“But there may be another way of descent,� she said after a moment. “Oh, let us leave this dreadful island!�
I had no hope that the dinghy had been spared, but its place was not far away and we walked to it in silence. It was gone. A tidal wave had followed the earthquake. The canoes in which the islanders had come had been dashed to pieces and their few keepers killed. The survivors were prisoners on the island unless their friends came to their help, and even then, until they could devise some way of getting down the cliff. And we, too, were prisoners. Some of our gear, the compass, some provisions which I had stored in the crannies of the rock were still there, but they were useless to us. Something else had happened. The earthquake had broken the barrier reef. Before us was a practicable passage to the sea.
If we only had a boat! I turned to the canoes hopeful of finding one seaworthy, and as I did so my Mistress Lucy caught me by the arm.
“Look,� she cried, pointing down the lagoon.
I turned and there, bottom upward, floated the dinghy. The sight of her was like a draught of wine. I turned and ran down the sand, followed by my lady. When opposite the boat I kicked off my shoes, I had on little else but shirt and trousers, jumped into the lagoon, swam to the dinghy and towed her ashore.
BOOK IV
ONCE MORE UPON THE SEAS
The Treasure Is Brought Home and All Is Well
CHAPTER XIX
WHEREIN WE CAPTURE THE SHIP
WE were so excited and exhausted by the terrific experiences which we had just gone through that a sort of frenzy possessed us. I know that word described my feelings and I think it also described my lady’s feelings. We threw the things that we had saved, or that had escaped the earthquake and the tidal wave that followed it, into the boat pell-mell, climbed in ourselves, and shoved off. We could not get away from that island quick enough and we could not get far enough away once we started.
Luckily the oars had been secured to the thwarts, and I shipped them on the rowlocks forthwith, and then I rowed across the lagoon and through the opening in the reef. Indeed, the tidal wave had shattered the reef in various places and for the first time in centuries the sea made clean sweeps of the beach through the many openings. It was not altogether easy to row through the surf but it was child’s play to our first passage over the reef. In spite of all that I had gone through, I felt as one possessed, and the stout ash oars fairly bent to my vigorous strokes. When we cleared the entrance, and got into smoother water, I shipped the oars, stepped the mast I had made during our sojourn on the island to take the place of the broken one, set a small sail I had improvised in idle moments out of some spare canvas which I had luckily found in the after locker together with the remaining pieces left over from my tailoring, and then I came aft and seized the tiller.
My lady had sat silent most of the time, closely watching me, but now she asked a pertinent question.