CHAPTER XIX.
THE CATASTROPHE.
The _Esmeralda_ was putting out to sea when I thought of a lastexpedient to draw the attention of her captain. Filling my revolver withcartridges which I had loose in my pockets, I fired all the chambers asfast as I could snap the trigger.
My signals were heard, and Anderson proved true to his bargain. Heimmediately reversed his engines, and, when he had backed in as close ashe thought safe, sent a boat ashore for us. We got into it without anyobstruction from the cowering natives, who only shrank from us inhorror, now that their prayers had failed to move us. The moment ourboat was made fast to the steamer's davit ropes and we were pulled outof the water, "full speed ahead" was rung from the bridge. We wereraised to the deck while the vessel was getting up speed.
I crawled up the ladder to the bridge feebly, for I was becoming stifffrom the bruises of the fall from my horse. Anderson received me coldly,and listened indifferently to my thanks. An agreement such as ourshardly prepared me for his loyalty.
"Oh, as to that," he interrupted, "when I make a bargain my word is mybond. On this occasion I am inclined to think the indenture will be afinal one."
His bargain was a hard one, but, having made it, he abided faithfully byits conditions. He was honest, therefore, in his own way.
"How far can you get out in fifteen minutes?" I asked.
"We may make six or seven knots. But what is the good of that? Therewill be an earthquake on that island on a liberal scale--on such a scalethat this ship would have very little chance in the wave that willfollow us if we were fifty miles at sea."
"You have taken every precaution, of course--"
Anderson here looked at me contemptuously, and, with an air of sarcasticadmiration, he said:
"You have guessed it at the first try. That is precisely what I havedone."
"Pshaw! don't take offence at trifles at a time like this," I saidtestily. "If you knew as much about that earthquake as I do, you wouldbe in no humour for bandying phrases."
"Might I ask how much you do know about it? You could not have foreseenthe trouble more clearly if you had made it yourself."
"I did not make it myself, but I know the means which the man who didemployed, and but for me that earthquake would have wrecked this earth."
Anderson made no direct answer to this, but he said earnestly:
"You will now go below, sir. You are done up. Roberts will take you tothe doctor."
"I am not done up, and I mean to see it out," I retorted doggedly. Mynervous system was completely unhinged, and a fit of stupid obstinacycame on me which rendered any interference with my actions intolerable.
"Then you cannot see it out upon my bridge," Anderson said. Thedetermined tone in which he spoke only added to my impotent wrath.
"Very well, I will return to the deck, and if any of your men shouldattempt to interfere with me he will do so at his peril." With that, Islung my revolver round so as to have it ready to my hand. I was besidemyself. My conduct was already bad enough, but I made it worse before Ileft the bridge.
"And if you, Anderson, disobey my orders--my orders, do you hear?--anexplosion such as took place in the middle of the English channel shalltake place in the middle of this ship."
"For God's sake leave the bridge. I want my wits about me, and I have nointention of earning another exhibition of your devilries."
"Then be careful not to trouble me again." Thus after having passedthrough much danger with a spirit not unbecoming--as I hope--an Englishgentleman, I acted, when the worst was passed, like a peevish schoolboy.I am ashamed of my conduct in this small matter, and trust it will passwithout much notice in the narrative of events of greater moment.
On deck, Natalie Brande, Edith Metford, and Percival were standingtogether, their eyes fixed on the island. Edith's face was deathlywhite, even in the ruddy glow which was now over land and sea. When Isaw her pallor, my evil temper passed away.
"It would be impossible for you to be quite well," I said to heranxiously; "but has anything happened since I left you? You are verypale."
"Oh no," she answered, "I'm all right; a little faint after that ride. Ishall be better soon."
Natalie turned her weird eyes on me and said in the hollow voice we hadheard once before--when she spoke to us on the island--"That is her wayof telling you that your horse broke her right arm when she caught himfor you. She held him, you remember, with her left hand. The doctor hasset the limb. She will not suffer long."
"Heaven help us, this awful night," Edith cried. "How do you know that,Natalie?"
"I know much now, but I shall know more soon." After this she would notspeak again.
With every pound of steam on that the _Esmeralda's_ boilers would bearwithout bursting, we were now plunging through the great rollers of theArafura Sea. Everything had indeed been done to put the vessel in trim.She was cleared for action, so to speak. And a gallant fight she madewhen the issue was knit. When the hour of midnight must be near athand, I looked at my watch. It was one minute to twelve o'clock.
Thirty seconds more!
The stupendous corona of flame which hung over the island was pierced bylong lines of smoke that stretched far above the glare and clutched withsooty fingers at the stars, now fitfully coming back to view at ourdistance. The rumbling of internal thunder waxed louder.
Fifteen seconds now!
Fearful peals rent the atmosphere. Vast tongues of flame protrudedheavenward. The elements must be melting in that fervent heat. Theblazing bowels of the earth were pouring forth.
Twelve, midnight!
A reverberation thundered out which shook the solid earth, and a roaringhell-breath of flame and smoke belched up so awful in its dreadmagnificence that every man who saw it and lived to tell his story mightjustly have claimed to have seen perdition. In that hurricane ofincandescent matter the island was blotted out for ever from the map ofthis world.
Notwithstanding the speed of the _Esmeralda_ she was a sloth whencompared with the speed of the wave from such an earthquake. From theglare of the illumination to perfect darkness the contrast was suddenand extreme. But the blackness of the ocean was soon whitened by thesnowy plumes of the avalanche of water which was now racing us, farastern as yet, but gaining fast. I, who had no business about the shiprequiring my presence in any special part, decided to wait on deck andlash myself to the forward, which would be practically the lee-side of adeckhouse. Edith Metford we prevailed on to go below, that she might notrun the risk of further injury to her fractured arm. As she left us shewhispered to me, "So Natalie will be with you at the end, and I--" a sobstopped her. And it came into my mind at that moment that this girl hadacted very nobly, and that I had hardly appreciated her and all that shehad done for me.
Natalie refused to leave the deck. I lashed her securely beside me.Together we awaited the end. When the roar of the following wave cameclose, so close that the voices of the officers of the ship could be nolonger heard, Natalie spoke. The hollow sound was no longer in hervoice. Her own soft sweet tones had come back.
"Arthur," she asked, "is this the end?"
"I fear it is," I answered, speaking close to her ear so that she mighthear.
"Then we have little time, and I have something which I must say, whichyou must promise me to remember when--when--I am no longer with you."
"You will be always with me while we live. I think I deserve that atlast."
"Yes, you deserve that and more. I will be with you while I live, butthat will not be for long."
I was about to interrupt her when she put her soft little hand upon mylips and said:
"Listen, there is very little time. It is all a mistake. I mean Herbertwas wrong. He might as well have let me have my earthly span ofhappiness or folly--call it what you will."
"You see that now--thank God!"
"Yes, but I see it too late, I did not know it until--until I was dead.Hush!" Again I tried to interrupt her, for I thought her mind waswandering. "I died psychic
ally with Herbert. That was when we first sawthe light on the island. Since then I have lived mechanically, but ithas only been life in so low a form that I do not now know what hashappened between that time and this. And I could not now speak as I amspeaking save by a will power which is costing me very dear. But it isthe only voice you could hear. I do not therefore count the cost. Mybrother's brain so far overmatched my own that it first absorbed andfinally destroyed my mental vitality. This influence removed, I am arudderless ship at sea--bound to perish."
"May his torments endure for ever. May the nethermost pit of hellreceive him!" I said with a groan of agony.
But Natalie said: "Hush! I might have lingered on a little longer, but Ichose to concentrate the vital force which would have lasted me a fewmore senile years into the minutes necessary for this message from me toyou--a message I could not have given you if he were not dead. And I amdying so that you may hear it. Dying! My God! I am already dead."
She seemed to struggle against some force that battled with her, and theroar of many waters was louder around us before she was able to speakagain.
"Bend lower, Arthur; my strength is failing, and I have not yet saidthat for which I am here. Lower still.
"I said it is all a mistake--a hideous mistake. Existence as we know itis ephemeral. Suffering is ephemeral. There is nothing everlasting butlove. There is nothing eternal but mind. Your mind is mine. Your love ismine. Your human life may belong to whomsoever you will it. It ought tobelong to that brave girl below. I do not grudge it to her, for I have_you_. We two shall be together through the ages--for ever and for ever.Heart of my heart, you have striven manfully and well, and if you didnot altogether succeed in saving my flesh from premature corruption, besatisfied in that you have my soul. Ah!"
She pressed her hands to her head as if in dreadful pain. When she spokeagain her voice came in short gasps.
"My brain is reeling. I do not know what I am saying," she cried,distraught. "I do not know whether I am saying what is true or only whatI imagine to be true. I know nothing but this. I was mesmerised. I havebeen so for two years. But for that I would have been happy in yourlove--for I was a woman before this hideous influence benumbed me. Theytold me it was only a fool's paradise that I missed. But I only knowthat I have missed it. Missed it--and the darkness of death is upon me."
She ceased to speak. A shudder convulsed her, and then her head sankgently on my shoulder.
At that moment the great wave broke over the vessel, whirling herhelpless like a cork on the ripples of a mill pond; lashing her withmighty strokes; sweeping in giant cataracts from stern to stem;smashing, tearing everything; deluging her with hissing torrents;crushing her with avalanches of raging foam. Then the ocean tornadopassed on and left the _Esmeralda_ behind, with half the crew disabledand many lost, her decks a mass of wreckage, her masts gone. Thecrippled ship barely floated. When the last torrent of spray passed, andI was able to look to Natalie, her head had drooped down on her breast.I raised her face gently and looked into her wide open eyes.
She was dead.