CHAPTER IV
ANOTHER NEW FACE
As the cook had gone, Mrs. Cliff and Miss Markham prepared breakfast, andthen they discovered how little water there was.
There was something mysterious about the successive losses of his menwhich pressed heavily upon the soul of Captain Horn, but the want ofwater pressed still more heavily. Ralph had just asked his permission togo down to the beach and bathe in the sea, saying that as he could nothave all the water he wanted to drink, it might make him feel better totake a swim in plenty of water. The boy was not allowed to go so far fromcamp by himself, but the captain could not help thinking how this poorfellow would probably feel the next day if help had not arrived, and ofthe sufferings of the others, which, by that time, would have begun.Still, as before, he spoke hopefully, and the two women, as brave as he,kept up good spirits, and although they each thought of the waterlessmorrow, they said nothing about it.
As for Ralph, he confidently expected the return of the men in thecourse of the day, as he had done in the course of each preceding day,and two or three times an hour he was at his post of observation, readyto wave his flag.
Even had he supposed that it would be of any use to go to look for Maka,a certain superstitious feeling would have prevented the captain fromdoing so. If he should go out, and not return, there would be little hopefor those two women and the boy. But he could not help feeling thatbeyond the rocky plateau which stretched out into the sea to thesouthward, and which must be at least two miles away, there might be seensome signs of habitation, and, consequently, of a stream. If anything ofthe sort could be seen, it might become absolutely necessary for theparty to make their way toward it, either by land or sea, no matter howgreat the fatigue or the danger, and without regard to the fate of thosewho had left camp before them.
About half an hour afterwards, when the captain had mounted some rocksnear by, from which he thought he might get a view of the flat region tothe north on which he might discover the missing negro, Ralph, who waslooking seaward, gave a start, and then hurriedly called to his sisterand Mrs. Cliff, and pointed to the beach. There was the figure of a manwhich might well be Maka, but, to their amazement and consternation, hewas running, followed, not far behind, by another man. The figuresrapidly approached, and it was soon seen that the first man was Maka, butthat the second figure was not one of the sailors who had left them.Could he be pursuing Maka? What on earth did it mean?
For some moments Ralph stood dumfounded, and then ran in the directionin which the captain had gone, and called to him.
At the sound of his voice the second figure stopped and turned as if hewere about to run, but Maka--they were sure it was Maka--seized him bythe arm and held him. Therefore this newcomer could not be pursuing theirman. As the two now came forward, Maka hurrying the other on, Ralph andhis two companions were amazed to see that this second man was also anAfrican, a negro very much like Maka, and as they drew nearer, the twolooked as if they might have been brothers.
The captain had wandered farther than he had intended, but after severalshouts from Ralph he came running back, and reached the camp-ground justas the two negroes arrived.
At the sight of this tall man bounding toward him the strange negroappeared to be seized with a wild terror. He broke away from Maka, andran first in this direction and then in that, and perceiving the cleft inthe face of the rock, he blindly rushed into it, as a rat would rush intoa hole. Instantly Maka was after him, and the two were lost to view.
When the captain had been told of the strange thing which had happened,he stood without a word. Another African! This was a puzzle too great forhis brain.
"Are you sure it was not a native of these parts?" said he, directly."You know, they are very dark."
"No!" exclaimed Mrs. Cliff and her companions almost in the same breath,"it was an African, exactly like Maka."
At this moment a wild yell was heard from the interior of the rocks,then another and another. Without waiting to consider anything, or hearany more, the captain dashed into the narrow passage, Ralph close behindhim. They ran into the room in which they had slept. They looked on allsides, but saw nothing. Again, far away, they heard another yell, andthey ran out again into the passage.
This narrow entry, as the investigating Ralph had already discovered,continued for a dozen yards past the doorway which led to the chambers,but there it ended in a rocky wall about five feet high. Above this wasan aperture extending to the roof of the passage, but Ralph, having awholesome fear of snakes, had not cared to climb over the wall to seewhat was beyond.
When the captain and Ralph had reached the end of the passage, they heardanother cry, and there could be no doubt that it came through theaperture by which they stood. Instantly Ralph scrambled to the top of thewall, pushed himself head foremost through the opening, and came down onthe other side, partly on his hands and partly on his feet. Had thecaptain been first, he would not have made such a rash leap, but now hedid not hesitate a second. He instantly followed the boy, taking care,however, to let himself down on his feet.
The passage on the other side of the dividing wall seemed to be the sameas that they had just left, although perhaps a little lighter. Afterpushing on for a short distance, they found that the passage made a turnto the right, and then in a few moments the captain and Ralph emergedinto open space. What sort of space it was they could not comprehend.
"It seemed to me," said Ralph, afterwards, "as if I had fallen into thesky at night. I was afraid to move, for fear I should tumble intoastronomical distances."
The captain stared about him, apparently as much confounded by thesituation as was the boy. But his mind was quickly brought to theconsideration of things which he could understand. Almost at his feet wasMaka, lying on his face, his arms and head over the edge of what might bea bank or a bottomless precipice, and yelling piteously. Making a steptoward him, the captain saw that he had hold of another man, several feetbelow him, and that he could not pull him up.
"Hold on tight, Maka," he cried, and then, taking hold of the African'sshoulders, he gave one mighty heave, lifted both men, and set them ontheir feet beside him.
Ralph would have willingly sacrificed the rest of his school-days to beable to perform such a feat as that. But the Africans were small, and thecaptain was wildly excited.
Well might he be excited. He was wet! The strange man whom he had pulledup had stumbled against him, and he was dripping with water. Ralph was bythe captain, tightly gripping his arm, and, without speaking, they bothstood gazing before them and around them.
At their feet, stretching away in one direction, farther than they couldsee, and what at first sight they had taken to be air, was a body ofwater--a lake! Above them were rocks, and, as far as they could see tothe right, the water seemed to be overhung by a cavernous roof. But infront of them, on the other side of the lake, which here did not seem tobe more than a hundred feet wide, there was a great upright opening inthe side of the cave, through which they could see the distant mountainsand a portion of the sky.
"Water!" said Ralph, in a low tone, as if he had been speaking in church,and then, letting go of the captain's arm, he began to examine the ledge,but five or six feet wide, on which they stood. At his feet the water wasat least a yard below them, but a little distance on he saw that theledge shelved down to the surface of the lake, and in a moment he hadreached this spot, and, throwing himself down on his breast, he plungedhis face into the water and began drinking like a thirsty horse.Presently he rose to his knees with a great sigh of satisfaction.
"Oh, captain," he cried, "it is cold and delicious. I believe that in onehour more I should have died of thirst."
But the captain did not answer, nor did he move from the spot where hestood. His thoughts whirled around in his mind like chaff in awinnowing-machine. Water! A lake in the bosom of the rocks! Half an hourago he must have been standing over it as he scrambled up the hillside.Visions that he had had of the morrow, when all their eyes should bestanding out
of their faces, like the eyes of shipwrecked sailors he hadseen in boats, came back to him, and other visions of his mate and hismen toiling southward for perhaps a hundred miles without reaching a portor a landing, and then the long, long delay before a vessel could beprocured. And here was water!
Ralph stood beside him for an instant. "Captain," he cried, "I amgoing to get a pail, and take some to Edna and Mrs. Cliff." And thenhe was gone.
Recalled thus to the present, the captain stepped back. He must dosomething--he must speak to some one. He must take some advantage of thiswonderful, this overpowering discovery. But before he could bring hismind down to its practical workings, Maka had clutched him by the coat.
"Cap'n," he said, "I must tell you. I must speak it. I must tell you now,quick. Wait! Don't go!"
The Adventures of Captain Horn Page 4