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Mother Carey's Chicken: Her Voyage to the Unknown Isle, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 22. How The Watch Heard A Noise |
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_ CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. HOW THE WATCH HEARD A NOISE That was a weary watch, but, as the major said, they did not want to sleep, with the wounded men moaning and muttering in their uneasy rest. For there was so much to do, seeing to the shade and altering the positions of the leaves, so that while the sun was kept off, the soft breeze from the sea was allowed to cool the fevered brows of the patients. Then there were flies which were disposed to be troublesome and had to be kept at a distance, Mark making a loose chowry, like a horse-tail, of long wiry grass, and this proving so effective that the major annexed it, and advised Mark to make another. And so an hour passed away, after which Mark took a tin and fetched some of the cool spring-water which came trickling down from the interior, deeply shaded by the ferns, and so low among mossy stones that he had to climb into a narrow chasm to the clear basin-like pool. With this he prepared to bathe Morgan's forehead; but as he bent over him the poor fellow's countenance wore so terrible an aspect, the skin being absolutely green, that the lad shrank away and signed to the major. "Well, my lad, what is it?" "Look!--his face! What does it mean?" "Eh!--mean! What?" "Don't you see? That horrible green!" "Tchah! what are you talking about?" said the major, picking up a leaf and holding it over his head. "Now, then, what colour is my face?" "Green," said Mark, smiling. "How stupid of me!" "Well, we will not call it stupid, my lad; but with so many real difficulties we must not make imaginary ones. Why, Mark, this voyage is making a man of you--self-reliant, business-like, and strong. When we get over it--" "Shall we get over it, sir?" said Mark sadly. "Ah!" said the major, speaking in a low tone so as not to disturb the patients; "now, that's a chance for a sermon for you, my lad, only I can't preach. Look here, Mark, ten thousand things may happen to us, one of which is that we may all die here of starvation." "Yes, sir." "Well, then, that's ten thousand to one. Bah! Don't fidget now. We have just landed in a little paradise, after running terrible risks from spear and kris, explosion, fire, storm, and wreck. You ought to be thankful, and not growl." "I am thankful, sir." "Then show it, my lad. Take what comes, like a man; do the best you can for everybody, and leave the rest." "I'll try, sir." "Try! nonsense! I know you already, my lad, better than you know yourself. You'll do it naturally without trying." They sat here in that golden glow of shelter for some time in silence, watching their patients and the glittering sea, broken every now and then by the splash of a fish. "Do you think Mr Morgan will get better, sir?" whispered Mark at last. "Certainly I do. Why shouldn't he? A strong healthy man with his wound waiting to heal as soon as he could have rest and proper sleep. What we have gone through was enough to give us all fever, so no wonder a wounded man is so bad. I expected that your father would give up." "But he has not, sir." "No; mind has kept him from breaking down. He has all the responsibility, you see. You must try and grow up just such a man, my lad." There was again a silence, broken at last by the major. "I want to go exploring here, Mark," he said. "I expect this will prove to be a very wonderful place." "But I thought such an island as this would be full of beautiful birds." "Perhaps it is, but the birds are all sitting under their sun-shades till the sun begins to go down. Why, Mark, we shall be in clover!" "But about food, sir? What shall we do for food for such a party? The stores won't last long." "Now, that's a boy all over," said the major, chuckling. "Food! My word, how a boy does love the larder! There, don't look so serious, Mark. I was just as bad, I can remember, at home, enjoying my own school-room breakfast, then getting a little more when my father had his; having a little lunch; then my dinner, followed by my tea; after which dessert, when they had theirs, in the dining-room; lastly, a bit of supper; and I finished off by taking biscuits or baking-pears to bed." "Yes, sir," said Mark; "but that was in England." "Well, never mind. We shall find something to eat here, I daresay. Enough to keep us. Why, Mark, I don't suppose we should have to put you in the pot for quite a year." Mark laughed, and the major's eyes twinkled as he went on. "What nonsense, my lad! we couldn't starve here. The sea teems with fish waiting to be caught. Look yonder." Mark glanced in the required direction, and could see the smooth water in the lagoon dappled and blurring as a shoal of fish played upon the surface. "But how are we to catch them, sir?" "Hooks and lines; make nets; fish-traps. Why, Mark, if a savage can do these things, surely we can!" "Do you think there are any animals here?" said Mark, glancing round. "Sure to be of some kind. The place is evidently extensive. Pig, perhaps deer; plenty of birds; and we have guns and ammunition. Then there will be fruit." "Do you think so, sir?" "I'm sure of it. There are the cocoa-nuts to begin with. Fruit! yes, and vegetables too." Mark smiled. "Ah, you don't know! Knock that fly off Morgan's cheek. But I do, my lad. We sha'n't get any asparagus; but we can eat the palm-shoots; and as for cabbage, we sha'n't regret that as long as we can get at the hearts of the palms." "Do you think there will be any snakes?" asked Mark. "Sure to be." "Poisonous?" "Very likely. Perhaps some big ones. They'll do to eat if we are very hungry." "Ugh!" ejaculated Mark, with a shudder. "Well, I'm like the Yankee backwoodsman, Mark, my lad. He didn't 'hanker arter crows' after he had eaten them once. I don't 'hanker arter' snakes, but I'd sooner sit down to a section of boa-constrictor roasted in the ashes than starve." "I don't think I would." "Wait till you are starving, my lad." "Should you say there are any big dangerous animals?" continued Mark, after a pause; "lions, or tigers, or leopards?" "Certainly not; but there may be rhinoceros or elephant, if the island is big enough, or near the mainland, and--what the dickens is that?" He jumped up as rapidly as Mark sprang to his feet, for just then there came, apparently not from very far off, so terrible a roar that the major ran to the nearest gun, examined the loading, and then stood with the weapon cocked. Mark involuntarily caught his arm. "Don't do that, boy," said the major in a low angry voice. "That is what a woman would do--try to find protection, and hinder the man. Get a weapon if it's only your knife." Mark's pale face flushed, and he caught up a gun, to stand beside the major, as the terrific harsh yelling roar came again. It was a sound horrible enough to startle the stoutest hearted, so weird and peculiar was it in its tones; while the silence which succeeded was even more terror inspiring, for it suggested that the wild beast which had uttered the cry might have caught sight of them, and be coming nearer. The sound seemed to come from the rocky rapidly-rising ground beyond the narrow tree-fern shaded gorge where the spring had been found; but though they listened intently for a few moments, there was utter stillness till all at once there was a fresh sound, something between a sigh and a moan, such as an animal might utter if it had been struck down. Mark's eyes swept the land beyond the cocoa-nut grove wildly; but he could see nothing save the rocks and flowering shrubs; then he glanced at the shaded sands where their friends were sleeping, but the sound had not awakened them. "I can't make it out, Mark," said the major, as he keenly swept the place as far as the trees would allow. "Couldn't be fancy, could it?" The answer came in a piteous burst of howls, followed by a hissing sound, and directly after Bruff appeared, tearing along on three legs, his last tucked out of sight, the rough shaggy hair which formed a ruff about his neck bristling; and close behind him, Jacko running as if for his life. "No," said the major; "it couldn't be fancy. They heard it too." Bruff ran up to Mark, and crouched at his feet shivering and whining; while Jacko kept running from one to the other, chattering in a low tone and staring wildly about as if in a terrible state of excitement. "Can you hear anything coming, Mark?" said the major. "Down, dog! lie still!" Mark listened intently; but there was not a sound to be heard but the distant boom of the breakers on the barrier reef, the beating of his heart, and the growling of the dog. Once only came a shrill chizzling chirping, evidently made by some kind of cricket, otherwise there was the stillness of a torrid day when the very vegetation begins to flag. "I can't hear it, sir," he whispered. "So it can't be coming," said the major, looking uneasy. "I'm puzzled, Mark. It was neither lion nor tiger, though something like the roar a lion can give; it was not like an elephant's trumpeting, nor the grunting of a rhinoceros; and it could not be a hippopotamus, for we are out of their range, and there is no big river--there can't be--here." "Could it be some enormous serpent?" whispered Mark. "I never heard a serpent do anything but hiss, my lad, though they say the anacondas make strange thunder in the North American forests." "It might be a large crocodile." "Yes, it might," said the major; "but if it was, the noise is something quite new to me." "It is more likely to be some terrible beast here that we never heard of before, sir," faltered Mark. "Don't laugh at me, sir, I can't help feeling nervous." "You'd be a wonder if you could," said the major. "I feel ten times as uncomfortable as I did at any time yesterday. We knew what we had to meet then, but this is something--" Whoor-r-oor! The sound came again with terrible violence, but though it was as horrible and awe-inspiring it was either farther away or the animal which uttered the cry had turned its head in another direction. "It's beyond me, Mark, my lad," said the major, drawing a long breath; "but it can't see us here, whatever it is, and it is something strange to be roaring like that by day." "I wonder it has not woke anyone up," whispered Mark. "Worn out," replied the major, laconically; and then they stood peering out from among the trees, and watching intently for a long time without hearing a sound, till the cricket began to utter its chirruping note again. This was taken up by another close by, and by another at a distance, and then quite a chorus followed, resembling the sounds made by the house-cricket of the English hearth, but more whirring and ear-piercing. "It must have gone back into the jungle, Mark," said the major, "or else fallen asleep. Anyhow I'm not at all pleased to find we have such a neighbour." "Do you think it is a dangerous beast?" whispered Mark. "I can't say till I've seen it, but it sounds very much like it." "I know what it is!" said Mark in a low excited voice. "You do?" "Yes. It is in that jungle, yonder." "I don't know where it is, but it must be somewhere near. Well, what is it?" "A wild man of the woods." "What! an orang-outang?" Mark nodded. "Well, if it is, we shall have to tame him. My word, he must have a fine broad chest, Mark, and he has a wonderful voice for a song. There, I don't think we are in any danger for the present, and it must be nearly the end of our watch by the look of the sun. Here comes the captain." _ |
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