“Nothing of the sort!” cried Peterkin indignantly; “I only lost my wind, and if I had not had presence of mind enough to kick as I did, I should have bu’st in your arms!”
“Well, well, so be it,” resumed Jack with a smile.—“But the upshot of it was that we had to hold another consultation on the point; and I really believe that had it not been for a happy thought of mine, we should have been consulting there yet.”
“I wish we had!” again interrupted Peterkin with a sigh.—“I’m sure, Ralph, if I had thought that you were coming back again I would willingly have awaited your return for months rather than have endured the mental agony which I went through.—But proceed.”
“The thought was this,” continued Jack—“that I should tie Peterkin’s hands and feet with cords, and then lash him firmly to a stout pole about five feet long, in order to render him quite powerless and keep him straight and stiff. You should have seen his face of horror, Ralph, when I suggested this! But he came to see that it was his only chance, and told me to set about it as fast as I could; ‘for,’ said he, ‘this is no jokin’, Jack, I can tell you, and the sooner it’s done the better.’ I soon procured the cordage and a suitable pole, with which I returned to the cave, and lashed him as stiff and straight as an Egyptian mummy; and, to say truth, he was no bad representation of what an English mummy would be, if there were such things, for he was as white as a dead man.
“‘Now,’ said Peterkin in a tremulous voice, ‘swim with me as near to the edge of the hole as you can before you dive; then let me take a long breath; and as I sha’n’t be able to speak after I’ve taken it, you’ll watch my face, and the moment you see me wink—dive! And oh,’ he added earnestly, ‘pray don’t be long!’
“I promised to pay the strictest attention to his wishes, and swam with him to the outlet of the cave. Here I paused. ‘Now, then,’ said I, ‘pull away at the wind, lad.’
“Peterkin drew in a breath so long that I could not help thinking of the frog in the fable, that wanted to swell itself as big as the ox. Then I looked into his face earnestly. Slap went the lid of his right eye; down went my head, and up went my heels. We shot through the passage like an arrow, and rose to the surface of the open sea before you could count twenty.
“Peterkin had taken in such an awful load of wind that, on reaching the free air, he let it out with a yell loud enough to have been heard a mile off; and then the change in his feelings was so sudden and great that he did not wait till we landed, but began, tied up as he was, to shout and sing for joy as I supported him with my left arm to the shore. However, in the middle of a laugh that a hyena might have envied, I let him accidentally slip, which extinguished him in a moment.
“After this happy deliverance, we immediately began our search for your dead body, Ralph; and you have no idea how low our hearts sank as we set off; day after day, to examine the valleys and mountain-sides with the utmost care. In about three weeks we completed the survey of the whole island, and had at least the satisfaction of knowing that you had not been killed. But it occurred to us that you might have been thrown into the sea; so we examined the sands and the lagoon carefully, and afterwards went all round the outer reef. One day, while we were upon the reef, Peterkin espied a small, dark object lying among the rocks, which seemed to be quite different from the surrounding stones. We hastened towards the spot, and found it to be a small keg. On knocking out the head we discovered that it was gunpowder.”
“It was I who sent you that, Jack,” said I with a smile.