June brought again the heavy rains. It was necessary to leave Falconhurst and return to Rock Castle. These two or three months were always rather trying, made depressing, as they were, by the constant bad weather. A few trips to the farms to attend to the animals, and a few hours hunting which took Fritz and Jack out into the immediate neighbourhood of Rock Castle, represented the whole of the outdoor business of each day.
But they were not idle. Work went on under the direction of Mme. Zermatt. Jenny helped her, bringing to bear all her ingenious Anglo-Saxon energy, which was different from the rather more methodical Swiss system. And while the young girl studied German with M. Zermatt, the family studied English with her, Fritz speaking that language fluently at the end of a few weeks. How could they have made any but rapid progress with such a teacher?
So there was no complaint of dull days during the rainy season. Jenny's presence lent the evenings a new charm. No one was in a hurry for bed now. Mme. Zermatt and Jenny busied themselves with needlework. Sometimes the young girl was asked to sing, for she possessed a charming voice. She learned the songs of Switzerland, those mountain melodies which will never grow old, and it was enchanting to hear them from her lips. Music was varied by reading aloud, when Ernest drew upon the best works in the library, and it seemed that time for bed always came too soon.
In this domestic atmosphere M. Zermatt, his wife, and his children, were as happy as mortal man can be. Yet they could not entirely forget their fears for the future, the improbability of rescue coming from outside, or their old homeland. Jenny, too—must not her heart have been rent sometimes when her thoughts turned to her father? Nothing had ever been heard of the ship that was taking her home, theDorcas, and was it not the obvious conclusion that she had foundered with all hands?
The unlooked-for event which altered their situation so profoundly has already been described.
During the first few days following the departure of theUnicorndeep depression reigned at Rock Castle. M. and Mme. Zermatt were inconsolable at having let two of their children go, although they realised the necessity of doing so.
But it is vain to ask of a parent's heart more than it is able to give. Fritz, that gallant young fellow, was gone, Fritz, the stout right arm of his family, in whose eyes he represented the future. Gone, too, was Frank, following in the footsteps of his eldest brother.
Ernest and Jack were left, it is true. Ernest had never lost his taste for study and, thanks to his reading, his education was as solid as it was practical. Jack shared Fritz's love of hunting and fishing and riding and sailing, and, keenly eager to wrest her last secrets from New Switzerland, he would take his brother's place in daring explorations.
And lastly, she, too, was gone, the charming and beloved Jenny, whose absence Betsy regretted as much as that of a dear daughter. It was heart-breaking to see their places in the rooms of Rock Castle, their seats at table and in the hall where all assembled in the evenings, empty.
They would all come back, no doubt, and then the grief of the parting and the sadness of their absence would be forgotten. They would all come back, and new friends with them—Colonel Montrose, who would be unwilling to be separated from his daughter after he had given her as wife to her rescuer, and Dolly Wolston, and her brother James with his wife and child. They would all be glad to settle in this land. And other emigrants would soon be coming to populate this remote colony of Great Britain.
Yes: in a year at latest, one fine day a ship would appear out beyond False Hope Point, sailing from the west, not to disappear in the north or east! She would shape her course into Deliverance Bay. Most likely she would be theUnicorn. But whatever ship she was, she would bring Colonel Montrose and his daughter, Fritz and Frank, Mr. and Mrs. Wolston's children!
The situation was entirely altered. The inhabitants of this New Switzerland were no longer merely the shipwrecked survivors of theLandlord, who had found refuge on an unknown land. The position of this land was definitely established now in latitude and longitude. Lieutenant Littlestone had its exact bearings. He would report them to the Admiralty, and the Admiralty would give the necessary orders for taking possession. When she left New Switzerland the corvette uncoiled behind her, as it were, a cable thousands of miles in length, a cable which bound New Switzerland to the old world, and which nothing could break thereafter.
As yet, indeed, only a portion of its northern coast was known, the thirty or forty miles, at most, between Unicorn Bay and the seas to the east of Burning Rock. Even the three deep bays, Deliverance, Nautilus and Pearl, had not been completely explored. In the whole course of these eleven years M. Zermatt and his sons had scarcely set foot beyond the great rampart of mountain outside the defile of Cluse. They had confined their excursions to the middle line of the Green Valley, and had never ascended the opposite heights.
Owing to the presence of the Wolstons the number of inhabitants of Rock Castle had not been diminished by the departure of theUnicorn.
Mr. Wolston, at this time forty-five years of age, was a man of sound constitution. He had been weakened by fever contracted in New South Wales, but the healthy climate of New Switzerland and the care which would be lavished on him there would soon restore him to health and strength. His engineering knowledge and experience could not fail to be of the greatest service, and M. Zermatt fully intended to use them in effecting improvements which he had not been able to carry out hitherto. But first of all Mr. Wolston, to whom Ernest felt himself drawn by a certain resemblance of tastes and character, must regain his health.
Mrs. Wolston, Merry, was a few years younger than Mme. Zermatt. The two women could not fail to like each other, and their friendship would grow as they knew each other. Household duties engaged them together at Rock Castle, and they would share the work when visiting the farmsteads at Wood Grange, the hermitage at Eberfurt, and Sugar-cane Grove.
Hannah Wolston was only seventeen. Her health, like her father's, had been impaired, and it was certain that her stay in the Promised Land would strengthen her constitution and bring back the colour to her pale cheeks. She gave promise of developing into a very attractive woman, being fair, with pretty features, a complexion which would soon recover its bloom, a pleasant look in her blue eyes and a graceful carriage. She presented a great contrast to her sister, the sparkling Dolly, with her fourteen years, and her fresh and ringing laugh, which would have filled the rooms of Rock Castle, a brunette who was always singing, always chattering, and full of merry repartee. But she, too, would come back soon, the bird that had flown away, and her warbling would again delight all this little world.
Meantime the enlargement of Rock Castle was a matter of pressing necessity. When theUnicornreturned this dwelling would be too small. If only Colonel Montrose and Jenny, Fritz and Frank, James Wolston and his sister, wife, and child, were reckoned, they could not live there together unless some parts of the great cave were specially adapted to their use. If any fresh colonists came with them new houses would have to be built. There would be plenty of room for these along the right bank of Jackal River, the shore towards Flamingo Bay, or the shady road between Rock Castle and Falconhurst.
M. Zermatt had many long talks with Mr. Wolston on this subject, talks in which Ernest eagerly took part, making sound suggestions.
During this time Jack, who now undertook alone the duties he had formerly shared with his eldest brother, made it his constant business to supply the needs of the larder. Followed by his dogs, Brownie and Fawn, he went hunting every day in the woods and plains, where game, furred and feathered, abounded. He ransacked the marshes, where wild duck and snipe furnished a change for the daily bill of fare. Coco, Jack's jackal, was an ardent rival of the dogs, whose constant companion he was on these hunting expeditions. Sometimes the young hunter bestrode his onager, Lightfoot, who abundantly justified his name; sometimes the buffalo, Storm, who swept like a storm across the forest land. Strict injunctions had been laid upon the daring young fellow never to venture outside the confines of the Promised Land, and never to go through the defile of Cluse, opening into the Green Valley, where he would run the risk of encountering fierce animals. Yielding to his mother's urgent entreaty, he had promised not to be away longer than a day at a time, and always to come home for the evening meal. But in spite of his promises Betsy could not hide her fears when she saw him vanish like an arrow from a bow beyond the trees near Rock Castle.
For his part, Ernest preferred the peaceful occupation of fishing to hunting. He would settle himself by the side of Jackal River or at the foot of the rocks in Flamingo Bay. There were quantities of crustaceans, molluscs, and fish there—salmon, herrings, mackerel, lobster, crayfish, oysters, and mussels. Sometimes Hannah Wolston would join him, not a little to his satisfaction.
The young girl was unsparing of her attentions to the cormorant and the jackal brought from Burning Rock. It was to her that Jenny had committed them before she went away, and they were in good hands. When she came back Jenny would find her two faithful companions in the pink of health, and at liberty to come and go as they pleased in the paddocks of Rock Castle.
While the cormorant agreed very well with the other inhabitants of the poultry yard, the jackal was on bad terms with Jack's jackal, which had tried in vain to make friends. The two creatures were jealous of each other, and were forever scratching and quarrelling.
"I give up trying to make them agree," Jack said one day to Hannah, "and I hand them over to you."
"Trust me, Jack," Hannah replied. "With a little patience I hope to bring them together."
"Try, my dear girl, for jackals should always be friends."
"It seems to me, Jack, that your monkey, too——"
"Nip the Second? Oh, all he wants is to bite Jenny's pet!"
And really, Nip the Second did appear to be very ill-disposed towards the newcomer. Tame as these creatures were with human beings, it would be difficult to establish harmony between them.
The days slipped by. Betsy and Merry never had an idle hour. While Mme. Zermatt was mending clothes, Mrs. Wolston, who was a very clever needle-woman, was making dresses and petticoats out of the materials that had been treasured from the wreck of theLandlord.
The weather was superb, the heat still not excessive. In the forenoon the breeze blew off the land, in the afternoon off the sea. The nights remained fresh and restful. The last week of October, the April of the southern latitudes, was about to retire before November, the month of renewal, the month of spring in that hemisphere.
The two families paid frequent visits to the farms, sometimes on foot, sometimes in the cart drawn by its team of buffaloes. More often than not Ernest rode the young ass, Rash, and Jack bestrode the ostrich. Mr. Wolston got much benefit from these walks. He had fewer and lighter attacks of fever.
They used to go from Rock Castle to Falconhurst by the fine road planted ten years before, which was now completely shaded by chestnut, walnut, and cherry trees. Sometimes the stay at the aerial country-seat was prolonged for four and twenty hours; and it was delightful, when they had climbed the winding staircase inside, to step out onto the platform sheltered beneath the foliage of the magnificent mangrove. The dwelling-place seemed rather small now; but in Mr. Wolston's opinion there was no need to consider its enlargement. And one day M. Zermatt answered his argument thus:
"You are quite right, my dear Wolston. To live among the branches of a tree was all very well for the Robinsons, whose first care was to find a refuge from wild beasts, and that was our case at the beginning of our life on this island. But now we are colonists, real colonists."
"And besides," Mr. Wolston pointed out, "we have to get ready for the return of our children, and we have none too much time to put Rock Castle into a condition to receive them all."
"Yes," said Ernest, "if there are any enlargements to be made it is at Rock Castle. Where could we find a more secure home during the rainy season? I agree with Mr. Wolston; Falconhurst has become insufficient, and during the summer I think it would be better to move into Wood Grange or Sugar-cane Grove."
"I should prefer Prospect Hill," Mme. Zermatt remarked. "It would be quite easy with supplementary arrangements."
"An excellent idea, mamma!" Jack exclaimed. "The view from Prospect Hill is delightful, right over the sea to Deliverance Bay. That hill is simply marked out as the site for a villa."
"Or a fort," M. Zermatt replied; "a fort to command that point of the island."
"A fort?" Jack repeated enquiringly.
"Well, my boy," M. Zermatt answered, "we must not forget that New Switzerland is going to become an English possession, and that it will be to the interest of the English to fortify it. The battery on Shark's Island would not be strong enough to defend the future town which will probably be built between Flamingo Bay and Rock Castle. So it seems to me indispensable that Prospect Hill should be used in the near future for a fort."
"Prospect Hill, or a little farther forward, on False Hope Point," Mr. Wolston suggested. "In that case the villa might be preserved."
"I should like that much better," Jack declared.
"And so should I," Mme. Zermatt added. "Let us try to keep all these memorials of our early days, Prospect Hill as well as Falconhurst. I should be very sorry to see them disappear."
Of course, Betsy's feeling was a very natural one. But the situation had changed. While New Switzerland belonged to the shipwrecked survivors of theLandlordonly, there had never been any question of putting it in a state of defence. When it became a dependency of England, it must have coast defences.
And all things considered, could its first occupants really regret the consequences involved by the arrival of theUnicornin these waters of New Switzerland?
"No," was M. Zermatt's conclusion, "so let us leave the future to bring about gradually all the various changes it requires."
Moreover, there were other things to be done that were much more urgent than the repairs at Falconhurst and Prospect Hill. It was nearly time to get in all the crops, to say nothing of the attention that had to be given to the animals at Wood Grange, the hermitage at Eberfurt, and Sugar-cane Grove.
When they paid their first visit to Whale Island M. Zermatt and Mr. Wolston had been amazed at the number of rabbits it contained. There were hundreds of these most prolific rodents. Fortunately the island produced quite enough herbaceous plants and roots to guarantee their food supply. So Jenny, to whom M. Zermatt had made a present of this island, would find it in a highly prosperous condition when she returned.
"You were very wise to enclose your rabbits there," Mr. Wolston remarked. "There will be thousands of them some day, and they would have eaten up every field in the Promised Land! In Australia, where I come from, these creatures threaten to become a worse plague than the locusts in Africa, and if the most stringent measures are not taken against the depredations of the breed, the entire surface of Australia will be consumed."[2]
During these latter months of the year 1816 it was obvious more than once that Fritz and Frank were badly missed, although the Wolstons did not spare their efforts. The harvest season was always a very busy one. An immense amount of work was involved in the proper farming of the fields of maize and tapioca and of the rice plantation beyond the marsh near Flamingo Bay, in the cropping of the fruit trees, both the European species and the indigenous species, such as bananas, guavas, cacaos, cinnamons, and others, in the extraction and preparation of sago, and finally in the harvesting of the grain, wheat, rice, buckwheat and barley, and the cutting of the sugar-canes, which grew in such abundance on the farm fields of Sugar-cane Grove. All this made heavy work for four men, although the three women helped them bravely. And it would all have to be begun over again in a few months, for the soil was so prolific that there was no danger of its being exhausted by two crops every year.
On the other hand, it was important that Mme. Zermatt, Mrs. Wolston, and Hannah should not give up entirely their domestic work. And for this reason, while Mr. Wolston and M. Zermatt and his two sons went off to work out of doors, they most commonly remained at Rock Castle.
Fertile as the soil of the Promised Land was, however, there was yet the possibility that its yield might be prejudicially affected by an excessive drought during the summer. What was lacking was a system of irrigation suitably carried all over the surface of this area of several hundred acres. The only water-courses were the Jackal and Falconhurst Rivers to the east, and to the west the Eastern River, which ran into the south end of Nautilus Bay. This defect had struck Mr. Wolston, and one day, the 9th of November, after the midday meal, he brought the conversation round to this subject.
"Nothing would be easier," he said, "than to fix up a water-wheel, using the Jackal River fall a mile and a half above Rock Castle. There are two ship's pumps among the material you took out of theLandlord, my dear Zermatt. Well, the wheel, once it is fixed, could work them with quite sufficient force, could pump the water up into a reservoir and carry it through pipes as far as the fields at Wood Grange and Sugar-cane Grove."
"But the pipes," said Ernest; "how can we make them?"
"We would do on a big scale what you have already done on a small scale to bring water from Jackal River to the kitchen garden at Rock Castle," Mr. Wolston replied. "Instead of using bamboos, we would use trunks of the sago-tree, cleared of their pith. An installation like that would not be beyond our powers."
"Splendid!" Jack declared. "When we have made our land more fertile still it will produce more; it will produce too much, and we shall not know what to do with our crops, for after all, there is no market yet at Rock Castle."
"There will be one, Jack," M. Zermatt replied, "as there will be a town by and by, and then several towns, not only in the Promised Land, but all over New Switzerland. We must look ahead, my son."
"And when there are towns," Ernest added, "there will be inhabitants whose food supply must be secured. So we must get out of the soil all that it is capable of yielding."
"We shall get it all right," Mr. Wolston added reassuringly, "by means of this system of irrigation, which I will study if you like."
Jack held his tongue and did not give in. It was by no means an agreeable idea to him that the English colony would some day number a considerable population, and if Mme. Zermatt's inmost heart could have been read the same regret at the thought of the future might have been found there.
However this may be, in the few hours of leisure left to them occasionally by their work in the fields, Mr. Wolston, M. Zermatt and Ernest, who found this kind of task most interesting, studied the question of irrigation. They ascertained accurately the line and level of the country, and were convinced that its disposition was favourable to the construction of a canal.
Rather more than half-a-mile to the south of Wood Grange lay Swan Lake, filled by the rains during the rainy season, but attaining during the dry season a low water mark which rendered it useless. The trenches that might have been cut would not have enabled the water at summer level to drain away. But if they succeeded in keeping a constant surplusage in the lake, by drawing upon Jackal River, it would be easy to divert it over the surrounding land and bring fresh elements of fertility to it by a carefully considered system of irrigation.
The distance between the waterfall and the southern extremity of the lake was a good two and a half miles, it is true, and to build a conduit of that length could not fail to be a task of much magnitude. It would necessitate the felling of a great many sago-trees.
Happily, another examination of the ground, carried out by Ernest and Mr. Wolston, demonstrated the fact that the length of the conduit could be materially reduced.
One evening, when the two families were sitting together in the common hall after a busy day both in and out of doors, Ernest said:
"Papa, Mr. Wolston and I have found out all about the levels. If we raise the water from Jackal River thirty feet, that will be enough to carry it four hundred yards to the place where the ground begins to slope again down to Swan Lake. A trench cut from that point will serve as a canal for the water and will take it direct into the lake."
"Good!" said M. Zermatt. "That will simplify the task enormously."
"And then Swan Lake will form the reservoir for irrigating the fields at Wood Grange, Sugar-cane Grove, and even the hermitage," Mr. Wolston added. "Besides, we will only supply it with enough water for the actual requirements of the irrigation system, and if a surplusage should accumulate we could easily drain it off towards the sea."
"Quite so," said M. Zermatt. "We shall deserve the thanks of all future colonists when once we have completed this canal."
"But not of the old ones, who were satisfied with what nature had given them!" Jack remarked. "Poor old Jackal River! They are going to tire it out turning a wheel; they are going to take a bit of it away; and all for the material advantage of people we do not even know!"
"It is plain that Jack is not an advocate of colonisation," said Mrs. Wolston.
"Our two families settled in this district, and their existence assured—what more could we wish for, Mrs. Wolston?"
"Good!" said Hannah Wolston. "But Jack will change his ideas with all the improvements you are going to introduce."
"Do you think so?" Jack answered with a laugh.
"When shall you begin this great undertaking?" Betsy enquired.
"In a few days, dear," M. Zermatt assured her. "After we have got in our first harvest we shall have three months' leisure before the second."
This being settled, a most laborious task ensued, lasting for five weeks from the 15th of November to the 20th of December.
Expeditions had to be made to Prospect Hill for the purpose of felling several hundred sago-trees in the adjacent woods. There was no difficulty in hollowing them out, and their pith was carefully collected in bamboo barrels. It was the hauling of the trees that constituted the really hardest part of the work. This devolved upon M. Zermatt and Jack, assisted by the two buffaloes, the onager, and the young ass, which drew a kind of trolley or truck, like those used later in Europe. It was Ernest who hit upon the idea of suspending these heavy lengths of timber to the axle-tree of the two wheels of the waggon, previously detached from the body for that purpose. If the tree-trunks did scrape along the ground, they only did so at one end, and their hauling was effected under much easier conditions.
All the same, buffaloes, onager and ass had plenty to do, so much, indeed, that one day Jack said:
"It is a pity, papa, that we have not got a pair of elephants in our service! What a lot of fatigue our poor beasts would be saved!"
"But not the worthy pachyderms themselves," M. Zermatt replied—"converted into our poor beasts in their turn."
"Oh, elephants have plenty of strength," Jack retorted; "they would drag these sago-tree trunks along like so many matches! There are some in New Switzerland, and if we could only——"
"I am not very keen on these creatures getting into the Promised Land, Jack. They would soon get our fields into a pretty mess!"
"No doubt, papa. But if we should have an opportunity of meeting them in the savannahs of Pearl Bay, or in those plains where the Green Valley opens out——"
"We would take advantage of it," M. Zermatt answered. "But don't let us create the opportunity. It is better not to."
While M. Zermatt and his son were proceeding with these many hauling journeys, Mr. Wolston and Ernest were busy making and fixing the pumping machine. In the construction of the water-wheel the engineer displayed great skill, and particularly interested Ernest, who had a great bent for everything connected with mechanics.
This wheel was set up at the foot of the waterfall in Jackal River, in such a way as to work theLandlord'spumps. The water, brought up to a height of thirty feet, would be stored in a reservoir hollowed out between the rocks on the right bank, and this would be fitted with the water-pipes made from the sago-tree trunks, the first of which were soon laid along the river bank.
The work was carried on so steadily and methodically that about the 20th of December it was finished, including the trench or drain cut through the surface of the ground to the southern end of Swan Lake.
"Shall we have an opening ceremony?" Hannah Wolston asked that evening.
"I rather think so!" Jack replied. "Just as if it were a matter of opening a canal in our own old Switzerland! What do you say, Mamma?"
"Just as you like, dears," Betsy answered.
"Then that is settled," said M. Zermatt. "The ceremony shall begin to-morrow with the starting of our machinery."
"How shall it end?" Ernest asked.
"With an excellent dinner in honour of Mr. Wolston."
"And of your son Ernest," said Mr. Wolston, "for he deserves great praise for his keenness and intelligence."
"I am delighted with your praise, sir," the young fellow replied, "but I had a good teacher."
The next day, about ten o'clock, the canal was formally opened in the presence of the two families who had assembled near the waterfall. The wheel, set in motion by the fall, revolved regularly, the two pumps worked and the water was let into the reservoir, which was filled in an hour and a half. Then the sluices were opened and the water travelled through the conduit, a distance of four hundred yards.
Everybody hastened to this spot, and there was much clapping of hands when the first trickles of water entered the portion of the canal which was open to the sky. After Ernest had thrown in a little buoy, the members of both families got into the waggon, which was waiting, and drove off towards Swan Lake, Jack speeding in front mounted on his ostrich.
The waggon made such good speed that, although it had a détour to make, it reached the far end of the canal at the same moment that the buoy floated out onto the surface of the lake.
Loud cheers greeted it; the work had been brought to a satisfactory conclusion. It would only be necessary to make a few breaches in the banks for the water, even in the height of the drought, to irrigate generously all the surrounding country during the hot weather.
Three months had now passed since theUnicornhad sailed. If nothing occurred to delay her she ought to be seen again off Deliverance Bay in three times that time.
Not a day passed without some talk about the absent ones. They were followed at every stage of their voyage. Now they had reached the Cape of Good Hope, where James Wolston was waiting for his sister Dolly. Now the corvette was working up the Atlantic, along the African coast. Now she was arriving at Portsmouth; Jenny and Fritz and Frank were landing and reaching London. There Colonel Montrose was clasping in his arms the daughter whom he had never thought to see again, and, with her, him who had rescued her from the Burning Rock, whose union with her he would sanction with his blessing.
Thus ended the year 1816, which had been marked by events whose consequences must profoundly alter the situation of New Switzerland.
On the 1st of January good wishes were exchanged between the Zermatts and the Wolstons. They also gave one another presents, valuable chiefly for the goodwill of the givers—such trifles as time transforms into souvenirs. There were mutual congratulations, too, and much handshaking when the day dawned, a day observed as a holiday all over the world, when the new year
Makes its bow upon the stageOf the unknown future age,
Makes its bow upon the stageOf the unknown future age,
Makes its bow upon the stageOf the unknown future age,
Makes its bow upon the stage
Of the unknown future age,
as a French poet has said. This New Year's day was very different from the twelve that had preceded it since the survivors of the wreck of theLandlordhad first set foot on the beach at Tent Home. Heartfelt joy now entered into their emotions. It was a chorus of pure happiness and merriment they raised, and Jack took part in it with the lively enthusiasm which he put into everything.
M. Zermatt and Mr. Wolston embraced each other. They were old friends now, and had had time to learn to appreciate and esteem one another in the common life they led together. M. Zermatt treated Hannah as if he were her father, and Mr. Wolston, Ernest and Jack as if they were his sons. It was the same with the two mothers who made no difference between their respective children.
Hannah Wolston must have been particularly touched by the congratulations which Ernest offered to her. It will be remembered that this young man was somewhat addicted to poetry. Once before, when the worthy donkey had had its fatal encounter with the enormous boa-constrictor, he had adorned its tomb with a few quite respectable lines. On the present occasion, in honour of this maiden, his inspiration stood him in good stead, and Hannah's cheeks flushed warmly when the young poet congratulated her on having recovered her health in the good air of the Promised Land.
"Health—and happiness, too," she answered, kissing Mme. Zermatt.
The day, which was Friday, was observed like a Sunday in that thanks were offered to the Most High, whose protection of the absent ones was invoked, while heartfelt gratitude was expressed for all His blessings.
Then Jack exclaimed:
"And what about our animals?"
"Well; what about our animals?" M. Zermatt enquired.
"Turk, and Brownie and Fawn; our buffaloes, Storm and Grumbler; our bull, Roarer; our cow, Paleface; our onager, Lightfoot; our asses, Arrow and Fleet and Swift; our jackal, Coco; our ostrich, Whirlwind; our monkey, Nip the Second; and indeed all our friends two and four footed."
"Come, come, Jack," said Mme. Zermatt, "you are not suggesting that your brother should write poetry for the whole farm and poultry yard, are you?"
"Of course not, Mamma, and I don't suppose the excellent creatures would appreciate the most beautiful verses in the world. But they do deserve that we should wish them a happy new year and give them double rations and fresh litter."
"Jack is quite right," said Mr. Wolston; "to-day all our beasts——"
"Including Jenny's jackal and cormorant," said Hannah Wolston.
"Well said, my dear," said Mrs. Wolston. "Jenny's pets shall have their share."
"And since to-day is the first day of the year the whole world over," said Mme. Zermatt, "let us think of those who have left us, who are certainly thinking of us."
And affectionate thoughts were wafted by both families to the beloved passengers on theUnicorn.
All the animals were treated according to their high deserts, and sugar was lavished upon them as well as caresses.
Then the whole party sat down in the dining-room at Rock Castle to an appetising luncheon, the gaiety of which was increased by a few glasses of old wine presented by the commander of the corvette.
There was no question of doing any of the usual daily work on a holiday like this, so M. Zermatt proposed a walk to Falconhurst, a short two and a half miles that could be travelled without much fatigue beneath the shade of the fair avenue which connected the summer and winter residences.
The weather was splendid, although the heat was great. But the double row of trees along the avenue barred the sun's rays with their dense foliage. It was just a pleasant trip along the shore, with the sea upon the right hand and the country on the left.
A start was made about eleven o'clock so as to allow of a whole afternoon's rest at Falconhurst and a return in time for dinner. The two families had not stayed at Wood Grange this year, nor yet at Prospect Hill or the hermitage at Eberfurt, because these farmsteads required enlargements which would not be undertaken until theUnicorncame back. The arrival of new colonists would probably necessitate other changes in the Promised Land.
After leaving the kitchen garden and crossing Jackal River by Family Bridge, the party went along the avenue of fruit trees, which had grown with tropical luxuriance.
There was no need to hurry, as an hour would take them to Falconhurst. The dogs, Brownie and Fawn, gambolled in front. On either hand fields of maize, millet, oats, wheat, barley, cassava, and sweet potatoes displayed their rich stores. The second harvest promised to be a good one, without taking into account that which would be reaped on the land farther to the north, irrigated from Swan Lake.
"It was a fine idea to utilise that water from Jackal River, which until then was wasted, since the sea had no need of it!" Jack remarked thoughtfully to Mr. Wolston.
Every few hundred yards a halt was made, and the talk was resumed with new enjoyment. Hannah gathered some of the pretty flowers whose perfume scented the whole avenue. Hundreds of birds fluttered among the branches laden with fruit and leaves. Game of all kinds sped across the meadow lands, hares, rabbits, grouse, hazel-hens, snipe. Neither Ernest nor Jack had been allowed to bring a gun, and it seemed as if the winged tribe knew this.
Before they had started Mme. Zermatt, seconded by Hannah, had urged the point.
"I beg," she said, "I beg that to-day all these unoffending creatures may be spared."
Ernest had agreed with good grace. He had no burning desire to shine as a hunter. But Jack had protested. To go out without his gun, if he were to be believed, was like being deprived of an arm or a leg.
"I can take it, even if I don't use it," he said. "I promise not to fire, not even if a covey of partridges gets up within half-a-dozen yards."
"You would not be able to keep your promise, Jack," Hannah replied. "With Ernest there would be no need for anxiety, but you——"
"And suppose some wild beast appeared, a panther, a bear, a tiger, a lion? There are some on our island."
"Not in the Promised Land," Mme. Zermatt answered. "Come, Jack, give in to us this time. You will still have three hundred and sixty-four days in the year."
"Isn't it Leap Year by any chance?"
"No," Ernest replied.
"No luck!" the young sportsman exclaimed.
It was about an hour later when the two families stopped at the foot of Falconhurst, after crossing the mangrove wood.
M. Zermatt's first care was to ascertain that the fence which enclosed the poultry yard was in sound condition. Neither the monkeys nor the wild boars had indulged their instinct to destroy. There really would have been no need for Jack to make reprisals on these marauders on this occasion.
The party began by taking a rest on the semi-circular terrace of clay made above the roots of the huge mangrove and rendered water-proof by a mixture of resin and tar. They all took a little refreshment there from the barrels of mead which were stored under the terrace. Then they went up the winding staircase, built inside the tree, to the platform forty feet above the ground.
It was an unfailing pleasure to the Zermatts to be among the broad leaves of the tree. Was not this their first nest, the one which held so many memories for them? The nest had become a fresh and delightful habitation, with its two trellised balconies, its double floor, its rooms roofed in with nicely fitted bark, and its light furniture. Henceforward it would be no more than a mere resting place. More spacious buildings were to be erected at Prospect Hill. But M. Zermatt meant to preserve the old "falcon's nest" as long as the gigantic tree would hold it in its arms, until, worn out by years, it fell to pieces from old age.
That afternoon, while they chatted on the balcony, Mrs. Wolston made a remark which called for consideration. She was a woman of such enlightened piety, and so steeped in religious feeling, that no one was surprised when she spoke in this way.
"I have often marvelled, my dear friends, and I marvel still at all you have done in this corner of your island. Rock Castle, Falconhurst, Prospect Hill, your farms, your plantations, your fields, all prove your intelligence to be as great as your courage in hard work. But I have already asked Mme. Zermatt how it is that you have not got——"
"A chapel," Betsy answered quickly. "You are right, Merry dear, and we do undoubtedly owe it to God to build to His glory——"
"Something better than a chapel—a temple," exclaimed Jack, whom nothing ever dismayed; "a monument with a splendid steeple! When shall we begin, Papa? There is material enough and to spare. Mr. Wolston will draw the plans and we will carry them out."
"Excellent!" replied M. Zermatt with a smile; "but if I can see the temple with my mind's eye, I cannot see the pastor, the preacher."
"Frank will be that when he comes back," said Ernest.
"Meantime do not let that worry you, M. Zermatt," Mrs. Wolston put in. "We will content ourselves with saying our prayers in our chapel."
"It is an excellent idea of yours, Mrs. Wolston, and we must not forget that new colonists will be coming very soon. So we will look carefully into the matter in our spare time during the rainy season. We will look for a suitable site."
"It seems to me, dear," said Mme. Zermatt, "that if we cannot use Falconhurst as a dwelling-place any longer, it would be quite easy to alter it into an aerial chapel."
"And then our prayers would be half way to heaven already, as Frank would remark," Jack added.
"It would be a little too far from Rock Castle," M. Zermatt replied. "I think it would be better to build this chapel near our principal residence, round which new houses will gradually gather. But, as I said before, we will look carefully into the idea."
During the three or four months which remained of the fine weather all hands were employed in the most pressing work, and from the 15th of March until the end of April there was not a single holiday. Mr. Wolston did not spare himself; but he could not take the place of Fritz and Frank in providing the farmsteads with fodder for the winter keep. There were now a hundred sheep, goats and pigs at Wood Grange; the hermitage at Eberfurt and Prospect Hill, and the cattlesheds at Rock Castle would not have been large enough to accommodate all this stock. The poultry was all brought into the poultry yard before the rainy season, and the fowls, bustards, and pigeons were attended to there every day. The geese and ducks could amuse themselves on the pond, a couple of gunshots away. It was only the draught cattle, the asses and buffaloes, and the cows and their calves that never left Rock Castle. Thus, irrespective of hunting and fishing, which were still very profitable from April to September, supplies were guaranteed merely from the produce of the yards.
On the 15th of March, however, there was still a good week before the field work would require the service of all hands. So, during that week, there would be no harm done by devoting the whole time to some trip outside the confines of the Promised Land. And this was the topic of conversation between the two families in the evening.
Mr. Wolston's knowledge was limited to the district between Jackal River and False Hope Point, including the farms at Wood Grange, the hermitage at Eberfurt, Sugar-cane Grove and Prospect Hill.
"I am surprised, Zermatt," he said one day, "that in all these twelve years neither you nor your children have attempted to reach the interior of New Switzerland."
"Why should we have tried, Wolston?" M. Zermatt replied. "Think! When the wreck of theLandlordcast us on this shore, my boys were only children, incapable of accompanying me on a journey of exploration. My wife could not have gone with me, and it would have been most imprudent to leave her alone."
"Alone with Frank, who was only five years old," Mme. Zermatt put in. "And besides, we had not abandoned hope of being picked up by some ship."
"Before all else," M. Zermatt went on, "it was a matter of providing for our immediate needs and of staying in the neighbourhood of the ship until we had taken out of her every single thing that might be useful to us. At the mouth of Jackal River we had fresh water, fields that could be cultivated easily on its right bank, and plantations all ready grown not far away. Soon afterwards, quite by chance, we discovered this healthy and safe dwelling-place at Rock Castle. Ought we to have wasted time merely satisfying our curiosity?"
"And besides," Ernest remarked, "might not leaving Deliverance Bay have meant exposing ourselves to the chance of meeting natives, like those of the Nicobars and Andamans perhaps who are such fierce savages?"
"At all events," M. Zermatt went on, "each day brought some task that sheer necessity forbade us to postpone. Each new year imposed upon us the work of the year before. And gradually, with habits formed and an accustomed sense of well-being, we struck down roots in this spot, if I may use the phrase; that is why we have never left it. So the years have gone by, and it seems only yesterday that we first came here. What would you have had us do, Wolston? We were very well off here, in this district, and it did not occur to us that it would be wise to go out of it to look for anything better."
"That is all perfectly reasonable," Mr. Wolston answered, "but for my part, I could not have resisted for so many years my desire to explore the country towards the south, east and west."
"Because you are an Englishman," M. Zermatt replied, "and your native instinct urges you to travel. But we are Swiss, and the Swiss are a peaceful, stay-at-home people who never leave their mountains without regret; and if circumstances had not compelled us to leave Europe——"
"I protest, Papa!" Jack answered. "I protest, so far as I am concerned. Thorough Swiss as I am, I should have loved to travel all over the world!"
"You ought to be an Englishman, Jack," Ernest declared, "and please understand that I do not blame you a bit for having this inborn desire to move about. Besides, I think that Mr. Wolston is right. It really is necessary that we should make a complete survey of this New Switzerland of ours."
"Which is an island in the Indian Ocean, as we know now," Mr. Wolston added; "and it would be well to do it before theUnicorncomes back."
"Whenever Papa likes," exclaimed Jack, who was always ready to take a hand in any new discovery.
"We will talk about that again after the rainy season," M. Zermatt said. "I have not the least objection to a journey into the interior. But let us acknowledge that we were highly favoured in being permitted to land upon this coast which is both healthy and fertile. Is there another equal to it?"
"How do we know?" Ernest answered. "It is true, the coast we passed in the pinnace, when we doubled Cape East on our way to Unicorn Bay, was nothing but naked rocks and dangerous reefs, and even where the corvette was moored there was nothing but sandy shore. But beyond that, to the southward, it is quite likely that New Switzerland presents a less desolate appearance."
"The way to make sure of that," said Jack, "is to sail all round it in the pinnace. We shall know then what its configuration is."
"But if you have never been beyond Unicorn Bay to the eastward," Mr. Wolston insisted, "you have been much further along the northern coast."
"Yes, for something like forty miles," Ernest answered; "from False Hope Point to Pearl Bay."
"And we had not even the curiosity to go to see Burning Rock," Jack exclaimed.
"A desert island, which Jenny never wanted to see again," Hannah remarked.
"The best thing to do," M. Zermatt decided, "will be to explore the territory near the shore of Pearl Bay, for beyond that there are green prairies, broken hills, fields of cotton trees, with leafy woods."
"Where are the truffles!" Ernest put in.
"You glutton!" Jack exclaimed.
"Yes, truffles," M. Zermatt replied, laughing, "and where there are creatures too that dig the truffles up."
"Not forgetting panthers and lions!" Betsy added.
"Well," said Mr. Wolston, "the net result of all that is that we must not venture that way or any other without taking precautions. But since our future colony will be obliged to spread beyond the Promised Land, it seems to me that it would be better to explore the interior than to sail round the island."
"And to do so before the corvette comes back," Ernest added. "My view, indeed, is that it would be best to cross the defile of Cluse and go through the Green Valley so as to get right up to the mountains that one can see from the rising ground at Eberfurt."
"Did they not seem a very long way off from you?" Mr. Wolston asked.
"Yes; about twenty-five miles," Ernest replied.
"I am sure Ernest has mapped out a journey already," said Hannah with a smile.
"I confess I have, Hannah," the young man answered, "and I am longing to be able to draw an accurate map of the whole of our New Switzerland."
"My good people," said M. Zermatt, "this is what I suggest to begin to satisfy Mr. Wolston."
"Agreed to in advance!" replied Jack.
"Wait, you impatient fellow! It will be ten or twelve days before we are required for the second harvest, and if you like we will spend half that time in visiting the portion of the island which skirts the eastern shore."
"And while M. Zermatt with his two sons and Mr. Wolston are on this trip," Mrs. Wolston objected disapprovingly, "Mme. Zermatt, Hannah and I are to remain alone at Rock Castle; is that it?"
"No, Mrs. Wolston," M. Zermatt answered; "the pinnace will hold us all."
"When do we start?" cried Jack. "To-day?"
"Why not yesterday?" M. Zermatt answered, with a laugh.
"Since we have surveyed the inside of Pearl Bay already," said Ernest, "it really is better to follow up the eastern coast. The pinnace would go straight to Unicorn Bay and then southwards. We might perhaps discover the mouth of some river which we might ascend."
"That is an excellent idea," M. Zermatt declared.
"Unless perhaps it were better to make a circuit of the island," Mr. Wolston remarked.
"The circuit of it?" Ernest replied. "Oh, that would take more time than we have to give, for when we made our first trip to the Green Valley we could only make out the faint blue outline of the mountains on the horizon."
"That is precisely what it is important to have accurate information about," Mr. Wolston urged.
"And what we ought to have known all about long ago," Jack declared.
"Then that is settled," said M. Zermatt in conclusion; "perhaps we shall find on this east coast the mouth of a river which it will be possible to ascend, if not in the pinnace at any rate in the canoe."
And the plan having been agreed upon, it was decided to make a start on the next day but one.
As a matter of fact, thirty-six hours was none too long a time to ask for preparation. To begin with, theElizabethhad to be got ready for the voyage, and at the same time provision had to be made for the feeding of the domestic animals during an absence which might perhaps be protracted by unforeseen circumstances.
So one and all had quite enough to get through.
Mr. Wolston and Jack made it their business to inspect the pinnace which was moored in the creek. She had not been to sea since her trip to Unicorn Bay. Some repairs had to be done, and Mr. Wolston was clever at this. Navigation would be no new thing to him, and Jack, too, could be relied upon, as the fearless successor to Fritz, to handle theElizabethas he handled the canoe.
M. Zermatt and Ernest, Mme. Zermatt, Mrs. Wolston and Hannah, were entrusted with the duty of providing the cattlesheds and the poultry yard with food, and they did it conscientiously. There was a large quantity left of the last harvest. Being graminivorous, the buffaloes, onager, asses, cows and the ostrich would lack nothing. The fowls, geese, ducks, Jenny's cormorant, the two jackals, the monkey, were made as sure of their food supply. Brownie and Fawn were to be taken, for there might be need to hunt on this trip, if the pinnace put in at any point on the coast.
All these arrangements of course made visits necessary to the farmsteads at Wood Grange, the hermitage at Eberfurt, Sugar-cane Grove, and Prospect Hill, among which the various animals were distributed. All these places were carefully kept in a state to receive visitors for a few days. But with the help of the waggon, the delay of thirty-six hours, stipulated for by M. Zermatt, was not exceeded.
There really was no time to be lost. The yellowing crops were on the point of ripening. The harvest could not be delayed beyond a fortnight, and the pinnace must be back by that time.
At last, in the evening of the 14th of March, a case of preserved meat, a bag of cassava flour, a cask of mead, a keg of palm wine, four guns, four pistols, powder, lead, enough shot for theElizabeth'stwo small cannon, bedding, linen, spare clothes, oilskins, and cooking utensils were put on board.
Everything being ready for the start, all that had to be done was to take advantage, at the very first break of day, of the breeze which would blow off the land in order to reach Cape East.
After a peaceful night the two families went on board, at five o'clock in the morning, accompanied by the two dogs which gambolled and frolicked to their hearts' content.
As soon as the party had all taken their place on deck, the canoe was triced up aft. Then, with mainsail, foresail, and jib set, with M. Zermatt at the helm and Mr. Wolston and Jack on the lookout, the pinnace picked up the wind, and after passing Shark's Island speedily lost sight of the heights of Rock Castle.
As soon as she had cleared the entrance to the bay the pinnace glided over the surface of the broad expanse of sea between False Hope Point and Cape East. The weather was fine. The grey-blue sky was tapestried with a few clouds through which the sun's rays filtered.
At this early morning hour the breeze blew off the land and was favourable to the progress of theElizabeth. It would not be until she had rounded Cape East that she would feel the wind from the sea.
The light vessel was carrying all her brig sails, even a flying jib and the pole sails of her two masts. To the swing of the open sea, with full sails, and a list to her starboard quarter, she clove the water, as still as that of a lake, and sped along at eight knots, leaving a long track of rippling foam in her wake.
What thoughts thronged Mme. Zermatt's mind, what memories of these twelve years that had passed! She saw again in fancy the tub boat roughly improvised for their rescue, which the least false stroke might have capsized; that frail contrivance making for an unknown shore with all that she loved within it, her husband, and her four sons, of whom the youngest was barely five years old; then she was landing at the mouth of Jackal River, and the first tent was set up at the spot which was Tent Home before it became Rock Castle.
And what fears were hers whenever M. Zermatt and Fritz went back to the wreck! And now here she was, upon this well-rigged, well-handled pinnace, a good sea-boat, sharing without a tremor of fear in this voyage of discovery round the eastern coast of the island.
What changes, too, there had been in the last five months, and what changes, more important still, perhaps, could be anticipated within the very near future!
M. Zermatt was manœuvring so as to make the best use of the wind which tended to die away as theElizabethdrew farther away from the land. Mr. Wolston, Ernest, and Jack stood by the sheets ready to haul them taut or ease them as need might be. It would have been a pity to become becalmed before coming off Cape East, where the pinnace would catch the breeze from the open sea.
Mr. Wolston said:
"I am afraid the wind is scanting; see how our sails are sagging!"
"The wind certainly is dropping," M. Zermatt answered, "but since it is blowing from aft let us put the foresail one side and the mainsail the other. We are sure to gather some pace that way."
"It should not take us more than half an hour to round the point," Ernest remarked.
"If the breeze drops altogether," Jack suggested, "we have only to put out the oars and paddle as far as the cape. With four of us at it the pinnace won't stay still, I should imagine."
"And who will take the tiller while you are all at the oars?" Mme. Zermatt enquired.
"You will, mamma, or Mrs. Wolston, or even Hannah," Jack replied. "Why not Hannah? I am sure she would shove the tiller to port or starboard as well as any old salt?"
"Why not?" answered the girl, laughing. "Especially if I have only to do what you tell me, Jack."
"Good! It is as easy to manage a boat as it is to manage a house, and, of course, all women are adepts at that from the start," Jack answered.
There was no need to resort to the oars, or to what would have been much simpler—towing by the canoe. As soon as the two sails had been set crosswise the pinnace obeyed the breeze more readily and made appreciable progress towards Cape East.
Various signs went to show that beyond the cape the wind from the west would make itself felt. The sea on this side was vivid green a couple of miles from the shore. Sometimes little waves, deploying in white lines, gleamed with bright reflections. The voyage proceeded gaily, and it was scarcely half past eight when theElizabethwas athwart the cape.
The sails were trimmed again and the little vessel put on a faster pace, lightly rocked by a sea that distressed no one on board.
As the breeze was plainly settled, M. Zermatt suggested that they should go up again towards the north-east, so as to go round the mass of rocks on which theLandlordhad been broken.
"We can do it easily," said Mr. Wolston, "and for my own part I should very much like to see the reef onto which the storm threw you, so far off the course from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia."
"A wreck that cost many lives," said Mme. Zermatt, whose face clouded at the memory. "My husband, my children, and myself were all who escaped death."
"So it has never been known whether any of the crew was picked up at sea or found refuge on any neighbouring land?" Mr. Wolston enquired.
"Never," M. Zermatt answered, "according to what Lieutenant Littlestone declared; and for a long time theLandlordwas supposed to have been lost with all hands."
"As for that," Ernest observed, "it must be pointed out that the crew of theDorcas, on which Jenny took her passage, had better luck than ours had, since the boatswain and two sailors were taken to Sydney."
"That is true," M. Zermatt replied. "But can we be positive that no survivors from theLandlordsucceeded in finding a refuge on some one of these shores in the Indian Ocean, and even that after all these years they are not there still, as we are in New Switzerland?"
"There is nothing impossible in that," Ernest declared, "for our island is only seven or eight hundred miles from Australia. As the west coast of Australia is seldom visited by European ships the shipwrecked people might have had no opportunity of being rescued from the natives."
"The conclusion to be drawn from it all," said Mr. Wolston, "is that these seas are dangerous and that storms are frequent here. In only a few years there have been the loss of theLandlordand the loss of theDorcas."
"Quite so," replied Ernest. "But let us remember that at the time those wrecks occurred, the position of our island was not marked on the charts, and it is not surprising that several ships were lost upon the reefs by which it is surrounded. But very soon now its bearings will be on record as exactly as those of the other islands of the Indian Ocean."
"The more's the pity!" cried Jack. "Yes: the more's the pity, since New Switzerland will now become known."
TheElizabethwas manœuvring by this time off the west side of the reef, and as she had been obliged to beat up against the wind in order to round the farthest rocks she now had only to sail before the wind in this direction.
M. Zermatt pointed out to Mr. Wolston on the opposite side of the reef the narrow gap into which an enormous wave had thrust theLandlord. The breach made in the timbers of the ship, first with the axe and then by an explosion, had permitted the removal of the things that she contained, prior to the time when a final explosion by gunpowder had accomplished her total destruction.
Of the ruined fragments of the ship, nothing remained upon the reef, the tide having washed everything to the shore, things which could float of themselves and also those which had previously been made floatable by means of empty casks, such as boilers, pieces of iron, copper and lead, and the four-pounder cannon, two of which were now on Shark's Island, and the rest in the battery at Rock Castle.
As they skirted the edge of the rocks, the party on the pinnace tried to see if there were any pieces of wreckage visible beneath the clear and calm water. Two and a half years previously Fritz, when he had gone in his canoe on a trip to Pearl Bay, had been able to discern at the bottom of the sea a number of large cannon, gun-carriages, cannon balls, pieces of iron, and fragments of the keel and capstan, which it would have required a diving-bell to raise. Even if he had had the opportunity of employing such a contrivance, however, M. Zermatt would not have been much better off. Now, none of these things was visible on the bottom. A thick carpet of sand mixed with long sea-weeds covered the last remnants of theLandlord.
After making the round of the reef, theElizabethbore away obliquely towards the south, in such a way as to draw close to Cape East. M. Zermatt steered a careful course, for one point ran out to sea surrounded by reefs.
Three-quarters of an hour later, after passing this point, which in all probability marked the eastern extremity of New Switzerland, the pinnace was able to follow the line of the coast for a mile and more, getting the wind from the north-west over land.
While sailing thus, M. Zermatt could not fail to observe once more how deserted an appearance the eastern coast of the island presented. There was not a tree upon the cliffs, not a trace of vegetation at their foot, not a stream trickling among the naked and deserted beaches. Nothing but rocks calcined by the sun. What a contrast to the verdant shores of Deliverance Bay and their extension onwards as far as False Hope Point!
M. Zermatt spoke:
"If after the wreck of theLandlordwe had fallen upon this eastern coast, what would have become of us, and how should we have found anything to live upon?"
"Necessity would have compelled you to go into the interior," Mr. Wolston answered. "And in making your way round Deliverance Bay you would certainly have come to the spot where the tents of Tent Home were pitched."
"That is so, Wolston," M. Zermatt replied, "but think of the effort involved, and think of the despair we should have been a prey to during those first days."
"Who can tell, too," Ernest put in, "if our tub boat would not have been smashed on these rocks? How different from the mouth of Jackal River, where we were able to land without any risk or difficulty!"
About eleven o'clock theElizabethreached Unicorn Bay, and half an hour later dropped anchor at the foot of a rock near the spot where the English corvette had been moored.
M. Zermatt's plan, of which all approved, was to land in this corner of the bay and spend the rest of the day there, then to start again at daybreak next morning to continue the voyage along the coast line.
When the anchor was fast the stern of the pinnace was brought in by a hawser, and the landing was effected on fine, hard sand.
The bay was surrounded by a limestone cliff about a hundred feet in height from the foot to the top, which could only be gained by means of a narrow gap in the centre of it.
The party walked over the beach, which still bore traces of the last encampment. Here and there a few prints could still be seen in the sand above high water mark, with bits of wood left from the repairs to the corvette, holes made by the tent pegs, lumps of coal scattered among the shingle, and ashes from the fires.
All this prompted M. Zermatt to make the following remarks, fully justified by the circumstances:
"Just imagine if this were our first visit to the east coast of the island; with all these indisputable proofs before us of a landing, which the marks show to have been recent, think of the regrets and disappointment we should have felt! A ship had anchored here, her crew had camped within this bay, and we did not know anything about it! And after leaving this utterly deserted shore, could we have ventured to hope that she would ever come back?"
"That is very true," Betsy replied. "How was it that we learned of the arrival of theUnicorn?"
"By chance," said Jack; "pure chance!"
"No, my boy," M. Zermatt answered; "whatever Ernest may have said, it was due to our custom of firing our guns at Shark's Island every year at this season, to which the corvette replied with three guns."
"I must acknowledge that I was wrong," Ernest confessed.
"And think of our anxiety and our despair," M. Zermatt went on, "during the next three days, when the storm prevented us from going back to the island to repeat our signals, and think of our fear that the ship might have left again before we could reach her!"
"Yes, indeed," said Mr. Wolston, "that would have been a frightful disappointment! Fancy knowing that a ship had anchored in this bay and that you had not been able to communicate with her! And yet, in my opinion, your chances of being restored to your own home were still greatly increased."
"That is certain," Ernest said emphatically, "for our island was no longer unknown, seeing that the ship must have ascertained its position, which would have been entered in the charts. Some day or other a ship would have come to take possession of this land."
"Well, finally and in conclusion," said Jack, "theUnicorndid come, theUnicornwas observed, theUnicornwas visited, theUnicornhas gone, theUnicornwill come back, and what we have to do now, I think, is——"
"Have lunch?" Hannah Wolston put in, laughing.
"Exactly," Ernest answered.
"Let us sit down then," Jack claimed, "for I am hungry enough to eat my plate—and I could digest it!"
They settled themselves at the top of the beach, near the gap in the cliff, where there was shelter from the rays of the sun. Provisions were fetched from the pinnace, potted meat, smoked ham, cold chicken, cassava cakes, and bread baked the day before. To drink they had mead, of which there were several casks in the pinnace's store room, and a few bottles of Falconhurst wine to be uncorked later.
After the provisions and utensils had been brought ashore, Mrs. Wolston with Mme. Zermatt and Hannah laid the cloth on a smooth stretch of fine sand spread over thick bunches of very dry seaweed. Then all enjoyed a good luncheon, which would satisfy them until the six o'clock dinner.
But it would not have been worth while to undertake the toil of a voyage like this merely in order to land on this beach, go aboard again, and anchor at some other point along the shore only to leave it, too, in the same conditions. The Promised Land could only be a very small portion of New Switzerland.
So directly the meal was finished Mr. Wolston said:
"I suggest that we spend this afternoon pushing into the interior of the island."
"And at once," exclaimed Jack. "We ought to be a good two miles away already."
"You would not have talked like that before lunch," Hannah remarked with a smile; "you ate enough for four people."
"And now I am ready to walk four times as far as anyone else," Jack answered; "ready to go to the end of the world—our small world, I mean."
"But if you go so far, so very far, my dear boy," said Mme. Zermatt, "we shall not be able to follow you."
"Upon my word," said M. Zermatt emphatically, slapping his son on the shoulder, "I am at my wits' end to know how to curb Jack's impatience! There is absolutely no way of holding him in. Why, I think even Fritz never showed such——"
"Fritz?" Jack retorted. "Well, isn't it my duty to try to take his place in everything? When he comes back he won't be what he was before he went away."
"Why not?" Hannah asked.
"Because he will be married, father of a family, papa and grand-papa, too, if he does not come back soon."
"Do you think so, Jack?" Mrs. Wolston laughed. "Fritz a grandfather after one year's absence?"
"Well, grandfather or not, he will be married."
"And why shouldn't he be what he was, even then?" Hannah insisted.
"Let Jack talk, Hannah," Ernest answered. "His turn will come to make an excellent husband just as Fritz's will."
"Just as yours will, my boy," Jack retorted, with a shrewd look at Ernest and the young girl. "For my own part I should be mightily surprised at such a thing; I think nature specially cut me out to be an uncle, the very best of uncles, an Uncle of New Switzerland! But there is no question to-day, so far as I am aware, of parading in bridal array before the Mayor of Rock Castle; the question is, are we to explore beyond this cliff?"
"I think," said Mrs. Wolston, "that Mme. Zermatt, Hannah, and I had better stay here while you make your trip, which is sure to be very tiring if it lasts until the evening. This beach is absolutely deserted, and we need not be afraid of any unpleasant visitors. Besides, it would be quite easy for us to return to the pinnace. If you leave us like this at the camp there will be no risk of your being delayed or stopped."
"I believe you would be perfectly safe here, my dear Merry," said M. Zermatt, "and yet I should not be easy at leaving you."
"Right!" Ernest exclaimed, "I ask nothing better than to stay too, while——"
"Ah!" cried Jack, "there's our student all over! To stay—no doubt to shove his nose into his musty books! I am sure he has stuffed one or two volumes into the bottom of the hold. Well, let him stay, but on condition that Hannah comes with us."
"And your mother and Mrs. Wolston too," M. Zermatt added. "Upon consideration that is much better. They will stop when they are tired."
"And then Ernest will be able to keep them company," said Jack, laughing again.
"Don't let us waste time," said Mr. Wolston. "The difficulty might have been to scale this cliff, which I should guess to be a hundred or a hundred and fifty feet high. But, fortunately, the pitch of this gap is not very steep, and that will take us onto the upper level. When once we are on the top we will decide what is best to be done."