Part 13 (1/2)
”That is very strange,” said I, ”for whenever I was cruising in the lagoon I always kept an eye on the shore”
”Then you moost 'ave been lookin' out abeam, or ahead, not astarn, vhere I 'appened to be,” declared Van Ryn
”Possibly,” I agreed, for I saw that the ressively disputatious humour, and I wanted to have no words with him ”Well, what happened after that? Go on with your yarn, Svorenssen”
”We saw you three or four times after that,” resumed Svorenssen, ”and once you passed so close that we easily recognised both of you
Unfortunately, ere both up a tree at the time, and were unable to descend, for the reason that there was a savage brute of a wild pig that had driven us up aloft and aiting below for us to coain
Of course we shouted our loudest, and as long as there seeood I suspect it was the roar of the surf on the reef that drowned our voices But every tiside the wreck you were steering north So at length we caed up soreed to work along-shore in a northerly direction, and try to find out where you had bestowed yourselves
”To you, sailing along easily and comfortably in your boat, I dare say it would see a few miles of open beach; but to us two, circue brutes that see on the watch for us; without thea fire as a protection; and with only our sheath-knives as weapons; obliged to enter the woods at the peril of our lives to obtain food--and as often as not driven out again without the food; able to sleep only during the day-time--and very often not even then; compelled to seek shelter in trees for hours at a tih for a whole day--to save our lives, it was sih to describe it Why, there were days--plenty of theress; when, from one cause or another, we did not make a fatho a ti our way round to you Indeed, now that I look back upon the innumerable difficulties that we had to contend with, et here at all
”Then, as an appropriate cliht fire--perhaps you saw the blaze?--and alreen thing Phew! that was an experience, with a vengeance! If I had not beheld the scene with my own eyes I could never have believed there were so reat, fierce er than a e as lions; deer of all sorts and sizes; and creatures the like of which we had never seen or heard of before--they all ca down to the beach to escape the flaht it-- they were all so thoroughly terrified that none of them interfered with the others, or with us, but all stood huddled together by the water's edge, bleating, squealing, roaring, howling--no, I cannot atte that has to be _seen_ to be understood
”Naturally, we all edged away as far as we could froan to dawn upon us all--beasts as well as ht possibly be spared, and we all with one accord set off in that direction And for a little while--twenty-four hours, or thereabout--we ether, tre, noises, too terrified to take notice of anybody or anything, and e needed food all that was necessary was to lay hold of a deer, haul him out of the crowd, and cut his throat--and there was all the food we required
”But that condition of affairs was of course quite temporary No sooner had the fire burned itself out than the creatures recovered their courage and turned upon each other like--well, like wild beasts Dirk and I quickly recognised that the north end of the island was too perilous a place for us There was therefore nothing for us but to escape frohbours while we could, and this could only be done by bearing away south again, which we did
”There was no cause for further fear of wild beasts as we pursued our journey southward; there was not a living thing to be seen anywhere ashore; even the birds had all vanished That condition of affairs was of course all in our favour, so far as it went; but the unfortunate part of it was that the fruit was also destroyed; so that, while we could now rest undisturbed at night, our only food consisted of such raw shell- fish as we could find at the in of the beach; and we could find no fresh water ith to quench our thirst
”For two days and nights ere in that predica terrible, and the only relief we could obtain--and it was very partial-- was to enter the sea and lie down in it for about tencare not to go far enough in to give the sharks a chance to get at us Then, e felt sufficiently relieved, we staggered along for a few yards, repeating the process about thirty or forty tith, however, we found a stream of fresh water and ca froth found fresh water, we could not suain
”One day, however, as ere seeking shell-fish on the beach near the mouth of the stream, Dirk suddenly re the ridge of that hill yonder, and tell me what you see'
”I did so; and presently sahat had attracted his attention There was a little patch of green that looked as though it ht be trees, while all beloas black, where the fire had been
”'It certainly looks very like a clump of trees,' said I; 'and where there are trees there will also probably be fruit Let us take a walk up there and investigate'
”'And what about leaving this fresh water?' asked Dirk
”'No need to do that,' said I 'The stream comes down froood part of the way
Surely it is worth while to risk it'
”So we started, following the course of the stream until we had arrived very near to our destination And when that was reached we found it to be a nice little patch of forest, rising to the top of the hill and dipping down on the other side of it for a distance of about two miles
And the reason why it had not been burnt with the rest was because it stood on the lee side of a lake big enough to cut off the flames from that little patch
”There were plenty of birds there; and e proceeded to investigate we soon found that there were animals also--small monkeys, creatures very like hares but with short ears, a few deer; but nothing dangerous so far as we could discover And there was an abundance of fruit of several kinds also; we therefore quickly deter any farther There was a great patch of reeds along the western end of the lake, and here thousands of wild duck used to settle every night; and we soon found that it was an easythe reeds and catching them as they swam past
”We built ourselves a hut of wattles, thatched with palm leaves, that kept us dry and comfortable when it rained So happy and easy in our ot your existence; and e happened to remember, we used to say to each other: 'Never mind; we are every bit as coer' And so we did, deferring our departure day after day and week after week, until finally the ducks grew shy of us, and the other creatures seeth a ti Then, too, we began to feel lonesoet snappy and short-tempered with each other; to drearew thoroughly dissatisfied with the life ere living; and one day, after we had had one of our now frequent quarrels, I said to Dirk:--
”'Look here, otten those other two
Do you think that ato settle down and be satisfied to pass the reroup of desert islands like these? Because, if you do, I don't Just consider the facts There is he and the boy; and you may safely bet that, whatever else they may have done, or left undone, they will have taken care to save the treasure that we found aboard that old galleon; and what good will it do theood at all
Therefore I think we et away fro the treasure with them; and then where do _we_ come in, and what becomes of our share of it? Let us cut adrift from this spot--which, anyhow, is of no further use to us--and join theo with them, and take our share of the treasure'