CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
JACK SEES A VOLCANO LIGHT UP.
"Is there going to be any wind to-night, captain?" said Sir John as theywent on deck. For answer the captain pointed away to the west, and Jacksaw here and there dark patches of rippled water, but the sails thatwere left still hung motionless from the yards.
"In half-an-hour we shall be bowling along, Mr Jack," said the mate;"and if the wind holds, before morning we shall be lying off the land."
"Then I think I shall sit up," said the lad eagerly, for his brain wasbuzzing with expectation, and as full of exaggerated imaginations as itcould possibly be.
But with the nightfall, in spite of the inspiriting, cooling breezewhich sent them, as the mate had it, "bowling along," there was thefamiliar sensation of fatigue, and at the usual time, after a long lookout into the darkness, Jack went to his cot, to dream that the islandwas getting farther and farther off, and woke up at last with thesensation that he had only just lain down.
For a few minutes he was too sleepy and confused to think, but all atonce the recollection of what he expected to see came to him, and heleaped out of his berth and ran to the cabin window, but from thence hecould only see the long level plain of water.
Hurriedly dressing himself, he ran on deck, to see that the dawn wasonly just appearing in the east, and as they lay to, rocking gently,with the sails flapping, there rose up before him, dim and dark, onevast pyramid which ran up into the heavy clouds, and filled him with astrange sensation of awe, the greater that there was a heavy boomingsound as of thunder right and left and close at hand.
He grasped the fact directly after that it was not the low muttering ofthunder which he heard, but the booming of the heavy billows whichcurved over about a couple of miles away and broke upon a reef whichextended to right and left as far as the dim light would let him see.
Then came a sense of disappointment which was almost painful. Had theysailed by without stopping at any of the lovely islands they hadencountered, to come to this awfully gloomy-looking spot in the ocean?The captain must be half mad to speak so highly in its favour, and for afew moments the boy felt disposed to return to his berth and try toforget his disappointment in sleep.
He took a few steps, and suddenly came across Edward.
"That you, Mr Jack, sir?" said the man.
"Can't you see it is?" replied the lad shortly.
"Yes, sir, and sorry for you I am."
"What do you mean?"
"Why, sir, about the island. They've been a-cracking it up to us, andmaking believe as it was the loveliest place as ever was, and now we'vegot to it, why it's all gammon."
"Then you've seen it, Ned?"
"Seen it, sir? I wish I hadn't. It's a trick they've played on usbecause we're what they call longshore folk. Makes me long for theshore, I can tell you. A jolly shame, sir."
"It does look dreary, Ned."
"Dreary aren't the word for it, but you can't gammon me. I know what itis; I've read about 'em. It's one of them out-of-the-way stony placeswhere they used to send convicks to. `Rubbish may be shot here' spots.And a lot of the rubbish used to be shot there if they tried to escape.Oh, it is a dismal horror place. Give me the miserables as soon as Isaw it, after spoiling my night's rest for fear I shouldn't wake up atdaylight to see what it was like. I've seen it though, and I don't wantany more, thankye. Don't want me, I suppose, sir?"
"No, Ned. I'm going back to bed."
"Are you, sir? Well, that's a good idea, and I don't see why Ishouldn't do the same."
"Let's have another look at the place first."
"No thankye, sir. If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not. Oncewas quite enough. Of course, if you say I am to look, sir, there I am."
"Oh no, I don't want you. Go back to bed. It's a miserable place, Ned,but I dare say there will be some good fishing."
"Take a lot of good fishing, sir, and they'd have to be very fresh, tomake it worth staying for. Good-night, sir."
"Good-morning, Ned," said Jack with a faint smile, and the man wentbelow, while, feeling chilly and depressed, and as if it would be wiserto follow the fellow's example, he walked moodily forward, gazing overthe side in the direction of the island, and noticing now that there wasa low line of thick mist lying just over where the billows broke in foamand produced the deep thunderous roar.
Cold, chilling, and repellent as it was, Jack could not repress ashiver, and the feeling of dislike to the voyage, which had been rapidlydying out in the new interests he felt, came back with renewed force.
"Why did we come?" he muttered.
As his eyes grew more accustomed to the gloom, he saw that the lowclouds seemed to be in bands above each other, increasing the strangelyforbidding aspect.
Just then there was a light step on the deck, and the mate came up.
"Morning," he said. "Here we are, you see."
"See? Yes; but what a place!"
"Eh?" cried the mate in surprise; "what, don't you like the look of it?"
"No; it is horrible. Just a black and grey mountain rising out of thesea. Are we at anchor?"
"No; only lying-to, waiting for the full light, so as to find theopening through the reef. There is no anchorage out here; I dare saythe lead would go down a mile."
"What, so close to the shore?"
"Oh yes. These volcanic mountains rise up suddenly--steeply, I mean,from very great depths, and then the coral insects begin building uponthem, and form regular breakwaters of solid stone all round, and thesecoral reefs rise just to the surface, and keep the waves from washingthe sides of the volcano away."
"What a pity!" said Jack mockingly. "I don't see any good in preservinga great black-looking heap like that."
"Don't you?" said the mate, smiling, and looking back up at the gloomyeminence.
"No, I don't," replied Jack, with a touch of early morning ill-humour inhis tones. "But isn't that nonsense? The sea could not wash away anisland like that."
"What! Why, give it time and it will wash away a continent. But anisland like this would be nothing to it without the coral insectsstopped it. Some volcanoes rise in these seas and never get much abovethe surface--the waves wash them away as fast as they form. You seethey are only made up of loose cinders and ashes which fall over outsideas they are thrown up. Others are more solid if liquid lava boils overthe edge of the crater and runs down. This gradually hardens intomassive rock, and resists the beating of the sea till the coral insectshave done their work, building up to the surface of the sea, and thengoing on at the sides."
"I suppose you are right," said Jack with a yawn, "but the sooner we getaway from this ugly place the better."
"Think so? Well, wait and see it by daylight first. Look!"
He pointed to where, nearly a mile above them, a bright golden spot hadappeared.
"Why, the volcano's burning," cried Jack excitedly. "Look! It'sred-hot, and gradually increasing. There's going to be an eruption.How grand! But shall we be safe here?"
"Quite," said the mate, smiling, and he stood watching his companion'sface, and its changes in the glowing light of the magnificent spectacle,as the golden red-hot aspect of the mountain top rapidly increased,displaying every seam, ravine, and buttress, that seemed to be ofburning metal, fiery spot after fiery spot, that the minute before wasof a deep violet black. And this went on, with the fire appearing tosink gradually down till the whole of the mountain top was one grandblaze of glory, which went on apparently sinking behind a belt ofclouds, till from being of dark and gloomy grey they began to glow andbecome of a wonderful translucency.
"Oh!" panted the lad, "I never saw anything so grand as that. Look howthe awful fire is reflected in the sky all round there."
"Yes, it's brightening it well up," said the mate, smiling; and then theboy looked in his face, and the truth came to him like a flash from thegreat orb to enlighten his understanding.
"Why, you're laughing at me," he cried. "How stupid! I tho
ught themountain was burning. You should have told me. How was I to--Yes, Iought to have known that mountain tops first caught the light. Oh, Iwish I were not so ignorant."
"You are not the first who has been deceived," said the mate quietly."Well, the mountain does not look so gloomy now, does it?"
"Glorious! Up there it is grand. I wish we were on the top."
"All in good time. But you know how quickly the full day comes herenear the equator. Keep looking."
Jack wanted no telling, and for the next few minutes, with a curioussense of awe, wonder, and delight, he stood watching the line of lightdescending and making the beauties of the volcanic island start out ofthe gloom. The bands of cloud which hung round the sharp slope becameroseate, golden, orange, and purple, and soon after the lad was gazingbelow the barren, glowing rocks at patches of golden green, then at thebeginning of billows and deep valleys running down, the former ofwonderful shades of green, the latter of deep dark velvety purple,across which silvery films of vapour were floating.
And still the light came down, casting wonderful shadows, settingtowering pyramidical trees blazing as it were; and then all at once theboy could have believed that he was gazing where there was a gash ofliquid fire pouring down into a dark valley, flashing and coruscatingtill it disappeared.
And still lower and lower, with wonderful rapidity now, as the greatglowing disk was seen to rise above the edge of the sea, till the wholeisland was ablaze in the morning sunshine, and the gloomy, forbiddingmass was one glorious picture of tropic beauty. Forests groupedthemselves about the lower mountain slopes, lovely park-like stretchescould be seen lower still, and beneath lower groves of palm-like trees aband of golden sand. Nearer still, thin lines of cocoa palms edgingwhat appeared to be a lake of the purest blue, edged in turn with asparkling line of foam, where the billows seemed to be eternallyfretting to get over the surrounding reef and plunge themselves into theplacid, perfectly calm lagoon.
Lastly there was the dark sea, now lit up into a gleaming plain ofgently heaving waves; all being shot as it were with purple, where againpatches of rippled damascened silver flashed in the opening of a newday.
"It is too beautiful," muttered the boy to himself. "It seems almost asif it hurt and made one sad. Oh," he said aloud, "and I never calledhim up to see."
"Eh, what's that?" said Sir John. "Think we were sleeping through allthis? Oh no! What a glorious sunrise, my boy."
"Glorious," cried the doctor, grasping the boy's arm. "I didn't thinkNature could be so grand. Here, I don't feel as if I could wait forbreakfast. Oh, Jack, my lad, what times we're going to have out there."
"Well, gentlemen," said the captain, coming up with his face shining inthe morning light, "will this do for you? What do you say to my islandnow?"
"Thank you," said Sir John, offering his hand. "I don't think we shallwant to go any farther, Bradleigh. There will be enough here to last usfor life."
"Right," cried the doctor, rubbing his hands. "Only to think of ourpottering away our existence at home when there were places like this tosee. I say, you know, Nature isn't fair. The idea of such grand,clever chaps as we are--or think we are--having to put up with ourgloomy, foggy island, and a set of naked savages having such a home asthat. I say it's quite unnatural."
"I don't suppose they appreciate the beauties of the place," said SirJohn.
"Will it do?" cried the doctor. "I'm philosopher enough to say thatthis is just the sort of place where a man can be happy. You don't getme away from here, I can tell you. I mean to stay."
"For the present, at all events," said Sir John. "I question thoughwhether Captain Bradleigh here will want to stop very long."
"Just as long as you like, gentlemen," said the captain. "I can makemyself contented anywhere. That is," he added with a laugh, "if I canfind good safe anchorage for the vessel I command. Well then, if youthink this place will do for a stay, the first thing to be done is tofind the way through the reef into the lagoon. There's an openingsomewhere near here."
Just about that time Jack cast his eyes aft and saw that Edward wasstanding by the cabin hatch with one of Sir John's serge jackets in hisleft and a clothes-brush in his right hand, for though the clothes onship-board seemed as if they could not by any possibility gather dust--they did get some flue in the corners of the pockets--Edward gave themall a thorough-going turn every morning before he rubbed over the shoeswith paste, the blacking bottle remaining unopened and the brushesunused.
Jack went quickly up to him, and Edward began rubbing his head with theback of the clothes-brush; but before the lad could speak the man began.
"Beg pardon, sir," he said, "but you didn't happen to see me on deck inthe middle of the night, did you?"
"No, Ned," said Jack, staring.
"Of course you didn't, sir," said the man, speaking as if relieved."Made me feel as if my head was getting a bit soft."
"No wonder, if you keep on tapping it with the clothes-brush."
"Oh, that won't hurt it, sir, my head's hard as wood. I'm a bit latethis morning--over-slept myself. Had the rummiest dream I ever knowedof."
"What did you dream?"
"Dreamt as I come up in the middle of the night, just when it wasthinking about getting to morning, and we'd sailed to about thehorridest place as ever was, and then I looked round and saw you like ablack shadow going about the deck without making a sound."
"I had no shoes on," said Jack.
"Then it wasn't a dream, and it was only that the place looked so dismaldrear in the dusk."
"Of course it was, Ned."
The man gave his head a rap with the clothes-brush. "Then that's alesson for a man never to be in too much of a hurry. 'Pon my word, MrJack, sir, when I came just now and had a look, I felt as if I must havebeen dreaming, for as soon as I went below I lay down for a snooze, andwent off like a top."
"The light has made a wonderful change, Ned," said Jack. "Well, what doyou think of it now?"
"It's beyond thinking, sir, it's wonderful. We've seen some tidy placesas we come along, but this beats everything I ever saw. Seems to methat we'd better stop here altogether. They say `there's no place likehome,' but I say there's no place like this."
"It really is beautiful, Ned. You should have stopped on deck and seenthe wonderful transformation as the sun rose."
"Couldn't have been anything like coming upon it sudden, sir, aftergoing below feeling that you'd been cheated. How I should like to sendfor my poor old mother to see it. But I dunno: she wouldn't come.She's got an idee that Walworth is about the loveliest place in theworld. But it ain't, Mr Jack, you may believe me, it really ain't, noteven when the sun shines; while when it don't, and it happens to be abit muddy, or it rains, or there's a fog, it's--well, I don't thinkthere's anything short of a photo to show what it really is like, andone of them wouldn't do it credit. But this isn't Walworth, sir, andthe next thing I want to do is to go ashore and see what the place islike."
"All in good time, Ned. I suppose we shall soon begin collecting now."
"Any time you like, Mr Jack, sir, and please remember that yourobedient servant to command, Edward Sims, is aboard, and whether it'ssticking pins through flies and beetles like Sir John does, or shootingand skinning birds and beasts like the doctor, I want to be in it. Myword, there ought to be some fine things here."
"There's no doubt about it."
"Then if you'll remember me, sir, as the song says, there isn't anythingI won't do, even to being your donkey for you to ride when you're tired,and," added the man with a smile full of triumph, as if defying any oneto surpass his offer, "you can't say fairer than that."
"I'll try for you to come, Ned," he replied.
"Do, sir, if it's only to carry the vittles. Thankye, sir, all thesame."
Jack at Sea: All Work and No Play Made Him a Dull Boy Page 17