The House Under the Sea: A Romance

by Max Pemberton

in prison, and no man come to me," he said, pathetically;"then I hear your voice. I say it is Captain Begg. I am glad, monsieur,because it is a friend. I break the door of my prison and would come upto you; but no, there is no one in the house; all gone. I say that myfriends die if I do not serve them. There are lads with me; but theyare honest. Ah, Captain Begg, food and drink, for the love of Christ!"

  He fainted in thy arms, and I carried him from the place. Again, in allprovidence, I and those dear to me had been saved by the fidelity ofone of the oddest of God's creatures.

  _The same day. At eight o'clock._

  I have begun to believe that the Italian is right, and that Czerny leftno more than eight men in the lower house. No attack has been made uponthe Americans we put in charge of the engine, nor is there any news ofthose mutineers who fled from us this morning, save that which comesfrom two of them, very pitiful creatures, broken-down and starving, whohave surrendered their arms and begged for food. The others, they say,will come in presently, when the big man, whom they call Kess Denton,will let them. They protest that their comrades are but four, and twoof them wounded grievously. I no longer feel any anxiety about thatwhich is below, and I have told Miss Ruth as much. She has now been twohours with Captain Nepeen. Her way of life draws her sympatheticallytowards that brave and gentle man. It must be so. The world has put agreat gulf between the simple seaman and those whom fortune shelters ather heart. A plain sailor has his duty to do; the world would laugh athim if he forgot it because the years have taught him to worship awoman's step and to seek that goal of life to which her hand may leadhim.

  _An hour later._

  We are to go ashore with the dark to see if we can save any of therefugees marooned on the island. It is a desperate chance and may costgood men's lives. I do not forbid it, for I have lived and suffered onKen's Island myself. If there are living men there now--it may bewomen, too--held in that trance of death from which they must awake tomadness or never wake again, the commonest instinct of pity says to me,"Go." I have consulted Doctor Gray, and he is doubtful of the venture."Mind what you are doing, I beg of you," he says. "Are there not womento save in this house?" Miss Ruth overhears him and draws me aside,and, putting her hand upon my arm winningly, she lifts her pretty faceto mine and says, "Jasper, you will save them!"

  I am going ashore, and Captain Nepeen goes with me.

  _At ten o'clock._

  We put off a boat at ten o'clock and rowed straight for the open beach.It was a gloriously clear night, with a heaven of blazing stars and asea like flowing silver. The ship's boats made so many black shapes,like ocean drift in the pools of light; and Czerny's yacht, speaking ofthat dread Presence, lay as an evil omen in the anchorage to thenorthward. Ken's Island itself was uplifted like some mountain of thesea, snowcapped in its dazzling peaks, harbouring its wayward forestsand lovely glens and fresh meadows which the moon's light frosted. Andover all was that thin veil of the fog, a steaming blue vapour fleckedwith the richest hues; now drifting in clouds of changing tints, nowspreading into fantastic creations and phantom cities, pillars oftranslucent yellow flame, banks of darker cloud as though a storm weregathering. Sounds of the night came to us from that dismal island; weheard the lowing of the kine, the sea-bird's hoot, ever and anon theterrible human cry which spoke of a soul in agony. And with these weremingled grimmer sounds, like very music of the storm: the echo ofdistant gunshots fired by Czerny's men at the anchored yacht whichrefused them harbourage.

  There were four with me in the boat, and Captain Nepeen was one ofthem. I had set Peter Bligh at the tiller, and Seth Barker and anAmerican seaman to pull the oars. We spoke rare words, for even awhisper would carry across that night-bound sea. There were rifles inour hands; good hope at our hearts. Perchance, even yet, we shouldawake some fellow-creature from the nameless sleep in the woods whosebeauty veiled the living death.

  Now, I say that Czerny's men were firing rifle-shots at the anchoredschooner, and that sound was a true chantey for our ears. What eyeswould they have for us when their salvation lay aboard the yacht? Wewere nothing to them; the ship was all. And, be sure, we did not gounwatched or helpless. Behind us, at the gate we had left, our gunshowed its barrel like the fang of a slipped hound. Cunning hands werethere, brave fellows who followed us in their hearts, while we crossedthe basin swiftly and drew near the terrible shore. If we had seen thesun for the last time, then so be it, we said. It is not a seaman's wayto cry at danger. His word is "must," and in a sure purpose lies hissalvation.

  We made the island at the westward end that we might have a clear sheetof water between Czerny's boats and our own; and we so set our coursethat our gun could sweep the intervening seas if any eye detected us.The land was low-lying towards the west and marshy; yet, strange to betold, the fog lay light upon it. It had been planned between us thatCaptain Nepeen and I should go ashore while the others held the boat.We carried revolvers in our hands, but no other arms. The death-fog wasour true defence; and against that each man wore the respirator thatDuncan Gray had made for him. Sleep might be our lot, but it would comeupon us slowly.

  "It will be straight for the woods, captain," said I, "and all ourheart go with us. Your friends, who were put ashore last night, willnever stray far from the beach, believe me. We'll search the foreshoreand leave the rest to chance. As for going under, we sha'n't think ofthat. It would never do to begin by being afraid of it."

  He answered readily enough that he had never thought of such a thing.

  "Where you lead, there I follow, Captain Begg," said he. "I shall notbe far behind you, rely upon it."

  "And me not far from the shore when it's 'bout ship and home again,"chimes in Peter Bligh. "God go with you, captain, for you are a braveman entirely!"

  I laughed at their notion of it, and went a little way up the beach.The respirator about my mouth, charged with some chemical substance Idid not know the use of, permitted me to breathe at first with someease. And what was more extraordinary was this, that while in the woodsthe fog had seemed to suffocate me, here it was exhilarating; bracing aman's steps so that he seemed to walk on air; exalting him so that hismind was on fire and his head full of the wildest notions. No cowardthat ever lived would have known a moment's fear under the stimulationof that clear blue vapour. I bear witness, and there are others to bearwitness with me, that a whole world of strange figures and wonderfulplaces opened up to our eyes when we began to push ashore and to leavethe sandy beach behind us. And that was but the beginning of it, formore fearful things were to follow after.

  I will try to describe for you both the place and the scene, that youmay realize my sensation, and follow me truly in this, my third journeyto Ken's Island. Imagine, if you can, an undulating stretch of lushgrass and pasture-land, a glorious meadow flooded with the clear, coldlight; arched over with a heaven of stars; bordered about by heavywoods; dipping to the sea on two sides and extending shimmering sandsto the breaking swell on the third. Say that a hot blue fog quivers inthe air above this meadow-land, and is breathed in at every breath youtake. Conceive a mind so played upon by this vapour that the meadowsand the woods beyond the meadows are gradually lost to view, and awonder-world quickly takes their place. Do this, and you may follow memore surely to a phantom city of majestic temples hewn out of a goldenrock and lifting upward until they seem to touch the very skies; youmay peer with me into abysses so profound that no eye can fathom theirjewelled depths; you may pass up before walls built wholly of gems mostprecious; you may sleep in woods beneath trees silvered over withlight; search countless valleys rich in unknown flowers. And the cityis peopled with an unnumbered multitude of moving figures, the sensuousfigures of young girls all glittering in gold and jewels; the shapes ofan army of giants in blackest armour; and there are animals that no eyehas seen before, and beasts more terrible than the brain can conceive.

  Say, too, that this deadly vapour of the island so stimulates thefaculties that earth no longer binds a man nor heaven imprisons him.Say that he can rise above the
spheres to unknown worlds, can, span theseas, and bridge the mountains. Depict him, as it were, throwing offhis human shape and seeing the abodes of men so far below him, so puny,so infinitely small that he begins to realize eternity. Cast him downfrom these visions suddenly and in their place set up black woods andthe utter darkness of nature impenetrable. Let the exaltation leavehim, the sights fade utterly, the dismal abyss of the nether worldclose him in. Awake him from these again and let him reel up andstagger on and believe that he is sinking down to the eternal sleep.Such sensations Ken's Island will give him until at last he shall fall;and lying trance-bound for the rain to beat upon his face, or the sunto scorch him, or the moon to look down upon his dreams, he shall lieand know that the world is there, and that nevermore may he have