Palm Tree Island Part 15

The words died on my lips, and we both stood stock still at the same moment, for there had come to our ears on a sudden, from the direction of the house, the sound of loud and boisterous laughter. Little John yelped, Billy clutched my hand, and you will scarce believe it, but we were both trembling like leaves in the wind; for imagine if you can what a shock it was to us, after our loneliness on the island, to hear the laughter of men.

"They've got here first," says Billy in a whisper presently.

"Who?" said I.

"Why, the savages," he said. "They've spied on us. We'd better go back for our spears and things."

I agreed that this was a prudential measure, and we trudged hastily down again to the canoe, and took our spears and bows and arrows, and then retraced our steps, the dog accompanying us. We crept up with exceeding caution until we reached a spot whence we could overlook the hollow in which our house was situated; but or ever we got there we were aware of a red glow, as from a huge fire, and when we came to the summit of the crest and looked down the long slope towards the hut, near half-a-mile away, we saw that in front of it a very large fire was kindled, which lit up all the country around, and on the fringe, so to speak, of the illuminated s.p.a.ce certain dark figures moved.

"They've made the fire ready to cook us," says Billy, his voice trembling very much.

"Nay, they're cooking already," I said, and showed him that they had set our great tripod over the fire, and something dangled from it roasting.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Our Tripod]

"They've stole one of our pigs," said Billy in great anger; indeed, his first fear was now swallowed up in this new emotion. He spoke pretty loud, and the dog, knowing from his manner that something was amiss, began to yelp. I bade Billy hold his peace, for we must creep silently towards the house and discover who these visitors were: and since the dog might betray us if he yelped as we approached, we thought it best to tie him to a tree; he would doubtless yelp there, but the visitors would suppose he was a wild dog. We had just left him tied up when I remembered that if his yelping brought the wild dogs about him he would very soon be torn in pieces, so we had to go back and loose him, and then Billy took him in his arms and said he would keep him quiet, which he did.

We crept along, being careful to take cover from the trees and shrubs, and so not following a straight path, but working round somewhat until we came to the back of our fowl-house, whence we could see and overhear what was going on. But before we got there we had another amazing shock, and a very disconcerting one too, for as we were walking Billy all of a sudden clutched me by the arm and whispered, "That's Hoggett,"

and then he uttered that profane word which I had never heard upon his lips since the first day we came to the island. And sure enough, when we came to the fowl-house, and could both hear and see them, grouped about the fire beyond it sat or lay or stood a dozen of Billy's once s.h.i.+pmates on the _Lovey Susan_, the mutinous crew of my uncle's ill-fated vessel. Some of them, being on the farther side of the fire, we could not see clearly: but on this side there was Hoggett, Billy's especial enemy, and Wabberley; and Clums the cook, attending to the fine pig, one of our best, that was roasting; and Chick, and Pumfrey the s.h.i.+p's carpenter, and others whose names I need not write. Billy was for fitting an arrow to his bow and shooting Hoggett that instant, but I forbade him, in a whisper but peremptorily, for the two of us could not hope to get the better of a dozen, when they had firearms too, for I had spied a musket standing against the wall of the hut, near to where Hoggett was lying. Besides, I own I felt a certain tenderness towards these men, rough and brutal, aye, and treacherous, as they were; for they were men of our race and speech, and to hear my own language from the lips of Wabberley brought back to me those evenings when he feasted my uncle with his stories, so that he gave me thoughts of home. However, I felt a natural indignation at seeing these uninvited guests making free with our property, and after hearing somewhat of their talk I ceased to feel any kindness towards them.

They were talking, I soon discovered, about the house and its owners, and Hoggett declared that he was certain sure it belonged to savages, an opinion which Wabberley instantly controverted.

"Have I, or have I not, been in these here South Seas afore, Tom Hoggett?" I heard him say, and Hoggett growled that he _said_ he had; whereupon Wabberley continued, "Well then, I ask you again, didn't we leave they two striplings on this very island?"

"You're right, there," says Hoggett, "and one of 'em the sauciest, snarliest son of a" (here a dreadful word) "that ever escaped his proper lickings."

("That's me," whispered Billy, in a great rage.)

"True, but handy all the same," said Clums. "He could do a thing or two with his tools, and I warrant you he made this;" and so saying, he took up Billy's toasting-fork, and held a yam to the blaze.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Billy's Toasting Fork]

"'Twas Billy made it, sure enough," said Pumfrey, "for the other chap couldn't ha' done it."

"No, not him," said Wabberley. "He was a overgrown weed, he was, all stalk and no head to it, and I reckon if the truth was known he made this; any fool could do it," and he took up, as it chanced, one of the two-p.r.o.nged forks that I had made, and of which I was a little proud at the time.

"That's true, Nick," says Joshua Chick, "and what's more, s.h.i.+pmates, no savage ever made a fork in his life, and lor' bless you, didn't we find a hairbrush and a comb, and what savage ever wanted such, d'ye think?

And that there pig-sty, now, ain't that like the one where you was brought up, Pumfrey, only a bit rougher, maybe?"

This question was very much resented by Pumfrey the carpenter, who declared hotly that he had built pig-sties, not lived in 'em, and whoever made this pig-sty was a very poor hand at it. To this Wabberley a.s.sented, and went on to say that the dirtiest savage as ever breathed would have been ashamed of the miserable things we had made in the way of pots and baskets and other things. It was plain that they had pretty thoroughly ransacked our hut, and I was on thorns lest they should have discovered our secret store-house below, which it appeared, from what followed, that they had not done, and thankful I was. One of the men asked what we lived on, for we couldn't eat, he supposed, nothing but pork and chickens, and they had found nothing else, except the yams in the pig's trough, we having put all the rest of our fruits and vegetables in the store-house.

"Ain't there plenty of trees on the island, donkey?" said Clums. "You may take your davy there's bread-fruit and bananas and cocoa-nuts and such like, and they pick 'em when they want 'em."

"But where are the young devils?" said Hoggett. "Ain't that there pig done yet, Clums? The smell makes me want to get my teeth into him."

"One more turn," says Clums, "and then we'll have a better supper than we've had many a day."

"I say, where are the young devils?" says Hoggett again. "D'ye think they see us a-coming and sheered off?"

"Like as not," said Wabberley, "but we'll find 'em to-morrow, and they shall get our dinner for us, d'ye see. I believe in taking it easy and letting the youngsters do the work, I do. Did you get all the yams out of that pig's trough, Clums?"

"I did," says he, "and there must be some more growing somewhere, and 'tis to be hoped things ain't so short as they are in our island, mates. Did you ever know food go so fast? There seemed enough for thousands when we landed there, and you wouldn't ha' thought a score of men would ha' made such a hole in it."

And then they fell a-talking of the eight or nine men they had left on what they called their island, and I judged from their discourse that provisions being short with them, these twelve had come away to discover a more plentiful land, having promised, if they found one, to return and fetch their s.h.i.+pmates. Pumfrey reminded them of their promise, adding that the men would certainly starve if they were not brought off, whereupon Hoggett declared with an oath that he for one was not going to tug an oar for twenty miles in a leaky boat, to bring off a lot of useless blockheads who would soon eat them out of house and home. We p.r.i.c.ked up our ears at this, Billy and me, hearing for the first time that our visitors had made up their minds to abide with us, and Billy ground his teeth, and whispered that we should have to fight 'em. One of the men--I think it was Wabberley--asked what about the mountain? and said he didn't like the notion of living where he might be boiled or roasted any day. At this Hoggett made a mock of him. "Ain't it years since we left they boys here?" he said. "Does it look like boiling or roasting, 'cept for pigs? These here burning mountains ain't always a-working, that's plain, and this one here may be asleep for fifty years to come."

And then they ended their discourse for a time, devoting themselves to the roast pork and the yams of which they had deprived our pigs, sighing also very heavily for beer; and finding no cocoa-nuts handy for quenching their thirst, and being too lazy to fetch any (besides, it was dark), two of them went with pots in their hands to the lake, on which there was a very pretty reflection of their fire, and brought them back full of water. Billy chuckled so much at this that I was afraid he would be heard; but I was amused too, for there having been no rains lately, we knew what the effect of drinking the water would be; and, indeed, the next night we heard the men condoling with one another, and it was plain that when they were seized in the middle of the night with griping pains, they believed one and all that they were poisoned.

They had eat such a monstrous supper that they were fit afterward for 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 circ.u.mnavigation. 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 uns.h.i.+pped 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sured 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 quant.i.ties 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 a.s.sistance 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]