CHAPTER FOUR.
A FOG--WRECKED--A CONSULTATION--SURVEY OF THE SHORE--A STRANGESPECTACLE--THE FIRST NIGHT ON SHORE.
It was early morning. Lavie and Warley were sitting at the helmconversing anxiously, but in subdued tones, unwilling to break theslumbers of their two companions, who were lying asleep at their feet,with Lion curled up beside them. It was now sixteen days since they hadleft the ship; and so far as they could ascertain, Table Bay was stillseven or eight hundred miles distant. They had been unfortunate intheir weather. For the first few days indeed the wind had beenfavourable, and they had made rapid progress. But on the fifth morningthere had come a change. The wind lulled, and for eight and forty hoursthere fell a dead calm. This was followed by a succession of lightbaffling breezes, during the prevalence of which they could hardly makeany way. On the twelfth day the wind was again fair; but theirprovisions, and especially their supply of water, had now run so low,that there was little hope of its holding out, even if no further_contretemps_ should occur. Under these circumstances, they had thoughtit better to steer for the nearest point of the African coast. Theywere now too far to the southward to run any great risk of falling inwith the pirates, and at whatever point they might make the land, therewould be a reasonable prospect of obtaining fresh supplies. The courseof the boat had accordingly been altered, and for the last three daysthey had been sailing due east.
According to the doctor's calculations they were not more than sixty orseventy miles from shore, when the sun set on the previous evening; andas they had been running steadily before the wind all night, he fullyexpected to catch sight of it as soon as the morning dawned. But thesky was thick and cloudy, and there was a mist over the sea, renderingobjects at the distance of a few hundred yards quite undistinguishable.
"We cannot be far from shore," said the doctor. "My observations, Idare say, are not very accurate; but I think I cannot be more thantwenty or thirty miles wrong, and according to me we ought to havesighted land, or rather have been near enough to sight it, three or fourhours ago."
"I think I can hear the noise of breakers," said Warley, "I have fanciedso for the last ten minutes. But there is such a fog, that it isimpossible to make out anything."
"You are right," said Mr Lavie, setting himself to listen. "That isthe beating of surf; we must be close to the shore, but it will bedangerous to approach until we can see it more clearly. We must goabout."
Ernest obeyed; but the alarm had been taken too late. Almost at thesame moment that he turned the rudder, the boat struck upon a reef,though not with any great force. Lavie sprang out and succeeded inpushing her off into deep water again, but the blow had damaged herbottom, and the water began to come in.
"Bale her out," shouted Lavie to Frank and Nick as he sprang on boardagain. "I can see the land now. It's not a quarter of a mile off, andshe'll keep afloat for that distance. Take the other oar, Ernest; whilethey bale we must row for that point yonder."
The fog had partially cleared away, and a low sandy shore became hereand there visible, running out into a long projecting spit on their lefthand. This was the spot which Lavie had resolved to make for. It wasnot more than two or three hundred yards distant, and there was noappearance of surf near it. They rowed with all their strength, theother two baling with their hats, in lieu of any more suitable vessels.But the water continued to gain on them, nevertheless, though slowly,and they had approached within thirty yards of the beach, when shestruck a second time on a sunk rock, and began to fill rapidly. Theyall simultaneously leaped out into four-foot water, and by their unitedstrength contrived to drag the boat on until her keel rested on thesand. Lavie then seized the longest rope, and running up the low,shelving shore, secured the end to a huge mass of drift-wood which layjust above high-water mark. Fortunately the tide was now upon the turn,so that in three-quarters of an hour or so she would be left high anddry on the beach.
The first impulse of all four was to fall on their knees and returnthanks for their deliverance, even the thoughtless Nick being, for thetime, deeply impressed by his narrow escape from death. Then theylooked about them. The fog had now almost disappeared, and a longmonotonous line of sand hills presented itself in the foreground.Behind this appeared a dreary stretch of sand, unenlivened by tree,grass, or shrub, for two or three miles at least, when it terminated ina range of hills, covered apparently with scrub. Immediately beyond thenarrow strip of beach lay a lagoon, extending inland for about a mile.This was evidently connected with the sea at high-water; for a greatmany fish had been left stranded in the mud, where they were obliged toremain, until the return of the tide again set them at liberty.Presently a low growl from Lion startled them, and they noticed ananimal creeping up round a neighbouring sand hill, which on nearerapproach they perceived to be a hyena. It was followed by severalothers of the same kind, which forthwith began devouring the strandedfish, while the latter flapped their tails in vain attempts to escapefrom the approach of their enemy. Availing themselves of the hint thusoffered them, the boys, who had not yet breakfasted, pulled off theirshoes and stockings, and followed by Lion, waded into the mud. Thehyenas skulked off as they approached, and they soon possessedthemselves of several large eels and barbel Mr Lavie, whose appetitealso reminded him that he had eaten nothing that morning, gathered aheap of dry weed and drift-wood, and drawing out his burning-glass, soonset them ablaze. Frank undertook to clean and broil the fish, which wassoon afterwards served up, and pronounced excellent.
By the time they had finished their meal, all the water had run out ofthe boat, and the sand was sufficiently dry to enable them to conveytheir stores on shore. Having completed this, and covered them withtarpaulin to prevent damage from the broiling sun, their next task wasto turn her over and examine her bottom. It took the united strength ofthe four to accomplish this; but it had no sooner been done, than itbecame evident that it would be useless to bestow further trouble uponher. The first concussion had merely loosened her timbers, but thesecond had broken a large hole in the bottom; which it was beyond theirpowers of carpentry to repair, even had they possessed all the necessarytools.
"Thank God she didn't strike on that sharp rock the first time,"exclaimed Lavie, as he saw the fracture; "we should not be standinghere, if she had."
"Why, we can all swim, Mr Lavie, and it was not more than a quarter ofa mile from land," observed Gilbert, surprised.
The doctor made no reply, but he pointed out to sea where the black finsof more than one shark were visible above the surface.
Nick shuddered and turned pale, and all present again offered an inwardthanksgiving.
"Well," resumed Frank, after a few moments' silence, "what is to bedone, then? I suppose it is pretty certain that she will never floatagain."
"Well, not certain, Frank," suggested Warley. "There may be somefishermen--settlers, or natives--living about here, and they of coursewould have boats, and would therefore be able to repair ours. The bestthing will be to make search in all directions, and see if we candiscover anywhere a fisherman's hut."
"I am afraid there's not much chance of that, Ernest," said Wilmore."If there were any fishermen about here, we should see their boats, orany way their nets, not to say their cottages; for they would betolerably sure to live somewhere near the beach."
"The boats might be out to sea, and the nets on board them," suggestedGilbert, "and the huts may be anywhere--hidden behind those hillocks ofsand, perhaps."
"So they may, Nick," observed Mr Lavie, "though I fear there is no verygreat chance of it. It is worth trying for, at all events. Look here,one of us had better go along the shore to the right, and another to theleft, until they get to the end of the bay. From thence they will, inall likelihood, be able to see a long way along the coast, and if novillages or single dwellings are visible, it will be of no use makingfurther search for them. It will take several hours to reach the end tothe left there, and that to the right is probably about as far off; butit is still so h
idden by the fog that, at this distance, it can't bemade out."
"And what are the other two to do?" asked Frank.
"They had better stay here and make preparations for supper and passingthe night," said Mr Lavie. "It is still tolerably early, but whoevergoes out to explore won't be back till late in the afternoon, and willbe too tired, I guess, to be willing to set out on a fresh expeditionthen. Besides, the night falls so rapidly in these latitudes that itwouldn't be safe. Now, I have some skill in hut making, and I think youhad better leave that part of the job to me."
"By all means, Charles," said Warley; "and Frank here showed himselfsuch a capital cook this morning, that I suppose he'll want to undertakethat office again. Well, I'm quite ready. I should like to take theleft side of the bay, Nick, if you've no objection."
"It's all the same to me," said Nick; "anything for a quiet life--and itseems quiet enough out there anyway. Well, then, I suppose we hadbetter be off at once, as I don't want to have to walk very fast. Ishould like to have Lion, but I suppose he wouldn't follow me."
"No, he's safe to stay with Frank, but you two had better take your gunswith you," said Mr Lavie. "I don't suppose you are likely to meet anywild animals on these sand flats--nothing worse than a hyena, at anyrate."
"Thank you kindly, Mr Lavie, I don't particularly want to meet even ahyena," said Nick.
"Pooh, Nick, he wouldn't attack you, if he did meet you. But you maywant our help for some reason or other, which we can't foresee, and weshall be sure to hear you, if you fire. Here, Nick, you shall have myrifle for the nonce. It is an old favourite of mine, and has seen manya day's sport. And here's Captain Renton's rifle for you, Ernest. Bygood luck he had asked me to take care of it, so it was safe in my cabinthe day we got away. I've never seen it perform; but if it is only onehalf as good an article as he declares, you'll have no cause to complainof it."
"How was it that the captain didn't take it with him?" asked Gilbert.
"Because they wouldn't let him," said the surgeon. "He asked to beallowed to fetch it, and looked as savage as he dared to look, when theyswore they'd allow no firearms to be taken."
"I don't wonder at their not permitting it," observed Wilmore.
"Nor I, Frank. The wonder to me has always been that they let theofficers and passengers go at all. But it seems that such of our men asagreed to join these Congo pirates would not do so, except on theexpress condition that the lives of all on board were to be spared; andthe pirates daren't cross them. But we mustn't dawdle here talking.There's plenty to be done by all of us, and more than we can do, too."
Warley and Nick accordingly set off in opposite directions, and Lavieand Frank began their work. They first took an axe from their stores,and choosing from among the drift-wood three of the longest spars,resolved to fix two of them in the ground, and lash the third to theirupper ends. They selected for this purpose a hollow between two highsand hills, about a hundred yards above high-water mark. Then they wereto cut six more poles, and lay them on either side against the ridgepiece, burying the other ends in the sand. Over this frame-work thetarpaulin was to be stretched, and kept in its place by laying someheavy pieces of wood on the lower ends. Thus a small tent would beformed, at the bottom of which the boat's sail was to be spread, forminga convenient place on which to lay their stores, and make up their beds.
Plainly it would occupy a considerable time to complete thesearrangements, but they had not advanced half-way, when Nick camehurrying back in a state of the greatest excitement, declaring that hehad seen, at a short distance, the roofs of what was evidently a town ofconsiderable size; and on a flat piece of ground adjoining it, a numberof men--soldiers they seemed to be--in red and white uniforms, drawn outin long lines, as if on parade.
"A large town, Nick! soldiers in uniform!" repeated Wilmore in greatastonishment. "You must be dreaming."
"I assure you I am not," replied Gilbert, whose demeanour showed that hewas thoroughly in earnest. "I could see, quite distinctly above thefog, the towers of a church, apparently, and a long row of battlements,evidently part of a line of fortifications; and, through openings in themist, the red caps and jackets of the soldiers were as plain as anythingI ever beheld in my life."
"But it can't be, doctor, can it?" asked Frank. "I am sure I should beglad enough to think we were near any inhabited spot, let alone a largecity. But you're pretty certain of our whereabouts, ain't you?"
"Yes; I don't think I can be mistaken very much, and I must be out ofall reckoning wrong, if this is true. There is no town, that I know of,on this coast, between the Portuguese settlements, which are somethinglike eight hundred miles to the north of where I suppose we now are, andCape Town, which is almost as far to the south."
"Well, just come and look for yourself, doctor," said Nick. "It won'ttake you long. The place is not above two or three miles off at theoutside."
"Of course I will go--we'll all go, Nick--Lion and all I am sure I hopewith all my heart that you may be right. It will save us a very longand dangerous journey if you are."
He caught up a fowling-piece which had belonged to his friend thepurser, and handed Frank the fourth gun, an ordinary seaman's carbine."Now then, Nick, lead the way."
Gilbert complied, and the whole party stepped out briskly, theircuriosity, as well as their interest, being strongly awakened. Theytoiled through the heavy sand, which was only varied by heaps ofdrift-wood flung up by the sea, and the rotten carcasses of mud fish,which had been carried too far inland by the tide to be able to recovertheir native element. The stench, under the burning sun, was almostinsupportable, and the three adventurers were greatly relieved, when,after a walk of three-quarters of an hour, the desert of sand waspassed, and they ascended a rocky plateau, where some crags, twelve orfifteen feet in height, afforded at least some shelter from the rapidlyincreasing heat. "We are getting near the place now," observed Nick, asthey reached the last of a long chain of rocks, and came upon a wide andapparently level plain, but so much enveloped in mist as to be veryimperfectly discerned.
"There it is, I declare," exclaimed Frank, who was the first of theparty to turn the corner of the limestone shelf. "There it all is--houses, fortifications, and soldiers, just as Nick said!"
There, indeed, it was. At the distance, as it seemed, of scarcely morethan three hundred feet, were seen distinctly the battlemented walls ofa city of great size and strength. There were the gateways, theflanking towers, and the embrasures; while behind them rose domes andcupolas, and the sharp-peaked roofs of numberless houses, intermingledwith lofty trees. Under the walls ran a broad river, the waters ofwhich rippled brightly in the sunshine, and upon its banks long lines ofinfantry were drawn up, or what appeared to be infantry, all standingsilent and motionless as so many statues.
The two boys gazed in the utmost bewilderment at this spectacle, whileLion bounded forward, evidently meditating a plunge into the cool andsparkling waters. The astonishment of the party was in no waydiminished, when the doctor, raising his gun to his shoulder, fireddirectly at the nearest platoon of soldiers, one of whom was seen tofall. The next moment the whole of his companions rose with loudscreams into the air, and dispersed themselves in all directions.Almost at the same moment the walls and battlements of the fortress andridges of roof behind them wavered and shook, and finally vanished fromthe scene, as the smoke of a wood fire is lost in the surroundingatmosphere. In their place appeared a low serrated ridge of rock, onwhich a few stunted shrubs were growing, while in front and behind alikeextended the interminable waste of sand.
"Here is your soldier, Nick," said the doctor, as he picked up thecarcass of a large flamingo, which his shot had brought down. "Here'shis red cap and jacket--his beak and wings, that is to say--and here arehis white facings--his neck and chest. You are not the first by a goodmany that has made that mistake!"
"This is what is called a mirage, then?" said Frank. "I've often heardof it, and longed to see it; and it is a more extraordina
ry delusionthan I could have supposed possible. Why that low line of rock there,and those dwarf shrubs looked as if they were at least sixty feet high.How in the world do you account for it, Mr Lavie? Why even Lion wastaken in!"
"I am afraid I cannot give you an explanation, which you will understandvery clearly, Frank. It is caused by the inequality of the temperaturein the lower strata of the air; which again is the result of thereflected heat of the sun's rays on the barren, sandy plain. While thestrata are unequally heated, these curious reflections, which are likethose seen in broken mirrors, continue to deceive the eye. Objectsappear to be raised high into the air, which in reality are to be foundon the surface of the earth, often too they are immensely magnified, asindeed you saw just now; a single stone will seem the size of a house,and an insignificant shrub look as big as a forest tree. But when thesun gains sufficient power to raise all the strata to a uniform heat,the mirage melts away."
"But your shot seemed to disperse it just now."
"So it did. But my shot only disturbed the strata; and if the miragehad not been nearly on the point of vanishing, from the increasing solarheat, I doubt whether the same effect would have followed. But it istime for us to go back to our hut and finish our work. Nick, I supposeyou will join us? We may see pretty plainly for ourselves that thereare no fishermen's huts in this quarter."
Nick assented, and the three, after a short rest under the shade of therocks, returned to the spot whence they had set out, and resumed theirwork. By two o'clock the two uprights were fixed in the sand, and intwo hours afterwards the tent was complete. All the stores were thencarefully conveyed inside, the keg of gunpowder being buried in the sandto prevent the possibility of accident. Then the two lads set aboutpreparations for supper, which was to consist, like that of the morning,of fish broiled on the embers.
"And a very good supper too," observed Nick; "I don't think I ever ate afiner fish than this cod here."
"It's first-rate, there's no doubt of that," returned Frank; "but I mustown I should like something besides. I suppose your flamingo therewouldn't be very good eating?"
"I expect not," replied Lavie. "The flamingo is too gross a feeder tomake very good food itself. One might eat it, I dare say, if there wasnothing else to be had. I have eaten lion steaks once in my life, but Ihave no ambition to repeat the experiment. No, I don't propose to makeany further use of my flamingo than to cut off one of his beautiful redwings to make a fan of, and hand the rest of the bird over to Lion.What a splendid-looking bird he was; it really seems almost a shame tokill him!"
They all gathered round to admire him. The colours in which nature haddressed him, showed that he was one of her favourite children. The longthin legs--they were two feet and some inches in length--were of themost delicate shade of pink, and shaped with wonderful grace. The shortthigh, chest, and neck were covered with down, the softest and whitestthat can be imagined. But the great beauty of the creature lay in itswings, in which the brilliant scarlet and pure white hues wereintermingled with wonderful delicacy and grace, both colours beingbordered and thrown out by the deep black of the under feathers.
"I wish I could stuff that specimen," said the doctor, as hecontemplated the dead bird. "It would be the making of a collection.It can't stand less than four foot four, or perhaps four foot six high.However, I'm afraid it's rather out of place to be thinking ofcollections. It will be a good job," he muttered to himself, "if we arenot put into a collection ourselves by some Hottentot or Damara chiefBut it won't do to hint that to the boys."
He seated himself on one of the casks in the shelter of the tent, andappeared to be watching the preparations for supper, lost, in reality,in a reverie of mingled pain and pleasure. He was roused at last by theinformation that Warley was returning; and presently the youth himselfappeared on the scene, throwing down, to Frank's great satisfaction, abrace of wild ducks which he had been fortunate enough to shoot. Hisreport, however, was not encouraging. He had reached the extremity ofthe bay, and had ascended an eminence, perhaps two or three hundred feethigh; but nothing was to be discerned from it but long wastes of mingledrock and sand, varied here and there by thickets of euphorbia, ormonotonous scrub. In the distance indeed were lofty mountains; but itwas impossible to say, in that transparent atmosphere, how distant theymight be. As regards the more immediate object of his expedition--thediscovery of some trace of man--it had been an entire failure.
While Warley was delivering his report to the doctor, the other two werebusied in plucking and roasting the ducks. Presently it was announcedthat all was ready, and the four sat down to their repast with anappetite sharpened by a long day of exertion. It was no sooner overthan fatigue began to assert itself in place of hunger. It was agreedthat the fire should be kept up all night, and that each should watchfor two hours by it. It was now nearly nine o'clock, and the last watchwould thus bring them to five in the morning, when it would be desirablethat all four should be awakened to the heavy day's work, which (as noneof them doubted) lay before them.