There were now continued mutterings, and suddenly, as is sometimes the case in the island, a thunderbolt shot from a clear sky and split a great tree near.
"Run!" called the Skipper, "run, the tempest is upon us!"
The rumblings underground increased. The whole earth seemed to shake. I ran with the child to the great hall, the Skipper going with the others to our own cave. When I reached the pirates' entrance I dashed in and along to the familiar apartment. One idea possessed me. I remembered the hole in the rock where the Minion had found the jewels, and it seemed to me to be a fitting place of burial for the dead babe, besides which I wished to prevent the conducting of any more ceremonies by the Skipper. I ran to the small passage which the Bo's'n had discovered, placed the child in the square receptacle, and raised the stone and leaned it against the opening. I turned to flee from this place of horrors. Running out, I met the Minion in the passageway.
"Where are you going?" asked I. I heard something about "look" and "jools."
"Come out!" said I. "There is a tremendous storm brewing. No one knows what may happen." But the Minion, intent, I knew, upon finding the fortune of which we had robbed him, pulled away from me and hurried into the cave. As I emerged from the entrance, there was a tremendous rush of wind. It whirled round and round, and then the entire Globe seemed to be cracking open. Such a crash I hope I may never hear until the Day of Judgment. The top of the cave seemed to break off and slide down. The dust and earth arose in a blinding cloud and nearly choked me. Great splashes of rain fell like blows upon my face, and then there was another fearful gust of wind, and the water poured from the clouds like an ocean. It deluged me. It threw me upon the ground. The branches of the trees waved and shook and swashed up and down, and thrashed the grass and bushes beneath them. Some of them were split off and were strewn upon the earth. Some were carried straight over the bank and out to sea. Some were whirled up in the air and came tumbling down upon other treetops. Some were uprooted and laid low. I feared to move. I also feared to remain lying there. I knew not where the Minion was. The thunder was bellowing beneath, above, around me. The lightning, it seemed to me, was playing among the very treetops over my head. I raised myself as well as I could. I advanced one step at a time. I clung to the branches and roots and vines. I was buffeted and blown about and slapped in the face and thrown again to the ground. Sometimes a branch to which I clung for safety was wrenched from its parent stem as I held it, and before I could let go I was lifted from my footing. I crawled and crept and struggled on up one side of the hill, then down the other. The fury of the hurricane was greatest on the summit, and I wondered as I fought with the elements if I should ever see Cynthia's face again. But perseverance and a strong clutch will sometimes overcome even a hurricane, and after a long bout I came off conqueror, and found myself within the welcome entrance to our side of the cave. Here I sank down exhausted.
Fortunately the storm did not last long, but wore itself out like a mad person in a foaming rage. Its passion exhausted, there was a sudden lull, and the setting sun shone placidly upon the wrack and devastation it had made. I had not been able to look at the water during the progress of the hurricane, but those who had reached the cave before me said that the ocean was swept with great masses and waves of foam. Its direction being outward, the swells were not tossed upon the shore, which was an excellent thing perhaps for us. As I stood in the window where the vines were hung with a thousand sparkling diamonds, I looked in vain for the wreck. The Yankee Blade had at last found her resting place. She had slid off into the sea and had gone down to join her sailor lads.
The hurricane had cut a path of about an eighth of a mile in width, and there devastation had been rampant. On either side of this trail of the fury of destruction, there was little evidence of the warring of the more passionate child of Nature against his quiet and gentle brother. Although our house stood not more than a half mile from the track of the tempest, beyond a severe tropic downpour from the eyes of Mother Nature over the violence of her wayward son, there was little evidence that the god of the wind had passed that way.
When I lay down to sleep that night the Minion was missing, but no one thought much about it. He always turned up again to the discomfort of every one, and much too soon.
We decided to remove into our new house as soon as the forest had lost the dampness which the hurricane left behind. It does not take long in that tropic land for the sun to dry up the water left on the grass and leaves, and by afternoon we were ready to start for our new home. The Bo's'n came to me before we left the cave and said that we were to be treated exactly as other shipwrecked mariners had been from time immemorial, for he said that some of the cargo of the vessel had come ashore, and that he had seen boxes and barrels floating in the water. We had no need to take the boat and pull out to meet this fresh supply of food, for the tide and regular wind of the trades washed them up anywhere from half a mile to a mile along the beach. When we had a spare moment we went down and rescued a box or a barrel. The boxes were for the most part water-soaked, but when they contained salt provisions it made little difference to us.
A description of the food that came to us in this way, like manna from Heaven, would only prove tiresome to all concerned. Few shipwrecked people have died for want of food, and we were not an exception. We had enough and to spare, but husbanded our resources carefully, and thus we were never in absolute want.