Bob, too, was indefatigable in his exertions in my behalf; now ranging the woods with his airgun, in search of a species of pigeon which he had discovered; anon going away in the canoe (in which Ella had escaped, and which he had contrived to retain) to the rocks, and bringing in sundry delicately-flavoured fish; and then off to the woods again for fruit, of which the island afforded any quantity of various kinds.
At length the day arrived when I was considered strong enough to listen to Bob’s story, and be made acquainted with all that had occurred since the disastrous afternoon of our walk on the south side of the island.
“You must know,” he began, “that as soon as I left you and your precious little dearie here ashore, I went straight away back to the channel, and anchored the craft in a bit of a nook in the first reach, where I thought as I should find some sport. Well, I didn’t get so much as a nibble, and, at last—whether ’twas the heat of the sun, or what ’twas, I can’t tell ye—I dropped clean off to sleep. How long I slept I can’t say, but I was woke up by the tug-tugging of the line, which I’d made fast with two or three turns round my finger. I started to haul in, and had got my fish very nigh out of water, when he broke away, and I lost him. I was just baiting my hook afresh, when I thought I heard your rifle; and I fancied I’d overstayed my time, and that you was firing a signal to jine company. So I rouses up my killick, and makes sail; and whilst I was doing it, I hears two reports, one close upon t’other. I guessed at once’t that something was amiss; so I crowds all sail upon the craft, and steers as straight as she would go for the p’int. Whilst I was running down towards it I fancied I heard a shout, though I couldn’t be sure, but you may depend upon it I was now pretty anxious to get round the p’int, and see where you was and what was going on. As soon as I cleared it, I sees you and dearie hurryin’ towards the beach, as though somethin’ was amiss, but what it was I couldn’t at first make out, until I see’d the blackies jump out of the bushes, and then I knowed at once what a reg’lar fix you was in. I see’d ye fire at ’em, lad, and bring ’em up with a round turn, and my fingers was just all of a itch to be alongside of ye with one of them same revolvin’ rifles in my fist, though I’m, a’ter all, no great matter of a shot. Well, I see’d ye run, and I see’d the little lady here step into the canoe and lie down; and then in course I knowed what you was after, so I shapes a course accordin’. You knows what foller’d, lad, but you don’t know, and I can’t tell ye, what I felt when I saw ye struck down almost within reach of my arm, and dragged away by them incarnate devils. It seemed to me as though every mother’s son of ’em was fighting for the first blow at ye, and I gave ye fairly up for lost, sartain. But there warn’t much time for thinkin’, for some of ’em started to launch their canoes at once’t in chase of dearie here, and I only had jist time to sheer alongside and take the craft in tow, when they was afloat and a’ter us. I stood away to the south’ard, hardly knowing what I was doin’, and soon ran away from ’em hand over hand. I was getting little miss here out of the canoe into the boat the best way I could, for she’d fainted, when the idee comes into my old head that if I could but entice the whole lot of ’em to chase me, I might lead ’em far enough away to give ’em the slip and run back and get your body—for I never doubted but what you was dead. So I goes for’ard and lets run the main-halliards, and down comes the sail, accidental like. The niggers gives a shout as soon as they sees this, and I hauls my wind as though I couldn’t go no further to leeward without my mainsail; and, sure enough, the trick answered to perfection, for the whole posse of ’em comes scurryin’ down to the beach, launches their canoes, and shoves off, paddling like mad to the south’ard, to cut me off. ‘All right, my hearties, go it,’ says I; ‘but,’ says I, ‘you haven’t the pleasure of knowin’ a sartain Robert Trunnion,’ says I, ‘if you supposes as you’re going to carcumvent him that a-way.’ So I lets ’em come well up with me, and the nearer they got, the louder they yells, and the harder they paddles; and you might ha’ thought by the row that all hell had broke loose, as perhaps it had, or them devils wouldn’t ha’ been there. Well, I’d got the main-halliards led aft to where I was sittin’, and as they closed, I gently sways the sail up, a few inches at a time, and keeps grad’lly away, until we was all spinnin’ away dead to the south’ard, they paddlin’ like fury, and I just keepin’ far enough ahead to be out of range of their harrers. We’d run, I s’pose, a matter of four knots, when I sees that the reef sinks lower and lower below the water; and by the time that we had gone another couple of miles, there was unbroken water all over it. So I edges easily away to the west’ard, they following, till we’d got an offing of about four miles from the shore, and there was a tidyish jump of a sea for ’em to paddle ag’in, though I know’d ’twould make no matter of difference to the boat; and then I gives the tiller to the little lady, who’d come round ag’in, goes for’ard and h’ists the sail full up, and then hauls sharp up and goes about, keeping as straight away for the bay ag’in as I dared for the reef. The devils set up another yell at this, and round they goes like tops, heading about east, to cut me off; but I soon see’d as they was pretty well done up—for I’d kept ’em paddlin’ all they knowed, in the hopes of coming up with me—and I felt satisfied as I’d be able to get back in time to get your body and be off ag’in afore they could overhaul me. Well, you knows that part of the story too; so it needs no telling. Directly you was in your cot, I rouses the gun out of the cutter into the boat, takes a goodish lot of cartridges, shot and shell with me, and out I goes ag’in, fallin’ in with the rascals just off the nor’-western end of the cliffs. They was hugging the shore pretty close, and I was dreadful afraid as they knowed the cove, and was bound in there. So as I’d loaded the gun afore starting, I just gives ’em a shell, right into the thick of ’em, and that seemed to sicken ’em all at once; for they ups helm, and away they goes faster even than they’d come, and I a’ter ’em. The first thing I did was to get between them and the land; and as soon as they see’d that there warn’t no chance of gettin’ ashore and takin’ to their cursed woods ag’in, away they all goes helter-skelter for our passage, and directly they was fairly in it, I heaves the boat to, loads the gun ag’in, and a’ter ’em once more, for I was detarmined that I’d drive ’em fairly out to sea, and then blow ’em all to hell, where they come from; and—to make a long story short—that’s just what I did, lad: bearing down upon a canoe until I couldn’t miss her, and then plumping a shell into her at one end and out at t’other. I tarred the whole lot with the same brush, except one little craft with only four hands in her, and she I chased clean out to sea altogether, givin’ ’em a shot close past ’em, as a freshener of their energies, just as I hauled my wind; and if ever they gets back to their own country—wherever ’tis—I’ll bet my life they’ll never be for coming to this here island ag’in.”
Such was Bob’s story, and such the end of the adventure, for though we remained at the island nearly seven weeks, we never saw any further signs of savages.
In about a month from the date of the adventure, I had so far recovered as to be able to hobble about a little, a few yards only at a time; and then I began to regain strength rapidly. By the end of the following week I was able, with the assistance of Bob’s strong arm, to get as far as the cascade every morning, and take a bath; and this, too, helped me on wonderfully towards entire convalescence. My wounds had closed, and were by this time so far scarred over that I was able to dispense with all dressing and bandages, and we began to talk about making another start, finally arranging to do so as soon as the new moon attained her first quarter, which would be in another fortnight.
It was, I believe, on the Sunday following this arrangement that Bob set off the first thing after breakfast to attempt an ascent of the mountain, he having discovered, as he believed, a spot at which an active man with good nerves might surmount the natural impediments which existed near the base.
I cautioned him to be very careful for our sakes as well as his own, for I was still too weak to afford him any very effectual assistance in the event of a mishap: and a broken limb half-way up the mountain-side would have been death to him just at that time.
Ella and I were, of course, society for each other, and we wandered about the lawn-like ravine and reposed at frequent intervals beneath the grateful shade of the trees, in blissful oblivion of the passage of time, waiting quite contentedly until Master Bob chose to rejoin us, which he faithfully promised he would in time for dinner.
At length, however, the position of the sun in the western heavens warned us that the hour named was long past, and I proposed a walk as far as the head of the ravine, hoping to meet the truant returning. We walked slowly, my strength not yet being sufficient to permit of very active exertion, and by the time that we reached the point aimed at, the entire landscape was flooded in the lovely pinky-purplish haze which immediately precedes sunset. Still no Bob made his appearance, and I began to grow seriously alarmed. We waited another half-hour, and then, just as the sun was about to disappear in the purple western wave, and we had made up our minds to return to the cutter, thinking he might possibly have passed down the ravine on its opposite side, he made his appearance.
To my surprise, he seemed singularly uncommunicative, and we could get but little out of him beyond the fact that he had, with very great difficulty, reached the summit, and found my conjecture as to its being an extinct crater correct. He thawed a little during dinner, and volunteered the information that he had seen land far away on the southern board—nearly or quite a hundred miles distant, he supposed—and had seen the loom of land to the westward, or about west-north-west, and also to the northward. He was of opinion, he said, that our late enemies had come from the land seen to the southward and were bound north, touching at our island on their way, on some marauding excursion, as he had been able completely to sweep the island in every direction from the commanding elevation of the mountain-top, and had detected no sign whatever of “niggers” in any direction. With this he dropped the subject and adverted to my condition, questioning me solicitously—unusually so, I fancied—as to how I felt, the extent of my strength, where we had been, and what we had seen. He was particularly curious on this latter point, and asked the same question so repeatedly that Ella made some laughing remark, I forget what, upon it, and he carefully avoided any further repetition of it for the remainder of the evening, at least as long as Ella was with us.