by Charles King
come with me at once!"
He picked the little fairy up, and quickly had her safely below again.
The men were busy battening down when he returned to deck. Here andthere along the bulwarks loose ropes were left that the men, if needful,might lash themselves to the rigging.
But now the rain began to come down, first in scattered drops, then in ahot and awful torrent. Louder and louder roared the thunder, brighterand still more vivid flashed the lightning. The thunder-claps followedthe lightning so quickly that Dickson knew it was very near.
"Lash yourselves, lads!" the skipper roared through thespeaking-trumpet. "She is coming!"
Ah! come she did. And no shoreman can ever tell what the vehemence of acircular hurricane like this sweeping across the ocean is like instrength and vehemence.
Dickson had just time to shout, "The first shock will be the strongest,boys," when the terrible storm burst upon the doomed ship with aviolence indescribable, and a noise like a hundred great guns fired atonce.
Thrown at first almost on her beam-ends, she soon righted, and now shewas tossed about like a cork. High up on a mighty wave at one moment,down in a dark gulf the next. The foam of the breaking waters and theincessant lightning was the only light they had, and in this glare thefaces of the crew looked blue and ghastly.
Bravely did the men stick to the wheel. Hall himself had gone earlybelow to comfort the ladies. Yet, although the waves and spray weremaking a clean breach over the ship, luckily she was well battened down,and it was dry below. The seas that tumbled inboard were hot andseething.
Mr Hall prevailed upon his wife and daughter to lie down on thelockers, or couches, and to these he did his best to lash them; but sogreat was the uncertain motion, that he had to clutch with one hand tothe table while he did so.
The air down below was as hot as the waters on deck; hot and sulphurous,so that the perspiration stood on the brows of all below. It was indeeda fearful storm.
But it lulled at last, though two men had been called to their account--swept overboard in the clutches of a great green sea.
It lulled; but the intensity of the pitchy darkness still continued. Itwas no longer a circular storm, but a gale, settling down to less thanhalf a gale towards the commencement of the morning watch. But thebinnacle had been washed away, and the men were steering only by blindchance.
Just as daylight, grey and gloomy, began to appear in the east, an awfultell-tale rasping was heard beneath the keel of the _Wolverine_, andalmost at once two of her masts went by the board.
"Axes, men!" cried Dickson--"axes, and clear away the wreck!"
It was a dangerous and difficult task, with every now and then a hugesea rushing in from astern, and all but sweeping the decks.
Daylight came in quickly now, though clouds seemingly a mile in depthobscured the sun, and the horizon was close on board of them all around.
But yonder, looming through the mist, was a coral shore, with hugerugged, and apparently volcanic, mountains rising behind it. Fearingshe would soon break up, Captain Dickson determined to lower a boat atall hazards, manned by four of his strongest and best sailors. In thisHall begged that his wife might go with the maid, and the request wasgranted. Mr Hall watched that boat as she rose and fell on thetroubled waters with the greatest anxiety and dread. Suddenly hestaggered and clutched the rigging, and his eyes seemed starting fromhis head.
"Oh, my God! my God!" he cried. "My wife! my wife!"
For a bigger wave than any, a huge breaker or bore, in fact came rushingfrom seawards and engulfed the unfortunate boat.
And she was never seen, nor anyone who had gone in her. The crew andpoor Mrs Hall, with her maid, now--
"Lie where pearls lie deep, Yet none o'er their low bed may weep."
Mr Hall was led below by the kind-hearted captain himself, and threwhimself on a couch in an agony of grief. Dickson forced him to take alarge stimulant, and put a man to watch him, fearing he might rush ondeck and pitch himself into the sea.
As to their whereabouts, or the latitude and longitude of that strange,wild island, Dickson knew nothing. He had many times and oft sailedthese seas, and was certain he had never seen those lofty peaks andrugged hills before. Although the wind continued, and the keel wasbreaking up, although she was fast making water below, he determined tohang on to her as long as possible, for there was a probability that thestorm might soon die away.
Some of the crew, however, grew impatient at last, and, in spite ofthreats, lowered another boat, into which crowded six men.
Alas! they, too, went down before they were many yards from the wreck.
But see these figures now flitting up and down on the coral sands! And,strangest sight of all, there is among those dusky, almost nakedsavages, the tall and commanding figure of a white woman, dressed inskins. The savages are evidently obeying her slightest behest, for aqueen she is.
With ropes of grass they are stoutly binding together three largecanoes, flanked by outriggers, thus forming a kind of wide raft. Thenthese are launched, and right rapidly do the paddles flash and drip andply, as the triple craft nears the ship. The raft seems to come throughthe seas rather than over them, but busy hands are baling, and, by thetime this strange construction arrives on the lee bow, the canoes arefree of water.
The _Wolverine_ has but few on board her now, only eight men of thecrew, with the officers, little Matty, Hall, and Miss Hall. Theselatter are lowered first, with three men. They are safely landedthrough the surf, and Dickson can see the strange white woman advancetowards them with outstretched arms.
The raft comes back again, and all on board are now taken off, CaptainDickson being the last to leave the doomed ship.
Oscar, the grand Newfoundland, prefers to swim. No terrors have thewaves or surf for him, and he is on shore barking joyfully as he racesup and down the beach long before the raft rasps upon the silver sands.
The strange, skin-dressed lady met them. She was English, and dubbedherself Queen of the Isle of Flowers.
"For ten long years," she told Captain Dickson, "I have been here, andyours is the first ship I have seen. But come to my house behind thehills, and I will tell you my strange story later on."
Though drenched to the skin, they all most gladly followed the Queen, upglens, and by zigzag paths, and over wild hills, till at last they cameto one of the wildest and most beautiful valleys these adventurers hadever beheld. Now they could understand how the Queen had named it theIsle of Flowers.
A beautiful stream went meandering through the valley with every speciesof tropical or semi-tropical flowering trees it is possible to imaginegrowing on its banks. No wonder that Matty, whom Reginald carried inhis strong arms, cried:
"Oh, doc, dear, zis (this) is surely fairyland! Oh, doc, I'se dizzy wi'beauty!"
"Hurry on," said the Queen; "a keen wind is blowing on this hilltop."
In the midst of a forest of magnolias that scented the air all around,they found the road that led to the Queen's palace. A long, lowbuilding it was, and seemingly comfortable; but the path that led to itwas bordered on each side with human skulls placed upon poles.
Noticing Dickson's look of horror, she smiled.
"These are the skulls of our enemies--a tribe that in war canoes visitedour island a few years ago, but never found their way back. My peopleinsisted on placing those horrid relics there. Had I refused mypermission, I should have been deposed, probably even slain."
Into one room she showed the ladies, the officers and few remaining meninto another. Here were couches all around, with comfortable mats ofgrass, and on these, tired and weary, everyone lay and many slept, tilltheir garments were dried in the sun by the Queen's servants.
It was afternoon now, but the wind had lulled, and soon it was night,clear and starry. The vessel had gone on shore at low tide, but sometime during the middle watch a great wave had lifted her and thrown heron her beam-ends high up on the coral sands.
Next morning, when Dickso
n and Reginald went over the hills, after ahearty breakfast of roast yams and delicious fish, they found that thesea had receded so far that they could walk around the wreck on the drysand.
That day was spent--with the assistance of the Queen's specialservants--in saving from the vessel everything of value, especiallystores, and the ship's instruments.
Casks of rum and flour, casks of beans, and even butter, with nearly allthe bedding and clothes. These latter were spread on the beach to dry.Inland, to the Queen's mansion, everything else was borne on litters.
But the greatest "save" of all was the arms and ammunition, to saynothing of tools of every description, and canvas wherewith good tentsmight be built later on.
When all was secured that could be secured, and the remainder of thecrew had joined them--
"Men," said Dickson, "let us pray."
Down on the coral strand knelt the shipwrecked men, while, with eyesstreaming with tears, Captain