CHAPTER LXV.
WHEN the _Springbok_ weighed anchor and left the island, a solitary formwas seen on Telegraph Hill.
When she passed eastward, out of sight of that point, a solitary figurewas seen on the cliffs.
When her course brought the island dead astern of her, a solitary figurestood on the east bluff of the island, and was the last object seen fromthe boat as she left those waters forever.
What words can tell the sickening sorrow and utter desolation thatpossessed that yearning bosom!
When the boat that had carried Helen away was out of sight, he came backwith uneven steps to the cave, and looked at all the familiar objectswith stony eyes, and scarce recognized them, for the sunshine of herpresence was there no more. He wandered to and fro in a heavy stupor,broken every now and then by sharp pangs of agony that almost made himscream. And so the poor bereaved creature wandered about all day. Hecould not eat, he could not sleep, his misery was more than he couldbear. One day of desolation succeeded another. And what men say sohastily was true for once. "His life was a burden." He dragged it aboutwith him he scarce knew how.
He began to hate all the things he had loved while she was there. Thebeautiful cave, all glorious with pearl, that he had made for her, hecould not enter it, the sight killed him, and she not there.
He left Paradise Bay altogether at last and anchored his boat in a nookof Seal Bay. And there he slept in general. But sometimes he would liedown, wherever he happened to be, and sleep as long as he could.
To him to wake was a calamity. And when he did wake, it was always with adire sense of reviving misery, and a deep sigh at the dark day he knewawaited him.
His flesh wasted on his bones, and his clothes hung loosely about him.The sorrow of the mind reduced him almost to that miserable condition inwhich he had landed on the island.
The dog and the seal were faithful to him; used to lie beside him, andoften whimpered; their minds, accustomed to communicate without the aidof speech, found out, Heaven knows how! that he was in grief or insickness.
These two creatures, perhaps, saved his life or his reason. They camebetween his bereaved heart and utter solitude.
Thus passed a month of wretchedness unspeakable.
Then his grief took a less sullen form.
He came back to Paradise Bay, and at sight of it burst into a passion ofweeping.
These were his first tears, and inaugurated a grief more tender thanever, but less akin to madness and despair.
Now he used to go about and cry her name aloud, passionately, by nightand day.
"Oh, Helen! Helen!"
And next his mind changed in one respect, and he clung to everyreminiscence of her. Every morning he went round her haunts, and kissedevery place where he had seen her put her hand.
Only the cave he could not yet face.
He tried, too. He went to the mouth of it again and again, and looked in;but go into it and face it, empty of her--he could not.
He prayed often.
One night he saw her in a dream.
She bent a look of angelic pity on him, and said but these words, "Livein my cave," then vanished.
Alone on an island in the vast Pacific, who can escape superstition? Itfills the air. He took this communication as a command, and the nextnight he slept in the cave.
But he entered it in the dark, and left it before dawn.
By degrees, however, he plucked up courage and faced it in daylight. Butit was a sad trial. He came out crying bitterly after a few minutes.
Still he persevered, because her image had bade him; and at last, oneevening, he even lighted the lamp, and sat there looking at the gloriouswalls and roof his hapless love had made.
Getting stronger by degrees, he searched about, and found little relicsof her--a glove, a needle, a great hat she had made out of some largeleaves. All these he wept over and cherished.
But one day he found at the very back of the cave a relic that made himstart as if a viper had stung his loving heart. It was a letter.
He knew it in a moment. It had already caused him many a pang; but now italmost drove him mad. Arthur Wardlaw's letter.
He recoiled from it, and let it lie. He went out of the cave, and cursedhis hard fate. But he came back. It was one of those horrible things aman abhors, yet cannot keep away from. He took it up and dashed it downwith rage many times; but it all ended in his lighting the lamp at night,and torturing himself with every word of that loving letter.
And she was going home to the writer of that letter, and he was leftprisoner on the island. He cursed his generous folly, and writhed inagony at the thought. He raged with jealousy, so that his very grief wasblunted for a time.
He felt as if he must go mad.
Then he prayed--prayed fervently. And at last, worn out with such fierceand contending emotions, he fell into a deep sleep, and did not wake tillthe sun was high in heaven.
He woke; and the first thing he saw was the fatal letter lying at hisfeet in a narrow stream of sunshine that came peering in.
He eyed it with horror. This, then, was then to haunt him by night andday.
He eyed it and eyed it. Then turned his face from it; but could not helpeying it again.
And at last certain words in this letter seemed to him to bear anaffinity to another piece of writing that had also caused him a greatwoe. Memory by its subtle links connected these two enemies of histogether. He eyed it still more keenly, and that impression becamestrengthened. He took the letter and looked at it close, and held it atarm's length and devoured it; and the effect of this keen examination wasvery remarkable. It seemed to restore the man to energy and to somethinglike hope. His eyes sparkled, and a triumphant "Ah!" burst from hisbosom.
He became once more a man of action. He rose, and bathed, and walkedrapidly to and fro upon the sands, working himself up to a daringenterprise. He took his saw into the jungle, and cut down a tree of akind common enough there. It was wonderfully soft, and almost as light ascork. The wood of this was literally useless for any other purpose thanthat to which Penfold destined it. He cut a great many blocks of thiswood, and drilled holes in them, and, having hundreds of yard of goodline, attached these quasi corks to the gunwale, so as to make alife-boat. This work took him several days, during which time an eventoccurred that encouraged him.
One morning he saw about a million birds very busy in the bay, and itproved to be a spermaceti whale come ashore.
He went out to her directly with all his tools, for he wanted oil for hisenterprise, and the seal oil was exhausted.
When he got near the whale in his boat, he observed a harpoon sticking inthe animal's back. He cut steps with his ax in the slippery carcass, andgot up to it as well as he could, extracted it by cutting and pulling,and threw it down into his boat, but not till he had taken the precautionto stick a great piece of blubber on the barbed point. He then sawed andhacked under difficulties, being buffeted and bothered with thousands ofbirds, so eager for slices that it was as much as he could do to avoidthe making of minced fowl; but, true to his gentle creed, he contrived toget three hundred-weight of blubber without downright killing any ofthese greedy competitors, though he buffeted some of them, and nearlyknocked out what little sense they had.
He came ashore with his blubber and harpoon, and when he came to examinethe latter, he found that the name of the owner was cut deeply in thesteel-- Josh. Fullalove, J. Fernandez. This inscription had a greateffect on Robert Penfold's mind. It seemed to bring the island of JuanFernandez, and humanity in general, nearer to him.
He boiled down the blubber, and put a barrel of oil on board hislife-boat. He had a ship's lantern to burn it in. He also pitched herbottom as far as he could get at it, and provisioned her for a longvoyage: taking care to lash the water-cask and beef-cask to thefore-thwart and foremast, in case of rough weather.
When he had done all this, it occurred to him suddenly that, should heever escape the winds and waves, and get to England, he would then haveto en
counter difficulties and dangers of another class, and lose thebattle by his poverty.
"I play my stake now," said he. "I will throw no chance away."
He reflected, with great bitterness, on the misery that want of money hadalready brought on him; and he vowed to reach England rich, or go to thebottom of the Pacific.
This may seem a strange vow for a man to make on an unknown island; butRobert Penfold had a powerful understanding, sharpened by adversity, andhis judgment told him truly that he possessed wealth on this island, bothdirectly and indirectly. In the first place, knowledge is sometimeswealth, and the knowledge of this island was a thing he could sell to theAmerican merchants on the coast of Chili; and, with this view, he put onboard his boat specimens of the cassia and other woods, fruit, spices,pitch, guano, pink and red coral, pearl oysters, shells, cochineal,quartz, cotton, etc., etc.
Then he took his chisel, and struck all the larger pearls off the shellsthat lined Helen's cave. The walls and roof yielded nine enormous pearls,thirty large ones, and a great many of the usual size.
He made a pocket inside his waistcoat to hold the pearls safe.
Then he took his spade and dug into the Spanish ship for treasure. Butthis was terrible work. The sand returned upon the spade and trebled hislabor.
The condition to which time and long submersion had reduced this ship andcargo was truly remarkable. Nothing to be seen of the deck but a thinbrown streak that mingled with the sand in patches; of the timbersnothing but the uprights, and of those the larger half eaten anddissolved.
He dug five days, and found nothing solid.
On the sixth, being now at the bottom the ship, he struck his spadeagainst something hard and heavy.
On inspection it looked like ore, but of what metal he could not tell; itwas as black as a coal. He threw this on one side, and found nothingmore; but the next day he turned up a smaller fragment, which he tookhome and cleaned with lime juice. It came out bright in places likesilver.
This discovery threw light on the other. The piece of black ore, weighingabout seven pounds, was in reality silver coin, that a century ofsubmersion had reduced to the very appearance it wore before it ever wentinto the furnace.
He dug with fresh energy on this discovery, but found nothing more in theship that day.
Then it occurred to him to carry off a few hundred-weight of pink coral.
He got some fine specimens; and, while he was at that work, he fell inwith a piece that looked very solid at the root and unnaturally heavy. Ona nearer examination this proved to be a foreign substance incrusted withcoral. It had twined and twisted and curled over the thing in a mostunheard-of way. Robert took it home, and, by rubbing here and there withlemon juice, at last satisfied himself that this object was a silver boxabout the size of an octavo volume.
It had no keyhole, had evidently been soldered up for greater security,and Robert was left to conjecture how it had come there.
He connected it at once with the ship, and felt assured that some attempthad been made to save it. There it had lain by the side of the vessel allthese years, but, falling clear of the sand, had been embraced by thegrowing coral, and was now a curiosity, if not a treasure.
He would not break the coral, but put it on board his life-boat just asit was.
And now he dug no more. He thought he could sell the galleon as well asthe island, by sample, and he was impatient to be gone.
He reproached himself, a little unjustly, for allowing a woman toundertake the task of clearing him.
"To what annoyances, and perhaps affronts, have I exposed her!" said he."No, it is a man's business to defend, not to be defended."
To conclude: At high tide one fine afternoon he went on board with Ponto,and, hoisting his foresail only, crossed the bay, ranging along theisland till he reached the bluff. He got under this, and, by means of hiscompass and previous observations, set the boat's head exactly on theline the ducks used to take. Then he set his mainsail too, and stretchedboldly out across the great Pacific Ocean.
Time seems to wear out everything, even bad luck. It ran strong againstRobert Penfold for years. But, when it had struck its worst blow, andparted him and Helen Rolleston, it relaxed, and a tide of good luck setin, which, unfortunately, the broken-hearted man could not appreciate atthe time. However, so it was. He wanted oil; and a whale came ashore. Hewanted treasure, and the sea gave him a little back of all it hadswallowed; and now he wanted fine weather; and the ocean for days andnights was like peach-colored glass, dimpled here and there; and softwesterly airs fanned him along by night and day.
To be sure, he was on the true Pacific Ocean, at a period when it isreally free from storms. Still, even for that latitude, he had wonderfulweather for six days; and on the seventh he fell in with a schooner, theskipper and crew of which looked over the bulwarks at him with wonder andcordiality, and, casting out a rope astern, took him in tow.
The skipper had been eying him with amazement for some hours through histelescope; but he was a man that had seen a great many strange things,and it was also a point of honor with him never to allow that he wasastonished, or taken by surprise, or greatly moved.
"Wal, stranger," said he, "what craft is that?"
"The _Helen."_
"Where d'ye hail from? not that I am curious."
"From an unknown island."
"Do tell. What, another! Is it anyways nigh?"
"Not within seven hundred miles."
"Je--rusalem! Have you sailed all that in a cockle-shell?"
"Yes."
"Why, what are ye? the Wandering Jew afloat, or the Ancient Mariner? oronly a kinder nautilus?"
"I'm a landsman."
"A landsman! then so is Neptune. What is your name when you are ashore?"
"Robert Penfold. The Reverend Robert Penfold."
"The Reverend-- Je--rusalem!"
"May I ask what is your name, sir?"
"Wal, I reckon you may, stranger. I'm Joshua Fullalove from the States,at present located on the island of Juan Fernandez!"
"Joshua Fullalove! That is lucky. I've got something that belongs toyou."
He looked about and found the harpoon, and handed it up in a mightystraightforward, simple way.
Joshua stared at him incredulously at first, but afterward withamazement. He handled the harpoon, and inquired where Robert had fallenin with it. Robert told him.
"You're an honest man," said Fullalove, "you air. Come aboard." He wasthen pleased to congratulate himself on his strange luck in havingdrifted across an honest man in the middle of the ocean. "I've heerd,"said he, "of an old chap as groped about all his life with a lantern, andcouldn't find one. Let's liquor."
He had some celestial mixture or other made, including rum, mint, andsnow from the Andes, and then began his interrogatories, againdisclaiming curiosity at set intervals.
"Whither bound, honest man?"
"The coast of Chili."
"What for?"
"Trade."
"D'ye buy or sell? Not that it is my business."
"I wish to sell."
"What's the merchandise?"
"Knowledge, and treasure."
Fullalove scratched his head. "Hain't ye got a few conundrums to swap forgold dust as well?"
Robert smiled faintly. The first time this six weeks.
"I have to sell the knowledge of an island with rich products; and I haveto sell the contents of a Spanish treasure-ship that I found buried inthe sand of that island."
The Yankee's eyes glistened.
"Wal," said he, "I do business in islands myself. I've leased this JuanFernandez. But one of them is enough at a time. I'm monarch of all Isurvey. But then what I survey is a mixallaneous bilin' of Irish andOtaheitans, that it's pizen to be monarch of. And now them darned Irishhas taken to converting the heathens to superstition and the worship ofimages, and breaks their heads if they won't. And the heathens are allsmiles and sweetness and immorality. No, islands is no bait to me."
"I never ask
ed you," said Robert. "What I do ask you is to land me atValparaiso. There I'll find a purchaser, and will pay you handsomely foryour kindness."
"That is fair," said Fullalove, dryly. "What will you pay me?"
"I'll show you," said Robert. He took out of his, pocket the smallerconglomeration of Spanish coin, and put it into Fullalove's hand. "That,"said he, "is silver coin I dug out of the galleon."
Fullalove inspected it keenly, and trembled slightly. Robert then wentlightly over the taffrail, and slid down the low rope into his boat. Heheld up the black mass we have described.
"This is solid silver. I will give it you, and my best thanks, to land meat Valparaiso."
"Heave it aboard," said the Yankee.
Robert steadied himself and hove it on board. The Yankee caught it, heavyas it was, and subjected it to some chemical test directly.
"Wal," said he, "that is a bargain. I'll land ye at Valparaiso for this.Jack, lay her head S.S.E. and by E."
Having given this order, he leaned over the taffrail and asked for moresamples. Robert showed him the fruits, woods, and shells, and the pinkcoral, and bade him observe that the boat was ballasted with pearloysters. He threw him up one, and a bunch of pink coral. He then shinnedup the rope again, and the interrogatories recommenced. But this time hewas questioned closely as to who he was, and how he came on the island?and the questions were so shrewd and penetrating that his fortitude gaveway, and he cried out in anguish, "Man, man! do not torture me so. Oh, donot make me talk of my grief and my wrongs! they are more than I canbear."
Fullalove forbore directly, and offered him a cigar. He took it, and itsoothed him a little; it was long since he had smoked one. His agitationsubsided, and a quiet tear or two rolled down his haggard cheek.
The Yankee saw, and kept silence.
But, when the cigar was nearly smoked out, he said he was afraid Robertwould not find a customer for his island, and what a pity JoshuaFullalove was cool on islands just now.
"Oh!" said Robert, "I know there are enterprising Americans on the coastwho will give me money for what I have to sell."
Fullalove was silent a minute, then he got a piece of wood and a knife,and said with an air of resignation, "I reckon we'll have to deal."
Need we say that to deal had been his eager desire from the first?
He now began to whittle a peg, and awaited the attack.
"What will you give me, sir?"
"What, money down? And you got nothing to sell but chances. Why, there'san old cuss about that knows where the island is as well as you do."
"Then of course you will treat with him," said Robert, sadly.
"Darned if I do," said the Yankee. "You are in trouble, and he is not,nor never will be till he dies, and then he'll get it hot, I calc'late.He is a thief and stole my harpoon: you are an honest man and brought itback. I reckon I'll deal with you and not with that old cuss; not by ajugful! But it must be on a percentage. You tell me the bearings of thatthere island, and I'll work it and pay five per cent on the gross."
"Would you mind throwing that piece of wood into the sea, Mr. Fullalove?"said Robert.
"Caen't be done, nohow. I caen't deal without whittlin'."
"You mean you can't take an unfair advantage without it. Come, Mr.Fullalove, let us cut this short. I am, as you say, an honest and mostunfortunate man. Sir, I was falsely accused of a crime and banished mycountry. I can prove my innocence now if I can but get home with a greatdeal of money. So much for _me._ You are a member of the vainest and mostgenerous nation in the world."
"Wal, now that's kinder honey and vinegar mixed," said Fullalove; "prettygood for a Britisher, though."
"You are a man of that nation which in all the agonies and unparalleledexpenses of civil war, smarting, too, under anonymous taunts fromEngland, did yet send over a large sum to relieve the distresses ofcertain poor Englishmen who were indirect victims of that same calamity.The act, the time, the misery relieved, the taunts overlooked, prove yournation superior to all others in generosity. At least my reading, whichis very large, affords no parallel to it, either in ancient or modernhistory. Mr. Fullalove, please to recollect that you are a member of thatnation, and that I am very unhappy and helpless, and want money to undocruel wrongs, but have no heart to chaffer much. Take the island and thetreasures, and give me half the profits you make. Is not that fair?"
Fullalove wore a rueful countenance.
"Darn the critter," said he, "he'll take skin off my bones if I don'tmind. Fust Britisher ever I met as had the sense to see _that._ 'Twasrather handsome, warn't it? Wal, human nature is deep; every man youtackle in business larns ye something. What with picking ye out o' thesea, and you giving me back the harpoon the cuss stole, and your facelike a young calf, when you are the 'cutest fox out, and you giving thegreat United States their due, I'm no more fit to deal than mashedpotatoes. Now I cave; it is only for once. Next time don't you try topalaver me. Draw me a map of our island, Britisher, and mark where theSpaniard lies. I tell _you_ I know her name, and the year she was lostin; learned that at Lima one day. Kinder startled me, you did, when youshowed me the coin out of her. Wal, there's my hand on haelf profits,and, if I'm keen, I'm squar'."
Soon after this he led Robert to his cabin, and Robert drew a large mapfrom his models; and Fullalove, being himself an excellent draughtsman,and provided with proper instruments, aided him to finish it.
Next day they sighted Valparaiso, and hove to outside the port.
All the specimens of insular wealth were put on board the schooner andsecreted; for Fullalove's first move was to get a lease of the islandfrom the Chilian government, and it was no part of his plan to trumpetthe article he was going to buy.
After a moment's hesitation, he declined to take the seven pounds ofsilver. He gave as a reason that, having made a bargain which compelledhim to go to Valparaiso at once, he did not feel like charging hispartner a fancy price for towing his boat thither. At the same time hehinted that, after all this, the next customer would find him a verydifficult Yankee to get the better of.
With this understanding, he gave Robert a draft for eighty pounds onaccount of profits; and this enabled him to take a passage for Englandwith all his belongings.
He arrived at Southampton very soon after the events last related, andthence went to London, fully alive to the danger of his position.
He had a friend in his long beard, but he dared not rely on that alone.Like a mole, he worked at night.