by Oliver Optic
"Yes, why not?" said Tommy eagerly. "We haven't seen a soul--since Isaw that figure move along the top of the ridge, at any rate; and Idare say that was an animal of some kind. I don't think there are anypeople here at all."
"There may be some on the other side of the ridge," said Mary.
"Well, if there are, they must be a very unenterprising lot," saidTommy. "Let's follow up the stream to its source. I've never seen thesource of a river, and that'll be geography, won't it? Besides, ourbananas will soon be all gone, and we ought to look for some more; wecan't live on nothing but fish."
"Very well; we will do as you say," said Elizabeth. "It's very hotto-day, so we'll cover our heads with leaves; it's just as well to takeprecautions."
Shortly afterwards they set out, carrying the oars and the boat-hook asweapons of defence. Although they had gained confidence from neverhaving seen any human being, as soon as they had walked beyond thelimit of their previous excursions they felt something of the oldtimidity, and spoke only in whispers.
"Our flag is still flying," said Tommy, as they came to a spot whencethey could see the tree she had climbed on their first day on theisland. "Evidently no one has seen it or thought it worth noticing."
"That's a consolation in one way," said Elizabeth. "These South SeaIslanders have canoes, haven't they, Mary? We haven't seen any, whichis a negative proof that our island isn't inhabited; but if any peoplefrom another island happened to have come this way, they would almostcertainly have noticed our flag, and perhaps come to see what it meant."
They were following the course of the stream. It zigzagged about agood deal, at first through a fairly thick belt of woodland, thenthrough a comparatively clear space of a few hundred yards, then intowoodland again, always narrowing. They were still some distance belowthe crest of the ridge when they came to a small swamp, beyond whichthere was no stream.
"This must be the source," said Mary.
"How disappointing!" said Tommy. "I wanted to see a nice littlespring, with beautiful clear water bubbling up. This swamp is simplyhorrid."
"There must be a spring somewhere in the swamp," said Elizabeth,smiling. "But it isn't worth while to hunt for it, even if we couldfind it. The stream is certainly prettier lower down. Let's go on; weare not very far from the top, and we might be able to get a good viewfrom there--see the whole of the island and the sea beyond."
"I feel quite like a discoverer," said Mary. "Can't you imagine howDrake must have felt when he first caught sight of the Pacific?"
"You romantic old dear!" cried Tommy. "I don't care a bit what Drakefelt; all I hope is we shan't wish we hadn't come."
They went on quietly, feeling a little nervous. The ground here wasbare except for a few shrubs, and they drew their breath more quicklyas they mounted the slope. At last they reached the top. One and allgave a sigh of disappointment. Directly in front of them, to thenorth, was a second ridge higher than the one on which they stood. Buton every other side there was a fine view. To the south the land fellaway rapidly towards the sea, of which they caught a glimpse over thetree-tops nearly a mile away. To the west, the direction from whichthey had come, the sea was much farther off. To the east there was agradual slope downwards into a country for the most part denselywooded, but here and there showing traces of clearings natural orotherwise. The greatest extent of land seemed to be to the north-east,where the sea was much farther remote than it was on the west. None ofthe girls had any experience in judging distances, but they saw thatthe island was longer than it was broad, and that the greatest lengthwas from north-west to south-east.
"Shall we go to the farther ridge?" asked Elizabeth.
"Yes, let's," said Tommy. "There isn't a sign of a living creature;the island is just ours."
A thick belt of woodland separated the two ridges at the point wherethey stood, so they moved somewhat to the right to search for a moreopen way. All at once they came to a halt. A little in front of themwas a pole, carrying what appeared to be the remains of a small flag.About fifty paces beyond it was another exactly similar; and then theysaw that there were five or six altogether, extending along the crestof the ridge, all the same distance apart.
"I think we had better go back," said Mary, looking a trifle scared."There are people after all."
Her sisters were equally disturbed at the sight of poles evidentlyerected by human agency. There was nobody to be seen, and from theappearance of the poles they were not attended to; the flags on themwere the merest rags of coloured cloth. But the girls were notinclined to face any more discoveries. The bare possibility that therewere savages on the island made them shiver. They paused for a fewmoments at the spot where they first caught sight of the poles, andthen turned, intending to make their way in the direction of home.
Just then, however, Tommy caught sight of some bananas clustering thicka little way down the slope on the eastern side.
"I'm hungry," she said. "Those look bigger than what we have had.Couldn't we go and fetch a few?"
The clump of trees lay on the slope below the line of poles, a gooddistance away from them.
"It's rather silly to be scared so easily," said Elizabeth. "Thereisn't a sign of anybody; I think we might venture. We must find a newsupply."
They moved quickly down towards the trees, listening, peering aboutthem, ready to fly at the least alarm. But when they came to the treesthey felt that they had the reward of courage, for there, within ashort distance of them, was a sight that made them gasp with surpriseand delight. Beside the stumpy, long-leaved banana-trees, there wereother trees glittering with green and yellow fruit and with whiteblossom. The laden boughs bent down invitingly, and beneath them thegolden globes of fallen fruit glowed amid the grass.
"Oranges, I declare!" exclaimed Mary.
"How lovely!" cried Tommy, forgetting all her fears, and runningforward to pick an orange from the ground.
Her sisters followed more leisurely, but before they reached her Tommysuddenly uttered a cry of terror. The orange she had taken fell fromher hand. The other girls ran to her side and found her pale withfright.
"There!" she said, pointing towards a clump of hibiscus.
"What is it, dear?" asked Elizabeth.
"In the bushes--a little brown face!" whispered Tommy, with tremblinglips.
CHAPTER X
ANXIOUS DAYS
For a moment, under the shock of the startling piece of news, Elizabethwas tempted to seize her sisters by the hand and run. Tommy was sopractical and unimaginative a young person that she could hardly havebeen altogether mistaken, and a "little brown face," if face it was,must belong to a native. But Elizabeth thought quickly, and even whileher heart was galloping with nervous excitement, she made up her mindthat to run away now was not the right course. A show of bravery wasmuch more likely to serve them. If there really was a native inhiding, he would certainly have seen them, and to run or slink away nowwould merely provoke pursuit, in which the fugitives would be at agreat disadvantage. Summoning all her courage, therefore, Elizabethadvanced towards the bush to which Tommy had pointed.
"Don't go, Bess," implored Tommy in an agitated whisper, and Mary, aspale as a sheet, put an arm about the younger girl.
Elizabeth went straight on, looking carefully around.
"Is this it?" she asked quietly, turning towards her sisters, nowseveral yards distant.
Tommy merely nodded; Mary murmured, "How _could_ she do it?"
Elizabeth peered into the bush. There was no little brown face now,nor, though she went to and fro amongst the trees beyond, could she seeany one, brown or white, lurking. She listened as the thought struckher that it might have been a monkey, and she had heard monkeysscreaming and chattering in the Zoological Gardens in London; but therewas no sound, not even the twitter or squawk of a bird.
Brave as she was in outward mien, Elizabeth, after a few minutes'search, returned with hasty step to her sisters.
"My silly heart!" she
said, with a faint smile, placing her hand to herside. "I couldn't see anything. Tommy; don't you think you may haveimagined it?"
"Just as you did before," added Mary.
"I didn't!" cried Tommy. "Why won't you believe me? I _did_ see abrown face; I am sure I did."
"It is very strange," said Elizabeth. "We were here only a few secondsafter you cried out; there wasn't much time for any one to get away."
"You are both horrible," said Tommy, her lips quivering. "Any onewould think I was a fool. I'll prove that I was right, whateverhappens."
With the courage of indignation she pulled Elizabeth towards the clumpof bushes, and began to examine the soft mossy carpet.
"There!" she cried triumphantly, yet fearfully, pointing presently to amark on the ground. Elizabeth stooped and made out two or three faintimpressions of a foot smaller even than Tommy's. And then Tommy's fearreturned in full force. With a little cry she dragged Elizabeth fromthe spot, and since nothing is so catching as fear even Elizabeth'scourage gave way, and soon all three girls were running as hard as theycould run towards the stream, and did not halt until they came to theboat.
"'THERE!' SHE CRIED TRIUMPHANTLY, YET FEARFULLY."]
"Oh, dear, how ashamed I am!" panted Elizabeth, as they threwthemselves down on the sand to rest.
"You were very brave," said Mary. "I couldn't have gone into thosebushes for anything."
"Perhaps they were marks of a monkey's feet," said Elizabeth. "Howsilly I was not to examine them more closely."
"They weren't," said Tommy. "I saw them quite plainly. They were feetjust like yours and mine, only tiny, wee things."
"I wonder if the people here are dwarfs," said Mary. "There must bepeople. That's certain now."
"If they are dwarfs they must be more afraid of us than we are ofthem," said Elizabeth.
"Impossible!" said Tommy. "I was never in such a fright in my life.Oh!"
"What is it?" asked Elizabeth, with an anxious look around.
"The oranges! we haven't got any, and I shall be afraid to go thereagain."
"That's a pity," said Elizabeth; "they looked so nice. Perhaps we canfind some in another part of the island."
"I won't look for any," said Tommy. "I won't stir from this place--atleast not farther than to the bananas, and they're nearly all gone.What if the savages come and attack us?"
"Some of them have poisoned arrows," said Mary, quaking.
"Really, I think we are crying before we are hurt," said Elizabeth."We haven't been molested so far, and surely that proves that whateverpeople there are, they are not very terrible."
"I know I shan't sleep a wink to-night," said Tommy.
"Hadn't we better launch the boat and spend the night on the sea?" saidMary. "They might attack us in the darkness."
"We'll drag it down a little nearer the sea," replied Elizabeth, "andwe can take turns to keep watch, if you like; but I'm sure we oughtn'tto show the white feather. The best thing we can do is to forget allabout it."
"It's easy to say, but I know I shan't forget it as long as I live,"cried Tommy. "And we were so jolly; it's all spoilt."
"Well, we _must_ eat," said Elizabeth, afraid of a breakdown. "Let uscook some fish, and be as comfortable as we can."
They spent the rest of that day in a state of nervousness, and althoughElizabeth tried to get the others to begin weaving their mat beds forthe hut, they had no heart for the work. When darkness fell, they drewthe boat down to the very verge of high water, and lay in it, but notto sleep. They had arranged that each should take a turn at keepingwatch, but the result was that all were wakeful, and except for a fewminutes' uneasy dozing, none of them had any rest.
"This will never do," thought Elizabeth as it drew towards morning."We shall all be worn out if we don't get our proper sleep. I do hopethe natives will come to us to-morrow so that we can make friends withthem."
They all looked very weary and washed-out when daylight came. Therewas no fish left, and Tommy seemed disinclined to try to catch any, orto go to the banana-trees for food.
"Come, girls, this really won't do," said Elizabeth briskly. "Makesome tea, Tommy, while Mary and I go and get a fish."
"There's only enough for about a cup each," said Tommy, lookingdolefully into the caddy.
"We shan't get any more by wishing for it," said Elizabeth, "so we'lluse it all up and then try to make a sort of cider out of bananas. Itwill be a change."
"There are hardly any bananas left, either," said Tommy.
"Then we'll go prowling in search of more as soon as we really come tothe last of them. Come along, Mary."
"Don't go out of sight, will you?" said Tommy, as they moved away.
"Of course not, we shan't be long."
"I wish we had a change of things, Bess," said Mary, as they hastenedtowards their fishing rock. "Never in my life have I worn my underwearso long; it's horrid."
"Why shouldn't we have a washing-day?" said Elizabeth. "It will be anovelty, and give us something to do and think about. Rather fun too,with no soap. How can we manage?"
"I've read somewhere that the women in the East wash their clothes bybeating them in a running stream with stones," said Mary. "The streamand the stones are handy; we might try that plan."
"Don't the stones knock holes in them?"
"They use flat, round stones, without sharp edges, I think. It will berather fun to try, anyway. I hope the savages won't come, Bess."
"Do you know, I'm not at all sure that it wasn't the footprint of amonkey or some other animal. It was so very small. I'm not going tothink about it. We'd better go on in our ordinary way withouttroubling; only for Tommy's sake we won't go far from home, for somedays at any rate."
They returned with two excellent fish. Elizabeth at once told Tommy oftheir idea of a washing-day, and, as she hoped, the young girl was somuch amused at the novelty of it, that she forgot her alarms for atime. After breakfast they took off their things and donned theirdressing-gowns, as Tommy called their macintoshes; and having gatheredeach a smooth, round stone, laid their linen in the stream at a placewhere it ran over level rock, and began merrily to pound away. Whenthey had given the clothes a thorough good drubbing, as Tommy wordedit, they laid them on the grass in the sun, and within an hour theywere quite dry.
"My word! don't they look nice?" cried Tommy in delight. "OldJane--poor old thing--never got them white at home, did she? We musthave a weekly wash, girls; it's great fun."
"There's another thing we might try," said Elizabeth. "I haven't gotused to eating fish without salt, yet. Couldn't we make some byevaporation?"
"How would you do that?" asked Tommy.
"Put some sea-water in our cups, and let it evaporate. It would soondo so in this heat, and leave the salt at the bottom."
"H'm! it sounds all right," said Tommy, "but I doubt whether we shouldget enough salt to put on a bird's tail. Let's try."
They half filled their three cups from the sea, and put them in thefull glare of the sun. Every now and then Tommy ran to them to see hewthey were getting on, every time becoming more sceptical of success.There was still a good deal of water in the cups at nightfall; but, asMary said, that didn't matter much, as they had used up all their tea,none of them liking coffee at night; so they left the cups as theywere, to evaporate the rest of the water next day. When the cups wereat last dry there was no appreciable sediment, and Tommy with greatscorn pronounced the experiment a failure.
"The cups don't hold enough," said Mary. "What we want is a largeshallow pan, and as we haven't got one, I'm afraid you'll have to gowithout salt, Bess."
But a day or two after, Elizabeth discovered a wide shallow depressionin a rock a little distance above high-water mark.
"This will do for a pan," she said. "We'll fill it with sea-water withour cups, and keep on filling it up as the water evaporates. Thenwe'll see, my dears."
They followed this plan for several days, and at last were able toc
ollect a fair quantity of salt.
"It isn't table salt, to be sure," said Elizabeth, looking at thedirty-grey powder, "but it is certainly salt enough for anything, andthis quantity will last for a week at least."
"We are getting quite clever," said Mary. "I dare say we shall be ableto make quite a lot of things by and by."
During these days they had seen no more signs of inhabitants, and theirnervousness partially wore off. They were still careful, however, notto stray far beyond the immediate neighbourhood of their camp, andslept every night in the boat, which they left close to the brink ofthe sea. They devoted a good deal of time to weaving grass mats forthe floor of their hut, but had not as yet plucked up courage to spenda night in it. With the boat as a refuge they felt a certain sense ofsecurity, though they admitted, when they talked about it, that itwould not really be of any great service if they were attacked; forthey could only escape by embarking, and then to drift on the sea outof reach of food was a terrible fate to look forward to.
One day, when Mary had been out to gather bananas, she came back withthe news that she had gathered the very last one, so that they werefaced with the immediate necessity of finding another food supply.
"We must take our courage in both hands," said Elizabeth, "and revisitthe land of plenty beyond the ridge."
"Don't let's go near the orange-trees," said Tommy anxiously."Couldn't we try a little to the left? There will surely be some fruitof some sort in other parts."