Part 2 (2/2)

Much as I regretted it, I was cowill I forcedtotally different

It took ious reatly delighted when I found I could oncehypercritical and doubtful of everything Had I been cast on a luxuriant island, growing fruits and flowers, and inhabited at least by animals--how different would it have been! But here there was nothing to save the mind from madness--merely a tiny strip of sand, invisible a few hundred yards out at sea

When the fits of depression came upon me I invariably concluded that life was unbearable, and would actually rush into the sea, with the deliberate object of putting an end to ony of ree of physical suffering could have been, and death seemed to have a fascination for me that I could not resist

Yet when I foundwould coe in a swihts into different channels

Bruno always seemed to understand when I had an attack of melancholia, and he would watchinto the water, he would follow at , until he actually et the dreadful object I had in view And ould perhaps conclude by having a swi race These fits of depression always caenerally about the same hour

In spite of the apparent hopelessness offro a boat within awhatever about boat-building; but I was convinced that I could at least make a craft of soht heart, but later on paid dearly for rets For one thing, I ain, I used planks that were absurdly thick for the shell, though, of course, I was not aware of these things at the time The wreck, of course, provided me with all the ork I required In order to make the staves pliable, I soaked them in water for a week, and then heated the them to the required shape At the end of ninelabour, to which, latterly, considerable anxiety--glorious hopes and sickening fears--was added, I had built what I considered a substantial and sea-worthy sailing boat, fully fifteen feet long by four feet wide

It was a heavy ungainly looking object when finished, and it required enuity on ed, however, by htfully low in the water at the stern It was quite watertight though, having an outer covering of sharks' green hide, well s of stout canvas I also rigged up a mast, and made a sail When ht, and sympathetic Bruno jumped and yelped in unison

But when all my preparations were complete, and I had rowed out a little way, I made a discovery that nearly drove oon several miles in extent, barred by a crescent of coral rocks, over which _I could not possibly drag h the water covered the reefs at high tide it was never of sufficient depth to allow , but was always arrested at some point or other After the first acute paroxys my head with ht that when the high tides came, they would perhaps lift the boat over that terrible barrier

I waited, and waited, and waited, but alas! only to be disappointed My nine weary months of arduous travail and half-frantic anticipation were cruelly wasted At no tiet the boat out into the open sea in consequence of the rocks, and it was equally i her back up the steep slope again and across the island, where she could be launched opposite an opening in the encircling reefs So there , whose sight filled oon I soon found aot over the disappointoon I also played the part of Neptune in the very extraordinary way I have already indicated I used to wade out to where the turtles were, and on catching a big six-hundred-pounder, I would calmly sit astride on his back

Aould swim the startled creature, mostly a foot or so below the surface When he dived deeper I simply sat far back on the shell, and then he was forced to come up I steered my queer steeds in a curious way When I wanted my turtle to turn to the left, I siht eye, and _vice versa_ for the contrary direction My two big toes placed simultaneously over both his optics caused a halt so abrupt as alo fully a htened them to have me astride, and in their terror they swah sheer exhaustion

Before the wet season commenced I put a straw thatch on the roof ofas possible And it was a very necessary precaution, too, for sometimes it rained for days at a stretch The rain never kept me indoors, however, and I took exercise just the same, as I didn't bother about clothes, and rather enjoyed the shower bath I was always devising s I uiling ti poles

One day I captured a young pelican, and trained him to acco operations He also acted as a decoy

Frequently I would hide rass, whilst my pet bird walked a few yards away to attract his fellows Presently he would be joined by a whole flock, many of which I lassoed, or shot with --my almost human Bruno--I think I h he were a hu sermons to him from Gospel texts I told him in a loud voice all about my early life and school- days at Montreux; I recounted to hi with poor Peter Jensen in Singapore, right up to the present; I sang little _chansons_ to hi these he had his favourites as well as those he disliked cordially If he did not care for a song, he would set up a pitiful howl I feel convinced that this constant co saved ood spirits that I never drea to him; and his quiet, sys I knew throughout many weird and terrible years As I talked to hiently at me that I fancied he understood every word of what I was saying

When the religious ical subjects with h I never received any enlighten hted him most of all was for me to tell him that I loved him very dearly, and that he was even s of St Bernard were to benighted travellers in the snow

I knew very little abouttocrash of the eternal surf, I fashi+oned a druhtly over the open ends This I beat with a couple of sticks as an acco, and as Bruno occasionally joined in with a howl of disapproval or a yell of joy, the effect must have been picturesque if notto drown that ceaseless cr-ash, cr-ash of the breakers on the beach, from whose leday However, I escaped its sound when I lay down to sleep at night by a very siht ear I always slept on the left side

Seven wearythe horizon, I suddenly leaped into the air and screamed: ”My God! A sail! A sail!” I nearly became delirious with excitement, but, alas! the shi+p was too far out to sea to notice nals My island lay very low, and all that I could make out of the vessel in the distance was her sails She must have been fully five miles away, yet, inin a frenzy and wavingthe attention of some one on board; but it was all in vain The shi+p, which I concluded was a pearler, kept steadily on her way, and eventually disappeared below the horizon

Never can I hope to describe the gnawing pain at my heart as, hoarse and half e of the shi+p disappearing Altogether, I saw five shi+ps pass in this way during my sojourn on the island, but they were always too far out at sea to notice nals One of these vessels I knew to be a er flag-staff, as I thought the original one not high enough for its purpose Accordingly I spliced a couple of long poles together, but to my disappointment found them too heavy to raise in the air Bruno always joined in enerally the first to detect it, and he would bark and drag at me until he had drawn my attention to the new hope And I loved hiret and disappointainstat e and sympathy that were ain I h my boat was absolutely useless for the purpose of escape, I did not neglect her altogether, but sailed her about the enclosed lagoon by way of practice in the handling of her sails This was also a welcome recreation

I never feared a lack of fresh water, for when, in the dry season, the shi+p's stock and my reserve from the wet season were exhausted, I busiedto my store literally drop by drop Water was the only liquid I drank, all the tea and coffee carried on board having been rendered utterly useless

The powerful winged birds that abounded on the island one day gave e around their necks and send the help--who knows? And with ot a number of empty condensed-milk tins, and, by means of fire, separated from the cylinder the tin disc that fore with a sharp nail In a feords I conveyed inforave the approxirees, not far from the Australian lish, French, bad Dutch, German, and Italian--I then fastened round the necks of the pelicans, by hted birds, so scared by the mysterious encumbrance that _they never returned to the island_

I may say here that more than twenty years later, when I returned to civilisation, I chanced to er-birds to some old inhabitants at Fremantle, Western Australia, when, toa tin disc round its neck, bearing a e in French from a castaway, _had_ been found many years previously by an old boatman on the beach near the mouth of the Swan River But it was notwas the monotony, and so lilee any trifling little incident that happened

For exaht in June I was a up to see as the matter, I beheld dimly countless thousands of birds--Java sparrows I believe the was a little dismayed to find that reen corn And the birds were still there when I went forth in thewith their lively chatter, but the uproar they reyish-yellow bodies, with yellow beaks and pink ruffs, and they were not at all afraid ofthem, and did not atterateful to see so reat clouds the next day, ret, and as they soared heavenwards I could not help envying them their blessed freedom