As night came down upon us—or rather dusk, for in those latitudes darkness was never complete—we descended in the manner first patented and approved by Lessaution, a system of travel received with great good-will and jocund outcry by the common sailor men, and then and there resolved by them into a race meeting on first principles. In which sporting event the heaviest weights in collusion with the smoothest breeches were favorites.
This combination appeared in its most perfected form in the person and habit of Mr. Rafferty, boatswain, who out-distanced all competitors. But unfortunately the rapidity of his descent was in inverse ratio to the stoutness of his nether garments, and when he rose from his too facile progress, the company turned from him with feigned unconsciousness and ill-concealed smiles. Poor Mr. Rafferty, his victory thus shamefully dulled, had to seek the shelter of the ship and his Sunday trousers, reappearing after some few minutes clad in the latter, and with a chastened air. Daring with fiery glances the titters of the crew, he thereupon joined us in our work of rolling the great stones below the ship’s timbers.
A couple of hours’ hard work saw buttresses raised sufficiently strong to avert all danger of the ship’s upsetting. From stem to stern we wedged the great boulders firmly beneath her, and alongside the edges of the cleft that gaped below her keel, and were enabled to release the hawsers from the sustaining anchors without causing her so much as a tremble. Then, thoroughly tired out, we sought supper and, finally, bed, too weary to so much as dream of the wonders of this truly astounding day.
It was a lovely calm morning when I got on deck nine or ten hours later; and the sun was pouring down into the rocky hollow, flooding us with uplifting warmth and wholesomeness. Nor did the day lose its brightness when I found Gwen pacing the deck forward, enjoying a bath of sunshine before breakfast.
“Good-morning,” said she brightly, as I stepped up. “Any the worse for your striving with beasts yesterday?”
“I suppose Gerry has let the cat out, then?” I returned. “Too bad of him. There is no good in alarming you unnecessarily.”
“But, my dear Lord Heatherslie, one doesn’t stumble over a Dinosaurus, or a Plesiosaurus, or whatever egregious monster it was, every day of one’s life. I should have been desperately annoyed if he hadn’t told me. I think it’s most delightfully exciting.”
“Do you?” said I dryly. “I think if you’d seen Lessaution squealing in his jaws yesterday, like a rabbit in a snare, you would have agreed that the pleasant excitement was rather discounted by the very unpleasant terror of it. I sincerely hope your mother has heard nothing about it.”
She smiled. “Of course not. Mother has no imagination, and a very practical dislike of the out of place. Not that a Plesiosaurus, or for the matter of that a unicorn, would be out of place in this astounding land. After what we’ve gone through I’m by no means surprised.”
“Please God he doesn’t come straggling down here,” said I devoutly. “What should you have done if he had turned up yesterday when you were all unprepared? I was nearly frantic at the thought.”