“I say, Hargrave, I might try my hand at building a pig-sty,” said Lord Reginald. “I doubt that I am capable of any higher style of architecture, but I think I can accomplish that.”
“At first it occurred to me that we might build one,” answered Dick; “but I now think that it would occupy too much of our time, as it must be a very different style of structure to our turtle-pen. This fellow would soon knock down any building, unless very strongly put up. I should be sorry to see your lordship engaged in such work.”
“‘Your lordship,’ you should say, ‘is not capable of so stupendous an undertaking,’” remarked Lord Reginald, laughing. “But I say, Hargrave, you are forgetting our compact. Call me ‘Reginald’ or ‘Oswald,’ which you please.”
“I beg pardon,” said Dick; “but if this fellow cannot be taught to behave himself, the sooner we turn him into bacon the better, and we can keep his companion in the pit until we want him to undergo the same process.”
As the boat was now really begun, their work could be carried on without interruption. Dick, the next day, took another excursion in search of the coffee berries he had seen, as well as of any other vegetable productions of the island. After searching for some time at the further end of the island, he discovered the pods he had before seen, which were now completely ripe. Examining them carefully, he was convinced that they were coffee berries. He accordingly collected as many as he could put in the sack he had brought, thankful that they would afford a useful and agreeable beverage to his companion. A short time afterwards, he came upon a wilderness of canes, which he had before mistaken for bamboo, and on tasting them, he was convinced that they were sugarcanes, probably the remains of a plantation, long ago deserted. He cut a bundle, hoping that he and Lord Reginald might design some plan for extracting the juice and turning it into sugar. He was about to set off with his burden—a pretty heavy one—when to his astonishment, and no small dismay, he felt the ground shake beneath his feet. This unusual circumstance was followed almost immediately afterwards by a deep hollow sound, and on looking up, he saw, in the direction of the cave dense masses of smoke issuing forth, followed by lurid flames, while several streams of lava began to flow down the hill. As the lava, however, took a course towards the sea, in an opposite direction to where he was standing, he watched for some moments the eruption, instead, as some people might have done, throwing down his load and running away from the neighbourhood. Satisfied, at length, that it was not increasing, he turned his steps homewards. He found Lord Reginald, who had felt the earthquake, and had been watching the volcano in activity, very anxious about him.
“I am thankful to see you back, Hargrave,” he said. “Though no harm has happened, one thing is certain, that it will be wise in us to try and get our boat finished as soon as possible, so that, should the hill have another blow up, we may make our escape.”
“I hope that matters will not come to such a pitch as to drive us off the island,” answered Dick; “but if you are well enough to-morrow, we will begin work in earnest.”
“I am well enough to begin it at once,” was the answer. “What have you got there?”
Dick showed the contents of his sack.
“Coffee berries, to a certainty,” said Lord Reginald, tasting one of them. “All we have now to do is to roast and grind them. I am capable of doing that, at all events, and now let me taste one of those canes? Sugar, no doubt of it. Why, if that burning mountain doesn’t drive us away, we may live on here in luxury for months to come.”