The Hot Swamp
Page 6
courageous, as his pale face betrayed, happenedto be a good swimmer, and at once leaped into the sea. He was followedby all who could swim. Those who could not, were encouraged to make theattempt with planks and oars to aid them. As for Bladud, he busiedhimself like the captain in giving heart to the non-swimmers and showingthem how best to use their floats.
The last of the men to leave was little Maikar.
He stood at the bow with his arms crossed on his chest and a look ofmelancholy interest on his countenance.
"What! not gone yet?" exclaimed the captain, turning to him.
"I cannot swim," said the man.
"But neither can these," returned the captain, pointing to the men whohad left last.
"My father used to say," rejoined Maikar, as if murmuring to himself,"that I was born to be drowned, and I'm inclined to think he was right."
"Surely you are not afraid," said Arkal.
"Afraid!" exclaimed Maikar, with a sarcastic laugh. "No, captain, butI'm sorry to part with you, because you've been a good captain to me."
"An' I bear no ill-will to you, Bladud, though you _did_ squeeze most ofthe life out of me once. Farewell, both."
As he spoke the little man seized an oar, leaped overboard, and, aftersome trouble in steadying himself and pointing the oar in the rightdirection, struck out for the shore.
It was a long way off, and often, while this scene was being enacted,was heard the bubbling cry of men whose powers were failing them. Somewere carried by currents against a point to the westward and,apparently, dashed against the rocks. Others sank before half thedistance had been traversed.
Bladud and the captain looked at each other when Maikar had left them.
"Can you swim?" asked the captain. "Like a duck," returned the prince,"and I can help you if required."
"I swim like a fish," returned the captain, "but it is hard to part frommy _Penelope_! She has never failed me till now, and as this venturecontains all my goods, I am a ruined man."
"But your life still remains," said the prince. "Be of good cheer,captain. A stout man can make his fortune more than once. Come, let usgo."
A loud cry from Maikar at that moment hastened their deliberations.
"Are you going to cumber yourself with your weapons?" asked Arkal, asthey were about to spring from the side, observing that his friend tookup his sword and shield.
"Ay--that am I. It is not a small matter that will part my good swordand me."
Both men sprang overboard at the same moment, and made for the spotwhere little Maikar was still giving vent to bubbling yells andstruggling with his oar.
Bladud was soon alongside of him, and, seizing his hair, raised him outof the water.
"Got the cramp," he shouted.
"Keep still, then, and do what I tell ye," said the prince, in a tone ofstern command.
He caught the poor man under the armpits with both hands, turned on hisback and drew him on to his chest. Swimming thus on his back, withCaptain Arkal leading so as to keep them in the right direction, thethree were ultimately cast, in a rather exhausted condition, on theshore of the little bay.
CHAPTER FIVE.
AFTER THE WRECK.
It was on the southern shore of what is now known as France that ourhero and his comrades in misfortune were cast.
At the time we write of, we need hardly say, the land was nameless.Even her old Roman name of Gaul had not yet been given to her, for Romeitself had not been founded. The fair land was a vast wilderness, knownonly--and but slightly--to the adventurous mariners of the east, who,with the spirit of Columbus, had pushed their discoveries and trade farbeyond the Pillars of Hercules.
Of course the land was a vast solitude, inhabited, sparsely, by a few ofthose wandering tribes which had been driven westward--by conquest or bythat desire for adventure which has characterised the human race, wesuppose, ever since Adam and Eve began to explore the regions beyondEden. Like the great wilderness lying to the north of Canada at thepresent time, it was also the home of innumerable wild animals whichafforded to its uncivilised inhabitants both food and clothing.
Captain Arkal was the only one of the three survivors of the wreck whohad seen that coast before or knew anything about it, for, when Bladudhad entered the Mediterranean many years before, he had passed too farto the southward to see the northern land.
As they staggered up the beach to a place where the thundering wavessent only their spray, Bladud looked round with some anxiety.
"Surely," he said, "some of the crew must have escaped. It can hardlybe that we three are the only survivors out of so many."
The party halted and looked back at the seething waves from which theyhad just escaped.
"It would be foul shame to us," said the captain, "if we did not try tolend a helping hand to our comrades; but we shall find none of themhere. I observed when they started that, in spite of my warning, theymade straight for the land, instead of keeping well to windward to avoidbeing swept round that point of rock to the west. I led you in theright direction, and that is why we alone are here. If any of theothers have been saved, they must be on the other side of that point."
While he was speaking, the captain had hurried into the woods, intendingto cross the neck of land which separated them from the bay beyond thepoint referred to.
Their strength returned as they ran, for their intense desire to renderaid to those of their late comrades who might stand in need of it seemedto serve them in the stead of rest.
"Come, quick!" cried little Maikar, whose catlike activity and strengthenabled him to outrun his more bulky companions. "We may be too late;and some of them can't swim--I know."
They reached the crest of a ridge a few minutes later, and, halting,looked at each other in dismay, for the bay beyond the point was full ofgreat rocks and boulders, among which the waves rushed with such furythat they spouted in jets into the air, and covered the sea with foam.
"No living soul can have landed there," said the captain, in a tone thatshowed clearly he had given up all hope.
"But some may have been swept round the next point," suggested Maikareagerly, commencing to run forward as he spoke.
Bladud followed at once, and so did the captain, but it was evident thathe regarded any further effort as useless.
It proved a longer and more toilsome march than they had expected topass beyond the second point, and when at last it was reached, there wasnot a speck at all resembling a human being to be seen on the coast, inall its length of many miles.
"No hope," murmured Bladud.
"None," returned the captain.
Little Maikar did not speak, but the expression of his countenanceshowed that he was of the same opinion.
"Now," resumed the captain, after a brief silence, "if we would notstarve we must go straight back, and see whether any provisions havebeen washed ashore."
They did not, however, return to the spot where they had landed, forthey knew that the same current which had carried their hapless comradesto the westward must have borne the remains of the wreck in the samedirection. Descending, therefore, to the foam-covered bay beforereferred to, they searched its margin carefully, but for some time foundnothing--not even a scrap of wreck.
At last, just as they were about to give up in despair, and turn to someother method of obtaining food, they observed a portion of the wreckthat had been driven high up on the beach into a cleft of rock. Runningeagerly towards it, they found that it was only a plank.
Bladud and the captain looked at it for a moment or two in silence, andMaikar gave vent to a groan of disappointment.
"Never mind," said the prince, lifting the plank and laying it on hisshoulder, in the quiet thoughtful way that was peculiar to him, "it willserve to make a fire and keep us warm."
"But we need not to be kept warm, for the weather is fine and hot," saidMaikar, with a rueful expression. "Moreover, we need food, and wecannot eat a plank!"
The prince did not reply, but led the way towards a
neighbouring cliff.
"Don't you think we had better make our fire in the woods, Bladud?"asked the captain.
"That would oblige one of us to watch in case natives or wolves shouldattack us, and none of us are in a fit state to watch. We must sleep."
"But I can't sleep without first eating," said Maikar in a remonstrativetone. "Should we not go to the woods first and try to catch something?"
"Can you on foot run down the hare, the deer, the bear, the wild-boar,or even the rabbit?"
"Not I. My legs are swift enough, though short, but they are not equalto that."
"Well, then, as we have neither bow nor shaft, and my good sword wouldbe of little use against such game, why waste our time and strength inthe woods?"
"But we might find