Part 12 (1/2)
”'Look to your right, at Pete,'--which is the na fast asleep there, and see what you'll see,'
replied Dirk
”I turned my head very cautiously and looked; and there, within less than a fatho flat on his back, fast asleep, with a snake coiled up like a cable right in theupon the top flake of his coils, with his cold, cruel eyes gazing straight at us, and his long, black, forked tongue flickering in and out of histo do?'quickly, for if Pete awakes and stirs as ar will bite him, and then it will be all up with poor Pete'
”There was a ss and a bunch of leaves on the end of it, lying on the ground within reach of et hold of this without disturbing the snake; then, sitting up suddenly, I thrust the bunch of leaves on the end of the branch straight and hard at the reptile, and--it vanished! That is the only way in which I can convey any idea of the rapidity hich it retreated The next instant Pete was sitting up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, and de with many choice forecastle embellishments what I er that he had so narrowly escaped, he had the grace to thank reed that the spot had no longer any charh tiht pass the night in safety
”Such a place was by no means easy to find, but ultimately, within a fewsome rocks, of which we at once took possession--for our need was by this ti due in about ten ly of opinion that, wherever our shelter ht a fire in front of it to scare aild beasts, and, possessing a burning-glass, he took the precaution to make fire with it before the sun sank too low, and to kindle a torch with it for the purpose of lighting our fire So, having at length found our shelter, we forthwith proceeded to gather ht our protective fire, and dispose of ourselves for the night
”Having found a refuge of sorts, we anticipated a good night's rest; but no sooner had darkness closed down upon us than fro sounds--roars, barks, bellowings, savage growls, grunts, shrieks--never inlike the pandeed around us! We heard the branches of trees being broken; great stones ca down the steep hill-side behind us,our shelter by only what seemed a series of miracles There were heavy thuds, accoress of life-and-death fights between ferocious beasts; and at frequent intervals we caught, through the s at us!
Such was our first experience of night life in the wild
”At length, however, toward radually quieted down, and we snatched a short spell of sleep until sunrise, e turned out and proceeded to hunt for breakfast Luck ith us that one far e found the partly eaten carcass of a fine fat deer The creature had not been dead very long, for the blood about it was scarcely dry, and the ry and not too squeaot to work upon that deer and cut some fine steaks off a part of hi that had killed hi the meat back to our shelter, we made up the fire and cooked ourselves a fine breakfast, finishi+ng off with fruit as a substitute for the water that we failed to find
”While partaking of breakfast we discussed our future as castaways
With our experiences of the past night fresh in hisproposed a return to the beach and the construction of a raft, upon which, he suggested, we should paddle off to the wreck, with the view of giving her an overhaul, in the hope of finding so that would repay us for our trouble; but when it came to consideration of details, Dirk and I ca but our sheath- knives to serve as tools, the scheht have attempted had we known that you and Billy were alive and still aboard is, perhaps, another matter Several other scheested, only to be abandoned after discussion, until finally, failing any more satisfactory plan, we decided that if we could find a nice, co ould experiment a bit upon 'Robinson Crusoe' lines, and see hoe liked it
”We found several caves of one sort and another that day; but the most suitable of them were already tenanted, as we could tell immediately that we put our noses inside them Moreover, many of the tenants happened to be at home e called, and seemed to resent our presence upon their doorsteps Therefore, to avoid unpleasantness, we retired, in many cases rather precipitately Ultimately, however, we came upon a cave that for some inexplicable reason was untenanted, and see that could reasonably be desired It was situated high up on the side of the hill, and the entrance was so sed to bend alh But once past the entrance the cave widened out until its interior was as spacious as that of half a dozen forecastles knocked into one, with head-room of ten or twelve feet It had a beautiful dry, soft, sandy floor, and--best of all--there was a pool of deliciously cool, sater at the far end of it--the first fresh water that we had found And the air was as clean and sweet as the water; no Zoological Gardens odour, or taint of rotting bones, you understand We took possession at once
”Vividly reht before, our first business was to go out again and collect enough dry stuff to ht We next cut a sufficient quantity of the long, dry grass to provide each of us with a co and conveying to the cave a bunch of bananas big enough to furnish us with a supper that night and breakfast the next hted our fire, turned in, and slept soundly all night, notwithstanding that even in our sleep ere conscious of a repetition of all the weird sounds of the previous night
”I suppose you will scarcely be anxious to hear the full details of every adventure that befell us during our sojourn in that valley; and indeed, if you did, I am afraid I could not relate theh and to spare there were, of one sort and another, but I seeether, so that I am unable to say just exactly when any one in particular happened The wild beasts did not very seriously trouble or interfere with us during the day-time But the snakes more than corew so fearful of theave out, that we scarcely dared to put one foot before the other; indeed it was a snake that finally drove us out of the valley”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
SVORENSSEN RELATES AN INTERESTING STORY
”It hile ere seeking fruit that the thing happened We had crossed the valley, and plunged into the forest on the other side, Dirk and I being together while Pete was a few yards ahen suddenly, as ere passing under the boughs of a big tree, I heard a kind of _plop_, and at the saave a yell that very nearly scaredround to ascertain the cause of the disturbance, I was horrified to see Dirk enveloped in the coils of an enorly head was poised within a few inches of ue flickering in and out of its widely opened jaws I suppose I shall never be able to explain or account for the iht, but the fact re an instant to reflect, I thrust forward ripped the snake just behind the head, while with ht I drew my sheath knife across the reptile's throat, pretty nearly severing the head from the body at one stroke Instantly it became a case of 'stand clear!' The snake uncoiled itself fro itself about on the ground with such terrific violence that the air round about us was presently full of bits of grass, broken twigs, and flying leaves, while Dirk, yelling like abody of the reptile, stabbing furiously here and there with his knife--but never touching the snake so far as I could see, while Pete caot Dirk away from the snake eventually, and helped hiot him there we stripped hireat relief, we found that there was very little the matter with him; he was much bruised about the body, from his waist to his shoulders, but that was all It was, however, enough We agreed that 'Robinson Crusoeing' was not quite all that in our boyhood's days we had believed it to be, and we resolved to return to the beach on the followingand endeavour to swim off to the wreck
”When we started to work our way back to the beach we discovered, to our annoyance, that the path which we had cut for ourselves through the scrub had becoain, consequently we had all our forain, with the ants and mosquitoes even more pertinacious in their attentions than before; thus the afternoon ell advanced when at length we once lied that we felt it would be folly to atte swim under such conditions; we therefore postponed our attempt until the next day We saw that the wreck was still on the reef, apparently in no worse condition than e had last viewed her; and, with our experiences of life ashore still fresh in ourno atteain as soon as the weather had settled after our first landing
”Pete Fleet aboard again He directed us to observe how high she was standing out of the water, and expressed the opinion that for that reason it ht be possible for us to penetrate to her lazarette, where we should doubtless find a quantity of tinned stuff that would be infinitelybeen subsisting, and of which ere all now thoroughly tired; and he was particularly eloquent upon the subject of drink, of which he seemed confident that we should find a considerable quantity So keen, indeed, was he, that he was stripped and in the water four or fiveo started to wade in And then a dreadful thing happened We were little more than ankle-deep e heard him utter an awful shriek, and saw him throw up his hands and disappear in the midst of a violent swirl of water In an instant the terrible truth burst upon us that the poor chap had been seized by sharks--the existence of which in the lagoon we had never suspected--and on the instant Dirk and I, moved by the same impulse, turned and fled back to the beach The incident effectually cured us of any further desire to reach the wreck; and we never again ventured to atteo
”Dirk and I ca a fire round our caainst wild beasts But soht I happened to awake, to discover that our fire had burned perilously low, and that so round us, their eyes glea only until the fire had burned a little lower, or their courage had grown sufficiently to enable theether we heaped fresh brushwood upon the sain, and then our visitors left us But our narrow escape brought ho in exposed situations; and after breakfast on the followingwe set out to return to our cave in the valley
”How long we remained there on this occasion I cannot tell you, for we soon lost count of time; but it must have been several months, certainly For some time we lived exclusively upon fruit; but later on we contrived to secure a morsel of meat now and then Upon one occasion--I am afraid you will not believe led up in the biggest and toughest spider's web you ever saw; and of course we killed and ate the little creature That spider's web suggested to us the idea of setting traps, which we ame of one sort or another
”We should probably have been living in that cave to this day but for another bad scare--and in that case we should never have known that you and Billy had survived the wreck, and should have made no attempt to join you; so perhaps it is just as well for all of us that we had that scare”
I was by no reed with Svorenssen's view of this , and thevery curious and uncanny about that scare, though just exactly as the nature of it I cannot tell you, for we never found the explanation of thein the least degree strange connected with our surroundings At first, not only when Pete ith us, but later, when Dirk and I returned alone, we slept soundly all night and every night, but eventually there arrived a time when--when-- No am I to say it so that you will understand me?”