Part 26 (1/2)
I felt like one long lost in the desert, who beholds afar off upon the horizon some signs of the habitation of civilised men. Perhaps the dark outlines of trees--perhaps the blue smoke rising over some distant fire--but something that produces within him a hope that he will soon be restored to the a.s.sociation of his fellow-men.
Just such a hope had sprung up within me, every moment becoming stronger, till it amounted almost to a feeling of certainty.
It was perhaps this very confidence that kept me from rus.h.i.+ng too hastily towards the execution of my plan. It was a matter of too much importance to be trifled with--an enterprise too grand either to be commenced or carried through in a reckless or hurried manner. Some unforeseen object might become an obstacle--some accident might arise, which would lead to failure and ruin.
To avoid all chances of this, therefore, I resolved to proceed with as much caution as I could command; and before making any commencement of the work designed, to consider it in all its bearings. For this purpose, I sat down within the cloth-case, and yielded up my whole power of thought to an examination of my intended task.
One thing appeared very clear to me--that the task would be one of very considerable magnitude. As already stated, I knew that I was near the bottom of the hold; and I was not ignorant of the great depth of the hold of a large s.h.i.+p. I remembered that in slipping down the rope-tackle, it was as much as I could do to hold on till I had reached the bottom; and a glance upward after I had reached it, showed the hatchway a vast height above me. I reasoned, then, that if all that s.p.a.ce was filled with merchandise quite up to the hatch--and no doubt it was--then I should have a long tunnel to make.
Besides, I should not only have to cut upwards, but also in a direction leading towards the hatchway--that is, nearly half across the breadth of the s.h.i.+p. This last did not trouble me so much; for I was pretty sure I would not be able to go in a direct line, on account of the nature of the packages I should encounter. A bale of linen, for instance, or some like unwieldy substance, would have to be got round; and, at each stage, I should have a choice either to proceed upward or in a horizontal direction--whichever might appear the easiest.
In this way I should rise by steps, as it were, obliquing always in the direction of the hatchway.
Neither the number of the packages I might have to burrow through, nor the distance, troubled me so much as the materials which they might contain. It was this thought which gave me the most concern; for the difficulty would be greater or less according to the materials I should have to remove out of my way. Should many of the articles prove to be of that kind, that, when taken out of the cases, would become more bulky, and could not be compressed again, then I should have to dread the ”back-water;” and in reality this was one of the worst of my apprehensions. I had experienced already what a misfortune it would be, since, but for the lucky circ.u.mstance of the brandy-cask, the plan I was now about to attempt would have been altogether impracticable.
Linen I dreaded more than any other material. It would be more difficult to get through, and when removed from its close-pressed bales, could not possibly be repacked in so small a s.p.a.ce. I could only hope, therefore, that the cargo contained a very small quant.i.ty of this beautiful and useful fabric.
I thought over many things which might be comprised in that great wooden chamber. I even tried to remember what sort of a country Peru was, and what articles of commerce would be most likely to be carried there from England. But I could make very little of this train of reasoning, so ignorant was I of commercial geography. One thing was certain: it was what is called an ”a.s.sorted cargo,” for such are the cargoes usually sent to the seaports of the Pacific. I might, therefore, expect to encounter a little of this, and a little of that--in short, everything produced in our great manufacturing cities.
After I had spent nearly half an hour in this sort of conjecturing. I began to perceive that it could serve no purpose. It would be only guesswork, at best, and it was evident I could not tell what quality of metal the mine contained, until I had first sunk my shaft.
The moment to commence that labour had arrived; and, throwing reflection for the time behind me, I betook myself to the task.
CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE.
THE LUXURY OF STANDING ERECT.
It will be remembered that in my former expedition into the two boxes of cloth--while in hopes of finding more biscuits, or something else that was eatable--I had ascertained the sort of packages that surrounded them, as well as those that were placed above. It will be remembered, also, that on that end of the first cloth-case which lay towards the hatchway I had found a bale of linen; but on the top of the same case rested another of cloth, apparently similar to itself. Into this one on the top I had already effected an entrance; and therefore I could now count upon having made so much way _upward_. By emptying the upper case of its contents, I should thus have gained one clear stage in the right direction; and considering the time and trouble it took to hew my way through the side of one box, and then through the adjacent side of another, this portion of my work already accomplished was a matter of congratulation. I say already accomplished, for it only remained to drag down the pieces of cloth contained in the upper box, and stow them away to the rear.
To do this, then, was the first act of my new enterprise, and I proceeded to its execution without further delay.
After all, it did not prove a very easy task. I experienced the same difficulty as before, in detaching the pieces of cloth from one another, and drawing them forth from their tightly-fitting places. How-ever, I succeeded in getting them clear; and then taking them, one at a time, I carried, or rather pushed them before me, until I had got them to the very farthest corner of my quarters, by the end of the old brandy-cask.
There I arranged them, not in any loose or negligent manner, but with the greatest precision and care; packing them into the smallest bulk, and leaving no empty corners, between them and the timbers, big enough to have given room to a rat.
Not that I cared about rats sheltering themselves there. I no longer troubled my head about them; and although I had reason to know that there were still some of them in the neighbourhood, my late sanguinary _razzia_ among them had evidently rendered them afraid to come within reach of me. The terrible screeching which their companions had uttered, while I was pounding the life out of them, had rung loudly all through the hold of the s.h.i.+p, and had acted upon those of the survivors, that had heard it, as a salutary warning. No doubt they were greatly frightened by what they had heard; and perceiving that I was a dangerous fellow-pa.s.senger, would be likely to give me a ”wide berth” during the remainder of the voyage.
It was not any thought about the rats, then, that caused me to caulk up every corner so closely, but simply with the view of economising s.p.a.ce; for, as I have already said, this was the point about which I had the greatest apprehensions.
Proceeding, then, in this vigorous but careful manner, I at length emptied the upper box, and finished by stowing away its contents behind me. I had managed the latter to my entire satisfaction, and I was under the belief that I had repacked the pieces of cloth in such a manner as to lose scarcely the bulk of one of them of my valuable s.p.a.ce.
The result had an encouraging effect upon me, and produced a cheerfulness of spirits to which I had long been a stranger. In this pleasant mood I mounted into the upper box--the one which I had just cleared--and after placing one of the loose boards across the bottom, which had been partially removed, I sat down upon it, leaving my legs to hang over into the empty s.p.a.ce below. In this att.i.tude, which was entirely new to me, and in which I had plenty of room to sit upright and at my ease, I found a new source of gratification. Confined so long within a chamber whose greatest height was little over three feet, while my own was four, I had been compelled to stoop in a crouching att.i.tude whenever I attempted to stand; and I was even obliged to sit with my legs bent, and my knees on a level with my chin. These inconveniences are but slight, when one has only to suffer them for a short while; but under long endurance, they become irksome and even painful. It was, therefore, not only a release, but a great luxury to me, to find that I had room enough to sit upright, and with my legs at full stretch.
Better still, I could also _stand_ erect, for the two boxes now communicated with each other, and it was full six feet from the bottom of the one to the top of the other. Of course my own height being only four, left two feet of s.p.a.ce between the crown of my head and the ceiling of my new apartment, which I could not even touch with the tips of my fingers.
Perceiving my advantages, I did not remain long seated. I had gone into the upper box, chiefly for the purpose of making a survey of its dimensions, and also to ascertain whether I had quite cleared out its contents; and then I had sat down as described. But I was not long in this att.i.tude, when it occurred to me that I could enjoy a ”stand up”
still better; and with this idea I slipped back again till my feet rested on the bottom of the lower case, while my head, neck, and shoulders remained within the compartment of the upper. This gave me an att.i.tude perfectly erect, and I was not slow in perceiving that this was for me the true position of rest. Contrary to the usual habit of human bipeds, standing was to me easier than sitting; but there was nothing odd about the thing, when it is remembered how many long days and nights I had spent either seated or on my knees; and I now longed to a.s.sume that proud att.i.tude which distinguishes mankind from the rest of creation. In truth, I felt it to be a positive luxury to be permitted once more to stand at full height; and for a long while I remained in this att.i.tude without moving a limb.
I was not idle, however. My mind was active as ever; and the subject with which it was occupied was the direction in which I should next carry my tunnel--whether still upward, through the lid of the newly-emptied case, or whether through the end that lay toward the hatchway? The choice lay between a _horizontal_ and a _vertical_ direction. There were reasons in favour of each--and reasons also that influenced me against one and the other--and to weigh these reasons, and finally determine upon which direction I should take, was a matter of so much importance that it was a good while before I could bring my plans to a satisfactory conclusion.