Chapter 21. An Adventure

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_ CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. AN ADVENTURE

Jack did not see the canoe, for his attention was taken up by the little serpent which had suddenly flung itself upon his hand, as he disturbed the cluster of flowers, and struck at his arm sharply--twice.

Sharply does not express the way in which the reptile attacked him, for the whole business from its springing, coiling, and striking seemed instantaneous. The effect upon the lad was peculiar. He had man's natural horror of all creatures of the serpent kind, and as he broke off the sweetly-scented bunch of flowers a pang shot through him--a sensation of pain which made him turn cold and wet, while his senses felt exalted, so that sight, smell, hearing, and feeling were magnified or exaggerated in the strangest way, but his muscular power seemed to have failed. His man's cries for help sounded deafening; the fragrant odour of the orchids made him feel faint; the little serpent appeared enormous, and its eyes dazzling, while the cold touch of its scaly body against his bare hand was of some great weight, and when it rapidly compressed his fingers with its folds, to give itself power to strike, and struck twice, the concussion of the lithe neck and jaws felt like two tremendous blows which paralysed him, so that he stood there as if turned to stone, with his arm outstretched staring down at the--as it seemed to him--gigantic head, which glided about over his enormously swollen arm, the sparkling malicious eyes seeming to search into his, and then about his arm for a fresh place at which to venom.

It was in its way beautiful, in its golden-brown and greenish tints, while the back appeared to be shot with violet and steel, as the light which flashed from the glittering sea was thrown up beneath the trees. Jack was so utterly fascinated for the time being that his eyes took in every detail, and he noted how the reptile's tightly-closed mouth resembled a smile of triumph, and thought that the tiny forked tongue which kept on flickering in and out of the orifice in the front part of the jaws mocked at him as the creature laughed silently at his helplessness.

"It has killed me," was the predominant thought in the boy's mind, as he stood there for what seemed to be a long space of time, with Edward shouting for help and calling upon him to act, the words thundering in his ears.

"Throw it off, Mr Jack, sir. Chuck it away. D'ye hear me? Oh, I say, do something, or you'll be stung."

But the lad did not stir, merely remained in the same attitude with his arm outstretched. He was, however, fully conscious of what was going on, and he watched with a feeble kind of interest the action of the man, wondering what he would do.

For Ned, as he grasped his young master's peril, did the most natural thing in the world to begin with, he called loudly for help; but fully grasping the fact that as he was nearest the first help ought to come from him, he dashed to Jack's side.

"Ugh!" he cried angrily, "I can't abear snakes and toads. If I touch him he'll sting me too. Tied himself up in a knot too. Don't try to chuck it off, Mr Jack, the beggar will only be more savage and begin stinging again. If I could only grab him by the neck I could finish him, but he'd be too quick for me. Here, I know. That's right! Stand still, sir."

This last was perfectly unnecessary, for the lad could not have stood more motionless and rigid if he had been carved in marble.

"What a fool I am!" muttered Ned. "Thinking about cutting sticks when there's something ready here to be cut. I don't want a stick."

He whipped his long hunting-knife out of the sheath fitted to his belt, and the light flashed upon the keen-edged new blade which had never yet been used.

"Now then," he said softly, "if I can only get one cut at you, my gentleman, you shan't know where you are to-morrow."

The plan was good, but not easy of performance, for he could not cut straight down at the reptile's neck without injuring Jack's arm, and for a few moments he stood watching and waiting for an opportunity, but none seemed likely to occur, and the serpent still held on by the boy's wrist, and the front of its long, lithe, undulating body kept on gliding about over the brightly-ironed white duck sleeve, the head playing about the hollow of the elbow-joint, turning under the arm, and returning to the top again and again.

"I can't get a cut at him--I can't get a cut at him," muttered Ned; and then a happy thought came: he stretched out the point of the glistening blade toward the serpent's head, till it was a few inches from it.

"I don't like doing it," he muttered fretfully; "it's running risks, and setting a dose myself, but I must--I must;" and he made the blade glitter and flash by agitating his hand.

It had the desired effect, for the head was raised sharply from the lad's arm till it was six or seven inches above it, and the reptile seemed to be attracted for a moment by the bright light flashing from the steel.

Then the head was drawn back sharply, and darted forward as Ned expected, and with a slight jerk from the wrist he flicked the blade from left to right.

"Hah!" he cried joyfully, as the head dropped at his feet, and the long thin body writhed free from the lad's hand and wrist; "a razor couldn't have took it off cleaner. Hurray, Mr Jack! He half killed himself. But don't--don't stand like that. You're not hurt bad, are you?"

"Here, let me look," cried the doctor, who had now climbed up to where they stood, closely followed by Sir John. "Snake, was it?"

"Yes, sir; there's his body tying itself up in knots, and here's his head."

As he spoke, the man stooped down quickly, made a dig with the point of his knife, and transfixed the cut-off portion through the neck just at the back of the skull, and the jaws gaped widely as he held it up in triumph.

"Here, let me see," cried Sir John excitedly. "Yes, look, Instow, the swollen glands at the back of the jaw, and here they are like bits of glass--the poison fangs. Jack, lad, where did it strike you?"

"Strike me?" said the lad feebly, and shuddering slightly, as he stood with his eyes half-closed, and dropped the cluster of orchids.

"Yes; speak out, quick!" cried the doctor, grasping the lad by the arm. "Where are you hurt?"

"Twined round my hand, and bit at my arm twice--just there."

He stood pointing dreamily at the thickest part of his forearm, just where the jacket-sleeve went into wrinkles through the bending of the joint.

"Yes, I see," cried the doctor. "Here, Ned, man, jump down there and get my flask. You'll find it in my coat. A plated one full of ammonia."

Ned leaped in a break-neck way down the lava wall, and the doctor forced his patient into a sitting position and stripped off his jacket. Then he snapped off the wrist button and turned up the shirt-sleeve, to begin examining the white skin for the tiny punctures made by the two bites, while Sir John knelt by him, supporting his son, who looked very white and strange, and as if he were trying to master the sense of horror from which he now suffered.

"See the places?" said Sir John hoarsely.

"No," replied the doctor, shifting his position and raising the arm a little. "The fangs are like needle-points, and make so small a wound. Can't see anything. Whereabouts was it, Jack?"

"Just there," said the lad, speaking more decisively; and he laid his left finger on his arm. "Two sharp blows."

"And a keen pricking sensation each time?" said the doctor, looking curiously at his patient.

"No; I did not feel anything but the blows."

"Here's the silver bottle, sir," panted Ned.

"Hold it," said the doctor. Then to Jack, "Did the snake strike at you anywhere else?"

"No."

"Pray, pray give him something," cried Sir John impatiently; "the poison runs through the veins so quickly."

"Yes," said the doctor quietly, as he wrinkled up his forehead, and, dropping the boy's arm, he caught the jacket from where it lay.

"Nothing here," he muttered. "Pish! Wrong sleeve."

He hastily took the other, and turned the sleeve up to the light.

"Hah!" he cried; "here we are. Look, Meadows!"

"Never mind the jacket, man," cried Sir John passionately.

"Why not?" said the doctor coolly. "Nothing the matter with the lad. Touch of nerves. Horribly startling for him. See this?"

He held up the sleeve, and there upon the puckered part were two almost imperceptible yellowish stains, in each case upon the raised folds.

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"I couldn't help it," said Jack.

"Of course you couldn't," said the doctor.

"But father thinks that I was a dreadful coward."

"Then he ought to know better," said the doctor quickly. "Nothing to be ashamed of, my lad. Imagination's a queer thing. I once fainted because I thought I had cut myself, while I was skinning a dog which had been poisoned. I was a student then, and knew the dangers of wounds from a poisoned knife; and, by the way, we must take care of the wounds from poisoned arrows. Well, when I washed my hand there wasn't a scratch. You couldn't help it, Jack. Any man might be seized like that after seeing Death make two darts at him and feeling him strike."

[Half a page of text missing here.]

"Is any one hurt?" said a voice then; and Mr Bartlett's head appeared above the edge of the lava wall.

"No; all right. Only an alarm, and a narrow escape. How about the savages?"

"They're gone in the direction of the yacht, gentlemen, and we must get back as quickly as we can."

"Ah, look! look!" cried Ned excitedly, as he pointed out to sea; "there's a canoe--two canoes--three."

They followed the direction of his pointing finger, and saw plainly enough three long, low vessels full of men gliding by, with their matting sails glistening in the sun, and not two miles out from where they stood.

"Worse and worse," said the mate. "We must get back to the yacht, gentlemen."

"Of course," said Sir John, drawing a deep breath. "Why, there must be a hundred men in those canoes."

"Quite that, sir, I'm afraid," replied the mate. "Quick, please. It will be terrible if they attack the captain while he is so short-handed."

"But he has the big guns, and the men are well-trained," said the doctor, as they hurried down to the boats.

"What is the use of them, sir, when a crowd of reckless savages are swarming over the sides? He is lying at anchor too, and the yacht is made helpless."

The men were soon in their places, pulling a long, steady stroke, and thinking nothing of the hot sunshine.

"It is of no use to try and hide ourselves," said the mate, "for it is a race between us who shall get there first."

"But they can't know the yacht is there," said Sir John.

"Perhaps not, sir; but they will soon sight us, and then run for the opening in the reef, if they were not already going there."

"Well, there's one advantage on our side," said the doctor; "they can't attack us till they get through the reef, so we're safe till then."

"Yes, sir," said the mate bitterly; "but I was thinking of the captain, and his anxiety, alone there."

"Yes, of course," said Sir John; and he looked at the mate when he could do so unobserved; and it seemed to Jack that he thought more highly of Mr Bartlett than ever.

They had been rowing abreast, with the waters of the lagoon perfectly smooth; but as they began to round one of the huge buttresses of lava which had run down into the lake, they saw that the water all beyond was disturbed by a breeze.

The mate started up and began to give his orders directly. The mast in the bigger boat was stepped, the sail hoisted, and he shouted to one of the men to throw a line from the bows of Jack's boat, to make fast to their stern.

"We can take you in tow, doctor," he said, with the men still rowing and the sail flapping; then a little spar was set up from the stern, and a triangular sail hoisted from the bows to the mast in front.

"Four men in here," cried the mate; "unless you two gentlemen would like to come."

"No; we'll stay here," said the doctor. "Eh, Jack?"

"Yes; we'll stay."

"You'll manage better with men who can work, we shall be in the way."

"I want them for ballast to steady us with all this sail up," said the mate, smiling; and without any pause the second boat was drawn close up astern, four men crept into the leader, and the rope was allowed to run out again.

"Think we're going to have a fight, Mr Jack?" whispered Ned, as the doctor sat forward trying to make out the canoes through the sparkling cloud of spray here about a mile away; "It seems like it, Ned; but I hope not."

"You hope not, sir?"

"Of course."

"Oh, well then, I needn't mind saying I hope not too. I never was anything in that line, sir, even when I was a boy."

"What difference does that make?"

"Difference, sir? Oh, all the difference. Men can fight, of course; but if I was a king, and wanted to have a good army, I'd make it of boys."

Jack stared at him, and in spite of the peril of their position, felt disposed to smile.

"Why?" he said at last.

"Because they can fight so. They're not so big and strong; but then they're not so easily frightened. They're always ready for a set-to, and 'cepting where there's snakes in the way, they never think of danger, or being hurt. And when they are hurt, the more they feel it, the more they go, just like horses or donkeys."

"Excepting in the case of snakes," said Jack bitterly.

"Oh, don't you mind about that, sir. I was as scared as you were, I can tell you. I remember when I was a boy I wasn't good at fighting, and I used to get what we used to call the coward's blow, and that was the rum part of it."

Jack stared.

"Ah, you don't understand that, sir. But it was rum. You see it was like this; t'other chap as was crowing over me because I wouldn't fight, would give me an out-and-out good whack for the coward's blow, and then he wished he hadn't."

"Why?" asked Jack, after a glance at the doctor, who was still in the bows.

"Because it hurt me, and made me wild. And then I used to go at him and give him a good licking. That's what I was when a boy, sir, and I am just the same now; I don't feel at all like fighting, and, coward or no coward, I won't fight if I can help it; but if any one hurts me, or begins to shoot at us, I think I shall get trying what I can do. But you see it won't be fist-fists."

"No," said Jack thoughtfully; "it will not be fists."

"Hi! look out!" shouted Ned. "You'll be over."

For a sudden puff of wind had caught the boat in front, and she heeled over so much with the large spread of sail that the water began to creep in over the leeward side. But at a word from the mate half-a-dozen men shifted their positions to windward, and there were two or three inches clear once more, as the boat with her three sails well-filled began to rush through the water.

"And now they're goin' to take us under," said Ned, nervously seizing the side with one hand. "My word, we are beginning to go."

"Yes; this is different to rowing," cried the doctor, as their boat danced about and ran swiftly through the disturbed water left by their companion. "But, unfortunately, the wind will help the canoes as much as it helps us."

"But if it does not help them more, we shall be up to the yacht first."

"There's another side to that, Jack," said the doctor; "suppose they sail faster than we do. What then?"

This was unanswerable, and they sat back in the boat, running through the water with a little wave ever-widening on either side.

"I hope the painter won't give way," said the doctor at last, "and that they will not leave us behind."

"They'd miss us directly," said Jack. "Their boat would go so much faster."

"Couldn't go faster than she is. Why, Jack, it must be a clever canoe that can beat us."

"Goes too fast to please me," whispered the man at the first opportunity. "Strikes me, Mr Jack, that one of these times when they swing over to the left so they'll drag us under, so that our boat will fill and go down; and if we do, what about that there pig?"

"What pig?" said Jack wonderingly.

"Why, you know, sir, close in there as we came along. If there's things in this water that can pull down pigs, won't they be likely to pull down us?"

"There's plenty of real trouble to think about," said Jack quietly, "without our trying to make out imaginary ones. The boat will not fill."

"Eh? what's that?" said the doctor; "this boat fill? Oh no; she rides over the water like a cork. Can't see anything of the enemy, Jack; the spray along the reef makes a regular curtain, and shuts off everything. I hope it hides us well from our black friends, for I don't want to get into a row of that kind. Well, Ned, if it comes to the worst, do you think you can manage a gun?"

"Cleaned Sir John's guns often enough, sir."

"Yes, but can you shoot?"

"That means holding the gun straight, sir, and pulling the trigger. Oh yes, sir; I can do that."

"That isn't shooting: you have to hit."

"So I suppose, sir; but some of the governor's friends, who come down in September and October, go shooting in his preserves and over the farms, but they don't always hit anything."

"But you will try if we want you, eh?"

"Yes, sir, if the governor orders me. And what about a cutlass? Can you handle that, do you think?"

"Don't see why not, sir. I'm pretty handy with a carving-knife, both with meat and on the knifeboard."

"Well," said the doctor gravely, "I hope we shall not have to come to anything of that kind, for all our sakes."

"How long will it take us to get back?" said Jack, after a silence, during which the thoughts of the danger seemed to be chased away by the beauty of the shore along which they glided.

"Hours yet," said the doctor. "This wind will not last. If it would, we might be there before the canoes."

Very few greetings passed between the two boats, for every one engaged in the race seemed in deadly earnest. There was the possibility of the people proving to be friendly, but as in all probability these great sea-going canoes belonged to a fighting fleet upon some raiding expedition, the hope in the direction of peace was not great.

About half of the way had been accomplished, when, as Jack sat watching the foaming waves break upon the reef, he caught sight of something misty and weird-looking apparently just on the other side, but it was too undefined for its nature to be made out.

He pointed it out to the doctor, who gave his opinion directly.

"One of the canoes," he said. "That's good, Jack. It shows that they have not distanced us."

A hail from the mate told them that they too had sighted the canoe from the boat in front; but though they gazed long and watchfully, they saw no more.

Not long after the wind dropped suddenly, came again, and then fell altogether, the appearances being so marked that the mate had the sails lowered, and stowed after the oars had been going for some time, and now they made out from the boat astern that Mr Bartlett had divided his crew into two watches, one rowing hard while the other rested.

It was all plain enough to those astern that everything was admirably arranged, so that the well-drilled men shifted their places without any confusion or difference in the speed of the boat, the men changing one at a time.

And so the afternoon wore on.

"We shall be no sooner," said Jack at last. "In an hour it will be dark."

"Yes," said the doctor with a sigh. "It would not matter if the blacks are not there first, but the worst of it is, as soon as it's dusk the captain will be lighting up that firework business for a beacon, and that will show the canoes where to steer."

It proved just as he said. The darkness came on with awful rapidity as soon as the sun disappeared beneath the waves, all searching the edge of the reef most anxiously during the last rays which flooded the sea; but in vain; and then for a full hour they rowed steadily on, guided by the gleaming of the fireflies against the black darkness ashore, but all at once a bright star shone out.

"There she is!" cried Jack excitedly. "Look how Mr Bartlett has turned the boat's head straight for the light."

"Yes; we shall follow the bright path straight away now," said the doctor.

"How are you getting on there?" came from the boat in front. "Hungry, or will you wait till we get on board?"

"We'll wait, father," shouted Jack.

"Yes. Only half-an-hour now. Mr Bartlett thinks we've distanced the canoes."

They were soon to learn for certain, as they followed the bright path of light which minute by minute grew clearer, till they could see as it were right up to the anchored yacht.

"Shall we hail the captain?" said Jack.

He had hardly spoken when he felt a jar run through the boat, and found that the towing-line had been hauled upon till the prow of the second boat touched the stern of the first.

"Hist there!" said the mate. "Perfect silence, please. We must creep alongside so as to give warning. There must be no hailing. This is the most dangerous time."

"How far are we away?" said the doctor in a whisper.

"About five hundred yards."

"How is it the oars go so quietly now?" whispered Jack.

"Muffled, and the men are just dipping them, so as to keep a fair way on."

The next two or three minutes were passed in silence, Jack's boat having once more dropped astern to the full length of the rope.

The lad had risen to stand up and watch the line of light extending from them right up to the source of the rays ahead, and from his position he could look right over the foremost boat.

"How deceptive it is!" he thought. "One can hardly tell how near we are, and--ah!--"

"What is it, boy?" whispered the doctor.

For answer Jack pointed right ahead to where something dark could be seen crossing the line of sight.

"One of the canoes," said the doctor quickly. "We shall be right aboard her."

He crept forward, but Jack forestalled him, and was hauling in the line till they wore close up.

"Mr Bartlett--father!"

"Yes; what is it?"

"You are rowing right into one of the canoes." _

Read next: Chapter 22. A Sharp Lesson

Read previous: Chapter 20. Floating Blacks

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