CHAPTER XX
THE KEEPER OF THE LAGOON
The woods here had been less affected by the cyclone than those uponthe other side of the island, but there had been destruction enough. Toreach the place he wanted, Dick had to climb over felled trees andfight his way through a tangle of vines that had once hung overhead.
The banana trees had not suffered at all; as if by some specialdispensation of Providence even the great bunches of fruit had beenscarcely injured, and he proceeded to climb and cut them. He cut twobunches, and with one across his shoulder came back down through thetrees.
He had got half across the sands, his head bent under the load, when adistant call came to him, and, raising his head, he saw the boat adriftin the middle of the lagoon, and the figure of the girl in the bow ofit waving to him with her arm. He saw a scull floating on the waterhalf-way between the boat and the shore, which she had no doubt lost inan attempt to paddle the boat back. He remembered that the tide wasgoing out.
He flung his load aside, and ran down the beach; in a moment he was inthe water. Emmeline, standing up in the boat, watched him.
When she found herself adrift, she had made an effort to row back, andin her hurry shipping the sculls she had lost one. With a single scullshe was quite helpless, as she had not the art of sculling a boat fromthe stern. At first she was not frightened, because she knew that Dickwould soon return to her assistance; but as the distance between boatand shore increased, a cold hand seemed laid upon her heart. Looking atthe shore it seemed very far away, and the view towards the reef wasterrific, for the opening had increased in apparent size, and the greatsea beyond seemed drawing her to it.
She saw Dick coming out of the wood with the load on his shoulder, andshe called to him. At first he did not seem to hear, then she saw himlook up, cast the bananas away, and come running down the sand to thewater’s edge. She watched him swimming, she saw him seize the scull,and her heart gave a great leap of joy.
Towing the scull and swimming with one arm, he rapidly approached theboat. He was quite close, only ten feet away, when Emmeline saw behindhim, shearing through the clear, rippling water and advancing withspeed, a dark triangle that seemed made of canvas stretched upon asword point.
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Forty years ago he had floated adrift on the sea in the form andlikeness of a small shabby pine-cone, a prey to anything that mightfind him. He had escaped the jaws of the dog-fish, and the jaws of thedog-fish are a very wide door; he had escaped the albicore and squid:his life had been one long series of miraculous escapes from death. Outof a billion like him born in the same year, he and a few others onlyhad survived.
For thirty years he had kept the lagoon to himself, as a ferocioustiger keeps a jungle. He had known the palm tree on the reef when itwas a seedling, and he had known the reef even before the palm tree wasthere. The things he had devoured, flung one upon another, would havemade a mountain; yet he was as clear of enmity as a sword, as cruel, andas soulless. He was the spirit of the lagoon.
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Emmeline screamed, and pointed to the thing behind the swimmer. Heturned, saw it, dropped the oar and made for the boat. She had seizedthe remaining scull and stood with it poised, then she hurled it bladeforemost at the form in the water, now fully visible, and close on itsprey.
She could not throw a stone straight, yet the scull went like an arrowto the mark, balking the pursuer and saving the pursued. In a momentmore his leg was over the gunwale, and he was saved.
But the scull was lost.