“You may have it certainly, but I wouldn’t advise you to try it.”
While Archie stood perplexed and bewildered, wondering how he ought to apologize to the man for addressing him in such a way, the latter continued, “I think your friend has given up the idea of going out.”
Archie looked toward Eugene, and saw that he was standing with his boots in his hand, gazing intently toward the water. He glanced in the same direction, and was just in time to see a swimmer overtaken by a huge comber, and carried out of sight in an instant. Archie was greatly alarmed, and expected to see the man dashed stunned and bruised on the beach; but presently a head bobbed up and out of the water beyond the breaker, and the bold swimmer, still safe and sound and undismayed by his failure, struck out for another trial, diving under the waves as they came rolling in, and finally made his way to the smooth water, half a mile from shore, where he waited for another high swell to carry him in. That was as near as Archie and Eugene ever came to trying their skill with the surf-board. One picked up his jacket, the other pulled on his boots, and as both these acts were performed at the same time, neither could consistently accuse the other of backing out.
The first excursion the Club made from Hilo was to a bay, with an unpronounceable name, on the opposite side of the island, the scene of Captain Cook’s death; and the next was to the volcano of Kilauea, the largest active crater in the world. The trappers, who accompanied the Club wherever they went, set out on this last expedition with fear and trembling. The boys had explained to them the theory of volcanoes as best they could, and to say that the backwoodsmen were astonished would but feebly express their feelings. They had never heard of a burning mountain before, and they were overwhelmed with awe. The statement that there was a hole in the ground three miles long, a mile broad, and a thousand feet deep, containing two lakes filled with something that looked like red-hot iron, was almost too much for them to believe; but the Club promised to show it to them, and so the trappers mounted their horses and set out with the rest. But they went no farther than the Volcano House, at which the party stopped for the night. The Club and Uncle Dick took up their quarters in the house, but the trappers preferred spreading their blankets on the veranda. Some time during the night the rainstorm, that had set in just before dark, cleared away, and old Bob, who happened to be awake, suddenly caught sight of something that terrified him beyond measure. He aroused his companion, and the two sat there on the veranda until morning looking at it. The top of the mountain which had been pointed out to them as the volcano, seemed to be on fire, and now and then sheets of flame would shoot up above the summit, lighting up the clouds overhead, until it seemed to the two anxious watchers that the whole heavens were about to be consumed.
By the time daylight came they had seen enough of volcanoes, and emphatically refused to go another step toward the crater. There was something up there, they said, that must be dreadful to look at, and they didn’t want to get any nearer to it. The boys went, however, and descended into the crater, and filled their pockets with chunks of lava, saw the burning lakes, breathed the sulphurous fumes that arose from them, walked over a fiery, molten mass from which they were separated by only fourteen inches of something Uncle Dick said was cold lava, but which was still so hot that it burned the soles of their boots, and finally came back to the Volcano House again at five o’clock, with minds so deeply impressed by what they had seen that it could never be forgotten. They did not have much to say about their journey—they wanted to keep still and think about it; but when at last their tongues were loosed, the burning lakes were the only subjects of their conversation until the new and novel sights of another country took possession of their minds and thoughts for the time being.
The trappers were also wonderfully impressed, though in a different way. They were frightened again, and after that they had many long and earnest debates on the subject of an immediate return to America. But when they came to talk it over and ask the advice of others, they found that there were many obstacles in their way. Dick Lewis remembered and feared the boarding-house keeper, while old Bob was afraid to trust himself to any vessel besides the Stranger. Neither he nor Dick wanted to cross the Pacific again, for what if one of those big “quids,” or the mother of that baby whale they had seen, should meet them and send them to the bottom? No, they dared not go back, and they dreaded to go on. There were dangers before as well as behind. New and wonderful sights were being brought to their notice every day, and there were many others yet to come that they had often heard the boys talk about. There were animals called lions and tigers, as fierce as panthers, only a great deal larger and stronger, some of which were so bold that they would rush into a settlement in broad daylight, and carry off the first man that came in their way. There were other animals called elephants, that stood as high at the shoulders as the roof of Potter’s rancho, whose teeth weighed fifty pounds apiece, and one of whose feet was so heavy that it took two strong men to shoulder it. There were serpents so enormous that they could crush and swallow a deer or a human being, and others so numerous and deadly that more than thirty thousand people had died in one year from the effects of their bites. And, more wonderful than all, here was Uncle Dick, who had brought them safely through so many dangers, and who had met and vanquished all these monsters, and he was going straight back to the countries where they were to be found! He was going to take his nephews and Frank there too, and the reckless youngsters were eager to go. The trappers couldn’t understand it. They didn’t mind an occasional brush with Indians and grizzlies—they rather enjoyed it; but the thought of a single man boldly attacking an animal as large as a house was enough to terrify them.
The trappers talked these matters over at every opportunity, and finally decided that they would rather meet the dangers yet to come, provided they could do so in Uncle Dick’s company and Frank’s, than go back alone and face those they had left behind them. They announced this decision quietly, like men who had determined to bravely meet the fate they could not avert, and suffered themselves to be carried away to new countries and new dangers on the other side of the Pacific.
CHAPTER II.
THE GALE.
The Sandwich Islands having been thoroughly explored, the Stranger set sail for the harbor of Hilo, and shaped her course across the Pacific. Japan was the Club’s destination, but they were in no hurry to get there, and besides there were objects of interest to be seen on the way. There were numerous islands to be visited, and among them were the Mangroves. The boys were anxious to see the place where the fight with the natives occurred, and Uncle Dick, yielding to their entreaties, told Frank to take the schooner there, a command which he gladly obeyed. The boys would also have been delighted could they have seen the village which had been burned by Frank’s orders. They tried to induce Uncle Dick to let them go there, giving as a reason for this insane desire that possibly the savages might be holding other prisoners whom they could release. But the old sailor settled that matter very quickly. He wasn’t going to put his vessel and crew in danger for nothing, that was certain. The boys might go ashore after terrapins if the schooner stopped in the bay over night, and that was all they could do.
When they arrived in sight of the principal island, and had approached within a mile of the beach, Uncle Dick said to Frank: