Chapter 30. The Reverse Of Circumstances

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_ CHAPTER THIRTY. THE REVERSE OF CIRCUMSTANCES

"The worst headache I ever had," said Jack Meadows to himself, as he lay with his eyes close shut, and in terrible pain; and then, with his brow throbbing, and a miserable sensation of sickness making his head confused, he began thinking, as a lad who has been brought in contact a good deal with a medical man would think, of the causes of his ailment, and what he had eaten that so disagreed with him, while he mentally resolved that, however good it was, he would never be tempted into tasting it again.

He might have added--till next time, but he did not. For just then in his weariness, pain, and mental confusion it seemed to him that some one else was suffering too, and in a similar way, for he heard a low, dismal groan, and a voice muttered--"Oh, my poor nut." Jack's eyes sprang open, and apparently let light into his brain, for in one glance he saw more than he had ever seen before in so short a glimpse.

For he had a full comprehension of his position, while the details thereof fixed themselves like an instantaneous photograph upon his mind. The mental agony chased away the physical, and he gasped as he realised that he was bound hand and foot with green rotan cane; that Ned was in a similar condition lying alongside, but with his face away; that they were in an opening on the mountain side shut in by rocks and trees; and worst of all, that a few yards away a party of about twenty blacks of fierce aspect, and their hair mopped out with gum till each savage's coiffure was bigger than a grenadier's cap, were seated chattering together and feasting upon some kind of food which they had been roasting at a fire made among the stones.

The peculiar odour of burnt flesh sent a thrill of horror through him, and made a heavy dew of perspiration break out upon his brow at the thought of what probably was to follow, and for a time he felt as if he must shriek aloud. But he remained silent, though he did struggle fiercely to free his hands and feet from their bonds.

How these people had come there was a puzzle, but he was bound to confess that it was no dream. They had evidently landed on the island, prepared a fire, and cooked their food, which certainly was not fish, and they had surprised him and Ned, coming behind and stunning them by blows of the war-club each savage carried stuck through the band he wore about his waist.

One of Jack's first thoughts was, Had they surprised the doctor and the four men with him as well?

As this thought occurred to him he searched the group eagerly, but there was no sign of any plunder, and certainly he and Ned were the only two prisoners, so there was some hope of their being rescued as soon as they were missed. They were five, and Doctor Instow would not hesitate a moment about attacking--how many were there?

He counted twice over, and then, with his head still sufficiently confused to make the task difficult, he counted again, to find that there were more than he had thought at first, several being flat on chest or back, while two, like the Irishman's little pig, would not lie still to be counted.

His further thoughts were put an end to by a low groan from his companion in misfortune, who suddenly made an effort and rolled himself over so that he lay face to face with his young master.

"Oh, I say, sir," he whispered, with a look of horror in his eyes, "ain't this awful!"

Jack nodded.

"My wristies and ankles are nearly cut through."

"So are mine."

"Have they got your gun as well as mine?"

Jack nodded, keeping his eyes on the lithe, shiny bodies of the hungry blacks the while, but they were too much intent upon feasting to take any notice of their prisoners.

"They must have fetched me an awful crack on the head, sir. Did they hit you too?"

"Yes, my head aches horribly, Ned. Look, there are our guns standing up against the rock with their spears."

"And bows and arrows too, sir. Ugh! gives me the shivers. Poisoned!"

"Ned, do you think we could get at our guns and make a dash to escape?"

"What, and risk the arrows?"

"Yes. Once we could get amongst the trees we should have as good a chance of getting away as they would of catching us."

"Don't know so much about that, sir. They ain't got no clothes to catch in the thorns and creepers."

"But you'll try?"

"Try, sir! I should think I would; only I'd wait till it got dark first."

"By that time we may not be alive, Ned."

"Oh yes, we shall, sir. If they'd been going to kill us they wouldn't have taken the trouble to tie us like this."

"You are saying that to cheer me up, Ned," whispered Jack.

"No, sir, 'strue as goodness I ain't. It's just what I mean. But I'm ready to do anything you do if I can. Legs hurt you, sir, where they're tied?"

"Horribly, Ned."

"So do mine, sir, and so does one hand and wrist. T'other don't seem of any consequence at all. It's ever so much number than it was before, so that it don't ache a bit."

They lay there for some time watching the blacks, who kept on eating as if they would never leave off. Every now and then one went round to the back of the stones which formed their rough fire-place, and helped himself to more, returning to sit down and go on eating with the customary result. Thoroughly glutted at last, first one and then another sank back and went to sleep where he had sat eating, till not one seemed to be on the watch, and Jack looked full in the eyes of his companion in misfortune, questioning him.

"I'd wait just a bit longer to let 'em get off sound, sir," said Ned softly; and seeing the wisdom of the advice, Jack waited with every nerve on the strain. But there was no sound to be heard, and he took it for granted that the blacks had dragged or carried them for some distance, right away from the track taken by the doctor. As he examined the place more attentively, it seemed as if this was a spot which had been used as a camp before, for the bushes and trees were disfigured by flame and smoke, and the stones and rock which rose up like a wall were utterly bare of grass, lichen, and creeper.

Then as he lay he began to reason out matters a little more, till, right or wrong, he came to the conclusion that this must be a hunting party landed on the island to pursue the droves of pigs, one of which they had killed, cooked, and eaten.

He felt lighter-hearted as he thought this, for ugly ideas had crept into his mind and made him shudder with horror.

That this was the true reason for the blacks being there he felt more and more convinced, and this meant that there must be another opening through the reef somewhere unnoticed during their cruise round the island, so that if an examination had been made then, a canoe would be found run up on the sands waiting for their return.

This point reached, Jack whispered suddenly to Ned--

"Do you think they have tied us up like this so as to take us down to a canoe?"

"Yes, they've made us prisoners to take us away somewhere. That's what I think, sir."

"Yes, and that's what I think, Ned. Now look carefully all round, and see if you can make out whether any one is watching."

"Can't get my head up, sir," whispered the man after a pause, "but as far as I can make out they're all fast asleep."

"Then let's try to get away."

"Yes, sir; but how?"

"Do as I do. I'm outside, and the ground slopes down from here. I'll start and you follow."

"But I'm tied wrists and ankles, sir. I can't stir."

"Yes, you can. Don't whisper so loud. I am going to roll myself over slowly, and keep on down that slope till I'm a little way off. Then I think we can get our knives out. I can get yours, or you can get mine. Or did they take yours?"

"No, sir. It's in my pocket all right; I can feel it against me."

"Then, ready. It's of no use to wait longer. I'll start, and you lie still and watch. If they don't notice my moving, then you can come."

"No, sir, we go together or we don't go at all. I'm not going to lie still and let you be caught and knocked about perhaps."

"There's no time for arguing, Ned. Do as I tell you. There, I'm off."

Ned drew his breath hard, and raised his head a little to note whether his young master's movements were heard, but though the growth rustled and crackled a little not a savage stirred, and Jack went on rolling himself over and over, suffering pretty sharp pain from his bonds, but setting it at nought, and struggling on till well down out of sight of the rough camp.

Then he stopped and waited for Ned during what seemed to be quite an age before the man joined him, breathing laboriously, and then they lay listening, but all was still.

"Easy enough to escape, sir, if you make up your mind to it."

"But we have not escaped yet, Ned," whispered Jack. "We ought to have waited till it was dark. Now then, I'll creep close to you. Try and put your hand in my pocket and take out the little knife I have there."

It was harder to do than either of them had anticipated, and Ned suffered agony in one wrist as he strained to get at the knife with one hand, while the other was always in the way and kept it back. At last though he was successful and held it in triumph, but there was something more to do, for a closed blade was as bad as nothing.

Still they say "where there's a will there's a way." Certainly there was will enough here, and by degrees Ned worked himself along so that he could hold the little clasp-knife to Jack's lips. These parted directly, so did his firm white teeth, and closed upon the blade, while Ned drew at the handle, with the result that the blade was opened a little. Then it was drawn from between Jack's teeth, and closed with a snap, when the work had to be gone over again.

This time, trembling with excitement and dread lest at any moment the blacks might miss them, Jack closed his teeth with all his might upon the narrow portion of the blade awkwardly offered to him, held on at the risk of the ivory breaking, and Ned drew the handle away slowly, with the result that the strength of the spring was mastered, the knife half opened, and this done the rest was easy.

Ned paused for a few moments to wrench his head round and gaze up the slope toward the savages' camp, then turning to Jack he laid the blade flat upon the back of his hand, and forced it under the thin cane which bound his wrists, having hard work to do it in his hampered position without cutting his companion's hands.

"Now, sir," he whispered, "I'll turn the blade edge outwards, and you must work yourself up and down against it. Try now."

Jack made an effort, which hurt his wrist horribly without doing the slightest good.

"That won't do, sir," whispered Ned. "I can't help you half so much as by holding still. Now try again, not jigging as you did before, but giving yourself a regular see-saw sort of swing. Now then 'fore they wake. Off you go."

It was agony. The back of the knife-blade seemed to be cutting bluntly down upon his wrist-bones, but setting his teeth hard, Jack forced himself downward and drew back.

"That's the sort, sir. Don't do much, but it's doing something. If I had my hands free I could soon cut the withes. Keep it up."

Setting his teeth harder, Jack kept on the sawing movement, apparently without avail, but the pain grew less as the edge of the blade cut into the cane.

"It's of no use, Ned," whispered the lad. "Let's try to undo the knots with our teeth. I'll try on yours first."

"You keep on sawing," said the man in a low growl, and the words came so fiercely that Jack involuntarily obeyed, and the next minute, to his great surprise, there was a faint cracking sound; one strand of the cane band was through, and the rest uncurled like a freed spring.

"Hah! I thought so," said Ned with a low chuckle of satisfaction. "Now catch hold of the knife and cut the band round your ankles."

"I can hardly feel the handle," muttered Jack.

"You will directly. Look sharp, sir, sharp as your knife."

"Yes," said Jack, "but I'm going to cut your wrists free first."

"No, no, sir; your legs."

Jack set his teeth again as hard as when he was holding the back of the knife-blade, and in response he took hold of Ned's hand with his left and applied the edge across the cane which held the poor fellow's wrists, and in a clumsy fumbling way began to saw downward.

"Mr Jack, Mr Jack!" whispered the man excitedly, "you shouldn't, you shouldn't! I wanted to get you cut loose first."

"You hold your tongue and keep still," said the lad. "I don't want to cut your wrist. Steady. Oh, how numb and helpless my hands feel."

"They cut well enough, sir," said Ned with a laugh, as the outer turn of the cane band was divided, and once more the tough vegetable cord opened like a spiral string.

"That's your sort, Mr Jack, sir. Give me hold of the knife. My turn now."

"No, no, my hands are getting better. Rub your wrists while I cut your ankles free."

For answer Ned made a dash at the knife, but Jack avoided him, and forgetting everything in his desire to set his companion at liberty, he began sawing away at his ankles, while Ned thrust his hand into his own pocket and drew out his knife, to begin operating directly after upon Jack's bonds, with so much success that he was able to free him first.

His own were at liberty though directly after, and then they lay panting and perfectly still.

Jack was the first to speak.

"Now then," he said, "shall we crawl up and try and get our guns?"

"And make one of them wake and tap us both again on the head. No, sir, that won't do. Soon as you feel that you can move, crawl right away in among the bushes, and I'll follow. Have you got any hands and feet? because I feel as if I hadn't."

"Mine are terribly numb, Ned, but we'll start at once. It will do me more good to work them than to rest them. Which way?"

"Downwards, because it's more easy. Then go into that hollow ditch-like bit."

"But it goes upward."

"Never mind, take it, and we shall be out of sight. It will be best. They're sure to think we've made for the sea. Why, how dark it's growing. Didn't know it was so late."

Jack said nothing, but began to crawl away as fast as his tingling, helpless limbs would allow, feeling that so long as they got away from their captors it did not so much matter which direction they took. He turned his head from time to time to see if Ned was all right, and found that he was lamely struggling on after him, but always gave him a cheery look.

Jack followed the rugged little ditch-like place, which had evidently been carved out by one of the rivulets which ran down from the mountain, but after following it some time and turning to look back at Ned, he suddenly dropped flat on his face and began to crawl out of it, and toward the shelter of the forest, which came close up.

"What's the matter?" said Ned.

"Don't lift your head; creep as flat as you can, and let's get among the bushes."

"That's right enough; but why? It won't be such good going."

"We've been crawling higher and higher," said Jack, "and when I turned to see how you were getting on, I looked down over your shoulder, on to the smoke of the fire, and the blacks were lying about it, and just at that moment one of them jumped up, and then all the rest followed, and they must have missed us!"

"Shall we get up and run then?"

"No, no, they may not come this way. Hark! what's that?"

"Wind. Why, I didn't see it coming, only thought it was evening. We're in for a storm."

"Never mind, if it will only keep them from following us, Ned."

They struggled on, finding their limbs less helpless. Minute by minute, and just before plunging into the darkness beneath the trees, Jack turned to raise his head slightly, and to his great delight saw ten or twelve of the blacks far below the smoke of their camp, and evidently descending the mountain slope, but the next instant his hopes were crushed, for there in full pursuit, coming along the stony hollow up which they had crawled, was another party of the enemy.

"In with you, Ned," he whispered, as he dropped down again to creep into the dense growth which swallowed him like a verdant sea, while before they had penetrated many yards the gloom beneath the spreading branches was lit up by a flash of lightning. The next minute the flashes came so quickly that the forest seemed turned into one vast temple, whose black pillars supported a ceiling of flame, and as the deafening detonations shook the earth around them, they were glad to crouch as quickly as they could in a recess formed at the foot of a gigantic tree which sent out flat buttresses on every side, more buttresses passing down into roots.

They were none too soon, for the storm was, brief as the time had been, now in full force; the rain dashed and swept in amongst the groaning trees, and the noise and confusion were deafening, and made the more awe-inspiring by the lashing of the branches as they were driven here and there by the wind.

"What's that, sir?" cried Ned, with his lips to his companion's ear, for a tremendous crash had succeeded a roar of thunder.

"Tree gone down."

"Oh!" said Ned, pressing Jack close up into the recess. "Well, so long as it ain't this one I suppose we mustn't grumble. But I'd rather have undressed myself before I took my bath, sir, wouldn't you?"

"Oh, how can you talk like that!" shouted Jack.

"'Cause I feel so jolly and satisfied," said Ned, with his lips again to Jack's ear. "A bit ago it was all over with us, going to be took and tied up again, sir. P'r'aps to be taken away and fatted and eaten. Now there's nothing the matter, only it's a bit dark. Don't seem, sir, as if I'm doing any good in trying to be your umbrella. You are a little moist, I suppose, sir?"

"Moist, Ned! I'm soaking; I can feel the water running down into my boots."

"Oh, never mind, sir. We'll have a good wring out as soon as the storm's over. But my word, I never saw lightning like this before, and never felt it rain so hard."

"Nor thunder so loud," cried Jack. "It is terrible. Hush! hark at that!"

"Water, sir, running down this way."

"Shan't be washed away from here, shall we, Ned?"

"No, sir, I think not. Seems to me that it's coming down that bit of a ditch we crawled up."

It was: the dry, stony bed having been filled in a few minutes six feet deep by a raging torrent, which was constantly being augmented by scores of furious rills, the upper portions of the mountain having been struck by what resembled a swirling water-spout.

"I say, Mr Jack, I hope the yacht won't get washed away. Which side of that stony ditch were the niggers when you saw 'em last?"

"The other side."

"Then they won't come this. Now if they'd only take to thinking that we'd been washed down the side and out to sea, what a blessing it would be for us! They wouldn't come and hunt for us any more."

"Don't--pray don't talk," cried Jack. Then to himself,--"Oh, if the storm would only keep on."

But, as has been shown, it did not. Its violence on their side of the mountain was soon exhausted, and it swept on and out to sea, leaving the fugitives standing where hundreds of rills came amongst the foot of the trees on their way toward the stream overflowing the stony channel, while the leaves and boughs poured down a constant shower of heavy drops.

By degrees the force of the water abated, the slope being too steep for it to continue long within the regular channels which scored the mountain side; and leaving their temporary asylum, the fugitives pressed on in the hope of reaching the ravine up which they had been making their way that morning when they hung back and were left behind.

But it was in a bewildered way that they pushed on, till hours must have passed, feeling that there was nothing for them but to try and find a refuge in some rude shelter such as they had several times encountered by the side of one of the lava-streams, where in cooling the volcanic matter had split up and broken, and formed wildly curious, cavernous places, any one of which would have been welcome.

Night was coming on fast; they dare not attempt to descend, and it began to be plain that they would have to be content with a resting-place on some stony patch from which the water had drained, when, as they staggered along, just within the sheltering gloom of the huge forest trees, they stumbled upon one of the ancient lava-streams, which stopped their progress like some mountainous wall, and a very few minutes' search was sufficient to find the shelter they required, a dark, cavernous place whose flooring was of volcanic sand.

"It's dry as a bone, Mr Jack, sir," said Ned, after stooping down, "and as warm as warm. Well, sir, if this ain't sunshine after storm I should like to know what is!"

Jack was too much exhausted to reply, and directly after he began to follow his companion's example by stripping off and wringing his clothes.

"Black sunshine this, Ned," he said.

"Well, sir, it is certainly; but you can't say it ain't warm. You put your hand down on the sand."

"Yes; it's quite warm, Ned."

"Why, is this only the back-door into the burning mountain, sir? Because if so, will it be safe?"

"Ned, I'm too tired to talk. Pray be quiet and let me think. We must be safer than out upon the mountain side. Let's lie down and rest." _

Read next: Chapter 31. A Bi-Startler

Read previous: Chapter 29. The Missing Pair

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