Chapter Twenty One.

Chapter Twenty One.Seeking Black Shadows.That evening and the next day were devoted to careful investigation of the shores, three parties being formed and sent out well armed, to see whether the crew of the canoe had landed farther to the south, or round on the western coast. The orders were that if the enemy was discovered, the search parties were not to show themselves if they could avoid it, but to fall back at once to the ship and report what they had seen.Those who stayed behind had the duty of doing everything possible in the way of putting the brig in a state of defence. The superintendence of this task was undertaken by the mate, Oliver giving up the expedition, which he would have liked to join, so as to stay and help Mr Rimmer.They worked hard together. Wriggs and Smith, who both volunteered to stay as soon as they knew that Oliver was not going, toiling away till it was felt that nothing more could be done; and the conclusion was come to that, unless an attacking party of savages came provided with some form of ladder, they would be unable to mount to the deck. The bobstay having been removed, the gangways fortified, all this, with the commanding position the defenders would occupy, rendered the brig a thoroughly strong little fort, almost impregnable so long as the enemy did not think of enlisting fire in their service when they made their attack.“Plenty of guns, plenty of ammunition, water and provisions in abundance, and enough British pluck to fight, I don’t think we shall hurt much, Mr Lane. But let’s hope that they will not come.”As sunset neared, first one and then the other search parties came back with the same report—that they had examined the offing from the highest points they could reach, and also from the shore; but there was no sign of any canoe or of the blacks having landed.The next day the search was repeated, and again upon the following day, from the end of the mist bank right round the coast; but they were alone upon the strange land, and it was evident that the savages in the canoe must have been journeying right away to some distant spot, and in all probability they would never be seen again.This being so, it was resolved to combine in one expedition the search for the savages on the other side of the mist and the ascent of the mountain, from up whose slope it was hoped that the glasses would sweep the shore all round, proving whether there was a native village, and at the same time setting at rest the question of their being upon island or mainland.The opportunity was favourable, for, though the soft steamy cloud floated over the land as before, shutting them off from the mountain slope, the volcano had been for days perfectly quiet—there had been no explosions, no subterranean rumblings or shocks, everything pointed to the fact that the eruption was at an end, and the mountain settling down into a state of quiescence.“I should like to go with you very much,” said the mate. “I’ve had a short ladder knocked together for mounting steep bits and making a bridge over rifts and cracks, and I have a kind of longing to see what a crater is like.”“Well, you are coming, of course,” said Oliver.“No, I’m going to stay and take care of my ship. Why, if I went with you I should take it as a matter of course that a canoe would land close to our boat, and the savages come straight across to the brig and plunder her. It would be sure to happen if I went away.”“Nonsense!” cried Oliver, laughing.“Ah! you may call it so, young gentleman, but I know how these things will happen. No, I stop by my ship, and if the beggars do come, the men and I will make a stiff fight of it till you folk come back to help me drive them to their canoe.”No persuasion would alter the mate’s plans, but he eagerly forwarded those of the naturalists, and arranged for Smith and Wriggs to bear them company, even offering two more men, but Panton was of opinion that the smaller their number was the more likely they were to be successful, and the next morning they started—a well armed party, Wriggs and Smith carrying a ladder and little tent, the others the food and water.Then in due time the boat was reached and rowed along the lagoon till the end of the mist and the effervescent water were passed, and at last, a good mile farther than the attempt had been before, they put ashore, drew up their boat in the cocoa-nut grove which went on far as eye could reach, and, with the men shouldering the traps after the boat had been hidden, they started over fresh ground for the slope.The route was plain enough if they could follow it, for there, high above them, was the balloon-like cloud of steam and smoke floating over the crater, the only mist in the pure blue sky, and looking dazzling in the sunshine as a film of silver.“I don’t see why we cannot easily do it,” said Panton, as he shifted his gun from one shoulder to the other. “What we have to do is to avoid the thick forest and make at once for the slope of cinders and ashes. Then we can zigzag up. It looks no distance to the top, and we could do it easily to-night.”But the mate’s plan was considered the best: to get some distance up and pitch their tent at the edge of the forest at its highest point, and then have their good night’s rest and start upward as soon as it was daylight.They carried out this idea, skirting round the dense patch of forest, and getting above it to the open ground, where they had to wind in and out among rifts and blocks of lava which formed a wilderness below the ash slope. Then, going close to the forest edge, they soon found water, a couple of little sources bubbling out from among the rocks, and oddly enough within a few yards of each other, one being delicious, cool, and sweet, the other so hot that they could hardly immerse their hands, and when it was tasted it was bitter and salt to a degree.While the two men set up the tent and made a fire to boil the kettle, a short expedition was made by the three young naturalists, it being a settled thing that there was to be no collecting next day, but every nerve was to be strained to reach the mountain top.The ash slope ran up rapidly from where they stood, as they shouldered their guns and looked about them, and naturally feeling that they would have enough of that the next morning they turned down among the lava blocks for a short distance and then paused before plunging into the forest below.From where they stood they were high enough to see that there was not so much as a bush above; all was grey, desolate, and strange, and the wonder to them was that the trees beneath them had not been burned up in one or other of the eruptions which must have taken place. Possibly, they felt, the sea winds had had some effect upon the falling ashes and hot steamy emanations and driven them from the forest, but it was a problem that they could not explain, and it was given up for the instant and left for future discussion.There were other things to see that hot late afternoon, each full of wonder and beauty, and appealing to one or other of the party, each man finding enough to satisfy even his great desire for knowledge; and in turn, and with plenty of tolerance for each other’s branch of study, they paused to examine incrustations of sulphur, glorious orchids, and bird and beetle, gorgeous in colour, wonderful in make.But nothing was collected, only noted for future exploration, and, growing faint, hot, and weary after an hour’s walking at the edge of the forest, they turned to retrace their steps, when Panton stepped upward for a few yards to try the edge of a little slope of fine ash—for the heat there was intense.To his surprise the ashes into which he plunged his hands were quite cool, and yet the air around was at times almost suffocating.“Must be a downward draught from the mountain top,” said Panton at last, and then he looked sharply round, for Oliver had suddenly cocked his gun.“What is it?” asked the others.“Look out. There’s something or somebody tracking us just inside the trees. I’ve seen the leaves move several times, but always thought it was the wind.”“Hallo! Hark!” cried Drew, excitedly. “Don’t you hear?”It was nearly sunset, and the little party knew that they had about an hour’s walk before they could reach camp. The darkness was fast approaching, but they stopped short to listen.In vain for a few minutes, and they were about to start again, when the sound that had arrested Drew’s attention was heard plainly now by all—a long, low, piteous cry as of some one in agony, and in the great solitude of the mountain-side the cry was repeated, sending a chill of horror through the bravest there.

That evening and the next day were devoted to careful investigation of the shores, three parties being formed and sent out well armed, to see whether the crew of the canoe had landed farther to the south, or round on the western coast. The orders were that if the enemy was discovered, the search parties were not to show themselves if they could avoid it, but to fall back at once to the ship and report what they had seen.

Those who stayed behind had the duty of doing everything possible in the way of putting the brig in a state of defence. The superintendence of this task was undertaken by the mate, Oliver giving up the expedition, which he would have liked to join, so as to stay and help Mr Rimmer.

They worked hard together. Wriggs and Smith, who both volunteered to stay as soon as they knew that Oliver was not going, toiling away till it was felt that nothing more could be done; and the conclusion was come to that, unless an attacking party of savages came provided with some form of ladder, they would be unable to mount to the deck. The bobstay having been removed, the gangways fortified, all this, with the commanding position the defenders would occupy, rendered the brig a thoroughly strong little fort, almost impregnable so long as the enemy did not think of enlisting fire in their service when they made their attack.

“Plenty of guns, plenty of ammunition, water and provisions in abundance, and enough British pluck to fight, I don’t think we shall hurt much, Mr Lane. But let’s hope that they will not come.”

As sunset neared, first one and then the other search parties came back with the same report—that they had examined the offing from the highest points they could reach, and also from the shore; but there was no sign of any canoe or of the blacks having landed.

The next day the search was repeated, and again upon the following day, from the end of the mist bank right round the coast; but they were alone upon the strange land, and it was evident that the savages in the canoe must have been journeying right away to some distant spot, and in all probability they would never be seen again.

This being so, it was resolved to combine in one expedition the search for the savages on the other side of the mist and the ascent of the mountain, from up whose slope it was hoped that the glasses would sweep the shore all round, proving whether there was a native village, and at the same time setting at rest the question of their being upon island or mainland.

The opportunity was favourable, for, though the soft steamy cloud floated over the land as before, shutting them off from the mountain slope, the volcano had been for days perfectly quiet—there had been no explosions, no subterranean rumblings or shocks, everything pointed to the fact that the eruption was at an end, and the mountain settling down into a state of quiescence.

“I should like to go with you very much,” said the mate. “I’ve had a short ladder knocked together for mounting steep bits and making a bridge over rifts and cracks, and I have a kind of longing to see what a crater is like.”

“Well, you are coming, of course,” said Oliver.

“No, I’m going to stay and take care of my ship. Why, if I went with you I should take it as a matter of course that a canoe would land close to our boat, and the savages come straight across to the brig and plunder her. It would be sure to happen if I went away.”

“Nonsense!” cried Oliver, laughing.

“Ah! you may call it so, young gentleman, but I know how these things will happen. No, I stop by my ship, and if the beggars do come, the men and I will make a stiff fight of it till you folk come back to help me drive them to their canoe.”

No persuasion would alter the mate’s plans, but he eagerly forwarded those of the naturalists, and arranged for Smith and Wriggs to bear them company, even offering two more men, but Panton was of opinion that the smaller their number was the more likely they were to be successful, and the next morning they started—a well armed party, Wriggs and Smith carrying a ladder and little tent, the others the food and water.

Then in due time the boat was reached and rowed along the lagoon till the end of the mist and the effervescent water were passed, and at last, a good mile farther than the attempt had been before, they put ashore, drew up their boat in the cocoa-nut grove which went on far as eye could reach, and, with the men shouldering the traps after the boat had been hidden, they started over fresh ground for the slope.

The route was plain enough if they could follow it, for there, high above them, was the balloon-like cloud of steam and smoke floating over the crater, the only mist in the pure blue sky, and looking dazzling in the sunshine as a film of silver.

“I don’t see why we cannot easily do it,” said Panton, as he shifted his gun from one shoulder to the other. “What we have to do is to avoid the thick forest and make at once for the slope of cinders and ashes. Then we can zigzag up. It looks no distance to the top, and we could do it easily to-night.”

But the mate’s plan was considered the best: to get some distance up and pitch their tent at the edge of the forest at its highest point, and then have their good night’s rest and start upward as soon as it was daylight.

They carried out this idea, skirting round the dense patch of forest, and getting above it to the open ground, where they had to wind in and out among rifts and blocks of lava which formed a wilderness below the ash slope. Then, going close to the forest edge, they soon found water, a couple of little sources bubbling out from among the rocks, and oddly enough within a few yards of each other, one being delicious, cool, and sweet, the other so hot that they could hardly immerse their hands, and when it was tasted it was bitter and salt to a degree.

While the two men set up the tent and made a fire to boil the kettle, a short expedition was made by the three young naturalists, it being a settled thing that there was to be no collecting next day, but every nerve was to be strained to reach the mountain top.

The ash slope ran up rapidly from where they stood, as they shouldered their guns and looked about them, and naturally feeling that they would have enough of that the next morning they turned down among the lava blocks for a short distance and then paused before plunging into the forest below.

From where they stood they were high enough to see that there was not so much as a bush above; all was grey, desolate, and strange, and the wonder to them was that the trees beneath them had not been burned up in one or other of the eruptions which must have taken place. Possibly, they felt, the sea winds had had some effect upon the falling ashes and hot steamy emanations and driven them from the forest, but it was a problem that they could not explain, and it was given up for the instant and left for future discussion.

There were other things to see that hot late afternoon, each full of wonder and beauty, and appealing to one or other of the party, each man finding enough to satisfy even his great desire for knowledge; and in turn, and with plenty of tolerance for each other’s branch of study, they paused to examine incrustations of sulphur, glorious orchids, and bird and beetle, gorgeous in colour, wonderful in make.

But nothing was collected, only noted for future exploration, and, growing faint, hot, and weary after an hour’s walking at the edge of the forest, they turned to retrace their steps, when Panton stepped upward for a few yards to try the edge of a little slope of fine ash—for the heat there was intense.

To his surprise the ashes into which he plunged his hands were quite cool, and yet the air around was at times almost suffocating.

“Must be a downward draught from the mountain top,” said Panton at last, and then he looked sharply round, for Oliver had suddenly cocked his gun.

“What is it?” asked the others.

“Look out. There’s something or somebody tracking us just inside the trees. I’ve seen the leaves move several times, but always thought it was the wind.”

“Hallo! Hark!” cried Drew, excitedly. “Don’t you hear?”

It was nearly sunset, and the little party knew that they had about an hour’s walk before they could reach camp. The darkness was fast approaching, but they stopped short to listen.

In vain for a few minutes, and they were about to start again, when the sound that had arrested Drew’s attention was heard plainly now by all—a long, low, piteous cry as of some one in agony, and in the great solitude of the mountain-side the cry was repeated, sending a chill of horror through the bravest there.

Chapter Twenty Two.Tommy Smith’s Ghost.“Must be one of the men,” said Oliver, excitedly. “Come on.”“But that thing you saw below there among the trees?”“We can’t stop about that. It’s some kind of great cat. I’ll try this.”He raised his gun and fired quickly in among the trees to scare the creature, whatever it might be, and there came in response a snarling yell, followed by a crashing, as of the animal bounding away through the undergrowth.Directly after there came from high up a second report, as if from a minor explosion of the volcano, but it was evidently only the echo of the gun.There was another sound though, which was far more startling and awe-inspiring, and made the three young men draw together and stand gazing upward, waiting to find which direction would be the safest in which to flee.For, directly after the echo, there was a strange whispering noise as of cinders sliding one over the other a long distance away and right up towards the crater above their heads.As naturalists they knew on the instant what this meant, and it struck all in the same way—that it resembled the falling of a little hard granulated ice in a mountain—the starting of an avalanche. And as the ash and cinder, with the vitrified blocks of stone, lay loose on the mighty slope, they felt that it was quite possible for the firing of the gun to have caused an avalanche of another kind.In a few seconds they knew that this was the case, for the whispering rapidly increased into a loud rustling, which soon became a rush, and directly after increased to a roar; and now, for the first time, they began to realise how vast the mountain was in its height and extent, for the rushing sound went on and on, gathering in force, and at last Drew exclaimed, as he gazed upward at an indistinct mist apparently travelling down towards them,—“Come on; we shall be swept away.”“No, no,” cried Panton and Oliver, almost in a breath; “We may be as safe here as anywhere. Perhaps we should rush into more danger.”And now the warm, ruddy glow of the setting sun was obscured by rising clouds, which they at once grasped were dust; a semi-darkness came on, and through this they had a glimpse of the mountain-side all in motion and threatening to overwhelm them where they stood.It was hard work to master the feeling of panic which impelled them to run for their lives, but fortunately they had strength of mind enough to stand fast while the tumult increased, and, joining hands, they kept their places with hearts throbbing, half-suffocated by the dust which now shut them in, while, with a furious roar, the avalanche of cinder, stones, and ashes swept by, not twenty yards from where they stood, and subsided amidst the cracking of boughs and tearing up of trees at the edge of the forest.It was like the dying sighs of some monster, the sound they heard directly after growing fainter and fainter, till there was the mere whisper made by trickling ashes, then even that subsided, and they stood in a cloud of dust, listening while it slowly rolled away. At last, as they gazed downward, there, below them, to the right, was a huge opening torn into the forest, with broken limbs, prostrate trunks, and great mop-like roots standing up out from a slope of grey cinders and calcined stones.“What an escape,” muttered Oliver. “Warning: we must not fire again near the mountain.”“Hark!” cried Panton. “There it is again.”For, from a distance, came a long, low, mournful shout, and directly after it was repeated, and they made out that it was the familiar sea-goingAhoy.“It’s only one of the men,” said Oliver, and, putting his hand to his mouth, he was about to answer, but Panton checked him.“Will it bring down another fall?” he whispered.“No, no. There can be little fear of that now,” said Oliver. “All the loose dusty stuff must have come down,” and he hailed loudly; but his cry had, apparently, no effect, for it was not answered.“Come on,” said Panton, after a few moments’ pause in the awful silence, which seemed to be far more terrible now, after the fall; and in the gathering darkness they started off, with the edge of the forest on their right to guide them. But the first part of their journey was not easy, for they had to climb and struggle through the ash and cinders, which had fallen, for a space of quite a couple of hundred yards before they were upon firm ground.Then, as they stopped for a few moments to regain their breath, there was the mournful, despairingAhoy! again, but though they answered several times over, there was no response till they had tramped on amidst increasing difficulties for quite a quarter of an hour—that which had been comparatively easy in broad daylight, growing more and more painful and toilsome as the darkness deepened.Then, all at once, after a response to the mournfulAhoy, there came a hail in quite a different tone.“Ahoy! Where away?”“All right! Where are you?” cried Oliver.“Here you are, sir. Here you are,” came from not a hundred yards away, and directly after they met Wriggs.“It’s you, then, who has been hailing,” cried Oliver. “Why didn’t you answer when we shouted?”“Did yer shout, sir? Never heerd yer till just now. Thought I should never hear no one again. Got lost and skeered. But I’ve found you at last.”“Found us, yes, of course. What made you leave Smith and come after us?”“Didn’t, sir. He left me and lost hisself, and I couldn’t find him. It was soon after we’d lit a fire. He went off to get some more wood and there was an end of him.”“What, Smith gone?”“Yes, sir. He’s swallowed up in some hole or another, or else eat up by wild beasts. I couldn’t find him nowhere, and I couldn’t stand it alone there among them sarpents.”“Serpents? What, near our camp?” said Drew, who began to think of their adventure in the cabin.“Yes, sir,” said Wriggs, who was all of a tremble from exertion and dread. “I stood it as long as I could, with ’em hissing all round me, and then I felt as though if I stopped alone much longer I should go off my chump.”“What?”“Go raving mad, sir, so I shoved some more stuff on the fire, and as soon as it began to blaze and crackle there was a bigger hissing than ever, and the serpents all came rushing at me, and I ran for my life and to try and find you.”“Come along,” cried Panton. “We must get back and find Smith.”“You never will, sir,” said Wriggs, dolefully. “Poor old Tommy’s gone. I expect it was the snakes. They must have smelt as it was we who skinned their mates. I had a narrow escape from ’em.”“Did you see them?” asked Oliver.“Well, sir, I didn’t zackly see ’em, but I could hear ’em all about me awful.”“Then you are not sure they were snakes?”“Not sure, sir? Why, that I am. Nothing else couldn’t keep on hissing at you but snakes and sarpents. Oh, lor! it’s a horful lonesome place, I was a shivering all down my back. Why, not long ago, while I was coming along hailing of yer, I heard a mountain come sliding down like thunder, and shooting loads o’ stones.”“You’ve been scared, Wriggs,” said Oliver, as he hurried the man back. “Tell me again.”“What, ’bout being scared, sir?”“Nonsense, we mustn’t be scared at a noise; I mean about Smith wandering away.”“Aren’t nowt to tell, sir, only as he went to get some more wood, and the sarpents caught him. Swaller a feller up whole, don’t they, sir?”“Serpents do swallow their food whole,” said Oliver.“Ah, that accounts for his not answering when I shouted. Of course, I couldn’t hear him or him me if he was swallowed down into some long thing’s inside.”“There, that will do,” said Oliver, impatiently. “I say, Panton, are we going right?”“Must be; the edge of the wood is below us on the right.”“But everything looks so different.”“Yes, looks dark,” said Drew. “But we ought to be pretty close to the place now.”“I’m afraid we’ve turned up too much among the rocks. It will be horrible to be lost now. I wish we had not come,” said Panton. “We ought to be resting ready for our work to-morrow.”“All right: we’ve passed the opening into the forest,” cried Oliver.“How do you know?”“Look back a little, and you’ll see the gleam of the fire. There, look.”For, as they stopped and glanced back, there was a sudden blaze of light from some fifty yards below them, as if the fire had fallen together and flashed up.“I thought we couldn’t be far away,” continued Oliver.“Look, look, sir,” whispered Wriggs, stopping short, and catching the young man’s arm.“What at? The fire? Yes, I see it.”“No, sir, close to it. There, it’s a-moving. Tommy Smith’s ghost.”“Ahoy, ghost!” shouted Oliver, as he caught sight of the figure.“Ahoy it is, sir,” came in stentorian tones. “Seen anything o’ poor Billy Wriggs, sir? He’s wanished.”“Mussy on me, Tommy,” shouted Wriggs, running forward to grasp his comrade’s hand, “I thought you was a dead ’un.”“Not so bad as that, messmet,” said Smith shaking hands heartily, “but I had a nasty tumble down into a sort o’ crack place, and it reg’lar stunned me for a bit, and when I come back you was gone.”“But did you hear ’em?” said Wriggs, in a husky whisper.“Who’s ’em?” said Smith.“Sarpents.”“What, a-hissin’ like mad?”“Ay.”“’Tarn’t serpents, Billy, it’s some hot water holes clost by here, and every now and then they spits steam. Fust time I heerd it I thought it was a cat.”Half an hour later all were sleeping soundly, only one having his slumber disturbed by dreams, and that was Wriggs, who had turned over on his back, and in imagination saw himself surrounded by huge snakes, all in two pieces. They rose up and hissed at him while he struggled to get away, but seemed to be held down by something invisible; but the most horrible part of his dream was that some of the serpents hissed at him with their heads, and others stood up on the part where they had been divided, and hissed at him with the points of their tails.

“Must be one of the men,” said Oliver, excitedly. “Come on.”

“But that thing you saw below there among the trees?”

“We can’t stop about that. It’s some kind of great cat. I’ll try this.”

He raised his gun and fired quickly in among the trees to scare the creature, whatever it might be, and there came in response a snarling yell, followed by a crashing, as of the animal bounding away through the undergrowth.

Directly after there came from high up a second report, as if from a minor explosion of the volcano, but it was evidently only the echo of the gun.

There was another sound though, which was far more startling and awe-inspiring, and made the three young men draw together and stand gazing upward, waiting to find which direction would be the safest in which to flee.

For, directly after the echo, there was a strange whispering noise as of cinders sliding one over the other a long distance away and right up towards the crater above their heads.

As naturalists they knew on the instant what this meant, and it struck all in the same way—that it resembled the falling of a little hard granulated ice in a mountain—the starting of an avalanche. And as the ash and cinder, with the vitrified blocks of stone, lay loose on the mighty slope, they felt that it was quite possible for the firing of the gun to have caused an avalanche of another kind.

In a few seconds they knew that this was the case, for the whispering rapidly increased into a loud rustling, which soon became a rush, and directly after increased to a roar; and now, for the first time, they began to realise how vast the mountain was in its height and extent, for the rushing sound went on and on, gathering in force, and at last Drew exclaimed, as he gazed upward at an indistinct mist apparently travelling down towards them,—

“Come on; we shall be swept away.”

“No, no,” cried Panton and Oliver, almost in a breath; “We may be as safe here as anywhere. Perhaps we should rush into more danger.”

And now the warm, ruddy glow of the setting sun was obscured by rising clouds, which they at once grasped were dust; a semi-darkness came on, and through this they had a glimpse of the mountain-side all in motion and threatening to overwhelm them where they stood.

It was hard work to master the feeling of panic which impelled them to run for their lives, but fortunately they had strength of mind enough to stand fast while the tumult increased, and, joining hands, they kept their places with hearts throbbing, half-suffocated by the dust which now shut them in, while, with a furious roar, the avalanche of cinder, stones, and ashes swept by, not twenty yards from where they stood, and subsided amidst the cracking of boughs and tearing up of trees at the edge of the forest.

It was like the dying sighs of some monster, the sound they heard directly after growing fainter and fainter, till there was the mere whisper made by trickling ashes, then even that subsided, and they stood in a cloud of dust, listening while it slowly rolled away. At last, as they gazed downward, there, below them, to the right, was a huge opening torn into the forest, with broken limbs, prostrate trunks, and great mop-like roots standing up out from a slope of grey cinders and calcined stones.

“What an escape,” muttered Oliver. “Warning: we must not fire again near the mountain.”

“Hark!” cried Panton. “There it is again.”

For, from a distance, came a long, low, mournful shout, and directly after it was repeated, and they made out that it was the familiar sea-goingAhoy.

“It’s only one of the men,” said Oliver, and, putting his hand to his mouth, he was about to answer, but Panton checked him.

“Will it bring down another fall?” he whispered.

“No, no. There can be little fear of that now,” said Oliver. “All the loose dusty stuff must have come down,” and he hailed loudly; but his cry had, apparently, no effect, for it was not answered.

“Come on,” said Panton, after a few moments’ pause in the awful silence, which seemed to be far more terrible now, after the fall; and in the gathering darkness they started off, with the edge of the forest on their right to guide them. But the first part of their journey was not easy, for they had to climb and struggle through the ash and cinders, which had fallen, for a space of quite a couple of hundred yards before they were upon firm ground.

Then, as they stopped for a few moments to regain their breath, there was the mournful, despairingAhoy! again, but though they answered several times over, there was no response till they had tramped on amidst increasing difficulties for quite a quarter of an hour—that which had been comparatively easy in broad daylight, growing more and more painful and toilsome as the darkness deepened.

Then, all at once, after a response to the mournfulAhoy, there came a hail in quite a different tone.

“Ahoy! Where away?”

“All right! Where are you?” cried Oliver.

“Here you are, sir. Here you are,” came from not a hundred yards away, and directly after they met Wriggs.

“It’s you, then, who has been hailing,” cried Oliver. “Why didn’t you answer when we shouted?”

“Did yer shout, sir? Never heerd yer till just now. Thought I should never hear no one again. Got lost and skeered. But I’ve found you at last.”

“Found us, yes, of course. What made you leave Smith and come after us?”

“Didn’t, sir. He left me and lost hisself, and I couldn’t find him. It was soon after we’d lit a fire. He went off to get some more wood and there was an end of him.”

“What, Smith gone?”

“Yes, sir. He’s swallowed up in some hole or another, or else eat up by wild beasts. I couldn’t find him nowhere, and I couldn’t stand it alone there among them sarpents.”

“Serpents? What, near our camp?” said Drew, who began to think of their adventure in the cabin.

“Yes, sir,” said Wriggs, who was all of a tremble from exertion and dread. “I stood it as long as I could, with ’em hissing all round me, and then I felt as though if I stopped alone much longer I should go off my chump.”

“What?”

“Go raving mad, sir, so I shoved some more stuff on the fire, and as soon as it began to blaze and crackle there was a bigger hissing than ever, and the serpents all came rushing at me, and I ran for my life and to try and find you.”

“Come along,” cried Panton. “We must get back and find Smith.”

“You never will, sir,” said Wriggs, dolefully. “Poor old Tommy’s gone. I expect it was the snakes. They must have smelt as it was we who skinned their mates. I had a narrow escape from ’em.”

“Did you see them?” asked Oliver.

“Well, sir, I didn’t zackly see ’em, but I could hear ’em all about me awful.”

“Then you are not sure they were snakes?”

“Not sure, sir? Why, that I am. Nothing else couldn’t keep on hissing at you but snakes and sarpents. Oh, lor! it’s a horful lonesome place, I was a shivering all down my back. Why, not long ago, while I was coming along hailing of yer, I heard a mountain come sliding down like thunder, and shooting loads o’ stones.”

“You’ve been scared, Wriggs,” said Oliver, as he hurried the man back. “Tell me again.”

“What, ’bout being scared, sir?”

“Nonsense, we mustn’t be scared at a noise; I mean about Smith wandering away.”

“Aren’t nowt to tell, sir, only as he went to get some more wood, and the sarpents caught him. Swaller a feller up whole, don’t they, sir?”

“Serpents do swallow their food whole,” said Oliver.

“Ah, that accounts for his not answering when I shouted. Of course, I couldn’t hear him or him me if he was swallowed down into some long thing’s inside.”

“There, that will do,” said Oliver, impatiently. “I say, Panton, are we going right?”

“Must be; the edge of the wood is below us on the right.”

“But everything looks so different.”

“Yes, looks dark,” said Drew. “But we ought to be pretty close to the place now.”

“I’m afraid we’ve turned up too much among the rocks. It will be horrible to be lost now. I wish we had not come,” said Panton. “We ought to be resting ready for our work to-morrow.”

“All right: we’ve passed the opening into the forest,” cried Oliver.

“How do you know?”

“Look back a little, and you’ll see the gleam of the fire. There, look.”

For, as they stopped and glanced back, there was a sudden blaze of light from some fifty yards below them, as if the fire had fallen together and flashed up.

“I thought we couldn’t be far away,” continued Oliver.

“Look, look, sir,” whispered Wriggs, stopping short, and catching the young man’s arm.

“What at? The fire? Yes, I see it.”

“No, sir, close to it. There, it’s a-moving. Tommy Smith’s ghost.”

“Ahoy, ghost!” shouted Oliver, as he caught sight of the figure.

“Ahoy it is, sir,” came in stentorian tones. “Seen anything o’ poor Billy Wriggs, sir? He’s wanished.”

“Mussy on me, Tommy,” shouted Wriggs, running forward to grasp his comrade’s hand, “I thought you was a dead ’un.”

“Not so bad as that, messmet,” said Smith shaking hands heartily, “but I had a nasty tumble down into a sort o’ crack place, and it reg’lar stunned me for a bit, and when I come back you was gone.”

“But did you hear ’em?” said Wriggs, in a husky whisper.

“Who’s ’em?” said Smith.

“Sarpents.”

“What, a-hissin’ like mad?”

“Ay.”

“’Tarn’t serpents, Billy, it’s some hot water holes clost by here, and every now and then they spits steam. Fust time I heerd it I thought it was a cat.”

Half an hour later all were sleeping soundly, only one having his slumber disturbed by dreams, and that was Wriggs, who had turned over on his back, and in imagination saw himself surrounded by huge snakes, all in two pieces. They rose up and hissed at him while he struggled to get away, but seemed to be held down by something invisible; but the most horrible part of his dream was that some of the serpents hissed at him with their heads, and others stood up on the part where they had been divided, and hissed at him with the points of their tails.

Chapter Twenty Three.Up the Mountain.The sun was shining upon the globular mist which floated high up over the top of the mountain when Panton woke and roused his companions, and while the men raked up the embers, added wood to get the kettle to boil, the three young companions walked to the spring for a bathe, by way of preparation for an arduous day’s work. Here they found, deep down in a crack among the rocks, quite an extensive pool, into which the hot spring flowed, and a journey of thirty or forty yards among the rocks, exposed to the air, was sufficient to temper its heat into a pleasant warmth, whose effects were delicious, giving to the skin, as it did, consequent upon the salts it contained, a soft, silky feeling, which tempted them to stay in longer.“It wouldn’t do,” said Panton, withdrawing himself from the seductive influence of the bath. “It would be enervating, I’m sure.”“Yes, let’s dress,” cried Oliver, and soon after they were making a hearty meal, gazing up at the great slope they had to surmount, and noting as they ate, the sinuous lines which appeared here and there upon the mountain-side, and which they knew, from experience, to be cracks.“Must dodge all of them, if we can,” said Panton with his mouth full. “If not, Smith must lay the ladder across for a bridge.”“But, I say, Lane,” said Drew, after gazing upward for some time in silence, “didn’t you lay it on a bit too thick when we found you?”“Yes,” said Panton, “about the difficulty of the climb. Why, it looks nothing. Only a hot tiring walk. I say, we ought to be peeping down into the crater in an hour’s time.”“Yes, we ought to be,” said Oliver, drily. “Look sharp, my lads, eat all you can, and then let’s start. The tent can stay as it is till we come back. We’ll take nothing but some food and our bottles of water. You carry the ladder, Wriggs, and you that long pole and the ropes, Smith.”“Ay, ay, sir,” said the men in duet, and a quarter of an hour later Oliver, as having been pioneer, took the lead, and leaving the rugged rocky ground they planted their feet upon the slope and began to climb.“Don’t seem to get much nearer the top,” said Drew at the end of two hours, when he had proposed that they should halt for a few minutes to admire the prospect, in which Panton at once began to take a great deal of interest.“No, we haven’t reached the top yet,” said Oliver, drily.“What a view!” cried Drew. “Oughtn’t we soon to see the brig?”“No,” replied Oliver; “if we cannot see the mountain from the vessel, how can we expect to see the vessel from the mountain? Ready to go on?”“Yes, directly,” said Panton. “You can see the ocean, though, and the surf on the barrier reef. But I don’t see any sign of savages.”“Phew! What’s that?” cried Drew, suddenly.“Puff of hot air from the mountain, or else from some crack. There must be one near.”Oliver looked round and upward, but no inequality was visible, and they climbed slowly and steadily up for some hundred yards before Panton, who was now first, stopped short.“I say, look here!” he cried. “We’re done, and must go back.”Oliver joined him, and then gazed away to the west.“This is the great crack I told you about,” he said, “but it is much narrower here.”“And not so deep, eh?” said Panton, with a slight sneer.“That I can’t say,” replied Oliver; “deep enough if you could look straight down. Here, Smith, let’s have the ladder. Will it reach?”The two men came up with the light ladder and pushed it across to find that it was long enough to act as a bridge with a couple of feet to spare.“But it looks too risky,” said Drew, while the two sailors glanced at each other and scratched their heads as they wondered whether one of them would be sent forward to try the ladder’s strength.“Yes, it looks risky,” said Oliver, coolly, “but we have to do it.”“No, no,” said Panton warmly, “it is too bad. I was disposed to chaff you, Lane, because you threw the hatchet a little about your adventures. It would be madness to cross that horrible rift.”“Hear, hear,” said Smith, in an undertone.“As aforesaid,” said Wriggs.“We’re going across there,” said Lane, coolly. “It’s the nearest way up and only needs care.”“But, oh! poof!” exclaimed Drew, “you can smell a horrible reek coming up.”“Yes, that’s what we keep getting puffs of as we climb. Give me the end of that coil of line, Smith.”“Ay, ay, sir.”“Will it bear me?”“Half a dozen o’ your sort, sir. It’s quite noo.”“Good,” said Oliver, securing the end tightly about his chest.“Then you’re going to venture?” said Panton.“Of course, and you’re all coming, too. But you’ll hold the line and if the ladder breaks or I slip off, you’ll hang on and drag me out?”“Of course. But—”“Never mind the buts,” said Oliver, smiling, and just then, piqued by his companion’s banter, he would have crossed had the danger been far greater.“I say,” cried Drew, “won’t the sides crumble in from under the ladder?”“Not likely,” said Oliver, coolly; “there’s a little ash at the edges, but just below it is solid lava rock.”“Yes, that’s so; and this is a huge crack formed in the cooling,” said Panton.“Ready!” cried Oliver. “Hold the rope so that there is no drag upon me, but be ready to tighten.”No one spoke, and Oliver walked to the ladder, placed one foot upon a round, leaned forward, and looked down.“You can see here,” he said, without turning his head, “it goes down till all is black darkness. Now then, let the rope slide through your finger. Ready?”“Yes, all right.”Then, to the horror of all, instead of going down upon hands and knees, and crawling across, Oliver stepped boldly on upright from round to round, till he reached the centre, where he stopped short, for the slight poles of the ladder had given and given, sinking lower, till it seemed as if they must break. Oliver knew it well, and had stopped short, expecting to feel the check of the rope, which grew moist in the hands which involuntarily tightened around it. The party in safety watched with starting eyes, and breath held till, after a pause of some seconds, which appeared to be prolonged into minutes, the bending ladder began to spring and creak again, as, with his balance regained, Oliver stepped on, round by round, and then reached the other side. Only about a dozen feet, but to all it seemed like a horrible, long journey of the greatest peril.“Lane, lad,” cried Panton, excitedly, as soon as his friend was over, “what madness to go like that!”“Shouldn’t have thought me a coward and a boaster, then,” said Oliver, sitting down about three yards from the edge of the chasm, and unfastening the rope from about his chest. “But it isn’t safe to come like that; I nearly lost my balance, the ladder bends so. Besides, it will bear you better if you distribute your weight and come on all fours.”“It’s not safe even to do that,” said Drew, sharply.“As aforesaid,” grumbled Wriggs.“Oh, yes,” said Oliver, smiling, “you can fasten the rope around you Alpine fashion, and I shall hold one end; the others will hold the second end, so that we shall all have you safely enough.”“All right,” said Drew, shortly, and he made a loop, passed it over his head and shoulders, tightened it, and advanced.“Now then, draw in the line.”This was done, and with Oliver sitting with his heels firmly against a projection of the rock, and hauling in foot by foot, and the others giving, Drew went down on hands and knees, gripped the sides of the ladder, and crawled across, the wood cracking a good deal, but not bending nearly so much.“There,” said Oliver, as Drew unfastened the rope, “now you can help me hold, and Panton can come over.”“I’m going to walk across,” said Panton, firmly.“No, you are not, man,” cried Oliver; “you will crawl. We must run no risks to-day.”Panton grumbled, but obeyed, crawling across in safety after coming to a standstill in the middle and losing his nerve as he gazed down between the rounds.Then Wriggs came, and Smith was left to run as much risk as Oliver, for he had only rope holders on the farther side, but he went across boldly enough and without hesitation, the rope being steadily gathered in, and when he was over he took a good grip of the ladder and drew it across as well.“I beg your pardon, Lane,” said Panton, in a voice that only his companion could hear. “It was only banter, but I ought to have known better.”“All right, old fellow,” cried his companion. “There, say no more.”The sun was growing intensely hot now, as Smith shouldered the ladder, and they once more started up the slope, which rapidly grew steeper, so stiff indeed was the ascent that Oliver, who led, after trying the zigzag approach and finding it too difficult, bore away to the east, making the ascent more gradual, and as if the intention was to form a corkscrew-like path round the upper part of the mountain.“We’ve done wrong,” he said, after a couple of hours’ struggle upwards, “we ought to have gone to the west, and then by this time we should have been in the shade instead of roasting here.”They had paused to have a bit of lunch and rest, for the heat was intense now, and the cracks or rifts in the mountain slope more frequent, but they were not half the width of that which had been just crossed, and as the party had grown more confident they took each in turn readily enough.“We must make the best of it now,” said Panton, “and I can’t help thinking that we are doing right.”“Why?” asked Drew.“It seems to me that it would be impossible to get up to the crater edge on account of these horrible hot gases which rise from the cracks. We had better aim at getting round to the other side, and looking out from there as high up as we can climb. We shall know then whether the place is an island. What do you say, Lane?”“The same as you do. I’ve been thinking so for an hour. You see, the ashes get looser as we climb higher, and the mountain steeper. What looked easy enough from below proves to be difficult in the extreme, and if we go much higher I feel sure that we shall set loose a regular avalanche and begin sliding down altogether.”A quarter of an hour later they started off again somewhat refreshed, but suffering terribly from the volcanic heat radiating from the ashes as well as from that from the sun, but they pressed on steadily, rising higher and gradually getting round the north slope, though the farther they tramped over the yielding ashes, the more they were impressed by the fact that the mountain was ten times greater than they had imagined it from below.At last, late on in the afternoon, Oliver stopped short.“We must get back before dark,” he said. “Those chasms have to be passed. What do you say, shall we go now?”His proposal was agreed to at once, and they turned to have a good look round. Above them towered the truncated cone looking precisely as it did from the place where they had started that morning, and, while Oliver adjusted his glass, Panton took out a pocket-compass, and Drew, a watch-like aneroid barometer.“I can see nothing but the barrier reef just as it was when we started. Where are we now?” said Oliver. “Nearly north-east, are we not? and sea, sea, sea, everywhere, nothing but sea in this direction.”“We are looking due north,” said Panton, as the needle of his compass grew steady.“What, have we after all got round to the other side?”“Seems so.”“Then the place is an island.”“Unless it joins the mainland somewhere west,” said Panton.“As far as I can see there is no land north or west. If we are on the northern side now we must be able to see it at this height. How high are we, Drew?”“Just over four thousand feet, and I should say the mountain goes up quite two thousand more, but it is very deceiving. Then we are upon an island?”“Hurrah!” cried Panton.“I don’t see where the hurrah comes in,” said Oliver, quietly, “but I’m glad that our journey has not been without some result.”“I should have liked to get to the top though,” said Panton, looking upward wistfully.“I say, you two,” said Drew, “we were to give a good look round for the niggers.”“I’ve been doing so,” said Oliver, whose eyes were still at his glass, “and there isn’t a sign of a hut, boat, or savage. Nothing but a barrier reef shutting in a beautiful lagoon, and the cocoa-nut palms fringing its edge.”“What about the lower slopes?” asked Drew.“Dense forest for the most part, cut through every here and there by what looks like old lava streams, which reach the lagoon, and form cliffs.”“Then this side of the island is better wooded than the other?”“Evidently, and there are two little streams running down from the dark chaos of rock, that look to me different from the rest of the mountain. You have a look, Panton.”The latter took the glass and stood sweeping the mountain slope for some minutes, during which Smith and Wriggs sat down, and lit their pipes for a restful smoke.“All plain enough, as far as I can judge, my lads. That dark part in the most wooded district is an old volcano, and this that we are on seems to be quite new and active. I should say this island has been quiescent for hundreds of years before it burst out into eruption, and sent up this great pile of rock and ashes. Now then, what next?”“Back to the tent before we are overtaken by the darkness,” said Drew.“Can we do it?” said Oliver.“We’re going to try. Now, then, all down-hill over the soft ash, I daresay we shall be able to slide part of the way.”“No,” cried Oliver, emphatically, “it must be fair walking. If we start a slide of ashes and cinders, how are we to stop when we come near one of the crevasses?”“Or to avoid being buried?” said Drew, “Steady work is the thing.”He had hardly spoken these words when, as if resenting their presence, a roar like thunder came from the crater, and a huge cloud shot up into the clear sky, to curve over like a tree, and as they turned and fled once more, a rain of ashes commenced falling. The darkness of which they had had so terrible an experience, threatened to shut them in high up on that mountain slope, while at any moment in their retreat they were liable to come upon one of the openings that ran deep down into the volcano’s fiery core.

The sun was shining upon the globular mist which floated high up over the top of the mountain when Panton woke and roused his companions, and while the men raked up the embers, added wood to get the kettle to boil, the three young companions walked to the spring for a bathe, by way of preparation for an arduous day’s work. Here they found, deep down in a crack among the rocks, quite an extensive pool, into which the hot spring flowed, and a journey of thirty or forty yards among the rocks, exposed to the air, was sufficient to temper its heat into a pleasant warmth, whose effects were delicious, giving to the skin, as it did, consequent upon the salts it contained, a soft, silky feeling, which tempted them to stay in longer.

“It wouldn’t do,” said Panton, withdrawing himself from the seductive influence of the bath. “It would be enervating, I’m sure.”

“Yes, let’s dress,” cried Oliver, and soon after they were making a hearty meal, gazing up at the great slope they had to surmount, and noting as they ate, the sinuous lines which appeared here and there upon the mountain-side, and which they knew, from experience, to be cracks.

“Must dodge all of them, if we can,” said Panton with his mouth full. “If not, Smith must lay the ladder across for a bridge.”

“But, I say, Lane,” said Drew, after gazing upward for some time in silence, “didn’t you lay it on a bit too thick when we found you?”

“Yes,” said Panton, “about the difficulty of the climb. Why, it looks nothing. Only a hot tiring walk. I say, we ought to be peeping down into the crater in an hour’s time.”

“Yes, we ought to be,” said Oliver, drily. “Look sharp, my lads, eat all you can, and then let’s start. The tent can stay as it is till we come back. We’ll take nothing but some food and our bottles of water. You carry the ladder, Wriggs, and you that long pole and the ropes, Smith.”

“Ay, ay, sir,” said the men in duet, and a quarter of an hour later Oliver, as having been pioneer, took the lead, and leaving the rugged rocky ground they planted their feet upon the slope and began to climb.

“Don’t seem to get much nearer the top,” said Drew at the end of two hours, when he had proposed that they should halt for a few minutes to admire the prospect, in which Panton at once began to take a great deal of interest.

“No, we haven’t reached the top yet,” said Oliver, drily.

“What a view!” cried Drew. “Oughtn’t we soon to see the brig?”

“No,” replied Oliver; “if we cannot see the mountain from the vessel, how can we expect to see the vessel from the mountain? Ready to go on?”

“Yes, directly,” said Panton. “You can see the ocean, though, and the surf on the barrier reef. But I don’t see any sign of savages.”

“Phew! What’s that?” cried Drew, suddenly.

“Puff of hot air from the mountain, or else from some crack. There must be one near.”

Oliver looked round and upward, but no inequality was visible, and they climbed slowly and steadily up for some hundred yards before Panton, who was now first, stopped short.

“I say, look here!” he cried. “We’re done, and must go back.”

Oliver joined him, and then gazed away to the west.

“This is the great crack I told you about,” he said, “but it is much narrower here.”

“And not so deep, eh?” said Panton, with a slight sneer.

“That I can’t say,” replied Oliver; “deep enough if you could look straight down. Here, Smith, let’s have the ladder. Will it reach?”

The two men came up with the light ladder and pushed it across to find that it was long enough to act as a bridge with a couple of feet to spare.

“But it looks too risky,” said Drew, while the two sailors glanced at each other and scratched their heads as they wondered whether one of them would be sent forward to try the ladder’s strength.

“Yes, it looks risky,” said Oliver, coolly, “but we have to do it.”

“No, no,” said Panton warmly, “it is too bad. I was disposed to chaff you, Lane, because you threw the hatchet a little about your adventures. It would be madness to cross that horrible rift.”

“Hear, hear,” said Smith, in an undertone.

“As aforesaid,” said Wriggs.

“We’re going across there,” said Lane, coolly. “It’s the nearest way up and only needs care.”

“But, oh! poof!” exclaimed Drew, “you can smell a horrible reek coming up.”

“Yes, that’s what we keep getting puffs of as we climb. Give me the end of that coil of line, Smith.”

“Ay, ay, sir.”

“Will it bear me?”

“Half a dozen o’ your sort, sir. It’s quite noo.”

“Good,” said Oliver, securing the end tightly about his chest.

“Then you’re going to venture?” said Panton.

“Of course, and you’re all coming, too. But you’ll hold the line and if the ladder breaks or I slip off, you’ll hang on and drag me out?”

“Of course. But—”

“Never mind the buts,” said Oliver, smiling, and just then, piqued by his companion’s banter, he would have crossed had the danger been far greater.

“I say,” cried Drew, “won’t the sides crumble in from under the ladder?”

“Not likely,” said Oliver, coolly; “there’s a little ash at the edges, but just below it is solid lava rock.”

“Yes, that’s so; and this is a huge crack formed in the cooling,” said Panton.

“Ready!” cried Oliver. “Hold the rope so that there is no drag upon me, but be ready to tighten.”

No one spoke, and Oliver walked to the ladder, placed one foot upon a round, leaned forward, and looked down.

“You can see here,” he said, without turning his head, “it goes down till all is black darkness. Now then, let the rope slide through your finger. Ready?”

“Yes, all right.”

Then, to the horror of all, instead of going down upon hands and knees, and crawling across, Oliver stepped boldly on upright from round to round, till he reached the centre, where he stopped short, for the slight poles of the ladder had given and given, sinking lower, till it seemed as if they must break. Oliver knew it well, and had stopped short, expecting to feel the check of the rope, which grew moist in the hands which involuntarily tightened around it. The party in safety watched with starting eyes, and breath held till, after a pause of some seconds, which appeared to be prolonged into minutes, the bending ladder began to spring and creak again, as, with his balance regained, Oliver stepped on, round by round, and then reached the other side. Only about a dozen feet, but to all it seemed like a horrible, long journey of the greatest peril.

“Lane, lad,” cried Panton, excitedly, as soon as his friend was over, “what madness to go like that!”

“Shouldn’t have thought me a coward and a boaster, then,” said Oliver, sitting down about three yards from the edge of the chasm, and unfastening the rope from about his chest. “But it isn’t safe to come like that; I nearly lost my balance, the ladder bends so. Besides, it will bear you better if you distribute your weight and come on all fours.”

“It’s not safe even to do that,” said Drew, sharply.

“As aforesaid,” grumbled Wriggs.

“Oh, yes,” said Oliver, smiling, “you can fasten the rope around you Alpine fashion, and I shall hold one end; the others will hold the second end, so that we shall all have you safely enough.”

“All right,” said Drew, shortly, and he made a loop, passed it over his head and shoulders, tightened it, and advanced.

“Now then, draw in the line.”

This was done, and with Oliver sitting with his heels firmly against a projection of the rock, and hauling in foot by foot, and the others giving, Drew went down on hands and knees, gripped the sides of the ladder, and crawled across, the wood cracking a good deal, but not bending nearly so much.

“There,” said Oliver, as Drew unfastened the rope, “now you can help me hold, and Panton can come over.”

“I’m going to walk across,” said Panton, firmly.

“No, you are not, man,” cried Oliver; “you will crawl. We must run no risks to-day.”

Panton grumbled, but obeyed, crawling across in safety after coming to a standstill in the middle and losing his nerve as he gazed down between the rounds.

Then Wriggs came, and Smith was left to run as much risk as Oliver, for he had only rope holders on the farther side, but he went across boldly enough and without hesitation, the rope being steadily gathered in, and when he was over he took a good grip of the ladder and drew it across as well.

“I beg your pardon, Lane,” said Panton, in a voice that only his companion could hear. “It was only banter, but I ought to have known better.”

“All right, old fellow,” cried his companion. “There, say no more.”

The sun was growing intensely hot now, as Smith shouldered the ladder, and they once more started up the slope, which rapidly grew steeper, so stiff indeed was the ascent that Oliver, who led, after trying the zigzag approach and finding it too difficult, bore away to the east, making the ascent more gradual, and as if the intention was to form a corkscrew-like path round the upper part of the mountain.

“We’ve done wrong,” he said, after a couple of hours’ struggle upwards, “we ought to have gone to the west, and then by this time we should have been in the shade instead of roasting here.”

They had paused to have a bit of lunch and rest, for the heat was intense now, and the cracks or rifts in the mountain slope more frequent, but they were not half the width of that which had been just crossed, and as the party had grown more confident they took each in turn readily enough.

“We must make the best of it now,” said Panton, “and I can’t help thinking that we are doing right.”

“Why?” asked Drew.

“It seems to me that it would be impossible to get up to the crater edge on account of these horrible hot gases which rise from the cracks. We had better aim at getting round to the other side, and looking out from there as high up as we can climb. We shall know then whether the place is an island. What do you say, Lane?”

“The same as you do. I’ve been thinking so for an hour. You see, the ashes get looser as we climb higher, and the mountain steeper. What looked easy enough from below proves to be difficult in the extreme, and if we go much higher I feel sure that we shall set loose a regular avalanche and begin sliding down altogether.”

A quarter of an hour later they started off again somewhat refreshed, but suffering terribly from the volcanic heat radiating from the ashes as well as from that from the sun, but they pressed on steadily, rising higher and gradually getting round the north slope, though the farther they tramped over the yielding ashes, the more they were impressed by the fact that the mountain was ten times greater than they had imagined it from below.

At last, late on in the afternoon, Oliver stopped short.

“We must get back before dark,” he said. “Those chasms have to be passed. What do you say, shall we go now?”

His proposal was agreed to at once, and they turned to have a good look round. Above them towered the truncated cone looking precisely as it did from the place where they had started that morning, and, while Oliver adjusted his glass, Panton took out a pocket-compass, and Drew, a watch-like aneroid barometer.

“I can see nothing but the barrier reef just as it was when we started. Where are we now?” said Oliver. “Nearly north-east, are we not? and sea, sea, sea, everywhere, nothing but sea in this direction.”

“We are looking due north,” said Panton, as the needle of his compass grew steady.

“What, have we after all got round to the other side?”

“Seems so.”

“Then the place is an island.”

“Unless it joins the mainland somewhere west,” said Panton.

“As far as I can see there is no land north or west. If we are on the northern side now we must be able to see it at this height. How high are we, Drew?”

“Just over four thousand feet, and I should say the mountain goes up quite two thousand more, but it is very deceiving. Then we are upon an island?”

“Hurrah!” cried Panton.

“I don’t see where the hurrah comes in,” said Oliver, quietly, “but I’m glad that our journey has not been without some result.”

“I should have liked to get to the top though,” said Panton, looking upward wistfully.

“I say, you two,” said Drew, “we were to give a good look round for the niggers.”

“I’ve been doing so,” said Oliver, whose eyes were still at his glass, “and there isn’t a sign of a hut, boat, or savage. Nothing but a barrier reef shutting in a beautiful lagoon, and the cocoa-nut palms fringing its edge.”

“What about the lower slopes?” asked Drew.

“Dense forest for the most part, cut through every here and there by what looks like old lava streams, which reach the lagoon, and form cliffs.”

“Then this side of the island is better wooded than the other?”

“Evidently, and there are two little streams running down from the dark chaos of rock, that look to me different from the rest of the mountain. You have a look, Panton.”

The latter took the glass and stood sweeping the mountain slope for some minutes, during which Smith and Wriggs sat down, and lit their pipes for a restful smoke.

“All plain enough, as far as I can judge, my lads. That dark part in the most wooded district is an old volcano, and this that we are on seems to be quite new and active. I should say this island has been quiescent for hundreds of years before it burst out into eruption, and sent up this great pile of rock and ashes. Now then, what next?”

“Back to the tent before we are overtaken by the darkness,” said Drew.

“Can we do it?” said Oliver.

“We’re going to try. Now, then, all down-hill over the soft ash, I daresay we shall be able to slide part of the way.”

“No,” cried Oliver, emphatically, “it must be fair walking. If we start a slide of ashes and cinders, how are we to stop when we come near one of the crevasses?”

“Or to avoid being buried?” said Drew, “Steady work is the thing.”

He had hardly spoken these words when, as if resenting their presence, a roar like thunder came from the crater, and a huge cloud shot up into the clear sky, to curve over like a tree, and as they turned and fled once more, a rain of ashes commenced falling. The darkness of which they had had so terrible an experience, threatened to shut them in high up on that mountain slope, while at any moment in their retreat they were liable to come upon one of the openings that ran deep down into the volcano’s fiery core.

Chapter Twenty Four.An Interesting Failure.One of the rifts was crossed in the dim twilight, another was avoided by making a circuit, and another by walking along its edge till it narrowed sufficiently for them to spring across, and after one of these bold leaps, Smith, who bore the ladder, said to Wriggs,—“Feel ’sposed to take to a noo line o’ life, messmate, if we ever gets back home?”“Dunno. What sort?” growled Wriggs.“Hacerybat and tumbler by appointment to her Majesty.”“What d’yer mean, Tommy?”“Why, arter this practice we can do anything: balancing on poles, crawling desprit places on ladders, hanging from ropes, and standing over nothing with yer eyes shut. Feel a tug, Billy, when we jumped that last bit?”“Tug? No. I on’y felt as if I was a bit a’ iron, and there was a big loadstone down in the hole, trying to pull me in.”“Well, that’s what I meant—a tug.”“Bah! there’s only one kind o’ tug—a steam tug, and there’s none here for a man to feel.”“What, aren’t there a tug-o’-war?”“Not here, messmet. But I say, I don’t stomach this here darkness. It’s like being at work in the hold. Mind!”“All right, I see it coming, mate,” said Smith, as a great lump of cinder fell close to him. “Didn’t touch me.”“Miss is as good as a mile, mate, eh? But don’t it seem as if someone up above was heaving these stones at us because we are not wanted here.”“Come along, my lads!” cried Oliver, halting for them to hasten up. “Take my gun, Smith, and I’ll carry the ladder for a bit.”“Not me, sir, begging your pardon. This here ladder’s about the awkwardest and heaviest ladder as ever was for his size.”“Then let me rest you.”“No, sir. I’ve got used to it now. You couldn’t carry it. Could he, Billy?”“Not much, lad. We’re all right, sir. You go on and show us the way. If you manage, we can.”“Better let me rest you, my lad.”“Thank-ye, no, sir, Billy and me lays it down in the dust now and then, and sits on the edge for a rest. We’re doing pretty comfortable, and only wants to get down to the tent to tea.”“All right, then.”The darkness increased for a while, and they came dangerously near being struck by stones several times over, but escaped as if by a miracle. Then just as they were approaching one of the worst of the gaps, the cloud of smoke and ashes floated gradually away, they obtained a glimpse of the bright blue sky and were able to cross the crevice in safety, though conscious all the while that a great body of suffocating vapour was now rising from the depths below.The rest of the descent to the great rift was made in the bright afternoon sunshine, every nerve being strained to get that passed before darkness fell, and as Wriggs, who came last this time, reached the edge where the others were hauling in the line they all set up a hearty cheer, and gathering up the rope, set off as if refreshed, for the dangers of the ascent were at an end.“An hour will do it,” cried Oliver. “Then a warm bath, a good meal, a night’s rest, and we shall be all right.”“But we did not get to the top,” said Panton.“Well, what of that? We’ve found out that we are upon an island, and we have left something else to do another day, for we must get to the edge of the crater before we’ve done.”“And now what next?” said Drew, as they tramped on down the soft ash bed, after carefully mapping out their course to the hot-spring camp.“Food and rest.”“No, no, I mean about our proceedings.”“Let Mr Rimmer construct a boat if he likes. It will keep him busy, and take I daresay a couple of years. During that time we can collect a cargo of specimens, and thank our stars that we have fallen in such good quarters.”In spite of marking down the trees and rocks where the hot springs lay, the natural darkness of night made their task by no means easy. Objects looked so different, and after they had reached the end of the ash slope, the inequalities of the surface were so great that they lost their way several times over, and at last it was decided to lie down and rest under the shelter of a huge tree, when Smith suddenly exclaimed,—“Why, this here’s where I got some of the firewood last night.”“Nonsense,” said Panton pettishly.“It was somewheres here as I broke a big branch off, one as was dead.”“If it were, you would find the stump,” said Panton.“Course I should, sir, and here it is,” growled the man.“What!” shouted Oliver. “Then the tent must be close by.”“Round at the back of a big mask o’ rock, sir, as is the hardest and sharpest I ever broke my shins again. It ought to be just about where Billy Wriggs is a-lighting of his pipe.”“Want me, matey?”“Yes. Look if there’s a lot o’ rock behind you.”“Ay, I am a-leaning again it.”“There you are, sir! I’ll go on and light the fire and set the kettle to boil,” said Smith, and ten minutes after there was a ruddy blaze lighting up the rocks and trees; a good tea meal followed, and forgetting all perils and dangers, the little party lay down to rest and enjoy the sound sleep that comes to the truly tired out.

One of the rifts was crossed in the dim twilight, another was avoided by making a circuit, and another by walking along its edge till it narrowed sufficiently for them to spring across, and after one of these bold leaps, Smith, who bore the ladder, said to Wriggs,—

“Feel ’sposed to take to a noo line o’ life, messmate, if we ever gets back home?”

“Dunno. What sort?” growled Wriggs.

“Hacerybat and tumbler by appointment to her Majesty.”

“What d’yer mean, Tommy?”

“Why, arter this practice we can do anything: balancing on poles, crawling desprit places on ladders, hanging from ropes, and standing over nothing with yer eyes shut. Feel a tug, Billy, when we jumped that last bit?”

“Tug? No. I on’y felt as if I was a bit a’ iron, and there was a big loadstone down in the hole, trying to pull me in.”

“Well, that’s what I meant—a tug.”

“Bah! there’s only one kind o’ tug—a steam tug, and there’s none here for a man to feel.”

“What, aren’t there a tug-o’-war?”

“Not here, messmet. But I say, I don’t stomach this here darkness. It’s like being at work in the hold. Mind!”

“All right, I see it coming, mate,” said Smith, as a great lump of cinder fell close to him. “Didn’t touch me.”

“Miss is as good as a mile, mate, eh? But don’t it seem as if someone up above was heaving these stones at us because we are not wanted here.”

“Come along, my lads!” cried Oliver, halting for them to hasten up. “Take my gun, Smith, and I’ll carry the ladder for a bit.”

“Not me, sir, begging your pardon. This here ladder’s about the awkwardest and heaviest ladder as ever was for his size.”

“Then let me rest you.”

“No, sir. I’ve got used to it now. You couldn’t carry it. Could he, Billy?”

“Not much, lad. We’re all right, sir. You go on and show us the way. If you manage, we can.”

“Better let me rest you, my lad.”

“Thank-ye, no, sir, Billy and me lays it down in the dust now and then, and sits on the edge for a rest. We’re doing pretty comfortable, and only wants to get down to the tent to tea.”

“All right, then.”

The darkness increased for a while, and they came dangerously near being struck by stones several times over, but escaped as if by a miracle. Then just as they were approaching one of the worst of the gaps, the cloud of smoke and ashes floated gradually away, they obtained a glimpse of the bright blue sky and were able to cross the crevice in safety, though conscious all the while that a great body of suffocating vapour was now rising from the depths below.

The rest of the descent to the great rift was made in the bright afternoon sunshine, every nerve being strained to get that passed before darkness fell, and as Wriggs, who came last this time, reached the edge where the others were hauling in the line they all set up a hearty cheer, and gathering up the rope, set off as if refreshed, for the dangers of the ascent were at an end.

“An hour will do it,” cried Oliver. “Then a warm bath, a good meal, a night’s rest, and we shall be all right.”

“But we did not get to the top,” said Panton.

“Well, what of that? We’ve found out that we are upon an island, and we have left something else to do another day, for we must get to the edge of the crater before we’ve done.”

“And now what next?” said Drew, as they tramped on down the soft ash bed, after carefully mapping out their course to the hot-spring camp.

“Food and rest.”

“No, no, I mean about our proceedings.”

“Let Mr Rimmer construct a boat if he likes. It will keep him busy, and take I daresay a couple of years. During that time we can collect a cargo of specimens, and thank our stars that we have fallen in such good quarters.”

In spite of marking down the trees and rocks where the hot springs lay, the natural darkness of night made their task by no means easy. Objects looked so different, and after they had reached the end of the ash slope, the inequalities of the surface were so great that they lost their way several times over, and at last it was decided to lie down and rest under the shelter of a huge tree, when Smith suddenly exclaimed,—

“Why, this here’s where I got some of the firewood last night.”

“Nonsense,” said Panton pettishly.

“It was somewheres here as I broke a big branch off, one as was dead.”

“If it were, you would find the stump,” said Panton.

“Course I should, sir, and here it is,” growled the man.

“What!” shouted Oliver. “Then the tent must be close by.”

“Round at the back of a big mask o’ rock, sir, as is the hardest and sharpest I ever broke my shins again. It ought to be just about where Billy Wriggs is a-lighting of his pipe.”

“Want me, matey?”

“Yes. Look if there’s a lot o’ rock behind you.”

“Ay, I am a-leaning again it.”

“There you are, sir! I’ll go on and light the fire and set the kettle to boil,” said Smith, and ten minutes after there was a ruddy blaze lighting up the rocks and trees; a good tea meal followed, and forgetting all perils and dangers, the little party lay down to rest and enjoy the sound sleep that comes to the truly tired out.

Chapter Twenty Five.“Pot First.”The night passed peaceably enough, and though every now and then there was a violent hissing from close at hand, it was not noticed till just at daybreak, when Smith, who had grown brave and reckless with knowledge, drove his elbow into his messmate’s ribs.“All right,” growled Wriggs, drowsily, “but t’arnt our watch, is it?”“Watch? No, rouse up, my lad. Steam’s up.”“Eh? What? Steam?”Css, came loudly from a crevice in the rocks so suddenly and sharply, that the sailor sprang up in alarm.“Oh,” he grumbled, directly after, “it’s them hot water works. I thought it was a snake.”“Who said snakes?” cried Drew, waking up.“I did, sir, but it ain’t. It’s to-morrer morning, and we’re getting up.”“I have raked the fire together, sir, and put the billy on to byle,” said Smith,—“not meaning you, messmate.”“Time to get up?” cried Oliver, and he sprang to his feet. “Come on, Panton, who’s for a bath?”They all were, and coming back refreshed partook of a hearty meal which exhausted their supplies, all but the condiments they had provided, and necessitated an immediate return to the brig.“Only it seems a pity,” said Oliver, as the cries of birds could be heard in different directions, while butterflies of bright colours darted here and there, and the trees were hung with creepers whose racemes and clusters of blossoms gladdened Drew’s eyes.“Yes, it seems a pity,” said Panton, taking out his little hammer and beginning to chip at a piece of rock.“There is so little to be seen close to the brig,” said Oliver thoughtfully, as he took out his handkerchief and began to polish a speck of rust from the barrel of his double gun.“And I haven’t collected half so much as I should like to have done,” said Drew.“Think Mr Rimmer would be very uneasy if we stayed here for the day and did a little collecting?”“Not he,” said Panton. “But what about prog?”“I’ll shoot three or four pigeons,” suggested Oliver.“Three or four, why, I could eat half a dozen for dinner.”“Think so?” said Oliver, smiling; “I doubt it.”“But I’m getting hungry again already, although I’ve just breakfasted. I say, though, surely we could shoot enough for our dinner. What do you say, Drew, shall we stop till evening and collect?”“I’m willing.”“What do you say then, Lane?”“By all means, this forest land at the bottom of the volcano slope is swarming with good things. We’ll stay about here all the morning, and after dinner begin to work back to the boat. So long as we can reach it by the time it grows dark we shall be all right.”“Yes, there’s no fear of making a mistake when once we get into the lagoon,” said Panton. “I could find my way to the boat-house blindfold.”“Boat-house?” cried Drew.“Well, the cocoa-nut grove,” said Panton, laughing. “Then, of course, we can easily find our way to the brig. I say, I’m precious glad that we have seen no signs of the niggers. It would have been very awkward if we had found that they lived here.”“Instead of our having the island all to ourselves,” said Drew.“But this must once have been part of some mainland,” Oliver remarked, thoughtfully. “Apes and leopards would hardly be found upon islands unless they have been cut off by some convulsion of nature.”“This must have been cut off by some convulsion of nature,” said Panton quickly, and then, as he pointed upward toward the volcano, “and there’s the convulser ready to do anything. There, come along, no more scientific discussions. Let’s collect, but, first of all, we must think of the pot.”“Are we coming back here?” asked Drew.“Decidedly,” cried Lane. “We’ll make this camp still. Make up the fire, Smith, and you two can come with us till we have shot enough for dinner and then come back here and do the cooking.”“Right, sir,” replied Smith. “Come along, Billy.”The fire was well drawn together and replenished with fuel, and then, shouldering their guns, the party started; but upon Oliver Lane glancing back he called a halt.“Here, Wriggs,” he cried, “we don’t want that ladder, nor those ropes, Smith.”“Don’t yer, sir?”“No, we are going along the edge of the forest. Take those things back.”The ladder and ropes were taken back and then a fresh start was made, the explorers keeping well to the edge of the forest for several reasons, the principal being that they could easily get out toward the barren slope of the mountain, and the travelling was so much easier as they formed a line and beat the undergrowth for specimens and game.“Pot first, you know,” said Panton, “science later on. Are we likely to get a deer of any kind, Lane?”“No,” said Drew decisively.“Why not?” said Lane. “We have seen that there are leopards, and leopards must have something to live upon. I should say that we may find some small kind of deer.”“Leopards might live on the monkeys,” said Panton.“Perhaps so, but I’m prepared for anything in a place like this. What’s that?”“I can hear one of them steam engyne birds coming along, sir,” said Wriggs, from behind.“What birds?”“One of them rooshy rashy ones, sir, as you called blow-horn-bills, and makes such a noise with their wings.”“Hornbills without the blow, my man,” said Lane, laughing. “Look out, all of you. Hornbills are fruit-eating birds, and would be good roasted.”There was the sharp clicking of gun-locks as the rushing sound of big wings was heard four times over; but the birds passed to right or left to them, hidden by the trees, and all was silent again, till after a few hundred yards had been passed something got up in a dense thicket and went off through the forest at a tremendous rate.“Lane, man, why didn’t you fire?” cried Panton reproachfully.“Because I have a habit of looking at what I shoot, and I never had a glimpse of this. Did you see it, Drew?”“I? No.”“Please, sir, I just got one squint at it,” said Smith. “You did, too, didn’t you, Billy?”“I sin it twice,” said Wriggs. “It was a spotty sort o’ thing, and it went through the bushes like a flash.”“It must have been a leopard, then,” said Panton.“No,” said Oliver decisively, “not that made the loud crashing noise. One of those great cats would have glided away almost in silence. I fancy that it was some kind of deer. Keep on steadily and we may hunt up another.”But they tramped on for quite an hour, without any such good fortune, though had their aim solely been collecting specimens, their opportunities were great. For at every opening sun-birds flitted here and there, poising themselves before some blossom which they probed with their long curved bills, and sent forth flashes from their brilliant plumage like those from cut and polished gems. Every now and then too, thrush-like birds flew up from beneath the bushes—thrush-like in form but with plumage in which fawn or dove colour and celestial blues preponderated. Mynahs and barbets were in flocks: lories and paroquets abundant, and at last Lane stopped short and held up his hand, for from out of a patch of the forest where the trees towered up to an enormous height, and all beneath was dim and solemn-looking as some cathedral, there came a loud harsh cry,waark, waark, wok, wok, wok, and this was answered several times from a distance.“Only some kind of crow,” said Panton, “and we don’t, as the American backwoodsman said, ‘kinder hanker arter crow.’”“Kind of crow? yes, of course,” said Oliver impatiently. “That’s the cry of the great bird of Paradise. Come along quietly, we must have some specimens of them.”“No, no,” cried Panton. “If we fire at them good-bye to any chance of a deer. Steal up and have a look at them, we shall have plenty more chances.”Oliver was strongly tempted to fire, for just then a bird skimmed down from on high into the gloom beneath the trees, and they had a glimpse of the lovely creature, with its long, loose, yellowish plumage streaming out behind as if it were a sort of bird-comet dwelling amongst the trees. Then it was gone, and the young man consoled himself with the thought that had he fired the chances were great against his hitting, and it would have been like a crime to let the bird go off wounded and mutilated to a lingering death.He thought this as they stood listening to the cries of the birds, harsh, powerful, and echoing as they rang out in all directions.“Not the kind o’ bird as I should choose for his singing, eh, Billy?” said Smith, suddenly breaking the silence of the gloomy spot.“Well, no, Tommy, can’t say as I should either for the sake o’ the moosic, but there’s a deal o’ body in it.”“I wish we could get hold of something with some body in it that we should care to eat.”“There’s a something upon that tree yonder, sir,” said Smith, “one o’ them little black boy chaps. See him, sir?”“I can,” whispered Drew. “It’s quite a large monkey.”“He’d eat good, wouldn’t he, sir?” said Wriggs.“Yes, for cannibals,” said Oliver, shortly, as he took out his double glass and focussed it upon a black face peering round a tall, smooth trunk, quite a hundred feet from the ground. “Look, there’s another. But time’s running on. Hadn’t we better get back into a more open part and begin collecting?”“If you wish me to die of starvation,” said Panton. “I can’t work without food.”“Then for goodness’ sake let’s get on,” said Oliver, pettishly, and he hurried beneath the tree where the first monkey had been seen, and as he passed a good-sized piece of stick whizzed by his ear and struck the ground.“See that, Billy?” said Smith.“Ah, I see it.”“Lucky for that little nigger as they’re a good-hearted Christian sort o’ gentlemen. If they warn’t he’d go home to his messmates peppered all over with shot, and feelin’ like a sore currant dumpling.”Another half-hour was passed of what Oliver dubbed the most aggravating natures for beautiful specimens of bird, insect, flower, and mineral abounded, while the whole of their attention had to be devoted to providing food.“I don’t believe there are any deer to be had,” he cried at last, and then he stopped short in the sunny grove, where they had halted to take a few minutes’ rest. “What’s that?”“I was going to ask you,” said Panton.For the peculiar noise they had heard upon a former occasion came from a short distance away, deep-toned, soft, and musical, as if a tyro were practising one note upon a great brass instrument.“Quick, come on,” whispered Oliver, excitedly, and leading the way he signed to his companions to come on abreast, and in this form they went on cautiously in the direction of the sound, till Drew suddenly took a quick aim through an opening, and fired both barrels of the piece in rapid succession.Instantly there was a tremendous beating of wings, and a little flock of half-a-dozen large, dark birds rose up, affording Oliver and Panton each a shot, with the result that a couple of the birds fell heavily.Then the two men behind cheered, there was a rush forward through the thick growth, and four of the huge crowned pigeons were retrieved—lovely dark slate-coloured birds, which looked with their soft, loose plumage and beautiful crests, nearly double the size of ordinary farm-yard fowls.“Now,” cried Oliver, triumphantly, “back with you to the fire, and pluck and cook those. We will be with you in a couple of hours’ time. But I say, Panton, you won’t eat half-a-dozen?”The two men seized a bird in each hand, grinning with delight, and started off for the edge of the wood at a run, but Smith stopped and turned.“Byled or roast, sir?” he cried.“Roast, of course,” said Oliver. “You have nothing to boil them in.”“Byling spring, sir.”“Nonsense, man. Off with you. Now,” he continued, as the two sailors disappeared, “specimens. A little way farther, and then turn back.”

The night passed peaceably enough, and though every now and then there was a violent hissing from close at hand, it was not noticed till just at daybreak, when Smith, who had grown brave and reckless with knowledge, drove his elbow into his messmate’s ribs.

“All right,” growled Wriggs, drowsily, “but t’arnt our watch, is it?”

“Watch? No, rouse up, my lad. Steam’s up.”

“Eh? What? Steam?”

Css, came loudly from a crevice in the rocks so suddenly and sharply, that the sailor sprang up in alarm.

“Oh,” he grumbled, directly after, “it’s them hot water works. I thought it was a snake.”

“Who said snakes?” cried Drew, waking up.

“I did, sir, but it ain’t. It’s to-morrer morning, and we’re getting up.”

“I have raked the fire together, sir, and put the billy on to byle,” said Smith,—“not meaning you, messmate.”

“Time to get up?” cried Oliver, and he sprang to his feet. “Come on, Panton, who’s for a bath?”

They all were, and coming back refreshed partook of a hearty meal which exhausted their supplies, all but the condiments they had provided, and necessitated an immediate return to the brig.

“Only it seems a pity,” said Oliver, as the cries of birds could be heard in different directions, while butterflies of bright colours darted here and there, and the trees were hung with creepers whose racemes and clusters of blossoms gladdened Drew’s eyes.

“Yes, it seems a pity,” said Panton, taking out his little hammer and beginning to chip at a piece of rock.

“There is so little to be seen close to the brig,” said Oliver thoughtfully, as he took out his handkerchief and began to polish a speck of rust from the barrel of his double gun.

“And I haven’t collected half so much as I should like to have done,” said Drew.

“Think Mr Rimmer would be very uneasy if we stayed here for the day and did a little collecting?”

“Not he,” said Panton. “But what about prog?”

“I’ll shoot three or four pigeons,” suggested Oliver.

“Three or four, why, I could eat half a dozen for dinner.”

“Think so?” said Oliver, smiling; “I doubt it.”

“But I’m getting hungry again already, although I’ve just breakfasted. I say, though, surely we could shoot enough for our dinner. What do you say, Drew, shall we stop till evening and collect?”

“I’m willing.”

“What do you say then, Lane?”

“By all means, this forest land at the bottom of the volcano slope is swarming with good things. We’ll stay about here all the morning, and after dinner begin to work back to the boat. So long as we can reach it by the time it grows dark we shall be all right.”

“Yes, there’s no fear of making a mistake when once we get into the lagoon,” said Panton. “I could find my way to the boat-house blindfold.”

“Boat-house?” cried Drew.

“Well, the cocoa-nut grove,” said Panton, laughing. “Then, of course, we can easily find our way to the brig. I say, I’m precious glad that we have seen no signs of the niggers. It would have been very awkward if we had found that they lived here.”

“Instead of our having the island all to ourselves,” said Drew.

“But this must once have been part of some mainland,” Oliver remarked, thoughtfully. “Apes and leopards would hardly be found upon islands unless they have been cut off by some convulsion of nature.”

“This must have been cut off by some convulsion of nature,” said Panton quickly, and then, as he pointed upward toward the volcano, “and there’s the convulser ready to do anything. There, come along, no more scientific discussions. Let’s collect, but, first of all, we must think of the pot.”

“Are we coming back here?” asked Drew.

“Decidedly,” cried Lane. “We’ll make this camp still. Make up the fire, Smith, and you two can come with us till we have shot enough for dinner and then come back here and do the cooking.”

“Right, sir,” replied Smith. “Come along, Billy.”

The fire was well drawn together and replenished with fuel, and then, shouldering their guns, the party started; but upon Oliver Lane glancing back he called a halt.

“Here, Wriggs,” he cried, “we don’t want that ladder, nor those ropes, Smith.”

“Don’t yer, sir?”

“No, we are going along the edge of the forest. Take those things back.”

The ladder and ropes were taken back and then a fresh start was made, the explorers keeping well to the edge of the forest for several reasons, the principal being that they could easily get out toward the barren slope of the mountain, and the travelling was so much easier as they formed a line and beat the undergrowth for specimens and game.

“Pot first, you know,” said Panton, “science later on. Are we likely to get a deer of any kind, Lane?”

“No,” said Drew decisively.

“Why not?” said Lane. “We have seen that there are leopards, and leopards must have something to live upon. I should say that we may find some small kind of deer.”

“Leopards might live on the monkeys,” said Panton.

“Perhaps so, but I’m prepared for anything in a place like this. What’s that?”

“I can hear one of them steam engyne birds coming along, sir,” said Wriggs, from behind.

“What birds?”

“One of them rooshy rashy ones, sir, as you called blow-horn-bills, and makes such a noise with their wings.”

“Hornbills without the blow, my man,” said Lane, laughing. “Look out, all of you. Hornbills are fruit-eating birds, and would be good roasted.”

There was the sharp clicking of gun-locks as the rushing sound of big wings was heard four times over; but the birds passed to right or left to them, hidden by the trees, and all was silent again, till after a few hundred yards had been passed something got up in a dense thicket and went off through the forest at a tremendous rate.

“Lane, man, why didn’t you fire?” cried Panton reproachfully.

“Because I have a habit of looking at what I shoot, and I never had a glimpse of this. Did you see it, Drew?”

“I? No.”

“Please, sir, I just got one squint at it,” said Smith. “You did, too, didn’t you, Billy?”

“I sin it twice,” said Wriggs. “It was a spotty sort o’ thing, and it went through the bushes like a flash.”

“It must have been a leopard, then,” said Panton.

“No,” said Oliver decisively, “not that made the loud crashing noise. One of those great cats would have glided away almost in silence. I fancy that it was some kind of deer. Keep on steadily and we may hunt up another.”

But they tramped on for quite an hour, without any such good fortune, though had their aim solely been collecting specimens, their opportunities were great. For at every opening sun-birds flitted here and there, poising themselves before some blossom which they probed with their long curved bills, and sent forth flashes from their brilliant plumage like those from cut and polished gems. Every now and then too, thrush-like birds flew up from beneath the bushes—thrush-like in form but with plumage in which fawn or dove colour and celestial blues preponderated. Mynahs and barbets were in flocks: lories and paroquets abundant, and at last Lane stopped short and held up his hand, for from out of a patch of the forest where the trees towered up to an enormous height, and all beneath was dim and solemn-looking as some cathedral, there came a loud harsh cry,waark, waark, wok, wok, wok, and this was answered several times from a distance.

“Only some kind of crow,” said Panton, “and we don’t, as the American backwoodsman said, ‘kinder hanker arter crow.’”

“Kind of crow? yes, of course,” said Oliver impatiently. “That’s the cry of the great bird of Paradise. Come along quietly, we must have some specimens of them.”

“No, no,” cried Panton. “If we fire at them good-bye to any chance of a deer. Steal up and have a look at them, we shall have plenty more chances.”

Oliver was strongly tempted to fire, for just then a bird skimmed down from on high into the gloom beneath the trees, and they had a glimpse of the lovely creature, with its long, loose, yellowish plumage streaming out behind as if it were a sort of bird-comet dwelling amongst the trees. Then it was gone, and the young man consoled himself with the thought that had he fired the chances were great against his hitting, and it would have been like a crime to let the bird go off wounded and mutilated to a lingering death.

He thought this as they stood listening to the cries of the birds, harsh, powerful, and echoing as they rang out in all directions.

“Not the kind o’ bird as I should choose for his singing, eh, Billy?” said Smith, suddenly breaking the silence of the gloomy spot.

“Well, no, Tommy, can’t say as I should either for the sake o’ the moosic, but there’s a deal o’ body in it.”

“I wish we could get hold of something with some body in it that we should care to eat.”

“There’s a something upon that tree yonder, sir,” said Smith, “one o’ them little black boy chaps. See him, sir?”

“I can,” whispered Drew. “It’s quite a large monkey.”

“He’d eat good, wouldn’t he, sir?” said Wriggs.

“Yes, for cannibals,” said Oliver, shortly, as he took out his double glass and focussed it upon a black face peering round a tall, smooth trunk, quite a hundred feet from the ground. “Look, there’s another. But time’s running on. Hadn’t we better get back into a more open part and begin collecting?”

“If you wish me to die of starvation,” said Panton. “I can’t work without food.”

“Then for goodness’ sake let’s get on,” said Oliver, pettishly, and he hurried beneath the tree where the first monkey had been seen, and as he passed a good-sized piece of stick whizzed by his ear and struck the ground.

“See that, Billy?” said Smith.

“Ah, I see it.”

“Lucky for that little nigger as they’re a good-hearted Christian sort o’ gentlemen. If they warn’t he’d go home to his messmates peppered all over with shot, and feelin’ like a sore currant dumpling.”

Another half-hour was passed of what Oliver dubbed the most aggravating natures for beautiful specimens of bird, insect, flower, and mineral abounded, while the whole of their attention had to be devoted to providing food.

“I don’t believe there are any deer to be had,” he cried at last, and then he stopped short in the sunny grove, where they had halted to take a few minutes’ rest. “What’s that?”

“I was going to ask you,” said Panton.

For the peculiar noise they had heard upon a former occasion came from a short distance away, deep-toned, soft, and musical, as if a tyro were practising one note upon a great brass instrument.

“Quick, come on,” whispered Oliver, excitedly, and leading the way he signed to his companions to come on abreast, and in this form they went on cautiously in the direction of the sound, till Drew suddenly took a quick aim through an opening, and fired both barrels of the piece in rapid succession.

Instantly there was a tremendous beating of wings, and a little flock of half-a-dozen large, dark birds rose up, affording Oliver and Panton each a shot, with the result that a couple of the birds fell heavily.

Then the two men behind cheered, there was a rush forward through the thick growth, and four of the huge crowned pigeons were retrieved—lovely dark slate-coloured birds, which looked with their soft, loose plumage and beautiful crests, nearly double the size of ordinary farm-yard fowls.

“Now,” cried Oliver, triumphantly, “back with you to the fire, and pluck and cook those. We will be with you in a couple of hours’ time. But I say, Panton, you won’t eat half-a-dozen?”

The two men seized a bird in each hand, grinning with delight, and started off for the edge of the wood at a run, but Smith stopped and turned.

“Byled or roast, sir?” he cried.

“Roast, of course,” said Oliver. “You have nothing to boil them in.”

“Byling spring, sir.”

“Nonsense, man. Off with you. Now,” he continued, as the two sailors disappeared, “specimens. A little way farther, and then turn back.”

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