Chapter Seven.
The Island.
One.
If I were to tell you all the things that the Twins and their father and mother did on that island, it would make a book as big as the dictionary; so I can only tell you a very little about the wonderful days that followed. In the first place, they soon found out that it was a wonderful island. Small as it was, it had the most astonishing things in it.
There were great cliffs and jagged rocks along its coast in some places, and there were beautiful broad sandy beaches right next to them. The waves had washed holes clear through some of these great rocks and left them standing there like huge ruins.
The beaches were covered with star-fish and beautiful shells and seaweed and crabs and jelly-fish and stones of all colours. The Twins found something new every time they played there.
Inland there were hills and valleys with sparkling streams of clear water running through them. There were sunny open meadows where bison grazed. In the woods there were deer and small game of all kinds, but though Hawk-Eye went everywhere in the days that followed the earthquake, he never saw a sign of a cave bear or of tigers or lions, or any of the more savage beasts which made life in their old home so full of terror.
Neither did he find a trace of any other human beings.
The season was early on the warm southern side of the island. The wild fruit trees were already in blossom, making the air sweet with fragrance, and giving promise of fruit later on.
There were all sorts of wild flowers and all kinds of trees in the woods, and
everything was so beautiful and seemed so safe that it was easy to believe, as Limberleg said, that the water gods did mean to take care of them.
Two.
One day when Hawk-Eye and Limberleg had gone deer-hunting, Firetop and Firefly climbed a high cliff on the east coast to hunt for pigeons’ eggs. From the top of the hill, they could see for miles and miles in every direction. The cliffs were on a long point of land, and behind the point was a deep bay, where all sorts of things could be picked up, when the tide was low. In a cleft of the rock Firetop found a nest with four eggs in it. He and Firefly were sitting on top of the hill eating them, when Firefly saw a queer black spot part way down the cliff, toward the east.
“What’s that?” she said, pointing.
“Let’s go and find out,” said Firetop.
They climbed cautiously down to a lower level and worked their way through the bushes and vines which covered the sloping side of the bluff.
“It must be somewhere near here,” said Firetop, “but I can’t see it. It’s hidden behind the bushes, whatever it is.”
“Maybe it was a bear and he has moved,” said Firefly, looking fearfully over her shoulder.
Of course they could not be quite sure there were no such creatures on the island.
“Pooh,” said Firetop, “I’m not afraid. Come along.”
They hunted up and down and sideways for some distance along the bluff, and were almost ready to give up, when a branch that Firetop was holding broke and he fell backward down the slope. He rolled over two or three times, and when he stopped rolling and sat up he was looking directly into the mouth of a great dark cave. A lot of stones and dirt came tumbling down with him, and, with that and some noise that Firetop made himself, there was quite a disturbance.
The cave was full of owls, and when the stones and dirt and a boy dropped in on them suddenly, they were very much surprised. No fewer than six of them flew out of the cave, and as they were blinded by the light, they bumped right into Firetop.
Those still in the cave flew about and beat their wings against the rocks. This made a terrible sound in the hollow cave, and besides that, they hooted. Firetop had never met an owl at such short range
before, and his red hair stood straight up on his head, he was so scared. He beat the owls off with his arms and yelled at the top of his lungs.
Firefly heard him and came plunging through the bushes after him. In another minute she too had fallen through the same place and landed beside Firetop. By the time they had picked themselves up, the owls had flown to a shelf on the rock, and there they roosted in a row, staring solemnly at the Twins.
They neither moved nor spoke. Somehow the Twins expected them to speak and say something very reproving. They looked just that way. The Twins didn’t wait to find out what it would be, however. They went crashing through the bushes and back to the top of the rock as fast as they could go.
That afternoon, when Hawk-Eye and Limberleg came home, bringing a young deer on their shoulders, the children told them about the cave and pointed it out from the top of the rock. Hawk-Eye at once threw down the deer and made a fire. Then he took a flaming torch in one hand and his spear in the other and started down the bluff.
“How did you get to the cave?” he asked Firetop.
“We went part way down the bluff and fell in,” said Firetop.
Hawk-Eye laughed. “I’ll see if I can’t find a better way,” he said.
He crept cautiously down the steep slope, and when he reached the cave, he held his torch above his head so as to light the inside of it, and with his other hand he held his spear, ready to kill any wild animal that might be living in it. It was just the sort of cave where one might expect to find wolves at least.
The owls came hooting out again just as they had when Firetop visited them, but nothing else stirred, and Hawk-Eye went boldly in. The cave was quite large, and as it was in a chalk cliff, it was white and clean except where the owls had made their nests.
Hawk-Eye didn’t like the looks of owls. He didn’t like their staring ways. So he tore up their nests and threw them down the bluff.
Then he came out of the cave and began to climb about on the slope, as if he were searching for something. It was not long before he gave a shout of joy and beckoned to Limberleg and the Twins, who were watching him eagerly.
They came bounding down the hillside at once. Hawk-Eye met them at the cave-entrance. “Here’s our home,” he said, pointing to the cave. “Nothing could be better. I have found a spring of fresh water near by! It is safer than any place we have ever found. Go in and see!”
Limberleg went in and looked all about. She was just as pleased with it as Hawk-Eye was. She didn’t even say, “Let’s see if we can’t find another cave that suits us better.”
She just threw her deer-skin down on the floor of the cave and laid her spear on one of the shelving rocks and began to live there right away. They always had their weapons with them, all of them. So there was nothing more to do but start a fire at the cave-mouth and begin to get supper. It was just as easy as moving into a furnished flat.
Hawk-Eye went back to the top of the hill and brought down the deer. He also brought some live fire-brands from the fire he had kindled. With these he started a new fire at the cave-mouth.
While Limberleg cut up the meat and the Twins broiled great pieces of it over the coals, Hawk-Eye took his stone axe and cut a rough path through the underbrush
from the cave-entrance to the spring, and another to the hill-top. The paths were so hidden by tall weeds and bushes that they could run through them without being seen.
When at last they sat down beside the fire at the cave-entrance to eat their first dinner of roast venison in their new home, they felt as rich as—well it’s really quite impossible to tell you just how rich they did feel.
