“Shove in your stick, Nub; and if the water comes a foot beyond it, we must lift our anchor and risk the falling trees,” said the mate.
Nub did as he was bid, and then springing back, crouched down again under the rock, with his eyes intently fixed on the stick. Sea after sea came roaring up, but the surf did not get so far as the stick. Another came with a roar very much louder than its predecessors, and Alice felt the mate half rise with her in his arms, while the doctor seized Walter’s hand. On came the surf with a roaring hiss, high enough apparently to sweep a strong man off his legs; but it barely reached the stick, and went rushing back again as rapidly as it had advanced.
The mate sank down once more into his seat. “Unless the tide rises higher, we are safer where we are than we should be anywhere else,” he observed.
The tide apparently was not rising, for though the surf rolled over the sand, the fiat had gone forth, “Thus far shalt thou come, and no further.” Still the occasional sound of falling trees, and the crashing of boughs rudely rent off, showed that the storm continued with unabated fury.
Daylight came stealing silently over the tumultuous ocean, still tossing and foaming before them; but there the explorers sat safe from harm, sheltered beneath a rock which no tempest could move. They did not forget to kneel and offer up a morning prayer, returning thanks for their preservation.
“I tink Missie Alice hungry,” said Nub at last. “I go and get de fish and de oder tings we leave at de camp.”
The mate, though anxious to obtain food and water, especially for Alice, was unwilling to let the black risk his life. But Nub promised that he would keep his eyes open, and rush out of the way should he see any branches likely to fall.
He soon came back, carrying a single small cask of water and one bundle of dried fish.
“All de rest washed away,” he exclaimed in a disappointed tone. “De turtle still dere, too, but de tree fall down and crush him. Still I tink I get meat enough for dinner.”
This was not satisfactory news; for though they might obtain water after all the rain that had fallen, they could not replace the sago flour; nor would it be satisfactory to eat the raw turtle, and it would be impossible to light a fire unless the sun should shine forth and dry the wood.