The Boy Miners; Or, The Enchanted Island, A Tale of the Yellowstone Country

by Edward Sylvester Ellis

Suddenly a whim took possession of him to dive beneath it, and examine its construction as he passed along. This plan offered the least danger, and the breadth of the island was such that he could do it with little or no difficulty.

Sinking softly downward until he reached the lowest point, he struck rapidly out, and had taken but one stroke beneath the surface, when he came abruptly upward, and as he threw his hands above, felt nothing but the water. The next moment, to his unbounded surprise, he found that he was in the center of the island, which enclosed him on every side. In fact, it was a floating circle, the middle portion being open and full of water.

George felt around until he placed his hand upon a support, when he came to the conclusion that he had advanced another step in the solution of this mystery, but the step had taken him into as blank darkness as had the first move he made.

Here was proof that the Enchanted Island, as he had named it from his first impression, was the careful work of human hands, although why it ever should have been made was totally unexplainable. In the midst of his meditation on this point, he was not a little startled to observe, by the increasing light of the moon, the figure of a man, undoubtedly a sentinel, who, by the nodding of his head, was either half or wholly asleep.

Which was a very fortunate thing for Mr. Inwood, otherwise he could not have failed of discovering himself to him. Sheltered by the shade of the shrubbery, he made as hasty examination as possible of the contour of this interior basin, but could discover nothing more than that it was oblong in shape, and quite even around its edges.

It was while engaged in this survey that the man arose and looked down into the water, as if he saw something suspicious.

“There’s something there!” he muttered in an audible voice, “and I’ve heard it more than once. It’s a queer fish, I think.”

The queer fish, at this juncture, deemed it prudent to sink down and retreat to the outer surface of the lake, which place he reached just in time to see his man standing along shore with a huge pole, as if watching for him to rise. Fortunately, he was so close to the shore, as to be in shadow, and, feeling his way along, he speedily reached land, where he waited until his friend’s attention was called in another direction, when he crawled out, somewhat weakened by his long habitation in the water.

But the object of his reconnoisance, so far as possible, was obtained, and he set out on his return. He experienced some difficulty in recovering his clothing, but succeeded at last, and started rapidly homeward. He was not a little alarmed upon reaching the place to find that neither Jim nor Edwin was there.