Palm Tree Island

  CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH

  OF THE ASSAULT ON THE HUT, IN WHICH BOWS AND ARROWS PROVE SUPERIOR TOMUSKETS

  The period of rainy weather which we suffered set me on to think againof that project of digging a moat which we had formerly abandoned.Several considerable rivulets flowed into the lake from the high groundaround, of which one, that came down the slope nearest the red rock,had a pretty long course, and by the time it fell into the lake, fortyor fifty yards from the hut, was almost a river. Observing how itwashed the soil along with it, it came into my head that we mightperchance enlist it in our service, and make it do a great part of thework of widening and deepening the trench. Of course Billy must askhis customary question, "What's the good?" following this up withanother, more pertinent. "How _can_ we, master? The river--if youcall it a river: _I_ don't--don't run anywhere near the trench."

  "That's true," I said, "but we can make it."

  "How's that?" said he.

  "Why, by building a dam across it, and so turning its course where weplease," I said.

  "Oh, more building," says he. "What a one you are, master, for keepingon a-doing things! What's the good? I lay you a cocoa-nut that beforeyou get your dam made, the rain stops, and then where'll you be?"

  I think I have already shown that Billy was always a good deal betterthan his word. He used to remind me of that young man in theScripture, who refused when his father bid him do something, but"afterwards repented and went," and was more to be admired than theplausible sneak, his brother, who said to his father, "I go, sir," andthen did nothing of the sort. I once told Billy about this, and he wasvery much interested, never having heard it before, and said he'd liketo know that man, and asked me if I could tell him any more things likethat. Accordingly I told him at different times all that I couldremember of the Bible stories, and the one he liked best was the storyof David, who took his admiration greatly, and whom he always called"the little fellow," thinking of Goliath.

  However, to return to our dam. Billy helped me very diligently to pileup a dam of rocks, which was pretty laborious, for we had to haul thema good distance, and since it rained all the time we were constantlydrenched, and I wonder we did not take an ague. We were about threedays in doing it, and then, sure enough, as soon as it was done, therain ceased, and Billy turned a triumphant countenance upon me, andasked what I thought of that. But I had the better of him next day,for the rain came again, and we saw with great delight that the streamwas diverted by the dam into the narrow channel we had cut to bring itto our trench, and before long it was flowing through this inconsiderable volume, and fell into the lake. It nobly answered myexpectations, for the loosened earth was not only more easy for us todig with our rude spades, but it became mud as soon as it was dug up,and was washed away. We began to deepen the trench into a moat at thetwo ends opening on the lake, working backwards to the middle; butbefore we had done very much the rain ceased again, and the rivuletdried up. However, we were fairly come to the wettest part of theyear, and the rainy days were more than the fine ones, so that in thecourse of a few months we had made good progress, and had indeedwidened and deepened the whole trench, though not near so much as Ishould have liked. The part directly in front of our door was thedeepest, and we made a kind of drawbridge, of the nature of a hurdle,to throw over it; not at this time, however, attempting any contrivancefor raising or lowering it.

  [Sidenote: On the Watch]

  Though we went about our daily work with great regularity, we werenever, I think, quite so cheerful as we had been before the visit ofour whilom shipmates. The thought that they might come back kept uscontinually on the stretch, so to speak; we went up to our watch-tower,one or other of us, not twice a day, as before, but three or fourtimes, and we never went to bed at night without an uneasy feeling thatwhen we awoke we might find our enemies upon us. For several nights,indeed, Billy and I took turns to watch, though we soon gave it up,partly because it was so fatiguing, and partly because, when weconsidered of it calmly, we thought it very unlikely that the men wouldarrive in the darkness, for, not knowing the coast, they might veryeasily run upon a rock and lose their boat, a calamity which they wouldnot risk.

  One day, I know not how many months after we had scared away Hoggettand his friends, Billy had gone up Flagstaff Hill to take his turn atlooking out, and he came running to tell me that he had descried asmall object on the eastern horizon. I immediately accompanied himback to the station, and when we got there, he told me that the objectwas scarce any bigger than when he first saw it, so that if it was aboat, which we could not yet determine, it was moving very slowly. Theday was very hot, so that no one would wish to put forth any greatexertion, least of all the crew of the _Lovey Susan_. We watched for along time until we made out that the object was indeed a boat, andmoving with oars alone, there being not a capful of wind. It washeading straight for our island, and we saw that it was a ship's boatof European make, and not a native canoe, so that we had no doubt itcontained Hoggett and his fellows.

  "Let's try and scare 'em with the fizzy rock," said Billy; but thoughwe raised a dense cloud of smoke by this means the boat held on itscourse, and we saw that this device at least had lost its terrors.

  "I wish Old Smoker would wake up," says Billy. "Wouldn't I like to godown and poke up his fire, that's all! Or to blow it up with bellowswould be better still."

  I could not help thinking it a little unlucky that the mountain-top hadbeen for some time clear of smoke, which, indeed, was perhaps thereason why the men had ventured once more to make the voyage. Findingour stratagem of no avail, we ran down to the hut to put it, so far aswe might, in a posture of defence, judging by the slow progress of theboat that we should have time. We took several of the fowls and onepig into the house, unwelcome inmates though they were; the rest of thepigs we let loose, taking our chance of recovering them later; we sawthat our bows had sound strings, and laid our arrows in readiness; andthen we returned to Flagstaff Hill, to watch the boat. Our own canoe,I had almost forgot to say, lay in the little retired cove on the eastside of the island.

  [Sidenote: Return of the Crew]

  When the boat drew near to our coast, we lost sight of it, and couldnot tell where the men would land; but we guessed that they would makefor the little bay on the south-west, where the landing was certainlythe easiest. Accordingly we hastened towards that spot, and having gotto the cliffs we saw the boat at some little distance from the shore,so as to avoid shoals or rocks, as we guessed, and going in the verydirection we had surmised. When they were opposite the bay they pulledthe boat's head round, and came in very well, and running her ashore,landed, all but two men whom they left in the boat to guard her. I sawwith great apprehension that the rest of the party were armed, somewith muskets, others with cutlasses and other weapons, which they hadtaken into the boats when they left the _Lovey Susan_. And, moreover,there were more men than had come before. They mounted the cliff morebriskly than I had expected to see them do it, and when we perceived,ourselves being hidden all the time, that they were making a bee-line,as people say, for our hut, we immediately made all speed back, liftedthe drawbridge when we had crossed the moat, and took it with us intothe hut, where we set up the door, and pulled out the plugs from a goodmany loopholes in the walls, both that we might have a little light,and also to be in readiness to defend ourselves.

  Through the loopholes we spied the men presently, coming towards usfrom the high ground between us and the cliffs. "They are comingmighty fast," says Billy. "Won't they sweat! What's the hurry, Iwonder?" Their pace was indeed more rapid than I should have chosen onso hot a day. They were coming straight towards the house; but all ona sudden all but one of them turned aside into the wood on their righthand, and while we were wondering why they had gone out of theircourse, we saw some of them swarm up the cocoa-nut palms that were onthe fringe of the wood, and knock down the fruit to their comradesbelow, who immediately broke them open and quaffed the liquor.

 
"Them's our cocoa-nuts, master," says Billy, with indignation."They're poaching."

  But I paid no heed to him, being intent on watching the one man who hadnot swerved from the course with the others, but came straight on. Itwas Hoggett. I observed that he looked about him with great curiosityas he came nearer, and having reached the edge of the trench he stoodand pulled at his beard, looking this way and that like a man that ispuzzled. It was plain he saw that the appearance of the place wassomewhat altered since he saw it before, and from the glances he castat the hut I thought he seemed to question whether there was any one init or not.

  [Sidenote: Hoggett]

  "Shall I shoot him, master?" says Billy eagerly in my ear. I own I wastempted to say yes, for we could have killed him easily, he being but afew yards away, and the loss of their leader would very likely have somuch daunted the others that they would have withdrawn themselves. ButI could not bring myself to take him thus unawares, nor indeed did Iwish to be the first to open hostilities, so I bade Billy hold hishand; and immediately afterwards Hoggett hailed us in seaman's fashion."Ahoy there!" says he, and putting my mouth to the loophole I shouted"Ahoy!" back, and we laughed to see the start he gave, though if hehadn't expected an answer, why did he shout, as Billy said. But if hewas startled it was only for a moment, for he lifted up his voice,which was a very boisterous one, and with many oaths bade me to comeout, calling me by name, and when I refused he cursed me again,uttering terrible threats of what he would do to me if I did notimmediately obey him. The others, hearing the shouts, left the woodand came straggling up, and when they called to Hoggett to know what hewas about, he shouted that the rat was trapped, at which Billy couldcontain himself no longer, but called out, "Don't you be so sure ofthat, you thieving villain!"

  "So there's two of you, is there?" shouts the man, who had not known upto this moment that more than one was in the hut, and then he unslunghis musket, and, taking good aim, fired through the loophole at which Ihad been speaking, which he could very easily do, the range being soshort. But of course his taking aim had given me time to slip away,and the slug passed clean through the hut, doing no damage, but merelystriking the wall on the other side, and setting Little John barkingfuriously. I was somewhat amazed that after all these years the menhad any powder and shot left, and considered that they must havehusbanded their stock with remarkable care. However, I did not loseany time in replying to Hoggett, but went to a loophole near the roof,which was pretty well concealed on the outside by the thatch thatoverhung the wall an inch or two; and standing on the little platformbeneath it I fitted an arrow to my bow and let fly, aiming to hit thefellow's shoulder, for I was loath to take his life. It happened thatjust as I shot he shifted his posture, so that the shaft, instead ofstriking his shoulder as I intended, transfixed his forearm; whereuponhe dropped his musket with a howl as much of rage as of pain, I think,and pulled out the arrow, while the rest of the men, who had plainlynot looked for anything of this sort, instantly took to their heels andran until they were out of range. Hoggett was a man of sterner mettle,and held his ground, shaking his fist at the hut, and vowing withhorrible imprecations that he would have his revenge. Billy wasfingering his bow very restlessly, and asked me if he might shoot now,but I would not let him, for at present we were in no danger; soHoggett, having picked up his musket, was suffered to go and rejoin hiscomrades, which he did at length, stopping at every few yards to hurlmore curses at us. Then they stood in a group at the edge of the wood,and seemed to take counsel together.

  "Wabberley ain't so fat, master," says Billy all of a sudden.

  I owned that he had fallen away somewhat.

  "And Chick's pretty near a skellington," Billy goes on. "AndPumfrey----" He broke off, then cried, "Why, master, I do believethey're famished."

  [Sidenote: The Interlopers]

  Indeed, having leisure now to observe the mariners more carefully thanit had been possible to do before, I saw that they were all verywoebegone in appearance, and not at all equal to what they had been.They talked together for some time, and there did not seem to beperfect agreement among them, for they grew very heady, and theirgestures began to be so violent that we looked for them to come toblows, and Billy was delighted at the prospect of seeing them fight.The chief parts in their discourse were taken by Wabberley and Hoggett,and I saw the former point more than once towards the mountain, which,as I have said, was clear that day. We could not even guess at thesubject of their deliberation, but presently the group broke up, andthe men went severally in different directions, and quite disappearedfrom our view. We durst not leave the hut to follow them, lest theywere practising a trick on us, to entice us forth; and so we remainedfor the rest of that day in a miserable state of uncertainty, notknowing whether they had sailed away, or what they were doing.However, when it began to be dark, we saw through the trees towards thecliffs the glow of a fire, and guessed that they were camping; and notlong afterwards Little John growled, and then we heard the squeal of apig, by which we guessed that some of the pigs we had turned a-loosehad come back to their sty, and one had fallen a victim, which we werequite unable to prevent. But as soon as it was full dark I thought itpretty safe to go forth and spy out what they were doing, so I straitlycharged Billy to keep a good watch, and went out, creeping along verystealthily by the edge of the wood as long as I could, until I came toa place where I could easily see the men. They were, as I expected,sitting around the fire eating their supper, and there came to mynostrils the savorous odour of roast pork. I wished I could draw nearenough to them to hear what they said, but this I durst not do, becausethe top of the cliff here was pretty open, so after a little I wentback to the hut, and we had our own supper, and then settled on what weshould do for keeping guard during the night.

  [Sidenote: The Mariners Depart]

  Neither of us had much sleep, for when our turn of watching was done,we were uneasy at the chance of being attacked in the darkness, and soslept but fitfully. However, nothing happened to alarm us, and in themorning when we looked forth we could see none of the men, and supposedthat they were either still asleep or had already gone a-hunting theirbreakfast. But when the sun rose in the heavens and we had not yetseen a man of them, we fell into that same uneasiness that we had feltbefore, until I could endure it no longer, but resolved to sally outand see what had become of our visitors. I told Billy to be ready topull the drawbridge from the moat if he should see any of the menapproaching, and when he asked how I should get over if the bridge wasgone I told him not to worry about me, because, knowing the island as Idid, I could find some remote spot, and hard of access, if I should bepursued. Accordingly, I left the hut, but instead of going directlytowards the cliffs, I made my course at first towards the mountain,intending to make a circuit and so come near the place where I had lastseen the men. But I had not gone above half the distance when, lookingover the sea, I was beyond measure amazed to see the boat departingunder sail and oars, only instead of returning to the eastward, whenceit had come, it was going westward. It was soon hidden from my sightby the shape of the cliffs, but I made great haste to go up to ourwatch-tower, whence there was a view all round the island, andperceived with as much puzzlement as joy that our enemies were in verytruth sailing clean away, and not merely cruising about the coast, as Ithought might be their design. I watched until the boat was almost outof sight, and then went back to the hut to acquaint Billy with oursurprising good fortune. He immediately asked me whether I had countedthe men, and when I said that I had not thought of doing so, andbesides the boat was already too far off when I saw it, he cried, "ThenI take my davy 'tis a trick, and they have left some behind to trapus." This fairly startled me, for such a notion had not come into myhead; and though I thought it unlikely that the boat would have gone sofar if the men's intention had been to return, yet I saw it was needfulwe should be still on our guard. However, when half the day was goneand we had seen never a sign of the men, but on the contrary some ofour pigs came back and ent
ered their sty like wanderers returning home,we thought it was ridiculous to be scared at mere fancies, and resolvedto set forth and see if any man had indeed been left. We took our bowsand arrows, and our axes in our belts, and went abroad very valiantly,yet with caution; but though we spent the rest of the day in searchingthe island, we found no man, nor indeed any trace at all of theseamen's visit save their camp fire and signs of cooking, and also ajack-knife, which one of them had without question left by mistake.

  When we were pretty well assured that we were still alone on theisland, we debated together what had brought the men back to our shore,and why they had so soon gone again, especially after Hoggett had beenwounded and had uttered such terrible threats of vengeance.

  "What could they do, master?" says Billy. "They couldn't conquer us solong as we stayed in the hut, and they couldn't starve us out, becausethey'd have starved first; and 'tis my belief that, what with the treeshaving no fruits to speak of, and Old Smoker, and the griping water ofBrimstone Lake, they considered this island to be an uncomfortable sortof place, and so sheered off."

  [Sidenote: Story of the Mariners]

  We afterwards discovered that Billy's guess was very near the truth,and for the better understanding of my story, I deem it convenient torelate here what we only learnt at a later time. The seamen of the_Lovey Susan_, when they left us on the island the first time, wentaway to the south-east, and by and by came to a small island,uninhabited as ours was, but pretty well furnished with fruit trees,and there they took up their abode, and for many months lived inplenty, their fare, in addition to the fruits, being fish andbirds--when they could catch them--and pigs, of which there were a few.They made simple grass huts for themselves, not taking the trouble tobuild substantial houses, and when this was done, they being not at alldiligent, did nothing else but quarrel among themselves, and theirlaziness and improvidence in due time found them out. They lived verycomfortably while their supplies of food lasted, but they hunted downthe pigs until one day they were astonished to find there were no more;and as to fish, that was very plentiful at certain seasons and scarceat others, and during the time of plenty they did not trouble aboutcuring any--at least, only two or three men did, one of whom was Mr.Bodger, and these gave up doing it when they found that the othersexpected to share with them. But their principal food at all times wasbread-fruit, because they got less tired of this than of cocoa-nuts andother fruits; yet they were so reckless that they consumed the fruitwhen it was ripe without any thought for the morrow, having no notionof preserving it. The season of bread-fruit being over, they subsistedon cocoa-nuts, but they being a score of ravenous men, and the islandsmall, they had well-nigh consumed all the cocoa-nuts before the nextbread-fruit ripened; thus they had at one time more than they couldeat, and at another very short commons, and at these times they becamevery sour in temper, and there were constant bickerings andrecriminations amongst them.

  One day a fleet of canoes filled with savage warriors came to theirisland, and the savages having landed, there was a sharp fight betwixtthem and the mariners, in which the latter came off victors by virtueof their firearms, though not without suffering considerable loss, twoof them being killed and nearly all wounded. When we heard of thisfight, Billy and me, we guessed that the savages were those we had seenone day from our watch-tower, though, of course, we could never proveit. Saving for this fight, the mariners were unmolested on theirisland; but in course of time the scarcity of food drove them to makevoyages in search of islands that would afford better sustenance,which, however, they failed to discover. Then it was that one of themproposed that they should return to our island, which they knew fromwhat they had seen of it to be fertile--at least, in parts--but theyhad so clear a recollection of the terrors of the volcano, especiallyWabberley, who had been scalded the worst by the boiling water, thatthey were some time in making up their minds to the voyage, but did soat last. This was the occasion of their first visit to our island,when they discovered our hut, and were driven to panic and flight byour invention of an eruption. The boat being leaky, they had notventured to lengthen their voyage, lest they should not be able to getback to their own island, where there was at least present security,and where they had left some of their number. Thither they returned,and lived there as best they could until the pinch of want againcompelled them to set forth. Having seen from the slopes of our islandthe dim line on the western horizon betokening other land, theydetermined to sail thither; for though they suspected that theirenemies the savages might have come thence, the bolder spirits amongthem thought it better to risk sudden death at the hands of savagesthan slow starvation on their island prison, especially as there was achance that they might find friendly savages on some island or another.Accordingly they did what they could to patch up their boat for thevoyage, and set forth, all of them this time, for four being dead--twoslain by the savages and two by disease--the boat would hold them all.Their design was to touch at our island on the way for rest andrefreshment, and see, also, whether there were still signs that it wasinhabited, for on their former visit they believed that we had beendriven away by fear of the volcano, so that they did not think ofsettling on the island themselves. But when they landed, and Hoggettsaw that, so far from being scared away, we had remained--or, at anyrate, returned--and improved our settlement, he was for capturing ourhut and entering into possession of the island, and was deterred fromattempting this design only by finding that we could defend ourselvesand by the overruling of his companions when they found, on roamingover the island, that it was not near so fertile as they had supposed.They did not discover our yam plantation, and feared that their casehere would very soon be no better than it had been on their own island.Accordingly they sailed away, westward, as I have said, to accomplishthe purpose with which they had set forth.

  All this, I say, we did not learn till a good while afterwards, andhaving set it down for the better understanding of those that read, Iwill now return to the place where I left our own story--like a childstanding in a drawn circle and forbid to move till he is told. We weregreatly rejoiced to find that our visitors had quite left us, and wentwith cheerful hearts about our work, a part of it on this day being thegathering together of our swine which we had released. Some came backof themselves; others had struck up acquaintance with some of the wildpigs that were still on the island, and appeared to be indisposed toreturn to civilization, though one did indeed come in what I thoughtwas a shamefaced way above a week after all the rest, and him I calledthe prodigal son.

  "The what son?" says Billy.

  "The prodigal son," said I; and then I told him the story, which heheard with the same eagerness and pleasure as he heard all my stories,whether out of the Bible or out of profane history. When I came tothat part where the wretched young man "would fain have filled hisbelly with the husks that the swine did eat," Billy interrupted me,saying it was clear they did not feed their pigs half so well in thatcountry as we did, and he warranted that Wabberley and the other seamenwould be pleased enough if they got as good food as our pigs, for hepersisted in believing (which turned out to be true) that the men werefamishing, and he went on to declare that he was sure they would comeback again.

  "For why?" says he. "Why, they know we've been here these ever so manyyears" (it was about four by my reckoning), "and living comfortable,and wherever they go they'll either have to work, which they hate, orto fight, which will be worse, for their powder and shot won't last forever, and I wonder they've any left at all. They must have beenuncommon careful of it."

  I did not think that Billy's prediction would come true, for they hadcertainly found no great stores of food on our island, and if it wasfood they were seeking they would surely suppose that, though we werealive, we had no more than supplied our own needs. However, there isno folly in being prepared for anything that may befall, so Billy and Iset ourselves to think very seriously again of what we should do if ourhut were besieged closely for any considerable length of time. Oursitua
tion would not be pleasant, between exasperated besiegers on theone side and the terrible monsters on the other, and I set my wits towork very earnestly to see if I might devise some means whereby wemight extirpate those hideous creatures and so clear a way to the sea.To make an attack on them with our weapons held no great promise in it,for, as Billy said, they seemed to be terribly tough, and while we weredisposing of one, others might cling around us and lug us to perdition.Besides, the very sight of the monsters made our blood run cold, andBilly said he would sooner face a thousand stepmothers than one ofthem, though he thought he might prefer one monster to three Hoggetts.

  [Sidenote: Experiments]

  It was after the matter had been beating in my head for several daysthat the notion came to me to try how the fizzy rock would affect thecreatures. We knew what dreadful choking fumes came from it when itwas thrown into water, and it seemed to me not impossible that thesefumes might dissolve in water and poison it, and 'twould then be only aquestion of getting a sufficient quantity to destroy the whole nest orlair of the monsters. Considering that it would be a very laboriousmatter to bring down to the cliffs enough of the rock for our purpose,we determined to make a trial of it first, and the creature we selectedfor the _vile corpus_ (which is pretty nearly all the Latin I remember)was one of those robber crabs which I think I have mentioned. Wecaught one on the shore, and put him into one of my pots, which wefilled with water and then cast in one or two lumps of the rock. Therewas a great fizzing and spluttering, with dense and suffocating fumes,and when they had cleared off and it was safe for us to go to the pot,we found the crab perfectly black and quite dead, and when Billy tookit out of the pot he declared that the water stung his hand. We werevery well satisfied with this trial, and immediately set aboutcollecting a great quantity of the poisonous stuff, bringing it downfrom the mountain in baskets which we slung at our backs, and heapingit up on the cliff just above the entrance to the cave. I proposedthat we should carry it down to the shore, and convey it to themonsters' haunt in our canoe, but this Billy would not hear of for amoment, avouching that he would sooner be eaten by savages than huggedby the slimy arms of the beasts.

  [Sidenote: Billy is Reflective]

  We had been digging out the rock, and carrying it to the cliff, for amatter of two days when a terrible storm of rain came on in the night,and when we got up in the morning and went to the cliff, we saw thatall the rock we had so toiled in collecting had spent itself, and lefta black desolation all around the spot where it had lain. This gave usa great deal of annoyance, as much at our thoughtlessness as at thething itself; but we did not give up our design, resolving rather to bethe more careful in our preparations. It took us a very long time toassemble as much material as we had before, because we had to digdeeper into the side of the mountain for it, and when we got it wecovered it over very scrupulously, so that the rain could not touch it.Billy remarked that of course, after our taking all that trouble, therewould be no more rain for a month, and he was right; but I pointed outto him that we should have been very foolish if we had not taken theseprecautions, and he said it was a pity you could not tell thingsbeforehand, adding, as if it had never struck him before, that younever could tell what might have been, because all we knew was whatwas. And then he was silent for a time, and when he spoke again, hesaid: "Ain't it terrible, master, to think you never can catch a minutewhat's gone?" Billy so seldom said anything of a reflective naturethat I looked at him in some alarm, with a kind of superstitious fearthat he was sickening for something; but I was relieved in a momentwhen, in the same breath, he said: "It do make you eat hearty, though."

  When we had heaped up on the cliff a good many hundredweights of therock, we waited for the flow of the tide, and then, choosing a placewhere the cliff ran down very steep and straight to the mouth of thecave, we flung the stuff into the water between the mouth and the rockswhere we first encountered the shoal of monsters. We watched eagerlyto see what happened, and saw a vast number of bubbles come to thesurface, and a certain quantity of smoke that floated away on thebreeze, but not near such a smother as we had experience of, which madeus hope that there was all the more poison in the water. There was aslight current at the foot of the cliffs, setting past the cluster ofrocks towards the channel between Red Rock and the island. We walkedalong for a little space, in the same direction as this current, to seeif there was any sign on the surface of the water of our experimenthaving had any effect. For some little while we saw nothing, and hadbegun to believe that the monsters were proof against what we hadfondly hoped was poison, when we observed some tentacles appearingabove the water by the rocks, and also at the base of the cliffs, andby and by the palpitating bodies of the monsters themselves, crawlingup as if the water did not very well agree with them. We pelted thesecreatures very hard with stones and lumps of the strange rock, andthough we missed pretty often, yet we hit them pretty often too, andhad lively satisfaction when we saw them loose their hold and tumbleback into the water as soon as the rock began to fizz. But we couldnot see that any of them were killed, and had to conclude that thewater about the rocks was too deep, and the current moved too fast, forour poisonous substance to work its full effect, and so we went backdisappointed, with the problem of making a safe way through the tunnelto the sea as far from solution as ever it was.