CHAPTER XIV.
WE START OUT TO LAY A SNARE AND FALL INTO A TRAP.
And now began a period of experiences which was perhaps the most trying of the three chapters which make up the story of this part of our lives. I have divided the time of our stay on the island into three portions. The second chapter begins with the page that I am now writing.
For some days I had been reflecting upon the extreme seriousness of our situation. We should do perfectly well if left quite to ourselves, but how long would that state of affairs continue? Even if the pirates did not return, which I felt that they might do at any time, some band of marauders might discover us. There was no reason that I knew of why the place might not be well known to others, and, if it were, they might prove this later to our discomfort. It seemed to me that in any case we ought to possess two places of retreat. Our second home need not be far from the cave, and near enough the coast that we might see an American ship should one appear. Indeed, we might continue to live in the cave if we so chose, but that we should construct a place of shelter to which we might flee if danger threatened us there, I considered absolutely necessary on our part. I think, however, that what first caused this plan to awake in my mind was the pallor of Cynthia's look. Sleeping in that close cavern, in the bowels of the earth, was not good for any of us, and if not beneficial to strong men who slept near the outer air, how much the worse for her in that inclosed and damp interior. After thinking over this idea of mine for several days, I broached the subject to the Skipper. It seemed to strike an answering chord in his mind, and, as there was no one else to consult, we decided to begin at once.
After breakfast we went prospecting. Our little family accompanied us, with the exception of the Minion. His movements none of us cared to control, for it made but little difference to us how he came or went.
The Bo's'n trailed along behind us, but he was limp and sad and so dejected that Cynthia asked him several times if it would not be better to go back and lie down a while. He agreed with me, speaking in sad and reproachful tones, that the Admiral of the Red might return when he found Mauresco missing, and a more thorough search of the caverns might reveal our presence. Certainly if we continued to live there, having provided no place to which we could flee, we might suddenly be made to feel the weakness of such failure to reckon with the future.
It was at this time that the Bo's'n began to suffer from attacks of toothache. Perhaps I should say face-ache. His cheek would suddenly swell up to the size of a large nut, and at such times he rolled upon the ground in an agony of pain. At these moments the poor man could not articulate distinctly. The attack would come on at the most inconvenient times. Usually when the Bo's'n was needed to aid in anything like an apprehended surprise, he was at the last moment found writhing in misery, his hand held to his face.
The morning after my marriage, then, we started back into the forest with the determination to select a site for a house. Cynthia had not looked at or spoken to me since she upbraided me in the cave, and I, having some spirit of my own, acted as if she did not exist.
We carried with us the knives and machetes we had found. These had been well sharpened, and we hacked at the branches as we went along. Our chief reward was the cabbage of the young palm, which grows beneath the tuft at the top of the tree, and is sweet and tender as a ripe chestnut from the Belleville woods.
As we walked that day there were constant rumblings and groanings beneath our feet, and there were cracklings and mutterings which made the deep wood seem an uncanny and eerie place.