The Lakewood boys in the South Sea islands

by L. P. Wyman

"'Faith an' we moight as well jump off and say here goes nothin',' I remember Mike said bitterly as he stood there gazing down. But I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back, for I could see that he was in a bad way in his mind.

"'Never say die while there's life,' I told him. 'We've got enough nuts to keep us going for a few days, and no telling when we'll sight a ship.'

"'Sure an' it's nuts we'll both be afore we see one,' he groaned as we started back the way we had come, knowing that we must drink the contents of another cocoanut soon or go crazy. Will I ever forget that walk back? The last hundred feet or so I had to pick Mike up and carry him. You see, although normally possessed of great strength and almost unbounded endurance he had lost a lot of blood from the cut on his head, and I knew that he was mighty weak. Well, he was unconscious when I got him there and put him down in the shade of the thickest of the trees, but after I had opened one of the nuts and poured some of the milk down his throat, he opened his eyes and, for a little while, seemed to be regaining his strength. But I didn't like the flush on his face, and it wasn't long before I knew that the fever had him."

For a moment their uncle paused, and the boys could see tears in his eyes, but he dashed them away with the back of his hand and went on.

"No use going over details. I did what I could do, which God knows was little enough, but he passed out two days later. I dug his grave with a flat stone scooping out the sand and resting when I had to. It wasn't very deep but it was the best I could and I buried him there, one of the best friends I ever had.

"I hadn't had much time to think of myself until it was all over and then I had slept for I never knew how many hours. But when I awoke, I found that there were but four of the nuts left. You see I'd had to get the milk for Mike and, in that hot sun, the meat of them didn't keep long after the nut was opened. From the position of the sun, I judged it must be about nine o'clock in the morning when I opened my eyes and, after I had taken stock of the number of nuts left, for a moment I really envied Mike in his last bed beneath the sand. Four cocoanuts between me and a lingering death from starvation. Can you wonder that I was pretty well down in the mouth?

"Well, I opened one of the nuts and drank the warm fluid and ate the meat. Then, for want of something better to do, I started off toward the rocky end of the island. I remember it was not quite so hot as it had been most of the time, and, although I was feeling none too strong, I finally got there. It was low tide and, as I looked over the cliff, I gave a great shout of joy, for there, at the foot of the rocks, half out of the water, with her nose wedged in between two rocks, was a life boat. I saw at once that it was one of ours which had been carried away in the storm and I hurried to find a way down. I had to go some way to the right before I found a break in the cliff, but I finally got down, and, to my great joy, found that the boat was uninjured. Better still, the small sail with its mast was wedged beneath the seats, and the usual tin of hard tack and keg of water were there and unopened. The oars were also in their place. By this time, I was pretty sure that the island was out of the track of ships, and I resolved to set out at once. But first I could not resist drinking some of the water which, though warm, tasted better than I ever thought water could taste. There was about a gallon of it, and I knew that I must be very sparing of it and only drink when I had to. Well, I hurried back to get the three remaining nuts, munching a piece of the hard tack which I had taken from the tin. The discovery of the boat and its promise of escape had put new life in me, and it was but a short time before I was again making my way down the narrow pass carrying the three precious nuts in my hands.

"I had gotten about half way down when my eye caught sight of something which had escaped me before. It was a small opening in the wall of stone not more than eighteen inches wide and perhaps four feet high. At first I determined to pay no attention to it, for I knew that time was precious, but, on second thought, I told myself that it wouldn't take but a few minutes to investigate, and a few minutes more or less would probably make little difference. So I placed the nuts carefully on the pathway and, stooping, squeezing myself into the opening. Almost at once the passage widened out and, before I had gone a dozen steps I was able to walk upright. Of course it was pitch dark before I had gone ten feet and I had neither match nor flashlight. So I advanced very slowly testing every inch of the way before putting my foot down and keeping one hand against the wall. Although it was hot outside it was actually cold in there and the side of the wall was damp with cold moisture. More than once I was half minded to turn back, but each time curiosity got the better of my judgment and I went on.

"I guessed that I had gone from eighty to one hundred feet along the narrow passage when my hand came to a break in the wall, and, reaching out with my other hand, I found that the opposite wall also had come to an end. I turned to the right, still keeping my hand on the wall, and soon was convinced that I had entered into a chamber of some sort. Then my foot struck something which slipped from beneath it and, reaching down, I picked up what I judged from the feeling to be a very large oyster shell. I got down on my knees, and groping about soon learned that the floor was covered to a depth of a foot or more with the shells, although there were but few of them close to the wall.

"It didn't take me long to make the circuit of the chamber which I found to be nearly square and, so far as I could judge, about twenty feet across. The shells seemed to cover the entire floor except near the walls and there must have been many bushels of them. I broke one of them open and the oyster was perfectly fresh, a fact which led me to believe that at high tide water came in and covered them, though I found no trace of an inlet. Well, I took off my shirt and packed in it as many of the shells as it would hold and made my way out. Raw oysters would, I knew, make a very welcome addition to my menu.