CHAPTER XXXIV.
ON the morning that followed this memorable night, our personages seemedto change characters. Hazel sat down before the relics of the hut--threeor four strings dangling, and a piece of network waving--and eyed themwith shame, regret and humiliation. He was so absorbed in hisself-reproaches that he did not hear a light footstep, and HelenRolleston stood near him a moment or two, and watched the play of hiscountenance with a very inquisitive and kindly light in her own eyes.
"Never mind," said she, soothingly.
Hazel started at the music.
"Never mind your house being blown to atoms, and mine has stood?" saidhe, half reproachfully.
"You took too much pains with mine."
"I will take a great deal more with the next."
"I hope not. But I want you to come and look at the havoc. It isterrible; and yet so grand." And thus she drew him away from the sightthat caused his pain.
They entered the wood by a path Hazel had cut from the sea-shore, andviewed the devastation in Terrapin Wood. Prostrate trees lay across oneanother in astonishing numbers, and in the strangest positions; and theirglorious plumes swept the earth. "Come," said she, "it is a bad thing forthe poor trees, but not for us. See, the place is strewed with treasures.Here is a tree full of fans all ready made. And what is that? A horse'stail growing on a cocoa-tree! and a long one, too! that will make ropesfor you, and thread for me. Ah, and here is a cabbage. Poor Mr. Welch!Well, for one thing, you need never saw nor climb any more. See theadvantages of a hurricane."
From the wood she took him to the shore, and there they found many birdslying dead; and Hazel picked up several that he had read of as good toeat. For certain signs had convinced him his fair and delicate companionwas carnivorous, and must be nourished accordingly. Seeing him soemployed, she asked him archly whether he was beginning to see thecomforts of a hurricane. "Not yet," said he; "the account is far fromeven."
"Then come to where the rock was blown down." She led the way gaylyacross the sands to a point where an overhanging crag had fallen, withtwo trees and a quantity of earth and plants that grew above it. But,when they got nearer, she became suddenly grave, and stood still. Themass had fallen upon a sheltered place, where seals were hiding from thewind, and had buried several; for two or three limbs were sticking out,of victims overwhelmed in the ruin; and a magnificent sea-lion lay clearof the smaller rubbish, but quite dead. The cause was not far to seek; aton of hard rock had struck him, and then ploughed up the sand in a deepfurrow, and now rested within a yard or two of the animal, whose back ithad broken. Hazel went up to the creature and looked at it; then he cameto Helen. She was standing aloof. "Poor bugbear," said he. "Come away; itis an ugly sight for you."
"Oh, yes," said Helen. Then, as they returned, "Does not that reconcileyou to the loss of a hut? We are not blown away nor crushed."
"That is true," said Hazel; "but suppose your health should suffer fromthe exposure to such fearful weather. So unlucky! so cruel! just as youwere beginning to get stronger."
"I am all the better for it. Shall I tell you? excitement is a goodthing; not too often, of course; but now and then; and, when we are inthe humor for it, it is meat and drink and medicine to us."
"What! to a delicate young lady?"
"Ay, 'to a delicate young lady.' Last night has done me a world of good.It has shaken me out of myself. I am in better health and spirits. Ofcourse I am very sorry the hut is blown down--because you took so muchtrouble to build it; but, on my own account, I really don't care a straw.Find me some corner to nestle in at night, and all day I mean to beabout, and busy as a bee, helping you, and-- Breakfast! breakfast! Oh,how hungry I am." And this spirited girl led the way to the boat with abriskness and a vigor that charmed and astonished him.
_Souvent femme vane._
This gracious behavior did not blind Hazel to the serious character ofthe situation, and all breakfast-time he was thinking and thinking, andoften kept a morsel in his mouth, and forgot to eat it for severalseconds, he was so anxious and puzzled. At last he said, "I know a largehollow tree with apertures. If I were to close them all but one, and keepthat for the door? No: trees have betrayed me; I'll never trust anothertree with you. Stay; I know, I know--a cavern." He uttered the verbrather loudly, but the substantive with a sudden feebleness of intonationthat was amusing. His timidity was superfluous; if he had said he knew "abank whereon the wild thyme grows," the suggestion would have been wellreceived that morning.
"A cavern!" cried Helen. "It has always been the dream of my life to livein a cavern."
Hazel brightened up. But the next moment he clouded again. "But I forgot.It will not do; there is a spring running right through it; it comes downnearly perpendicular through a channel it has bored, or enlarged; andsplashes on the floor."
"How convenient!" said Helen; "now I shall have a bath in my room,instead of having to go miles for it. By the by, now you have inventedthe shower-bath, please discover soap. Not that one really wants any inthis island; for there is no dust, and the very air seems purifying. Butwho can shake off the prejudices of early education?"
Hazel said, "Now I'll laugh as much as you like, when once this care isoff my mind."
He ran off to the cavern, and found it spacious and safe; but the springwas falling in great force, and the roof of the cave glistening withmoisture. It looked a hopeless case. But if necessity is the mother ofInvention, surely Love is the father. He mounted to the rock above, andfound the spot where the spring suddenly descended into the earth withthe loudest gurgle he had ever heard; a gurgle of defiance. Nothing wasto be done there. But he traced it upward a little way, and found a placewhere it ran beside a deep decline. "Aha, my friend!" said he. He got hisspade, and with some hours' hard work dug it a fresh channel and carriedit away entirely from its course. He returned to the cavern. Water wasdripping very fast; but, on looking up, he could see the light of daytwinkling at the top of the spiral water course he had robbed of itssupply. Then he conceived a truly original idea. Why not turn his emptywatercourse into a chimney, and so give to one element what he had takenfrom another? He had no time to execute this just then, for the tide wascoming in, and he could not afford to lose any one of those dead animals.So he left the funnel to drip, that being a process he had no means ofexpediting, and moored the sea-lion to the very rock that had killed him,and was proceeding to dig out the seals, when a voice he never could hearwithout a thrill summoned him to dinner.
It was a plentiful repast, and included roast pintado and cabbage-palm.Helen Rolleston informed him during dinner that he would no longer beallowed to monopolize the labor attendant upon their condition.
"No," said she, "you are always working for me, and I shall work for you.Cooking and washing are a woman's work, not a man's; and so are plaitingand netting."
This healthy resolution once formed was adhered to with a constancy thatbelonged to the girl's character. The roof of the ruined hut came ashorein the bay that evening, and was fastened over the boat. Hazel lighted abonfire in the cavern, and had the satisfaction of seeing some of thesmoke issue above. But he would not let Miss Rolleston occupy it yet. Heshifted her things to the boat and slept in the cave himself. However, helost no time in laying down a great hearth, and built a fireplace andchimney in the cave. The chimney went up to the hole in the arch of thecave; then came the stone funnel, stolen from Nature; and above, on theupper surface of the cliff, came the chimney-pot. Thus the chimney actedlike a German stove: it stood in the center, and soon made the cavernvery dry and warm, and a fine retreat during the rains. When it was readyfor occupation, Helen said she would sail to it: she would not go byland; that was too tame for her. Hazel had only to comply with her humor,and at high water they got into the boat, and went down the river intothe sea with a rush that made Helen wince. He soon rowed her across thebay to a point distant not more than fifty yards from the cavern, andinstalled her. But he never returned to the river; it was an inconvenientplace to make excursions from; an
d besides, all his work was now eitherin or about the cavern; and that convenient hurricane, as Helen calledit, not only made him a builder again; it also made him a currier, asoap-boiler, and a salter. So they drew the boat just above high-watermark in a sheltered nook, and he set up his arsenal ashore.
In this situation, day glided by after day, and week after week, invigorous occupations, brightened by social intercourse, and in somedegree by the beauty and the friendship of the animals. Of all thisindustry we can only afford a brief summary. Hazel fixed two uprights ateach side of the cavern's mouth, and connected each pair by a beam; anetting laid on these, and, covered with gigantic leaves from theprostrate palms, made a sufficient roof in this sheltered spot. On thisterrace they could sit even in the rain, and view the sea. Helen cookedin the cave, but served dinner up on this beautiful terrace. So now shehad a But and a Ben, as the Scotch say. He got a hogshead of oil from thesea-lion; and so the cave was always lighted now, and that was a greatcomfort, and gave them more hours of indoor employment and conversation.The poor bugbear really brightened their existence. Of the same oil,boiled down and mixed with wood-ashes, he made soap, to Helen's greatdelight. The hide of this animal was so thick he could do nothing with itbut cut off pieces to make the soles of shoes, if required. But the sealswere miscellaneous treasures. He contrived with guano and aromatics tocurry their skins; of their bladders he made vile parchment, and of theirentrails gut, cat-gut and twine, beyond compare. He salted two cubs, andlaid up the rest in store, by inclosing large pieces in clay. When thesewere to be used, the clay was just put into hot embers for some hours,then broken, and the meat eaten with all its juices preserved.
Helen cooked and washed, and manufactured salt; and collected quite astore of wild cotton, though it grew very sparingly and it cost her hoursto find a few pods. But in hunting for it she found other things--health,for one. After sunset she was generally employed a couple of hours onmatters which occupy the fair in every situation of life. She madeherself a sealskin jacket and pork-pie hat. She made Mr. Hazel a man'scap of sealskin with a point. But her great work was with the cotton,which will be described hereafter.
However, for two hours after sunset, no more (they rose at peep of day),her physician allowed her to sit and work; which she did, and oftensmiled, while he sat by and discoursed to her of all the things he hadread, and surprised himself by the strength and activity of his memory.He attributed it partly to the air of the island. Nor were his fingersidle even at night. He had tools to sharpen for the morrow, glass to makeand polish out of a laminated crystal he had found. And then thehurricane had blown away, among many properties, his map; so he had tomake another with similar materials. He completed the map in due course,and gave it to Helen. It was open to the same strictures she had passedon the other. Hazel was no chartographer. Yet this time she had nothingbut praise for it. How was that?
To the reader it is now presented, not as a specimen of chartographicart, but as a little curiosity in its way, being a _fac-simile_ of themap John Hazel drew for Helen Rolleston with such out-of-the-waymaterials as that out-of-the-way island afforded.
Above all, it will enable the reader to follow our personages in theirlittle excursions past and future, and also to trace the course of amysterious event we have to record.
Relieved of other immediate cares, Hazel's mind had time to dwell uponthe problem. Helen had set him; and one fine day a conviction struck himthat he had taken a narrow and puerile view of it, and that, after all,there must be in the nature of things some way to attract ships from adistance. Possessed with this thought, he went up to Telegraph Point,abstracted his mind from all external objects, and fixed it on thisidea--but came down as he went. He descended by some steps he had cutzigzag for Helen's use, and as he put his foot on the fifthstep--whoo--whirr--whiz--came nine ducks, cooling his head, they whizzedso close; and made right for the lagoons.
"Hum!" thought Hazel; "I never see you ducks fly in any other directionbut that."
This speculation rankled in him all night, and he told Helen he shouldreconnoiter at daybreak, but should not take her, as there might besnakes. He made the boat ready at daybreak, and certain gannets,pintadoes, boobies, and noddies, and divers with eyes in their heads likefiery jewels--birds whose greedy maws he had often gratified--chose tofancy he must be going a-fishing, and were on the alert, and rathertroublesome. However, he got adrift, and ran out through North Gate, witha light westerly breeze, followed by a whole fleet of birds. These werejoined in due course by another of his satellites, a young seal he calledTommy, also fond of fishing.
The feathered convoy soon tailed off; but Tommy stuck to him for abouteight miles. He ran that distance to have a nearer look at a small islandwhich lay due north of Telegraph Point. He satisfied himself it waslittle more than a very long, large reef, the neighborhood of which oughtto be avoided by ships of burden, and, resolving to set some beacon orother on it ere long, he christened it White Water Island, on account ofthe surf. He came about and headed for the East Bluff.
Then Tommy gave him up in disgust; perhaps thought his conductvacillating. Animals all despise that.
He soon landed almost under the volcano, and moored his boat not far froma cliff peaked with guano. Exercising due caution this time, he got up tothe lagoons, and found a great many ducks swimming about. He approachedlittle parties to examine their varieties. They all swam out his way;some of them even flew a few yards, and then settled. Not one would lethim come within forty yards. This convinced Hazel the ducks were notnatives of the island, but strangers, who were not much afraid, becausethey had never been molested on this particular island; but stilldistrusted man.
While he pondered thus, there was a great noise of wings, and about adozen ducks flew over his head on the rise, and passed westward stillrising till they got into the high currents, and away upon the wings ofthe wind for distant lands.
The grand rush of their wings, and the off-hand way in which theyspurned, abandoned and disappeared from an island that held him tight,made Hazel feel very small. His thoughts took the form of satire. "Lordsof the creation, are we? We sink in water; in air we tumble; on earth westumble."
These pleasing reflections did not prevent his taking their exact line offlight, and barking a tree to mark it. He was about to leave the placewhen he heard a splashing not far from him, and there was a duck jumpingabout on the water in a strange way. Hazel thought a snake had got holdof her, and ran to her assistance. He took her out of the water and soonfound what was the matter; her bill was open, and a fish's tail wassticking out. Hazel inserted his finger and dragged out a small fishwhich had erected the spines on its back so opportunely as nearly to killits destroyer. The duck recovered enough to quack in a feeble and dubiousmanner. Hazel kept her for Helen, because she was a plain brown duck.With some little reluctance he slightly shortened one wing, and stowedaway his captive in the hold of the boat.
He happened to have a great stock of pitch in the boat, so he employed afew hours in writing upon the guano rocks. On one he wrote in hugeletters:
AN ENGLISH LADY WRECKED HERE. HASTE TO HER RESCUE.
On another he wrote in small letters:
BEWARE THE REEFS ON THE NORTH SIDE. LIE OFF FOR SIGNALS.
Then he came home and beached the boat, and brought Helen his captive.
"Why, it is an English duck!" she cried, and was enraptured.
By this visit to the lagoons, Hazel gathered that this island was ahalf-way house for migrating birds, especially ducks; and he inferredthat the line those vagrants had taken was the shortest way from thisisland to the nearest land. This was worth knowing, and set his brainworking. He begged Helen to watch for the return of the turtle-doves(they had all left the island just before the rain), and learn, ifpossible, from what point of the compass they arrived.
The next expedition was undertaken to please Helen; she wished to examinethe beautiful creeks and caves on the north side, which they had seenfrom a distance when they sailed round the i
sland.
They started on foot one delightful day, and walked briskly, for the air,though balmy, was exhilarating. They followed the course of the rivertill they came to the lake that fed it, and was fed itself by hundreds oflittle natural gutters down which the hills discharged the rains. Thiswas new to Helen, though not to Hazel. She produced the map, and told thelake slyly that it was incorrect, a little too big. She took some of thewater in her hand, sprinkled the lake with it, and called it Hazelmere.They bore a little to the right, and proceeded till they found a creekshaped like a wedge, at whose broad end shone an arch of foliage studdedwith flowers, and the sparkling blue water peeped behind. This wastempting, but the descent was rather hazardous at first; great squareblocks of rock one below another, and these rude steps were coated withmosses of rich hue, but wet and slippery; Hazel began to be alarmed forhis companion. However, after one or two difficulties, the fissure openedwider to the sun, and they descended from the slimy rocks into a slopinghot-bed of exotic flowers, and those huge succulent leaves that are theglory of the tropics. The ground was carpeted a yard deep with theirluxuriance, and others, more aspiring, climbed the warm sides of thediverging cliffs, just as creepers go up a wall, lining every crevice asthey rose. In this blessed spot, warmed, but not scorched, by thetropical sun, and fed with trickling waters, was seen what marvels "boonNature" can do. Here our vegetable dwarfs were giants and our flowerswere trees. One lovely giantess of the jasmine tribe, but with flowersshaped like a marigold, and scented like a tube-rose, had a stem as thickas a poplar, and carried its thousand buds and amber-colored flowers upeighty feet of broken rock, and planted on every ledge suckers, thatflowered again and filled the air with perfume. Another tree about halfas high was covered with a cascade of snow-white tulips, each as big as asmall flower-pot, and scented like honeysuckle. An aloe, ten feet high,blossomed in a corner, unheeded among loftier beauties. And at the verymouth of the fissure a huge banana leaned across, and flung out its vastleaves, that seemed translucent gold against the sun; under it shone amonstrous cactus in all her pink and crimson glory, and through the mazeof color streamed the deep blue of the peaceful ocean, laughing, andcatching sunbeams.
Helen leaned against the cliff and quivered with delight, and that deepsense of flowers that belongs to your true woman.
Hazel feared she was ill.
"Ill?" said she. "Who could be ill here? It is heaven upon earth. Oh, youdears! Oh, you loves! And they all seemed growing on the sea, andfloating in the sun."
"And it is only one of a dozen such," said Hazel. "If you would like toinspect them at your leisure, I'll just run to Palm-tree Point; for mysignal is all askew. I saw that as we came along."
Helen assented readily, and he ran off, but left her the provisions. Shewas not to wait dinner for him.
Helen examined two or three of the flowery fissures, and found freshbeauties in each, and also some English leaves, that gave her pleasure ofanother kind; and, after she had reveled in the flowers, she examined theshore, and soon discovered that the rocks which abounded here (thoughthere were also large patches of clear sand) were nearly all pure coral,in great variety. Red coral was abundant; and even the pink coral, towhich fashion was just then giving a fictitious value, was there by theton. This interested her, and so did some beautiful shells that laysparkling. The time passed swiftly; and she was still busy in herresearches, when suddenly it darkened a little, and, looking back, shesaw a white vapor stealing over the cliff, and curling down.
Upon this she thought it prudent to return to the place where Hazel hadleft her; the more so as it was near sunset.
The vapor descended and spread and covered sea and land. Then the sunset; and it was darkness visible. Coming from the south, the sea-fretcaught Hazel sooner and in a less favorable situation. Returning from thepalm-tree, he had taken the shortest cut through a small jungle, and beenso impeded by the scrub, that, when he got clear, the fog was upon him.Between that and the river he lost his way several times, and did not hitthe river till near midnight. He followed the river to the lake, andcoasted the lake, and then groped his way toward the creek.
But, after a while, every step he took was fraught with danger; and thenight was far advanced when he at last hit off the creek, as he thought.He halloed; but there was no reply; halloed again, and, to his joy, hervoice replied; but at a distance.
He had come to the wrong creek. She was farther westward. He groped hisway westward, and came to another creek. He haloed to her, and sheanswered him. But to attempt the descent would have been mere suicide.She felt that herself, and almost ordered him to stay where he was.
"Why, we can talk all the same," said she; "and it is not for long."
It was a curious position, and one typical of the relation between them.So near together, yet the barrier so strong.
"I am afraid you must be very cold," said he.
"Oh, no; I have my seal-skin jacket on; and it is so sheltered here. Iwish you were as well off."
"You are not afraid to be alone down there?"
"I am not alone when your voice is near me. Now don't you fidgetyourself, dear friend. I like these little excitements. I have told youso before. Listen. How calm and silent it all is; the place; the night!The mind seems to fill with great ideas, and to feel its immortality."
She spoke with solemnity, and he heard in silence.
Indeed it was a reverend time and place. The sea, whose loud andpenetrating tongue had, in some former age, created the gully where theyboth sat apart, had of late years receded and kissed the sands gentlythat calm night; so gently, that its long, low murmur seemed but the echoof tranquillity.
The voices of that pair sounded supernatural, one speaking up, and theother down, the speakers quite invisible.
"Mr. Hazel," said Helen, in a low, earnest voice; "they say that nightgives wisdom even to the wise; think now, and tell me your true thoughts.Has the foot of man ever trod upon this island before?"
There was a silence due to a question so grave, and put with solemnity,at a solemn time, in a solemn place.
At last Hazel's thoughtful voice came down. "The world is very, very,very old. So old, that the words 'Ancient History' are a falsehood, andMoses wrote but as yesterday. And man is a very old animal upon this old,old planet; and has been everywhere. I cannot doubt he has been here."
Her voice went up. "But have you seen any signs?"
His voice came down. "I have not looked for them. The bones and theweapons of primeval man are all below earth's surface at this time ofday."
There was a dead silence. Then Helen's voice went up again. "But inmodern times? Has no man landed here from far-off places, since shipswere built?"
The voice came sadly down. "I do not know."
The voice went up. "But think!"
The voice came down. "What calamity can be new in a world so old as this?Everything we can do, and suffer, others of our race have done, andsuffered."
The voice went up. "Hush! there's something moving on the sand."