CHAPTER XXVI.
"WHAT WAS THE MYSTERY SURROUNDING THAT STRANGE VESSEL?"
In the isle of Good Hope clumps of fine cocoa-nut-trees grew close to the sandy beach, and single, very large, pandanus, trees not far off. This pandanus or screw pine I have already mentioned; it is a truly marvellous tree, and bears truly marvellous fruit or drupes. This fruit is treated in various ways, and after a time a taste for it is acquired, so that it becomes quite an article of diet, and is relished even more than cocoanut; for this soon palls on one. But even the flowers of this tree are edible, at least Quambo and Cassia-bud found them palatable enough, though the others much preferred their perfume. Quite a quantity of the leaves of the pandanus were cut down to be used as thatch for the huts. They are long, strong, and tough, and being fastened on with string make very excellent thatch indeed.
It is in connection with this tree that I have now to relate an adventure, which it will be owned was of a very startling character indeed.
About two hundred yards from the camp, and about seventy from the beach, grew a clump or grove of pandanus. Some of the trees therein were very tall and spreading, and in addition to their aerial roots had let down props or stays from the upper branches to help them to sustain the weight of the branches. It was up these prop-roots that Quambo or Cassia-bud used to shin to cut down leaves or flowers.
It was the custom of Fred and Frank, of an evening after dinner, to take a walk back and fore on the sand, and they were usually accompanied by Cassia-bud and his friend Hurricane Bob.
One evening while strolling quietly in the clear starlight towards the pandanus grove they were surprised to see the great dog suddenly pause, and pointing towards the dark trees utter a low and ominous growl; but they were still more astonished, and not a little frightened, to note almost immediately after what appeared to be the form of a gigantic man stalk from out the shadow, and walk with a curious rolling shambling gait towards the sea. About half-way down he stopped, standing out clear against the snow-white sands, and fiercely waved his long arms in the air, but made no sound.
A more awful apparition it would be difficult even to imagine. Cassia-bud dropped half dead with fear on the sand, uttering only a sound that was half cry, half moan, as from one in a nightmare. Both Fred and Frank experienced a fearful kind of impulse to rush towards the terrible being, but next moment it dashed on towards the sea, into which it threw itself with a loud splash.
"In the name of heaven," cried Frank, "who or what was that?"
"Some dreadful mystery," replied Fred, "that I cannot solve. Come," he added, "you are superstitious, Frank."
"I am, for once in a way, Fred. If that wasn't an evil spirit, then no such being exists in the world, What did it seem to you like?"