Smugglers' Island and the devil fires of San Moros

by Clarissa A. Kneeland

They had plenty of eggs and clams, however, and an occasional quail or rabbit; so they did not need to waste any time searching for food. Davie and the little girls wandered off to play with the little bone dolls or the baby burro. Marian glanced toward them or stopped to listen sometimes, but the sight of their little forms near by or the sound of their sweet, childish voices reassured her, and she continued with the task in hand.

A man who understood such things would have done much better even with those rude tools. Time and again it seemed to the girl that she could do no better, go no further in the task; then some idea would come to one or the other of them, and they would work awhile longer. A full week went by before the new tool was finished, a two-pronged affair, one prong a little longer than the other and of a different shape, but both sharp and barbed. It fastened quite snugly to the straightest of the new handles.

After that she and Delbert went spearing at night in the little harbor, when the tide was just right and the children were asleep. They would go out on the raft where there were mango bushes, but for this they had to have a torchlight at one end of the raft.

They had often seen the Indians at the Port start out at night with great piles of pitalla in their canoes to burn in a huge wire and iron basket, which would cast a bright circle of light for quite a space around, in which the fish could be plainly seen. Marian thought that the light attracted them.

This pitalla is a kind of tree cactus the bark of which is very resinous and when dry burns with a very hot, bright flame. They could gather it in the pasture, but they had no wire basket and nothing to make one of. The best, it seemed, that they could do was to make a mat of green banana leaves and mud on the poles and build the fire on that.

It was very unsatisfactory, for the water was forever washing over it and putting it out. Necessity is the mother of invention, however, and after a while Marian hunted in the pasture till she found four little crotches of the same size, which she cut and trimmed and then fastened on the extreme end of the log by tying them above and below it and to one another. Then, by laying little sticks across them, she made a platform which rose about three feet above the surface of the water. She made it quite tight by weaving in stout twigs and banana leaves and stems, and when it was finished, she plastered it over with the slimiest mud she could find, and on that laid thin flat rocks, fitting them with care so that their edges projected past the edge of the platform and filling in the little chinks with mud and pebbles. On that when it was finished, she could build her fire with safety, for it was up out of reach of the water. It was not so good as the iron basket of the Indians, for it was clumsier, it cast a shadow on the water, and there was likelihood of its needing frequent repairs; but it would serve. The supply of fuel could be kept dry by putting it into the barrel, which was tied on so that its open side and end were upward.

When they were first left on the Island, Marian would not have dared take those night trips. She would not have dared leave the children alone at the Cave for one thing, but in all the time that they had been there they had seen nothing which could have harmed them save the one rattlesnake which Delbert had killed.

From the Cave they had cleared three paths,—one to the beach, one to the garden and the little pier, and one toward the pasture. This last had needed no clearing beyond the cutting-out of two or three bushes. The path to the pier had been mostly a matter of clearing away loose stones, and it was easy to follow even in the dark.

However, it was only when Davie was sleepy that the children were left at the Cave. When he gave promise of being able to keep awake, they all went together. Marian would place him on the log between the little girls and give them strict instructions that they were not to let go of him. Then she and Delbert would take turns with the spear and the steering of the craft.

And when she had her little flock all with her, Marian would venture out beyond the little harbor, where the water was shallow and the mango bushes were thicker, and as long as their fuel lasted they would stay out.