XII
The Making of the Great Bow
The fourth night upon the island was the first to pass without incident.It is true that a light showed from the hulk out in the weed; but nowthat we had made some acquaintance with her inmates, it was no longer acause for excitement, so much as contemplation. As for the valley wherethe vile things had made an end of Job, it was very silent and desolateunder the moonlight; for I made a point to go and view it during my timeon watch; yet, for all that it lay empty, it was very eerie, and a placeto conjure up uncomfortable thoughts, so that I spent no great timepondering it.
This was the second night on which we had been free from the terror ofthe devil-things, and it seemed to me that the great fire had put them infear of us and driven them away; but of the truth or error of this idea,I was to learn later.
Now it must be admitted that, apart from a short look into the valley,and occasional starings at the light out in the weed, I gave littleattention to aught but my plans for the great bow, and to such use did Iput my time, that when I was relieved, I had each particular and detailworked out, so that I knew very well just what to set the men doing sosoon as we should make a start in the morning.
Presently, when the morning had come, and we had made an end ofbreakfast, we turned-to upon the great bow, the bo'sun directing the menunder my supervision. Now, the first matter to which I bent attention,was the raising, to the top of the hill, of the remaining half of thatportion of the topmast which the bo'sun had split in twain to procure thebatten for the boat. To this end, we went down, all of us, to the beachwhere lay the wreckage, and, getting about the portion which I intendedto use, carried it to the foot of the hill; then we sent a man to the topto let down the rope by which we had moored the boat to the sea anchor,and when we had bent this on securely to the piece of timber, we returnedto the hill-top, and tailed on to the rope, and so, presently, after muchweariful pulling, had it up.
The next thing I desired was that the split face of the timber should berubbed straight, and this the bo'sun understood to do, and whilst he wasabout it, I went with some of the men to the grove of reeds, and here,with great care, I made a selection of some of the finest, these beingfor the bow, and after that I cut some which were very clean andstraight, intending them for the great arrows. With these we returnedonce more to the camp, and there I set-to and trimmed them of theirleaves, keeping these latter, for I had a use for them. Then I took adozen reeds and cut them each to a length of twenty-five feet, andafterwards notched them for the strings. In the meanwhile, I had senttwo men down to the wreckage of the masts to cut away a couple of thehempen shrouds and bring them to the camp, and they, appearing aboutthis time, I set to work to unlay the shrouds, so that they might getout the fine white yarns which lay beneath the outer covering of tarand blacking. These, when they had come at them, we found to be verygood and sound, and this being so, I bid them make three-yarn sennit;meaning it for the strings of the bows. Now, it will be observed that Ihave said bows, and this I will explain. It had been my originalintention to make one great bow, lashing a dozen of the reeds togetherfor the purpose; but this, upon pondering it, I conceived to be but apoor plan; for there would be much life and power lost in the renderingof each piece through the lashings, when the bow was released. Toobviate this, and further, to compass the bending of the bow, the whichhad, at first, been a source of puzzlement to me as to how it was to beaccomplished, I had determined to make twelve separate bows, and these Iintended to fasten at the end of the stock one above the other, so thatthey were all in one plane vertically, and because of this conception, Ishould be able to bend the bows one at a time, and slip each string overthe catch-notch, and afterwards frap the twelve strings together in themiddle part so that they would be but one string to the butt of thearrow. All this, I explained to the bo'sun, who, indeed, had beenexercised in his own mind as to how we should be able to bend such a bowas I intended to make, and he was mightily pleased with my method ofevading this difficulty, and also one other, which, else, had beengreater than the bending, and that was the _stringing_ of the bow, whichwould have proved a very awkward work.
Presently, the bo'sun called out to me that he had got the surface of thestock sufficiently smooth and nice; and at that I went over to him; fornow I wished him to burn a slight groove down the center, running fromend to end, and this I desired to be done very exactly; for upon itdepended much of the true flight of the arrow. Then I went back to my ownwork; for I had not yet finished notching the bows. Presently, when Ihad made an end of this, I called for a length of the sennit, and, withthe aid of another man, contrived to string one of the bows. This, when Ihad finished, I found to be very springy, and so stiff to bend that I hadall that I could manage to do so, and at this I felt very satisfied.
Presently, it occurred to me that I should do well to set some of the mento work upon the line which the arrow was to carry; for I had determinedthat this should be made also from the white hemp yarns, and, for thesake of lightness, I conceived that one thickness of yarn would besufficient; but so that it might compass enough of strength, I bid themsplit the yarns and lay the two halves up together, and in this mannerthey made me a very light and sound line; though it must not be supposedthat it was finished at once; for I needed over half a mile of it, andthus it was later finished than the bow itself.
Having now gotten all things in train, I set me down to work upon one ofthe arrows; for I was anxious to see what sort of a fist I should make ofthem, knowing how much would depend upon the balance and truth of themissile. In the end, I made a very fair one, feathering it with its ownleaves, and truing and smoothing it with my knife; after which I inserteda small bolt in the forrard end, to act as a head, and, as I conceived,give it balance; though whether I was right in this latter, I am unableto say. Yet, before I had finished my arrow, the bo'sun had made thegroove, and called me over to him, that I might admire it, the which Idid; for it was done with a wonderful neatness.
Now I have been so busy with my description of how we made the great bow,that I have omitted to tell of the flight of time, and how we had eatenour dinner this long while since, and how that the people in the hulk hadwaved to us, and we had returned their signals, and then written upon alength of the canvas the one word, "WAIT." And, besides all this, somehad gathered our fuel for the coming night.
And so, presently, the evening came upon us; but we ceased not to work;for the bo'sun bade the men to light a second great fire, beside ourformer one, and by the light of this we worked another long spell;though it seemed short enough, by reason of the interest of the work.Yet, at last, the bo'sun bade us to stop and make supper, which we did,and after that, he set the watches, and the rest of us turned in; for wewere very weary.
In spite of my previous weariness, when the man whom I relieved called meto take my watch, I felt very fresh and wide awake, and spent a greatpart of the time, as on the preceding night, in studying over my plansfor completing the great bow, and it was then that I decided finally inwhat manner I would secure the bows athwart the end of the stock; foruntil then I had been in some little doubt, being divided between severalmethods. Now, however, I concluded to make twelve grooves across the sawnend of the stock, and fit the middles of the bows into these, one abovethe other, as I have already mentioned; and then to lash them at eachside to bolts driven into the sides of the stock. And with this idea Iwas very well pleased; for it promised to make them secure, and thiswithout any great amount of work.
Now, though I spent much of my watch in thinking over the details of myprodigious weapon, yet it must not be supposed that I neglected toperform my duty as watchman; for I walked continually about the top ofthe hill, keeping my cut-and-thrust ready for any sudden emergency. Yetmy time passed off quietly enough; though it is true that I witnessed onething which brought me a short spell of disquiet thought. It was in thiswise:--I had come to that part of the hill-top which overhung the valley,and it came to me, abruptly, to go near to the edge and look over. Thus,t
he moon being very bright, and the desolation of the valley reasonablyclear to the eye, it appeared to me, as I looked that I saw a movementamong certain of the fungi which had not burnt, but stood up shriveledand blackened in the valley. Yet by no means could I be sure that it wasnot a sudden fancy, born of the eeriness of that desolate looking vale;the more so as I was like to be deceived because of the uncertainty whichthe light of the moon gives. Yet, to prove my doubts, I went back until Ihad found a piece of rock easy to throw, and this, taking a short run, Icast into the valley, aiming at the spot where it had seemed to me thatthere had been a movement. Immediately upon this, I caught a glimpse ofsome moving thing, and then, more to my right, something else stirred,and at this, I looked towards it; but could discover nothing. Then,looking back at the clump at which I had aimed my missile, I saw that theslime covered pool, which lay near, was all a-quiver, or so it seemed.Yet the next instant I was just as full of doubt; for, even as I watchedit, I perceived that it was quite still. And after that, for some time, Ikept a very strict gaze into the valley; yet could nowhere discover aughtto prove my suspicions, and, at last, I ceased from watching it; for Ifeared to grow fanciful, and so wandered to that part of the hill whichoverlooked the weed.
Presently, when I had been relieved, I returned to sleep, and so till themorning. Then, when we had made each of us a hasty breakfast--for allwere grown mightily keen to see the great bow completed--we set-to uponit, each at our appointed task. Thus, the bo'sun and I made it our workto make the twelve grooves athwart the flat end of the stock, into whichI proposed to fit and lash the bows, and this we accomplished by means ofthe iron futtock-shroud, which we heated in its middle part, and then,each taking an end (protecting our hands with canvas), we went one oneach side and applied the iron until at length we had the grooves burntout very nicely and accurately. This work occupied us all the morning;for the grooves had to be deeply burnt; and in the meantime the men hadcompleted near enough sennit for the stringing of the bows; yet those whowere at work on the line which the arrow was to carry, had scarce mademore than half, so that I called off one man from the sennit to turn-to,and give them a hand with the making of the line.
When dinner was ended, the bo'sun and I set-to about fitting the bowsinto their places, which we did, and lashed them to twenty-four bolts,twelve a side, driven into the timber of the stock, about twelve inchesin from the end. After this, we bent and strung the bows, taking verygreat care to have each bent exactly as the one below it; for we startedat the bottom. And so, before sunset, we had that part of our work ended.
Now, because the two fires which we had lit on the previous night hadexhausted our fuel, the bo'sun deemed it prudent to cease work, and godown all of us to bring up a fresh supply of the dry seaweed and somebundles of the reeds. This we did, making an end of our journeyings justas the dusk came over the island. Then, having made a second fire, as onthe preceding night, we had first our supper, and after that anotherspell of work, all the men turning to upon the line which the arrow wasto carry, whilst the bo'sun and I set-to, each of us, upon the making ofa fresh arrow; for I had realized that we should have to make one or twoflights before we could hope to find our range and make true our aim.
Later, maybe about nine of the night, the bo'sun bade us all to put awayour work, and then he set the watches, after which the rest of us wentinto the tent to sleep; for the strength of the wind made the shelter avery pleasant thing.
That night, when it came my turn to watch, I minded me to take a lookinto the valley; but though I watched at intervals through the half of anhour, I saw nothing to lead me to imagine that I had indeed seen aught onthe previous night, and so I felt more confident in my mind that weshould be troubled no further by the devil-things which had destroyedpoor Job. Yet I must record one thing which I saw during my watch; thoughthis was from the edge of the hilltop which overlooked theweed-continent, and was not in the valley, but in the stretch of clearwater which lay between the island and the weed. As I saw it, it seemedto me that a number of great fish were swimming across from the island,diagonally towards the great continent of weed: they were swimming in onewake, and keeping a very regular line; but not breaking the water afterthe manner of porpoises or black fish. Yet, though I have mentioned this,it must not be supposed that I saw any very strange thing in such asight, and indeed, I thought nothing more of it than to wonder what sortof fish they might be; for, as I saw them indistinctly in the moonlight,they made a queer appearance, seeming each of them to be possessed of twotails, and further, I could have thought I perceived a flicker as oftentacles just beneath the surface; but of this I was by no means sure.
Upon the following morning, having hurried our breakfast, each of usset-to again upon our tasks; for we were in hopes to have the great bowat work before dinner. Soon, the bo'sun had finished his arrow, and minewas completed very shortly after, so that there lacked nothing now tothe completion of our work, save the finishing of the line, and thegetting of the bow into position. This latter, assisted by the men, weproceeded now to effect, making a level bed of rocks near the edge ofthe hill which overlooked the weed. Upon this we placed the great bow,and then, having sent the men back to their work at the line, weproceeded to the aiming of the huge weapon. Now, when we had gotten theinstrument pointed, as we conceived, straight over the hulk, the whichwe accomplished by squinting along the groove which the bo'sun had burntdown the center of the stock, we turned-to upon the arranging of thenotch and trigger, the notch being to hold the strings when the weaponwas set, and the trigger--a board bolted on loosely at the side justbelow the notch--to push them upwards out of this place when we desiredto discharge the bow. This part of the work took up no great portion ofour time, and soon we had all ready for our first flight. Then wecommenced to set the bows, bending the bottom one first, and then thoseabove in turn, until all were set; and, after that, we laid the arrowvery carefully in the groove. Then I took two pieces of spun yarn andfrapped the strings together at each end of the notch, and by this meansI was assured that all the strings would act in unison when striking thebutt of the arrow. And so we had all things ready for the discharge;whereupon, I placed my foot upon the trigger, and, bidding the bo'sunwatch carefully the flight of the arrow, pushed downwards. The nextinstant, with a mighty twang, and a quiver that made the great stockstir on its bed of rocks, the bow sprang to its lesser tension, hurlingthe arrow outwards and upwards in a vast arc. Now, it may be conceivedwith what mortal interest we watched its flight, and so in a minutediscovered that we had aimed too much to the right, for the arrow struckthe weed ahead of the hulk--but _beyond_ it. At that, I was filled nearto bursting with pride and joy, and the men who had come forward towitness the trial, shouted to acclaim my success, whilst the bo'sunclapped me twice upon the shoulder to signify his regard, and shouted asloud as any.
And now it seemed to me that we had but to get the true aim, and therescue of those in the hulk would be but a matter of another day or two;for, having once gotten a line to the hulk, we should haul across a thinrope by its means, and with this a thicker one; after which we should setthis up so taut as possible, and then bring the people in the hulk to theisland by means of a seat and block which we should haul to and fro alongthe supporting line.
Now, having realized that the bow would indeed carry so far as the wreck,we made haste to try our second arrow, and at the same time we bade themen go back to their work upon the line; for we should have need of it ina very little while. Presently, having pointed the bow more to the left,I took the frappings off the strings, so that we could bend the bowssingly, and after that we set the great weapon again. Then, seeing thatthe arrow was straight in the groove, I replaced the frappings, andimmediately discharged it. This time, to my very great pleasure andpride, the arrow went with a wonderful straightness towards the ship,and, clearing the superstructure, passed out of our sight as it fellbehind it. At this, I was all impatience to try to get the line to thehulk before we made our dinner; but the men had not yet laid-upsuffic
ient; there being then only four hundred and fifty fathoms (whichthe bo'sun measured off by stretching it along his arms and across hischest). This being so, we went to dinner, and made very great hastethrough it; and, after that, every one of us worked at the line, and soin about an hour we had sufficient; for I had estimated that it would notbe wise to make the attempt with a less length than five hundred fathoms.
Having now completed a sufficiency of the line, the bo'sun set one of themen to flake it down very carefully upon the rock beside the bow, whilsthe himself tested it at all such parts as he thought in any way doubtful,and so, presently, all was ready. Then I bent it on to the arrow, and,having set the bow whilst the men were flaking down the line, I wasprepared immediately to discharge the weapon.
Now, all the morning, a man upon the hulk had observed us through aspy-glass, from a position that brought his head just above the edge ofthe superstructure, and, being aware of our intentions--having watchedthe previous flights--he understood the bo'sun, when he beckoned to him,that we had made ready for a third shot, and so, with an answering waveof his spy-glass, he disappeared from our sight. At that, having firstturned to see that all were clear of the line, I pressed down thetrigger, my heart beating very fast and thick, and so in a moment thearrow was sped. But now, doubtless because of the weight of the line, itmade nowhere near so good a flight as on the previous occasion, the arrowstriking the weed some two hundred yards short of the hulk, and at this,I could near have wept with vexation and disappointment.
Immediately upon the failure of my shot, the bo'sun called to the men tohaul in the line very carefully, so that it should not be parted throughthe arrow catching in the weed; then he came over to me, and proposedthat we should set-to at once to make a heavier arrow, suggesting that ithad been lack of weight in the missile which had caused it to fall short.At that, I felt once more hopeful, and turned-to at once to prepare a newarrow; the bo'sun doing likewise; though in his case he intended to makea lighter one than that which had failed; for, as he put it, though theheavier one fell short, yet might the lighter succeed, and if neither,then we could only suppose that the bow lacked power to carry the line,and in that case, we should have to try some other method.
Now, in about two hours, I had made my arrow, the bo'sun having finishedhis a little earlier, and so (the men having hauled in all the line andflaked it down ready) we prepared to make another attempt to cast itover the hulk. Yet, a second time we failed, and by so much that itseemed hopeless to think of success; but, for all that it appeareduseless, the bo'sun insisted on making a last try with the light arrow,and, presently, when we had gotten the line ready again, we loosed uponthe wreck; but in this case so lamentable was our failure, that I criedout to the bo'sun to set the useless thing upon the fire and burn it;for I was sorely irked by its failure, and could scarce abide to speakcivilly of it.
Now the bo'sun, perceiving how I felt, sung out that we would ceasetroubling about the hulk for the present, and go down all of us to gatherreeds and weed for the fire; for it was drawing nigh to evening. And thiswe did, though all in a disconsolate condition of mind; for we had seemedso near to success, and now it appeared to be further than ever from us.And so, in a while, having brought up a sufficiency of fuel, the bo'sunsent two of the men down to one of the ledges which overhung the sea, andbade them see whether they could not secure a fish for our supper. Then,taking our places about the fire, we fell-to upon a discussion as to howwe should come at the people in the hulk.
Now, for a while there came no suggestion worthy of notice, until at lastthere occurred to me a notable idea, and I called out suddenly that weshould make a small fire balloon, and float off the line to them by suchmeans. At that, the men about the fire were silent a moment; for the ideawas new to them, and moreover they needed to comprehend just what Imeant. Then, when they had come fully at it, the one who had proposedthat they should make spears of their knives, cried out to know why akite would not do, and at that I was confounded, in that so simple anexpedient had not occurred to any before; for, surely, it would be but alittle matter to float a line to them by means of a kite, and, further,such a thing would take no great making.
And so, after a space of talk, it was decided that upon the morrow weshould build some sort of kite, and with it fly a line over the hulk, thewhich should be a task of no great difficulty with so good a breeze as wehad continually with us.
And, presently, having made our supper off a very fine fish, which thetwo fishermen had caught whilst we talked, the bo'sun set the watches,and the rest turned-in.