CHAPTER FOUR.
HOPES AND FEARS AND STERN RESOLVES LEAD TO VIGOROUS ACTION.
For several days the sailor lay tossing in helpless misery in his bower,without food or fire. Indeed he could not have eaten even if food hadbeen offered him, and as to fire, there was heat enough in his veins,poor fellow! to more than counterbalance the want of that.
During part of the time he became delirious, and raved about home andsea-life and old companions in a way that evidently quite alarmed Cuffy,for that sagacious terrier approached his master with caution, with histail between his legs, and a pitiful, earnest gaze, that was quitetouching. This was partly owing to the fact that Jarwin had severaltimes patted him with such painful violence as to astonish and renderhim doubtful of the affection displayed by such caresses. Jarwin alsorecurred at these times to his tobacco and beer, and apparently suffereda good deal from dreams about those luxuries. In his ravings he oftentold Cuffy to fill a pipe for him, and advised him to look sharp aboutit, and he frequently reproached some of his old comrades for notpassing the beer. Fortunately the fountain was close at hand, and heoften slaked his burning thirst at it. He also thought frequently ofthe skeleton in the thicket, and sometimes raved with an expression ofhorror about being left to die alone on a desert island.
By degrees the fever reached its climax, and then left him almost dead.For a whole day and night he lay so absolutely helpless that it cost himan effort to open his eyes, and he looked so ill that the poor dog beganto whine piteously over him, but the day after that a sensation ofhunger induced him to make an effort to rouse up. He tried to raise hishead--it felt as if made of lead.
"Hallo! Cuffy, somethin' wrong I suspect!"
It was the first time for many days that Jarwin had spoken in hisnatural tones. The effect on the dog was instantaneous and powerful.It sprang up, and wagged its expressive tail with something of theenergy of former times; licked the sick man's face and hands; whined andbarked intelligently; ran away in little bursts, as if it had resolvedto undertake a journey off-hand, but came back in a few seconds, and inmany other ways indicated its intense delight at finding that Jarwin was"himself again."
But alas! Jarwin was not quite himself yet, and Cuffy, after his firstebullition, sat looking in surprise at the invalid, as he strove to turnon his side, and reach out his heavy hand and skinny arm towards a fewscraps of the last meal he had cooked before being struck down. Cuffy,after eating the portion of that meal that suited his taste, had leftthe remnants there as being unworthy of notice, and catered for himselfamong the dead fish cast up on the beach. Although lying within a yardof his couch, Jarwin had the greatest difficulty in reaching the food;and when he did at length succeed in grasping it, he fell back on hiscouch, and lay for a long time as if dead. Soon, however, he recovered,and, with a feeling of gratitude such as he had never beforeexperienced, began to gnaw the hard morsels.
"I'm in a bad way, Cuff," he said, after satisfying the first cravingsof hunger.
Cuffy gave a responsive wag with his tail, and cocked his ears for more.
"Hows'ever, seems to me that I've got the turn; let's be thankful for_that_, my doggie. Wonder how long I've bin ill. Months mayhap. Don'tthink I could have come to be sitch a skeleton in a short time. Ha!that minds me o' the skeleton in the wood. Have 'ee seed it, Cuff,since I found 'ee there? Well, I must eat and drink too, if I wouldkeep the skin on _my_ skeleton. Wish you had hands, doggie, for I'mgreatly in need o' help just now. But you're a comfort, anyhow, eventhough you hain't got no hands. I should have died without you, mydoggie--you cheer me up, d'ee see, and when it's nigh low water with aman, it don't take much to make him slip his cable. The want of a kindlook at this here time, Cuffy, would have sent me adrift, I do believe."
It must not be supposed that all this was spoken fluently. It cameslowly, by fits and starts, with a long pause at the end of eachsentence, and with many a sigh between, expressive of extreme weakness.
"I wish I had a drink, Cuffy," said the invalid after a long pause,turning a longing look towards the spring, which welled up pleasantlyclose to the opening of the hut. "Ay, that's all very well in its way,but bow-wowin' an' waggin' yer tail won't fetch me a can o' water.Hows'ever, it's o' no manner o' use wishin'. `Never say die.' Heregoes."
So saying, he began slowly and painfully, but with unyieldingperseverance, to push, and draw, and hitch himself, while lying at fulllength, towards the spring, which he reached at last so exhausted, thathe had barely put his lips to it and swallowed a mouthful, when his headdropped, and he almost fainted. He was within an ace of being drowned,but with a violent effort he drew his face out of the spring, and laythere in a half unconscious condition for some time, with the clear coolwater playing about his temples. Reviving in a little time, he tookanother sip, and then crawled back to his couch. Immediately he fellinto a profound slumber, from which Cuffy strove in vain to awaken him;therefore, like a sagacious dog, he lay down at his master's side andjoined him in repose.
From that hour Jarwin began to mend rapidly. In a few days he was ableto walk about with the aid of a stick. In a few weeks he felt somewhatlike his former self, and soon after that, he was able to ascend to thetop of the island, and resume his watch for a passing sail. But thefirst few hours of his watch beside the old flagstaff convinced him thathis hopes would, in all probability, be doomed to disappointment, andthat he would soon fall back into a state of apathy, from which he mightperhaps be unable to rouse himself, in which case his fate wouldcertainly be that of the poor sailor whose remains he had that dayburied in the pit near to which they had been discovered. He resolved,therefore, to give up watching altogether, and to devote all hisenergies in future to devising some plan of escape from the island, butwhen he bent his mind to this task he felt a deep sinking of the heart,for he had no implements wherewith to construct a boat or canoe.
Suddenly it occurred to him, for the first time in his life, that heought, in this extremity, to pray to God for help. He was, as we havesaid, a straightforward man, prompt to act as well as ready to conceive.He fell on his knees at once, humbly confessed his sin in depending soentirely on himself in time past, and earnestly asked help and guidancefor the future. His prayer was not long--neither was the publican's--but it was effectual. He arose with feelings of strong resolution andconfidence, which appeared to himself quite unaccountable, for he hadnot, as yet, conceived any new idea or method as to escaping from theisland. Instead of setting his mind to work, as he had intended, hecould not help dwelling on the fact that he had never beforedeliberately asked help from his Maker, and this raised a train ofself-condemnatory thoughts which occupied him the remainder of that day.At night he prayed again before laying down to rest.
Next morning he rose like a giant refreshed, and, after a plunge in thesea and a hearty breakfast, set out with Cuffy for a meditative walk.
Great were the thoughts that swelled the seaman's broad chest duringthat walk, and numerous, as well as wild and quaint, were the plans ofescape which he conceived and found it necessary to abandon.
"It's harder work to think it out than I had expected, Cuffy," he said,sitting down on a cliff that overlooked the sea, and thinking aloud."If you and I could only swim twenty miles or so at a stretch, I'd riskit; but, as nothin' short o' that would be likely to be of sarvice, wemust give it up. Then, if I could only cut down trees with my shoe, andsaw planks with my jacket, we might make a boat; but I can't do that,and we haven't no nails--except our toe-nails, which ain't the rightshape or strong enough; so we must give that up too. It's true that wemight burn a canoe out of a solid tree, but who's to cut down the solidtree for us, doggie? I'm sure if the waggin' of a tail could do it youwouldn't be long about it! Why on earth can't 'ee keep it still for abit? Well, then, as we can't swim or fly, and haven't a boat or canoe,or the means o' makin' em, what's the next thing to be done?"
Apparently neither man nor dog could return an answer to that question,for they both sat for
a very long time in profound silence, staring atthe sea.
After some time Jarwin suddenly exclaimed, "I'll do it!"
Cuffy, startled by the energy with which it was said, jumped up andsaid, "That's right!"--or something very like it--with his eyes.
"Yes, Cuffy, I'll make a raft, and you and I shall get on it, some day,with a fair wind, and make for the island that we think we've seen sooften on the horizon."
He alluded here to a faint blue line which, on unusually fine and cleardays, he had distinguished on the horizon to the southward, and which,from its always appearing on the same spot, he believed to be land ofsome sort, although it looked nothing more than a low-lying cloud.
"So that's settled," continued Jarwin, getting up and walking smartlyback to his hut with the air of a man who has a purpose in view. "Weshall make use of the old raft, as far as it'll go. Luckily the sail isleft, as you and I know, Cuff, for it has been our blanket for many aday, and when all's ready we shall go huntin', you and I, till we've gottogether a stock of provisions, and then--up anchor and away! We canonly be drownded once, you know, and it's better that than stopping hereto die o' the blues. What think 'ee o' that, my doggie?"
Whatever the doggie thought of the idea, there can be no question whathe thought of the cheery vigorous tones of his master's voice, for hegambolled wildly round, barked with vociferous delight, and wagged his"spanker boom" to such an extent that Jarwin warned him to have a carelest it should be carried away, an' go slap overboard.
In pursuance of the designs thus expressed, the sailor began theconstruction of a raft without delay, and worked at it diligently theremainder of that day. He found, on examination, that a considerableportion of the old raft yet remained stranded on the beach, though allthe smaller spars of which it had been composed had been used forfirewood. With great difficulty he rolled these logs one by one intothe sea, and, getting astride of each, pushed them by means of a poletowards a point of rocks, or natural jetty, alongside of which the waterwas deep. Here he fastened them together by means of a piece of rope--one of the old fastenings which remained to him, the others having beenused in the construction of the hut. The raft thus formed was, however,much too small to weather a gale or float in a rough sea. In whateverway he placed the spars the structure was too narrow for safety.Seeing, therefore, that it was absolutely necessary to obtain more logs,he set brain and hands to work without delay.
Many years before, he had seen an ancient stone hatchet in a museum, thehead of which was fastened to the haft by means of a powerful thong ofuntanned hide. He resolved to make a hatchet of this sort. Long did hesearch the beach for a suitable stone, but in vain. At last he foundone pretty nearly the proper shape, which he chipped and ground into therude form of an axe. It had no eye for the handle. To have made a holein it would have weakened the stone too much. He therefore cut a groovein the side of the handle, placed the head of the stone into it, andcompleted the fastening by tying it firmly with the tough fibrous rootsof a tree. It was strongly and neatly made, though clumsy inappearance, but, do what he would, he could not put a sufficiently fineedge on it, and although it chipped pretty well when applied to theoutside of a tree, it made very slow progress indeed as the cutdeepened, and the work became so toilsome at last that he almost gave itup in despair. Suddenly it occurred to him that fire might be made useof to facilitate the work. Selecting a tall cocoanut-tree, he piled drywood all round the foot of it. Before setting it on fire he dipped aquantity of cocoanut fibre in the sea and tied a thick belt of thisround the tree just above the pile, so as to protect the upper parts ofthe spar from the flames as much and as long as possible. This done, hekindled the pile. A steady breeze fanned the flame into an intensefire, which ere long dried up the belt of fibre and finally consumed it.The fire was pretty well burnt out by that time, however, so that theupper part of the stem had been effectually preserved. Removing theashes, he was rejoiced to find that the foot of the tree had been sodeeply burned that several inches of it were reduced to charcoal, whichhis stone hatchet readily cut away, and the operation was so successfulthat it only required a second fire to enable him to fell the tree.
This done, he measured it off in lengths. Under each point ofmeasurement he piled up dry wood--which consisted merely of brokenbranches--with belts of wet fibre on each side of these piles. Then,applying a light to the fires he reduced the parts to charcoal asbefore, and completed the work with the hatchet. Thus, in the course ofa single day, he felled a tall tree and cut it up into six lengths,which he rolled down to the sea and floated off to the end of the jetty.
Next day Jarwin rose with the sun, and began to make twine of twistedcocoanut fibre--of which there was great abundance to be had everywhere.When a sufficient quantity had been made he plaited the twine intocords, and the cords into stout ropes, which, although not so neat asregular ropes, were, nevertheless, sufficiently pliable and very strong.Several days were spent over this somewhat tedious process; and we maymention here, that in all these operations the busy seaman was greatlyassisted by his dog, who stuck close to him all the time, encouraginghim with looks and wags of approbation.
After the ropes were made, the raft was put together and firmly lashed.There was a mast and yard in the centre of it, and also a hollow, formedby the omission of a log, which was just large enough to permit of theman and his dog lying down. This hollow, slight though it was,afterwards proved of the utmost service.
It is needless to recount all the details of the building andprovisioning of this raft. Suffice it to say that, about three weeksafter the idea of it had been conceived, it was completed and ready forsea.
During his residence on the island, although it had only extended over afew months, Jarwin had become very expert in the use of a sharp-pointedpole, or javelin, with which he had become quite an adept in spearingfish. He had also become such a dead-shot with a stone that when hemanaged to get within thirty yards of a bird, he was almost certain tohit it. Thus he was enabled to procure fish and fowl as much as herequired and as the woods abounded with cocoa-nuts, plums, and otherwild fruits, besides many edible roots, he had no lack of good fare.Now that he was about to "go to sea," he bethought him of drying some ofthe fruits as well as curing some fish and birds. This he did bydegrees, while engaged on the raft, so that when all was ready he had astore of provisions sufficient to last him several weeks. In order tostow all this he removed another log from the middle of the raft, and,having deposited the food in the hollow--carefully wrapped in cocoanutleaves and made into compact bundles--he covered it over by laying alayer of large leaves above it and lashing a small spar on the top ofthem to keep them down. The cask with which he had landed from theoriginal raft, and which he had preserved with great care, not knowinghow soon he might be in circumstances to require it, served to holdfresh water.
On a fine morning about sunrise, Jarwin embarked with his little dog andbade farewell to the coral island, and although he had not dwelt verylong there, he felt, to his own surprise, much regret at quitting it.
A fresh breeze was blowing in the direction of the island--or thesupposed island--he wished to reach. This was important, because, insuch a craft, it was impossible to sail in any way except before thewind. Still, by means of a rude oar or paddle, he could modify itsdirection so as to steer clear of the passage through the reef and getout to sea.
Once outside, he squared the sail and ran right before the breeze. Ofcourse such a weighty craft went very slowly through the water, but thewind was pretty strong, and to Jarwin, who had been for a comparativelylong time unaccustomed to moving on the water, the speed seemed fastenough. As the island went astern, and the raft lifted and fell gentlyon the long swell of the ocean, the seaman's heart beat with a peculiarjoy to which it had long been a stranger, and he thanked God ferventlyfor having so soon answered his prayer.
For a long time he sat reclining in the hollow of the raft, resting hishand lightly on the steering oar and gazing in silence at the
graduallyfading woods of his late home. The dog, as if it were aware that agreat change was being effected in their destiny, lay also perfectlystill--and apparently contemplative--at his master's feet; resting hischin on a log and gazing at the receding land. It was evident, however,that _his_ thoughts were not absent or wandering, for, on the slightestmotion made by his master, his dark eyes turned towards him, his earsslightly rose, and his tail gave the faintest possible indication of anintention to wag.
"Well, Cuffy," said Jarwin at last, rousing himself with a sigh, "wotare 'ee thinking of?"
The dog instantly rose, made affectionate demonstrations, and whined.
"Ah, you may well say that, Cuff," replied the man; "I know you ain'teasy in yer mind, and there's some reason in that, too, for we're off ona raither uncertain viage, in a somewhat unseaworthy craft. Howsever,cheer up, doggie. Whoever turns up, you and I shall sink or swimtogether."
Just then the sail flapped.
"Hallo! Cuff," exclaimed Jarwin, with a look of anxiety, "the wind'sgoing to shift."
This was true. The wind did shift, and in a few minutes had veered somuch round that the raft was carried away from the blue line on thehorizon, which Jarwin had so fondly hoped would turn out to be aninhabited island. It blew lightly, however, and when the sun went down,had completely died away. In these circumstances Jarwin and his dogsupped together, and then lay down to rest, full of sanguine hope.
They were awakened during the night by a violent squall, which, however,did no further damage than wash a little spray over them, for Jarwin hadtaken the precaution to lower and make fast the sail. He now turned hisattention to preparing the raft for rough weather. This consisted insimply drawing over the hollow--in which he, his dog, and his provisionslay--a piece of canvas that he had cut off the sail, which wasunnecessarily large. It served as a tarpaulin, and effectually shieldedthem from ordinary sprays, but when the breeze freshened to a gale, andgreen seas swept over the _raft_, it leaked so badly, that Jarwin'scabin became a salt-water bath, and his provisions by degrees weresoaked.
At first he did not mind this much, for the air and water weresufficiently warm, but after being wet for several hours he began feelchilled. As for poor Cuffy, his trembling body bore testimony to thestate of his feelings; nevertheless he did not complain, being a dog ofhigh spirit and endurance. In these circumstances the seaman hailed therising sun with great joy, even although it rose in the midst of luridmurky clouds, and very soon hid its face altogether behind them, as ifit had made up its mind that the state of things below was so bad as tobe not worth shining upon.
All that day and night the gale continued, and they were driven beforeit. The waves rushed so continuously and furiously over the raft, thatit was with the utmost difficulty Jarwin could retain his position onit. Indeed it would have been impossible for him to have done so, if hehad not taken the precaution of making the hollow in the centre, intowhich he could crouch, and thus avoid the full force of the seas. Nextday the wind abated a little, but the sea still rolled "mountains high."In order to break their force a little, he ventured to show a littlecorner of the sail. Small though it was, it almost carried away theslender mast, and drove the raft along at a wonderfully rapid rate.
At last the gale went down, and, finally, it became a dead calm, leavingthe raft like a cork heaving on the mighty swell of the Pacific Ocean.Weary and worn--almost dead with watching and exposure--John Jarwin laydown and slept, but his slumber was uneasy and unrefreshing. Sunriseawoke him, and he sat up with a feeling of deep thankfulness, as hebasked once more in its warm rays and observed that the sky above himwas bright blue. But other feelings mingled with these when he gazedround on the wide waste of water, which still heaved its swelling thoughnow unruffled breast, as if panting after its recent burst of fury.
"Ho! Cuffy--what's that? Not a sail, eh?" exclaimed Jarwin, suddenlystarting up, while his languid eyes kindled with excitement.
He was right. After a long, earnest, anxious gaze, he came to theconclusion that it _was_ a sail which shone, white and conspicuous, likea speck or a snow-flake on the horizon.