Adrift in the Pacific-Two Years Holiday

by Jules Verne

  Gordon and Briant returned at once to the cave. There Kate stated that she had seen this very pipe in Walston’s possession.

  There was now no doubt that the pirates had got round the south of the lake. Perhaps during the night they had reached the bank of Zealand River. And if French Den had been discovered, if Walston knew about the colony, would he not have thought that the tools, instruments, ammunition, and stores he was so much in need of were here to be had, and that seven active men would easily get the better of fifteen boys—especially if he could take them by surprise? Anyhow, there was no longer room to doubt that his party was now close to them.

  Under such alarming circumstances, Briant agreed with his comrades that a more active watch should be arranged. During the day an outpost was permanently stationed on Auckland Hill, so as to command the approaches from all sides. During the night two of the bigger boys mounted guard at the entrances to the cave. The doors were strengthened with supports, and in a moment it was rendered possible to barricade them with the large stones that were heaped up inside the cave. In the narrow windows driven through the rock, the two little cannons were kept ready. One defended the Zealand River side, the other the side towards the lake. Guns and revolvers were so disposed as to be ready for use at the least alarm.

  It was now the 27th of November. For two days the heat had been stifling. Huge clouds passed heavily over the island, and distant thundering announced the approach of a storm. In the evening Briant and his companions had retired earlier than usual into the hall, after taking the precaution, as had been their custom the last few nights, of hauling the boat into the store-room. The doors were shut, and the only thing to be done now was to wait for bed-time, and kneel in prayer and think of home.

  About half-past nine the storm was in full fury. The cave was lighted up by the vivid flashes, and the hill seemed to shake with the rolling thunder peals. It was one of those storms without wind or rain, which are the most terrible of all, for the motionless clouds discharge their electricity over the one spot, and often a whole night will go by and the storm be unexhausted.

  Costar, Dole, Iverson, and Jenkins hid in their beds and jumped at every dreadful outburst that showed how near the lightning was to them. But they had nothing to fear in that cave. The flashes might strike twenty times, a hundred times, the crest of the hill. It could not penetrate the thick walls of French Den, which were as impermeable to the lightning as to the rain. From time to time Briant, Donagan, or Baxter went and held the door ajar and returned immediately half-blinded by the flashes. The Armament seemed on fire, and the lake reverberating the fulgurations of the sky, seemed one huge sheet of flame.

  From ten o’clock to eleven o’clock there was not a moment’s peace between the lightning and the thunder. It was not till near midnight that the storm began to slacken. Longer and longer intervals separated the thunderclaps, whose violence diminished as they grew more and more distant Then the wind rose and drove away the clouds that hung so near the earth, and the rain fell in torrents.

  Then the youngsters began to be less afraid. Two or three heads hidden beneath the bed-clothes came into view, although it was time for all to be asleep. Briant and the others, having taken the usual precautions, were going to bed, when Fan gave unmistakable signs of uneasiness. She jumped up and ran to the door and gave a long continuous growl.

  ‘Has Fan scented anything?’ asked Donagan, trying to quiet the dog.

  ‘When that intelligent animal went on like this before,’ said Baxter, ‘she made no mistake.’

  ‘Before we go to bed,’ said Gordon, ‘ we must ascertain what it all means.’

  ‘Quite so,’ said Briant, ‘ but let nobody go out, and let us be ready to defend ourselves.’

  Each took his gun and revolver. Then Donagan stepped towards the door of the hall, and Moko towards the door of the store-room. They listened at the threshold, but not a sound did they hear outside, although Fan continued to growl and began to bark loudly. This was most unfortunate, and Gordon tried in vain to keep her quiet.

  Suddenly there was the report of a gun. There could be no mistaking it for a thunder-clap. And the gun must have been fired within two hundred yards of French Den.

  Donagan, Baxter, Wilcox, and Cross picked up their rifles and stood ready at the doors to open fire on whoever approached. The others had begun to heap up the stones and form the barricade, when a voice outside was heard shouting, —

  ‘Help! Help!’

  There was a man in danger of his life undoubtedly.

  ‘Help!’ repeated the voice, this time but a few yards away.

  Kate was listening near the door.

  ‘It is him! ‘ she said.

  ‘Him?’ exclaimed Briant.

  ‘Open the door! Open the door!’ said Kate. The door was opened, and a man dripping with water rushed in amongst them. It was Evans of the Severn.

  CHAPTER XI—A DARING ESCAPE.

  AT the unexpected appearance of Evans the boys for a moment stood motionless. Then, with a common impulse, they rushed towards him, as though he had been sent to deliver them.

  He was a man just under thirty, broad-shouldered and athletic, with a firm and resolute step, a keen eye, an open brow, an intelligent, sympathetic face, half hidden by the curly hair and beard that had remained uncut since the shipwreck.

  As he entered, Evans shut the door quickly, and listened. Hearing nothing without, he advanced into the middle of the cave. Then he looked at the crowd that surrounded him.

  ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘all boys! None but boys!’

  Suddenly his eyes lighted up.

  ‘Kate!’ he exclaimed. ‘What! Kate alive?’

  And he seized her hands, as though to make sure she was really living.

  ‘Yes! as much alive as you are, Evans. Heaven saved me as you have been saved, and sent to the help of these children.’

  The sailor looked round at the boys, who had gathered about the hall table.

  ‘Fifteen,’ said he, ‘and hardly five or six able to defend themselves. Well, it doesn’t matter.’

  ‘Are we in danger of being attacked, Mr. Evans?’ asked Briant.

  ‘No, my boy; at least not for the moment.’

  There is no need to enlarge on the anxiety of the boys to hear the sailor’s story, particularly as to what had taken place since the boat was driven on the island. None of them could think of sleep until they had heard what was of so much importance to them. But at first it was necessary for Evans to get rid of his wet clothes and have some food. His clothes were dripping from his having swum the river. If he was exhausted with fatigue and hunger, it was because he had had nothing to eat for twelve hours, and no sleep since the morning.

  Briant at once took him into the store-room, where Gordon soon fitted him with a suit of clothes, and Moko meanwhile put on the table some cold venison, some biscuit, and some freshly made tea.

  A quarter of an hour afterwards Evans was seated before the table, relating what had happened since he reached the island.

  ‘A few moments before the boat struck the beach,’ said he, ‘five of the men—myself among them—jumped out on to the reef. None of us were seriously hurt. But it was not an easy thing in the darkness to get through the furious surf. However, we at last got through safely. Two of us were missing—Forbes and Pike—taken on in the boat; and perhaps dashed out of her. As to Kate, I thought she had been lost in the sea, and I never expected to see her again. When we reached the beach, it took us some time to find the boat. She had come ashore about seven, and it was nearly twelve before we found her. We had at first gone along the coast of—’

  ‘Severn Shores,’ said Briant ‘That is the name some of us gave it when they discovered the boat, before even Kate had told us about the wreck.’

  ‘Before?’ said Evans, looking surprised.

  ‘Yes, Mr. Evans,’ said Donagan. ‘We were on the spot the very night of the wreck, while your two companions were lying on the sand. But when the daylight c
ame, and we went to bury them, we found they had disappeared.’

  ‘I see how that was,’ said Evans. ‘Forbes and Pike, whom we thought drowned—and would to Heaven they had been, and there would then be two scoundrels the less—had been thrown out some distance from the boat, and there Walston and the others found them, and brought them back to consciousness. Happily for them—unfortunately for us—the boat lockers had not been smashed nor touched by the sea. The stores, weapons. five guns, and what remained of the provisions thrown in hurriedly when the Severn was afire, were taken out of the boat, which we thought would be destroyed next tide. And that done, we left the place, and journeyed eastwards along the coast. Soon one of the men—Rock, I think— remarked that we had not found Kate, and Walston replied, ‘She has been carried away by the tide; and a good riddance, too!’ And this made me think that if they were glad to get rid of Kate now she could be of no use to them, so would it be with me when I was of no use. But where were you, Kate?’

  ‘I was near the boat, between it and the sea,’ Kate replied, ‘just where I had been thrown. They could not see me, and I heard all that passed between Walston and the others. But as soon as they went I got up, and not caring to fall again into Walston’s hands, I took flight in the opposite direction. Thirty-six hours afterwards, when I was half dead with hunger, I was found by these brave boys, and brought to French Den.’

  ‘French Den?’ repeated Evans.

  ‘That is the name we gave this cave,’ said Gordon, ‘in memory of a shipwrecked Frenchman who had inhabited it a good many years before we did.’

  ‘French Den? Severn Shores?’ said Evans. ‘I see you have given names to the different parts of the island. That is capital!’

  ‘Yes,’ said Service, ‘and capital names they are. There are lots of others. There’s Family Lake, South Moors, Zealand River, Trap Woods—’

  ‘Good! Good! You can tell me all about that later on—to-morrow, perhaps. Now I will go on with my story. Do you hear anything outside?’

  ‘Nothing,’ said Moko, who remained on guard at the door.

  ‘All the better,’ said Evans. ‘Well, then, an hour after we left the boat we reached a clump of trees, where we camped. Next day and for many days we returned to the place where the boat had been wrecked, and we tried to repair her. But we had no tools, except an axe, and with that it was impossible to replace the damaged strakes, and make her seaworthy even for a little while. Besides, the place was most unsuitable for work of the sort. So we started to find another encampment in a less arid region, where we might shoot enough to feed us, and at the same time be near a river that would supply us with fresh water. After walking about a dozen miles along the coast, we reached a small river—’

  ‘East River,’ said Service.

  ‘East River be it,’ said Evans. ‘There is a good sized bay—’

  ‘Deception Bay!’ said Jenkins.

  ‘Deception Bay be it!’ said Evans with a smile. ‘There among the rocks in a sort of harbour—’

  ‘Bear Rock,’ said Costar.

  ‘Well, Bear Rock then, my boy,’ said Evans with a nod. ‘There was no difficulty in finding a camping-place there. And if we could have got the boat round, we could perhaps in time have repaired her sufficiently. So off we went, and although she was more than half full of water, we managed to tow her round to the harbour, where she is now safe.’

  ‘The boat is at Bear Rock?’ asked Briant ‘Yes, my boy, and I do not think it would be impossible to repair her, if we only had the tools—’

  ‘But we have the tools, Mr. Evans,’ said Donagan, interrupting.

  ‘So Walston supposed, when he accidentally discovered that the island was inhabited, and who were its inhabitants.’

  ‘How did he do that?’ asked Gordon.

  ‘Eight days ago,’ said Evans, ‘Walston and all of us—for I was never left alone—were out exploring in the forest. After three or four hours’ walking up the bank of East River, we reached the shore of a large lake, out of which the stream flowed. And then judge of our surprise when we found a curious apparatus washed up on to the beach. It was a framework of canes, on which there was stretched—’

  ‘Our kite!’ exclaimed Donagan.

  ‘Our kite!’ added Briant ‘which fell into the lake, and which the wind took to that spot.’

  ‘Oh, it was a kite, was it?’ said Evans. ‘We did not think of that; and the machine bothered us a good deal, I can tell you. Anyhow, we saw it could not have made itself. There was no doubt of that. Then it must have been made on the island. There was no doubt of that Then the island was inhabited! By whom? That was what Walston wanted to know. As for me, from that very day I resolved to escape. Who were the inhabitants of this island? Even if they were savages, they could not be worse than the murderers of the Severn. From that moment however, I was guarded night and day.’

  ‘And how was French Den discovered?’ asked Baxter.

  ‘I am coming to that’ answered Evans; ‘but before I go on, tell me what you did with that big kite. Was it a signal?’

  Gordon told the sailor what had been done. What their object had been, how Briant had risked his life for the safety of all, and found that Walston was still on the island.

  ‘You are a brave boy,’ said Evans, seizing hold of Briant by the hand and giving it a hearty shake.

  Then he continued, —

  ‘You will understand then, that Walston had only one thing to trouble about after that and that was to discover who were the inhabitants of this island. If they were natives, could he enter into communication with them? If they had been shipwrecked, had they got the tools we wanted? In that case he would not refuse their help in repairing the boat. So we began to find out—very cautiously, I need hardly say. We advanced slowly, carefully exploring the right bank of the lake till we reached the south corner. But not a human being did we see, not a sound did we hear.’

  ‘That’ said Briant ‘was because we kept to French Den, and orders were given not to fire a gun under any circumstances.’

  ‘Nevertheless we found you out,’ said Evans; ‘and how could it be otherwise? It was on the night of the 23rd that one of the men arrived in sight of French Den by the south shore of the lake. Ill-luck had it that a beam of light for a moment shot out on to the cliff—probably from your lantern when the door was opened for a moment. Next morning Walston came away to reconnoitre, and during a part of the evening he remained hidden among the high grass a few yards from the stream—’

  ‘We knew that,’ said Briant.

  How?’

  ‘Gordon and I found the fragments of a pipe that Kate recognized as being Walston’s.’

  ‘Right!’ said the sailor; ‘Walston lost it while he was away, and he made a deal of fuss about it when he came back. So you see we knew of the existence of your little colony, and while he lay in the grass he saw you running about on the opposite side of the stream—a lot of boys whom seven men could easily overpower—and he came back to the camp and told his companions what he had seen. A conversation between him and Brandt I happened to overhear, and it told me what was in preparation against French Den.’

  ‘The monsters!’ exclaimed Kate, ‘and they had no pity for these children?’

  ‘No, Kate, no more than they had for the captain and passengers of the Severn. Monsters! you may well call them monsters! And they are commanded by the cruellest of the lot, this Walston, who I hope will not escape the punishment of his crimes. Well, about twelve hours ago, I took advantage of the absence of Walston and the others, who had left me in charge of Forbes and Rock, and I got away. To throw the scoundrels off the scent, or rather to have a good start, I went on some distance in advance. It was about ten o’clock when I started in earnest. They found me out almost immediately, and gave chase. They had their guns. I had only my sailor’s knife. The chase lasted all day. By cutting off on the slant through the woods, I struck the left bank of the lake, so that I had to get round the south end, for I knew from wha
t I had overheard that you had your camp on the bank of a stream flowing westward. Never had I such a run in my life. The beggars ran as fast as I did, and their bullets flew about even quicker. Sometimes they whistled past my ears. You see I knew their secret! If I escaped them, I could give the alarm. If they had not had the guns, I could have pulled up and waited for them knife in hand. Yes, I would rather have died than go back to their camp. However, I hoped the chase would end at nightfall. Nothing of the sort I rounded the lake and came up along this shore, but I found Forbes and Rock at my heels all the time. The storm came on. It made my flight more difficult, for by the light of the lightning my pursuers could see me. At length I reached the stream. If I could put it between myself and the villains, I might consider myself safe. So I ran, and I was just jumping in when a flash illumined the sky. Immediately there was the report of a gun—’

  ‘Which we heard,’ said Donagan.

  ‘Evidently!’ said Evans. ‘A bullet grazed my shoulder. I jumped into the river, and in a few strokes I was on this side hidden among the bushes, while Rock and Forbes were on the other shouting to each other: ‘ Did you hit him?’ ‘I believe you!’ ‘Then he is at the bottom!’ ‘Rather, and dead as dead!’ ‘And a good job too’ And off they went. And it is a good job. They’ll see if I am as dead as dead before long. I soon got out of the bushes, and came up towards the angle of the cliff. I heard the dog bark. I shouted—the door opened—and here I am to help you clear the scoundrels out of the island.’

  And he spoke the words with such energy that the boys all stood up as if ready to follow him.

  Then Evans was told what had happened during the last twenty months; how the schooner had left New Zealand, crossed the Pacific, got wrecked on the island, how the remains of the shipwrecked Frenchman had been found, the colony settled at French Den, the excursions during the warm season, the work during the winter, and the life free from danger until the arrival of Walston and his gang.