CHAPTER XXV.
THEY rowed more than a mile, so deep was the glorious bay; and then theiroars struck the ground. But Hazel with the boat-hook propelled the boatgently over the pellucid water, that now seemed too shallow to float acanoe; and at last looked like the mere varnish of that picture, theprismatic sands below; yet still the little craft glided over it, till itgently grazed the soft sand and was stationary. So placidly ended thatterrible voyage.
Mr. Hazel and Miss Rolleston were on shore in a moment, and it was allthey could do not to fall upon the land and kiss it.
Never had the sea disgorged upon that fairy isle such ghastly specters.They looked, not like people about to die, but that had died, and beenburied, and just come out of their graves to land on that blissful shore.We should have started back with horror; but the birds of that virginisle merely stepped out of their way, and did not fly.
They had landed in paradise.
Even Welch yielded to that universal longing men have to embrace the landafter perils at sea, and was putting his leg slowly over the gunwale,when Hazel came back to his assistance. He got ashore, but was contentedto sit down with his eyes on the dimpled sea and the boat, waitingquietly till the tide should float his friend to his feet again.
The sea-birds walked quietly about him, and minded him not.
Miss Rolleston ascended a green slope very slowly, for her limbs werecramped, and was lost to view.
Hazel now went up the beach, and took a more minute survey of theneighborhood.
The west side of the bay was varied. Half of it presented the softcharacter that marked the bay in general; but a portion of it was rocky,though streaked with vegetation, and this part was intersected by narrowclefts, into which, in some rare tempests and high tides combined,tongues of the sea had entered, licking the sides of the gullies smooth;and these occasional visits were marked by the sand and broken shells andother _debris_ the tempestuous and encroaching sea had left behind.
The true high-water mark was several feet lower than these _debris,_ andwas clearly marked. On the land above the cliffs he found a tangledjungle of tropical shrubs, into which he did not penetrate, but skirtedit, and, walking eastward, came out upon a delicious down or grassyslope, that faced the center of the bay. It was a gentleman's lawn of athousand acres, with an extremely gentle slope from the center of theisland down to the sea.
A river flowing from some distant source ran eastward through this down,but at its verge, and almost encircled it. Hazel traversed the lawn untilthis river, taking a sudden turn toward the sea, intercepted him at aspot which he immediately fixed on as Helen Rolleston's future residence.
Four short, thick, umbrageous trees stood close to the stream on thisside, and on the eastern side was a grove of gigantic palm-trees, atwhose very ankles the river ran. Indeed, it had undermined one of thesepalm-trees, and that giant at this moment lay all across the stream,leaving a gap through which Hazel's eye could pierce to a great depthamong those grand columns; for they stood wide apart, and there was not avestige of brushwood, jungle, or even grass below their enormous crowns.He christened the place St. Helen's on the spot.
He now dipped his baler into the stream and found it pure and tolerablycool.
He followed the bend of the stream; it evaded the slope and took him byits own milder descent to the sands. Over these it flowed smooth as glassinto the sea.
Hazel ran to Welch to tell him all he had discovered, and to give him hisfirst water from the island.
He found a roan-colored pigeon, with a purplish neck, perched on the sickman's foot. The bird shone like a rainbow, and cocked a saucy eye atHazel, and flew up into the air a few yards, but it soon appeared thatfear had little to do with this movement; for, after an airy circle ortwo, he fanned Hazel's cheek with his fast-flapping wings, and lighted onthe very edge of the baler, and was for sipping.
"Oh, look here, Welch!" cried Hazel, an ecstasy of delight.
"Ay, sir," said he. "Poor things, they hain't a found us out yet."
The talking puzzled the bird, if it did not alarm him, and he flew up tothe nearest tree, and, perching there, inspected these new and noisybipeds at his leisure.
Hazel now laid his hand on Welch's shoulder and reminded him gently theyhad a sad duty to perform, which could not be postponed.
"Right you are, sir," said Welch, "and very kind of you to let me have myway with him. Poor Sam!"
"I have found a place," said Hazel, in a low voice. "We can take the boatclose to it. But where is Miss Rolleston?"
"Oh, she is not far off; she was here just now, and brought me this herelittle cocoanut, and patted me on the back, she did, then off again on acruise. Bless her little heart!"
Hazel and Welch then got into the boat, and pushed off without muchdifficulty, and punted across the bay to one of those clefts we haveindicated. It was now nearly high water, and they moored the boat closeunder the cleft Hazel had selected.
Then they both got out and went up to the extremity of the cleft, andthere, with the ax and with pieces of wood, they scraped out aresting-place for Cooper. This was light work; for it was all stones,shells, fragments of coral and dried sea-weed lying loosely together. Butnow came a hard task in which Welch could not assist. Hazel unshipped athwart and laid the body on it. Then by a great effort staggered with theburden up to the grave and deposited it. He was exhausted by theexertion, and had to sit down panting for some time. As soon as he wasrecovered, he told Welch to stand at the head of the grave, and he stoodat the foot, bareheaded, and then, from memory, he repeated the serviceof our Church, hardly missing or displacing a word.
This was no tame recital; the scene, the circumstances, the very absenceof the book, made it tender and solemn. And then Welch repeated thosebeautiful words after Hazel, and Hazel let him. And how did he repeatthem? In such a hearty, loving tone as became one who was about tofollow, and all this but a short leave-taking. So uttered, for the livingas well as the dead, those immortal words had a strange significance andbeauty.
And presently a tender, silvery voice came down to mingle with the deepand solemn tones of the male mourners. It was Helen Rolleston. She hadwatched most of their movements unseen herself, and now, standing at theedge of the ravine, and looking down on them, uttered a soft butthrilling amen to every prayer. When it was over, and the men prepared tofill in the grave, she spoke to Welch in an undertone, and begged leaveto pay her tribute first; and, with this, she detached her apron and heldit out to them. Hazel easily climbed up to her, and found her apron wasfull of sweet-smelling bark and aromatic leaves, whose fragrance filledthe air.
"I want you to strew these over his poor remains," she said. "Oh, notcommon earth! He saved our lives. And his last words were, 'I love you,Tom.' Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear!" And with that she gave him theapron, and turned her head away to hide her tears.
Hazel blessed her for the thought, which, indeed, none but a lady wouldhave had; and Welch and he, with the tears in their eyes, strewed thespicy leaves first; and soon a ridge of shingle neatly bound withsea-weed marked the sailor's grave.
Hazel's next care, and that a pressing one, was to provide shelter forthe delicate girl and the sick man, whom circumstances had placed underhis care. He told Miss Rolleston Welch and he were going to cross the bayagain, and would she be good enough to meet them at the bend of the riverwhere she would find four trees? She nodded her head and took that roadaccordingly. Hazel rowed eastward across the bay, and, it being now highwater, he got the boat into the river itself near the edge of the shore,and, as this river had worn a channel, he contrived with the boat-hook topropel the boat up the stream, to an angle in the bank within forty yardsof the four trees. He could get no farther, the stream being now not onlyshallow, but blocked here and there with great and rough fragments ofstone. Hazel pushed the boat into the angle out of the current, andmoored her fast. He and Welch then got ashore, and Miss Rolleston wasstanding at the four trees. He went to her and said enthusiastically,"This is to be you
r house. Is it not a beautiful site?"
"Yes, it is a beautiful site, but--forgive me--I really don't see thehouse," was her reply.
"But you see the framework."
Helen looked all about, and then said, ruefully, "I suppose I am blind,sir, or else you are dreaming, for I see nothing at all."
"Why, here's a roof ready made, and the frame of a wall. We have only towattle a screen between these four uprights."
"Only to wattle a screen! But I don't know what wattling a screen is. Whodoes?"
"Why, you get some of the canes that grow a little farther up the river,and a certain long wiry grass I have marked down, and then you fix andweave till you make a screen from tree to tree; this could be patchedwith wet clay; I know where there is plenty of that. Meantime see what isdone to our hands. The crown of this great palm-tree lies at the southernaperture of your house, and blocks it entirely up. That will keep off theonly cold wind, the south wind, from you to-night. Then look at theselong, spiky leaves interlaced over your head. (These trees are screwpines.) There is a roof ready made. You must have another roof underneaththat, but it will do for a day or two."
"But you will wattle the screen directly," said Helen. "Begin at once,please. I am anxious to see a screen wattled."
"Well," said Welch, who had joined them, "landsmen are queer folk, thebest of 'em. Why, miss, it would take him a week to screen you withrushes and reeds, and them sort of weeds; and I'd do it in half an hour,if I was the Tom Welch I used to be. Why, there's spare canvas enough inthe boat to go between these four trees breast high, and then there's theforesel besides; the mainsel is all you and me shall want, sir."
"Oh, excuse me," said Miss Rolleston, "I will not be sheltered at theexpense of my friends."
"Welch, you are a trump," said Hazel, and ran off for the spare canvas.He brought it and the carpenter's basket of tools. They went to work, andMiss Rolleston insisted on taking part in it. Finding her so disposed,Hazel said that they had better divide their labors, since the time wasshort. Accordingly he took the ax and chopped off a great many scales ofthe palm-tree, and lighted a great fire between the trees, while theother two worked on the canvas.
"This is to dry the soil as well as cook our provisions," said he; "andnow I must go and find food. Is there anything you fancy?" He turned hishead from the fire he was lighting and addressed this question both toWelch and Miss Rolleston.
Miss Rolleston stared at this question, then smiled, and, in the truespirit of a lady, said, "I think I should like a good large cocoanut, ifyou can find one." She felt sure there was no other eatable thing in thewhole island.
"I wants a cabbage," said Welch, in a loud voice.
"Oh, Mr. Welch, we are not at home," said Miss Rolleston, blushing at thepreposterous demand.
"No, miss, in Capericorn. Whereby we shan't have to pay nothing for thishere cabbage. I'll tell ye, miss: when a sailor comes ashore he alwaysgoes in for green vegetables, for why, he has eaten so much junk andbiscuit, nature sings out for greens. Me and my shipmates was paid off atPortsmouth last year, and six of us agreed to dine together and eachorder his dish. Blest if six boiled legs of mutton did not come upsmoking hot: three was with cabbage, and three with turmots. Mine waswith turmots. But them I don't ask, so nigh the Line. Don't ye go tothink, because I'm sick, and the lady and you is so kind to me, and tohim that is a waiting outside them there shoals for me, as I'monreasonable; turmots I wish you both, and plenty of 'em, when somewhaler gets driven out of her course and picks you up, and carries youinto northern latitudes where turmots grow; but cabbage is my right,cabbage is my due, being paid off in a manner; for the ship is founderedand I'm ashore. Cabbage I ask for, as a seaman that has done his duty,and a man that won't live to eat many more of 'em; and" (losing histemper), "if you are the man I take you for, you'll run and fetch me acabbage fresh from the tree" (recovering his temper). "I know I didn'tought to ax a parson to shin up a tree for me; but, Lord bless you, thereain't no sarcy little boys a-looking on, and here's a poor fellow mostlydying for it."
Miss Rolleston looked at Mr. Hazel with alarm in every feature; andwhispered, "Cabbage from the tree. Is he wandering?"
Hazel smiled. "No," said he. "He has picked up a fable of these seas,that there is a tree which grows cabbages."
Welch heard him and said, with due warmth, "Of course there is a tree onall these islands that grows cabbages; that was known a hundred yearsbefore you was born, and shipmates of mine have eaten them."
"Excuse me, what those old admirals and buccaneers, that set the legendafloat, were so absurd as to call a cabbage, and your shipmates may haveeaten for one, is nothing on earth but the last year's growth of thepalm-tree."
"Palm-tree be ----!" said Welch; and thereupon ensued a hot argument,which Helen's good sense cut short.
"Mr. Hazel," said she, "can you by any possibility get our poor friendthe _thing_ he wants?"
"Oh, _that_ is quite within the bounds of possibility," said Hazel dryly.
"Well, then, suppose you begin by getting him the _thing._ Then I willboil the thing; and he will eat the thing; and after all that it will betime to argue about the _name_ we shall give to the _thing."_
The good sense of this struck Mr. Hazel forcibly. He started off at once,armed with the ax, and a net bag Welch had made since he became unfit forheavy labor. He called back to them as he went, to put the pots on.
Welch and Miss Rolleston complied; and then the sailor showed the ladyhow to sew sailor--wise, driving the large needle with the palm of thehand, guarded by a piece of leather. They had nailed two breadths ofcanvas to the trees on the north and west sides and run the breadthsrapidly together; and the water was boiling and bubbling in the balers,when Miss Rolleston uttered a scream, for Hazel came running over theprostrate palm-tree as if it was a proper bridge, and lighted in themidst of them.
"Lot one," said he cheerfully, and produced from his net some limes, twococoanuts, and a land-turtle; from this last esculent Miss Rollestonwithdrew with undisguised horror, and it was in vain he assured her itwas a great delicacy.
"No matter. It is a reptile. Oh, please send it away."
"The Queen of the Island reprieves you," said he, and put down theterrapin, which went off very leisurely for a reprieved reptile.
Then Hazel produced a fine bream, which he had found struggling in arock-pool, the tide having turned, and three sea crayfish, bigger thanany lobster. He chopped their heads off outside, and threw their tailsinto the pots; he stuck a piece of pointed wood through the bream, andgave it to Welch to toast; but Welch waved it aside.
"I see no cabbage," said he, grimly.
"Oh, I forgot. But that is soon found," said Hazel. "Here, give me thefish, and you take the saw, and examine the head of the palm-tree, whichlies at Miss Rolleston's door. Saw away the succulent part of last year'sgrowth, and bring it here."
Welch got up slowly.
"I'll go with you, Mr. Welch," said Miss Rolleston.
She will not be alone with me for a moment, if she can help it, thoughtHazel, and sat moody by the fire. But he shook off his sadness, andforced on a cheerful look the moment they came back. They brought withthem a vegetable very like the heart of a cabbage, only longer andwhiter.
"There," said Welch, "what d'ye call that?"
"The last year's growth of the palm," said Hazel calmly.
This vegetable was cut in two and put into the pots.
"There, take the toasting-fork again," said Hazel to Welch, and drew outfrom his net three huge scallop shells. "Soup-plates," said he, andwashed them in the running stream, then put them before the fire to dry.
While the fish and vegetable were cooking, he went and cut off some ofthe leafy, piunuated branches of the palm-tree, and fastened themhorizontally above the strips of canvas. Each palm branch traversed awhole side of the bower. This closed the northern and western sides.
On the southern side, the prostrate palm-tree, on striking the ground,had so crushed its boughs and leaves t
ogether as to make a thick wall offoliage.
Then he took to making forks; and primitive ones they were. He selected abough the size of a thick walking-stick; sawed it off the tree; sawed apiece six inches long off it, peeled that, split it in four, and, withhis knife, gave each piece three points, by merely tapering off andserrating one end; and so he made a fork a minute. Then he brought allthe rugs and things from the boat, and the ground being now thoroughlydried by the fire, placed them for seats; gave each person a large leaffor a plate, besides a scallop-shell; and served out supper. It was eatenwith rare appetite; the palm-tree vegetable in particular was delicious,tasting between a cabbage and a cocoanut.
When they had supped, Hazel removed the plates and went to the boat. Hereturned, dragging the foremast and foresail, which were small, andcalled Welch out. They agreed to rig the mainsail tarpaulin-wise andsleep in the boat. Accordingly they made themselves very busy screeningthe east side of Miss Rolleston's new abode with the foresail, andfastened a loop and drove a nail into the tree, and looped the sail toit, then suddenly bade her good-night in cheerful tones, and were gone ina moment, leaving her to her repose, as they imagined. Hazel, inparticular, having used all his ingenuity to secure her personal comfort,was now too bent on showing her the most delicate respect and forbearanceto think of anything else. But, justly counting on the delicacy, he hadforgotten the timidity of her sex, and her first night in the island wasa terribly trying one.
Thrice she opened her mouth to call Welch and Hazel back, but could not.Yet, when their footsteps were out of hearing, she would have given theworld to have them between her and the perils with which she felt herselfsurrounded.
Tigers; snakes; scorpions; savages! what would become of her during thelong night?
She sat and cowered before the hot embers. She listened to what seemedthe angry roar of the sea. What with the stillness of the night and hersharpened senses she heard it all round the island: she seemed environedwith peril, and yet surrounded by desolation. No one at hand to save herin time from a wild beast. No one anywhere near except a sick sailor andone she would almost rather die than call singly to her aid, for he hadonce told her he loved her.
"Oh, papa! Oh, Arthur!" she cried, "are you praying for your poor Helen?"Then she wept and prayed; and half nerved herself to bear the worst.Finally, her vague fears completely overmastered her. Then she hadrecourse to a stratagem that belongs to her sex--she hid herself from thedanger, and the danger from her; she covered herself face and all, and solay trembling, and longing for the day.
At the first streak of dawn she fled from her place of torture, and afterplunging her face and hands in the river, which did her a world of good,she went off and entered the jungle, and searched it closely, so far asshe could penetrate it. Soon she heard "Miss Rolleston" called in anxioustones. But she tossed her little head and revenged herself for her nightof agony by not replying.
However, Nature took her in hand; imperious hunger drew her back to herlate place of torture; and there she found a fire, and Hazel cookingcray-fish. She ate the crayfish heartily, and drank cocoanut milk out ofhalf a cocoanut, which the ingenious Hazel had already sawn, polished andmounted for her.
After that, Hazel's whole day was occupied in stripping a tree that stoodon the high western promontory of the bay, and building up the materialsof a bonfire a few yards from it, that, if any whaler should stray thatway, they might not be at a loss for means to attract her attention.
Welch was very ill all day, and Miss Rolleston nursed him. He got abouttoward evening, and Miss Rolleston asked him, rather timidly, if he couldput her up a bell-rope.
"Why, yes, miss," said Welch, "that is easy enough; but I don't see nobell." Oh, she did not want a bell--she only wanted a bell-rope.
Hazel came up during this conversation, and she then gave her reason.
"Because, then, if Mr. Welch is ill in the night, and wants me, I couldcome to him. Or--" finding herself getting near the real reason shestopped short.
"Or what?" inquired Hazel, eagerly.
She replied to Welch. "When tigers and things come to me, I can let youknow, Mr. Welch, if you have any curiosity about the result of theirvisit."
"Tigers!" said Hazel, in answer to this side slap; "there are no tigershere; no large animals of prey exist in the Pacific."
"What makes you think that?"
"It is notorious. Naturalists are agreed."
"But I am not. I heard noises all night. And little I expected thatanything of me would be left this morning, except, perhaps, my back hair.Mr. Welch, you are clever at rigging things--that is what you callit--and so please rig me a bell-rope, then I shall not be eaten alivewithout creating some _little_ disturbance."
"I'll do it, miss," said Welch, "this very night."
Hazel said nothing, but pondered. Accordingly, that very evening a pieceof stout twine, with a stone at the end of it, hung down from the roof ofHelen's house; and this twine clove the air until it reached a ring uponthe mainmast of the cutter; thence it descended, and was to be made fastto something or somebody. The young lady inquired no further. The verysight of this bell-rope was a great comfort to her; it reunited her tocivilized life. That night she lay down, and quaked considerably less.Yet she woke several times; and an hour before daylight she hearddistinctly a noise that made her flesh creep. It was like the snoring ofsome great animals. This horrible sound was faint and distant; but sheheard it between the roll of the waves, and that showed it was not thesea roaring; she hid herself in her rugs, and cowered till daybreak. Ascore of times she was minded to pull her bell-rope; but always a womanlyfeeling, strong as her love of life, withheld her. "Time to pull thatbell-rope when the danger was present or imminent," she thought toherself. "The thing will come smelling about before it attacks me, andthen I will pull the bell;" and so she passed an hour of agony.
Next morning, at daybreak, Hazel met her just issuing from her hut, andpointing to his net told her he was going to forage; and would she begood enough to make the fire and have boiling water ready? he was sorryto trouble her; but poor Welch was worse this morning. Miss Rolleston cutshort his excuses. "Pray do not take me for a child; of course I willlight the fire, and boil the water. Only I have no lucifer matches."
"Here are two," said he. "I carry the box wrapped in oil-skin. For ifanything happen to _them,_ Heaven help us."
He crossed the prostrate palm-tree, and dived into the wood. It was alarge beautiful wood, and, except at the western edge, the trees were allof the palm-tree genus, but contained several species, including thecocoanut tree. The turf ran under these trees for about forty yards andthen died gradually away under the same thick shade which destroyed allother vegetation in this wood, and made it so easy to see and travel.
He gathered a few cocoanuts that had burst out of their ripe pods andfallen to the ground; and ran on till he reached a belt of trees andshrubs, that bounded the palm forest. Here his progress was no longereasy. But he found trees covered with a small fruit resembling quinces inevery particular of look, taste and smell, and that made him persevere,since it was most important to learn the useful products of the island.Presently he burst through some brushwood into a swampy bottom surroundedby low trees, and instantly a dozen large birds of the osprey kind roseflapping into the air like windmills rising. He was quite startled by thewhirring and flapping, and not a little amazed at the appearance of theplace. Here was a very charnel-house; so thick lay the shells, skeletonsand loose bones of fish. Here too he found three terrapin killed but noteaten, and also some fish, more or less pecked. "Aha! my worthyexecutioners, much obliged," said he. "You have saved me that job." Andinto the bag went the terrapin, and two plump fish, but slightlymutilated. Before he had gone many yards, back came the sailing wings,and the birds settled again before his eyes. The rest of the low wood wasbut thin, and he soon emerged upon the open country; but it was mostunpromising; and fitter for geese than men. A vast sedgy swamp with waterin the middle, thin fringes of great fern-trees, an
d here and there adisconsolate tree like a weeping-willow, and at the end of this lake andswamp, which all together formed a triangle, was a barren hill without ablade of vegetation on it, and a sort of jagged summit Hazel did not atall like the look of. Volcanic!
Somewhat dismayed at finding so large a slice of the island worthless, hereturned through the wood, guiding himself due west by hispocket-compass, and so got down to the shore, where he found scallops andcray-fish in incredible abundance. Literally, he had only to go into thewater and gather them. But "enough" is as good as "a feast." He ran tothe pots with his miscellaneous bag, and was not received according tohis deserts. Miss Rolleston told him, a little severely, the water hadbeen boiling a long time. Then he produced his provender, by way ofexcuse.
"Tortoises again!" said she, and shuddered visibly.
But the quinces and cocoanuts were graciously received. Welch, however,cried out for cabbage.
"What am I to do?" said Hazel. "For every such cabbage a king must die."
"Goodness me!"
"A monarch of the grove."
"Oh, a King Log. Why, then down with them all, of course; sooner thandear Mr. Welch shall go without his cabbage."
He cast a look of admiration on her, which she avoided, and very soon hisax was heard ringing in the wood hard by. Then came a loud crash. Thenanother. Hazel came running with the cabbage and a cocoa-pod. "There,"said he, "and there are a hundred more about. While you cook that forWelch I will store them." Accordingly he returned to the wood with hisnet, and soon came back with five pods in it, each as big as a largepumpkin.
He chucked these one at a time across the river, and then went for more.It took him all the afternoon to get all the pods across the river. Hewas obliged to sit down and rest.
But a suggestion of Helen's soon set him to work again.
"You were kind enough to say you would store these for me. Could you notstore them so as to wall out those terrible beasts with them?"
"What terrible beasts?"
"That roar so all night, and don't eat us, only because they have notfound out we are here yet. But they will."
"I deny their existence," said Hazel. "But I'll wall them out all thesame," said he.
"Pray do," said Helen. "Wall them out first, and disprove them afterward;I shall be better able to believe they don't exist when they are wellwalled out--much."
Hazel went to work, and with her assistance laid cocoa-pods two wide andthree deep, outside the northern and western sides of her leafy bower,and he promised to complete the walls by the same means in two days more.
They all then supped together, and, to oblige him, she ate a little ofthe terrapin, and, when they parted for the night, she thanked him, andsaid, with a deep blush, "You have been a good friend to me--of late."
He colored high, and his eyes sparkled with delight; and she noticed, andalmost wished she had kept her gratitude to herself.
That night, what with her bell-rope and her little bit of a wall, she wassomewhat less timorous, and went to sleep early.
But even in sleep she was watchful, and she was awakened by a slightsound in the neighborhood of the boat.
She lay watching, but did not stir.
Presently she heard a footstep.
With a stifled cry she bounded up, and her first impulse was to rush outof the tent. But she conquered this, and, gliding to the south side ofher bower, she peered through the palm-leaves, and the first thing shesaw was the figure of a man standing between her and the boat.
She drew her breath hard. The outline of the man was somewhat indistinct.But it was not a savage. The man was clothed; and his stature betrayedhim.
He stood still for some time. "He is listening to see if I am awake,"said Helen to herself.
The figure moved toward her bower.
Then all in a moment she became another woman. She did not rely on herbell-rope; she felt it was fast to nothing that could help her. Shelooked round for no weapon; she trusted to herself. She drew herselfhastily up, and folded her arms; her bosom panted, but her cheek neverpaled. Her modesty was alarmed; her blood was up, and life or death werenothing to her.
The footsteps came nearer; they stopped at her door; they went north;they came back south. They kept her in this high-wrought attitude forhalf an hour. Then they retired softly; and, when they were gone, shegave way and fell on her knees and began to cry hysterically. Then shegot calmer, and then she wondered and puzzled herself; but she slept nomore that night.
In the morning she found that the fire was lighted on a sort of shelfclose to the boat. Mr. Hazel had cut the shelf and lighted the fire therefor Welch's sake, who had complained of cold in the night.
While Hazel was gone for the crayfish, Welch asked Helen to go for herprayer-book. She brought it directly, and turned the leaves to find theprayers for the sick. But she was soon undeceived as to his intention.
"Sam had it wrote down how the _Proserpine_ was foundered, and I shouldlike to lie alongside my messmate on that there paper, as well as int'other place" (meaning the grave). "Begin as Sam did, that this is mylast word."
"Oh, I hope not. Oh, Mr. Welch, pray do not leave me!"
"Well, well then, never mind that; but just put down as I heard Sam; andhis dying words, that the parson took down, were the truth."
"I have written that."
"And that the two holes was on her port-side, and seven foot from herstain-post; and _I_ say them very augers that is in our cutter made themholes. Set down that."
"It is down."
"Then I'll put my mark under it; and you are my witness."
Helen, anxious to please him in everything, showed him where to put hismark.
He did so; and she signed her name as his witness.
"And now, Mr. Welch," said she, "do not you fret about the loss of theship; you should rather think how good Providence has been to us insaving us three out of so many that sailed in that poor ship. That Wyliewas a wicked man; but he is drowned, or starved, no doubt, and there isan end of him. You are alive, and we are all three to see Old Englandagain. But to live, you must eat; and so now do pray make a goodbreakfast to-day. Tell me what you can fancy. A cabbage?"
"What, you own it is a cabbage?"
"Of course I do," said Helen, coaxing. "You must excuse Mr. Hazel; theselearned men are so crotchety in some things, and go by books; but you andI go by our senses, and to us a cabbage is a cabbage, grow where it will.Will you have one?"
"No, miss, not this morning. What I wants this morning very bad, indeed,it is--I wants a drink made of the sweet-smelling leaves, like as youstrewed over my messmate--the Lord in heaven bless you for it."
"Oh, Mr. Welch, that is a curious fancy; but you shall not ask me twicefor anything; the jungle is full of them, and I'll fetch you some in fiveminutes. So you must boil the water."
She scudded away to the jungle, and soon returned with some aromaticleaves. While they were infusing, Hazel came up, and, on being informedof Welch's fancy, made no opposition; but, on the contrary, said thatsuch men had sometimes very happy inspirations. He tasted it, however,and said the smell was the best part of it, in his opinion. He then putit aside to cool for the sick man's use.
They ate their usual breakfast, and then Welch sipped his spiced tea, ashe called it. Morning and afternoon he drank copious draughts of it, andseemed to get suddenly better, and told them not to hang about him anylonger; but go to their work: he was all right now.
To humor him they went off in different directions; Hazel with his ax tolevel cocoanut trees, and Helen to search for fruits in the jungle.
She came back in about an hour, very proud of some pods she had foundwith nutmegs inside them. She ran to Welch. He was not in the boat. Shesaw his waistcoat, however, folded and lying on the thwart; so she knewhe could not be far off and concluded he was in her bower. But he was notthere; and she called to Mr. Hazel. He came to the side of the riverladen with cocoanuts.
"Is he with you?" said Helen.
"Who
? Welch? No."
"Well, then, he is not here. Oh, dear! something is the matter."
Hazel came across directly. And they both began to run anxiously to everypart whence they could command a view to any distance.
They could not see him anywhere, and met with blank faces at the bower.
Then Helen made a discovery.
This very day, while hanging about the place, Hazel had torn up from theedge of the river an old trunk, whose roots had been loosened by thewater washing away the earth that held them, and this stump he had set upin her bower for a table, after sawing the roots down into legs. Well, onthe smooth part of this table lay a little pile of money, a ring with alarge pearl in it, and two gold ear-rings Helen had often noticed inWelch's ears.
She pointed at these and turned pale. Then, suddenly waving her hand toHazel to follow her, she darted out of the bower, and, in a moment, shewas at the boat.
There she found, beside his waistcoat, his knife, and a little pile ofmoney, placed carefully on the thwart; and, underneath it, his jacketrolled up, and his shoes and sailor's cap, all put neatly and in order.
Hazel found her looking at them. He began to have vague misgivings. "Whatdoes this mean?" he said faintly.
"'What does it mean!'" cried Helen, in agony. "Don't you see? A legacy!The poor thing has divided his little all. Oh, my heart! What has becomeof him?" Then, with one of those inspirations her sex have, she cried,"Ah! Cooper's grave!"
Hazel, though not so quick as she was, caught her meaning at a word, andflew down the slope to the seashore. The tide was out. A long irregulartrack of footsteps indented the sand. He stopped a moment and looked atthem. They pointed toward that cleft where the grave was. He followedthem all across the sand. They entered the cleft, and did not return.Full of heavy foreboding he rushed into the cleft.
Yes; his arms hanging on each side of the grave, and his cheek laidgently on it, there lay Tom Welch, with a loving smile on his dead face.Only a man; yet faithful as a dog.
Hazel went back slowly, and crying. Of all men living, he could bestappreciate fidelity and mourn its fate.
But, as he drew near Helen, he dried his eyes; for it was his duty tocomfort her.
She had at first endeavored to follow him; but after a few steps herknees smote together, and she was fain to sit down on the grassy slopethat overlooked the sea.
The sun was setting huge and red over that vast and peaceful sea.
She put her hands to her head, and, sick at heart, looked heavily at thatglorious and peaceful sight. Hazel came up to her. She looked at hisface, and that look was enough for her. She rocked herself gently to andfro.
"Yes," said he, in a broken voice. "He was there--quite dead."
He sat gently down by her side, and looked at that setting sun andillimitable ocean, and his heart felt deadly sad. "He is gone--and we arealone--on this island."
The man said this in one sense only. But the woman heard it in more thanone.
ALONE!
She glanced timidly round at him, and, without rising, edged a littleaway from him, and wept in silence.