Poison Island

by Arthur Quiller-Couch

  CHAPTER XXIV.

  WE ANCHOR OFF THE ISLAND.

  The word fetched me out of my bunk like a shot from a gun. I ranpast him, scrambled up the fo'c's'le ladder, and gained the deck intime to see Miss Belcher emerge from the after-companion upon thedawn, her hair in a "bun," her bare feet thrust into loose feltslippers, her form wrapped in a Newmarket overcoat closely buttonedover her _robe de nuit_.

  "The Island, ma'am!" announced Captain Branscome from the helm; and,turning there by the fo'c's'le hatch and following the gesture of hishand, I descried a purplish smear on the southern horizon. To me itlooked but a low-lying cloud or a fogbank.

  "I'll take your word for it," answered Miss Belcher, calmly."You have timed it well, Captain Branscome."

  "Under Providence, ma'am," the Captain corrected her, and called tome to take the wheel while he fetched out his chart and unrolled itfor her inspection. "We are running straight down upon the northernend of it, and our best anchorage (if I may suggest) lies to thesouth'ard--in Gow's Creek, as they call it."

  He laid a finger on the chart.

  "We rely upon you, sir, to choose."

  "I thank you, ma'am. If (as I doubt not) we find plenty of waterthere, it will be the best anchorage in this breeze; not to mentionthat this Gow's Creek runs up, as we are directed, to within a mileand a half of the No. 3 _cache_. If you agree, ma'am, I have only toask your instructions whether to coast down the east or the west sideof the Island. The wind, you perceive, serves equally well forboth."

  Miss Belcher considered for a moment.

  "The Keys lie to the west of Gable Point, here. By taking that sidewe can have a look at them on our way."

  "Right, ma'am. Harry!"--he turned to me--"bring her nose round tosou'-west and by south, and stand by for the gybe." He hauled in themain-sheet and eased it over. "Now, see here, lad," he called to mesharply as the little vessel yawed: "where were your eyes just then?"

  "I was taking a look at the land-fall, sir," I answered truthfully.

  "Then I'll trouble you to fix your mind on the lubber's-mark and holdher straight. That's discipline, my boy, and in this business youmay want all you can learn of it."

  It was not Captain Branscome's habit to speak sharply. I turned myattention to the card, conscious of a pair of red ears.

  The sky brightened, and within an hour, as we ran down upon it atsomething like eight knots, the Island began to take shape.A wisp of morning fog floated horizontally across it, dividing itsshore-line from the hills in the interior, which, looming above thiscloudy base, appeared considerably higher than, in fact, they were.The shore itself along the eastern side showed almost uniformlysteep--a line of reddish rock broken with patches of green, which wemistook for meadows (but they turned out to be nothing more or lessthan sheets of green creepers matted together and overhanging thecliffs). At its northern extremity, upon which we were closing downat an acute angle, the land dropped to a low-lying, sandy peninsulawith a backbone of rock almost bare of vegetation, and beyond this wesaw the white surf glittering around the Keys.

  Our course gave them a fairly wide berth; and at first I took themfor a continuous line of sandbanks running in a rough semicirclearound the low spit which the chart called Gable Point; but as wedrew level they broke up into islets, with blue channels between, andat sight of us thousands of sea-birds rose in cloud upon cloud, witha clamour that might have been heard for miles. One of these banks--the northernmost--showed traces of herbage, grey in colour and dullby contrast with the verdure of the Island. The rest were but barrensand.

  We rounded them at about three cables' length and stood due south,giving sheet again. Southward from the neck of the peninsula thiswestern side of the Island differed surprisingly from the other.Here were no cliffs, but a flat shore and long stretches of beach,gradually shelving up to green bush, with here a palmetto grove andthere a lagoon of still water within the outer barrier of sand.Mr. Jack Rogers had relieved me at the helm, and with the Captain'spermission I had stepped below to the saloon, where Plinny waswaiting to give me breakfast, and persuaded the good soul not only tolet me carry it on deck and eat it there, but to postpone washing-upfor a while and accompany me. To this she would by no means consentuntil I had brought her the Captain's leave.

  "You may take her my leave," said he, with a sudden flush on his face,"and my apologies for having neglected to request the honour of hercompany. The fact is," he added, with a hard glance at me, "MissPlinlimmon's sense of discipline is so rare a thing that I am alwaysforgetting to do justice to it. Were it possible to find a wholecrew so conscientious I would undertake to sail to the North Pole."

  I conveyed this answer to Plinny, and it visibly gratified her.She retired at once to the ladies' cabin to indue her poke-bonnetwith coquelicot trimmings. Her apron she retained, observing that onan expedition of this sort one should never be taken at unawares, andthat when at Rome you should do as the Romans did. "By which, mydear Harry," she explained, "you are not to understand me to refer totheir Papist observances, such as kissing a man's toe. Were such arequest proffered to me even at the cannon's mouth, I trust mycourage would find an answer. 'No, no,' I would say,

  "'I will not bow within the House of Rimmon: Yours faithfully, Amelia Plinlimmon.'"

  As we reached the head of the companion-ladder Captain Branscome, whowas standing just aft of the wheel, behind Mr. Rogers's shoulder, andscanning the shore through his glass, made a motion to step forwardand hand her on deck. This was ever his courteous way, and I turneda moment later in some surprise, to find that, instead of closing theglass, he had lifted it, and was holding it again to his eye, at thesame time keeping his right shoulder turned to us.

  While we looked, he lowered it and made his bow, yet with somethingof a preoccupied air.

  "Good morning, ma'am. You are very welcome on deck, and I trust thatHarry conveyed the apology I sent by him."

  "I beg you will not mention it, sir. It is true that I suffered fromthe curiosity which outspoken critics have called the bane of my sex;yet, believe me, I was far from accusing you, knowing how manyresponsibilities must weigh on the captain of an expedition, eventhough it fare as prosperously as ours."

  "True, ma'am," Captain Branscome tapped his spyglass absent-mindedly,and seemed on the point of lifting it again. "Though, with yourpermission, I will add 'D.V.'"

  "Yes--yes"--Plinny smiled a cheerful approval--"we are ever in theDivine Hand; not more really, perhaps, in the tropics than in thosemore temperate latitudes when, though the wolf and lion do not howlfor prey, an incautious step upon a piece of orange-peel has beforenow proved equally fatal."

  Captain Branscome bowed again.

  "You call me the leader of this expedition, Miss Plinlimmon; and so Iam, until we drop anchor. With that, in two or three hours atfarthest, my chief responsibility ends, and I think it time"--heturned to Mr. Rogers--"that we made ready to appoint my successor.I shall have a word to say to him."

  "Nonsense, man!" answered Mr. Rogers, looking up from the wheel."If you mean me, I decline to act except as your lieutenant.You have captained us admirably; and if I decline the honour, youwill hardly suggest promoting Harry, here, or Goodfellow!"

  "I was thinking that Miss Belcher, perhaps--"

  "Hallo!" said Miss Belcher, turning at the sound of her name, andcoming aft from the bows, whence she had been studying the coastline."What's the matter with _me?_"

  "The Captain," exclaimed Mr. Rogers, "has been tendering us hisresignation."

  "Why?"

  "Mr. Rogers misunderstands me, ma'am," said Captain Branscome."I merely said that, so far as we have agreed as yet, My authorityceases an soon as we cast anchor. If you choose to re elect me, Ishall not say 'No'--though not coveting the honour; but I can onlysay 'Yes' upon a condition."

  "Name it, please."

  "That I have every one's implicit obedience. I may--nay, I shall--give orders that will be irksome and at the same time hard tounderstand. I ma
y be unable to give you my reasons for them; or ableto give you none beyond the general warning that we are aftertreasure, and I never yet heard of a treasure-hunt that waschild's-play."

  He spoke quietly, but with an impressiveness not to be mistaken,though we knew no cause for it. Miss Belcher, at any rate, did notmiss it. She shot him a keen glance, turned for a moment, and seemedto study the shore, then faced about again, and said she--

  "I am not used to be commanded. But I can command myself, and am notaltogether a fool."

  The Captain bowed. "I was thinking, ma'am, that might be ourdifficulty. But if I have your word to try--"

  "You have."

  "I thank you, ma'am, and will own that my mind is relieved. It mayeven be that, from time to time, I may do myself the honour ofconsulting you. Nevertheless--"

  "I mustn't count on it, eh? Well, as you please; only I warn youthat, while in any case I am going to be as good as my word, if youtreat me like a sensible person I shall probably be a trifle better."

  For ten seconds, maybe, the pair looked one another in the eyes; thenthe Captain bowed once more, and apparently this invited her to stepforward with him to the bows, where they halted and stood conning thecoast, the Captain through his spyglass.

  As they left us, Plinny and I moved to the waist of the ship, wherewe paused by consent, and I resumed my breakfast, munching it as Ileaned against the port bulwarks. We were now rapidly opening LongBay (as the chart called it), a deep recess running out squarely ateither extremity, the bight of it crossed by a beach, and a line oftumbling breakers, that extended for close upon three miles.Above the beach a forest of tall trees, in height and colour at oncedistinguishable from the thick bush we had hitherto been passing,screened the bases of a range of hills which obviously formed thebackbone of the island; and as the whole bay crept into view wediscerned in the north (or, to be accurate, N.N.E.) corner of thislong recess a marshy valley dividing the scrub from the forest.The mouth of this valley, where it widened out upon the beach,measured at least half a mile across. The chart marked it as MiserySwamp, and indicated a river there. We could detect none, or, at anyrate, no river entrance. If river there were, doubtless it emptiedits waters through the fringe of grey-green weeds, and dispersed overthe flat-looking foreshore; but even at two miles' distance it lookedto be a dismal, fever-haunted spot.

  By contrast, the noble range of woodland to southward of it and therocky peaks that rose in delicate shadow above the tree-tops werebeautiful as a dream, even to eyes fresh from the forest scenery ofJamaica; and while Plinny leant with me against the bulwarks, I feltthat in the silence immortal verse was shaping itself, which it didafter a while to this effect--

  "Arrived o'er the limitless ocean In 16 degrees of N. latitude, Our lips were attuned to devotion, Our spirits uplifted in gratitude.

  "Our hearts with poetic afflatus Took wing and impulsively soared As the lead-line (a quaint apparatus) Reported the depth overboard.

  "Oh, oft had I dream'd of the tropics-- But never to see them in person-- So full of remarkable topics To speculate, sing, and converse on."

  It was Mr. Goodfellow who worked the hand-lead, under CaptainBranscome's orders, from a perch just forward of the main rigging;but at a mile's distance we carried deep water with us past CrabtreePoint, and around the unnamed small cape which formed thesouth-western extremity of the island. We rounded this, and,hauling up to the wind, found (as the reader may discover for himselfby a glance at the chart) that the shore made almost directly E. byN., with scarcely an indentation, for Gow's Gulf.

  Here the water shoaled, though for the first mile almostimperceptibly. The inlet itself resembled the estuary of a mightyriver, its both sides well wooded, though very different inconfiguration, the northern rising quietly from shelving beaches ofcoral-white sand to some of the most respectable hills in the island,while that on our starboard hand presented a succession of cliff andchasm, the cliffs varying, as we judged, from two hundred to twohundred and fifty feet sheer.

  In three and a half fathoms (reported by Mr. Goodfellow) the water,which was exquisitely clear, showed good white sand under us.Ahead of us the creek narrowed, promising an anchorage almostcompletely landlocked and as peaceful as the soul of man coulddesire. We drew a short eight feet of water, and with such soundings(for the tide had not been making above an hour) I expected the oldman to hold on for at least another mile, when, to my surprise, hetook the helm from Mr. Rogers and, sending him forward, shook the_Espriella_ up in the wind, at the same time calling to Goodfellowand me to lower the main throat-halliards.

  "Leave go anchor!"

  With a splash her anchor plunged over, took the ground, and inanother twenty yards brought us up standing.

  "Hallo!" Miss Belcher scanned the shore. "You're giving the boats along trip, Captain."

  "I take my precautions, ma'am," answered Captain Branscome, almostcurtly.