THE ISLAND IN THE SKY
CHAPTER 4.
They clung tightly to the ropes, but the breeze was with them, so aftera few moments, when they became accustomed to the motion, they began toenjoy the ride immensely.
Larger and larger grew the island, and although they were headeddirectly toward it, the umbrella seemed to rise higher and higher intothe air the farther it traveled. They had not journeyed ten minutesbefore they came directly over the island, and looking down they couldsee the forests and meadows far below them. But the umbrella kept up itsrapid flight.
"Hold on, there!" cried Cap'n Bill. "If it ain't keerful the ol' thingwill pass way by the island."
"I--I'm sure it has passed it already," exclaimed Trot "What's wrong,Button-Bright? Why don't we stop?"
Button-Bright seemed astonished too.
"Perhaps I didn't say it right," he replied, after a moment's thought.Then, looking up at the umbrella, he repeated, distinctly: "I said Iwanted to go to Sky Island! Sky Island; don't you understand?"
The umbrella swept steadily along, getting farther and farther out tosea and rising higher and higher toward the clouds.
"Mack'rel an' herrings!" roared Cap'n Bill, now really frightened;"ain't there any blamed way at all to stop her?"
"None that I know of," said Button-Bright, anxiously.
"P'raps," said Trot, after a pause during which she tried hard to think,"p'raps 'Sky Island' isn't the name of that island, at all."
"Why, we know very well it ain't the name of it," yelled Cap'n Bill,from below. "We jus' called it that 'cause its right name is too hard tosay."
"That's the whole trouble, then," returned Button-Bright. "Somewhere inthe world there's a real Sky Island, and having told the Magic Umbrellato take us there, it's going to do so."
"Well, I declare!" gasped the sailorman; "can't we land anywhere else?"
"Not unless you care to tumble off," said the boy. "I've told theumbrella to take us to Sky Island, so that's the exact place we're boundfor. I'm sorry. It was your fault for giving me the wrong name."
They glided along in silence for a while. The island was now far behindthem, growing small in the distance.
"Where do you s'pose the real Sky Island can be?" asked Trot presently.
"We can't tell anything about it until we get there," Button-Brightanswered. "Seems to me I've heard of the Isle of Skye, but that's overin Great Britain, somewhere the other side of the world; and it isn'tSky Island, anyhow."
"This miser'ble ol' umbrel is too pertic'ler," growled Cap'n Bill. "Itwon't let you change your mind an' it goes ezzac'ly where you say."
"If it didn't," said Trot, "we'd never know where we were going."
"We don't know now," said the sailor. "One thing's certain, folks: we'regett'n' a long way from home."
"And see how the clouds are rolling just above us," remarked the boy,who was almost as uneasy as Cap'n Bill.
"We're in the sky, all right," said the girl. "If there could be anisland up here, among the clouds, I'd think it was there we're going."
"Couldn't there be one?" asked Button-Bright. "Why couldn't there be anisland in the sky that would be named Sky Island?"
"Of course not!" declared Cap'n Bill. "There wouldn't be anything tohold it up, you know."
"What's holding _us_ up?" asked Trot.
"Magic, I guess."
"Then magic might hold an island in the sky.... Whee-e-e-e! what a blackcloud!"
It grew suddenly dark, for they were rushing through a thick cloud thatrolled around them in billows. Trot felt little drops of moisturestriking her face and knew her clothing was getting damp and soggy.
"It's a rain cloud," she said to Button-Bright, "and it seems like anawful big one, 'cause it takes so long for us to pass through it."
The umbrella never hesitated a moment. It made a path through the lengthof the heavy black cloud at last and carried its passengers into amisty, billowy bank of white, which seemed as soft and fleecy as alady's veil. When this broke away they caught sight of a majesticrainbow spanning the heavens, its gorgeous colors glinting brightly inthe sun, its arch perfect and unbroken from end to end. But it was onlya glimpse they had, for quickly they dove into another bank of cloudsand the rainbow disappeared.
Here the clouds were not black, nor heavy, but they assumed queershapes. Some were like huge ships, some like forest trees, and otherspiled themselves into semblances of turreted castles and wonderfulpalaces. The shapes shifted here and there continually and the voyagersbegan to be bewildered by the phantoms.
"Seems to me we're goin' down," called Trot.
"Down where?" asked Cap'n Bill.
"Who knows?" said Button-Bright. "But we're dropping, all right."
It was a gradual descent. The Magic Umbrella maintained a uniform speed,swift and unfaltering, but its path through the heavens was now in theshape of an arch, as a flying arrow falls. The queer shapes of theclouds continued for some time, and once or twice Trot was a littlefrightened when a monstrous airy dragon passed beside them, or a hugegiant stood upon a peak of cloud and stared savagely at the intrudersinto his domain. But none of these fanciful, vapory creatures seemedinclined to molest them or to interfere with their flight and after awhile the umbrella dipped below this queer cloudland and entered aclear space where the sky was of an exquisite blue color.
"Oh, look!" called Cap'n Bill. "There's land below us."
The boy and girl leaned over and tried to see this land, but Cap'n Billwas also leaning over and his big body hid all that was just underneaththem.
"Is it an island?" asked Trot, anxiously.
"Seems so," the old sailor replied. "The blue is around all one side ofit an' a pink sunshine around the other side. There's a big cloud justover the middle; but I guess it's surely an island, Trot, an' bein' asit's in the sky, it's likely to be Sky Island."
"Then we shall land there," said the boy confidently. "I knew theumbrella couldn't make a mistake."
Presently Cap'n Bill spoke again.
"We're goin' down on the blue part o' the island," he said. "I can seetrees, an' ponds, an' houses. Hold tight, Trot! Hold tight,Butt'n-Bright! I'm afeared we're a-goin' to bump somethin'!"
They were certainly dropping very quickly, now, and the rush of air madetheir eyes fill with water, so that they could not see much below them.Suddenly the basket that was dangling below Cap'n Bill's seat strucksomething with a loud thud and this was followed by a yell of anger.Cap'n Bill sat flat upon the ground, landing with a force that jarredthe sailorman and made his teeth click together, while down upon himcame the seat that Trot and Button-Bright occupied, so that for a momentthey were all tangled up.
"Get off from me! Get off from my feet, I say!" cried an excited voice."What in the Sky do you mean by sitting on my feet? Get off! Get off atonce!"