CHAPTER XXVII.
THE perplexity into which Hazel was thrown by the outburst of hiscompanion rendered him unable to reduce her demand at once to anintelligible form. For some moments he seriously employed his mind on theproblem until it assumed this shape.
Firstly: I do not know where this island is, having no means ofascertaining either its latitude or longitude.
Secondly: If I had such a description of its locality, how might the newsbe conveyed beyond the limits of the place?
As the wildness of Helen's demand broke upon his mind, he smiled sadly,and sat down upon the bank of the little river, near his boat-house, andburied his head in his hands. A deep groan burst from him, and the tearsat last came through his fingers, as in despair he thought how vain mustbe any effort to content or to conciliate her. Impatient with his ownweakness he started to his feet, when a hand was laid gently upon hisarm. She stood beside him.
"Mr. Hazel," she said hurriedly--her voice was husky--"do not mind what Ihave said. I am unreasonable; and I am sure I ought to feel obliged toyou for all the--"
Hazel turned his face toward her, and the moon glistened on the tearsthat still flowed down his cheeks. He tried to check the utterance of herapology; but, ere he could master his voice, the girl's cold andconstrained features seemed to melt. She turned away, wrung her hands,and, with a sharp, quivering cry, she broke forth:
"Oh, sir! oh, Mr. Hazel! do forgive me. I am not ungrateful, indeed,indeed, I am not; but I am mad with despair. Judge me with compassion. Atthis moment, those who are very, very dear to me are awaiting my arrivalin London; and, when they learn the loss of the _Proserpine,_ how greatwill be their misery! Well, that misery is added to mine. Then my poorpapa. He will never know how much he loved me until this news reacheshim. And to think that I am dead to them, yet living! living herehelplessly, helplessly. Dear, dear Arthur, how you will suffer for mysake! Oh, papa, papa! shall I never see you again?" and she weptbitterly.
"I am helpless either to aid or to console you, Miss Rolleston. By theact of a Divine Providence you were cast upon this desolate shore, and bythe same Will I was appointed to serve and to provide for your welfare. Ipray God that He will give me health and strength to assist you.Good-night."
She looked timidly at him for a moment, then slowly regained her hut. Hehad spoken coldly and with dignity. She felt humbled, the more so that hehad only bowed his acknowledgment to her apology.
For more than an hour she watched him, as he paced up and down betweenthe boat-house and the shore; then he advanced a little toward hershelter, and she shrank into her bed, after gently closing the door. In afew moments she crept again to peep forth, and to see if he were stillthere; but he had disappeared.
The following morning Helen was surprised to see the boat riding atanchor in the surf, and Hazel busily engaged on her trim. He was soon onshore, and by her side.
"I am afraid I must leave you for a day, Miss Rolleston," he said. "Iwish to make a circuit of the island; indeed I ought to have done so manydays ago."
"Is such an expedition necessary? Surely you have had enough of the sea."
"It is very necessary. You have urged me to undertake this enterprise.You see, it is the first step toward announcing to all passing vesselsour presence in this place. I have commenced operations already. See onyonder bluff, which I have called Telegraph Point, I have mounted theboat's ensign, and now it floats from the top of the tree beside thebonfire. I carried it there at sunrise. Do you see that pole I haveshipped on board the boat? That is intended as a signal, which shall beexhibited on your great palm-tree. The flag will then stand for a signalon the northern coast, and the palm-tree, thus accoutered, will serve fora similar purpose on the western extremity of the island. As I pass alongthe southern and eastern shores, I propose to select spots where somemark can be erected, such as may be visible to ships at sea."
"But will they remark such signals?"
"Be assured they will, if they come within sight of the place."
Hazel knew that there was little chance of such an event; but it wassomething not to be neglected. He also explained that it was necessary heshould arrive at a knowledge of the island, the character of its shores;and from the sea he could rapidly obtain a plan of the place, ascertainwhat small rivers there might be, and, indeed, see much of its interior;for he judged it to be not more than ten miles in length, and scarcethree in width.
Helen felt rather disappointed that no trace of the emotion he displayedon the previous night remained in his manner or in the expression of hisface. She bowed her permission to him rather haughtily, and sat down tobreakfast on some baked yams, and some rough oysters, which he had rakedup from the bay while bathing that morning. The young man had regained anelasticity of hearing, an independence of tone, to which she was not atall accustomed; his manners were always soft and deferential; but hisexpression was more firm, and she felt that the reins had been gentlyremoved from her possession, and there was a will to guide her which shewas bound to acknowledge and obey.
She did not argue in this wise, for it is not human to reason and to feelat the same moment. She felt then instinctively that the man was quietlyasserting his superiority, and the child pouted.
Hazel went about his work briskly; the boat was soon laden with everyrequisite. Helen watched these preparations askance, vexed with theexpedition which she had urged him to make. Then she fell to reflectingon the change that seemed to have taken place in her character; she, whowas once so womanly, so firm, so reasonable--why had she become sopetulant, childish, and capricious?
The sail was set, and all ready to run the cutter into the surf of therising tide, when, taking a sudden resolution, as it were, Helen camerapidly down and said, "I will go with you, if you please," half incommand and half in doubt. Hazel looked a little surprised, but verypleased; and then she added, "I hope I shall not be in your way."
He assured her, on the contrary, that she might be of great assistance tohim; and now with double alacrity he ran out the little vessel and leapedinto the prow as she danced over the waves. He taught her how to bringthe boat's head round with the help of an oar, and, when all was snug,left her at the helm. On reaching the mouth of the bay, if it could so becalled, he made her remark that it was closed by reefs, except to thenorth and to the west. The wind being southerly, he had decided to passto the west, and so they opened the sea about half a mile from the shore.
For about three miles they perceived it consisted of a line of bluffs,cleft at intervals by small narrow bays, the precipitous sides of whichwere lined with dense foliage. Into these fissures the sea entered with amournful sound, that died away as it crept up the yellow sands with whichthese nooks were carpeted. An exclamation from Helen attracted hisattention to the horizon on the northwest, where a long line of breakersglittered in the sun. A reef or low sandy bay appeared to exist in thatdirection, about fifteen miles away, and something more than a mile inlength. As they proceeded, he marked roughly on the side of his tinbaler, with the point of a pin borrowed from Helen, the form of the coastline.
An hour and a half brought them to the northwestern extremity of theisland. As they cleared the shelter of the land, the southerly breezecoming with some force across the open sea caught the cutter, and she layover in a way to inspire Helen with alarm; she was about to let go thetiller, when Hazel seized it, accidentally inclosing her hand under thegrasp of his own, as he pressed the tiller hard to port.
"Steady, please; don't relinquish your hold; it is all right--no fear,"he cried, as he kept his eye on their sail.
He held this course for a mile or more, and then, judging with a longtack he could weather the southerly side of the island he put the boatabout. He took occasion to explain to Helen how this operation wasnecessary, and she learned the alphabet of navigation. The western end oftheir little land now lay before them; it was about three miles inbreadth. For two miles the bluff coast line continued unbroken; then adeep bay, a mile in width and two miles in depth, was ma
de by a longtongue of sand projecting westerly; on its extremity grew the giganticpalm, well recognized as Helen's landmark. Hazel stood up in the boat toreconnoiter the coast. He perceived the sandy shore was dotted withmultitudes of dark objects. Ere long, these objects were seen to be inmotion, and, pointing them out to Helen, with a smile, he said:
"Beware, Miss Rolleston, yonder are your bugbears--and in some force,too. Those dark masses, moving upon the hillocks of sand, or rolling onthe surf, are sea-lions--the _phoca leonina,_ or lion-seal."
Helen strained her eyes to distinguish the forms, but only descried thedingy objects. While thus engaged, she allowed the cutter to fall off alittle, and, ere Hazel had resumed his hold upon the tiller, they werefairly in the bay; the great palm-tree on their starboard bow.
"You seem determined to make the acquaintance of your nightmares," heremarked; "you perceive that we are embayed."
Her consternation amused him; she saw that, if they held their presentcourse, the cutter would take the beach about a mile ahead, where theseanimals were densely crowded.
At this moment, something dark bulged up close beside her in the sea, andthe rounded back of a monster rolled over and disappeared. Hazel let dropthe sail, for they were now fairly in the smooth water of the bay, andclose to the sandy spit; the gigantic stem of the palm-tree was on theirquarter, about half a mile off.
He took to the oars, and rowed slowly toward the shore. A small seal rosebehind the boat and followed them, playing with the blade, its gambolsresembling that of a kitten. He pointed out to Helen the mild expressionof the creature's face and assured her that all this tribe were harmlessanimals, and susceptible of domestication. The cub swam up to the boatquite fearlessly, and he touched its head gently; he encouraged her to dothe like, but she shrank from its contact. They were now close ashore,and Hazel, throwing out his anchor in two feet of water, prepared to landthe beam of wood he had brought to decorate the palm-tree as a signal.
The huge stick was soon heaved overboard, and he leaped after it. Hetowed it to the nearest landing to the tree, and dragged it high up onshore. Scarcely had he disposed it conveniently, intending to return in aday or two, with the means of affixing it in a prominent and remarkablemanner, in the form of a spar across the trunk of the palm, when a cryfrom Helen recalled him. A large number of the sea-lions were coastingquietly down the surf toward the boat; indeed, a dozen of them had madetheir appearance around it.
Hazel shouted to her not to fear, and, desiring that her alarm should notspread to the swarm, he passed back quietly but rapidly. When he reachedthe water, three or four of the animals were already floundering betweenhim and the boat. He waded slowly toward one of them, and stood besideit. The man and the creature looked quietly at each other, and then theseal rolled over, with a snuffling, self-satisfied air, winking its softeyes with immense complacency.
Helen, in her alarm, could not resist a smile at this conclusion of soterrible a demonstration; for, with all their gentle expression, thetusks of the brute looked formidable. But, when she saw Hazel pushingthem aside, and patting a very small cub on the back, she recovered hercourage completely.
Then he took to his oars again; and aided by the tide, which was now onthe ebb, he rowed round the southwestern extremity of the island. Hefound the water here, as he anticipated, very shallow.
It was midday when they were fairly on the southern coast; and now,sailing with the wind aft, the cutter ran through the water at racingspeed. Fearing that some reefs or rocky formations might exist in theircourse, he reduced sail, and kept away from the shore about a mile. Atthis distance he was better able to see inland, and mark down theaccident of its formation.
The southern coast was uniform, and Helen said it resembled the cliffs ofthe Kentish or Sussex coast of England, only the English white was herereplaced by the pale volcanic gray. By one o'clock they came abreast thevery spot where they had first made land; and, as they judged, due southof their residence. Had they landed here, a walk of three miles acrossthe center of the island would have brought them home.
For about a similar distance the coast exhibited monotonous cliffsunbroken even by a rill. It was plain that the water-shed of the islandwas all northward. They now approached the eastern end, where rose thecircular mountain of which mention has been already made. This eminencehad evidently at one time been detached from the rest of the land, towhich it was now joined by a neck of swamp about a mile and a half inbreadth, and two miles in length.
Hazel proposed to reconnoiter this part of the shore nearly, and ran theboat close in to land. The reeds or canes with which this bog was denselyclothed grew in a dark, spongy soil. Here and there this waste was dottedwith ragged trees which he recognized as the cypress. From its gauntbranches hung a black, funeral kind of weeper, a kind of moss resemblingiron-gray horse-hair both in texture and uses, though not so long in thestaple.
This parasite, Hazel explained to Helen, was very common in such marshyground, and was the death-flag hung out by Nature to warn man thatmalaria and fever were the invisible and inalienable inhabitants of thatfatal neighborhood.
Looking narrowly along the low shore for some good landing, where undershelter of a tree they might repose for an hour, and spread their middayrepast, they discovered an opening in the reeds, a kind of lagoon orbayou, extending into the morass between the highlands of the island andthe circular mountain, but close under the base of the latter. This inlethe proposed to explore, and accordingly the sail was taken down, and thecutter was poled into the narrow creek. The water here was so shallowthat the keel slid over the quicksand into which the oar sank freely. Thecreek soon became narrow, the water deeper, and of a blacker color, andthe banks more densely covered with canes. These grew to the height often and twelve feet, and as close as wheat in a thick crop. The air feltdank and heavy, and hummed with myriads of insects. The black waterbecame so deep and the bottom so sticky that Hazel took to the oarsagain. The creek narrowed as they proceeded, until it proved scarcelywide enough to admit of his working the boat. The height of the reedshindered the view on either side. Suddenly, however, and after proceedingvery slowly through the bends of the canal, they decreased in height anddensity, and they emerged into an open space of about five acres inextent, a kind of oasis in this reedy desert, created by a mossy moundwhich arose amid the morass, and afforded firm footing, of which a groveof trees and innumerable shrubs availed themselves. Helen uttered anexclamation of delight as this island of foliage in a sea of reeds mether eyes, that had been famished with the arid monotony of the brake.
They soon landed.
Helen insisted on the preparations for their meal being left to her, and,having selected a sheltered spot, she was soon busy with their frugalfood. Hazel surveyed the spot, and, selecting a red cedar, was soonseated forty feet above her head, making a topographical survey of theneighborhood. He found that the bayou by which they had entered continuedits course to the northern shore, thus cutting off the mountain oreasterly end, and forming of it a separate island. He saw that a quarterof a mile farther on the bayou or canal parted, forming two streams, ofwhich that to the left seemed the main channel. This he determined tofollow. Turning to the west, that is, toward their home, he saw at adistance of two miles a crest of hills broken into cliffs, which definedthe limit of the mainland. The sea had at one time occupied the sitewhere the morass now stood. These cliffs formed a range extending fromnorth to south. Their precipitous sides, clothed here and there withtrees, marked where the descent was broken by platforms. Between him andthis range the morass extended. Hazel took note of three places where thedescent from these hills into the marsh could, he believed, most readilybe made.
On the eastern side and close above him arose the peculiar mountain. Itsform was that of a truncated cone, and its sides densely covered withtrees of some size.
The voice of Helen called him from his perch, and he descended quickly,leaping into a mass of brushwood growing at the foot of his tree. Helenstood a few yards from him
, in admiration, before a large shrub.
"Look, Mr. Hazel, what a singular production," said the girl, as shestooped to examine the plant. It bore a number of red flowers, eachgrowing out of a fruit like a prickly pear. These flowers were in variousstages; some were just opening like tulips, others, more advanced, hadexpanded like umbrellas, and quite overlapped the fruit, keeping it fromsun and dew; others had served their turn in that way, and been witheredby the sun's rays. But, wherever this was the case, the fruit had alsoburst open and displayed or discharged its contents, and those contentslooked like seeds; but on narrower inspection proved to be little insectswith pink transparent wings, and bodies of incredibly vivid crimson.
Hazel examined the fruit and flowers very carefully, and stood rapt,transfixed.
"It must be!--and it is!" said he, at last. "Well, I'm glad I've not diedwithout seeing it."
"What is it?" said she.
"One of the most valuable productions of the earth. It is cochineal. Thisis the Tunal tree."
"Oh, indeed," said Helen, indifferently. "Cochineal is used for a dye;but as it is not probable we shall require to dye anything, the discoveryseems to me more curious than useful."
"You wanted some ink. This pigment, mixed with lime-juice, will form abeautiful red ink. Will you lend me your handkerchief and permit me totry if I have forgotten the method by which these little insects areobtained?" He asked her to hold her handkerchief under a bough of theTunal tree, where the fruit was ripe. He then shook the bough. Someinsects fell at once into the cloth. A great number rose and buzzed alittle in the sun not a yard from where they were born; but the sun driedtheir blood so promptly that they soon fell dead in the handkerchief.Those that the sun so killed went through three phases of color beforetheir eyes. They fell down black or nearly. They whitened on the cloth;and after that came gradually to their final color, a flaming crimson.The insect thus treated appeared the most vivid of all.
They soon secured about half a teacupful; they were rolled up and putaway, then they sat down and made a very hearty meal, for it was now pasttwo o'clock. They re-entered the boat, and, passing once more into themorass, they found the channel of the bayou as it approached the northernshore less difficult of navigation. The bottom became sandy and hard, andthe presence of trees in the swamp proved that spots of _terra firma_were more frequent. But the water shallowed, and, as they opened theshore, he saw with great vexation that the tide in receding had left thebar at the mouth of the canal visible in some parts. He pushed on,however, until the boat grounded. This was a sad affair. There lay thesea not fifty yards ahead. Hazel leaped out, and examined and forded thechannel, which at this place was about two hundred feet wide. He found anarrow passage near the eastern side, and to this he towed the boat. Thenhe begged Miss Rolleston to land, and relieved the boat of the mast,sail, and oars. Thus lightened, he dragged her into the passage; but thetime occupied in these preparations had been also occupied by Nature--thetide had receded, and the cutter stuck immovably in the waterway, aboutsix fathoms short of deeper water.
"What is to be done now?" inquired Helen, when Hazel returned to herside, panting, but cheerful.
"We must await the rising of the tide. I fear we are imprisoned here forthree hours at least."
There was no help for it. Helen made light of the misfortune. The spotwhere they had landed was inclosed between the two issues of the lagoon.They walked along the shore to the more easterly and the narrower canal,and, on arriving, Hazel found to his great annoyance that there was amplewater to have floated the cutter had he selected that, the leastpromising road. He suggested a return by the road they came, and, passinginto the other canal, by that to reach the sea. They hurried back, butfound by this time the tide had left the cutter high and dry on the sand.So they had no choice but to wait.
Having three hours to spare, Hazel asked Miss Rolleston's permission toascend the mountain. She assented to remain near the boat while he wasengaged in this expedition. The ascent was too rugged and steep for herpowers, and the sea-shore and adjacent groves would find her ampleamusement during his absence. She accompanied him to the bank of thesmaller lagoon, which he forded, and waving an adieu to her he plungedinto the dense wood with which the sides of the mountain were clothed.
She waited some time, and then she heard his voice shouting to her fromthe heights above. The mountain-top was about three-quarters of a milefrom where she stood, but seemed much nearer. She turned back toward theboat, walking slowly, but paused as a faint and distant cry again reachedher ear. It was not repeated, and then she entered the grove.
The ground beneath her feet was soft with velvety moss, and the darkfoliage of the trees rendered the air cool and deliciously fragrant.After wandering for some time, she regained the edge of the grove nearthe boat, and selecting a spot at the foot of an aged cypress, she satdown with her back against its trunk. Then she took out Arthur's letter,and began to read those impassioned sentences; as she read she sigheddeeply, as earnestly she found herself pitying Arthur's condition morethan she regretted her own. She fell into reverie, and from reverie intoa drowsy languor. How long she remained in this state she could notremember, but a slight rustle overhead recalled her senses. Believing itto be a bird moving in the branches, she was resigning herself again torest, when she became sensible of a strange emotion--a conviction thatsomething was watching her with a fixed gaze. She cast her eyes around,but saw nothing. She looked upward. From the tree immediately above herlap depended a snake, its tail coiled around a dead branch. The reptilehung straight, its eyes fixed like two rubies upon Helen's, as veryslowly it let itself down by its uncoiling tail. Now its head was on alevel with hers; in another moment it must drop into her lap.
She was paralyzed.
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