aboard the boat seven natives, who, the chief assured me, were
among his most expert bowmen, and headed across the channel toward Apes'
Island, my plan being to cruise to and fro opposite the spot where the
apes were mustering, and to pick off as many of the brutes as possible
while passing.
At this point the channel was only about a mile wide; ten minutes,
therefore, sufficed us to accomplish the passage and to round to at a
distance of twenty yards from the beach, where some fifty or sixty of
the gigantic brutes were now assembled, most of them squatting upon
their haunches, as though awaiting a signal of some sort, while others
were joining them at the rate of two or three per minute. As the boat
approached, the monsters eyed her malignantly, while several rose to
their feet as though preparing to repel an attack. This suited our
purpose well, and as the boat, under Billy's skilful handling, rounding
to into the wind, with her sails a-shiver, glided slowly past the spot
where the apes were congregated, we each deliberately selected our
target and, drawing our bows to the full length of our arrows, let fly
with deadly effect. Every arrow went home, many of them finding the
heart, and with screams of mingled pain and rage eight of the apes
crashed to the ground, a few of them writhing convulsively in their
death-agony but most of them dead. There was time for a second
discharge before the boat drifted too far away, and three more of the
brutes went down, while five of their comrades, screaming and bellowing
with pain and rage, wrenched the arrows from their wounds, some of them
in their blind fury turning upon and savagely attacking their fellows.
The manoeuvre was so successful that it was repeated with equally
satisfactory results.
Thus far the unwounded apes appeared to take little or no notice of the
havoc we were working among them; and I feel certain that none of them
connected that havoc with the appearance of the boat upon the scene; but
when the manoeuvre was repeated a third time, and still more of their
number fell dead or wounded, it seemed at last to dawn upon their
imperfect intelligence that the strange object with white sails, which
glided to and fro upon the water opposite them, must be somehow
associated with the casualties occurring among their companions, and
with yells of concentrated fury and eyes ablaze with deadly malice about
a dozen of them shambled down the beach into the water, and, striking
out, started to swim in pursuit of the boat.
Nothing could have better suited us than this senseless act of the great
anthropoids, for, although they swam fast, the boat could easily out-
distance them in the breeze then blowing, and I signed to Billy to edge
away toward a wider part of the channel, so that when they should
discover how impossible it was to overtake the boat they might have the
farther to swim, should any of them escape us and attempt to make their
way across to Cliff Island. But the precaution was unnecessary, for
when they were in the water and swimming we could do as we would with
them, and within a few minutes every ape that had started in pursuit of
the boat was slain.
By this time, however, others had also taken to the water, there being
now at least thirty of them swimming, some in pursuit of the boat while
others headed directly across the channel toward Cliff Island. This
necessitated an alteration of our plans, yet we still contrived to keep
the boat between the apes and the island, crossing and recrossing in
front of the brutes at a distance of five to ten yards, so that it was
impossible for us to miss them. Thus the slaughter went on until my
very soul revolted at such terrible destruction, for the brutes
continued to come on by dozens and scores until there seemed to be no
end of them. Most creatures would have had intelligence enough to
recognise eventually that their persistence meant death to them and
would have turned back, either discouraged or terrified, but the apes
seemed to be incapable of either emotion and pressed resolutely on, so
that their destruction became imperative if the natives of Cliff Island
were not to be abandoned to their tender mercies. But that sort of
thing could not go on for ever; the number of the brutes gradually
decreased, and at the end of about three hours the last ape in sight
succumbed to our attack, and it then appeared probable that we had
exterminated the entire tribe of the dangerous and formidable creatures.