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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/22554-8.txt b/22554-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..149b446 --- /dev/null +++ b/22554-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11844 @@ +Project Gutenberg's As It Was in the Beginning, by Philip Verrill Mighels + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: As It Was in the Beginning + +Author: Philip Verrill Mighels + +Release Date: July 29, 2011 [EBook #22554] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: FOR A MOMENT OR MORE THERE WAS ABSOLUTE STILLNESS IN +THAT GRASSY ARENA] + + + + +AS IT WAS + +IN THE + +BEGINNING + + + +BY + +PHILIP VERRILL MIGHELS + + +Author of _The Furnace of Gold_ and _Thurley Ruxton_ + + + + +New York + +Desmond FitzGerald, Inc. + + + + +Copyright, 1912 + +By DESMOND FITZGERALD, INC. + +_All Rights Reserved_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I. A TRUSTED MESSENGER + II. AN UNEXPECTED OUTBURST + III. A MIDNIGHT TRAGEDY + IV. THE NIGHT AND MORNING + V. THE ISLAND + VI. VARIOUS DISCOVERIES + VII. A GREWSOME GUARDIAN + VIII. PRIMITIVE CONDITIONS + IX. THE MOTHER OF INVENTION + X. THE MASTER POACHER + XI. A MYSTERY + XII. AMBITIOUS PLANS + XIII. A MIDNIGHT VISITOR + XIV. TRUANTS OUT OF SCHOOL + XV. A NIGHT IN THE JUNGLE + XVI. A DEAD MAN'S SECRET + XVII. FEVERISH EMPLOYMENTS HALTED + XVIII. AT THE TIGER'S KILL + XIX. GRENVILLE'S RADIANT STAR + XX. A GIRDLE OF GOLD + XXI. MOLTEN METAL AND HOPES + XXII. A TOMB OF STONE + XXIII. A DESPERATE CHANCE + XXIV. A DREADED VISITOR + XXV. AN IRREPARABLE LOSS + XXVI. AFTER TO-MORROW---- + XXVII. A FATEFUL EXPLOSION + XXVIII. WHAT THE BLAST DISCOVERED + XXIX. AN INTERRUPTED DIVERSION + XXX. REVEALING AN INTENT + XXXI. THE SILENT VISITORS + XXXII. DEATH AS A BROTHER + XXXIII. THE GIRL BEHIND THE GUN + XXXIV. DYAK DARTS AND METHODS + XXXV. A BATTLE IN THE SMOKE + XXXVI. THE LAST CUP OF WATER + XXXVII. A BREATHLESS MARGIN + XXXVIII. GRENVILLE'S DESPERATE CHANCE + XXXIX. ADDITIONAL HEAD-HUNTERS + XL. PLOT AND COUNTER PLOT + XLI. A LIVING BAIT + XLII. LONG HOURS OF DOUBT + XLIII. THE HOUR OF CLIMAX + XLIV. A LOTUS BLOSSOM + XLV. THE LAST BOMB + XLVI. A GIFT REFUSED + XLVII. A FRIEND IN NEED + + + + +AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING + + + +CHAPTER I + +A TRUSTED MESSENGER + +Grenville was not the type to be readily excited, yet a glow of +exceptional brilliance shone in his eyes as he met the searching gaze +of his friend, and wondered if Fenton could be jesting. + +That he had made no reply whatsoever to Fenton's proposition he failed +to realize till Gerald spoke again. + +"Well, Sid," demanded that impetuous lieutenant of finance, "gone dumb? +Perhaps I haven't made it plain," and he particularized on his fingers. +"You get an ocean trip of eight or ten weeks' duration, tropic sun at +its best, leisurely business without a fleck of bother, absolute rest, +good provender, thorough recuperation, your entire expenses cheerfully +paid, vast service rendered to me, no time lost on your equilibrator, +time for countless new inventions to sprout in your fertile brain--and +the unutterable joy of escaping this abominable climate, practically at +once!" + +Grenville's smile, still brightly boyish, despite the many reverses and +hardships of his six and twenty years, came creeping to his eyes. His +wan face suggested a tint of color. + +"Don't wake me up for a moment, Fen," he answered. "I haven't dreamed +anything like it for years." + +"Dreamed?" repeated Fenton, resuming his interrupted pacing up and down +the rug, where the firelight reddened his profile. "Does that mean you +like it?--you'll go?" + +"Would Cinderella go to a ball?" replied the still incredulous +Grenville, half seriously. "What's the joker, old chap? What is the +worst that could happen at the midnight stroke of twelve?" + +Fenton came at once and laid his hands on the broad, bony shoulders of +his friend. + +"Have I ever played a joker with you yet?" said he. "Never mind the +apology. I forgive you. I understand the compliment. Proposal sounds +too good to be true, and all that sort of rubbish. The fact is, old +man, I want you to go to Canton, China, and bring home my affianced +bride. That's absolutely all there is to the business. You need the +change and voyage; I haven't the time to go out there and fetch her +myself. Elaine is alone in that heathenish country, miserably +heartsick over her uncle's sudden death. She wishes to return at once. +I can't let the poor girl come alone. I've no one in the world but you +I'd care to send--and there you are." + +The glow departed from Grenville's eyes. His doubts of any proposition +with a woman in the case lurked deep in his level gaze. His face +became once more the rugged mask with which he had so long confronted a +world persistently gray. The smile he summoned to his lips was more +quizzical than mirthful. + +"It sounds perfectly simple," he replied. "But--you know there are +several tales, recorded in prose and verse, of kings who have sent a +trusted messenger on precisely such an errand. The joker somehow +managed to get into play." + +"Just so," agreed Fenton, readily. "Three or four times in a thousand +cases the girl and the--er--messenger rather thoughtlessly--well, a +complication arises. The percentage, however, is excessively low. +We'll consider that a negligible possibility. You see, I know both you +and Elaine, and I am not a king. The question is--will you go?" + +Grenville was always amused by Fenton's arguments. + +"I have seen no statistics on the subject," he admitted. "In this +particular instance you think there is not the slightest danger?" + +"Of finding in old Sid a modern Launcelot?" Fenton turned his friend +about till both of them faced down the length of the room. "Well," he +added, "to be sure----" + +Grenville's quick glance had sped to the massive mirror, ten feet away, +where both himself and Fenton were reflected from heels to crown. He +comprehended in a glance the ill-clothed, thin, ungainly figure he +presented: his big hands hanging loosely down, his face too ruggedly +modeled, too sallow for attractiveness, his hair too rebellious for +order. + +A Launcelot indeed! The irony of the situation struck home to his +sense of humor. + +"Have a look," continued Fenton, his nervous glance indifferent to his +own athletic fitness, the perfect grooming of his person, the grace and +elegance of his tailoring. "Do you discern anything of the disloyal +ambassador in that hard-worked friend and comrade of my happiest +years?" His eyes gleamed irresistibly. "You see, old chap, you have +trusted an invention of perhaps incalculable worth to my honor, and +must leave both your fame and possible fortune in my keeping while you +are long away." + +"Yes, but----" + +"I know, exactly. This is the sort of thing you and I have always done +by one another. I had no thought of refusing your trust in me, and +so--I have booked your passage for Wednesday." + +He turned again to the mantel and began to fill his pipe. + +Grenville pivoted slowly and rubbed the corner of his jaw. + +"You have--booked my passage--for Wednesday?" + +Fenton nodded. "Elaine is quite desolate and lonely. You need +immediate sunshine and warmth, and can do no good remaining here. Fine +day all round for starting, Wednesday, and no boat sailing sooner. +There are one thousand dollars in that wad by the statue of Anubis, for +your outfit and incidental cash." + +Grenville glanced mechanically at the dog-headed god of the ancient +Egyptians, apparently guarding the money towards which Fenton had waved +a careless gesture. + +"One thou----" + +"If it isn't enough, draw on my bankers for more," interrupted Fenton, +puffing at his calabash industriously. "I have written Elaine so fully +you'll have nothing to explain." + +"By George!" said Grenville, more aggressively, "I like your nerve--the +way you'd plunge me into trouble! Do you think I'm a mere senseless +rack of wires and bones because I'm not my usual self? What's to +prevent me from falling head over heels---- What's the rest of her +name--Elaine what? And you probably have her photograph somewhere +among your possessions." + +"Her full name," Fenton answered, moving to the desk beside the mirror, +"is Elaine Lytton--twenty-one this month. We've known each other seven +years." He returned, extending a small-sized photograph. "Fine girl. +That's her picture. Good likeness--sent me last winter from China." + +Grenville studied the photograph superficially. He used it to tap on +the table as he once more faced his host. + +"About as I expected," he announced with his customary candor. +"Nice-looking girl--nothing extra, perhaps, but nice enough. Now tell +me how any healthy male friend of yours can guarantee not to fall in +love with Elaine, on a long, lazy trip through the tropics," and he +cast the picture from him towards the lamp. + +Fenton relighted his pipe. "Well, suppose he did commit the folly you +describe, what then?" + +"What then?" echoed Grenville, incredulously. "By the long, curved +lashes of Juno's eyes, if I were the man you'd certainly see what then!" + +"All right," said the imperturbable Fenton. "I accept your conditions, +fully, and about your outfit I'd suggest----" + +"Hold on!" interrupted Grenville. "I haven't accepted your commission, +much as the trip----" + +"The trip!" said Fenton. "Ah! that's the point! I insist on your +making the trip, you see, and taking the rest. Fetching Elaine from +China is merely incidental--only don't forget her completely and come +back here empty-handed." He sat down to wrestle with his pipe. + +Grenville looked at him amusedly. + +"Now, see here," he said, "don't you make the slightest mistake, you +confident old idiot. If I should just happen to fancy Elaine, I +wouldn't give you twenty cents in Mexican money for your chances at the +wedding bells and trimmings." + +"Then you'll go!" Fenton suddenly exploded, springing to his feet. +"Come on, that's settled--shake." + +But Grenville retreated from the outstretched hand, a queer smile +playing on his features. + +"Hang your infernal self-conceit," he answered; "you don't think I +could win her if I tried." + +"I don't believe you'll try." + +"That isn't the point. I might. If I loved her I would, you can bet +your final shoe peg! Your proposition isn't fair--subjecting a man, +and a friend at that, to possible temptation, all kinds of treachery, +and a war between love and duty. Rot that kind of duty! I want you to +know that if I take the trip and happen to fall in this muddle with +your girl, I'm going to pitch your infernal old duty game overboard in +less than two seconds and go in and win her, if I can!" + +"Well, what's all the row about, after that?" inquired Fenton as +before. "Haven't I said I accept your challenge? Go out there and +fetch her, that's all. As for the rest--win her, if you can!" + +"I don't say I'll try to win the girl. I may not like her for a cent." + +"Then why all this futile argument and waste of valuable time?" + +"But I may--confound your egotistic nerve, and your insistence! And I +warn you, Fen, I mean every word, in case----" + +"I understand--I understand you fully, without repetition," Fenton once +more interrupted. "For Heaven's sake, give me your hand, old man, and +cease firing." + +"You meant it, then--no strings on the proposition?" + +"Not a string--absolutely not a string." + +A strange new thrill of pleasure crept into Grenville's being, warming +his thin, anæmic pulses suddenly, as he met Fenton's gaze and once more +permitted his thoughts to dwell on all the proposal embraced. Since +Fenton refused to be worried concerning himself and the girl who +supplied the motive for the trip, then why should he consider it +further? Elaine was, in fact, swiftly fading from his reflections. + +All his nature yearned towards the tropic seas. All his overwrought +frame and substance ached for the long, lazy days of indolence, rest, +and recuperation that alone could restore him to himself. He had +always longed for precisely this excursion to the far-off edge of the +sphere. His faculties leaped to the new-made possibility of a contact +with the ancient world, heretofore so wholly inaccessible. + +Already new color had come to his face and a new blaze of fire to his +eyes. Privations and toil, those two unsparing allies that had made +such inroads on his health and strength, seemed fading harmlessly away. +The prospect was far too alluring to be resisted. There was no good +reason in the world for refusing this favor to a friend. + +The brightness of face that had ever made him so lovable, came +unbidden, there in the glow. + +"I suppose I'll have to go," he presently admitted, "if it's only to +win your girl." + +"Shake," said Fenton; and they shook. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +AN UNEXPECTED OUTBURST + +The sea is an ancient worker of miracles in amazing transformation, but +rarely does it bring about a more complete or startling metamorphosis +than that which was wrought upon Grenville--trusted messenger for a +friend. + +Long before the shores of Cathay loomed welcomely upon his vision he +had lost all sense of weariness or depression, and likewise all that +worn and gaunt appearance of a large, thin frame inhabited by a dogged +but thoroughly exhausted spirit. + +He was once more his strong, bold, interested self, merry of speech, +bright-eyed, untamed in his buoyant nature, lovable, thoughtful of +those about him, impetuous, and never to be repressed. He had flirted +uninterruptedly with all the old women and the children on the outward +voyage, and was now as cheerfully repeating this gay performance on the +steamship "Inca," homeward bound, on which he was certainly the +favorite of the crew and his fellow-passengers. + +The fortnight passed with Elaine upon the sea had been wholly +uneventful, save for the vast commotion astir in Grenville's being. +The worst that could happen, he told himself, had happened. His daily +deportment towards his charge had baffled, piqued, and amused that +young lady alternately, and convinced her that here was a brand-new +specimen of the genus man with which she had never had a genuine +experience. + +She found him boyish, unexpected, apparently indifferent, and even +unaware, at times, of her existence on the vessel, then fairly +effervescent with deviltry that left her all but gasping. He was not +to be classified, fixed, or calculated, save in certain traits of +fearlessness, generosity, and kindness to those most needful of a +helping smile, a merry word, or a spell of relief from daily cares. + +He commanded a certain admiration from the puzzled girl, but as yet her +actual feelings towards him were quite unanalyzed. She was constantly +finding herself astonished at the scope and variety of his information; +she was glad to listen when he talked; she was frequently touched to +the very heart by his tender care of one or two frail little beings on +the ship to whom much of his time was devoted. + +There they were, with the situation between them apparently commonplace +to dullness--till this one particular day. + +It was not a common day on the ocean. Despite the fact he was neither +mariner nor meteorologist, Grenville felt some vast disturbance +impending in all the lifeless air, regardless of the fact the barometer +was steady and the calm, rainless spell had been exceptionally +prolonged. It was not precisely a premonition that addressed itself to +his senses; it was something he could not explain. + +A wave of heat passed swiftly through his body, leaving a strange +excitement in its train, as he paused for a second to wonder if the +"symptoms" he sensed were concerned not at all with sea or weather, but +wholly with Elaine. + +He admitted the love--the wild, free, passionate love that had swept +him away, past all safe anchorage, with her entry into his existence. +He had made no effort to conceal it from himself, to deny its +overwhelming force. He had cursed Gerald Fenton most heartily and +consistently for casting him into this maelstrom of conflicting +emotions, and daily and nightly he had waged mighty war with that +fortunately absent individual, who had calmly accepted his challenge. + +The trouble had come unbidden. Elaine was so wholly different from the +girl represented by Fenton's photograph! The picture had seemed so +lifeless--and she was so gloriously alive! That one fact alone seemed +sufficient excuse to Grenville for all that had happened to him since. +He had not been fully informed, he argued, respecting her wondrous +charms. + +The two weeks mentioned, with Elaine at his side, had certainly +accomplished the world-old complication once more, despite all his hard +and honest struggling. When the fight had ceased he did not even know. +What Elaine's private attitude was towards himself he had taken no time +to inquire. That part mattered less than nothing at all--at least as +concerned the present. He had warned old Fenton what to expect, but +now--by the gods--how deeply he was mired in the quandary! + +He was certainly mighty hard hit, he confessed, but meantime was +equally positive that the singular something he plainly felt, invading +the air and telling its message to some faint, imperfect sense of his +being, had nothing whatsoever to do with this business of passionate +emotions. Yet not a sign of uneasiness on the part of officers and +crew could his keenest wit discover, in any quarter of the iron craft +plowing steadily on across the sea. + +He had climbed to the topmost deck of the ship, where he and a +carpenter, who was hewing out a boat thwart with a gleaming adze, were +temporarily alone. It was not Grenville's manner of wooing to hover +beside Elaine throughout the day or evening. He had done no wooing, as +a matter of fact, beyond assuming a somewhat bold but unoffending +guardianship, which she might have found refreshing had it not so +frequently taken her breath with its very matter-of-factness. + +At the present moment, as Grenville was well aware, she was somewhere +down on the shaded portion of the promenade, where the erstwhile stir +of tropic air had ebbed to utter sluggishness and finally expired. One +of the purser's young assistants, dressed in wrinkled white duck, was +dumbly adoring at her side. + +Impatiently banishing Fenton from his thoughts, Grenville gazed idly at +the sultry sky, and as idly at the carpenter, wielding the polished +adze. When a deckhand presently called this workman away, Grenville +took up the implement left behind, felt he would like to swing it just +once at the root of the complication now arisen between himself and his +distant friend--on whose money he was voyaging--and whose sweetheart +his nature demanded for a mate--and, replacing the tool on the +weathered planks, he thrust both hands in his pockets and paced to and +fro, beside a pair of inverted lifeboats and a raft, that occupied most +of the deck. + +He finally flung himself down on a hatch, in the shade of a +white-painted funnel, and plunged his warring faculties into +concentrated study of a problem in mechanics involved in a new +invention. On the back of a letter, drawn from an inside pocket, he +drew black hieroglyphics, that to him were wheels and levers that +relieved his state of mind. + +Absorption claimed him for its own. The swift, weird changes of the +sky and atmosphere escaped his engrossed attention. He was not even +aware of her presence till Elaine had been standing for fully five +minutes, a few feet only from his side. + +When he looked up at last and beheld once more that singular glow and +beauty in the depths of her luminous eyes, and felt the subtle flattery +involved in the fact she had come to the place to find him, seek him +out, a flood of tidal passion surged to his outermost veins. + +It was just the one straw too much, this unforeseen encounter, with the +smile upon her lips. His sturdy resolutions all went down in utter +confusion before the wild gladness of his heart. Yet he made no +outward sign for Elaine to read. + +Calmly, to all appearances, he placed the letter in his pocket. + +"I hope," said Elaine, "I haven't disrupted anything important." + +He arose and gazed at her oddly. + +"You have, Elaine," he answered, in a voice he strove hard to control. +"You've not only disrupted everything heretofore moving along its +accustomed path of order, law, and calm, but you've also upset all +sorts of established institutions and raised some merry Hades." + +A spirit of the lively old Nick was infusing with his youthful blood as +he stood there gazing upon her. Elaine, however, either failed to +detect its presence, or she failed to understand. + +"I?" she said, "Mr. Grenville. I'm sorry. What have I done?" + +He could not have done the conventional thing, the deliberate, calm, or +expected thing, to save his immortal soul. His nature was far too +honest, too unabashed. He came a step nearer--and then she knew, but +she could not have moved at the moment had death been the oncoming +penalty for remaining where she stood. She had never been so startled +in her life. + +They two were absolutely alone and unobserved. Of this the impulsive +Grenville was aware--and the knowledge had fired a certain madness in +his being he was powerless to quell. + +"Elaine," he said, as he suddenly caught her unresisting hands, "you've +put old Fenton entirely out of the game. You're going to marry me." + +She was dimly conscious of pain in her hands, where he crushed them in +his ardor. But her shocked surprise was uppermost, as she faced him +with blazing eyes. + +"Mr. Grenville!" she said. "Mr. Grenville--you---- To say--to +speak----" + +"Elaine," he interrupted gayly, bright devils dancing in his boyish +eyes, "it simply couldn't be helped. We were intended to meet--and +were cut out for one another. So the hour must come when you'll pitch +old Gerald's ring in the sea by order of the very Fates themselves!" + +She snatched away her hands in indignation. + +"For shame!" she cried in rising anger, her whole womanly being aflame +with resistance to all his growing madness. "You haven't the slightest +right in the world----" + +"Right?" he repeated. "Right? I love you, Elaine! I love you! +Haven't I said----" + +"Oh, the treachery--the treachery to Gerald!" she cut in, with swiftly +increasing emotion. "To say such things when your honor----" + +"Wait!" he interrupted, eagerly. "I told him what he might expect from +any such arrangement. I warned him precisely what might happen. He +understood--accepted my conditions--made it a challenge--declared if I +tried I couldn't win! And now----" + +"You can't--you can't!--you can't!" she cried at him, angrily. "To +think that Gerald--to think you'd dare----" + +He suddenly caught her in his arms and crushed her against his breast. +He kissed her on the mouth, despite her struggles. + +"Elaine," he said, "you are mine--all mine--my sweetheart--my +comrade--my mate!" + +She finally planted her fists against his throat and thrust him from +her in fury. + +"You brute!" she answered, sobbing in her anger. "I hate you--I loathe +you--despise you utterly! I wish I might never see your face again!" + +"I'll make you love me, Elaine," he answered, white at last with +intensity and deep-going passion. "I'll make you love me, as I love +you--as madly--as wholly--as wondrously--before ever we two get home." + +Already Elaine was retreating from the place. + +"Never!" she answered, wildly. "Never, never, never!--do you +hear?--not if it takes this boat a hundred years!" And gropingly, +almost blinded by her sense of shame and rage, she fled from the deck +and down the stairs, leaving him shaken where he stood. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A MIDNIGHT TRAGEDY + +Not the slightest alarm had invaded the ship, when Grenville finally +urged his senses back to the normal, notwithstanding the unaccustomed +suddenness with which the aspect of the day had been reversed. + +The storm broke at last, about one in the afternoon, with a deluge of +rain and an onslaught of wind that seemed for a time refreshing. The +huge steel leviathan appeared to elevate her nose, give her shoulders a +shake that settled her firmly in the gray disorder of the elements, and +then to accept the rude old contest with a certain indifference, born +of well-established prowess. + +By two o'clock there was nothing refreshing suggested. A dull, +stubborn struggle was waging in the drab of a wild and narrow field of +commotion. Chill, musty billows of air, made thick by something that +was neither scud nor mist, pounced heavily upon the laboring "Inca" in +a manner chaotic and irregular. The sea was rising sullenly, its +waves, like tumultuous cohorts, with ragged white banners, ceaselessly +advancing. + +With an easy, monotonous assurance the great device of steam and iron +plugged steadily onward. It could ride out a sea of tremendously +greater violence. It knew from long experience every crest and every +abyss of these mountains of air and water. It met huge impacts +majestically, with a prow that cleaved them through, while its huge, +wet bulk plowed up its mileage with a barely diminished speed. + +Few of the passengers were actually alarmed. A storm evolved so +suddenly, they were confidently informed, would expend itself in one +brief spasm of impotent fury and subside almost as it had come. It was +all some mere local disturbance that the spell of dry, calm weather had +accumulated too swiftly for any save a violent discharge. + +Discomfort increased to a certain pitch; locomotion about the saloon +became impracticable. The crew alone remained upon their legs. It +seemed like the climax to the storm. But another stage swiftly +developed. + +It might have been somewhat after three P.M. when a shroud of darkness +settled from the heavens, its substance foreign both to cloud and sea. +It was thicker than before, and decidedly more musty. As black as +night, but unrelated to all ordinary essences of darkness, it wrapped +the stormy universe in Stygian folds with a suddenness strangely +disquieting. + +The cataclysm followed almost instantly, as if from behind a concealing +curtain. It came in dimensions incredible, a prodigious wall of +rumpled water, like a mobile mountain chain. It towered forbiddingly +above the quivering vessel for one terrible moment of threat, then +confusion, utter and seemingly eternal, plunged roaringly over and +under the helpless ocean toy of steel, submerging the very sea itself +in Niagaras of sound and weight and motion. + +A hideous shudder quivered through the feeble plaything of the +elements. Strange, muffled thunderings, sensations of oblivion +sweeping miles deep across the ocean, and a horrible conviction of the +ship's insignificance, impressed themselves pellmell upon the senses, +while ebon blackness closed instantly down, like annihilation's swift +accompaniment, and the hull seemed sinking countless fathoms. + +Such a moment expands to an æon. Doom seemed an old acquaintance when +a complex gyration, a sense of being flung through space, and a +reassertion of the engine's throb preceded the struggle to the surface. +Yet it seemed as if no miracle of buoyancy and might could survive till +the great steel body rose once more to the air. Men held their breath +as if they must drown if the top were not immediately achieved. + +A stupendous lurch, an incredible list to starboard, another streaming +by of immeasurable torrents, and the steamer wallowed pantingly out +into daylight once again, to flounder like a thing exhausted till she +steadied once more to the roll and pitch of the former storm-driven sea. + +There had been no time for any man to act till the monstrous thing had +come and gone its way. As helplessly as all the others, Grenville had +clutched at the table, there beside Elaine, while death passed and +roared in their faces. He had gone to her chiefly for appearances, yet +quite as if nothing had happened, despite their scene above, while +Elaine had issued from her stateroom in terror of the storm. It was +not till new, sharp sounds of activity broke on his senses, from above, +that Sid left her side and went to inquire concerning the sum of their +damage. + +His face had lost a shade only of its usual cheerfulness, when he +finally returned. The ship was rolling heavily, fairly in the trough. + +"Our rudder is gone, with six of the lifeboats and as many men," he +told his charge, whose courage he had previously gauged. "The worst is +undoubtedly over. We can steer with the screws, sufficiently to make +the nearest port." + +"Our rudder!--half a dozen men," Elaine faintly echoed, her brown eyes +ablaze with dread and sympathy, as she steadied from the shock of +Grenville's news. "What was it? How did it happen?" + +"A tidal wave. There must have been a huge volcanic disturbance, +doubtless under the sea. Or it may have been an earthquake, +tremendously violent. Nothing else, according to the Captain, could +account for a storm so sudden, or for all this strange thickness of the +air. He is confident now of our safety. The storm may subside in an +hour." + +There was not the slightest cessation of the storm, however, till eight +o'clock in the evening. Even then the night continued thick and wild. + +Fortunately the sea was vast and deep. There was nothing known in two +hundred miles on which the ship could blunder. Hour after hour the +crippled "Inca" limped erratically onward, buffeted helplessly here and +there, and scalloping angry abysses of darkness and water, as first one +screw and then the other was driven full speed, or slowed to half, or +reversed altogether, to hold her nose to the altered course that would +finally fetch them to a port for highly essential repairs. + +The rage of the elements, abating at last a trifle, had far exceeded +the Captain's expectations. And when at length the center was passed, +and comparative ease had supervened, the wind was still a considerable +gale, while the sea would run high till nearly morning. + +The passengers, however, were sufficiently assured to retire at a +fairly early hour. Elaine had readily responded to Grenville's +matter-of-fact instructions, and, long before midnight, was fitfully +sleeping, although she had not undressed. + +When eight bells struck from the bridge somewhere above him, Grenville +still sat on the edge of his berth, rumpling his hair with one vigorous +hand, while the other prisoned a book on his knee with a piece of white +paper upon it. The paper was literally covered with mechanical designs +and hieroglyphics, involved in his latest problem. + +He arose at last, removed his coat, and began to fumble with his tie. +His eyes were fixed upon his paper. The problem's spell was cast again +upon him. He sank, as before, to his inconvenient seat, and drew yet +another design. + +How long he remained there, tranced by the lines that represented +levers, gears, and eccentrics, the man could never have stated. He was +dimly subconscious it was time to go to bed, and from time to time one +hand would return to his collar. As a matter of fact, the hour was +past one of the morning. + +Then, of a sudden, apparently beneath his very feet, the frightful +_thing_ occurred. + +It came all together--the grinding crunch, the colossal upheaval of the +ship's great belly full of vitals, the scream of iron ripped from iron, +the roar of steam from broken pipes, and the tremor of death-throes, +shuddering thus promptly down to the canted bow and stern from the +wedge-shaped split amidships. + +They had struck on a rock, upheaved by the earthquake, where a hundred +fathoms of crystal brine had existed the previous noon! + +The hideous conviction of doom and horror sped as swiftly as the shiver +of destruction to the farthest confines of the vessel. Screams far and +near, hoarse bellowing, a shrill, high pæan of mortal fright, and +sounds of disordered scurrying followed with a promptness fairly +appalling. + +Grenville waited for nothing. As well as the most experienced officer +on board, he realized the significance of the impact, the ship's awful +buckling, and the quiver stilling the creature's heart--the engines +that had ceased at once to throb. + +His door had been flung widely open. Before he could reach the turning +of the corridor, the one electric bulb, left glowing for the night, +abruptly blackened. But he knew the way to Elaine. + +He seemed to be plunging through a torture hall, so hurtling full was +the darkness of fearful cries and confusion. The broken hulk of the +steamer slightly lurched, as the plates broke yet farther apart. +Sidney was flung against a cabin wall, but he righted and pitched more +rapidly down the already canted passage. + +"Elaine!" he called. "Elaine!" + +"Yes!" she answered. "Yes! I can't get out!" She was not at all in a +panic. + +Someone, a man, rushed headlong by and nearly bowled Grenville over. +He was spilling golf clubs from a bag and calling for the steward. + +Grenville caught at the knob of Elaine's hard-fastened door and threw +his weight upon it. A stubborn resistance met his effort. The frame +had been distorted by the splitting of plates and ribs. The wedging +was complete. + +"Stand back!" he called out sharply. "I must break it in at once!" + +He knew they were late already--that swarms of beings, nearer the +exits, were wildly pouring from the ship's interior, to be first to the +boats, so fatally reduced in numbers. + +With all his might he hurled his shoulder against the door, that merely +creaked at his impotent assault. The hall was narrow. He could gain +no momentum for his blow. The second and third attack made no +impression. + +A clammy sweat exuded from his forehead. That the sea was tumbling +torrentially into the helpless vessel he knew by countless indications. +Elaine must perish helplessly in her trap, could he not immediately +force the barrier. He suddenly got down, full length, upon the floor, +braced his shoulders against the opposite cabin, and, with knees +slightly raised, placed both his feet against the door. Then he +strained with superhuman strength. The door remained immovable, but +its paneling slightly cracked. + +Meantime the shrieks, the shouts, the roaring of steam, and the +terrible chaos of destruction had increased to a horrifying chorus. +The corridor was filling with hot, moist vapor from the burst pipes. A +dozen stokers had perished. Fire had attacked a portion of the vessel +abaft the midships section. + +Once more, with a wild, fanatic conjuring of energy, Grenville spent +himself upon the door--and a panel snapped out, flinging little +splinters on Elaine. In a fury of desperate activity the man on the +floor beat out more with his driving feet. + +"It's large enough! It's large enough!" cried the girl as the orifice +widened. "Don't wait to break it larger!" + +She was now fully dressed, having swiftly prepared for any sort of +emergency. A candle, provided from her bag, was glowing in her hand. + +This she thrust forth for Grenville to take, and then, with deliberate +care, she wormed her way out through the jagged hole with the confident +skill of a child. + +"Not there!" called Grenville, as she hastened ahead to gain the +forward companionway. "Everybody's there, all fighting for their +lives!" + +He caught her actively about the waist, as a further lurch and settling +of the "Inca" would have hurled her to the floor. Down through a +shorter passage and up a strangely tilted stair he drew her rapidly, +his heart assailed by a sickening fear of what their delay might have +cost them. Yet less than five minutes had actually passed since the +first vast shock of disaster. + +They emerged to a portion of the slanted deck that seemed to be utterly +deserted. A gust of wind blew out the candle. The sky was clear. An +uneven fragment of the aging moon shone dully on the broken ship, +whence fearful sounds continued to arise. + +Only one of the boats had been dropped to the tide--to be instantly +whirled _inside_ the parting steamer, on the torrent filling her mighty +belly, where the latest lurch had laid her widely open. + +Grenville ran to the starboard rail for a glance towards the struggle +farther forward. There, about the impotent crew, laboring hotly with +people, boats and davits no longer adjusted to normal working order, +the wildest confusion existed. + +A boat that hung out above the sea was filled with screaming beings. +Some madman arose and slashed with maniacal fury at the rope of the +blocks, to hasten the craft's descent. Of a sudden its bow shot +perpendicularly downward, its stern still high in the air. Its cargo +dropped out like leaden weights, while the empty shell, like a +pendulum, swayed to and fro above the smothered cries. + +To join such a throng would be but to choose a larger company in which +to perish. Grenville saw that the steamer must presently drop from her +rock and sound illimitable depths. This could hardly be delayed for +more than ten minutes longer. + +A sickening qualm assailed his vitals at the thought of Elaine, doomed +to drown thus helplessly, along with himself and the others. He knew +that not only were the boats insufficient, but there was no time left +to load and launch them! + +Then, at length, he remembered the life-raft on the roof. Once more, +with his arm supporting Elaine, he clambered up a tilted stairway. The +place was deserted. The raft was there--but securely fastened to the +planking, fore and aft and at the sides! The ropes that bound it down +were thick and doubled! + +With his knife the man attacked them desperately. The blade broke out +of the handle when one strand only had been severed. His second blade +was small and useless for such a labor. + +He groaned, for a ghastly tremor was seizing the "Inca" as she hung +above some crumbling abyss for a final plunge to the bottom. Then the +moonlight gleamed on the carpenter's adze, which had slid down the deck +to the railing. He darted upon it like an animal, and, hastening back, +swung it with swift and savage blows that severed the ropes like cheese. + +"Quick! Quick!" he shouted to Elaine, as he flung the implement from +him; and, catching her roughly about the waist, he bore her face +downward beside himself, full length upon the raft. + +It was already slightly in motion, where the ship was toppling to her +grave! + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE NIGHT--AND MORNING + +With a rattle and scraping along the deck, the device with the two +prone figures desperately clinging to its surface, was halted and +tilted nearly level as it struck a spar and partially mounted upon it. + +A sudden glare lit up the scene where the fire had burst through +shattered windows. Screams yet more appalling than those already +piercing the gale arose with the movement of the vessel. A picture +grotesque and monstrous was for one awful moment presented. The huge +iron entrails of the vessel heaved up into sight with her breaking. +Her funnels, masts, and superstructure pointed outward, strangely +horizontal. Innumerable loose things rattled down the decks. She +belched forth flame and clouds of steam, against which one huge iron +rib, rudely torn on its end to the semblance of a giant finger, seemed +pointing the way to inscrutable eternity. + +The lantern, up at the "Inca's" masthead, describing an arc as it swept +across the heavens, was the last thing Grenville noted. He thought how +insignificantly it would sizzle in the sea! Then he and Elaine, with +raft and all, were flung far out, by the suddenly accelerated velocity +of the doomed leviathan, turning keel upwards as it sank. When they +struck, their puny float dived under like a crockery platter, shied +from some Titanic hand. + +With all his strength the man clung fast to Elaine and the lattice-like +planking of their deck. It seemed to Grenville, still submerged, he +could never resist the force of the waves to wash them backwards to +death. It appeared, moreover, the raft would never return to the top. +A million bubbles broke about his ears. He felt they were diving to +deeps illimitable. + +With a rush of waters drumming on their senses, it shot precipitately +upward at last, till air and spray greeted them together. Then, sucked +deep under, anew, and backward, by the gurgling vortex where the ship +had gone, and swirling about, pivoting wildly, as the raft now +threatened to plunge edge downward to the nethermost caverns of the +hungry sea, they met a counter-violence that forced it once more +towards the surface. + +The boilers had burst in the steamer's hold, with confusion to all +those tides of suction. Erratically diving here and there, a helpless +prey to chaotic cross currents in all directions, the float swung +giddily in the mid abyss, while the water walls baffled one another. + +Elaine, even more than Grenville, was bursting with explosive breath +when, at length, the raft came twisting once more to the chill, sweet +region of the gale. And even then strong currents drew it fiercely in +their wake before it rode freely on the waters. + +Dripping and gasping, Grenville half rose to scan the troubled billows +for companions in distress. Not a sound could he hear, save the swash +of the waves. Not a light appeared in all that void, save the distant, +indifferent stars. + +Elaine, too, stirred, and raised herself up to a posture half sitting. +She was hatless. Her hair was streaming down across her face and +shoulders in strands too wet for the wind to ravel. Her eyes were +blazing wildly. + +"The ship?" she said. "What happened?" + +"Sunk." He stood up. Their platform was steadying buoyantly as it +drifted in the breeze. "I can't even see the spot," he added, +presently. "We couldn't propel this raft to the place, no matter who +might be floating." + +"It's terrible!" she whispered, faintly, as one afraid to accuse the +Fates aloud. "Couldn't we even---- You think they are all--all gone?" + +"I'll shout," said Grenville, merely to humor the pity in her breast. +His long, loud "Halloo" rolled weirdly out across the wolf-like pack of +waves, three--four--a half dozen times. + +There was not the feeblest murmur of response. Yet he felt that, +perhaps, one boatload at least might have sped away in safety. + +"God help them!" he said, when the silence became once more +insupportable. "He only knows where any of us are!" + +"After all we'd been through!" she shivered in awe. "If only we two +were really saved---- Oh, there must be land, somewhere about, if the +Captain was trying to reach a port! But, of course, this isn't even a +boat, and, perhaps, it will finally sink!" + +He tried to summon an accent of hope to his voice. + +"Oh, no; it will float indefinitely. It's sure to turn up somewhere in +the end." + +"We haven't food--or even water," she answered him, understandingly. +"What shall we do to-morrow?" + +"We are drifting rapidly northward. We may arrive somewhere by +to-morrow.... You'd better sit down. It taxes your strength to stand." + +"God help us all!" she suddenly prayed in a broken voice, and, sinking +lower where she sat, was shaken by one convulsion of sobbing, in pity +for all she had seen. She had no thoughts left for their earlier, +personal encounter. + +For a time Grenville stood there, braced to take the motion of the +raft. The wind continued brisk and undiminished. Aided by tides, +which had turned an hour earlier, to flow in its general direction, it +drove the raft steadily onward over miles of gray, unresting sea. + +The water slopped up between the slats whereon Elaine was sitting. She +was cold, despite the tropic latitude. She was hopeful, only because +she wished to contribute no unnecessary worry to the man. + +Grenville at length sat down at her side, but they made no effort to +converse. Elaine was exhausted by the sickening strain and the shock +of that tragic end. For an hour or more she sat there limply, being +constantly wet by the waves. She attempted, finally, to curl herself +down and make a pillow of her arm, and there she sank into something +akin to sleep. + +Gently Grenville thrust out his foot and lifted her head upon the +cushion of flesh above his ankle. The night wore slowly on. Three +o'clock came grayly over the world-edge, where the waves made a +scalloped horizon. + +Slowly the watery universe expanded, as the dawn-light palely +increased. By four Grenville's gaze could search all the round of the +ocean, but nothing broke either sky or sea. + +Five o'clock developed merely color on the water, but no sign of a sail +or a funnel. Elaine still slept, while Grenville, cramped almost +beyond endurance, refused to move, and thereby disturb her slumber. + +But at six, as he turned for the fiftieth time to scan the limited +horizon, he started so unwittingly, at sight of a tree and headland, +flatly erected, like a bit of sawed-out stage scenery, above the waste +of billows, that Elaine sat up at once. + +"It's land!" he said. "We're drifting to some sort of land!" + +She was still too hazy in her mind, and puzzled by their surroundings, +to grasp the situation promptly. + +"Land?" she repeated. "Oh!" and a rush of hideous memories swept +confusedly upon her till she shivered, gazing at the water. + +Grenville had risen to his feet, and Elaine now rose beside him. +Somewhat more of the flat, wide protrusion from the sea became thus +visible to both. It still appeared of insignificant extent, a blue and +featureless patch against the sky, with one half-stripped tree upon its +summit. + +"I should say it's an island," Grenville added, quietly, restraining an +exultation that might prove premature. "It is still some miles away." + +"There must be someone there," Elaine replied, with an eagerness that +betrayed her anxious state of mind. "Almost anyone would certainly +help us a little." + +What doubts he entertained of some of the island inhabitants in this +particular section of the world, Sidney chose to keep to himself. + +"It's land!" he said, as he had before. "That means everything!" + +"Do you know of any island that ought to be in this locality?" + +"I haven't the remotest notion where we are--except we are somewhere, +broadly speaking, in the neighborhood of the Malay peninsula. The +steamer must have drifted tremendously out of her course after we lost +our rudder." + +"Have you been awake for long?" + +"I haven't slept." + +"Have you seen or heard anything of any of the others?" + +"Not a sign.... We may find some of them, landed on this island." + +He had no such hope, and this she felt. She summoned a heart full of +courage to meet the situation, however, and gazed off afar at the misty +terra incognita enlarging imperceptibly as they drifted deliberately +onward. + +"It's fortunate," she said, "the steamers pass this way." + +"Yes," he said, unwilling to shake this solitary hope that brightened +her uncertain prospect, but he knew they were leagues from the nearest +track that the ocean steamers plowed. "And I trust we'll find it +entirely comfortable while we're waiting," he added. "We're sure to +get dry and find something fit to eat." + +She was silent for a moment. A sense of constraint was returning at +last for their scene of the previous day. "It seems to be rather far +away," was all she said. + +"About another hour--if the breeze and tide continue favorable." + +It was nearer an hour and a half, however, before they were finally +abreast the headland with the tree, and swinging and turning slowly by +the island's coast on the surface of a complicated tide. + +The features of the land had developed practically everything usual to +this latitude except habitations of men. That it was entirely +surrounded by water was convincingly established. Indeed, it was not +an extensive outcrop of some ocean-buried range, and, despite the +luxuriance of its various patches of greenery and jungle, it was +decidedly rugged in formation. + +The edge past which the raft was leisurely floating was a broken and +cavern-pitted wall of rock affording no promise of a landing. Above +this loomed the solitary tree that Grenville had seen from a distance. +Nothing suggestive of hearth smoke arose against the sky from one end +of the place to the other. + +This one vital fact, in her excitement, Elaine entirely overlooked. +She likewise failed to note the look of concern that Grenville could +not have banished from his eyes. The prospect of reaching a dry, firm +soil outweighed her immediate worries. + +"Couldn't we paddle in closer?" she said. "Where do you mean to land?" + +"Where the Fates shall please," he answered, grimly. "Without even a +line for me to take ashore we must not be over fastidious." + +"We could swim--if we have to," she told him, bravely. "We seem to be +floating farther out." + +They were, at that particular moment. The powerful current carried +them swiftly seaward a considerable distance, till at length the raft +was drawn to a species of whirlpool, some two hundred yards in +diameter, the inner rim of which was depositing weed at the edge of +something like an estuary, indenting the shore of the island. + +On the huge circumference of this whirlpool they were finally rounding +towards the one bit of beach that Grenville had been able to discover. +Yet when they approached within almost touching distance of this sunlit +strand, the current failed, permitting the breeze to waft them again +towards the center. + +"Stand by to go ashore," said Grenville, resolving suddenly on his +course, and overboard he slipped, at the float's outer edge, and, using +his legs like a powerful frog, he pushed at the raft with sufficient +force to overcome the action of the wind. + +For a moment his efforts seemed in vain--and then the clumsy affair +nosed reluctantly shoreward an inch, and was once more assisted by the +tide. Ten feet out he found the water shallow and, planting his feet +on the solid sand, drove the raft at once to the estuary's edge, where +Elaine leaped lightly ashore. + +Some startled creature slipped abruptly into the pool that the tiny +harbor formed. This escaped Elaine's attention. A moment later the +raft rode scrapingly over a bar that all but locked the inlet, and +Grenville stood dripping on the sand. + +"Welcome to our city," said he, an irrepressible emotion of joyousness +and relief possessing him completely at the moment, and, going at once +to the near-by growth, where a long stout limb had been broken from a +tree, he dragged this severed member forth to the beach and across the +estuary's mouth, where it effectually blocked the channel against the +raft's escape. Then he folded a couple of large-sized leaves with his +hands, secured each with a slender twig, and, giving one to Elaine for +a cap, placed the other upon his head. + +Elaine was no less relieved than he, so elastic and buoyant is youth. + +"The villages must be on the farther side," she said. "What language +do you suppose the natives speak?" + +"Well--doubtless some Simian, in any case," he answered, having fancied +one movement half seen in the trees beyond was made by an ape or a +monkey. "I'd suggest you recall your fondness for fruit for breakfast." + +She comprehended his meaning with amazing promptness. Her face took on +its serious expression. + +"You don't believe we shall find the island inhabited? We shall have +only fruit this morning?" + +"I am sure we shall find some fruit," he said, "and we must certainly +look for water." + +A sense of helplessness and despair attacked Elaine momentarily. She +began to wonder, with alarm, how long they might be stranded on the +place--and what attitude Grenville might assume. She had thoroughly +comprehended the passion of his nature in the outburst she had seen. A +sense of distrust she dared not show came creeping to her mind. + +"We must make the best of it, of course," she said, as calmly as +possible. "We can't even light a fire, I suppose." + +"I certainly have no matches," he answered, cheerfully. "All I had +were in my coat. Suppose we explore the island first and leave despair +till after breakfast." + +She met his gaze with fearless eyes that set his heart to pounding. + +"I shall never despair," she answered, more bravely than she felt,--"at +least, I shall try to do my part, till we are taken off." + +He understood the challenge in her attitude. + +"I felt that from the first," he answered, easily. "Perhaps we'd +better begin by climbing up to the headland." + +He caught up a short, heavy stick and turned about to force a way up +through the rocks and tangled growth between the shore and summit. + +And what a figure he presented--even to the frightened girl, whose +anger still lingered in her veins--stripped, as he was, to his +shirtsleeves, a powerful, active being, masterful and unafraid. With a +strange, dreadful sense of isolation and the primitive, aye, even +primal, conditions in which they had been cast, she followed helplessly +at his heels for their first real look at the island. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE ISLAND + +The ascent was steep and difficult, so unbroken was the undergrowth, +except where jagged and pitted rocks rose grayly on the slope. +Bananas, nut palms, and mangoes Grenville promptly noted. Indeed, +every tropical tree, shrub, and fruit of which he had ever learned was +represented in the thicket, together with long, snake-like creepers, +huge ferns, and many plants with which he had no acquaintance. + +There was abundant life in all directions. Here, with a grunt, and +beyond with a bound of startled surprise, some animal scuttled to cover +in alarm at their approach. A small flock of parrots abruptly arose, +flashing their brilliant plumage in the sunlight and screaming +raucously. Half a dozen leeches, clinging firmly to the fat, green +leaves next the ground, where all was moist and shaded, attracted +Grenville's notice as they lifted their heads and groped about for +flesh upon which to fasten. + +Here and there in the tree tops a monkey obscured a patch of sky for a +moment and chattered or squeaked a warning to his kind. Grenville, +almost wholly convinced that man seldom or never visited the place, and +puzzled to account for a fact so extraordinary, now emerged at the edge +of a natural clearing and promptly discovered a small patch of sugar +cane, reared above the grass and vines. He was certain that man had +brought it to the island. + +A half minute later he underwent a decidedly complex set of emotions. +He was barely five feet ahead of Elaine, who was following blindly in +his trail, a prey to new dreads of all the sounds about them, when he +halted in a tense and rigid attitude of alertness. Elaine glanced +quickly ahead. + +Apparently a patch of orange sunlight was lifting from the grass. Then +Elaine, too, saw the black, irregular stripes, the huge, topaz eyes, +and the lazy movement of a mighty shoulder muscle, as the beast before +them arose and blocked their path. + +It was not the fact that he had rarely if ever seen a tiger so large +that most impressed the man, thus unexpectedly confronted by this +unfrightened monarch of the island--_the brute bore a collar about his +neck, gleaming with gold and the facets of some sort of jewels_! + +He had obviously once been a captive! He knew the form of man, if not +his nature! + +For a moment or more there was absolute stillness in that grassy arena, +where two world-old enemies stood face to face in their first, +preliminary contest of courage. A certain arrogance, a contempt of all +possible adversaries, here in his undisputed realm, shone unmistakably +in the eyes of the motionless brute. His paunch was rounded +significantly. He had recently dined. + +Grenville could think of but one thing to do, unarmed as he was, and +unwilling to compromise an encounter so vitally important. + +He let out a shout such as a demon might have uttered, and, rushing +madly forward, with his club upraised, yelled again and again, his +aspect one to strike terror to the heart of a giant. He was almost +upon the astonished tiger when the brute abruptly fled. The roar the +great beast delivered, as he bounded from sight in the jungle, was the +sullen note of a creature that obeys, reluctantly, the command of one +superior to himself. + +"Now, then, a little discretionary haste," said Grenville, quickly +returning to Elaine. "I prefer the top of the rocks." + +But she did not move, so helpless was her will and so rigid all her +being. Once more, with his arm about her waist, Sidney firmly urged +her forward, on a beaten trail he took no time to study. + +It led in a tortuous manner up the last steep acclivity, where, with +every rod, the growth became less luxuriant, and the rocks more thickly +strewn. Thus they presently came upon a second natural clearing, a +sort of uneven terrace, some fifty feet lower than the dominating +headland crowned by the solitary tree. + +The trail to this final eminence was plainly scored along a narrow, +crumbling ledge, where the volcanic tufa, comprising the ancient +upheaval, had for years disintegrated in a honeycomb fashion that left +all the bowlders and even the walls deeply pitted. + +When they turned about together on this dominating mount, the island +lay mapped irregularly beneath them in the purple sea, revealed +well-nigh in its entirety. + +In all its expanse there was not a sign of a human habitation. + +They knew, without a word of argument, they were absolutely alone on +this tropic crumb of empire, sole survivors of the frightful wreck, +completely ignorant of their whereabouts, and surrounded not only by +savage and inimical jungle brutes, but also by some mystery that was +not to be understood. + +"Well," said Grenville, presently, "such as it is, it's ours." + +"Ours," said Elaine. A cold little shiver ran along her nerves, at +thoughts of her plight between the man she had called a brute, and the +still more savage creatures of the jungle. "Where are you going?" she +added, as Grenville moved away. + +"To look about for a moment," he replied, "and then I must pick some +breakfast." + +The examination of the hilltop was promptly concluded. It proved to be +a flat, uneven plateau of small dimensions, with precipitous walls on +every side, except where the trail led downward. Much loose rock was +scattered on its surface. Three-quarters of its boundary rose +perpendicularly out of the sea. The remainder plunged down into jungle +greenery, and the natural clearing that lay between two dense, rank +growths on either side. Not far from the center of the table-rock a +fair-sized cave, that bore unmistakable signs of former occupancy and +fires once ignited on its floor, afforded a highly acceptable shelter, +both from the sun and the elements. It occupied, of course, a position +that could be readily and easily defended. + +There were other, smaller caverns close at hand, but none with a whole +or unpierced roof. Fragments of broken clay utensils lay scattered +about, together with the whitening bones of small-sized animals that +had one time served some denizens for food. There was nothing in or +about the principal cave of which Grenville could make the slightest +use. + +The view of the island from this point of vantage was not particularly +encouraging. Midway of its rugged bulk, that jutted from the azure +tides, and on the side directly opposite the estuary, another wall of +rock loomed, gray and barren, above the tops of the trees. Behind +this, at the island's farthest, left-hand extremity, a third +"intrusion" of volcanic stuff rose to a height only barely lower than +this whereon the raftmates stood. It was not, however, flat. + +A portion only of the estuary was visible--the outer bay, where the +raft was plainly floating. Save for areas covered with rock and brush +together, the remaining surface of the island appeared to be thickly +grown to jungle, the forest comprising foliage of infinite variety. + +With Elaine walking silently at his side, afraid to be with him, yet +more afraid to be alone, Grenville passed from this hasty examination +of the island's general topography to a closer inspection of the +perpendicular scarp of the terrace. On the seaward side it rose about +one hundred feet above the mark of high water. Its right front +appeared to overhang its base, a reassuring distance above the highest +tree. Across its entire bulk at this place the cliff had once been +cracked, and a "slip" had formed a ragged shelf. Then came the slope +where the trail was worn, beyond which forty feet or more of unscalable +tufa was reared above a section of the jungle once devastated by fire. + +In the midst of this section, being rapidly reclaimed by vines and +creepers, stood the shell of a huge old tree, the heart of which had +been consumed, from the roots to its blackened top, leaving walls still +thick and solid. + +"Well," said Sidney, returning again to the principal cave, which he +reinspected critically, "it doesn't take long to overlook our +possessions. You'd better begin to make yourself at home, while I go +below for fodder," and, taking up his club from a ledge where he had +let it fall, he went at once down the long-abandoned trail and out +across the clearing. + +Elaine had followed to the scarp, where she watched till he +disappeared. How helpless she was in the hands of this man, whose +declaration and deeds had so aroused her indignation and hatred, she +thoroughly understood. A sickening conviction that days might elapse +before she could hope to escape, increased her sense, not only of +alarm, but also of distrust in Grenville. His action in taking up his +stick had not escaped her attention. Strangely enough, a horrible pang +went straight to her breast as she suddenly thought of that tiger +again--and of what it might mean if Grenville never returned. Whatever +else might happen, nothing could be so terrible as to perish here +alone. She tried to assure herself, however, that Grenville was +thoroughly competent to cope with the dangers of the place. + +Yet the silence of the jungle where she had seen him disappear, +oppressed her unendurably. Not even a tree was shaken, to indicate +where he had gone. Summoning all her resolution, she returned to the +cavern, alone. + +A slab of rock, once doubtless employed for a table, lay with one end +resting on the earth, while the other leaned upon a second rock, +against the wall of the cave. She lifted this slab to a second prop, +then blew the last fragment of dust and sand from its surface, by way +of preparing it for breakfast. She looked about, longing for further +employment, but, inasmuch as two rude fragments of the rock already +reposed beside her table for seats, there was absolutely nothing more +she could add, either by way of utensils or furnishings, from the +boulders scattered loosely on the terrace. + +When she thought of leaves, whereon to serve what fruits the jungle +might surrender, she started briskly for the trail--but halted at its +summit. A horror of unknown things that might be lurking at the +thicket's edge impressed itself upon her. Nevertheless, she shook it +off, and, descending rapidly, soon filled her arms with large, clean +"platters" from a rankly growing plant of the "elephant's ear" variety, +then clambered back to her aerie. + +Two of the leaves she dropped at the bend of the trail and left them +there in the sun. Twice after that she returned to the edge, to search +all the greenery for Grenville. Her uneasiness respecting his long +absence was rapidly increasing when she turned once more toward the +cave. He emerged at that moment from the farther thicket of the +clearing, came unobserved to the winding trail, and discovered the +leaves she had abandoned. + +He was amazingly "loaded" with similar leaves for breakfast purposes, +as well as with fruits, and a singular bowl of water, yet he paused, +with a smile upon his lips, to discard every leaf he had provided, in +order that Elaine's thoughtful effort at assistance might not be in the +least belittled. + +She met him just as he came to the top, and began to take a portion of +his burden. + +"Oh," she said, "you've found water--or is it the juice of the melon?" + +"Water," he answered, moving towards the cave. "The bowl is half of a +paw-paw, which, next to that spring itself, is the welcomest thing I've +discovered." + +She was glad to note bananas among his several fruits, but she made no +further observations. More and more her sense of constraint increased, +as she clearly foresaw her dependence upon and intimate association +with this man, who had overstepped the bounds of honor to his friend, +and to whom she had spoken in such anger. + +Breakfast was soon begun. Elaine consumed all she could relish of the +fruits, although neither the loco (loquet, a yellowish sort of plum), +the guava--green and full of seeds--nor the custard apple, which was +somewhat sickishly sweet, appealed irresistibly to her fancy. + +She drank from a leaf, curled up to form a cup, and found the water +decidedly refreshing and agreeable, despite the fact it was slightly +flavored by the juices of the paw-paw shell in which it had been served. + +Grenville leaned back, when his appetite was thoroughly appeased, and +began to empty his pockets. He produced the remains of his broken +knife, a few loose coins, a ring of keys, a pig-skin purse with several +pieces of gold as its contents, the stub of a pencil, and his watch, +which, by great good fortune, was waterproof, and still in good running +condition, despite its several immersions. + +Elaine was watching his movements, puzzled to guess his intent. + +"Taking stock," he said, presently, "by way of facing the situation and +formulating plans.... These trifling chattels are all I possess in the +world--our world, at least--with which to begin certain labors. You +probably haven't even hairpins." + +Elaine had coiled her hair upon a twig. She shook her head, and +faintly resented his allusion to the island as a sort of partnership +property. + +Grenville began to segregate his belongings. + +"Money, keys, pencil, and watch--all mere encumbrances, absolutely +worthless. One broken knife--invaluable. We shall require, as soon as +possible, water-jugs, basins, cooking utensils, something to make a +fire, implements to chop our fuel, some primitive weapons, and tools +with which to fashion a boat. I must lose no time in exploring beyond +the spring. I have found nothing yet that will especially lend itself +to our uses." + +Elaine's brown eyes were very wide. "You expect to remain here long +enough to build a boat, when the raft---- I know it can't be rowed, of +course, but--couldn't you try a sail?" + +"We couldn't sail it in its present form," he answered, "even if we +knew which direction to take when we started. With a small, swift boat +we might venture a few explorations from the island as a base." + +She was silent for a moment, and grave. + +"You haven't much faith, then, in hailing some passing steamer?" + +"I think it wiser to prepare against a probable wait that may be rather +long." He read and understood her impatience with the situation--a +situation rendered infinitely more complicated and delicate by what he +had dared to say and do the previous afternoon. + +Once more black dreads that she dared not permit to reveal themselves +completely arose to engulf her mind. She could not doubt that +Grenville knew, far better than herself, how meager were their hopes of +immediate rescue or escape from this exile in the sea. More than +anything else, however, she wished to be worthy of and loyal to the man +to whom her plighted word had been given. That she owed so much to +Grenville already was an added irritation. A braver, finer spirit than +she summoned to her needs never rose in a woman's breast. + +Her eyes met his with a cold look of resolution in their depths. + +"I know you will show me how to help. I must do my share in +everything. Can you tell how long it must have been since anyone was +here?" + +Grenville had never thought her finer--never loved her so madly before. +Yet he quelled the merry demons of his nature. + +"No," he replied, as he took in his hand a bit of bone, bleached +cleanly white. "I can't even understand why an island so abundantly +supplied with fruits and game, to say nothing of useful woods and the +like, should be so utterly abandoned. There seems to be nothing wrong +with the place, and much that is quite in its favor." + +"Perhaps that tiger," she suggested. + +Sidney shook his head. "It's something that goes a bit deeper--at +least, there may once have been something sinister. The natives of all +this part of the world are rather accustomed to tigers." + +Her sense of divination was exceedingly keen. + +"You think there is something worse? You haven't already encountered +something more----" + +"Nothing," he hastened to interrupt. "The problem of our daily +existence affords our greatest present cause for concern--and I frankly +admit I considerably relish the prospect of proving we are equal to all +that our situation may demand." + +She was not to be satisfied so readily. + +"But there may be something wrong with the island?" + +"Possibly--from a native's point of view." + +"But--you are almost certain to meet that tiger again." + +"All the more reason for getting to work at once." He arose in his +quick, active manner, and once more surveyed their camp. + +"A few rocks piled in your doorway," he continued, "and your cave will +meet your requirements admirably. I should say mine would better be +this small retreat, the roof of which I can readily restore. It is +close enough to be neighborly, and is nearer the head of the trail." + +The smaller cave thus indicated occupied a position suggestive of a +sentry's box, before precincts to be guarded. Its opening faced the +gateway of the trail, while its size was sufficient for the needs of +any primitive man. + +Elaine, who had mechanically followed Grenville from the shelter, +looked resignedly about. She had failed till now to think, concretely, +of actually remaining, perhaps night after night, in such a place. + +"It was terrible!" she said, "--the accident--everything!--terrible!" +She suddenly thought of the threat he had made--to compel her to love +him as he loved her, before they should reach their home--and shivered +anew at the unforeseen predicament in which she was plunged, and hated +him more than before. + +"Bad business," he answered, briefly, "but at present the task before +us is to cut a lot of grass and strew it about on the rocks to dry." + +He opened the stubby blade of his knife, glanced at it ruefully, and, +selecting a bit of stone, began to whet its edge. But he halted the +action abruptly. + +A low, weird sound, like a human wail, came from somewhere over behind +them. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +VARIOUS DISCOVERIES + +The sound had no sooner died on the air than a second, far louder, and +far more uncanny in its suggestiveness of someone in mortal pain, +followed piercingly, up around the rock, and rang in their startled +ears. + +The third sound more resembled a scream. It was immediately succeeded +by a chorus of hideous cries and moans, singularly distressing. They +rose to a pitch incredible; they seemed to involve every accent of +human grief and torture, and to wrap the rock escarpment completely in +an agonizing appeal. + +This chorus sank, but a haunting solo of wailing arose as before, to be +followed again by the air-splitting scream, and at length once more by +the mingling of many dreadful voices. + +The island exiles glanced at one another inquiringly, Elaine blanched +white with awe. + +"By Heavens!--it can't be human," Grenville muttered, as the programme +recommenced with only a slight variation. + +To Elaine's dismay he started for the cliff. + +"Mr. Grenville!" she cried, and helplessly followed where he went. + +The wail was dying, in a horrid series of feebler repetitions, when +Grenville came to the edge of the wall and peered down below at the +water. + +There was absolutely nothing to be seen in any direction. The direful +sounds, fast progressing once more to that nerve-destroying climax, +appeared to issue from a natural cove, a little along to the left. + +Grenville continued around the edge, to a point directly above them. +But here, as before, there was nothing in all the sea suggestive of +boats or beings. The tide, Grenville thought, ran in and out with +particular force, reversing at a certain point, and performing singular +movements in a basin of hollowed stone. + +Elaine had paused behind him, a rod or more from the brink. He waited +deliberately for all the cycle of sounds to be repeated, then turned +away with a smile. + +"I think we have come upon the explanation of the island's uninhabited +condition," he informed the girl, as he came once more to her side. +"Those noises are made by the sea, forcing air to some cavern in the +cliffs. It is doubtless repeated twice a day at a certain stage of the +tide." + +"It's horrible!" Elaine replied in dread, as a feebler rehearsal of the +chorus filled all that tropic breeze, "simply horrible!" + +"It may be our greatest bit of good fortune," Grenville informed her, +sagely. "I much prefer those sirens to a colony of Dyaks who might +otherwise live on the place." + +"We shall have to endure it twice a day?" + +"Possibly not. I may be entirely mistaken, concerning that. I can +only be certain it is caused by the tide, and is, therefore, not to be +dreaded." + +For fully ten minutes, however, the tidal conditions were favorable to +the sound's continuance. It subsided by degrees, the last moaning +notes possibly more suggestive than the first of beings perishing +miserably. + +Meantime Grenville had gone indifferently about the business of cutting +huge armfuls of the tall grass and ferns abundantly supplied in the +clearing. This moist and not unfragrant material Elaine in silent +helpfulness carried to the top of the terrace, where she spread it +about on the rocks. She was certain Grenville was providing far more +than they could use in reason, yet although his stubby knife-blade was +a poor tool, indeed, for the business, he toiled away unsparingly, +blithesomely whistling at his task. + +"You may be glad by nightfall to burrow into a stack of this hay," he +told Elaine as he brought the last load up the trail. "If you wouldn't +mind turning it over from time to time I think I'll look about again to +get an idea of the island." + +Elaine had as little inclination to remain on the terrace alone, with +all manner of worries respecting Grenville's safety, as she had to +follow where he would lead through the shades and thickets of the +jungle. She was aware, however, her presence at his side would be more +of a care than assistance; while the necessity for his explorations +addressed itself clearly to her mind. She made no confession of her +natural wish to see him returning promptly. + +He departed, with his club in hand, quite certain he should not be gone +above an hour. He had not, however, reckoned with the jungle. + +Despite the fact he had set his mind on the region about and beyond the +spring, the flow of which formed the estuary, some wonder respecting +the area once blackened and cleared by fire attracted his attention +immediately upon his descent from the hill. + +Through a fringe of scrub he forced his way to this region close under +the walls, discovering old, charred stumps, many dead saplings, and +quantities of half-consumed branches, affording a large supply of fuel. +There could be no doubt the fire had raged within the previous year. +Human visitors of some complexion had come, left this scar, and +departed. + +Hopeful of some enlightening sign as to who or what they might have +been, he searched the earth about and between the shrubs and grasses +with considerable care. Not so much as a bone, however, rewarded his +scrutinizing gaze. He came to the tree trunk left hollow by the +flames, and paused to marvel at its size. Above his head it was four +feet through, while the base was certainly eight. An arch had been +formed in its substance, near the ground, and into this he curiously +peered. + +Kneeling thus on the earth, he was readily enabled to look straight up +through and out at the top. The hollow in the stout old jungle +champion was fully two feet in diameter, and almost perfectly round. +There was nothing else of interest to be found about the place, save a +huge, smooth log, lying with one end resting on a rock, and long enough +to make a splendid boat. + +Attempting the passage of the jungle from this point across to the +midway wall of tufa, Grenville expended fully fifteen minutes of the +toughest sort of effort, and was then obliged to retreat once more to +the trail. He encountered here the first wild animal discovered since +his meeting with the tiger. + +It was a porcupine, bristling with trouble for any attacking beast. +Grenville could have slain it with his club. He was fairly on the +point of providing this much meat for the sadly empty larder, when the +fact that he could ignite no fire deterred his ready weapon. He +thought, in that extremity, of his watch, the crystal of which might +serve to give him a white-hot spark from the sun. + +Trusting the porcupine might await the result of his quick experiment, +he lost no time in submitting the glass to a trial. It formed a ring +of brilliant light on the back of his hand, but the rays would not come +to a focus. + +"Go thy ways," he said to the porcupine, and he continued at once on +his own. + +Observing the trail more closely than he had on his earlier excursion, +he presently discovered a divergence to the left that led towards the +central wall of stone. Here he frightened a considerable troop of +monkeys that swung in a panic of activity through the avenues of +foliage overhead. There were likewise sounds of heavier beasts that +escaped observation on the moist and thickly cumbered earth. + +The trail under foot was rather well worn, and not, the man was +certain, by the hoofs or feet of brutes. The explanation was presently +forthcoming, at least in part, for the path emerged at a clay pit that +lay against the frowning tower of stone. + +Grenville could have shouted for joy as he took a bit of the smooth, +sticky substance in his hand, and began thus promptly, in his fancy, +making pots and jugs innumerable to meet their every need. The deposit +had been previously worked. The evidence of this was unmistakable. +But none of the tools employed by former craftsmen had been left for +Grenville to discover. + +He spent some time investigating all the mute signs of former activity +expended at the pit, and finally glancing up at the cliff above, +abandoned all thought of conquering its summit, and retraced his steps +along the trail. + +Where the path to the spring made a second fork, he continued straight +on through the jungle. One glance only of the estuary, tortuously +penetrating the waist of the island, was vouchsafed him through the +thicket. Beyond this point, in swampy ground, flourished a forest of +giant bamboo. The creepers and vines in that immediate section were +particularly varied and abundant. The bird life was equally +impressive. Hundreds of swallows were skimming in the air, a number of +argus pheasants wildly fled from the visitor's presence, parrots +screamed and wheeled in huge flocks above the light green bamboo +foliage, and several fine flamingoes made shift to find concealment in +the reeds. + +"It's a haunted paradise," Grenville muttered to himself, his thought +having gone for a moment to the wails and moans that had startled +himself and Elaine. + +Regretting that his broken knife was a wholly inadequate implement with +which to assail such a bamboo stem as he would gladly have taken to the +camp, he was once more making his way from the thicket when his foot +crashed audibly through something brittle, on the earth. + +He parted the shrubbery and uttered a low exclamation. He had stepped +upon a human skeleton, white and suggestively huddled, every fragment +of it perfect--except that it lacked a head. + +In a certain sort of anxiety Grenville searched about to find the +missing member. The skull was not to be discovered. Persuading +himself this might be accounted for by many natural explanations, and +resolving to keep his discovery entirely to himself, he forced his way +around this grewsome inhabitant--and came upon another. + +This one he did not strike with either foot. It lay outstretched +before him, in company with scattered and broken bits of rock--and, +like its neighbor, it was headless. + +Had some monstrous head-hunter written "Dyaks" on all the empty lattice +of those human ribs, Grenville could not have been more convinced of +what this business meant. He returned to the trail accompanied by a +sense of dread that all but sent him back to Elaine. His thought was +entirely of her, and of their helplessness, cast thus alone upon this +unpeopled island, clean stripped of weapons and of all things else save +their wits and bodily strength. + +"We've got to escape," he told himself in a new, swift fever of +impatience. "There is not an hour to lose!" + +He continued on through the jungle towards the hill at the farther end. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A GREWSOME GUARDIAN + +Apparently the trail, that had once been formed through the axis of the +island, had been found of little use. It was overgrown by all manner +of plants well-nigh to extinction. + +The region hereabout was obviously the final retreat of many beasts, +both timid and bold. Grenville found signs of at least one Malay bear +and of many wild hogs in the thickets. He fancied he saw one flash of +moving orange, where either his tiger or another of his ilk moved +silently through the growth behind him. Of the monkeys there appeared +to be no end; and the snakes were amply represented. + +He was glad for every clearing that he came upon and crossed, and felt +a decided sense of relief on achieving his hill at last. This worn old +eminence of rock and substances volcanic was far more steep and rugged +than the one where he had left Elaine. It possessed no caves, and no +particular flatness at the summit. + +Grenville explored it rapidly, considerably disappointed to find +nothing of special utility upon its broken surface. He had hoped for +some hard and useful stone at least, if not for actual flints. +Completing its round in a haste that the rapidly increasing heat of the +day considerably accelerated, he presently came upon an unusual ledge +protruding from the slope's unpromising surface. + +Here he halted in idle curiosity. The ledge was of sulphur--a blow-out +from the hill's once molten interior, lying untouched and useless in +the sun for the elements to wear away and sluice at last to the sea. +With no particular purpose in view, he broke away a fragment, dropped +it carelessly into his pocket, and continued on his way. + +His gaze returned with a certain steadfast eagerness to the hill and +camp beyond. He was not precisely disappointed on failing to discover +Elaine, who might have been waiting to wave him a signal from the +heights; he was somewhat concerned to know if all was well upon her +rock. She was not to be seen at all about the place. He clambered to +the top of a broken bowlder for a view more comprehensive. + +This, too, appeared a wasted effort, at least as concerned Elaine. The +island map, however, was laid out before him in a manner to complete +his former survey of the place. There were several clearings thus +revealed that could never be seen from the farther point of vantage. + +Acknowledging each of these in turn, Grenville was once more about to +direct his footsteps homeward when one of the smaller, near-by breaks +in the jungle, quite at the top of a species of rift in the island's +ruggedness, down upon his left, attracted a second glance. + +For a moment he fancied some colossal remains, as of an animal long +since extinct, were lying there in the clinging embrace of the +creepers. He decided, then, it was a boat, but dismissed this notion +as preposterous, so high above the water's edge, and so near the +island's center, did it lie. About ready to conclude that certain +giant shadows contributed much to round out a half-imagined form, his +gaze encountered a bowsprit thrust through all the foliage, its +identity not to be mistaken. The hull of a ship was undoubtedly there. +He hastened down, expectantly, to make its better acquaintance. + +The wonder when he came there was--how it came to be stranded so high +and far above the water. As for the vessel itself, it was merely a +rotted old shell, with its cargo bursting through its ribs. + +So far as Grenville could judge from its fast-decaying remains, it had +been an inferior type of the old-fashioned barque, and of very modest +dimensions. Its masts, however, were gone, together with every +accessible piece of metal that eager hands could remove. Its moldy and +slimy old cabin had partially collapsed. Without effecting an entrance +through the treacherous deck, Sidney could discover nothing respecting +its interior. + +He could peer through the ribs at several places along the hull, and +even near the keel, by stooping low, but the most he could determine by +such a superficial examination was that there was nothing even here +that he could use. The cargo he thought for a moment to be chalk, or +lime. He scraped a clean sample from the weathered heap, and rubbed it +in his palm. Its crystalline structure was not that of either lime or +chalk. When he placed a particle on his tongue, he dropped all he held +with no further interest. + +The stuff was common saltpeter. That the vessel had been westward +bound, perhaps from Borneo, with this mineral common to so much of that +tropical section, he understood at once. But to find her stranded thus +so loftily was amazing. He scraped at the soil with the toe of his +boot to dig below the surface. + +As he had rather expected, seashells and pebbles of a former beach were +readily brought to view. Some old upheaval had undoubtedly lifted +beach, vessel, and all to this altitude above the tides, and left it +there to decay. + +Considerably disappointed to find the hulk so completely stripped of +the metal furnishings of which he might have wrought some sort of tools +or weapons, Grenville hesitated between an impulse to continue home to +Elaine without greater delay, and a strong desire to investigate the +cabin of the barque. The latter temptation was not to be resisted. + +He grasped the branch of an overhanging tree and, by dint of much +active scrambling, clawing, and thrusting his toes into various chinks, +at length gained the planks of the slanted deck and broke his way into +the one-time sanctum of the captain and his mates. + +This, too, had been pillaged with exceptional thoroughness. There was, +however, a passageway leading to another apartment beyond, where a +door, half open, was revealed by sunlight streaming through the broken +roof. Thither Grenville made his way--to behold an extraordinary sight. + +The place was a room, partitioned off from considerably larger +quarters. It contained one object only--a form, half mummy, half +skeleton, that had once been a powerful man. _And this was chained to +the wall!_ + +It was sitting propped against the lintel of a second door, a panel of +which was raggedly broken out. It had never been robbed of its head. +A strong, black beard still remained upon the emaciated face, and the +eye-sockets stared straight forward at the door by which the visitor +had entered. + +Grenville was not to be easily dismayed, yet the attitude of this +grewsome thing was very far from being pleasant. The being had been +almost naked when he perished here alone with a heavy iron band about +his waist. All this his visitor swiftly discerned while inclined to +turn about and flee the place. He discovered, then, an additional +mystery. + +The skin, in a patch fully six inches square, had disappeared from the +helpless being's breast. That it had not wasted away by a natural +process was, moreover, perfectly obvious, since the square-cut edges of +parchment, which the remainder of his cuticle had become by the +mummifying process, were distinctly to be seen. It had been removed +with a knife. It appeared to Grenville that the captive had been +propped artificially where he sat, as if to guard the passage. A +trickle of water, saturated with saltpeter, had served to embalm both +his flesh and skin, in part. + +That the cabin beyond had likewise been despoiled of its treasure was +almost a foregone conclusion. However, Sidney stepped closer to the +silent form and peered through the broken panel. + +The room into which he was gazing was dimly lighted by the rays of +daylight filtering through a number of cracks which the weather had +opened in its ceiling. When his sight grew accustomed to the darkness, +he saw that the place had evidently served not only as quarters for the +former crew, but likewise as a storage hold for ropes, paints, extra +furnishings, and, doubtless, victuals. + +Its contents lay scattered about in confusion and decay, yet promised +more "treasure" for Grenville's needs than all the rest of the vessel. +He drove his shoulder against the door, and its lock broke the rotted +woodwork away with a suddenness the man had not expected. He passed +the mummified guardian at the portal somewhat hurriedly, as he lurched +inside the chamber; and he nearly fell across a box that had spilled +out a dozen old pieces of brass. + +Upon these he pounced with avidity, despite the fact they were greenly +incrusted with "rust." Among other articles of plunder thus provided +to his hand were several row-locks, a broken turnbuckle, a dozen at +least of useless hinges, and a hatful of screws more or less cemented +together. + +With vague ideas of employing the metal somehow, he filled his pockets +with the smaller articles and looked about for possible tools. From a +broken locker in a corner much similar scrap stuff had fallen. Here +was a large brass porthole rim, parts of a broken binnacle, half of the +brazen cap from a towing-bit, two heavy bronze handles of swords now +fallen to pieces with decay, an old brass lantern with a useless lamp, +a large coil of excellent copper wire, a ball of lead, and remains of +several iron marlinespikes, mere effigies now in flaky rust. + +From beneath a heap of rotted cordage a greenish cylinder protruded. +Grenville drew it forth. It proved to be a small brass cannon, +unmounted, and apparently filled with mud. Near by he discovered the +rapidly disintegrating remnants of an old-time flintlock musket. This +was a priceless treasure, for the flint, which was still intact. He +likewise saved a bit of the steel that the cordage had protected. + +The thin and wasted skeleton of a hand-saw hung upon a hook. When he +took the blade between his fingers it fell apart like paper, charred, +but still holding its original form. Not an object he found of iron +was worth removing to the camp. Resolved to return at an early date, +to annex the old cannon and such other heavy bric-à-brac as he could +not conveniently carry away to-day, Grenville finally left the +mysterious dead man still sitting in chains beside the door, and once +more regained the wholesome earth. + +He finally glanced at his watch. The time was nearly twelve! He had +been for at least three hours away from Elaine, who was waiting alone +upon the hill! Back to the trail, and then along its sinuous windings +through the jungle, he strode at his swiftest pace. + +When he came to the final clearing before the towering rock, he was all +but paralyzed with dread at a bit of drama being there enacted. + +At the edge of the jungle stood Elaine, her arms and jacket filled with +fruits she had gathered against his coming. By the foot of the trail +that ascended to their camp, posed in a waiting attitude, his long tail +only in motion, gracefully sweeping his great tawny side, was the tiger +that wore the golden collar. + +Not a sound escaped from Elaine's white lips, as she turned to glance +across at Sidney. Then she limberly sank on the earth. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +PRIMITIVE CONDITIONS + +A short, sharp cry was the only note that Grenville uttered. + +The tiger had turned his blazing eyes on the man he but partially +feared. Sidney was coming less at him than towards the helpless, +prostrate form that lay upon the grass. + +The man had forgotten his danger in his greater concern for Elaine. He +reached her side before he confronted the jungle beast, who still +remained undecided. Slowly then, deliberately, the malignant animal, +superb not only in his strength and splendid proportions, but also in +his arrogance, his indifference to man, the master butcher of the +world, ran out his tongue to lick his chops, stretched his terrible +mouth in a fang-revealing yawn, and trod his way into the thicket. + +The fruits she had gathered were scattered all about as Grenville +lifted Elaine in his arms and carried her up the steep ascent. Not +having actually swooned, she had fairly begun to revive once more +before he reached the cave. + +When he placed her down on a heap of half-dried grass she had thrown +together while awaiting his return, a faint tinge of color was +returning to her face, and her eyes dimly focused upon him. + +"You've worked too much, that's what it means," he said. "You see +you're tired." + +"I'm--sorry," she faltered, faintly. "I really--didn't mean to be--so +weak." + +"Never mind," he said. "I'll kill the brute. His skin is certainly a +beauty." With the utmost apparent indifference to Elaine's recovery, +he went at once to the clearing for the bits of old junk he had dropped. + +When he returned, his mind was still on the tiger. + +"We've got to live--move about--and not be annoyed," he said. "If I +had a single rifle! But I'll get him somehow, soon!" + +Elaine still remained upon the hay. + +"If he doesn't get us sooner," she replied, a little grimly, but not as +one in fear. + +"I shall wall up the trail," mused Grenville, aloud, looking about at +the quantity of rock so readily afforded. "That much I can do this +afternoon." + +She sat up a bit more sturdily. + +"I dropped our luncheon, I suppose.... I hope to do better, later on, +when I get more used to conditions." She was mortified to think he had +been thus promptly obliged to carry her "home" in his arms. + +"You are doing fairly well," he said, in his off-hand manner. "We +shall soon be all right. It's a fine and tight little island." + +Her one idea was to get away as soon as possible. + +"Shouldn't we put up a flag, or something, in case a steamer should +happen to be passing?" + +"As soon as I can cut a long bamboo. I must have both tools and fire +as promptly as possible." + +"You must be hungry," she remarked, arising rather weakly and going to +the end of her cave, where all the water that remained in the half of +the paw-paw shell had been carefully stored, in Grenville's absence. +Then, emerging with her burden, she added, "I meant to have your +luncheon ready, but we have almost nothing left." + +"All that you gathered was left by the tiger," he answered, cheerfully. +"The beast prefers more solid diet." Once more descending the trail, +he presently returned with the fruits that had fallen from her arms. + +They ate, as before, in the shade of her cave, for the sun on the rocks +was becoming hot. + +"The wall this afternoon," said Grenville, as he finally concluded his +simple repast with a drink of tepid water. "Then our mast and signal +of distress must be erected. I shall try for fire directly. I must +make a bow and some arrows. A clay pit I found will provide us with +earthenware utensils, and then--if only I could manage to melt some +brass---- You see, the worst of it is, no stone I've discovered on the +place is fit to use for a tool." + +Elaine avoided the boyish gleaming of his gaze. "Are we thrust so far +back as the stone age, then? It's really as bad as that?" + +"Bad?" he said. "It's tremendously diverting. I've got to begin, as +it were, with my naked hands. But fortunately, I believe, for us, the +bronze and stone ages lap," and he drew from his pockets some bits of +the heterogeneous collection he had brought from the rotting barque. + +"You have found some metal?" Elaine inquired, excitedly. "But where?" + +"In a wreck that must have arrived here years ago." He related as much +as he thought advisable and undisturbing to the thoroughly wondering +girl. + +She could see no possible use for all the rusted bronze and brass he +had earned away from the wreck so strangely discovered, but she made no +discouraging comments to dampen an ardor which to her was not precisely +comprehensible. + +"I hope I can help," she told him, as she had before. "I'm afraid I'm +not very clever." + +"We'll see," he answered, cheerfully. "Necessity is rather a strict +instructor." + +But she could not assist him with the wall, at which he was presently +perspiring. The stones he rolled and carried to the narrowest shelf or +ledge that was scaled by the trail were far too heavy for her delicate +hands and muscles. + +"Can't I do something else?" she begged, eager for any employment. +"There must be some work I could do." + +"You might plait a basket of some sort," he said. "We shall need some +presently." + +He thereupon went below again, cut all he could carry of tough and +limber creepers, and, fetching them up to the shade of her cave, +instructed Elaine in such of the rudiments of basket-weaving as he +himself could readily invent, and left her busily employed. + +The wall he required to prevent any possible night attack on the part +of the beast that was already inclined to stalk either one of them, or +both, was not of any considerable length, owing to the narrowness of +the pass he had chosen to block with bowlders. He had, however, to +make it thick and high. By taking advantage of three large blocks, +which he rolled down hill to the place selected, he secured a +substantial foundation with comparative ease. After that it became a +matter merely of carrying stone after stone, from their inexhaustible +supply on the summit, to lodge in rough, uneven tiers to the height +desired. + +He had left a narrow gateway next the natural wall that made his +structure complete. This he could block with a heavy log, or even more +stones, for the night. + +For fully three hours he wrought prodigiously, returning from time to +time to Elaine, to guide and assist her with her basket. Between them +they managed to produce from their rough material a crude, misshapen +receptacle, coarse of mesh and clumsy, yet strong and not to be +despised. Grenville expected to use it to fetch his clay from the pit. + +It was not until this product of their combined ingenuity was fairly +complete that Grenville discovered he could split the bark of the +creepers readily, and tear out a smooth white core, like a withe, far +more suitable to their uses. He then not only stripped out several +full-length cores, but he also found that the bark or covering thus +removed was constructed of numerous thread-like strands amazingly tough +and long. These fibers were not so readily separated as the core had +been from the covering with which they were incorporated, although +their recovery was not a difficult operation. His inventive mind saw +ample employment for them later. + +The wall was not entirely finished when, at length, he left it for the +day. He was weary in all his bone and sinew, despite the prodding of +his will. He had made no attempt at kindling fire, and none towards +procuring a mast to erect for a flag of distress. These were tasks +that must wait for the morrow, with the others he was eager to attack. + +The dinner at sundown was necessarily a repetition of the previous +meals of the day. It could not be followed by the cheer and comfort of +a fire, and the darkness, that drew on rapidly, brought a sense of +chill and depression to Elaine, notwithstanding her bravery of spirit. + +The wind had ceased, except for the merest intermittent puffs of breath +that floated upward from the sea. Not even the lapping of the tide +against the wall arose to break the silence. The stillness was +painfully profound, though Elaine's imagination depicted a hundred +nocturnal brutes of the jungle, prowling in every trail and clearing, +in a savage quest for blood. + +As a matter of fact, the nightly tragedies were already well begun. +But it was not until some victim shrilly voiced its animal fear and +agony, just beneath the towering wall, that Elaine had a realizing +sense of her nearness to these creatures of the darkness, or the +working of life's inexorable laws. + +Her mind reverted, by natural process, to all the terrible occurrences +crowded into her life within the last couple of days--occurrences that +seemed so needlessly tragic, and all the alarms excited in her breast, +not only by the frightful accident to the "Inca," but likewise by the +almost unknown man upon whom she was now dependent. + +She recalled with singular vividness every accent, every gesture, look, +and deed that had accompanied Grenville's declaration. She burned +again, with shame and indignation, to think of the things he had dared +to say and do--the treachery done to his friend--the indignity done to +herself. + +She hated him now more intensely than before, since he seemed, by some +enormity of purpose, to have been in some manner responsible for the +fate that had brought her here in his company, absolutely at his mercy. +That his promptness of action had saved her life she willingly and +justly conceded--but to fetch her here, all by herself, to an island +unpeopled and awful, far from the track of ocean-going steamers--with +his threat to compel her love still ringing in her ears--this seemed to +outweigh any possible service he had done or could ever accomplish. + +What would he do, she wondered, on the morrow? When would he speak of +his passion again? What means, in this situation, might he presently +adopt to coerce the love she knew she should never bestow? + +There could be no answer to her questions--least of all from the man +himself. He, too, had fallen into silence, and a study of the vast and +merciless problems, not only of existence till their escape could be +effected, but likewise as to how that escape could be attempted, in +safety, and where they must steer their ocean course to come to a land +which should not prove inhospitable. + +He seemed, for the time, to have quite forgotten the presence of the +girl at the cave. This she finally observed. She wondered, then, what +sinister outcome his brooding might presage. + +Keyed to a pitch of nervous sensibility she had never experienced +before, she retired at length within her shelter like a child thrust +alone in the dark. Much as she felt she disliked the man, she found +herself most reluctant to move very far from his presence, or refuse +his protecting care. She was certain her dread of all it meant to be +hopelessly cast upon this island, with one doubtful human being only +for comfort and companionship, would haunt her to sleeplessness +throughout the night. Yet she fell into slumber almost at once, and +only dreamed she was still awake and worried. + +It was still quite early in the evening. Elaine was finally +approaching a thoroughly restful oblivion, when a low, moaning wail, +and then shrill screams, abruptly ushered once more into play that +hideous chorus of the morning, produced by some phenomenon of the tides. + +"Sidney! Sidney!" came an answering cry; and Grenville arose, to see +Elaine running wildly towards him from her cave. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE MOTHER OF INVENTION + +It was not until the entire cycle of haunting sounds had been repeated +for its final time that Elaine could consent to return to her pallet of +grasses. And even when she had once more knelt upon this improvised +bed, she could not consent to resign herself to the mercies of the +night without one more glance towards Grenville's cavern. + +She returned, unseen, to her door, and peered forth through the starlit +night, discerning his dimly outlined figure, as he sat before his door. + +He even arose as she paused there, uncertainly. She noted his +listening attitude, the alertness of his pose. Then he sat once more +upon the stone at his threshold, where she knew his club lay ready to +his hand. + +A sense of security, despite her bitterness of feeling, came slowly +stealing upon her. She went back to her couch and slept. + +Sidney, for his part, sat there alone, while hour after hour went +silently by, and the constellations hung in higher arches. A thousand +ramifications of thought he pursued in his active brain. But through +them all, like an ever recurrent _motif_, stole a troubled reminder of +the tiger, twice encountered in the day. + +To slay this contemptuous, savage beast that already drooled about the +jaws at thoughts of a human morsel, was the one imperative business to +be promptly executed. Elaine and himself could live on fruits, and +neglect all else, without serious results, for a week, or even a month, +but this affair was not to be delayed. + +He thought of pitfalls, giant traps, and automatic engines of +destruction by the score, each deadly device absurdly impracticable and +beyond all power of his achievement. His mind, accustomed to civilized +ways, ran in higher ingenuities that were absolutely useless in this +primal state of their existence. + +When at length he leaned back against his wall and began to wonder if, +in the end, he must arm himself with primitive man's crude bow and +arrow, and thus engage the master prowler of the jungle, he was ready +for Nature's claims. He slept there, too utterly exhausted to drag +himself in to his bed. And there Elaine found him in the morning. + +That day was a long one, of varied and wearying employments. The wall +was finished across the trail, Elaine's too widely opened cavern was +partially blocked up with stone, and, at length, in addition to +searching the jungle for something particularly downy and inflammable +for tinder, to use in making fire, Grenville went with his basket down +to the clay pit and fetched sufficient of this moist and plastic +material to mould a number of vessels. + +This last useful art was not, however, immediately attempted. Unfired +jugs and basins were absolutely useless--and as yet they had no fire. +The search for tinder had resulted only in producing a silken, fluffy +material that grew in a fat green pod. It was moist, when found, with +the natural juices of the plant. + +While it dried in the sun, under Elaine's supervision, Grenville worked +at a stout, elastic tree-branch to taper out a bow. His stub of a +knife-blade served indifferently against the close-grained wood, which, +nevertheless, was obliged to yield to his persevering efforts. + +At noon the weapon, save for the cord, was rudely finished. No arrows +had been as yet provided. Obliged at this hour to replenish the camp +supply of water, Grenville once more visited the spring. So fresh were +the tracks of the tiger here, in the mire about the trickling stream, +that he felt they must almost be warm. The brute was undoubtedly near +at hand, but, perhaps, well fed, as before. + +"There is nothing quite so important now as fire," was Grenville's +remark, as he once more rejoined Elaine. "Without it we are +practically helpless. With it--there is almost nothing we may not hope +to achieve." + +He had thought of a number of extraordinary and highly important +implements and arts that only flame and glowing heat could render +possible. + +Elaine brought the fluff she had thoroughly dried, while Grenville +cleaned his flint and steel. For an hour, then, he strove in vain to +ignite his bit of tinder. It was not at all an easy matter to strike a +spark from the stone. What few brilliant specks of incandescence sped +occasionally downward like vigor transmuted into swiftly fading stars +from Grenville's varied and over-eager strokes, either died on the air +or missed their mark or struck it and found it uncongenial. + +"This must be a vegetable asbestos," he finally declared. "If I had +just a pinch of powder, this flint might recognize---- By Jove!" and +he started at once to his feet. "I'm the greatest fool on legs!" + +"What seems to be the trouble?" said Elaine, who could not possibly +comprehend his meaning. "Have you made some sort of mistake?" + +"I've been asleep--my brain defunct! Excuse me half a minute!" + +He started madly down the trail, running like a boy. Before Elaine +could do more than stare in wonder at his antics, he had reached the +bottom of the wall, darted across the clearing, and disappeared in the +jungle growth beyond. + +He smashed his way hotly to the wrecked old barque, and, pawing deeply +beneath the surface of the wasting saltpeter, that had been for long +somewhat protected in the hold, promptly filled two pockets with the +mineral, and went racing back as he had come. + +But beyond the clearing he altered his course to enter the region once +blackened by fire. Here he went directly to the hollow tree he had +once before examined, and, wriggling inside, through the ample orifice +burned out by the flames, he attacked the charred interior with his +knife as if his very life depended on his haste. + +In the briefest time he had chipped off more than a double handful of +crisp, but inferior, charcoal. Retreating no less promptly than he had +entered, he gathered this carefully in a giant leaf, and hastily +rejoined Elaine. + +"Powder!" he said, belatedly explaining. "Everything lying here and +ready, and my brain a howling blank!" + +To Elaine this was not precisely clear. + +"There is gunpowder here on the island?" + +"No! The ingredients merely. But any child---- Ah! here's my bit of +sulphur! There's a ton of it ready to be gathered. Powder? I can +make enough to blow a dozen tigers into ribbons! The wreck is full of +niter and, once we have a fire, I can burn all the jungle into +charcoal!" + +The mystery had not entirely lifted for Elaine, but this she hardly +expected. + +"How can I help?" she asked him, quietly. "There must be something I +can do." + +"It's a matter of grinding these materials," he answered, more calmly, +depositing sulphur, saltpeter, and charcoal on a rock before them. +"It's a simple composition, after all." + +Barely less feverishly than before he began a search for suitable +stones to employ as mortars and pestles. There were many small +bowlders slightly hollowed by the elements, but a number of these had +surfaces ready to crumble, and were, therefore, reluctantly discarded. +In throwing about some loosely huddled fragments, to liberate a smooth, +hard slab of stone that was dished from its edges to its center, +Grenville was doubly rewarded by coming upon a large, thick seashell, +practically perfect. + +With this and the basin of harder rock, he returned at once to the +shade. He was soon reducing the charcoal, while Elaine no less +industriously attacked the lump of sulphur. + +"We need a little only for a trial," he said, as he presently sifted +out his powdered product, and began to grind the niter. "I wish I +remembered the proportions." + +In his haste to obtain results as soon as possible, he finally shook up +and ground together a large-sized pinch from each of the three +materials, producing thereby a grayish, unpromising mixture, decidedly +too rich in both the charcoal and sulphur. + +This he placed on a rock, a safe distance away, and attacked with his +flint and steel. Elaine had ceased her grinding operations, to stand +at his side and watch. He struck, perhaps, a dozen times before he +produced a shower of sparks--and nothing occurred. He looked at the +stuff for a moment, helplessly, discouragement swiftly lodging in his +bosom. Half-heartedly he struck the steel again. + +A single spark flew hotly from the flint. It seemed to curve to the +outside edge of the powder. Instantly, however, the mixture was +ignited. + +It did not burn in a quick, fierce flash, but more with a sputtering, +imperfect combustion, productive of stifling fumes. Grenville's hand +was slightly scorched--but his joy in the triumph was complete. + +"We're kings!" he cried, sublimely indifferent to genders. "We're +monarchs of all we survey!" He leaped up, waving his flint about his +head, his face outbeaming the sun. + +Elaine was vaguely glad of his results. + +"I'm afraid I don't understand it in the least." + +"Not at all necessary," he informed her, candidly. "It's the very +worst powder ever made. My charcoal is poor and my proportions wrong, +and I only half ground it all together. But it burned! That's enough +for me--it burned! It assures us a fire, and I'll make a new batch, +that will go off like a Spanish revolution!" + +He went below at once to gather twigs and fuel, bits of dried grass, +and other kindling, and brought a large bundle to the terrace. More +carefully, then, he mixed and ground his succeeding sample of the +powder. Recalling more clearly the accepted formula, he increased the +proportion of saltpeter to something nearer seventy-five per cent. of +the whole, approximating thus the standard long since established. + +Aware that, when he finally came to manufacture an explosive of higher +efficiency, he would do much better to wet the ingredients and later +dry the finished product, he now proceeded, as before, merely to try +for a fire. + +Thus he presently laid a train of his grayish mixture from one small +heap to another, in a place selected for his trial. Over one of the +powder pyramids he arranged his combustible straws, twigs, and branches +with the nicest care. And when, at length, he struck a white-hot star, +divinely potential, into the midst of the second heap, a hissing snake +of incandescence and smoke darted swiftly along the surface of +rock--and his fire leaped into being. + +On the towering rock, as on an altar, the flames that meant life to the +exiled pair rose goldenly bright and clear. + +A strange exultation in Grenville's prowess possessed Elaine, as she +stood by in wonder, looking on his face. + +"It shall never go out," he told her, presently, "not if I can prevent +it." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE MASTER POACHER + +There were woods in abundance about the base of the tufa cliff that +would burn almost as slowly and retain their glow about as long as the +hardest of anthracite coal. + +Yet it was not on these that Grenville depended, that particular night, +to maintain the fire he had conjured from flint and steel. All those +long dark hours he served his altar flame with fuel gathered for the +purpose. An easier method for its preservation, by means of the woods +that were promptly discovered, he adopted, however, very soon. + +Each day that was ushered in and closed by the island's haunting wails +and chorus, now beheld some new development in the plans that Grenville +was laying. Elaine, less disturbed by the hideous sounds, might have +learned more promptly to accept them as part of the ordeal of living in +this extraordinary fashion, had they always come at stated hours. But, +born of the tides, they came with the tides, which, all the world over, +shift with each day till every hour of the twenty-four has had its +visitation. Like a horrid reminder of the brevity of life, the thing +was fore-ordered to rise unexpectedly, fret forgetful senses, and +linger longest, apparently, in the deadest hours of the night. +Concerning her companion, her mind was far more calm. Her distrust and +dislike were unabated, but he gave her no cause for added worry. + +By the third day after his fire had been accomplished, Grenville had +considerably altered their aspects and prospects of living. Their +bamboo flagpole stood in a crevice of the highest rock, with "rags" of +banana leaves idly flapping out a signal of distress; a number of +pipkins, large and small, were grayly drying in the sun, to be +subsequently fired; his bow was strung, beside three unfeathered +arrows, crudely tipped with points that Sidney had pounded out of +screws; charcoal was burning, down in the blackened clearing; a number +of traps and dead-falls were nearing completion; and several basket +loads both of sulphur and saltpeter were stored in caverns, which the +man had roofed to protect them from the rain. + +Much toil had been involved in these achievements. The bamboo pole, +for instance, had been most laboriously burned off, close to its base. +To accomplish this end, the man had carried coals of fire to the +estuary swamp, created a blaze, and repeatedly heated his longest piece +of brass, which had slowly charred a channel through the wood when +smartly applied to its surface. + +The cord that secured the "flag" upon this serviceable mast, had been +made, like the string for the bow, by twisting together innumerable +threads of the fiber imbedded in the bark of the creepers. This had +then been "waxed" with the glutinous ooze from the nearest rubber tree, +with which the jungle abounded. He had also found wild sisal in the +rocky places of the island. This plant had a leaf like a bayonet, +sometimes six feet long, and readily split into fibers of most +astonishing strength, especially when three were braided into a cord. + +Considerably to Grenville's amazement, the molding of jugs, some +crucibles, and other essential vessels suggested by the presence of the +clay, was not at all a simple matter. His material, which at first was +mixed too soft, was readily stiffened to a workable consistency, and +the bases and first six inches or more of flaring walls of his pipkins +had been fashioned as a child would fashion "pies." It was when he +undertook to crimp and contract this flaring rim that the craftsmanship +known to the potter required once again to be evolved. + +For a time the longer he wrought at the stubborn material the more +completely Grenville was defeated by the clay. He discovered at last, +as similar workmen in every age and clime have ultimately discovered, +that potteries thus constructed by hand must be built up in rings, one +ring at a time, especially where the walls draw in to an ever narrowing +diameter. + +When, at length, this simple fact had been established--the first +success having come to Elaine, whose feminine wit had been nimbler far +than the man's--a highly respectable family of jugs and useful +receptacles had rapidly come into being. + +Mid-afternoon of this busy day found Grenville engrossed with his +labors. Despite the fact they had not yet dined on anything but fruit, +he was preparing salt for meat. The shell he had found was full of +water from the sea, evaporating rapidly in a bed of hot ashes and +coals. This, however, was resigned to Elaine's efficient vigilance, +while Sidney worked absorbingly to complete a number of small clay +molds designed for the casting of tools. + +When, at length, the last of these was done and set aside to dry with +the jugs and assorted vessels, he glanced briefly up at the sun. There +were several hours of this blazing light remaining. Resolved in one +moment to hasten to the jungle with his bow and the unfeathered arrows, +which might be relied upon at easy range to fly sufficiently straight +for all his purposes, Grenville determined in the next to make them a +bit more certain. + +A branch and leaf from a freshly despoiled banana plant had suggested +"feathers" for his shafts. It was the work of a moment only to cut out +and trim a slender bit of the fibrous branch from which the leaf +substance projected. The leaf part itself, which was rather tough, and +considerably like a stiffened cloth in texture, he cut to shape no less +quickly. Then, binding on each of the arrows a trio of these +improvised "rudders," he took up his club, informed Elaine he might be +absent half an hour, and descended at once to the clearing. + +His porcupine, seen no less than half a dozen times when his arms had +been burdened, or his club was not at hand, was not to be found for all +his elaborate searching, now that he was desirable for dinner. +Naturally, Grenville had no particular preference for porcupine where +pheasants were not impossible. But the fact that the bristling +hedgehog is not to be despised, he knew from past experience. +Moreover, he had fondly hoped this somewhat stupid quarry might be +readily found and taken. + +Notwithstanding the fact that for three days past not a sign had been +vouchsafed him of the tiger, Grenville took to himself no fulsome sense +of security as he made his way slowly through the jungle, towards the +estuary swamp. The island was small; the brute was always near--and +some day the contest between they two must be waged to a definite +conclusion. + +The axiom is old that the most game is seen when the huntsman has no +weapon. It seemed to Grenville, slipping as noiselessly as possible +down towards the water, where birds and beasts had always been +encountered, that the island had been suddenly deserted. He saw not a +thing, beyond the vaguest movements in the trees, perhaps for the very +fact he moved so cautiously, and thereby assumed an aspect that was +crafty, sinister, or suspicious. + +Some reptile glided to the water, starting a ripple on the surface, but +not even its head was visible to the watchful eyes of the man. An +arrow was notched upon his bow, and, while the practice in which he had +indulged had been far too brief to develop the skill he knew he might +finally acquire, Sidney was certain that up to a range of five or ten +yards his shaft would prove fairly deadly. + +He had heretofore seen no game at all that was not, in fact, almost +under his very feet. Of the pheasants, flushed before on at least +three separate occasions, he detected not so much as a hint. The +monkeys were silent. Not even the noisy parrots flew out with their +usual disturbance. All about the growth of bamboo he trod, wherever a +space was open, but in vain. + +Reflecting that the pheasants might have gone beyond, to a section +where rocks and shrubbery doubtless afforded the seeds or berries on +which they would probably feed, he started more briskly towards the +trail that would take him past the wreck. + +He had not entirely cleared the bamboo growth when, abruptly, there in +the open space before him, hardly fifteen feet away, a wild hog paused, +fairly startled to inaction where it had entered the clearing from the +jungle. It had turned its head to stare at the man inquiringly. Its +two little eyes, maliciously gleaming, increased its threatening aspect +as the bristles slowly rose on its back. + +Without making the slightest unnecessary movement, Grenville raised his +bow. He drew the arrow fairly to the head. A sharp twang followed +instantly. A streak of gray sped swiftly and obliquely towards the +earth. Then, for a second, Grenville saw the stout shaft quiver where +it was buried in the base of the creature's neck. + +One challenging grunt the wild hog uttered, starting as if to charge. +But the arrow had shattered the nerves that make for rage and courage, +cleaving to the seat of life itself. + +The boar staggered blindly, instinctively, back to the dense, +concealing jungle. + +Grenville heard it grunt once savagely, as it broke its way past +interfering branches of the growth. He realized it was escaping, that +it might reach a hole or other concealment before it fell, and cheat +him of his dinner. + +He dropped his bow, as a useless impediment in such a tangle, and +plunged in a reckless manner through the shrubbery and vines where his +quarry was no longer in sight. + +The hog must have stumbled forward with considerable speed. A +vibrating palm, ten feet ahead of his position, urged Sidney +impulsively forward. He was baffled and retarded in a most +exasperating fashion by the creepers woven through the thicket. + +Obliged to make a slight detour, he smashed a path between two stout +banana palms--and came upon a hidden clearing. There was one +unexpectedly violent movement of the growth just opposite, and there he +thought his hog was dying. + +Instantly upon his startled vision impinged a blot of yellow color. +The full active form of the tiger was immediately revealed, as the +brute leaped forth and sank his teeth in the neck of the sinking boar. + +There was one shrill mort cry only as the hog became inert. Half +raising the limber form in his massive jaws, the while his eyes wildly +blazed his challenge to and defiance of the man who had halted in the +clearing, the great supple creature, with the studded gold band about +his neck, slowly strode once more within the jungle. + +With a horribly disquieting comprehension of the fact he had doubtless +been stalked for the past half hour, which fully accounted for the +absence of game along the trails, Grenville retreated from the place. +Why he had not been leaped upon and instantly slain was too much to +understand--unless the unknown beings who had placed a collar, like a +badge of inferiority, upon the animal's neck, had so impressed him with +a dread of man that he dared not make an attack. + +All zest for the hunt had departed from his being when Sidney recovered +his bow. Anger and exasperation took its place as he reflected on the +ease with which this insolent, fearless beast could continue to rob him +of his quarry. And one day, he knew, the animal's boldness would +increase to a point where a treacherous leap would restore his +undisputed mastery of all this bit of land. + +"I'll kill him!" said Grenville, unexcitedly. "I'll blow him clean out +of his skin!" + +He went boldly down to the rotting wreck, climbed eagerly up to the +slanted cabin, and saluted the dead man, sitting there in chains. + +"Brother, I've come for the cannon," he said. "There's little else +left for you to guard." + +Although the small bit of ordnance would make a load of fully fifty +pounds, Grenville determined, then and there, to make a clean sweep of +all the old hulk's remaining bits of brass and bronze not appropriated +earlier. He, therefore, heaved the cannon out through a gap in the +rotting planks, and began a hurried overhauling of everything left in +the lockers. + +He had drawn out coil upon coil of ancient cordage, that broke like +wetted paper in his hands, before the largest and last of the lockers +had been emptied of its junk. This was a deep and comparatively sound +sort of box beneath a former bunk. Its interior was absolutely dark. + +Unwilling to overlook the slightest metal object, Grenville got down on +his hands and knees, to peer to the farthest corner. There seemed to +be nothing remaining in the place. Nevertheless, he reached well +inside and swept his hand about the walls, till it came to a slight +obstruction. + +This was a screw-head, so far as he could determine, in the planking +just to the left of the door, in one of the nearest corners. He +pressed rather heavily against the moldy woodwork, and his fist went +through, breaking away a decayed square of wood that had once been a +tiny door. + +Convinced at once that a small and, heretofore, undiscovered locker, of +insignificant dimensions, had been made between the walls of two of the +usual compartments, he conceived it to be a secret hiding-place, and +strained the full length of his reaching arm, blindly to explore its +interior. + +He could not touch its wall at the rear without crawling fully inside +the larger locker, and for this he felt but little relish. With a plan +worth two of that discomfiting scheme, he arose and kicked out the +paneling from the front of the narrow box. + +Once more he knelt, and thrust his arm to the end of the place. His +fingers came gropingly upon a round, metallic object, wedged tightly +down between two supports of wood. He broke it out in his vigorous +way, and drew it to the light. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A MYSTERY + +With an odd sensation tingling in his veins, Grenville examined his +find. + +It was merely a cylinder, made of brass, fully three inches in +diameter, and, perhaps, eight inches long. Its cap was rusted so +firmly in place that he could not possibly remove it. He gave the tube +a shake. There was something inside, but its weight was exceedingly +light. + +Once more he knelt before the secret locker to examine all its walls. +But although his fingers finally played upon every square inch of the +sides and ceiling, there was nothing further to be found. Apparently +the only "treasure" the place had concealed was contained within the +tube. + +He thought of a score of documents the one-time captain of the barque +might have thus desired to preserve, but the sun was rapidly nearing +its purple horizon, and the old ship's hold was growing dark. +Grenville gathered the last of the metal spoils he had found in an +empty box, half rotted, on the floor. The tube he thrust firmly in his +pocket. + +What with the cannon balanced on his shoulder, his box of rusted metal +hugged beneath his arm, and his bow, club, and arrows clutched tightly +in his hand, he presented a singular figure as he finally made his way +along the darkening trail, and came at length to the clearing, to be +hailed from the heights by Elaine. + +"Just for the sake of variety," he said, when he came to the terrace +with his burdens, "we'll eat one more dinner of fruit." + +"I couldn't think what you had killed," said Elaine, "when I saw you +coming with this," and she placed her foot on the cannon he had gladly +dropped to the ground. "What is it, anyway?" + +"A pop-gun," he said, "to tickle my friend the tiger." + +She was instantly apprehensive. "You have met him again?" + +He had no intention of arousing her alarm. + +"The brute is still about the island. I should like his skin for a +rug." + +"You could really shoot him with this?" + +"Well--I shall mount it, in any case, though I have my doubts of his +standing while I blow a few rocks through his person." + +When he went for a fresh supply of fruits he brought up a log some four +or five feet in length, with a burned-off prong at its end. This he +intended to prepare as a "carriage" for the gun. He placed the pronged +end down in his fire, to burn out a niche for the little brass piece, +which he cleaned of its mud then and there. + +His preliminary work on the bit of ordnance was soon concluded. When +his log had burned to a moderate depth, he removed it to a near-by rock +and gouged the charred portions away. Into the hollow thus rudely +formed, the breach of the gun loosely fitted, ready to be firmly bound +in place. + +But the day was done, and Elaine had spread their "table," to which +Sidney was glad to repair. + +He had mentioned nothing of the tube still fatly bulging his pocket. +Until he should first determine what the cylinder contained, he meant +to arouse no unnecessary speculations in the breast of his companion. +How much she might yet have to know of the barque and the mummy chained +in its cabin he could not determine to-night. That something sinister +lurked behind the mystery which this and the two headless skeletons +involved was his constantly growing conviction. + +It was not until night was heavily down, and Elaine had crept gladly to +the comfort of her cave, that Grenville produced the brass cylinder, +and stirred up new flames of his fire. + +Then, sitting alone in the ruddy glow, with a rock for a stool, and +another before him for an anvil, he scraped all he could of the +greenish oxidation from the cover of the tube, and tried, as before, to +wrench it off. The stubborn parts remained solidly rusted together. + +This he had apparently expected. For he took up a rock of convenient +size and, gently beating the cylinder just below its union with the +cover, he bent it slightly inward about its entire circumference, +meanwhile pausing from time to time to thrust his knife between the +cemented pieces and force them a little apart. + +The tube was considerably mangled by this process, while the cover +still adhered. In a final burst of impatience, Grenville thrust the +battered cap in the crevice between two bowlders and wrenched it +roughly away. + +Then he turned the hollow tube to the light, revealing, within, the +edge of some document, thick and loosely rolled. This he readily +removed and straightened in his hands, placing the tube beneath his arm. + +For a moment the parchment seemed, despite the firelight upon it, a +mere blank square, of leathery texture and weight. Then he fancied he +saw upon its surface some manner of writing, or signs. + +He resumed his seat and held the thing to the fullest light of the +flames. It was yellowish tan in color, a trifle stiff, and inclined to +curl to the shape it had held so long. Grenville turned it over, so +dim were the characters it bore. There was nothing, however, on its +outer side, wherefore he bent more closely towards his wavering light +above such signs as he could finally discern. + +Perhaps the fact that he began by expecting to find some ordinary map, +or printed or written characters, for a short time baffled his wits. +Howbeit, he began at length to discover the fact that a few large signs +or hieroglyphics had been rudely sketched upon the parchment. When +this discovery was finally confirmed, he had still considerable +difficulty in tracing the lines that comprised these singular designs. + +The firelight cast dark shadows in certain crease-like traceries that +folds in the substance had formed. It was not until he presently +managed to discriminate between these mere wrinkles and the "writing," +that he made the slightest progress. His eyes at last became more keen +to follow the artist's meaning. With his stub of a pencil, on a +whittled bit of wood, he began to copy what he "read." + +The result was, crudely, this: + +[Illustration: parchment with signs and hieroglyphics] + +It was not a map; it could hardly be a message--unless expressed in +some short-hand system heretofore unknown--yet it must at some time or +other have been accounted important to have been so elaborately +preserved. + +Grenville turned it upside down, compared his copy with the original +repeatedly, and then examined the parchment with most minute +particularity in search of some smaller writing to explain these +mysterious signs. + +There was nothing further to be seen--at least by the light of his +fire. Two of the symbols only did he recognize as ever having come to +his attention before. These were, first, the lines like a series of +M's, and second the oval, about a human figure. This last suggested +unmistakably an ancient Egyptian cartouch--the name or title of a king. +But containing one sign only, and that apparently representing a mummy, +it puzzled the inventor no less than the pyramids and curves. + +That some either crude or crafty mind had combined this mixture of +Egyptian and nondescript hieroglyphics with intent to reveal some +secret message or information to other initiated beings, while +concealing its import from all accidental beholders of the script, +seemed to Grenville perfectly obvious. + +He sat for three hours replenishing the fire and goading his brain for +a key to the puzzle, before it occurred to his mind at last the tube +might contain the explanation. + +All this while he had held it beneath his arm, hard pressed against his +body. As he peered down its dark interior once more, he likewise +thrust in his fingers. It was they that discovered and fastened upon +another sheet of something he had missed. + +This clung so close to the tube's metal walls he wetted his finger to +remove it. The light then shone opaquely through its substance. It +was ordinary foolscap paper, the half of a sheet, gone yellowish with +age, but otherwise very well preserved. + +It was covered with roughly scrawled characters. + +Grenville glanced it through--and irrelevantly longed for a pipe. He +felt he should like some good tobacco to assist in the puzzle's +solution. + +He felt convinced, however, that a crude example of the simplest, most +primitive cipher was contained upon the sheet. Should the words later +prove to be in English he could finally read it all. He began to +compare the recurrence of the various symbols at once, discovering that +the sign in the form of a cross had been used no less than fourteen +times, and was therefore almost certainly E. The next in importance +was the figure 3, which he felt might be either A, or N, or S, since +these, after E, are among the characters in English spelling most +frequently employed. + +[Illustration: second message] + +On another clean chip of whittled wood he jotted down a few of the +"words" with E's in each instance substituted for the crosses, and then +began attempting to make clear sense by substituting A's, N's, and S's +for the figure three, the figure one, and open squares, which, he +found, had been often represented. + +It was a blind and tedious business. His fire burned low, in his +absorption, and the midnight constellations marched past the zenith of +the heavens before he finally realized the folly of his quest. + +"It's not a bit of good in the world, if I knew all about it," he +finally confessed, "no matter what it means." + +He went to bed. But he did not sleep. Those singular pyramids and the +cipher still lingered before his inner vision. What was the mystery +hidden behind the dead man chained in the rotting barque, the headless +skeletons lying near the swamp, and now these documents, found in the +tube and so carefully concealed? + +"I give it up," he told himself at last, in an effort to dismiss it all +and compose his active brain. "I wish I had a stouter tube to make a +good bomb for the tiger." + +He thought perhaps he could use the oxidized cylinder as it was, and +began thereupon to wonder how he should make a fuse by which its powder +contents might be ignited. Thus he drowsed off at last, with fantastic +dreams swiftly solving the sum of his problems. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +AMBITIOUS PLANS + +Grenville awoke with a brilliant idea, born in his brain as he slept. + +It was not concerned with the documents found in the old brass +receptacle, but entirely with the tiger. He knew how to fashion a fuse. + +The creepers had answered this latest need, with their bark so readily +hollowed. He had burned up yards of the drying stuff with the core +removed, all of it shrunk and twisted tight, like long coils of +vegetable tubing. He had only to fill it with his powder while green, +and then let it dry in the sun. + +He could likewise fill the useless cylinder, wrap it about to increase +its resistance to the powder--and thereby render its explosion far more +violent. If, after that, a chance were presented to ignite it under +the tiger---- + +It was possible always, he confessed, the tiger might prove unwilling. +However, both the cannon and bomb should be immediately prepared. +There could be no peace upon the island while the brute remained alive. + +All thoughts of the cipher were postponed for evening recreation. The +day's work began after breakfast in preparing large quantities of +powder. + +At this Elaine assisted. She was glad of any employment. No less in +her veins than in Grenville's the promptings of being in the primitive +were daily surging stronger. Like himself, she was hungry for meat; +and while she had no thoughts of turning Amazon herself, she felt an +increasing interest in all that Grenville was attempting in his task of +coping with nature. + +Meanwhile Sidney was daily assuming a wild and unkempt aspect that he +could not possibly avoid. His beard was an unbecoming stubble that he +was powerless to shave; his hair was uncombed and a trifle long; his +clothing was not without its rents. But what an active, muscular being +he appeared, as he moved about at his work! He seemed so thoroughly +fearless, so competent and at home with naked Nature. His +thoughtfulness, moreover, had no limits, and neither had his cheer. He +had made no further disquieting advances, but seemed rather to have +forgotten, utterly, the lawless emotions to which he had one day given +way. + +This day it was he started the fires to bake his vessels of clay. They +were all sufficiently dry for the purpose, and, huddled together, a bit +removed, in a rudely constructed furnace made of rock, were piled about +with abundant fuel to provide an even heat. + +The morning was sped between the various duties. Some ten or more +pounds of powder Grenville finally stored in his cave. The labor of +grinding and mixing had undergone many interruptions while he attended +the fire about his jugs. He finally fetched some creepers from the +growth and, stripping out the pliable cores, poured powder in several +of the hollow coverings, bound them together, here and there, with +fibers, and placed them out on the rocks to dry. + +With the withes thus provided to his hand, the cannon was bound upon +the log he had hollowed a bit to receive it. This he knew to be crude +and, perhaps, even quite insufficient, but the gun was, in any event, +far too unwieldy for use against the tiger, unless the brute should +deliberately pose as a target, in the clearing down below. + +That mid-day the porcupine once more volunteered for dinner. His +services were accepted. Grenville dispatched him with a club--and +skinned him in the thicket. He was far too considerate of a woman's +sensibilities to fetch the creature into camp, with his arsenal of +spears still upon him. But the task of removing the hedgehog's hide +was amazingly difficult. + +Aware of two important facts--namely, that meat too freshly cooked is +certain to be tough, while even fresh meat for three hours wrapped in +paw-paw leaves becomes incredibly tender, Grenville lost no time, when +the skinning was done, in thoroughly swaddling his "game." He had +carved it up for more convenient handling. When he finally brought it +for Elaine to see, it looked decidedly attractive. + +"I shall save some scraps for bait," he said. "To-morrow we'll try for +fish." + +What with carving a number of tough, wooden hooks, preparing some line +from various fibers, and supplying new fuel to the flames that were +firing his needed potteries, his remaining hours were full. + +At length, in preparation for their dinner of meat, he went below, dug +a hole somewhat laboriously in the sand and earth of the clearing, and +started another brisk fire in the hollow thus created, Elaine tossing +down a few glowing twigs for the purpose. + +And how brave she looked, he paused to note, as she came to the brink +to be of this much assistance! How beautiful she was--and how delicate +she seemed, to be cast into such conditions! Despite her sturdiness of +heart and limb, she had always been tenderly reared. How far might she +go, enduring this life, reduced to savagery? + +These were thoughts that had come and been banished from his mind +innumerable times. There was nothing he could do to alter or even +greatly alleviate the hardships by which she was surrounded. Her +aloofness from personal contact with himself, even her constant +suspicions of his motives, and her lingering indignation for what he +had done, he felt every hour of the day. But he could not have begged +her forgiveness if he would--and would not have done so if he could. + +How long would it last, he asked himself--and what would be the end? +Would no ship ever come--or how long might it be till succor finally +arrived? Would a search be made for the missing boat that had gone to +the bottom of the sea? Or, before this could happen, would smaller +craft arrive--the strange, swift craft of these eastern waters, manned +by fanatical outlaws, pirates, or even the wild, head-hunting Dyaks, +who had probably been here before? + +When he finally placed his meat in the pit, where the fire had burned +down to glowing embers, his mind was filled with the many plans he was +impatient to materialize without another half hour's delay. He covered +the leaf-and-clay-wrapped dinner, first with portions of the coals and +heated ashes, and then with all the sand he had dug to make his natural +oven, after which he returned to the terrace. + +Neither the process of cooking, nor that of firing his earthenware +could be hastened now by Grenville's presence.. He saw that his +pottery furnace was properly supplied with fuel, and then sat down +where Elaine was busily plaiting a flat sort of mat with withes she had +somehow split to half their former size, and there he began to carve at +some slender branches of wood he had brought from down below. + +"What are you making?" he presently asked, as he watched her nimble +fingers at their task. + +"A platter for the meat," she told him, briefly. "And what are your +sticks to become?" + +"Forks for the same. I hope we shall need no knives.... I must soon +find time to dig about and, perhaps, unearth some yams. They are not +so good as potatoes, but they answer at a pinch." + +"You have planned so many things to accomplish," she said. "Do you +think you shall ever have the time?" + +"Can't tell, but meantime I thoroughly enjoy this wresting an existence +from more or less stubborn conditions. Just as soon as I eliminate the +tiger I shall melt up my pieces of metal to make a number of tools." + +Elaine looked up at the man in wonder, but not incredulously. + +"What perfect confidence you seem to have in your ability to accomplish +difficult things." + +His utterance sank a tone lower as he answered: + +"What I say I'll do--I'll do. What I say I'll have--I'll have." + +It was the first word he had spoken since their coming to the island +that might have been construed as a survival of the feelings he had +demonstrated on the steamer. + +Elaine felt her whole being suddenly burn with strange excitement. She +felt the underlying significance of his speech, and her soul was +instantly bristling with defiance. + +His words went too deep and were uttered too gravely for any mere idle +boasting. She had already seen, and partially acknowledged, the power +that lay in this strong man's hands to compel his desired ends. She +felt this potency emanating from him now--and resented the fact that +she herself had been as much selected as the tiger for his ultimate +conquering. + +She was angry again on the instant, ready to fight like a very little +demon, should he dare so much as lay a finger on her hand. She +resolved anew that, though a hundred years should pass before they two +escaped this island exile, not the tiniest bud of answering love should +ever sprout in her breast. + +For the past few days she had felt a new sense of security and ease. +The man with whom she was working out this singular and intimate +existence had made no sign of renewing his advances, had seemed to +forget he had ever broached the subject of his passion, and had been a +most agreeable companion, cheerful, resourceful, and courageous to the +last degree. + +Now that she knew what unworthy thoughts still lingered beneath the +surface of his calm, indifferent demeanor, not even their earlier +friendship seemed to her possible again--and for this she was +disappointed and annoyed. + +Her glance had fallen instantly back to her work. That her color +burned up, to the tips of her ears for Grenville to see and, perhaps, +enjoy, she felt with added irritation. But she would not confess, by +word or deed, she understood the meaning of his speech. + +When she spoke she employed a quiet and common-place tone of voice, and +returned to impersonal subjects. + +"I can understand," she said, "how you might possibly shoot the tiger, +but I thought one needed furnaces, tall chimneys, and things, to melt +up bronze and brass." + +"Dead right," he answered, readily. "You see, you've got such a grasp +on things that I never cease to be surprised--and delighted. I've +engaged quite a chimney already." + +She forced herself to continue the conversation, if only by way of +ignoring the personal element of his answer. + +"Engaged a chimney?" + +"You'll see about that, later. If getting the tiger were only half as +easy as some of the other things I expect to accomplish, I'd certainly +be tickled clean to death." + +She felt--she almost knew, indeed---that she and her love were +classified among the things he expected to "accomplish" so easily at +last, and her hot resentment burned hotter. She was tempted to flash +out her wildest cry of the loathing--the bitter, eternal loathing--his +words had begotten in her bosom. She was tempted again to a desperate +wish that the tiger might rend him in pieces--as _she_ would do if ever +he touched her again. But she dared not trust herself to speak, or +even to show, by the slightest sign, that his threat was comprehended. +She clung in desperation to the subject she felt to be safe. + +"Then--you do think the tiger dangerous--hard, at least, to kill?" + +"Well, I wouldn't call him exactly plum pudding and gravy." + +"Your cannon would kill him, though, of course?" + +"If he'd pose in front of the muzzle, a rod or so away." + +A cold chill crept along her nerves at thoughts of the savage animal +she herself had twice encountered. She wondered just what Grenville's +method would be--in overcoming some of the things he had vowed to +conquer. + +"You hardly expect to shoot the creature, then, after all?" + +He held up the fork he was carving, for critical examination. + +"I'm rather inclined to favor the plan of leaving a bait in the jungle, +and letting go a bomb when he comes to dine." + +Her natural concern for the man's own safety could not be long expelled. + +"How shall you know when he comes?" she inquired, and she dared look up +as before. + +Grenville continued to bend his gaze on his labor. + +"I expect to hang around and see." + +A sudden fear and sinking of the vitals seized her, unaware. + +"But--doesn't a tiger usually feed at night?" + +"His club hours are usually rather late, I believe." + +"And you'll wait around for him to come in the dark?" + +"What else can I do? Can't expect him to 'phone me he's arrived." + +"Oh!" she said, impulsively, "couldn't we build a wall of stone around +enough of the fruit for just ourselves? I could help at that. I'd do +so gladly!" + +If an exquisite thrill shot directly to the deeps of Grenville's +nature--a thrill aroused by her courage, her generous spirit, her +honest and helpful sympathy--he permitted himself to make no sign. +Also, he took no fulsome flattery to his soul. But he pictured her +forth, with bleeding hands, and torn and grimy garments, as she rolled +and carried great stones to the brink, to supply him with blocks for a +wall; and his spirit was wondrously glad to think he had made no error +of judgment in appraising her character. + +That all she could do she would do, as mere assistance--do for anyone +else in a similar situation, he comprehended fully. But he felt not a +whit less exultant for the knowledge of the fact. She was never for a +moment a mere useless dependent. She was daily, aye, hourly, assisting +in his wholly unequal combat for their lives, and this was a joy to his +heart. + +But he spoke with his usual bluntness, and without a single hint of +sympathy in all she had eagerly suggested. + +"Wholly impractical scheme. I've thought of a dozen just as poor." + +Elaine was instantly sorry she had proffered him her help. She placed +a withe between her teeth, bit through it neatly, and began to divide +it with her fingers. + +"Here, don't do that. You'll spoil your teeth," said Grenville, +brusquely. "I'll split you enough for half a day." + +She made no reply as he went at the withes and split them with skillful +ease, but she hoped he could feel, through some sensitive chord, how +intensely she disliked him. + +He could not. "I've been thinking," he said, "I may be obliged to make +a loom to weave these fibers into some sort of cloth for garments. May +need them before we get away." + +Elaine once more responded, in her honest, impulsive manner. + +"I could knit some things, I'm sure, if you'd cut me a pair of needles." + +"Cut 'em to-night," he answered. "That meat must be done, and my +potteries need attention." + +He dropped in her lap the forks he had roughly completed, and strode +away to his fire. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A MIDNIGHT VISITOR + +The porcupine dinner was good. In its ball of clay, Grenville brought +it to the cave in the basket that he used for heavy burdens. + +It was far too hot to be handled carelessly. And when he broke away +the earthy covering and leaves, and arranged the steaming pieces on the +platter Elaine had prepared, it was perfectly cooked, as tender as +quail, and of a flavor surprisingly fine. + +The banquet, however, would have been immeasurably improved by the +commonest of bread and potatoes. To provide some palatable substitute +for these essential commonplaces of civilization became another of +Grenville's problems, which, he told himself, he must tackle--after the +tiger. + +Everything was after the tiger, or else over-fraught with danger. The +thought of this made Grenville fret more than anything demanding his +attention. That night, when Elaine had finally retired, he went to his +fuses, broke off a length, and returned to light it at his fire. It +was still too damp, from the juices of the plant, to burn efficiently. +His bomb he, therefore, would not make until the following afternoon. + +The fire about his potteries he was now permitting to die. It could +not be altogether abandoned, since a too sudden cooling of the vessels +would crack and ruin every one. Therefore, from time to time, he went +to the furnace to regulate the heat. He had leveled a rock for a +table, at the fireplace near his cave, and on this he finally spread +the mysterious paper and parchment recovered from the tube. + +They had been all day neglected. Grenville had thoroughly intended a +daylight examination of the parchment, concerning the nature of which +he was considerably in doubt. + +A new supply of whittled wooden "tablets" on which to write lay ready +to his hand. Scratching at his head with his pencil, he studied the +hieroglyphics for an hour or more before he returned to the written +sheet with the scrawl spelled out in cipher. + +As a matter of fact, his mind refused the task on which he was +endeavoring to focus his attention. Despite his utmost efforts, his +thoughts would return to Elaine. He would have given almost his hope +of eternity to secure her absolute comfort and freedom from anxiety. +And, inasmuch as the tiger was responsible for much of her worry, his +mind was made up that a trial should be made to slay the brute without +another day's delay.... It is always so easy to plan! + +He was finally staring straight into the fire, though his hand still +rested on the parchment and the paper. The flames sank lower and +lower, wavering finally like dull red spear-heads among the glowing +embers. + +At some fancied sound he turned sharply about, to peer through the +darkness of the trail. All appeared as silent and calm as the grave. +He wondered if, perhaps, Elaine had arisen to come to her door. + +She was not to be seen at the indistinct entrance of her cave. He +turned once more to stir his fire--then wheeled like one on a pivot. + +His senses had not been deceived. Beyond, in the darkness, a few feet +only from the cavern occupied by Elaine, two blazing coals had been +fixed like twin stars by his movement. + +A sudden recollection that he had failed to close the gap in the wall +swept hotly and accusingly through him. Some beast of the jungle had +passed the barrier, perhaps to enter the very cave that the wall had +been built to protect! + +With a note that broke the stillness abruptly, Grenville caught up a +flaming branch of wood from the mass of embers in the fire, and sprang +to the path to the cavern. + +The prowling animal stood for a moment undecided, then started as if to +spring before the oncoming man to the shelter of Elaine's rock retreat, +doubtless to turn there in desperation for a mad encounter in the dark. + +But, perhaps by a yard, the man was there before him. The brute, even +then, refused to retreat towards the trail by which it had come. It +leaped towards the place where Grenville made his bed--a shadowy form +that he knew at last was not the arrogant tiger. + +It turned for a moment in the mouth of the cave, as if aware this +smaller retreat was too shallow for adequate shelter. But before the +man could crack his fiery brand upon the creature's head, it leaped +wildly past him, growling a savage protest, and reluctantly retreated +towards the trail. + +One more attempt it made, even then, to escape by Grenville's active +form, and regain the larger cavern. But his fierce, hot rushes were +not to be withstood. It finally turned with another sort of bellow, +and cowered uncertainly upon the downward path. + +After it no less desperately than before, Sidney plunged along the +steep descent, his firebrand brightly glowing in the wind. A whine of +fear escaped the jungle creature as he slunk at last through +Grenville's gate to the outer precincts of the wall. + +Almost immediately followed a frightful din of growls and wauling. +There were certain deep gutturals and mouthings that Grenville was sure +his tiger only could produce. There were sounds of a conflict, fierce +and bloody, retreating down the trail. Like a battle of cats, +enormously exaggerated, with screams and roars intermingled, the +disturbance rose on the air. But Grenville had blocked his gate with +logs and bowlders, and calmly returned to his place. + +Elaine was crouching by the fire when he came once more to the terrace. +She had called him in vain, and was visibly trembling as his form +appeared within the glow. + +"What was it?" she cried. "What has happened?" + +"Why--it sounds like a couple of jungle politicians engaged in a tariff +argument." + +"You weren't down there?" + +"I strolled to the wall, to make sure it was closed for the night." + +"There was nothing--up here? I dreamed there was something--fighting +with you--some terrible creature--like that." + +She waved her hand towards the hideous sounds, retreating swiftly in +the darkness. + +"Can't understand such a dream," he said. "We've had no corned beef +and cabbage. You'd better go back and try again." + +He started at once for his pottery fire, in his brusque, indifferent +manner. + +Elaine stood there, watching his figure, retreating in the darkness, +and made no move to retire. Like a dim silhouette of Vulcan, projected +against the reddened glare of his furnace, he presently appeared, from +the place where she eagerly kept him in her vision. She felt she could +not bear to creep away until he should return. + +She saw him stand for a little time observing his waning heaps of +embers before he faced about to return once more to his seat. Then, +slowly, as she heard his footsteps approaching, she glided silently +back to her shelter, and so at length within the door. Even then she +lingered eagerly, to make certain he was not far away. Until he sat +down, and stirred up the flames, she did not return to her couch. + +"To be so perfectly fearless!" she murmured, half aloud, and so crept +away to her dark, uncomfortable cave. + +Grenville pocketed the documents, still lying face up on his rock. He +finally slept beside the fire, to finish his plans in dreams. + +These plans, which were vague enough that night, matured fairly early +in the morning. He had resolved to try for the tiger at the spring. + +Fully expecting to encounter abundant signs of the animal conflict of +the midnight hours, he descended the trail before Elaine had appeared, +intent upon removing such evidence of trouble as might be found +disturbingly near their tower. + +There was nothing at all along the trail to show that a fight had taken +place. Where the grass and shrubbery began in the clearing below the +walls, there was one mere tuft of hair upon a twig. But a rod removed +from this there was at least a hint as to what might have caused the +engagement. + +This was a trampled and slightly reddened ring where something had been +eaten--some quarry doubtless captured by the smaller of the prowlers, +who had found himself suddenly attacked and driven from the feast by +the master hunter of the jungle, on whose sacred preserves he had +probably dared to poach. + +Grenville proceeded to the spring, not only to fetch a fresh supply of +water, but as well to indulge in a vigorous washing of his hands and +face, and to make some observations. + +He found that by breaking several limbs a none too comfortable seat in +the branches of a rubber tree might be prepared, provided he could +climb to the perch. With a very long fuse attached to his bomb he +might be enabled to execute a coup upon the tiger, under cover of the +night. Could he only slay some animal--another wild hog, for +instance--and place it here as a lure, his chances of securing the +tiger's attendance would be infinitely increased. + +A number of things were essential to his plan. The first, a rope +ladder, was the simplest of the lot. That he could fashion with ease. +His greatest problem was the fire with which to ignite his fuse, should +he wish to explode his bomb. The wood he had found, that so amazingly +retained its glow, might answer his needs for, perhaps, two hours, as +he sat high up in the tree. It was all he possessed, and upon it he +must needs rely. But how he should manage to discern his beast, in the +darkness, when the prowler came at last to drink, was more than he +could determine. + +"A dead-fall might do for the brute," he soliloquized aloud, as the +business revolved in his mind. "But I couldn't get one ready by +to-night." + +For several reasons a dead-fall was impracticable. The thought was, +therefore, abandoned, while the details of loading and placing the bomb +were elaborately planned. So vivid was Grenville's imagination that +already he pictured himself high in the tree, heard the tiger come to +lap the water, lighted his fuse--and ended that trouble forever. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +TRUANTS OUT OF SCHOOL + +He returned to the terrace, lightly whistling. The morning was +perfect, a delightfully refreshing zephyr lightly stirring in the +trees. Elaine beheld him approaching, and nodded from the cliff. + +"The jugs look beautiful!" she called, enthusiastically. "The fire is +barely warm." + +He had brought their supply of water in the sea-shell, so variously +employed. Before providing fruits for their breakfast, he went to his +furnace with Elaine. The firing was complete, though the vessels were +not yet cool. A few were cracked, slightly, despite the care that +Grenville had exercised, and one was hopelessly ruined. However, he +felt the product as a whole was surprisingly satisfactory, especially +some of his molds and the crucibles meant for his foundry. + +"At noon we'll fill a jug with water," he said, "and you'll find it +will keep surprisingly cool. The clay is slightly porous. The water +oozes through, evaporates on the surface, and thereby chills the +contents. They use nothing else in Egypt, and, I think, in Mexico. + +"If it weren't for the tiger," said Elaine, "I could often go to the +spring." + +"Right ho!" said Grenville, cheerily, believing he understood a wish +that lay beneath her speech. "That reminds me. I believe I could +manage to deepen a basin I saw in the rock on our lowermost shelf above +the sea, back yonder, and easily fill it by dipping salt water with a +jug on the end of a rope. Any nymph should enjoy such a pool." + +"Oh!" said Elaine, delighted by the thought; "do you really think you +could make it?" + +"Well--I've thought of it, you see, on an empty stomach. After +breakfast---- There's quite a bit to do, by the way, after breakfast." + +With the fruits now presently gathered, he brought a fresh supply of +creepers and leaves of the sisal, for labors soon to begin. And while +Elaine prepared what was left of the meat, and the other things +afforded by their larder, he went to the shelf of rock so completely +protected by its wall, and made up his mind that, with one good tool, +plus a hammer, he could hew out a bath with amazingly little trouble. + +"Meant to go fishing this morning!" he confessed, as the sight of the +clear, limpid tide below aroused new desires in his being. "There must +be oysters and many good fish, if I had the time to get them." + +Fish-lines and other "diversions" were again postponed when the +breakfast was concluded, while Grenville braided fibers and tied stout +rungs along their length, to form a rude sort of ladder. This he +carried to the spring at length, and hung across the limb of his tree +by lifting its end on a pole. + +Once in the tree, he labored diligently, breaking or cutting away a +number of interfering branches, and arranging a makeshift for a seat, +on which to rest as he waited. The bomb would be better prepared in +the afternoon. + +On his way, returning to the camp, he gathered a bundle of the special +wood that he used to retain his fire. It was while he was thus +engaged, in an unexplored part of the thicket, that he came upon a +fallen tree, fairly brittle with resin. He snapped off branch after +branch of this, till his load was too heavy to carry. With all he +could take he climbed the trail. + +A piece that he tried at the embers of his fire blazed promptly enough, +producing a volume of thick, black smoke, and a flame that burned +slowly down the wood, as he held the lighted end aloft. + +"If we happen to need a torch," he said to Elaine, who, as usual, was +watching results, "this will always be stored here, ready." He placed +the fagots in a near-by hollow of the rocks, against possible future +need. + +There was nothing further to be done at the spring until the hour of +sunset. The jugs and vessels from the furnace were found to be +sufficiently cool for handling, and were brought to the rear of his +shelter. + +The molds he had made excited anew his various ambitions. + +"To-morrow I shall start operations on the smelter," he told his +companion. "No tools means no boat--and no boat means no escape." + +Elaine felt a bound of excitement in her veins at the mere suggestion +of escape. She inquired: "How long will it take to build your boat?" + +"Can't tell," said Grenville, briefly. "Never built one on a toolless +island before." + +"I only meant about how long," Elaine explained. "It will take at +least a week, I suppose." + +"More likely two," he answered, as before. "Meantime I'm going +fishing. Want to come?" + +Elaine had little liking for any such off-hand invitation. + +"Not at present, thank you." She turned away from him, coldly. + +"It's an art and a sport you ought to cultivate," he informed her, +cheerfully. "Might sometime keep you from starving." He gathered up +the necessary paraphernalia, adding, "I hope the fish will bite," and +started on his way. + +He had fully two hundred feet of the line he had braided from fibers. +It was thoroughly "waxed" with juices from the rubber tree, and +although it was frequently knotted along its length, it was strong as a +wire, and not inclined to kink. + +His wooden hook was clumsy, but tough as steel, while its point and its +barb were exceedingly sharp. Also, the bait he thrust upon it +concealed it well, except where the line was stoutly attached. With +one of his old rusted hinges for a sinker, it was presently ready for +use. + +He had chosen that protected shelf of rock whereon he meant to hew out +a bath for Elaine, since this was the nearest possible approach he +could make to the water from the cliff. There, alas! at the very first +cast attempted, his line was atrociously tangled, while the hook +remained suspended some ten feet up from the tide. + +In patience he sat himself down on the ledge to restore the line to +order. Elaine, who had doubtless pondered wisely on his observation, +anent fishing as an art to be acquired, came half reluctantly wandering +over to his side, while Grenville was still engrossed with his mess of +tangles. She watched him in silence for a time, then, finally, sank to +the bench of rock and began to lend her assistance. He made not the +slightest comment, and even failed to thank her when the task was +finally concluded. + +Once again, at last, he swung the line for a cast far out in the +waters. It seemed to Elaine the hook and sinker would never cease +sailing outward. Yet they fell and sank, much closer in than even +Grenville had expected. + +He began to pull it back at once, since there might be rocks on which +the hook would foul, and his labor be wholly lost. The sinker, and +then the bait, emerged from the crystal depths of brine without so much +as a nibble. Again Grenville sent them full length out, and again drew +in with no results, save a possible inquiry, far below, where he +fancied he saw a gleam of silver. + +The third cast fared no better than the others. But the fourth was no +more than started homeward when a sharp, heavy strike was briskly +reported on the line, and Grenville's jerk responded. + +"Oh! you've got one!--you've got one!" cried Elaine, with all the true +pleasure of a sportsman. "Please, please don't let it get away!" + +Grenville was taking no chances on slack in the line, with his simple +wooden hook. He hauled in, hand over fist, while his catch fought +madly to escape. With a wild inward dash and a mighty flop, the +silvery captive on the barb leaped entirely out of the water. + +Grenville's answering maneuver with the line, snatching up fully a yard +of its length, and instantly stooping to clutch it low again, was all +that saved the situation. His fish barely touched the surface, after +that, then was swiftly sailing up in air. + +He was a beautiful specimen of his kind, but the species was new to his +captor. + +"What's the use of going to school?" was Grenville's query, his eyes as +bright as a boy's. "The next one may be a whale." + +The next one, however, was a long time coming. When it was hooked, the +wise fisherman knew it was small, and, most unexpectedly, he delivered +the line to Elaine. + +"Now, then, give him the dickens!" he instructed. "You want to make +him think he's struck by lightning." + +Surprised as she was, and unprepared for this particular favor, Elaine +did her best, and hauled in valiantly, but the captive got away. + +Five or six casts were made after that before the hook was once more +nibbled. Grenville was rather inclined to change for a spot more +popular with the purple water's tribe. Yet he made another of his +longest throws, and had drawn in much of the dripping line when a clean +young tortoise so deeply swallowed the hook that he could not have spat +it out to save him. + +The fight he offered was tremendous. He dived and skittered through +the crystal tides like some giant saucer of dynamics. Whole lines of +the brightest silver bubbles arose as he visibly flapped about and +scuttled towards the bottom. The line raced wildly here and there, +cutting the waves with the sound of something hot and sizzling. + +But it held for a full half hour of fighting. It was strong enough for +the weight of a man, as Grenville afterward declared. It conquered the +tortoise finally, and drew him up, but not before he had wearied the +fisherman's muscles and greatly fatigued Elaine, who was panting with +sheer excitement. + +"There you are," said Grenville, boyishly exultant, "he's wash basin, +comb, a few hairpins, and what-not, all in one, not to mention turtle +soup." + +There was no more fishing done that afternoon, nor were knitting +needles carved. What with his turtle, his fish, the digging of several +yams, and the making of his bomb, Grenville was amply employed. + +Elaine was at length made acquainted with his programme for the night. +She made no effort to dissuade him from his purpose, but excitement +rose in her bosom. She feared for what the tiger might by mischance +accomplish, and, also, she felt that in some occult way her own fate +and the animal's were alike, if not related--that if such a brute must +helplessly succumb to the man's superior prowess, there was no chance +at all for anything as feeble as herself. + +A wild, unreasoning hope was in her breast that the tiger might escape, +or die in some different manner--do something, almost anything, rather +than contribute one more testimony to Sidney Grenville's might. She +could not wish the creature to live, nor yet to injure this bold, +audacious man. She only knew that some dread of the being who could +dare engage or attack this savage monster of the jungle was once more +assailing her quaking heart and stirring her nature to rebellion. + +In a manner that was largely automatic, she assisted in providing an +early evening meal. It was dusk, however, when Grenville was finally +ready to leave her on the hill. + +She followed him down to the gate against the wall, in the way of a +child who fears long hours alone. + +"Good-night," he said to her, cheerily. "If you hear my little +imitation of Bunker Hill--you might drop one tear for the departed." + +Her dread of the night, and the outcome of his excursion, had suddenly +increased. "If you kill him," she said, "you'll come home?" + +He nodded. "Tickled to death and bragging like a pirate." + +Then he placed the logs and rocks against the barrier, and once more +bade her good-night. She waited till his final footsteps died away in +the gloom, then hastened once more to the brink above for a final +glimpse of his form. + +He had passed, however, across the clearing, and not even the spark +that he bore to the gathering darkness threw her back a dull red ray. + +He had lost little time after leaving the foot of the trail. The +jungle was wrapped in somber shadows as he made his way to the spring. + +Some nimble little creature leaped lightly away when he came to the +place. Otherwise there was not a sign or a sound to disturb the +ringing silence. His bomb he placed beside the ebon water, where a +ledge of rock would throw its violence outward. The fuse, which he +carefully uncoiled and laid upon the grass, was amply long to meet his +needs. + +At length, with his fire-stick held between his teeth, he ascended the +ladder to his perch. The end of the fuse he now brought to the limb, +conveniently near for lighting. Then he settled himself to wait. + +Once he blew on the coal slowly eating his brand, to clean the +incandescent cone. Of a sudden, then, he heard the sound of something +directly beneath him, rudely brushing the foliage aside. + +His heart for a second stood still. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A NIGHT IN THE JUNGLE + +It was not the tiger Grenville heard above the pounding of his heart. + +The squealing of some little insignificant beast, apparently more in +sport than apprehension, betrayed very soon the fact that no sinister +visitor was even prowling near. So heavy a sound as the little brute +had made would doubtless be avoided when the master of the jungle +should arrive. + +All the excitement unduly engendered in Grenville's system rapidly +subsided. He listened as intently as before, and peered below in an +effort to pierce the densest shadows, but could not detect the form or +whereabouts of his early visitor. He doubted if this small creature +drank, since the pool of the spring was still quite clearly visible, +like a surface half of ebony and half of tarnished silver. + +At length the absolute silence prevailed as it had before. Save for +the lightest of zephyrs, that barely sufficed to fan the topmost +foliage, not even the slightest stir could be detected. The darkness +below became absolute, where shadows, tree-trunks, and thicket all +blended into one. A portion only of the pool was now discernible, and +in this, clearly mirrored, were two bright stars, that burned dull gold +in the ebon. + +Grenville sat back in his lumpy perch and blew, as before, on his coal. +Its slender wreath of invisible smoke ascended pungently. The hour was +still very early for nocturnal business to begin. The tiger might not +come till midnight. Sidney reflected that the brute would doubtless +eat before a drink would be desired. + +He regretted, vainly, that no bait had finally been provided. Even the +fish they had only partially eaten for dinner might have been +attractive to the tiger. Any price now would be cheap enough to rid +themselves of this terror. + +His reflections ran the gamut of their island world, and sped far over +seas. He thought of that day with Fenton, and of what this friend +would think. Had they heard the news, in that far-away home, of the +steamer gone down with every soul? + +He thought of the morning he had greeted Elaine--and the something that +had happened to his nature. He remembered in detail every hour of +every day they had spent together on the steamer. Then the hideous +details of all that last experience, in the storm and night, paraded by +for his review. + +One after another the swiftly moving procession of events brought him +back to this present hour. He was, then, confronted once again by the +questions--how long would it last?--how might it end? The island's +mystery impinged once more on his varied cogitations, making him wish +he might have had a torch, by which to study the documents reposing in +his pocket. + +Mentally picturing forth the signs on the leathery piece of parchment, +he busied himself for above an hour for a clew as to what they could +mean. They suggested nothing to his mind that made the slightest +sense. He tried to recall the characters on the "explanatory" sheet. +But this was a hopeless task. + +Aware of the value of deduction, he began on a reasoning line. +Anything to occupy his thoughts and time till the hour when the tiger +might have fed, and would come for his evening drink, was highly +welcome. + +He began by a natural presumption that both the documents, found +together in the tube, and so carefully concealed, related to this +particular island. Did they not, then of what possible value would be +their final decipherment and solution? + +Granting this premise, then what should follow next? Certainly some +mention of the island--with its name--in the written message, at least. +There would naturally be, in these circumstances, some word in the +cipher spelling "Island"--but what would the place be called? + +Such places, he knew, were frequently named quite unofficially, by +wandering sailors, adventurers, and drifters on the sea. Attempting to +level his state of mind to that of such human beings, he wondered what +he, if left to himself, would christen this bit of rock and jungle. + +So often, he reflected, a place was named for its appearance. This +one, for instance, might aptly be called "Three Rocks," "Three Walls," +or "Three Towers." He remembered, finally, the abominable sounds +produced by the tides twice daily--sounds he had thought might have +frightened the natives away. The cognomen, "Haunted Island," might not +seem wholly inappropriate to a superstitious mind. + +The more he reflected, the more certain he felt that some one of the +names suggested to his mind might also have occurred to those of +others. Considerably aroused in his centers of curiosity, and +convinced that even by the dull cherry glow of his firebrand he might +be enabled to confirm or confute his theory, he moved sufficiently to +draw from his pocket the closely folded documents, and held them up to +his torch. + +The one with the inexplicable signs he promptly returned as of no +immediate avail. At that instant his attention was arrested, by a +sound below him on the earth. + +Something, he thought, was lapping at the water! + +He leaned far forward, tense and rigid on the limb, shielding his spark +in one of his hands, while he peered about the pool. + +There was nothing he could possibly discern--no form of a head +projected out to obliterate his stars. Yet the sounds at the edge of +the silent basin rose distinctly to his ears. + +All but ready to bend to the end of his fuse, and touch his fire upon +it, he paused, looked closer, saw ripples move to disturb his mirrored +planets--and then beheld some form darkly limned on the waters. + +For a moment he was certain his insolent tiger was there. Some huge +blunt muzzle seemed inkily contrasted with the dull gray surface of the +spring. Then the muzzle suddenly detached itself from the imagined +form behind. The entire figure of some little beast was seen as it +waded the pool. + +Once more, disgustedly, Grenville reclined and relaxed the strain on +his nerves. It was some time, then, before he thought to return to his +quest of the cipher. He remembered, finally, he had meant to count the +characters in some of the words to see if the number of signs thus used +might not correspond with the number employed in "Island," "Three," +"Haunted," "Wall," or "Tower." + +A dull red glow, of most unsatisfactory dimensions and illuminative +capacity, was the most he could procure from his brand. It barely +sufficed to present the "writing" to his vision. For a moment, indeed, +he despaired of discriminating clearly between the ending of one word +and the beginning of the next. Fortunately, however, the writer had +used large periods between his every word. + +Considerably to Grenville's satisfaction, the third word thus denoted +he was almost convinced was "Three." Not only had it the proper number +of letters, or signs, but the two final characters were exactly alike, +and both were the crosses he had previously selected as probably +representing E. + +The next word along, he was equally certain, was either "Wall" or +"Hill." Its two final characters were the same particular sign +repeated, while its meaning, in conjunction with the preceding word +"Three," fulfilled his logical deduction. + +A word of two characters followed this, and then, to Grenville's +intense delight, occurred a word of seven letters, which not only met +the numerical requirements of "Haunted," but, also, in proper sequence, +employed the various letter-signs already somewhat proved by the word +he felt certain was "Three." + +This was more than sufficient evidence on which to base a test of the +message's sense, if it were not, indeed, enough of a key with which to +decipher the entire inscription. + +Eagerly fumbling in his pocket for his pencil, with the intention of +attempting a bit of substitution of letters for the signs contained +upon the sheet, Grenville shifted his position--and the paper fell from +his fingers, fluttering obliquely from his sight. + +He leaned quickly forward, as if to follow the flight of the missive +through the darkness so densely spread beneath him. But it disappeared +almost instantly--with its mystery still unsolved. + +On the point of descending, at whatever cost, to recover the important +bit of foolscap, Sidney was halted in movement and impulse by some new +arrival at the spring. + +As a matter of fact, two animals were there, as he presently +discovered. That neither was his tiger he was presently persuaded, but +that one or both were fairly large seemed equally assured. + +It was certainly not a time to leave the tree. And while the +reflection that, perhaps, the silent visitors were leopards was +presented to Grenville's mind, and a momentary thought of slaying the +pair by igniting his fuse became a strong temptation, he contented +himself by staring more or less blindly down upon the place where they +seemed to be, and bided his time as before. + +At nine o'clock it seemed, to the cramped and impatient hunter in the +tree, that ages had passed since he bade good-night to Elaine and came +to this lonely vigil. There were sounds in abundance about him now, +arising from time to time. Some were the cries of the lesser beasts, +in the clutches or jaws of their captors; some were sounds of munching. +All of them indicated rather grimly the tiger's absence from the scene. +There would be no petty murderers thereabout when the arch brute came +for his drink. + +Leaning back once more, and long since weary of his fruitless +adventure, Grenville stared at the glowing cone of fire slowly eating +away his brand. It was lasting far longer than he had believed would +be possible--yet certainly less than one hour more could the consuming +substance serve to give him a spark. + +He could almost fancy he saw a face, in the film of ash upon its +surface. He was sure the face was developing a likeness to Elaine. +Even the soft clear radiance of her cheek---- How eagerly she had +asked concerning his coming "home"--but how far it seemed away.... He +could hear her saying "You'll come home ... come home ... come back...." + +He awoke with a start, for something had burned him on the wrist. + +The firebrand, all but consumed in his relaxing fingers, had dropped +and deposited a blister. In his sudden move to rid himself of the +torture to his flesh, he threw off the red-hot candle of wood, and it +fell straight downward, sizzling once where it struck in a trickle of +the water. + +Reviling himself for a stupid blunderer, and arousing vividly to a +sense of where he was, and why, he began to question the expediency of +returning at once to the terrace. He was still debating the wisdom of +the move, when the question was decided by the tiger. + +That belated midnight reveler--the old roué of the jungle--was ushered +in with questionable pomp--the panic of lesser brutes in flight. And +when he drank, beside the useless bomb, there was no mistaking his +presence. He presently paused, half satisfied, and lifted his head, +against the shudder of the water, to sniff at the jungle breeze. + +The wind had betrayed the presence of the man, and the great brute +voiced his satisfaction. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A DEAD MAN'S SECRET + +That was a long, weird night in the jungle. + +What hour it was the tiger finally departed was more than Grenville +could have told. And whether the daylight, finally approaching, or a +royal disgust, or some easily captured morsel, had served to urge the +brute upon his way, was equally unknown. + +Grenville descended from his perch at last, when the palms and ferns +had darkly emerged from the velvety blackness of the thicket. He took +up his club, left the bomb in its place, and, searching about, +recovered the sheet of parchment dropped in the darkness. Aware that +the silently moving enemy might still be lurking by the pathway, he +made his way no less boldly from the shadows, and came duly to the hill. + +His chagrin was complete when he told Elaine that his night had been +spent in vain. She had scarcely slept, as he could see, for her face +was still pale with worry, while her eyes showed her lack of rest. + +"I shall try again to-night," he said, but from that he was dissuaded. + +The strain was too great upon Elaine, if not upon himself. He +presently promised to wait a day, and see what might develop. He could +not subject his companion to another such session of agonizing worry as +Elaine had undergone until he felt more certain of results. + +But to wait a day in idleness, while he felt that every hour that +passed might bring new dangers upon them, could scarcely accord with +his intentions. + +He declared the tiger an arrant coward, who dared not confront him in +the day. + +"We have faced far greater perils than this," he told her, as they ate +their simple breakfast, "and we may be called upon to face the like +again. We're enormously fortunate to have nothing more than this +striped beast to limit our freedom on the island." + +Elaine could have thought of countless other animals, including snakes, +that would amply curtail her roaming inclinations, but she was not in +the least in the habit of rehearsing her many dreads. + +Grenville went promptly to work, after breakfast, fetching clay in the +basket from the pit. It was not brought up to the terrace, but dumped +in a heap beside the hollow tree, in the burned space under the walls. +This tree, he at last explained to Elaine, he intended to use as a +smelter. + +"It's a natural chimney I've annexed," was the way he presented the +problem. "If I built a fire in it now, however, it would burn, and be +destroyed. I intend to line it with clay--plaster it on, inside, some +eight or ten feet high. Then when this fire-resisting substance dries, +I can smelt my metal and run it in the molds. The draught will make a +prodigious heat--far more than brass requires." + +"I see," said Elaine. "Meantime I am utterly idle." + +"I'll cut you those needles. You can knit," he said, "unless you +prefer to go fishing." + +He had come to the camp for one of the jugs in which to carry water for +the clay. This task was temporarily abandoned while he sat in the +shade, beside Elaine, and carved out the promised tools. These were +made of wood, instead of bone, since the latter material was far too +hard for his fragment of a blade, and one of the woods provided by the +jungle was so straightly grained and elastic, that even a slender +splinter would bend like steel before it broke. + +For a short time after they were finished, he sat there to watch the +craft displayed by Elaine's nimble fingers, as a slender bit of the +fiber stuff began to accumulate in stitches. + +"You were made for a home-builder's mate," he said, and arose and left +her to her thoughts, and to certain inflammable emotions. + +He carried his jug down the trail and to the spring, resuming the +business in hand. The sight of the pool not only served to arouse his +disgust anew, but he was likewise reminded of the documents, reposing +still unread in his pocket. The bomb, he knew, should be carried back +to camp, lest the fuse become dampened in the thicket. With this and +his jug full of water, he hastened back to the foot of the trail--and +forgot them both forthwith. + +The half sheet of paper, readable at last, had enslaved him then and +there. + +He sat on a rock, with the paper on his knee, and was lost to all +things else. + +For a moment he thought, perhaps, he had dreamed of obtaining the key +to the hidden message. But one hurried glance at the words he had read +convinced him the trick had been done. + +On the back of the sheet he began at once to jot down the signs of +which he felt most certain. The results, as he made them, were these: + +[Illustration: THREE, HILL, HAUNTED, and their symbols] + +The next word, according to his deductions, should be "Island." This, +he felt, was indisputably confirmed by the fact it contained precisely +the required number of "letters," with the sign for L, A, and D, +already discovered, occupying their proper positions. He, therefore, +added: + +[Illustration: "ISLAND" and its symbols] + +to his growing collection of letters, and promptly produced the +following results by the process of substitution: + +[Illustration: many words, and their symbols] + +There could be so little doubt, after that, concerning such words as +"Under," "High," "Important," and "Water," which supplied the +characters, U, G, M, P, W, and O, which was also suggested in "Or," +before "Haunted," that a bit of additional substitution very promptly +cleared the entire affair. + +Grenville jotted it down, to make sense, in the following fashion: + +"Under tree, Three-Hill, or Haunted Island, Cave. Get in (during) high +water (in) Spring time when noise loud. Important. Make no mistake. +Map on Buli shows same." + +The one word which he felt to be doubtful was "Buli," which, he +confessed, might as readily be "Zuli," "Juli," or "Quli," but this was +of no significance, one way or another. Its meaning was still obscure. + +There were several things in the message or statement, however, that +confirmed his earlier uneasiness. The principal of these was the +statement that it was important for the possible seekers of some cavern +under the greater wall of rock to visit the island only during the time +when the hideously haunting sounds were at their height. This argued, +he thought, that the sounds would finally subside, or altogether cease, +when complications--doubtless in the form of visitors--might be +expected to develop. + +That the visitors would be natives and, probably, Dyaks, Grenville +could have no doubt. As to what there was in the cave beneath the +rock, he had small curiosity only, since it was hardly likely such +tools as he desired would be so concealed from a prying world, and +tools alone had value for him now. + +He could not doubt, however, that something there was in the cave here +described, for which men had risked their lives. He thought of the +headless skeletons, and then of the mummy in chains. + +Suddenly, at thought of that guardian of the barque, his heart gave an +added leap. He snatched from his pocket the parchment referred to as a +map. He could instantly see, by the light of day, that the leathery +substance was leather, indeed, of the most grewsomely repellent +description! It was simply _tanned human skin_! + +And abruptly he understood that phrase--"Map on Buli shows same." The +pyramids represented the island's three great hills, and other signs +the cave. The pole with a knob, on the tallest hill, was the tree so +near his camp. + +Aye, the thing was a map in very truth--and once it had been ON Buli! +For Buli was he who sat in the barque, chained fast to prevent his +escape! + +_This map he had borne, tattooed on his breast, from which it had +finally been stripped!_ + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +FEVERISH EMPLOYMENTS HALTED + +A species of horror attacked the man on whom the truth had flashed. +What abominable cruelties and crimes lay back of the business thus +finally to some extent revealed, he could only faintly imagine. + +He felt quite certain of one or two things, that were not to be told to +Elaine. First, he could not for a moment doubt that the barque had +been brought to the island with the sole intent and purpose of looting +the cave of treasure. He was equally convinced its crew had been +foully slaughtered--and their heads removed. This smacked of Dyak +atrocities. Finally, there was ample evidence that men of some sort +had visited the island long since the wreck was stranded, and probably +within the year. + +He had not required the warning made "important" on the sheet to urge +him to haste in preparing a boat with which to attempt an escape. To +learn that the haunting sounds of the tide would at length subside was +a new and disquieting addition to what he had previously deduced. He +had accurately hit upon the natives' superstitious awe of the sounds to +account for the island's desertion. + +How long these invaluable shrieks and moans might be counted upon to +continue became a vital question. Could they only last till a boat +could be completed, launched, provisioned, and directed away to a safer +retreat, he would ask for nothing more. + +He returned again to an inspection of the "map"--now singularly plain. +The island was graphically represented by the three conventional +"hills," with the sign for water inscribed at either end. The tree, so +conspicuous upon the tallest wall of rock, was no less vividly +portrayed. + +Below this identifying picture of the place the hill with the tree was +repeated, with the cave and design for water, while just to the right +the detail of the cavern, with more water signs, indicating both high +and low tide, was depicted somewhat enlarged. The cartouch was not so +readily comprehended. Grenville was inclined to believe it spelled +some crude king's name, while the scarab, or beetle, was, of course, an +old Egyptian symbol concerned with life and death. + +It would hardly have been human of Grenville not to wonder about the +cave or to contemplate a visit there--just to have the merest look +about the place. He even went so far as to wonder if its entrance +might not be effected from the upper brink, by means of a longer rope +ladder than the one he had already made. + +He did not, however, seriously contemplate delaying affairs more +important to gratify this whim. Indeed, he was fired with new +impatience to work night and day against the hour of escape. The +thought put him back on his feet, then and there, with the documents +stored away. There was no time to lose--not a moment--not even to fool +with the tiger! + +He left his bomb and its fuse upon the rocks, and carried the water to +his clay. To line his hollow-tree furnace as promptly as possible must +be his first concern. No boat could be made without suitable tools, +and---- He wondered how he should make it, even then. + +The log he had found on the day they arrived was such a huge affair to +attack with the implements his limited craft made possible, despite all +the bronze he could melt. And yet, without it, he was helpless. The +raft was far too clumsy for propulsion. It afforded practically +nothing transformable into a boat, as he had no nails, no saw, no +anything with which it might be first dismembered, and finally +reconstructed. + +"By Jove!" he exclaimed to himself, aloud, as a new thought crept +subtly to his brain. "I can hollow the log with fire!" + +He went at once to the straight and ample tree-trunk, lying propped +upon a rock. Its ends had already been partially consumed, and thereby +rounded, in the flames that had ravaged the place. How he could cover +such parts as he must not burn with a plaster of his clay, Grenville +instantly conceived. And there was the log already lifted away from +the earth, for the fire to be kindled beneath! + +The wisdom of starting this process at once, even before his tools were +made, was immediately apparent. Back to his clay heap he hastened +eagerly, and, pawing it over to form a hollow pyramid, he poured in the +water to soak through the mass, and so make it soft enough to use. + +A new, unsparing spasm of labor seized the man in that hour, and he +worked unremittingly. He felt he had loafed away his time which +important requirements demanded. + +The task of digging the clay from the pit and fetching it up to his +hollow tree in the basket, made of creepers, was interminable. The +sticks and wooden "spades" he had managed to fashion, not only broke +from over-use and straining, but they were dull and heavy and awkward. +The basket was scarcely more convenient than the implements in +fulfilling its simple function. He could manage to carry its weight +upon his head, but at this he had meager skill. + +For three days he worked to get the clay, or to work it up and apply it +with his hands. A considerable portion of the fallen log was thus +quite promptly covered. He had then to wait for the clay to dry before +his fire could be ignited. + +The supply of clay he had managed to amass was clearly insufficient. +He paused, on one of those warm and breathless afternoons, to set a +number of traps in the animal pathways, and construct an awning for +Elaine. This was merely a structure before her cave, to support a roof +of leaves and grasses. It afforded a shade, however, that was +exceedingly grateful. + +There were numerous interruptions, also, for procuring meat and fruits. +Grenville had brought down a pheasant with the last of his two +remaining arrows. And not even a quill, supplied by the wings, had +blown away from his "store." He had cut new shafts by his evening +fire, and tipped them with points of sharpened wood. Elaine had +feathered them skillfully, after once being properly directed. + +Not a sign, all this time, had Grenville seen of the tiger, still +haunting the jungle. He had been too industriously engrossed, either +to wonder or to care where the brute had recently been lurking. + +On the fourth warm morning of his toil about the furnace, the reminder +came home with a jolt. Some few yards away from the clay pit's edge +lay the master murderer's kill. It was part of a freshly eaten boar. + +Grenville was neither revolted nor angered by the sight. He was +suddenly excited with a new hope of getting a certain robe to lay at +the feet of Elaine. It never occurred to his eager mind that the brute +who bore it might be lying near, in a mood to resent his intrusion +here, where the kingly banquet had been left for a sitting again that +night. + +His first concern was to keep away, as far as possible, lest the smell +of his boots offend the lordly brute when he finally returned. +Meantime such preparations as the scene made possible must not be +unduly delayed. + +The trees above the reddened spot afforded more choice for his +necessary perch than he had found on the previous occasion. He rapidly +sketched his plans for the night with mental notes and observations. +Where the bomb could lie, to prove most efficacious, and still at the +same time offer no great menace to himself, was readily determined. +The ladder required for ascending to his stand would better be hung on +the side most removed from the trail, for which he must a little clear +the thicket. + +His club, without which the visit here at sunset was not to be +undertaken, could lean on the tree-trunk while he sat above, since +there, should any need arise, he could find it in the dark. + +He abandoned all thought of treading back and forth from the clay pit +to his smelter, and carried his basket away. The ladder he brought at +once from the spring, and, expending an hour in more careful +preparation for his comfort than had even been possible before, he +finally departed from the site of the tiger's gory refreshment, well +satisfied with all he had been able to accomplish. + +He returned to the camp, made a careful examination of the bomb and its +fuse, and selected the wood to be finally used in preserving his +essential spark of fire. Then, willing at last to turn his attention +again to his daily occupation, he once more descended to his +clay-covered log and found the plaster sufficiently dry upon it for the +first of the burning to be started. He called to Elaine, who threw him +down some glowing embers, from the fire always burning near his shelter. + +All day he found abundant employment, working with flame and clay. The +eating away of the log in a manner to leave a hollow shell, could not, +he found, be accomplished as swiftly as he had hoped. Moreover, the +fires required his constant attention, lest they burn too deeply to +right or left, and thus destroy, or considerably impair, the walls he +desired to protect. + +In the afternoon he permitted this fire to die. Until more clay could +be plastered about and the blackly charred portions of the wood removed +with a tool, the process must be halted. He had still a small section +inside his natural smelter to cover before he could undertake the +melting of his metal, but his heap of clay was gone. + +Once more, as he had on the previous occasion, he informed Elaine in +the late afternoon of his intentions for the night. Her look of alarm +was the only sign that escaped her resolute being. She had silently +noted his earlier activity with the bomb and his fire-preserving wood; +she was not surprised by his plans. + +"I shall not be down at the spring," he said, "but over there nearer +the clay pit. I have found a place where I rather expect our friend to +arrive at a decently early hour." + +Her eyes were startled and wide. + +"Do you mean he sleeps where you have been walking every day?" + +"No--certainly not. But I'm sure he was there last night--and I hope +he'll come again." + +She was quick to divine the unpleasant truth that Grenville was +striving to avoid. + +"You mean--he's been eating there--and left some awful----" + +"Good pork," he agreed, as he took up his bomb; "a fine wild +boar--enough to have done us for a week." + +She resumed her work of knitting, on a small, round basket-like affair. + +"I hope there are more of those hogs for him to get," she told him, +quietly. "I hope they are easy prey." + +"Right ho! But I trust he'll not be off with the old pig before he is +on with the new. I want him to come to the party there to-night." + +Elaine looked up for a moment, and thrilled to the look in his eyes. + +"Yes," she said, "I suppose you do." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +AT THE TIGER'S KILL + +The island twilight was brief. When the sun departed from that speck +of verdure in the purple sea, the covetous darkness seemed to form like +a presence that had crouched to bide its time. + +Grenville was early on the scene of the tiger's previous feast. He had +no idea how soon after sundown the jungle monarch might appear. It was +not such a place as inspired hilarious joy in the heart, in any +circumstances. Moreover, one last examination of the bomb and fuse, +and one clear impression of the features beneath and about his tree, +seemed to Sidney a wise precaution. + +The day had, therefore, barely ended when he climbed aloft to his +perch. The end of the fuse was tied to a limb a little removed from +his feet. He closed his eyes and found it with his hand, by way of +making certain it should not be missed in the dark. The larger and +denser of the forms below, created by shadows and growing plants, he +noted in their relation to the kill. The latter was not to be clearly +seen, since a screen of leaves he had purposely left to conceal his +presence from the banqueter, served to shield it from his view. + +Finally, closing his eyes again, he practiced retreating behind the +trunk itself, as he knew he must do when nothing could be seen and his +fuse was finally lighted. This was rather a delicate operation to +manage in the dark. He made up his mind it must be calmly done, for +ample time would be provided by the generous length of fuse. + +This length, by the way, was considerably less than he had formerly +employed. The bomb was, therefore, nearer to his stand. Yet the bulk +of the tree-trunk was, he thought, an entirely adequate protection +should he have the delight of hearing his powder explode. + +Through the lattice of leaves he presently beheld the last of the day's +dying splendor. The army of shadows, already on the march, was taking +rapid possession of all the jungle deeps. The same impatience he had +felt before, the same vague dread and loneliness previously +experienced, and the same slow drag of time impressed themselves upon +his senses. + +He wondered how long his brand would last, although it was longer than +the other. He wondered about Elaine, on the hill, and how tedious the +hours would seem to her. But the constant, underlying worry was--when +would the tiger arrive? + +Elaine's suggestion was a bother. Might there not be hogs so +plentiful, quarry so readily captured, that the overdisdainful monarch +would prefer warm meat to cold? + +There was no mysterious cipher to be studied here to-night. There was +nothing, in fact, with which to pass the time. Not even a new +speculation concerning the cave and the rotting barque arose to give +him entertainment. The haunting, suggestive stillness engulfed him +where he sat. The world below had merged in one featureless gloom. +Except for a few fringed patches of sky between the leaves and +branches, there was nothing but velvety blackness to be seen above or +below. + +He waited and waited, a time that seemed eternal. His resting-place +was hard and uneven. One of his legs was cramped. To shift about and +make no noise was not an easy matter. + +Without the slightest warning, suddenly down below him something leaped +and crashed through the thicket with a most unexpected sound. Whatever +it was, it went bounding off, recklessly parting the jungle. Some +creature in fright it undoubtedly was--and Grenville was instantly +rigid and alert for the next development. + +He was certain the tiger, coming to his feast, had thrown some timid +creature into a panic of blind and desperate fear. He listened, with +all his powers of concentration, for the sounds that should presently +succeed. + +But save for another plunging, far beyond, there was absolute silence +as before. For fully half an hour after that the stillness was +well-nigh insupportable, so fraught was it all with the tragic sense of +noiseless life where both hunted and hunters moved about with the +cushioned feet of shadows. + +Far off towards the spring, or the estuary, a disturbance finally +arose. It was neither loud nor clear. It seemed to interpret some +struggle for life, or pursuit of the weak by the strong. It approached +for a time, then ceased for nearly half a minute, only to break into +clearer accents of some brute's agony, poignant but mercifully brief. + +At this the discouragement in Grenville's breast was unavoidably +increased. He was certain the tiger had taken fresher prey, and would +now ignore his former kill. So intent were his senses on that far-off +bit of jungle drama that he failed to detect a nearer sound repeated +beneath his feet. + +When his sharp ears abruptly warned him that something was moving down +below, an extraordinary climax to his adventure was swiftly coming to a +focus. + +Some creature had come to the tiger's kill--of that there could be no +doubt. It was lapping, or chewing at the meat! + +Unable to distinguish the slightest thing in all that Stygian darkness, +Grenville paused, with his brand slightly shielded from the creature's +possible notice, waiting a moment to confirm the fact that a banqueter +was present before he touched the fuse. + +A tremendous roar instantly startled the silence, a few feet beyond the +boar's remains. Before the man could move a hand, either to light the +ready fuse or steady himself in the branches, some heavy form was +hurled against the tree in which he sat--_and that something was +climbing madly upward_! + +Only a tremor had shivered through the trunk, but the limbs were bent +and the foliage stirred as if from a breath of heavy wind. That the +creature might run against himself and turn to fight, in its double +fear and desperation, Grenville was keenly aware. + +Subconsciously, also, he was equally sure the tiger was below. The +catlike thing in the tree with himself had undoubtedly dared to sit +down at the huge brute's kill, to flee for its life a moment later. + +Instinctively turning to protect himself and thoroughly disturbed by +this unforeseen complication, Grenville heard his unwelcome companion +utter one sudden whine, of surprise and added terror, as it came +abreast him in the branches. + +It dared not retreat, and, therefore in a wilder panic, clawed its way +higher up the tree. The limbs continued to shake their leaves for +another protracted moment. Then the beast found a place to halt above +his head, and doubtless glared down upon the unknown peril which man +supplies to all the brutes. + +Grenville recovered his wits as best he might. He had no particular +dread of the animal crouched somewhere in his neighborhood, but neither +did he relish its presence. What effect the affair would have on the +creature he had come there to engage he could not, of course, determine. + +He bent to listen for sounds from the space below. Not the faintest +suggestion of a moving or feeding animal could his focused senses +detect. He thought perhaps the tiger might have smelled him or seen +him in the tree. It occurred to him, also, the brute might be waiting +for the catlike thief to descend and be slain at the kill. + +But a far more likely supposition was that the tiger, having sniffed +the taint of some beast without caste, now left on the meat that was +sacred to himself, had disdained to touch it, and had gone away, to +return to the place no more. + +Ready to curse the despicable animal now sharing the tree's security +with himself, Sidney was all but resigned to another long night, spent +in vain and in utter discomfort, when once again a lapping sound came +crisply to his attention. + +His brute was at the feast! + +With heart abruptly pounding and senses suddenly tense, Grenville +leaned down, with his glowing brand, to complete his work for the night. + +His hand felt blindly along the limb, to pick up the end of the fuse. +But someway the place was lost. More eagerly then, and telling off +each twig like a sign that blazed the trail, he explored the branch +anew. + +He found the fiber that had held the fuse--but the fuse itself was +gone! The panic-stricken creature that had climbed the tree had clawed +or broken it down! + +A bitterer disappointment to Grenville could scarcely have been +planned. He was sickened all through by disgust, and a sense of the +utter uselessness of all he had striven to accomplish. With fire in +hand, the bomb all laid, and the tiger actually present--he was +helpless, after all! + +It was futile to rage at the cowering beast, above him somewhere in the +darkness. He glanced up once and saw its eyes--two blazing coals of +fear and malice, like near-by sinister stars! + +"By Heavens! I'll not be cheated!" he murmured to himself. A mad new +thought had possessed him. + +The fuse had been drawn about the tree before it could be fastened near +his perch. Had it fallen straight down, when torn from its hold, it +would still lie close at hand. + +His ladder was hidden from the tiger's position by the tree. Any +sounds he must make might be thought to be those of the cat. There was +no particular danger in descending to the ground--with the ladder near +with which to regain a safe position. + +Noiselessly, yet not without excitement, he began his retreat from the +branches. With every step he paused for a bit, to listen to the sounds +of the tiger. + +The brute was seemingly quite engrossed in the business of filling his +belly. But, despite his utmost efforts at silence, the leaves of one +of the branches loudly rustled as Grenville's weight was intrusted to +the ladder. + +He halted and held his breath. The tiger continued his eating. +Holding his firebrand firmly in his teeth, Grenville slowly and +cautiously descended, with the furtive alertness of a thief. + +When he reached the earth, he was certain his heart would betray his +presence with its pounding. He leaned there, heavily, against the +tree, to still the mad leap of his pulses. Then, at length, he began +to feel about for the fuse that should be at his feet. + +It was not to be found--and he moved a little outward. His hand came +in contact with a long, slender thing--but it proved to be a creeper. + +Further and further out he moved, blindly groping with his fingers. He +encountered a shrub, and, fumbling between it and the tree, bethought +him to feel about its crest. There he found one end of the fuse he +sought--but it proved that the length had been broken! He held the +useless end! + +One despair after another had seized him within an endless minute. +More recklessly, in a burning fever of impatience, he pawed about and +moved even closer to the tiger--whose sounds were horribly near. + +He could almost have uttered a cry of joy when the severed fuse was +discovered. He waited for nothing, but immediately pressed his brand +against the sun-dried substance. + +There was no powder there. It had spilled when it broke, and it +harmlessly smoked as it burned. + +Why a groan did not escape him, Sidney could never have told. He broke +off the tough, resisting substance six inches further along and again +applied his spark. + +It seemed as if in all its length there could be no powder remaining. +He was savagely grasping the fuse once more, to break it at a fresher +place, when a fiery-red line, some four feet away, seemed creeping like +a snake out beyond him. + +The spark that was racing along to the bomb had been started while +still he was sweating there with baffled and excited impatience. + +He took no time for further caution, but sprang away to the shelter of +the tree and caught at a lungful of breath. + +There was not a sound in all the place. This much he knew in that +second, as he hugged up close to the trunk. The tiger had ceased to +lap at the meat, and perhaps was poised for a spring. + +It seemed to Grenville, waiting there, that nothing would ever happen. +A thousand doubts went darting through his brain. The fuse had failed! +It was broken again. Or, perhaps---- + +A low growl broke the stillness. There was a sound of something moving +towards the tree! + +Instantly a frightful red-and-yellow glare leaped upward from the +earth. A deafening, crashing detonation rent the intimate universe and +shook down incredible stars. The air was filled to overcrowding with +rushing billows of concussion that rocked the trees as in a storm. + +Grenville went down, dazed and helpless, unable to think, so jarred to +chaos were his senses. But, beyond being stunned for a moment, he was +totally unhurt. + +He leaped to his feet, aware of some mighty disturbance in the curdled, +heavy darkness that had followed. + +The tiger it was, in some extravagant activity, moving towards +Grenville and the thicket. He was almost upon the staggering man +before he could move to escape. Then Grenville stumbled towards the +ladder. + +The jar to the limb, as he tugged at a rung, brought something down +from above. This was the creature that had hidden in the tree. It had +partially fallen, earlier stunned by the huge concussion. It dropped +upon Grenville leadenly--and down he went in a heap. + +The three sworn enemies--tiger, man, and jungle-cat--were embroiled on +the earth together. Before the man could sufficiently recover to +stagger from his knees to his feet and grasp his club, the tiger flung +out a mighty paw, that struck him a blow upon the chin. + +Without a sound he sank limberly down, inert and helplessly unconscious. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +GRENVILLE'S RADIANT STAR + +Even had sleep overcome Elaine, the explosion must have startled her +awake like a wildly fluttering bird. + +All her life she had known the sound of guns, but never before had her +ears received such an air-splitting shock as this. + +Her alarm could know no bounds. It had come so suddenly and +unexpectedly; it had been such a cataclysmic destruction of the +island's haunting calm! She was certain some hideous blunder had +occurred--that Grenville, too, had perished by the thing he had +fearlessly dared to create. + +She had seen for an instant that fan-like glare, as she gazed far out +across the jungle. And now, as she stood there, rigid with fears and +fixedly staring at the formless gloom--why did she hear no sound? + +"Oh, he might--he might call!" she said, and she tried to halloo, but +in vain. + +She waited a time that seemed endless for some little sign from the +jungle. He had promised before that, if all went well, he would hasten +home at once. Surely this promise held good to-night--especially after +that explosion! + +Perhaps it was not yet time; perhaps it was farther away than she had +thought. The glare had seemed near, but he had no torch, and must walk +but slowly through the thicket. How dark it must be along the trails, +in that tangle growth, with nothing for a light! How could he possibly +hasten? + +She was standing out on the brink of the wall, staring down at the +gloom of the clearing, convinced that her ears, if not her eyes, would +detect the first sign of his coming. Just the merest red gleam from +the firebrand was all she would ask of the darkness--just that dull +little star in the firmament of black! + +But the ebon remained unbroken. That he might be lost occurred to her +mind, but again she thought it was yet too soon for his return. She +stumbled swiftly to the fire again, to stir it to brighter refulgence. +It would seem to him a beacon against the sky to guide his footsteps +home! + +She thought of a blazing brand she could carry to the brink of the +wall. With the largest limb afforded by the fire she returned, in +haste and eagerness, to wave him a signal of welcome. And still +nothing came from the clearing. + +"Sidney!" she cried through the stillness, at last. "Sidney! Are you +there?" + +The night surrendered no response, save some animal cry far off where +the barque was rotting. + +"If he's dead!" she moaned. "If he's dead!" + +But he might be wounded and helpless, she thought, with no one to come +to his side. He might not be hurt unto death itself--if aid could +reach him now! + +If he died--if he left her thus alone---- A thousand times she +preferred to die beside him! + +"Sidney!" she cried, as before. + +With a strange dry note, choked back between her lips, she fled once +more to the fire. + +Meantime the man by the tiger's kill continued to lie without motion on +the earth. Not even the glow of his cheering brand remained like a +sign of life in that silent theater. + +The jungle cat, smitten and addled in its brain, had dragged itself +painfully away to the cover of the thicket, its instinct feebly alive. +There was not a sound in all the place, where crash and roar had been +so tremendously expended for one prodigious second. + +A vague, weird dream came finally creeping intangibly through +Grenville's brain, resuming an intermittent function. When at length +it began a little to clear, he dreamed he was trying his utmost to +rise, but something held him down. + +Consciousness poured a trickle through his being, and he felt he was +partially awake. Then a flood, a cataract of surging life, rushing +back to its centers, brought confusion and tumult to his thoughts. He +was still only partially aroused. + +His eyes at length were opened. The darkness which their gaze +encountered seemed more complete than that of his region of dreams. He +attempted to rise, but his muscles and nerves refused their customary +obedience to his will. He tried to remember what had happened, but the +glancing blow sustained on his chin had blotted him out, temporarily, +like a stroke of death itself. And, had the stroke been more direct, +his jaw or his neck must have broken. + +When he raised his head a bit from the ground and propped himself up on +his elbow, the sense of dullness and leadlike weight in both his feet +and legs continued unabated. He was battling to retain his +consciousness. + +He began to remember, slowly. The process was only well started, +however, when it was singularly interrupted. He was staring blankly +through the jungle, which he partially recollected. It was funny, he +thought, how a star should fall and wander through all those aisles of +trees. + +It was a star, he was fully convinced, coming haltingly through the +gloom. Its course was erratic. He lost it at times, but still it +persisted in approaching. How beautiful it was--the largest star he +had ever known--with its flames divinely ascending. + +He sat up stiffly, his will momentarily gaining strength to resume the +sway of his body. Some mantle partially fell from his brain, to +accompany his physical rousing. Then he knew, not only what had +happened, but also what was happening. + +"Elaine!" he tried to call aloud, vainly striving to rise or regain the +use of his limbs, then once more he sank in oblivion. + +A strange, wild note broke from her lips as Elaine came plunging along +the trail with a torch redly blazing in her hand, held well above her +face. + +She saw, before she could reach his side, that the tiger lay lifeless +upon him. She feared the man was dead, but, with wits exceptionally +clear and ordered, she thrust her torch-end firmly in the earth, laid +hold of the huge, limber beast she so fearfully dreaded, and tugged and +dragged it feverishly off with all her fine young strength. + +The face of the inert man beside the tree was redly smeared with blood. +He lay horribly loose and still upon the grass. She knelt at his side +and placed her hands upon him, feeling above his heart. + +"Sidney!" she said to him. "Sidney! You cannot--you shall not die! I +never meant the things I said--or thought--or anything! Oh, please, +please don't--don't look like that! You've got to come back--you've +got to!" + +She tore at the band about his neck and lifted his head on her knee. +She wiped the red from his pallid face with the hem of her briar-torn +skirt. + +"I'll find the spring!" she told him eagerly, starting as if to rise, +but the still form moved, and, dully at first, the two heavy eyes were +opened. + +"Oh!" she said. "Oh, you're hurt. Don't try to do anything but +rest.... You didn't come--you didn't come home!" + +Despite her entreaty, Grenville weakly raised his head and propped +himself, half sitting. The weight being gone from his outstretched +legs, his normal circulation was returning. He regained his strength +with characteristic swiftness. + +"Hurt?" he said. "No--I don't believe---- I must have got a knockout +blow. The tiger? Did I get the tiger?" + +He sat up uncertainly and, glancing about, saw the huge striped form +where Elaine had dragged it from his body. She still remained on her +knees, fixedly gazing on his face. Her strength was ebbing rapidly, as +Grenville's now returned. + +"You didn't come home," she repeated, by way of explaining her presence +at his side. "I couldn't live here alone." + +Grenville arose and assisted her weakly to her feet. She stumbled to +and leaned against the tree. + +"By George!" he said, "I'll bet a hat you could!" + +He knew what courage had come to her aid before she could make her +excursion. "I went down like a dub," he added, in his customary +manner. "No good excuse, but I do apologize. Better get out of this, +I'm thinking." + +He took up the torch she had planted in the earth, to examine the +tiger, dead and mangled in the grass, One of the creature's great front +paws had been rudely torn from his body. He could only have escaped +instantaneous death by having moved from the bomb at the moment of its +explosion. + +"Your robe looks mussed," Grenville continued, with a gesture towards +the animal's motionless body. "But I think it can be washed." + +Elaine slightly shivered at sight of the frame now done with life. + +"You've killed him," she said. "I'm glad!" + +He took her firmly by the arm and led her away through the thicket. + +When they reached the camp, Elaine was not yet fully convinced that +Grenville was uninjured. She brought him a rag she had torn from some +of her clothing and begged him to wash his reddened jaw. Even the +restoration of his former stubbled complexion could not suffice to +bring her that sense of certainty and calm essential before she could +sleep. + +She remained beside him at their fire till long past the midnight hour. +Indeed, she had made no move to retire when at length the weird, +unwelcome disturbance made by the tide had begun its uncanny chorus. +Perhaps she had waited for the conclusion of this added feature of the +night's long ritual of nerve-attacking events, for she seemed to be +considerably cheered when its final wail had died upon the air. + +"It seems to me that doesn't continue quite as long as it did at +first," she said to Grenville, as she rose at last to go alone to her +cavern.... "I think you ought to rest. I wish you would." + +"I will," said Sidney. "Good-night." + +But, for some time after she had gone, he sat there wondering if those +abominable but protective cries, that haunted the island's solitude, +were actually on the wane. + +"God help us if they are!" he said, to himself, but he went to bed and +slept. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A GIRDLE OF GOLD + +Elaine had not yet appeared on the scene when Grenville went down to +the jungle. The morning hour was still decidedly early, but plans and +impatience to be up and at work had prodded the man from his rest. The +lassitude that should have followed his night of excitement had not yet +laid its weight upon him. + +Apparently nothing had come to the jungle scene where the tiger had met +his end. The great form lay there, torn and rigid, but no sign of the +cat could be discovered. + +Grenville passed his trophy, presently, to examine the space beyond. +The spot where the bomb had exploded was a gaping hole in the earth. +This was not the place where Grenville had placed the deadly tube, +which he knew must therefore have been moved--doubtless when the fuse +was pulled and broken by the creature taking refuge in the tree. + +All about the spot where the kill had been the shrubbery was shredded. +The boar's remains had been blown away when the gap was made in the +sod. The trail, Grenville saw, must be repaired or a new one must be +made about the place. + +He returned to the tiger, and was suddenly elated to behold the metal +collar, half-hidden by the fur about his neck. He had quite forgotten +this bauble, thus singularly employed, and, kneeling down to inspect it +closely, not only found it was massive gold and set with costly jewels, +but also discovered he must break or force a heavy link to take it from +the creature. + +It was not until he had brought two sharp-edged rocks to his needs that +the collar was finally freed. Its weight and worth then amazed him. +The band was fully two inches in width, with the edges curved up and +turned under, in a simple and hammer-marked finish. It was all +hand-wrought, each blow that the smith had struck with his tool being +faintly recorded in the metal. The jewels--three sapphires, three +rubies, and one diamond--were simply and solidly set with bands that +barely clasped their bases. The rubies only were cabochon cut, the +other stones gleaming with facets. + +There was not a mark upon the collar's outer surface to show what was +meant by its presence here in such extraordinary keeping. But +Grenville presently bethought him to glance at the inner circumference. +He was not in the least astonished, but he was a bit concerned, to +discover a number of those mystic symbols, deeply graved in the gold, +that had once been tattooed on the man sitting dead in the barque. + +Here were the three hills, bounded by the water, and one with the tree +on its summit, while on either side the cartouch appeared, bounded by +crude drawings of the tiger. That the brute had been liberated here +upon the island as a sort of sacred guardian of the cave that was +mentioned by the writing found secreted with the map, Grenville could +not, or did not, doubt. There was nothing more to be found engraved on +the gold. + +He finally slipped the heavy band about his own smooth, sun-tanned neck +and went at the task of securing Elaine's promised robe. This toil was +far more difficult than even his lack of proper appliances had led him +to anticipate. Although he had sharpened his stub of a knife-blade to +a very respectable cutting-edge, it was far too small for the business. + +His doggedness and application were the assets on which he had most to +count, and without them here he must have failed. As it was, he +remained so long away that Elaine, who was up, was alarmed. And, when +at last he appeared below with the heavy, striped skin across his +shoulder, she started abruptly, till she saw he was not another tiger. + +"I thought you might like to see the size of his hide," he said, as he +brought it to the terrace, "before I take it down by the shore for +tanning. I shall soak it a while in a mixture of brine and saltpeter. +Both are highly preservative---and the best the island affords." + +"He was simply tremendous!" Elaine replied, when the skin had been +spread on the rocks. "What have you got about your neck?" + +"Oh, this?" said Grenville, removing the golden collar. "This is a +symbol of royalty that his Bengal highness wore--your property now, as +a trophy of the hunt." + +She took it a little uncertainly as he held it forth in his hand. + +"Why--it's gold!" she said. "These jewels---- The tiger was wearing +this?" + +"About his kingly neck." + +"But how--unless someone put it on?" + +"Undoubtedly someone did. He must have been a captive once, and +probably escaped." + +It could serve no good end to acquaint her with his actual suspicions, +which might be ill-founded, after all. + +"It's beautiful," she continued, gazing in admiration on the collar's +simple massiveness. "But it's not for me, I'm sure." She held it out +for him to take. But he bent above the skin. + +"Then pitch it away," he instructed, laconically. "Toss it into the +sea." + +She colored, looking at him strangely. She could not throw away his +property--anything of such great intrinsic value. She was baffled +again, as he managed so frequently. Her hand and the golden circlet +fell at her side. She could think of no appropriate speech of final +rejection. A whimsical notion only arose to her groping mind. + +"Fancy me wearing this priceless band of splendor," she said, "and +eating with a stick!" + +"It will just about fit around your waist," he conjectured, taking it +from her as he rose. With easy strength he bent it in his hands, to +make it more snugly conform to her slender and graceful little body. + +Why should he not bend it thus, she thought, who had wrenched it from a +tiger? She felt how weak and inadequate was her own diminishing +struggle. But to wear this band--a symbol, almost, of Grenville's +ownership---- A hot recurrence of her former pride came surging to her +bosom. + +"It's too heavy to wear," she told him, a trifle coldly. She once more +accepted the girdle, however, despite herself, from his hand. "The +tiger that wore it," she concluded, "met with a lot of trouble." + +"You've met with some yourself," he answered, candidly, and he +shouldered the skin and started off for the estuary's mouth. + +Elaine burned suddenly scarlet, interpreting his speech in some manner +of her own. Helplessly she carried the girdle to her cave, and left it +there in a hollow of the rock. + +The incident concerned with the tiger was practically closed. A new, +bright era of security and liberty thereupon commenced, particularly +for Elaine. She could not take immediate advantage of the comfort thus +vouchsafed in moving about the island, but at least her worry was +lessened when Grenville was obliged to venture in the jungle. + +His return to the work so frequently interrupted was delayed but the +briefest time. So eager did he constantly feel to accomplish his +boat's completion that he had grudged every hour the tiger had cost him +from his labors. + +With no thought of sparing his tireless strength, he promptly resumed +the task of digging and fetching the clay. Elaine might have joined +him in the clearing now had not some task she was eager to complete +engrossed her attentions at the shelter. + +That day the remaining surface of his prostrate log was plastered by +Grenville's eager hands. He likewise mixed sufficient clay to finish +his furnace in the morning. The fire that was helping to hollow his +log was once again ignited. Much of the old charred substance, left +from previous operations, Grenville knocked away with an improvised +tool of brass, in order to daub more clay inside the shell before the +flames could continue removing the wood as he required. + +On the following day, while the walls in his smelter were drying, +Sidney wove a two-piece door of wattle--framework of creepers, +plastered with clay--to fit across the orifice at the bottom of his +tree. With this he felt he could regulate the draught and protect +himself while removing his crucibles of metal. The top door only would +be tossed aside to accomplish this latter purpose. + +He likewise plastered the edges and sides of the hole that pierced his +smelter. He knew the heat, when he came to melt the brass, would +spread at once to all unprotected wood. After that he had still to +contrive a clay-covered implement for lifting out his crucibles, and a +tripod affair to be placed inside the furnace to support these +crucibles upon. + +What with more work done upon the boat-to-be, and a goodly portion of +the afternoon expended in killing and preparing another of the +pheasants for their dinner, Grenville's hours sped swiftly away. + +A weary but elated craftsman he was that day-end when at length he +returned for the final time to the terrace. He had been to the shore, +where the tiger-hide was curing in a strong solution of brine and +saltpeter, mixed in a hollow in the sand, and, having there turned it +over, had washed himself to a fresh and ruddy color. + +Notwithstanding the unbecoming growth of beard upon his face, he +appeared to Elaine the most commanding figure she had ever taken time +to inspect. He looked every inch a master of the island, if not also +of his fate and her own. But she was more than usually excited that +evening, as she disappeared within her shelter. + +She presently emerged with such an air of uncertainty and diffidence +about her as had never before appeared since their coming to the +island. But she did not hesitate in the task she had set herself to +perform. + +"I have finished my first bit of knitting," she said, "and there it is." + +To Grenville's thorough amazement, the clean, new article held in her +hand, and shyly offered for his acceptance, was a cap she had made for +his head. It was not unlike a golf-cap in shape, but the visor was +considerably wider, to protect his eyes from the sun. + +She had woven this of finely divided creeper-core on a frame neatly +made of the same. Its meshes had then been filled by fibers, snugly +and neatly plaited back and forth to make it opaque to the light. The +frame was firmly knitted to the cap. + +"Pretty good," said Grenville, busied with several arrows. "Thanks;" +and, placing it carelessly on his head, continued with his employment. + +Elaine, who had conjured all her resolution to make of the presentation +the merest commonplace affair, was wholly confounded in her thoughts by +the man's unheard-of conduct, after all she had recently undergone +before she could make him such a gift. + +She had feared some demonstration of the passion shown on the ship--or +at least some disturbing outburst she had armed herself to quench. But +this--such scant courtesy or gratitude as this--left her absolutely +impotent and baffled. + +She was piqued, disappointed, chagrined. It was horrid of anyone, she +was sure, to be so outrageously unfeeling. There was nothing, however, +she could do, and nothing she could say. Standing there, mortified, +almost angry, and conscious she was burning guiltily red with various +emotions that he did not even notice, was such a footless and +irritating proceeding, with the situation robbed of its point. + +She turned away, fairly ready to cry with vexation, and pretended to +make herself busy with things already well prepared for their evening +meal. But the new rebellion of her nature, partially begotten by the +uncontrolled and uncontrollable impulses loosed in the jungle the +previous night, when Grenville lay helplessly stunned, with his head +loosely pillowed on her knee, was not to be longer contained. She +presently fled from before the cavern, across, through the shadows of +the terrace, to the hidden shelf where Grenville had angled for fish. + +There she suddenly sank to her knees on the rocks and covered her face +with her hands. + +"I hate him!" she said, in a hot and passionate utterance, suggestive +of a sob. "I hate him! I hate him! I hate every man that ever +lived--and you, Gerald Fenton, as much as all the others!" + +She snatched off the ring from her finger. It was Fenton's ring, with +a single stone that gleamed in the failing light. It seemed to her to +represent the man far absent from her side. + +"It was you who brought it all about!" she continued, in her fiercely +waging conflict, and, overwrought, she cast it down on the ledge as if +it burned her palm. + +It bounded lightly where it struck and, clearing the shelf, fell +swiftly downward to the water. A gasp and a moan escaped her lips +together. Vividly, of a sudden, she remembered Grenville's prediction +that she would throw it away in the sea. + +"Oh, Gerald, I didn't mean to!" she moaned. "I didn't! You've got to +believe me!" She sank farther forward on the ledge, her face closely +hidden in the curve of her loose brown arm. She wept and wept there, +bitterly, in a mood of mixed emotions. + +"I hate him! I hate him!" she said, as before. "It's not my fault in +the least!" + +And after a time, as Grenville did not come, she returned to the camp +alone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +MOLTEN METAL AND HOPES + +The following day was calmer for Elaine, and vastly interesting, since +Grenville's smelting operations were begun. She told herself that +interest only laid its hold upon her nature, and, being a woman, she +knew. + +The clay that lined his hollow tree was sufficiently dry at last for +Grenville's fire. The other accessories, all more thinly coated, were +likewise ready for his use. He began in the morning to heat his +natural chimney against the actual needs of afternoon. The small fire +kindled upon its hearth established at once the efficiency of the +draught. + +Not without a certain boyish eagerness in the culmination of his +labors, Sidney began the assemblage of his various paraphernalia an +hour at least before noon. His molds and crucibles he carefully +brought from the summit of the terrace, disposing them as conveniently +as his crude conditions permitted. All his rusted scraps and useless +bits of brass and bronze were divided into parcels, while salt, some +powdered charcoal, and an over-abundant supply of saltpeter were +provided to be used as flux, according as the smelting might demand. +He could not be certain of which he should use till experiment should +determine which, if any, rendered good results. + +The principal difficulty, he soon discovered, would be adding the fuel +to his flames. His smelter-door was not well arranged for this +essential business. He expected, however, to heap a considerable +quantity of wood inside before the chimney should become too hot. +Later he thought a lot of short material could be readily introduced, +and against this need he gathered an impressive heap of branches, which +he broke to a workable length. + +Elaine was with him when at last the work began. She was far more +excited than Grenville seemed, since it appeared to her no less than a +miracle that any man, in a place like this, should dare assume such a +mastery over Jovian metals and flame. She had never before seen +anything of smelting. This intimate acquaintance with its mysteries +seemed to her a privilege, greatly enhanced by the fact that the lord +of it all pretended she was actually helpful. + +She assisted when he bound the sections of his clay-made molds +together. She handed him fuel when the furnace-door was opened and +gushes of heat came voluminously forth. + +The fire, which for a time had loudly roared, was now more intense and +quiet. The volumes of smoke, which the "chimney" had belched, had +likewise finally ceased. Only a quiver of superheated air and a +greenish bit of gas and fume now ascended to the sky. + +From time to time, Grenville opened the top of the door to peer within. +He wrinkled his features, in the waves of heat, and held his hand +before his face. At length he adjusted his "tongs" about a crucible +and drew it entirely forth. + +It was white with heat, its surface sparkling with a hundred tiny stars +that died on its glowing surface. + +"Just toss in some of that stuff there on the leaf," he quietly +instructed Elaine. "It will soon be ready to pour." + +The "stuff" was flux, and Elaine obeyed directions like the stanch +assistant that she was. She wondered what was coming next. + +It came very soon. She was certain no ruddier figure of Vulcan, +employing mighty flame, had ever been presented than now when Grenville +made ready for the climax of his work. + +He removed the door as he had not previously done, and set it aside +from his path. He thrust in his tongs, while flame and heat came +pouring out to paint him a deep and glowing color. Then, seemingly +hotter than ever before, and smoking goldenly above its blinding +incandescence, the first of the crucibles, itself fairly dripping, +where some of the flux had trickled down its surface, was supported +over to the molds, to be quickly and vigorously skimmed of its oxidized +matter. + +But the molten brass, indescribably beautiful, with ruby and gold and +silver gleams imbedded and breaking in its substance, was the wonder of +it all. Elaine stood entranced, to see it flow and fill the hollows of +the molds. + +The second was hastily drawn from the flame, and then the third and +last. But not till all lay finally empty and smoking on the earth, +their surfaces rapidly dulling, did Grenville pause to look at Elaine +and smile. + +"Can't even tell what we've done," he said, "till the molds are cooled +and opened." + +"Must you wait very long till you know?" + +"I couldn't wait long," Grenville answered. "I'm too much of a curious +kid." + +As a matter of fact, brass poured in a mold begins to harden at once. +In less than fifteen minutes, Grenville was gingerly untwisting the hot +copper wire that bound each mold together. Soon after that the first +of his tools, a heavy and serviceable chisel, lay uncovered to the air. + +It was still glowing hot, although no longer red. It was darker, less +brassy in appearance than Elaine had expected to see, but it seemed to +her a wonderful thing to be made of those useless bits of metal. + +The tool next in importance was much like a butcher's cleaver--an +implement intended for cutting or hacking wood or branches, either to +clear a path in the jungle or to rough out anything of timber. The +edge of this casting was imperfect, where the metal had failed to flow. +Both it and the chisel had a thin fringe of brass along those sections +where the halves of the mold had come together, but this would be +readily broken away and was quite to be expected. + +Smaller chisels, a blade that Sidney expected to notch along its edge +to make a species of saw, and a number of smaller implements were +contained in the other sets of molds. None of these was perfect, and +one or two merely served to instruct the master-molder in the way to go +to work another time. But the net results were highly satisfactory, +and seemed to Elaine a veritable triumph. + +The poorness of their quality as tools with which to accomplish swift +results developed the following day. Grenville had melted a part of +his lead and cast the head of a hammer. With this and the largest of +his chisels he attacked the log chosen for a boat. + +So long as his gouging was confined to the portions charred by the +fire, the tool held well to the labor. Its edge soon went to pieces, +however, when the solider substance was encountered. It was sharpened +repeatedly. He early foresaw that, work as he might, the business of +conjuring forth a boat from material so raw was certain to be slow, if +not exhausting. + +Indeed, at this time a tedious period began. There were days and days +of dull, stupid repetition ahead like the ones that were presently +past. Fire after fire he maintained beneath the log, which must always +be newly plastered with the clay. Hour after hour he chiseled off the +black and dusty flakes that the flames would leave behind, since it +hastened the work to present a new surface to the heat. It seemed as +if the task could never have an end. + +But, if this was a season of dogged application to an uncongenial +business, it was likewise the one long era of peace vouchsafed to the +exiled pair. There was nothing to rouse a sense of alarm in any near +portion of the jungle. And, if those fast succeeding days brought no +welcome sign of a steamer approaching on the distant blue horizon, +neither did their lengthening hours develop those craft upon the sea +for which Grenville was constantly and apprehensively watching. They +were happy days, as well as peaceful. Concerning the ring she had lost +in the sea, Elaine could not force herself to worry. Grenville never, +by any chance, gave her occasion for alarm. + +There were many full afternoon vacations from his work when the fire +was left to hollow out his log that Sidney spent at her side. He wove +her a hammock of the creeper withes and built a shady bower by the +shore. He had sawed her a comb from the tortoiseshell, bent hairpins +of the copper wire, and made her a comfortable couch. Her tiger-skin +robe he had worked with his hands to a soft and pliant finish. The +skin of a cheeta he had killed he used to supplement his rapidly +vanishing shirt. Sewing was strongly, if not prettily, accomplished +with such needles and thread as his ready ingenuity provided. + +They were busy days that were doomed, however, to pall. Elaine was +assisting with a loom to weave a sail, while between times Grenville +chipped out the stone for the bath he had promised on the ledge. He +became a skillful marksman with his bow, and knew every animal trail +the island afforded. In many of these his traps did deadly service. +Their larder rarely lacked for meat, made tender by paw-paw leaves. +Elaine caught many a silver fish that they roasted together in the sand. + +But her gaze more frequently roved afar, for the ship that did not +come. The days were growing sultrier, and constantly more monotonous. + +The new moon had come and waxed to the full and was once more waning in +the heavens. They were marvelous nights the old orb made upon the +island, but always weird and exciting a sense, in Elaine at least, of +loneliness and aloofness from the world. On their cliff above the +murmurous tides, she and Grenville frequently sat for hours at a time +without exchanging a word. + +Such times were fraught with strangely exciting moments; and subtle +tinglings came unbidden to her nature, giving her pleasures wildly +lawless and precious beyond expression. Yet she feared them also when +they came, and refused to give them meaning. + +But to-night a new wistfulness burned in her eyes as she turned to her +silent companion. + +"I wonder," she said, "if we couldn't put a fresher flag on our pole +to-morrow." + +"Sure shot," said Sid, "the freshest flag that ever grew." + +She was silent again for several moments. Then she said: + +"What should we do if a year went by--two years, perhaps, or even +more--and a ship should never come?" + +"Do?" said Grenville. "Sail away." + +"I know. But I mean, supposing we found no place to go--and had to +come back every time." + +"H'm!" said Grenville, rubbing the corner of his jaw, "you probably +also mean to suppose we were always unmolested." + +"Why, yes, of course. Who could come to molest us here?" + +"Molesters," he said, "if anyone. But perhaps they never would." + +He had given no answer to her question, which she hardly cared to +repeat. It was one of the times, which frequently came, when she could +not prevent herself from wondering if this strong, primal man she had +once called a brute could have utterly forgotten the passionate +declaration made on the steamship "Inca" the day before the wreck. + +She wondered also, had he meant it at the time? Or had one of his many +inscrutable moods possessed him, barely for the moment? She had never +dared recently confess to herself what feelings might instantly invade +her tingling nature should she learn he had only pretended, perhaps on +some wager with Gerald, as a test of her faithfulness and love. + +It was womanlike, merely, on her part, to desire to know his mind. No +woman may long resent being loved by a strong and masterful man. And +Elaine was delightfully typical of all her delightful sex. + +"Well," she presently said, "we've been here now much longer than we +ever expected that day when we arrived." + +His gaze, which had been averted, now swung to a meeting with her own. +She had never seemed lovelier, braver, more sweetly disposed than now. +The moonlight deepened her luminous eyes till the man fairly held his +breath. + +"Elaine," he said, finally, glancing once more towards the silvered +sea, "what is your notion of love?" + +The shock of the word threw all her wits into confusion. + +"My notion?" she stammered, helplessly, feeling the hot flames leap +like floods of his molten metal to her neck, her face, and her bosom. +"I don't believe--I have--any notions." + +"Your convictions, then?" he amended. "Or, if you like, your +principles?" + +"My--my principles of--of all that--are--just about like--everyone +else's, I suppose," she managed to answer, fragmentarily, "--being +honest--and true--and faithful--unto death." + +"To the one that you _really_ love?" + +"Why--certainly--of course." The heat in her face increased, so +significant had she felt his words with that low even tone of emphasis. + +He stared so long at the sea after that she began to suspect he had not +even heard her reply. After a time she was tempted to play, just a +trifle, with the fire. She added, "Why did you ask?" + +"Wanted to know." Once more he fell dumb, and again she waited, afraid +he would, and more afraid he would not, continue the delicate topic. +Once again, also, she was tempted. + +"And what," she inquired, "is your--notion?" + +He did not turn. "Of love or crocodiles?" + +"Of--of love--was what you asked me." + +"I believe I did," he responded. "Oh, about the same as yours!" + +Elaine had received but scanty satisfaction. After another long +silence she ventured to say: + +"We might have to be here a year--or even longer." + +He turned to her directly. "Do you like it here, Elaine?" + +She would not reply, and therefore demanded, "Do you?" + +"I'm a savage," he admitted. "This sort of thing appeals to something +in my blood." + +"I know," she answered, understandingly, "--building up an empire with +your naked hands, unaided--conquering metals and elements--wresting the +island's dominion from the brutes. Naturally you love it!" + +He reddened. "I can't make an apple dumpling and make it right! This +island's dominion? Great Cæsar's frying-pan--this is a regular +picnic-ground, with everything on earth provided!" + +She smiled. "And things all made and ready, including tools and +powder, not to mention a tiger-skin rug.... You refuse to admit you +like it for itself?" + +"Like it or not," he answered, "we must get away--and home." + +"Home," she repeated, oddly. "Home.... I wonder if home will ever +seem---- It certainly would be wonderful, a miracle, I think, to see a +steamer really coming--and to go on board and have it take us back +to--everything--somewhere home---- But we'd sometimes think of this--a +little?" + +"Probably." + +To save his life, he could not banish thoughts of Fenton. + +"I'm sure we would," murmured Elaine. She gazed away, to the jungle's +softened shadows. She wanted to cry out abruptly that she loved it +to-night, with a love that could never die. She wanted the comfort of +something, she hardly dared wonder what. After another long silence, +she finally said, with eyes averted and excitement throbbing in her +veins: + +"I know the name of this little place--do you?" + +"No," he said, wondering what she might have discovered. "What do you +think it is called?" + +It seemed to Elaine her heart pounded out her reply. + +"The Isle of Shalimar." + +If Grenville knew the Indian name for Garden, he made no sign that she +could read. He made no reply whatsoever, but gazed as before at the +sea. + +He was turning at last when a low, but distinctly briefer, recurrence +of the island's haunting wails arose to disturb the wondrous calm--as +well as his peace of mind. There could be no doubt the tidal +phenomenon was gradually but steadily failing. + +What might occur when it altogether ceased was more than the man could +divine. He felt a vague dread of that approaching hour and of what it +might develop. + +"It must be after midnight," he said, at last, "--time for night's +ordinary dreams." + +Yet, when he was finally stretched on his bed, he did not lose himself +in slumber. Instead he lay thinking of the island's haunting sounds +and the cave somewhere underneath the headland. + +He had meant to attempt an inspection of this place, if only to gratify +a natural curiosity. The thought occurred to him now that, in case of +dire necessity, it might afford such a shelter as was not to be found +on any other portion of the island. It was not a thing to be +neglected. He made up his mind that the following day he would make an +exploration. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A TOMB OF STONE + +The ladder that Grenville constructed in the morning was not entirely +new. He had found upon testing the original contrivance, made for his +séance with the tiger, that, although the creepers had become quite +dry, they were neither weak nor brittle. + +He fortified the older section with additional material, however, to +make absolutely certain it would not abruptly part and drop him into +the sea. All morning he worked, while his smoldering fires continued +to eat out the hollow for his boat, securing new length to the rungs +already provided, since the distance down from the brink of the cliff +was fully one hundred feet. + +To Elaine he explained that he thought perhaps a cave might exist in +the rock. The wailing sounds, it was easy to argue, would indicate +some such cavity, which he felt it important to examine. If she +somewhat divined the further fact that he hoped to discover a possible +retreat, should unforeseen dangers threaten, she made no revelation of +her thought. + +It was not without considerable anxiety, however, that she finally +discovered precisely what he meant to attempt. His ladder, she was +certain, was far too frail for any such business as climbing down, +above that boiling tide. One careless step, or a parting of the +strands, and nothing on earth could save the man from death on the +jutting rocks below. She had glanced at the waters under the cliff, +and their crystal depths were not at all reassuring. + +The thorough precautions against a mishap that Grenville finally +completed considerably lessened her fears, yet she had no wish to watch +him descend when at length he slipped over the edge. She was gazing +with fixed and wide-open eyes at the heap of rocks in which he had +fastened the ladder. + +The matter to Grenville seemed simple enough. The brink overhung the +wall itself, in consequence of which the ladder swung quite free, down +the face of the scarp, till it touched at a jutting ledge below. It +swayed to and fro and sagged a bit loosely at some of the rungs, but it +could not be broken by his weight. + +He made no attempt at a rapid descent, neither did he pause to enjoy +the scenery. When the ledge was reached he rested, made certain no +sharp-edged stone could impinge upon and perhaps cut into his twisted +creepers, and again proceeded downward. + +His course for a matter of two or three fathoms was rendered rather +more difficult by the fact the ladder lay closely bent against the +wall, instead of hanging free. The rock face was pitted and +exceedingly rough, its indentations ill-arranged for footholds and far +too treacherous for any such employment. + +Grenville was nearly at the lower lip of this projection before he +attempted a look below to determine what he was approaching. He +discovered then it was undercut again--and likewise that his ladder was +considerably short. Its lower end dangled about with irregular +gyrations as he shifted his weight from rung to rung. It was fully two +yards above the water. There was nothing in sight on which to plant +his feet, so far as he could discern from the point then occupied. + +He continued down the ledge. When he reached its base, his suspicions +were immediately confirmed. It overhung a cavern, which was not, +however, the cave. To the final rung but one of his ladder he +descended, and there he rested to have a look about. + +He was hanging directly before a massive pot-hole in the cliff--a huge, +roughly rounded sort of chamber, the roof of which was arched. On the +left, it shared its pitted wall with a second and smaller chamber. On +the right, its edge was jaggedly broken against a yawning hole. This +hole was undoubtedly the cave-mouth described by the documents found in +the hidden tube. + +From this point only, as Grenville could see, would its mouth be +readily discovered. Thick curtains of greenery, draped from its +neighboring walls of rock, would shield it from view from passing +boats, unless they should nose to its portals. This, with a swirling +and dangerous tide, no craft would be likely to attempt. + +The shrubbery, hanging so thickly from the ledge, afforded Grenville a +puzzle. He knew it could not be a seaweed, since the tide never rose +to such a level. He presently realized it was simply an air plant of +unusually luxuriant growth. Its roots had found lodgment in a crevice, +where nothing would be likely to disturb it in its possession. + +Concerning the possible contents of the cave, its extent, or immediate +surroundings, there was nothing to be discovered from his ladder, twist +as he might or crane his neck to stare in the cavern's mouth. + +He had practically determined to return to the top, shift his ladder +along, and once more make the descent, when he realized his effort +would be wasted. A thick, broken shelf of the pitted tufa jutted many +feet out above the cave, and even beyond the growing weed. Should he +hang his ladder directly before the opening, he would find himself, +when he came to its end, swung helplessly over the water. + +He could see distinctly where the final base of the wall projected into +the tideway. It would certainly be no less than ten feet removed from +the nearest point he could possibly reach by this particular method. + +It occurred to his mind he could lengthen his strands, drop himself off +the ladder-end, and swim to the edge of the cave. But, even as he +turned to examine the physical features afforded to a swimmer, a huge +dark form loafed like a shadow through the crystal tide, to rise beyond +and cut the sparkling surface with a blackish dorsal fin. There was no +mistaking Mr. Shark. + +Grenville nodded, grimly. "Thanks for the timely suggestion," he said, +as the monster once more sank. He presently added, "It's a boat or no +explorations." Somewhat disappointedly, he returned up the ladder to +the top. + +"The cave is there," he told Elaine, who promptly sat down, in sheer +relief, when she saw him finally safe, "but it has to be entered from +the water." + +"Oh!" said Elaine. "But why does it have to be entered?" + +"Well," said Sidney, at a loss for a better argument, "it might be full +of treasure;" and he smiled. + +Elaine was no less ready with her answer. "Treasure is certainly +indispensable to us here. No wonder we've felt that something was +strangely lacking." + +"There you are," he rejoined. "I think I can paddle the raft about the +cliff, for the tide could never be better." + +She was certain that Grenville attached some unusual importance to an +inspection of the cave. + +"Couldn't I help?" she asked him. "What was the fault of the ladder?" + +"Fully six feet too short. Perhaps you'd better watch for passing +steamers. If we missed one--whom should we blame?" + +They had slowly returned to the shelter, where the table was +attractively spread. + +"What a luncheon!" said Grenville, enthusiastically. "I'll eat in a +rush and be back before you know I've gone." He certainly ate with +lively promise. + +But, after the raft was launched on the tide, he lost all sense of +time. He had left his shoes and stockings on the shore. He had +brought a torch, lighted, which he lashed in an upright position on the +raft. Wading and paddling, punting, pulling, and at times even pushing +his craft along the beach, he warmed to his work in the briefest space, +since the tide could hardly have been more favorable to his needs. + +The pole he had brought had a hook at the end, bound firmly in place +with copper wire. This was an excellent provision, especially when he +came to the cliff, where wading was out of the question. He was thus +enabled to catch at a ledge, or any open crevice, and draw his unwieldy +float along, while fending it off from various rocks on which it might +otherwise have pounded. + +His work was hard and slow. The distance was not discouraging, +however, and with some of the swirls to assist, here and there, he +finally came to a broken sort of cape, from which he readily saw his +dangling ladder. After that a hot bit of fighting was required to +maintain his position near the wall. The tide was uneasy--a hungry, +ugly swirl that alternately came and subsided. + +When he passed it at last his task was done, for the cave was a stone's +toss away. It was not even then to be seen, and its presence in the +cliff would scarcely have been suspected. But Grenville knew the +luxuriant plant that grew across a portion of its entrance. When he +presently moored his raft to a rock fairly under the shadow of the +weed, the cave was just above him. + +Under his feet the ledge was rough and sloping. It was pitted so +completely as to form a rude natural stairway to the opening under the +overhanging shelf. This mouth to the cavern was hardly six feet wide +and not more than four in height. Its access was comparatively easy. + +Grenville, with his torch in hand, was presently gazing within. +Obliged to stoop, and beholding nothing but absolute darkness ahead of +his light, he stumbled against a lumpy vein of rock--and nearly met +with disaster. He barely halted at the edge of a pool of ebon water. + +After all his effort to gain the cave, it appeared to be filled with +this inklike accumulation. The pool was absolutely still. Not a +ripple disturbed its shining surface. How deep it was and how far it +extended from the ledge that held it from flowing into the sea, could +not be gauged by Grenville's torch, as he held it aloft to stare at the +wall of velvet gloom. + +He sounded a note that rolled about and reverberated weirdly. But he +could not determine from the echoes how far the waves had traveled. + +Casting his dull-red illumination to the left, and lower down, he +proceeded a little along the ledge, till it merged in an upright wall. +There was nothing at all to be seen in this direction save water and +rock, that faded away into Stygian darkness beyond. + +He retraced his steps and explored the ledge on the right. This led +him considerably further than the first had done before it was +similarly ended. He was then aware the cavern was of no inconsiderable +dimensions, at least with regard to its width. He raised his eyes +towards the ceiling, where nothing was to be seen. + +At length he bethought him of another test--that of throwing lumps of +rock against the walls. There were fragments in plenty scattered +loosely at his feet. The first one he threw went straight out +ahead--and presently thumped on something solid. He reckoned the +distance some sixty feet away, but admitted it might have been eighty. + +Every missile he cast right, left, or at an angle promptly reported a +wall; and some plumped back into water. The cave was not gigantic, but +all its floor was apparently flooded. His hand, which he thrust in the +water where he stood, groped blindly and found no bottom. He rolled up +his sleeve and tried again, without more definite results. The water, +however, was warm. + +"Good place for a swim, in any case," he told himself, aloud; and, +planting his torch with a sudden determination that he would not +retreat with information so utterly meager, he stripped off his +clothing at once. He let himself into the ebon depths, with his torch +held well above the water. He had rather expected to be able to wade, +but he sank to his neck without sounding to the bottom. + +Swimming almost perpendicularly, employing one hand only, he presently +lost all sight of the walls and was out in an unknown pool of +blackness. Save for a slight sensation of its weirdness, the +experience was decidedly pleasant. He tasted the water as he swam and +found that it was fresh. He turned to look out at the opening, but +could barely see light through the weeds. + +Some twenty or thirty feet from the ledge, his feet encountered a +ridge. It was stone, and across it he waded to a greater depth beyond. +Yet once again he was soon enabled to stand erect and walk along the +bottom. The broken, uneven surface that he felt with his feet made his +progress slow and careful. + +He had presently crossed the underground pond, up the sloping bank of +which he was soon making rapid progress. He emerged on a dry ledge +beyond. Even then the walls were not to be seen till he walked a rod +straight onward. + +The briefest examination sufficed to establish the fact he had come to +a sort of natural antechamber to the larger cavern he had crossed. +Also, apparently, the entire place was as empty as a last year's +bird's-nest. + +Vaguely disappointed, though he hardly knew why, the man surveyed the +place anew, by the light that entered at the opening as well as by that +of his torch. He saw at once that, could it be drained, the place +would afford a retreat of amazing security for anyone needful of +shelter. He was also certain he could drain it in a day by blasting +through the ledge of rock that blocked the entrance from the sea and so +retained the pool. + +With one more brief and cursory examination of the rocky structure +about him, he was turning away when something foreign about a slab of +stone, that seemed a fragment of the solid wall, attracted his +attention. + +He laid his hand upon its top as if to pull it down. It came away so +readily it all but fell on his feet. Behind it the crudest sort of +masonry walled up a natural door. + +Ten minutes later, standing on the heap of blocks he had tumbled +rapidly down in forming a gap through four feet at least of this +bulkhead, Grenville thrust his torch within a nichelike chamber of the +cavern. + +A low exclamation of astonishment burst from his lips at the vision +thus suddenly encountered. + +The place was a tomb for dead kings' gold and precious stones that +threw back the gleams from his torch! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A DESPERATE CHANCE + +For fully a minute Grenville was motionless, there in the gap, +surveying the treasure crypt. + +The more his eyes became accustomed to the yellowish light and inky +shadows, the more extensive became his estimate of the wealth the cave +contained. + +The symbols and trinkets of solid metal and glistening stones were +arranged not only on rudely-hewn shelves about the cavern's walls, but +likewise in several stone receptacles, like sarcophagi in miniature, +cut from the tufa of the island. It was partially because of this +feature of the hidden niche that Grenville concluded the property here +had once belonged to either Indian or African native chiefs and that +this was a mortuary house of guarded treasure. + +There was, however, further confirmation of his theory. This was a +crude inscription on the wall above the shelves and caskets. It was +simply that same cartouch he had found on the map or parchment--once +part of a living being--with the figure of a mummy in the oval. On +either side of this the beetle or scarab was repeated. + +The utter inutility of gold and gleaming jewels was momentarily +forgotten as Grenville stared in from the wall. The island, its +perils--everything save an underlying current of thought that wove +about Elaine--had ceased for the moment to impress his newly dazzled +senses. He withdrew his arm to plant his torch in the stones already +removed. Then lustily heaving out stone after stone, like some naked +god of the underworld, half revealed in the smoky glare, he began to +demolish the barrier so carefully erected in the cave. + +He had torn down nearly half the bulk of this uncemented wall, filling +the larger cavern weirdly full of the crashing and thudding noises, +when one of the fragments, tossed unthinkingly behind him, bounded from +another rock and struck down his torch and its light. + +Utter darkness instantly descended. He tried to grope his way quickly +forward, thinking the torch might be recovered and blown to a flame +again. But he stumbled, fell down upon his knees, and was bruised on +the stones about his feet. When he finally found the torch with his +hand, a rock lay squarely upon it; the last of its fire was gone. + +Thoroughly disgusted with his carelessness, he stood undecidedly above +the unseen ruin he had wrought. To attempt further work of removing +the wall by the faint diffusion of light that entered from the outside +world, was out of the question. To enter the crypt before the aperture +could be considerably enlarged was equally impossible. Moreover, the +treasure was safe, as he presently admitted. + +As a matter of fact, he began to realize at last how futile had been +his labor. He remembered, abruptly, where he was, the details of his +helpless situation. Except as something to show Elaine, or to load her +with as presents, the stuff in the cave was as worthless as so much +dross. + +There was nothing to do but retreat as he had come. This he presently +did, reluctantly turning from the half-uncovered cavern and wading into +the pool. + +Without his torch, and swimming towards the light, he was now enabled, +to some extent, to discern the limits of the cave. He could see a +portion of the ceiling and a bit of the wall on his left. Both were +featureless, to all appearances. The water's surface presented a more +extensive aspect with the light thus spread before him, but its farther +limits could not be descried, where its inkiness blended with the gloom. + +When he came at length to the ledge that formed a natural dam across +the entrance, thereby impounding the water, he looked it over with +greater care than when he had first trod upon it, to determine where +would be the likeliest spot for a blast to break it down. + +There could be no debate upon this subject. Over against the upright +wall, on the left-hand side looking out, the ledge not only narrowed +down, where a pot-hole pitted it deeply, but a tiny crevice extended so +nearly through the remaining substance that a trickle of water already +oozed downward towards the sea. The perpendicular wall here also was +broken, a number of fragments of exceptional size appearing so loose as +to threaten toppling over. + +Grenville was leisurely in all this examination. He was either obliged +to permit his body to dry in the air or dress while dripping wet. Yet +at length he was once more clothed and ready to depart. He remained +for a moment, taking a final survey of the place and planning the +details of his blasting operations, then stooped and made his exit from +the place. + +The brilliant light of outer day bewildered him momentarily. He stared +below, however, as if he felt he might be blind. The raft was not +where he had left it. + +Hastily scrambling down the incline of the ledge, he promptly arrived +at its base. His view was limited, even then, to a segment of the +open, purple sea. But the worst of his fears was confirmed. The raft +had floated away. It was nowhere to be seen! + +The tide had run out with amazing swiftness. Its level was such that +the ceaseless swells ran under his ledge, instead of up about it. The +creeper-cord, which he had utilized to moor his craft to the bowlders, +hung uselessly over the edge. It had parted at once when the ponderous +raft had been caught in the swirl of an eddy. + +This eddy was running intermittently, as Grenville soon discovered. +Disgust with himself for his carelessness, and a vague disquiet +concerning his helpless situation, addressed his comprehension +together. He was bounded by huge overhanging walls and a water +abounding in sharks. If only by boat could the cavern be reached, then +only by boat---- + +He thought of his ladder, dangling in air where he had left it, and +believed for a second he could hook it in with his pole, still lying on +the rocks. But no sooner had he climbed a little up the ledge, to a +point from which the ladder could be seen, than he realized the folly +of his hope. It was twenty feet off at the least, and fully eight +above the water. + +The fact that the tide was continuing to fall, that the raft had +doubtless departed the island forever, and that night might find him +here, a helpless prisoner, was no great motive for alarm. But +Grenville was not slow to realize that escape from his predicament +would be no more readily accomplished on the morrow than it could +to-day--that high tide and low tide were alike of no avail to return +him to the terrace and Elaine. + +The thought of Elaine and the fears she must certainly experience, did +he fail to return that night, aroused a new impatience in his blood. +He could almost have made up his mind to slip overboard at once and +take his chances of swimming about the base of the wall, despite its +treacherous currents, had he not remembered the sharks. + +"It's the ladder--or night," he murmured, paraphrasing Wellington's +utterance at Waterloo, somewhat grimly, and again he went down to the +edge of the shelf of rock left dripping by the tide. + +"Elaine!" he called, with a lusty breath, yet without an accent of +distress. "Elaine! ... Elaine! ... Are you there?" + +There was no response, save the swashing of the waves, which he knew +were constantly retreating, leaving the ladder yet more high above the +heaving surface. + +Once more he shouted as before, perhaps a trifle louder. And again he +heard no reply. He began to fear the shelf of rock that projected out +above him might send the sound waves too far outwards, towards the sea, +for Elaine on the terrace to hear. + +He had no alternative but to shout repeatedly. This he did, at regular +intervals, all the time striving to eliminate the slightest accent that +would rouse her sense of fear. It seemed, however, as if no sort of +cry could bring a response from the top. He moved to another position +at last and tried with a longer, shriller tone. + +"Yes! Yes!" came a bright, clear call, at last. "Can you hear me now +any better?" + +She had answered before, as he instantly knew, but her voice had been +snatched afar from the cliff by a circular current of wind. + +"All right!" shouted Grenville, enormously relieved. "I'm down here +below and I'd rather return by the ladder. Can you hear me quite +distinctly?" + +"Oh, yes!" cried Elaine, whose fears were vast, though she would not +betray them in her voice. "Do you want me to change it--or something?" + +"A trifle, yes--as I'll direct you." He paused for a moment to make +his directions as clear and concise as possible. Then he shouted: + +"First move a few of the rocks to a point as near the edge as possible +and about ten feet to the left of the present position.... Is that +clear?" + +"Yes--very clear--quite clear---- And then?" + +"Then lift off the others and remove the ladder--carefully. Mind it's +just a bit heavy." + +He paused, and she cried: "Yes! I hear you!" + +"Take the ladder at once to the rocks already placed and roll them on +its end, to hold it down." + +"Then heap all the others upon it?" Her question came ringing down the +cliff. + +"Yes--and as promptly---- But don't overtax your strength." + +There was no reply to this final instruction. That the quickest of +action was highly essential, she had felt in the very air. She was +hotly, valiantly tugging at the rocks before his last words had died +upon the breeze. + +He presently saw the ladder-end jerk about spasmodically and ascend for +perhaps a foot. Elaine had the weight of it in her hands--and her +strength was equal to the task! + +He watched it, his heart wildly thrilling at the thought of her ready +wit and courage--her certain, sturdy helpfulness in every trying crisis. + +With more wild gyrations about the ledge, the ladder-end now +disappeared. It was gone for a moment only, to return at a point more +directly above his head. Here it halted, moved about uncertainly, then +lowered jerkily downward, to dangle at last with its last rung all but +on the water, some eight or ten feet away. He knew that its upper end +was lightly anchored and would soon be firmly held in place. + +He caught up his pole, with the hook at its end, to fish the ladder +inward. But, fearing that any untimely tug might fetch it all doubling +down the cliff, he instantly halted the maneuver and compelled himself +to wait. + +Five minutes went by--five ages for slowness of movement. He was +certain by then Elaine had made the end too secure to be readily +dislodged. He stepped to the outermost edge of the shelf, with the +pole horizontally extended. + +It was short by perhaps six inches. Strain as he would, he could not +reach either one of the rungs or supports. A light puff of wind then +bent it slightly inward, and he fished out wildly, in the hope the +discrepancy thus amended might be wholly overcome. + +But his hook still prodded the empty air, while the zephyrs that played +with the dangling thing seemed solely bent on his torture. The sweat +oozed out on his temples, for the straining made him warm. A sense of +disappointment amounting almost to despair attacked him for a moment. + +"I shall leap out and swim!" he told himself, at last. "I'll not +remain here for the night!" + +He returned to the point from which Elaine had finally been heard. + +She did not immediately answer when he called as he had before. When +her voice came down, he was certain her breath was broken. + +"I've--carried the last rock--over--and one or two--extra, besides." + +"Right ho!" responded Grenville, cheerfully. "You might stand away +while I test it." + +He knew that a sudden throwing of his weight upon the ladder might +suffice to fetch it down. He could not be sure that, with all her +ready helpfulness and promptness, Elaine had so heaped the rocks above +as to make the thing secure. + +"I can always get back here for the night," he murmured to himself, as +he scanned the swirl below. "And when it calms down from that bally +twist----" + +The whirlpool was even then subsiding, in its intermittent way. He +quickly ascended the sloping ledge, the better to run and leap far +outward. His pole he dropped upon the rocks as he hung there poised +for his plunge. His eyes were keenly fixed on the tide. + +The waters became quiescent. Swiftly Grenville darted down the ledge, +leaping well out, towards the end of the ladder. He was fairly in +midair when his gaze was directed to a dark form loafing in the depths. + +Before he struck, by some quick flirt the huge form rose, coming +inward, and a black fin cut through the waves. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +A DREADED VISITOR + +What it was that happened when he felt the waters swiftly rising all +about him Grenville could never have told. He was almost certain his +foot had come in contact with a heavy, pulpy surface, like a wet thing +made of rubber, as he did his utmost to strike his assailant with his +heel. + +He could only be certain that he seemed to plunge downward +interminably, and that afterwards a horrible rush of waters, lashed to +violence, was sounding wildly in his ears and confusing his staring +eyes. + +Then he came to the top with a sickening conviction, that one of his +legs would be gone almost before he could feel the incisions of the +teeth where the shark was closing upon it. He lurched tremendously +forward in the water, to close the short but vital gap between himself +and the ladder. + +It seemed to him then a nightmare must be binding his limbs to +inaction--that incredible time was elapsing while he still remained in +the tide. As a matter of fact, he had moved with prodigious energy, +his strokes and velocity through the water phenomenally swift. And, +when he caught at the lowermost rung, he shot from the depths like some +weirdly living projectile, doubled up in a knot by its speed. + +For his knees were drawn sharply upward, and hand over hand he scaled +up his swaying support. But his ears heard the hiss where that +terrible fin was cutting the waves beneath him. One quick glance he +sped to the place comprehended the turning monster's belly, the open +mouth, and even the hideous nose that shot beneath his very foot like +the point of a speeding torpedo. + +To the round above he scrambled no less galvanically--only to feel a +sudden giving of the ladder. A wild conviction of the structure's +insecurity above--its giving way beneath the incautious strain he had +unavoidably put upon it--scorched its way into his brain, while he +still looked down upon the shark. + +But that one slip ended as abruptly as it had come. It was all in the +rung he had clutched in desperate violence, and not in the ladder +itself. Elaine's rock anchorage was firm! + +A swift and weakening reaction now ensued in all his being, as he clung +there, dripping but safe. He leaned on the ladder-rung heavily, to +regain his breath and strength. He was panting and all but exhausted +for the moment. When at length he resumed the upward climb, the shark +was no longer to be seen. + +He paused a bit longer on the shelving ledge above to gather his wits +in proper order. + +"Sidney!" he heard. "Are you coming? Are you there?" + +"Well, rather!" he called out, cheerily. "Stopped like a kid +to--examine the geological formation." He started upward promptly, +whistling as he went. + +It was not, however, without a tremendous effort that he finally pulled +himself over the brink, in all the weight of his soaking garments, and +struggled to his feet. + +"Why--you're wet!" said Elaine, concealing her hands, which were cut +and bruised from the heavy stones she had carried. "Did you have to +swim to get the ladder?" + +He knew her hands were hurt, but maintained his usual manner. + +"I did. But the water is warm--in fact, it was very warm, indeed." + +"But couldn't you use the raft?" + +"I couldn't," he answered, candidly. "The raft got away while I was +pothering about, and, unless it faithfully floats ashore, we may never +see its honest face again." + +Elaine's expression brightened. + +"I'm perfectly delighted to hear it! Now you never can go there again!" + +Grenville was amused at the turn of her reflections. + +"But what about the treasure in the crypt?" + +"I don't believe there's any treasure in the crypt. There never is, +except in wonderful stories. And, if there was, what good could it be +to us?" + +Grenville met her magnetic gaze, now brightened by her challenge. It +was not a time to excite new alarms in her heart by divulging the facts +he had discovered. For she would be alarmed were she once informed of +the wealth concealed beneath their feet. She would instantly +understand the dangers to them both from the men who had hidden the +treasure. + +"Well," he said, with an air of lightness he was very far from feeling, +"I confess I'd rather have a good pot of steaming black coffee at this +particular juncture than all the gold and jewels of the land." + +"Oh, please don't mention it!" said Elaine. "Haven't I tried every +leaf I could find, to make you something to drink?" And a wistful +pucker came to her brow that made her more than ever enchanting. +"You've no idea," she added, "what horrid messes this island foliage +can make." + +"Wouldn't wonder," said Grenville, calmly. But, having come to the +shaded cave, he was grateful for a drink of cool, sweet water and glad +to sit down for a rest. + +The subject of the cave was dropped, but his thoughts could not fade in +Grenville's mind. They lay in substrata, beneath more homely plans for +resuming his interrupted labors. But, beyond going down to dig some +yams to roast with a pheasant killed the previous day, he returned to +no toils that afternoon. He paused to examine the shell of his boat, +which fire, plus his chisel, was finally evolving from the log, and, +finding unusual quantities of blackly charred stuff to be gouged away +in the morning, determined to be early at the task. + +This plan was one of the sort that "gang aglee." He fished, with +Elaine, till nine o'clock the following day, to provide a needful +change of their diet; then placed some fresh signals on their flagpole. +At eleven, however, he was once more at his boat, with his fires +freshly blazing. He was working gayly, aroused to a new enthusiasm +over final results to be achieved by the excellent progress his former +fires had made upon the log. A few more days of work like that--and he +would have to be thinking of the launching. + +This was not a thought he had neglected. In a vague sort of way the +problem of moving his boat to the water's edge had bothered him from +the first. It would have to be run on rollers, he admitted. Doubtless +a way would have to be cleared through some of the undergrowth. + +Reflecting that this was a task to be performed while the fires were +doing their daily stint, he made a preliminary survey of the jungle to +select the most practical route. The way across the grassy clearing +was not only long, but in places inclined to be rough. Fortunately, in +either direction the way was all down-grade. + +He had never yet forced a way to the shore through the jungle beyond +his tree-trunk smelter. Thither he wended his way to note what this +route might offer. + +Breaking the branches from before his path, and rather inclined to +believe a trail might once have been forced through the thicket, he was +penetrating deeper and deeper into the moist and thickly shaded region +when he presently halted, almost certain he had heard someone calling +his name. + +"Sidney! Sidney!" came the cry again, from Elaine up above him on the +cliff. "Sidney! Where are you? A boat! I've seen a sail! There's +someone coming at last!" + +He had smashed his way out while she was calling. + +"A sail!" she repeated, excitedly, the moment he appeared. "Oh, +come!--please come at once!" + +She disappeared swiftly from the edge, running back, lest the sight be +lost forever. + +Actively, Grenville went bounding across the clearing and up their +narrow trail. He was panting and eager when Elaine ran forward to meet +him, and clutched him by the arm. + +"I knew it would come!--I knew it!" she cried, as she hastened hotly +forward at his side. "We must wave things as hard as we can!" + +She had guided him swiftly to the great lone tree that stood like the +island's landmark, to be seen for many a mile. She pointed in triumph +afar across the sea--and Grenville beheld a tiny sail, like the merest +white notch in the sky. + +"Can they see us yet? Shall we wave?" said Elaine. "They couldn't go +by and miss us now?" + +She was still clinging fast to Grenville's arm, and tears had sprung to +her eyes. What long, long hours of torture, anxiety, and hope she had +expended, uttering no complaint as the days went by, the man abruptly +knew. Then something indescribably poignant shot boltlike through his +heart. + +Elaine felt him harden, grow rigid, as his gaze narrowed down on the +distant thing she had found in their purple sea. The note that broke +from his lips at last made a shiver go down her spine. + +He suddenly turned, and his arm was wrenched from her clasp. He sped +like a madman back to their mast and heaved all his weight against it. +He threw back the rocks that held it in place in the crevice to which +it had been fitted. + +Before she could follow, to question what he did, Elaine saw him drop +the pole over. + +"Sidney!" she said, but the face that he turned wore a look that was +new to her ken. + +"Pull up the ladder from the rocks!" he called. "Then go to the +shelter and stay!" + +He himself ran to the cavern, to take up their largest jug of water. +With this in his arms, he hastened down the trail to quench the flames +beneath his boat. + +And when, with more water, hurried from the spring, he had drowned the +last blue wisp of smoke, he brought the full jug to the cave again and +tore down the improvised awning. + +"We had better hail death than that craft!" he said, "unless I am very +much mistaken!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +AN IRREPARABLE LOSS + +Elaine was dumbly appalled for a moment by the words that Grenville had +uttered. She finally found her voice. + +"But--why? I don't believe I understand. It isn't someone--some +horrible men who hunt human heads for trophies?" + +Grenville was glad she knew what a head-hunter means. He loathed the +necessity of making revolting explanations. He vainly wished he might +spare her now--that his judgment might be in error. But the rakish +angle of that sail, though so far away on the water, had left him no +room to doubt that natives were manning the craft. + +"They may be friendly visitors, after all," he answered. "And then +again they may not. It may be as wise for us to see them first, and +determine our conduct later." + +"You do fear them, then? But how can we hide--if they land and come up +on the hill?" + +"They shall never come up--if I can help it! If I only had a few more +bombs!" He had gone to his cave and was dragging forth his little +cannon. "I haven't even a hatful of slugs with which to charge this +plaything!" + +Elaine had remained obediently at her shelter, in the door of which she +stood. + +"Won't they see you?" she said, her voice already lowered, as if in +fear its accents might be overheard where the distant boat was +approaching. "Have you more old pieces of brass?" + +"Some," said Grenville, reluctant to use his remaining metal in such an +extravagant manner. "I have nothing else that will answer, hang the +luck! ... They can't see us yet, but we'll move about with caution.... +I wish I had made more powder! I have only a few feet of fuse. I must +get some additional creepers at once and let them dry out in the sun." + +He went down to the jungle immediately for a fresh supply of this +highly essential growth, leaving Elaine at the shelter, a prey to dread +that had utterly obliterated her bitter disappointment. She stooped, +to steal forward on the rocks and look for the sail again. It was +still so far on the sun-lit surface of the ocean that it seemed no +nearer than before. She returned once more to the cave. + +Grenville came up, fairly laden with freshly severed creepers. + +"I've thought of a means for making bombs!" he told her, triumphantly. +"Perhaps you can split these creepers and take out the cores while I go +to fetch some bamboo poles." + +"Couldn't I fill them with powder?" Elaine inquired, anxiously. "I +watched you before. I am sure I would make no great mistakes." + +He knew she was nervous, eager to be employed. + +"Sure shot you could," he answered, briskly, and, going to the cave +employed as his "powder magazine," he brought her a jar of explosive. +"Don't be afraid to put in all that the creeper tube will carry," he +instructed. "And tie it with fibers here and there, to keep the edges +together." + +With his heaviest tools he descended at once to the bamboo growth, +where he was presently toiling hard. Elaine, no less industriously, +was hotly assailing the creepers, held firmly down with heavy rocks, to +make their manipulation easy. + +She had filled and bound a considerable length of this simply +manufactured fuse when Grenville returned to the terrace. For his +part, he bore across his shoulder three great long steins of green +bamboo that were three inches through at the base. + +"I can cut this stuff at its divisions," he explained, "fill the +smaller sections with powder, and fit the larger ones over them, like a +shell within a shell. A natural growth plugs each one up at the end, +and I'll also cap each end with a rock, and wrap the whole contraption +about with creepers. Of course, the fuse will go in first. I wish the +stuff were dry!" + +The spirit of battle was no less aroused in Elaine, whose mood was the +equal of his own. + +"Couldn't we use the cannon first--keep them off with that while the +fuses and things are drying?" + +"It's our only chance, if they raid us by the trail. They can scarcely +arrive for two or three hours more. The tide will be against them---- +If we keep out of sight, they may not detect our presence." + +"Anyway," added Elaine, sagely, "they needn't know how few we are in +numbers." + +"Right ho!" he answered, cheerily. "The trail is steep and narrow. We +can train the gun to rake its entire width. For the second shot, and +any succeeding charges, we can load the piece with stones---- I'm in +hopes our visitors may not land, but we'll keep our fire smoldering, +making no smoke; and I'll fetch all the fruit and water we may need for +a couple of days." + +Elaine looked up at him quickly. + +"A couple of days? We may have to fight two days?" + +Grenville smiled, suggestively. + +"Not if they come within range of the cannon or linger about a bomb. +In time of peace prepare for the worst--and then a little extra." + +He moved out cautiously, as Elaine had done, to scan the distant sail. +He could see that it was steadily approaching. With eager impatience +he hastened below to lay in needful provisions. + +Luncheon was forgotten. When a large supply of fruits and water, with +fuel sufficient for perhaps a week of flameless fire, had been stored +in the coolness and protection of the caves, Grenville immediately set +to work constructing the shells to fill with powder. + +This was a task involving much difficult cutting. For this employment +his tools were not encouragingly suited. Of fuse, Elaine had finally +produced as much as all his bombs would require, with lengths for the +cannon as well. + +The gun was finally charged and primed, after Grenville had rebound it +to its "carriage." It was lodged in the rocks, where it covered the +trail, and stones were piled abundantly about it. A fuse was laid to +the vent. + +From time to time both the exiles had crept towards the one lone tree +on the wall, to observe the on-coming boat. By three o'clock of the +afternoon the wind had practically failed, but the craft drifted slowly +forward. It was plainly in sight by then--a fair-sized affair with a +singular out-rigger and a queer, unmistakable sail. So far as +Grenville could determine at the distance, there were three or four +natives aboard. + +"If none of them ever go back to tell the tale," he announced, a bit +grimly to Elaine, "we may be all right for quite a time." + +She understood at once. + +"You think, if they leave, they may return here later--with a larger +force--if they find we are ready for a fight?" + +"If they do, we'll not be at home--provided the boat can be finished." + +Elaine was evidently thinking much--of the battle that might presently +ensue, with all its unknown results. + +"They'd kill us if they could, I suppose, if only to cut---- They are +not human beings, really--the kind we ought not to shoot?" + +Grenville could hardly repress a smile. + +"If they try to steal the gun, I think we'd be justified in firing. At +any rate, I shall fire first and debate the question later." + +Elaine was growing nervous, now that all they could do was practically +accomplished. + +"Oh, I wish it was over!" she declared. "Do you think they'll attack +us soon after landing?" + +"They may not land this evening." + +Grenville was thinking of the tidal sounds that haunted the island's +wall. These were still of considerable volume every day, and, +according to his theory, frightened the ignorant natives away. He +added, presently: "You see, they may be aware the tiger was living here +before we disturbed his possession. In that event they might be +cautious of landing after dark. They rarely take chances, I believe, +by attacking in the night." + +"But suppose they arrive an hour or two before sunset?" + +"They might, if the breeze should freshen.... We can only wait and +see." + +But this waiting was an irritating business, so slowly did the craft +appear to move against the tide and so fraught with possibilities was +its visit to the place. + +Sitting or stooping behind the rocks, Elaine and Grenville kept a +constant watchfulness on the boat, now less than half a mile away. It +was apparently becalmed. The day grew old and still it came no nearer. + +The sun at length departed from the scene, with the riddle still +unsolved. It appeared to Grenville the day-end breath would have +wafted the stranger to the shore. He thought perhaps it did approach +considerably closer, but of this he was not at all certain. + +The brief, soft twilight soon began to wane. At Sidney's suggestion, +their simple repast of island fruits was eaten. The fish they had +captured in the morning was not cooked, in the absence of the customary +fire. The calm that settled on the "Isle of Shalimar" was far from +being reassuring. It seemed fraught with silent agencies of fate, +moving noiselessly about the shadowed jungle. + +When the darkness came down, the mysterious craft was no longer to be +seen. Grenville had fancied it drifting rapidly in when he last +discerned its form. No lights were displayed upon its mast or deck to +indicate its presence off the headland. + +Elaine was persuaded at last to retire, though she knew she should not +sleep. Grenville remained on guard alone, pacing back and forth from +the head of the trail to the lone tree reared above the cliff. His +senses were strained to catch the slightest sound, but none came upward +from the sea. From time to time he halted by their smoldering bit of +coals to assure himself the last of the sparks had not been permitted +to die. + +At length, far in the silent night, the tidal wailing began, its +weirdness increased an hundredfold by the tension of the hours. It +seemed to Grenville unusually loud, so acute had the darkness made his +hearing. + +No sooner had the final note died out on the gently stirring air than +answering cries, no less weird and shrill, arose from out upon the +water. The visiting craft had drifted past the headland and was +somewhere off on Grenville's right. The cries from its deck were like +a response to some spirit of the island. They were rather more awed +than exultant, Grenville felt, and he fancied some chanting, that came +to him brokenly out of the heavy shades of night, was possibly a prayer. + +When he came before her shelter again, Elaine was standing in the door. +She had heard the cries from the boat. + +"They haven't landed yet?" she said, in a whisper. + +"They won't land now till daybreak, and perhaps not then," he answered. +"Go back--and go to sleep." + +"I'll try," said Elaine, and disappeared. + +For Grenville, however, there could be no sleep, though the darkness +rendered up no further sound. Like the outer sentry of a picket-line, +with the enemy close, and his whereabouts unknown, he glided silently +from one dark edge of the terrace to another, as the hours wore on, +alert for the slightest alarm. + +He finally sat by the head of the trail, convinced that the visitors +would give him no trouble till morning, yet guarding the only way by +which they could gain the summit of the hill. + +He was weary and doubtless he nodded, lulled by the softness of the +breeze that came up at last, burdened with its ozone from the sea. +And, despite the fact he was afterwards positive the nod was the +briefest in the world, full daylight was spread to the ends of the +world, and the sun was gilding the island's tufa walls, when at length +he started to his feet. + +It seemed to him then some sound from below had played through the +fabric of his dream. But nothing disturbed the usual calm, save the +morning cry of distant parrots. Stooping, he moved through the +scattered rocks, to survey the waters far and wide. + +There was nothing to be seen, in all that expanse, of the craft that +had ridden near at midnight. All the round of the wall he made in this +manner of caution. When he came at length above the blackened +clearing, where for day after day he had toiled with fire and chisel, +he gazed about the open space bewildered and incredulous. + +His half-finished boat was gone! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +AFTER TO-MORROW---- + +The truth of his loss was hardly to be credited as Grenville continued +to stare below where the hollowed log had been. + +There was not a sign of a living thing in the clearing or near-by +jungle. There had been no sounds of unusual movement in the thicket, +he was sure, or otherwise he must have wakened. No voices had spoken, +since his ears had all but ached to catch the slightest disturbance. + +On the blue of the sea, so tremendously expanded from this particular +point of vantage, there was not a hint of a sail. But the fact +remained his boat was gone, with all the work it represented, and all +the hope their situation had centered upon it for them both. + +An utter sinking of the heart assailed him. His moment of sleep, he +told himself, could have been no more treacherous had it been planned +by a scheming enemy to complete their abandonment to some rapidly +impending fate. And yet had he waked in the gray of the dawn, with his +bombs and fuses still too damp for employment, and his cannon planted +only to guard the trail, the boat could hardly have been saved. At +most, his protest would merely have betrayed the fact he was camped +there on the terrace. + +A new line of thought sprang into his brain, as one suggestion after +another was swiftly deduced from his loss. The natives who had landed +and carried off his precious craft must certainly have found the wall +with which he had barred the trail. He could hardly doubt they knew of +his presence on the hill. They might even now be lying in wait to get +him the moment he appeared. + +His preconceived theory, that they dared not land while those tidal +sounds still haunted this end of the island, received a shattering +blow. Their craft was doubtless hidden now behind either one of the +other lofty walls comprised by the neighboring hills. The thieves had +cut off all possible hope of his escape with Elaine by means of his +solid, if crude, canoe, and could finally starve them on the hill, if +they had no courage for a battle. + +Yet how had they happened on his boat and why had they removed it? +That they must have carried it bodily down to the shore, through the +jungle, was absolutely certain. And this, he thought, argued a +half-dozen men, though it might have been done by four. + +He remained there, stunned by this utterly defeating discovery, +watching the thicket for the slightest sign that might betray the +presence of the enemy and revolving the proposition over and over in +his mind. When at last he admitted that the natives might have known +the log was lying there, if they had not indeed prepared it with fire +for some of their uses the previous year, he was more than verging on +the facts. They had felled it solely for a boat--and much of their +work he had completed. + +This line of reasoning did not, however, serve to quiet further +questions. The visitors must certainly have wondered how it came about +that the log was so nearly hollowed. The clay, still plastered upon +it, must have suggested to their minds the work of a craftsman minus +tools. That the workman must be present on the island would be more +than suspected, since his boat was not even launched. + +They might suppose the tiger had captured and devoured him--always +admitting they knew of the brute's former presence on the place. It +seemed far more likely to Grenville they had found his tracks about the +spring, his gate on the trail, and the signs of his recent fires and +general activity about the region of his smelter, and would therefore +conclude he was still encamped on the hill. + +He could fancy a half-dozen pairs of maliciously glittering eyes +fastened even now upon the crest and edges of the terrace, all hidden +by the thickets. Had the poisoned dart from a blowpipe come winging +swiftly up from the shadows of the foliage, he should not have been +surprised. + +But not a leaf below him was disturbed. Not a sound arose to warn his +eager ears. With a sense of bitter rage and humiliation in all his +system, he finally crept once more to the trail, and beyond it to the +cliff's final shelving. + +From this extremity of the heights new aspects of the island were in +view, as well as different expanses of the sea. His keen eyes searched +the jungle and the clearings first, with no more results than before. + +It was not until he gazed afar, on the darkening silver of the waters, +that his search was at all rewarded. Even then, for a moment he was +not wholly convinced that what he saw was not a spearlike leaf of +foliage projected beyond the clean-cut edge of the farthest of the +island's tufa towers. + +But the angle of color detached itself and receded in far perspective. +It was plainly the sail of the visiting craft, previously hidden from +his sight by the hill at the island's end. It was already far on a +northern course, where he should not have thought to find it. The +freshening breeze was heeling it over gracefully; it would vanish in +less than half an hour. + +He wondered instantly--had they towed away his boat? Or might they +have left it moored in some inlet of the island, to be taken upon some +future visit? + +Stifling an impulse to hasten down the trail, and aware that one, or +even more, of the natives might have been left concealed upon the +place, to ambush himself and Elaine, or anyone else suspected of being +present on the rock, he remained behind his barrier of stones, no less +cautious than before. + +The fact that the entire morning passed in apparent security, with +never the flicker of a leaf below to advertise a lurking menace, could +not suffice to render Grenville careless or overconfident. He had told +Elaine of their loss--which worried her less than himself. Together +they maintained an all-day vigilance, half expectant of the +sailing-craft's return and keyed to the highest tension of expectancy +at every stirring of a shrub below them in the jungle. + +Grenville finally armed himself with his bow and straightest arrow, to +descend the trail, go quietly over to the spring, and then to the spot +from which his boat had vanished. About the pool of crystal water +there was not so much as a track of human boots or feet, other than his +own. There were none to be seen about the foot of the trail, where +there was ample dust in which they might have been recorded. + +Where his boat had lain, with its end on a rock, there were far fewer +footprints in the ash and soil than Sidney could have believed +possible, judging the visitors at only four in number and their task +not particularly light. Apparently, however, they had landed down +beyond the jungle, proceeded straight to the log, and, wasting no time +in wondering how it chanced to be covered with clay or hollowed to a +shell, had taken it up, to depart with it as swiftly and directly as +possible. + +Even his tools still lay beside the hollow tree utilized for a smelter. +The one explanation that addressed itself to his mind as being +plausible was that the visitors, knowing of the log and having planned +to secure it, perhaps in merely passing by the island, had come ashore +so soon as the first faint gray of dawn broke the shadows of the +jungle, when they had taken their prize and halted for nothing, not +even a search for whatsoever tools they must have seen had been +employed. + +Once more his original theory of their superstitious fright of the +island's "haunt" seemed to Grenville to be confirmed. He felt the +natives had sneaked ashore--not in fear of himself, since they could +not have foreknown his presence on the hill, but in possible fear of +some spirit of the place whose wailing filled them with dread. + +Barely less cautiously than heretofore, he followed the faintly +imprinted trail of the boat's mysterious abductors, where it led across +the clearing. He was certain now that a cleared path did exist where +he had partially explored the previous morning. But branches and +shrubbery had been freshly cut, as if to insure the silent passage of +the log. + +The lane thus created through the thicket led directly down an easy +slope to a broken bit of seawall at the bottom. This, at high tide, +would be scarcely a foot above the water. Here the log had undoubtedly +been rested. Both broken clay and a charcoal smudge recorded the +unseen fact. + +The entire inlet was no more than twenty feet across. It was bounded +on either side by pitted walls that permitted no access to the jungle. +The last faint hope of again beholding his precious boat now vanished +from Grenville's mind. It had not been moored, nor probably even +towed, but doubtless loaded bodily on the visitor's deck, to be taken +to parts unknown. + +But, if this heavy fact sunk home in his breast, the man was somewhat +relieved, at least, concerning a probable native left behind. He felt +practically certain that none of the crew of the native craft had +stepped beyond his clearing. How much they might guess as to who had +hollowed the heavy log was another matter altogether. He knew that +their tale would be widely told--and felt that developments would +follow. + +He went to Elaine, to whom he owed a report. + +"I think we're alone on the place," he said, and related all he had +discovered. "We may as well re-light our fires," he added, in +conclusion, "and eat the best our sunny possessions afford." + +Elaine could not so promptly recover from all she had undergone. She +still sat staring at his face, a prey to confused emotions. + +"Suppose they had really been friendly, after all--and we let them go +and leave us here like that?" + +"In that event they may return, since the boat will excite a bit of +wonder." + +"You mean they will know, of course, that someone must be here who made +it?" + +"It certainly tells that story rather plainly." + +She was thinking rapidly. + +"Then--if they shouldn't happen to be friendly, they would know it all +just the same--and may still come back to--look us up?" + +Grenville nodded. + +"I shall certainly go to work with that chance in view." + +"Yes," she agreed, "we'll certainly do all we can. But another boat +would take you weeks! After all your patient, tedious work--to have it +stolen like that! Oh, I could cry, if I weren't so vexed and sorry!" + +Grenville smiled despite his sense of loss. + +"Perhaps I can rig some sort of a catamaran," he answered. "But for +day and night sailing, such as we would doubtless have before us, the +best of boats would be none too comfortable." + +"And we don't know where to sail." + +"Well--not precisely." + +"Then--what is the first thing to do?" + +"Cook and devour a hearty dinner." + +"But after that--to-morrow?" + +"Thank God for peace--and prepare for war, meanwhile praying it may not +come." + +Elaine was grave, but her voice was clear and steady. + +"You think it will--that a fight will come? ... I'd much rather know +the worst." + +"So would I!" said Grenville, cheerfully. "We can't. We can only get +ready to acquit ourselves like--well, like gentlemen, and keep out an +eye for a steamer.... Would you mind retreating to the cave I found, +if dire necessity arose?" + +"I'll go wherever you tell me," she answered, with a smile that went to +his heart. "But of course I can't help wishing that a steamer would +really come." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +A FATEFUL EXPLOSION + +With feverish energy Grenville was at work, attempting to achieve a +dozen ends at once. + +Nearly a week of high-pressure application appeared to have +accomplished so little. Yet a hundred pounds at least of his liveliest +powder had been mixed and stored away, either loosely or packed in the +bamboo bombs, of which he had a dozen; much extra bamboo had been cut +and brought to the terrace; a new lot of jugs had been molded of clay +and were finally being fired in his former smelter; baskets were made +and ready for fruits, should retreat to the cave be rendered expedient, +and his first small raft, or catamaran, for gaining the exit to the +cavern, was all but ready to launch. + +He had taken the bowsprit of the barque and three large stems from the +bamboo growth as a basis for this craft. The bamboo stems were firmly +lashed together, to act as a mate for the bowsprit. They were held +away from the latter at a distance of about three feet by some of the +few unrotted bits of board he had torn from the old vessel's cabin, +plus more bamboo, split and employed for his platform. + +Two half-cylindrical sections of this useful plant he had lashed to +eight-foot poles of considerable stiffness to complete a pair of oars. +His rowlocks, saved from the smelting processes, he finally tested in +their sockets, where a rigid bridge had been stoutly secured across his +raftlike contrivance, and found them all he could desire. The seat he +had planned to occupy in rowing he abandoned now as quite superfluous. + +He felt he must lose no time in draining the cave, for possible use in +a siege. There was no other task that had been altogether neglected. +The flagpole was once more standing on the terrace; abundant fuse was +made, dried, coiled, and safely stored from damp or accident, and a +mold was hardening in the fire for running lead slugs that would make +the cannon effective. + +For this latter need he meant to sacrifice his hammer. It, with the +lead he had saved before, would supply some six or seven pounds of this +needful ammunition. Now, as he swiftly braided three slender creepers +in a "painter" for his crudely fashioned catamaran, he glanced at the +tide inquiringly, and likewise up at the sun. There was over an hour +in which to get to the cave, lodge a bomb in the ledge, and blow out +the dam that held back the water, but the tide was still running +against him. + +With ten feet only of his mooring-line completed, he abandoned the +braiding impatiently, secured one end to his raft at the estuary's +entrance, and, wading in behind the clumsy structure, launched it with +one impetuous heave across the sandbar to the sea. Boarding +immediately with his oars, he rowed it far enough only to prove he +could drive it against the tide, and then brought it back to the shore. + +"One bomb and a torch," he meditated, aloud. "I can hang the bomb +across my shoulder to keep it out of the wet." + +The catamaran having been made thoroughly secure, he hastened away to +the terrace. He missed Elaine. She was down at the "smelter," +attending the fire that was roasting the new clay vessels. + +With a bomb and his lighted torch in hand--held well apart and not for +a moment handled carelessly--he hailed Elaine from the edge of the +thicket by the wall. + +"Just thought I'd drop around and drain out that water from the cave," +he announced. "Everything's ready--and I've nothing else to do. When +you hear the salute, you'll know it's a commonplace affair." + +"Oh!" said Elaine, who had her doubts concerning his various +explosions. "I'll watch to see you from the cliff." + +"Well--er--I wouldn't stand just at the edge, you know--not till you +know it's all over." + +"You're not going to blow down the hill?" + +"Hope not, I've taken a baby bomb, but I didn't wish to let it off till +I'd told you what to expect. I'd keep away, in case of flying pieces." + +"I will," said Elaine. "But I'll go up now, and perhaps you can call +to let me know how well you have succeeded." + +"I'll send you a wireless." + +Grenville hastened to his raft. "Please God she may never have to hear +me fire another!" he thought, as he went, reflecting on things that +might happen. He could not have known that only a mild beginning had +been made on their programme as scheduled by the Fates. + +He was soon rowing eagerly and vigorously against the current of the +tide, which would run with lessening velocity for perhaps another hour. +When he came to the cave, he promptly discovered why the injunction to +enter its mouth at high water only had been made a point in the mystic +directions found with the map in the tube. + +The ledge whereon he had landed before was deeply undercut. During a +tide no more than two or three feet lower than this that would serve +him to-day, the place could scarcely be approached, and could never be +entered at all. The swirl, which was rarely ever absent from the +place, increased in violence steadily with the lowering levels of the +water. + +It was not without some chance of catastrophe that he presently landed +on the shelf. He lost little time in securing his painter to the +rocks, the line so adjusted he could readily slip it from the crevice +should a hasty retreat seem wise. + +The task of blasting out the ledge was not a simple matter. To lodge +the bomb where its energy would be directed almost wholly against the +dam, or rock, and yet protect it from the trickling stream that could +readily render it useless, involved an extra toil of piling rocks, on +which he had not reckoned. + +Fortunately, much of the thickest wall was opposed to the pot-hole in +the dam, while one or two extra-heavy fragments from the cliff were so +lightly poised he could drop them in the breach. Despite these natural +advantages, however, he labored hotly for fully half an hour before he +could even lay his fuse. + +Meantime, his torch was blazing smokily, against his final need of +igniting the match and later exploring for results. At length he +looped the fuse along a ragged line of broken honeycomb, where pits had +been eaten in the tufa, and trailed it well down to the brink of the +ledge, with its end propped high between two bowlders. + +With one last look at all his careful arrangements, he slipped off his +raft-line, caught up his torch, and was stepping down to board his +float when a sharp piece of rock broke away beneath his foot and +dropped him forward on his hand. + +The torch was flung against the fuse, where it lay along the slope. He +heard it hiss, where the powder had caught, and aware that, by three or +four feet, it was shorter now than he had ever intended to light it, he +lurched full-length upon his raft and fumbled to clutch up the oars. + +But the swirl was on, and the catamaran seemed possessed to bump +against the ledge. + +In a final desperate outburst of strength, he sent the thing shooting +outward. Its bow would have turned in the whirlpool then, but he drove +it clear of the point. + +Like a madman he pulled at the clumsy oars, to reach the protection +where the wall all but folded the basin from the sea. + +His raft was around it--half of the raft--and another good foot would +have covered himself, when the blast abruptly boomed. + +Even out of the tail of his eye he saw the dull-red flare behind a blot +that represented ragged rock in motion. + +A fragment no larger than a man's two fists came as straight as a +cannon projectile and struck the pitted wall beside his head. + +He had ducked instinctively forward, which doubtless saved his life. +But dozens of smaller and barely less violent fragments were broken +away from the edge of the wall by the piece with the meteoric speed. +One of these struck him above the ear--and down he went, face forward, +on the platform, to hang with arms and shoulders loosely supported on +the bridge that was used for the sockets of his rowlocks. + +A rain of loose pieces hissed about in the sea. The cave belched smoke +like a suddenly active volcano. The tide took the raft, with its +motionless burden, and floated it back whence the man had come, but not +so close in the shore. + +Then up on the cliff, when the shock and hail had subsided from all the +air about her, Elaine came inquiringly over to the brink, to receive +some word that all was well. + +The smoke still rose from down below and obscured the face of the +waters. There was nothing Elaine could discover. She waited a time +that seemed very long, in her usual determination not to seem unduly +alarmed or importunate concerning Sidney's safety. + +But at last she called his name. + +There was no response. Her uneasiness increased. She called again, +and moved along the brink, staring eagerly down at the sea. + +Then at last a sound like a stifled moan escaped her whitened lips. +She had seen that prostrate, helpless figure drifting down by the shore +on his raft. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +WHAT THE BLAST DISCOVERED + +Grenville revived, with his characteristic pertinacity. An impulse to +save himself was still alive in his brain. Actuated by its survival, +he struggled galvanically to rise. + +"Oh, please!" said a voice, that sounded remarkably familiar. "Please +try to keep quiet for a little!" + +Yet he had to sit up, with one hand to support him, if nothing more. + +He was still on the raft, and there was Elaine, on her knees, pulling +hard at his oars to drive the float ashore. She was dripping wet from +head to foot. + +For a moment Grenville regarded her blankly, while the situation +cleared in his brain. + +"What ho, skipper!" he said, a bit faintly. "You didn't swim out to +this contraption?" + +"You are bleeding," she answered, tugging no less stoutly at the oars. +"I thought you might be dead. The tide was floating you away--and I +don't see why---- Won't you please sit still and behave?" + +Grenville had felt of his head, then arisen to take the sweeps from her +hands, though the catamaran was about to ground on the beach. + +"You did swim!" he said. "I should have warned you of the sh---- I'm +an idiot!--trying to blow my head off!" He knelt on the edge of the +platform and began to bathe his scalp. + +"I hate that cave!" Elaine declared, with emphasis. "And I hate those +awful bombs! I sha'n't have any clothing left, if you go on killing +yourself like this every day!" She was tearing another bandage from +her petticoat and felt obliged to scold. + +Grenville was not at all certain it would not be decidedly pleasant to +be wounded constantly. It was perilously joyous to be scolded and +bandaged by Elaine. He certainly submitted most meekly as she now tied +up his head. He was not deeply cut, and felt considerably aggrieved +that the blow had rendered him unconscious. + +"You'll find the skull isn't dented," he observed, "unless it's from +the inside out." + +"There's a great big swelling," said Elaine. "And suppose you had been +killed?" + +Grenville made no immediate reply. He was gazing abstractedly out +across the water. His inner vision conjured up the picture of a brave, +unselfish little comrade, swimming fearlessly out to board a raft +whereon a helpless figure was lying--a pale-faced girl who would +doubtless have had no hesitation had she known of all the sharks in the +world. He could see her scramble on the float to ease him where he +lay. And then her hot tussle with the clumsy oars, as she knelt on the +wave-slopped platform, to urge it and him to the shore! + +"I'm a thoughtless brute," he told her, finally. "But I felt the work +was important." + +"It is important! I'm sure of that," she answered, at once all +contrition. "But perhaps next time--you might take me along---- If +anything should kill us both--why, that would be simple and easy." + +He understood her thoroughly. + +"Quite an idea," he answered, briefly. "I was sure you understood the +situation---- To-morrow I'll go and see what the blast accomplished. +I shall have no more explosions, however--so I may not need a chaperon." + +She was slightly hurt. His offhand speeches were not always absolutely +welcome, despite her former attitude and declarations. After all, it +was God, she told herself, who had brought this partnership into being. +It was He who had cast her into exile with the bravest man she had ever +known. + +"You mean," she said, "you do not want me along." + +"It's the tide that's ungallant," he said. "It objects to anyone's +landing on the ledge." + +"But you said I might be obliged to hide there later." + +"I did, and till then--let's enjoy the sunshine--while it lasts." + +Elaine said no more. The hint of inimical things to come sufficed once +more to carry her thoughts away from all personal emotions. + +They returned in silence to the terrace, Grenville first having urged +his catamaran within the estuary, to secure it with the line. The +commonplace duties of their daily existence were promptly resumed, and +the cave as a topic was forgotten. + +The following day, while he waited for the tide to rise to its highest +level, Grenville completed the labor at the furnace, where additional +vessels for water were being permitted to cool. The importance of +being enabled to store an unusual quantity of water, should the need +arise for such a storage, had early been presented to his mind. He was +therefore particularly gratified to find this present firing of jugs +considerably more successful than the first. + +Elaine was engaged in weaving two nets, in which these clay vessels +could be carried. With a yoke for Grenville's shoulders, or even for +her own, a pair of the jugs could thus be fetched at once and the labor +thereby materially hastened, should a moment arrive in which such haste +would be wise. + +It was ever disturbing to her mind to reflect on this possible need. +The thought was never wholly absent from her as she watched the +horizon, far and near, for the steamer that did not come. Not even in +her happiest moments--and many were happy, she confessed, despite all +the hardships of their daily life, as they two toiled together, an +exiled pair alone in this tropical garden--not even in these was that +sinister, underlying _motif_ too indistinct to be acknowledged. It +hung like a thing in vague suspense above their every occupation, +throughout the day and night. + +A tremor more tangible played through her breast as Elaine watched +Grenville take a torch as before and depart for the third of his visits +to the cave. + +Without consulting the lord and master of the island, she moved her +work from the shelter of her "house" to the cliff-edge, from which she +could watch him a time before he should come to the cavern itself and +so be lost to sight. + +She was thus enabled, unobserved, to inspect him, to her heart's +content, as Grenville came rowing his raft along the tide, far down +below her rocky aerie. + +The man was absorbed in the task thus set to be accomplished. He did +not look up, as Elaine thought he might, as he skimmed along under the +wall. + +When he came to the cave he was somewhat surprised at the wreckage his +blast had accomplished. Not only was the former ledge completely +shattered, but much had fallen below in the sea, while the wall to the +right, where the bomb had expended its energy, was agape with +new-formed fissures. + +Chiefly concerned with the dam of rock, Grenville secured his raft with +boyish impatience and carried his torch ashore. A moment afterwards he +walked through the breach in the erstwhile solid ledge, and could +readily imagine the roar with which the water, formerly behind the +barrier, had tumbled torrentially into the swirling tide. + +There was still a tiny trickle flowing down the channel made by the +bomb. The basin formed by the bottom of the cavern was still +exceedingly damp, and here and there it retained a shallow pool of +water too low for the gateway to drain. He walked about freely, +pausing here and there to hold his torch aloft and measure the cave's +dimensions by means of the light from both the open entrance and his +blazing, yellow flame. + +He was struck, in gazing at the wall he had broken near the cavern's +mouth, with the size of one of the fissures there, where the blast had +wrought its havoc. So black and significant appeared this new-formed +aperture that, although a certain eagerness to proceed forthwith to the +treasure niche was upon him, he returned at once to investigate the +hole. + +What he found upon his first superficial examination was merely a +crevice, half as wide as his body, where a plinth of rock had been +split from the mass and dropped towards the breach in the dam. Into +this crevice he thrust his torch, and was instantly interested to note +that its flame blew decidedly from him, in a draught of air that was +flowing unmistakably upward. Moreover, on lifting himself sufficiently +high to look about in the dimly lighted space, he became convinced that +either a second chamber or a passage like a hall existed just back of +the principal cavern, from which it was partitioned by the wall. + +He planted his torch between some loosened fragments and shook at the +piece that blocked this auxiliary cave. He thought he could topple the +slab out forwards on the ledge. But, when he rocked it with his +customary vigor, it fell abruptly backwards and disappeared in the +gloom. + +The hole he had thus created was quite large enough to admit him, +squeezing in sideways. He promptly entered with his torch, finding the +foothold rough and insecure. The chamber itself was small and low. He +could readily touch the ceiling. + +Ahead it apparently ended in a wall, with a gaping crack. On moving +there, however, he found, to his surprise, an angular turn, still wide +enough to admit of easy passage. The way under foot was slightly +upward. It was pitted rock, but surprisingly free from broken +fragments. + +Persuaded at once that no other man had ever discovered this +channel-like chamber in the tufa, and that therefore no treasure would +be found concealed in its depths, Grenville continued onward with +unabated interest, curious to see how far the passage might extend. + +It narrowed again, and pierced decidedly upward through the bulk of the +huge rock mass. Obliged at last to stoop too low for comfort, +Grenville began to wonder if the thing would never end. It appeared to +be exceptionally straight for a natural tunnel in volcanic rock, but +Sidney began to realize its upward incline had rapidly increased. + +When he presently found himself enabled to stand once more erect, he +paused to cast a light on the walls to confirm a new thought in his +mind. He had finally remembered a feature long before noted on top of +the terrace itself--the long straight crack through the massive tower +of tufa and the "slip" that had once formed a shelf. + +Not without a certain sort of excited hope did he now discover +unmistakable signs that some convulsion of the island had at one time +actually parted the right-hand mass of rock from the larger portion on +the left and permitted the former to drop. If this channel could only +continue---- + +He went upward again, more swiftly, wondering thus belatedly how far he +might have come and regretting he had not thought to pace the distance. +Through a place ahead he was barely able to force his supple body. +Then came another passageway that was not only narrow but low. +Fragments of stone were likewise under foot, and the passage formed +another angle. + +Beyond this turn he found himself confronted by more broken stone and a +difficult ascent. But, toiling up there eagerly, he presently raised +his eyes and beheld a bright white line, as narrow as a streak of +lightning. + +It was simply a crack through a shattered bit of wall that closed up +the end of the passage. It was daylight--sky--that he saw thus +slenderly defined, and the man could have shouted in joy! + +He could not, however, escape to the outside world when he presently +came to the wall. For all the fragments he loosened and threw back +behind him, he could not open the exit, or even determine where it was. +Only work outside could accomplish this end, and this he was wild to +begin. + +About to turn back and hasten to the terrace, he realized instantly how +utterly impossible might be the task of finding the place from without. +But Elaine was doubtless on the terrace. If only his voice could be +carried to her ears, she could mark the spot at once. + +But, although he called with all his lusty might, there was no response +from the camp where Elaine was doubtless working. His torch was +burning low, with the draught fanning constantly past him through the +channel. It occurred to his mind to go back to Elaine and instruct her +how she could assist him. He also thought to place his torch against +the crack and permit its smoke to filter through and perhaps thereby +blacken the fissure. + +Until he felt he must save what remained, to illumine his way downward, +he burned the torch close to the rocks. And thus, when he came to the +larger cave again, he was once more obliged to depart with not even a +sight of the treasure. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +AN INTERRUPTED DIVERSION + +Not only had Grenville to a small extent succeeded in smudging the +outside terminal of the passage discovered through the rock, but also +Elaine had discovered the smoke so strangely ascending in the air. + +She had been thoroughly mystified by the singular sight, but had crept +about the place inquiringly, expecting perhaps a volcano to begin some +destructive demonstration. She had likewise fancied that rumbling +sounds proceeded from somewhere in the "mountain." The entire +phenomenon had finally ceased, however, greatly to her relief. + +On a narrow ledge, some four feet down from the terrace-level, and +directly beneath the extensive crack that had once been formed in the +massive upheaval of tufa, the broken fragments that blocked the +subterranean hallway were wedged to their places in the wall. The +place was sunk in a shallow niche that was screened by the trees of the +jungle. + +This ledge Grenville not only promptly rendered accessible, but, after +the opening had once been cleared, he fashioned a door of the lightest +construction, that still resembled solid rock, with which to conceal it +again. + +His door was of wattle, plastered with clay, which he then thrust full +of tufa fragments. These, when the substance presently hardened, were +found to be substantially cemented to the framework. The clay itself +dried yellowish gray and could hardly be distinguished from the rock. +He was thus enabled to plaster over all the chinks and other ragged +openings which the door could not completely cover. When the job was +done, not the faintest suspicion of anything unusual about the niche +could the keenest eye have discovered. Grenville was none the less +glad, however, that the tallest foliage of the near-by growth still +further concealed the spot. + +He was toiling no less feverishly than before, thankful each day that +the tidal wailing still continued and anxiously watching the round of +the purple horizon for the cut of a rakish sail. + +Despite the fact that several days had passed since the passage was +discovered, he had made no effort to return to the treasure crypt +below. The communicating gallery was too important to be neglected. +He had spent long hours in its upper reaches, clearing the rock from +underfoot, to make its use entirely practical for Elaine and himself in +all conditions, either with or without some needed burden. + +He had managed to widen the narrowest squeeze by chipping the rock with +his chisel. He had carefully rearranged the broken fragments down +where the corridor entered, or branched from, the cavern, and there +provided a second of his wattle doors, considerably heavier than the +first and more artfully studded with stone. This he had made to be +adjusted from without or within the passage it concealed. From within +it could also be barred in place with a heavy billet of the toughest +wood his brazen tools would shape. + +This late afternoon, when the last of his jugs had been taken down and +concealed by the spring, all ready for filling and carrying back the +moment occasion should arise, Grenville felt that, save for a meat +supply, he had made nearly every possible provision against attack and +siege. + +The day was practically spent. He glanced at the sun. Undecided +between an hour of hunting with his bow and a quick excursion down to +the crypt of treasure, he remembered certain ornaments Elaine might +wear and decided to go for the gold and gleaming jewels. They had meat +for dinner, already being roasted in a sandpit with several newly +gathered yams. + +Elaine, with a basket of tempting fruits, returned to the terrace from +the thicket before he was ready for his trip. The fact that he bore a +torch and basket aroused no query in her mind, so frequently had he +made his underground excursions. + +He left the door at the gallery entrance open and made an easy descent. +Glad to be independent of both the tide and his raft, he paused when he +came to the main cave's ragged opening, for a moment thoroughly +startled. + +The weird tidal wail had just commenced, so close at hand it echoed all +through the place. It had never before occurred while he was actually +in the cavern. Immediately rendered curious to see whence and how it +was produced, he hastened down the outside ledge, completely baffled by +the intermingled reverberations. + +He had barely concentrated his attention on a certain hole in the rock, +below the tidal level, when the last uncanny moan seemed choked to a +horrible gurgle which could not be renewed. + +The thing had never before been so brief or so abruptly ended. Its +brevity jarred upon him no less unpleasantly than its prolongation had +done when he and Elaine first arrived upon the island. As if the +occurrence sounded a warning not to be mistaken, he proceeded at once +within the cave. + +His mind was filled with thoughts of native visitors, who might only be +waiting for this natural phenomenon to cease before they came swarming +across the sea, perhaps to search and loot this very cavern. He +reflected they might have searched it before, and had either been +baffled by the water it formerly contained or had missed the niche his +accidental interest had discovered. + +Though he thought that less than half the wall he had previously +assaulted could now remain in the arch of the treasure cavern, yet +fully a half-hour's labor was essential before he could worm his way +inside where the gold and the stones dully glittered. He cleared out a +few more stones to admit his carrying basket. + +A thrill went through him as he laid his hands upon the priceless +treasures disposed in the tomblike place. Notwithstanding the fact the +cave had been scaled, almost hermetically, a coating of thin, +impalpable dust veiled everything he touched. The things had +undoubtedly been here years on years, till perhaps tradition only still +affirmed their existence, while old fanatics might, for generations, +have persisted in tattooing that "map" on some victim's breast for the +cavern's living concealment and the faithful preservation of its +contents. + +The gold was all wrought in ornaments--like anklets, bracelets, +amulets, and girdles. It had all been crudely pounded into shape from +virgin metal. There were pieces of odd, unfamiliar shape, the uses for +which could hardly be conjectured. It was all of it heavy and massive, +many pieces crudely resembling cumbrous seals with mystic devices +stamped on either side. + +Of the stones--comprising principally diamonds, rubies, and +sapphires--many were still uncut, while others, by the handful, were +crudely mounted in hammered gold to form girdle after girdle. A crown, +exhibiting nothing of the jeweler's modern or even ancient craft, was +none the less of extraordinary intrinsic value for the heft of gold +that formed its band and the huge stones thrust rudely through its +substance. + +Despite his impatience to collect the lot in his basket and depart the +place, Grenville remained there inactively, absorbed in a study of this +piece or that, to identify, if possible, the curious workmanship. That +much, if not all, the gold work argued craftsmen of the African wilds +he felt convinced. But the stones could have come from India only, he +was sure, either through tribute or plundering, and the latter was by +far the more likely method. + +He had heard from one of his oldest friends, who was likewise the best +informed of all his military acquaintances, that the West Coast +Africans still conceal vast treasures of kings or chiefs deceased, such +buried wealth to be utilized by former possessors in some life beyond +the grave. That this hoard, by some strange and unusual chance, had +resulted from that barbaric practice he felt there could be no doubt. +The fact it was hundreds of miles from Africa argued nothing against +the theory, since either by imitation or as a result of far excursions +over sea the present collection could have landed here in this +remarkably hidden and "spirit"-guarded cave, where even the hardiest, +cleverest seeker of fortune would never be likely to search. + +He was still engaged, like some merely scientific archeologist, in +examining piece after piece of the metal, or one after another of the +stones, which were cut as never he had seen them before, when he +fancied some weird, faint echo called his name. + +With pounds of the trinkets in his hands, he returned to the broken +heap of stones he had lately overthrown. Out of the ringing silence of +the larger cave came a distant wisp of sound---- + +He knew that Elaine was calling from somewhere in the passage. + +It was only the work of a moment to catch up his basket and place in +its hold the small stone sarcophagi of jewels. Carelessly then, on top +of these, he swept in the ornaments of gold. They fell, dully ringing, +from the shelves, where perhaps they had lain for above a century--a +heterogeneous collection which he was sorry to disturb till the various +positions in which they had been disposed could be noted and remembered. + +He was certain no less than a hundredweight of the treasure taxed his +strength when he presently lifted his burden from the place and bore it +across the larger chamber. + +Elaine was calling again. Her voice was clearer in the passage. +Grenville came there, panting from his effort, with his dusty and +useless riches. He answered at once on entering the gallery, where he +paused to close and secure his concealing door. + +"Please come!" was the cry, in response to his shout, like an unreal +voice from the blackness of a tomb. "They're here! They're close to +the island!" + +With a short but inarticulate ejaculation, Grenville once more took up +his basket, blundered forward with it a few feet only, and set it down +against the wall. Why he had paused to bother with it, for a moment he +did not understand. With his torch flaring back, in his greater speed, +he plunged along and up the passage. + +Around the first of the sharper angles he came upon Elaine. She had +brought no torch, in her hurry to sound the alarm, but had groped her +way downward through the Stygian blackness of the gallery, calling time +after time as the gloom rendered up no reply. + +Her eyes were dilated wildly, from her efforts to see in the dark. Her +face seemed intensely white against the impenetrable ebon. + +"Oh, I thought you'd never come!" she said, as Sidney approached with +his light. "They were almost up to the island before I dreamed such a +thing could be! The tree must have hidden the sail!" + +Grenville placed the torch in her hand and urged her upward before him. +They presently emerged on the ledge. + +He had no more than crept to the terrace-edge and studied the craft +below on the sea than he came once more to Elaine. + +"No use in striking our flag," he said. "They've seen it. We'll fly +it till the end." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +REVEALING AN INTENT + +The native ship, that had sailed unobserved within almost hailing +distance of the headland, was not the one that had come to the island +before. It was larger. Six men at least comprised its crew, a +villainous-looking collection. + +Grenville had seen them close at hand, as they passed by the entrance +to the cave. That they contemplated an immediate landing seemed +probable, making as they were towards the crescent indentation along by +the estuary's mouth. + +Sidney had lost little time in vain regrets for the hour spent +uselessly below. He had gone at once to the gallery and hidden its +entrance with the door. He had caught up Elaine's well-finished nets +and the pole for a yoke she had been working to complete when the +visitors' sail was discovered and, only pausing to make certain he +could not be seen, went at once to the spring for extra jugs of water. + +The sun was already dipping redly in its bath when he brought his first +burden to the terrace. He paused to observe the maneuvers of the ship, +now coming about in the sunset breeze, just off the tiny inlet where +his catamaran was moored. + +The queer sharp sail was reefed while he was watching. He saw three +men heave overboard an anchor, which promptly sounded the shallow +depths where the strange craft presently swung. + +Considerably to Elaine's discomfort of mind, he hastened once more down +the trail. She was certain the Dyaks would go to the spring before +Sidney could got away. However, he brought another pair of jugs, an +armful of fuel, and a basket of fruit with the greatest possible +expedition. + +The boatmen made no movement to come ashore as long as the twilight +revealed them. The highest notes of their voices floated indistinctly +to the terrace, towards which the men were frequently seen to gesture, +but even these sounds were finally lost as darkness enwrapped the +island. + +Despite the fact that four of his water-jugs still remained in the +thicket near the spring, Grenville made no more trips for water that +evening, since Elaine was obviously distressed by the thought of the +risk he might incur. + +He was awake all night, maintaining the life of their smoldering fire, +and alert for any signs or sounds of movement in the clearing by the +trail. In one of the darkest hours before the dawn he heard the +familiar wails and moans of the headland cave rise briefly on the wind. + +From the anchored ship the cry was returned, as on the former occasion. +After that a droning chant came fitfully up from the darkness of the +waters, to die at last in the silence. Later he heard a shout, and +then vague accents of speech. But, when daylight arrived, the craft +had disappeared. + +Elaine had not yet risen. Grenville quietly moved from one extremity +of the headland to the other, searching the sea in all directions. He +was soon convinced the visitor had not decamped, but had moved the +vessel to one or another of the island's hidden inlets, that its +movements, as well as those of its crew, should be no longer observed. + +One lingering hope, which he had fostered in his breast, that the +natives might not prove a bloodthirsty lot of head-hunters after all, +he felt he must definitely abandon. This furtive move under cover of +the dark was not the sort of maneuver to excite one's trust or +confidence. + +Elaine was standing in her shelter door when at length he came once +more to his place by the top of the trail. She, too, had discovered +the absence of the native vessel. + +"I think another one came in the night," she said, when Sidney +explained his belief that the boat was in hiding behind the farther +walls. "I am sure I heard another voice." + +Grenville recalled the shout that had followed the chanting and felt +that this accounted for Elaine's conviction that more of the Dyaks had +arrived. + +"We have not been actually seen as yet," he assured her. "Our flag of +distress is not a positive sign of anyone's presence on the island. We +shall soon determine by their movements whether these chaps intend to +be friendly or not." + +"Would they hide if they meant to be friendly?" + +"It isn't a friendly sign---- You see, I'm still of opinion the +island's wail is a sound they rather dread. Have you noticed it's +rapidly failing?" + +"I've been ever so glad it seems so short and growing fainter." + +"Yes," he drawled. "I'm afraid it will soon cease altogether, when our +friends may buck up their courage and--show us their state of mind." + +"What can we do in the meantime?" + +"Sit tight and watch for developments." + +But all that day there was never so much as a sound or a sign of the +crew they had seen arrive. At one time, just before noon, Grenville +fancied some movement occurred in the rocks that crowned the second +hill. But he detected no further indication that someone might have +scaled the cliff to spy on himself and Elaine. + +He had never in his island rambles discovered a place by which that +hill could be surmounted. That easy access might be obtained on the +seaward side he readily understood. He fretted under the long +suspense--the uncertainty brooding over the island. He much preferred +that the visitors exhibit a downright hostile intent than to feel that +beneath the sinister calm of thicket and jungle might lurk insidious +death. + +He felt that Elaine and himself would lack for nothing, except fresh +meat, for at least a couple of days, yet he knew that even their fruit +supply was wholly inadequate for a siege, should the new arrivals make +up their minds to starve them on the terrace. Rather than weakly +submit to any such abominable tactics, he was fully determined to bring +about an attack. But how was an open question. + +When once again the night drew on the man was impatient and weary. He +had taken no rest after all his long previous day of toil, yet to sleep +and invite disaster up the trail was quite impossible. + +"We shall have to divide the night," said Elaine, with her customary +practical courage. "We have simply got to be sensible to preserve our +strength in case we have to fight." + +Grenville consented to give her the watch till midnight. The island's +wail in the late afternoon had seemed no fainter than that of the +previous day. He was quite convinced there would be no night attack. +Yet he stretched a cord across the trail that must pull at his arm and +so give an alarm should anyone enter at his gate. + +Doubtless in this confidence he fell asleep with more than usual +promptness. He was far more weary than he knew, and Nature demanded +her dues. + +Elaine was glad he could slumber so profoundly. The night was barely +cool; she was not in the least uncomfortable as she sat at Grenville's +side. She knew he would waken at the slightest tug on the cord so +quickly contrived to warn of an enemy's approach, and therefore felt a +decided sense of security, despite the living silence of the night. + +Long before midnight she was tense with nervous apprehension. Sounds +from the jungle arose from time to time where some animal prowled for +its prey. A whisper came up from the waves that lapped the cliff, and +haunted the air as if with spirits. She had steeled her heart, +however, and would not weaken by a jot. The hours would wear away +somehow, and meantime--Sidney was resting. + +She did not arise to walk about as Grenville would have done. Instead +she sat there, stiffly alert, turning her head from side to side, as +the minutes dragged heavily by, listening, staring through the +darkness, fancying shapes had begun to move in the shadows of the rocks. + +It was finally late in the dead of night when a sound of unusual +heaviness arose from the brink of the cliff. Had someone dropped a +rock in the sea, the disturbance could scarcely have been clearer. + +It had come, she thought, from over beyond the great black tree that +loomed against the sky. She wondered if perhaps she ought to speak to +Sidney. She put out her hand to touch him lightly on the shoulder, but +withdrew it again with a smile. He was sleeping so like a tired boy! + +The sound had doubtless been nothing to rouse the slightest alarm. If +it came again---- + +It did come again, less loud and distinct, but none the less +unmistakable. Her heart responded immediately with a quicker, heavier +beat. Perhaps she should try to ascertain the source or the cause of +the noise. She should feel so ashamed, so weak and burdensome, to +Grenville if she woke him for nothing at all. To look about was +assuredly part of her duty while on guard. It was only a step to the +edge of the terrace, across familiar ground. + +Chiding herself for unwarranted timidity and lack of courage, she +silently left her seat at last and stepped from Grenville's side. One +of his sticks was lying near. She took it in her hand. Then over +through the shadows she glided as noiselessly as a spirit, goading +herself to the ordeal with thoughts of the bold and fearless manner the +man would show were he in her place on this safe and childish excursion. + +She had heard nothing more, though she frequently paused to hold her +breath and await a further sound. It was wholly absurd, she told +herself, for her heart to pound so madly. Just there to the brink, +past those few large stones and shadows, and she would probably hear +some slopping of the waves that would quiet her liveliest suspicion. + +Despite her utmost efforts, however, she could not stand upright as she +went, and she could not continue quite to the edge without one or two +more pauses to catch her breath that would not come calmly to her lips. +But she forced herself all the way--save just the final cautious edging +to the scarp, where she suddenly knelt and leaned a little forward. + +She was still a bit short of the brink, but remained where she was to +calm her heart and listen. She could hear the water plainly. She felt +entitled to arise and hasten back to Sidney--since of course there was +nothing further to be heard. + +But, before she could gather the strength to rise, a series of short, +percussive sounds all but froze the core of her heart--so much did it +seem like someone heavily panting. + +Then, as she sat there staring helplessly at the jagged edge, four dark +things--four fingers--crept actively over the lip of the wall--and a +face abruptly followed, with a knife between its teeth! + +"Sidney!" she cried, and, madly thrusting the stick she had brought +against the dark and hideous countenance, she arose and fled wildly +from the place. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE SILENT VISITORS + +Grenville came running across the rock-strewn terrace as if guided by +superinstinct. He fancied a sound like a heavy splash arose from the +base of the shadowy wall, and momentarily sickened to the bottom of his +soul with the thought that Elaine had fallen over. + +He saw her darting towards him a moment later, however, and caught her +protectingly in his arms as she stumbled on a rock and plunged headlong +against his breast. + +She instantly regained her foothold and clung to his arm, brokenly +stammering her story and facing back the way she had come to show where +the loathsome apparition had appeared above the brink. + +Sidney hastened there at once, armed only with a stone. Elaine, in a +violent tremble, stood a few feet only away, having followed in +unabated dread. + +Not another sound could Grenville detect as he leaned above the +precipitous plunge attempting to pierce through the shadows and gloom, +as he watched for some movement below. Whether the man had fallen +backward from the lip, to go hurtling down through the darkness, or +whether he had accomplished some swift and silent retreat, Sidney had +no means of ascertaining. Only the ceaseless lap of the tide made a +whisper in the air. + +He arose and returned to Elaine. + +"I had no idea the cliff was scalable," he told her, quietly. "I doubt +if that means of spying will be attempted again---- It was a beastly +way of showing their intentions towards us, but I'm glad to know what +to expect." + +"Where has he gone?" Elaine faintly chattered. "If he should only be +waiting to come again---- Such a horrible fright---- I don't know why +I didn't faint, or what I did. I'm so weak I can hardly walk." + +"Oh, you're as right a trivet!" said Grenville, with a ready +comprehension of the need of keeping up her courage. "You can now +retire with a comforting sense of having saved the night." + +But Elaine's sense of comfort was a woefully negative quantity. She +was shaken to the center of her nerves. She dreaded to be left for a +moment. + +Grenville, however, sent her off to bed in the most peremptory manner. +A realizing sense that their trials had only well begun was his one +deeply settled conviction. + +"Cheer up!" he said to her, finally, "the worst is still to come." + +"I'll try," she answered, courageously. "But please don't let it come +to-night." + +For more than two hours she did not sleep, or even close her eyes. +Then she dragged her couch to a space outside her door. Every movement +made by Grenville, as he watchfully policed the edge of the terrace, +she thus followed for a time, half rising beneath her tiger-skin rug in +her dread to hear him go. + +When she finally slept she dreamed once more of the murderous eyes, the +clenched white teeth, and the flame-shaped blade she had seen at the +brink of the cliff. Grenville heard her laboredly call his name as in +her dreams she once more underwent her disturbing ordeal, but he did +not move from his seat. + +At dawn she was slumbering more peacefully, a smile on her lips as she +lay there facing his position. What a royal little princess of the +island she appeared with her colorful robe lying out upon the rocks, +her hair so much more golden than the tawny hide, and the warm, healthy +glow restored once more to her cheeks! + +Grenville was sure he had never half appreciated the wonder and +abundance of her hair, the darker penciling of her arching brows, the +delicate beauty of her features. + +He presently once more bent his attention on the island that rendered +up never a sign. + +Neither the jungle, the summits of the further hills, nor the sea that +stretched interminably about them enlightened his searching eyes. Save +for that night experience, it might have seemed preposterous that +enemies existed in the miniature world by which they were surrounded. + +He crept in his cautious manner to the crumbling edge where Elaine had +seen the face. There was nothing below in the water. He could readily +follow the bits of shelf and succession of pits in the wall, however, +whereby a daring, barefooted native might grope his way to the summit, +even in the dark. It would doubtless be possible here, he reflected, +to explode a bomb against the pitted surface and break away so large a +cavity as to render all future ascents impossible. But this was a task +to be deferred for a time, since he had no wish to acquaint the +visitors oversoon with the fact that he possessed an explosive. + +When he returned to the shelter again, Elaine had waked and carried her +couch to the cave. Despite the fact the hour was early and the sun +only well above the ocean's rim, she declared she had rested much +longer than was either wise or essential. + +Yet there was nothing to do for either, now that the day was begun. +Their breakfast of fruits was soon concluded, then of occupation there +was none. Grenville felt it inadvisable to move about too freely on +the terrace, and thereby risk betraying the fact they were only two in +number. A watcher stationed on the second hill could not, as a matter +of fact, examine the entire top of the terrace, or even discern its +principal features, but he might ascertain decidedly too much, should +they carelessly expose themselves to view. + +The morning proved for Grenville another exasperation. He thought of +nothing by way of labor he could advantageously perform. Their +defense, though crude, was fairly complete, and could scarcely be +improved. To watch the edge of the jungle, hour after hour, where +never a sign was vouchsafed his vigilance, was a dulling inactivity, +yet a highly essential precaution that was not to be neglected. + +By noon he was fairly in a mood to seek out the island's invaders +alone, to hasten some definite action. That the natives intended to +starve them into a visit to the spring seemed all too obvious. +Grenville felt assured, however, the water down in the cavern would +suffice for their needs, if no better could be relied upon, when once +their jars were empty, while gathering fruit would not be wholly +impossible under cover of the night. + +With the thought in mind that only the trail would be kept under watch +by the Dyaks, he made up his mind he could readily contrive a +ladder-like platform to extend from the brink, whereby the distance to +the nearest tree might be conveniently bridged to permit easy access to +the jungle. Of creepers and extra bamboo poles he had laid in ample +stock. For the lack of better employment, he began the construction of +his bridge when their meager luncheon had been finished. + +His mind, as he worked, spun schemes innumerable for the daily defeat +of the natives. Aware that as long as the terrace could be held +starvation and thirst would be their only unconquerable enemies, he +entertained no end of plans for catching fish without bait and even +trapping or fishing up small animals that might rove at night below the +cliff. From these reflections he returned to the men who prowled about +them after dark. + +To secure his cord across the trail and thereby provide an alarm, or +notice of the enemy's approach, from that direction, was a very simple +matter. When he finally invented, in his mind, a singular "rattle" to +guard the approach by the cliff, he dropped all employment on the +bridge at once and began forthwith on the other. + +What he made was a series of bamboo buckets, or cuplike sections of the +hollow tube, with stones suspended inside to knock against the walls +when the things were lightly shaken. These he intended to hang, one +beside another, in a line from the brink of the wall, where a climber +must strike them unawares and sound a resonant warning. + +But he found, on hanging a pair some ten feet down along the face, +where the man had climbed in the night, that the wind would sway them +to and fro against the rock and constantly ring their hollow tones. + +This defect he presently remedied by forming a frame, some ten feet +long and one foot wide, in which all his cups were suspended, or +moored, both top and bottom. They were thus so lightly hung that the +smallest jar against the frame would joggle them all to musical +utterance, while the wind could have no effect on any single one. + +The entire frame was lowered down till it rested a bit unevenly on two +projecting shelves of rock, where it leaned a trifle outward like a +picture on a wall, as the creepers that held it from falling were +finally made secure. When Grenville, by way of a trial, nudged it once +with a pole thrust down against it for the purpose, it rattled out a +decisive alarm that one could have heard from the trail. + +Grenville thereupon brought out a bomb from his store and lowered it +down below the frame, and six or eight feet to the side. This was +secured not only by the fuse, but likewise by more of the creeper. + +Elaine, who during his absence had maintained the watch of the trail, +now ran to the place, at Grenville's signal, for a moment's inspection +of the whole arrangement and instruction concerning its use. + +It was while they were there that the haunting wail arose for a gasping +spasm. It had practically failed. Sidney doubted if its loudest note +could have been heard as far as the spring. But still the end of the +tiresome day developed no attack. + +Grenville was completely puzzled by the tactics the boatmen had +adopted. That they knew Elaine was present on the terrace there could +be not a shadow of doubt. Even if the man she had thrust away from the +cliff-edge fell to the sea and was dashed to pieces, or drowned, his +friends who had brought him around to the place must have heard her +voice and recognized its feminine quality. + +They would likewise know she could hardly be alone, and would guess her +companions were not numerous or likely to be armed. No plundered +wreckage lay about the shore from which castaways could have drawn +ammunition or rifles. It was utterly impossible for any ignorant +natives to imagine the loading of a cannon or the making of bombs from +materials on the place. + +What, then, was the reason of their long delay? They could scarcely be +waiting for reinforcements. They would hardly be dreading the island's +"spirit" now, since the sounds had practically ceased, and one man had +dared ascend the cliff with a knife between his teeth. That they +feared an open attack by day and dreaded the tiger by night was the +only tenable theory that Grenville could devise. + +Yet the fact of the matter was that, until the cavern "spirit" should +be absolutely silenced, the superstitious Dyaks could only be forced by +the bulldozing threats and ferocity of their fiendish leader to set +foot upon the land. It was he who had sent the climber up the wall, +having thrust a pistol behind the fellow's ear. A certain tragic +outcome of this premature adventure had been wholly attributed by the +victim's companions to the anger of the wailing soul who inhabited the +headland. + +The bridge, constructed of bamboo supports, was a simple affair, +completed and ready by sunset. Before the darkness was absolute, +Grenville conveyed it along to the eastern jutting of the cliff, slid +it down to a ledge below the level of the terrace, and easily thrust +the end across to the nearest tree, where it rested securely on the +branches. + +He found that it bore his weight remarkably well. With an ordinary +length of pliable ladder he could reach the ground beneath the tree +without the slightest difficulty, thereby escaping all the undergrowth +and broken rock that would render a straight descent from the brink not +only a noisy piece of business, but likewise one of considerable hazard +and discomfort. And descending thus, instead of employing the trail, +he could certainly expect to escape the shrewdest observation on the +part of any native set to watch for some night adventure. + +Indeed, so alluring became the prospect of leaving the hill, to conduct +some helpful and informing explorations, that he could scarcely wait +for the shadows of night to settle on the island before he should test +his apparatus. + +Elaine was frankly and confessedly alarmed when at length he could +resist the temptation no longer and announced his intentions for +expending a portion of the evening. + +He set an alarm at the gate on the trail, however, and, arming himself +with his heavy, cleaver-like implement for chopping, instructed his +worried companion to fire the cannon without delay should attack +develop in his absence. + +"I am sure you will have no visitors, but, in case you do, don't wait +to see who it is, or how many," he said; "let the little gun count the +numbers." + +"But suppose--it might be you!" + +"I shall not return that way. You may look for me back in fifteen or +twenty minutes at the most. I feel it's important to know what is +going on, as well as to gather a bit of fruit, and see what I may be +enabled to do by way of setting some traps for game. If one of my +snares could be brought a trifle closer, it might provide us with the +meat we certainly ought to have." + +Without another word, she watched him depart for his bridge and ladder +to the jungle. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +DEATH AS A BROTHER + +Despite the ease with which, in theory, he expected to descend to the +ground, Grenville was fully ten minutes escaping from the tree. + +A number of twigs that he could not have passed without creating a +disturbance he cut away with his knife. His ladder was also badly +caught and stubbornly refused to be adjusted. One violent rustling of +a heavy limb he caused when it finally slipped straight down, with his +feet all but striking on the ground. + +He remained perfectly silent, ready for immediate retreat, regaining +his breath and straining his ears for the slightest sound, for a long, +uneventful minute. When he finally drew his sharp brass cleaver from +his pocket and started through the thicket, there was not the slightest +sound in all the region about him, either of animals or men. + +Into one of the numerous wild creatures' trails he found his way with +greater ease because of his thorough familiarity with all that end of +the island. + +The trail, as he knew, led down by the spring, where a branch wound +first towards the estuary and then across the bed of the rill, where it +cut the path through the axis of the island. + +Almost as noiselessly as one of the creatures hunted or hunting in the +hours of blackest shadow, he made his way down to the rear of the pool, +where he paused as before to listen. The squeal of some little +nocturnal beast and the patter of something paddling about in the water +convinced him at once the Dyaks were certainly not there, or else were +most skillfully hidden. + +With a steadily increasing conviction that the boatmen would stick to +their craft at night, he felt his boldness strengthen. The importance +of discovering the enemy's position was duly impressed on his mind. He +felt that once he could gain the principal pathway down the island's +length he could follow the edge of a narrow bit of clearing, off to the +left of the rotting old barque, and thus arrive above the inlet, where +he was certain their vessel was concealed. + +No less quietly than before he continued out around the spring, then +turned to the left, in the narrow runway of the animals, and emerged +behind the estuary, where absolute stillness prevailed. + +He presently fancied, as he slowly continued towards the old-time +wreck, that a murmur of distant voices arose from off at the left. +This became a certainty when he reached his irregular clearing. +Moreover, he was halfway only down this slope of rock and thicket when +simultaneously, out on the tide, some eighty or ninety feet apart, two +matches were lighted, as he could see, for pipes or cigarettes. + +Elaine had been right! There were two of the boats that were anchored +here together! + +But, although more murmurs continued to arise, where a desultory +conversation was from time to time renewed on either craft, he could by +no means ascertain either the number of the Dyaks or what it was of +which they talked. Satisfied with what he had discovered, and certain +now the fellows were afraid to remain on the island after dark, he +returned up the slope with an easier stride, determined to see what +might be done by way of collecting some fruit. + +He came once more to the main trail through the island, pausing to +hearken once again as a sound of splashing in the inlet came +uncertainly on the breeze. Doubtless the crew had dipped a pail of +water, he thought, or thrown overboard some refuse from their dinner. + +He had no more than headed again towards the hill where Elaine was +waiting, and swung about from the branch to the principal trail, when, +without the slightest warning sound, he suddenly and heavily collided +with someone moving as noiselessly as himself in the opposite direction. + +He only saw that the man thus encountered was bare of shoulders and +taller than himself as he thrust out to fend the fellow off. He knew +on the instant it was one of the boldest of the head-hunters, if not +indeed their chief. + +The fellow had grunted at the impact, and, quick to discover it was not +a member of the vessels' crews, abruptly sounded one triumphant yell as +he reached for his knife and lunged forward. + +There were answering cries from a few feet only behind him--which +Grenville heard as he crashed precipitately through the near-by thicket +and made for the trail to the barque. + +The hue and cry was instantly raised as the fellow pursuing came wildly +through the jungle on his track. Shouting instructions to his +following, this obvious leader of the prowling band continued as +closely as possible on Grenville's heels, while the others headed +swiftly towards the estuary, convinced that their man would dart around +and make for his camp on the hill. + +The chief of the natives entertained the same belief, as Grenville +immediately comprehended. Having planned exactly as they had supposed +he would, Sidney altered his course on the instant, dived down on +all-fours in an animal path he had frequently followed before, and thus +crept noiselessly off to the left, once more towards the plundered +wreck. + +Almost at once an ominous silence reigned as before in the place. The +natives, having soon missed their quarry, stood perfectly still, at +command of their chief, to listen and gain a new guidance. + +Tempted to put all possible distance between himself and his pursuers, +Grenville continued on, a bit incautiously. A branch he had thrust +from before his face slipped back before he had intended its release. +At once the listening head-hunters plunged forward again in his +direction. + +Fortunately, Sidney retained his presence of mind and continued to +crawl on hands and knees, instead of attempting swifter flight through +the branches that closed above the trail. With the sounds of his eager +enemy approaching to a sweat-starting proximity, he dared lie perfectly +motionless on the earth, till he heard them quietly exploring as before +on the lines he must take to regain the terrace at the rear. + +As silently now as a shadow, he wormed his way forward as before. He +had gained perhaps a matter of twenty or thirty feet in this manner +when, on coming at last to the edge of the clearing where the old +barque lay, he heard the natives beating back, convinced that he had +not passed. + +For one moment only was he seized by indecision. Then he darted across +the clearing unobserved and, slipping between the ribs of the wreck, as +he had on a previous occasion, went rapidly groping to the cabin, where +sat the mummy-skeleton in chains. + +He had not achieved this maneuver in absolute silence, having +sacrificed something to speed. Two of the head-hunters broke through +the fringe of the thicket with furtive swiftness, as he noted through a +hole in the planks. They were followed, a little further on, by the +tall man first encountered, and later by a small but constantly moving +companion, who disappeared again. + +At a given signal two of the creatures ran swiftly about the barque, +one going in either direction. They had evidently expected to corner +their intended victim crouching behind the empty shell. When they +presently returned to their leader, a brief consultation was held. + +Grenville watched them breathlessly, aware that Elaine's position, +alone on the hill, was tremendously jeopardized every moment he now +remained away. Should more of the Dyaks be summoned from the +boats--the time would be short for prayers. + +Considerably to his relief, the three dark figures resumed the search +along the edge of the clearing. + +They were gone from sight for several minutes, and again returned, +apparently persuaded their quarry had not escaped them back to the +camp. One even ventured to approach the barque and peer through its +rotted ribs. + +Grenville had quietly moved aside, though the darkness would have +shielded him completely. When the fellow rejoined his companions +again, the chief issued new commands. A brief expostulation followed. +Sidney was certain that one of two things portended. Either the leader +had ordered his man to go down to the boats and compel a force to land +and storm the now half-guarded hill, which the fellow argued was more +than he could do with Dyaks afraid of the darkness as well as the +island's spirit, or the order was--to board and search the wreck. + +Either was sufficiently disquieting, as Grenville controlled his +breathing and watched for the next development to follow. He presently +saw the tall, bare-shouldered native strike his protesting follower a +savage blow across the face, thrusting something that gleamed against +the shaken creature's ear so soon as he had righted. + +The craven was then ready to obey. He accepted something that +Grenville could not see, doubtless another revolver, and came forward +as if to enter the old ship's hull--but not through the hole in her +side. Meantime, the fourth of the party had once more appeared from +the growth. He apparently suggested that crews from the vessels be +summoned, doubtless to attack the hill. Also he presumably volunteered +to go and compel their attendance on their chief. His gestures and +those of the leader, as they thus conversed in murmurs, were all +towards the inlet where the boats were anchored or towards the distant +hill. + +He who had plainly been commanded to enter and search the wreck took +advantage of the colloquy to linger with the group. It was not until +the small and active demon of the lot had darted away to land more men +that the chief once more turned his attention to the coward. + +Whining his impotent excuses and expostulations, the fellow +affrightedly climbed upon the deck and was ordered to explore the +cabin. That he might be killed by the desperate white man possibly +hiding in the vessel's hold, the chief was well aware. The sacrifice +of a man more or less was unimportant--provided the quarry was thereby +discovered in a hole where he could not escape. + +This fact was fully appreciated by two other persons concerned. One of +these persons was Grenville, the second the terrified native. This +shivering wretch, who had known for years of the terrible guardian +sitting in iron chains within, blundered noisily about in the upper +quarters, so afraid he could have offered no defense to a child's +attack. + +Grenville was undecided as to what he were wiser to do. To sink his +cleaver through the Dyak's skull would presently be comparatively +simple. And, should absolutely silent death overtake this miserable +slave of the man outside, the moral effect might be of value. It might +be supposed by his companions he had died of fright alone. Yet Sidney +argued that any fate whatsoever silencing the fellow now might be +construed as proof of his own presence in the wreck. + +Instantly deciding that, once they concluded he was not here, the Dyaks +would leave and permit his escape, Grenville silently crept to the open +door beside the dead man held in chains, slipped behind the rotted old +partition, and, without a sound, replaced the door almost as he had +originally found it. + +The chief had meantime approached the barque, to order his man to the +hold. To the musty cabin where "Buli" sat, the fellow was forced to +stumble. Some report he quavered in accents of terror was not received +with favor, and a new command was issued. + +Grenville made ready to drop the man, should he dare push open the +door. He was certain the craven had been ordered to this fatal +exploration. But, instead, the whining demon lighted a match, to +reveal all the contents of the place. + +By the yellow light both this fellow and the leader, peering through +the side, met the vacant stare of "Buli's" eyes--and both were +frightened to utterance. The chief's brief note was a rigmarole of +charm, to avert the evil eye. His slave's shrill performance was a +scream, as the fellow reeled back, stumbling blindly away and falling +as he went. + +The pistol he carried was discharged. The fellow was wounded in the +hip. His groans, as he dragged himself out on the deck, were drowned +by the curses of the leader. + +This dominant brute, having noticed the door where Sidney stood +concealed, now ordered the second of his men to explore where the first +had failed. As Grenville once more looked out through a ragged hole to +observe the proceedings, this second fellow began a somewhat stouter +objection than his predecessor had done, but was even more promptly +cowed or persuaded to submission. + +Meanwhile, the cries of a horde of Dyaks from the boats arose from the +jungle below. They had evidently landed with considerable willingness +of spirit, as Grenville was thoroughly aware. He thought of Elaine +with a sudden sinking of the vitals. No sooner had the second of the +natives started to mount to the deck, where number one still lay +groaning, than a wild idea shot into Sidney's mind. At any cost, he +must make one dash for the hill. + +He quietly slipped to the cabin again, where "Buli" had long been +captain and crew of the barque. The one brief glance he bestowed, +through the hole, on the leader of the murderous demons, now hastening +to the place, showed that ingenious savage standing perhaps a rod away +and calling to the on-coming crews. + +The fellow on deck was making sufficient noise to mask a fair +disturbance in the cabin. Taking instant advantage of this fact, +Grenville groped downward with his hands--and encountered "Buli" +promptly. + +"I need your services, brother," he murmured, grimly, and, finding the +chain that shackled the sitting skeleton, he placed one foot upon its +upper end and tore the staple entirely out of the rotten wood it +pierced. + +Bodily lifting the mummified thing in his arms, he hastened forward, to +the hole that he alone had dared to utilize, broken through the +decaying hulk, where he passed first his burden and then himself +between the ancient ribs. + +A cry had been sounded from within the barque. The chief of the Dyaks +suddenly turned and rushed, knife in hand, upon the man he beheld +escaping from the hold. + +Grenville waited for him, deliberately. Just as the fellow lunged +actively forward, Sidney thrust the hideous effigy of a human being +into the arms and against the face of his wildly stabbing assailant and +nimbly leaped towards the trail. + +A sound of horror broke from the Dyak's lips as he rolled on the earth +with the skeleton rattling down upon him. But a brief time only was he +prostrate there with his terror. Uttering screams as shrill as a +woman's and darting swiftly to meet his crew of men, who suddenly +swarmed from the thicket, he headed a wild, fanatic pursuit where +Grenville was speeding for the terrace. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE GIRL BEHIND THE GUN + +Alone on the hill, and already strung to the highest tension of dread +by Grenville's long absence, after what he had said of a prompt return, +Elaine had been struck with alarm to the core of her being, as the +various sounds came clearly up from the jungle about the disintegrated +wreck. + +It was fears for Sidney, not for herself, that had finally possessed +her fluttering heart as the muffled shot and subsequent cries floated +uncertainly from down there in the darkness. She knew that Grenville +had no gun, and was, therefore, certain it was he who must have +suffered a wound. + +With a blazing torch she had run to the edge of the terrace, to light +Sidney home, if, by any bare chance, he had escaped. She was there, +transfixed by apprehension, when at length, with cries like a pack of +wolves, the Dyaks came racing towards the clearing. + +Meantime Grenville had gained a considerable lead of the devils on his +heels, and, on passing the spring, had caught a glimpse of Elaine with +her brand of fire. He paused for a second to shout essential +directions, lest she might have forgotten in her plight. + +"Don't fire, Elaine, till you see them on the trail!" + +With that he darted abruptly to the left, for the animal trail that +would lead him to his ladder. He had no more than gained it when, with +a chorus of demoniac yells and screams of triumph, the straggling +pursuers broke madly into the clearing and darted across it for the +trail. + +Even then, afraid that Elaine might fail to perform her allotted task, +Grenville sped up his ladder like a creature of the wild, and came to +the end of his platform. + +The Dyaks were immediately storming the barrier, the breach of which +was promptly discovered, and Sidney's alarm was jerkily resounding. + +Like a spirit of maternity, nerved to any ordeal by the sense of +protecting one she loved, Elaine crouched low beside the cannon, her +dilated eyes intent upon the trail. She had clung to a hope that +Grenville might yet appear in time to take charge of the gun. But +suddenly now, to her terror, four or more figures darkly appeared on +the ledge above the gate, coming swiftly towards her position. + +She thrust the torch desperately down upon the fuse, saw the powder +spew out a shower of sparks, and rolled and tumbled hotly from the +place. + +She was suddenly agonized by the thought that the thing would fail, but +Grenville had barely reached the solid rock when the cannon abruptly +thundered. + +A wide-spreading cataract of fire was projected in a red-and-yellow +cone across the space between the brink and the wall behind the trail, +as the powder poured its punishment into the ranks of the creatures +leaping upward to destruction. The detonation, sharp, crisp, +appallingly loud in the stillness of the island, fairly stunned Elaine, +now kneeling helplessly among the rocks. + +Shrieks of dismay and sudden agony immediately succeeded the explosion, +while its echoes still rattled wildly back from the distant hills of +rock. In the utter darkness, by contrast following the one brief +glare, there was nothing to be seen along the path. But wounded men +were staggering downward, in blind retreat, already abandoned by their +unscathed companions, in flight below the gate. + +Grenville had run to his store of bombs, instead of coming straight to +the gun. He meant to be prepared against a second attack. As his +active figure now appeared where he hastened brinkward, watching both +trail and clearing, Elaine beheld him at last. She arose and stumbled +towards him, her feet still heavy with her dread, her heart wildly +leaping in joy. + +"Were you shot?" she cried. "Are you hurt?" + +"No, right as a fiddler!" he assured her, quickly, glancing down at the +shadowy path. "I only wish I could bait them again and lead the +remainder to the gun!" + +He charged the piece at once, having brought for the purpose a bamboo +canister of powder, open and heaping at the end. This he thrust +complete down the muzzle of the cannon, to be rammed home with dozens +of his slugs. + +Cries still arose from the jungle, more faintly, now, as the Dyaks +retreated down the island. Excitement still rang in the air. Neither +Grenville nor Elaine felt certain the attack would not be renewed. +There was something dark that Sidney could see, crawling painfully down +the incline of the trail, assisting something more inert. He purposely +shielded Elaine from the sight, lest she understand too well. He much +preferred that the Dyaks recover their possible slain from about the +place. + +Elaine was still too tensely wrought for reaction. She could hardly +understand how the situation had been changed so abruptly from attack +into utter rout. Her ears were still ringing from the cannon's +deafening roar. She had taken no time to comprehend the results of +what she had accomplished. + +"How shall we know if they do come back?" she questioned, excitedly. +"They probably broke the alarm." + +"I'll repair it soon. Did it ring? But, of course, you couldn't have +taken time to hear. Did you understand me when I shouted?" + +"I heard it, horribly shaken," said Elaine. "I heard so many awful +noises. I heard you call, of course. But, perhaps, I didn't wait long +enough, after all. I don't seem to remember. I waited as long as I +could. I hope I only frightened them away!" She sat down, overtaken +at last by weakness in her limbs. + +The torch she had used had fallen from her hand. It barely smoldered +on the rocks. Grenville extinguished it completely, then continued to +prime the cannon as before, with powder sprinkled on the vent, and a +fuse laid for several feet along the ledge. He was glad to note the +little piece had been securely held in place upon its log by its +wrappings and the weight of heavy stones. + +"I'll go down and examine the gate," he said, aware that, though the +Dyaks had undoubtedly suffered severely, a still attack might yet be +attempted in the dark. Therefore, leaving Elaine to recover as best +she might, he was soon moving cautiously along the narrow ledge. + +The night had precipitated war. That he and Elaine would be called +upon to endure war's customary hazards, hardships, and horrors he was +grimly ready to concede. She had made an amazingly fine beginning. It +was certainly not the time for him to weaken her now by misplaced +tenderness, vastly as he wished to spare her shock and trial. + +The crawling objects he had seen from above had vanished beyond the +solid wall he had built to shut out the tiger. All the way down to +this barrier he made his way, Elaine meanwhile watching from the cliff. +There were dark, irregular blotches here and there along the rocks, and +on these he scraped a hiding film of dust. How much of the contents of +the gun had been expended uselessly against the wall could not be +determined in the dark. He felt assured a heavy toll had been +collected on the trail, if not in killed, at least in wounded and, +doubtless, disabled men. + +The cord arranged to sound his alarm had been broken in the charge. He +found the ends, repaired the damage, crept further along to scan the +silent and deserted clearing, then promptly returned to secure a +basket, and boldly went down to gather extra fruit. + +"I wish I knew where to get some meat," he told Elaine, as he came with +his plunder to the terrace. "I don't know when I shall have another +hour so absolutely safe." + +But beyond removing his ladder and bridge, he performed no more labor +that night. It was not yet late. Elaine was too excited to retire. +She sat with him, nervously listening to all the far sounds of the +jungle, as he kindled their fire to a blaze. + +"I wonder how long we can keep it up--go on as we are going now," she +reflected aloud at last. "Mustn't they get us in the end?" + +"Well--not till we've made it a fair exchange, at least." + +"There must be a dozen of them about us, six or more to our one." + +"There were, perhaps, an hour ago, but hardly so many now. One shot +himself, down in the jungle, gunning for me, while the cannon---- But +your intuition was accurate--a second boatload did arrive to join the +first." He added a brief recital of what he had seen and what had +taken place at the rotted barque, sparing the details which, he felt, +would more alarm than assure her, respecting "Buli" and the drama +played at the clearing. + +"Two boatloads!" she repeated. "What reason could they possibly have +for coming at last to this island? They couldn't have known we were +here--at least not the first who came." + +"No," said Grenville, slowly, reflecting that the time for his +revelation was, perhaps, a trifle overdue, "they came, I believe, to +secure the treasure in the cave." + +Elaine glanced up at him quickly. + +"The treasure you have joked about before?" + +"It was not altogether a joke. The treasure is there--or, at least, it +was, before I removed it to the passage." + +"Not something actually valuable? What sort of things do you mean?" + +"Gold and precious stones--a lot of heavy plunder--enough of the jewels +alone to fill a hat." + +Elaine slightly gasped. "And they came for that? And you have taken +it out--have hidden it, rather--and you think, perhaps, they have +missed it?" + +"No, I hardly believe they have been to the cave as yet. It isn't +theirs, the beggars! Not that it's of any account to us, but I don't +feel sure if I gave it up they'd depart and leave us in peace. At any +rate, I don't propose they shall have it." + +Elaine was silent for a moment, and filled with wonder. + +"How did you manage to find it?" + +"Entirely by accident. I pulled down a stone that concealed a secret +chamber, where someone had walled it in. It has doubtless been there +for many generations--as these fellows have probably known." + +"And suppose they find the chamber looted--may they not be all the more +savage and eager to tear us to pieces?" + +"Well--I should say their ambition in that respect has already about +reached its limit." + +Elaine could still feel her heart pounding heavily in her bosom. She +returned to her original query. + +"If we go on like this for a week, what then? Is there anything in the +world to prevent them from waiting and waiting and waiting, till----" +She did not finish her sentence, but the slightest shudder shook her +frame. + +"They were goaded to action to-night," said Grenville, hopefully. +"They may feel sufficiently aggrieved to return for more. If not--they +must be invited." + +"But surely you'll not attempt such a venture as this again?" + +Grenville rubbed at his jaw. "I wish it might be duplicated! No such +luck is likely. But I feel very certain we'd both rather cash in +fighting than to starve like rats in a trap." + +"Yes," Elaine faltered, in her quiet way of courage, "but--if it has to +come--let's try to--receive it here together." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +DYAK DARTS AND METHODS + +Long-distance fighting began an hour after sunrise in the morning. It +was rather a long-distance attack, since Grenville, armed only with the +cannon, was powerless to retaliate, except at great expense of +ammunition, and with questionable results. + +One of the Dyaks had stationed himself on the central hill of the +island with some sort of ancient rifle. He took a deliberate shot at +Sidney the moment that unsuspecting thorn in their sides chanced to +make an appearance on the western section of the terrace. The bullet +went wide, having struck among the rocks some fifteen feet away, +arousing Grenville's contempt. + +Not even Elaine was greatly frightened by this overture from the enemy, +whose marksman could have but a limited view of that unused section of +the headland. + +But the first small dart that sped lightly up from the jungle, to drop +almost at Grenville's feet, was another affair altogether. He knew the +thing was not only sharp, but literally soaked with poison. It had +only to prick through the skin of one's hand, or even, perhaps, through +the thinness of their garments, to perform its deadly function. The +merest chance shot was thus extremely likely to achieve what the +rifleman could not. + +These hideous little messengers of agony and death were rained all +morning on the terrace. They fell near the furnace for keeping fire; +they dropped by the door of the shelter. A few even sped as far as the +powder magazine, where Grenville found them on the rock and gravel roof. + +Ample protection was afforded by remaining under cover, but this was +not altogether wise or safe, except, perhaps, for Elaine. Grenville +felt he must constantly watch the clearing. In the light of day his +alarm could be discovered and removed, to permit an attack too sudden +to be opposed. + +He, therefore, constructed a bamboo shield, with which to protect his +head and a part of his body, as he moved about among the rocks, or +concealed himself near the cannon. + +Not more than twice in all the morning did he see so much as one of the +tubes--the long, slender blowguns of the hidden foe--while this silent +bombardment continued. It was useless to think of slewing about his +little brass piece for a shot at mere motionless jungle. It was +equally impossible, he confessed, to excite the Dyaks to another charge +until they should finally make up their minds a sudden assault would +succeed. + +He was rather surprised they had made no attempt to rush him at +earliest dawn. The ledge was, however, very narrow. It afforded the +one and only approach, and the dire disaster of the night before had +rendered far more cowardly the set of treacherous and utterly craven +murderers these boatmen undoubtedly were. + +All afternoon the darts continued falling, intermittently--and +Grenville made no response. His silence, indeed, was a mystery which +the Dyaks not only failed to understand, but, likewise, a little +dreaded. That he had no rifle they were thoroughly convinced. But +that roar of his cannon they had understood, and to hear it again they +had no appetite. Moreover, its deadly hail and detonation had come so +unexpectedly, from the erstwhile silent terrace, that they knew not +what to expect concerning the future. + +Not without hopes of actually slaying some of the unknown forces on the +crest of the hill, they shot an exceptional number of their darts from +the nearby thicket as the sun at last declined. Grenville, having at +length established what he thought to be a line of the little missiles' +flight, hastily made and bound up a bomb of no more than two pounds' +weight. + +This, with a fuse too short for ordinary safety, he finally carried to +the westward brink with one of his glowing coals of fire. + +The patient rifleman, waiting on his hill, immediately blazed away, as +before--and missed the entire bulk of rock. Grenville paid not even +the tribute of a glance at the opposite summit, as he thrust his fuse +down upon his coal. + +The hiss of the powder gave him a start, so swiftly did it travel +towards the bomb. With all his might he threw the thing outward at the +shadowed spot whence he thought the darts were flying. + +The quick, sharp bark and the patch of flame behind the design of a +palm leaf, came like a clap of thunder, just before the second when the +bomb would have struck on the earth. + +A yell of dismay, or anguish, or both, and a scattering shower of +shredded greenery supplied the only report of results that Grenville +was destined to receive. The flight of darts was ended. A few hurried +movements in the thicket, and a groan that Sidney felt was smothered, +were the only signs vouchsafed him that the powder had not been cheaply +wasted. + +"It's a poor way to fight the hidden devils," he told Elaine, as he +came once more to the shelter, "but it may possibly serve to keep them +further away, and force them to different tactics." + +It certainly had this latter effect, but not immediately. + +There was no attack that night, and no disturbance in the jungle, +though Sidney descended to the thicket and returned, not only with more +fresh fruit he had located during the day, but also with a small wild +hog he had captured in one of the older traps which the Dyaks had +failed to discover. + +The morning developed nothing aggressive, save the presence of the +marksman on hill number two with the rifle that Grenville said would +only be deadly around a corner. Some plan of patient waiting appeared +to have been matured in the Dyaks' mind, since one of their boats +issued forth at last from its place, to circle about the headland like +a vulture atilt for prey, while down in the cover of the greenery other +natives undoubtedly lurked. + +They affrighted a flock of parrots here and there, from time to time, +or set the timid monkeys to chattering and leaping through the upper +foliage, apprising Grenville thus that the thickets were haunted below. +No darts sped upward from the jungle edge, however, which, Sidney +argued, might signify that the men with the deadly blow-guns possibly +hoped to excite over-confidence in the keepers of the terrace, who +might finally expose themselves to fewer, but more accurate, shots. + +In his forced inactivity, Grenville once more waxed impatient. He felt +the heat of the blazing sun, which was daily growing more intense. He +chafed at the thought of doing nothing while their water supply was +steadily diminishing, and the Dyaks apparently planned to subdue him by +thirst or famine. He dared not risk an exposure of the door to the +secret passage by going for water to the cave below, especially as all +his jugs were porous and permitted the water's escape by percolation, +whereas the supply in the basins below might be better preserved where +it was. + +A hundred useless plans for taking the war to the enemy's camp were +presented to his mind, always to be promptly abandoned. He could only +utilize his artillery for defense, and could not even hasten an attack. +He could devise no means of ascertaining how many of the natives had +either been killed or disabled. That fully ten survived, however, he +felt was probable. One or two at the most was all the little cannon +would be likely to rake in a charge. + +Early in the afternoon there was ample evidence of exceptional activity +down in the heavy jungle growth, though none of the Dyaks was seen. +The movements of birds and animals, as well as the swaying of branches +or trees in various thickets under the cliff, sufficiently advertised +the facts. + +Grenville was puzzled to understand what might be occurring, till, at +length, he discovered that some of the fruit-bearing trees, on which he +had counted for supplies, had been quietly denuded of their burdens, or +even altogether destroyed. One large banana palm with fruit of +exceptional quality, he even beheld as it toppled to the earth, where +some fiendish head-hunter hacked through its fibrous trunk. + +Something sank in his breast as he witnessed this atrocious vandalism, +and realized his helplessness to avert the oncoming famine of himself +and the girl in his charge. That the spring would be guarded, night +and day, was, of course, a foregone conclusion. And not even a plan +for goading the Dyaks to another attack came in working order to his +brain. + +That was a thoroughly disheartening day, sultry, and fraught with +menace from all directions, as the Dyak craft continued to hover about +upon the sea, and the pillaging continued in the thickets. All the +work was, moreover, silent, grim, and ominous, with once in a while a +dart spinning swiftly up from the tangle below, or, from time to time, +an echoing shot coming from the opposite height with a bullet singing +crazily by, or ripping along the rocks. + +Sidney made no attempt to descend that night, aware of the folly of an +exploration into the enemy's lines, and the utter impossibility of +discovering fruit in a nearer portion of the jungle. His entire wild +hog had been roasted. For, perhaps, two days the meat might keep, in +the coolness of the passage to the cave. + +Once more the night was uneventful, and silent. Once more came the +day, and a blazing hot sun poured unveiled caloric on the summit of the +terrace, where sultriness drank up the water that oozed through the +substance of the jugs. + +"I've got to do something," Sidney declared. "We can't go on like +this." Elaine was already denying herself the food and water she +required. "I shall try to invent some means of enticing the creatures +to the cave below--and, perhaps, explode a mine. If the watchers on +that hovering ship saw me disappear in the hole, it is rather more than +likely they would follow, thinking they had me bottled." + +Elaine always manifested interest, no matter what his scheme. + +"But how could that possibly be managed, now that you haven't your +raft?" + +"I think by a ladder and platform, the ladder anchored as we had it the +day I came up with your assistance, and the platform arranged of bamboo +poles, which I can carry down through the passage. It will take me +some time to get it ready--but something has got to be done." + +Elaine's eyes brightened with hope. + +"Please say there is something I can do to help," she begged. "You +work so hard and constantly." + +"There will be rather warm employment for us both," he assured her, in +his former way of cheer, "particularly towards the end." + +He brought his neglected ladder to the shelter, where Elaine was +presently as busy as himself, rewinding the rungs in the creepers, and +testing it all for strength. Just what his final plan would be she did +not understand, but her confidence in his ability and resourcefulness +was almost wholly without bounds. + +The usual vigilance was not for a moment neglected, but nothing +occurred in the world below, save a repetition of the former day's +activity on the part of the unseen natives. It was not until well in +the afternoon that the Dyaks' plan developed. + +A breeze had sprung up from the north, bringing gushes of heat and +jungle fragrance across the summit of the hill. Then, at length, as if +this steadying wind was the final agency for which they had waited, the +Dyaks set up a queer, wild chant from various places in the thicket. + +A few minutes later a cloud of smoke arose from one of their centers. +This was followed by several more. A huge, thick smudge was soon +rising upward from the earth, and rolling on the breeze to envelop all +the headland. + +The Dyaks had gathered enormous quantities of resinous wood, and had +deliberately fired the jungle! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +A BATTLE IN THE SMOKE + +No doubts could be for long entertained as to what the smudge was +expected to accomplish. Its dense and suffocating fumes not only +rendered a further watch upon the clearing or the trail practically +useless, but it seemed to Grenville highly improbable that he or Elaine +could for long survive the pungent reek they were soon obliged to +breathe. + +There were two slight elements only in their favor. One was the +passageway, through the rock, where clean fresh air was constantly +flowing upward; the other was the very breeze itself that swept the +smoke upon them. It frequently split the cloud of black and gray upon +two juttings of the headland, or even beat it down and mingled its own +overheated but acceptable ozone with the otherwise stifling fume. + +Anger and horror together had lodged in Grenville's being. That the +Dyaks would soon attempt a sneak upon them, under cover of the cloud, +he felt was as certain as that hideous death must be their portion, +were this business sufficiently prolonged. Even retirement to the +cavern could avail them nothing but a short delay of the fate they must +finally face when their food and water should be presently exhausted. + +Under cover of the drifting smudge, he sent Elaine to the passage. As +long as a breath remained in his lungs he resolved he would not desert +his post, where he waited for attack by the trail. To permit the +fiends to swarm upon the terrace, destroy or capture his powder and the +gun, and prison himself and Elaine in the narrow gallery, was a thought +that aroused him through and through. + +All further contemplation of his scheme for alluring the Dyaks to the +cavern was necessarily abandoned. The most he could do was to watch as +before, and, perhaps, convey his bombs and stores to the passage, as +time and his highly essential vigilance permitted. + +Back and forth through the smoke he moved upon the hill, seeking the +better air that came occasionally through the billows, and listening +intently for the faintest sound from the always ready alarm. When an +hour had gone and no attack had developed, his heart underwent a new +despair. He began to doubt that the Fates would supply him an +opportunity for further retaliation on the fiends below, who could +finally overcome him with the fumes. + +The drift of smoke was intermittently broken, near the trail, where +apparently a current of wind that assumed a rotation as it rose through +a half-round niche of considerable dimensions in the wall, swept +vertically upward to lift the billowing cloud. Thus for at least a +portion of the time Grenville could glimpse the ledge behind the trail +where besiegers must finally pass. + +So dense became the reek, however, that he feared his post must soon +become insupportable. There was neither time nor air in which to +arrange a longer fuse, which, as a matter of fact, would be too long +for accurate work with the gun. + +He knew at last the hour was nearing sunset, and silence still seemed +to roll with the smoke across the enveloped terrace. His eyes were +burningly filled with water; his head had begun to ache. He went +weakly over towards the gallery, intent upon breathing a little fresher +air before resuming his duties. + +Suddenly, above the ringing in his ears, came a sound from his gate +alarm. Its deep hollow tone was strangely resonant in all that blanket +of smoke. He darted back, where lay his bombs and the short fuse laid +to the cannon. + +The smudge had, unfortunately, fallen like a pall, concealing all the +trail. It lifted slightly, however, as a fog may lift over waters, +revealing one half-seen form upon the ledge. + +Then, in the second that Grenville laid his fire to the powder, his +second alarm, from the frame of bamboo buckets, hung behind him on the +wall, rattled out its xylophonic warning. The head-hunting demons, +front and rear, were practically upon him! + +He fired the gun. Its orange flame shot out through the smoke in +ragged spears, mingling the fume of imperfect powder with all that reek +from the jungle. + +A gap was apparently torn in the rolling cloud, to be filled with a +denser substance. Nothing could possibly be discerned where the charge +must have splattered on the wall. There were cries in the air, but +whether from pain, or the Dyaks' exultation, Grenville could never have +told. + +Aware that the demons were capable of sacrificing some of their number +to the gun, to beget its discharge, and thus clear the way for +concerted attack by greater numbers, Grenville promptly lighted the +fuse of a bomb and hurled it from him down the trail. + +It burst in the smoke, its red blot of fire a lurid illumination in the +black and gray billows from the smudge. Again a cry succeeded, this +one unquestionably voicing some wretch's mortal agony in the +all-concealing fume. + +Without for a moment pausing, Grenville plunged swiftly through the +drifting envelope, to gain the brink at the rear. He caught up a rock +as he stumbled half blindly onward, and blew on the fire of his brand. + +A thicker shroud of the reek revolved about him, halting him there to +gasp for breath, which he stooped in the hope of finding. He dropped +the stone as a useless burden. Once more he staggered onward--and +blundered against a Dyak, more blinded than himself! + +The creature had scaled the wall despite the bamboo framework and its +cups, or wooden bells! He and Sidney were instantly locked in a fierce +and deadly embrace! + +A battle as silent as it was swift and ferocious was curtained there in +the smoke. + +That the edge was near was a knowledge equally shared, as each man +wrestled in desperate violence to overcome his antagonist and hurl him +down to the sea. + +More by instinct than design, Grenville had paused to grip his +firebrand hotly between his teeth. He had seen that the head-hunter +held a knife, which was instantly turned, as the boatman writhed in +Sidney's arms, in an effort to sink it to the hilt. + +Grenville, however, clutched the wiry wrist with all his might, and +tried to fetch it upward for a quickly planned maneuver. It slipped +from his grip, and together he and the native froze more savage than +before. The Dyak once more attempted a stabbing pass, and Sidney again +caught the sinewy hand, in a clutch that he knew must fail. + +The wrist left his impotent fingers like a snake. The whole arm +writhed backward for the stroke. Sidney abruptly leaned forward, +turning his head, and jabbed the red-hot firebrand against the Dyak's +eye. + +With a shriek of pain the fellow lurched galvanically, to stab with +demoniacal might. But the blow went wide, in his agony, and when +Grenville had caught the wrist in a grip that a serpent could scarcely +have broken, he instantly laid hold of it with his second hand, with a +motion incredibly swift. Then turning his back with the skinny brown +arm across his shoulder, and abruptly stooping forward, Sidney hoisted +the scoundrel free from the rocks, on his shoulders, and, moving +quickly towards the cliff, ended the fight then and there. + +He broke the arm thus used as a leverage against the Dyak's weight, and +literally slammed the shuddering creature down on the rocks, at the +brink of the wall, where he poised but a moment over death. + +If he tried to writhe backward to the solid ledge, the effort was +belated. With a piercing scream he toppled over, flinging out his +broken arm in a gesture grotesque and disordered. Then he suddenly +grayed, in the limbo of smoke, and shot swiftly downward to his doom. + +Grenville still bit upon the branch that glowed with fire. He searched +about pantingly, found his end of fuse, and saw the powder sputter with +ignition. He had barely stepped back when, from over at the trail, +came a sudden and tremendous detonation. + +That the Dyaks were there on the terrace, after all, destroying his +bombs, was the one thought that flashed through the smoke in his brain, +as his own sharp explosion shook the air and hollowed huge masses from +the cliff. + +He stumbled and groped laboriously across the uneven heaps of stone to +reach the secret passage, where Elaine must be crouching in fear. In +his ears rang her words "If it has to come, let's receive it here +together." + +Already he feared her one grim wish had been brutally denied her in +this hideous pall of smoke. He saw a figure, dimly, through the reek, +and crouched to take revenge. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +THE LAST CUP OF WATER + +The figure was Elaine's. Grenville was almost upon her, prepared for +some swift and terrible deed of retaliation, when a swirl in the shroud +that enveloped them both revealed her standing near the edge. + +She still held a glowing fire-stick in her hand, as she peered through +the billowing cloud of smoke where she had flung an ignited bomb. She +had fled from her shelter, in desperate dread, lest a murderous fate +overtake her companion, battling alone with the fiends. She had found +his post deserted, and, having discerned two figures on the trail, had +instantly obeyed an impulse to protect the hill with the only means +provided. + +She uttered a cry as she saw Grenville crouching behind her, raising +her brand like a weapon, then sinking in relief. + +"You!" he said. "Elaine! I might have known!" + +"I am sure they are coming up behind us there!" she answered. "I know +I heard the bamboo buckets jangling! Have you been across to see?" + +"I fired the bomb," he answered. "Didn't you know?" + +She shook her head. Her ears, that had been so finely attuned to catch +the warning from the rearward cliff, had received or recorded no +impression whatsoever of the huger disturbance, while her own bomb's +colossal thunder and shock engrossed her eager attention. + +"Was anyone there?" she asked, half choking with the reek. "I suppose +you couldn't see." + +"I saw no one when lighting the fuse," he answered. "What was +happening here?" + +She related what she had seen and what she had done. + +"I hope I killed them!" she added, weak and dizzy from the smoke. "But +they probably ran away!" + +It was the first time she had entertained such a feeling. + +He urged her again to the shelter, where he coaxed her to drink, and +bathe her face, for the freshening and soothing influence of which she +was sadly in need. Returning, then, to the shelter for some of their +fruit, he groped his way down along the trail--and found that one or +the other of the bombs had so shattered the ledge, as to render it +useless for passing till the gap could in some way be bridged. + +They were safe from invasion in the night--but they were, likewise, +marooned on the hill! It was hardly likely the Dyaks would attempt to +construct a platform across the yawning cavity, under the shadow of the +gun, while, as for themselves, descent at present was entirely out of +the question. + +Meantime the smoke was unabated, if it was not, indeed, more dense and +choking than before. All the man's characteristic doggedness of +purpose was required in preparations for the night. The sun was down; +the brief and usually comforting twilight seemed entirely absent, as +darkness was hastened by the fumes. + +Back and forth from the now deserted shelter to the passage Sidney +groped time after time, fetching her couch and robe for Elaine, and +their meager supplies for dinner. The gallery then became her boudoir, +sanctified to her uses. Outside on the ledge, where at least a breath +of air trailed upward from the cave beneath, to escape at the door and +a little dilute the stifling smoke, he finally made his sentinel post +to pass the long session of darkness. + +He was roused repeatedly in the night by the sheer discomfort of his +resting-place, and the smoke that smarted his nostrils. All the long +hours through the dull red flames glowed fitfully, down through the +jungle. He was tempted, times without number, to throw out his +platform to the tree and descend with a bomb, to hurl at some group of +the demons, there in the nether gloom of the Hades they created. He +curbed his impatience rigidly, however, and crowded the impulse back. +That one or two natives at the most maintained the fires was a +supposition not to be ignored. The possible results of such an +enterprise were incommensurate with the risk that must be incurred. + +Despite his uneasiness of mind and body he slept for a time between +midnight and dawn as the mere result of overstrain and the weariness +accumulated for several days. + +For a brief time after sunrise the northerly breeze abated, permitting +the smoke to ascend more nearly straight. The headland was thereby +freed and sweetened, only, however, to be re-enveloped later, and, +veiled from the other features of the island. + +Grenville took advantage of the respite to make an examination of the +cliff at the rear of the camp. It had been so shattered, where the +bomb shook down the disintegrated tufa, that its ascent would never +again be attempted. The framework of bamboo cups was gone. There was +nothing below to indicate whether or not a Dyak boat might have been +swamped by falling rock. + +The cavity torn in the regular trail was rather more exaggerated than +diminished by the morning's revelations. Grenville was certain the +enemy would hardly hazard bridging the gap while they thought a single +ounce of punishment remained upon the terrace. He was not altogether +certain he should not construct a bridge himself, since only when they +charged upon his position could he hope to decimate the blood-desiring +savages, who must still remain in menacing numbers on the island. + +The little brass cannon was once more charged, though its use was +hardly likely. The wind and the smoke resumed their steady flow across +and about the hill before Elaine appeared. + +She was pale and plainly weary, when at length she emerged from the +passage. Her sleep had been broken, and haunted by dreams of countless +new atrocities committed by the demons below. Her courage was +phenomenal. She made no complaint, but attempted a smile and a cheery +outlook on the day. + +Grenville was wrung, more than comforted, at the wistful effort she was +making to sustain her slender hope and encourage his own flagging +spirit. When he found that hardly a pint of water remained in the jugs +he had thought would supply them at least for a couple of days, his +despair for Elaine became intensely acute, and his heart began dully to +ache. Two of the clay receptacles had developed tiny cracks, perhaps +from the jarring of explosions, while a third had toppled over and +spilled its precious contents after having been placed in the passage. +Percolation and usage had drained the others inevitably--and the day +was beginning with heat and stifling reek. + +Much of the fruit that Sidney had gathered was now unfit for use, and +was, therefore, thrown away. By way of conserving the water supply, +they made a breakfast of paw-paws and bananas only, though the meat +remaining from the previous day was still acceptable. + +Grenville descended to the cavern as soon as this scant and oversweet +meal was concluded. He bore two jugs, to be filled from the basins in +the rock. When the light from the blazing torch he held above his head +dimly outlined but one of the pools he had seen on a former occasion, +he realized that some insignificant fissure must have resulted from his +blast, and permitted the other pools to trickle to the sea. + +He filled his jugs with the utmost care, scooping up the water at the +deepest hole to leave all unclean sediment undisturbed. That the pool +must soon succumb to evaporation was obvious. Vaguely he wondered +which might last the longer, this underground well, or the breath in +his body and Elaine's. + +Even the sight and touch of the precious water excited his mouth to +thirst. With the jugs both full and set carefully aside, he sprawled +out eagerly, flat on the rocks, for a deep and satisfying draught. + +Hardly had the water reached his palate, however, when he lifted his +head with a sound like a stifled groan. The pool was connected with +the tides--_the liquid there was brine_! + +He rose to his knees, with his fist before his eyes, his whole body +tense and rigid with his soul's recoil from the visions abruptly +shadowed in his mind. The cordon about the helpless girl was so +hideously complete! It seemed like the bitterness of her doom that he +tasted on his tongue. + +It appeared so useless now to struggle. How he should take this latest +news to the uncomplaining comrade of his destiny was more than he could +determine. Wild thoughts of offering all the treasure he had found, as +ransom for Elaine at least, possessed his mind, as he conjured up the +final, triumphant approach of the Dyaks, whom the two famished keepers +of the terrace would at length be no longer able successfully to resist. + +He likewise thought of offering himself, could Elaine be finally +spared. But through it all he was sickeningly conscious that neither +course could avail with these treacherous fiends. A human head was +more to them than treasures of earth or heaven. Moreover, the +murderous savages had already paid a heavy toll, and would smart in +their blood for revenge. + +There could be no bargain made with such an enemy, all but victorious +already, and certain of final success. They should never find that +treasure, however, Grenville swore, if he had to sink it in the sea! +And as for a final triumph--there were many ways, in a last extremity, +whereby at least the unspeakable horrors, certain to follow their +capture alive, could be escaped by both himself and Elaine. + +Wild rage possessed him, kneeling there, as he thought of the merciless +head-hunters smoking them out on the hill, and waiting as loathsomely +as vultures for the slowly approaching end. Mad plans for sinking +their anchored boats, for loading himself with torch and bombs, to +charge like a Nemesis through their ranks, or for luring them up to +some deadly mine, ranged erratically through his brain. + +He thought of attempting a condensation of sea water to provide Elaine +with drink. He was swiftly possessed by a plan, even more absurd, of +making a float with his bamboo stems, and sailing away with Elaine on +board, under cover of the darkness. + +He arose at last, dizzy, with the vortex of impractical suggestions +revolving in his mind. He emptied his jugs and strode to the mouth of +the cavern, looking out on smoke and sea. The tide was low. Whole +colonies of mussels clung there below him on the rocks. They were +food! The thought came home to him swiftly--only to be immediately +succeeded by the realization they were salt, and would make for greater +thirst. He thought of the wail that had formerly haunted the island--a +friendly, invaluable phenomenon that had not been repeated for days. +He thought of the raft he had rowed with such ease when he came here to +blow out the ledge. Was it floating still in the estuary's mouth, or +had some of the Dyaks destroyed it? + +The estuary!--could he only reach its tepid pool, creep towards its +source, fill one of his jugs, and return to gladden Elaine! His busy +mind was instantly working on the various steps by which he might +succeed in lashing together some sort of raft, for a night excursion to +the tiny rill that fed the vine-surrounded inlet where the water was +not brine. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +A BREATHLESS MARGIN + +Grenville returned for his jugs and the torch, impatient to be +employed. The clay receptacles were useless on the hill, but he +carried them back to the gallery, to leave them on the floor. The +lower rock-and-wattle barrier he carefully readjusted to its place, and +secured with the bar of wood. + +"The water below is rather poor," he informed Elaine, when he once more +rejoined her above. "I believe I can reach a supply considerably +better by building a bamboo platform that will give me access to a +larger and fresher pool." + + Elaine was thinking of another, more personal danger. + +"Do you think these creatures have visited the cave?" + +"If they have, they left no signs." + +"You are not afraid they may go there soon--and discover the end of +this passage?" + +Grenville shook his head. "I only wish they would try--every man Jack +of them hunting there at once! If it weren't for this smoke, I should +try to lure them in!" + +Glad of an occupation, no matter how forlorn the hope it afforded, he +went promptly to work fetching all of the largest bamboo stems from his +generous supply, together with wood for fuel and many lengths of +creeper. By the time these various transfers were complete, he had +left but little of their meager possessions in or about the former camp. + +Bombs, fuses, torch-wood, and much of his extra powder he now proceeded +to store along the wall, and in a niche of the gallery, where they +should neither obstruct the passage under foot, nor yet be exposed to +possible accident from necessary fire. The terrace continued to be +wrapped in smoke, as on the previous day. Instructing Elaine to call +him instantly, should any attempt be made by the Dyaks to bridge the +gap on the trail, he now began the laborious task of carrying one after +another of the bamboo stems down the passage to the cave. + +The stems were large, some of them fully six inches through at the +butt, and while they were never heavy, yet the twelve or more feet of +length to which he had reduced them made their transfer through the +narrow and angular gallery an awkward and troublesome maneuver, with +only a torch for light. + +He had made up his mind that six of these stems, lashed together in +pairs, or even laid side by side, and slightly separated, would +complete a float on which he could readily find sufficient buoyancy for +himself and a couple of water jugs, more especially as he thoroughly +intended to stretch himself out flat, full length, upon it while moving +about the shore. He felt, moreover, it must be so light he could not +only launch it from the cave, but even withdraw it inside again, should +danger so require. + +Fortunately, he reflected, none of the stems was split. Each comprised +a set of water-tight compartments that a load of double his avoirdupois +could hardly sink beneath the surface. If he found that four of the +lengths would answer as well as six, he would certainly use no more. + +As he stumbled and edged his way downward once again, with the last of +his load colliding here and there along the wall, he thought, perhaps, +it might be possible to test the float in the salty pool that remained +in the basin of the cavern. Could this be done, much time would be +saved, and no risk of being discovered at his work need be incurred. + +For his greater convenience in assembling materials and tools, he +placed both his torch and final burden for a moment within the passage, +when he came once more to the cave. Three of the bamboo stems were +then in the cavern proper, while all of the creeper and the other +essentials remained on the gallery floor. He paused to wipe his brow, +for he was sweating. His mouth was dry with a growing thirst that +refused to be forgotten. + +He had barely stepped out to survey the space for the likeliest site +convenient to his needs, when, abruptly, a human voice sent a murmurous +echo through the hollow tomb. A sharp command immediately +followed--all in some barbaric tongue. But before the noise of +something dully scraping on the outside ledge could add its +confirmation to the somewhat belated alarm, Grenville was certain that +a Dyak boat had come to the cavern, and its crew were about to land. + +Instantly pouncing upon the nearest length of his precious bamboo, he +darted with it to the passage. The second stem struck on the inner +wall, not only delaying his movements, but sounding a thud that he felt +must be heard through all the vast bulk of the hill. + +Yet he dared not either betray the fact he had been in the cave, or +lose that final pole. Once more, as he heard the Dyaks coming, and +even beheld a shadow, preceding its owner to the place, he darted +silently out at his door to lay hold of the last remaining stem. + +He was certain its end must be plainly seen, as the Dyaks now rose +above the ledge. A sound that he made seemed incredibly loud--and his +door was out where the boatmen's torch must play a red light upon it! + +He stumbled across his materials, now congesting his narrow space. He +thrust out an arm, laid hold of his door, and had barely drawn it +across the opening when the glare of the torch the Dyaks held sent red +rays in upon him. + +Not another move could he make without betraying his presence near at +hand. To adjust the barrier solidly in place might readily prove +fatal. To leave it loose, a palpable sham where all should appear as +solid wall, was scarcely less of a risk. + +Holding it firmly, lest it slip, and peering breathlessly out through +the chink which it failed by an inch to cover, Grenville beheld three +half-naked forms, incredibly magnified and diabolized not only by the +torch they held, but also by the shadows they cast upon the rocks, and +the general aspect of the region, black as Inferno. Three thinner, +more furtive fiends of the nether abyss would have been hard, indeed, +to imagine. In the tallest Sidney recognized the chief. + +As they turned about to scan the wall, and the breach he had made with +his explosion, the whites of their eyes and the gleam of their teeth +rendered all of their faces strangely hideous, with the yellowish glare +projecting them indistinctly against the ebon of the tomb. + +That their keen, malicious eyes must instantly discover the wall's +decided imperfection, where the gallery door was askew, seemed to +Grenville inescapable. They motioned towards him, and down at the +floor, in manifest wonder that the place was no longer filled with +water. Their voices were low. They spoke as if with a certain awe in +which the place was held. + +It seemed to Grenville they would never go about their business. His +muscles ached with the unaccustomed strain put upon them to support the +heavy door. How long he could stand there, making no sound, and +permitting no movement of the barrier, was a question he could not +answer. If only his cleaver had not been dropped around the bend, +beside his torch, he would almost have dared spring out on the +unsuspecting Dyaks to brain them where they stood! + +At thought of his torch, redly glowing, in beyond, he sweated anew, +convinced that as soon as the boatmen grew accustomed to the darkness +of the cavern, these torch rays must impinge upon their vision, and +instantly divulge the secret of the passage to the top. + +One of the Dyaks now approached even closer than before. Savagely +determined he would slay the man, should he raise a hand, or otherwise +give the slightest intimation that the door was seen at last, Sidney +grew hot in his farthest pulse, and became as tense as a tight-coiled +spring as he steadied to leap from the place. + +But the man in command now grumbled another of his orders. The fellow +so near discovery and death turned slowly about, made one more gesture +towards the shattered ledge, and followed the other where they made +their way across the uneven floor. + +Until they had passed to a second ridge, where their feet disturbed a +few loose fragments that rattled down towards the base, Grenville made +not the slightest move to alter his position. Then cautiously, without +a sound, he adjusted the door to its proper place and secured it with +the bar. + +He still had a chink through which to peer, but he first moved back to +his blazing torch and smothered its light on the rocks. When he once +more groped his way to the tiny opening, the Dyaks had come to the +rifled chamber. He could hear their exclamations of disgust and anger, +but only their torch could be seen. + +Aware they might still return to his wall and discover the one +remaining retreat where Elaine was even remotely secure, Grenville was +seized with an irresistible impulse to destroy the fiends on the +instant, if such a denouement could be rendered possible. + +He turned about to grope his way upward and secure a bomb as swiftly as +the darkness would permit. Over the basket of treasure, some time +since deposited there by the wall, he blundered, and fell to his knees. +The thing was in the way. He took it up impatiently and carried it +well up the passage to one of the broadest galleries, where he placed +it again on the floor. + +With one of the smallest of his bombs, and carrying one of his +firebrands only for a torch, he once more descended, feeling his way +along the wall, eager to regain the lower entrance, lest it might be +already discovered. He had been delayed in securing the brand, without +which his bomb was useless. He had told Elaine his measures were only +of defense. + +They were hardly even that. When he came to the door he could see no +torch, for the Dyaks had gone, in new exasperation, and their voices +echoed back from the ledge. The impulse to rush out thus belatedly, +ignite his fuse, and hurl his engine of destruction upon them, or their +boat, was one he curbed with difficulty, at the dictates of sober +sense. For a dozen reasons the maneuver might fail to destroy the +murderous trio. And should one escape to advertise the fact he was +somehow concealed in the cavern, no possible cleverness could avail to +protect Elaine or himself. + +Should a larger number come to the cave---- But he knew it was hardly +likely, now, that even a few would return. If the Dyaks had, as he +felt convinced, concluded that the open niche meant that the tomb had +been pillaged, that the treasure was gone, either taken by himself or +another, they would have no conceivable reason left for courting +disaster here again. For unless they should dare approach the place by +night, it was only under cover of the rolling smoke they would risk +attack from above. + +He even thought of hastening back to the terrace now to drop a bomb +upon them. It was only a recollection of the all-engulfing smoke that +halted this intent. Instead he dislodged the wooden bar, removed the +door to his secret gallery, and crept out to glide to the breach in the +ledge for a possible view of the boatmen. + +Only the disappearing end of their craft was shown through the fumes +that veiled the tide. It was Grenville's useful catamaran, as he +instantly discerned. A new resentment burned in his blood, but left +him as helpless as before. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +GRENVILLE'S DESPERATE CHANCE + +At noon Elaine reluctantly consumed the last remaining drop of water. +Grenville had taken a sip, and pretended to take a swallow. To refuse +it longer, Elaine quite clearly comprehended, would be but to see it +ooze away through the jar, to be drunk by the merciless heat. + +"I shall get a new supply," said Sidney, attempting an accent of cheer, +"but I'd rather avoid using that of the cavern, for fear it may not be +wholesome." + +Elaine, in her way of divining the truth, was only partially deceived. +She felt that the water below in the cave was wholly unfit for +consumption. She knew that if anything even remotely possible could be +done to refill their vessels, Sidney would have filled them long before. + +She made no discouraging comments, however, despite the fact her hope +was succumbing to despair. The smoke continued to roll in sullen +clouds across and about the terrace; the sun beat down through it +redly, soaking the rock in caloric, that sank to the gallery itself. + +The noonday meal had been slight and unrefreshing--a bit of fruit, too +warm and too ripe for relish on the palate, and a few odd scraps of the +meat. It was water that both insistently craved, and for which they +grew fevered and distressed. + +The smoldering brands in the furnace of rocks could not be permitted to +die away in ash. Elaine had undertaken the maintenance of this, their +altar spark, which rarely rose to a flame. She was safe enough to come +and go from the passage entrance to the nearby furnace Grenville had +moved to facilitate her duties, but the smoke seemed far more stifling +and hot than it had the previous day, while, with headache, thirst, and +a heaviness in all her weary being, the endlessly cheerful and +courageous little companion of Grenville's maddening ordeal felt ready +to drop and rise no more. + +Again at his task of constructing a float that should bear him from the +cavern to the inlet formed by the spring, Sidney toiled with no mercy +to himself in the workshop far down in the rocks. He felt at times he +must gulp down even the water of the sea, so parched was his throat, +and so craving was his system. + +At five o'clock his bamboo raft was completed, even with braces for his +jugs. It had also been tried in the basin of the cave, and made +finally ready for launching. But the tide would be low till eight. +His blast had made the water more approachable than formerly, yet to +fight his way against a powerful current would over-tax his strength. +In any event he must wait for the darkness of night. + +He returned to Elaine, and although he, too, was weary to the bone, her +patient endurance of suspense and suffering aroused him to a state of +anguish in which no exhausting task would have seemed too great for him +to undertake. He was wrung by her wistful attempt at a smile. + +"The day is nearly done," she said. "The night is sure to be cooler." + +It was considerably cooler, but scarcely more fresh, since the smoke +appeared to pour in even vaster volumes from the greenery below. That +the Dyaks were keeping strict watch on the water supply there could be +no reason to doubt. From time to time a weird bit of chanting arose +from that fume-creating garden that had once been so fair as to win +from Elaine the prettiest name she knew. + +Grenville felt certain, in fact, the boatmen's camp had been made about +the inlet or the spring. The short stretch of beach where he and +Elaine had landed, and where he had later made a bower of the trees, +would be certain to attract these half-amphibious savages, though their +boats were moored behind the opposite hill. + +For a time he wondered if he might not be more wise to pass entirely +around the island, to approach the pool of fresh water from below. But +reflecting that various currents of the tide would buffet and beset +him, in addition to which he must run the gauntlet past the Dyak boats, +he surrendered the suggestion without delay, and impatiently awaited +the tide. + +Three times he went down the passage, torch in hand, to examine the +stages of the water. At length he bethought him of two short +scoop-like paddles, to assist in propelling his craft, and feverishly +set about their construction. + +They were done in less than half an hour, since they consisted merely +of two half-sections of bamboo cylinder, lashed to a pair of handles. + +Elaine was aware he was making ready for more than an ordinary +adventure, as she watched him with her wide and lustrous eyes. + +"Perhaps relief may come to-morrow," she finally observed. "You are +quite exhausted. Might you not be wiser to rest to-night? We can get +along, I am sure." + +But even her voice made a rasp in her throat, so distressed was her +system for water. + +"I need a bit of change," he said. "It is certain to do me good." + +With a touch of his former brusqueness, he presently bade her seek her +couch, during the time he expected to be gone, and vanished once more +down the dark, steep passageway, with his paddles and torch in hand. + +The torch was left in the gallery, extinguished. The concealing door +was adjusted to its place. These were mere precautions against the +cave's discovery, yet Grenville was certain no Dyaks would approach the +place that night. His two best jugs were placed on the ledge; his +cleaver was hung at his belt. He could take no bombs or lighted brands +on such an expedition. + +The task of launching his raft on the tide involved unexpected labor. +Its lightness made it an easy prey to the swirl that always filled the +cavern's walled approach. It was sucked once nearly under, its farther +end disappearing entirely from view--and Granville withdrew it, +desperately glad the jugs had not been placed upon it. + +Awaiting a quieter mood of the whirlpool, half seen in the darkness, he +launched the float again, and beheld it rest there, quietly, nosing +against the ledge. He turned for the jugs, but, casting a quick glance +backward, at the slightest of scraping sounds, saw the raft swinging +outward from his reach. + +His arm was too short for its recovery. Leaping wildly out in the +water, he caught it again, and was washed against the jagged wall +before he once more returned it to the landing. He was soaked to the +skin, but his pulses throbbed with heat and dogged energy that would +think of no defeat. + +With his jugs finally laid flat between the bamboo supporters, front +and rear, and with paddles in hand, as he lay at full length on the +light but half-submerged platform, he rowed the raft out with a motion +as if he were swimming. + +Indeed, like a giant oar-bug, more or less helplessly carried by the +current that it rides, he spun slowly about in the maelstrom of the +gathering tide before he could escape past the portal and head for the +inlet below. + +He soon discovered that to continue far in this fatiguing attitude +would abominably strain his neck, if not his entire body. Not without +considerable difficulty, in balancing the craft, he effected a change +of position, and knelt upon the supports. + +The waves washed up about his knees and feet, but of this he was +practically oblivious. Assisted now by the current, and with eyes +intent on the darkened shore, beyond the uprise of the cliff, he +propelled himself much farther out than formerly, with the purpose of +avoiding the possible vigilance of Dyaks on the beach. + +The night was not exceedingly dark, so brilliant was the light from the +stars. Once the region of smoke was left behind, the blurred and +blended features of the island were sufficiently well revealed for his +purposes, since he knew its every silhouette as well as the contours of +the coast. + +He had rowed and drifted, perhaps, half the distance essential to land +at the estuary mouth, when the sound of voices, floated out from the +shore, abruptly halted his movements. The Dyaks were there. Either +motion or any unusual disturbance would suffice to betray his presence +off the land. + +And now, as if every fate had become malignant, the current drifted him +inward, where he knew he should keep well away. At the risk of +exciting curiosity, if nothing more, he dipped his paddles, with a slow +and silent expenditure of strength, and swept the float powerfully +outward again, till the shore seemed a part with the sea. + +For a time that seemed interminable he hung about that outer stretch, +awaiting a further sound of the voices. They did not come. Once more +at last he paddled silently inward, finally worming, as before, to a +prostrate position on the raft. The chant of the head-hunters came +again, as if from the depths of the jungle. + +"Now, if ever!" muttered Grenville, half aloud, and impelled by a new +and reckless desperation, increased by his thirst and his impotent rage +at the creatures still feeding the fumes that Elaine could not avoid, +he sent his craft swiftly landward, thankful, at least, for the mild +disturbance of breaking ripples on the shore that would drown what +slight noises he might make. + +Tempted to moor his float outside the estuary, he readily agreed it +might thereby lead to his discovery, and must, as a matter of fact, be +completely concealed in the shadows of the pool. Excited now by the +possibility that his catamaran, with the oars and rowlocks, might still +remain in its former harbor, he was doomed to prompt disappointment on +gaining the estuary basin. There was nothing whatsoever in the place. + +His jugs and paddles he had placed upon the sand. It was only the work +of a moment to draw his float across the bar and gently thrust it away +from sight beneath the overhanging verdure. Then he stood there, +knee-deep in the water, straining his ears for the slightest sound of +the Dyaks stirring in the thicket. + +Only the drone of a halting voice was wafted to the place. In silence +he concealed his paddles, and took up his jugs, to wade with the utmost +caution up the pool, towards the spring that formed its source. The +water about him was brackish, from its mixture with the tide. + +Deeper and deeper grew the basin. The water had risen to his waist. +He sank in steadily with every step, despairing now with the sickening +thought he might be compelled to swim. Such a task, with two filled +jugs, would be impossible, as he bitterly realized. But on he went, as +noiselessly as before. + +The water was now about his breast, and he held his jugs above it. +Something gently nosed against him--and gave him a start. Thoughts of +the tropic serpents so frequently inhabiting the water, chilled a thin +channel down his spine. Then he saw that the thing which might have +been a reptile head was the cork and neck of a bottle. He dipped down +and caught it between his teeth, more gratified in all his being than +if it had been a thing of gold. + +It almost seemed to the man like a sign that the tide of ill-fortune +had turned--the tide of luck. He had certainly passed the deepest +section of the estuary; he was rising on higher ground. + +To avoid the soundings of dripping water, ready to fall from his +clothing, he proceeded more slowly than before. When at length he came +to a strip of barren sand, he rested his jugs, withdrew the cork from +his bottle, and was gratified to detect the odor of stale beer, or +stout, which the thing had formerly contained. He rinsed it then and +there, to make it sweet, and crowded it into his pocket. + +When he once more took up his jugs, to resume his quest of drinkable +fluid, he was presently confronted by an exceptional tangle of the +shrubbery, arching the tortuous windings of the estuary's head. Here +he found himself obliged to pause and noiselessly bend back or break a +number of the slender branches before he could wade as before. + +He started some small nocturnal animal out through the growth, and the +rustling disturbance made by the beast was heard by the Dyaks beyond. +One of them called out sharply. To Grenville's complete astonishment +and dismay another man, barely a few yards off, replied with a species +of grunt. The fellow had come there, either to visit or to set a +snare, and must have believed he had frightened the animal himself. + +Sidney could hear him working now, as he leaned a bit closer to the +foliage, incapable of moving further while the hunter delayed in the +thicket. The fellow presently arose, as if to go. Instead, however, +he approached even closer to Grenville's place of concealment, and +Sidney oozed cold perspiration, helplessly occupied, as he was, with a +jug in either hand, and his cleaver still swung at his waist. + +To have moved, or attempted to place either jug in the water at his +feet, must have been fatal to his mission. Yet he felt convinced the +Dyak must fairly run against him, unless he could move to the side. +One of his shoes, moreover, was sinking deeply in slimy mire. + +That his balance must be overcome seemed well-nigh inevitable. A +branch from one of the larger trees that grew above him on the bank now +swept so forcibly against the other foliage as the Dyak hauled it +downward, to sever a twig for his trap, that Grenville's face was +lightly brushed. When the limb sprang upward a moment later, he pulled +his foot from the hole. + +It seemed to the man a quarter of an hour at least that the trapper +remained there, a few feet away, making one more sound, from time to +time, when it seemed at last he must have departed. When he finally +went, there could be no assurance he would not return again. +Notwithstanding this possibility, Grenville slipped furtively along +once more, disturbed to find how far towards the spring this narrowing, +sea-level neck of the inlet continued through the growth. + +When he came at length to a rise of the island, down which the trickle +from the spring had made its course, he found himself at the edge of a +small, grass-grown clearing, that could hardly be more than a stone's +toss away from the Dyaks' temporary camp. A small, deep basin, filled +with the precious water he sought, reflected a star at the zenith of +the heavens. It some way gave him hope. Of courage he had no lack. + +Noiselessly, but without hesitation, he crept forward to the place and +bent to drink, then to fill his bottle and jugs. At a snap that came +from the shadows beyond he looked up alertly, beholding through the +leaves a bright bit of fire upon the earth, with two of the Dyaks at +its side. Every accent of their halting conversation came clearly to +his ears. + +With his three receptacles filled at last, he began his retreat from +the place. He had barely vanished from the clearing, and come to the +cover of the growth once more, when the man who was laying the snare in +some pathway of the small jungle animals came back to complete his work. + +Grenville thought his arms must relinquish the holds in their sockets +before the unsuspecting hunter was content to leave the neighborhood. +The jugs, so long and silently held, were rested a moment on the bank, +when, at last, the moment did arrive when Sidney could dare retreat. +Then down through the stubborn tangle, once more, he moved like a +silent shade. With every yard thus placed between himself and the +natives by the spring, the hope in his breast increased. + +He came once more to the deeper estuary pool and, lifting his jugs to +his shoulders, waded cautiously forward, nearly up to his throat in the +tepid brine that smelled too rank for anything but swamp. He paused by +his raft, for a moment undecided as to whether he should place his jugs +in the braces lashed upon it, before he pushed it past the bar, or +after it should float on the tides. + +While he stood there, with a sense of exultation daring to warm in his +soul--an exultation centered on Elaine and the joy it must presently be +to see her thirst allayed--he suddenly stiffened at the sound of Dyak +voices, alarmingly near at hand. + +Retreating instantly, under the shadow of the foliage and against the +end of his raft, he placed one jug upon it, noiselessly, and put out +his hand to grasp at a branch to draw himself further from sight. + +But the branch on which he laid his grip was suddenly alive. It +writhed and lashed sharply at his knuckles until, with a shudder of +comprehension that he had clutched the tail of a snake, he flung it off +and knew it had glided away. + +He had no choice but to try again, and this time met with better +fortune. Out through the foliage, arranged thus hurriedly about him, +he peered towards the low bit of beach. There was no one in sight, but +beyond, on the sea, suddenly looming before him, and coming about to +face the protected inlet, a third of the Dyak sailing-boats, a new +arrival, manned by an additional group of head-hunters, nosed +gracefully up against the tide. + +Her anchor was cast, and there she rode, not twenty yards out from the +shore. + +Like shadowy demons from some world beyond, arrived on some mission +mysterious and tragic--some service of the foulest fiend in Hades--four +half-seen figures moved along the railing of the craft, destroying the +hope in Grenville's bosom. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +ADDITIONAL HEAD-HUNTERS + +The boatmen thus newly arrived off the estuary's mouth were proceeding +in a leisurely and confident manner to make themselves and their vessel +snug for the night, and Grenville had placed his second jug upon his +raft when, without a sound having come to announce their movements, two +or three Dyaks from the camp in the growth called some greeting or +challenge from the shore. + +That their words were interpreted in a friendly spirit by the shadowy +natives on the anchored boat seemed to Grenville entirely obvious. +There was something akin to cheer in the voices that replied across the +water. Every man was seen to halt at his work and come to the +shoreward side of the craft, to peer through the darkness towards the +beach. + +Three of the fiends with whom he had waged unequal battle now appeared +on the sand strip a rod from where Sidney was standing. Their backs +were presented as they called and gestured to the men beyond, and +Grenville identified the chief once more by the fellow's unusual height. + +Apparently an argument ensued, conducted, as to the shoreward end, by +the tall and dominant leader. He waved quick, eloquent gestures, +frequently towards the headland whence Grenville had come. That some +report of recent proceedings was being thus delivered there could be no +reasonable doubt. Expressions of astonishment, satisfaction, and a +diabolical glee came back in guttural staccatos from the blood-loving +creatures on the vessel. + +Grenville almost forgot where he was, and why, such indignation burned +in his breast as he grasped at the substance of the conference thus +held across the tide. Four more head-hunters, come to swell the +already heavily outnumbering forces of the island, was too much for +Heaven to permit! Against such odds and such diabolism, what possible +chance---- + +He smiled in a grim, sardonic manner at the thought that a fight +between himself and the now augmented Dyaks would ever again be likely, +with this boat anchored here before him, Dyaks camping in the jungle, +and no trail left by which he could reach the terrace and Elaine, even +could he creep away in the shadows and silence of the thicket. + +It appeared to him now that the chief on shore was becoming impatient, +or angry. He shouted orders and waved his hand down the length of the +island in a style growing rapidly more and more imperative, while the +new arrivals answered back in a stubborn and sullen dissatisfaction +that Sidney began to hope might lead to open rupture. Should one of +the factions war against the other, he would think these four boatmen a +Godsend. + +Even then, he reflected, the situation, as bearing on himself, might +present no altered aspect till all was decidedly too late. Should he +fail to return to Elaine with water to-night--she would doubtless never +see his face again. Should morning still find him hiding here--their +fates would have a sudden termination. And now, with this craft at +anchor in the current, so close inshore, there could be no chance to +escape around it unobserved, what possible alternative was offered but +to stand here, nearly to his waist in the water, aware that the +deadliest sort of snakes might be coiled within a foot of his hand? + +One of the Dyaks a rod away now sat upon the sand. The colloquy +continued. The domineering leader, waxing more and more imperious, +made gestures now in both directions. That what he imparted and +declared was again concerned with himself and Elaine, Grenville could +not fail to understand. He was puzzled, however, to determine the +reason for this lengthy contest of words. + +It occurred to his mind the dispute might have sprung from rival claims +as to sharing the trophies, when, at last, the defenders of the terrace +should no longer require their heads. The ghastliness of the +suggestion did not greatly disturb him; he was too far dulled and +wearied by things already undergone. + +When it seemed at last as if the verbal combat might result in a +deadlier feud, the matter between the land and water factions was +suddenly adjusted with accents amazingly mild from either side. +Considerably to Grenville's astonishment, the boatmen heaved up their +anchor, eased off their sail, and put about towards the farther end of +the island. + +The three men ashore called out additional instructions, presumably, +and followed for a distance down the shore. The boat was presently +gone from Sidney's view. He did not stir, though he ached in every +bone and muscle, from his long, hard session of suffering and toil, and +this cramp and strain of hiding. He was well aware that even the Dyaks +would soon be obliged, either to retrace their steps and return as they +had come, or force a way up through the jungle to cross to the island's +farther side. + +That the vessel would join the others, already at anchor behind the +second hill, he had finally comprehended with a wildness of hope his +heart could scarcely contain. The chief had undoubtedly ordered the +craft away from this particular anchorage lest it be too readily seen. + +With barely a grunt or two of conversation between them, the trio seen +before him on the sand now presently returned. They stood about the +estuary inlet for a moment, as if debating some second affair of +importance, then finally glided away. + +Even then Grenville stirred with silent caution, waiting with +heartbeats once more quickened lest he move too soon, and be discovered +after all. The place, however, was deserted. Stiffly, but none the +less eagerly, and alert for the slightest alarm, he coaxed his raft +from the overhanging shrubbery, urged it gently out across the bar, +and, hurriedly lashing his jugs to the braces provided, pushed away and +headed far out in the tide. + +The current had turned. It was flowing strongly towards the cliff, in +a certain impetuous manner that was far from being assuring. For +while, in a measure, it assisted Grenville's float, it swirled and +battled with other counter currents, into which he was helplessly +carried. His frail, narrow raft was not infrequently threatened with +disaster. + +Twice, for a second, he well-nigh despaired of righting before he +should sink or plunge end downward, capsizing himself and his jugs. He +was shot far outward from his course by one of the treacherous torrents +of tide, then rocketed straight for the rocks of the cliff by another. +His paddles were wholly inadequate for such a struggle; his arms +refused the demands that his will insistently made upon them. It +seemed as if he must break at some vital center of his being before he +at length was enabled to avoid a collision with the cliff. Then he +sank exhausted, obliged for a moment to pause and rest, when the tide +once more drifted him outward. + +Before he could rouse his flagging sinews to another effort, he had +floated by the cave. He was prodded to new desperation. The struggle +he waged to regain that rocky niche--only to have the whirlpool cast +him to the outside current as before, with his raft entirely +submerged---was enough to break his heart. + +Nothing save the thought of Elaine could have availed to spur him yet +once more to fighting vigor. He did fight again, till it seemed he +must topple like a man of lead, and sink almost gladly in the sea, with +a sense of welcome to its endless peace. + +A weak and staggering figure he presented when the landing was finally +achieved. He barely pulled his raft within the cavern. He had no +strength left to conceal it in the passage. + +Hugging his two heavy jugs of precious liquid, and also with the bottle +weighing down his pocket, he groped and stumbled slowly up the gallery, +pausing with ever increasing frequency to lean against the walls and +recuperate his strength. + +Elaine was aroused from a state of lethargy, where she watched and +listened at the upper door, by sounds that for a moment filled her with +alarm. That some noisily breathing animal was making its way up the +passage from the sea was her first half-waking impression. + +With a cry of relief and worry blended, she immediately understood. It +was Grenville's labored panting she had heard, where he would not call +for assistance for fear she should be alarmed. She caught up the torch +she had kept so faithfully alight for his guidance, and ran hastily +down to give him welcome. + +He was leaning against the wall once more, his mouth a little open for +the air his lungs demanded, his face drawn and white with his utter +weakness and exhaustion. In one keen glance Elaine comprehended his +condition. + +"Sidney!" she cried. "Oh! but why did you go? Why would you work so +hard to-night?" + +He could conjure no smile to his lips. "I love you, Elaine," he +answered. "It kills me to see you suffer." + +"Oh please--please don't," she begged him. Her eyes were brimming with +tears. + +He sank on the floor of the passage as he tried once more to raise the +jugs. And yet, when Elaine pounced eagerly upon the bottle full of +water, and pressed it to his lips, his stubborn resistance was once +more reasserted. He accepted a few sips only, then thrust it firmly +away. + +"That last little pull was steeper than I thought," he admitted, as he +forced himself to rise and set his jugs more carefully in the rocks +against the wall. "If you will oblige me by taking a drink of +water----" + +"Not now," Elaine interrupted, as self-denying as before. "I am not +the least bit thirsty. If you'll only rest--if you'll go to sleep----" + +"I shall go to no rest till you have taken a cup of water." + +She knew he would not. She drank from the bottle, perhaps three +ordinary swallows of the liquid, like nectar to her palate. + +"Good-night," he said, with a touch of his old-time brusqueness, and, +adding nothing more, he continued on to the barrier and out to his post +of duty. There he sank on a rock before the door to guard Elaine from +harm. + +Elaine, softly crying, went back at last to her couch. And some time, +deep in the silence of the night, she awoke sufficiently to creep to +the door, where she listened to Grenville, deeply sleeping. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +PLOT AND COUNTER PLOT + +The smoke that for two forbidding days had veiled and grayed the +headland, continued to drift from the jungle, when Grenville roused +from his slumber. + +He was much refreshed, yet had not entirely recuperated the strength so +drained in the night. The aspect of the barren rock, engulfed in the +fumes, was only what he had expected. He felt convinced that, like the +mistral of the Riviera, this wind would continue for three full days at +least. And the Dyaks were hardly likely to permit an abatement of the +smoke while it brought no discomfort to themselves. + +Apparently they had made no effort to bridge the gap that rendered the +trail completely useless. It was clear to Sidney's mind, however, that +so soon as they believed the adventure safe, they would swarm upon the +terrace, if for nothing else, then in search of heads and the treasure. + +With the possible development of an earlier plan in his mind, he +crossed at once to his cannon, loaded and primed in its bed, and began +to adjust a lot of loose stones above and upon it, to hide it +completely from view. The fuse he drew, meantime, aside, where he +meant to splice another length to its end. + +Elaine came out from the narrow confines of her gallery in the hope of +lending assistance. She was wearing the tiger's jeweled collar about +her slender waist. + +"I'm hiding the gun--masking our battery," Sidney informed her, +quietly. "Its muzzle is still unobstructed and pointed as before. In +case it seems wise to permit the Dyaks to climb up at last and look +about, I prefer they shouldn't steal our thunder." If he noted the +golden girdle, he made no unusual sign. + +Elaine was considerably puzzled. + +"But--why should we let them come?" + +"To convince them their prisoners have flown. It may give us a chance +to punish them harder, later on." + +"If a steamer would only come!" she said, turning vainly to the sea, +still shrouded from view. "Even a Chinese junk! Anything, almost, but +more of these horrible fiends!" + +"You see," continued Grenville, "I can make an imitation cannon, from +one of my bamboo lengths, and leave it here to fool them. They may be +led to think it the only gun we've had, and search no farther for our +ordnance. The smoke is likely to lift, I think, which is why I'm at +work before breakfast." + +He did not complete the arrangements of his ruse before they broke +their fast, however, since the making of an imitation cannon required +at least an hour. The last of their meat, save a little intended for +fishing-bait, was consumed with the insignificant remnants of their +fruit supply, and Grenville took time to catch one silvery fish from +the ledge in front of the cavern, as well as to gather a lot of the +mussels, for luncheon and dinner, before he returned to the terrace. + +Already the breeze was failing. There were streaks of highly +acceptable air interspersed with the billows of smoke. Not without a +certain impatience to have this business concluded before the veiling +fumes should leave the terrace entirely exposed to the penetrative +sight of the Dyaks, Grenville hastened the construction of his +imitation gun, to be left by the heap of stones. + +That a more convincing appearance of over-use might assist in creating +the desired impression, he selected one of the bamboo sections already +badly split. This he readily blackened by burning a handful of powder, +loosely, inside its muzzle. With a rude vent cut and similarly +treated, the affair was ready to be bound with discarded creepers, then +lodged in the rocks above the genuine bit of artillery still ready for +grim engagements. + +All that remained of the powder in his cave was carefully moved to the +passage, there to be most cautiously deposited, away from all possible +fire, along with his coils of fuse. Somewhat to his disappointment, +the northerly breeze seemed once more freshening as the morning hours +advanced. He had hoped not only for a lifting of the smoke, but +likewise to find the Dyaks' boat once more encircling the headland. + +Beyond transferring his water supply from the jugs to a number of +bamboo buckets, which permitted no waste by percolation, he had nothing +further to employ his time as the day wore slowly on. The heat in the +meantime was intolerable. The fish was roasted in an "oven" he +fashioned of the heat-retaining tufa. The mussels were likewise +"steamed" in their own exuding juices, occupying the large and +basin-like sea-shell for the purpose. + +It was not until nearly four in the afternoon that the wind definitely +veered. Grenville had noted the coming alteration that would clear the +hill of fumes in time to make all essential preparations for the Dyak +watchfulness. His furnace of fire was duly banked, to continue a +smoldering glow among the ashes without producing smoke. Elaine had +retired within the passage, and the entrance door to this secret +hiding-place was adjusted against the rock. + +Grenville remained upon the terrace. No less a degree of vigilance +than that previously exercised was, he felt, highly essential. +Concealed in the caves or rocks comprised by the former camp he could +not only guard against surprise by a bridging of the ruined trail, but +his view of the sea, that might once more be haunted by the Dyak craft, +was practicably without limit. + +Apparently the Dyaks, too, had been aware the breeze would serve them +no longer. The smudges in the jungle were extinguished. In a time +comparatively brief, after the shifting of the wind, no smoke at all +was visible. But during the final hour preceding sunset another phase +of fiendish ingenuity developed. + +The Dyaks began shooting arrows of fire all about on the summit of the +terrace. They were shafts made highly inflammable by means of resin +and pitch. Their flight through the air was not sufficiently violent +to extinguish their glowing ends. If they did not blaze upon alighting +on the rocks, they still retained sufficient heat and redness to ignite +a pan of powder. + +It was this that occurred to Grenville as he made up his mind that some +genius of diabolism among the new arrivals was doubtless responsible +for this effort to explode his magazine. His satisfaction with himself +for his foresight in storing his powder anew was his one real joy of +the day. He wondered how long this business might continue, and how +many of the enemy must now be reckoned with. + +As a matter of fact, with the four who had come under cover of the +night, there were nine unscathed by previous engagements. Also, it +was, as Grenville had suspected, one of the latest comers who had +counseled the use of burning arrows. Since the terrace defenders were +employing some dreaded explosive, the one course readily suggested was +to reach his supply with a brand of fire--and, perhaps, thereby destroy +its maker. In any event, deprived of this one deadly means of defense, +the whites could be readily slaughtered. + +Already the Dyaks had built a bridge, to be used, when the time should +at last arrive, for spanning that gap on the trail. It was not +impossible, many had urged, that the prisoners lodged on the headland's +summit were already either dead or dying. How they had managed to +survive so long, with no supply of water, was sufficiently mysterious. +Should they still be found alive another day--all the greater the joy +of bringing about the end! + +The Dyak plan for reaching the magazine had been too hastily concocted. +The supply of tarred and resined arrows was decidedly insufficient. +Less than a score had been sent to the top of the terrace when the last +was speeded on its way. But during the short remaining hour of +daylight, and even by firelight, after dark, the shafts accumulated +swiftly, against the coming of the dawn. + +Meantime to Grenville had come an inspiration. His one clear hope for +the morning was that more of the arrows might be shot from below to +make his plans complete. If the Dyaks were busy after dark, they could +scarcely have matched the fever with which he likewise toiled. + +Down to the cool, dry chamber of the cavern he had carried no less than +eight of his largest bombs, with coil upon coil of his fuse. Two mines +of four bombs each he planted, concealing all with rocks. From each of +the mines one fuse only was laid, to the inner angle of the passage. +Each bomb had a shorter bit of fuse thrust in a handful of powder, to +which the two main fuses led. The lines were carefully protected, not +only against discovery, but as well against himself, or his boots, as +he tramped back and forth from the cave. When this arrangement had +been made complete, he could do no more in that direction till his +favorable hour should arrive. + +His next attention was directed to his bamboo float, which had been +practically dismembered. He had utilized the heavy stems to construct +a long and narrow platform, with two rude hooks lashed on the end to +engage a rung of his ladder. This ladder he not only lowered down from +the wall to a position in front of the cavern's opening, securing its +end with more than ordinary caution among the rocks he piled upon it, +but also he had tested the length, and every rung, by extending his +platform across from the ledge and climbing from the sea to the terrace. + +It was midnight before his final preparation was complete. This had +been simply arranged. He had carried a canister of powder to the +outside rocks, considerably back of Elaine's former shelter, together +with two small bombs. The powder he laid in a six-foot ring, or +spiral, that narrowed towards the center, merely to provide a lasting +and widespread flash when at length it should be ignited. + +The bombs were placed near by, simply laid in a cave of no considerable +dimensions. Their fuses were trailed across the rocks to a place of +observation, and were opened out in such a manner as to fire both the +spiral and the noisy but harmless explosives. + +Despite his nervous tension and the worry occasioned in his mind, lest, +the Dyaks fail of their allotted part, Grenville finally slept as +soundly as a boy, when at length he could work no more. But Elaine, +strangely tingling with apprehension, concerned with the part that she +must likewise play to render his plans effective, had not Sidney's +weariness to overcome her nerves, and therefore rested badly. + +For long she lay there, listening, as always, to the silence enfolding +the island, thinking how fair it had really been when the wail alone +had been with them, and wondering, eagerly wondering, if by chance her +companion of the hours both bright and dark had noticed the girdle she +was wearing. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +A LIVING BAIT + +The morning dawned in beauty, a few clouds riding with thistle-down +lightness athwart the illimitable dome of blue, as intense as that of +the sea. A light breeze stirred in the jungle, to wander aimlessly +from one deep chalice of fragrance to another, before it trailed across +the hill. Sea tang arose from the restless tide, that washed at the +cliff incessantly. + +As far as sight could pursue the richness of its causeway, the sun laid +gold in glittering mosaic across the tropic ocean. Never had the +sparkling waves seemed brighter, the world more promising, as Elaine +peered forth through her chink in the door, awaiting--God only knew +what. + +She had never been more excited, and rarely more alarmed. The unknown +element in Grenville's plans kept her nerves at the highest tension. +They had eaten a breakfast solely of fish before the light of daybreak. +Grenville had carefully closed the passage barrier, and crept out upon +the terrace. On no account must she open the door, or call him, to her +side. She must wait, and not even expect to hear a report of what was +occurring. + +The longest cord she had ever helped to braid was lightly secured to +her arm. Its farther end was tied in the rocks at the lower exit of +the passage. Until she should feel his tug upon this signal line, she +could only imagine that Sidney was near, or, perhaps, was climbing down +his ladder. + +She dreaded the thought of that ladder, so frailly depending above the +rocks and water, not to mention all its use might mean when the time +for the signal should arrive. And she might be obliged to wait all +day, as Sidney had warned her, duly--all day, while the wildest, the +most tormenting of conjectures would leisurely elaborate themselves in +her brain to convince her that Sidney was no more. + +Should he fall from the cliff, should he chance to underestimate the +Dyaks' treacherous activities--should any one of a dozen possible +calamities occur--how long must she wait till she knew? + +Meantime Grenville was barely less keyed to excited expectancy than +Elaine in her prison-like retreat. Times without number he goaded his +mind to review once more the inventory of his scheme, where the lack of +one small detail might prove his entire undoing. Yet, after all, there +were a few links only in the chain, though each was vitally important. + +He counted them over carefully--the signs or proof of calamity, here on +the hill, to convince the head-hunting demons his magazine was gone, +and with it all possible defense; the ladder and platform down below, +whereby he could reach the cave; the bombs for the climax, should his +hope succeed; and fire for their certain ignition. + +He had taken a double precaution to provide himself with fire. Down in +the passage several brands were smoldering slowly in their ashes, while +others did the same on the hill. He could think of nothing +lacking--not even the cord to warn Elaine to open her door and flee +outside when at length he should give her the signal! + +But as if in mockery of all this careful business, the day began with +never a sign from the jungle. The Dyaks, he feared, had altered their +plan, and might shoot no more of their arrows. He could not have known +they were waiting for the breeze to freshen and fill a certain sail. +One of their boats had been prepared and manned to police the headland +as before. + +When Grenville at length beheld it, gracefully sharp and picturesque, +as it rounded towards the master cliff, he was filled with conflicting +emotions. He had wished for this, precisely, but not without the rest. +The arrows first, had been his hope, and then this silent vulture, +atilt in the purple tides. + +The arrows presently arrived. He was still engaged in watching the +movements of the boat, in an effort to count the crew, when the first +of the flaming messengers struck dully against a bowlder and lay there, +fiercely blazing. + +Then the sudden flight, which, against an inky background, must have +presented an extraordinary spectacle, afforded a sight strange enough, +as Grenville presently conceded. The pitch and resin with which the +shafts were tipped, burned with a black and heavy smoke, that trailed +in their wakes like nebulous tails of cloud-producing comets. There +were some of the flames that the flight only served to fan to fiercer +heat and color. Like a candle sputtering in a draught they sounded as +they flew. + +Others that lost their yellow blaze smoked the more blackly in the air. +In half a dozen different spots the hotly burning lengths of wood were +soon consuming bits of scattered leaves and grass, one almost at +Grenville's feet. + +He was soon convinced that, should this rain of fire be long continued, +he should have no need to fire his bombs and spiral. The arrows would +actually accomplish the mission for which they were intended. He had +no wish for a premature climax to the singular attack, but rather hoped +to create the impression he was fighting desperately to protect his +magazine. + +When a heap of waste and useless creepers was presently ignited, he ran +from his place and promptly beat it out. He wished he might be seen. +He was gratified without delay. The rifleman, posted, as on previous +occasions, in the rocks that crowned the second hill, promptly +discharged his erratic weapon, and nearly killed one of his kind. + +Grenville ran as if to cover. A shout of exultation came from below. +A larger and swifter flight of the blazing shafts immediately ensued. + +Sidney now cast a glance about for the ship that was cruising by the +headland. Somewhat to his disappointment it had gone about as if to +return to the west, from which the cave, his platform, and ladder could +not, of course, be seen. He fancied, however, it had come up in stays +at the sound of the shot on the hill. It certainly appeared to be +paying off to continue about the headland. He dared not longer delay. + +The arrows were blazing all about him. He feared at last that one +lucky shot might even fire his cannon. Almost amused by the irony of +the situation, he caught up the nearest blazing shaft of fire, and used +it to light his fuse. + +In the briefest time the serpent of fire sped down through the hollowed +creeper to the spiral, where, also, lay the bombs. Of a sudden the +powder was ignited. + +With a flash of quickly leaping flames and a grayish geyser of fume, +the destruction began. Then, as a cry of glee arose from the clearing +below, the bombs went off in quick succession. + +They made a splendid noise and smoke, scattering fragments of the tufa +far and wide, till a rain of the smaller pieces spattered thickly down +in the jungle. Grenville arose from his hiding-place, quite unharmed, +and ran about on the terrace crazily, holding his head between his +hands for the distant rifleman to witness his discomfort. + +The Dyak was overjoyed. He shouted in reckless delight to his kind, +who howled like a pack of wolves now certain of feasting. Yet they did +not emerge from their places of concealment, nor undertake to bridge +the trail, and immediately ascend the hill, as Grenville had somewhat +feared. + +He crept to a point of vantage, watching the clearing for a +demonstration which, much to his gratification, did not arrive. Back +once more towards the cliff at the rear he scuttled, beholding the Dyak +craft at last heading well around towards the cave. The moment was +ripe for his scheme! + +Hurriedly creeping to the eastern brink, with one of his firebrands +gripped between his teeth, he began a descent of the ladder. Halfway +down he paused for breath, and furtively watched, from the tail of his +eye, for the boat that should presently appear. + +It came within range of his vision silently, and down he continued as +before. He could only hope that he might have been seen, for never a +sound arose from the crew to make the matter certain. For, perhaps, a +distance of twenty feet he must have been plainly in view. The last +fleeting sight he caught of the boat, she was putting about with a +suddenness enormously exciting to his blood. + +That the Dyaks had seen him, and were now intent upon turning away +before he should turn and see their boat, and know himself discovered, +was an inescapable conclusion. A moment later he was hidden by the +ledge, and descended more at leisure, climbing inside the ladder +presently, where it hung well out from the overhanging shelf, and so +coming down upon his platform, with little or no exertion. + +Immediately on landing under the mouth of the cavern, he lifted the +platform bodily, disengaged the hooks from the ladder's lower rung, and +drew it behind him to the cave. The ladder itself he could not remove +without climbing up to the terrace and issuing forth at the hidden +door, which would doubtless prove fatal to his plans. + +He proceeded at once to his supplementary firebrands, in the larger +spread of the gallery. Here all was going well. He extinguished one +or two branches of the smoldering wood, to conserve the limited supply. +After that it was simply a matter of waiting. + +How long it would take for the boat crew to land, inform their fellow +head-hunters of what they had seen, and fetch the entire company to +capture him, here in the chamber, was not a matter for easy estimation. +He hoped it might happen soon. + +In this he was doomed to disappointment. The Dyak sailors had seen +him, clearly enough. They had hastened back to report this eminently +satisfying outcome of their tactics, and the nine eager fiends had then +and there commenced their counter scheming. But they meant to commit +no errors, assume no unnecessary risks. + +For, notwithstanding the fact they were fully convinced the white man's +explosives had been reached by their arrows and destroyed, they +retained a vivid memory of punishments inflicted by the gun, where one +more deadly hail of slugs might lurk to find them again. It was, +however, important that one or more men should mount the terrace, to +watch at the head of the white man's ladder, and even render its use a +fatal experiment, should the climber attempt to regain the summit by +its means. + +They began investigations cautiously--all noted by Elaine. Peering +breathlessly out at her narrow chink, her heart consumed with haunting +worries, lest Grenville had met with some accident when the bombs were +finally exploded, she now beheld a pair of the Dyaks in the clearing, +apparently exposing themselves as if to draw any latent fire from the +hill. + +As the minutes went by and trouble failed to come, their boldness +plainly increased. They were not particularly hurried, however, in +producing their bridge for the trail. When at length four natives +brought it from the jungle, Elaine's heart pounded in her breast like a +hammer forging at her soul. + +She had instantly recognized the bamboo platform. She thought that +Sidney ought to come--to know of what was occurring. But he did not +come, and could not leave his post below, where one of his fuses, he +had found, had opened and spilt out its powder. This he was feverishly +and gingerly working to repair, by the light of a glowing brand. + +Not for a moment daring to abandon her place by the door, Elaine felt a +horrible sense of weakness attack her entire system as the Dyaks +cautiously adjusted their bridge, while watching against a new surprise. + +That the four men now constantly visible must presently succeed in +placing the slender platform from one broken ledge to the other, to +mount in full possession of the terrace, Elaine could not fail to +comprehend. The impulse to creep from her hiding-place and once more +fire the cannon was fairly overwhelming. She was certain that Sidney, +with all his wonderful scheming, had never contemplated this! + +He had simply instructed her to wait--to remain in the passage, behind +the concealing barrier, no matter what occurred, till she felt at last +the tug of the cord on her arm. She felt she must obey, that even to +desert her post for the little time required to hasten down the gallery +and let him know of the dangers now about her might cost them +everything! + +Never had she in her life been subjected to such a trial as that which +presently developed. + +The Dyaks had spanned the gap where the ledge was broken. Two of them +crept a little forward on the bridge. It was now or never to fire the +gun, while the four were still in range. She dared not disobey the +order given by her chief. Suddenly darting past the spot where the +cannon had taken its toll before, the Dyaks gained the summit--and were +finally in possession of the camp! + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +LONG HOURS OF DOUBT + +Grenville had hoped to be able to hasten for a moment up the gallery +and assure Elaine that all was well, and the matter now merely one of +patience. + +His belated discovery that one of his fuses was deficient had somewhat +shaken his nerves. Except for this timely restoration, his whole +project must have been weakened, perhaps to absolute failure. His line +of fuse was necessarily long, to assure essential safety for himself. +He was obsessed with a fear that countless defects might have developed +in the long line of powder-loaded creeper since the day it was made and +laid away. + +In a fever of anxious searching, he examined practically every inch of +both the lines, meantime returning frequently to the cavern's mouth, to +guard against surprise. Before he felt certain the fuse could all be +relied upon to perform its part in the business, he finally detected a +Dyak boat attempting to go about and escape his possible observation +from the dark retreat, while obviously hovering near, to watch that he +did not escape. + +After that he dared not for a moment desert his post. And the longer +the expected Dyaks remained away, the more imperative became his +watchfulness and constant attendance at the cave. + +Meanwhile, up at her flimsy door, Elaine leaned affrightedly against +the chilling wall, no longer peering forth at the chink, but tensely +listening--listening for the sounds of feet above her head. All four +of the Dyaks were there on the terrace, and, therefore, a few rods only +from the passage in which she crouched, alone. + +There was nothing to see, save the platform and part of the trail, and +she dared not stand so close to the door, lest her very breathing, or +the beat of her heart, betray her presence at her post. + +When at length the unmistakable sound of beings on the rocks directly +overhead came dully down through the roof of pitted stone, she shrank +entirely down to the floor, her heart in a sickening flutter. Just to +have cried out Sidney's name and to run like a child down the passage +to his arms, would have been a relief so incredibly vast its comfort +could not have been measured. + +But she did not move. She still obeyed, like the faithful comrade in +arms she was, awaiting her portion, allotted by the Fates, though it +might be death in its most revolting form. + +What sounds were made by the Dyaks, in retreat from that particular +position, failed to come down through the rock. She was, therefore, +denied the abatement of her apprehension which she might otherwise have +known. She was thoroughly convinced that one of the fiends had been +posted above the passage opening to remain indefinitely on guard. + +The Dyaks had, however, concluded their examination of the terrace +rather promptly. There was almost nothing worth investigation. +Grenville's imitation cannon had served its purpose to perfection. The +head-hunters marveled that a gun so simply and readily constructed +could have wrought such havoc in their ranks. But they found no reason +to doubt it had been used, and they readily overlooked the small brass +piece so artfully hidden by the stones. + +They had lost no time in removing the bowlders that supported Sidney's +ladder. One or two only they suffered to remain--sufficient to anchor +the affair in place, yet permit their man to drop back in the tide, +should he intrust his weight to it. + +That the white man's powder magazine had been greatly diminished before +their flaming arrows completed its destruction seemed indisputable. +The bombs had torn out and blackened so much of a cavity that the +Dyaks' gratification was complete. It was scarcely possible, they +argued, that the man seen running crazily about had escaped a mortal +hurt. He had certainly summoned the strength to escape to the cave, +but there he might have died. + +All the waste sections of Sidney's bamboo were thrown with his cannon +and his flag-pole in the sea. A thorough search was made of Elaine's +former shelter, as well as of all the rock heaps on the place, for the +treasure the man might have taken from the cave and concealed about his +camp. + +Not until some time after noon did the visitors finally leave the hill +and disappear in the jungle growth to mature their further plans. +Elaine knew nothing of their departure. She still remained back in the +darkness of the gallery, and, therefore, neither heard nor saw the +movements made on the ledge. She was hardly less prepared than before +to see the door of the gallery rudely torn away at any moment, and the +hideous head-hunters confidently pouncing in upon her. + +Grenville, down in the blackness of the cavern, was hardly more easy in +his mind. The Dyaks had failed to appear before the cave. He realized +they might conclude to starve him to death in the tomb-like place, +rather than risk another of his traps. To return to the terrace was +out of the question. Not only might the natives be present, but, if +once he were seen, they must immediately realize he had some unknown +means of passage from the cave to the summit. + +That the ladder would be watched he was certain. It was also more than +likely, he was sure, the Dyaks would either cut through the strands to +weaken it, near the top, or displace the rocks he had heaped upon its +end. Reflecting that to pull it down while one of their craft was +cruising about the headland might convince them he had fallen in the +sea, he laid his platform out on the ledge for the purpose before the +terrace had been deserted. But the boat was not to be seen. + +At noon the sun beat down on the rocks about the cave with a hot, +intolerable glare. Grenville was weary, as well as thirsty once more, +and faint from lack of food. He dared not abandon the cavern now, +however, since any moment might find the Dyaks slipping to the open +niche to complete the deed they had vainly attempted before. + +Never had the long, sultry hours of afternoon dragged by more +tediously. Never had the man so vividly realized how much it meant to +be near Elaine, to hear her voice, to gaze in the depths of her eyes. + +It was not till the sun was about to set that his long, impatient vigil +was somewhat rewarded at last. The Dyak boat drifted barely in sight, +as he crouched there on the shattered ledge. + +Without a moment's hesitation, even as he saw that the craft was +beating back, as before, to the shelter behind the cliff, he ran out +his platform, dropped its end across a rung of the ladder, and cast a +heavy stone as far out upon it as possible. + +It hung there, solidly enough, for a moment, then slipped a foot--and +abruptly the whole writhing length came down, to land in the whirlpool +and sink. The platform, however, was recovered. Returning at once to +his place behind the wall, Sidney waited in new expectancy for the +Dyaks to appear. + +They did not come. The sun went down--and with it Grenville's hope. +The head-hunters feared him still! They must have determined some +trick was prepared against their invasion of the cave! He was utterly +sick with discouragement. His long, hard day, to say nothing of +Elaine's, had been spent like this, in vain. He felt he had merely +lost ground. The Dyaks were doubtless already in possession of the +terrace, where he could not attack them to advantage, since precisely +as soon as he made his appearance on the hill-top the passage must be +revealed. + +He clung to the hope that dusk would bring the murderous pack to his +stand--that they might have waited for darkness to sneak upon him +unawares. But the twilight faded into blackest night, with clouds +obscuring the friendly stars, and still no head-hunters came. + +When at length he was certain no native would dare intrust himself or +his boat to the treacherous maelstrom of the niche, he abandoned hope +for the night. Returning to the passageway, he closed its door behind +him, secured it with the bar, and groped his way upward through the +velvet gloom for a word of cheer with Elaine. + +He called to her softly as he came towards the top, and she hastened +down to meet him. She was certain something had gone amiss, but her +courage was sufficient to sustain almost anything, so long as she knew +he was safe. + +"Got a bit hungry," he told her, off-handedly. "Those chaps do keep +one waiting!" + +"Sh-s-s-sh!" she said, in a warning whisper; "I think they're just +outside." + +"You saw them come up?" he asked her, eagerly. + +"Four of them--after you fired the bombs. They put a bridge across the +hole, as you thought, perhaps, they might." + +"H'm," said Sidney, quietly, going to the door and peering forth on the +jungle. "They haven't gone down since?" + +"Not that I saw. I wasn't watching all the while." + +"You haven't heard them talking, near the door?" + +"No, oh no! I haven't heard a thing! I haven't known what to do--or +whether you were alive or dead. I didn't know what my duty was when I +saw them come up, and wanted to fire the cannon! I thought the day +would never end! Have you had to give up at last?" + +"Certainly not!" he assured her, cheerfully, aware from every accent of +her voice what tortures she had suffered there alone. "I must soon +return--and you must go to bed. I haven't the slightest idea they will +come before next high tide, about eight, or later, in the morning. +Meantime you did exactly right. They haven't the slightest notion of +this secret passage, you may be sure, or nothing on earth could have +kept them out. And they long since returned to their boats.... I +suppose you have had neither food nor water. A little hurried supper +for us both, and I must go down to the basement for the night." + +Elaine had removed the cord from her arm, and secured it by the door. +Sidney ignited a slender piece of torch-wood, by the smoldering brands +maintained in the upper passage. He carried it promptly around the +angle of the gallery, however, as an added precaution against the +escape of one revealing beam through the chink that pierced the barrier +facing the jungle world. + +The dinner they ate was neither warm nor comforting. Cold fish is +barely sustaining, while the tonic properties of water are scarcely +worth describing. Elaine, however, was enormously reheartened, thus to +have Sidney there again, and know he had suffered no hurt. She bade +him good-night when their meager repast was finished, with the bravest +cheer that Grenville had taken to heart for many a weary day. Then, +with the cord once more on her arm, she resumed her place by the door. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +THE HOUR OF CLIMAX + +Grenville made no attempt to sleep as the long night went laggardly by. +He dozed, from sheer weariness, now and again, with his back against +the rocks, but two or three times in every hour he rose from his place +to go out on the ledge, where he listened to catch the slightest sound +that might be made above the ceaseless lapping of the water. He would +then return to the gallery, assure himself the smoldering brands were +ready for use at any moment, and once more sit down to wait and nod. + +Elaine was equally sleepless. Far more than Grenville she feared night +treacheries on the part of the Dyaks from the jungle. The state of her +nerves, since the terrace was so readily accessible to the head-hunting +butchers, permitted no thought of sleep. Moreover, never since their +arrival on the island had Grenville so far exiled himself from her side +throughout a night. She had always felt protected heretofore, and upon +that protection had relied. + +As restlessly as the man below she came to the door, times without +number, to listen for sounds the jungle might surrender, as well as to +watch through the darkness for the slightest inimical sign. Not a +sound, however, did the night vouchsafe her straining senses; not the +slightest movement in all the world of shadows, life, and tragedy about +and below her position could her blazing eyes detect. + +She had never known a night so long, or one so haunted with fears. Her +imagination played cruelly upon her heart, picturing one dread scene of +butchery after another, with Sidney completely overwhelmed and finally +slain, while she, no longer desirous of life, awaited her fate in a +dumb and dulled indifference. She was certain the morning would never +dawn again, or, if it did, the one man pitted against these savages +might not even have time for one faint tug on the cord about her arm, +more like a farewell than a signal. + +It was a red and troubled break of day that finally reddened the +eastern sky, where clouds were banked above the sea. Grenville had +dozed for perhaps as much as twenty minutes. He awoke with a start +from lurid dreams in which he had fancied himself awake after +criminally oversleeping, only to find himself and Elaine pinned down by +a horde of the merciless brutes to whom human heads are trophies. + +The red of the sky for a moment confirmed some remaining disorder of +his thoughts. He had stumbled quickly to the cavern's mouth, from +which the sanguinary streaks and blotches, now painting the far horizon +and dully reflected in the sea, were confusedly presented. + +The coolness of the haunting breeze, that crept like a presence about +the silent island, restored him soon and cleared the mists from his +brain. He stood for several minutes, gazing listlessly forth, +disgusted with the outcome of the night. + +Once more he returned to the gallery to inspect his brands of fire. +And once again, on returning to the chamber, his inclination was to +prop his back against the wall and let himself sink in slumber. + +The dawn-light was slowly increasing. He watched it dully for a moment +more, and yawned as he stumbled heavily towards the utter discomfort of +his resting-place. + +Once more he adjusted his weary limbs upon the ledge, reflecting on +what expedient he must now adopt, since this, his _coup-de-main_, had +so egregiously failed. He thought he was planning brilliantly when he +once more fell asleep. The slightest of sounds that was foreign alike +to tide or breeze now failed to arouse his senses as his head came +forward on his breast. + +Not another sound was made where that one had strangely risen from the +front of the shattered ledge. Even the sharpest eyes would have been +for a moment tricked by the shadows of the rocky niche, where the tide +was darkly swirling. A fragment of the lower cliff then appeared to be +detached. + +It was simply Grenville's catamaran, with two or three natives upon its +deck, silently maneuvering to land. Back of it, just well off the +frowning headland wall, the bow of a larger Dyak craft appeared for the +fraction of a minute. + +The head-hunting fiends had arrived! They had chosen the hour when +exhaustion finally culminates and claims the helpless sentinel, heavily +dreaming that all is well! + +Aware that the slightest disturbance might warn their intended victims +in the cave, the Dyaks labored with the utmost caution to fetch the +float to the ledge. This they presently accomplished, fending it off +at a vital moment lest it scrape against the rock. + +Two of the half-clad demons now landed, their movements as sinuous and +silent as a serpent's. Instantly flattening down upon the tide-lapped +shelf, while the third of their party skillfully guided the catamaran +once more to the larger craft without, they waited as patiently as the +shadows, of which they seemed a part. + +The plans of the crew on the boat without had been matured with much +sagacity. The transfer of two more men to the raft was quickly and +noiselessly accomplished, and once again the catamaran was permitted to +swing on the tide's rotation into the open entrance of the inlet. + +This second pair, with knives between their teeth and hands therefore +unencumbered, were a trifle overeager to gain the mouth of the cave. +One of them caught at the fissured edge of tufa with avid fingers, +while the float was responding to the force of the whirl. His hold was +rudely broken, yet so sharply had he dug in his nails that a fragment +of rock was broken away. It plumped with a gurgle in the water. + +Grenville was suddenly awakened--not so much by the sound the bit of +rock had made as by something more subtle in the very air--a something +only to be interpreted by that instinct surviving from ages dark and +old. + +He was suddenly alive to a sense of imminent danger lurking fearfully +close at hand. None too soon and none too silently he rose to his +feet, for there at the ledge the catamaran was halted and, even as the +two impatient Dyaks landed, their companions came worming up the shelf. + +A moment more and all must have been too late, as Grenville clearly +realized. Indeed, with the utmost caution only could retreat to his +gallery be effected without a betrayal of his presence. He dared not +move swiftly from his post--and yet he must be quick! + +Slowly and noiselessly withdrawing from his place beside the wall, he +took one long step inwards, towards the door he must place against the +open gallery entrance. + +The dawn-light, redder and more intense, now cast an intangible shadow +in the chamber as a Dyak's head appeared above the ledge. The fiends +were all but on his heels! + +He slipped within the passage, without creating the slightest sound, +save the loud, tumultuous pounding of his heart. Lifting the door no +less cautiously into its proper position, he left a crack, that was +barely a half-inch wide, through which to watch his visitors, writhing +like so many pythons over the shelf and into the ebon well of gloom. + +Their plan was to crawl to the confines of the cave--unless they should +creep by chance upon their sleeping victims sooner, leaving a couple +crouched outside to prevent the quarry's escape. Torches were not to +be lighted until every man was posted, and then would be thrown to the +center of the cavern where their light would reveal the chamber's +occupants, while the outer rim of darkness still concealed the gleaming +knives. A counter attack would be rendered out of the question. The +cordon would be complete. + +Three of those strangely-moving shadows Grenville plainly discerned. +There was nothing more to be seen--and nothing to be heard. That +several Dyaks were almost at his feet he felt, but could not have +proved. He had hoped for half a dozen at the least. He hoped for them +still, and deliberately waited, trusting they might arrive. + +It seemed such a pity to waste his mines and not obliterate the lot! +He wondered if more of them might not come--then how he should know, if +they did. + +Meanwhile, the three not included here in the cave-attacking party were +equally active above. The red of the dawn had seen them advancing +through the jungle where they meant to take the hill and block the +retreat of the victims to that eminence by any chance of extra ladders +or white man's baffling magic. + +Elaine beheld them, through the strengthening light, so soon as they +crossed the clearing. They paused there as if for a signal, which they +may or may not have received. It gave the girl, who had watched with +an ever-increasing fever through the night and that blood-red dawn, a +long wild moment in which to imagine fates untold that must have +overtaken Sidney. + +She was certain at last he was murdered in the cave, and that now, with +the passageway finally known, the fiends, whose passion was taking +human life, had come to complete their tale of butchery and plunder. +Why else should they once more visit the hill at such an hour of the +morning? They had barely waited for the dawn to make certain of their +work! + +She saw them coming furtively up the trail, aware, she was sure, that +by means of the hidden gallery their movements might be seen. She had +held a wasting firebrand in her tense little fist for the past two +hours. And now--if only Sidney had told her what to do in such an +extremity as this! If only it might be her duty to fire the cannon! + +It seemed as if she must obey the impulse--and perhaps save both of +their lives! The Dyaks were almost at the bridge. They must soon come +fairly in range of the gun! After that--it would be too late! + +Below, in the cavern, during this time, Grenville was haunted with +doubts. He had waited in hopes other Dyaks would come, and not a sound +had rewarded his straining senses. He began to fear he had waited too +long--that the creatures whose shadows had crept within had searched +all the place and departed. + +Yet he knew that they could not have passed him and left him unaware. +The light was now all in his favor, and steadily increasing. With a +sudden determination to take what toll the Fates had offered, he groped +his way back to his brands of fire, and then to the ends of his fuse. + +Elaine, with her heart all but bursting, with excitement for which she +had no vent, saw the head-hunters pause on the slender bridge before +they crept upward as before. Her weight was leaned against the door +till it moved a little from its bearings. + +She was sure it had made some far-reaching sound that the Dyaks could +not fail to hear. They had paused again--and again moved up the +trail--and found her helpless. The cord on her arm!--if Sidney would +only pull the cord---- + +The sharp little tug that suddenly came now startled a cry from her +lips. Instantly thrusting away the door and bounding from the narrow +ledge to the upper level of the terrace, she ran towards the fuse with +her cone of fire, just as Grenville, down in the gallery of rock, came +madly plunging upward. + +He had lighted the fuse, and was groping towards the top, a fear that +he might be buried pursuing at his heels. He stumbled across the heavy +load of treasure, left in its basket by the wall. + +As one in an earthquake or fire clutches up something to save it, +instinctively, so he laid hold of this useless dross and tugged it +hotly up the passage. He reached the upper angle thus before he +realized the folly of his action. He was certain then, as he dropped +the load, that something had happened to his mines. + +Before this time---- + +With the thought half finished in his swiftly-working brain came the +thud and shock of his explosion--a tangible movement in the bulk of +rock--and then the cataclysm. + +Almost as one with Elaine's small detonation, the mighty jar, the +air-confounding concussion, the smothered boom, and the dizzying tremor +that swayed the hill, shook down the girl's bewildered senses. She saw +the red leap from the cannon's mouth--and saw three men, surprised to +inaction on the deadly angle of the trail--then down she went, her mind +convinced she had rended the island asunder. + +Sounds of colossal destruction stormed through the air for a time that +seemed to have no end. The roar of a cataract of broken stone, +confusedly toppling from estates erected by the ages, was lost in a +tumult of other sounds where the headland seemed to fill the sea. + +Dust of the rock and smoke of the rock ascended with fumes of the +powder. Tidal disturbances splashed and seethed where the sea, having +split to receive those tons of chaos, surged back with augmented +violence at this displacement of its waters. + +The cave had been blotted from existence! Its walls and its ceiling +had crashed from their several places. to leave only an ugly scar. +Whole towers of rocks, cleaved from the hill's main mass in sudden +violence, had hung in disordered ruin against the quaking air for a +second, then rioted downward on the Dyak boat to plunge it, rent and +shivered, to the bottom. + +Not a man of that murderous group below had survived the climax of that +second. The place that had once been a treasure tomb, with a wailing +"spirit" at its portals, was at last a very tomb indeed; but nevermore +would its tidal wail arise on the air to render the cavern sacred. + +Like a veritable spirit of underground destruction, Grenville emerged +from the passage, unaware of all he had done. His thought was only of +Elaine. He called, as he climbed to the terrace, but no glad little +cry made response. + +Then, abruptly, he saw her prostrate figure on the rocks--and beyond +her two men, with one limberly inert, limping blindly down the trail. +To dart to his store, snatch the last of his bombs, and pursue these +three who had threatened Elaine was the first wild impulse of his +being. Just one such blow, to follow up his victory, and perhaps they +should need no more! + +But he ran instead to the helpless figure near the cannon. He knew +what she had done. He took her up swiftly, calling on her name, and +carried her back to the former cave, where a rosy light from the risen +sun made it seem like a haven of promise. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +A LOTUS BLOSSOM + +It was still very early in the morning when Grenville finally +discovered, afar out northward on the sea, two Dyak boats making +swiftly away from the island. + +He feared for a moment, when the sails were first discerned, they were +new craft about to arrive. He could not have known that his mines sunk +the third of the boats formerly at anchor in the inlet, and was in no +way enabled to determine how many of the enemy had perished at the cave. + +It was almost too much to credit, this apparent retreat of the fiends +so bent upon his capture. He made no positive report to Elaine of the +fact he felt he must verify, lest he find himself obliged to retract it +later. + +She had quickly responded to his ministrations, having fainted as much +from lack of food and rest as from shock in that final moment. +Concerning the final effect of her shot, she was destined never to +know. Grenville was far too wise to let her believe she had taken the +life even of a fiend in human semblance. + +He told her the Dyaks had fled from the place, which flight he had +personally witnessed. He was certain, moreover, they would hardly +return again that day, if they did not quit the island. Assured of the +safety of the adventure, he descended to the jungle and returned with +an armful of fruit. He proceeded later to the spring for a fresh +supply of water. + +Estimating the final fighting force of the Dyaks at ten, and conceding +that five, at the least, must have perished at the cave, since one or +two must have guarded the boats while three were searching the chamber, +he concluded that no more than four at the most could still remain +uninjured. + +He had gone to the edge of the ruin, above the obliterated cave, and, +having discovered no boat either near or far, had arrived at a fairly +accurate conjecture respecting the fate of the craft the Dyaks had +employed. One more calculation, respecting the number of able seamen +required to navigate the retreating vessels, convinced him the island +was deserted to the uses of Elaine and himself. + +It was not, however, till that afternoon that he cautiously explored +their former possessions and confirmed the hope in his breast. There +was ample evidence about the spring, and in the jungle, of the methods +of living the Dyaks had employed, but neither at the western inlet, +back of the central hill of rock, nor at the friendly estuary, was +anything boatlike to be found. His catamaran had vanished, along with +the larger craft, and its fate he could readily surmise. + +He lost no time in arranging a number of his snares and traps for the +meat of which they were in need. Their camp was made as before on the +terrace proper, despite the heat of the sun. + +It was not until many of these essential comforts had been once more +established that Sidney explored the gallery to determine what +destruction had been wrought by his double mine. + +Everything stored in the lower depths had been hopelessly buried by the +rock. The passage was open for no more than half its former length. +His bamboo raft was among the possessions sacrificed to the ruse that +had finally succeeded beyond even his wildest dreams. Not ten feet +back of his basket-load of treasure the last of the caving had been +halted. + +When Elaine's robe and couch, their water-jugs, and his last remaining +bomb had been once more returned to the earlier camp, practically +nothing but the gold and precious stones remained in the gallery. +Elaine was aware the trinkets were lying there on view, but so vast was +her relief at the vanishment of danger--though it might be temporarily +only--she had no desire for gauds and baubles, and no particular +curiosity respecting their worth or appearance. + +Indeed, these two had endured too much to dwell upon jewels and gold. +They were free from menace for a time, but--the future still loomed +before them, inimical and obscure. Their life in this tropic exile was +still to be faced, day after day. + +That morning and long sweet afternoon, however, they passed in restful +inactivity, possessed by ineffable thankfulness and a sense of relief +that was utterly relaxing to their racked and exhausted nerves. It +seemed a strange, impossible state, this peacefulness, security, and +freedom to move about once more, alone in their Shalimar. And +Grenville knew it was far too good to last. + +Yet for several days it seemed as if the propitiating Fates made every +possible endeavor to erase from the tablets of their memory all records +of the agonies and apprehensions they had recently undergone. + +They were wonderful days, for sheer inspiriting beauty. A cool, spicy +breeze was wafted, with the sunshine, across the smiling ocean. The +jungle was redolent of fragrances of intoxicating sweetness. Down on +the beach her leafy bower once more found Elaine idly resting in her +hammock, or busily preparing a tempting repast from the once more +generous larder. + +The girdle of gold she continued to wear in happiness that stole +unbidden to her heart--a happiness as subtle and welcome as the +perfumes that stole to her senses on the breeze. And when she finally +found and plucked a solitary lotus blossom, floating near the estuary's +edge, it seemed as if the ecstasy possessing all her nature must bring +about some miracle of untold joy and bliss. + +Grenville was hardly less transported by the hourly pleasures that day +and night alike seemed bearing to this island world, like argosies from +Eden. Subconsciously, beneath it all, he knew the boats that had +sailed away would one day return, perhaps with more of their species, +and better prepared for a swift and merciless revenge. Yet even then +he was slow to employ his wits and energies to prepare for another +siege, his disinclination for more revolting ordeals casting a lethargy +on all his fighting attributes, while days like these, voluptuously +serene and toxicant, suggested vast contentment to his spirit. + +Indeed, his spirit as well as his body needed rest. To this he was +constantly urged by Elaine, who understood, far better than himself, +how unsparingly he had drained the vital essences of his being through +all these uncounted weeks. + +She, too, was aware they were only secure for a moment, that untold +dangers must be lurking just beyond the rim of their purple horizon. +She had finally learned from Sidney's lips how the vessels had sailed +away. She had, however, seen this sign of security previously +fail--and felt it would fail again. + +The future her soul avoided. Darkness and tragedy were only too +readily imagined. At best it was all uncertain, rife with shadows, +peopled with ghosts of doubt and haunting dreads. Meantime, their own +green Shalimar was once more fresh with sunny smiles that enticed her +spirit to song. + +She sang to herself through many hours of joyous "household" duties. +The songs she chose were happy little fragments wherein she imagined +Grenville set, with herself always traipsing at his side. She sang her +songs to and of him, watching him shyly when he was near, and sending +her thoughts to seek him out when he hunted or wandered in the jungle. + +It was not until one of those incomparable mornings, with the tropic +greenery fresh as a breath over clover, that he finally heard the notes +she had prisoned in her bosom break forth in clear, sweet utterance, as +crystal bright as the sun. + +He paused in the screen of ferns and palms to partake of her wild, +sweet rapture. And how lightly and gladly she sang! + + "_Come out, come out, my dearest dear, + Come out and greet the sun! + The birds awake on tree and brake, + The merry May's begun!_ + + "_Come out and drink the diamond dew, + Come out and tread the lea! + The world is all awake, and you + Are all the world to me!_" + + +All that was starved in his nature stirred in response to the song. +His blood leaped faster, its glow like that of rich and +sense-delighting wine. A vivid memory of the one lawless kiss he had +dared to snatch from Elaine's red lips inflamed a sweet desire. + +He had called her his sweetheart, called her his mate, for the frenzy +of joy, the ecstasy, her nature had wrought upon his own. He felt +to-day his claim had been proved, by their life alone with God. They +had worked and fought and planned the days away together, like a mated +pair fresh created and cast to an Eden of the sea. They belonged to +one another. + +Love had come at last to Elaine--a love to match the strength and +purpose of his own--a love overwhelming, natural, unabashed--was their +rightful heritage. Its holiness gave it sanction; its rightness made +it as pure as fire that makes hard metal molten. + +He started slowly towards the hill whereon Elaine was busied. He +halted, however, hidden from view by a new banana foliage, wondrously +unrolling. Another song was floating on the air. + + "_Pale hands I loved, upon the Shalimar, + Where are you now? Who lies beneath thy spell? + Whom do you lead on rapture's roadway jar + Before you agonize them, in farewell?_ + + "_Pale hands I loved, upon the Shalimar, + Where are you now? Where are you now?_" + + +The mad intoxication of his senses rocked him strangely, there in the +thicket. He saw the gleam of the jeweled girdle that spanned Elaine's +lithe figure, as she moved about on the brink of the terrace above. +Once again his heart struck mightily against its walls, as it had the +first day she had worn this gold, by way of a maid's confession. + +He knew at last her Shalimar was a wild little garden of love, to be +sacredly shared between them. Excited to trembling he started again to +join her at the cavern. Before he could come to the foot of the trail +she suddenly ran to the terrace-edge, looking down like a vision of +despair. + +"Sidney!" she cried, "another Dyak boat! I've just this minute seen +the sail!" + +Ready to curse the merciless Fates, as well as his own recent laziness, +which had made calamity possible, Grenville ran swiftly up the mended +trail and followed Elaine to the tree. + +The sail was certainly plain enough to see, far out in the purple +waters. It was, to all appearances, bearing directly down upon the +island. But, as Grenville watched, it altered shape. His face showed +a sign of relaxing. + +"I don't believe it's a Dyak craft," he told her, hoarsely. "It looks +like---- I think it's a yacht." + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +THE LAST BOMB + +It certainly was a modern yacht that the two of them saw, straining +their eyes to identify the stranger roving afar in their waters. + +A trick of the sun, or perhaps her paint, had concealed both masts and +funnel for a time, presenting only a rakish angle of her prow and +quarter, incredibly like a sail of the shape the Dyaks employ. + +But, if eager excitement surged uninterruptedly through the pulses of +the two ragged exiles, there on the barren headland, the bitterness of +vain disappointments promptly began their inroads to its centers. The +yacht was not only in great apparent haste, but was heading far off to +the eastward, with not the slightest curiosity respecting the tiny +island of whom no one could give a good report. + +The flagpole was gone--and a new one had been neglected. There was no +time now to erect another, as Grenville realized. He stood with Elaine +on the brink of the rock, frantically waving his arms and cap, and even +a large banana leaf, while the slender distant visitor came abreast +them and continued straight ahead. + +"They've got to see! They've got to!" he cried, in the desperate +plight of mind begotten by this promise thus mercilessly snatched away. + +Suddenly abandoning all other possible devices, he ran to his powder +"magazine," where the last of the bombs was stored. He came with it +hugged against his breast, in thoughtless and dangerous proximity to +the firebrand clutched in his fist. + +"Run back!" he said. "I haven't time to make it thoroughly safe!" + +But Elaine remained to see him lower it down on the broken rocks, where +the cave had formerly existed. She waited, indeed, till he lighted the +fuse and drew her away towards the shelter. + +His eyes were on the distant yacht, fast fading once more from their +vision. The bomb must have failed. The fuse was deficient, he was +sure. He started back to recover the thing and make it certain of +explosion. + +Then it burst, and flung shattered fragments along all the face of the +wall. + +Grenville was watching the distant yacht with fixed, almost frenzied, +expression. + +"They haven't heard!" he groaned, despairingly. "They're going faster +than before!" + +It certainly seemed as if the hurried stranger would no more halt than +would a fiery meteor overdue at some cosmic appointment. + +Then of a sudden, from its bow, broke a pure-white cloud of smoke. She +had answered with the small brass piece employed to fire a salute. Her +prow was turned before the sound came dully across the waters. Sobbing +and laughing together, in sudden relief, Elaine sank down on her knees, +among the bowlders, to watch this deliverance come. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +A GIFT REFUSED + +The yacht was the "Petrel," luxurious hobby of Sir Myles Kemp, diverted +from her homeward course by the merest whim of her owner to run up +northward for a day while Sir Myles should inspect the rubber +plantation and estate of his old fellow-officer, Captain Williams, who +was not even present at the place. + +The inspection was never made. The utter amazement occasioned by the +chance discovery of the exiles of Three-Hill Island, plus their story +of its fateful occupation, completely overshadowed all else in the +minds of the "Petrel's" commander and crew, whose one idea was to +assist the castaways home with the greatest speed of which steel and +steam were capable. The picture the pair presented as they came +aboard--Elaine amazingly tattered, a supple, tanned, incredibly sweet +and womanly little figure--Grenville, a bearded, active master of the +wild, clad in the skin of a cheeta for a coat, and bearing a richly +colored tiger-skin, rolled up to contain a hundredweight of +treasure--was one that Sir Myles was destined never to forget. He was +likewise always destined to misunderstand the emotions with which, as +they steamed away at last, Elaine looked back, with tears in her eyes, +at the unpeopled Isle of Shalimar, so green in its purple setting, +presenting its headland to the sea with that lone tree reared above its +summit. + +Grenville, too, had seen her eyes--and he more nearly comprehended. + +By great good-fortune much of Lady Kemp's wardrobe had been left aboard +the yacht. She and Elaine must have been of a size, to judge from the +manner in which her yachting apparel and her dainty boudoir adjusted +themselves to the form of the girl whom Sir Myles began forthwith to +treat as he might a daughter. + +The "Petrel" was put about and headed for Colombo--the nearest port at +which an Orient steamer would be likely to be encountered. It was not +until after dinner had been served and his guests had been made as +thoroughly comfortable as warm-hearted hospitality, admiration for the +two of them, and exceptional thoughtfulness could compass that Sir +Myles related the accepted fate of the "Inca," from the wreck of which +they escaped. + +The news had gone forth that she foundered, and not a soul was saved. +A few insignificant pieces of wreckage had been found afloat, far from +the unknown ledge of rock the earthquake had lifted in the sea, but no +one till now had heard so much as a theory as to what had been her fate. + +That some such intelligence must have been sent to the worried and +waiting relatives and friends beyond the seas, both Grenville and +Elaine had long before comprehended, despite the preoccupation +engrossing their minds all these many age-long weeks. But now, when at +length they were homeward bound, the facts presented an aspect which +there had been no occasion to prepare against while struggling for +existence on the island. + +There was one thought only in their minds. It was Fenton, and what he +might have done when that news had expended its shock. And what would +be the outcome of the story, now that the home-coming journey was +resumed--now that he, Sidney Grenville, could at last complete and +discharge his original commission? + +He faced the business hardly more calmly than did Elaine. No argument +possible to him now, respecting the warning Fenton had received, +availed to allay and satisfy his haunting sense of honor. The man had +matured on Shalimar, and his soul had been refined. + +But what strange days those were that now succeeded! How they robbed +him of his happiness, as they brought him nearer home! His spirits +sank and would not rise, the nearer Colombo was approached. He told +himself then, once he could wire, acquaint Gerald Fenton with the fact +they were safe, and would soon be with him, he would come to some peace +of mind. + +But, when at length the wire was sent, he experienced no such relief. +Relief, indeed, had failed to come when for three days and nights the +Orient boat had been plowing across the Indian Ocean, rushing headlong +from the tropic heat to the distant ports beyond. + +He thought, perhaps, if he informed Elaine, the business would be +settled. He attempted that day to introduce the subject, but in vain. +Elaine was so sparklingly happy! He postponed the ordeal for the night. + +The moon had returned to the skies again, bringing to the wanderers +ineffable memories of other nights, when peace lay tranquilly fragrant +on the world of their Shalimar. He detected its subtle influence on +the ever-vivacious little woman who had shared his perils and his joys. + +Elaine was softly thrilling to the spell of it all as she halted beside +him, finally, on a strip of the deck abandoned to their uses. She felt +that the atmosphere was overcharged, and wondered what might be +impending. To still the pounding of her heart she leaned on the +taffrail, ecstatically in touch with Grenville's arm. She spoke of the +wonder of the night. + +"Yes," drawled Grenville, in his old dry way, "great facilities here +for manufacturing nights---- I wired Gerald from Colombo." + +For a moment Elaine was puzzled by this wholly irrelevant remark. Then +her heart began to rock uneasily. + +"You--wired we were coming home?" + +"Wired I was fetching you home, after unavoidable delay." + +She recognized the difference between the way that she and he had +expressed the principal fact. She felt herself, as it were, already +surrendered to a man grown singularly foreign to her nature. It seemed +to her incredible that Sidney and she should ever again be parted, or +work out their several destinies in any manner save +together--especially after all he had said and even done. + +"Was that--all you said?" she asked him, faintly. + +"No. I said I'd be best man--or something of the sort." + +Elaine felt something leaden go down to the point of her heart. + +"You wanted him to know that you had no idea---- You wanted Gerald to +understand----" She could not finish her sentence. Her face was hotly +flaming, but at least she could turn it away. + +Grenville's voice was hard and strange. + +"It was barely his right to know that we were coming. I could do no +less, as you'll certainly agree." + +His speeches were constrained, unnatural, as Elaine had instantly felt. +Her own were scarcely less embarrassed--after all these months when +their entire world had comprised themselves alone. It seemed a +monstrous error that anything but free, unfettered companionship and +candor should exist between them now. + +"I know," she said. "Of course." She added, after a moment, "It seems +so peculiar, that's all--to--resume as we were before." + +He was looking at his fist, for no good reason in the world. + +"It is what you have hoped for every day." + +"To get away from the Dyaks--why, of course." + +Another silence supervened. After three unsuccessful efforts at +speech, Elaine at last found the voice and the courage for a question: + +"Do you wish to be--best man?" + +Grenville spread out his fingers, for further inspection. + +"I probably shouldn't have suggested it otherwise." + +She turned upon him impulsively. "Sidney, are you absolutely honest?" + +"Oh, I wouldn't trouble old Diogenes to get out of his grave and look +me up," he answered, in his customary spirit, "but I've got a faint +idea what honor means." + +How well she knew his various manners of evasion! Her heart was +pounding furiously. She leaned with all her weight against the rail, +as if for fear he must hear its clamorous confessions. + +She had never been so excited in her life--or more courageous. +Likewise she felt she possessed certain God-given rights that were +poised at the brink of disaster. For a love like hers comes never +lightly and is not to be lightly dismissed. Her utterance was +difficult, but mastered. + +"One night--in the smoke--on the island--when we might have died of +thirst--and you came with water---- You remember what you said?" + +"Concerning what?" + +"Concerning--love." + +He was gripping a stanchion fiercely; his fingers were white with the +strain. + +"Vaguely---- I think I was exhausted." + +"Oh! you're not--you're not honest at all!" she suddenly exploded. +"That day of the wreck--on the steamer--you know what you said to me +then! And any man who has acted so nobly, so thoughtfully----" + +He turned and gripped the small, soft hand by his coat-sleeve on the +rail. + +"Don't do it, little woman--don't do it!" he said, in a low voice, +charged with passion. "You told me some stinging truths that day, and +now--they're truer than ever!" + +"I didn't!" she said, no longer master of her feelings. "I didn't tell +the truth! I said I hated--said I loathed---- And you _said_ I'd +throw his ring in the sea--and you said you'd make me--like +you--some--and you know that I couldn't help liking you now--when +you've treated me so horribly all the time! And after everything we've +done together----" + +"Elaine!" he interrupted, hoarsely, "when did you throw away his ring?" + +"After the tiger--the night I gave you the cap, and you acted so +hatefully and mean! It bounced and went into the water." + +He was white, and tremendously shaken, while gleams of incandescence +burned deeply in his eyes. How he stayed the lawless impulse to take +her to his arms he never knew. He dropped her hand and turned away, +with a savage note of pain upon his lips. + +"Good Heavens!" he said, "why don't you help me a little? I had no +right then! I have no right now! ... I'm going to take you home to +Fenton, if it's the very last act of my life!" + +She, too, was white and trembling. + +"I know what you mean--you _never_ loved! You don't know the meaning +of the word!" + +"All right," he said. "We'll let it go at that." + +"Oh, you're perfectly horrid!" she suddenly cried, the hot tears +springing to her eyes. "I refuse to be taken back to Gerald! I refuse +to have anything more to do with any selfish man in the world!" + +She retreated a little towards the saloon, her two hands going swiftly +to a gleaming band that all but spanned her waist. + +"And there's your old girdle, with Gerald's ring, that you made me +throw away!" she added, flinging the tiger's collar towards the sea. + +It struck on a stanchion, bounded to the deck, and settled against a +near-by chair. She waited a second, instantly ashamed, and longing to +beg his forgiveness. But he leaned as before against the rail, his +eyes still bent upon the water. + +Weakly, with drooping spirits, Elaine retreated through an open door, +still watching, in hopes he would turn and call her back. Then, +stoutly suppressing her choking and pent emotions, she fled to the +dismal comfort of her stateroom, and, falling face downward in her +narrow berth, surrendered to the vast relief of sobbing. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +A FRIEND IN NEED + +That one more shock of surprise could overtake the returning castaways +before the final landing could be accomplished would have seemed +incredible to either Grenville or Elaine--and yet it came. + +They had spent a number of wretched days--days far more miserable and +hope-destroying than any their dire experience had brought into being, +as the mere result of that final scene enacted in the moonlight by the +rail. + +The steamer had touched in the night at some unimportant, outlying port +of call to which no one had paid the tribute of interest usual on the +sea. A single male passenger had boarded. + +The man was Gerald Fenton. The message dispatched from Colombo had +fetched him, post haste, to this midway ground for the meeting. But +the meeting occurred in a manner wholly unexpected. + +Like the wholly considerate gentleman he was, Fenton had made all +preparations for removing the startling elements from the fact of his +presence on the boat. Like so many of life's little schemings, +however, the plans went all "aglee." + +Elaine not only did not linger in her stateroom in the morning late +enough to receive his note from the stewardess, but, when she hastened +up to the topmost deck for her early morning exercise before the more +lazy should appear, she literally ran into Fenton's arms at the head of +the narrow stairs. + +Her surprise could hardly have been greater. She recoiled from the +contact automatically, before she had time to see who it was with whom +she had collided. Then a note of astonishment broke from her lips as +she halted, leadenly. + +"Why--Gerald!" she managed to stammer, without the slightest hint of +gladness in her tone. "Here?" + +"Well, little girl!" he answered, smilingly; and, coming to her in his +quiet way, he took her hands to greet her with a kiss. + +A note of uncertainty forced itself to audible expression as she +slightly retreated from his proffered caress and received it on her +cheek. + +"Well! well!" Fenton continued, "you're certainly fit--and brown! You +couldn't have had the note I sent to break the news. I tried to give +you warning." + +"No," she said, constrainedly, "I've had no word. How did you get +here--come aboard? I don't see how---- It took me so by surprise." + +"I'm sorry," he said, his smile losing something of its brightness. "I +boarded at midnight, when the steamer touched at Fargo. When I got +Sid's wholly incredible wire that you were both safe and well and +coming home---- But how is the good old rascal?" + +Elaine's constraint increased. + +"Quite well, I believe--as far as I know." + +"Isn't he with you, here on the boat, going home?" + +"Oh, yes, he's on the steamer." + +Fenton was groping, without a woman's intuitions, through the something +he felt in the air. + +"Don't you like him, Elaine?" he asked her, bluntly. "What's wrong?" + +"Why--nothing's wrong," she answered, unconvincingly. "It's just the +surprise of meeting you like this." + +"I'm sorry," he said, as he had before, his eyes now entirely +smileless. "I might have managed it better, I suppose---- Aren't you +a little bit glad to see me?" + +Elaine attempted a smile and a manner more cordial. "Of course--I'm +delighted! But it takes me just a minute or so to realize it's really +you." + +"Never mind. Take your time," he told her, indulgently. "Perfect +miracle, you know, that you and old Sid should have come through the +wreck of the 'Inca'--the sole survivors of the accident--and lived out +there--somewhere--on an island, I hear--and now be nearing home. I'm +eager to hear the story." + +"Yes," she agreed, "it doesn't seem real to me, now. It's more like a +long, strange dream." + +"I have only heard a little from the captain," he continued, forcing a +conversation which he felt was wholly unspontaneous and hardly even +congenial. + +"Naturally, all his information----" + +She saw his eyes quickly brighten as his gaze went past her to the +stairs. + +"Sid!" he cried, moving swiftly forward; and Grenville appeared on the +deck. + +His face was suddenly reddened, beneath the veneer of tan. But the +boyish joy with which he rushed for Fenton was a heartening thing to +see. + +The two simply gripped, with might and main, and hammered each other +with one free hand apiece, and laughed, and called one another +astonishing names till it seemed they might explode. + +"You savage! You tough old Redskin!" Fenton finally managed to +articulate, distinctly. "If it isn't yourself as big as life! And I +want you to know I haven't made your fortune--not exactly--yet--but +it's certain at last. And how about your winning my little girl? +Speak up, you caveman of the---- Oh, Elaine!" + +But Elaine had fled the scene. + +That moment began the tug at the ties of friendship and the test of the +souls of the three. It was not a time of happiness that thereupon +ensued. Elaine avoided both the men as far as possible. Grenville +alone seemed natural, and yet even his smiles were tinged with the +artificial. + +He was glad to relate their varied adventures--the tale of the perils +through which they had finally won. But how much of it all Gerald +Fenton really heard no man could with certainty tell. + +Fenton was neither a self-conceited person nor a blind man, groping +through life. Through the stem of his finely colored calabash he +puffed many a thought, along with his fragrant tobacco fume, and +revolved it in his brain. + +Between certain lines of Grenville's story he read deep happenings. +That Sidney had saved and preserved Elaine, and battled for her comfort +and her very life, against all but overwhelming odds, was a fact that +required no rehearsal. + +Mere propinquity, as Fenton knew, has always been the match-maker +incomparable, throughout the habited world. Add to the quite +exceptional propinquity of a tropic-island existence a splendid and +unfaltering heroism in Grenville, together with a mastery of every +situation, months of daily service and devotion, and the rare good +looks that Sidney had certainly developed--and what wonder Elaine +should be changed? + +The change in her bearing had struck him at once at the moment of their +meeting by the stairs. He had never got past that since. When at +length his course was clearly defined and his resolution firmly fixed, +it still required skillful maneuvering on Fenton's part to manage the +one little climax on which he finally determined. + +But night, with her shadows, her softening moods, and her veiling ways +of comfort, was an ally worthy of his trust. When he finally +engineered the unsuspicious Grenville to the upper deck, where Elaine +had already been enticed, evasion of the issue was done. + +"It's amazing," said Fenton, in a pleasant, easy manner, "how I am +becoming the talker of the crowd, when both you fond adventurers should +be spilling out lectures by the mile. However, such is life." He +paused for a moment, but the others did not speak. + +"The genuine wonder of it all," he presently continued, "is seeing you +both come back thus, safe and sound. I underwent my bit of grief when +the news of the monstrous disaster finally arrived, as, of course, did +many another. I thought I had lost the dearest friend and the--well, +the dearest two friends--the dearest two beings in the world to me, in +one huge cataclysm." + +He paused once more and relighted his pipe. The flame of his match +threw a rosy glow on the two set faces on either side of his position, +as well as on his own. No one looked at anyone else, and the two still +failed to answer. + +"Well--here you both are!" the smoker resumed, crushing the match and +throwing it away. "If I were to lose your love and friendship now---- +But never mind that--I sha'n't! You were dead to me, both of you, all +those months, and mourned rather poignantly. That's the point I want +you both to understand--that I had accepted the fact of losing you +both, forever." + +Grenville slightly stirred, but did not speak. Elaine was clasping her +hands in her lap and locking her fingers till they ached. + +"Naturally," Fenton told them, quietly, "I conformed my thoughts to +your demise, at last, as we all must do in actual cases. I adjusted my +heart-strings, when I could, anew. Nobody else came into my life, to +occupy your places, for nobody could. Yet I did adjust things as I've +said. Well--now that brings us up to the point." + +Grenville sank back against his seat, but restlessly leaned forward as +before. Elaine alone remained absolutely motionless, rigid with +attention, if not also with suppressed excitement at something she felt +impending. Fenton thumbed at the glowing tobacco in his pipe. + +"It appears to me," he continued, "all the circumstances I have +mentioned being taken into consideration, that you two friends that I +love so well have so many times saved one another's lives that no one +living has the slightest right to think or to act as might have been +the case if you had not passed so entirely from his ken, and his plans, +and daily existence. His claims to your resurrected selves +are--different, let us say, or secondary." + +The silence that fell for a moment became acutely painful. + +"That's all I'm really driving at, after all my long and labored +preamble," Fenton concluded, deliberately rising and facing about to +confront the pair on the bench. "I recognize certain inevitable +things--and I know they're right--and the way the Almighty intended.... +Don't let me lose my friends again.... Let's all be sensible.... I +don't ask or expect to be loved the way you love one another--but I'd +like to be old Gerald to you both." + +He turned and went slowly down the narrow stairs, and his pipe trailed +a spark behind him. + + * * * * * + +After a time, when Grenville moved over and placed his arm about +Elaine, she struggled for a moment, feebly. + +"I don't--I don't love you in the least!" she protested. "I hate +you--as I always have--and the way I always shall!" + +Her arms went swiftly about his neck, however, in a passionate, fierce +little hug. She was laughing and crying together. + +"All right," said Grenville, calmly. "That's the kind of hate I want." + +He kissed her once on her upturned lips for every hour they had +suffered. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of As It Was in the Beginning, by +Philip Verrill Mighels + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING *** + +***** This file should be named 22554-8.txt or 22554-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/5/5/22554/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: As It Was in the Beginning + +Author: Philip Verrill Mighels + +Release Date: July 29, 2011 [EBook #22554] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="FOR A MOMENT OR MORE THERE WAS ABSOLUTE STILLNESS IN THAT GRASSY ARENA" BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +FOR A MOMENT OR MORE THERE WAS ABSOLUTE STILLNESS <BR> +IN THAT GRASSY ARENA +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t1"> +AS IT WAS +</P> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +IN THE +</P> + +<P CLASS="t1"> +BEGINNING +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +BY +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +PHILIP VERRILL MIGHELS +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +Author of <I>The Furnace of Gold</I> and <I>Thurley Ruxton</I> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +New York +<BR> +Desmond FitzGerald, Inc. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +Copyright, 1912 +<BR> +By DESMOND FITZGERALD, INC. +<BR> +<I>All Rights Reserved</I> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +CONTENTS +</P> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">A TRUSTED MESSENGER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">AN UNEXPECTED OUTBURST</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">A MIDNIGHT TRAGEDY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">THE NIGHT AND MORNING</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">THE ISLAND</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">VARIOUS DISCOVERIES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">A GREWSOME GUARDIAN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">PRIMITIVE CONDITIONS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">THE MOTHER OF INVENTION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">THE MASTER POACHER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">A MYSTERY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">AMBITIOUS PLANS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">A MIDNIGHT VISITOR</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">TRUANTS OUT OF SCHOOL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">A NIGHT IN THE JUNGLE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">A DEAD MAN'S SECRET</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">FEVERISH EMPLOYMENTS HALTED</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">AT THE TIGER'S KILL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">GRENVILLE'S RADIANT STAR</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">A GIRDLE OF GOLD</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">MOLTEN METAL AND HOPES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">A TOMB OF STONE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap23">A DESPERATE CHANCE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap24">A DREADED VISITOR</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap25">AN IRREPARABLE LOSS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap26">AFTER TO-MORROW——</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap27">A FATEFUL EXPLOSION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap28">WHAT THE BLAST DISCOVERED</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap29">AN INTERRUPTED DIVERSION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap30">REVEALING AN INTENT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap31">THE SILENT VISITORS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap32">DEATH AS A BROTHER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap33">THE GIRL BEHIND THE GUN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap34">DYAK DARTS AND METHODS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap35">A BATTLE IN THE SMOKE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap36">THE LAST CUP OF WATER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap37">A BREATHLESS MARGIN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXVIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap38">GRENVILLE'S DESPERATE CHANCE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXXIX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap39">ADDITIONAL HEAD-HUNTERS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XL. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap40">PLOT AND COUNTER PLOT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XLI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap41">A LIVING BAIT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XLII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap42">LONG HOURS OF DOUBT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XLIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap43">THE HOUR OF CLIMAX</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XLIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap44">A LOTUS BLOSSOM</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XLV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap45">THE LAST BOMB</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XLVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap46">A GIFT REFUSED</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XLVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap47">A FRIEND IN NEED</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A TRUSTED MESSENGER +</H4> + +<P> +Grenville was not the type to be readily excited, yet a glow of +exceptional brilliance shone in his eyes as he met the searching gaze +of his friend, and wondered if Fenton could be jesting. +</P> + +<P> +That he had made no reply whatsoever to Fenton's proposition he failed +to realize till Gerald spoke again. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Sid," demanded that impetuous lieutenant of finance, "gone dumb? +Perhaps I haven't made it plain," and he particularized on his fingers. +"You get an ocean trip of eight or ten weeks' duration, tropic sun at +its best, leisurely business without a fleck of bother, absolute rest, +good provender, thorough recuperation, your entire expenses cheerfully +paid, vast service rendered to me, no time lost on your equilibrator, +time for countless new inventions to sprout in your fertile brain—and +the unutterable joy of escaping this abominable climate, practically at +once!" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville's smile, still brightly boyish, despite the many reverses and +hardships of his six and twenty years, came creeping to his eyes. His +wan face suggested a tint of color. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't wake me up for a moment, Fen," he answered. "I haven't dreamed +anything like it for years." +</P> + +<P> +"Dreamed?" repeated Fenton, resuming his interrupted pacing up and down +the rug, where the firelight reddened his profile. "Does that mean you +like it?—you'll go?" +</P> + +<P> +"Would Cinderella go to a ball?" replied the still incredulous +Grenville, half seriously. "What's the joker, old chap? What is the +worst that could happen at the midnight stroke of twelve?" +</P> + +<P> +Fenton came at once and laid his hands on the broad, bony shoulders of +his friend. +</P> + +<P> +"Have I ever played a joker with you yet?" said he. "Never mind the +apology. I forgive you. I understand the compliment. Proposal sounds +too good to be true, and all that sort of rubbish. The fact is, old +man, I want you to go to Canton, China, and bring home my affianced +bride. That's absolutely all there is to the business. You need the +change and voyage; I haven't the time to go out there and fetch her +myself. Elaine is alone in that heathenish country, miserably +heartsick over her uncle's sudden death. She wishes to return at once. +I can't let the poor girl come alone. I've no one in the world but you +I'd care to send—and there you are." +</P> + +<P> +The glow departed from Grenville's eyes. His doubts of any proposition +with a woman in the case lurked deep in his level gaze. His face +became once more the rugged mask with which he had so long confronted a +world persistently gray. The smile he summoned to his lips was more +quizzical than mirthful. +</P> + +<P> +"It sounds perfectly simple," he replied. "But—you know there are +several tales, recorded in prose and verse, of kings who have sent a +trusted messenger on precisely such an errand. The joker somehow +managed to get into play." +</P> + +<P> +"Just so," agreed Fenton, readily. "Three or four times in a thousand +cases the girl and the—er—messenger rather thoughtlessly—well, a +complication arises. The percentage, however, is excessively low. +We'll consider that a negligible possibility. You see, I know both you +and Elaine, and I am not a king. The question is—will you go?" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was always amused by Fenton's arguments. +</P> + +<P> +"I have seen no statistics on the subject," he admitted. "In this +particular instance you think there is not the slightest danger?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of finding in old Sid a modern Launcelot?" Fenton turned his friend +about till both of them faced down the length of the room. "Well," he +added, "to be sure——" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville's quick glance had sped to the massive mirror, ten feet away, +where both himself and Fenton were reflected from heels to crown. He +comprehended in a glance the ill-clothed, thin, ungainly figure he +presented: his big hands hanging loosely down, his face too ruggedly +modeled, too sallow for attractiveness, his hair too rebellious for +order. +</P> + +<P> +A Launcelot indeed! The irony of the situation struck home to his +sense of humor. +</P> + +<P> +"Have a look," continued Fenton, his nervous glance indifferent to his +own athletic fitness, the perfect grooming of his person, the grace and +elegance of his tailoring. "Do you discern anything of the disloyal +ambassador in that hard-worked friend and comrade of my happiest +years?" His eyes gleamed irresistibly. "You see, old chap, you have +trusted an invention of perhaps incalculable worth to my honor, and +must leave both your fame and possible fortune in my keeping while you +are long away." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but——" +</P> + +<P> +"I know, exactly. This is the sort of thing you and I have always done +by one another. I had no thought of refusing your trust in me, and +so—I have booked your passage for Wednesday." +</P> + +<P> +He turned again to the mantel and began to fill his pipe. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville pivoted slowly and rubbed the corner of his jaw. +</P> + +<P> +"You have—booked my passage—for Wednesday?" +</P> + +<P> +Fenton nodded. "Elaine is quite desolate and lonely. You need +immediate sunshine and warmth, and can do no good remaining here. Fine +day all round for starting, Wednesday, and no boat sailing sooner. +There are one thousand dollars in that wad by the statue of Anubis, for +your outfit and incidental cash." +</P> + +<P> +Grenville glanced mechanically at the dog-headed god of the ancient +Egyptians, apparently guarding the money towards which Fenton had waved +a careless gesture. +</P> + +<P> +"One thou——" +</P> + +<P> +"If it isn't enough, draw on my bankers for more," interrupted Fenton, +puffing at his calabash industriously. "I have written Elaine so fully +you'll have nothing to explain." +</P> + +<P> +"By George!" said Grenville, more aggressively, "I like your nerve—the +way you'd plunge me into trouble! Do you think I'm a mere senseless +rack of wires and bones because I'm not my usual self? What's to +prevent me from falling head over heels—— What's the rest of her +name—Elaine what? And you probably have her photograph somewhere +among your possessions." +</P> + +<P> +"Her full name," Fenton answered, moving to the desk beside the mirror, +"is Elaine Lytton—twenty-one this month. We've known each other seven +years." He returned, extending a small-sized photograph. "Fine girl. +That's her picture. Good likeness—sent me last winter from China." +</P> + +<P> +Grenville studied the photograph superficially. He used it to tap on +the table as he once more faced his host. +</P> + +<P> +"About as I expected," he announced with his customary candor. +"Nice-looking girl—nothing extra, perhaps, but nice enough. Now tell +me how any healthy male friend of yours can guarantee not to fall in +love with Elaine, on a long, lazy trip through the tropics," and he +cast the picture from him towards the lamp. +</P> + +<P> +Fenton relighted his pipe. "Well, suppose he did commit the folly you +describe, what then?" +</P> + +<P> +"What then?" echoed Grenville, incredulously. "By the long, curved +lashes of Juno's eyes, if I were the man you'd certainly see what then!" +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said the imperturbable Fenton. "I accept your conditions, +fully, and about your outfit I'd suggest——" +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on!" interrupted Grenville. "I haven't accepted your commission, +much as the trip——" +</P> + +<P> +"The trip!" said Fenton. "Ah! that's the point! I insist on your +making the trip, you see, and taking the rest. Fetching Elaine from +China is merely incidental—only don't forget her completely and come +back here empty-handed." He sat down to wrestle with his pipe. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville looked at him amusedly. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, see here," he said, "don't you make the slightest mistake, you +confident old idiot. If I should just happen to fancy Elaine, I +wouldn't give you twenty cents in Mexican money for your chances at the +wedding bells and trimmings." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you'll go!" Fenton suddenly exploded, springing to his feet. +"Come on, that's settled—shake." +</P> + +<P> +But Grenville retreated from the outstretched hand, a queer smile +playing on his features. +</P> + +<P> +"Hang your infernal self-conceit," he answered; "you don't think I +could win her if I tried." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe you'll try." +</P> + +<P> +"That isn't the point. I might. If I loved her I would, you can bet +your final shoe peg! Your proposition isn't fair—subjecting a man, +and a friend at that, to possible temptation, all kinds of treachery, +and a war between love and duty. Rot that kind of duty! I want you to +know that if I take the trip and happen to fall in this muddle with +your girl, I'm going to pitch your infernal old duty game overboard in +less than two seconds and go in and win her, if I can!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what's all the row about, after that?" inquired Fenton as +before. "Haven't I said I accept your challenge? Go out there and +fetch her, that's all. As for the rest—win her, if you can!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't say I'll try to win the girl. I may not like her for a cent." +</P> + +<P> +"Then why all this futile argument and waste of valuable time?" +</P> + +<P> +"But I may—confound your egotistic nerve, and your insistence! And I +warn you, Fen, I mean every word, in case——" +</P> + +<P> +"I understand—I understand you fully, without repetition," Fenton once +more interrupted. "For Heaven's sake, give me your hand, old man, and +cease firing." +</P> + +<P> +"You meant it, then—no strings on the proposition?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a string—absolutely not a string." +</P> + +<P> +A strange new thrill of pleasure crept into Grenville's being, warming +his thin, anæmic pulses suddenly, as he met Fenton's gaze and once more +permitted his thoughts to dwell on all the proposal embraced. Since +Fenton refused to be worried concerning himself and the girl who +supplied the motive for the trip, then why should he consider it +further? Elaine was, in fact, swiftly fading from his reflections. +</P> + +<P> +All his nature yearned towards the tropic seas. All his overwrought +frame and substance ached for the long, lazy days of indolence, rest, +and recuperation that alone could restore him to himself. He had +always longed for precisely this excursion to the far-off edge of the +sphere. His faculties leaped to the new-made possibility of a contact +with the ancient world, heretofore so wholly inaccessible. +</P> + +<P> +Already new color had come to his face and a new blaze of fire to his +eyes. Privations and toil, those two unsparing allies that had made +such inroads on his health and strength, seemed fading harmlessly away. +The prospect was far too alluring to be resisted. There was no good +reason in the world for refusing this favor to a friend. +</P> + +<P> +The brightness of face that had ever made him so lovable, came +unbidden, there in the glow. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose I'll have to go," he presently admitted, "if it's only to +win your girl." +</P> + +<P> +"Shake," said Fenton; and they shook. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +AN UNEXPECTED OUTBURST +</H4> + +<P> +The sea is an ancient worker of miracles in amazing transformation, but +rarely does it bring about a more complete or startling metamorphosis +than that which was wrought upon Grenville—trusted messenger for a +friend. +</P> + +<P> +Long before the shores of Cathay loomed welcomely upon his vision he +had lost all sense of weariness or depression, and likewise all that +worn and gaunt appearance of a large, thin frame inhabited by a dogged +but thoroughly exhausted spirit. +</P> + +<P> +He was once more his strong, bold, interested self, merry of speech, +bright-eyed, untamed in his buoyant nature, lovable, thoughtful of +those about him, impetuous, and never to be repressed. He had flirted +uninterruptedly with all the old women and the children on the outward +voyage, and was now as cheerfully repeating this gay performance on the +steamship "Inca," homeward bound, on which he was certainly the +favorite of the crew and his fellow-passengers. +</P> + +<P> +The fortnight passed with Elaine upon the sea had been wholly +uneventful, save for the vast commotion astir in Grenville's being. +The worst that could happen, he told himself, had happened. His daily +deportment towards his charge had baffled, piqued, and amused that +young lady alternately, and convinced her that here was a brand-new +specimen of the genus man with which she had never had a genuine +experience. +</P> + +<P> +She found him boyish, unexpected, apparently indifferent, and even +unaware, at times, of her existence on the vessel, then fairly +effervescent with deviltry that left her all but gasping. He was not +to be classified, fixed, or calculated, save in certain traits of +fearlessness, generosity, and kindness to those most needful of a +helping smile, a merry word, or a spell of relief from daily cares. +</P> + +<P> +He commanded a certain admiration from the puzzled girl, but as yet her +actual feelings towards him were quite unanalyzed. She was constantly +finding herself astonished at the scope and variety of his information; +she was glad to listen when he talked; she was frequently touched to +the very heart by his tender care of one or two frail little beings on +the ship to whom much of his time was devoted. +</P> + +<P> +There they were, with the situation between them apparently commonplace +to dullness—till this one particular day. +</P> + +<P> +It was not a common day on the ocean. Despite the fact he was neither +mariner nor meteorologist, Grenville felt some vast disturbance +impending in all the lifeless air, regardless of the fact the barometer +was steady and the calm, rainless spell had been exceptionally +prolonged. It was not precisely a premonition that addressed itself to +his senses; it was something he could not explain. +</P> + +<P> +A wave of heat passed swiftly through his body, leaving a strange +excitement in its train, as he paused for a second to wonder if the +"symptoms" he sensed were concerned not at all with sea or weather, but +wholly with Elaine. +</P> + +<P> +He admitted the love—the wild, free, passionate love that had swept +him away, past all safe anchorage, with her entry into his existence. +He had made no effort to conceal it from himself, to deny its +overwhelming force. He had cursed Gerald Fenton most heartily and +consistently for casting him into this maelstrom of conflicting +emotions, and daily and nightly he had waged mighty war with that +fortunately absent individual, who had calmly accepted his challenge. +</P> + +<P> +The trouble had come unbidden. Elaine was so wholly different from the +girl represented by Fenton's photograph! The picture had seemed so +lifeless—and she was so gloriously alive! That one fact alone seemed +sufficient excuse to Grenville for all that had happened to him since. +He had not been fully informed, he argued, respecting her wondrous +charms. +</P> + +<P> +The two weeks mentioned, with Elaine at his side, had certainly +accomplished the world-old complication once more, despite all his hard +and honest struggling. When the fight had ceased he did not even know. +What Elaine's private attitude was towards himself he had taken no time +to inquire. That part mattered less than nothing at all—at least as +concerned the present. He had warned old Fenton what to expect, but +now—by the gods—how deeply he was mired in the quandary! +</P> + +<P> +He was certainly mighty hard hit, he confessed, but meantime was +equally positive that the singular something he plainly felt, invading +the air and telling its message to some faint, imperfect sense of his +being, had nothing whatsoever to do with this business of passionate +emotions. Yet not a sign of uneasiness on the part of officers and +crew could his keenest wit discover, in any quarter of the iron craft +plowing steadily on across the sea. +</P> + +<P> +He had climbed to the topmost deck of the ship, where he and a +carpenter, who was hewing out a boat thwart with a gleaming adze, were +temporarily alone. It was not Grenville's manner of wooing to hover +beside Elaine throughout the day or evening. He had done no wooing, as +a matter of fact, beyond assuming a somewhat bold but unoffending +guardianship, which she might have found refreshing had it not so +frequently taken her breath with its very matter-of-factness. +</P> + +<P> +At the present moment, as Grenville was well aware, she was somewhere +down on the shaded portion of the promenade, where the erstwhile stir +of tropic air had ebbed to utter sluggishness and finally expired. One +of the purser's young assistants, dressed in wrinkled white duck, was +dumbly adoring at her side. +</P> + +<P> +Impatiently banishing Fenton from his thoughts, Grenville gazed idly at +the sultry sky, and as idly at the carpenter, wielding the polished +adze. When a deckhand presently called this workman away, Grenville +took up the implement left behind, felt he would like to swing it just +once at the root of the complication now arisen between himself and his +distant friend—on whose money he was voyaging—and whose sweetheart +his nature demanded for a mate—and, replacing the tool on the +weathered planks, he thrust both hands in his pockets and paced to and +fro, beside a pair of inverted lifeboats and a raft, that occupied most +of the deck. +</P> + +<P> +He finally flung himself down on a hatch, in the shade of a +white-painted funnel, and plunged his warring faculties into +concentrated study of a problem in mechanics involved in a new +invention. On the back of a letter, drawn from an inside pocket, he +drew black hieroglyphics, that to him were wheels and levers that +relieved his state of mind. +</P> + +<P> +Absorption claimed him for its own. The swift, weird changes of the +sky and atmosphere escaped his engrossed attention. He was not even +aware of her presence till Elaine had been standing for fully five +minutes, a few feet only from his side. +</P> + +<P> +When he looked up at last and beheld once more that singular glow and +beauty in the depths of her luminous eyes, and felt the subtle flattery +involved in the fact she had come to the place to find him, seek him +out, a flood of tidal passion surged to his outermost veins. +</P> + +<P> +It was just the one straw too much, this unforeseen encounter, with the +smile upon her lips. His sturdy resolutions all went down in utter +confusion before the wild gladness of his heart. Yet he made no +outward sign for Elaine to read. +</P> + +<P> +Calmly, to all appearances, he placed the letter in his pocket. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope," said Elaine, "I haven't disrupted anything important." +</P> + +<P> +He arose and gazed at her oddly. +</P> + +<P> +"You have, Elaine," he answered, in a voice he strove hard to control. +"You've not only disrupted everything heretofore moving along its +accustomed path of order, law, and calm, but you've also upset all +sorts of established institutions and raised some merry Hades." +</P> + +<P> +A spirit of the lively old Nick was infusing with his youthful blood as +he stood there gazing upon her. Elaine, however, either failed to +detect its presence, or she failed to understand. +</P> + +<P> +"I?" she said, "Mr. Grenville. I'm sorry. What have I done?" +</P> + +<P> +He could not have done the conventional thing, the deliberate, calm, or +expected thing, to save his immortal soul. His nature was far too +honest, too unabashed. He came a step nearer—and then she knew, but +she could not have moved at the moment had death been the oncoming +penalty for remaining where she stood. She had never been so startled +in her life. +</P> + +<P> +They two were absolutely alone and unobserved. Of this the impulsive +Grenville was aware—and the knowledge had fired a certain madness in +his being he was powerless to quell. +</P> + +<P> +"Elaine," he said, as he suddenly caught her unresisting hands, "you've +put old Fenton entirely out of the game. You're going to marry me." +</P> + +<P> +She was dimly conscious of pain in her hands, where he crushed them in +his ardor. But her shocked surprise was uppermost, as she faced him +with blazing eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Grenville!" she said. "Mr. Grenville—you—— To say—to +speak——" +</P> + +<P> +"Elaine," he interrupted gayly, bright devils dancing in his boyish +eyes, "it simply couldn't be helped. We were intended to meet—and +were cut out for one another. So the hour must come when you'll pitch +old Gerald's ring in the sea by order of the very Fates themselves!" +</P> + +<P> +She snatched away her hands in indignation. +</P> + +<P> +"For shame!" she cried in rising anger, her whole womanly being aflame +with resistance to all his growing madness. "You haven't the slightest +right in the world——" +</P> + +<P> +"Right?" he repeated. "Right? I love you, Elaine! I love you! +Haven't I said——" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the treachery—the treachery to Gerald!" she cut in, with swiftly +increasing emotion. "To say such things when your honor——" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait!" he interrupted, eagerly. "I told him what he might expect from +any such arrangement. I warned him precisely what might happen. He +understood—accepted my conditions—made it a challenge—declared if I +tried I couldn't win! And now——" +</P> + +<P> +"You can't—you can't!—you can't!" she cried at him, angrily. "To +think that Gerald—to think you'd dare——" +</P> + +<P> +He suddenly caught her in his arms and crushed her against his breast. +He kissed her on the mouth, despite her struggles. +</P> + +<P> +"Elaine," he said, "you are mine—all mine—my sweetheart—my +comrade—my mate!" +</P> + +<P> +She finally planted her fists against his throat and thrust him from +her in fury. +</P> + +<P> +"You brute!" she answered, sobbing in her anger. "I hate you—I loathe +you—despise you utterly! I wish I might never see your face again!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll make you love me, Elaine," he answered, white at last with +intensity and deep-going passion. "I'll make you love me, as I love +you—as madly—as wholly—as wondrously—before ever we two get home." +</P> + +<P> +Already Elaine was retreating from the place. +</P> + +<P> +"Never!" she answered, wildly. "Never, never, never!—do you +hear?—not if it takes this boat a hundred years!" And gropingly, +almost blinded by her sense of shame and rage, she fled from the deck +and down the stairs, leaving him shaken where he stood. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A MIDNIGHT TRAGEDY +</H4> + +<P> +Not the slightest alarm had invaded the ship, when Grenville finally +urged his senses back to the normal, notwithstanding the unaccustomed +suddenness with which the aspect of the day had been reversed. +</P> + +<P> +The storm broke at last, about one in the afternoon, with a deluge of +rain and an onslaught of wind that seemed for a time refreshing. The +huge steel leviathan appeared to elevate her nose, give her shoulders a +shake that settled her firmly in the gray disorder of the elements, and +then to accept the rude old contest with a certain indifference, born +of well-established prowess. +</P> + +<P> +By two o'clock there was nothing refreshing suggested. A dull, +stubborn struggle was waging in the drab of a wild and narrow field of +commotion. Chill, musty billows of air, made thick by something that +was neither scud nor mist, pounced heavily upon the laboring "Inca" in +a manner chaotic and irregular. The sea was rising sullenly, its +waves, like tumultuous cohorts, with ragged white banners, ceaselessly +advancing. +</P> + +<P> +With an easy, monotonous assurance the great device of steam and iron +plugged steadily onward. It could ride out a sea of tremendously +greater violence. It knew from long experience every crest and every +abyss of these mountains of air and water. It met huge impacts +majestically, with a prow that cleaved them through, while its huge, +wet bulk plowed up its mileage with a barely diminished speed. +</P> + +<P> +Few of the passengers were actually alarmed. A storm evolved so +suddenly, they were confidently informed, would expend itself in one +brief spasm of impotent fury and subside almost as it had come. It was +all some mere local disturbance that the spell of dry, calm weather had +accumulated too swiftly for any save a violent discharge. +</P> + +<P> +Discomfort increased to a certain pitch; locomotion about the saloon +became impracticable. The crew alone remained upon their legs. It +seemed like the climax to the storm. But another stage swiftly +developed. +</P> + +<P> +It might have been somewhat after three P.M. when a shroud of darkness +settled from the heavens, its substance foreign both to cloud and sea. +It was thicker than before, and decidedly more musty. As black as +night, but unrelated to all ordinary essences of darkness, it wrapped +the stormy universe in Stygian folds with a suddenness strangely +disquieting. +</P> + +<P> +The cataclysm followed almost instantly, as if from behind a concealing +curtain. It came in dimensions incredible, a prodigious wall of +rumpled water, like a mobile mountain chain. It towered forbiddingly +above the quivering vessel for one terrible moment of threat, then +confusion, utter and seemingly eternal, plunged roaringly over and +under the helpless ocean toy of steel, submerging the very sea itself +in Niagaras of sound and weight and motion. +</P> + +<P> +A hideous shudder quivered through the feeble plaything of the +elements. Strange, muffled thunderings, sensations of oblivion +sweeping miles deep across the ocean, and a horrible conviction of the +ship's insignificance, impressed themselves pellmell upon the senses, +while ebon blackness closed instantly down, like annihilation's swift +accompaniment, and the hull seemed sinking countless fathoms. +</P> + +<P> +Such a moment expands to an æon. Doom seemed an old acquaintance when +a complex gyration, a sense of being flung through space, and a +reassertion of the engine's throb preceded the struggle to the surface. +Yet it seemed as if no miracle of buoyancy and might could survive till +the great steel body rose once more to the air. Men held their breath +as if they must drown if the top were not immediately achieved. +</P> + +<P> +A stupendous lurch, an incredible list to starboard, another streaming +by of immeasurable torrents, and the steamer wallowed pantingly out +into daylight once again, to flounder like a thing exhausted till she +steadied once more to the roll and pitch of the former storm-driven sea. +</P> + +<P> +There had been no time for any man to act till the monstrous thing had +come and gone its way. As helplessly as all the others, Grenville had +clutched at the table, there beside Elaine, while death passed and +roared in their faces. He had gone to her chiefly for appearances, yet +quite as if nothing had happened, despite their scene above, while +Elaine had issued from her stateroom in terror of the storm. It was +not till new, sharp sounds of activity broke on his senses, from above, +that Sid left her side and went to inquire concerning the sum of their +damage. +</P> + +<P> +His face had lost a shade only of its usual cheerfulness, when he +finally returned. The ship was rolling heavily, fairly in the trough. +</P> + +<P> +"Our rudder is gone, with six of the lifeboats and as many men," he +told his charge, whose courage he had previously gauged. "The worst is +undoubtedly over. We can steer with the screws, sufficiently to make +the nearest port." +</P> + +<P> +"Our rudder!—half a dozen men," Elaine faintly echoed, her brown eyes +ablaze with dread and sympathy, as she steadied from the shock of +Grenville's news. "What was it? How did it happen?" +</P> + +<P> +"A tidal wave. There must have been a huge volcanic disturbance, +doubtless under the sea. Or it may have been an earthquake, +tremendously violent. Nothing else, according to the Captain, could +account for a storm so sudden, or for all this strange thickness of the +air. He is confident now of our safety. The storm may subside in an +hour." +</P> + +<P> +There was not the slightest cessation of the storm, however, till eight +o'clock in the evening. Even then the night continued thick and wild. +</P> + +<P> +Fortunately the sea was vast and deep. There was nothing known in two +hundred miles on which the ship could blunder. Hour after hour the +crippled "Inca" limped erratically onward, buffeted helplessly here and +there, and scalloping angry abysses of darkness and water, as first one +screw and then the other was driven full speed, or slowed to half, or +reversed altogether, to hold her nose to the altered course that would +finally fetch them to a port for highly essential repairs. +</P> + +<P> +The rage of the elements, abating at last a trifle, had far exceeded +the Captain's expectations. And when at length the center was passed, +and comparative ease had supervened, the wind was still a considerable +gale, while the sea would run high till nearly morning. +</P> + +<P> +The passengers, however, were sufficiently assured to retire at a +fairly early hour. Elaine had readily responded to Grenville's +matter-of-fact instructions, and, long before midnight, was fitfully +sleeping, although she had not undressed. +</P> + +<P> +When eight bells struck from the bridge somewhere above him, Grenville +still sat on the edge of his berth, rumpling his hair with one vigorous +hand, while the other prisoned a book on his knee with a piece of white +paper upon it. The paper was literally covered with mechanical designs +and hieroglyphics, involved in his latest problem. +</P> + +<P> +He arose at last, removed his coat, and began to fumble with his tie. +His eyes were fixed upon his paper. The problem's spell was cast again +upon him. He sank, as before, to his inconvenient seat, and drew yet +another design. +</P> + +<P> +How long he remained there, tranced by the lines that represented +levers, gears, and eccentrics, the man could never have stated. He was +dimly subconscious it was time to go to bed, and from time to time one +hand would return to his collar. As a matter of fact, the hour was +past one of the morning. +</P> + +<P> +Then, of a sudden, apparently beneath his very feet, the frightful +<I>thing</I> occurred. +</P> + +<P> +It came all together—the grinding crunch, the colossal upheaval of the +ship's great belly full of vitals, the scream of iron ripped from iron, +the roar of steam from broken pipes, and the tremor of death-throes, +shuddering thus promptly down to the canted bow and stern from the +wedge-shaped split amidships. +</P> + +<P> +They had struck on a rock, upheaved by the earthquake, where a hundred +fathoms of crystal brine had existed the previous noon! +</P> + +<P> +The hideous conviction of doom and horror sped as swiftly as the shiver +of destruction to the farthest confines of the vessel. Screams far and +near, hoarse bellowing, a shrill, high pæan of mortal fright, and +sounds of disordered scurrying followed with a promptness fairly +appalling. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville waited for nothing. As well as the most experienced officer +on board, he realized the significance of the impact, the ship's awful +buckling, and the quiver stilling the creature's heart—the engines +that had ceased at once to throb. +</P> + +<P> +His door had been flung widely open. Before he could reach the turning +of the corridor, the one electric bulb, left glowing for the night, +abruptly blackened. But he knew the way to Elaine. +</P> + +<P> +He seemed to be plunging through a torture hall, so hurtling full was +the darkness of fearful cries and confusion. The broken hulk of the +steamer slightly lurched, as the plates broke yet farther apart. +Sidney was flung against a cabin wall, but he righted and pitched more +rapidly down the already canted passage. +</P> + +<P> +"Elaine!" he called. "Elaine!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" she answered. "Yes! I can't get out!" She was not at all in a +panic. +</P> + +<P> +Someone, a man, rushed headlong by and nearly bowled Grenville over. +He was spilling golf clubs from a bag and calling for the steward. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville caught at the knob of Elaine's hard-fastened door and threw +his weight upon it. A stubborn resistance met his effort. The frame +had been distorted by the splitting of plates and ribs. The wedging +was complete. +</P> + +<P> +"Stand back!" he called out sharply. "I must break it in at once!" +</P> + +<P> +He knew they were late already—that swarms of beings, nearer the +exits, were wildly pouring from the ship's interior, to be first to the +boats, so fatally reduced in numbers. +</P> + +<P> +With all his might he hurled his shoulder against the door, that merely +creaked at his impotent assault. The hall was narrow. He could gain +no momentum for his blow. The second and third attack made no +impression. +</P> + +<P> +A clammy sweat exuded from his forehead. That the sea was tumbling +torrentially into the helpless vessel he knew by countless indications. +Elaine must perish helplessly in her trap, could he not immediately +force the barrier. He suddenly got down, full length, upon the floor, +braced his shoulders against the opposite cabin, and, with knees +slightly raised, placed both his feet against the door. Then he +strained with superhuman strength. The door remained immovable, but +its paneling slightly cracked. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime the shrieks, the shouts, the roaring of steam, and the +terrible chaos of destruction had increased to a horrifying chorus. +The corridor was filling with hot, moist vapor from the burst pipes. A +dozen stokers had perished. Fire had attacked a portion of the vessel +abaft the midships section. +</P> + +<P> +Once more, with a wild, fanatic conjuring of energy, Grenville spent +himself upon the door—and a panel snapped out, flinging little +splinters on Elaine. In a fury of desperate activity the man on the +floor beat out more with his driving feet. +</P> + +<P> +"It's large enough! It's large enough!" cried the girl as the orifice +widened. "Don't wait to break it larger!" +</P> + +<P> +She was now fully dressed, having swiftly prepared for any sort of +emergency. A candle, provided from her bag, was glowing in her hand. +</P> + +<P> +This she thrust forth for Grenville to take, and then, with deliberate +care, she wormed her way out through the jagged hole with the confident +skill of a child. +</P> + +<P> +"Not there!" called Grenville, as she hastened ahead to gain the +forward companionway. "Everybody's there, all fighting for their +lives!" +</P> + +<P> +He caught her actively about the waist, as a further lurch and settling +of the "Inca" would have hurled her to the floor. Down through a +shorter passage and up a strangely tilted stair he drew her rapidly, +his heart assailed by a sickening fear of what their delay might have +cost them. Yet less than five minutes had actually passed since the +first vast shock of disaster. +</P> + +<P> +They emerged to a portion of the slanted deck that seemed to be utterly +deserted. A gust of wind blew out the candle. The sky was clear. An +uneven fragment of the aging moon shone dully on the broken ship, +whence fearful sounds continued to arise. +</P> + +<P> +Only one of the boats had been dropped to the tide—to be instantly +whirled <I>inside</I> the parting steamer, on the torrent filling her mighty +belly, where the latest lurch had laid her widely open. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville ran to the starboard rail for a glance towards the struggle +farther forward. There, about the impotent crew, laboring hotly with +people, boats and davits no longer adjusted to normal working order, +the wildest confusion existed. +</P> + +<P> +A boat that hung out above the sea was filled with screaming beings. +Some madman arose and slashed with maniacal fury at the rope of the +blocks, to hasten the craft's descent. Of a sudden its bow shot +perpendicularly downward, its stern still high in the air. Its cargo +dropped out like leaden weights, while the empty shell, like a +pendulum, swayed to and fro above the smothered cries. +</P> + +<P> +To join such a throng would be but to choose a larger company in which +to perish. Grenville saw that the steamer must presently drop from her +rock and sound illimitable depths. This could hardly be delayed for +more than ten minutes longer. +</P> + +<P> +A sickening qualm assailed his vitals at the thought of Elaine, doomed +to drown thus helplessly, along with himself and the others. He knew +that not only were the boats insufficient, but there was no time left +to load and launch them! +</P> + +<P> +Then, at length, he remembered the life-raft on the roof. Once more, +with his arm supporting Elaine, he clambered up a tilted stairway. The +place was deserted. The raft was there—but securely fastened to the +planking, fore and aft and at the sides! The ropes that bound it down +were thick and doubled! +</P> + +<P> +With his knife the man attacked them desperately. The blade broke out +of the handle when one strand only had been severed. His second blade +was small and useless for such a labor. +</P> + +<P> +He groaned, for a ghastly tremor was seizing the "Inca" as she hung +above some crumbling abyss for a final plunge to the bottom. Then the +moonlight gleamed on the carpenter's adze, which had slid down the deck +to the railing. He darted upon it like an animal, and, hastening back, +swung it with swift and savage blows that severed the ropes like cheese. +</P> + +<P> +"Quick! Quick!" he shouted to Elaine, as he flung the implement from +him; and, catching her roughly about the waist, he bore her face +downward beside himself, full length upon the raft. +</P> + +<P> +It was already slightly in motion, where the ship was toppling to her +grave! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE NIGHT—AND MORNING +</H4> + +<P> +With a rattle and scraping along the deck, the device with the two +prone figures desperately clinging to its surface, was halted and +tilted nearly level as it struck a spar and partially mounted upon it. +</P> + +<P> +A sudden glare lit up the scene where the fire had burst through +shattered windows. Screams yet more appalling than those already +piercing the gale arose with the movement of the vessel. A picture +grotesque and monstrous was for one awful moment presented. The huge +iron entrails of the vessel heaved up into sight with her breaking. +Her funnels, masts, and superstructure pointed outward, strangely +horizontal. Innumerable loose things rattled down the decks. She +belched forth flame and clouds of steam, against which one huge iron +rib, rudely torn on its end to the semblance of a giant finger, seemed +pointing the way to inscrutable eternity. +</P> + +<P> +The lantern, up at the "Inca's" masthead, describing an arc as it swept +across the heavens, was the last thing Grenville noted. He thought how +insignificantly it would sizzle in the sea! Then he and Elaine, with +raft and all, were flung far out, by the suddenly accelerated velocity +of the doomed leviathan, turning keel upwards as it sank. When they +struck, their puny float dived under like a crockery platter, shied +from some Titanic hand. +</P> + +<P> +With all his strength the man clung fast to Elaine and the lattice-like +planking of their deck. It seemed to Grenville, still submerged, he +could never resist the force of the waves to wash them backwards to +death. It appeared, moreover, the raft would never return to the top. +A million bubbles broke about his ears. He felt they were diving to +deeps illimitable. +</P> + +<P> +With a rush of waters drumming on their senses, it shot precipitately +upward at last, till air and spray greeted them together. Then, sucked +deep under, anew, and backward, by the gurgling vortex where the ship +had gone, and swirling about, pivoting wildly, as the raft now +threatened to plunge edge downward to the nethermost caverns of the +hungry sea, they met a counter-violence that forced it once more +towards the surface. +</P> + +<P> +The boilers had burst in the steamer's hold, with confusion to all +those tides of suction. Erratically diving here and there, a helpless +prey to chaotic cross currents in all directions, the float swung +giddily in the mid abyss, while the water walls baffled one another. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine, even more than Grenville, was bursting with explosive breath +when, at length, the raft came twisting once more to the chill, sweet +region of the gale. And even then strong currents drew it fiercely in +their wake before it rode freely on the waters. +</P> + +<P> +Dripping and gasping, Grenville half rose to scan the troubled billows +for companions in distress. Not a sound could he hear, save the swash +of the waves. Not a light appeared in all that void, save the distant, +indifferent stars. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine, too, stirred, and raised herself up to a posture half sitting. +She was hatless. Her hair was streaming down across her face and +shoulders in strands too wet for the wind to ravel. Her eyes were +blazing wildly. +</P> + +<P> +"The ship?" she said. "What happened?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sunk." He stood up. Their platform was steadying buoyantly as it +drifted in the breeze. "I can't even see the spot," he added, +presently. "We couldn't propel this raft to the place, no matter who +might be floating." +</P> + +<P> +"It's terrible!" she whispered, faintly, as one afraid to accuse the +Fates aloud. "Couldn't we even—— You think they are all—all gone?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll shout," said Grenville, merely to humor the pity in her breast. +His long, loud "Halloo" rolled weirdly out across the wolf-like pack of +waves, three—four—a half dozen times. +</P> + +<P> +There was not the feeblest murmur of response. Yet he felt that, +perhaps, one boatload at least might have sped away in safety. +</P> + +<P> +"God help them!" he said, when the silence became once more +insupportable. "He only knows where any of us are!" +</P> + +<P> +"After all we'd been through!" she shivered in awe. "If only we two +were really saved—— Oh, there must be land, somewhere about, if the +Captain was trying to reach a port! But, of course, this isn't even a +boat, and, perhaps, it will finally sink!" +</P> + +<P> +He tried to summon an accent of hope to his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no; it will float indefinitely. It's sure to turn up somewhere in +the end." +</P> + +<P> +"We haven't food—or even water," she answered him, understandingly. +"What shall we do to-morrow?" +</P> + +<P> +"We are drifting rapidly northward. We may arrive somewhere by +to-morrow.... You'd better sit down. It taxes your strength to stand." +</P> + +<P> +"God help us all!" she suddenly prayed in a broken voice, and, sinking +lower where she sat, was shaken by one convulsion of sobbing, in pity +for all she had seen. She had no thoughts left for their earlier, +personal encounter. +</P> + +<P> +For a time Grenville stood there, braced to take the motion of the +raft. The wind continued brisk and undiminished. Aided by tides, +which had turned an hour earlier, to flow in its general direction, it +drove the raft steadily onward over miles of gray, unresting sea. +</P> + +<P> +The water slopped up between the slats whereon Elaine was sitting. She +was cold, despite the tropic latitude. She was hopeful, only because +she wished to contribute no unnecessary worry to the man. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville at length sat down at her side, but they made no effort to +converse. Elaine was exhausted by the sickening strain and the shock +of that tragic end. For an hour or more she sat there limply, being +constantly wet by the waves. She attempted, finally, to curl herself +down and make a pillow of her arm, and there she sank into something +akin to sleep. +</P> + +<P> +Gently Grenville thrust out his foot and lifted her head upon the +cushion of flesh above his ankle. The night wore slowly on. Three +o'clock came grayly over the world-edge, where the waves made a +scalloped horizon. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly the watery universe expanded, as the dawn-light palely +increased. By four Grenville's gaze could search all the round of the +ocean, but nothing broke either sky or sea. +</P> + +<P> +Five o'clock developed merely color on the water, but no sign of a sail +or a funnel. Elaine still slept, while Grenville, cramped almost +beyond endurance, refused to move, and thereby disturb her slumber. +</P> + +<P> +But at six, as he turned for the fiftieth time to scan the limited +horizon, he started so unwittingly, at sight of a tree and headland, +flatly erected, like a bit of sawed-out stage scenery, above the waste +of billows, that Elaine sat up at once. +</P> + +<P> +"It's land!" he said. "We're drifting to some sort of land!" +</P> + +<P> +She was still too hazy in her mind, and puzzled by their surroundings, +to grasp the situation promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Land?" she repeated. "Oh!" and a rush of hideous memories swept +confusedly upon her till she shivered, gazing at the water. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville had risen to his feet, and Elaine now rose beside him. +Somewhat more of the flat, wide protrusion from the sea became thus +visible to both. It still appeared of insignificant extent, a blue and +featureless patch against the sky, with one half-stripped tree upon its +summit. +</P> + +<P> +"I should say it's an island," Grenville added, quietly, restraining an +exultation that might prove premature. "It is still some miles away." +</P> + +<P> +"There must be someone there," Elaine replied, with an eagerness that +betrayed her anxious state of mind. "Almost anyone would certainly +help us a little." +</P> + +<P> +What doubts he entertained of some of the island inhabitants in this +particular section of the world, Sidney chose to keep to himself. +</P> + +<P> +"It's land!" he said, as he had before. "That means everything!" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know of any island that ought to be in this locality?" +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't the remotest notion where we are—except we are somewhere, +broadly speaking, in the neighborhood of the Malay peninsula. The +steamer must have drifted tremendously out of her course after we lost +our rudder." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you been awake for long?" +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't slept." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you seen or heard anything of any of the others?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a sign.... We may find some of them, landed on this island." +</P> + +<P> +He had no such hope, and this she felt. She summoned a heart full of +courage to meet the situation, however, and gazed off afar at the misty +terra incognita enlarging imperceptibly as they drifted deliberately +onward. +</P> + +<P> +"It's fortunate," she said, "the steamers pass this way." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he said, unwilling to shake this solitary hope that brightened +her uncertain prospect, but he knew they were leagues from the nearest +track that the ocean steamers plowed. "And I trust we'll find it +entirely comfortable while we're waiting," he added. "We're sure to +get dry and find something fit to eat." +</P> + +<P> +She was silent for a moment. A sense of constraint was returning at +last for their scene of the previous day. "It seems to be rather far +away," was all she said. +</P> + +<P> +"About another hour—if the breeze and tide continue favorable." +</P> + +<P> +It was nearer an hour and a half, however, before they were finally +abreast the headland with the tree, and swinging and turning slowly by +the island's coast on the surface of a complicated tide. +</P> + +<P> +The features of the land had developed practically everything usual to +this latitude except habitations of men. That it was entirely +surrounded by water was convincingly established. Indeed, it was not +an extensive outcrop of some ocean-buried range, and, despite the +luxuriance of its various patches of greenery and jungle, it was +decidedly rugged in formation. +</P> + +<P> +The edge past which the raft was leisurely floating was a broken and +cavern-pitted wall of rock affording no promise of a landing. Above +this loomed the solitary tree that Grenville had seen from a distance. +Nothing suggestive of hearth smoke arose against the sky from one end +of the place to the other. +</P> + +<P> +This one vital fact, in her excitement, Elaine entirely overlooked. +She likewise failed to note the look of concern that Grenville could +not have banished from his eyes. The prospect of reaching a dry, firm +soil outweighed her immediate worries. +</P> + +<P> +"Couldn't we paddle in closer?" she said. "Where do you mean to land?" +</P> + +<P> +"Where the Fates shall please," he answered, grimly. "Without even a +line for me to take ashore we must not be over fastidious." +</P> + +<P> +"We could swim—if we have to," she told him, bravely. "We seem to be +floating farther out." +</P> + +<P> +They were, at that particular moment. The powerful current carried +them swiftly seaward a considerable distance, till at length the raft +was drawn to a species of whirlpool, some two hundred yards in +diameter, the inner rim of which was depositing weed at the edge of +something like an estuary, indenting the shore of the island. +</P> + +<P> +On the huge circumference of this whirlpool they were finally rounding +towards the one bit of beach that Grenville had been able to discover. +Yet when they approached within almost touching distance of this sunlit +strand, the current failed, permitting the breeze to waft them again +towards the center. +</P> + +<P> +"Stand by to go ashore," said Grenville, resolving suddenly on his +course, and overboard he slipped, at the float's outer edge, and, using +his legs like a powerful frog, he pushed at the raft with sufficient +force to overcome the action of the wind. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment his efforts seemed in vain—and then the clumsy affair +nosed reluctantly shoreward an inch, and was once more assisted by the +tide. Ten feet out he found the water shallow and, planting his feet +on the solid sand, drove the raft at once to the estuary's edge, where +Elaine leaped lightly ashore. +</P> + +<P> +Some startled creature slipped abruptly into the pool that the tiny +harbor formed. This escaped Elaine's attention. A moment later the +raft rode scrapingly over a bar that all but locked the inlet, and +Grenville stood dripping on the sand. +</P> + +<P> +"Welcome to our city," said he, an irrepressible emotion of joyousness +and relief possessing him completely at the moment, and, going at once +to the near-by growth, where a long stout limb had been broken from a +tree, he dragged this severed member forth to the beach and across the +estuary's mouth, where it effectually blocked the channel against the +raft's escape. Then he folded a couple of large-sized leaves with his +hands, secured each with a slender twig, and, giving one to Elaine for +a cap, placed the other upon his head. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was no less relieved than he, so elastic and buoyant is youth. +</P> + +<P> +"The villages must be on the farther side," she said. "What language +do you suppose the natives speak?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well—doubtless some Simian, in any case," he answered, having fancied +one movement half seen in the trees beyond was made by an ape or a +monkey. "I'd suggest you recall your fondness for fruit for breakfast." +</P> + +<P> +She comprehended his meaning with amazing promptness. Her face took on +its serious expression. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't believe we shall find the island inhabited? We shall have +only fruit this morning?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure we shall find some fruit," he said, "and we must certainly +look for water." +</P> + +<P> +A sense of helplessness and despair attacked Elaine momentarily. She +began to wonder, with alarm, how long they might be stranded on the +place—and what attitude Grenville might assume. She had thoroughly +comprehended the passion of his nature in the outburst she had seen. A +sense of distrust she dared not show came creeping to her mind. +</P> + +<P> +"We must make the best of it, of course," she said, as calmly as +possible. "We can't even light a fire, I suppose." +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly have no matches," he answered, cheerfully. "All I had +were in my coat. Suppose we explore the island first and leave despair +till after breakfast." +</P> + +<P> +She met his gaze with fearless eyes that set his heart to pounding. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall never despair," she answered, more bravely than she felt,—"at +least, I shall try to do my part, till we are taken off." +</P> + +<P> +He understood the challenge in her attitude. +</P> + +<P> +"I felt that from the first," he answered, easily. "Perhaps we'd +better begin by climbing up to the headland." +</P> + +<P> +He caught up a short, heavy stick and turned about to force a way up +through the rocks and tangled growth between the shore and summit. +</P> + +<P> +And what a figure he presented—even to the frightened girl, whose +anger still lingered in her veins—stripped, as he was, to his +shirtsleeves, a powerful, active being, masterful and unafraid. With a +strange, dreadful sense of isolation and the primitive, aye, even +primal, conditions in which they had been cast, she followed helplessly +at his heels for their first real look at the island. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE ISLAND +</H4> + +<P> +The ascent was steep and difficult, so unbroken was the undergrowth, +except where jagged and pitted rocks rose grayly on the slope. +Bananas, nut palms, and mangoes Grenville promptly noted. Indeed, +every tropical tree, shrub, and fruit of which he had ever learned was +represented in the thicket, together with long, snake-like creepers, +huge ferns, and many plants with which he had no acquaintance. +</P> + +<P> +There was abundant life in all directions. Here, with a grunt, and +beyond with a bound of startled surprise, some animal scuttled to cover +in alarm at their approach. A small flock of parrots abruptly arose, +flashing their brilliant plumage in the sunlight and screaming +raucously. Half a dozen leeches, clinging firmly to the fat, green +leaves next the ground, where all was moist and shaded, attracted +Grenville's notice as they lifted their heads and groped about for +flesh upon which to fasten. +</P> + +<P> +Here and there in the tree tops a monkey obscured a patch of sky for a +moment and chattered or squeaked a warning to his kind. Grenville, +almost wholly convinced that man seldom or never visited the place, and +puzzled to account for a fact so extraordinary, now emerged at the edge +of a natural clearing and promptly discovered a small patch of sugar +cane, reared above the grass and vines. He was certain that man had +brought it to the island. +</P> + +<P> +A half minute later he underwent a decidedly complex set of emotions. +He was barely five feet ahead of Elaine, who was following blindly in +his trail, a prey to new dreads of all the sounds about them, when he +halted in a tense and rigid attitude of alertness. Elaine glanced +quickly ahead. +</P> + +<P> +Apparently a patch of orange sunlight was lifting from the grass. Then +Elaine, too, saw the black, irregular stripes, the huge, topaz eyes, +and the lazy movement of a mighty shoulder muscle, as the beast before +them arose and blocked their path. +</P> + +<P> +It was not the fact that he had rarely if ever seen a tiger so large +that most impressed the man, thus unexpectedly confronted by this +unfrightened monarch of the island—<I>the brute bore a collar about his +neck, gleaming with gold and the facets of some sort of jewels</I>! +</P> + +<P> +He had obviously once been a captive! He knew the form of man, if not +his nature! +</P> + +<P> +For a moment or more there was absolute stillness in that grassy arena, +where two world-old enemies stood face to face in their first, +preliminary contest of courage. A certain arrogance, a contempt of all +possible adversaries, here in his undisputed realm, shone unmistakably +in the eyes of the motionless brute. His paunch was rounded +significantly. He had recently dined. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville could think of but one thing to do, unarmed as he was, and +unwilling to compromise an encounter so vitally important. +</P> + +<P> +He let out a shout such as a demon might have uttered, and, rushing +madly forward, with his club upraised, yelled again and again, his +aspect one to strike terror to the heart of a giant. He was almost +upon the astonished tiger when the brute abruptly fled. The roar the +great beast delivered, as he bounded from sight in the jungle, was the +sullen note of a creature that obeys, reluctantly, the command of one +superior to himself. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, then, a little discretionary haste," said Grenville, quickly +returning to Elaine. "I prefer the top of the rocks." +</P> + +<P> +But she did not move, so helpless was her will and so rigid all her +being. Once more, with his arm about her waist, Sidney firmly urged +her forward, on a beaten trail he took no time to study. +</P> + +<P> +It led in a tortuous manner up the last steep acclivity, where, with +every rod, the growth became less luxuriant, and the rocks more thickly +strewn. Thus they presently came upon a second natural clearing, a +sort of uneven terrace, some fifty feet lower than the dominating +headland crowned by the solitary tree. +</P> + +<P> +The trail to this final eminence was plainly scored along a narrow, +crumbling ledge, where the volcanic tufa, comprising the ancient +upheaval, had for years disintegrated in a honeycomb fashion that left +all the bowlders and even the walls deeply pitted. +</P> + +<P> +When they turned about together on this dominating mount, the island +lay mapped irregularly beneath them in the purple sea, revealed +well-nigh in its entirety. +</P> + +<P> +In all its expanse there was not a sign of a human habitation. +</P> + +<P> +They knew, without a word of argument, they were absolutely alone on +this tropic crumb of empire, sole survivors of the frightful wreck, +completely ignorant of their whereabouts, and surrounded not only by +savage and inimical jungle brutes, but also by some mystery that was +not to be understood. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Grenville, presently, "such as it is, it's ours." +</P> + +<P> +"Ours," said Elaine. A cold little shiver ran along her nerves, at +thoughts of her plight between the man she had called a brute, and the +still more savage creatures of the jungle. "Where are you going?" she +added, as Grenville moved away. +</P> + +<P> +"To look about for a moment," he replied, "and then I must pick some +breakfast." +</P> + +<P> +The examination of the hilltop was promptly concluded. It proved to be +a flat, uneven plateau of small dimensions, with precipitous walls on +every side, except where the trail led downward. Much loose rock was +scattered on its surface. Three-quarters of its boundary rose +perpendicularly out of the sea. The remainder plunged down into jungle +greenery, and the natural clearing that lay between two dense, rank +growths on either side. Not far from the center of the table-rock a +fair-sized cave, that bore unmistakable signs of former occupancy and +fires once ignited on its floor, afforded a highly acceptable shelter, +both from the sun and the elements. It occupied, of course, a position +that could be readily and easily defended. +</P> + +<P> +There were other, smaller caverns close at hand, but none with a whole +or unpierced roof. Fragments of broken clay utensils lay scattered +about, together with the whitening bones of small-sized animals that +had one time served some denizens for food. There was nothing in or +about the principal cave of which Grenville could make the slightest +use. +</P> + +<P> +The view of the island from this point of vantage was not particularly +encouraging. Midway of its rugged bulk, that jutted from the azure +tides, and on the side directly opposite the estuary, another wall of +rock loomed, gray and barren, above the tops of the trees. Behind +this, at the island's farthest, left-hand extremity, a third +"intrusion" of volcanic stuff rose to a height only barely lower than +this whereon the raftmates stood. It was not, however, flat. +</P> + +<P> +A portion only of the estuary was visible—the outer bay, where the +raft was plainly floating. Save for areas covered with rock and brush +together, the remaining surface of the island appeared to be thickly +grown to jungle, the forest comprising foliage of infinite variety. +</P> + +<P> +With Elaine walking silently at his side, afraid to be with him, yet +more afraid to be alone, Grenville passed from this hasty examination +of the island's general topography to a closer inspection of the +perpendicular scarp of the terrace. On the seaward side it rose about +one hundred feet above the mark of high water. Its right front +appeared to overhang its base, a reassuring distance above the highest +tree. Across its entire bulk at this place the cliff had once been +cracked, and a "slip" had formed a ragged shelf. Then came the slope +where the trail was worn, beyond which forty feet or more of unscalable +tufa was reared above a section of the jungle once devastated by fire. +</P> + +<P> +In the midst of this section, being rapidly reclaimed by vines and +creepers, stood the shell of a huge old tree, the heart of which had +been consumed, from the roots to its blackened top, leaving walls still +thick and solid. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Sidney, returning again to the principal cave, which he +reinspected critically, "it doesn't take long to overlook our +possessions. You'd better begin to make yourself at home, while I go +below for fodder," and, taking up his club from a ledge where he had +let it fall, he went at once down the long-abandoned trail and out +across the clearing. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine had followed to the scarp, where she watched till he +disappeared. How helpless she was in the hands of this man, whose +declaration and deeds had so aroused her indignation and hatred, she +thoroughly understood. A sickening conviction that days might elapse +before she could hope to escape, increased her sense, not only of +alarm, but also of distrust in Grenville. His action in taking up his +stick had not escaped her attention. Strangely enough, a horrible pang +went straight to her breast as she suddenly thought of that tiger +again—and of what it might mean if Grenville never returned. Whatever +else might happen, nothing could be so terrible as to perish here +alone. She tried to assure herself, however, that Grenville was +thoroughly competent to cope with the dangers of the place. +</P> + +<P> +Yet the silence of the jungle where she had seen him disappear, +oppressed her unendurably. Not even a tree was shaken, to indicate +where he had gone. Summoning all her resolution, she returned to the +cavern, alone. +</P> + +<P> +A slab of rock, once doubtless employed for a table, lay with one end +resting on the earth, while the other leaned upon a second rock, +against the wall of the cave. She lifted this slab to a second prop, +then blew the last fragment of dust and sand from its surface, by way +of preparing it for breakfast. She looked about, longing for further +employment, but, inasmuch as two rude fragments of the rock already +reposed beside her table for seats, there was absolutely nothing more +she could add, either by way of utensils or furnishings, from the +boulders scattered loosely on the terrace. +</P> + +<P> +When she thought of leaves, whereon to serve what fruits the jungle +might surrender, she started briskly for the trail—but halted at its +summit. A horror of unknown things that might be lurking at the +thicket's edge impressed itself upon her. Nevertheless, she shook it +off, and, descending rapidly, soon filled her arms with large, clean +"platters" from a rankly growing plant of the "elephant's ear" variety, +then clambered back to her aerie. +</P> + +<P> +Two of the leaves she dropped at the bend of the trail and left them +there in the sun. Twice after that she returned to the edge, to search +all the greenery for Grenville. Her uneasiness respecting his long +absence was rapidly increasing when she turned once more toward the +cave. He emerged at that moment from the farther thicket of the +clearing, came unobserved to the winding trail, and discovered the +leaves she had abandoned. +</P> + +<P> +He was amazingly "loaded" with similar leaves for breakfast purposes, +as well as with fruits, and a singular bowl of water, yet he paused, +with a smile upon his lips, to discard every leaf he had provided, in +order that Elaine's thoughtful effort at assistance might not be in the +least belittled. +</P> + +<P> +She met him just as he came to the top, and began to take a portion of +his burden. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," she said, "you've found water—or is it the juice of the melon?" +</P> + +<P> +"Water," he answered, moving towards the cave. "The bowl is half of a +paw-paw, which, next to that spring itself, is the welcomest thing I've +discovered." +</P> + +<P> +She was glad to note bananas among his several fruits, but she made no +further observations. More and more her sense of constraint increased, +as she clearly foresaw her dependence upon and intimate association +with this man, who had overstepped the bounds of honor to his friend, +and to whom she had spoken in such anger. +</P> + +<P> +Breakfast was soon begun. Elaine consumed all she could relish of the +fruits, although neither the loco (loquet, a yellowish sort of plum), +the guava—green and full of seeds—nor the custard apple, which was +somewhat sickishly sweet, appealed irresistibly to her fancy. +</P> + +<P> +She drank from a leaf, curled up to form a cup, and found the water +decidedly refreshing and agreeable, despite the fact it was slightly +flavored by the juices of the paw-paw shell in which it had been served. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville leaned back, when his appetite was thoroughly appeased, and +began to empty his pockets. He produced the remains of his broken +knife, a few loose coins, a ring of keys, a pig-skin purse with several +pieces of gold as its contents, the stub of a pencil, and his watch, +which, by great good fortune, was waterproof, and still in good running +condition, despite its several immersions. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was watching his movements, puzzled to guess his intent. +</P> + +<P> +"Taking stock," he said, presently, "by way of facing the situation and +formulating plans.... These trifling chattels are all I possess in the +world—our world, at least—with which to begin certain labors. You +probably haven't even hairpins." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine had coiled her hair upon a twig. She shook her head, and +faintly resented his allusion to the island as a sort of partnership +property. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville began to segregate his belongings. +</P> + +<P> +"Money, keys, pencil, and watch—all mere encumbrances, absolutely +worthless. One broken knife—invaluable. We shall require, as soon as +possible, water-jugs, basins, cooking utensils, something to make a +fire, implements to chop our fuel, some primitive weapons, and tools +with which to fashion a boat. I must lose no time in exploring beyond +the spring. I have found nothing yet that will especially lend itself +to our uses." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine's brown eyes were very wide. "You expect to remain here long +enough to build a boat, when the raft—— I know it can't be rowed, of +course, but—couldn't you try a sail?" +</P> + +<P> +"We couldn't sail it in its present form," he answered, "even if we +knew which direction to take when we started. With a small, swift boat +we might venture a few explorations from the island as a base." +</P> + +<P> +She was silent for a moment, and grave. +</P> + +<P> +"You haven't much faith, then, in hailing some passing steamer?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think it wiser to prepare against a probable wait that may be rather +long." He read and understood her impatience with the situation—a +situation rendered infinitely more complicated and delicate by what he +had dared to say and do the previous afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +Once more black dreads that she dared not permit to reveal themselves +completely arose to engulf her mind. She could not doubt that +Grenville knew, far better than herself, how meager were their hopes of +immediate rescue or escape from this exile in the sea. More than +anything else, however, she wished to be worthy of and loyal to the man +to whom her plighted word had been given. That she owed so much to +Grenville already was an added irritation. A braver, finer spirit than +she summoned to her needs never rose in a woman's breast. +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes met his with a cold look of resolution in their depths. +</P> + +<P> +"I know you will show me how to help. I must do my share in +everything. Can you tell how long it must have been since anyone was +here?" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville had never thought her finer—never loved her so madly before. +Yet he quelled the merry demons of his nature. +</P> + +<P> +"No," he replied, as he took in his hand a bit of bone, bleached +cleanly white. "I can't even understand why an island so abundantly +supplied with fruits and game, to say nothing of useful woods and the +like, should be so utterly abandoned. There seems to be nothing wrong +with the place, and much that is quite in its favor." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps that tiger," she suggested. +</P> + +<P> +Sidney shook his head. "It's something that goes a bit deeper—at +least, there may once have been something sinister. The natives of all +this part of the world are rather accustomed to tigers." +</P> + +<P> +Her sense of divination was exceedingly keen. +</P> + +<P> +"You think there is something worse? You haven't already encountered +something more——" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing," he hastened to interrupt. "The problem of our daily +existence affords our greatest present cause for concern—and I frankly +admit I considerably relish the prospect of proving we are equal to all +that our situation may demand." +</P> + +<P> +She was not to be satisfied so readily. +</P> + +<P> +"But there may be something wrong with the island?" +</P> + +<P> +"Possibly—from a native's point of view." +</P> + +<P> +"But—you are almost certain to meet that tiger again." +</P> + +<P> +"All the more reason for getting to work at once." He arose in his +quick, active manner, and once more surveyed their camp. +</P> + +<P> +"A few rocks piled in your doorway," he continued, "and your cave will +meet your requirements admirably. I should say mine would better be +this small retreat, the roof of which I can readily restore. It is +close enough to be neighborly, and is nearer the head of the trail." +</P> + +<P> +The smaller cave thus indicated occupied a position suggestive of a +sentry's box, before precincts to be guarded. Its opening faced the +gateway of the trail, while its size was sufficient for the needs of +any primitive man. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine, who had mechanically followed Grenville from the shelter, +looked resignedly about. She had failed till now to think, concretely, +of actually remaining, perhaps night after night, in such a place. +</P> + +<P> +"It was terrible!" she said, "—the accident—everything!—terrible!" +She suddenly thought of the threat he had made—to compel her to love +him as he loved her, before they should reach their home—and shivered +anew at the unforeseen predicament in which she was plunged, and hated +him more than before. +</P> + +<P> +"Bad business," he answered, briefly, "but at present the task before +us is to cut a lot of grass and strew it about on the rocks to dry." +</P> + +<P> +He opened the stubby blade of his knife, glanced at it ruefully, and, +selecting a bit of stone, began to whet its edge. But he halted the +action abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +A low, weird sound, like a human wail, came from somewhere over behind +them. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +VARIOUS DISCOVERIES +</H4> + +<P> +The sound had no sooner died on the air than a second, far louder, and +far more uncanny in its suggestiveness of someone in mortal pain, +followed piercingly, up around the rock, and rang in their startled +ears. +</P> + +<P> +The third sound more resembled a scream. It was immediately succeeded +by a chorus of hideous cries and moans, singularly distressing. They +rose to a pitch incredible; they seemed to involve every accent of +human grief and torture, and to wrap the rock escarpment completely in +an agonizing appeal. +</P> + +<P> +This chorus sank, but a haunting solo of wailing arose as before, to be +followed again by the air-splitting scream, and at length once more by +the mingling of many dreadful voices. +</P> + +<P> +The island exiles glanced at one another inquiringly, Elaine blanched +white with awe. +</P> + +<P> +"By Heavens!—it can't be human," Grenville muttered, as the programme +recommenced with only a slight variation. +</P> + +<P> +To Elaine's dismay he started for the cliff. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Grenville!" she cried, and helplessly followed where he went. +</P> + +<P> +The wail was dying, in a horrid series of feebler repetitions, when +Grenville came to the edge of the wall and peered down below at the +water. +</P> + +<P> +There was absolutely nothing to be seen in any direction. The direful +sounds, fast progressing once more to that nerve-destroying climax, +appeared to issue from a natural cove, a little along to the left. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville continued around the edge, to a point directly above them. +But here, as before, there was nothing in all the sea suggestive of +boats or beings. The tide, Grenville thought, ran in and out with +particular force, reversing at a certain point, and performing singular +movements in a basin of hollowed stone. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine had paused behind him, a rod or more from the brink. He waited +deliberately for all the cycle of sounds to be repeated, then turned +away with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"I think we have come upon the explanation of the island's uninhabited +condition," he informed the girl, as he came once more to her side. +"Those noises are made by the sea, forcing air to some cavern in the +cliffs. It is doubtless repeated twice a day at a certain stage of the +tide." +</P> + +<P> +"It's horrible!" Elaine replied in dread, as a feebler rehearsal of the +chorus filled all that tropic breeze, "simply horrible!" +</P> + +<P> +"It may be our greatest bit of good fortune," Grenville informed her, +sagely. "I much prefer those sirens to a colony of Dyaks who might +otherwise live on the place." +</P> + +<P> +"We shall have to endure it twice a day?" +</P> + +<P> +"Possibly not. I may be entirely mistaken, concerning that. I can +only be certain it is caused by the tide, and is, therefore, not to be +dreaded." +</P> + +<P> +For fully ten minutes, however, the tidal conditions were favorable to +the sound's continuance. It subsided by degrees, the last moaning +notes possibly more suggestive than the first of beings perishing +miserably. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime Grenville had gone indifferently about the business of cutting +huge armfuls of the tall grass and ferns abundantly supplied in the +clearing. This moist and not unfragrant material Elaine in silent +helpfulness carried to the top of the terrace, where she spread it +about on the rocks. She was certain Grenville was providing far more +than they could use in reason, yet although his stubby knife-blade was +a poor tool, indeed, for the business, he toiled away unsparingly, +blithesomely whistling at his task. +</P> + +<P> +"You may be glad by nightfall to burrow into a stack of this hay," he +told Elaine as he brought the last load up the trail. "If you wouldn't +mind turning it over from time to time I think I'll look about again to +get an idea of the island." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine had as little inclination to remain on the terrace alone, with +all manner of worries respecting Grenville's safety, as she had to +follow where he would lead through the shades and thickets of the +jungle. She was aware, however, her presence at his side would be more +of a care than assistance; while the necessity for his explorations +addressed itself clearly to her mind. She made no confession of her +natural wish to see him returning promptly. +</P> + +<P> +He departed, with his club in hand, quite certain he should not be gone +above an hour. He had not, however, reckoned with the jungle. +</P> + +<P> +Despite the fact he had set his mind on the region about and beyond the +spring, the flow of which formed the estuary, some wonder respecting +the area once blackened and cleared by fire attracted his attention +immediately upon his descent from the hill. +</P> + +<P> +Through a fringe of scrub he forced his way to this region close under +the walls, discovering old, charred stumps, many dead saplings, and +quantities of half-consumed branches, affording a large supply of fuel. +There could be no doubt the fire had raged within the previous year. +Human visitors of some complexion had come, left this scar, and +departed. +</P> + +<P> +Hopeful of some enlightening sign as to who or what they might have +been, he searched the earth about and between the shrubs and grasses +with considerable care. Not so much as a bone, however, rewarded his +scrutinizing gaze. He came to the tree trunk left hollow by the +flames, and paused to marvel at its size. Above his head it was four +feet through, while the base was certainly eight. An arch had been +formed in its substance, near the ground, and into this he curiously +peered. +</P> + +<P> +Kneeling thus on the earth, he was readily enabled to look straight up +through and out at the top. The hollow in the stout old jungle +champion was fully two feet in diameter, and almost perfectly round. +There was nothing else of interest to be found about the place, save a +huge, smooth log, lying with one end resting on a rock, and long enough +to make a splendid boat. +</P> + +<P> +Attempting the passage of the jungle from this point across to the +midway wall of tufa, Grenville expended fully fifteen minutes of the +toughest sort of effort, and was then obliged to retreat once more to +the trail. He encountered here the first wild animal discovered since +his meeting with the tiger. +</P> + +<P> +It was a porcupine, bristling with trouble for any attacking beast. +Grenville could have slain it with his club. He was fairly on the +point of providing this much meat for the sadly empty larder, when the +fact that he could ignite no fire deterred his ready weapon. He +thought, in that extremity, of his watch, the crystal of which might +serve to give him a white-hot spark from the sun. +</P> + +<P> +Trusting the porcupine might await the result of his quick experiment, +he lost no time in submitting the glass to a trial. It formed a ring +of brilliant light on the back of his hand, but the rays would not come +to a focus. +</P> + +<P> +"Go thy ways," he said to the porcupine, and he continued at once on +his own. +</P> + +<P> +Observing the trail more closely than he had on his earlier excursion, +he presently discovered a divergence to the left that led towards the +central wall of stone. Here he frightened a considerable troop of +monkeys that swung in a panic of activity through the avenues of +foliage overhead. There were likewise sounds of heavier beasts that +escaped observation on the moist and thickly cumbered earth. +</P> + +<P> +The trail under foot was rather well worn, and not, the man was +certain, by the hoofs or feet of brutes. The explanation was presently +forthcoming, at least in part, for the path emerged at a clay pit that +lay against the frowning tower of stone. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville could have shouted for joy as he took a bit of the smooth, +sticky substance in his hand, and began thus promptly, in his fancy, +making pots and jugs innumerable to meet their every need. The deposit +had been previously worked. The evidence of this was unmistakable. +But none of the tools employed by former craftsmen had been left for +Grenville to discover. +</P> + +<P> +He spent some time investigating all the mute signs of former activity +expended at the pit, and finally glancing up at the cliff above, +abandoned all thought of conquering its summit, and retraced his steps +along the trail. +</P> + +<P> +Where the path to the spring made a second fork, he continued straight +on through the jungle. One glance only of the estuary, tortuously +penetrating the waist of the island, was vouchsafed him through the +thicket. Beyond this point, in swampy ground, flourished a forest of +giant bamboo. The creepers and vines in that immediate section were +particularly varied and abundant. The bird life was equally +impressive. Hundreds of swallows were skimming in the air, a number of +argus pheasants wildly fled from the visitor's presence, parrots +screamed and wheeled in huge flocks above the light green bamboo +foliage, and several fine flamingoes made shift to find concealment in +the reeds. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a haunted paradise," Grenville muttered to himself, his thought +having gone for a moment to the wails and moans that had startled +himself and Elaine. +</P> + +<P> +Regretting that his broken knife was a wholly inadequate implement with +which to assail such a bamboo stem as he would gladly have taken to the +camp, he was once more making his way from the thicket when his foot +crashed audibly through something brittle, on the earth. +</P> + +<P> +He parted the shrubbery and uttered a low exclamation. He had stepped +upon a human skeleton, white and suggestively huddled, every fragment +of it perfect—except that it lacked a head. +</P> + +<P> +In a certain sort of anxiety Grenville searched about to find the +missing member. The skull was not to be discovered. Persuading +himself this might be accounted for by many natural explanations, and +resolving to keep his discovery entirely to himself, he forced his way +around this grewsome inhabitant—and came upon another. +</P> + +<P> +This one he did not strike with either foot. It lay outstretched +before him, in company with scattered and broken bits of rock—and, +like its neighbor, it was headless. +</P> + +<P> +Had some monstrous head-hunter written "Dyaks" on all the empty lattice +of those human ribs, Grenville could not have been more convinced of +what this business meant. He returned to the trail accompanied by a +sense of dread that all but sent him back to Elaine. His thought was +entirely of her, and of their helplessness, cast thus alone upon this +unpeopled island, clean stripped of weapons and of all things else save +their wits and bodily strength. +</P> + +<P> +"We've got to escape," he told himself in a new, swift fever of +impatience. "There is not an hour to lose!" +</P> + +<P> +He continued on through the jungle towards the hill at the farther end. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A GREWSOME GUARDIAN +</H4> + +<P> +Apparently the trail, that had once been formed through the axis of the +island, had been found of little use. It was overgrown by all manner +of plants well-nigh to extinction. +</P> + +<P> +The region hereabout was obviously the final retreat of many beasts, +both timid and bold. Grenville found signs of at least one Malay bear +and of many wild hogs in the thickets. He fancied he saw one flash of +moving orange, where either his tiger or another of his ilk moved +silently through the growth behind him. Of the monkeys there appeared +to be no end; and the snakes were amply represented. +</P> + +<P> +He was glad for every clearing that he came upon and crossed, and felt +a decided sense of relief on achieving his hill at last. This worn old +eminence of rock and substances volcanic was far more steep and rugged +than the one where he had left Elaine. It possessed no caves, and no +particular flatness at the summit. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville explored it rapidly, considerably disappointed to find +nothing of special utility upon its broken surface. He had hoped for +some hard and useful stone at least, if not for actual flints. +Completing its round in a haste that the rapidly increasing heat of the +day considerably accelerated, he presently came upon an unusual ledge +protruding from the slope's unpromising surface. +</P> + +<P> +Here he halted in idle curiosity. The ledge was of sulphur—a blow-out +from the hill's once molten interior, lying untouched and useless in +the sun for the elements to wear away and sluice at last to the sea. +With no particular purpose in view, he broke away a fragment, dropped +it carelessly into his pocket, and continued on his way. +</P> + +<P> +His gaze returned with a certain steadfast eagerness to the hill and +camp beyond. He was not precisely disappointed on failing to discover +Elaine, who might have been waiting to wave him a signal from the +heights; he was somewhat concerned to know if all was well upon her +rock. She was not to be seen at all about the place. He clambered to +the top of a broken bowlder for a view more comprehensive. +</P> + +<P> +This, too, appeared a wasted effort, at least as concerned Elaine. The +island map, however, was laid out before him in a manner to complete +his former survey of the place. There were several clearings thus +revealed that could never be seen from the farther point of vantage. +</P> + +<P> +Acknowledging each of these in turn, Grenville was once more about to +direct his footsteps homeward when one of the smaller, near-by breaks +in the jungle, quite at the top of a species of rift in the island's +ruggedness, down upon his left, attracted a second glance. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment he fancied some colossal remains, as of an animal long +since extinct, were lying there in the clinging embrace of the +creepers. He decided, then, it was a boat, but dismissed this notion +as preposterous, so high above the water's edge, and so near the +island's center, did it lie. About ready to conclude that certain +giant shadows contributed much to round out a half-imagined form, his +gaze encountered a bowsprit thrust through all the foliage, its +identity not to be mistaken. The hull of a ship was undoubtedly there. +He hastened down, expectantly, to make its better acquaintance. +</P> + +<P> +The wonder when he came there was—how it came to be stranded so high +and far above the water. As for the vessel itself, it was merely a +rotted old shell, with its cargo bursting through its ribs. +</P> + +<P> +So far as Grenville could judge from its fast-decaying remains, it had +been an inferior type of the old-fashioned barque, and of very modest +dimensions. Its masts, however, were gone, together with every +accessible piece of metal that eager hands could remove. Its moldy and +slimy old cabin had partially collapsed. Without effecting an entrance +through the treacherous deck, Sidney could discover nothing respecting +its interior. +</P> + +<P> +He could peer through the ribs at several places along the hull, and +even near the keel, by stooping low, but the most he could determine by +such a superficial examination was that there was nothing even here +that he could use. The cargo he thought for a moment to be chalk, or +lime. He scraped a clean sample from the weathered heap, and rubbed it +in his palm. Its crystalline structure was not that of either lime or +chalk. When he placed a particle on his tongue, he dropped all he held +with no further interest. +</P> + +<P> +The stuff was common saltpeter. That the vessel had been westward +bound, perhaps from Borneo, with this mineral common to so much of that +tropical section, he understood at once. But to find her stranded thus +so loftily was amazing. He scraped at the soil with the toe of his +boot to dig below the surface. +</P> + +<P> +As he had rather expected, seashells and pebbles of a former beach were +readily brought to view. Some old upheaval had undoubtedly lifted +beach, vessel, and all to this altitude above the tides, and left it +there to decay. +</P> + +<P> +Considerably disappointed to find the hulk so completely stripped of +the metal furnishings of which he might have wrought some sort of tools +or weapons, Grenville hesitated between an impulse to continue home to +Elaine without greater delay, and a strong desire to investigate the +cabin of the barque. The latter temptation was not to be resisted. +</P> + +<P> +He grasped the branch of an overhanging tree and, by dint of much +active scrambling, clawing, and thrusting his toes into various chinks, +at length gained the planks of the slanted deck and broke his way into +the one-time sanctum of the captain and his mates. +</P> + +<P> +This, too, had been pillaged with exceptional thoroughness. There was, +however, a passageway leading to another apartment beyond, where a +door, half open, was revealed by sunlight streaming through the broken +roof. Thither Grenville made his way—to behold an extraordinary sight. +</P> + +<P> +The place was a room, partitioned off from considerably larger +quarters. It contained one object only—a form, half mummy, half +skeleton, that had once been a powerful man. <I>And this was chained to +the wall!</I> +</P> + +<P> +It was sitting propped against the lintel of a second door, a panel of +which was raggedly broken out. It had never been robbed of its head. +A strong, black beard still remained upon the emaciated face, and the +eye-sockets stared straight forward at the door by which the visitor +had entered. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was not to be easily dismayed, yet the attitude of this +grewsome thing was very far from being pleasant. The being had been +almost naked when he perished here alone with a heavy iron band about +his waist. All this his visitor swiftly discerned while inclined to +turn about and flee the place. He discovered, then, an additional +mystery. +</P> + +<P> +The skin, in a patch fully six inches square, had disappeared from the +helpless being's breast. That it had not wasted away by a natural +process was, moreover, perfectly obvious, since the square-cut edges of +parchment, which the remainder of his cuticle had become by the +mummifying process, were distinctly to be seen. It had been removed +with a knife. It appeared to Grenville that the captive had been +propped artificially where he sat, as if to guard the passage. A +trickle of water, saturated with saltpeter, had served to embalm both +his flesh and skin, in part. +</P> + +<P> +That the cabin beyond had likewise been despoiled of its treasure was +almost a foregone conclusion. However, Sidney stepped closer to the +silent form and peered through the broken panel. +</P> + +<P> +The room into which he was gazing was dimly lighted by the rays of +daylight filtering through a number of cracks which the weather had +opened in its ceiling. When his sight grew accustomed to the darkness, +he saw that the place had evidently served not only as quarters for the +former crew, but likewise as a storage hold for ropes, paints, extra +furnishings, and, doubtless, victuals. +</P> + +<P> +Its contents lay scattered about in confusion and decay, yet promised +more "treasure" for Grenville's needs than all the rest of the vessel. +He drove his shoulder against the door, and its lock broke the rotted +woodwork away with a suddenness the man had not expected. He passed +the mummified guardian at the portal somewhat hurriedly, as he lurched +inside the chamber; and he nearly fell across a box that had spilled +out a dozen old pieces of brass. +</P> + +<P> +Upon these he pounced with avidity, despite the fact they were greenly +incrusted with "rust." Among other articles of plunder thus provided +to his hand were several row-locks, a broken turnbuckle, a dozen at +least of useless hinges, and a hatful of screws more or less cemented +together. +</P> + +<P> +With vague ideas of employing the metal somehow, he filled his pockets +with the smaller articles and looked about for possible tools. From a +broken locker in a corner much similar scrap stuff had fallen. Here +was a large brass porthole rim, parts of a broken binnacle, half of the +brazen cap from a towing-bit, two heavy bronze handles of swords now +fallen to pieces with decay, an old brass lantern with a useless lamp, +a large coil of excellent copper wire, a ball of lead, and remains of +several iron marlinespikes, mere effigies now in flaky rust. +</P> + +<P> +From beneath a heap of rotted cordage a greenish cylinder protruded. +Grenville drew it forth. It proved to be a small brass cannon, +unmounted, and apparently filled with mud. Near by he discovered the +rapidly disintegrating remnants of an old-time flintlock musket. This +was a priceless treasure, for the flint, which was still intact. He +likewise saved a bit of the steel that the cordage had protected. +</P> + +<P> +The thin and wasted skeleton of a hand-saw hung upon a hook. When he +took the blade between his fingers it fell apart like paper, charred, +but still holding its original form. Not an object he found of iron +was worth removing to the camp. Resolved to return at an early date, +to annex the old cannon and such other heavy bric-à-brac as he could +not conveniently carry away to-day, Grenville finally left the +mysterious dead man still sitting in chains beside the door, and once +more regained the wholesome earth. +</P> + +<P> +He finally glanced at his watch. The time was nearly twelve! He had +been for at least three hours away from Elaine, who was waiting alone +upon the hill! Back to the trail, and then along its sinuous windings +through the jungle, he strode at his swiftest pace. +</P> + +<P> +When he came to the final clearing before the towering rock, he was all +but paralyzed with dread at a bit of drama being there enacted. +</P> + +<P> +At the edge of the jungle stood Elaine, her arms and jacket filled with +fruits she had gathered against his coming. By the foot of the trail +that ascended to their camp, posed in a waiting attitude, his long tail +only in motion, gracefully sweeping his great tawny side, was the tiger +that wore the golden collar. +</P> + +<P> +Not a sound escaped from Elaine's white lips, as she turned to glance +across at Sidney. Then she limberly sank on the earth. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +PRIMITIVE CONDITIONS +</H4> + +<P> +A short, sharp cry was the only note that Grenville uttered. +</P> + +<P> +The tiger had turned his blazing eyes on the man he but partially +feared. Sidney was coming less at him than towards the helpless, +prostrate form that lay upon the grass. +</P> + +<P> +The man had forgotten his danger in his greater concern for Elaine. He +reached her side before he confronted the jungle beast, who still +remained undecided. Slowly then, deliberately, the malignant animal, +superb not only in his strength and splendid proportions, but also in +his arrogance, his indifference to man, the master butcher of the +world, ran out his tongue to lick his chops, stretched his terrible +mouth in a fang-revealing yawn, and trod his way into the thicket. +</P> + +<P> +The fruits she had gathered were scattered all about as Grenville +lifted Elaine in his arms and carried her up the steep ascent. Not +having actually swooned, she had fairly begun to revive once more +before he reached the cave. +</P> + +<P> +When he placed her down on a heap of half-dried grass she had thrown +together while awaiting his return, a faint tinge of color was +returning to her face, and her eyes dimly focused upon him. +</P> + +<P> +"You've worked too much, that's what it means," he said. "You see +you're tired." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm—sorry," she faltered, faintly. "I really—didn't mean to be—so +weak." +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind," he said. "I'll kill the brute. His skin is certainly a +beauty." With the utmost apparent indifference to Elaine's recovery, +he went at once to the clearing for the bits of old junk he had dropped. +</P> + +<P> +When he returned, his mind was still on the tiger. +</P> + +<P> +"We've got to live—move about—and not be annoyed," he said. "If I +had a single rifle! But I'll get him somehow, soon!" +</P> + +<P> +Elaine still remained upon the hay. +</P> + +<P> +"If he doesn't get us sooner," she replied, a little grimly, but not as +one in fear. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall wall up the trail," mused Grenville, aloud, looking about at +the quantity of rock so readily afforded. "That much I can do this +afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +She sat up a bit more sturdily. +</P> + +<P> +"I dropped our luncheon, I suppose.... I hope to do better, later on, +when I get more used to conditions." She was mortified to think he had +been thus promptly obliged to carry her "home" in his arms. +</P> + +<P> +"You are doing fairly well," he said, in his off-hand manner. "We +shall soon be all right. It's a fine and tight little island." +</P> + +<P> +Her one idea was to get away as soon as possible. +</P> + +<P> +"Shouldn't we put up a flag, or something, in case a steamer should +happen to be passing?" +</P> + +<P> +"As soon as I can cut a long bamboo. I must have both tools and fire +as promptly as possible." +</P> + +<P> +"You must be hungry," she remarked, arising rather weakly and going to +the end of her cave, where all the water that remained in the half of +the paw-paw shell had been carefully stored, in Grenville's absence. +Then, emerging with her burden, she added, "I meant to have your +luncheon ready, but we have almost nothing left." +</P> + +<P> +"All that you gathered was left by the tiger," he answered, cheerfully. +"The beast prefers more solid diet." Once more descending the trail, +he presently returned with the fruits that had fallen from her arms. +</P> + +<P> +They ate, as before, in the shade of her cave, for the sun on the rocks +was becoming hot. +</P> + +<P> +"The wall this afternoon," said Grenville, as he finally concluded his +simple repast with a drink of tepid water. "Then our mast and signal +of distress must be erected. I shall try for fire directly. I must +make a bow and some arrows. A clay pit I found will provide us with +earthenware utensils, and then—if only I could manage to melt some +brass—— You see, the worst of it is, no stone I've discovered on the +place is fit to use for a tool." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine avoided the boyish gleaming of his gaze. "Are we thrust so far +back as the stone age, then? It's really as bad as that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Bad?" he said. "It's tremendously diverting. I've got to begin, as +it were, with my naked hands. But fortunately, I believe, for us, the +bronze and stone ages lap," and he drew from his pockets some bits of +the heterogeneous collection he had brought from the rotting barque. +</P> + +<P> +"You have found some metal?" Elaine inquired, excitedly. "But where?" +</P> + +<P> +"In a wreck that must have arrived here years ago." He related as much +as he thought advisable and undisturbing to the thoroughly wondering +girl. +</P> + +<P> +She could see no possible use for all the rusted bronze and brass he +had earned away from the wreck so strangely discovered, but she made no +discouraging comments to dampen an ardor which to her was not precisely +comprehensible. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope I can help," she told him, as she had before. "I'm afraid I'm +not very clever." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll see," he answered, cheerfully. "Necessity is rather a strict +instructor." +</P> + +<P> +But she could not assist him with the wall, at which he was presently +perspiring. The stones he rolled and carried to the narrowest shelf or +ledge that was scaled by the trail were far too heavy for her delicate +hands and muscles. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't I do something else?" she begged, eager for any employment. +"There must be some work I could do." +</P> + +<P> +"You might plait a basket of some sort," he said. "We shall need some +presently." +</P> + +<P> +He thereupon went below again, cut all he could carry of tough and +limber creepers, and, fetching them up to the shade of her cave, +instructed Elaine in such of the rudiments of basket-weaving as he +himself could readily invent, and left her busily employed. +</P> + +<P> +The wall he required to prevent any possible night attack on the part +of the beast that was already inclined to stalk either one of them, or +both, was not of any considerable length, owing to the narrowness of +the pass he had chosen to block with bowlders. He had, however, to +make it thick and high. By taking advantage of three large blocks, +which he rolled down hill to the place selected, he secured a +substantial foundation with comparative ease. After that it became a +matter merely of carrying stone after stone, from their inexhaustible +supply on the summit, to lodge in rough, uneven tiers to the height +desired. +</P> + +<P> +He had left a narrow gateway next the natural wall that made his +structure complete. This he could block with a heavy log, or even more +stones, for the night. +</P> + +<P> +For fully three hours he wrought prodigiously, returning from time to +time to Elaine, to guide and assist her with her basket. Between them +they managed to produce from their rough material a crude, misshapen +receptacle, coarse of mesh and clumsy, yet strong and not to be +despised. Grenville expected to use it to fetch his clay from the pit. +</P> + +<P> +It was not until this product of their combined ingenuity was fairly +complete that Grenville discovered he could split the bark of the +creepers readily, and tear out a smooth white core, like a withe, far +more suitable to their uses. He then not only stripped out several +full-length cores, but he also found that the bark or covering thus +removed was constructed of numerous thread-like strands amazingly tough +and long. These fibers were not so readily separated as the core had +been from the covering with which they were incorporated, although +their recovery was not a difficult operation. His inventive mind saw +ample employment for them later. +</P> + +<P> +The wall was not entirely finished when, at length, he left it for the +day. He was weary in all his bone and sinew, despite the prodding of +his will. He had made no attempt at kindling fire, and none towards +procuring a mast to erect for a flag of distress. These were tasks +that must wait for the morrow, with the others he was eager to attack. +</P> + +<P> +The dinner at sundown was necessarily a repetition of the previous +meals of the day. It could not be followed by the cheer and comfort of +a fire, and the darkness, that drew on rapidly, brought a sense of +chill and depression to Elaine, notwithstanding her bravery of spirit. +</P> + +<P> +The wind had ceased, except for the merest intermittent puffs of breath +that floated upward from the sea. Not even the lapping of the tide +against the wall arose to break the silence. The stillness was +painfully profound, though Elaine's imagination depicted a hundred +nocturnal brutes of the jungle, prowling in every trail and clearing, +in a savage quest for blood. +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact, the nightly tragedies were already well begun. +But it was not until some victim shrilly voiced its animal fear and +agony, just beneath the towering wall, that Elaine had a realizing +sense of her nearness to these creatures of the darkness, or the +working of life's inexorable laws. +</P> + +<P> +Her mind reverted, by natural process, to all the terrible occurrences +crowded into her life within the last couple of days—occurrences that +seemed so needlessly tragic, and all the alarms excited in her breast, +not only by the frightful accident to the "Inca," but likewise by the +almost unknown man upon whom she was now dependent. +</P> + +<P> +She recalled with singular vividness every accent, every gesture, look, +and deed that had accompanied Grenville's declaration. She burned +again, with shame and indignation, to think of the things he had dared +to say and do—the treachery done to his friend—the indignity done to +herself. +</P> + +<P> +She hated him now more intensely than before, since he seemed, by some +enormity of purpose, to have been in some manner responsible for the +fate that had brought her here in his company, absolutely at his mercy. +That his promptness of action had saved her life she willingly and +justly conceded—but to fetch her here, all by herself, to an island +unpeopled and awful, far from the track of ocean-going steamers—with +his threat to compel her love still ringing in her ears—this seemed to +outweigh any possible service he had done or could ever accomplish. +</P> + +<P> +What would he do, she wondered, on the morrow? When would he speak of +his passion again? What means, in this situation, might he presently +adopt to coerce the love she knew she should never bestow? +</P> + +<P> +There could be no answer to her questions—least of all from the man +himself. He, too, had fallen into silence, and a study of the vast and +merciless problems, not only of existence till their escape could be +effected, but likewise as to how that escape could be attempted, in +safety, and where they must steer their ocean course to come to a land +which should not prove inhospitable. +</P> + +<P> +He seemed, for the time, to have quite forgotten the presence of the +girl at the cave. This she finally observed. She wondered, then, what +sinister outcome his brooding might presage. +</P> + +<P> +Keyed to a pitch of nervous sensibility she had never experienced +before, she retired at length within her shelter like a child thrust +alone in the dark. Much as she felt she disliked the man, she found +herself most reluctant to move very far from his presence, or refuse +his protecting care. She was certain her dread of all it meant to be +hopelessly cast upon this island, with one doubtful human being only +for comfort and companionship, would haunt her to sleeplessness +throughout the night. Yet she fell into slumber almost at once, and +only dreamed she was still awake and worried. +</P> + +<P> +It was still quite early in the evening. Elaine was finally +approaching a thoroughly restful oblivion, when a low, moaning wail, +and then shrill screams, abruptly ushered once more into play that +hideous chorus of the morning, produced by some phenomenon of the tides. +</P> + +<P> +"Sidney! Sidney!" came an answering cry; and Grenville arose, to see +Elaine running wildly towards him from her cave. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE MOTHER OF INVENTION +</H4> + +<P> +It was not until the entire cycle of haunting sounds had been repeated +for its final time that Elaine could consent to return to her pallet of +grasses. And even when she had once more knelt upon this improvised +bed, she could not consent to resign herself to the mercies of the +night without one more glance towards Grenville's cavern. +</P> + +<P> +She returned, unseen, to her door, and peered forth through the starlit +night, discerning his dimly outlined figure, as he sat before his door. +</P> + +<P> +He even arose as she paused there, uncertainly. She noted his +listening attitude, the alertness of his pose. Then he sat once more +upon the stone at his threshold, where she knew his club lay ready to +his hand. +</P> + +<P> +A sense of security, despite her bitterness of feeling, came slowly +stealing upon her. She went back to her couch and slept. +</P> + +<P> +Sidney, for his part, sat there alone, while hour after hour went +silently by, and the constellations hung in higher arches. A thousand +ramifications of thought he pursued in his active brain. But through +them all, like an ever recurrent <I>motif</I>, stole a troubled reminder of +the tiger, twice encountered in the day. +</P> + +<P> +To slay this contemptuous, savage beast that already drooled about the +jaws at thoughts of a human morsel, was the one imperative business to +be promptly executed. Elaine and himself could live on fruits, and +neglect all else, without serious results, for a week, or even a month, +but this affair was not to be delayed. +</P> + +<P> +He thought of pitfalls, giant traps, and automatic engines of +destruction by the score, each deadly device absurdly impracticable and +beyond all power of his achievement. His mind, accustomed to civilized +ways, ran in higher ingenuities that were absolutely useless in this +primal state of their existence. +</P> + +<P> +When at length he leaned back against his wall and began to wonder if, +in the end, he must arm himself with primitive man's crude bow and +arrow, and thus engage the master prowler of the jungle, he was ready +for Nature's claims. He slept there, too utterly exhausted to drag +himself in to his bed. And there Elaine found him in the morning. +</P> + +<P> +That day was a long one, of varied and wearying employments. The wall +was finished across the trail, Elaine's too widely opened cavern was +partially blocked up with stone, and, at length, in addition to +searching the jungle for something particularly downy and inflammable +for tinder, to use in making fire, Grenville went with his basket down +to the clay pit and fetched sufficient of this moist and plastic +material to mould a number of vessels. +</P> + +<P> +This last useful art was not, however, immediately attempted. Unfired +jugs and basins were absolutely useless—and as yet they had no fire. +The search for tinder had resulted only in producing a silken, fluffy +material that grew in a fat green pod. It was moist, when found, with +the natural juices of the plant. +</P> + +<P> +While it dried in the sun, under Elaine's supervision, Grenville worked +at a stout, elastic tree-branch to taper out a bow. His stub of a +knife-blade served indifferently against the close-grained wood, which, +nevertheless, was obliged to yield to his persevering efforts. +</P> + +<P> +At noon the weapon, save for the cord, was rudely finished. No arrows +had been as yet provided. Obliged at this hour to replenish the camp +supply of water, Grenville once more visited the spring. So fresh were +the tracks of the tiger here, in the mire about the trickling stream, +that he felt they must almost be warm. The brute was undoubtedly near +at hand, but, perhaps, well fed, as before. +</P> + +<P> +"There is nothing quite so important now as fire," was Grenville's +remark, as he once more rejoined Elaine. "Without it we are +practically helpless. With it—there is almost nothing we may not hope +to achieve." +</P> + +<P> +He had thought of a number of extraordinary and highly important +implements and arts that only flame and glowing heat could render +possible. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine brought the fluff she had thoroughly dried, while Grenville +cleaned his flint and steel. For an hour, then, he strove in vain to +ignite his bit of tinder. It was not at all an easy matter to strike a +spark from the stone. What few brilliant specks of incandescence sped +occasionally downward like vigor transmuted into swiftly fading stars +from Grenville's varied and over-eager strokes, either died on the air +or missed their mark or struck it and found it uncongenial. +</P> + +<P> +"This must be a vegetable asbestos," he finally declared. "If I had +just a pinch of powder, this flint might recognize—— By Jove!" and +he started at once to his feet. "I'm the greatest fool on legs!" +</P> + +<P> +"What seems to be the trouble?" said Elaine, who could not possibly +comprehend his meaning. "Have you made some sort of mistake?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've been asleep—my brain defunct! Excuse me half a minute!" +</P> + +<P> +He started madly down the trail, running like a boy. Before Elaine +could do more than stare in wonder at his antics, he had reached the +bottom of the wall, darted across the clearing, and disappeared in the +jungle growth beyond. +</P> + +<P> +He smashed his way hotly to the wrecked old barque, and, pawing deeply +beneath the surface of the wasting saltpeter, that had been for long +somewhat protected in the hold, promptly filled two pockets with the +mineral, and went racing back as he had come. +</P> + +<P> +But beyond the clearing he altered his course to enter the region once +blackened by fire. Here he went directly to the hollow tree he had +once before examined, and, wriggling inside, through the ample orifice +burned out by the flames, he attacked the charred interior with his +knife as if his very life depended on his haste. +</P> + +<P> +In the briefest time he had chipped off more than a double handful of +crisp, but inferior, charcoal. Retreating no less promptly than he had +entered, he gathered this carefully in a giant leaf, and hastily +rejoined Elaine. +</P> + +<P> +"Powder!" he said, belatedly explaining. "Everything lying here and +ready, and my brain a howling blank!" +</P> + +<P> +To Elaine this was not precisely clear. +</P> + +<P> +"There is gunpowder here on the island?" +</P> + +<P> +"No! The ingredients merely. But any child—— Ah! here's my bit of +sulphur! There's a ton of it ready to be gathered. Powder? I can +make enough to blow a dozen tigers into ribbons! The wreck is full of +niter and, once we have a fire, I can burn all the jungle into +charcoal!" +</P> + +<P> +The mystery had not entirely lifted for Elaine, but this she hardly +expected. +</P> + +<P> +"How can I help?" she asked him, quietly. "There must be something I +can do." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a matter of grinding these materials," he answered, more calmly, +depositing sulphur, saltpeter, and charcoal on a rock before them. +"It's a simple composition, after all." +</P> + +<P> +Barely less feverishly than before he began a search for suitable +stones to employ as mortars and pestles. There were many small +bowlders slightly hollowed by the elements, but a number of these had +surfaces ready to crumble, and were, therefore, reluctantly discarded. +In throwing about some loosely huddled fragments, to liberate a smooth, +hard slab of stone that was dished from its edges to its center, +Grenville was doubly rewarded by coming upon a large, thick seashell, +practically perfect. +</P> + +<P> +With this and the basin of harder rock, he returned at once to the +shade. He was soon reducing the charcoal, while Elaine no less +industriously attacked the lump of sulphur. +</P> + +<P> +"We need a little only for a trial," he said, as he presently sifted +out his powdered product, and began to grind the niter. "I wish I +remembered the proportions." +</P> + +<P> +In his haste to obtain results as soon as possible, he finally shook up +and ground together a large-sized pinch from each of the three +materials, producing thereby a grayish, unpromising mixture, decidedly +too rich in both the charcoal and sulphur. +</P> + +<P> +This he placed on a rock, a safe distance away, and attacked with his +flint and steel. Elaine had ceased her grinding operations, to stand +at his side and watch. He struck, perhaps, a dozen times before he +produced a shower of sparks—and nothing occurred. He looked at the +stuff for a moment, helplessly, discouragement swiftly lodging in his +bosom. Half-heartedly he struck the steel again. +</P> + +<P> +A single spark flew hotly from the flint. It seemed to curve to the +outside edge of the powder. Instantly, however, the mixture was +ignited. +</P> + +<P> +It did not burn in a quick, fierce flash, but more with a sputtering, +imperfect combustion, productive of stifling fumes. Grenville's hand +was slightly scorched—but his joy in the triumph was complete. +</P> + +<P> +"We're kings!" he cried, sublimely indifferent to genders. "We're +monarchs of all we survey!" He leaped up, waving his flint about his +head, his face outbeaming the sun. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was vaguely glad of his results. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid I don't understand it in the least." +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all necessary," he informed her, candidly. "It's the very +worst powder ever made. My charcoal is poor and my proportions wrong, +and I only half ground it all together. But it burned! That's enough +for me—it burned! It assures us a fire, and I'll make a new batch, +that will go off like a Spanish revolution!" +</P> + +<P> +He went below at once to gather twigs and fuel, bits of dried grass, +and other kindling, and brought a large bundle to the terrace. More +carefully, then, he mixed and ground his succeeding sample of the +powder. Recalling more clearly the accepted formula, he increased the +proportion of saltpeter to something nearer seventy-five per cent. of +the whole, approximating thus the standard long since established. +</P> + +<P> +Aware that, when he finally came to manufacture an explosive of higher +efficiency, he would do much better to wet the ingredients and later +dry the finished product, he now proceeded, as before, merely to try +for a fire. +</P> + +<P> +Thus he presently laid a train of his grayish mixture from one small +heap to another, in a place selected for his trial. Over one of the +powder pyramids he arranged his combustible straws, twigs, and branches +with the nicest care. And when, at length, he struck a white-hot star, +divinely potential, into the midst of the second heap, a hissing snake +of incandescence and smoke darted swiftly along the surface of +rock—and his fire leaped into being. +</P> + +<P> +On the towering rock, as on an altar, the flames that meant life to the +exiled pair rose goldenly bright and clear. +</P> + +<P> +A strange exultation in Grenville's prowess possessed Elaine, as she +stood by in wonder, looking on his face. +</P> + +<P> +"It shall never go out," he told her, presently, "not if I can prevent +it." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE MASTER POACHER +</H4> + +<P> +There were woods in abundance about the base of the tufa cliff that +would burn almost as slowly and retain their glow about as long as the +hardest of anthracite coal. +</P> + +<P> +Yet it was not on these that Grenville depended, that particular night, +to maintain the fire he had conjured from flint and steel. All those +long dark hours he served his altar flame with fuel gathered for the +purpose. An easier method for its preservation, by means of the woods +that were promptly discovered, he adopted, however, very soon. +</P> + +<P> +Each day that was ushered in and closed by the island's haunting wails +and chorus, now beheld some new development in the plans that Grenville +was laying. Elaine, less disturbed by the hideous sounds, might have +learned more promptly to accept them as part of the ordeal of living in +this extraordinary fashion, had they always come at stated hours. But, +born of the tides, they came with the tides, which, all the world over, +shift with each day till every hour of the twenty-four has had its +visitation. Like a horrid reminder of the brevity of life, the thing +was fore-ordered to rise unexpectedly, fret forgetful senses, and +linger longest, apparently, in the deadest hours of the night. +Concerning her companion, her mind was far more calm. Her distrust and +dislike were unabated, but he gave her no cause for added worry. +</P> + +<P> +By the third day after his fire had been accomplished, Grenville had +considerably altered their aspects and prospects of living. Their +bamboo flagpole stood in a crevice of the highest rock, with "rags" of +banana leaves idly flapping out a signal of distress; a number of +pipkins, large and small, were grayly drying in the sun, to be +subsequently fired; his bow was strung, beside three unfeathered +arrows, crudely tipped with points that Sidney had pounded out of +screws; charcoal was burning, down in the blackened clearing; a number +of traps and dead-falls were nearing completion; and several basket +loads both of sulphur and saltpeter were stored in caverns, which the +man had roofed to protect them from the rain. +</P> + +<P> +Much toil had been involved in these achievements. The bamboo pole, +for instance, had been most laboriously burned off, close to its base. +To accomplish this end, the man had carried coals of fire to the +estuary swamp, created a blaze, and repeatedly heated his longest piece +of brass, which had slowly charred a channel through the wood when +smartly applied to its surface. +</P> + +<P> +The cord that secured the "flag" upon this serviceable mast, had been +made, like the string for the bow, by twisting together innumerable +threads of the fiber imbedded in the bark of the creepers. This had +then been "waxed" with the glutinous ooze from the nearest rubber tree, +with which the jungle abounded. He had also found wild sisal in the +rocky places of the island. This plant had a leaf like a bayonet, +sometimes six feet long, and readily split into fibers of most +astonishing strength, especially when three were braided into a cord. +</P> + +<P> +Considerably to Grenville's amazement, the molding of jugs, some +crucibles, and other essential vessels suggested by the presence of the +clay, was not at all a simple matter. His material, which at first was +mixed too soft, was readily stiffened to a workable consistency, and +the bases and first six inches or more of flaring walls of his pipkins +had been fashioned as a child would fashion "pies." It was when he +undertook to crimp and contract this flaring rim that the craftsmanship +known to the potter required once again to be evolved. +</P> + +<P> +For a time the longer he wrought at the stubborn material the more +completely Grenville was defeated by the clay. He discovered at last, +as similar workmen in every age and clime have ultimately discovered, +that potteries thus constructed by hand must be built up in rings, one +ring at a time, especially where the walls draw in to an ever narrowing +diameter. +</P> + +<P> +When, at length, this simple fact had been established—the first +success having come to Elaine, whose feminine wit had been nimbler far +than the man's—a highly respectable family of jugs and useful +receptacles had rapidly come into being. +</P> + +<P> +Mid-afternoon of this busy day found Grenville engrossed with his +labors. Despite the fact they had not yet dined on anything but fruit, +he was preparing salt for meat. The shell he had found was full of +water from the sea, evaporating rapidly in a bed of hot ashes and +coals. This, however, was resigned to Elaine's efficient vigilance, +while Sidney worked absorbingly to complete a number of small clay +molds designed for the casting of tools. +</P> + +<P> +When, at length, the last of these was done and set aside to dry with +the jugs and assorted vessels, he glanced briefly up at the sun. There +were several hours of this blazing light remaining. Resolved in one +moment to hasten to the jungle with his bow and the unfeathered arrows, +which might be relied upon at easy range to fly sufficiently straight +for all his purposes, Grenville determined in the next to make them a +bit more certain. +</P> + +<P> +A branch and leaf from a freshly despoiled banana plant had suggested +"feathers" for his shafts. It was the work of a moment only to cut out +and trim a slender bit of the fibrous branch from which the leaf +substance projected. The leaf part itself, which was rather tough, and +considerably like a stiffened cloth in texture, he cut to shape no less +quickly. Then, binding on each of the arrows a trio of these +improvised "rudders," he took up his club, informed Elaine he might be +absent half an hour, and descended at once to the clearing. +</P> + +<P> +His porcupine, seen no less than half a dozen times when his arms had +been burdened, or his club was not at hand, was not to be found for all +his elaborate searching, now that he was desirable for dinner. +Naturally, Grenville had no particular preference for porcupine where +pheasants were not impossible. But the fact that the bristling +hedgehog is not to be despised, he knew from past experience. +Moreover, he had fondly hoped this somewhat stupid quarry might be +readily found and taken. +</P> + +<P> +Notwithstanding the fact that for three days past not a sign had been +vouchsafed him of the tiger, Grenville took to himself no fulsome sense +of security as he made his way slowly through the jungle, towards the +estuary swamp. The island was small; the brute was always near—and +some day the contest between they two must be waged to a definite +conclusion. +</P> + +<P> +The axiom is old that the most game is seen when the huntsman has no +weapon. It seemed to Grenville, slipping as noiselessly as possible +down towards the water, where birds and beasts had always been +encountered, that the island had been suddenly deserted. He saw not a +thing, beyond the vaguest movements in the trees, perhaps for the very +fact he moved so cautiously, and thereby assumed an aspect that was +crafty, sinister, or suspicious. +</P> + +<P> +Some reptile glided to the water, starting a ripple on the surface, but +not even its head was visible to the watchful eyes of the man. An +arrow was notched upon his bow, and, while the practice in which he had +indulged had been far too brief to develop the skill he knew he might +finally acquire, Sidney was certain that up to a range of five or ten +yards his shaft would prove fairly deadly. +</P> + +<P> +He had heretofore seen no game at all that was not, in fact, almost +under his very feet. Of the pheasants, flushed before on at least +three separate occasions, he detected not so much as a hint. The +monkeys were silent. Not even the noisy parrots flew out with their +usual disturbance. All about the growth of bamboo he trod, wherever a +space was open, but in vain. +</P> + +<P> +Reflecting that the pheasants might have gone beyond, to a section +where rocks and shrubbery doubtless afforded the seeds or berries on +which they would probably feed, he started more briskly towards the +trail that would take him past the wreck. +</P> + +<P> +He had not entirely cleared the bamboo growth when, abruptly, there in +the open space before him, hardly fifteen feet away, a wild hog paused, +fairly startled to inaction where it had entered the clearing from the +jungle. It had turned its head to stare at the man inquiringly. Its +two little eyes, maliciously gleaming, increased its threatening aspect +as the bristles slowly rose on its back. +</P> + +<P> +Without making the slightest unnecessary movement, Grenville raised his +bow. He drew the arrow fairly to the head. A sharp twang followed +instantly. A streak of gray sped swiftly and obliquely towards the +earth. Then, for a second, Grenville saw the stout shaft quiver where +it was buried in the base of the creature's neck. +</P> + +<P> +One challenging grunt the wild hog uttered, starting as if to charge. +But the arrow had shattered the nerves that make for rage and courage, +cleaving to the seat of life itself. +</P> + +<P> +The boar staggered blindly, instinctively, back to the dense, +concealing jungle. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville heard it grunt once savagely, as it broke its way past +interfering branches of the growth. He realized it was escaping, that +it might reach a hole or other concealment before it fell, and cheat +him of his dinner. +</P> + +<P> +He dropped his bow, as a useless impediment in such a tangle, and +plunged in a reckless manner through the shrubbery and vines where his +quarry was no longer in sight. +</P> + +<P> +The hog must have stumbled forward with considerable speed. A +vibrating palm, ten feet ahead of his position, urged Sidney +impulsively forward. He was baffled and retarded in a most +exasperating fashion by the creepers woven through the thicket. +</P> + +<P> +Obliged to make a slight detour, he smashed a path between two stout +banana palms—and came upon a hidden clearing. There was one +unexpectedly violent movement of the growth just opposite, and there he +thought his hog was dying. +</P> + +<P> +Instantly upon his startled vision impinged a blot of yellow color. +The full active form of the tiger was immediately revealed, as the +brute leaped forth and sank his teeth in the neck of the sinking boar. +</P> + +<P> +There was one shrill mort cry only as the hog became inert. Half +raising the limber form in his massive jaws, the while his eyes wildly +blazed his challenge to and defiance of the man who had halted in the +clearing, the great supple creature, with the studded gold band about +his neck, slowly strode once more within the jungle. +</P> + +<P> +With a horribly disquieting comprehension of the fact he had doubtless +been stalked for the past half hour, which fully accounted for the +absence of game along the trails, Grenville retreated from the place. +Why he had not been leaped upon and instantly slain was too much to +understand—unless the unknown beings who had placed a collar, like a +badge of inferiority, upon the animal's neck, had so impressed him with +a dread of man that he dared not make an attack. +</P> + +<P> +All zest for the hunt had departed from his being when Sidney recovered +his bow. Anger and exasperation took its place as he reflected on the +ease with which this insolent, fearless beast could continue to rob him +of his quarry. And one day, he knew, the animal's boldness would +increase to a point where a treacherous leap would restore his +undisputed mastery of all this bit of land. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll kill him!" said Grenville, unexcitedly. "I'll blow him clean out +of his skin!" +</P> + +<P> +He went boldly down to the rotting wreck, climbed eagerly up to the +slanted cabin, and saluted the dead man, sitting there in chains. +</P> + +<P> +"Brother, I've come for the cannon," he said. "There's little else +left for you to guard." +</P> + +<P> +Although the small bit of ordnance would make a load of fully fifty +pounds, Grenville determined, then and there, to make a clean sweep of +all the old hulk's remaining bits of brass and bronze not appropriated +earlier. He, therefore, heaved the cannon out through a gap in the +rotting planks, and began a hurried overhauling of everything left in +the lockers. +</P> + +<P> +He had drawn out coil upon coil of ancient cordage, that broke like +wetted paper in his hands, before the largest and last of the lockers +had been emptied of its junk. This was a deep and comparatively sound +sort of box beneath a former bunk. Its interior was absolutely dark. +</P> + +<P> +Unwilling to overlook the slightest metal object, Grenville got down on +his hands and knees, to peer to the farthest corner. There seemed to +be nothing remaining in the place. Nevertheless, he reached well +inside and swept his hand about the walls, till it came to a slight +obstruction. +</P> + +<P> +This was a screw-head, so far as he could determine, in the planking +just to the left of the door, in one of the nearest corners. He +pressed rather heavily against the moldy woodwork, and his fist went +through, breaking away a decayed square of wood that had once been a +tiny door. +</P> + +<P> +Convinced at once that a small and, heretofore, undiscovered locker, of +insignificant dimensions, had been made between the walls of two of the +usual compartments, he conceived it to be a secret hiding-place, and +strained the full length of his reaching arm, blindly to explore its +interior. +</P> + +<P> +He could not touch its wall at the rear without crawling fully inside +the larger locker, and for this he felt but little relish. With a plan +worth two of that discomfiting scheme, he arose and kicked out the +paneling from the front of the narrow box. +</P> + +<P> +Once more he knelt, and thrust his arm to the end of the place. His +fingers came gropingly upon a round, metallic object, wedged tightly +down between two supports of wood. He broke it out in his vigorous +way, and drew it to the light. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A MYSTERY +</H4> + +<P> +With an odd sensation tingling in his veins, Grenville examined his +find. +</P> + +<P> +It was merely a cylinder, made of brass, fully three inches in +diameter, and, perhaps, eight inches long. Its cap was rusted so +firmly in place that he could not possibly remove it. He gave the tube +a shake. There was something inside, but its weight was exceedingly +light. +</P> + +<P> +Once more he knelt before the secret locker to examine all its walls. +But although his fingers finally played upon every square inch of the +sides and ceiling, there was nothing further to be found. Apparently +the only "treasure" the place had concealed was contained within the +tube. +</P> + +<P> +He thought of a score of documents the one-time captain of the barque +might have thus desired to preserve, but the sun was rapidly nearing +its purple horizon, and the old ship's hold was growing dark. +Grenville gathered the last of the metal spoils he had found in an +empty box, half rotted, on the floor. The tube he thrust firmly in his +pocket. +</P> + +<P> +What with the cannon balanced on his shoulder, his box of rusted metal +hugged beneath his arm, and his bow, club, and arrows clutched tightly +in his hand, he presented a singular figure as he finally made his way +along the darkening trail, and came at length to the clearing, to be +hailed from the heights by Elaine. +</P> + +<P> +"Just for the sake of variety," he said, when he came to the terrace +with his burdens, "we'll eat one more dinner of fruit." +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't think what you had killed," said Elaine, "when I saw you +coming with this," and she placed her foot on the cannon he had gladly +dropped to the ground. "What is it, anyway?" +</P> + +<P> +"A pop-gun," he said, "to tickle my friend the tiger." +</P> + +<P> +She was instantly apprehensive. "You have met him again?" +</P> + +<P> +He had no intention of arousing her alarm. +</P> + +<P> +"The brute is still about the island. I should like his skin for a +rug." +</P> + +<P> +"You could really shoot him with this?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well—I shall mount it, in any case, though I have my doubts of his +standing while I blow a few rocks through his person." +</P> + +<P> +When he went for a fresh supply of fruits he brought up a log some four +or five feet in length, with a burned-off prong at its end. This he +intended to prepare as a "carriage" for the gun. He placed the pronged +end down in his fire, to burn out a niche for the little brass piece, +which he cleaned of its mud then and there. +</P> + +<P> +His preliminary work on the bit of ordnance was soon concluded. When +his log had burned to a moderate depth, he removed it to a near-by rock +and gouged the charred portions away. Into the hollow thus rudely +formed, the breach of the gun loosely fitted, ready to be firmly bound +in place. +</P> + +<P> +But the day was done, and Elaine had spread their "table," to which +Sidney was glad to repair. +</P> + +<P> +He had mentioned nothing of the tube still fatly bulging his pocket. +Until he should first determine what the cylinder contained, he meant +to arouse no unnecessary speculations in the breast of his companion. +How much she might yet have to know of the barque and the mummy chained +in its cabin he could not determine to-night. That something sinister +lurked behind the mystery which this and the two headless skeletons +involved was his constantly growing conviction. +</P> + +<P> +It was not until night was heavily down, and Elaine had crept gladly to +the comfort of her cave, that Grenville produced the brass cylinder, +and stirred up new flames of his fire. +</P> + +<P> +Then, sitting alone in the ruddy glow, with a rock for a stool, and +another before him for an anvil, he scraped all he could of the +greenish oxidation from the cover of the tube, and tried, as before, to +wrench it off. The stubborn parts remained solidly rusted together. +</P> + +<P> +This he had apparently expected. For he took up a rock of convenient +size and, gently beating the cylinder just below its union with the +cover, he bent it slightly inward about its entire circumference, +meanwhile pausing from time to time to thrust his knife between the +cemented pieces and force them a little apart. +</P> + +<P> +The tube was considerably mangled by this process, while the cover +still adhered. In a final burst of impatience, Grenville thrust the +battered cap in the crevice between two bowlders and wrenched it +roughly away. +</P> + +<P> +Then he turned the hollow tube to the light, revealing, within, the +edge of some document, thick and loosely rolled. This he readily +removed and straightened in his hands, placing the tube beneath his arm. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment the parchment seemed, despite the firelight upon it, a +mere blank square, of leathery texture and weight. Then he fancied he +saw upon its surface some manner of writing, or signs. +</P> + +<P> +He resumed his seat and held the thing to the fullest light of the +flames. It was yellowish tan in color, a trifle stiff, and inclined to +curl to the shape it had held so long. Grenville turned it over, so +dim were the characters it bore. There was nothing, however, on its +outer side, wherefore he bent more closely towards his wavering light +above such signs as he could finally discern. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps the fact that he began by expecting to find some ordinary map, +or printed or written characters, for a short time baffled his wits. +Howbeit, he began at length to discover the fact that a few large signs +or hieroglyphics had been rudely sketched upon the parchment. When +this discovery was finally confirmed, he had still considerable +difficulty in tracing the lines that comprised these singular designs. +</P> + +<P> +The firelight cast dark shadows in certain crease-like traceries that +folds in the substance had formed. It was not until he presently +managed to discriminate between these mere wrinkles and the "writing," +that he made the slightest progress. His eyes at last became more keen +to follow the artist's meaning. With his stub of a pencil, on a +whittled bit of wood, he began to copy what he "read." +</P> + +<P> +The result was, crudely, this: +</P> + +<A NAME="img-091"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-091.jpg" ALT="parchment with signs and hieroglyphics" BORDER=""> +</CENTER> + +<P> +It was not a map; it could hardly be a message—unless expressed in +some short-hand system heretofore unknown—yet it must at some time or +other have been accounted important to have been so elaborately +preserved. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville turned it upside down, compared his copy with the original +repeatedly, and then examined the parchment with most minute +particularity in search of some smaller writing to explain these +mysterious signs. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing further to be seen—at least by the light of his +fire. Two of the symbols only did he recognize as ever having come to +his attention before. These were, first, the lines like a series of +M's, and second the oval, about a human figure. This last suggested +unmistakably an ancient Egyptian cartouch—the name or title of a king. +But containing one sign only, and that apparently representing a mummy, +it puzzled the inventor no less than the pyramids and curves. +</P> + +<P> +That some either crude or crafty mind had combined this mixture of +Egyptian and nondescript hieroglyphics with intent to reveal some +secret message or information to other initiated beings, while +concealing its import from all accidental beholders of the script, +seemed to Grenville perfectly obvious. +</P> + +<P> +He sat for three hours replenishing the fire and goading his brain for +a key to the puzzle, before it occurred to his mind at last the tube +might contain the explanation. +</P> + +<P> +All this while he had held it beneath his arm, hard pressed against his +body. As he peered down its dark interior once more, he likewise +thrust in his fingers. It was they that discovered and fastened upon +another sheet of something he had missed. +</P> + +<P> +This clung so close to the tube's metal walls he wetted his finger to +remove it. The light then shone opaquely through its substance. It +was ordinary foolscap paper, the half of a sheet, gone yellowish with +age, but otherwise very well preserved. +</P> + +<P> +It was covered with roughly scrawled characters. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville glanced it through—and irrelevantly longed for a pipe. He +felt he should like some good tobacco to assist in the puzzle's +solution. +</P> + +<P> +He felt convinced, however, that a crude example of the simplest, most +primitive cipher was contained upon the sheet. Should the words later +prove to be in English he could finally read it all. He began to +compare the recurrence of the various symbols at once, discovering that +the sign in the form of a cross had been used no less than fourteen +times, and was therefore almost certainly E. The next in importance +was the figure 3, which he felt might be either A, or N, or S, since +these, after E, are among the characters in English spelling most +frequently employed. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-093"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-093.jpg" ALT="second message" BORDER=""> +</CENTER> + +<P> +On another clean chip of whittled wood he jotted down a few of the +"words" with E's in each instance substituted for the crosses, and then +began attempting to make clear sense by substituting A's, N's, and S's +for the figure three, the figure one, and open squares, which, he +found, had been often represented. +</P> + +<P> +It was a blind and tedious business. His fire burned low, in his +absorption, and the midnight constellations marched past the zenith of +the heavens before he finally realized the folly of his quest. +</P> + +<P> +"It's not a bit of good in the world, if I knew all about it," he +finally confessed, "no matter what it means." +</P> + +<P> +He went to bed. But he did not sleep. Those singular pyramids and the +cipher still lingered before his inner vision. What was the mystery +hidden behind the dead man chained in the rotting barque, the headless +skeletons lying near the swamp, and now these documents, found in the +tube and so carefully concealed? +</P> + +<P> +"I give it up," he told himself at last, in an effort to dismiss it all +and compose his active brain. "I wish I had a stouter tube to make a +good bomb for the tiger." +</P> + +<P> +He thought perhaps he could use the oxidized cylinder as it was, and +began thereupon to wonder how he should make a fuse by which its powder +contents might be ignited. Thus he drowsed off at last, with fantastic +dreams swiftly solving the sum of his problems. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +AMBITIOUS PLANS +</H4> + +<P> +Grenville awoke with a brilliant idea, born in his brain as he slept. +</P> + +<P> +It was not concerned with the documents found in the old brass +receptacle, but entirely with the tiger. He knew how to fashion a fuse. +</P> + +<P> +The creepers had answered this latest need, with their bark so readily +hollowed. He had burned up yards of the drying stuff with the core +removed, all of it shrunk and twisted tight, like long coils of +vegetable tubing. He had only to fill it with his powder while green, +and then let it dry in the sun. +</P> + +<P> +He could likewise fill the useless cylinder, wrap it about to increase +its resistance to the powder—and thereby render its explosion far more +violent. If, after that, a chance were presented to ignite it under +the tiger—— +</P> + +<P> +It was possible always, he confessed, the tiger might prove unwilling. +However, both the cannon and bomb should be immediately prepared. +There could be no peace upon the island while the brute remained alive. +</P> + +<P> +All thoughts of the cipher were postponed for evening recreation. The +day's work began after breakfast in preparing large quantities of +powder. +</P> + +<P> +At this Elaine assisted. She was glad of any employment. No less in +her veins than in Grenville's the promptings of being in the primitive +were daily surging stronger. Like himself, she was hungry for meat; +and while she had no thoughts of turning Amazon herself, she felt an +increasing interest in all that Grenville was attempting in his task of +coping with nature. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile Sidney was daily assuming a wild and unkempt aspect that he +could not possibly avoid. His beard was an unbecoming stubble that he +was powerless to shave; his hair was uncombed and a trifle long; his +clothing was not without its rents. But what an active, muscular being +he appeared, as he moved about at his work! He seemed so thoroughly +fearless, so competent and at home with naked Nature. His +thoughtfulness, moreover, had no limits, and neither had his cheer. He +had made no further disquieting advances, but seemed rather to have +forgotten, utterly, the lawless emotions to which he had one day given +way. +</P> + +<P> +This day it was he started the fires to bake his vessels of clay. They +were all sufficiently dry for the purpose, and, huddled together, a bit +removed, in a rudely constructed furnace made of rock, were piled about +with abundant fuel to provide an even heat. +</P> + +<P> +The morning was sped between the various duties. Some ten or more +pounds of powder Grenville finally stored in his cave. The labor of +grinding and mixing had undergone many interruptions while he attended +the fire about his jugs. He finally fetched some creepers from the +growth and, stripping out the pliable cores, poured powder in several +of the hollow coverings, bound them together, here and there, with +fibers, and placed them out on the rocks to dry. +</P> + +<P> +With the withes thus provided to his hand, the cannon was bound upon +the log he had hollowed a bit to receive it. This he knew to be crude +and, perhaps, even quite insufficient, but the gun was, in any event, +far too unwieldy for use against the tiger, unless the brute should +deliberately pose as a target, in the clearing down below. +</P> + +<P> +That mid-day the porcupine once more volunteered for dinner. His +services were accepted. Grenville dispatched him with a club—and +skinned him in the thicket. He was far too considerate of a woman's +sensibilities to fetch the creature into camp, with his arsenal of +spears still upon him. But the task of removing the hedgehog's hide +was amazingly difficult. +</P> + +<P> +Aware of two important facts—namely, that meat too freshly cooked is +certain to be tough, while even fresh meat for three hours wrapped in +paw-paw leaves becomes incredibly tender, Grenville lost no time, when +the skinning was done, in thoroughly swaddling his "game." He had +carved it up for more convenient handling. When he finally brought it +for Elaine to see, it looked decidedly attractive. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall save some scraps for bait," he said. "To-morrow we'll try for +fish." +</P> + +<P> +What with carving a number of tough, wooden hooks, preparing some line +from various fibers, and supplying new fuel to the flames that were +firing his needed potteries, his remaining hours were full. +</P> + +<P> +At length, in preparation for their dinner of meat, he went below, dug +a hole somewhat laboriously in the sand and earth of the clearing, and +started another brisk fire in the hollow thus created, Elaine tossing +down a few glowing twigs for the purpose. +</P> + +<P> +And how brave she looked, he paused to note, as she came to the brink +to be of this much assistance! How beautiful she was—and how delicate +she seemed, to be cast into such conditions! Despite her sturdiness of +heart and limb, she had always been tenderly reared. How far might she +go, enduring this life, reduced to savagery? +</P> + +<P> +These were thoughts that had come and been banished from his mind +innumerable times. There was nothing he could do to alter or even +greatly alleviate the hardships by which she was surrounded. Her +aloofness from personal contact with himself, even her constant +suspicions of his motives, and her lingering indignation for what he +had done, he felt every hour of the day. But he could not have begged +her forgiveness if he would—and would not have done so if he could. +</P> + +<P> +How long would it last, he asked himself—and what would be the end? +Would no ship ever come—or how long might it be till succor finally +arrived? Would a search be made for the missing boat that had gone to +the bottom of the sea? Or, before this could happen, would smaller +craft arrive—the strange, swift craft of these eastern waters, manned +by fanatical outlaws, pirates, or even the wild, head-hunting Dyaks, +who had probably been here before? +</P> + +<P> +When he finally placed his meat in the pit, where the fire had burned +down to glowing embers, his mind was filled with the many plans he was +impatient to materialize without another half hour's delay. He covered +the leaf-and-clay-wrapped dinner, first with portions of the coals and +heated ashes, and then with all the sand he had dug to make his natural +oven, after which he returned to the terrace. +</P> + +<P> +Neither the process of cooking, nor that of firing his earthenware +could be hastened now by Grenville's presence.. He saw that his +pottery furnace was properly supplied with fuel, and then sat down +where Elaine was busily plaiting a flat sort of mat with withes she had +somehow split to half their former size, and there he began to carve at +some slender branches of wood he had brought from down below. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you making?" he presently asked, as he watched her nimble +fingers at their task. +</P> + +<P> +"A platter for the meat," she told him, briefly. "And what are your +sticks to become?" +</P> + +<P> +"Forks for the same. I hope we shall need no knives.... I must soon +find time to dig about and, perhaps, unearth some yams. They are not +so good as potatoes, but they answer at a pinch." +</P> + +<P> +"You have planned so many things to accomplish," she said. "Do you +think you shall ever have the time?" +</P> + +<P> +"Can't tell, but meantime I thoroughly enjoy this wresting an existence +from more or less stubborn conditions. Just as soon as I eliminate the +tiger I shall melt up my pieces of metal to make a number of tools." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine looked up at the man in wonder, but not incredulously. +</P> + +<P> +"What perfect confidence you seem to have in your ability to accomplish +difficult things." +</P> + +<P> +His utterance sank a tone lower as he answered: +</P> + +<P> +"What I say I'll do—I'll do. What I say I'll have—I'll have." +</P> + +<P> +It was the first word he had spoken since their coming to the island +that might have been construed as a survival of the feelings he had +demonstrated on the steamer. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine felt her whole being suddenly burn with strange excitement. She +felt the underlying significance of his speech, and her soul was +instantly bristling with defiance. +</P> + +<P> +His words went too deep and were uttered too gravely for any mere idle +boasting. She had already seen, and partially acknowledged, the power +that lay in this strong man's hands to compel his desired ends. She +felt this potency emanating from him now—and resented the fact that +she herself had been as much selected as the tiger for his ultimate +conquering. +</P> + +<P> +She was angry again on the instant, ready to fight like a very little +demon, should he dare so much as lay a finger on her hand. She +resolved anew that, though a hundred years should pass before they two +escaped this island exile, not the tiniest bud of answering love should +ever sprout in her breast. +</P> + +<P> +For the past few days she had felt a new sense of security and ease. +The man with whom she was working out this singular and intimate +existence had made no sign of renewing his advances, had seemed to +forget he had ever broached the subject of his passion, and had been a +most agreeable companion, cheerful, resourceful, and courageous to the +last degree. +</P> + +<P> +Now that she knew what unworthy thoughts still lingered beneath the +surface of his calm, indifferent demeanor, not even their earlier +friendship seemed to her possible again—and for this she was +disappointed and annoyed. +</P> + +<P> +Her glance had fallen instantly back to her work. That her color +burned up, to the tips of her ears for Grenville to see and, perhaps, +enjoy, she felt with added irritation. But she would not confess, by +word or deed, she understood the meaning of his speech. +</P> + +<P> +When she spoke she employed a quiet and common-place tone of voice, and +returned to impersonal subjects. +</P> + +<P> +"I can understand," she said, "how you might possibly shoot the tiger, +but I thought one needed furnaces, tall chimneys, and things, to melt +up bronze and brass." +</P> + +<P> +"Dead right," he answered, readily. "You see, you've got such a grasp +on things that I never cease to be surprised—and delighted. I've +engaged quite a chimney already." +</P> + +<P> +She forced herself to continue the conversation, if only by way of +ignoring the personal element of his answer. +</P> + +<P> +"Engaged a chimney?" +</P> + +<P> +"You'll see about that, later. If getting the tiger were only half as +easy as some of the other things I expect to accomplish, I'd certainly +be tickled clean to death." +</P> + +<P> +She felt—she almost knew, indeed—-that she and her love were +classified among the things he expected to "accomplish" so easily at +last, and her hot resentment burned hotter. She was tempted to flash +out her wildest cry of the loathing—the bitter, eternal loathing—his +words had begotten in her bosom. She was tempted again to a desperate +wish that the tiger might rend him in pieces—as <I>she</I> would do if ever +he touched her again. But she dared not trust herself to speak, or +even to show, by the slightest sign, that his threat was comprehended. +She clung in desperation to the subject she felt to be safe. +</P> + +<P> +"Then—you do think the tiger dangerous—hard, at least, to kill?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I wouldn't call him exactly plum pudding and gravy." +</P> + +<P> +"Your cannon would kill him, though, of course?" +</P> + +<P> +"If he'd pose in front of the muzzle, a rod or so away." +</P> + +<P> +A cold chill crept along her nerves at thoughts of the savage animal +she herself had twice encountered. She wondered just what Grenville's +method would be—in overcoming some of the things he had vowed to +conquer. +</P> + +<P> +"You hardly expect to shoot the creature, then, after all?" +</P> + +<P> +He held up the fork he was carving, for critical examination. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm rather inclined to favor the plan of leaving a bait in the jungle, +and letting go a bomb when he comes to dine." +</P> + +<P> +Her natural concern for the man's own safety could not be long expelled. +</P> + +<P> +"How shall you know when he comes?" she inquired, and she dared look up +as before. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville continued to bend his gaze on his labor. +</P> + +<P> +"I expect to hang around and see." +</P> + +<P> +A sudden fear and sinking of the vitals seized her, unaware. +</P> + +<P> +"But—doesn't a tiger usually feed at night?" +</P> + +<P> +"His club hours are usually rather late, I believe." +</P> + +<P> +"And you'll wait around for him to come in the dark?" +</P> + +<P> +"What else can I do? Can't expect him to 'phone me he's arrived." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" she said, impulsively, "couldn't we build a wall of stone around +enough of the fruit for just ourselves? I could help at that. I'd do +so gladly!" +</P> + +<P> +If an exquisite thrill shot directly to the deeps of Grenville's +nature—a thrill aroused by her courage, her generous spirit, her +honest and helpful sympathy—he permitted himself to make no sign. +Also, he took no fulsome flattery to his soul. But he pictured her +forth, with bleeding hands, and torn and grimy garments, as she rolled +and carried great stones to the brink, to supply him with blocks for a +wall; and his spirit was wondrously glad to think he had made no error +of judgment in appraising her character. +</P> + +<P> +That all she could do she would do, as mere assistance—do for anyone +else in a similar situation, he comprehended fully. But he felt not a +whit less exultant for the knowledge of the fact. She was never for a +moment a mere useless dependent. She was daily, aye, hourly, assisting +in his wholly unequal combat for their lives, and this was a joy to his +heart. +</P> + +<P> +But he spoke with his usual bluntness, and without a single hint of +sympathy in all she had eagerly suggested. +</P> + +<P> +"Wholly impractical scheme. I've thought of a dozen just as poor." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was instantly sorry she had proffered him her help. She placed +a withe between her teeth, bit through it neatly, and began to divide +it with her fingers. +</P> + +<P> +"Here, don't do that. You'll spoil your teeth," said Grenville, +brusquely. "I'll split you enough for half a day." +</P> + +<P> +She made no reply as he went at the withes and split them with skillful +ease, but she hoped he could feel, through some sensitive chord, how +intensely she disliked him. +</P> + +<P> +He could not. "I've been thinking," he said, "I may be obliged to make +a loom to weave these fibers into some sort of cloth for garments. May +need them before we get away." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine once more responded, in her honest, impulsive manner. +</P> + +<P> +"I could knit some things, I'm sure, if you'd cut me a pair of needles." +</P> + +<P> +"Cut 'em to-night," he answered. "That meat must be done, and my +potteries need attention." +</P> + +<P> +He dropped in her lap the forks he had roughly completed, and strode +away to his fire. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A MIDNIGHT VISITOR +</H4> + +<P> +The porcupine dinner was good. In its ball of clay, Grenville brought +it to the cave in the basket that he used for heavy burdens. +</P> + +<P> +It was far too hot to be handled carelessly. And when he broke away +the earthy covering and leaves, and arranged the steaming pieces on the +platter Elaine had prepared, it was perfectly cooked, as tender as +quail, and of a flavor surprisingly fine. +</P> + +<P> +The banquet, however, would have been immeasurably improved by the +commonest of bread and potatoes. To provide some palatable substitute +for these essential commonplaces of civilization became another of +Grenville's problems, which, he told himself, he must tackle—after the +tiger. +</P> + +<P> +Everything was after the tiger, or else over-fraught with danger. The +thought of this made Grenville fret more than anything demanding his +attention. That night, when Elaine had finally retired, he went to his +fuses, broke off a length, and returned to light it at his fire. It +was still too damp, from the juices of the plant, to burn efficiently. +His bomb he, therefore, would not make until the following afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +The fire about his potteries he was now permitting to die. It could +not be altogether abandoned, since a too sudden cooling of the vessels +would crack and ruin every one. Therefore, from time to time, he went +to the furnace to regulate the heat. He had leveled a rock for a +table, at the fireplace near his cave, and on this he finally spread +the mysterious paper and parchment recovered from the tube. +</P> + +<P> +They had been all day neglected. Grenville had thoroughly intended a +daylight examination of the parchment, concerning the nature of which +he was considerably in doubt. +</P> + +<P> +A new supply of whittled wooden "tablets" on which to write lay ready +to his hand. Scratching at his head with his pencil, he studied the +hieroglyphics for an hour or more before he returned to the written +sheet with the scrawl spelled out in cipher. +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact, his mind refused the task on which he was +endeavoring to focus his attention. Despite his utmost efforts, his +thoughts would return to Elaine. He would have given almost his hope +of eternity to secure her absolute comfort and freedom from anxiety. +And, inasmuch as the tiger was responsible for much of her worry, his +mind was made up that a trial should be made to slay the brute without +another day's delay.... It is always so easy to plan! +</P> + +<P> +He was finally staring straight into the fire, though his hand still +rested on the parchment and the paper. The flames sank lower and +lower, wavering finally like dull red spear-heads among the glowing +embers. +</P> + +<P> +At some fancied sound he turned sharply about, to peer through the +darkness of the trail. All appeared as silent and calm as the grave. +He wondered if, perhaps, Elaine had arisen to come to her door. +</P> + +<P> +She was not to be seen at the indistinct entrance of her cave. He +turned once more to stir his fire—then wheeled like one on a pivot. +</P> + +<P> +His senses had not been deceived. Beyond, in the darkness, a few feet +only from the cavern occupied by Elaine, two blazing coals had been +fixed like twin stars by his movement. +</P> + +<P> +A sudden recollection that he had failed to close the gap in the wall +swept hotly and accusingly through him. Some beast of the jungle had +passed the barrier, perhaps to enter the very cave that the wall had +been built to protect! +</P> + +<P> +With a note that broke the stillness abruptly, Grenville caught up a +flaming branch of wood from the mass of embers in the fire, and sprang +to the path to the cavern. +</P> + +<P> +The prowling animal stood for a moment undecided, then started as if to +spring before the oncoming man to the shelter of Elaine's rock retreat, +doubtless to turn there in desperation for a mad encounter in the dark. +</P> + +<P> +But, perhaps by a yard, the man was there before him. The brute, even +then, refused to retreat towards the trail by which it had come. It +leaped towards the place where Grenville made his bed—a shadowy form +that he knew at last was not the arrogant tiger. +</P> + +<P> +It turned for a moment in the mouth of the cave, as if aware this +smaller retreat was too shallow for adequate shelter. But before the +man could crack his fiery brand upon the creature's head, it leaped +wildly past him, growling a savage protest, and reluctantly retreated +towards the trail. +</P> + +<P> +One more attempt it made, even then, to escape by Grenville's active +form, and regain the larger cavern. But his fierce, hot rushes were +not to be withstood. It finally turned with another sort of bellow, +and cowered uncertainly upon the downward path. +</P> + +<P> +After it no less desperately than before, Sidney plunged along the +steep descent, his firebrand brightly glowing in the wind. A whine of +fear escaped the jungle creature as he slunk at last through +Grenville's gate to the outer precincts of the wall. +</P> + +<P> +Almost immediately followed a frightful din of growls and wauling. +There were certain deep gutturals and mouthings that Grenville was sure +his tiger only could produce. There were sounds of a conflict, fierce +and bloody, retreating down the trail. Like a battle of cats, +enormously exaggerated, with screams and roars intermingled, the +disturbance rose on the air. But Grenville had blocked his gate with +logs and bowlders, and calmly returned to his place. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was crouching by the fire when he came once more to the terrace. +She had called him in vain, and was visibly trembling as his form +appeared within the glow. +</P> + +<P> +"What was it?" she cried. "What has happened?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why—it sounds like a couple of jungle politicians engaged in a tariff +argument." +</P> + +<P> +"You weren't down there?" +</P> + +<P> +"I strolled to the wall, to make sure it was closed for the night." +</P> + +<P> +"There was nothing—up here? I dreamed there was something—fighting +with you—some terrible creature—like that." +</P> + +<P> +She waved her hand towards the hideous sounds, retreating swiftly in +the darkness. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't understand such a dream," he said. "We've had no corned beef +and cabbage. You'd better go back and try again." +</P> + +<P> +He started at once for his pottery fire, in his brusque, indifferent +manner. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine stood there, watching his figure, retreating in the darkness, +and made no move to retire. Like a dim silhouette of Vulcan, projected +against the reddened glare of his furnace, he presently appeared, from +the place where she eagerly kept him in her vision. She felt she could +not bear to creep away until he should return. +</P> + +<P> +She saw him stand for a little time observing his waning heaps of +embers before he faced about to return once more to his seat. Then, +slowly, as she heard his footsteps approaching, she glided silently +back to her shelter, and so at length within the door. Even then she +lingered eagerly, to make certain he was not far away. Until he sat +down, and stirred up the flames, she did not return to her couch. +</P> + +<P> +"To be so perfectly fearless!" she murmured, half aloud, and so crept +away to her dark, uncomfortable cave. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville pocketed the documents, still lying face up on his rock. He +finally slept beside the fire, to finish his plans in dreams. +</P> + +<P> +These plans, which were vague enough that night, matured fairly early +in the morning. He had resolved to try for the tiger at the spring. +</P> + +<P> +Fully expecting to encounter abundant signs of the animal conflict of +the midnight hours, he descended the trail before Elaine had appeared, +intent upon removing such evidence of trouble as might be found +disturbingly near their tower. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing at all along the trail to show that a fight had taken +place. Where the grass and shrubbery began in the clearing below the +walls, there was one mere tuft of hair upon a twig. But a rod removed +from this there was at least a hint as to what might have caused the +engagement. +</P> + +<P> +This was a trampled and slightly reddened ring where something had been +eaten—some quarry doubtless captured by the smaller of the prowlers, +who had found himself suddenly attacked and driven from the feast by +the master hunter of the jungle, on whose sacred preserves he had +probably dared to poach. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville proceeded to the spring, not only to fetch a fresh supply of +water, but as well to indulge in a vigorous washing of his hands and +face, and to make some observations. +</P> + +<P> +He found that by breaking several limbs a none too comfortable seat in +the branches of a rubber tree might be prepared, provided he could +climb to the perch. With a very long fuse attached to his bomb he +might be enabled to execute a coup upon the tiger, under cover of the +night. Could he only slay some animal—another wild hog, for +instance—and place it here as a lure, his chances of securing the +tiger's attendance would be infinitely increased. +</P> + +<P> +A number of things were essential to his plan. The first, a rope +ladder, was the simplest of the lot. That he could fashion with ease. +His greatest problem was the fire with which to ignite his fuse, should +he wish to explode his bomb. The wood he had found, that so amazingly +retained its glow, might answer his needs for, perhaps, two hours, as +he sat high up in the tree. It was all he possessed, and upon it he +must needs rely. But how he should manage to discern his beast, in the +darkness, when the prowler came at last to drink, was more than he +could determine. +</P> + +<P> +"A dead-fall might do for the brute," he soliloquized aloud, as the +business revolved in his mind. "But I couldn't get one ready by +to-night." +</P> + +<P> +For several reasons a dead-fall was impracticable. The thought was, +therefore, abandoned, while the details of loading and placing the bomb +were elaborately planned. So vivid was Grenville's imagination that +already he pictured himself high in the tree, heard the tiger come to +lap the water, lighted his fuse—and ended that trouble forever. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +TRUANTS OUT OF SCHOOL +</H4> + +<P> +He returned to the terrace, lightly whistling. The morning was +perfect, a delightfully refreshing zephyr lightly stirring in the +trees. Elaine beheld him approaching, and nodded from the cliff. +</P> + +<P> +"The jugs look beautiful!" she called, enthusiastically. "The fire is +barely warm." +</P> + +<P> +He had brought their supply of water in the sea-shell, so variously +employed. Before providing fruits for their breakfast, he went to his +furnace with Elaine. The firing was complete, though the vessels were +not yet cool. A few were cracked, slightly, despite the care that +Grenville had exercised, and one was hopelessly ruined. However, he +felt the product as a whole was surprisingly satisfactory, especially +some of his molds and the crucibles meant for his foundry. +</P> + +<P> +"At noon we'll fill a jug with water," he said, "and you'll find it +will keep surprisingly cool. The clay is slightly porous. The water +oozes through, evaporates on the surface, and thereby chills the +contents. They use nothing else in Egypt, and, I think, in Mexico. +</P> + +<P> +"If it weren't for the tiger," said Elaine, "I could often go to the +spring." +</P> + +<P> +"Right ho!" said Grenville, cheerily, believing he understood a wish +that lay beneath her speech. "That reminds me. I believe I could +manage to deepen a basin I saw in the rock on our lowermost shelf above +the sea, back yonder, and easily fill it by dipping salt water with a +jug on the end of a rope. Any nymph should enjoy such a pool." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" said Elaine, delighted by the thought; "do you really think you +could make it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well—I've thought of it, you see, on an empty stomach. After +breakfast—— There's quite a bit to do, by the way, after breakfast." +</P> + +<P> +With the fruits now presently gathered, he brought a fresh supply of +creepers and leaves of the sisal, for labors soon to begin. And while +Elaine prepared what was left of the meat, and the other things +afforded by their larder, he went to the shelf of rock so completely +protected by its wall, and made up his mind that, with one good tool, +plus a hammer, he could hew out a bath with amazingly little trouble. +</P> + +<P> +"Meant to go fishing this morning!" he confessed, as the sight of the +clear, limpid tide below aroused new desires in his being. "There must +be oysters and many good fish, if I had the time to get them." +</P> + +<P> +Fish-lines and other "diversions" were again postponed when the +breakfast was concluded, while Grenville braided fibers and tied stout +rungs along their length, to form a rude sort of ladder. This he +carried to the spring at length, and hung across the limb of his tree +by lifting its end on a pole. +</P> + +<P> +Once in the tree, he labored diligently, breaking or cutting away a +number of interfering branches, and arranging a makeshift for a seat, +on which to rest as he waited. The bomb would be better prepared in +the afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +On his way, returning to the camp, he gathered a bundle of the special +wood that he used to retain his fire. It was while he was thus +engaged, in an unexplored part of the thicket, that he came upon a +fallen tree, fairly brittle with resin. He snapped off branch after +branch of this, till his load was too heavy to carry. With all he +could take he climbed the trail. +</P> + +<P> +A piece that he tried at the embers of his fire blazed promptly enough, +producing a volume of thick, black smoke, and a flame that burned +slowly down the wood, as he held the lighted end aloft. +</P> + +<P> +"If we happen to need a torch," he said to Elaine, who, as usual, was +watching results, "this will always be stored here, ready." He placed +the fagots in a near-by hollow of the rocks, against possible future +need. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing further to be done at the spring until the hour of +sunset. The jugs and vessels from the furnace were found to be +sufficiently cool for handling, and were brought to the rear of his +shelter. +</P> + +<P> +The molds he had made excited anew his various ambitions. +</P> + +<P> +"To-morrow I shall start operations on the smelter," he told his +companion. "No tools means no boat—and no boat means no escape." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine felt a bound of excitement in her veins at the mere suggestion +of escape. She inquired: "How long will it take to build your boat?" +</P> + +<P> +"Can't tell," said Grenville, briefly. "Never built one on a toolless +island before." +</P> + +<P> +"I only meant about how long," Elaine explained. "It will take at +least a week, I suppose." +</P> + +<P> +"More likely two," he answered, as before. "Meantime I'm going +fishing. Want to come?" +</P> + +<P> +Elaine had little liking for any such off-hand invitation. +</P> + +<P> +"Not at present, thank you." She turned away from him, coldly. +</P> + +<P> +"It's an art and a sport you ought to cultivate," he informed her, +cheerfully. "Might sometime keep you from starving." He gathered up +the necessary paraphernalia, adding, "I hope the fish will bite," and +started on his way. +</P> + +<P> +He had fully two hundred feet of the line he had braided from fibers. +It was thoroughly "waxed" with juices from the rubber tree, and +although it was frequently knotted along its length, it was strong as a +wire, and not inclined to kink. +</P> + +<P> +His wooden hook was clumsy, but tough as steel, while its point and its +barb were exceedingly sharp. Also, the bait he thrust upon it +concealed it well, except where the line was stoutly attached. With +one of his old rusted hinges for a sinker, it was presently ready for +use. +</P> + +<P> +He had chosen that protected shelf of rock whereon he meant to hew out +a bath for Elaine, since this was the nearest possible approach he +could make to the water from the cliff. There, alas! at the very first +cast attempted, his line was atrociously tangled, while the hook +remained suspended some ten feet up from the tide. +</P> + +<P> +In patience he sat himself down on the ledge to restore the line to +order. Elaine, who had doubtless pondered wisely on his observation, +anent fishing as an art to be acquired, came half reluctantly wandering +over to his side, while Grenville was still engrossed with his mess of +tangles. She watched him in silence for a time, then, finally, sank to +the bench of rock and began to lend her assistance. He made not the +slightest comment, and even failed to thank her when the task was +finally concluded. +</P> + +<P> +Once again, at last, he swung the line for a cast far out in the +waters. It seemed to Elaine the hook and sinker would never cease +sailing outward. Yet they fell and sank, much closer in than even +Grenville had expected. +</P> + +<P> +He began to pull it back at once, since there might be rocks on which +the hook would foul, and his labor be wholly lost. The sinker, and +then the bait, emerged from the crystal depths of brine without so much +as a nibble. Again Grenville sent them full length out, and again drew +in with no results, save a possible inquiry, far below, where he +fancied he saw a gleam of silver. +</P> + +<P> +The third cast fared no better than the others. But the fourth was no +more than started homeward when a sharp, heavy strike was briskly +reported on the line, and Grenville's jerk responded. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! you've got one!—you've got one!" cried Elaine, with all the true +pleasure of a sportsman. "Please, please don't let it get away!" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was taking no chances on slack in the line, with his simple +wooden hook. He hauled in, hand over fist, while his catch fought +madly to escape. With a wild inward dash and a mighty flop, the +silvery captive on the barb leaped entirely out of the water. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville's answering maneuver with the line, snatching up fully a yard +of its length, and instantly stooping to clutch it low again, was all +that saved the situation. His fish barely touched the surface, after +that, then was swiftly sailing up in air. +</P> + +<P> +He was a beautiful specimen of his kind, but the species was new to his +captor. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the use of going to school?" was Grenville's query, his eyes as +bright as a boy's. "The next one may be a whale." +</P> + +<P> +The next one, however, was a long time coming. When it was hooked, the +wise fisherman knew it was small, and, most unexpectedly, he delivered +the line to Elaine. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, then, give him the dickens!" he instructed. "You want to make +him think he's struck by lightning." +</P> + +<P> +Surprised as she was, and unprepared for this particular favor, Elaine +did her best, and hauled in valiantly, but the captive got away. +</P> + +<P> +Five or six casts were made after that before the hook was once more +nibbled. Grenville was rather inclined to change for a spot more +popular with the purple water's tribe. Yet he made another of his +longest throws, and had drawn in much of the dripping line when a clean +young tortoise so deeply swallowed the hook that he could not have spat +it out to save him. +</P> + +<P> +The fight he offered was tremendous. He dived and skittered through +the crystal tides like some giant saucer of dynamics. Whole lines of +the brightest silver bubbles arose as he visibly flapped about and +scuttled towards the bottom. The line raced wildly here and there, +cutting the waves with the sound of something hot and sizzling. +</P> + +<P> +But it held for a full half hour of fighting. It was strong enough for +the weight of a man, as Grenville afterward declared. It conquered the +tortoise finally, and drew him up, but not before he had wearied the +fisherman's muscles and greatly fatigued Elaine, who was panting with +sheer excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"There you are," said Grenville, boyishly exultant, "he's wash basin, +comb, a few hairpins, and what-not, all in one, not to mention turtle +soup." +</P> + +<P> +There was no more fishing done that afternoon, nor were knitting +needles carved. What with his turtle, his fish, the digging of several +yams, and the making of his bomb, Grenville was amply employed. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was at length made acquainted with his programme for the night. +She made no effort to dissuade him from his purpose, but excitement +rose in her bosom. She feared for what the tiger might by mischance +accomplish, and, also, she felt that in some occult way her own fate +and the animal's were alike, if not related—that if such a brute must +helplessly succumb to the man's superior prowess, there was no chance +at all for anything as feeble as herself. +</P> + +<P> +A wild, unreasoning hope was in her breast that the tiger might escape, +or die in some different manner—do something, almost anything, rather +than contribute one more testimony to Sidney Grenville's might. She +could not wish the creature to live, nor yet to injure this bold, +audacious man. She only knew that some dread of the being who could +dare engage or attack this savage monster of the jungle was once more +assailing her quaking heart and stirring her nature to rebellion. +</P> + +<P> +In a manner that was largely automatic, she assisted in providing an +early evening meal. It was dusk, however, when Grenville was finally +ready to leave her on the hill. +</P> + +<P> +She followed him down to the gate against the wall, in the way of a +child who fears long hours alone. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-night," he said to her, cheerily. "If you hear my little +imitation of Bunker Hill—you might drop one tear for the departed." +</P> + +<P> +Her dread of the night, and the outcome of his excursion, had suddenly +increased. "If you kill him," she said, "you'll come home?" +</P> + +<P> +He nodded. "Tickled to death and bragging like a pirate." +</P> + +<P> +Then he placed the logs and rocks against the barrier, and once more +bade her good-night. She waited till his final footsteps died away in +the gloom, then hastened once more to the brink above for a final +glimpse of his form. +</P> + +<P> +He had passed, however, across the clearing, and not even the spark +that he bore to the gathering darkness threw her back a dull red ray. +</P> + +<P> +He had lost little time after leaving the foot of the trail. The +jungle was wrapped in somber shadows as he made his way to the spring. +</P> + +<P> +Some nimble little creature leaped lightly away when he came to the +place. Otherwise there was not a sign or a sound to disturb the +ringing silence. His bomb he placed beside the ebon water, where a +ledge of rock would throw its violence outward. The fuse, which he +carefully uncoiled and laid upon the grass, was amply long to meet his +needs. +</P> + +<P> +At length, with his fire-stick held between his teeth, he ascended the +ladder to his perch. The end of the fuse he now brought to the limb, +conveniently near for lighting. Then he settled himself to wait. +</P> + +<P> +Once he blew on the coal slowly eating his brand, to clean the +incandescent cone. Of a sudden, then, he heard the sound of something +directly beneath him, rudely brushing the foliage aside. +</P> + +<P> +His heart for a second stood still. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A NIGHT IN THE JUNGLE +</H4> + +<P> +It was not the tiger Grenville heard above the pounding of his heart. +</P> + +<P> +The squealing of some little insignificant beast, apparently more in +sport than apprehension, betrayed very soon the fact that no sinister +visitor was even prowling near. So heavy a sound as the little brute +had made would doubtless be avoided when the master of the jungle +should arrive. +</P> + +<P> +All the excitement unduly engendered in Grenville's system rapidly +subsided. He listened as intently as before, and peered below in an +effort to pierce the densest shadows, but could not detect the form or +whereabouts of his early visitor. He doubted if this small creature +drank, since the pool of the spring was still quite clearly visible, +like a surface half of ebony and half of tarnished silver. +</P> + +<P> +At length the absolute silence prevailed as it had before. Save for +the lightest of zephyrs, that barely sufficed to fan the topmost +foliage, not even the slightest stir could be detected. The darkness +below became absolute, where shadows, tree-trunks, and thicket all +blended into one. A portion only of the pool was now discernible, and +in this, clearly mirrored, were two bright stars, that burned dull gold +in the ebon. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville sat back in his lumpy perch and blew, as before, on his coal. +Its slender wreath of invisible smoke ascended pungently. The hour was +still very early for nocturnal business to begin. The tiger might not +come till midnight. Sidney reflected that the brute would doubtless +eat before a drink would be desired. +</P> + +<P> +He regretted, vainly, that no bait had finally been provided. Even the +fish they had only partially eaten for dinner might have been +attractive to the tiger. Any price now would be cheap enough to rid +themselves of this terror. +</P> + +<P> +His reflections ran the gamut of their island world, and sped far over +seas. He thought of that day with Fenton, and of what this friend +would think. Had they heard the news, in that far-away home, of the +steamer gone down with every soul? +</P> + +<P> +He thought of the morning he had greeted Elaine—and the something that +had happened to his nature. He remembered in detail every hour of +every day they had spent together on the steamer. Then the hideous +details of all that last experience, in the storm and night, paraded by +for his review. +</P> + +<P> +One after another the swiftly moving procession of events brought him +back to this present hour. He was, then, confronted once again by the +questions—how long would it last?—how might it end? The island's +mystery impinged once more on his varied cogitations, making him wish +he might have had a torch, by which to study the documents reposing in +his pocket. +</P> + +<P> +Mentally picturing forth the signs on the leathery piece of parchment, +he busied himself for above an hour for a clew as to what they could +mean. They suggested nothing to his mind that made the slightest +sense. He tried to recall the characters on the "explanatory" sheet. +But this was a hopeless task. +</P> + +<P> +Aware of the value of deduction, he began on a reasoning line. +Anything to occupy his thoughts and time till the hour when the tiger +might have fed, and would come for his evening drink, was highly +welcome. +</P> + +<P> +He began by a natural presumption that both the documents, found +together in the tube, and so carefully concealed, related to this +particular island. Did they not, then of what possible value would be +their final decipherment and solution? +</P> + +<P> +Granting this premise, then what should follow next? Certainly some +mention of the island—with its name—in the written message, at least. +There would naturally be, in these circumstances, some word in the +cipher spelling "Island"—but what would the place be called? +</P> + +<P> +Such places, he knew, were frequently named quite unofficially, by +wandering sailors, adventurers, and drifters on the sea. Attempting to +level his state of mind to that of such human beings, he wondered what +he, if left to himself, would christen this bit of rock and jungle. +</P> + +<P> +So often, he reflected, a place was named for its appearance. This +one, for instance, might aptly be called "Three Rocks," "Three Walls," +or "Three Towers." He remembered, finally, the abominable sounds +produced by the tides twice daily—sounds he had thought might have +frightened the natives away. The cognomen, "Haunted Island," might not +seem wholly inappropriate to a superstitious mind. +</P> + +<P> +The more he reflected, the more certain he felt that some one of the +names suggested to his mind might also have occurred to those of +others. Considerably aroused in his centers of curiosity, and +convinced that even by the dull cherry glow of his firebrand he might +be enabled to confirm or confute his theory, he moved sufficiently to +draw from his pocket the closely folded documents, and held them up to +his torch. +</P> + +<P> +The one with the inexplicable signs he promptly returned as of no +immediate avail. At that instant his attention was arrested, by a +sound below him on the earth. +</P> + +<P> +Something, he thought, was lapping at the water! +</P> + +<P> +He leaned far forward, tense and rigid on the limb, shielding his spark +in one of his hands, while he peered about the pool. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing he could possibly discern—no form of a head +projected out to obliterate his stars. Yet the sounds at the edge of +the silent basin rose distinctly to his ears. +</P> + +<P> +All but ready to bend to the end of his fuse, and touch his fire upon +it, he paused, looked closer, saw ripples move to disturb his mirrored +planets—and then beheld some form darkly limned on the waters. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment he was certain his insolent tiger was there. Some huge +blunt muzzle seemed inkily contrasted with the dull gray surface of the +spring. Then the muzzle suddenly detached itself from the imagined +form behind. The entire figure of some little beast was seen as it +waded the pool. +</P> + +<P> +Once more, disgustedly, Grenville reclined and relaxed the strain on +his nerves. It was some time, then, before he thought to return to his +quest of the cipher. He remembered, finally, he had meant to count the +characters in some of the words to see if the number of signs thus used +might not correspond with the number employed in "Island," "Three," +"Haunted," "Wall," or "Tower." +</P> + +<P> +A dull red glow, of most unsatisfactory dimensions and illuminative +capacity, was the most he could procure from his brand. It barely +sufficed to present the "writing" to his vision. For a moment, indeed, +he despaired of discriminating clearly between the ending of one word +and the beginning of the next. Fortunately, however, the writer had +used large periods between his every word. +</P> + +<P> +Considerably to Grenville's satisfaction, the third word thus denoted +he was almost convinced was "Three." Not only had it the proper number +of letters, or signs, but the two final characters were exactly alike, +and both were the crosses he had previously selected as probably +representing E. +</P> + +<P> +The next word along, he was equally certain, was either "Wall" or +"Hill." Its two final characters were the same particular sign +repeated, while its meaning, in conjunction with the preceding word +"Three," fulfilled his logical deduction. +</P> + +<P> +A word of two characters followed this, and then, to Grenville's +intense delight, occurred a word of seven letters, which not only met +the numerical requirements of "Haunted," but, also, in proper sequence, +employed the various letter-signs already somewhat proved by the word +he felt certain was "Three." +</P> + +<P> +This was more than sufficient evidence on which to base a test of the +message's sense, if it were not, indeed, enough of a key with which to +decipher the entire inscription. +</P> + +<P> +Eagerly fumbling in his pocket for his pencil, with the intention of +attempting a bit of substitution of letters for the signs contained +upon the sheet, Grenville shifted his position—and the paper fell from +his fingers, fluttering obliquely from his sight. +</P> + +<P> +He leaned quickly forward, as if to follow the flight of the missive +through the darkness so densely spread beneath him. But it disappeared +almost instantly—with its mystery still unsolved. +</P> + +<P> +On the point of descending, at whatever cost, to recover the important +bit of foolscap, Sidney was halted in movement and impulse by some new +arrival at the spring. +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact, two animals were there, as he presently +discovered. That neither was his tiger he was presently persuaded, but +that one or both were fairly large seemed equally assured. +</P> + +<P> +It was certainly not a time to leave the tree. And while the +reflection that, perhaps, the silent visitors were leopards was +presented to Grenville's mind, and a momentary thought of slaying the +pair by igniting his fuse became a strong temptation, he contented +himself by staring more or less blindly down upon the place where they +seemed to be, and bided his time as before. +</P> + +<P> +At nine o'clock it seemed, to the cramped and impatient hunter in the +tree, that ages had passed since he bade good-night to Elaine and came +to this lonely vigil. There were sounds in abundance about him now, +arising from time to time. Some were the cries of the lesser beasts, +in the clutches or jaws of their captors; some were sounds of munching. +All of them indicated rather grimly the tiger's absence from the scene. +There would be no petty murderers thereabout when the arch brute came +for his drink. +</P> + +<P> +Leaning back once more, and long since weary of his fruitless +adventure, Grenville stared at the glowing cone of fire slowly eating +away his brand. It was lasting far longer than he had believed would +be possible—yet certainly less than one hour more could the consuming +substance serve to give him a spark. +</P> + +<P> +He could almost fancy he saw a face, in the film of ash upon its +surface. He was sure the face was developing a likeness to Elaine. +Even the soft clear radiance of her cheek—— How eagerly she had +asked concerning his coming "home"—but how far it seemed away.... He +could hear her saying "You'll come home ... come home ... come back...." +</P> + +<P> +He awoke with a start, for something had burned him on the wrist. +</P> + +<P> +The firebrand, all but consumed in his relaxing fingers, had dropped +and deposited a blister. In his sudden move to rid himself of the +torture to his flesh, he threw off the red-hot candle of wood, and it +fell straight downward, sizzling once where it struck in a trickle of +the water. +</P> + +<P> +Reviling himself for a stupid blunderer, and arousing vividly to a +sense of where he was, and why, he began to question the expediency of +returning at once to the terrace. He was still debating the wisdom of +the move, when the question was decided by the tiger. +</P> + +<P> +That belated midnight reveler—the old roué of the jungle—was ushered +in with questionable pomp—the panic of lesser brutes in flight. And +when he drank, beside the useless bomb, there was no mistaking his +presence. He presently paused, half satisfied, and lifted his head, +against the shudder of the water, to sniff at the jungle breeze. +</P> + +<P> +The wind had betrayed the presence of the man, and the great brute +voiced his satisfaction. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A DEAD MAN'S SECRET +</H4> + +<P> +That was a long, weird night in the jungle. +</P> + +<P> +What hour it was the tiger finally departed was more than Grenville +could have told. And whether the daylight, finally approaching, or a +royal disgust, or some easily captured morsel, had served to urge the +brute upon his way, was equally unknown. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville descended from his perch at last, when the palms and ferns +had darkly emerged from the velvety blackness of the thicket. He took +up his club, left the bomb in its place, and, searching about, +recovered the sheet of parchment dropped in the darkness. Aware that +the silently moving enemy might still be lurking by the pathway, he +made his way no less boldly from the shadows, and came duly to the hill. +</P> + +<P> +His chagrin was complete when he told Elaine that his night had been +spent in vain. She had scarcely slept, as he could see, for her face +was still pale with worry, while her eyes showed her lack of rest. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall try again to-night," he said, but from that he was dissuaded. +</P> + +<P> +The strain was too great upon Elaine, if not upon himself. He +presently promised to wait a day, and see what might develop. He could +not subject his companion to another such session of agonizing worry as +Elaine had undergone until he felt more certain of results. +</P> + +<P> +But to wait a day in idleness, while he felt that every hour that +passed might bring new dangers upon them, could scarcely accord with +his intentions. +</P> + +<P> +He declared the tiger an arrant coward, who dared not confront him in +the day. +</P> + +<P> +"We have faced far greater perils than this," he told her, as they ate +their simple breakfast, "and we may be called upon to face the like +again. We're enormously fortunate to have nothing more than this +striped beast to limit our freedom on the island." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine could have thought of countless other animals, including snakes, +that would amply curtail her roaming inclinations, but she was not in +the least in the habit of rehearsing her many dreads. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville went promptly to work, after breakfast, fetching clay in the +basket from the pit. It was not brought up to the terrace, but dumped +in a heap beside the hollow tree, in the burned space under the walls. +This tree, he at last explained to Elaine, he intended to use as a +smelter. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a natural chimney I've annexed," was the way he presented the +problem. "If I built a fire in it now, however, it would burn, and be +destroyed. I intend to line it with clay—plaster it on, inside, some +eight or ten feet high. Then when this fire-resisting substance dries, +I can smelt my metal and run it in the molds. The draught will make a +prodigious heat—far more than brass requires." +</P> + +<P> +"I see," said Elaine. "Meantime I am utterly idle." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll cut you those needles. You can knit," he said, "unless you +prefer to go fishing." +</P> + +<P> +He had come to the camp for one of the jugs in which to carry water for +the clay. This task was temporarily abandoned while he sat in the +shade, beside Elaine, and carved out the promised tools. These were +made of wood, instead of bone, since the latter material was far too +hard for his fragment of a blade, and one of the woods provided by the +jungle was so straightly grained and elastic, that even a slender +splinter would bend like steel before it broke. +</P> + +<P> +For a short time after they were finished, he sat there to watch the +craft displayed by Elaine's nimble fingers, as a slender bit of the +fiber stuff began to accumulate in stitches. +</P> + +<P> +"You were made for a home-builder's mate," he said, and arose and left +her to her thoughts, and to certain inflammable emotions. +</P> + +<P> +He carried his jug down the trail and to the spring, resuming the +business in hand. The sight of the pool not only served to arouse his +disgust anew, but he was likewise reminded of the documents, reposing +still unread in his pocket. The bomb, he knew, should be carried back +to camp, lest the fuse become dampened in the thicket. With this and +his jug full of water, he hastened back to the foot of the trail—and +forgot them both forthwith. +</P> + +<P> +The half sheet of paper, readable at last, had enslaved him then and +there. +</P> + +<P> +He sat on a rock, with the paper on his knee, and was lost to all +things else. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment he thought, perhaps, he had dreamed of obtaining the key +to the hidden message. But one hurried glance at the words he had read +convinced him the trick had been done. +</P> + +<P> +On the back of the sheet he began at once to jot down the signs of +which he felt most certain. The results, as he made them, were these: +</P> + +<A NAME="img-132a"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-132a.jpg" ALT="THREE, HILL, HAUNTED, and their symbols" BORDER=""> +</CENTER> + +<P> +The next word, according to his deductions, should be "Island." This, +he felt, was indisputably confirmed by the fact it contained precisely +the required number of "letters," with the sign for L, A, and D, +already discovered, occupying their proper positions. He, therefore, +added: +</P> + +<A NAME="img-132b"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-132b.jpg" ALT=""ISLAND" and its symbols" BORDER=""> +</CENTER> + +<P> +to his growing collection of letters, and promptly produced the +following results by the process of substitution: +</P> + +<A NAME="img-132c"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-132c.jpg" ALT="many words, and their symbols" BORDER=""> +</CENTER> + +<P> +There could be so little doubt, after that, concerning such words as +"Under," "High," "Important," and "Water," which supplied the +characters, U, G, M, P, W, and O, which was also suggested in "Or," +before "Haunted," that a bit of additional substitution very promptly +cleared the entire affair. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville jotted it down, to make sense, in the following fashion: +</P> + +<P> +"Under tree, Three-Hill, or Haunted Island, Cave. Get in (during) high +water (in) Spring time when noise loud. Important. Make no mistake. +Map on Buli shows same." +</P> + +<P> +The one word which he felt to be doubtful was "Buli," which, he +confessed, might as readily be "Zuli," "Juli," or "Quli," but this was +of no significance, one way or another. Its meaning was still obscure. +</P> + +<P> +There were several things in the message or statement, however, that +confirmed his earlier uneasiness. The principal of these was the +statement that it was important for the possible seekers of some cavern +under the greater wall of rock to visit the island only during the time +when the hideously haunting sounds were at their height. This argued, +he thought, that the sounds would finally subside, or altogether cease, +when complications—doubtless in the form of visitors—might be +expected to develop. +</P> + +<P> +That the visitors would be natives and, probably, Dyaks, Grenville +could have no doubt. As to what there was in the cave beneath the +rock, he had small curiosity only, since it was hardly likely such +tools as he desired would be so concealed from a prying world, and +tools alone had value for him now. +</P> + +<P> +He could not doubt, however, that something there was in the cave here +described, for which men had risked their lives. He thought of the +headless skeletons, and then of the mummy in chains. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, at thought of that guardian of the barque, his heart gave an +added leap. He snatched from his pocket the parchment referred to as a +map. He could instantly see, by the light of day, that the leathery +substance was leather, indeed, of the most grewsomely repellent +description! It was simply <I>tanned human skin</I>! +</P> + +<P> +And abruptly he understood that phrase—"Map on Buli shows same." The +pyramids represented the island's three great hills, and other signs +the cave. The pole with a knob, on the tallest hill, was the tree so +near his camp. +</P> + +<P> +Aye, the thing was a map in very truth—and once it had been ON Buli! +For Buli was he who sat in the barque, chained fast to prevent his +escape! +</P> + +<P> +<I>This map he had borne, tattooed on his breast, from which it had +finally been stripped!</I> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +FEVERISH EMPLOYMENTS HALTED +</H4> + +<P> +A species of horror attacked the man on whom the truth had flashed. +What abominable cruelties and crimes lay back of the business thus +finally to some extent revealed, he could only faintly imagine. +</P> + +<P> +He felt quite certain of one or two things, that were not to be told to +Elaine. First, he could not for a moment doubt that the barque had +been brought to the island with the sole intent and purpose of looting +the cave of treasure. He was equally convinced its crew had been +foully slaughtered—and their heads removed. This smacked of Dyak +atrocities. Finally, there was ample evidence that men of some sort +had visited the island long since the wreck was stranded, and probably +within the year. +</P> + +<P> +He had not required the warning made "important" on the sheet to urge +him to haste in preparing a boat with which to attempt an escape. To +learn that the haunting sounds of the tide would at length subside was +a new and disquieting addition to what he had previously deduced. He +had accurately hit upon the natives' superstitious awe of the sounds to +account for the island's desertion. +</P> + +<P> +How long these invaluable shrieks and moans might be counted upon to +continue became a vital question. Could they only last till a boat +could be completed, launched, provisioned, and directed away to a safer +retreat, he would ask for nothing more. +</P> + +<P> +He returned again to an inspection of the "map"—now singularly plain. +The island was graphically represented by the three conventional +"hills," with the sign for water inscribed at either end. The tree, so +conspicuous upon the tallest wall of rock, was no less vividly +portrayed. +</P> + +<P> +Below this identifying picture of the place the hill with the tree was +repeated, with the cave and design for water, while just to the right +the detail of the cavern, with more water signs, indicating both high +and low tide, was depicted somewhat enlarged. The cartouch was not so +readily comprehended. Grenville was inclined to believe it spelled +some crude king's name, while the scarab, or beetle, was, of course, an +old Egyptian symbol concerned with life and death. +</P> + +<P> +It would hardly have been human of Grenville not to wonder about the +cave or to contemplate a visit there—just to have the merest look +about the place. He even went so far as to wonder if its entrance +might not be effected from the upper brink, by means of a longer rope +ladder than the one he had already made. +</P> + +<P> +He did not, however, seriously contemplate delaying affairs more +important to gratify this whim. Indeed, he was fired with new +impatience to work night and day against the hour of escape. The +thought put him back on his feet, then and there, with the documents +stored away. There was no time to lose—not a moment—not even to fool +with the tiger! +</P> + +<P> +He left his bomb and its fuse upon the rocks, and carried the water to +his clay. To line his hollow-tree furnace as promptly as possible must +be his first concern. No boat could be made without suitable tools, +and—— He wondered how he should make it, even then. +</P> + +<P> +The log he had found on the day they arrived was such a huge affair to +attack with the implements his limited craft made possible, despite all +the bronze he could melt. And yet, without it, he was helpless. The +raft was far too clumsy for propulsion. It afforded practically +nothing transformable into a boat, as he had no nails, no saw, no +anything with which it might be first dismembered, and finally +reconstructed. +</P> + +<P> +"By Jove!" he exclaimed to himself, aloud, as a new thought crept +subtly to his brain. "I can hollow the log with fire!" +</P> + +<P> +He went at once to the straight and ample tree-trunk, lying propped +upon a rock. Its ends had already been partially consumed, and thereby +rounded, in the flames that had ravaged the place. How he could cover +such parts as he must not burn with a plaster of his clay, Grenville +instantly conceived. And there was the log already lifted away from +the earth, for the fire to be kindled beneath! +</P> + +<P> +The wisdom of starting this process at once, even before his tools were +made, was immediately apparent. Back to his clay heap he hastened +eagerly, and, pawing it over to form a hollow pyramid, he poured in the +water to soak through the mass, and so make it soft enough to use. +</P> + +<P> +A new, unsparing spasm of labor seized the man in that hour, and he +worked unremittingly. He felt he had loafed away his time which +important requirements demanded. +</P> + +<P> +The task of digging the clay from the pit and fetching it up to his +hollow tree in the basket, made of creepers, was interminable. The +sticks and wooden "spades" he had managed to fashion, not only broke +from over-use and straining, but they were dull and heavy and awkward. +The basket was scarcely more convenient than the implements in +fulfilling its simple function. He could manage to carry its weight +upon his head, but at this he had meager skill. +</P> + +<P> +For three days he worked to get the clay, or to work it up and apply it +with his hands. A considerable portion of the fallen log was thus +quite promptly covered. He had then to wait for the clay to dry before +his fire could be ignited. +</P> + +<P> +The supply of clay he had managed to amass was clearly insufficient. +He paused, on one of those warm and breathless afternoons, to set a +number of traps in the animal pathways, and construct an awning for +Elaine. This was merely a structure before her cave, to support a roof +of leaves and grasses. It afforded a shade, however, that was +exceedingly grateful. +</P> + +<P> +There were numerous interruptions, also, for procuring meat and fruits. +Grenville had brought down a pheasant with the last of his two +remaining arrows. And not even a quill, supplied by the wings, had +blown away from his "store." He had cut new shafts by his evening +fire, and tipped them with points of sharpened wood. Elaine had +feathered them skillfully, after once being properly directed. +</P> + +<P> +Not a sign, all this time, had Grenville seen of the tiger, still +haunting the jungle. He had been too industriously engrossed, either +to wonder or to care where the brute had recently been lurking. +</P> + +<P> +On the fourth warm morning of his toil about the furnace, the reminder +came home with a jolt. Some few yards away from the clay pit's edge +lay the master murderer's kill. It was part of a freshly eaten boar. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was neither revolted nor angered by the sight. He was +suddenly excited with a new hope of getting a certain robe to lay at +the feet of Elaine. It never occurred to his eager mind that the brute +who bore it might be lying near, in a mood to resent his intrusion +here, where the kingly banquet had been left for a sitting again that +night. +</P> + +<P> +His first concern was to keep away, as far as possible, lest the smell +of his boots offend the lordly brute when he finally returned. +Meantime such preparations as the scene made possible must not be +unduly delayed. +</P> + +<P> +The trees above the reddened spot afforded more choice for his +necessary perch than he had found on the previous occasion. He rapidly +sketched his plans for the night with mental notes and observations. +Where the bomb could lie, to prove most efficacious, and still at the +same time offer no great menace to himself, was readily determined. +The ladder required for ascending to his stand would better be hung on +the side most removed from the trail, for which he must a little clear +the thicket. +</P> + +<P> +His club, without which the visit here at sunset was not to be +undertaken, could lean on the tree-trunk while he sat above, since +there, should any need arise, he could find it in the dark. +</P> + +<P> +He abandoned all thought of treading back and forth from the clay pit +to his smelter, and carried his basket away. The ladder he brought at +once from the spring, and, expending an hour in more careful +preparation for his comfort than had even been possible before, he +finally departed from the site of the tiger's gory refreshment, well +satisfied with all he had been able to accomplish. +</P> + +<P> +He returned to the camp, made a careful examination of the bomb and its +fuse, and selected the wood to be finally used in preserving his +essential spark of fire. Then, willing at last to turn his attention +again to his daily occupation, he once more descended to his +clay-covered log and found the plaster sufficiently dry upon it for the +first of the burning to be started. He called to Elaine, who threw him +down some glowing embers, from the fire always burning near his shelter. +</P> + +<P> +All day he found abundant employment, working with flame and clay. The +eating away of the log in a manner to leave a hollow shell, could not, +he found, be accomplished as swiftly as he had hoped. Moreover, the +fires required his constant attention, lest they burn too deeply to +right or left, and thus destroy, or considerably impair, the walls he +desired to protect. +</P> + +<P> +In the afternoon he permitted this fire to die. Until more clay could +be plastered about and the blackly charred portions of the wood removed +with a tool, the process must be halted. He had still a small section +inside his natural smelter to cover before he could undertake the +melting of his metal, but his heap of clay was gone. +</P> + +<P> +Once more, as he had on the previous occasion, he informed Elaine in +the late afternoon of his intentions for the night. Her look of alarm +was the only sign that escaped her resolute being. She had silently +noted his earlier activity with the bomb and his fire-preserving wood; +she was not surprised by his plans. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall not be down at the spring," he said, "but over there nearer +the clay pit. I have found a place where I rather expect our friend to +arrive at a decently early hour." +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes were startled and wide. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean he sleeps where you have been walking every day?" +</P> + +<P> +"No—certainly not. But I'm sure he was there last night—and I hope +he'll come again." +</P> + +<P> +She was quick to divine the unpleasant truth that Grenville was +striving to avoid. +</P> + +<P> +"You mean—he's been eating there—and left some awful——" +</P> + +<P> +"Good pork," he agreed, as he took up his bomb; "a fine wild +boar—enough to have done us for a week." +</P> + +<P> +She resumed her work of knitting, on a small, round basket-like affair. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope there are more of those hogs for him to get," she told him, +quietly. "I hope they are easy prey." +</P> + +<P> +"Right ho! But I trust he'll not be off with the old pig before he is +on with the new. I want him to come to the party there to-night." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine looked up for a moment, and thrilled to the look in his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she said, "I suppose you do." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +AT THE TIGER'S KILL +</H4> + +<P> +The island twilight was brief. When the sun departed from that speck +of verdure in the purple sea, the covetous darkness seemed to form like +a presence that had crouched to bide its time. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was early on the scene of the tiger's previous feast. He had +no idea how soon after sundown the jungle monarch might appear. It was +not such a place as inspired hilarious joy in the heart, in any +circumstances. Moreover, one last examination of the bomb and fuse, +and one clear impression of the features beneath and about his tree, +seemed to Sidney a wise precaution. +</P> + +<P> +The day had, therefore, barely ended when he climbed aloft to his +perch. The end of the fuse was tied to a limb a little removed from +his feet. He closed his eyes and found it with his hand, by way of +making certain it should not be missed in the dark. The larger and +denser of the forms below, created by shadows and growing plants, he +noted in their relation to the kill. The latter was not to be clearly +seen, since a screen of leaves he had purposely left to conceal his +presence from the banqueter, served to shield it from his view. +</P> + +<P> +Finally, closing his eyes again, he practiced retreating behind the +trunk itself, as he knew he must do when nothing could be seen and his +fuse was finally lighted. This was rather a delicate operation to +manage in the dark. He made up his mind it must be calmly done, for +ample time would be provided by the generous length of fuse. +</P> + +<P> +This length, by the way, was considerably less than he had formerly +employed. The bomb was, therefore, nearer to his stand. Yet the bulk +of the tree-trunk was, he thought, an entirely adequate protection +should he have the delight of hearing his powder explode. +</P> + +<P> +Through the lattice of leaves he presently beheld the last of the day's +dying splendor. The army of shadows, already on the march, was taking +rapid possession of all the jungle deeps. The same impatience he had +felt before, the same vague dread and loneliness previously +experienced, and the same slow drag of time impressed themselves upon +his senses. +</P> + +<P> +He wondered how long his brand would last, although it was longer than +the other. He wondered about Elaine, on the hill, and how tedious the +hours would seem to her. But the constant, underlying worry was—when +would the tiger arrive? +</P> + +<P> +Elaine's suggestion was a bother. Might there not be hogs so +plentiful, quarry so readily captured, that the overdisdainful monarch +would prefer warm meat to cold? +</P> + +<P> +There was no mysterious cipher to be studied here to-night. There was +nothing, in fact, with which to pass the time. Not even a new +speculation concerning the cave and the rotting barque arose to give +him entertainment. The haunting, suggestive stillness engulfed him +where he sat. The world below had merged in one featureless gloom. +Except for a few fringed patches of sky between the leaves and +branches, there was nothing but velvety blackness to be seen above or +below. +</P> + +<P> +He waited and waited, a time that seemed eternal. His resting-place +was hard and uneven. One of his legs was cramped. To shift about and +make no noise was not an easy matter. +</P> + +<P> +Without the slightest warning, suddenly down below him something leaped +and crashed through the thicket with a most unexpected sound. Whatever +it was, it went bounding off, recklessly parting the jungle. Some +creature in fright it undoubtedly was—and Grenville was instantly +rigid and alert for the next development. +</P> + +<P> +He was certain the tiger, coming to his feast, had thrown some timid +creature into a panic of blind and desperate fear. He listened, with +all his powers of concentration, for the sounds that should presently +succeed. +</P> + +<P> +But save for another plunging, far beyond, there was absolute silence +as before. For fully half an hour after that the stillness was +well-nigh insupportable, so fraught was it all with the tragic sense of +noiseless life where both hunted and hunters moved about with the +cushioned feet of shadows. +</P> + +<P> +Far off towards the spring, or the estuary, a disturbance finally +arose. It was neither loud nor clear. It seemed to interpret some +struggle for life, or pursuit of the weak by the strong. It approached +for a time, then ceased for nearly half a minute, only to break into +clearer accents of some brute's agony, poignant but mercifully brief. +</P> + +<P> +At this the discouragement in Grenville's breast was unavoidably +increased. He was certain the tiger had taken fresher prey, and would +now ignore his former kill. So intent were his senses on that far-off +bit of jungle drama that he failed to detect a nearer sound repeated +beneath his feet. +</P> + +<P> +When his sharp ears abruptly warned him that something was moving down +below, an extraordinary climax to his adventure was swiftly coming to a +focus. +</P> + +<P> +Some creature had come to the tiger's kill—of that there could be no +doubt. It was lapping, or chewing at the meat! +</P> + +<P> +Unable to distinguish the slightest thing in all that Stygian darkness, +Grenville paused, with his brand slightly shielded from the creature's +possible notice, waiting a moment to confirm the fact that a banqueter +was present before he touched the fuse. +</P> + +<P> +A tremendous roar instantly startled the silence, a few feet beyond the +boar's remains. Before the man could move a hand, either to light the +ready fuse or steady himself in the branches, some heavy form was +hurled against the tree in which he sat—<I>and that something was +climbing madly upward</I>! +</P> + +<P> +Only a tremor had shivered through the trunk, but the limbs were bent +and the foliage stirred as if from a breath of heavy wind. That the +creature might run against himself and turn to fight, in its double +fear and desperation, Grenville was keenly aware. +</P> + +<P> +Subconsciously, also, he was equally sure the tiger was below. The +catlike thing in the tree with himself had undoubtedly dared to sit +down at the huge brute's kill, to flee for its life a moment later. +</P> + +<P> +Instinctively turning to protect himself and thoroughly disturbed by +this unforeseen complication, Grenville heard his unwelcome companion +utter one sudden whine, of surprise and added terror, as it came +abreast him in the branches. +</P> + +<P> +It dared not retreat, and, therefore in a wilder panic, clawed its way +higher up the tree. The limbs continued to shake their leaves for +another protracted moment. Then the beast found a place to halt above +his head, and doubtless glared down upon the unknown peril which man +supplies to all the brutes. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville recovered his wits as best he might. He had no particular +dread of the animal crouched somewhere in his neighborhood, but neither +did he relish its presence. What effect the affair would have on the +creature he had come there to engage he could not, of course, determine. +</P> + +<P> +He bent to listen for sounds from the space below. Not the faintest +suggestion of a moving or feeding animal could his focused senses +detect. He thought perhaps the tiger might have smelled him or seen +him in the tree. It occurred to him, also, the brute might be waiting +for the catlike thief to descend and be slain at the kill. +</P> + +<P> +But a far more likely supposition was that the tiger, having sniffed +the taint of some beast without caste, now left on the meat that was +sacred to himself, had disdained to touch it, and had gone away, to +return to the place no more. +</P> + +<P> +Ready to curse the despicable animal now sharing the tree's security +with himself, Sidney was all but resigned to another long night, spent +in vain and in utter discomfort, when once again a lapping sound came +crisply to his attention. +</P> + +<P> +His brute was at the feast! +</P> + +<P> +With heart abruptly pounding and senses suddenly tense, Grenville +leaned down, with his glowing brand, to complete his work for the night. +</P> + +<P> +His hand felt blindly along the limb, to pick up the end of the fuse. +But someway the place was lost. More eagerly then, and telling off +each twig like a sign that blazed the trail, he explored the branch +anew. +</P> + +<P> +He found the fiber that had held the fuse—but the fuse itself was +gone! The panic-stricken creature that had climbed the tree had clawed +or broken it down! +</P> + +<P> +A bitterer disappointment to Grenville could scarcely have been +planned. He was sickened all through by disgust, and a sense of the +utter uselessness of all he had striven to accomplish. With fire in +hand, the bomb all laid, and the tiger actually present—he was +helpless, after all! +</P> + +<P> +It was futile to rage at the cowering beast, above him somewhere in the +darkness. He glanced up once and saw its eyes—two blazing coals of +fear and malice, like near-by sinister stars! +</P> + +<P> +"By Heavens! I'll not be cheated!" he murmured to himself. A mad new +thought had possessed him. +</P> + +<P> +The fuse had been drawn about the tree before it could be fastened near +his perch. Had it fallen straight down, when torn from its hold, it +would still lie close at hand. +</P> + +<P> +His ladder was hidden from the tiger's position by the tree. Any +sounds he must make might be thought to be those of the cat. There was +no particular danger in descending to the ground—with the ladder near +with which to regain a safe position. +</P> + +<P> +Noiselessly, yet not without excitement, he began his retreat from the +branches. With every step he paused for a bit, to listen to the sounds +of the tiger. +</P> + +<P> +The brute was seemingly quite engrossed in the business of filling his +belly. But, despite his utmost efforts at silence, the leaves of one +of the branches loudly rustled as Grenville's weight was intrusted to +the ladder. +</P> + +<P> +He halted and held his breath. The tiger continued his eating. +Holding his firebrand firmly in his teeth, Grenville slowly and +cautiously descended, with the furtive alertness of a thief. +</P> + +<P> +When he reached the earth, he was certain his heart would betray his +presence with its pounding. He leaned there, heavily, against the +tree, to still the mad leap of his pulses. Then, at length, he began +to feel about for the fuse that should be at his feet. +</P> + +<P> +It was not to be found—and he moved a little outward. His hand came +in contact with a long, slender thing—but it proved to be a creeper. +</P> + +<P> +Further and further out he moved, blindly groping with his fingers. He +encountered a shrub, and, fumbling between it and the tree, bethought +him to feel about its crest. There he found one end of the fuse he +sought—but it proved that the length had been broken! He held the +useless end! +</P> + +<P> +One despair after another had seized him within an endless minute. +More recklessly, in a burning fever of impatience, he pawed about and +moved even closer to the tiger—whose sounds were horribly near. +</P> + +<P> +He could almost have uttered a cry of joy when the severed fuse was +discovered. He waited for nothing, but immediately pressed his brand +against the sun-dried substance. +</P> + +<P> +There was no powder there. It had spilled when it broke, and it +harmlessly smoked as it burned. +</P> + +<P> +Why a groan did not escape him, Sidney could never have told. He broke +off the tough, resisting substance six inches further along and again +applied his spark. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed as if in all its length there could be no powder remaining. +He was savagely grasping the fuse once more, to break it at a fresher +place, when a fiery-red line, some four feet away, seemed creeping like +a snake out beyond him. +</P> + +<P> +The spark that was racing along to the bomb had been started while +still he was sweating there with baffled and excited impatience. +</P> + +<P> +He took no time for further caution, but sprang away to the shelter of +the tree and caught at a lungful of breath. +</P> + +<P> +There was not a sound in all the place. This much he knew in that +second, as he hugged up close to the trunk. The tiger had ceased to +lap at the meat, and perhaps was poised for a spring. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to Grenville, waiting there, that nothing would ever happen. +A thousand doubts went darting through his brain. The fuse had failed! +It was broken again. Or, perhaps—— +</P> + +<P> +A low growl broke the stillness. There was a sound of something moving +towards the tree! +</P> + +<P> +Instantly a frightful red-and-yellow glare leaped upward from the +earth. A deafening, crashing detonation rent the intimate universe and +shook down incredible stars. The air was filled to overcrowding with +rushing billows of concussion that rocked the trees as in a storm. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville went down, dazed and helpless, unable to think, so jarred to +chaos were his senses. But, beyond being stunned for a moment, he was +totally unhurt. +</P> + +<P> +He leaped to his feet, aware of some mighty disturbance in the curdled, +heavy darkness that had followed. +</P> + +<P> +The tiger it was, in some extravagant activity, moving towards +Grenville and the thicket. He was almost upon the staggering man +before he could move to escape. Then Grenville stumbled towards the +ladder. +</P> + +<P> +The jar to the limb, as he tugged at a rung, brought something down +from above. This was the creature that had hidden in the tree. It had +partially fallen, earlier stunned by the huge concussion. It dropped +upon Grenville leadenly—and down he went in a heap. +</P> + +<P> +The three sworn enemies—tiger, man, and jungle-cat—were embroiled on +the earth together. Before the man could sufficiently recover to +stagger from his knees to his feet and grasp his club, the tiger flung +out a mighty paw, that struck him a blow upon the chin. +</P> + +<P> +Without a sound he sank limberly down, inert and helplessly unconscious. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +GRENVILLE'S RADIANT STAR +</H4> + +<P> +Even had sleep overcome Elaine, the explosion must have startled her +awake like a wildly fluttering bird. +</P> + +<P> +All her life she had known the sound of guns, but never before had her +ears received such an air-splitting shock as this. +</P> + +<P> +Her alarm could know no bounds. It had come so suddenly and +unexpectedly; it had been such a cataclysmic destruction of the +island's haunting calm! She was certain some hideous blunder had +occurred—that Grenville, too, had perished by the thing he had +fearlessly dared to create. +</P> + +<P> +She had seen for an instant that fan-like glare, as she gazed far out +across the jungle. And now, as she stood there, rigid with fears and +fixedly staring at the formless gloom—why did she hear no sound? +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he might—he might call!" she said, and she tried to halloo, but +in vain. +</P> + +<P> +She waited a time that seemed endless for some little sign from the +jungle. He had promised before that, if all went well, he would hasten +home at once. Surely this promise held good to-night—especially after +that explosion! +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps it was not yet time; perhaps it was farther away than she had +thought. The glare had seemed near, but he had no torch, and must walk +but slowly through the thicket. How dark it must be along the trails, +in that tangle growth, with nothing for a light! How could he possibly +hasten? +</P> + +<P> +She was standing out on the brink of the wall, staring down at the +gloom of the clearing, convinced that her ears, if not her eyes, would +detect the first sign of his coming. Just the merest red gleam from +the firebrand was all she would ask of the darkness—just that dull +little star in the firmament of black! +</P> + +<P> +But the ebon remained unbroken. That he might be lost occurred to her +mind, but again she thought it was yet too soon for his return. She +stumbled swiftly to the fire again, to stir it to brighter refulgence. +It would seem to him a beacon against the sky to guide his footsteps +home! +</P> + +<P> +She thought of a blazing brand she could carry to the brink of the +wall. With the largest limb afforded by the fire she returned, in +haste and eagerness, to wave him a signal of welcome. And still +nothing came from the clearing. +</P> + +<P> +"Sidney!" she cried through the stillness, at last. "Sidney! Are you +there?" +</P> + +<P> +The night surrendered no response, save some animal cry far off where +the barque was rotting. +</P> + +<P> +"If he's dead!" she moaned. "If he's dead!" +</P> + +<P> +But he might be wounded and helpless, she thought, with no one to come +to his side. He might not be hurt unto death itself—if aid could +reach him now! +</P> + +<P> +If he died—if he left her thus alone—— A thousand times she +preferred to die beside him! +</P> + +<P> +"Sidney!" she cried, as before. +</P> + +<P> +With a strange dry note, choked back between her lips, she fled once +more to the fire. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime the man by the tiger's kill continued to lie without motion on +the earth. Not even the glow of his cheering brand remained like a +sign of life in that silent theater. +</P> + +<P> +The jungle cat, smitten and addled in its brain, had dragged itself +painfully away to the cover of the thicket, its instinct feebly alive. +There was not a sound in all the place, where crash and roar had been +so tremendously expended for one prodigious second. +</P> + +<P> +A vague, weird dream came finally creeping intangibly through +Grenville's brain, resuming an intermittent function. When at length +it began a little to clear, he dreamed he was trying his utmost to +rise, but something held him down. +</P> + +<P> +Consciousness poured a trickle through his being, and he felt he was +partially awake. Then a flood, a cataract of surging life, rushing +back to its centers, brought confusion and tumult to his thoughts. He +was still only partially aroused. +</P> + +<P> +His eyes at length were opened. The darkness which their gaze +encountered seemed more complete than that of his region of dreams. He +attempted to rise, but his muscles and nerves refused their customary +obedience to his will. He tried to remember what had happened, but the +glancing blow sustained on his chin had blotted him out, temporarily, +like a stroke of death itself. And, had the stroke been more direct, +his jaw or his neck must have broken. +</P> + +<P> +When he raised his head a bit from the ground and propped himself up on +his elbow, the sense of dullness and leadlike weight in both his feet +and legs continued unabated. He was battling to retain his +consciousness. +</P> + +<P> +He began to remember, slowly. The process was only well started, +however, when it was singularly interrupted. He was staring blankly +through the jungle, which he partially recollected. It was funny, he +thought, how a star should fall and wander through all those aisles of +trees. +</P> + +<P> +It was a star, he was fully convinced, coming haltingly through the +gloom. Its course was erratic. He lost it at times, but still it +persisted in approaching. How beautiful it was—the largest star he +had ever known—with its flames divinely ascending. +</P> + +<P> +He sat up stiffly, his will momentarily gaining strength to resume the +sway of his body. Some mantle partially fell from his brain, to +accompany his physical rousing. Then he knew, not only what had +happened, but also what was happening. +</P> + +<P> +"Elaine!" he tried to call aloud, vainly striving to rise or regain the +use of his limbs, then once more he sank in oblivion. +</P> + +<P> +A strange, wild note broke from her lips as Elaine came plunging along +the trail with a torch redly blazing in her hand, held well above her +face. +</P> + +<P> +She saw, before she could reach his side, that the tiger lay lifeless +upon him. She feared the man was dead, but, with wits exceptionally +clear and ordered, she thrust her torch-end firmly in the earth, laid +hold of the huge, limber beast she so fearfully dreaded, and tugged and +dragged it feverishly off with all her fine young strength. +</P> + +<P> +The face of the inert man beside the tree was redly smeared with blood. +He lay horribly loose and still upon the grass. She knelt at his side +and placed her hands upon him, feeling above his heart. +</P> + +<P> +"Sidney!" she said to him. "Sidney! You cannot—you shall not die! I +never meant the things I said—or thought—or anything! Oh, please, +please don't—don't look like that! You've got to come back—you've +got to!" +</P> + +<P> +She tore at the band about his neck and lifted his head on her knee. +She wiped the red from his pallid face with the hem of her briar-torn +skirt. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll find the spring!" she told him eagerly, starting as if to rise, +but the still form moved, and, dully at first, the two heavy eyes were +opened. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" she said. "Oh, you're hurt. Don't try to do anything but +rest.... You didn't come—you didn't come home!" +</P> + +<P> +Despite her entreaty, Grenville weakly raised his head and propped +himself, half sitting. The weight being gone from his outstretched +legs, his normal circulation was returning. He regained his strength +with characteristic swiftness. +</P> + +<P> +"Hurt?" he said. "No—I don't believe—— I must have got a knockout +blow. The tiger? Did I get the tiger?" +</P> + +<P> +He sat up uncertainly and, glancing about, saw the huge striped form +where Elaine had dragged it from his body. She still remained on her +knees, fixedly gazing on his face. Her strength was ebbing rapidly, as +Grenville's now returned. +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't come home," she repeated, by way of explaining her presence +at his side. "I couldn't live here alone." +</P> + +<P> +Grenville arose and assisted her weakly to her feet. She stumbled to +and leaned against the tree. +</P> + +<P> +"By George!" he said, "I'll bet a hat you could!" +</P> + +<P> +He knew what courage had come to her aid before she could make her +excursion. "I went down like a dub," he added, in his customary +manner. "No good excuse, but I do apologize. Better get out of this, +I'm thinking." +</P> + +<P> +He took up the torch she had planted in the earth, to examine the +tiger, dead and mangled in the grass, One of the creature's great front +paws had been rudely torn from his body. He could only have escaped +instantaneous death by having moved from the bomb at the moment of its +explosion. +</P> + +<P> +"Your robe looks mussed," Grenville continued, with a gesture towards +the animal's motionless body. "But I think it can be washed." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine slightly shivered at sight of the frame now done with life. +</P> + +<P> +"You've killed him," she said. "I'm glad!" +</P> + +<P> +He took her firmly by the arm and led her away through the thicket. +</P> + +<P> +When they reached the camp, Elaine was not yet fully convinced that +Grenville was uninjured. She brought him a rag she had torn from some +of her clothing and begged him to wash his reddened jaw. Even the +restoration of his former stubbled complexion could not suffice to +bring her that sense of certainty and calm essential before she could +sleep. +</P> + +<P> +She remained beside him at their fire till long past the midnight hour. +Indeed, she had made no move to retire when at length the weird, +unwelcome disturbance made by the tide had begun its uncanny chorus. +Perhaps she had waited for the conclusion of this added feature of the +night's long ritual of nerve-attacking events, for she seemed to be +considerably cheered when its final wail had died upon the air. +</P> + +<P> +"It seems to me that doesn't continue quite as long as it did at +first," she said to Grenville, as she rose at last to go alone to her +cavern.... "I think you ought to rest. I wish you would." +</P> + +<P> +"I will," said Sidney. "Good-night." +</P> + +<P> +But, for some time after she had gone, he sat there wondering if those +abominable but protective cries, that haunted the island's solitude, +were actually on the wane. +</P> + +<P> +"God help us if they are!" he said, to himself, but he went to bed and +slept. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A GIRDLE OF GOLD +</H4> + +<P> +Elaine had not yet appeared on the scene when Grenville went down to +the jungle. The morning hour was still decidedly early, but plans and +impatience to be up and at work had prodded the man from his rest. The +lassitude that should have followed his night of excitement had not yet +laid its weight upon him. +</P> + +<P> +Apparently nothing had come to the jungle scene where the tiger had met +his end. The great form lay there, torn and rigid, but no sign of the +cat could be discovered. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville passed his trophy, presently, to examine the space beyond. +The spot where the bomb had exploded was a gaping hole in the earth. +This was not the place where Grenville had placed the deadly tube, +which he knew must therefore have been moved—doubtless when the fuse +was pulled and broken by the creature taking refuge in the tree. +</P> + +<P> +All about the spot where the kill had been the shrubbery was shredded. +The boar's remains had been blown away when the gap was made in the +sod. The trail, Grenville saw, must be repaired or a new one must be +made about the place. +</P> + +<P> +He returned to the tiger, and was suddenly elated to behold the metal +collar, half-hidden by the fur about his neck. He had quite forgotten +this bauble, thus singularly employed, and, kneeling down to inspect it +closely, not only found it was massive gold and set with costly jewels, +but also discovered he must break or force a heavy link to take it from +the creature. +</P> + +<P> +It was not until he had brought two sharp-edged rocks to his needs that +the collar was finally freed. Its weight and worth then amazed him. +The band was fully two inches in width, with the edges curved up and +turned under, in a simple and hammer-marked finish. It was all +hand-wrought, each blow that the smith had struck with his tool being +faintly recorded in the metal. The jewels—three sapphires, three +rubies, and one diamond—were simply and solidly set with bands that +barely clasped their bases. The rubies only were cabochon cut, the +other stones gleaming with facets. +</P> + +<P> +There was not a mark upon the collar's outer surface to show what was +meant by its presence here in such extraordinary keeping. But +Grenville presently bethought him to glance at the inner circumference. +He was not in the least astonished, but he was a bit concerned, to +discover a number of those mystic symbols, deeply graved in the gold, +that had once been tattooed on the man sitting dead in the barque. +</P> + +<P> +Here were the three hills, bounded by the water, and one with the tree +on its summit, while on either side the cartouch appeared, bounded by +crude drawings of the tiger. That the brute had been liberated here +upon the island as a sort of sacred guardian of the cave that was +mentioned by the writing found secreted with the map, Grenville could +not, or did not, doubt. There was nothing more to be found engraved on +the gold. +</P> + +<P> +He finally slipped the heavy band about his own smooth, sun-tanned neck +and went at the task of securing Elaine's promised robe. This toil was +far more difficult than even his lack of proper appliances had led him +to anticipate. Although he had sharpened his stub of a knife-blade to +a very respectable cutting-edge, it was far too small for the business. +</P> + +<P> +His doggedness and application were the assets on which he had most to +count, and without them here he must have failed. As it was, he +remained so long away that Elaine, who was up, was alarmed. And, when +at last he appeared below with the heavy, striped skin across his +shoulder, she started abruptly, till she saw he was not another tiger. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you might like to see the size of his hide," he said, as he +brought it to the terrace, "before I take it down by the shore for +tanning. I shall soak it a while in a mixture of brine and saltpeter. +Both are highly preservative—-and the best the island affords." +</P> + +<P> +"He was simply tremendous!" Elaine replied, when the skin had been +spread on the rocks. "What have you got about your neck?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, this?" said Grenville, removing the golden collar. "This is a +symbol of royalty that his Bengal highness wore—your property now, as +a trophy of the hunt." +</P> + +<P> +She took it a little uncertainly as he held it forth in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Why—it's gold!" she said. "These jewels—— The tiger was wearing +this?" +</P> + +<P> +"About his kingly neck." +</P> + +<P> +"But how—unless someone put it on?" +</P> + +<P> +"Undoubtedly someone did. He must have been a captive once, and +probably escaped." +</P> + +<P> +It could serve no good end to acquaint her with his actual suspicions, +which might be ill-founded, after all. +</P> + +<P> +"It's beautiful," she continued, gazing in admiration on the collar's +simple massiveness. "But it's not for me, I'm sure." She held it out +for him to take. But he bent above the skin. +</P> + +<P> +"Then pitch it away," he instructed, laconically. "Toss it into the +sea." +</P> + +<P> +She colored, looking at him strangely. She could not throw away his +property—anything of such great intrinsic value. She was baffled +again, as he managed so frequently. Her hand and the golden circlet +fell at her side. She could think of no appropriate speech of final +rejection. A whimsical notion only arose to her groping mind. +</P> + +<P> +"Fancy me wearing this priceless band of splendor," she said, "and +eating with a stick!" +</P> + +<P> +"It will just about fit around your waist," he conjectured, taking it +from her as he rose. With easy strength he bent it in his hands, to +make it more snugly conform to her slender and graceful little body. +</P> + +<P> +Why should he not bend it thus, she thought, who had wrenched it from a +tiger? She felt how weak and inadequate was her own diminishing +struggle. But to wear this band—a symbol, almost, of Grenville's +ownership—— A hot recurrence of her former pride came surging to her +bosom. +</P> + +<P> +"It's too heavy to wear," she told him, a trifle coldly. She once more +accepted the girdle, however, despite herself, from his hand. "The +tiger that wore it," she concluded, "met with a lot of trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"You've met with some yourself," he answered, candidly, and he +shouldered the skin and started off for the estuary's mouth. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine burned suddenly scarlet, interpreting his speech in some manner +of her own. Helplessly she carried the girdle to her cave, and left it +there in a hollow of the rock. +</P> + +<P> +The incident concerned with the tiger was practically closed. A new, +bright era of security and liberty thereupon commenced, particularly +for Elaine. She could not take immediate advantage of the comfort thus +vouchsafed in moving about the island, but at least her worry was +lessened when Grenville was obliged to venture in the jungle. +</P> + +<P> +His return to the work so frequently interrupted was delayed but the +briefest time. So eager did he constantly feel to accomplish his +boat's completion that he had grudged every hour the tiger had cost him +from his labors. +</P> + +<P> +With no thought of sparing his tireless strength, he promptly resumed +the task of digging and fetching the clay. Elaine might have joined +him in the clearing now had not some task she was eager to complete +engrossed her attentions at the shelter. +</P> + +<P> +That day the remaining surface of his prostrate log was plastered by +Grenville's eager hands. He likewise mixed sufficient clay to finish +his furnace in the morning. The fire that was helping to hollow his +log was once again ignited. Much of the old charred substance, left +from previous operations, Grenville knocked away with an improvised +tool of brass, in order to daub more clay inside the shell before the +flames could continue removing the wood as he required. +</P> + +<P> +On the following day, while the walls in his smelter were drying, +Sidney wove a two-piece door of wattle—framework of creepers, +plastered with clay—to fit across the orifice at the bottom of his +tree. With this he felt he could regulate the draught and protect +himself while removing his crucibles of metal. The top door only would +be tossed aside to accomplish this latter purpose. +</P> + +<P> +He likewise plastered the edges and sides of the hole that pierced his +smelter. He knew the heat, when he came to melt the brass, would +spread at once to all unprotected wood. After that he had still to +contrive a clay-covered implement for lifting out his crucibles, and a +tripod affair to be placed inside the furnace to support these +crucibles upon. +</P> + +<P> +What with more work done upon the boat-to-be, and a goodly portion of +the afternoon expended in killing and preparing another of the +pheasants for their dinner, Grenville's hours sped swiftly away. +</P> + +<P> +A weary but elated craftsman he was that day-end when at length he +returned for the final time to the terrace. He had been to the shore, +where the tiger-hide was curing in a strong solution of brine and +saltpeter, mixed in a hollow in the sand, and, having there turned it +over, had washed himself to a fresh and ruddy color. +</P> + +<P> +Notwithstanding the unbecoming growth of beard upon his face, he +appeared to Elaine the most commanding figure she had ever taken time +to inspect. He looked every inch a master of the island, if not also +of his fate and her own. But she was more than usually excited that +evening, as she disappeared within her shelter. +</P> + +<P> +She presently emerged with such an air of uncertainty and diffidence +about her as had never before appeared since their coming to the +island. But she did not hesitate in the task she had set herself to +perform. +</P> + +<P> +"I have finished my first bit of knitting," she said, "and there it is." +</P> + +<P> +To Grenville's thorough amazement, the clean, new article held in her +hand, and shyly offered for his acceptance, was a cap she had made for +his head. It was not unlike a golf-cap in shape, but the visor was +considerably wider, to protect his eyes from the sun. +</P> + +<P> +She had woven this of finely divided creeper-core on a frame neatly +made of the same. Its meshes had then been filled by fibers, snugly +and neatly plaited back and forth to make it opaque to the light. The +frame was firmly knitted to the cap. +</P> + +<P> +"Pretty good," said Grenville, busied with several arrows. "Thanks;" +and, placing it carelessly on his head, continued with his employment. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine, who had conjured all her resolution to make of the presentation +the merest commonplace affair, was wholly confounded in her thoughts by +the man's unheard-of conduct, after all she had recently undergone +before she could make him such a gift. +</P> + +<P> +She had feared some demonstration of the passion shown on the ship—or +at least some disturbing outburst she had armed herself to quench. But +this—such scant courtesy or gratitude as this—left her absolutely +impotent and baffled. +</P> + +<P> +She was piqued, disappointed, chagrined. It was horrid of anyone, she +was sure, to be so outrageously unfeeling. There was nothing, however, +she could do, and nothing she could say. Standing there, mortified, +almost angry, and conscious she was burning guiltily red with various +emotions that he did not even notice, was such a footless and +irritating proceeding, with the situation robbed of its point. +</P> + +<P> +She turned away, fairly ready to cry with vexation, and pretended to +make herself busy with things already well prepared for their evening +meal. But the new rebellion of her nature, partially begotten by the +uncontrolled and uncontrollable impulses loosed in the jungle the +previous night, when Grenville lay helplessly stunned, with his head +loosely pillowed on her knee, was not to be longer contained. She +presently fled from before the cavern, across, through the shadows of +the terrace, to the hidden shelf where Grenville had angled for fish. +</P> + +<P> +There she suddenly sank to her knees on the rocks and covered her face +with her hands. +</P> + +<P> +"I hate him!" she said, in a hot and passionate utterance, suggestive +of a sob. "I hate him! I hate him! I hate every man that ever +lived—and you, Gerald Fenton, as much as all the others!" +</P> + +<P> +She snatched off the ring from her finger. It was Fenton's ring, with +a single stone that gleamed in the failing light. It seemed to her to +represent the man far absent from her side. +</P> + +<P> +"It was you who brought it all about!" she continued, in her fiercely +waging conflict, and, overwrought, she cast it down on the ledge as if +it burned her palm. +</P> + +<P> +It bounded lightly where it struck and, clearing the shelf, fell +swiftly downward to the water. A gasp and a moan escaped her lips +together. Vividly, of a sudden, she remembered Grenville's prediction +that she would throw it away in the sea. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Gerald, I didn't mean to!" she moaned. "I didn't! You've got to +believe me!" She sank farther forward on the ledge, her face closely +hidden in the curve of her loose brown arm. She wept and wept there, +bitterly, in a mood of mixed emotions. +</P> + +<P> +"I hate him! I hate him!" she said, as before. "It's not my fault in +the least!" +</P> + +<P> +And after a time, as Grenville did not come, she returned to the camp +alone. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +MOLTEN METAL AND HOPES +</H4> + +<P> +The following day was calmer for Elaine, and vastly interesting, since +Grenville's smelting operations were begun. She told herself that +interest only laid its hold upon her nature, and, being a woman, she +knew. +</P> + +<P> +The clay that lined his hollow tree was sufficiently dry at last for +Grenville's fire. The other accessories, all more thinly coated, were +likewise ready for his use. He began in the morning to heat his +natural chimney against the actual needs of afternoon. The small fire +kindled upon its hearth established at once the efficiency of the +draught. +</P> + +<P> +Not without a certain boyish eagerness in the culmination of his +labors, Sidney began the assemblage of his various paraphernalia an +hour at least before noon. His molds and crucibles he carefully +brought from the summit of the terrace, disposing them as conveniently +as his crude conditions permitted. All his rusted scraps and useless +bits of brass and bronze were divided into parcels, while salt, some +powdered charcoal, and an over-abundant supply of saltpeter were +provided to be used as flux, according as the smelting might demand. +He could not be certain of which he should use till experiment should +determine which, if any, rendered good results. +</P> + +<P> +The principal difficulty, he soon discovered, would be adding the fuel +to his flames. His smelter-door was not well arranged for this +essential business. He expected, however, to heap a considerable +quantity of wood inside before the chimney should become too hot. +Later he thought a lot of short material could be readily introduced, +and against this need he gathered an impressive heap of branches, which +he broke to a workable length. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was with him when at last the work began. She was far more +excited than Grenville seemed, since it appeared to her no less than a +miracle that any man, in a place like this, should dare assume such a +mastery over Jovian metals and flame. She had never before seen +anything of smelting. This intimate acquaintance with its mysteries +seemed to her a privilege, greatly enhanced by the fact that the lord +of it all pretended she was actually helpful. +</P> + +<P> +She assisted when he bound the sections of his clay-made molds +together. She handed him fuel when the furnace-door was opened and +gushes of heat came voluminously forth. +</P> + +<P> +The fire, which for a time had loudly roared, was now more intense and +quiet. The volumes of smoke, which the "chimney" had belched, had +likewise finally ceased. Only a quiver of superheated air and a +greenish bit of gas and fume now ascended to the sky. +</P> + +<P> +From time to time, Grenville opened the top of the door to peer within. +He wrinkled his features, in the waves of heat, and held his hand +before his face. At length he adjusted his "tongs" about a crucible +and drew it entirely forth. +</P> + +<P> +It was white with heat, its surface sparkling with a hundred tiny stars +that died on its glowing surface. +</P> + +<P> +"Just toss in some of that stuff there on the leaf," he quietly +instructed Elaine. "It will soon be ready to pour." +</P> + +<P> +The "stuff" was flux, and Elaine obeyed directions like the stanch +assistant that she was. She wondered what was coming next. +</P> + +<P> +It came very soon. She was certain no ruddier figure of Vulcan, +employing mighty flame, had ever been presented than now when Grenville +made ready for the climax of his work. +</P> + +<P> +He removed the door as he had not previously done, and set it aside +from his path. He thrust in his tongs, while flame and heat came +pouring out to paint him a deep and glowing color. Then, seemingly +hotter than ever before, and smoking goldenly above its blinding +incandescence, the first of the crucibles, itself fairly dripping, +where some of the flux had trickled down its surface, was supported +over to the molds, to be quickly and vigorously skimmed of its oxidized +matter. +</P> + +<P> +But the molten brass, indescribably beautiful, with ruby and gold and +silver gleams imbedded and breaking in its substance, was the wonder of +it all. Elaine stood entranced, to see it flow and fill the hollows of +the molds. +</P> + +<P> +The second was hastily drawn from the flame, and then the third and +last. But not till all lay finally empty and smoking on the earth, +their surfaces rapidly dulling, did Grenville pause to look at Elaine +and smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't even tell what we've done," he said, "till the molds are cooled +and opened." +</P> + +<P> +"Must you wait very long till you know?" +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't wait long," Grenville answered. "I'm too much of a curious +kid." +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact, brass poured in a mold begins to harden at once. +In less than fifteen minutes, Grenville was gingerly untwisting the hot +copper wire that bound each mold together. Soon after that the first +of his tools, a heavy and serviceable chisel, lay uncovered to the air. +</P> + +<P> +It was still glowing hot, although no longer red. It was darker, less +brassy in appearance than Elaine had expected to see, but it seemed to +her a wonderful thing to be made of those useless bits of metal. +</P> + +<P> +The tool next in importance was much like a butcher's cleaver—an +implement intended for cutting or hacking wood or branches, either to +clear a path in the jungle or to rough out anything of timber. The +edge of this casting was imperfect, where the metal had failed to flow. +Both it and the chisel had a thin fringe of brass along those sections +where the halves of the mold had come together, but this would be +readily broken away and was quite to be expected. +</P> + +<P> +Smaller chisels, a blade that Sidney expected to notch along its edge +to make a species of saw, and a number of smaller implements were +contained in the other sets of molds. None of these was perfect, and +one or two merely served to instruct the master-molder in the way to go +to work another time. But the net results were highly satisfactory, +and seemed to Elaine a veritable triumph. +</P> + +<P> +The poorness of their quality as tools with which to accomplish swift +results developed the following day. Grenville had melted a part of +his lead and cast the head of a hammer. With this and the largest of +his chisels he attacked the log chosen for a boat. +</P> + +<P> +So long as his gouging was confined to the portions charred by the +fire, the tool held well to the labor. Its edge soon went to pieces, +however, when the solider substance was encountered. It was sharpened +repeatedly. He early foresaw that, work as he might, the business of +conjuring forth a boat from material so raw was certain to be slow, if +not exhausting. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, at this time a tedious period began. There were days and days +of dull, stupid repetition ahead like the ones that were presently +past. Fire after fire he maintained beneath the log, which must always +be newly plastered with the clay. Hour after hour he chiseled off the +black and dusty flakes that the flames would leave behind, since it +hastened the work to present a new surface to the heat. It seemed as +if the task could never have an end. +</P> + +<P> +But, if this was a season of dogged application to an uncongenial +business, it was likewise the one long era of peace vouchsafed to the +exiled pair. There was nothing to rouse a sense of alarm in any near +portion of the jungle. And, if those fast succeeding days brought no +welcome sign of a steamer approaching on the distant blue horizon, +neither did their lengthening hours develop those craft upon the sea +for which Grenville was constantly and apprehensively watching. They +were happy days, as well as peaceful. Concerning the ring she had lost +in the sea, Elaine could not force herself to worry. Grenville never, +by any chance, gave her occasion for alarm. +</P> + +<P> +There were many full afternoon vacations from his work when the fire +was left to hollow out his log that Sidney spent at her side. He wove +her a hammock of the creeper withes and built a shady bower by the +shore. He had sawed her a comb from the tortoiseshell, bent hairpins +of the copper wire, and made her a comfortable couch. Her tiger-skin +robe he had worked with his hands to a soft and pliant finish. The +skin of a cheeta he had killed he used to supplement his rapidly +vanishing shirt. Sewing was strongly, if not prettily, accomplished +with such needles and thread as his ready ingenuity provided. +</P> + +<P> +They were busy days that were doomed, however, to pall. Elaine was +assisting with a loom to weave a sail, while between times Grenville +chipped out the stone for the bath he had promised on the ledge. He +became a skillful marksman with his bow, and knew every animal trail +the island afforded. In many of these his traps did deadly service. +Their larder rarely lacked for meat, made tender by paw-paw leaves. +Elaine caught many a silver fish that they roasted together in the sand. +</P> + +<P> +But her gaze more frequently roved afar, for the ship that did not +come. The days were growing sultrier, and constantly more monotonous. +</P> + +<P> +The new moon had come and waxed to the full and was once more waning in +the heavens. They were marvelous nights the old orb made upon the +island, but always weird and exciting a sense, in Elaine at least, of +loneliness and aloofness from the world. On their cliff above the +murmurous tides, she and Grenville frequently sat for hours at a time +without exchanging a word. +</P> + +<P> +Such times were fraught with strangely exciting moments; and subtle +tinglings came unbidden to her nature, giving her pleasures wildly +lawless and precious beyond expression. Yet she feared them also when +they came, and refused to give them meaning. +</P> + +<P> +But to-night a new wistfulness burned in her eyes as she turned to her +silent companion. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder," she said, "if we couldn't put a fresher flag on our pole +to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure shot," said Sid, "the freshest flag that ever grew." +</P> + +<P> +She was silent again for several moments. Then she said: +</P> + +<P> +"What should we do if a year went by—two years, perhaps, or even +more—and a ship should never come?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do?" said Grenville. "Sail away." +</P> + +<P> +"I know. But I mean, supposing we found no place to go—and had to +come back every time." +</P> + +<P> +"H'm!" said Grenville, rubbing the corner of his jaw, "you probably +also mean to suppose we were always unmolested." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, yes, of course. Who could come to molest us here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Molesters," he said, "if anyone. But perhaps they never would." +</P> + +<P> +He had given no answer to her question, which she hardly cared to +repeat. It was one of the times, which frequently came, when she could +not prevent herself from wondering if this strong, primal man she had +once called a brute could have utterly forgotten the passionate +declaration made on the steamship "Inca" the day before the wreck. +</P> + +<P> +She wondered also, had he meant it at the time? Or had one of his many +inscrutable moods possessed him, barely for the moment? She had never +dared recently confess to herself what feelings might instantly invade +her tingling nature should she learn he had only pretended, perhaps on +some wager with Gerald, as a test of her faithfulness and love. +</P> + +<P> +It was womanlike, merely, on her part, to desire to know his mind. No +woman may long resent being loved by a strong and masterful man. And +Elaine was delightfully typical of all her delightful sex. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," she presently said, "we've been here now much longer than we +ever expected that day when we arrived." +</P> + +<P> +His gaze, which had been averted, now swung to a meeting with her own. +She had never seemed lovelier, braver, more sweetly disposed than now. +The moonlight deepened her luminous eyes till the man fairly held his +breath. +</P> + +<P> +"Elaine," he said, finally, glancing once more towards the silvered +sea, "what is your notion of love?" +</P> + +<P> +The shock of the word threw all her wits into confusion. +</P> + +<P> +"My notion?" she stammered, helplessly, feeling the hot flames leap +like floods of his molten metal to her neck, her face, and her bosom. +"I don't believe—I have—any notions." +</P> + +<P> +"Your convictions, then?" he amended. "Or, if you like, your +principles?" +</P> + +<P> +"My—my principles of—of all that—are—just about like—everyone +else's, I suppose," she managed to answer, fragmentarily, "—being +honest—and true—and faithful—unto death." +</P> + +<P> +"To the one that you <I>really</I> love?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why—certainly—of course." The heat in her face increased, so +significant had she felt his words with that low even tone of emphasis. +</P> + +<P> +He stared so long at the sea after that she began to suspect he had not +even heard her reply. After a time she was tempted to play, just a +trifle, with the fire. She added, "Why did you ask?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wanted to know." Once more he fell dumb, and again she waited, afraid +he would, and more afraid he would not, continue the delicate topic. +Once again, also, she was tempted. +</P> + +<P> +"And what," she inquired, "is your—notion?" +</P> + +<P> +He did not turn. "Of love or crocodiles?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of—of love—was what you asked me." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe I did," he responded. "Oh, about the same as yours!" +</P> + +<P> +Elaine had received but scanty satisfaction. After another long +silence she ventured to say: +</P> + +<P> +"We might have to be here a year—or even longer." +</P> + +<P> +He turned to her directly. "Do you like it here, Elaine?" +</P> + +<P> +She would not reply, and therefore demanded, "Do you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm a savage," he admitted. "This sort of thing appeals to something +in my blood." +</P> + +<P> +"I know," she answered, understandingly, "—building up an empire with +your naked hands, unaided—conquering metals and elements—wresting the +island's dominion from the brutes. Naturally you love it!" +</P> + +<P> +He reddened. "I can't make an apple dumpling and make it right! This +island's dominion? Great Cæsar's frying-pan—this is a regular +picnic-ground, with everything on earth provided!" +</P> + +<P> +She smiled. "And things all made and ready, including tools and +powder, not to mention a tiger-skin rug.... You refuse to admit you +like it for itself?" +</P> + +<P> +"Like it or not," he answered, "we must get away—and home." +</P> + +<P> +"Home," she repeated, oddly. "Home.... I wonder if home will ever +seem—— It certainly would be wonderful, a miracle, I think, to see a +steamer really coming—and to go on board and have it take us back +to—everything—somewhere home—— But we'd sometimes think of this—a +little?" +</P> + +<P> +"Probably." +</P> + +<P> +To save his life, he could not banish thoughts of Fenton. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure we would," murmured Elaine. She gazed away, to the jungle's +softened shadows. She wanted to cry out abruptly that she loved it +to-night, with a love that could never die. She wanted the comfort of +something, she hardly dared wonder what. After another long silence, +she finally said, with eyes averted and excitement throbbing in her +veins: +</P> + +<P> +"I know the name of this little place—do you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," he said, wondering what she might have discovered. "What do you +think it is called?" +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to Elaine her heart pounded out her reply. +</P> + +<P> +"The Isle of Shalimar." +</P> + +<P> +If Grenville knew the Indian name for Garden, he made no sign that she +could read. He made no reply whatsoever, but gazed as before at the +sea. +</P> + +<P> +He was turning at last when a low, but distinctly briefer, recurrence +of the island's haunting wails arose to disturb the wondrous calm—as +well as his peace of mind. There could be no doubt the tidal +phenomenon was gradually but steadily failing. +</P> + +<P> +What might occur when it altogether ceased was more than the man could +divine. He felt a vague dread of that approaching hour and of what it +might develop. +</P> + +<P> +"It must be after midnight," he said, at last, "—time for night's +ordinary dreams." +</P> + +<P> +Yet, when he was finally stretched on his bed, he did not lose himself +in slumber. Instead he lay thinking of the island's haunting sounds +and the cave somewhere underneath the headland. +</P> + +<P> +He had meant to attempt an inspection of this place, if only to gratify +a natural curiosity. The thought occurred to him now that, in case of +dire necessity, it might afford such a shelter as was not to be found +on any other portion of the island. It was not a thing to be +neglected. He made up his mind that the following day he would make an +exploration. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A TOMB OF STONE +</H4> + +<P> +The ladder that Grenville constructed in the morning was not entirely +new. He had found upon testing the original contrivance, made for his +séance with the tiger, that, although the creepers had become quite +dry, they were neither weak nor brittle. +</P> + +<P> +He fortified the older section with additional material, however, to +make absolutely certain it would not abruptly part and drop him into +the sea. All morning he worked, while his smoldering fires continued +to eat out the hollow for his boat, securing new length to the rungs +already provided, since the distance down from the brink of the cliff +was fully one hundred feet. +</P> + +<P> +To Elaine he explained that he thought perhaps a cave might exist in +the rock. The wailing sounds, it was easy to argue, would indicate +some such cavity, which he felt it important to examine. If she +somewhat divined the further fact that he hoped to discover a possible +retreat, should unforeseen dangers threaten, she made no revelation of +her thought. +</P> + +<P> +It was not without considerable anxiety, however, that she finally +discovered precisely what he meant to attempt. His ladder, she was +certain, was far too frail for any such business as climbing down, +above that boiling tide. One careless step, or a parting of the +strands, and nothing on earth could save the man from death on the +jutting rocks below. She had glanced at the waters under the cliff, +and their crystal depths were not at all reassuring. +</P> + +<P> +The thorough precautions against a mishap that Grenville finally +completed considerably lessened her fears, yet she had no wish to watch +him descend when at length he slipped over the edge. She was gazing +with fixed and wide-open eyes at the heap of rocks in which he had +fastened the ladder. +</P> + +<P> +The matter to Grenville seemed simple enough. The brink overhung the +wall itself, in consequence of which the ladder swung quite free, down +the face of the scarp, till it touched at a jutting ledge below. It +swayed to and fro and sagged a bit loosely at some of the rungs, but it +could not be broken by his weight. +</P> + +<P> +He made no attempt at a rapid descent, neither did he pause to enjoy +the scenery. When the ledge was reached he rested, made certain no +sharp-edged stone could impinge upon and perhaps cut into his twisted +creepers, and again proceeded downward. +</P> + +<P> +His course for a matter of two or three fathoms was rendered rather +more difficult by the fact the ladder lay closely bent against the +wall, instead of hanging free. The rock face was pitted and +exceedingly rough, its indentations ill-arranged for footholds and far +too treacherous for any such employment. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was nearly at the lower lip of this projection before he +attempted a look below to determine what he was approaching. He +discovered then it was undercut again—and likewise that his ladder was +considerably short. Its lower end dangled about with irregular +gyrations as he shifted his weight from rung to rung. It was fully two +yards above the water. There was nothing in sight on which to plant +his feet, so far as he could discern from the point then occupied. +</P> + +<P> +He continued down the ledge. When he reached its base, his suspicions +were immediately confirmed. It overhung a cavern, which was not, +however, the cave. To the final rung but one of his ladder he +descended, and there he rested to have a look about. +</P> + +<P> +He was hanging directly before a massive pot-hole in the cliff—a huge, +roughly rounded sort of chamber, the roof of which was arched. On the +left, it shared its pitted wall with a second and smaller chamber. On +the right, its edge was jaggedly broken against a yawning hole. This +hole was undoubtedly the cave-mouth described by the documents found in +the hidden tube. +</P> + +<P> +From this point only, as Grenville could see, would its mouth be +readily discovered. Thick curtains of greenery, draped from its +neighboring walls of rock, would shield it from view from passing +boats, unless they should nose to its portals. This, with a swirling +and dangerous tide, no craft would be likely to attempt. +</P> + +<P> +The shrubbery, hanging so thickly from the ledge, afforded Grenville a +puzzle. He knew it could not be a seaweed, since the tide never rose +to such a level. He presently realized it was simply an air plant of +unusually luxuriant growth. Its roots had found lodgment in a crevice, +where nothing would be likely to disturb it in its possession. +</P> + +<P> +Concerning the possible contents of the cave, its extent, or immediate +surroundings, there was nothing to be discovered from his ladder, twist +as he might or crane his neck to stare in the cavern's mouth. +</P> + +<P> +He had practically determined to return to the top, shift his ladder +along, and once more make the descent, when he realized his effort +would be wasted. A thick, broken shelf of the pitted tufa jutted many +feet out above the cave, and even beyond the growing weed. Should he +hang his ladder directly before the opening, he would find himself, +when he came to its end, swung helplessly over the water. +</P> + +<P> +He could see distinctly where the final base of the wall projected into +the tideway. It would certainly be no less than ten feet removed from +the nearest point he could possibly reach by this particular method. +</P> + +<P> +It occurred to his mind he could lengthen his strands, drop himself off +the ladder-end, and swim to the edge of the cave. But, even as he +turned to examine the physical features afforded to a swimmer, a huge +dark form loafed like a shadow through the crystal tide, to rise beyond +and cut the sparkling surface with a blackish dorsal fin. There was no +mistaking Mr. Shark. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville nodded, grimly. "Thanks for the timely suggestion," he said, +as the monster once more sank. He presently added, "It's a boat or no +explorations." Somewhat disappointedly, he returned up the ladder to +the top. +</P> + +<P> +"The cave is there," he told Elaine, who promptly sat down, in sheer +relief, when she saw him finally safe, "but it has to be entered from +the water." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" said Elaine. "But why does it have to be entered?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Sidney, at a loss for a better argument, "it might be full +of treasure;" and he smiled. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was no less ready with her answer. "Treasure is certainly +indispensable to us here. No wonder we've felt that something was +strangely lacking." +</P> + +<P> +"There you are," he rejoined. "I think I can paddle the raft about the +cliff, for the tide could never be better." +</P> + +<P> +She was certain that Grenville attached some unusual importance to an +inspection of the cave. +</P> + +<P> +"Couldn't I help?" she asked him. "What was the fault of the ladder?" +</P> + +<P> +"Fully six feet too short. Perhaps you'd better watch for passing +steamers. If we missed one—whom should we blame?" +</P> + +<P> +They had slowly returned to the shelter, where the table was +attractively spread. +</P> + +<P> +"What a luncheon!" said Grenville, enthusiastically. "I'll eat in a +rush and be back before you know I've gone." He certainly ate with +lively promise. +</P> + +<P> +But, after the raft was launched on the tide, he lost all sense of +time. He had left his shoes and stockings on the shore. He had +brought a torch, lighted, which he lashed in an upright position on the +raft. Wading and paddling, punting, pulling, and at times even pushing +his craft along the beach, he warmed to his work in the briefest space, +since the tide could hardly have been more favorable to his needs. +</P> + +<P> +The pole he had brought had a hook at the end, bound firmly in place +with copper wire. This was an excellent provision, especially when he +came to the cliff, where wading was out of the question. He was thus +enabled to catch at a ledge, or any open crevice, and draw his unwieldy +float along, while fending it off from various rocks on which it might +otherwise have pounded. +</P> + +<P> +His work was hard and slow. The distance was not discouraging, +however, and with some of the swirls to assist, here and there, he +finally came to a broken sort of cape, from which he readily saw his +dangling ladder. After that a hot bit of fighting was required to +maintain his position near the wall. The tide was uneasy—a hungry, +ugly swirl that alternately came and subsided. +</P> + +<P> +When he passed it at last his task was done, for the cave was a stone's +toss away. It was not even then to be seen, and its presence in the +cliff would scarcely have been suspected. But Grenville knew the +luxuriant plant that grew across a portion of its entrance. When he +presently moored his raft to a rock fairly under the shadow of the +weed, the cave was just above him. +</P> + +<P> +Under his feet the ledge was rough and sloping. It was pitted so +completely as to form a rude natural stairway to the opening under the +overhanging shelf. This mouth to the cavern was hardly six feet wide +and not more than four in height. Its access was comparatively easy. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville, with his torch in hand, was presently gazing within. +Obliged to stoop, and beholding nothing but absolute darkness ahead of +his light, he stumbled against a lumpy vein of rock—and nearly met +with disaster. He barely halted at the edge of a pool of ebon water. +</P> + +<P> +After all his effort to gain the cave, it appeared to be filled with +this inklike accumulation. The pool was absolutely still. Not a +ripple disturbed its shining surface. How deep it was and how far it +extended from the ledge that held it from flowing into the sea, could +not be gauged by Grenville's torch, as he held it aloft to stare at the +wall of velvet gloom. +</P> + +<P> +He sounded a note that rolled about and reverberated weirdly. But he +could not determine from the echoes how far the waves had traveled. +</P> + +<P> +Casting his dull-red illumination to the left, and lower down, he +proceeded a little along the ledge, till it merged in an upright wall. +There was nothing at all to be seen in this direction save water and +rock, that faded away into Stygian darkness beyond. +</P> + +<P> +He retraced his steps and explored the ledge on the right. This led +him considerably further than the first had done before it was +similarly ended. He was then aware the cavern was of no inconsiderable +dimensions, at least with regard to its width. He raised his eyes +towards the ceiling, where nothing was to be seen. +</P> + +<P> +At length he bethought him of another test—that of throwing lumps of +rock against the walls. There were fragments in plenty scattered +loosely at his feet. The first one he threw went straight out +ahead—and presently thumped on something solid. He reckoned the +distance some sixty feet away, but admitted it might have been eighty. +</P> + +<P> +Every missile he cast right, left, or at an angle promptly reported a +wall; and some plumped back into water. The cave was not gigantic, but +all its floor was apparently flooded. His hand, which he thrust in the +water where he stood, groped blindly and found no bottom. He rolled up +his sleeve and tried again, without more definite results. The water, +however, was warm. +</P> + +<P> +"Good place for a swim, in any case," he told himself, aloud; and, +planting his torch with a sudden determination that he would not +retreat with information so utterly meager, he stripped off his +clothing at once. He let himself into the ebon depths, with his torch +held well above the water. He had rather expected to be able to wade, +but he sank to his neck without sounding to the bottom. +</P> + +<P> +Swimming almost perpendicularly, employing one hand only, he presently +lost all sight of the walls and was out in an unknown pool of +blackness. Save for a slight sensation of its weirdness, the +experience was decidedly pleasant. He tasted the water as he swam and +found that it was fresh. He turned to look out at the opening, but +could barely see light through the weeds. +</P> + +<P> +Some twenty or thirty feet from the ledge, his feet encountered a +ridge. It was stone, and across it he waded to a greater depth beyond. +Yet once again he was soon enabled to stand erect and walk along the +bottom. The broken, uneven surface that he felt with his feet made his +progress slow and careful. +</P> + +<P> +He had presently crossed the underground pond, up the sloping bank of +which he was soon making rapid progress. He emerged on a dry ledge +beyond. Even then the walls were not to be seen till he walked a rod +straight onward. +</P> + +<P> +The briefest examination sufficed to establish the fact he had come to +a sort of natural antechamber to the larger cavern he had crossed. +Also, apparently, the entire place was as empty as a last year's +bird's-nest. +</P> + +<P> +Vaguely disappointed, though he hardly knew why, the man surveyed the +place anew, by the light that entered at the opening as well as by that +of his torch. He saw at once that, could it be drained, the place +would afford a retreat of amazing security for anyone needful of +shelter. He was also certain he could drain it in a day by blasting +through the ledge of rock that blocked the entrance from the sea and so +retained the pool. +</P> + +<P> +With one more brief and cursory examination of the rocky structure +about him, he was turning away when something foreign about a slab of +stone, that seemed a fragment of the solid wall, attracted his +attention. +</P> + +<P> +He laid his hand upon its top as if to pull it down. It came away so +readily it all but fell on his feet. Behind it the crudest sort of +masonry walled up a natural door. +</P> + +<P> +Ten minutes later, standing on the heap of blocks he had tumbled +rapidly down in forming a gap through four feet at least of this +bulkhead, Grenville thrust his torch within a nichelike chamber of the +cavern. +</P> + +<P> +A low exclamation of astonishment burst from his lips at the vision +thus suddenly encountered. +</P> + +<P> +The place was a tomb for dead kings' gold and precious stones that +threw back the gleams from his torch! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A DESPERATE CHANCE +</H4> + +<P> +For fully a minute Grenville was motionless, there in the gap, +surveying the treasure crypt. +</P> + +<P> +The more his eyes became accustomed to the yellowish light and inky +shadows, the more extensive became his estimate of the wealth the cave +contained. +</P> + +<P> +The symbols and trinkets of solid metal and glistening stones were +arranged not only on rudely-hewn shelves about the cavern's walls, but +likewise in several stone receptacles, like sarcophagi in miniature, +cut from the tufa of the island. It was partially because of this +feature of the hidden niche that Grenville concluded the property here +had once belonged to either Indian or African native chiefs and that +this was a mortuary house of guarded treasure. +</P> + +<P> +There was, however, further confirmation of his theory. This was a +crude inscription on the wall above the shelves and caskets. It was +simply that same cartouch he had found on the map or parchment—once +part of a living being—with the figure of a mummy in the oval. On +either side of this the beetle or scarab was repeated. +</P> + +<P> +The utter inutility of gold and gleaming jewels was momentarily +forgotten as Grenville stared in from the wall. The island, its +perils—everything save an underlying current of thought that wove +about Elaine—had ceased for the moment to impress his newly dazzled +senses. He withdrew his arm to plant his torch in the stones already +removed. Then lustily heaving out stone after stone, like some naked +god of the underworld, half revealed in the smoky glare, he began to +demolish the barrier so carefully erected in the cave. +</P> + +<P> +He had torn down nearly half the bulk of this uncemented wall, filling +the larger cavern weirdly full of the crashing and thudding noises, +when one of the fragments, tossed unthinkingly behind him, bounded from +another rock and struck down his torch and its light. +</P> + +<P> +Utter darkness instantly descended. He tried to grope his way quickly +forward, thinking the torch might be recovered and blown to a flame +again. But he stumbled, fell down upon his knees, and was bruised on +the stones about his feet. When he finally found the torch with his +hand, a rock lay squarely upon it; the last of its fire was gone. +</P> + +<P> +Thoroughly disgusted with his carelessness, he stood undecidedly above +the unseen ruin he had wrought. To attempt further work of removing +the wall by the faint diffusion of light that entered from the outside +world, was out of the question. To enter the crypt before the aperture +could be considerably enlarged was equally impossible. Moreover, the +treasure was safe, as he presently admitted. +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact, he began to realize at last how futile had been +his labor. He remembered, abruptly, where he was, the details of his +helpless situation. Except as something to show Elaine, or to load her +with as presents, the stuff in the cave was as worthless as so much +dross. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing to do but retreat as he had come. This he presently +did, reluctantly turning from the half-uncovered cavern and wading into +the pool. +</P> + +<P> +Without his torch, and swimming towards the light, he was now enabled, +to some extent, to discern the limits of the cave. He could see a +portion of the ceiling and a bit of the wall on his left. Both were +featureless, to all appearances. The water's surface presented a more +extensive aspect with the light thus spread before him, but its farther +limits could not be descried, where its inkiness blended with the gloom. +</P> + +<P> +When he came at length to the ledge that formed a natural dam across +the entrance, thereby impounding the water, he looked it over with +greater care than when he had first trod upon it, to determine where +would be the likeliest spot for a blast to break it down. +</P> + +<P> +There could be no debate upon this subject. Over against the upright +wall, on the left-hand side looking out, the ledge not only narrowed +down, where a pot-hole pitted it deeply, but a tiny crevice extended so +nearly through the remaining substance that a trickle of water already +oozed downward towards the sea. The perpendicular wall here also was +broken, a number of fragments of exceptional size appearing so loose as +to threaten toppling over. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was leisurely in all this examination. He was either obliged +to permit his body to dry in the air or dress while dripping wet. Yet +at length he was once more clothed and ready to depart. He remained +for a moment, taking a final survey of the place and planning the +details of his blasting operations, then stooped and made his exit from +the place. +</P> + +<P> +The brilliant light of outer day bewildered him momentarily. He stared +below, however, as if he felt he might be blind. The raft was not +where he had left it. +</P> + +<P> +Hastily scrambling down the incline of the ledge, he promptly arrived +at its base. His view was limited, even then, to a segment of the +open, purple sea. But the worst of his fears was confirmed. The raft +had floated away. It was nowhere to be seen! +</P> + +<P> +The tide had run out with amazing swiftness. Its level was such that +the ceaseless swells ran under his ledge, instead of up about it. The +creeper-cord, which he had utilized to moor his craft to the bowlders, +hung uselessly over the edge. It had parted at once when the ponderous +raft had been caught in the swirl of an eddy. +</P> + +<P> +This eddy was running intermittently, as Grenville soon discovered. +Disgust with himself for his carelessness, and a vague disquiet +concerning his helpless situation, addressed his comprehension +together. He was bounded by huge overhanging walls and a water +abounding in sharks. If only by boat could the cavern be reached, then +only by boat—— +</P> + +<P> +He thought of his ladder, dangling in air where he had left it, and +believed for a second he could hook it in with his pole, still lying on +the rocks. But no sooner had he climbed a little up the ledge, to a +point from which the ladder could be seen, than he realized the folly +of his hope. It was twenty feet off at the least, and fully eight +above the water. +</P> + +<P> +The fact that the tide was continuing to fall, that the raft had +doubtless departed the island forever, and that night might find him +here, a helpless prisoner, was no great motive for alarm. But +Grenville was not slow to realize that escape from his predicament +would be no more readily accomplished on the morrow than it could +to-day—that high tide and low tide were alike of no avail to return +him to the terrace and Elaine. +</P> + +<P> +The thought of Elaine and the fears she must certainly experience, did +he fail to return that night, aroused a new impatience in his blood. +He could almost have made up his mind to slip overboard at once and +take his chances of swimming about the base of the wall, despite its +treacherous currents, had he not remembered the sharks. +</P> + +<P> +"It's the ladder—or night," he murmured, paraphrasing Wellington's +utterance at Waterloo, somewhat grimly, and again he went down to the +edge of the shelf of rock left dripping by the tide. +</P> + +<P> +"Elaine!" he called, with a lusty breath, yet without an accent of +distress. "Elaine! ... Elaine! ... Are you there?" +</P> + +<P> +There was no response, save the swashing of the waves, which he knew +were constantly retreating, leaving the ladder yet more high above the +heaving surface. +</P> + +<P> +Once more he shouted as before, perhaps a trifle louder. And again he +heard no reply. He began to fear the shelf of rock that projected out +above him might send the sound waves too far outwards, towards the sea, +for Elaine on the terrace to hear. +</P> + +<P> +He had no alternative but to shout repeatedly. This he did, at regular +intervals, all the time striving to eliminate the slightest accent that +would rouse her sense of fear. It seemed, however, as if no sort of +cry could bring a response from the top. He moved to another position +at last and tried with a longer, shriller tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! Yes!" came a bright, clear call, at last. "Can you hear me now +any better?" +</P> + +<P> +She had answered before, as he instantly knew, but her voice had been +snatched afar from the cliff by a circular current of wind. +</P> + +<P> +"All right!" shouted Grenville, enormously relieved. "I'm down here +below and I'd rather return by the ladder. Can you hear me quite +distinctly?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes!" cried Elaine, whose fears were vast, though she would not +betray them in her voice. "Do you want me to change it—or something?" +</P> + +<P> +"A trifle, yes—as I'll direct you." He paused for a moment to make +his directions as clear and concise as possible. Then he shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"First move a few of the rocks to a point as near the edge as possible +and about ten feet to the left of the present position.... Is that +clear?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—very clear—quite clear—— And then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Then lift off the others and remove the ladder—carefully. Mind it's +just a bit heavy." +</P> + +<P> +He paused, and she cried: "Yes! I hear you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Take the ladder at once to the rocks already placed and roll them on +its end, to hold it down." +</P> + +<P> +"Then heap all the others upon it?" Her question came ringing down the +cliff. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—and as promptly—— But don't overtax your strength." +</P> + +<P> +There was no reply to this final instruction. That the quickest of +action was highly essential, she had felt in the very air. She was +hotly, valiantly tugging at the rocks before his last words had died +upon the breeze. +</P> + +<P> +He presently saw the ladder-end jerk about spasmodically and ascend for +perhaps a foot. Elaine had the weight of it in her hands—and her +strength was equal to the task! +</P> + +<P> +He watched it, his heart wildly thrilling at the thought of her ready +wit and courage—her certain, sturdy helpfulness in every trying crisis. +</P> + +<P> +With more wild gyrations about the ledge, the ladder-end now +disappeared. It was gone for a moment only, to return at a point more +directly above his head. Here it halted, moved about uncertainly, then +lowered jerkily downward, to dangle at last with its last rung all but +on the water, some eight or ten feet away. He knew that its upper end +was lightly anchored and would soon be firmly held in place. +</P> + +<P> +He caught up his pole, with the hook at its end, to fish the ladder +inward. But, fearing that any untimely tug might fetch it all doubling +down the cliff, he instantly halted the maneuver and compelled himself +to wait. +</P> + +<P> +Five minutes went by—five ages for slowness of movement. He was +certain by then Elaine had made the end too secure to be readily +dislodged. He stepped to the outermost edge of the shelf, with the +pole horizontally extended. +</P> + +<P> +It was short by perhaps six inches. Strain as he would, he could not +reach either one of the rungs or supports. A light puff of wind then +bent it slightly inward, and he fished out wildly, in the hope the +discrepancy thus amended might be wholly overcome. +</P> + +<P> +But his hook still prodded the empty air, while the zephyrs that played +with the dangling thing seemed solely bent on his torture. The sweat +oozed out on his temples, for the straining made him warm. A sense of +disappointment amounting almost to despair attacked him for a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall leap out and swim!" he told himself, at last. "I'll not +remain here for the night!" +</P> + +<P> +He returned to the point from which Elaine had finally been heard. +</P> + +<P> +She did not immediately answer when he called as he had before. When +her voice came down, he was certain her breath was broken. +</P> + +<P> +"I've—carried the last rock—over—and one or two—extra, besides." +</P> + +<P> +"Right ho!" responded Grenville, cheerfully. "You might stand away +while I test it." +</P> + +<P> +He knew that a sudden throwing of his weight upon the ladder might +suffice to fetch it down. He could not be sure that, with all her +ready helpfulness and promptness, Elaine had so heaped the rocks above +as to make the thing secure. +</P> + +<P> +"I can always get back here for the night," he murmured to himself, as +he scanned the swirl below. "And when it calms down from that bally +twist——" +</P> + +<P> +The whirlpool was even then subsiding, in its intermittent way. He +quickly ascended the sloping ledge, the better to run and leap far +outward. His pole he dropped upon the rocks as he hung there poised +for his plunge. His eyes were keenly fixed on the tide. +</P> + +<P> +The waters became quiescent. Swiftly Grenville darted down the ledge, +leaping well out, towards the end of the ladder. He was fairly in +midair when his gaze was directed to a dark form loafing in the depths. +</P> + +<P> +Before he struck, by some quick flirt the huge form rose, coming +inward, and a black fin cut through the waves. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A DREADED VISITOR +</H4> + +<P> +What it was that happened when he felt the waters swiftly rising all +about him Grenville could never have told. He was almost certain his +foot had come in contact with a heavy, pulpy surface, like a wet thing +made of rubber, as he did his utmost to strike his assailant with his +heel. +</P> + +<P> +He could only be certain that he seemed to plunge downward +interminably, and that afterwards a horrible rush of waters, lashed to +violence, was sounding wildly in his ears and confusing his staring +eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Then he came to the top with a sickening conviction, that one of his +legs would be gone almost before he could feel the incisions of the +teeth where the shark was closing upon it. He lurched tremendously +forward in the water, to close the short but vital gap between himself +and the ladder. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to him then a nightmare must be binding his limbs to +inaction—that incredible time was elapsing while he still remained in +the tide. As a matter of fact, he had moved with prodigious energy, +his strokes and velocity through the water phenomenally swift. And, +when he caught at the lowermost rung, he shot from the depths like some +weirdly living projectile, doubled up in a knot by its speed. +</P> + +<P> +For his knees were drawn sharply upward, and hand over hand he scaled +up his swaying support. But his ears heard the hiss where that +terrible fin was cutting the waves beneath him. One quick glance he +sped to the place comprehended the turning monster's belly, the open +mouth, and even the hideous nose that shot beneath his very foot like +the point of a speeding torpedo. +</P> + +<P> +To the round above he scrambled no less galvanically—only to feel a +sudden giving of the ladder. A wild conviction of the structure's +insecurity above—its giving way beneath the incautious strain he had +unavoidably put upon it—scorched its way into his brain, while he +still looked down upon the shark. +</P> + +<P> +But that one slip ended as abruptly as it had come. It was all in the +rung he had clutched in desperate violence, and not in the ladder +itself. Elaine's rock anchorage was firm! +</P> + +<P> +A swift and weakening reaction now ensued in all his being, as he clung +there, dripping but safe. He leaned on the ladder-rung heavily, to +regain his breath and strength. He was panting and all but exhausted +for the moment. When at length he resumed the upward climb, the shark +was no longer to be seen. +</P> + +<P> +He paused a bit longer on the shelving ledge above to gather his wits +in proper order. +</P> + +<P> +"Sidney!" he heard. "Are you coming? Are you there?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, rather!" he called out, cheerily. "Stopped like a kid +to—examine the geological formation." He started upward promptly, +whistling as he went. +</P> + +<P> +It was not, however, without a tremendous effort that he finally pulled +himself over the brink, in all the weight of his soaking garments, and +struggled to his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Why—you're wet!" said Elaine, concealing her hands, which were cut +and bruised from the heavy stones she had carried. "Did you have to +swim to get the ladder?" +</P> + +<P> +He knew her hands were hurt, but maintained his usual manner. +</P> + +<P> +"I did. But the water is warm—in fact, it was very warm, indeed." +</P> + +<P> +"But couldn't you use the raft?" +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't," he answered, candidly. "The raft got away while I was +pothering about, and, unless it faithfully floats ashore, we may never +see its honest face again." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine's expression brightened. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm perfectly delighted to hear it! Now you never can go there again!" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was amused at the turn of her reflections. +</P> + +<P> +"But what about the treasure in the crypt?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe there's any treasure in the crypt. There never is, +except in wonderful stories. And, if there was, what good could it be +to us?" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville met her magnetic gaze, now brightened by her challenge. It +was not a time to excite new alarms in her heart by divulging the facts +he had discovered. For she would be alarmed were she once informed of +the wealth concealed beneath their feet. She would instantly +understand the dangers to them both from the men who had hidden the +treasure. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," he said, with an air of lightness he was very far from feeling, +"I confess I'd rather have a good pot of steaming black coffee at this +particular juncture than all the gold and jewels of the land." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, please don't mention it!" said Elaine. "Haven't I tried every +leaf I could find, to make you something to drink?" And a wistful +pucker came to her brow that made her more than ever enchanting. +"You've no idea," she added, "what horrid messes this island foliage +can make." +</P> + +<P> +"Wouldn't wonder," said Grenville, calmly. But, having come to the +shaded cave, he was grateful for a drink of cool, sweet water and glad +to sit down for a rest. +</P> + +<P> +The subject of the cave was dropped, but his thoughts could not fade in +Grenville's mind. They lay in substrata, beneath more homely plans for +resuming his interrupted labors. But, beyond going down to dig some +yams to roast with a pheasant killed the previous day, he returned to +no toils that afternoon. He paused to examine the shell of his boat, +which fire, plus his chisel, was finally evolving from the log, and, +finding unusual quantities of blackly charred stuff to be gouged away +in the morning, determined to be early at the task. +</P> + +<P> +This plan was one of the sort that "gang aglee." He fished, with +Elaine, till nine o'clock the following day, to provide a needful +change of their diet; then placed some fresh signals on their flagpole. +At eleven, however, he was once more at his boat, with his fires +freshly blazing. He was working gayly, aroused to a new enthusiasm +over final results to be achieved by the excellent progress his former +fires had made upon the log. A few more days of work like that—and he +would have to be thinking of the launching. +</P> + +<P> +This was not a thought he had neglected. In a vague sort of way the +problem of moving his boat to the water's edge had bothered him from +the first. It would have to be run on rollers, he admitted. Doubtless +a way would have to be cleared through some of the undergrowth. +</P> + +<P> +Reflecting that this was a task to be performed while the fires were +doing their daily stint, he made a preliminary survey of the jungle to +select the most practical route. The way across the grassy clearing +was not only long, but in places inclined to be rough. Fortunately, in +either direction the way was all down-grade. +</P> + +<P> +He had never yet forced a way to the shore through the jungle beyond +his tree-trunk smelter. Thither he wended his way to note what this +route might offer. +</P> + +<P> +Breaking the branches from before his path, and rather inclined to +believe a trail might once have been forced through the thicket, he was +penetrating deeper and deeper into the moist and thickly shaded region +when he presently halted, almost certain he had heard someone calling +his name. +</P> + +<P> +"Sidney! Sidney!" came the cry again, from Elaine up above him on the +cliff. "Sidney! Where are you? A boat! I've seen a sail! There's +someone coming at last!" +</P> + +<P> +He had smashed his way out while she was calling. +</P> + +<P> +"A sail!" she repeated, excitedly, the moment he appeared. "Oh, +come!—please come at once!" +</P> + +<P> +She disappeared swiftly from the edge, running back, lest the sight be +lost forever. +</P> + +<P> +Actively, Grenville went bounding across the clearing and up their +narrow trail. He was panting and eager when Elaine ran forward to meet +him, and clutched him by the arm. +</P> + +<P> +"I knew it would come!—I knew it!" she cried, as she hastened hotly +forward at his side. "We must wave things as hard as we can!" +</P> + +<P> +She had guided him swiftly to the great lone tree that stood like the +island's landmark, to be seen for many a mile. She pointed in triumph +afar across the sea—and Grenville beheld a tiny sail, like the merest +white notch in the sky. +</P> + +<P> +"Can they see us yet? Shall we wave?" said Elaine. "They couldn't go +by and miss us now?" +</P> + +<P> +She was still clinging fast to Grenville's arm, and tears had sprung to +her eyes. What long, long hours of torture, anxiety, and hope she had +expended, uttering no complaint as the days went by, the man abruptly +knew. Then something indescribably poignant shot boltlike through his +heart. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine felt him harden, grow rigid, as his gaze narrowed down on the +distant thing she had found in their purple sea. The note that broke +from his lips at last made a shiver go down her spine. +</P> + +<P> +He suddenly turned, and his arm was wrenched from her clasp. He sped +like a madman back to their mast and heaved all his weight against it. +He threw back the rocks that held it in place in the crevice to which +it had been fitted. +</P> + +<P> +Before she could follow, to question what he did, Elaine saw him drop +the pole over. +</P> + +<P> +"Sidney!" she said, but the face that he turned wore a look that was +new to her ken. +</P> + +<P> +"Pull up the ladder from the rocks!" he called. "Then go to the +shelter and stay!" +</P> + +<P> +He himself ran to the cavern, to take up their largest jug of water. +With this in his arms, he hastened down the trail to quench the flames +beneath his boat. +</P> + +<P> +And when, with more water, hurried from the spring, he had drowned the +last blue wisp of smoke, he brought the full jug to the cave again and +tore down the improvised awning. +</P> + +<P> +"We had better hail death than that craft!" he said, "unless I am very +much mistaken!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +AN IRREPARABLE LOSS +</H4> + +<P> +Elaine was dumbly appalled for a moment by the words that Grenville had +uttered. She finally found her voice. +</P> + +<P> +"But—why? I don't believe I understand. It isn't someone—some +horrible men who hunt human heads for trophies?" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was glad she knew what a head-hunter means. He loathed the +necessity of making revolting explanations. He vainly wished he might +spare her now—that his judgment might be in error. But the rakish +angle of that sail, though so far away on the water, had left him no +room to doubt that natives were manning the craft. +</P> + +<P> +"They may be friendly visitors, after all," he answered. "And then +again they may not. It may be as wise for us to see them first, and +determine our conduct later." +</P> + +<P> +"You do fear them, then? But how can we hide—if they land and come up +on the hill?" +</P> + +<P> +"They shall never come up—if I can help it! If I only had a few more +bombs!" He had gone to his cave and was dragging forth his little +cannon. "I haven't even a hatful of slugs with which to charge this +plaything!" +</P> + +<P> +Elaine had remained obediently at her shelter, in the door of which she +stood. +</P> + +<P> +"Won't they see you?" she said, her voice already lowered, as if in +fear its accents might be overheard where the distant boat was +approaching. "Have you more old pieces of brass?" +</P> + +<P> +"Some," said Grenville, reluctant to use his remaining metal in such an +extravagant manner. "I have nothing else that will answer, hang the +luck! ... They can't see us yet, but we'll move about with caution.... +I wish I had made more powder! I have only a few feet of fuse. I must +get some additional creepers at once and let them dry out in the sun." +</P> + +<P> +He went down to the jungle immediately for a fresh supply of this +highly essential growth, leaving Elaine at the shelter, a prey to dread +that had utterly obliterated her bitter disappointment. She stooped, +to steal forward on the rocks and look for the sail again. It was +still so far on the sun-lit surface of the ocean that it seemed no +nearer than before. She returned once more to the cave. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville came up, fairly laden with freshly severed creepers. +</P> + +<P> +"I've thought of a means for making bombs!" he told her, triumphantly. +"Perhaps you can split these creepers and take out the cores while I go +to fetch some bamboo poles." +</P> + +<P> +"Couldn't I fill them with powder?" Elaine inquired, anxiously. "I +watched you before. I am sure I would make no great mistakes." +</P> + +<P> +He knew she was nervous, eager to be employed. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure shot you could," he answered, briskly, and, going to the cave +employed as his "powder magazine," he brought her a jar of explosive. +"Don't be afraid to put in all that the creeper tube will carry," he +instructed. "And tie it with fibers here and there, to keep the edges +together." +</P> + +<P> +With his heaviest tools he descended at once to the bamboo growth, +where he was presently toiling hard. Elaine, no less industriously, +was hotly assailing the creepers, held firmly down with heavy rocks, to +make their manipulation easy. +</P> + +<P> +She had filled and bound a considerable length of this simply +manufactured fuse when Grenville returned to the terrace. For his +part, he bore across his shoulder three great long steins of green +bamboo that were three inches through at the base. +</P> + +<P> +"I can cut this stuff at its divisions," he explained, "fill the +smaller sections with powder, and fit the larger ones over them, like a +shell within a shell. A natural growth plugs each one up at the end, +and I'll also cap each end with a rock, and wrap the whole contraption +about with creepers. Of course, the fuse will go in first. I wish the +stuff were dry!" +</P> + +<P> +The spirit of battle was no less aroused in Elaine, whose mood was the +equal of his own. +</P> + +<P> +"Couldn't we use the cannon first—keep them off with that while the +fuses and things are drying?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's our only chance, if they raid us by the trail. They can scarcely +arrive for two or three hours more. The tide will be against them—— +If we keep out of sight, they may not detect our presence." +</P> + +<P> +"Anyway," added Elaine, sagely, "they needn't know how few we are in +numbers." +</P> + +<P> +"Right ho!" he answered, cheerily. "The trail is steep and narrow. We +can train the gun to rake its entire width. For the second shot, and +any succeeding charges, we can load the piece with stones—— I'm in +hopes our visitors may not land, but we'll keep our fire smoldering, +making no smoke; and I'll fetch all the fruit and water we may need for +a couple of days." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine looked up at him quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"A couple of days? We may have to fight two days?" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville smiled, suggestively. +</P> + +<P> +"Not if they come within range of the cannon or linger about a bomb. +In time of peace prepare for the worst—and then a little extra." +</P> + +<P> +He moved out cautiously, as Elaine had done, to scan the distant sail. +He could see that it was steadily approaching. With eager impatience +he hastened below to lay in needful provisions. +</P> + +<P> +Luncheon was forgotten. When a large supply of fruits and water, with +fuel sufficient for perhaps a week of flameless fire, had been stored +in the coolness and protection of the caves, Grenville immediately set +to work constructing the shells to fill with powder. +</P> + +<P> +This was a task involving much difficult cutting. For this employment +his tools were not encouragingly suited. Of fuse, Elaine had finally +produced as much as all his bombs would require, with lengths for the +cannon as well. +</P> + +<P> +The gun was finally charged and primed, after Grenville had rebound it +to its "carriage." It was lodged in the rocks, where it covered the +trail, and stones were piled abundantly about it. A fuse was laid to +the vent. +</P> + +<P> +From time to time both the exiles had crept towards the one lone tree +on the wall, to observe the on-coming boat. By three o'clock of the +afternoon the wind had practically failed, but the craft drifted slowly +forward. It was plainly in sight by then—a fair-sized affair with a +singular out-rigger and a queer, unmistakable sail. So far as +Grenville could determine at the distance, there were three or four +natives aboard. +</P> + +<P> +"If none of them ever go back to tell the tale," he announced, a bit +grimly to Elaine, "we may be all right for quite a time." +</P> + +<P> +She understood at once. +</P> + +<P> +"You think, if they leave, they may return here later—with a larger +force—if they find we are ready for a fight?" +</P> + +<P> +"If they do, we'll not be at home—provided the boat can be finished." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was evidently thinking much—of the battle that might presently +ensue, with all its unknown results. +</P> + +<P> +"They'd kill us if they could, I suppose, if only to cut—— They are +not human beings, really—the kind we ought not to shoot?" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville could hardly repress a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"If they try to steal the gun, I think we'd be justified in firing. At +any rate, I shall fire first and debate the question later." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was growing nervous, now that all they could do was practically +accomplished. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I wish it was over!" she declared. "Do you think they'll attack +us soon after landing?" +</P> + +<P> +"They may not land this evening." +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was thinking of the tidal sounds that haunted the island's +wall. These were still of considerable volume every day, and, +according to his theory, frightened the ignorant natives away. He +added, presently: "You see, they may be aware the tiger was living here +before we disturbed his possession. In that event they might be +cautious of landing after dark. They rarely take chances, I believe, +by attacking in the night." +</P> + +<P> +"But suppose they arrive an hour or two before sunset?" +</P> + +<P> +"They might, if the breeze should freshen.... We can only wait and +see." +</P> + +<P> +But this waiting was an irritating business, so slowly did the craft +appear to move against the tide and so fraught with possibilities was +its visit to the place. +</P> + +<P> +Sitting or stooping behind the rocks, Elaine and Grenville kept a +constant watchfulness on the boat, now less than half a mile away. It +was apparently becalmed. The day grew old and still it came no nearer. +</P> + +<P> +The sun at length departed from the scene, with the riddle still +unsolved. It appeared to Grenville the day-end breath would have +wafted the stranger to the shore. He thought perhaps it did approach +considerably closer, but of this he was not at all certain. +</P> + +<P> +The brief, soft twilight soon began to wane. At Sidney's suggestion, +their simple repast of island fruits was eaten. The fish they had +captured in the morning was not cooked, in the absence of the customary +fire. The calm that settled on the "Isle of Shalimar" was far from +being reassuring. It seemed fraught with silent agencies of fate, +moving noiselessly about the shadowed jungle. +</P> + +<P> +When the darkness came down, the mysterious craft was no longer to be +seen. Grenville had fancied it drifting rapidly in when he last +discerned its form. No lights were displayed upon its mast or deck to +indicate its presence off the headland. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was persuaded at last to retire, though she knew she should not +sleep. Grenville remained on guard alone, pacing back and forth from +the head of the trail to the lone tree reared above the cliff. His +senses were strained to catch the slightest sound, but none came upward +from the sea. From time to time he halted by their smoldering bit of +coals to assure himself the last of the sparks had not been permitted +to die. +</P> + +<P> +At length, far in the silent night, the tidal wailing began, its +weirdness increased an hundredfold by the tension of the hours. It +seemed to Grenville unusually loud, so acute had the darkness made his +hearing. +</P> + +<P> +No sooner had the final note died out on the gently stirring air than +answering cries, no less weird and shrill, arose from out upon the +water. The visiting craft had drifted past the headland and was +somewhere off on Grenville's right. The cries from its deck were like +a response to some spirit of the island. They were rather more awed +than exultant, Grenville felt, and he fancied some chanting, that came +to him brokenly out of the heavy shades of night, was possibly a prayer. +</P> + +<P> +When he came before her shelter again, Elaine was standing in the door. +She had heard the cries from the boat. +</P> + +<P> +"They haven't landed yet?" she said, in a whisper. +</P> + +<P> +"They won't land now till daybreak, and perhaps not then," he answered. +"Go back—and go to sleep." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll try," said Elaine, and disappeared. +</P> + +<P> +For Grenville, however, there could be no sleep, though the darkness +rendered up no further sound. Like the outer sentry of a picket-line, +with the enemy close, and his whereabouts unknown, he glided silently +from one dark edge of the terrace to another, as the hours wore on, +alert for the slightest alarm. +</P> + +<P> +He finally sat by the head of the trail, convinced that the visitors +would give him no trouble till morning, yet guarding the only way by +which they could gain the summit of the hill. +</P> + +<P> +He was weary and doubtless he nodded, lulled by the softness of the +breeze that came up at last, burdened with its ozone from the sea. +And, despite the fact he was afterwards positive the nod was the +briefest in the world, full daylight was spread to the ends of the +world, and the sun was gilding the island's tufa walls, when at length +he started to his feet. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to him then some sound from below had played through the +fabric of his dream. But nothing disturbed the usual calm, save the +morning cry of distant parrots. Stooping, he moved through the +scattered rocks, to survey the waters far and wide. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing to be seen, in all that expanse, of the craft that +had ridden near at midnight. All the round of the wall he made in this +manner of caution. When he came at length above the blackened +clearing, where for day after day he had toiled with fire and chisel, +he gazed about the open space bewildered and incredulous. +</P> + +<P> +His half-finished boat was gone! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap26"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +AFTER TO-MORROW—— +</H4> + +<P> +The truth of his loss was hardly to be credited as Grenville continued +to stare below where the hollowed log had been. +</P> + +<P> +There was not a sign of a living thing in the clearing or near-by +jungle. There had been no sounds of unusual movement in the thicket, +he was sure, or otherwise he must have wakened. No voices had spoken, +since his ears had all but ached to catch the slightest disturbance. +</P> + +<P> +On the blue of the sea, so tremendously expanded from this particular +point of vantage, there was not a hint of a sail. But the fact +remained his boat was gone, with all the work it represented, and all +the hope their situation had centered upon it for them both. +</P> + +<P> +An utter sinking of the heart assailed him. His moment of sleep, he +told himself, could have been no more treacherous had it been planned +by a scheming enemy to complete their abandonment to some rapidly +impending fate. And yet had he waked in the gray of the dawn, with his +bombs and fuses still too damp for employment, and his cannon planted +only to guard the trail, the boat could hardly have been saved. At +most, his protest would merely have betrayed the fact he was camped +there on the terrace. +</P> + +<P> +A new line of thought sprang into his brain, as one suggestion after +another was swiftly deduced from his loss. The natives who had landed +and carried off his precious craft must certainly have found the wall +with which he had barred the trail. He could hardly doubt they knew of +his presence on the hill. They might even now be lying in wait to get +him the moment he appeared. +</P> + +<P> +His preconceived theory, that they dared not land while those tidal +sounds still haunted this end of the island, received a shattering +blow. Their craft was doubtless hidden now behind either one of the +other lofty walls comprised by the neighboring hills. The thieves had +cut off all possible hope of his escape with Elaine by means of his +solid, if crude, canoe, and could finally starve them on the hill, if +they had no courage for a battle. +</P> + +<P> +Yet how had they happened on his boat and why had they removed it? +That they must have carried it bodily down to the shore, through the +jungle, was absolutely certain. And this, he thought, argued a +half-dozen men, though it might have been done by four. +</P> + +<P> +He remained there, stunned by this utterly defeating discovery, +watching the thicket for the slightest sign that might betray the +presence of the enemy and revolving the proposition over and over in +his mind. When at last he admitted that the natives might have known +the log was lying there, if they had not indeed prepared it with fire +for some of their uses the previous year, he was more than verging on +the facts. They had felled it solely for a boat—and much of their +work he had completed. +</P> + +<P> +This line of reasoning did not, however, serve to quiet further +questions. The visitors must certainly have wondered how it came about +that the log was so nearly hollowed. The clay, still plastered upon +it, must have suggested to their minds the work of a craftsman minus +tools. That the workman must be present on the island would be more +than suspected, since his boat was not even launched. +</P> + +<P> +They might suppose the tiger had captured and devoured him—always +admitting they knew of the brute's former presence on the place. It +seemed far more likely to Grenville they had found his tracks about the +spring, his gate on the trail, and the signs of his recent fires and +general activity about the region of his smelter, and would therefore +conclude he was still encamped on the hill. +</P> + +<P> +He could fancy a half-dozen pairs of maliciously glittering eyes +fastened even now upon the crest and edges of the terrace, all hidden +by the thickets. Had the poisoned dart from a blowpipe come winging +swiftly up from the shadows of the foliage, he should not have been +surprised. +</P> + +<P> +But not a leaf below him was disturbed. Not a sound arose to warn his +eager ears. With a sense of bitter rage and humiliation in all his +system, he finally crept once more to the trail, and beyond it to the +cliff's final shelving. +</P> + +<P> +From this extremity of the heights new aspects of the island were in +view, as well as different expanses of the sea. His keen eyes searched +the jungle and the clearings first, with no more results than before. +</P> + +<P> +It was not until he gazed afar, on the darkening silver of the waters, +that his search was at all rewarded. Even then, for a moment he was +not wholly convinced that what he saw was not a spearlike leaf of +foliage projected beyond the clean-cut edge of the farthest of the +island's tufa towers. +</P> + +<P> +But the angle of color detached itself and receded in far perspective. +It was plainly the sail of the visiting craft, previously hidden from +his sight by the hill at the island's end. It was already far on a +northern course, where he should not have thought to find it. The +freshening breeze was heeling it over gracefully; it would vanish in +less than half an hour. +</P> + +<P> +He wondered instantly—had they towed away his boat? Or might they +have left it moored in some inlet of the island, to be taken upon some +future visit? +</P> + +<P> +Stifling an impulse to hasten down the trail, and aware that one, or +even more, of the natives might have been left concealed upon the +place, to ambush himself and Elaine, or anyone else suspected of being +present on the rock, he remained behind his barrier of stones, no less +cautious than before. +</P> + +<P> +The fact that the entire morning passed in apparent security, with +never the flicker of a leaf below to advertise a lurking menace, could +not suffice to render Grenville careless or overconfident. He had told +Elaine of their loss—which worried her less than himself. Together +they maintained an all-day vigilance, half expectant of the +sailing-craft's return and keyed to the highest tension of expectancy +at every stirring of a shrub below them in the jungle. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville finally armed himself with his bow and straightest arrow, to +descend the trail, go quietly over to the spring, and then to the spot +from which his boat had vanished. About the pool of crystal water +there was not so much as a track of human boots or feet, other than his +own. There were none to be seen about the foot of the trail, where +there was ample dust in which they might have been recorded. +</P> + +<P> +Where his boat had lain, with its end on a rock, there were far fewer +footprints in the ash and soil than Sidney could have believed +possible, judging the visitors at only four in number and their task +not particularly light. Apparently, however, they had landed down +beyond the jungle, proceeded straight to the log, and, wasting no time +in wondering how it chanced to be covered with clay or hollowed to a +shell, had taken it up, to depart with it as swiftly and directly as +possible. +</P> + +<P> +Even his tools still lay beside the hollow tree utilized for a smelter. +The one explanation that addressed itself to his mind as being +plausible was that the visitors, knowing of the log and having planned +to secure it, perhaps in merely passing by the island, had come ashore +so soon as the first faint gray of dawn broke the shadows of the +jungle, when they had taken their prize and halted for nothing, not +even a search for whatsoever tools they must have seen had been +employed. +</P> + +<P> +Once more his original theory of their superstitious fright of the +island's "haunt" seemed to Grenville to be confirmed. He felt the +natives had sneaked ashore—not in fear of himself, since they could +not have foreknown his presence on the hill, but in possible fear of +some spirit of the place whose wailing filled them with dread. +</P> + +<P> +Barely less cautiously than heretofore, he followed the faintly +imprinted trail of the boat's mysterious abductors, where it led across +the clearing. He was certain now that a cleared path did exist where +he had partially explored the previous morning. But branches and +shrubbery had been freshly cut, as if to insure the silent passage of +the log. +</P> + +<P> +The lane thus created through the thicket led directly down an easy +slope to a broken bit of seawall at the bottom. This, at high tide, +would be scarcely a foot above the water. Here the log had undoubtedly +been rested. Both broken clay and a charcoal smudge recorded the +unseen fact. +</P> + +<P> +The entire inlet was no more than twenty feet across. It was bounded +on either side by pitted walls that permitted no access to the jungle. +The last faint hope of again beholding his precious boat now vanished +from Grenville's mind. It had not been moored, nor probably even +towed, but doubtless loaded bodily on the visitor's deck, to be taken +to parts unknown. +</P> + +<P> +But, if this heavy fact sunk home in his breast, the man was somewhat +relieved, at least, concerning a probable native left behind. He felt +practically certain that none of the crew of the native craft had +stepped beyond his clearing. How much they might guess as to who had +hollowed the heavy log was another matter altogether. He knew that +their tale would be widely told—and felt that developments would +follow. +</P> + +<P> +He went to Elaine, to whom he owed a report. +</P> + +<P> +"I think we're alone on the place," he said, and related all he had +discovered. "We may as well re-light our fires," he added, in +conclusion, "and eat the best our sunny possessions afford." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine could not so promptly recover from all she had undergone. She +still sat staring at his face, a prey to confused emotions. +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose they had really been friendly, after all—and we let them go +and leave us here like that?" +</P> + +<P> +"In that event they may return, since the boat will excite a bit of +wonder." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean they will know, of course, that someone must be here who made +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"It certainly tells that story rather plainly." +</P> + +<P> +She was thinking rapidly. +</P> + +<P> +"Then—if they shouldn't happen to be friendly, they would know it all +just the same—and may still come back to—look us up?" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall certainly go to work with that chance in view." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she agreed, "we'll certainly do all we can. But another boat +would take you weeks! After all your patient, tedious work—to have it +stolen like that! Oh, I could cry, if I weren't so vexed and sorry!" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville smiled despite his sense of loss. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps I can rig some sort of a catamaran," he answered. "But for +day and night sailing, such as we would doubtless have before us, the +best of boats would be none too comfortable." +</P> + +<P> +"And we don't know where to sail." +</P> + +<P> +"Well—not precisely." +</P> + +<P> +"Then—what is the first thing to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Cook and devour a hearty dinner." +</P> + +<P> +"But after that—to-morrow?" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank God for peace—and prepare for war, meanwhile praying it may not +come." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was grave, but her voice was clear and steady. +</P> + +<P> +"You think it will—that a fight will come? ... I'd much rather know +the worst." +</P> + +<P> +"So would I!" said Grenville, cheerfully. "We can't. We can only get +ready to acquit ourselves like—well, like gentlemen, and keep out an +eye for a steamer.... Would you mind retreating to the cave I found, +if dire necessity arose?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go wherever you tell me," she answered, with a smile that went to +his heart. "But of course I can't help wishing that a steamer would +really come." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap27"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A FATEFUL EXPLOSION +</H4> + +<P> +With feverish energy Grenville was at work, attempting to achieve a +dozen ends at once. +</P> + +<P> +Nearly a week of high-pressure application appeared to have +accomplished so little. Yet a hundred pounds at least of his liveliest +powder had been mixed and stored away, either loosely or packed in the +bamboo bombs, of which he had a dozen; much extra bamboo had been cut +and brought to the terrace; a new lot of jugs had been molded of clay +and were finally being fired in his former smelter; baskets were made +and ready for fruits, should retreat to the cave be rendered expedient, +and his first small raft, or catamaran, for gaining the exit to the +cavern, was all but ready to launch. +</P> + +<P> +He had taken the bowsprit of the barque and three large stems from the +bamboo growth as a basis for this craft. The bamboo stems were firmly +lashed together, to act as a mate for the bowsprit. They were held +away from the latter at a distance of about three feet by some of the +few unrotted bits of board he had torn from the old vessel's cabin, +plus more bamboo, split and employed for his platform. +</P> + +<P> +Two half-cylindrical sections of this useful plant he had lashed to +eight-foot poles of considerable stiffness to complete a pair of oars. +His rowlocks, saved from the smelting processes, he finally tested in +their sockets, where a rigid bridge had been stoutly secured across his +raftlike contrivance, and found them all he could desire. The seat he +had planned to occupy in rowing he abandoned now as quite superfluous. +</P> + +<P> +He felt he must lose no time in draining the cave, for possible use in +a siege. There was no other task that had been altogether neglected. +The flagpole was once more standing on the terrace; abundant fuse was +made, dried, coiled, and safely stored from damp or accident, and a +mold was hardening in the fire for running lead slugs that would make +the cannon effective. +</P> + +<P> +For this latter need he meant to sacrifice his hammer. It, with the +lead he had saved before, would supply some six or seven pounds of this +needful ammunition. Now, as he swiftly braided three slender creepers +in a "painter" for his crudely fashioned catamaran, he glanced at the +tide inquiringly, and likewise up at the sun. There was over an hour +in which to get to the cave, lodge a bomb in the ledge, and blow out +the dam that held back the water, but the tide was still running +against him. +</P> + +<P> +With ten feet only of his mooring-line completed, he abandoned the +braiding impatiently, secured one end to his raft at the estuary's +entrance, and, wading in behind the clumsy structure, launched it with +one impetuous heave across the sandbar to the sea. Boarding +immediately with his oars, he rowed it far enough only to prove he +could drive it against the tide, and then brought it back to the shore. +</P> + +<P> +"One bomb and a torch," he meditated, aloud. "I can hang the bomb +across my shoulder to keep it out of the wet." +</P> + +<P> +The catamaran having been made thoroughly secure, he hastened away to +the terrace. He missed Elaine. She was down at the "smelter," +attending the fire that was roasting the new clay vessels. +</P> + +<P> +With a bomb and his lighted torch in hand—held well apart and not for +a moment handled carelessly—he hailed Elaine from the edge of the +thicket by the wall. +</P> + +<P> +"Just thought I'd drop around and drain out that water from the cave," +he announced. "Everything's ready—and I've nothing else to do. When +you hear the salute, you'll know it's a commonplace affair." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" said Elaine, who had her doubts concerning his various +explosions. "I'll watch to see you from the cliff." +</P> + +<P> +"Well—er—I wouldn't stand just at the edge, you know—not till you +know it's all over." +</P> + +<P> +"You're not going to blow down the hill?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hope not, I've taken a baby bomb, but I didn't wish to let it off till +I'd told you what to expect. I'd keep away, in case of flying pieces." +</P> + +<P> +"I will," said Elaine. "But I'll go up now, and perhaps you can call +to let me know how well you have succeeded." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll send you a wireless." +</P> + +<P> +Grenville hastened to his raft. "Please God she may never have to hear +me fire another!" he thought, as he went, reflecting on things that +might happen. He could not have known that only a mild beginning had +been made on their programme as scheduled by the Fates. +</P> + +<P> +He was soon rowing eagerly and vigorously against the current of the +tide, which would run with lessening velocity for perhaps another hour. +When he came to the cave, he promptly discovered why the injunction to +enter its mouth at high water only had been made a point in the mystic +directions found with the map in the tube. +</P> + +<P> +The ledge whereon he had landed before was deeply undercut. During a +tide no more than two or three feet lower than this that would serve +him to-day, the place could scarcely be approached, and could never be +entered at all. The swirl, which was rarely ever absent from the +place, increased in violence steadily with the lowering levels of the +water. +</P> + +<P> +It was not without some chance of catastrophe that he presently landed +on the shelf. He lost little time in securing his painter to the +rocks, the line so adjusted he could readily slip it from the crevice +should a hasty retreat seem wise. +</P> + +<P> +The task of blasting out the ledge was not a simple matter. To lodge +the bomb where its energy would be directed almost wholly against the +dam, or rock, and yet protect it from the trickling stream that could +readily render it useless, involved an extra toil of piling rocks, on +which he had not reckoned. +</P> + +<P> +Fortunately, much of the thickest wall was opposed to the pot-hole in +the dam, while one or two extra-heavy fragments from the cliff were so +lightly poised he could drop them in the breach. Despite these natural +advantages, however, he labored hotly for fully half an hour before he +could even lay his fuse. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime, his torch was blazing smokily, against his final need of +igniting the match and later exploring for results. At length he +looped the fuse along a ragged line of broken honeycomb, where pits had +been eaten in the tufa, and trailed it well down to the brink of the +ledge, with its end propped high between two bowlders. +</P> + +<P> +With one last look at all his careful arrangements, he slipped off his +raft-line, caught up his torch, and was stepping down to board his +float when a sharp piece of rock broke away beneath his foot and +dropped him forward on his hand. +</P> + +<P> +The torch was flung against the fuse, where it lay along the slope. He +heard it hiss, where the powder had caught, and aware that, by three or +four feet, it was shorter now than he had ever intended to light it, he +lurched full-length upon his raft and fumbled to clutch up the oars. +</P> + +<P> +But the swirl was on, and the catamaran seemed possessed to bump +against the ledge. +</P> + +<P> +In a final desperate outburst of strength, he sent the thing shooting +outward. Its bow would have turned in the whirlpool then, but he drove +it clear of the point. +</P> + +<P> +Like a madman he pulled at the clumsy oars, to reach the protection +where the wall all but folded the basin from the sea. +</P> + +<P> +His raft was around it—half of the raft—and another good foot would +have covered himself, when the blast abruptly boomed. +</P> + +<P> +Even out of the tail of his eye he saw the dull-red flare behind a blot +that represented ragged rock in motion. +</P> + +<P> +A fragment no larger than a man's two fists came as straight as a +cannon projectile and struck the pitted wall beside his head. +</P> + +<P> +He had ducked instinctively forward, which doubtless saved his life. +But dozens of smaller and barely less violent fragments were broken +away from the edge of the wall by the piece with the meteoric speed. +One of these struck him above the ear—and down he went, face forward, +on the platform, to hang with arms and shoulders loosely supported on +the bridge that was used for the sockets of his rowlocks. +</P> + +<P> +A rain of loose pieces hissed about in the sea. The cave belched smoke +like a suddenly active volcano. The tide took the raft, with its +motionless burden, and floated it back whence the man had come, but not +so close in the shore. +</P> + +<P> +Then up on the cliff, when the shock and hail had subsided from all the +air about her, Elaine came inquiringly over to the brink, to receive +some word that all was well. +</P> + +<P> +The smoke still rose from down below and obscured the face of the +waters. There was nothing Elaine could discover. She waited a time +that seemed very long, in her usual determination not to seem unduly +alarmed or importunate concerning Sidney's safety. +</P> + +<P> +But at last she called his name. +</P> + +<P> +There was no response. Her uneasiness increased. She called again, +and moved along the brink, staring eagerly down at the sea. +</P> + +<P> +Then at last a sound like a stifled moan escaped her whitened lips. +She had seen that prostrate, helpless figure drifting down by the shore +on his raft. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap28"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +WHAT THE BLAST DISCOVERED +</H4> + +<P> +Grenville revived, with his characteristic pertinacity. An impulse to +save himself was still alive in his brain. Actuated by its survival, +he struggled galvanically to rise. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, please!" said a voice, that sounded remarkably familiar. "Please +try to keep quiet for a little!" +</P> + +<P> +Yet he had to sit up, with one hand to support him, if nothing more. +</P> + +<P> +He was still on the raft, and there was Elaine, on her knees, pulling +hard at his oars to drive the float ashore. She was dripping wet from +head to foot. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment Grenville regarded her blankly, while the situation +cleared in his brain. +</P> + +<P> +"What ho, skipper!" he said, a bit faintly. "You didn't swim out to +this contraption?" +</P> + +<P> +"You are bleeding," she answered, tugging no less stoutly at the oars. +"I thought you might be dead. The tide was floating you away—and I +don't see why—— Won't you please sit still and behave?" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville had felt of his head, then arisen to take the sweeps from her +hands, though the catamaran was about to ground on the beach. +</P> + +<P> +"You did swim!" he said. "I should have warned you of the sh—— I'm +an idiot!—trying to blow my head off!" He knelt on the edge of the +platform and began to bathe his scalp. +</P> + +<P> +"I hate that cave!" Elaine declared, with emphasis. "And I hate those +awful bombs! I sha'n't have any clothing left, if you go on killing +yourself like this every day!" She was tearing another bandage from +her petticoat and felt obliged to scold. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was not at all certain it would not be decidedly pleasant to +be wounded constantly. It was perilously joyous to be scolded and +bandaged by Elaine. He certainly submitted most meekly as she now tied +up his head. He was not deeply cut, and felt considerably aggrieved +that the blow had rendered him unconscious. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll find the skull isn't dented," he observed, "unless it's from +the inside out." +</P> + +<P> +"There's a great big swelling," said Elaine. "And suppose you had been +killed?" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville made no immediate reply. He was gazing abstractedly out +across the water. His inner vision conjured up the picture of a brave, +unselfish little comrade, swimming fearlessly out to board a raft +whereon a helpless figure was lying—a pale-faced girl who would +doubtless have had no hesitation had she known of all the sharks in the +world. He could see her scramble on the float to ease him where he +lay. And then her hot tussle with the clumsy oars, as she knelt on the +wave-slopped platform, to urge it and him to the shore! +</P> + +<P> +"I'm a thoughtless brute," he told her, finally. "But I felt the work +was important." +</P> + +<P> +"It is important! I'm sure of that," she answered, at once all +contrition. "But perhaps next time—you might take me along—— If +anything should kill us both—why, that would be simple and easy." +</P> + +<P> +He understood her thoroughly. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite an idea," he answered, briefly. "I was sure you understood the +situation—— To-morrow I'll go and see what the blast accomplished. +I shall have no more explosions, however—so I may not need a chaperon." +</P> + +<P> +She was slightly hurt. His offhand speeches were not always absolutely +welcome, despite her former attitude and declarations. After all, it +was God, she told herself, who had brought this partnership into being. +It was He who had cast her into exile with the bravest man she had ever +known. +</P> + +<P> +"You mean," she said, "you do not want me along." +</P> + +<P> +"It's the tide that's ungallant," he said. "It objects to anyone's +landing on the ledge." +</P> + +<P> +"But you said I might be obliged to hide there later." +</P> + +<P> +"I did, and till then—let's enjoy the sunshine—while it lasts." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine said no more. The hint of inimical things to come sufficed once +more to carry her thoughts away from all personal emotions. +</P> + +<P> +They returned in silence to the terrace, Grenville first having urged +his catamaran within the estuary, to secure it with the line. The +commonplace duties of their daily existence were promptly resumed, and +the cave as a topic was forgotten. +</P> + +<P> +The following day, while he waited for the tide to rise to its highest +level, Grenville completed the labor at the furnace, where additional +vessels for water were being permitted to cool. The importance of +being enabled to store an unusual quantity of water, should the need +arise for such a storage, had early been presented to his mind. He was +therefore particularly gratified to find this present firing of jugs +considerably more successful than the first. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was engaged in weaving two nets, in which these clay vessels +could be carried. With a yoke for Grenville's shoulders, or even for +her own, a pair of the jugs could thus be fetched at once and the labor +thereby materially hastened, should a moment arrive in which such haste +would be wise. +</P> + +<P> +It was ever disturbing to her mind to reflect on this possible need. +The thought was never wholly absent from her as she watched the +horizon, far and near, for the steamer that did not come. Not even in +her happiest moments—and many were happy, she confessed, despite all +the hardships of their daily life, as they two toiled together, an +exiled pair alone in this tropical garden—not even in these was that +sinister, underlying <I>motif</I> too indistinct to be acknowledged. It +hung like a thing in vague suspense above their every occupation, +throughout the day and night. +</P> + +<P> +A tremor more tangible played through her breast as Elaine watched +Grenville take a torch as before and depart for the third of his visits +to the cave. +</P> + +<P> +Without consulting the lord and master of the island, she moved her +work from the shelter of her "house" to the cliff-edge, from which she +could watch him a time before he should come to the cavern itself and +so be lost to sight. +</P> + +<P> +She was thus enabled, unobserved, to inspect him, to her heart's +content, as Grenville came rowing his raft along the tide, far down +below her rocky aerie. +</P> + +<P> +The man was absorbed in the task thus set to be accomplished. He did +not look up, as Elaine thought he might, as he skimmed along under the +wall. +</P> + +<P> +When he came to the cave he was somewhat surprised at the wreckage his +blast had accomplished. Not only was the former ledge completely +shattered, but much had fallen below in the sea, while the wall to the +right, where the bomb had expended its energy, was agape with +new-formed fissures. +</P> + +<P> +Chiefly concerned with the dam of rock, Grenville secured his raft with +boyish impatience and carried his torch ashore. A moment afterwards he +walked through the breach in the erstwhile solid ledge, and could +readily imagine the roar with which the water, formerly behind the +barrier, had tumbled torrentially into the swirling tide. +</P> + +<P> +There was still a tiny trickle flowing down the channel made by the +bomb. The basin formed by the bottom of the cavern was still +exceedingly damp, and here and there it retained a shallow pool of +water too low for the gateway to drain. He walked about freely, +pausing here and there to hold his torch aloft and measure the cave's +dimensions by means of the light from both the open entrance and his +blazing, yellow flame. +</P> + +<P> +He was struck, in gazing at the wall he had broken near the cavern's +mouth, with the size of one of the fissures there, where the blast had +wrought its havoc. So black and significant appeared this new-formed +aperture that, although a certain eagerness to proceed forthwith to the +treasure niche was upon him, he returned at once to investigate the +hole. +</P> + +<P> +What he found upon his first superficial examination was merely a +crevice, half as wide as his body, where a plinth of rock had been +split from the mass and dropped towards the breach in the dam. Into +this crevice he thrust his torch, and was instantly interested to note +that its flame blew decidedly from him, in a draught of air that was +flowing unmistakably upward. Moreover, on lifting himself sufficiently +high to look about in the dimly lighted space, he became convinced that +either a second chamber or a passage like a hall existed just back of +the principal cavern, from which it was partitioned by the wall. +</P> + +<P> +He planted his torch between some loosened fragments and shook at the +piece that blocked this auxiliary cave. He thought he could topple the +slab out forwards on the ledge. But, when he rocked it with his +customary vigor, it fell abruptly backwards and disappeared in the +gloom. +</P> + +<P> +The hole he had thus created was quite large enough to admit him, +squeezing in sideways. He promptly entered with his torch, finding the +foothold rough and insecure. The chamber itself was small and low. He +could readily touch the ceiling. +</P> + +<P> +Ahead it apparently ended in a wall, with a gaping crack. On moving +there, however, he found, to his surprise, an angular turn, still wide +enough to admit of easy passage. The way under foot was slightly +upward. It was pitted rock, but surprisingly free from broken +fragments. +</P> + +<P> +Persuaded at once that no other man had ever discovered this +channel-like chamber in the tufa, and that therefore no treasure would +be found concealed in its depths, Grenville continued onward with +unabated interest, curious to see how far the passage might extend. +</P> + +<P> +It narrowed again, and pierced decidedly upward through the bulk of the +huge rock mass. Obliged at last to stoop too low for comfort, +Grenville began to wonder if the thing would never end. It appeared to +be exceptionally straight for a natural tunnel in volcanic rock, but +Sidney began to realize its upward incline had rapidly increased. +</P> + +<P> +When he presently found himself enabled to stand once more erect, he +paused to cast a light on the walls to confirm a new thought in his +mind. He had finally remembered a feature long before noted on top of +the terrace itself—the long straight crack through the massive tower +of tufa and the "slip" that had once formed a shelf. +</P> + +<P> +Not without a certain sort of excited hope did he now discover +unmistakable signs that some convulsion of the island had at one time +actually parted the right-hand mass of rock from the larger portion on +the left and permitted the former to drop. If this channel could only +continue—— +</P> + +<P> +He went upward again, more swiftly, wondering thus belatedly how far he +might have come and regretting he had not thought to pace the distance. +Through a place ahead he was barely able to force his supple body. +Then came another passageway that was not only narrow but low. +Fragments of stone were likewise under foot, and the passage formed +another angle. +</P> + +<P> +Beyond this turn he found himself confronted by more broken stone and a +difficult ascent. But, toiling up there eagerly, he presently raised +his eyes and beheld a bright white line, as narrow as a streak of +lightning. +</P> + +<P> +It was simply a crack through a shattered bit of wall that closed up +the end of the passage. It was daylight—sky—that he saw thus +slenderly defined, and the man could have shouted in joy! +</P> + +<P> +He could not, however, escape to the outside world when he presently +came to the wall. For all the fragments he loosened and threw back +behind him, he could not open the exit, or even determine where it was. +Only work outside could accomplish this end, and this he was wild to +begin. +</P> + +<P> +About to turn back and hasten to the terrace, he realized instantly how +utterly impossible might be the task of finding the place from without. +But Elaine was doubtless on the terrace. If only his voice could be +carried to her ears, she could mark the spot at once. +</P> + +<P> +But, although he called with all his lusty might, there was no response +from the camp where Elaine was doubtless working. His torch was +burning low, with the draught fanning constantly past him through the +channel. It occurred to his mind to go back to Elaine and instruct her +how she could assist him. He also thought to place his torch against +the crack and permit its smoke to filter through and perhaps thereby +blacken the fissure. +</P> + +<P> +Until he felt he must save what remained, to illumine his way downward, +he burned the torch close to the rocks. And thus, when he came to the +larger cave again, he was once more obliged to depart with not even a +sight of the treasure. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap29"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +AN INTERRUPTED DIVERSION +</H4> + +<P> +Not only had Grenville to a small extent succeeded in smudging the +outside terminal of the passage discovered through the rock, but also +Elaine had discovered the smoke so strangely ascending in the air. +</P> + +<P> +She had been thoroughly mystified by the singular sight, but had crept +about the place inquiringly, expecting perhaps a volcano to begin some +destructive demonstration. She had likewise fancied that rumbling +sounds proceeded from somewhere in the "mountain." The entire +phenomenon had finally ceased, however, greatly to her relief. +</P> + +<P> +On a narrow ledge, some four feet down from the terrace-level, and +directly beneath the extensive crack that had once been formed in the +massive upheaval of tufa, the broken fragments that blocked the +subterranean hallway were wedged to their places in the wall. The +place was sunk in a shallow niche that was screened by the trees of the +jungle. +</P> + +<P> +This ledge Grenville not only promptly rendered accessible, but, after +the opening had once been cleared, he fashioned a door of the lightest +construction, that still resembled solid rock, with which to conceal it +again. +</P> + +<P> +His door was of wattle, plastered with clay, which he then thrust full +of tufa fragments. These, when the substance presently hardened, were +found to be substantially cemented to the framework. The clay itself +dried yellowish gray and could hardly be distinguished from the rock. +He was thus enabled to plaster over all the chinks and other ragged +openings which the door could not completely cover. When the job was +done, not the faintest suspicion of anything unusual about the niche +could the keenest eye have discovered. Grenville was none the less +glad, however, that the tallest foliage of the near-by growth still +further concealed the spot. +</P> + +<P> +He was toiling no less feverishly than before, thankful each day that +the tidal wailing still continued and anxiously watching the round of +the purple horizon for the cut of a rakish sail. +</P> + +<P> +Despite the fact that several days had passed since the passage was +discovered, he had made no effort to return to the treasure crypt +below. The communicating gallery was too important to be neglected. +He had spent long hours in its upper reaches, clearing the rock from +underfoot, to make its use entirely practical for Elaine and himself in +all conditions, either with or without some needed burden. +</P> + +<P> +He had managed to widen the narrowest squeeze by chipping the rock with +his chisel. He had carefully rearranged the broken fragments down +where the corridor entered, or branched from, the cavern, and there +provided a second of his wattle doors, considerably heavier than the +first and more artfully studded with stone. This he had made to be +adjusted from without or within the passage it concealed. From within +it could also be barred in place with a heavy billet of the toughest +wood his brazen tools would shape. +</P> + +<P> +This late afternoon, when the last of his jugs had been taken down and +concealed by the spring, all ready for filling and carrying back the +moment occasion should arise, Grenville felt that, save for a meat +supply, he had made nearly every possible provision against attack and +siege. +</P> + +<P> +The day was practically spent. He glanced at the sun. Undecided +between an hour of hunting with his bow and a quick excursion down to +the crypt of treasure, he remembered certain ornaments Elaine might +wear and decided to go for the gold and gleaming jewels. They had meat +for dinner, already being roasted in a sandpit with several newly +gathered yams. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine, with a basket of tempting fruits, returned to the terrace from +the thicket before he was ready for his trip. The fact that he bore a +torch and basket aroused no query in her mind, so frequently had he +made his underground excursions. +</P> + +<P> +He left the door at the gallery entrance open and made an easy descent. +Glad to be independent of both the tide and his raft, he paused when he +came to the main cave's ragged opening, for a moment thoroughly +startled. +</P> + +<P> +The weird tidal wail had just commenced, so close at hand it echoed all +through the place. It had never before occurred while he was actually +in the cavern. Immediately rendered curious to see whence and how it +was produced, he hastened down the outside ledge, completely baffled by +the intermingled reverberations. +</P> + +<P> +He had barely concentrated his attention on a certain hole in the rock, +below the tidal level, when the last uncanny moan seemed choked to a +horrible gurgle which could not be renewed. +</P> + +<P> +The thing had never before been so brief or so abruptly ended. Its +brevity jarred upon him no less unpleasantly than its prolongation had +done when he and Elaine first arrived upon the island. As if the +occurrence sounded a warning not to be mistaken, he proceeded at once +within the cave. +</P> + +<P> +His mind was filled with thoughts of native visitors, who might only be +waiting for this natural phenomenon to cease before they came swarming +across the sea, perhaps to search and loot this very cavern. He +reflected they might have searched it before, and had either been +baffled by the water it formerly contained or had missed the niche his +accidental interest had discovered. +</P> + +<P> +Though he thought that less than half the wall he had previously +assaulted could now remain in the arch of the treasure cavern, yet +fully a half-hour's labor was essential before he could worm his way +inside where the gold and the stones dully glittered. He cleared out a +few more stones to admit his carrying basket. +</P> + +<P> +A thrill went through him as he laid his hands upon the priceless +treasures disposed in the tomblike place. Notwithstanding the fact the +cave had been scaled, almost hermetically, a coating of thin, +impalpable dust veiled everything he touched. The things had +undoubtedly been here years on years, till perhaps tradition only still +affirmed their existence, while old fanatics might, for generations, +have persisted in tattooing that "map" on some victim's breast for the +cavern's living concealment and the faithful preservation of its +contents. +</P> + +<P> +The gold was all wrought in ornaments—like anklets, bracelets, +amulets, and girdles. It had all been crudely pounded into shape from +virgin metal. There were pieces of odd, unfamiliar shape, the uses for +which could hardly be conjectured. It was all of it heavy and massive, +many pieces crudely resembling cumbrous seals with mystic devices +stamped on either side. +</P> + +<P> +Of the stones—comprising principally diamonds, rubies, and +sapphires—many were still uncut, while others, by the handful, were +crudely mounted in hammered gold to form girdle after girdle. A crown, +exhibiting nothing of the jeweler's modern or even ancient craft, was +none the less of extraordinary intrinsic value for the heft of gold +that formed its band and the huge stones thrust rudely through its +substance. +</P> + +<P> +Despite his impatience to collect the lot in his basket and depart the +place, Grenville remained there inactively, absorbed in a study of this +piece or that, to identify, if possible, the curious workmanship. That +much, if not all, the gold work argued craftsmen of the African wilds +he felt convinced. But the stones could have come from India only, he +was sure, either through tribute or plundering, and the latter was by +far the more likely method. +</P> + +<P> +He had heard from one of his oldest friends, who was likewise the best +informed of all his military acquaintances, that the West Coast +Africans still conceal vast treasures of kings or chiefs deceased, such +buried wealth to be utilized by former possessors in some life beyond +the grave. That this hoard, by some strange and unusual chance, had +resulted from that barbaric practice he felt there could be no doubt. +The fact it was hundreds of miles from Africa argued nothing against +the theory, since either by imitation or as a result of far excursions +over sea the present collection could have landed here in this +remarkably hidden and "spirit"-guarded cave, where even the hardiest, +cleverest seeker of fortune would never be likely to search. +</P> + +<P> +He was still engaged, like some merely scientific archeologist, in +examining piece after piece of the metal, or one after another of the +stones, which were cut as never he had seen them before, when he +fancied some weird, faint echo called his name. +</P> + +<P> +With pounds of the trinkets in his hands, he returned to the broken +heap of stones he had lately overthrown. Out of the ringing silence of +the larger cave came a distant wisp of sound—— +</P> + +<P> +He knew that Elaine was calling from somewhere in the passage. +</P> + +<P> +It was only the work of a moment to catch up his basket and place in +its hold the small stone sarcophagi of jewels. Carelessly then, on top +of these, he swept in the ornaments of gold. They fell, dully ringing, +from the shelves, where perhaps they had lain for above a century—a +heterogeneous collection which he was sorry to disturb till the various +positions in which they had been disposed could be noted and remembered. +</P> + +<P> +He was certain no less than a hundredweight of the treasure taxed his +strength when he presently lifted his burden from the place and bore it +across the larger chamber. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was calling again. Her voice was clearer in the passage. +Grenville came there, panting from his effort, with his dusty and +useless riches. He answered at once on entering the gallery, where he +paused to close and secure his concealing door. +</P> + +<P> +"Please come!" was the cry, in response to his shout, like an unreal +voice from the blackness of a tomb. "They're here! They're close to +the island!" +</P> + +<P> +With a short but inarticulate ejaculation, Grenville once more took up +his basket, blundered forward with it a few feet only, and set it down +against the wall. Why he had paused to bother with it, for a moment he +did not understand. With his torch flaring back, in his greater speed, +he plunged along and up the passage. +</P> + +<P> +Around the first of the sharper angles he came upon Elaine. She had +brought no torch, in her hurry to sound the alarm, but had groped her +way downward through the Stygian blackness of the gallery, calling time +after time as the gloom rendered up no reply. +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes were dilated wildly, from her efforts to see in the dark. Her +face seemed intensely white against the impenetrable ebon. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I thought you'd never come!" she said, as Sidney approached with +his light. "They were almost up to the island before I dreamed such a +thing could be! The tree must have hidden the sail!" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville placed the torch in her hand and urged her upward before him. +They presently emerged on the ledge. +</P> + +<P> +He had no more than crept to the terrace-edge and studied the craft +below on the sea than he came once more to Elaine. +</P> + +<P> +"No use in striking our flag," he said. "They've seen it. We'll fly +it till the end." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap30"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +REVEALING AN INTENT +</H4> + +<P> +The native ship, that had sailed unobserved within almost hailing +distance of the headland, was not the one that had come to the island +before. It was larger. Six men at least comprised its crew, a +villainous-looking collection. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville had seen them close at hand, as they passed by the entrance +to the cave. That they contemplated an immediate landing seemed +probable, making as they were towards the crescent indentation along by +the estuary's mouth. +</P> + +<P> +Sidney had lost little time in vain regrets for the hour spent +uselessly below. He had gone at once to the gallery and hidden its +entrance with the door. He had caught up Elaine's well-finished nets +and the pole for a yoke she had been working to complete when the +visitors' sail was discovered and, only pausing to make certain he +could not be seen, went at once to the spring for extra jugs of water. +</P> + +<P> +The sun was already dipping redly in its bath when he brought his first +burden to the terrace. He paused to observe the maneuvers of the ship, +now coming about in the sunset breeze, just off the tiny inlet where +his catamaran was moored. +</P> + +<P> +The queer sharp sail was reefed while he was watching. He saw three +men heave overboard an anchor, which promptly sounded the shallow +depths where the strange craft presently swung. +</P> + +<P> +Considerably to Elaine's discomfort of mind, he hastened once more down +the trail. She was certain the Dyaks would go to the spring before +Sidney could got away. However, he brought another pair of jugs, an +armful of fuel, and a basket of fruit with the greatest possible +expedition. +</P> + +<P> +The boatmen made no movement to come ashore as long as the twilight +revealed them. The highest notes of their voices floated indistinctly +to the terrace, towards which the men were frequently seen to gesture, +but even these sounds were finally lost as darkness enwrapped the +island. +</P> + +<P> +Despite the fact that four of his water-jugs still remained in the +thicket near the spring, Grenville made no more trips for water that +evening, since Elaine was obviously distressed by the thought of the +risk he might incur. +</P> + +<P> +He was awake all night, maintaining the life of their smoldering fire, +and alert for any signs or sounds of movement in the clearing by the +trail. In one of the darkest hours before the dawn he heard the +familiar wails and moans of the headland cave rise briefly on the wind. +</P> + +<P> +From the anchored ship the cry was returned, as on the former occasion. +After that a droning chant came fitfully up from the darkness of the +waters, to die at last in the silence. Later he heard a shout, and +then vague accents of speech. But, when daylight arrived, the craft +had disappeared. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine had not yet risen. Grenville quietly moved from one extremity +of the headland to the other, searching the sea in all directions. He +was soon convinced the visitor had not decamped, but had moved the +vessel to one or another of the island's hidden inlets, that its +movements, as well as those of its crew, should be no longer observed. +</P> + +<P> +One lingering hope, which he had fostered in his breast, that the +natives might not prove a bloodthirsty lot of head-hunters after all, +he felt he must definitely abandon. This furtive move under cover of +the dark was not the sort of maneuver to excite one's trust or +confidence. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was standing in her shelter door when at length he came once +more to his place by the top of the trail. She, too, had discovered +the absence of the native vessel. +</P> + +<P> +"I think another one came in the night," she said, when Sidney +explained his belief that the boat was in hiding behind the farther +walls. "I am sure I heard another voice." +</P> + +<P> +Grenville recalled the shout that had followed the chanting and felt +that this accounted for Elaine's conviction that more of the Dyaks had +arrived. +</P> + +<P> +"We have not been actually seen as yet," he assured her. "Our flag of +distress is not a positive sign of anyone's presence on the island. We +shall soon determine by their movements whether these chaps intend to +be friendly or not." +</P> + +<P> +"Would they hide if they meant to be friendly?" +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't a friendly sign—— You see, I'm still of opinion the +island's wail is a sound they rather dread. Have you noticed it's +rapidly failing?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've been ever so glad it seems so short and growing fainter." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he drawled. "I'm afraid it will soon cease altogether, when our +friends may buck up their courage and—show us their state of mind." +</P> + +<P> +"What can we do in the meantime?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sit tight and watch for developments." +</P> + +<P> +But all that day there was never so much as a sound or a sign of the +crew they had seen arrive. At one time, just before noon, Grenville +fancied some movement occurred in the rocks that crowned the second +hill. But he detected no further indication that someone might have +scaled the cliff to spy on himself and Elaine. +</P> + +<P> +He had never in his island rambles discovered a place by which that +hill could be surmounted. That easy access might be obtained on the +seaward side he readily understood. He fretted under the long +suspense—the uncertainty brooding over the island. He much preferred +that the visitors exhibit a downright hostile intent than to feel that +beneath the sinister calm of thicket and jungle might lurk insidious +death. +</P> + +<P> +He felt that Elaine and himself would lack for nothing, except fresh +meat, for at least a couple of days, yet he knew that even their fruit +supply was wholly inadequate for a siege, should the new arrivals make +up their minds to starve them on the terrace. Rather than weakly +submit to any such abominable tactics, he was fully determined to bring +about an attack. But how was an open question. +</P> + +<P> +When once again the night drew on the man was impatient and weary. He +had taken no rest after all his long previous day of toil, yet to sleep +and invite disaster up the trail was quite impossible. +</P> + +<P> +"We shall have to divide the night," said Elaine, with her customary +practical courage. "We have simply got to be sensible to preserve our +strength in case we have to fight." +</P> + +<P> +Grenville consented to give her the watch till midnight. The island's +wail in the late afternoon had seemed no fainter than that of the +previous day. He was quite convinced there would be no night attack. +Yet he stretched a cord across the trail that must pull at his arm and +so give an alarm should anyone enter at his gate. +</P> + +<P> +Doubtless in this confidence he fell asleep with more than usual +promptness. He was far more weary than he knew, and Nature demanded +her dues. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was glad he could slumber so profoundly. The night was barely +cool; she was not in the least uncomfortable as she sat at Grenville's +side. She knew he would waken at the slightest tug on the cord so +quickly contrived to warn of an enemy's approach, and therefore felt a +decided sense of security, despite the living silence of the night. +</P> + +<P> +Long before midnight she was tense with nervous apprehension. Sounds +from the jungle arose from time to time where some animal prowled for +its prey. A whisper came up from the waves that lapped the cliff, and +haunted the air as if with spirits. She had steeled her heart, +however, and would not weaken by a jot. The hours would wear away +somehow, and meantime—Sidney was resting. +</P> + +<P> +She did not arise to walk about as Grenville would have done. Instead +she sat there, stiffly alert, turning her head from side to side, as +the minutes dragged heavily by, listening, staring through the +darkness, fancying shapes had begun to move in the shadows of the rocks. +</P> + +<P> +It was finally late in the dead of night when a sound of unusual +heaviness arose from the brink of the cliff. Had someone dropped a +rock in the sea, the disturbance could scarcely have been clearer. +</P> + +<P> +It had come, she thought, from over beyond the great black tree that +loomed against the sky. She wondered if perhaps she ought to speak to +Sidney. She put out her hand to touch him lightly on the shoulder, but +withdrew it again with a smile. He was sleeping so like a tired boy! +</P> + +<P> +The sound had doubtless been nothing to rouse the slightest alarm. If +it came again—— +</P> + +<P> +It did come again, less loud and distinct, but none the less +unmistakable. Her heart responded immediately with a quicker, heavier +beat. Perhaps she should try to ascertain the source or the cause of +the noise. She should feel so ashamed, so weak and burdensome, to +Grenville if she woke him for nothing at all. To look about was +assuredly part of her duty while on guard. It was only a step to the +edge of the terrace, across familiar ground. +</P> + +<P> +Chiding herself for unwarranted timidity and lack of courage, she +silently left her seat at last and stepped from Grenville's side. One +of his sticks was lying near. She took it in her hand. Then over +through the shadows she glided as noiselessly as a spirit, goading +herself to the ordeal with thoughts of the bold and fearless manner the +man would show were he in her place on this safe and childish excursion. +</P> + +<P> +She had heard nothing more, though she frequently paused to hold her +breath and await a further sound. It was wholly absurd, she told +herself, for her heart to pound so madly. Just there to the brink, +past those few large stones and shadows, and she would probably hear +some slopping of the waves that would quiet her liveliest suspicion. +</P> + +<P> +Despite her utmost efforts, however, she could not stand upright as she +went, and she could not continue quite to the edge without one or two +more pauses to catch her breath that would not come calmly to her lips. +But she forced herself all the way—save just the final cautious edging +to the scarp, where she suddenly knelt and leaned a little forward. +</P> + +<P> +She was still a bit short of the brink, but remained where she was to +calm her heart and listen. She could hear the water plainly. She felt +entitled to arise and hasten back to Sidney—since of course there was +nothing further to be heard. +</P> + +<P> +But, before she could gather the strength to rise, a series of short, +percussive sounds all but froze the core of her heart—so much did it +seem like someone heavily panting. +</P> + +<P> +Then, as she sat there staring helplessly at the jagged edge, four dark +things—four fingers—crept actively over the lip of the wall—and a +face abruptly followed, with a knife between its teeth! +</P> + +<P> +"Sidney!" she cried, and, madly thrusting the stick she had brought +against the dark and hideous countenance, she arose and fled wildly +from the place. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap31"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE SILENT VISITORS +</H4> + +<P> +Grenville came running across the rock-strewn terrace as if guided by +superinstinct. He fancied a sound like a heavy splash arose from the +base of the shadowy wall, and momentarily sickened to the bottom of his +soul with the thought that Elaine had fallen over. +</P> + +<P> +He saw her darting towards him a moment later, however, and caught her +protectingly in his arms as she stumbled on a rock and plunged headlong +against his breast. +</P> + +<P> +She instantly regained her foothold and clung to his arm, brokenly +stammering her story and facing back the way she had come to show where +the loathsome apparition had appeared above the brink. +</P> + +<P> +Sidney hastened there at once, armed only with a stone. Elaine, in a +violent tremble, stood a few feet only away, having followed in +unabated dread. +</P> + +<P> +Not another sound could Grenville detect as he leaned above the +precipitous plunge attempting to pierce through the shadows and gloom, +as he watched for some movement below. Whether the man had fallen +backward from the lip, to go hurtling down through the darkness, or +whether he had accomplished some swift and silent retreat, Sidney had +no means of ascertaining. Only the ceaseless lap of the tide made a +whisper in the air. +</P> + +<P> +He arose and returned to Elaine. +</P> + +<P> +"I had no idea the cliff was scalable," he told her, quietly. "I doubt +if that means of spying will be attempted again—— It was a beastly +way of showing their intentions towards us, but I'm glad to know what +to expect." +</P> + +<P> +"Where has he gone?" Elaine faintly chattered. "If he should only be +waiting to come again—— Such a horrible fright—— I don't know why +I didn't faint, or what I did. I'm so weak I can hardly walk." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you're as right a trivet!" said Grenville, with a ready +comprehension of the need of keeping up her courage. "You can now +retire with a comforting sense of having saved the night." +</P> + +<P> +But Elaine's sense of comfort was a woefully negative quantity. She +was shaken to the center of her nerves. She dreaded to be left for a +moment. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville, however, sent her off to bed in the most peremptory manner. +A realizing sense that their trials had only well begun was his one +deeply settled conviction. +</P> + +<P> +"Cheer up!" he said to her, finally, "the worst is still to come." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll try," she answered, courageously. "But please don't let it come +to-night." +</P> + +<P> +For more than two hours she did not sleep, or even close her eyes. +Then she dragged her couch to a space outside her door. Every movement +made by Grenville, as he watchfully policed the edge of the terrace, +she thus followed for a time, half rising beneath her tiger-skin rug in +her dread to hear him go. +</P> + +<P> +When she finally slept she dreamed once more of the murderous eyes, the +clenched white teeth, and the flame-shaped blade she had seen at the +brink of the cliff. Grenville heard her laboredly call his name as in +her dreams she once more underwent her disturbing ordeal, but he did +not move from his seat. +</P> + +<P> +At dawn she was slumbering more peacefully, a smile on her lips as she +lay there facing his position. What a royal little princess of the +island she appeared with her colorful robe lying out upon the rocks, +her hair so much more golden than the tawny hide, and the warm, healthy +glow restored once more to her cheeks! +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was sure he had never half appreciated the wonder and +abundance of her hair, the darker penciling of her arching brows, the +delicate beauty of her features. +</P> + +<P> +He presently once more bent his attention on the island that rendered +up never a sign. +</P> + +<P> +Neither the jungle, the summits of the further hills, nor the sea that +stretched interminably about them enlightened his searching eyes. Save +for that night experience, it might have seemed preposterous that +enemies existed in the miniature world by which they were surrounded. +</P> + +<P> +He crept in his cautious manner to the crumbling edge where Elaine had +seen the face. There was nothing below in the water. He could readily +follow the bits of shelf and succession of pits in the wall, however, +whereby a daring, barefooted native might grope his way to the summit, +even in the dark. It would doubtless be possible here, he reflected, +to explode a bomb against the pitted surface and break away so large a +cavity as to render all future ascents impossible. But this was a task +to be deferred for a time, since he had no wish to acquaint the +visitors oversoon with the fact that he possessed an explosive. +</P> + +<P> +When he returned to the shelter again, Elaine had waked and carried her +couch to the cave. Despite the fact the hour was early and the sun +only well above the ocean's rim, she declared she had rested much +longer than was either wise or essential. +</P> + +<P> +Yet there was nothing to do for either, now that the day was begun. +Their breakfast of fruits was soon concluded, then of occupation there +was none. Grenville felt it inadvisable to move about too freely on +the terrace, and thereby risk betraying the fact they were only two in +number. A watcher stationed on the second hill could not, as a matter +of fact, examine the entire top of the terrace, or even discern its +principal features, but he might ascertain decidedly too much, should +they carelessly expose themselves to view. +</P> + +<P> +The morning proved for Grenville another exasperation. He thought of +nothing by way of labor he could advantageously perform. Their +defense, though crude, was fairly complete, and could scarcely be +improved. To watch the edge of the jungle, hour after hour, where +never a sign was vouchsafed his vigilance, was a dulling inactivity, +yet a highly essential precaution that was not to be neglected. +</P> + +<P> +By noon he was fairly in a mood to seek out the island's invaders +alone, to hasten some definite action. That the natives intended to +starve them into a visit to the spring seemed all too obvious. +Grenville felt assured, however, the water down in the cavern would +suffice for their needs, if no better could be relied upon, when once +their jars were empty, while gathering fruit would not be wholly +impossible under cover of the night. +</P> + +<P> +With the thought in mind that only the trail would be kept under watch +by the Dyaks, he made up his mind he could readily contrive a +ladder-like platform to extend from the brink, whereby the distance to +the nearest tree might be conveniently bridged to permit easy access to +the jungle. Of creepers and extra bamboo poles he had laid in ample +stock. For the lack of better employment, he began the construction of +his bridge when their meager luncheon had been finished. +</P> + +<P> +His mind, as he worked, spun schemes innumerable for the daily defeat +of the natives. Aware that as long as the terrace could be held +starvation and thirst would be their only unconquerable enemies, he +entertained no end of plans for catching fish without bait and even +trapping or fishing up small animals that might rove at night below the +cliff. From these reflections he returned to the men who prowled about +them after dark. +</P> + +<P> +To secure his cord across the trail and thereby provide an alarm, or +notice of the enemy's approach, from that direction, was a very simple +matter. When he finally invented, in his mind, a singular "rattle" to +guard the approach by the cliff, he dropped all employment on the +bridge at once and began forthwith on the other. +</P> + +<P> +What he made was a series of bamboo buckets, or cuplike sections of the +hollow tube, with stones suspended inside to knock against the walls +when the things were lightly shaken. These he intended to hang, one +beside another, in a line from the brink of the wall, where a climber +must strike them unawares and sound a resonant warning. +</P> + +<P> +But he found, on hanging a pair some ten feet down along the face, +where the man had climbed in the night, that the wind would sway them +to and fro against the rock and constantly ring their hollow tones. +</P> + +<P> +This defect he presently remedied by forming a frame, some ten feet +long and one foot wide, in which all his cups were suspended, or +moored, both top and bottom. They were thus so lightly hung that the +smallest jar against the frame would joggle them all to musical +utterance, while the wind could have no effect on any single one. +</P> + +<P> +The entire frame was lowered down till it rested a bit unevenly on two +projecting shelves of rock, where it leaned a trifle outward like a +picture on a wall, as the creepers that held it from falling were +finally made secure. When Grenville, by way of a trial, nudged it once +with a pole thrust down against it for the purpose, it rattled out a +decisive alarm that one could have heard from the trail. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville thereupon brought out a bomb from his store and lowered it +down below the frame, and six or eight feet to the side. This was +secured not only by the fuse, but likewise by more of the creeper. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine, who during his absence had maintained the watch of the trail, +now ran to the place, at Grenville's signal, for a moment's inspection +of the whole arrangement and instruction concerning its use. +</P> + +<P> +It was while they were there that the haunting wail arose for a gasping +spasm. It had practically failed. Sidney doubted if its loudest note +could have been heard as far as the spring. But still the end of the +tiresome day developed no attack. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was completely puzzled by the tactics the boatmen had +adopted. That they knew Elaine was present on the terrace there could +be not a shadow of doubt. Even if the man she had thrust away from the +cliff-edge fell to the sea and was dashed to pieces, or drowned, his +friends who had brought him around to the place must have heard her +voice and recognized its feminine quality. +</P> + +<P> +They would likewise know she could hardly be alone, and would guess her +companions were not numerous or likely to be armed. No plundered +wreckage lay about the shore from which castaways could have drawn +ammunition or rifles. It was utterly impossible for any ignorant +natives to imagine the loading of a cannon or the making of bombs from +materials on the place. +</P> + +<P> +What, then, was the reason of their long delay? They could scarcely be +waiting for reinforcements. They would hardly be dreading the island's +"spirit" now, since the sounds had practically ceased, and one man had +dared ascend the cliff with a knife between his teeth. That they +feared an open attack by day and dreaded the tiger by night was the +only tenable theory that Grenville could devise. +</P> + +<P> +Yet the fact of the matter was that, until the cavern "spirit" should +be absolutely silenced, the superstitious Dyaks could only be forced by +the bulldozing threats and ferocity of their fiendish leader to set +foot upon the land. It was he who had sent the climber up the wall, +having thrust a pistol behind the fellow's ear. A certain tragic +outcome of this premature adventure had been wholly attributed by the +victim's companions to the anger of the wailing soul who inhabited the +headland. +</P> + +<P> +The bridge, constructed of bamboo supports, was a simple affair, +completed and ready by sunset. Before the darkness was absolute, +Grenville conveyed it along to the eastern jutting of the cliff, slid +it down to a ledge below the level of the terrace, and easily thrust +the end across to the nearest tree, where it rested securely on the +branches. +</P> + +<P> +He found that it bore his weight remarkably well. With an ordinary +length of pliable ladder he could reach the ground beneath the tree +without the slightest difficulty, thereby escaping all the undergrowth +and broken rock that would render a straight descent from the brink not +only a noisy piece of business, but likewise one of considerable hazard +and discomfort. And descending thus, instead of employing the trail, +he could certainly expect to escape the shrewdest observation on the +part of any native set to watch for some night adventure. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, so alluring became the prospect of leaving the hill, to conduct +some helpful and informing explorations, that he could scarcely wait +for the shadows of night to settle on the island before he should test +his apparatus. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was frankly and confessedly alarmed when at length he could +resist the temptation no longer and announced his intentions for +expending a portion of the evening. +</P> + +<P> +He set an alarm at the gate on the trail, however, and, arming himself +with his heavy, cleaver-like implement for chopping, instructed his +worried companion to fire the cannon without delay should attack +develop in his absence. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure you will have no visitors, but, in case you do, don't wait +to see who it is, or how many," he said; "let the little gun count the +numbers." +</P> + +<P> +"But suppose—it might be you!" +</P> + +<P> +"I shall not return that way. You may look for me back in fifteen or +twenty minutes at the most. I feel it's important to know what is +going on, as well as to gather a bit of fruit, and see what I may be +enabled to do by way of setting some traps for game. If one of my +snares could be brought a trifle closer, it might provide us with the +meat we certainly ought to have." +</P> + +<P> +Without another word, she watched him depart for his bridge and ladder +to the jungle. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap32"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +DEATH AS A BROTHER +</H4> + +<P> +Despite the ease with which, in theory, he expected to descend to the +ground, Grenville was fully ten minutes escaping from the tree. +</P> + +<P> +A number of twigs that he could not have passed without creating a +disturbance he cut away with his knife. His ladder was also badly +caught and stubbornly refused to be adjusted. One violent rustling of +a heavy limb he caused when it finally slipped straight down, with his +feet all but striking on the ground. +</P> + +<P> +He remained perfectly silent, ready for immediate retreat, regaining +his breath and straining his ears for the slightest sound, for a long, +uneventful minute. When he finally drew his sharp brass cleaver from +his pocket and started through the thicket, there was not the slightest +sound in all the region about him, either of animals or men. +</P> + +<P> +Into one of the numerous wild creatures' trails he found his way with +greater ease because of his thorough familiarity with all that end of +the island. +</P> + +<P> +The trail, as he knew, led down by the spring, where a branch wound +first towards the estuary and then across the bed of the rill, where it +cut the path through the axis of the island. +</P> + +<P> +Almost as noiselessly as one of the creatures hunted or hunting in the +hours of blackest shadow, he made his way down to the rear of the pool, +where he paused as before to listen. The squeal of some little +nocturnal beast and the patter of something paddling about in the water +convinced him at once the Dyaks were certainly not there, or else were +most skillfully hidden. +</P> + +<P> +With a steadily increasing conviction that the boatmen would stick to +their craft at night, he felt his boldness strengthen. The importance +of discovering the enemy's position was duly impressed on his mind. He +felt that once he could gain the principal pathway down the island's +length he could follow the edge of a narrow bit of clearing, off to the +left of the rotting old barque, and thus arrive above the inlet, where +he was certain their vessel was concealed. +</P> + +<P> +No less quietly than before he continued out around the spring, then +turned to the left, in the narrow runway of the animals, and emerged +behind the estuary, where absolute stillness prevailed. +</P> + +<P> +He presently fancied, as he slowly continued towards the old-time +wreck, that a murmur of distant voices arose from off at the left. +This became a certainty when he reached his irregular clearing. +Moreover, he was halfway only down this slope of rock and thicket when +simultaneously, out on the tide, some eighty or ninety feet apart, two +matches were lighted, as he could see, for pipes or cigarettes. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine had been right! There were two of the boats that were anchored +here together! +</P> + +<P> +But, although more murmurs continued to arise, where a desultory +conversation was from time to time renewed on either craft, he could by +no means ascertain either the number of the Dyaks or what it was of +which they talked. Satisfied with what he had discovered, and certain +now the fellows were afraid to remain on the island after dark, he +returned up the slope with an easier stride, determined to see what +might be done by way of collecting some fruit. +</P> + +<P> +He came once more to the main trail through the island, pausing to +hearken once again as a sound of splashing in the inlet came +uncertainly on the breeze. Doubtless the crew had dipped a pail of +water, he thought, or thrown overboard some refuse from their dinner. +</P> + +<P> +He had no more than headed again towards the hill where Elaine was +waiting, and swung about from the branch to the principal trail, when, +without the slightest warning sound, he suddenly and heavily collided +with someone moving as noiselessly as himself in the opposite direction. +</P> + +<P> +He only saw that the man thus encountered was bare of shoulders and +taller than himself as he thrust out to fend the fellow off. He knew +on the instant it was one of the boldest of the head-hunters, if not +indeed their chief. +</P> + +<P> +The fellow had grunted at the impact, and, quick to discover it was not +a member of the vessels' crews, abruptly sounded one triumphant yell as +he reached for his knife and lunged forward. +</P> + +<P> +There were answering cries from a few feet only behind him—which +Grenville heard as he crashed precipitately through the near-by thicket +and made for the trail to the barque. +</P> + +<P> +The hue and cry was instantly raised as the fellow pursuing came wildly +through the jungle on his track. Shouting instructions to his +following, this obvious leader of the prowling band continued as +closely as possible on Grenville's heels, while the others headed +swiftly towards the estuary, convinced that their man would dart around +and make for his camp on the hill. +</P> + +<P> +The chief of the natives entertained the same belief, as Grenville +immediately comprehended. Having planned exactly as they had supposed +he would, Sidney altered his course on the instant, dived down on +all-fours in an animal path he had frequently followed before, and thus +crept noiselessly off to the left, once more towards the plundered +wreck. +</P> + +<P> +Almost at once an ominous silence reigned as before in the place. The +natives, having soon missed their quarry, stood perfectly still, at +command of their chief, to listen and gain a new guidance. +</P> + +<P> +Tempted to put all possible distance between himself and his pursuers, +Grenville continued on, a bit incautiously. A branch he had thrust +from before his face slipped back before he had intended its release. +At once the listening head-hunters plunged forward again in his +direction. +</P> + +<P> +Fortunately, Sidney retained his presence of mind and continued to +crawl on hands and knees, instead of attempting swifter flight through +the branches that closed above the trail. With the sounds of his eager +enemy approaching to a sweat-starting proximity, he dared lie perfectly +motionless on the earth, till he heard them quietly exploring as before +on the lines he must take to regain the terrace at the rear. +</P> + +<P> +As silently now as a shadow, he wormed his way forward as before. He +had gained perhaps a matter of twenty or thirty feet in this manner +when, on coming at last to the edge of the clearing where the old +barque lay, he heard the natives beating back, convinced that he had +not passed. +</P> + +<P> +For one moment only was he seized by indecision. Then he darted across +the clearing unobserved and, slipping between the ribs of the wreck, as +he had on a previous occasion, went rapidly groping to the cabin, where +sat the mummy-skeleton in chains. +</P> + +<P> +He had not achieved this maneuver in absolute silence, having +sacrificed something to speed. Two of the head-hunters broke through +the fringe of the thicket with furtive swiftness, as he noted through a +hole in the planks. They were followed, a little further on, by the +tall man first encountered, and later by a small but constantly moving +companion, who disappeared again. +</P> + +<P> +At a given signal two of the creatures ran swiftly about the barque, +one going in either direction. They had evidently expected to corner +their intended victim crouching behind the empty shell. When they +presently returned to their leader, a brief consultation was held. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville watched them breathlessly, aware that Elaine's position, +alone on the hill, was tremendously jeopardized every moment he now +remained away. Should more of the Dyaks be summoned from the +boats—the time would be short for prayers. +</P> + +<P> +Considerably to his relief, the three dark figures resumed the search +along the edge of the clearing. +</P> + +<P> +They were gone from sight for several minutes, and again returned, +apparently persuaded their quarry had not escaped them back to the +camp. One even ventured to approach the barque and peer through its +rotted ribs. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville had quietly moved aside, though the darkness would have +shielded him completely. When the fellow rejoined his companions +again, the chief issued new commands. A brief expostulation followed. +Sidney was certain that one of two things portended. Either the leader +had ordered his man to go down to the boats and compel a force to land +and storm the now half-guarded hill, which the fellow argued was more +than he could do with Dyaks afraid of the darkness as well as the +island's spirit, or the order was—to board and search the wreck. +</P> + +<P> +Either was sufficiently disquieting, as Grenville controlled his +breathing and watched for the next development to follow. He presently +saw the tall, bare-shouldered native strike his protesting follower a +savage blow across the face, thrusting something that gleamed against +the shaken creature's ear so soon as he had righted. +</P> + +<P> +The craven was then ready to obey. He accepted something that +Grenville could not see, doubtless another revolver, and came forward +as if to enter the old ship's hull—but not through the hole in her +side. Meantime, the fourth of the party had once more appeared from +the growth. He apparently suggested that crews from the vessels be +summoned, doubtless to attack the hill. Also he presumably volunteered +to go and compel their attendance on their chief. His gestures and +those of the leader, as they thus conversed in murmurs, were all +towards the inlet where the boats were anchored or towards the distant +hill. +</P> + +<P> +He who had plainly been commanded to enter and search the wreck took +advantage of the colloquy to linger with the group. It was not until +the small and active demon of the lot had darted away to land more men +that the chief once more turned his attention to the coward. +</P> + +<P> +Whining his impotent excuses and expostulations, the fellow +affrightedly climbed upon the deck and was ordered to explore the +cabin. That he might be killed by the desperate white man possibly +hiding in the vessel's hold, the chief was well aware. The sacrifice +of a man more or less was unimportant—provided the quarry was thereby +discovered in a hole where he could not escape. +</P> + +<P> +This fact was fully appreciated by two other persons concerned. One of +these persons was Grenville, the second the terrified native. This +shivering wretch, who had known for years of the terrible guardian +sitting in iron chains within, blundered noisily about in the upper +quarters, so afraid he could have offered no defense to a child's +attack. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was undecided as to what he were wiser to do. To sink his +cleaver through the Dyak's skull would presently be comparatively +simple. And, should absolutely silent death overtake this miserable +slave of the man outside, the moral effect might be of value. It might +be supposed by his companions he had died of fright alone. Yet Sidney +argued that any fate whatsoever silencing the fellow now might be +construed as proof of his own presence in the wreck. +</P> + +<P> +Instantly deciding that, once they concluded he was not here, the Dyaks +would leave and permit his escape, Grenville silently crept to the open +door beside the dead man held in chains, slipped behind the rotted old +partition, and, without a sound, replaced the door almost as he had +originally found it. +</P> + +<P> +The chief had meantime approached the barque, to order his man to the +hold. To the musty cabin where "Buli" sat, the fellow was forced to +stumble. Some report he quavered in accents of terror was not received +with favor, and a new command was issued. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville made ready to drop the man, should he dare push open the +door. He was certain the craven had been ordered to this fatal +exploration. But, instead, the whining demon lighted a match, to +reveal all the contents of the place. +</P> + +<P> +By the yellow light both this fellow and the leader, peering through +the side, met the vacant stare of "Buli's" eyes—and both were +frightened to utterance. The chief's brief note was a rigmarole of +charm, to avert the evil eye. His slave's shrill performance was a +scream, as the fellow reeled back, stumbling blindly away and falling +as he went. +</P> + +<P> +The pistol he carried was discharged. The fellow was wounded in the +hip. His groans, as he dragged himself out on the deck, were drowned +by the curses of the leader. +</P> + +<P> +This dominant brute, having noticed the door where Sidney stood +concealed, now ordered the second of his men to explore where the first +had failed. As Grenville once more looked out through a ragged hole to +observe the proceedings, this second fellow began a somewhat stouter +objection than his predecessor had done, but was even more promptly +cowed or persuaded to submission. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, the cries of a horde of Dyaks from the boats arose from the +jungle below. They had evidently landed with considerable willingness +of spirit, as Grenville was thoroughly aware. He thought of Elaine +with a sudden sinking of the vitals. No sooner had the second of the +natives started to mount to the deck, where number one still lay +groaning, than a wild idea shot into Sidney's mind. At any cost, he +must make one dash for the hill. +</P> + +<P> +He quietly slipped to the cabin again, where "Buli" had long been +captain and crew of the barque. The one brief glance he bestowed, +through the hole, on the leader of the murderous demons, now hastening +to the place, showed that ingenious savage standing perhaps a rod away +and calling to the on-coming crews. +</P> + +<P> +The fellow on deck was making sufficient noise to mask a fair +disturbance in the cabin. Taking instant advantage of this fact, +Grenville groped downward with his hands—and encountered "Buli" +promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"I need your services, brother," he murmured, grimly, and, finding the +chain that shackled the sitting skeleton, he placed one foot upon its +upper end and tore the staple entirely out of the rotten wood it +pierced. +</P> + +<P> +Bodily lifting the mummified thing in his arms, he hastened forward, to +the hole that he alone had dared to utilize, broken through the +decaying hulk, where he passed first his burden and then himself +between the ancient ribs. +</P> + +<P> +A cry had been sounded from within the barque. The chief of the Dyaks +suddenly turned and rushed, knife in hand, upon the man he beheld +escaping from the hold. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville waited for him, deliberately. Just as the fellow lunged +actively forward, Sidney thrust the hideous effigy of a human being +into the arms and against the face of his wildly stabbing assailant and +nimbly leaped towards the trail. +</P> + +<P> +A sound of horror broke from the Dyak's lips as he rolled on the earth +with the skeleton rattling down upon him. But a brief time only was he +prostrate there with his terror. Uttering screams as shrill as a +woman's and darting swiftly to meet his crew of men, who suddenly +swarmed from the thicket, he headed a wild, fanatic pursuit where +Grenville was speeding for the terrace. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap33"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE GIRL BEHIND THE GUN +</H4> + +<P> +Alone on the hill, and already strung to the highest tension of dread +by Grenville's long absence, after what he had said of a prompt return, +Elaine had been struck with alarm to the core of her being, as the +various sounds came clearly up from the jungle about the disintegrated +wreck. +</P> + +<P> +It was fears for Sidney, not for herself, that had finally possessed +her fluttering heart as the muffled shot and subsequent cries floated +uncertainly from down there in the darkness. She knew that Grenville +had no gun, and was, therefore, certain it was he who must have +suffered a wound. +</P> + +<P> +With a blazing torch she had run to the edge of the terrace, to light +Sidney home, if, by any bare chance, he had escaped. She was there, +transfixed by apprehension, when at length, with cries like a pack of +wolves, the Dyaks came racing towards the clearing. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime Grenville had gained a considerable lead of the devils on his +heels, and, on passing the spring, had caught a glimpse of Elaine with +her brand of fire. He paused for a second to shout essential +directions, lest she might have forgotten in her plight. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't fire, Elaine, till you see them on the trail!" +</P> + +<P> +With that he darted abruptly to the left, for the animal trail that +would lead him to his ladder. He had no more than gained it when, with +a chorus of demoniac yells and screams of triumph, the straggling +pursuers broke madly into the clearing and darted across it for the +trail. +</P> + +<P> +Even then, afraid that Elaine might fail to perform her allotted task, +Grenville sped up his ladder like a creature of the wild, and came to +the end of his platform. +</P> + +<P> +The Dyaks were immediately storming the barrier, the breach of which +was promptly discovered, and Sidney's alarm was jerkily resounding. +</P> + +<P> +Like a spirit of maternity, nerved to any ordeal by the sense of +protecting one she loved, Elaine crouched low beside the cannon, her +dilated eyes intent upon the trail. She had clung to a hope that +Grenville might yet appear in time to take charge of the gun. But +suddenly now, to her terror, four or more figures darkly appeared on +the ledge above the gate, coming swiftly towards her position. +</P> + +<P> +She thrust the torch desperately down upon the fuse, saw the powder +spew out a shower of sparks, and rolled and tumbled hotly from the +place. +</P> + +<P> +She was suddenly agonized by the thought that the thing would fail, but +Grenville had barely reached the solid rock when the cannon abruptly +thundered. +</P> + +<P> +A wide-spreading cataract of fire was projected in a red-and-yellow +cone across the space between the brink and the wall behind the trail, +as the powder poured its punishment into the ranks of the creatures +leaping upward to destruction. The detonation, sharp, crisp, +appallingly loud in the stillness of the island, fairly stunned Elaine, +now kneeling helplessly among the rocks. +</P> + +<P> +Shrieks of dismay and sudden agony immediately succeeded the explosion, +while its echoes still rattled wildly back from the distant hills of +rock. In the utter darkness, by contrast following the one brief +glare, there was nothing to be seen along the path. But wounded men +were staggering downward, in blind retreat, already abandoned by their +unscathed companions, in flight below the gate. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville had run to his store of bombs, instead of coming straight to +the gun. He meant to be prepared against a second attack. As his +active figure now appeared where he hastened brinkward, watching both +trail and clearing, Elaine beheld him at last. She arose and stumbled +towards him, her feet still heavy with her dread, her heart wildly +leaping in joy. +</P> + +<P> +"Were you shot?" she cried. "Are you hurt?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, right as a fiddler!" he assured her, quickly, glancing down at the +shadowy path. "I only wish I could bait them again and lead the +remainder to the gun!" +</P> + +<P> +He charged the piece at once, having brought for the purpose a bamboo +canister of powder, open and heaping at the end. This he thrust +complete down the muzzle of the cannon, to be rammed home with dozens +of his slugs. +</P> + +<P> +Cries still arose from the jungle, more faintly, now, as the Dyaks +retreated down the island. Excitement still rang in the air. Neither +Grenville nor Elaine felt certain the attack would not be renewed. +There was something dark that Sidney could see, crawling painfully down +the incline of the trail, assisting something more inert. He purposely +shielded Elaine from the sight, lest she understand too well. He much +preferred that the Dyaks recover their possible slain from about the +place. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was still too tensely wrought for reaction. She could hardly +understand how the situation had been changed so abruptly from attack +into utter rout. Her ears were still ringing from the cannon's +deafening roar. She had taken no time to comprehend the results of +what she had accomplished. +</P> + +<P> +"How shall we know if they do come back?" she questioned, excitedly. +"They probably broke the alarm." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll repair it soon. Did it ring? But, of course, you couldn't have +taken time to hear. Did you understand me when I shouted?" +</P> + +<P> +"I heard it, horribly shaken," said Elaine. "I heard so many awful +noises. I heard you call, of course. But, perhaps, I didn't wait long +enough, after all. I don't seem to remember. I waited as long as I +could. I hope I only frightened them away!" She sat down, overtaken +at last by weakness in her limbs. +</P> + +<P> +The torch she had used had fallen from her hand. It barely smoldered +on the rocks. Grenville extinguished it completely, then continued to +prime the cannon as before, with powder sprinkled on the vent, and a +fuse laid for several feet along the ledge. He was glad to note the +little piece had been securely held in place upon its log by its +wrappings and the weight of heavy stones. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go down and examine the gate," he said, aware that, though the +Dyaks had undoubtedly suffered severely, a still attack might yet be +attempted in the dark. Therefore, leaving Elaine to recover as best +she might, he was soon moving cautiously along the narrow ledge. +</P> + +<P> +The night had precipitated war. That he and Elaine would be called +upon to endure war's customary hazards, hardships, and horrors he was +grimly ready to concede. She had made an amazingly fine beginning. It +was certainly not the time for him to weaken her now by misplaced +tenderness, vastly as he wished to spare her shock and trial. +</P> + +<P> +The crawling objects he had seen from above had vanished beyond the +solid wall he had built to shut out the tiger. All the way down to +this barrier he made his way, Elaine meanwhile watching from the cliff. +There were dark, irregular blotches here and there along the rocks, and +on these he scraped a hiding film of dust. How much of the contents of +the gun had been expended uselessly against the wall could not be +determined in the dark. He felt assured a heavy toll had been +collected on the trail, if not in killed, at least in wounded and, +doubtless, disabled men. +</P> + +<P> +The cord arranged to sound his alarm had been broken in the charge. He +found the ends, repaired the damage, crept further along to scan the +silent and deserted clearing, then promptly returned to secure a +basket, and boldly went down to gather extra fruit. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I knew where to get some meat," he told Elaine, as he came with +his plunder to the terrace. "I don't know when I shall have another +hour so absolutely safe." +</P> + +<P> +But beyond removing his ladder and bridge, he performed no more labor +that night. It was not yet late. Elaine was too excited to retire. +She sat with him, nervously listening to all the far sounds of the +jungle, as he kindled their fire to a blaze. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder how long we can keep it up—go on as we are going now," she +reflected aloud at last. "Mustn't they get us in the end?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well—not till we've made it a fair exchange, at least." +</P> + +<P> +"There must be a dozen of them about us, six or more to our one." +</P> + +<P> +"There were, perhaps, an hour ago, but hardly so many now. One shot +himself, down in the jungle, gunning for me, while the cannon—— But +your intuition was accurate—a second boatload did arrive to join the +first." He added a brief recital of what he had seen and what had +taken place at the rotted barque, sparing the details which, he felt, +would more alarm than assure her, respecting "Buli" and the drama +played at the clearing. +</P> + +<P> +"Two boatloads!" she repeated. "What reason could they possibly have +for coming at last to this island? They couldn't have known we were +here—at least not the first who came." +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Grenville, slowly, reflecting that the time for his +revelation was, perhaps, a trifle overdue, "they came, I believe, to +secure the treasure in the cave." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine glanced up at him quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"The treasure you have joked about before?" +</P> + +<P> +"It was not altogether a joke. The treasure is there—or, at least, it +was, before I removed it to the passage." +</P> + +<P> +"Not something actually valuable? What sort of things do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"Gold and precious stones—a lot of heavy plunder—enough of the jewels +alone to fill a hat." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine slightly gasped. "And they came for that? And you have taken +it out—have hidden it, rather—and you think, perhaps, they have +missed it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I hardly believe they have been to the cave as yet. It isn't +theirs, the beggars! Not that it's of any account to us, but I don't +feel sure if I gave it up they'd depart and leave us in peace. At any +rate, I don't propose they shall have it." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was silent for a moment, and filled with wonder. +</P> + +<P> +"How did you manage to find it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Entirely by accident. I pulled down a stone that concealed a secret +chamber, where someone had walled it in. It has doubtless been there +for many generations—as these fellows have probably known." +</P> + +<P> +"And suppose they find the chamber looted—may they not be all the more +savage and eager to tear us to pieces?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well—I should say their ambition in that respect has already about +reached its limit." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine could still feel her heart pounding heavily in her bosom. She +returned to her original query. +</P> + +<P> +"If we go on like this for a week, what then? Is there anything in the +world to prevent them from waiting and waiting and waiting, till——" +She did not finish her sentence, but the slightest shudder shook her +frame. +</P> + +<P> +"They were goaded to action to-night," said Grenville, hopefully. +"They may feel sufficiently aggrieved to return for more. If not—they +must be invited." +</P> + +<P> +"But surely you'll not attempt such a venture as this again?" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville rubbed at his jaw. "I wish it might be duplicated! No such +luck is likely. But I feel very certain we'd both rather cash in +fighting than to starve like rats in a trap." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," Elaine faltered, in her quiet way of courage, "but—if it has to +come—let's try to—receive it here together." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap34"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXIV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +DYAK DARTS AND METHODS +</H4> + +<P> +Long-distance fighting began an hour after sunrise in the morning. It +was rather a long-distance attack, since Grenville, armed only with the +cannon, was powerless to retaliate, except at great expense of +ammunition, and with questionable results. +</P> + +<P> +One of the Dyaks had stationed himself on the central hill of the +island with some sort of ancient rifle. He took a deliberate shot at +Sidney the moment that unsuspecting thorn in their sides chanced to +make an appearance on the western section of the terrace. The bullet +went wide, having struck among the rocks some fifteen feet away, +arousing Grenville's contempt. +</P> + +<P> +Not even Elaine was greatly frightened by this overture from the enemy, +whose marksman could have but a limited view of that unused section of +the headland. +</P> + +<P> +But the first small dart that sped lightly up from the jungle, to drop +almost at Grenville's feet, was another affair altogether. He knew the +thing was not only sharp, but literally soaked with poison. It had +only to prick through the skin of one's hand, or even, perhaps, through +the thinness of their garments, to perform its deadly function. The +merest chance shot was thus extremely likely to achieve what the +rifleman could not. +</P> + +<P> +These hideous little messengers of agony and death were rained all +morning on the terrace. They fell near the furnace for keeping fire; +they dropped by the door of the shelter. A few even sped as far as the +powder magazine, where Grenville found them on the rock and gravel roof. +</P> + +<P> +Ample protection was afforded by remaining under cover, but this was +not altogether wise or safe, except, perhaps, for Elaine. Grenville +felt he must constantly watch the clearing. In the light of day his +alarm could be discovered and removed, to permit an attack too sudden +to be opposed. +</P> + +<P> +He, therefore, constructed a bamboo shield, with which to protect his +head and a part of his body, as he moved about among the rocks, or +concealed himself near the cannon. +</P> + +<P> +Not more than twice in all the morning did he see so much as one of the +tubes—the long, slender blowguns of the hidden foe—while this silent +bombardment continued. It was useless to think of slewing about his +little brass piece for a shot at mere motionless jungle. It was +equally impossible, he confessed, to excite the Dyaks to another charge +until they should finally make up their minds a sudden assault would +succeed. +</P> + +<P> +He was rather surprised they had made no attempt to rush him at +earliest dawn. The ledge was, however, very narrow. It afforded the +one and only approach, and the dire disaster of the night before had +rendered far more cowardly the set of treacherous and utterly craven +murderers these boatmen undoubtedly were. +</P> + +<P> +All afternoon the darts continued falling, intermittently—and +Grenville made no response. His silence, indeed, was a mystery which +the Dyaks not only failed to understand, but, likewise, a little +dreaded. That he had no rifle they were thoroughly convinced. But +that roar of his cannon they had understood, and to hear it again they +had no appetite. Moreover, its deadly hail and detonation had come so +unexpectedly, from the erstwhile silent terrace, that they knew not +what to expect concerning the future. +</P> + +<P> +Not without hopes of actually slaying some of the unknown forces on the +crest of the hill, they shot an exceptional number of their darts from +the nearby thicket as the sun at last declined. Grenville, having at +length established what he thought to be a line of the little missiles' +flight, hastily made and bound up a bomb of no more than two pounds' +weight. +</P> + +<P> +This, with a fuse too short for ordinary safety, he finally carried to +the westward brink with one of his glowing coals of fire. +</P> + +<P> +The patient rifleman, waiting on his hill, immediately blazed away, as +before—and missed the entire bulk of rock. Grenville paid not even +the tribute of a glance at the opposite summit, as he thrust his fuse +down upon his coal. +</P> + +<P> +The hiss of the powder gave him a start, so swiftly did it travel +towards the bomb. With all his might he threw the thing outward at the +shadowed spot whence he thought the darts were flying. +</P> + +<P> +The quick, sharp bark and the patch of flame behind the design of a +palm leaf, came like a clap of thunder, just before the second when the +bomb would have struck on the earth. +</P> + +<P> +A yell of dismay, or anguish, or both, and a scattering shower of +shredded greenery supplied the only report of results that Grenville +was destined to receive. The flight of darts was ended. A few hurried +movements in the thicket, and a groan that Sidney felt was smothered, +were the only signs vouchsafed him that the powder had not been cheaply +wasted. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a poor way to fight the hidden devils," he told Elaine, as he +came once more to the shelter, "but it may possibly serve to keep them +further away, and force them to different tactics." +</P> + +<P> +It certainly had this latter effect, but not immediately. +</P> + +<P> +There was no attack that night, and no disturbance in the jungle, +though Sidney descended to the thicket and returned, not only with more +fresh fruit he had located during the day, but also with a small wild +hog he had captured in one of the older traps which the Dyaks had +failed to discover. +</P> + +<P> +The morning developed nothing aggressive, save the presence of the +marksman on hill number two with the rifle that Grenville said would +only be deadly around a corner. Some plan of patient waiting appeared +to have been matured in the Dyaks' mind, since one of their boats +issued forth at last from its place, to circle about the headland like +a vulture atilt for prey, while down in the cover of the greenery other +natives undoubtedly lurked. +</P> + +<P> +They affrighted a flock of parrots here and there, from time to time, +or set the timid monkeys to chattering and leaping through the upper +foliage, apprising Grenville thus that the thickets were haunted below. +No darts sped upward from the jungle edge, however, which, Sidney +argued, might signify that the men with the deadly blow-guns possibly +hoped to excite over-confidence in the keepers of the terrace, who +might finally expose themselves to fewer, but more accurate, shots. +</P> + +<P> +In his forced inactivity, Grenville once more waxed impatient. He felt +the heat of the blazing sun, which was daily growing more intense. He +chafed at the thought of doing nothing while their water supply was +steadily diminishing, and the Dyaks apparently planned to subdue him by +thirst or famine. He dared not risk an exposure of the door to the +secret passage by going for water to the cave below, especially as all +his jugs were porous and permitted the water's escape by percolation, +whereas the supply in the basins below might be better preserved where +it was. +</P> + +<P> +A hundred useless plans for taking the war to the enemy's camp were +presented to his mind, always to be promptly abandoned. He could only +utilize his artillery for defense, and could not even hasten an attack. +He could devise no means of ascertaining how many of the natives had +either been killed or disabled. That fully ten survived, however, he +felt was probable. One or two at the most was all the little cannon +would be likely to rake in a charge. +</P> + +<P> +Early in the afternoon there was ample evidence of exceptional activity +down in the heavy jungle growth, though none of the Dyaks was seen. +The movements of birds and animals, as well as the swaying of branches +or trees in various thickets under the cliff, sufficiently advertised +the facts. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was puzzled to understand what might be occurring, till, at +length, he discovered that some of the fruit-bearing trees, on which he +had counted for supplies, had been quietly denuded of their burdens, or +even altogether destroyed. One large banana palm with fruit of +exceptional quality, he even beheld as it toppled to the earth, where +some fiendish head-hunter hacked through its fibrous trunk. +</P> + +<P> +Something sank in his breast as he witnessed this atrocious vandalism, +and realized his helplessness to avert the oncoming famine of himself +and the girl in his charge. That the spring would be guarded, night +and day, was, of course, a foregone conclusion. And not even a plan +for goading the Dyaks to another attack came in working order to his +brain. +</P> + +<P> +That was a thoroughly disheartening day, sultry, and fraught with +menace from all directions, as the Dyak craft continued to hover about +upon the sea, and the pillaging continued in the thickets. All the +work was, moreover, silent, grim, and ominous, with once in a while a +dart spinning swiftly up from the tangle below, or, from time to time, +an echoing shot coming from the opposite height with a bullet singing +crazily by, or ripping along the rocks. +</P> + +<P> +Sidney made no attempt to descend that night, aware of the folly of an +exploration into the enemy's lines, and the utter impossibility of +discovering fruit in a nearer portion of the jungle. His entire wild +hog had been roasted. For, perhaps, two days the meat might keep, in +the coolness of the passage to the cave. +</P> + +<P> +Once more the night was uneventful, and silent. Once more came the +day, and a blazing hot sun poured unveiled caloric on the summit of the +terrace, where sultriness drank up the water that oozed through the +substance of the jugs. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got to do something," Sidney declared. "We can't go on like +this." Elaine was already denying herself the food and water she +required. "I shall try to invent some means of enticing the creatures +to the cave below—and, perhaps, explode a mine. If the watchers on +that hovering ship saw me disappear in the hole, it is rather more than +likely they would follow, thinking they had me bottled." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine always manifested interest, no matter what his scheme. +</P> + +<P> +"But how could that possibly be managed, now that you haven't your +raft?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think by a ladder and platform, the ladder anchored as we had it the +day I came up with your assistance, and the platform arranged of bamboo +poles, which I can carry down through the passage. It will take me +some time to get it ready—but something has got to be done." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine's eyes brightened with hope. +</P> + +<P> +"Please say there is something I can do to help," she begged. "You +work so hard and constantly." +</P> + +<P> +"There will be rather warm employment for us both," he assured her, in +his former way of cheer, "particularly towards the end." +</P> + +<P> +He brought his neglected ladder to the shelter, where Elaine was +presently as busy as himself, rewinding the rungs in the creepers, and +testing it all for strength. Just what his final plan would be she did +not understand, but her confidence in his ability and resourcefulness +was almost wholly without bounds. +</P> + +<P> +The usual vigilance was not for a moment neglected, but nothing +occurred in the world below, save a repetition of the former day's +activity on the part of the unseen natives. It was not until well in +the afternoon that the Dyaks' plan developed. +</P> + +<P> +A breeze had sprung up from the north, bringing gushes of heat and +jungle fragrance across the summit of the hill. Then, at length, as if +this steadying wind was the final agency for which they had waited, the +Dyaks set up a queer, wild chant from various places in the thicket. +</P> + +<P> +A few minutes later a cloud of smoke arose from one of their centers. +This was followed by several more. A huge, thick smudge was soon +rising upward from the earth, and rolling on the breeze to envelop all +the headland. +</P> + +<P> +The Dyaks had gathered enormous quantities of resinous wood, and had +deliberately fired the jungle! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap35"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A BATTLE IN THE SMOKE +</H4> + +<P> +No doubts could be for long entertained as to what the smudge was +expected to accomplish. Its dense and suffocating fumes not only +rendered a further watch upon the clearing or the trail practically +useless, but it seemed to Grenville highly improbable that he or Elaine +could for long survive the pungent reek they were soon obliged to +breathe. +</P> + +<P> +There were two slight elements only in their favor. One was the +passageway, through the rock, where clean fresh air was constantly +flowing upward; the other was the very breeze itself that swept the +smoke upon them. It frequently split the cloud of black and gray upon +two juttings of the headland, or even beat it down and mingled its own +overheated but acceptable ozone with the otherwise stifling fume. +</P> + +<P> +Anger and horror together had lodged in Grenville's being. That the +Dyaks would soon attempt a sneak upon them, under cover of the cloud, +he felt was as certain as that hideous death must be their portion, +were this business sufficiently prolonged. Even retirement to the +cavern could avail them nothing but a short delay of the fate they must +finally face when their food and water should be presently exhausted. +</P> + +<P> +Under cover of the drifting smudge, he sent Elaine to the passage. As +long as a breath remained in his lungs he resolved he would not desert +his post, where he waited for attack by the trail. To permit the +fiends to swarm upon the terrace, destroy or capture his powder and the +gun, and prison himself and Elaine in the narrow gallery, was a thought +that aroused him through and through. +</P> + +<P> +All further contemplation of his scheme for alluring the Dyaks to the +cavern was necessarily abandoned. The most he could do was to watch as +before, and, perhaps, convey his bombs and stores to the passage, as +time and his highly essential vigilance permitted. +</P> + +<P> +Back and forth through the smoke he moved upon the hill, seeking the +better air that came occasionally through the billows, and listening +intently for the faintest sound from the always ready alarm. When an +hour had gone and no attack had developed, his heart underwent a new +despair. He began to doubt that the Fates would supply him an +opportunity for further retaliation on the fiends below, who could +finally overcome him with the fumes. +</P> + +<P> +The drift of smoke was intermittently broken, near the trail, where +apparently a current of wind that assumed a rotation as it rose through +a half-round niche of considerable dimensions in the wall, swept +vertically upward to lift the billowing cloud. Thus for at least a +portion of the time Grenville could glimpse the ledge behind the trail +where besiegers must finally pass. +</P> + +<P> +So dense became the reek, however, that he feared his post must soon +become insupportable. There was neither time nor air in which to +arrange a longer fuse, which, as a matter of fact, would be too long +for accurate work with the gun. +</P> + +<P> +He knew at last the hour was nearing sunset, and silence still seemed +to roll with the smoke across the enveloped terrace. His eyes were +burningly filled with water; his head had begun to ache. He went +weakly over towards the gallery, intent upon breathing a little fresher +air before resuming his duties. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, above the ringing in his ears, came a sound from his gate +alarm. Its deep hollow tone was strangely resonant in all that blanket +of smoke. He darted back, where lay his bombs and the short fuse laid +to the cannon. +</P> + +<P> +The smudge had, unfortunately, fallen like a pall, concealing all the +trail. It lifted slightly, however, as a fog may lift over waters, +revealing one half-seen form upon the ledge. +</P> + +<P> +Then, in the second that Grenville laid his fire to the powder, his +second alarm, from the frame of bamboo buckets, hung behind him on the +wall, rattled out its xylophonic warning. The head-hunting demons, +front and rear, were practically upon him! +</P> + +<P> +He fired the gun. Its orange flame shot out through the smoke in +ragged spears, mingling the fume of imperfect powder with all that reek +from the jungle. +</P> + +<P> +A gap was apparently torn in the rolling cloud, to be filled with a +denser substance. Nothing could possibly be discerned where the charge +must have splattered on the wall. There were cries in the air, but +whether from pain, or the Dyaks' exultation, Grenville could never have +told. +</P> + +<P> +Aware that the demons were capable of sacrificing some of their number +to the gun, to beget its discharge, and thus clear the way for +concerted attack by greater numbers, Grenville promptly lighted the +fuse of a bomb and hurled it from him down the trail. +</P> + +<P> +It burst in the smoke, its red blot of fire a lurid illumination in the +black and gray billows from the smudge. Again a cry succeeded, this +one unquestionably voicing some wretch's mortal agony in the +all-concealing fume. +</P> + +<P> +Without for a moment pausing, Grenville plunged swiftly through the +drifting envelope, to gain the brink at the rear. He caught up a rock +as he stumbled half blindly onward, and blew on the fire of his brand. +</P> + +<P> +A thicker shroud of the reek revolved about him, halting him there to +gasp for breath, which he stooped in the hope of finding. He dropped +the stone as a useless burden. Once more he staggered onward—and +blundered against a Dyak, more blinded than himself! +</P> + +<P> +The creature had scaled the wall despite the bamboo framework and its +cups, or wooden bells! He and Sidney were instantly locked in a fierce +and deadly embrace! +</P> + +<P> +A battle as silent as it was swift and ferocious was curtained there in +the smoke. +</P> + +<P> +That the edge was near was a knowledge equally shared, as each man +wrestled in desperate violence to overcome his antagonist and hurl him +down to the sea. +</P> + +<P> +More by instinct than design, Grenville had paused to grip his +firebrand hotly between his teeth. He had seen that the head-hunter +held a knife, which was instantly turned, as the boatman writhed in +Sidney's arms, in an effort to sink it to the hilt. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville, however, clutched the wiry wrist with all his might, and +tried to fetch it upward for a quickly planned maneuver. It slipped +from his grip, and together he and the native froze more savage than +before. The Dyak once more attempted a stabbing pass, and Sidney again +caught the sinewy hand, in a clutch that he knew must fail. +</P> + +<P> +The wrist left his impotent fingers like a snake. The whole arm +writhed backward for the stroke. Sidney abruptly leaned forward, +turning his head, and jabbed the red-hot firebrand against the Dyak's +eye. +</P> + +<P> +With a shriek of pain the fellow lurched galvanically, to stab with +demoniacal might. But the blow went wide, in his agony, and when +Grenville had caught the wrist in a grip that a serpent could scarcely +have broken, he instantly laid hold of it with his second hand, with a +motion incredibly swift. Then turning his back with the skinny brown +arm across his shoulder, and abruptly stooping forward, Sidney hoisted +the scoundrel free from the rocks, on his shoulders, and, moving +quickly towards the cliff, ended the fight then and there. +</P> + +<P> +He broke the arm thus used as a leverage against the Dyak's weight, and +literally slammed the shuddering creature down on the rocks, at the +brink of the wall, where he poised but a moment over death. +</P> + +<P> +If he tried to writhe backward to the solid ledge, the effort was +belated. With a piercing scream he toppled over, flinging out his +broken arm in a gesture grotesque and disordered. Then he suddenly +grayed, in the limbo of smoke, and shot swiftly downward to his doom. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville still bit upon the branch that glowed with fire. He searched +about pantingly, found his end of fuse, and saw the powder sputter with +ignition. He had barely stepped back when, from over at the trail, +came a sudden and tremendous detonation. +</P> + +<P> +That the Dyaks were there on the terrace, after all, destroying his +bombs, was the one thought that flashed through the smoke in his brain, +as his own sharp explosion shook the air and hollowed huge masses from +the cliff. +</P> + +<P> +He stumbled and groped laboriously across the uneven heaps of stone to +reach the secret passage, where Elaine must be crouching in fear. In +his ears rang her words "If it has to come, let's receive it here +together." +</P> + +<P> +Already he feared her one grim wish had been brutally denied her in +this hideous pall of smoke. He saw a figure, dimly, through the reek, +and crouched to take revenge. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap36"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXVI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE LAST CUP OF WATER +</H4> + +<P> +The figure was Elaine's. Grenville was almost upon her, prepared for +some swift and terrible deed of retaliation, when a swirl in the shroud +that enveloped them both revealed her standing near the edge. +</P> + +<P> +She still held a glowing fire-stick in her hand, as she peered through +the billowing cloud of smoke where she had flung an ignited bomb. She +had fled from her shelter, in desperate dread, lest a murderous fate +overtake her companion, battling alone with the fiends. She had found +his post deserted, and, having discerned two figures on the trail, had +instantly obeyed an impulse to protect the hill with the only means +provided. +</P> + +<P> +She uttered a cry as she saw Grenville crouching behind her, raising +her brand like a weapon, then sinking in relief. +</P> + +<P> +"You!" he said. "Elaine! I might have known!" +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure they are coming up behind us there!" she answered. "I know +I heard the bamboo buckets jangling! Have you been across to see?" +</P> + +<P> +"I fired the bomb," he answered. "Didn't you know?" +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head. Her ears, that had been so finely attuned to catch +the warning from the rearward cliff, had received or recorded no +impression whatsoever of the huger disturbance, while her own bomb's +colossal thunder and shock engrossed her eager attention. +</P> + +<P> +"Was anyone there?" she asked, half choking with the reek. "I suppose +you couldn't see." +</P> + +<P> +"I saw no one when lighting the fuse," he answered. "What was +happening here?" +</P> + +<P> +She related what she had seen and what she had done. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope I killed them!" she added, weak and dizzy from the smoke. "But +they probably ran away!" +</P> + +<P> +It was the first time she had entertained such a feeling. +</P> + +<P> +He urged her again to the shelter, where he coaxed her to drink, and +bathe her face, for the freshening and soothing influence of which she +was sadly in need. Returning, then, to the shelter for some of their +fruit, he groped his way down along the trail—and found that one or +the other of the bombs had so shattered the ledge, as to render it +useless for passing till the gap could in some way be bridged. +</P> + +<P> +They were safe from invasion in the night—but they were, likewise, +marooned on the hill! It was hardly likely the Dyaks would attempt to +construct a platform across the yawning cavity, under the shadow of the +gun, while, as for themselves, descent at present was entirely out of +the question. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime the smoke was unabated, if it was not, indeed, more dense and +choking than before. All the man's characteristic doggedness of +purpose was required in preparations for the night. The sun was down; +the brief and usually comforting twilight seemed entirely absent, as +darkness was hastened by the fumes. +</P> + +<P> +Back and forth from the now deserted shelter to the passage Sidney +groped time after time, fetching her couch and robe for Elaine, and +their meager supplies for dinner. The gallery then became her boudoir, +sanctified to her uses. Outside on the ledge, where at least a breath +of air trailed upward from the cave beneath, to escape at the door and +a little dilute the stifling smoke, he finally made his sentinel post +to pass the long session of darkness. +</P> + +<P> +He was roused repeatedly in the night by the sheer discomfort of his +resting-place, and the smoke that smarted his nostrils. All the long +hours through the dull red flames glowed fitfully, down through the +jungle. He was tempted, times without number, to throw out his +platform to the tree and descend with a bomb, to hurl at some group of +the demons, there in the nether gloom of the Hades they created. He +curbed his impatience rigidly, however, and crowded the impulse back. +That one or two natives at the most maintained the fires was a +supposition not to be ignored. The possible results of such an +enterprise were incommensurate with the risk that must be incurred. +</P> + +<P> +Despite his uneasiness of mind and body he slept for a time between +midnight and dawn as the mere result of overstrain and the weariness +accumulated for several days. +</P> + +<P> +For a brief time after sunrise the northerly breeze abated, permitting +the smoke to ascend more nearly straight. The headland was thereby +freed and sweetened, only, however, to be re-enveloped later, and, +veiled from the other features of the island. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville took advantage of the respite to make an examination of the +cliff at the rear of the camp. It had been so shattered, where the +bomb shook down the disintegrated tufa, that its ascent would never +again be attempted. The framework of bamboo cups was gone. There was +nothing below to indicate whether or not a Dyak boat might have been +swamped by falling rock. +</P> + +<P> +The cavity torn in the regular trail was rather more exaggerated than +diminished by the morning's revelations. Grenville was certain the +enemy would hardly hazard bridging the gap while they thought a single +ounce of punishment remained upon the terrace. He was not altogether +certain he should not construct a bridge himself, since only when they +charged upon his position could he hope to decimate the blood-desiring +savages, who must still remain in menacing numbers on the island. +</P> + +<P> +The little brass cannon was once more charged, though its use was +hardly likely. The wind and the smoke resumed their steady flow across +and about the hill before Elaine appeared. +</P> + +<P> +She was pale and plainly weary, when at length she emerged from the +passage. Her sleep had been broken, and haunted by dreams of countless +new atrocities committed by the demons below. Her courage was +phenomenal. She made no complaint, but attempted a smile and a cheery +outlook on the day. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was wrung, more than comforted, at the wistful effort she was +making to sustain her slender hope and encourage his own flagging +spirit. When he found that hardly a pint of water remained in the jugs +he had thought would supply them at least for a couple of days, his +despair for Elaine became intensely acute, and his heart began dully to +ache. Two of the clay receptacles had developed tiny cracks, perhaps +from the jarring of explosions, while a third had toppled over and +spilled its precious contents after having been placed in the passage. +Percolation and usage had drained the others inevitably—and the day +was beginning with heat and stifling reek. +</P> + +<P> +Much of the fruit that Sidney had gathered was now unfit for use, and +was, therefore, thrown away. By way of conserving the water supply, +they made a breakfast of paw-paws and bananas only, though the meat +remaining from the previous day was still acceptable. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville descended to the cavern as soon as this scant and oversweet +meal was concluded. He bore two jugs, to be filled from the basins in +the rock. When the light from the blazing torch he held above his head +dimly outlined but one of the pools he had seen on a former occasion, +he realized that some insignificant fissure must have resulted from his +blast, and permitted the other pools to trickle to the sea. +</P> + +<P> +He filled his jugs with the utmost care, scooping up the water at the +deepest hole to leave all unclean sediment undisturbed. That the pool +must soon succumb to evaporation was obvious. Vaguely he wondered +which might last the longer, this underground well, or the breath in +his body and Elaine's. +</P> + +<P> +Even the sight and touch of the precious water excited his mouth to +thirst. With the jugs both full and set carefully aside, he sprawled +out eagerly, flat on the rocks, for a deep and satisfying draught. +</P> + +<P> +Hardly had the water reached his palate, however, when he lifted his +head with a sound like a stifled groan. The pool was connected with +the tides—<I>the liquid there was brine</I>! +</P> + +<P> +He rose to his knees, with his fist before his eyes, his whole body +tense and rigid with his soul's recoil from the visions abruptly +shadowed in his mind. The cordon about the helpless girl was so +hideously complete! It seemed like the bitterness of her doom that he +tasted on his tongue. +</P> + +<P> +It appeared so useless now to struggle. How he should take this latest +news to the uncomplaining comrade of his destiny was more than he could +determine. Wild thoughts of offering all the treasure he had found, as +ransom for Elaine at least, possessed his mind, as he conjured up the +final, triumphant approach of the Dyaks, whom the two famished keepers +of the terrace would at length be no longer able successfully to resist. +</P> + +<P> +He likewise thought of offering himself, could Elaine be finally +spared. But through it all he was sickeningly conscious that neither +course could avail with these treacherous fiends. A human head was +more to them than treasures of earth or heaven. Moreover, the +murderous savages had already paid a heavy toll, and would smart in +their blood for revenge. +</P> + +<P> +There could be no bargain made with such an enemy, all but victorious +already, and certain of final success. They should never find that +treasure, however, Grenville swore, if he had to sink it in the sea! +And as for a final triumph—there were many ways, in a last extremity, +whereby at least the unspeakable horrors, certain to follow their +capture alive, could be escaped by both himself and Elaine. +</P> + +<P> +Wild rage possessed him, kneeling there, as he thought of the merciless +head-hunters smoking them out on the hill, and waiting as loathsomely +as vultures for the slowly approaching end. Mad plans for sinking +their anchored boats, for loading himself with torch and bombs, to +charge like a Nemesis through their ranks, or for luring them up to +some deadly mine, ranged erratically through his brain. +</P> + +<P> +He thought of attempting a condensation of sea water to provide Elaine +with drink. He was swiftly possessed by a plan, even more absurd, of +making a float with his bamboo stems, and sailing away with Elaine on +board, under cover of the darkness. +</P> + +<P> +He arose at last, dizzy, with the vortex of impractical suggestions +revolving in his mind. He emptied his jugs and strode to the mouth of +the cavern, looking out on smoke and sea. The tide was low. Whole +colonies of mussels clung there below him on the rocks. They were +food! The thought came home to him swiftly—only to be immediately +succeeded by the realization they were salt, and would make for greater +thirst. He thought of the wail that had formerly haunted the island—a +friendly, invaluable phenomenon that had not been repeated for days. +He thought of the raft he had rowed with such ease when he came here to +blow out the ledge. Was it floating still in the estuary's mouth, or +had some of the Dyaks destroyed it? +</P> + +<P> +The estuary!—could he only reach its tepid pool, creep towards its +source, fill one of his jugs, and return to gladden Elaine! His busy +mind was instantly working on the various steps by which he might +succeed in lashing together some sort of raft, for a night excursion to +the tiny rill that fed the vine-surrounded inlet where the water was +not brine. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap37"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXVII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A BREATHLESS MARGIN +</H4> + +<P> +Grenville returned for his jugs and the torch, impatient to be +employed. The clay receptacles were useless on the hill, but he +carried them back to the gallery, to leave them on the floor. The +lower rock-and-wattle barrier he carefully readjusted to its place, and +secured with the bar of wood. +</P> + +<P> +"The water below is rather poor," he informed Elaine, when he once more +rejoined her above. "I believe I can reach a supply considerably +better by building a bamboo platform that will give me access to a +larger and fresher pool." +</P> + +<P> +laine was thinking of another, more personal danger.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think these creatures have visited the cave?" +</P> + +<P> +"If they have, they left no signs." +</P> + +<P> +"You are not afraid they may go there soon—and discover the end of +this passage?" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville shook his head. "I only wish they would try—every man Jack +of them hunting there at once! If it weren't for this smoke, I should +try to lure them in!" +</P> + +<P> +Glad of an occupation, no matter how forlorn the hope it afforded, he +went promptly to work fetching all of the largest bamboo stems from his +generous supply, together with wood for fuel and many lengths of +creeper. By the time these various transfers were complete, he had +left but little of their meager possessions in or about the former camp. +</P> + +<P> +Bombs, fuses, torch-wood, and much of his extra powder he now proceeded +to store along the wall, and in a niche of the gallery, where they +should neither obstruct the passage under foot, nor yet be exposed to +possible accident from necessary fire. The terrace continued to be +wrapped in smoke, as on the previous day. Instructing Elaine to call +him instantly, should any attempt be made by the Dyaks to bridge the +gap on the trail, he now began the laborious task of carrying one after +another of the bamboo stems down the passage to the cave. +</P> + +<P> +The stems were large, some of them fully six inches through at the +butt, and while they were never heavy, yet the twelve or more feet of +length to which he had reduced them made their transfer through the +narrow and angular gallery an awkward and troublesome maneuver, with +only a torch for light. +</P> + +<P> +He had made up his mind that six of these stems, lashed together in +pairs, or even laid side by side, and slightly separated, would +complete a float on which he could readily find sufficient buoyancy for +himself and a couple of water jugs, more especially as he thoroughly +intended to stretch himself out flat, full length, upon it while moving +about the shore. He felt, moreover, it must be so light he could not +only launch it from the cave, but even withdraw it inside again, should +danger so require. +</P> + +<P> +Fortunately, he reflected, none of the stems was split. Each comprised +a set of water-tight compartments that a load of double his avoirdupois +could hardly sink beneath the surface. If he found that four of the +lengths would answer as well as six, he would certainly use no more. +</P> + +<P> +As he stumbled and edged his way downward once again, with the last of +his load colliding here and there along the wall, he thought, perhaps, +it might be possible to test the float in the salty pool that remained +in the basin of the cavern. Could this be done, much time would be +saved, and no risk of being discovered at his work need be incurred. +</P> + +<P> +For his greater convenience in assembling materials and tools, he +placed both his torch and final burden for a moment within the passage, +when he came once more to the cave. Three of the bamboo stems were +then in the cavern proper, while all of the creeper and the other +essentials remained on the gallery floor. He paused to wipe his brow, +for he was sweating. His mouth was dry with a growing thirst that +refused to be forgotten. +</P> + +<P> +He had barely stepped out to survey the space for the likeliest site +convenient to his needs, when, abruptly, a human voice sent a murmurous +echo through the hollow tomb. A sharp command immediately +followed—all in some barbaric tongue. But before the noise of +something dully scraping on the outside ledge could add its +confirmation to the somewhat belated alarm, Grenville was certain that +a Dyak boat had come to the cavern, and its crew were about to land. +</P> + +<P> +Instantly pouncing upon the nearest length of his precious bamboo, he +darted with it to the passage. The second stem struck on the inner +wall, not only delaying his movements, but sounding a thud that he felt +must be heard through all the vast bulk of the hill. +</P> + +<P> +Yet he dared not either betray the fact he had been in the cave, or +lose that final pole. Once more, as he heard the Dyaks coming, and +even beheld a shadow, preceding its owner to the place, he darted +silently out at his door to lay hold of the last remaining stem. +</P> + +<P> +He was certain its end must be plainly seen, as the Dyaks now rose +above the ledge. A sound that he made seemed incredibly loud—and his +door was out where the boatmen's torch must play a red light upon it! +</P> + +<P> +He stumbled across his materials, now congesting his narrow space. He +thrust out an arm, laid hold of his door, and had barely drawn it +across the opening when the glare of the torch the Dyaks held sent red +rays in upon him. +</P> + +<P> +Not another move could he make without betraying his presence near at +hand. To adjust the barrier solidly in place might readily prove +fatal. To leave it loose, a palpable sham where all should appear as +solid wall, was scarcely less of a risk. +</P> + +<P> +Holding it firmly, lest it slip, and peering breathlessly out through +the chink which it failed by an inch to cover, Grenville beheld three +half-naked forms, incredibly magnified and diabolized not only by the +torch they held, but also by the shadows they cast upon the rocks, and +the general aspect of the region, black as Inferno. Three thinner, +more furtive fiends of the nether abyss would have been hard, indeed, +to imagine. In the tallest Sidney recognized the chief. +</P> + +<P> +As they turned about to scan the wall, and the breach he had made with +his explosion, the whites of their eyes and the gleam of their teeth +rendered all of their faces strangely hideous, with the yellowish glare +projecting them indistinctly against the ebon of the tomb. +</P> + +<P> +That their keen, malicious eyes must instantly discover the wall's +decided imperfection, where the gallery door was askew, seemed to +Grenville inescapable. They motioned towards him, and down at the +floor, in manifest wonder that the place was no longer filled with +water. Their voices were low. They spoke as if with a certain awe in +which the place was held. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to Grenville they would never go about their business. His +muscles ached with the unaccustomed strain put upon them to support the +heavy door. How long he could stand there, making no sound, and +permitting no movement of the barrier, was a question he could not +answer. If only his cleaver had not been dropped around the bend, +beside his torch, he would almost have dared spring out on the +unsuspecting Dyaks to brain them where they stood! +</P> + +<P> +At thought of his torch, redly glowing, in beyond, he sweated anew, +convinced that as soon as the boatmen grew accustomed to the darkness +of the cavern, these torch rays must impinge upon their vision, and +instantly divulge the secret of the passage to the top. +</P> + +<P> +One of the Dyaks now approached even closer than before. Savagely +determined he would slay the man, should he raise a hand, or otherwise +give the slightest intimation that the door was seen at last, Sidney +grew hot in his farthest pulse, and became as tense as a tight-coiled +spring as he steadied to leap from the place. +</P> + +<P> +But the man in command now grumbled another of his orders. The fellow +so near discovery and death turned slowly about, made one more gesture +towards the shattered ledge, and followed the other where they made +their way across the uneven floor. +</P> + +<P> +Until they had passed to a second ridge, where their feet disturbed a +few loose fragments that rattled down towards the base, Grenville made +not the slightest move to alter his position. Then cautiously, without +a sound, he adjusted the door to its proper place and secured it with +the bar. +</P> + +<P> +He still had a chink through which to peer, but he first moved back to +his blazing torch and smothered its light on the rocks. When he once +more groped his way to the tiny opening, the Dyaks had come to the +rifled chamber. He could hear their exclamations of disgust and anger, +but only their torch could be seen. +</P> + +<P> +Aware they might still return to his wall and discover the one +remaining retreat where Elaine was even remotely secure, Grenville was +seized with an irresistible impulse to destroy the fiends on the +instant, if such a denouement could be rendered possible. +</P> + +<P> +He turned about to grope his way upward and secure a bomb as swiftly as +the darkness would permit. Over the basket of treasure, some time +since deposited there by the wall, he blundered, and fell to his knees. +The thing was in the way. He took it up impatiently and carried it +well up the passage to one of the broadest galleries, where he placed +it again on the floor. +</P> + +<P> +With one of the smallest of his bombs, and carrying one of his +firebrands only for a torch, he once more descended, feeling his way +along the wall, eager to regain the lower entrance, lest it might be +already discovered. He had been delayed in securing the brand, without +which his bomb was useless. He had told Elaine his measures were only +of defense. +</P> + +<P> +They were hardly even that. When he came to the door he could see no +torch, for the Dyaks had gone, in new exasperation, and their voices +echoed back from the ledge. The impulse to rush out thus belatedly, +ignite his fuse, and hurl his engine of destruction upon them, or their +boat, was one he curbed with difficulty, at the dictates of sober +sense. For a dozen reasons the maneuver might fail to destroy the +murderous trio. And should one escape to advertise the fact he was +somehow concealed in the cavern, no possible cleverness could avail to +protect Elaine or himself. +</P> + +<P> +Should a larger number come to the cave—— But he knew it was hardly +likely, now, that even a few would return. If the Dyaks had, as he +felt convinced, concluded that the open niche meant that the tomb had +been pillaged, that the treasure was gone, either taken by himself or +another, they would have no conceivable reason left for courting +disaster here again. For unless they should dare approach the place by +night, it was only under cover of the rolling smoke they would risk +attack from above. +</P> + +<P> +He even thought of hastening back to the terrace now to drop a bomb +upon them. It was only a recollection of the all-engulfing smoke that +halted this intent. Instead he dislodged the wooden bar, removed the +door to his secret gallery, and crept out to glide to the breach in the +ledge for a possible view of the boatmen. +</P> + +<P> +Only the disappearing end of their craft was shown through the fumes +that veiled the tide. It was Grenville's useful catamaran, as he +instantly discerned. A new resentment burned in his blood, but left +him as helpless as before. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap38"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXVIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +GRENVILLE'S DESPERATE CHANCE +</H4> + +<P> +At noon Elaine reluctantly consumed the last remaining drop of water. +Grenville had taken a sip, and pretended to take a swallow. To refuse +it longer, Elaine quite clearly comprehended, would be but to see it +ooze away through the jar, to be drunk by the merciless heat. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall get a new supply," said Sidney, attempting an accent of cheer, +"but I'd rather avoid using that of the cavern, for fear it may not be +wholesome." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine, in her way of divining the truth, was only partially deceived. +She felt that the water below in the cave was wholly unfit for +consumption. She knew that if anything even remotely possible could be +done to refill their vessels, Sidney would have filled them long before. +</P> + +<P> +She made no discouraging comments, however, despite the fact her hope +was succumbing to despair. The smoke continued to roll in sullen +clouds across and about the terrace; the sun beat down through it +redly, soaking the rock in caloric, that sank to the gallery itself. +</P> + +<P> +The noonday meal had been slight and unrefreshing—a bit of fruit, too +warm and too ripe for relish on the palate, and a few odd scraps of the +meat. It was water that both insistently craved, and for which they +grew fevered and distressed. +</P> + +<P> +The smoldering brands in the furnace of rocks could not be permitted to +die away in ash. Elaine had undertaken the maintenance of this, their +altar spark, which rarely rose to a flame. She was safe enough to come +and go from the passage entrance to the nearby furnace Grenville had +moved to facilitate her duties, but the smoke seemed far more stifling +and hot than it had the previous day, while, with headache, thirst, and +a heaviness in all her weary being, the endlessly cheerful and +courageous little companion of Grenville's maddening ordeal felt ready +to drop and rise no more. +</P> + +<P> +Again at his task of constructing a float that should bear him from the +cavern to the inlet formed by the spring, Sidney toiled with no mercy +to himself in the workshop far down in the rocks. He felt at times he +must gulp down even the water of the sea, so parched was his throat, +and so craving was his system. +</P> + +<P> +At five o'clock his bamboo raft was completed, even with braces for his +jugs. It had also been tried in the basin of the cave, and made +finally ready for launching. But the tide would be low till eight. +His blast had made the water more approachable than formerly, yet to +fight his way against a powerful current would over-tax his strength. +In any event he must wait for the darkness of night. +</P> + +<P> +He returned to Elaine, and although he, too, was weary to the bone, her +patient endurance of suspense and suffering aroused him to a state of +anguish in which no exhausting task would have seemed too great for him +to undertake. He was wrung by her wistful attempt at a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"The day is nearly done," she said. "The night is sure to be cooler." +</P> + +<P> +It was considerably cooler, but scarcely more fresh, since the smoke +appeared to pour in even vaster volumes from the greenery below. That +the Dyaks were keeping strict watch on the water supply there could be +no reason to doubt. From time to time a weird bit of chanting arose +from that fume-creating garden that had once been so fair as to win +from Elaine the prettiest name she knew. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville felt certain, in fact, the boatmen's camp had been made about +the inlet or the spring. The short stretch of beach where he and +Elaine had landed, and where he had later made a bower of the trees, +would be certain to attract these half-amphibious savages, though their +boats were moored behind the opposite hill. +</P> + +<P> +For a time he wondered if he might not be more wise to pass entirely +around the island, to approach the pool of fresh water from below. But +reflecting that various currents of the tide would buffet and beset +him, in addition to which he must run the gauntlet past the Dyak boats, +he surrendered the suggestion without delay, and impatiently awaited +the tide. +</P> + +<P> +Three times he went down the passage, torch in hand, to examine the +stages of the water. At length he bethought him of two short +scoop-like paddles, to assist in propelling his craft, and feverishly +set about their construction. +</P> + +<P> +They were done in less than half an hour, since they consisted merely +of two half-sections of bamboo cylinder, lashed to a pair of handles. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was aware he was making ready for more than an ordinary +adventure, as she watched him with her wide and lustrous eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps relief may come to-morrow," she finally observed. "You are +quite exhausted. Might you not be wiser to rest to-night? We can get +along, I am sure." +</P> + +<P> +But even her voice made a rasp in her throat, so distressed was her +system for water. +</P> + +<P> +"I need a bit of change," he said. "It is certain to do me good." +</P> + +<P> +With a touch of his former brusqueness, he presently bade her seek her +couch, during the time he expected to be gone, and vanished once more +down the dark, steep passageway, with his paddles and torch in hand. +</P> + +<P> +The torch was left in the gallery, extinguished. The concealing door +was adjusted to its place. These were mere precautions against the +cave's discovery, yet Grenville was certain no Dyaks would approach the +place that night. His two best jugs were placed on the ledge; his +cleaver was hung at his belt. He could take no bombs or lighted brands +on such an expedition. +</P> + +<P> +The task of launching his raft on the tide involved unexpected labor. +Its lightness made it an easy prey to the swirl that always filled the +cavern's walled approach. It was sucked once nearly under, its farther +end disappearing entirely from view—and Granville withdrew it, +desperately glad the jugs had not been placed upon it. +</P> + +<P> +Awaiting a quieter mood of the whirlpool, half seen in the darkness, he +launched the float again, and beheld it rest there, quietly, nosing +against the ledge. He turned for the jugs, but, casting a quick glance +backward, at the slightest of scraping sounds, saw the raft swinging +outward from his reach. +</P> + +<P> +His arm was too short for its recovery. Leaping wildly out in the +water, he caught it again, and was washed against the jagged wall +before he once more returned it to the landing. He was soaked to the +skin, but his pulses throbbed with heat and dogged energy that would +think of no defeat. +</P> + +<P> +With his jugs finally laid flat between the bamboo supporters, front +and rear, and with paddles in hand, as he lay at full length on the +light but half-submerged platform, he rowed the raft out with a motion +as if he were swimming. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, like a giant oar-bug, more or less helplessly carried by the +current that it rides, he spun slowly about in the maelstrom of the +gathering tide before he could escape past the portal and head for the +inlet below. +</P> + +<P> +He soon discovered that to continue far in this fatiguing attitude +would abominably strain his neck, if not his entire body. Not without +considerable difficulty, in balancing the craft, he effected a change +of position, and knelt upon the supports. +</P> + +<P> +The waves washed up about his knees and feet, but of this he was +practically oblivious. Assisted now by the current, and with eyes +intent on the darkened shore, beyond the uprise of the cliff, he +propelled himself much farther out than formerly, with the purpose of +avoiding the possible vigilance of Dyaks on the beach. +</P> + +<P> +The night was not exceedingly dark, so brilliant was the light from the +stars. Once the region of smoke was left behind, the blurred and +blended features of the island were sufficiently well revealed for his +purposes, since he knew its every silhouette as well as the contours of +the coast. +</P> + +<P> +He had rowed and drifted, perhaps, half the distance essential to land +at the estuary mouth, when the sound of voices, floated out from the +shore, abruptly halted his movements. The Dyaks were there. Either +motion or any unusual disturbance would suffice to betray his presence +off the land. +</P> + +<P> +And now, as if every fate had become malignant, the current drifted him +inward, where he knew he should keep well away. At the risk of +exciting curiosity, if nothing more, he dipped his paddles, with a slow +and silent expenditure of strength, and swept the float powerfully +outward again, till the shore seemed a part with the sea. +</P> + +<P> +For a time that seemed interminable he hung about that outer stretch, +awaiting a further sound of the voices. They did not come. Once more +at last he paddled silently inward, finally worming, as before, to a +prostrate position on the raft. The chant of the head-hunters came +again, as if from the depths of the jungle. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, if ever!" muttered Grenville, half aloud, and impelled by a new +and reckless desperation, increased by his thirst and his impotent rage +at the creatures still feeding the fumes that Elaine could not avoid, +he sent his craft swiftly landward, thankful, at least, for the mild +disturbance of breaking ripples on the shore that would drown what +slight noises he might make. +</P> + +<P> +Tempted to moor his float outside the estuary, he readily agreed it +might thereby lead to his discovery, and must, as a matter of fact, be +completely concealed in the shadows of the pool. Excited now by the +possibility that his catamaran, with the oars and rowlocks, might still +remain in its former harbor, he was doomed to prompt disappointment on +gaining the estuary basin. There was nothing whatsoever in the place. +</P> + +<P> +His jugs and paddles he had placed upon the sand. It was only the work +of a moment to draw his float across the bar and gently thrust it away +from sight beneath the overhanging verdure. Then he stood there, +knee-deep in the water, straining his ears for the slightest sound of +the Dyaks stirring in the thicket. +</P> + +<P> +Only the drone of a halting voice was wafted to the place. In silence +he concealed his paddles, and took up his jugs, to wade with the utmost +caution up the pool, towards the spring that formed its source. The +water about him was brackish, from its mixture with the tide. +</P> + +<P> +Deeper and deeper grew the basin. The water had risen to his waist. +He sank in steadily with every step, despairing now with the sickening +thought he might be compelled to swim. Such a task, with two filled +jugs, would be impossible, as he bitterly realized. But on he went, as +noiselessly as before. +</P> + +<P> +The water was now about his breast, and he held his jugs above it. +Something gently nosed against him—and gave him a start. Thoughts of +the tropic serpents so frequently inhabiting the water, chilled a thin +channel down his spine. Then he saw that the thing which might have +been a reptile head was the cork and neck of a bottle. He dipped down +and caught it between his teeth, more gratified in all his being than +if it had been a thing of gold. +</P> + +<P> +It almost seemed to the man like a sign that the tide of ill-fortune +had turned—the tide of luck. He had certainly passed the deepest +section of the estuary; he was rising on higher ground. +</P> + +<P> +To avoid the soundings of dripping water, ready to fall from his +clothing, he proceeded more slowly than before. When at length he came +to a strip of barren sand, he rested his jugs, withdrew the cork from +his bottle, and was gratified to detect the odor of stale beer, or +stout, which the thing had formerly contained. He rinsed it then and +there, to make it sweet, and crowded it into his pocket. +</P> + +<P> +When he once more took up his jugs, to resume his quest of drinkable +fluid, he was presently confronted by an exceptional tangle of the +shrubbery, arching the tortuous windings of the estuary's head. Here +he found himself obliged to pause and noiselessly bend back or break a +number of the slender branches before he could wade as before. +</P> + +<P> +He started some small nocturnal animal out through the growth, and the +rustling disturbance made by the beast was heard by the Dyaks beyond. +One of them called out sharply. To Grenville's complete astonishment +and dismay another man, barely a few yards off, replied with a species +of grunt. The fellow had come there, either to visit or to set a +snare, and must have believed he had frightened the animal himself. +</P> + +<P> +Sidney could hear him working now, as he leaned a bit closer to the +foliage, incapable of moving further while the hunter delayed in the +thicket. The fellow presently arose, as if to go. Instead, however, +he approached even closer to Grenville's place of concealment, and +Sidney oozed cold perspiration, helplessly occupied, as he was, with a +jug in either hand, and his cleaver still swung at his waist. +</P> + +<P> +To have moved, or attempted to place either jug in the water at his +feet, must have been fatal to his mission. Yet he felt convinced the +Dyak must fairly run against him, unless he could move to the side. +One of his shoes, moreover, was sinking deeply in slimy mire. +</P> + +<P> +That his balance must be overcome seemed well-nigh inevitable. A +branch from one of the larger trees that grew above him on the bank now +swept so forcibly against the other foliage as the Dyak hauled it +downward, to sever a twig for his trap, that Grenville's face was +lightly brushed. When the limb sprang upward a moment later, he pulled +his foot from the hole. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to the man a quarter of an hour at least that the trapper +remained there, a few feet away, making one more sound, from time to +time, when it seemed at last he must have departed. When he finally +went, there could be no assurance he would not return again. +Notwithstanding this possibility, Grenville slipped furtively along +once more, disturbed to find how far towards the spring this narrowing, +sea-level neck of the inlet continued through the growth. +</P> + +<P> +When he came at length to a rise of the island, down which the trickle +from the spring had made its course, he found himself at the edge of a +small, grass-grown clearing, that could hardly be more than a stone's +toss away from the Dyaks' temporary camp. A small, deep basin, filled +with the precious water he sought, reflected a star at the zenith of +the heavens. It some way gave him hope. Of courage he had no lack. +</P> + +<P> +Noiselessly, but without hesitation, he crept forward to the place and +bent to drink, then to fill his bottle and jugs. At a snap that came +from the shadows beyond he looked up alertly, beholding through the +leaves a bright bit of fire upon the earth, with two of the Dyaks at +its side. Every accent of their halting conversation came clearly to +his ears. +</P> + +<P> +With his three receptacles filled at last, he began his retreat from +the place. He had barely vanished from the clearing, and come to the +cover of the growth once more, when the man who was laying the snare in +some pathway of the small jungle animals came back to complete his work. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville thought his arms must relinquish the holds in their sockets +before the unsuspecting hunter was content to leave the neighborhood. +The jugs, so long and silently held, were rested a moment on the bank, +when, at last, the moment did arrive when Sidney could dare retreat. +Then down through the stubborn tangle, once more, he moved like a +silent shade. With every yard thus placed between himself and the +natives by the spring, the hope in his breast increased. +</P> + +<P> +He came once more to the deeper estuary pool and, lifting his jugs to +his shoulders, waded cautiously forward, nearly up to his throat in the +tepid brine that smelled too rank for anything but swamp. He paused by +his raft, for a moment undecided as to whether he should place his jugs +in the braces lashed upon it, before he pushed it past the bar, or +after it should float on the tides. +</P> + +<P> +While he stood there, with a sense of exultation daring to warm in his +soul—an exultation centered on Elaine and the joy it must presently be +to see her thirst allayed—he suddenly stiffened at the sound of Dyak +voices, alarmingly near at hand. +</P> + +<P> +Retreating instantly, under the shadow of the foliage and against the +end of his raft, he placed one jug upon it, noiselessly, and put out +his hand to grasp at a branch to draw himself further from sight. +</P> + +<P> +But the branch on which he laid his grip was suddenly alive. It +writhed and lashed sharply at his knuckles until, with a shudder of +comprehension that he had clutched the tail of a snake, he flung it off +and knew it had glided away. +</P> + +<P> +He had no choice but to try again, and this time met with better +fortune. Out through the foliage, arranged thus hurriedly about him, +he peered towards the low bit of beach. There was no one in sight, but +beyond, on the sea, suddenly looming before him, and coming about to +face the protected inlet, a third of the Dyak sailing-boats, a new +arrival, manned by an additional group of head-hunters, nosed +gracefully up against the tide. +</P> + +<P> +Her anchor was cast, and there she rode, not twenty yards out from the +shore. +</P> + +<P> +Like shadowy demons from some world beyond, arrived on some mission +mysterious and tragic—some service of the foulest fiend in Hades—four +half-seen figures moved along the railing of the craft, destroying the +hope in Grenville's bosom. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap39"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXXIX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +ADDITIONAL HEAD-HUNTERS +</H4> + +<P> +The boatmen thus newly arrived off the estuary's mouth were proceeding +in a leisurely and confident manner to make themselves and their vessel +snug for the night, and Grenville had placed his second jug upon his +raft when, without a sound having come to announce their movements, two +or three Dyaks from the camp in the growth called some greeting or +challenge from the shore. +</P> + +<P> +That their words were interpreted in a friendly spirit by the shadowy +natives on the anchored boat seemed to Grenville entirely obvious. +There was something akin to cheer in the voices that replied across the +water. Every man was seen to halt at his work and come to the +shoreward side of the craft, to peer through the darkness towards the +beach. +</P> + +<P> +Three of the fiends with whom he had waged unequal battle now appeared +on the sand strip a rod from where Sidney was standing. Their backs +were presented as they called and gestured to the men beyond, and +Grenville identified the chief once more by the fellow's unusual height. +</P> + +<P> +Apparently an argument ensued, conducted, as to the shoreward end, by +the tall and dominant leader. He waved quick, eloquent gestures, +frequently towards the headland whence Grenville had come. That some +report of recent proceedings was being thus delivered there could be no +reasonable doubt. Expressions of astonishment, satisfaction, and a +diabolical glee came back in guttural staccatos from the blood-loving +creatures on the vessel. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville almost forgot where he was, and why, such indignation burned +in his breast as he grasped at the substance of the conference thus +held across the tide. Four more head-hunters, come to swell the +already heavily outnumbering forces of the island, was too much for +Heaven to permit! Against such odds and such diabolism, what possible +chance—— +</P> + +<P> +He smiled in a grim, sardonic manner at the thought that a fight +between himself and the now augmented Dyaks would ever again be likely, +with this boat anchored here before him, Dyaks camping in the jungle, +and no trail left by which he could reach the terrace and Elaine, even +could he creep away in the shadows and silence of the thicket. +</P> + +<P> +It appeared to him now that the chief on shore was becoming impatient, +or angry. He shouted orders and waved his hand down the length of the +island in a style growing rapidly more and more imperative, while the +new arrivals answered back in a stubborn and sullen dissatisfaction +that Sidney began to hope might lead to open rupture. Should one of +the factions war against the other, he would think these four boatmen a +Godsend. +</P> + +<P> +Even then, he reflected, the situation, as bearing on himself, might +present no altered aspect till all was decidedly too late. Should he +fail to return to Elaine with water to-night—she would doubtless never +see his face again. Should morning still find him hiding here—their +fates would have a sudden termination. And now, with this craft at +anchor in the current, so close inshore, there could be no chance to +escape around it unobserved, what possible alternative was offered but +to stand here, nearly to his waist in the water, aware that the +deadliest sort of snakes might be coiled within a foot of his hand? +</P> + +<P> +One of the Dyaks a rod away now sat upon the sand. The colloquy +continued. The domineering leader, waxing more and more imperious, +made gestures now in both directions. That what he imparted and +declared was again concerned with himself and Elaine, Grenville could +not fail to understand. He was puzzled, however, to determine the +reason for this lengthy contest of words. +</P> + +<P> +It occurred to his mind the dispute might have sprung from rival claims +as to sharing the trophies, when, at last, the defenders of the terrace +should no longer require their heads. The ghastliness of the +suggestion did not greatly disturb him; he was too far dulled and +wearied by things already undergone. +</P> + +<P> +When it seemed at last as if the verbal combat might result in a +deadlier feud, the matter between the land and water factions was +suddenly adjusted with accents amazingly mild from either side. +Considerably to Grenville's astonishment, the boatmen heaved up their +anchor, eased off their sail, and put about towards the farther end of +the island. +</P> + +<P> +The three men ashore called out additional instructions, presumably, +and followed for a distance down the shore. The boat was presently +gone from Sidney's view. He did not stir, though he ached in every +bone and muscle, from his long, hard session of suffering and toil, and +this cramp and strain of hiding. He was well aware that even the Dyaks +would soon be obliged, either to retrace their steps and return as they +had come, or force a way up through the jungle to cross to the island's +farther side. +</P> + +<P> +That the vessel would join the others, already at anchor behind the +second hill, he had finally comprehended with a wildness of hope his +heart could scarcely contain. The chief had undoubtedly ordered the +craft away from this particular anchorage lest it be too readily seen. +</P> + +<P> +With barely a grunt or two of conversation between them, the trio seen +before him on the sand now presently returned. They stood about the +estuary inlet for a moment, as if debating some second affair of +importance, then finally glided away. +</P> + +<P> +Even then Grenville stirred with silent caution, waiting with +heartbeats once more quickened lest he move too soon, and be discovered +after all. The place, however, was deserted. Stiffly, but none the +less eagerly, and alert for the slightest alarm, he coaxed his raft +from the overhanging shrubbery, urged it gently out across the bar, +and, hurriedly lashing his jugs to the braces provided, pushed away and +headed far out in the tide. +</P> + +<P> +The current had turned. It was flowing strongly towards the cliff, in +a certain impetuous manner that was far from being assuring. For +while, in a measure, it assisted Grenville's float, it swirled and +battled with other counter currents, into which he was helplessly +carried. His frail, narrow raft was not infrequently threatened with +disaster. +</P> + +<P> +Twice, for a second, he well-nigh despaired of righting before he +should sink or plunge end downward, capsizing himself and his jugs. He +was shot far outward from his course by one of the treacherous torrents +of tide, then rocketed straight for the rocks of the cliff by another. +His paddles were wholly inadequate for such a struggle; his arms +refused the demands that his will insistently made upon them. It +seemed as if he must break at some vital center of his being before he +at length was enabled to avoid a collision with the cliff. Then he +sank exhausted, obliged for a moment to pause and rest, when the tide +once more drifted him outward. +</P> + +<P> +Before he could rouse his flagging sinews to another effort, he had +floated by the cave. He was prodded to new desperation. The struggle +he waged to regain that rocky niche—only to have the whirlpool cast +him to the outside current as before, with his raft entirely +submerged—-was enough to break his heart. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing save the thought of Elaine could have availed to spur him yet +once more to fighting vigor. He did fight again, till it seemed he +must topple like a man of lead, and sink almost gladly in the sea, with +a sense of welcome to its endless peace. +</P> + +<P> +A weak and staggering figure he presented when the landing was finally +achieved. He barely pulled his raft within the cavern. He had no +strength left to conceal it in the passage. +</P> + +<P> +Hugging his two heavy jugs of precious liquid, and also with the bottle +weighing down his pocket, he groped and stumbled slowly up the gallery, +pausing with ever increasing frequency to lean against the walls and +recuperate his strength. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was aroused from a state of lethargy, where she watched and +listened at the upper door, by sounds that for a moment filled her with +alarm. That some noisily breathing animal was making its way up the +passage from the sea was her first half-waking impression. +</P> + +<P> +With a cry of relief and worry blended, she immediately understood. It +was Grenville's labored panting she had heard, where he would not call +for assistance for fear she should be alarmed. She caught up the torch +she had kept so faithfully alight for his guidance, and ran hastily +down to give him welcome. +</P> + +<P> +He was leaning against the wall once more, his mouth a little open for +the air his lungs demanded, his face drawn and white with his utter +weakness and exhaustion. In one keen glance Elaine comprehended his +condition. +</P> + +<P> +"Sidney!" she cried. "Oh! but why did you go? Why would you work so +hard to-night?" +</P> + +<P> +He could conjure no smile to his lips. "I love you, Elaine," he +answered. "It kills me to see you suffer." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh please—please don't," she begged him. Her eyes were brimming with +tears. +</P> + +<P> +He sank on the floor of the passage as he tried once more to raise the +jugs. And yet, when Elaine pounced eagerly upon the bottle full of +water, and pressed it to his lips, his stubborn resistance was once +more reasserted. He accepted a few sips only, then thrust it firmly +away. +</P> + +<P> +"That last little pull was steeper than I thought," he admitted, as he +forced himself to rise and set his jugs more carefully in the rocks +against the wall. "If you will oblige me by taking a drink of +water——" +</P> + +<P> +"Not now," Elaine interrupted, as self-denying as before. "I am not +the least bit thirsty. If you'll only rest—if you'll go to sleep——" +</P> + +<P> +"I shall go to no rest till you have taken a cup of water." +</P> + +<P> +She knew he would not. She drank from the bottle, perhaps three +ordinary swallows of the liquid, like nectar to her palate. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-night," he said, with a touch of his old-time brusqueness, and, +adding nothing more, he continued on to the barrier and out to his post +of duty. There he sank on a rock before the door to guard Elaine from +harm. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine, softly crying, went back at last to her couch. And some time, +deep in the silence of the night, she awoke sufficiently to creep to +the door, where she listened to Grenville, deeply sleeping. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap40"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XL +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +PLOT AND COUNTER PLOT +</H4> + +<P> +The smoke that for two forbidding days had veiled and grayed the +headland, continued to drift from the jungle, when Grenville roused +from his slumber. +</P> + +<P> +He was much refreshed, yet had not entirely recuperated the strength so +drained in the night. The aspect of the barren rock, engulfed in the +fumes, was only what he had expected. He felt convinced that, like the +mistral of the Riviera, this wind would continue for three full days at +least. And the Dyaks were hardly likely to permit an abatement of the +smoke while it brought no discomfort to themselves. +</P> + +<P> +Apparently they had made no effort to bridge the gap that rendered the +trail completely useless. It was clear to Sidney's mind, however, that +so soon as they believed the adventure safe, they would swarm upon the +terrace, if for nothing else, then in search of heads and the treasure. +</P> + +<P> +With the possible development of an earlier plan in his mind, he +crossed at once to his cannon, loaded and primed in its bed, and began +to adjust a lot of loose stones above and upon it, to hide it +completely from view. The fuse he drew, meantime, aside, where he +meant to splice another length to its end. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine came out from the narrow confines of her gallery in the hope of +lending assistance. She was wearing the tiger's jeweled collar about +her slender waist. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm hiding the gun—masking our battery," Sidney informed her, +quietly. "Its muzzle is still unobstructed and pointed as before. In +case it seems wise to permit the Dyaks to climb up at last and look +about, I prefer they shouldn't steal our thunder." If he noted the +golden girdle, he made no unusual sign. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was considerably puzzled. +</P> + +<P> +"But—why should we let them come?" +</P> + +<P> +"To convince them their prisoners have flown. It may give us a chance +to punish them harder, later on." +</P> + +<P> +"If a steamer would only come!" she said, turning vainly to the sea, +still shrouded from view. "Even a Chinese junk! Anything, almost, but +more of these horrible fiends!" +</P> + +<P> +"You see," continued Grenville, "I can make an imitation cannon, from +one of my bamboo lengths, and leave it here to fool them. They may be +led to think it the only gun we've had, and search no farther for our +ordnance. The smoke is likely to lift, I think, which is why I'm at +work before breakfast." +</P> + +<P> +He did not complete the arrangements of his ruse before they broke +their fast, however, since the making of an imitation cannon required +at least an hour. The last of their meat, save a little intended for +fishing-bait, was consumed with the insignificant remnants of their +fruit supply, and Grenville took time to catch one silvery fish from +the ledge in front of the cavern, as well as to gather a lot of the +mussels, for luncheon and dinner, before he returned to the terrace. +</P> + +<P> +Already the breeze was failing. There were streaks of highly +acceptable air interspersed with the billows of smoke. Not without a +certain impatience to have this business concluded before the veiling +fumes should leave the terrace entirely exposed to the penetrative +sight of the Dyaks, Grenville hastened the construction of his +imitation gun, to be left by the heap of stones. +</P> + +<P> +That a more convincing appearance of over-use might assist in creating +the desired impression, he selected one of the bamboo sections already +badly split. This he readily blackened by burning a handful of powder, +loosely, inside its muzzle. With a rude vent cut and similarly +treated, the affair was ready to be bound with discarded creepers, then +lodged in the rocks above the genuine bit of artillery still ready for +grim engagements. +</P> + +<P> +All that remained of the powder in his cave was carefully moved to the +passage, there to be most cautiously deposited, away from all possible +fire, along with his coils of fuse. Somewhat to his disappointment, +the northerly breeze seemed once more freshening as the morning hours +advanced. He had hoped not only for a lifting of the smoke, but +likewise to find the Dyaks' boat once more encircling the headland. +</P> + +<P> +Beyond transferring his water supply from the jugs to a number of +bamboo buckets, which permitted no waste by percolation, he had nothing +further to employ his time as the day wore slowly on. The heat in the +meantime was intolerable. The fish was roasted in an "oven" he +fashioned of the heat-retaining tufa. The mussels were likewise +"steamed" in their own exuding juices, occupying the large and +basin-like sea-shell for the purpose. +</P> + +<P> +It was not until nearly four in the afternoon that the wind definitely +veered. Grenville had noted the coming alteration that would clear the +hill of fumes in time to make all essential preparations for the Dyak +watchfulness. His furnace of fire was duly banked, to continue a +smoldering glow among the ashes without producing smoke. Elaine had +retired within the passage, and the entrance door to this secret +hiding-place was adjusted against the rock. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville remained upon the terrace. No less a degree of vigilance +than that previously exercised was, he felt, highly essential. +Concealed in the caves or rocks comprised by the former camp he could +not only guard against surprise by a bridging of the ruined trail, but +his view of the sea, that might once more be haunted by the Dyak craft, +was practicably without limit. +</P> + +<P> +Apparently the Dyaks, too, had been aware the breeze would serve them +no longer. The smudges in the jungle were extinguished. In a time +comparatively brief, after the shifting of the wind, no smoke at all +was visible. But during the final hour preceding sunset another phase +of fiendish ingenuity developed. +</P> + +<P> +The Dyaks began shooting arrows of fire all about on the summit of the +terrace. They were shafts made highly inflammable by means of resin +and pitch. Their flight through the air was not sufficiently violent +to extinguish their glowing ends. If they did not blaze upon alighting +on the rocks, they still retained sufficient heat and redness to ignite +a pan of powder. +</P> + +<P> +It was this that occurred to Grenville as he made up his mind that some +genius of diabolism among the new arrivals was doubtless responsible +for this effort to explode his magazine. His satisfaction with himself +for his foresight in storing his powder anew was his one real joy of +the day. He wondered how long this business might continue, and how +many of the enemy must now be reckoned with. +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact, with the four who had come under cover of the +night, there were nine unscathed by previous engagements. Also, it +was, as Grenville had suspected, one of the latest comers who had +counseled the use of burning arrows. Since the terrace defenders were +employing some dreaded explosive, the one course readily suggested was +to reach his supply with a brand of fire—and, perhaps, thereby destroy +its maker. In any event, deprived of this one deadly means of defense, +the whites could be readily slaughtered. +</P> + +<P> +Already the Dyaks had built a bridge, to be used, when the time should +at last arrive, for spanning that gap on the trail. It was not +impossible, many had urged, that the prisoners lodged on the headland's +summit were already either dead or dying. How they had managed to +survive so long, with no supply of water, was sufficiently mysterious. +Should they still be found alive another day—all the greater the joy +of bringing about the end! +</P> + +<P> +The Dyak plan for reaching the magazine had been too hastily concocted. +The supply of tarred and resined arrows was decidedly insufficient. +Less than a score had been sent to the top of the terrace when the last +was speeded on its way. But during the short remaining hour of +daylight, and even by firelight, after dark, the shafts accumulated +swiftly, against the coming of the dawn. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime to Grenville had come an inspiration. His one clear hope for +the morning was that more of the arrows might be shot from below to +make his plans complete. If the Dyaks were busy after dark, they could +scarcely have matched the fever with which he likewise toiled. +</P> + +<P> +Down to the cool, dry chamber of the cavern he had carried no less than +eight of his largest bombs, with coil upon coil of his fuse. Two mines +of four bombs each he planted, concealing all with rocks. From each of +the mines one fuse only was laid, to the inner angle of the passage. +Each bomb had a shorter bit of fuse thrust in a handful of powder, to +which the two main fuses led. The lines were carefully protected, not +only against discovery, but as well against himself, or his boots, as +he tramped back and forth from the cave. When this arrangement had +been made complete, he could do no more in that direction till his +favorable hour should arrive. +</P> + +<P> +His next attention was directed to his bamboo float, which had been +practically dismembered. He had utilized the heavy stems to construct +a long and narrow platform, with two rude hooks lashed on the end to +engage a rung of his ladder. This ladder he not only lowered down from +the wall to a position in front of the cavern's opening, securing its +end with more than ordinary caution among the rocks he piled upon it, +but also he had tested the length, and every rung, by extending his +platform across from the ledge and climbing from the sea to the terrace. +</P> + +<P> +It was midnight before his final preparation was complete. This had +been simply arranged. He had carried a canister of powder to the +outside rocks, considerably back of Elaine's former shelter, together +with two small bombs. The powder he laid in a six-foot ring, or +spiral, that narrowed towards the center, merely to provide a lasting +and widespread flash when at length it should be ignited. +</P> + +<P> +The bombs were placed near by, simply laid in a cave of no considerable +dimensions. Their fuses were trailed across the rocks to a place of +observation, and were opened out in such a manner as to fire both the +spiral and the noisy but harmless explosives. +</P> + +<P> +Despite his nervous tension and the worry occasioned in his mind, lest, +the Dyaks fail of their allotted part, Grenville finally slept as +soundly as a boy, when at length he could work no more. But Elaine, +strangely tingling with apprehension, concerned with the part that she +must likewise play to render his plans effective, had not Sidney's +weariness to overcome her nerves, and therefore rested badly. +</P> + +<P> +For long she lay there, listening, as always, to the silence enfolding +the island, thinking how fair it had really been when the wail alone +had been with them, and wondering, eagerly wondering, if by chance her +companion of the hours both bright and dark had noticed the girdle she +was wearing. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap41"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XLI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A LIVING BAIT +</H4> + +<P> +The morning dawned in beauty, a few clouds riding with thistle-down +lightness athwart the illimitable dome of blue, as intense as that of +the sea. A light breeze stirred in the jungle, to wander aimlessly +from one deep chalice of fragrance to another, before it trailed across +the hill. Sea tang arose from the restless tide, that washed at the +cliff incessantly. +</P> + +<P> +As far as sight could pursue the richness of its causeway, the sun laid +gold in glittering mosaic across the tropic ocean. Never had the +sparkling waves seemed brighter, the world more promising, as Elaine +peered forth through her chink in the door, awaiting—God only knew +what. +</P> + +<P> +She had never been more excited, and rarely more alarmed. The unknown +element in Grenville's plans kept her nerves at the highest tension. +They had eaten a breakfast solely of fish before the light of daybreak. +Grenville had carefully closed the passage barrier, and crept out upon +the terrace. On no account must she open the door, or call him, to her +side. She must wait, and not even expect to hear a report of what was +occurring. +</P> + +<P> +The longest cord she had ever helped to braid was lightly secured to +her arm. Its farther end was tied in the rocks at the lower exit of +the passage. Until she should feel his tug upon this signal line, she +could only imagine that Sidney was near, or, perhaps, was climbing down +his ladder. +</P> + +<P> +She dreaded the thought of that ladder, so frailly depending above the +rocks and water, not to mention all its use might mean when the time +for the signal should arrive. And she might be obliged to wait all +day, as Sidney had warned her, duly—all day, while the wildest, the +most tormenting of conjectures would leisurely elaborate themselves in +her brain to convince her that Sidney was no more. +</P> + +<P> +Should he fall from the cliff, should he chance to underestimate the +Dyaks' treacherous activities—should any one of a dozen possible +calamities occur—how long must she wait till she knew? +</P> + +<P> +Meantime Grenville was barely less keyed to excited expectancy than +Elaine in her prison-like retreat. Times without number he goaded his +mind to review once more the inventory of his scheme, where the lack of +one small detail might prove his entire undoing. Yet, after all, there +were a few links only in the chain, though each was vitally important. +</P> + +<P> +He counted them over carefully—the signs or proof of calamity, here on +the hill, to convince the head-hunting demons his magazine was gone, +and with it all possible defense; the ladder and platform down below, +whereby he could reach the cave; the bombs for the climax, should his +hope succeed; and fire for their certain ignition. +</P> + +<P> +He had taken a double precaution to provide himself with fire. Down in +the passage several brands were smoldering slowly in their ashes, while +others did the same on the hill. He could think of nothing +lacking—not even the cord to warn Elaine to open her door and flee +outside when at length he should give her the signal! +</P> + +<P> +But as if in mockery of all this careful business, the day began with +never a sign from the jungle. The Dyaks, he feared, had altered their +plan, and might shoot no more of their arrows. He could not have known +they were waiting for the breeze to freshen and fill a certain sail. +One of their boats had been prepared and manned to police the headland +as before. +</P> + +<P> +When Grenville at length beheld it, gracefully sharp and picturesque, +as it rounded towards the master cliff, he was filled with conflicting +emotions. He had wished for this, precisely, but not without the rest. +The arrows first, had been his hope, and then this silent vulture, +atilt in the purple tides. +</P> + +<P> +The arrows presently arrived. He was still engaged in watching the +movements of the boat, in an effort to count the crew, when the first +of the flaming messengers struck dully against a bowlder and lay there, +fiercely blazing. +</P> + +<P> +Then the sudden flight, which, against an inky background, must have +presented an extraordinary spectacle, afforded a sight strange enough, +as Grenville presently conceded. The pitch and resin with which the +shafts were tipped, burned with a black and heavy smoke, that trailed +in their wakes like nebulous tails of cloud-producing comets. There +were some of the flames that the flight only served to fan to fiercer +heat and color. Like a candle sputtering in a draught they sounded as +they flew. +</P> + +<P> +Others that lost their yellow blaze smoked the more blackly in the air. +In half a dozen different spots the hotly burning lengths of wood were +soon consuming bits of scattered leaves and grass, one almost at +Grenville's feet. +</P> + +<P> +He was soon convinced that, should this rain of fire be long continued, +he should have no need to fire his bombs and spiral. The arrows would +actually accomplish the mission for which they were intended. He had +no wish for a premature climax to the singular attack, but rather hoped +to create the impression he was fighting desperately to protect his +magazine. +</P> + +<P> +When a heap of waste and useless creepers was presently ignited, he ran +from his place and promptly beat it out. He wished he might be seen. +He was gratified without delay. The rifleman, posted, as on previous +occasions, in the rocks that crowned the second hill, promptly +discharged his erratic weapon, and nearly killed one of his kind. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville ran as if to cover. A shout of exultation came from below. +A larger and swifter flight of the blazing shafts immediately ensued. +</P> + +<P> +Sidney now cast a glance about for the ship that was cruising by the +headland. Somewhat to his disappointment it had gone about as if to +return to the west, from which the cave, his platform, and ladder could +not, of course, be seen. He fancied, however, it had come up in stays +at the sound of the shot on the hill. It certainly appeared to be +paying off to continue about the headland. He dared not longer delay. +</P> + +<P> +The arrows were blazing all about him. He feared at last that one +lucky shot might even fire his cannon. Almost amused by the irony of +the situation, he caught up the nearest blazing shaft of fire, and used +it to light his fuse. +</P> + +<P> +In the briefest time the serpent of fire sped down through the hollowed +creeper to the spiral, where, also, lay the bombs. Of a sudden the +powder was ignited. +</P> + +<P> +With a flash of quickly leaping flames and a grayish geyser of fume, +the destruction began. Then, as a cry of glee arose from the clearing +below, the bombs went off in quick succession. +</P> + +<P> +They made a splendid noise and smoke, scattering fragments of the tufa +far and wide, till a rain of the smaller pieces spattered thickly down +in the jungle. Grenville arose from his hiding-place, quite unharmed, +and ran about on the terrace crazily, holding his head between his +hands for the distant rifleman to witness his discomfort. +</P> + +<P> +The Dyak was overjoyed. He shouted in reckless delight to his kind, +who howled like a pack of wolves now certain of feasting. Yet they did +not emerge from their places of concealment, nor undertake to bridge +the trail, and immediately ascend the hill, as Grenville had somewhat +feared. +</P> + +<P> +He crept to a point of vantage, watching the clearing for a +demonstration which, much to his gratification, did not arrive. Back +once more towards the cliff at the rear he scuttled, beholding the Dyak +craft at last heading well around towards the cave. The moment was +ripe for his scheme! +</P> + +<P> +Hurriedly creeping to the eastern brink, with one of his firebrands +gripped between his teeth, he began a descent of the ladder. Halfway +down he paused for breath, and furtively watched, from the tail of his +eye, for the boat that should presently appear. +</P> + +<P> +It came within range of his vision silently, and down he continued as +before. He could only hope that he might have been seen, for never a +sound arose from the crew to make the matter certain. For, perhaps, a +distance of twenty feet he must have been plainly in view. The last +fleeting sight he caught of the boat, she was putting about with a +suddenness enormously exciting to his blood. +</P> + +<P> +That the Dyaks had seen him, and were now intent upon turning away +before he should turn and see their boat, and know himself discovered, +was an inescapable conclusion. A moment later he was hidden by the +ledge, and descended more at leisure, climbing inside the ladder +presently, where it hung well out from the overhanging shelf, and so +coming down upon his platform, with little or no exertion. +</P> + +<P> +Immediately on landing under the mouth of the cavern, he lifted the +platform bodily, disengaged the hooks from the ladder's lower rung, and +drew it behind him to the cave. The ladder itself he could not remove +without climbing up to the terrace and issuing forth at the hidden +door, which would doubtless prove fatal to his plans. +</P> + +<P> +He proceeded at once to his supplementary firebrands, in the larger +spread of the gallery. Here all was going well. He extinguished one +or two branches of the smoldering wood, to conserve the limited supply. +After that it was simply a matter of waiting. +</P> + +<P> +How long it would take for the boat crew to land, inform their fellow +head-hunters of what they had seen, and fetch the entire company to +capture him, here in the chamber, was not a matter for easy estimation. +He hoped it might happen soon. +</P> + +<P> +In this he was doomed to disappointment. The Dyak sailors had seen +him, clearly enough. They had hastened back to report this eminently +satisfying outcome of their tactics, and the nine eager fiends had then +and there commenced their counter scheming. But they meant to commit +no errors, assume no unnecessary risks. +</P> + +<P> +For, notwithstanding the fact they were fully convinced the white man's +explosives had been reached by their arrows and destroyed, they +retained a vivid memory of punishments inflicted by the gun, where one +more deadly hail of slugs might lurk to find them again. It was, +however, important that one or more men should mount the terrace, to +watch at the head of the white man's ladder, and even render its use a +fatal experiment, should the climber attempt to regain the summit by +its means. +</P> + +<P> +They began investigations cautiously—all noted by Elaine. Peering +breathlessly out at her narrow chink, her heart consumed with haunting +worries, lest Grenville had met with some accident when the bombs were +finally exploded, she now beheld a pair of the Dyaks in the clearing, +apparently exposing themselves as if to draw any latent fire from the +hill. +</P> + +<P> +As the minutes went by and trouble failed to come, their boldness +plainly increased. They were not particularly hurried, however, in +producing their bridge for the trail. When at length four natives +brought it from the jungle, Elaine's heart pounded in her breast like a +hammer forging at her soul. +</P> + +<P> +She had instantly recognized the bamboo platform. She thought that +Sidney ought to come—to know of what was occurring. But he did not +come, and could not leave his post below, where one of his fuses, he +had found, had opened and spilt out its powder. This he was feverishly +and gingerly working to repair, by the light of a glowing brand. +</P> + +<P> +Not for a moment daring to abandon her place by the door, Elaine felt a +horrible sense of weakness attack her entire system as the Dyaks +cautiously adjusted their bridge, while watching against a new surprise. +</P> + +<P> +That the four men now constantly visible must presently succeed in +placing the slender platform from one broken ledge to the other, to +mount in full possession of the terrace, Elaine could not fail to +comprehend. The impulse to creep from her hiding-place and once more +fire the cannon was fairly overwhelming. She was certain that Sidney, +with all his wonderful scheming, had never contemplated this! +</P> + +<P> +He had simply instructed her to wait—to remain in the passage, behind +the concealing barrier, no matter what occurred, till she felt at last +the tug of the cord on her arm. She felt she must obey, that even to +desert her post for the little time required to hasten down the gallery +and let him know of the dangers now about her might cost them +everything! +</P> + +<P> +Never had she in her life been subjected to such a trial as that which +presently developed. +</P> + +<P> +The Dyaks had spanned the gap where the ledge was broken. Two of them +crept a little forward on the bridge. It was now or never to fire the +gun, while the four were still in range. She dared not disobey the +order given by her chief. Suddenly darting past the spot where the +cannon had taken its toll before, the Dyaks gained the summit—and were +finally in possession of the camp! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap42"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XLII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +LONG HOURS OF DOUBT +</H4> + +<P> +Grenville had hoped to be able to hasten for a moment up the gallery +and assure Elaine that all was well, and the matter now merely one of +patience. +</P> + +<P> +His belated discovery that one of his fuses was deficient had somewhat +shaken his nerves. Except for this timely restoration, his whole +project must have been weakened, perhaps to absolute failure. His line +of fuse was necessarily long, to assure essential safety for himself. +He was obsessed with a fear that countless defects might have developed +in the long line of powder-loaded creeper since the day it was made and +laid away. +</P> + +<P> +In a fever of anxious searching, he examined practically every inch of +both the lines, meantime returning frequently to the cavern's mouth, to +guard against surprise. Before he felt certain the fuse could all be +relied upon to perform its part in the business, he finally detected a +Dyak boat attempting to go about and escape his possible observation +from the dark retreat, while obviously hovering near, to watch that he +did not escape. +</P> + +<P> +After that he dared not for a moment desert his post. And the longer +the expected Dyaks remained away, the more imperative became his +watchfulness and constant attendance at the cave. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, up at her flimsy door, Elaine leaned affrightedly against +the chilling wall, no longer peering forth at the chink, but tensely +listening—listening for the sounds of feet above her head. All four +of the Dyaks were there on the terrace, and, therefore, a few rods only +from the passage in which she crouched, alone. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing to see, save the platform and part of the trail, and +she dared not stand so close to the door, lest her very breathing, or +the beat of her heart, betray her presence at her post. +</P> + +<P> +When at length the unmistakable sound of beings on the rocks directly +overhead came dully down through the roof of pitted stone, she shrank +entirely down to the floor, her heart in a sickening flutter. Just to +have cried out Sidney's name and to run like a child down the passage +to his arms, would have been a relief so incredibly vast its comfort +could not have been measured. +</P> + +<P> +But she did not move. She still obeyed, like the faithful comrade in +arms she was, awaiting her portion, allotted by the Fates, though it +might be death in its most revolting form. +</P> + +<P> +What sounds were made by the Dyaks, in retreat from that particular +position, failed to come down through the rock. She was, therefore, +denied the abatement of her apprehension which she might otherwise have +known. She was thoroughly convinced that one of the fiends had been +posted above the passage opening to remain indefinitely on guard. +</P> + +<P> +The Dyaks had, however, concluded their examination of the terrace +rather promptly. There was almost nothing worth investigation. +Grenville's imitation cannon had served its purpose to perfection. The +head-hunters marveled that a gun so simply and readily constructed +could have wrought such havoc in their ranks. But they found no reason +to doubt it had been used, and they readily overlooked the small brass +piece so artfully hidden by the stones. +</P> + +<P> +They had lost no time in removing the bowlders that supported Sidney's +ladder. One or two only they suffered to remain—sufficient to anchor +the affair in place, yet permit their man to drop back in the tide, +should he intrust his weight to it. +</P> + +<P> +That the white man's powder magazine had been greatly diminished before +their flaming arrows completed its destruction seemed indisputable. +The bombs had torn out and blackened so much of a cavity that the +Dyaks' gratification was complete. It was scarcely possible, they +argued, that the man seen running crazily about had escaped a mortal +hurt. He had certainly summoned the strength to escape to the cave, +but there he might have died. +</P> + +<P> +All the waste sections of Sidney's bamboo were thrown with his cannon +and his flag-pole in the sea. A thorough search was made of Elaine's +former shelter, as well as of all the rock heaps on the place, for the +treasure the man might have taken from the cave and concealed about his +camp. +</P> + +<P> +Not until some time after noon did the visitors finally leave the hill +and disappear in the jungle growth to mature their further plans. +Elaine knew nothing of their departure. She still remained back in the +darkness of the gallery, and, therefore, neither heard nor saw the +movements made on the ledge. She was hardly less prepared than before +to see the door of the gallery rudely torn away at any moment, and the +hideous head-hunters confidently pouncing in upon her. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville, down in the blackness of the cavern, was hardly more easy in +his mind. The Dyaks had failed to appear before the cave. He realized +they might conclude to starve him to death in the tomb-like place, +rather than risk another of his traps. To return to the terrace was +out of the question. Not only might the natives be present, but, if +once he were seen, they must immediately realize he had some unknown +means of passage from the cave to the summit. +</P> + +<P> +That the ladder would be watched he was certain. It was also more than +likely, he was sure, the Dyaks would either cut through the strands to +weaken it, near the top, or displace the rocks he had heaped upon its +end. Reflecting that to pull it down while one of their craft was +cruising about the headland might convince them he had fallen in the +sea, he laid his platform out on the ledge for the purpose before the +terrace had been deserted. But the boat was not to be seen. +</P> + +<P> +At noon the sun beat down on the rocks about the cave with a hot, +intolerable glare. Grenville was weary, as well as thirsty once more, +and faint from lack of food. He dared not abandon the cavern now, +however, since any moment might find the Dyaks slipping to the open +niche to complete the deed they had vainly attempted before. +</P> + +<P> +Never had the long, sultry hours of afternoon dragged by more +tediously. Never had the man so vividly realized how much it meant to +be near Elaine, to hear her voice, to gaze in the depths of her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +It was not till the sun was about to set that his long, impatient vigil +was somewhat rewarded at last. The Dyak boat drifted barely in sight, +as he crouched there on the shattered ledge. +</P> + +<P> +Without a moment's hesitation, even as he saw that the craft was +beating back, as before, to the shelter behind the cliff, he ran out +his platform, dropped its end across a rung of the ladder, and cast a +heavy stone as far out upon it as possible. +</P> + +<P> +It hung there, solidly enough, for a moment, then slipped a foot—and +abruptly the whole writhing length came down, to land in the whirlpool +and sink. The platform, however, was recovered. Returning at once to +his place behind the wall, Sidney waited in new expectancy for the +Dyaks to appear. +</P> + +<P> +They did not come. The sun went down—and with it Grenville's hope. +The head-hunters feared him still! They must have determined some +trick was prepared against their invasion of the cave! He was utterly +sick with discouragement. His long, hard day, to say nothing of +Elaine's, had been spent like this, in vain. He felt he had merely +lost ground. The Dyaks were doubtless already in possession of the +terrace, where he could not attack them to advantage, since precisely +as soon as he made his appearance on the hill-top the passage must be +revealed. +</P> + +<P> +He clung to the hope that dusk would bring the murderous pack to his +stand—that they might have waited for darkness to sneak upon him +unawares. But the twilight faded into blackest night, with clouds +obscuring the friendly stars, and still no head-hunters came. +</P> + +<P> +When at length he was certain no native would dare intrust himself or +his boat to the treacherous maelstrom of the niche, he abandoned hope +for the night. Returning to the passageway, he closed its door behind +him, secured it with the bar, and groped his way upward through the +velvet gloom for a word of cheer with Elaine. +</P> + +<P> +He called to her softly as he came towards the top, and she hastened +down to meet him. She was certain something had gone amiss, but her +courage was sufficient to sustain almost anything, so long as she knew +he was safe. +</P> + +<P> +"Got a bit hungry," he told her, off-handedly. "Those chaps do keep +one waiting!" +</P> + +<P> +"Sh-s-s-sh!" she said, in a warning whisper; "I think they're just +outside." +</P> + +<P> +"You saw them come up?" he asked her, eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"Four of them—after you fired the bombs. They put a bridge across the +hole, as you thought, perhaps, they might." +</P> + +<P> +"H'm," said Sidney, quietly, going to the door and peering forth on the +jungle. "They haven't gone down since?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not that I saw. I wasn't watching all the while." +</P> + +<P> +"You haven't heard them talking, near the door?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, oh no! I haven't heard a thing! I haven't known what to do—or +whether you were alive or dead. I didn't know what my duty was when I +saw them come up, and wanted to fire the cannon! I thought the day +would never end! Have you had to give up at last?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not!" he assured her, cheerfully, aware from every accent of +her voice what tortures she had suffered there alone. "I must soon +return—and you must go to bed. I haven't the slightest idea they will +come before next high tide, about eight, or later, in the morning. +Meantime you did exactly right. They haven't the slightest notion of +this secret passage, you may be sure, or nothing on earth could have +kept them out. And they long since returned to their boats.... I +suppose you have had neither food nor water. A little hurried supper +for us both, and I must go down to the basement for the night." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine had removed the cord from her arm, and secured it by the door. +Sidney ignited a slender piece of torch-wood, by the smoldering brands +maintained in the upper passage. He carried it promptly around the +angle of the gallery, however, as an added precaution against the +escape of one revealing beam through the chink that pierced the barrier +facing the jungle world. +</P> + +<P> +The dinner they ate was neither warm nor comforting. Cold fish is +barely sustaining, while the tonic properties of water are scarcely +worth describing. Elaine, however, was enormously reheartened, thus to +have Sidney there again, and know he had suffered no hurt. She bade +him good-night when their meager repast was finished, with the bravest +cheer that Grenville had taken to heart for many a weary day. Then, +with the cord once more on her arm, she resumed her place by the door. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap43"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XLIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE HOUR OF CLIMAX +</H4> + +<P> +Grenville made no attempt to sleep as the long night went laggardly by. +He dozed, from sheer weariness, now and again, with his back against +the rocks, but two or three times in every hour he rose from his place +to go out on the ledge, where he listened to catch the slightest sound +that might be made above the ceaseless lapping of the water. He would +then return to the gallery, assure himself the smoldering brands were +ready for use at any moment, and once more sit down to wait and nod. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was equally sleepless. Far more than Grenville she feared night +treacheries on the part of the Dyaks from the jungle. The state of her +nerves, since the terrace was so readily accessible to the head-hunting +butchers, permitted no thought of sleep. Moreover, never since their +arrival on the island had Grenville so far exiled himself from her side +throughout a night. She had always felt protected heretofore, and upon +that protection had relied. +</P> + +<P> +As restlessly as the man below she came to the door, times without +number, to listen for sounds the jungle might surrender, as well as to +watch through the darkness for the slightest inimical sign. Not a +sound, however, did the night vouchsafe her straining senses; not the +slightest movement in all the world of shadows, life, and tragedy about +and below her position could her blazing eyes detect. +</P> + +<P> +She had never known a night so long, or one so haunted with fears. Her +imagination played cruelly upon her heart, picturing one dread scene of +butchery after another, with Sidney completely overwhelmed and finally +slain, while she, no longer desirous of life, awaited her fate in a +dumb and dulled indifference. She was certain the morning would never +dawn again, or, if it did, the one man pitted against these savages +might not even have time for one faint tug on the cord about her arm, +more like a farewell than a signal. +</P> + +<P> +It was a red and troubled break of day that finally reddened the +eastern sky, where clouds were banked above the sea. Grenville had +dozed for perhaps as much as twenty minutes. He awoke with a start +from lurid dreams in which he had fancied himself awake after +criminally oversleeping, only to find himself and Elaine pinned down by +a horde of the merciless brutes to whom human heads are trophies. +</P> + +<P> +The red of the sky for a moment confirmed some remaining disorder of +his thoughts. He had stumbled quickly to the cavern's mouth, from +which the sanguinary streaks and blotches, now painting the far horizon +and dully reflected in the sea, were confusedly presented. +</P> + +<P> +The coolness of the haunting breeze, that crept like a presence about +the silent island, restored him soon and cleared the mists from his +brain. He stood for several minutes, gazing listlessly forth, +disgusted with the outcome of the night. +</P> + +<P> +Once more he returned to the gallery to inspect his brands of fire. +And once again, on returning to the chamber, his inclination was to +prop his back against the wall and let himself sink in slumber. +</P> + +<P> +The dawn-light was slowly increasing. He watched it dully for a moment +more, and yawned as he stumbled heavily towards the utter discomfort of +his resting-place. +</P> + +<P> +Once more he adjusted his weary limbs upon the ledge, reflecting on +what expedient he must now adopt, since this, his <I>coup-de-main</I>, had +so egregiously failed. He thought he was planning brilliantly when he +once more fell asleep. The slightest of sounds that was foreign alike +to tide or breeze now failed to arouse his senses as his head came +forward on his breast. +</P> + +<P> +Not another sound was made where that one had strangely risen from the +front of the shattered ledge. Even the sharpest eyes would have been +for a moment tricked by the shadows of the rocky niche, where the tide +was darkly swirling. A fragment of the lower cliff then appeared to be +detached. +</P> + +<P> +It was simply Grenville's catamaran, with two or three natives upon its +deck, silently maneuvering to land. Back of it, just well off the +frowning headland wall, the bow of a larger Dyak craft appeared for the +fraction of a minute. +</P> + +<P> +The head-hunting fiends had arrived! They had chosen the hour when +exhaustion finally culminates and claims the helpless sentinel, heavily +dreaming that all is well! +</P> + +<P> +Aware that the slightest disturbance might warn their intended victims +in the cave, the Dyaks labored with the utmost caution to fetch the +float to the ledge. This they presently accomplished, fending it off +at a vital moment lest it scrape against the rock. +</P> + +<P> +Two of the half-clad demons now landed, their movements as sinuous and +silent as a serpent's. Instantly flattening down upon the tide-lapped +shelf, while the third of their party skillfully guided the catamaran +once more to the larger craft without, they waited as patiently as the +shadows, of which they seemed a part. +</P> + +<P> +The plans of the crew on the boat without had been matured with much +sagacity. The transfer of two more men to the raft was quickly and +noiselessly accomplished, and once again the catamaran was permitted to +swing on the tide's rotation into the open entrance of the inlet. +</P> + +<P> +This second pair, with knives between their teeth and hands therefore +unencumbered, were a trifle overeager to gain the mouth of the cave. +One of them caught at the fissured edge of tufa with avid fingers, +while the float was responding to the force of the whirl. His hold was +rudely broken, yet so sharply had he dug in his nails that a fragment +of rock was broken away. It plumped with a gurgle in the water. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was suddenly awakened—not so much by the sound the bit of +rock had made as by something more subtle in the very air—a something +only to be interpreted by that instinct surviving from ages dark and +old. +</P> + +<P> +He was suddenly alive to a sense of imminent danger lurking fearfully +close at hand. None too soon and none too silently he rose to his +feet, for there at the ledge the catamaran was halted and, even as the +two impatient Dyaks landed, their companions came worming up the shelf. +</P> + +<P> +A moment more and all must have been too late, as Grenville clearly +realized. Indeed, with the utmost caution only could retreat to his +gallery be effected without a betrayal of his presence. He dared not +move swiftly from his post—and yet he must be quick! +</P> + +<P> +Slowly and noiselessly withdrawing from his place beside the wall, he +took one long step inwards, towards the door he must place against the +open gallery entrance. +</P> + +<P> +The dawn-light, redder and more intense, now cast an intangible shadow +in the chamber as a Dyak's head appeared above the ledge. The fiends +were all but on his heels! +</P> + +<P> +He slipped within the passage, without creating the slightest sound, +save the loud, tumultuous pounding of his heart. Lifting the door no +less cautiously into its proper position, he left a crack, that was +barely a half-inch wide, through which to watch his visitors, writhing +like so many pythons over the shelf and into the ebon well of gloom. +</P> + +<P> +Their plan was to crawl to the confines of the cave—unless they should +creep by chance upon their sleeping victims sooner, leaving a couple +crouched outside to prevent the quarry's escape. Torches were not to +be lighted until every man was posted, and then would be thrown to the +center of the cavern where their light would reveal the chamber's +occupants, while the outer rim of darkness still concealed the gleaming +knives. A counter attack would be rendered out of the question. The +cordon would be complete. +</P> + +<P> +Three of those strangely-moving shadows Grenville plainly discerned. +There was nothing more to be seen—and nothing to be heard. That +several Dyaks were almost at his feet he felt, but could not have +proved. He had hoped for half a dozen at the least. He hoped for them +still, and deliberately waited, trusting they might arrive. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed such a pity to waste his mines and not obliterate the lot! +He wondered if more of them might not come—then how he should know, if +they did. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, the three not included here in the cave-attacking party were +equally active above. The red of the dawn had seen them advancing +through the jungle where they meant to take the hill and block the +retreat of the victims to that eminence by any chance of extra ladders +or white man's baffling magic. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine beheld them, through the strengthening light, so soon as they +crossed the clearing. They paused there as if for a signal, which they +may or may not have received. It gave the girl, who had watched with +an ever-increasing fever through the night and that blood-red dawn, a +long wild moment in which to imagine fates untold that must have +overtaken Sidney. +</P> + +<P> +She was certain at last he was murdered in the cave, and that now, with +the passageway finally known, the fiends, whose passion was taking +human life, had come to complete their tale of butchery and plunder. +Why else should they once more visit the hill at such an hour of the +morning? They had barely waited for the dawn to make certain of their +work! +</P> + +<P> +She saw them coming furtively up the trail, aware, she was sure, that +by means of the hidden gallery their movements might be seen. She had +held a wasting firebrand in her tense little fist for the past two +hours. And now—if only Sidney had told her what to do in such an +extremity as this! If only it might be her duty to fire the cannon! +</P> + +<P> +It seemed as if she must obey the impulse—and perhaps save both of +their lives! The Dyaks were almost at the bridge. They must soon come +fairly in range of the gun! After that—it would be too late! +</P> + +<P> +Below, in the cavern, during this time, Grenville was haunted with +doubts. He had waited in hopes other Dyaks would come, and not a sound +had rewarded his straining senses. He began to fear he had waited too +long—that the creatures whose shadows had crept within had searched +all the place and departed. +</P> + +<P> +Yet he knew that they could not have passed him and left him unaware. +The light was now all in his favor, and steadily increasing. With a +sudden determination to take what toll the Fates had offered, he groped +his way back to his brands of fire, and then to the ends of his fuse. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine, with her heart all but bursting, with excitement for which she +had no vent, saw the head-hunters pause on the slender bridge before +they crept upward as before. Her weight was leaned against the door +till it moved a little from its bearings. +</P> + +<P> +She was sure it had made some far-reaching sound that the Dyaks could +not fail to hear. They had paused again—and again moved up the +trail—and found her helpless. The cord on her arm!—if Sidney would +only pull the cord—— +</P> + +<P> +The sharp little tug that suddenly came now startled a cry from her +lips. Instantly thrusting away the door and bounding from the narrow +ledge to the upper level of the terrace, she ran towards the fuse with +her cone of fire, just as Grenville, down in the gallery of rock, came +madly plunging upward. +</P> + +<P> +He had lighted the fuse, and was groping towards the top, a fear that +he might be buried pursuing at his heels. He stumbled across the heavy +load of treasure, left in its basket by the wall. +</P> + +<P> +As one in an earthquake or fire clutches up something to save it, +instinctively, so he laid hold of this useless dross and tugged it +hotly up the passage. He reached the upper angle thus before he +realized the folly of his action. He was certain then, as he dropped +the load, that something had happened to his mines. +</P> + +<P> +Before this time—— +</P> + +<P> +With the thought half finished in his swiftly-working brain came the +thud and shock of his explosion—a tangible movement in the bulk of +rock—and then the cataclysm. +</P> + +<P> +Almost as one with Elaine's small detonation, the mighty jar, the +air-confounding concussion, the smothered boom, and the dizzying tremor +that swayed the hill, shook down the girl's bewildered senses. She saw +the red leap from the cannon's mouth—and saw three men, surprised to +inaction on the deadly angle of the trail—then down she went, her mind +convinced she had rended the island asunder. +</P> + +<P> +Sounds of colossal destruction stormed through the air for a time that +seemed to have no end. The roar of a cataract of broken stone, +confusedly toppling from estates erected by the ages, was lost in a +tumult of other sounds where the headland seemed to fill the sea. +</P> + +<P> +Dust of the rock and smoke of the rock ascended with fumes of the +powder. Tidal disturbances splashed and seethed where the sea, having +split to receive those tons of chaos, surged back with augmented +violence at this displacement of its waters. +</P> + +<P> +The cave had been blotted from existence! Its walls and its ceiling +had crashed from their several places. to leave only an ugly scar. +Whole towers of rocks, cleaved from the hill's main mass in sudden +violence, had hung in disordered ruin against the quaking air for a +second, then rioted downward on the Dyak boat to plunge it, rent and +shivered, to the bottom. +</P> + +<P> +Not a man of that murderous group below had survived the climax of that +second. The place that had once been a treasure tomb, with a wailing +"spirit" at its portals, was at last a very tomb indeed; but nevermore +would its tidal wail arise on the air to render the cavern sacred. +</P> + +<P> +Like a veritable spirit of underground destruction, Grenville emerged +from the passage, unaware of all he had done. His thought was only of +Elaine. He called, as he climbed to the terrace, but no glad little +cry made response. +</P> + +<P> +Then, abruptly, he saw her prostrate figure on the rocks—and beyond +her two men, with one limberly inert, limping blindly down the trail. +To dart to his store, snatch the last of his bombs, and pursue these +three who had threatened Elaine was the first wild impulse of his +being. Just one such blow, to follow up his victory, and perhaps they +should need no more! +</P> + +<P> +But he ran instead to the helpless figure near the cannon. He knew +what she had done. He took her up swiftly, calling on her name, and +carried her back to the former cave, where a rosy light from the risen +sun made it seem like a haven of promise. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap44"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XLIV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A LOTUS BLOSSOM +</H4> + +<P> +It was still very early in the morning when Grenville finally +discovered, afar out northward on the sea, two Dyak boats making +swiftly away from the island. +</P> + +<P> +He feared for a moment, when the sails were first discerned, they were +new craft about to arrive. He could not have known that his mines sunk +the third of the boats formerly at anchor in the inlet, and was in no +way enabled to determine how many of the enemy had perished at the cave. +</P> + +<P> +It was almost too much to credit, this apparent retreat of the fiends +so bent upon his capture. He made no positive report to Elaine of the +fact he felt he must verify, lest he find himself obliged to retract it +later. +</P> + +<P> +She had quickly responded to his ministrations, having fainted as much +from lack of food and rest as from shock in that final moment. +Concerning the final effect of her shot, she was destined never to +know. Grenville was far too wise to let her believe she had taken the +life even of a fiend in human semblance. +</P> + +<P> +He told her the Dyaks had fled from the place, which flight he had +personally witnessed. He was certain, moreover, they would hardly +return again that day, if they did not quit the island. Assured of the +safety of the adventure, he descended to the jungle and returned with +an armful of fruit. He proceeded later to the spring for a fresh +supply of water. +</P> + +<P> +Estimating the final fighting force of the Dyaks at ten, and conceding +that five, at the least, must have perished at the cave, since one or +two must have guarded the boats while three were searching the chamber, +he concluded that no more than four at the most could still remain +uninjured. +</P> + +<P> +He had gone to the edge of the ruin, above the obliterated cave, and, +having discovered no boat either near or far, had arrived at a fairly +accurate conjecture respecting the fate of the craft the Dyaks had +employed. One more calculation, respecting the number of able seamen +required to navigate the retreating vessels, convinced him the island +was deserted to the uses of Elaine and himself. +</P> + +<P> +It was not, however, till that afternoon that he cautiously explored +their former possessions and confirmed the hope in his breast. There +was ample evidence about the spring, and in the jungle, of the methods +of living the Dyaks had employed, but neither at the western inlet, +back of the central hill of rock, nor at the friendly estuary, was +anything boatlike to be found. His catamaran had vanished, along with +the larger craft, and its fate he could readily surmise. +</P> + +<P> +He lost no time in arranging a number of his snares and traps for the +meat of which they were in need. Their camp was made as before on the +terrace proper, despite the heat of the sun. +</P> + +<P> +It was not until many of these essential comforts had been once more +established that Sidney explored the gallery to determine what +destruction had been wrought by his double mine. +</P> + +<P> +Everything stored in the lower depths had been hopelessly buried by the +rock. The passage was open for no more than half its former length. +His bamboo raft was among the possessions sacrificed to the ruse that +had finally succeeded beyond even his wildest dreams. Not ten feet +back of his basket-load of treasure the last of the caving had been +halted. +</P> + +<P> +When Elaine's robe and couch, their water-jugs, and his last remaining +bomb had been once more returned to the earlier camp, practically +nothing but the gold and precious stones remained in the gallery. +Elaine was aware the trinkets were lying there on view, but so vast was +her relief at the vanishment of danger—though it might be temporarily +only—she had no desire for gauds and baubles, and no particular +curiosity respecting their worth or appearance. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, these two had endured too much to dwell upon jewels and gold. +They were free from menace for a time, but—the future still loomed +before them, inimical and obscure. Their life in this tropic exile was +still to be faced, day after day. +</P> + +<P> +That morning and long sweet afternoon, however, they passed in restful +inactivity, possessed by ineffable thankfulness and a sense of relief +that was utterly relaxing to their racked and exhausted nerves. It +seemed a strange, impossible state, this peacefulness, security, and +freedom to move about once more, alone in their Shalimar. And +Grenville knew it was far too good to last. +</P> + +<P> +Yet for several days it seemed as if the propitiating Fates made every +possible endeavor to erase from the tablets of their memory all records +of the agonies and apprehensions they had recently undergone. +</P> + +<P> +They were wonderful days, for sheer inspiriting beauty. A cool, spicy +breeze was wafted, with the sunshine, across the smiling ocean. The +jungle was redolent of fragrances of intoxicating sweetness. Down on +the beach her leafy bower once more found Elaine idly resting in her +hammock, or busily preparing a tempting repast from the once more +generous larder. +</P> + +<P> +The girdle of gold she continued to wear in happiness that stole +unbidden to her heart—a happiness as subtle and welcome as the +perfumes that stole to her senses on the breeze. And when she finally +found and plucked a solitary lotus blossom, floating near the estuary's +edge, it seemed as if the ecstasy possessing all her nature must bring +about some miracle of untold joy and bliss. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was hardly less transported by the hourly pleasures that day +and night alike seemed bearing to this island world, like argosies from +Eden. Subconsciously, beneath it all, he knew the boats that had +sailed away would one day return, perhaps with more of their species, +and better prepared for a swift and merciless revenge. Yet even then +he was slow to employ his wits and energies to prepare for another +siege, his disinclination for more revolting ordeals casting a lethargy +on all his fighting attributes, while days like these, voluptuously +serene and toxicant, suggested vast contentment to his spirit. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, his spirit as well as his body needed rest. To this he was +constantly urged by Elaine, who understood, far better than himself, +how unsparingly he had drained the vital essences of his being through +all these uncounted weeks. +</P> + +<P> +She, too, was aware they were only secure for a moment, that untold +dangers must be lurking just beyond the rim of their purple horizon. +She had finally learned from Sidney's lips how the vessels had sailed +away. She had, however, seen this sign of security previously +fail—and felt it would fail again. +</P> + +<P> +The future her soul avoided. Darkness and tragedy were only too +readily imagined. At best it was all uncertain, rife with shadows, +peopled with ghosts of doubt and haunting dreads. Meantime, their own +green Shalimar was once more fresh with sunny smiles that enticed her +spirit to song. +</P> + +<P> +She sang to herself through many hours of joyous "household" duties. +The songs she chose were happy little fragments wherein she imagined +Grenville set, with herself always traipsing at his side. She sang her +songs to and of him, watching him shyly when he was near, and sending +her thoughts to seek him out when he hunted or wandered in the jungle. +</P> + +<P> +It was not until one of those incomparable mornings, with the tropic +greenery fresh as a breath over clover, that he finally heard the notes +she had prisoned in her bosom break forth in clear, sweet utterance, as +crystal bright as the sun. +</P> + +<P> +He paused in the screen of ferns and palms to partake of her wild, +sweet rapture. And how lightly and gladly she sang! +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"<I>Come out, come out, my dearest dear,<BR> + Come out and greet the sun!<BR> +The birds awake on tree and brake,<BR> + The merry May's begun!</I><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"<I>Come out and drink the diamond dew,<BR> + Come out and tread the lea!<BR> +The world is all awake, and you<BR> + Are all the world to me!</I>"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +All that was starved in his nature stirred in response to the song. +His blood leaped faster, its glow like that of rich and +sense-delighting wine. A vivid memory of the one lawless kiss he had +dared to snatch from Elaine's red lips inflamed a sweet desire. +</P> + +<P> +He had called her his sweetheart, called her his mate, for the frenzy +of joy, the ecstasy, her nature had wrought upon his own. He felt +to-day his claim had been proved, by their life alone with God. They +had worked and fought and planned the days away together, like a mated +pair fresh created and cast to an Eden of the sea. They belonged to +one another. +</P> + +<P> +Love had come at last to Elaine—a love to match the strength and +purpose of his own—a love overwhelming, natural, unabashed—was their +rightful heritage. Its holiness gave it sanction; its rightness made +it as pure as fire that makes hard metal molten. +</P> + +<P> +He started slowly towards the hill whereon Elaine was busied. He +halted, however, hidden from view by a new banana foliage, wondrously +unrolling. Another song was floating on the air. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"<I>Pale hands I loved, upon the Shalimar,<BR> + Where are you now? Who lies beneath thy spell?<BR> +Whom do you lead on rapture's roadway jar<BR> + Before you agonize them, in farewell?</I><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"<I>Pale hands I loved, upon the Shalimar,<BR> + Where are you now? Where are you now?</I>"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The mad intoxication of his senses rocked him strangely, there in the +thicket. He saw the gleam of the jeweled girdle that spanned Elaine's +lithe figure, as she moved about on the brink of the terrace above. +Once again his heart struck mightily against its walls, as it had the +first day she had worn this gold, by way of a maid's confession. +</P> + +<P> +He knew at last her Shalimar was a wild little garden of love, to be +sacredly shared between them. Excited to trembling he started again to +join her at the cavern. Before he could come to the foot of the trail +she suddenly ran to the terrace-edge, looking down like a vision of +despair. +</P> + +<P> +"Sidney!" she cried, "another Dyak boat! I've just this minute seen +the sail!" +</P> + +<P> +Ready to curse the merciless Fates, as well as his own recent laziness, +which had made calamity possible, Grenville ran swiftly up the mended +trail and followed Elaine to the tree. +</P> + +<P> +The sail was certainly plain enough to see, far out in the purple +waters. It was, to all appearances, bearing directly down upon the +island. But, as Grenville watched, it altered shape. His face showed +a sign of relaxing. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe it's a Dyak craft," he told her, hoarsely. "It looks +like—— I think it's a yacht." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap45"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XLV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE LAST BOMB +</H4> + +<P> +It certainly was a modern yacht that the two of them saw, straining +their eyes to identify the stranger roving afar in their waters. +</P> + +<P> +A trick of the sun, or perhaps her paint, had concealed both masts and +funnel for a time, presenting only a rakish angle of her prow and +quarter, incredibly like a sail of the shape the Dyaks employ. +</P> + +<P> +But, if eager excitement surged uninterruptedly through the pulses of +the two ragged exiles, there on the barren headland, the bitterness of +vain disappointments promptly began their inroads to its centers. The +yacht was not only in great apparent haste, but was heading far off to +the eastward, with not the slightest curiosity respecting the tiny +island of whom no one could give a good report. +</P> + +<P> +The flagpole was gone—and a new one had been neglected. There was no +time now to erect another, as Grenville realized. He stood with Elaine +on the brink of the rock, frantically waving his arms and cap, and even +a large banana leaf, while the slender distant visitor came abreast +them and continued straight ahead. +</P> + +<P> +"They've got to see! They've got to!" he cried, in the desperate +plight of mind begotten by this promise thus mercilessly snatched away. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly abandoning all other possible devices, he ran to his powder +"magazine," where the last of the bombs was stored. He came with it +hugged against his breast, in thoughtless and dangerous proximity to +the firebrand clutched in his fist. +</P> + +<P> +"Run back!" he said. "I haven't time to make it thoroughly safe!" +</P> + +<P> +But Elaine remained to see him lower it down on the broken rocks, where +the cave had formerly existed. She waited, indeed, till he lighted the +fuse and drew her away towards the shelter. +</P> + +<P> +His eyes were on the distant yacht, fast fading once more from their +vision. The bomb must have failed. The fuse was deficient, he was +sure. He started back to recover the thing and make it certain of +explosion. +</P> + +<P> +Then it burst, and flung shattered fragments along all the face of the +wall. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville was watching the distant yacht with fixed, almost frenzied, +expression. +</P> + +<P> +"They haven't heard!" he groaned, despairingly. "They're going faster +than before!" +</P> + +<P> +It certainly seemed as if the hurried stranger would no more halt than +would a fiery meteor overdue at some cosmic appointment. +</P> + +<P> +Then of a sudden, from its bow, broke a pure-white cloud of smoke. She +had answered with the small brass piece employed to fire a salute. Her +prow was turned before the sound came dully across the waters. Sobbing +and laughing together, in sudden relief, Elaine sank down on her knees, +among the bowlders, to watch this deliverance come. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap46"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XLVI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A GIFT REFUSED +</H4> + +<P> +The yacht was the "Petrel," luxurious hobby of Sir Myles Kemp, diverted +from her homeward course by the merest whim of her owner to run up +northward for a day while Sir Myles should inspect the rubber +plantation and estate of his old fellow-officer, Captain Williams, who +was not even present at the place. +</P> + +<P> +The inspection was never made. The utter amazement occasioned by the +chance discovery of the exiles of Three-Hill Island, plus their story +of its fateful occupation, completely overshadowed all else in the +minds of the "Petrel's" commander and crew, whose one idea was to +assist the castaways home with the greatest speed of which steel and +steam were capable. The picture the pair presented as they came +aboard—Elaine amazingly tattered, a supple, tanned, incredibly sweet +and womanly little figure—Grenville, a bearded, active master of the +wild, clad in the skin of a cheeta for a coat, and bearing a richly +colored tiger-skin, rolled up to contain a hundredweight of +treasure—was one that Sir Myles was destined never to forget. He was +likewise always destined to misunderstand the emotions with which, as +they steamed away at last, Elaine looked back, with tears in her eyes, +at the unpeopled Isle of Shalimar, so green in its purple setting, +presenting its headland to the sea with that lone tree reared above its +summit. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville, too, had seen her eyes—and he more nearly comprehended. +</P> + +<P> +By great good-fortune much of Lady Kemp's wardrobe had been left aboard +the yacht. She and Elaine must have been of a size, to judge from the +manner in which her yachting apparel and her dainty boudoir adjusted +themselves to the form of the girl whom Sir Myles began forthwith to +treat as he might a daughter. +</P> + +<P> +The "Petrel" was put about and headed for Colombo—the nearest port at +which an Orient steamer would be likely to be encountered. It was not +until after dinner had been served and his guests had been made as +thoroughly comfortable as warm-hearted hospitality, admiration for the +two of them, and exceptional thoughtfulness could compass that Sir +Myles related the accepted fate of the "Inca," from the wreck of which +they escaped. +</P> + +<P> +The news had gone forth that she foundered, and not a soul was saved. +A few insignificant pieces of wreckage had been found afloat, far from +the unknown ledge of rock the earthquake had lifted in the sea, but no +one till now had heard so much as a theory as to what had been her fate. +</P> + +<P> +That some such intelligence must have been sent to the worried and +waiting relatives and friends beyond the seas, both Grenville and +Elaine had long before comprehended, despite the preoccupation +engrossing their minds all these many age-long weeks. But now, when at +length they were homeward bound, the facts presented an aspect which +there had been no occasion to prepare against while struggling for +existence on the island. +</P> + +<P> +There was one thought only in their minds. It was Fenton, and what he +might have done when that news had expended its shock. And what would +be the outcome of the story, now that the home-coming journey was +resumed—now that he, Sidney Grenville, could at last complete and +discharge his original commission? +</P> + +<P> +He faced the business hardly more calmly than did Elaine. No argument +possible to him now, respecting the warning Fenton had received, +availed to allay and satisfy his haunting sense of honor. The man had +matured on Shalimar, and his soul had been refined. +</P> + +<P> +But what strange days those were that now succeeded! How they robbed +him of his happiness, as they brought him nearer home! His spirits +sank and would not rise, the nearer Colombo was approached. He told +himself then, once he could wire, acquaint Gerald Fenton with the fact +they were safe, and would soon be with him, he would come to some peace +of mind. +</P> + +<P> +But, when at length the wire was sent, he experienced no such relief. +Relief, indeed, had failed to come when for three days and nights the +Orient boat had been plowing across the Indian Ocean, rushing headlong +from the tropic heat to the distant ports beyond. +</P> + +<P> +He thought, perhaps, if he informed Elaine, the business would be +settled. He attempted that day to introduce the subject, but in vain. +Elaine was so sparklingly happy! He postponed the ordeal for the night. +</P> + +<P> +The moon had returned to the skies again, bringing to the wanderers +ineffable memories of other nights, when peace lay tranquilly fragrant +on the world of their Shalimar. He detected its subtle influence on +the ever-vivacious little woman who had shared his perils and his joys. +</P> + +<P> +Elaine was softly thrilling to the spell of it all as she halted beside +him, finally, on a strip of the deck abandoned to their uses. She felt +that the atmosphere was overcharged, and wondered what might be +impending. To still the pounding of her heart she leaned on the +taffrail, ecstatically in touch with Grenville's arm. She spoke of the +wonder of the night. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," drawled Grenville, in his old dry way, "great facilities here +for manufacturing nights—— I wired Gerald from Colombo." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment Elaine was puzzled by this wholly irrelevant remark. Then +her heart began to rock uneasily. +</P> + +<P> +"You—wired we were coming home?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wired I was fetching you home, after unavoidable delay." +</P> + +<P> +She recognized the difference between the way that she and he had +expressed the principal fact. She felt herself, as it were, already +surrendered to a man grown singularly foreign to her nature. It seemed +to her incredible that Sidney and she should ever again be parted, or +work out their several destinies in any manner save +together—especially after all he had said and even done. +</P> + +<P> +"Was that—all you said?" she asked him, faintly. +</P> + +<P> +"No. I said I'd be best man—or something of the sort." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine felt something leaden go down to the point of her heart. +</P> + +<P> +"You wanted him to know that you had no idea—— You wanted Gerald to +understand——" She could not finish her sentence. Her face was hotly +flaming, but at least she could turn it away. +</P> + +<P> +Grenville's voice was hard and strange. +</P> + +<P> +"It was barely his right to know that we were coming. I could do no +less, as you'll certainly agree." +</P> + +<P> +His speeches were constrained, unnatural, as Elaine had instantly felt. +Her own were scarcely less embarrassed—after all these months when +their entire world had comprised themselves alone. It seemed a +monstrous error that anything but free, unfettered companionship and +candor should exist between them now. +</P> + +<P> +"I know," she said. "Of course." She added, after a moment, "It seems +so peculiar, that's all—to—resume as we were before." +</P> + +<P> +He was looking at his fist, for no good reason in the world. +</P> + +<P> +"It is what you have hoped for every day." +</P> + +<P> +"To get away from the Dyaks—why, of course." +</P> + +<P> +Another silence supervened. After three unsuccessful efforts at +speech, Elaine at last found the voice and the courage for a question: +</P> + +<P> +"Do you wish to be—best man?" +</P> + +<P> +Grenville spread out his fingers, for further inspection. +</P> + +<P> +"I probably shouldn't have suggested it otherwise." +</P> + +<P> +She turned upon him impulsively. "Sidney, are you absolutely honest?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I wouldn't trouble old Diogenes to get out of his grave and look +me up," he answered, in his customary spirit, "but I've got a faint +idea what honor means." +</P> + +<P> +How well she knew his various manners of evasion! Her heart was +pounding furiously. She leaned with all her weight against the rail, +as if for fear he must hear its clamorous confessions. +</P> + +<P> +She had never been so excited in her life—or more courageous. +Likewise she felt she possessed certain God-given rights that were +poised at the brink of disaster. For a love like hers comes never +lightly and is not to be lightly dismissed. Her utterance was +difficult, but mastered. +</P> + +<P> +"One night—in the smoke—on the island—when we might have died of +thirst—and you came with water—— You remember what you said?" +</P> + +<P> +"Concerning what?" +</P> + +<P> +"Concerning—love." +</P> + +<P> +He was gripping a stanchion fiercely; his fingers were white with the +strain. +</P> + +<P> +"Vaguely—— I think I was exhausted." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! you're not—you're not honest at all!" she suddenly exploded. +"That day of the wreck—on the steamer—you know what you said to me +then! And any man who has acted so nobly, so thoughtfully——" +</P> + +<P> +He turned and gripped the small, soft hand by his coat-sleeve on the +rail. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't do it, little woman—don't do it!" he said, in a low voice, +charged with passion. "You told me some stinging truths that day, and +now—they're truer than ever!" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't!" she said, no longer master of her feelings. "I didn't tell +the truth! I said I hated—said I loathed—— And you <I>said</I> I'd +throw his ring in the sea—and you said you'd make me—like +you—some—and you know that I couldn't help liking you now—when +you've treated me so horribly all the time! And after everything we've +done together——" +</P> + +<P> +"Elaine!" he interrupted, hoarsely, "when did you throw away his ring?" +</P> + +<P> +"After the tiger—the night I gave you the cap, and you acted so +hatefully and mean! It bounced and went into the water." +</P> + +<P> +He was white, and tremendously shaken, while gleams of incandescence +burned deeply in his eyes. How he stayed the lawless impulse to take +her to his arms he never knew. He dropped her hand and turned away, +with a savage note of pain upon his lips. +</P> + +<P> +"Good Heavens!" he said, "why don't you help me a little? I had no +right then! I have no right now! ... I'm going to take you home to +Fenton, if it's the very last act of my life!" +</P> + +<P> +She, too, was white and trembling. +</P> + +<P> +"I know what you mean—you <I>never</I> loved! You don't know the meaning +of the word!" +</P> + +<P> +"All right," he said. "We'll let it go at that." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you're perfectly horrid!" she suddenly cried, the hot tears +springing to her eyes. "I refuse to be taken back to Gerald! I refuse +to have anything more to do with any selfish man in the world!" +</P> + +<P> +She retreated a little towards the saloon, her two hands going swiftly +to a gleaming band that all but spanned her waist. +</P> + +<P> +"And there's your old girdle, with Gerald's ring, that you made me +throw away!" she added, flinging the tiger's collar towards the sea. +</P> + +<P> +It struck on a stanchion, bounded to the deck, and settled against a +near-by chair. She waited a second, instantly ashamed, and longing to +beg his forgiveness. But he leaned as before against the rail, his +eyes still bent upon the water. +</P> + +<P> +Weakly, with drooping spirits, Elaine retreated through an open door, +still watching, in hopes he would turn and call her back. Then, +stoutly suppressing her choking and pent emotions, she fled to the +dismal comfort of her stateroom, and, falling face downward in her +narrow berth, surrendered to the vast relief of sobbing. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap47"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XLVII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A FRIEND IN NEED +</H4> + +<P> +That one more shock of surprise could overtake the returning castaways +before the final landing could be accomplished would have seemed +incredible to either Grenville or Elaine—and yet it came. +</P> + +<P> +They had spent a number of wretched days—days far more miserable and +hope-destroying than any their dire experience had brought into being, +as the mere result of that final scene enacted in the moonlight by the +rail. +</P> + +<P> +The steamer had touched in the night at some unimportant, outlying port +of call to which no one had paid the tribute of interest usual on the +sea. A single male passenger had boarded. +</P> + +<P> +The man was Gerald Fenton. The message dispatched from Colombo had +fetched him, post haste, to this midway ground for the meeting. But +the meeting occurred in a manner wholly unexpected. +</P> + +<P> +Like the wholly considerate gentleman he was, Fenton had made all +preparations for removing the startling elements from the fact of his +presence on the boat. Like so many of life's little schemings, +however, the plans went all "aglee." +</P> + +<P> +Elaine not only did not linger in her stateroom in the morning late +enough to receive his note from the stewardess, but, when she hastened +up to the topmost deck for her early morning exercise before the more +lazy should appear, she literally ran into Fenton's arms at the head of +the narrow stairs. +</P> + +<P> +Her surprise could hardly have been greater. She recoiled from the +contact automatically, before she had time to see who it was with whom +she had collided. Then a note of astonishment broke from her lips as +she halted, leadenly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why—Gerald!" she managed to stammer, without the slightest hint of +gladness in her tone. "Here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, little girl!" he answered, smilingly; and, coming to her in his +quiet way, he took her hands to greet her with a kiss. +</P> + +<P> +A note of uncertainty forced itself to audible expression as she +slightly retreated from his proffered caress and received it on her +cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"Well! well!" Fenton continued, "you're certainly fit—and brown! You +couldn't have had the note I sent to break the news. I tried to give +you warning." +</P> + +<P> +"No," she said, constrainedly, "I've had no word. How did you get +here—come aboard? I don't see how—— It took me so by surprise." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry," he said, his smile losing something of its brightness. "I +boarded at midnight, when the steamer touched at Fargo. When I got +Sid's wholly incredible wire that you were both safe and well and +coming home—— But how is the good old rascal?" +</P> + +<P> +Elaine's constraint increased. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite well, I believe—as far as I know." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't he with you, here on the boat, going home?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, he's on the steamer." +</P> + +<P> +Fenton was groping, without a woman's intuitions, through the something +he felt in the air. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you like him, Elaine?" he asked her, bluntly. "What's wrong?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why—nothing's wrong," she answered, unconvincingly. "It's just the +surprise of meeting you like this." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry," he said, as he had before, his eyes now entirely +smileless. "I might have managed it better, I suppose—— Aren't you +a little bit glad to see me?" +</P> + +<P> +Elaine attempted a smile and a manner more cordial. "Of course—I'm +delighted! But it takes me just a minute or so to realize it's really +you." +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind. Take your time," he told her, indulgently. "Perfect +miracle, you know, that you and old Sid should have come through the +wreck of the 'Inca'—the sole survivors of the accident—and lived out +there—somewhere—on an island, I hear—and now be nearing home. I'm +eager to hear the story." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she agreed, "it doesn't seem real to me, now. It's more like a +long, strange dream." +</P> + +<P> +"I have only heard a little from the captain," he continued, forcing a +conversation which he felt was wholly unspontaneous and hardly even +congenial. +</P> + +<P> +"Naturally, all his information——" +</P> + +<P> +She saw his eyes quickly brighten as his gaze went past her to the +stairs. +</P> + +<P> +"Sid!" he cried, moving swiftly forward; and Grenville appeared on the +deck. +</P> + +<P> +His face was suddenly reddened, beneath the veneer of tan. But the +boyish joy with which he rushed for Fenton was a heartening thing to +see. +</P> + +<P> +The two simply gripped, with might and main, and hammered each other +with one free hand apiece, and laughed, and called one another +astonishing names till it seemed they might explode. +</P> + +<P> +"You savage! You tough old Redskin!" Fenton finally managed to +articulate, distinctly. "If it isn't yourself as big as life! And I +want you to know I haven't made your fortune—not exactly—yet—but +it's certain at last. And how about your winning my little girl? +Speak up, you caveman of the—— Oh, Elaine!" +</P> + +<P> +But Elaine had fled the scene. +</P> + +<P> +That moment began the tug at the ties of friendship and the test of the +souls of the three. It was not a time of happiness that thereupon +ensued. Elaine avoided both the men as far as possible. Grenville +alone seemed natural, and yet even his smiles were tinged with the +artificial. +</P> + +<P> +He was glad to relate their varied adventures—the tale of the perils +through which they had finally won. But how much of it all Gerald +Fenton really heard no man could with certainty tell. +</P> + +<P> +Fenton was neither a self-conceited person nor a blind man, groping +through life. Through the stem of his finely colored calabash he +puffed many a thought, along with his fragrant tobacco fume, and +revolved it in his brain. +</P> + +<P> +Between certain lines of Grenville's story he read deep happenings. +That Sidney had saved and preserved Elaine, and battled for her comfort +and her very life, against all but overwhelming odds, was a fact that +required no rehearsal. +</P> + +<P> +Mere propinquity, as Fenton knew, has always been the match-maker +incomparable, throughout the habited world. Add to the quite +exceptional propinquity of a tropic-island existence a splendid and +unfaltering heroism in Grenville, together with a mastery of every +situation, months of daily service and devotion, and the rare good +looks that Sidney had certainly developed—and what wonder Elaine +should be changed? +</P> + +<P> +The change in her bearing had struck him at once at the moment of their +meeting by the stairs. He had never got past that since. When at +length his course was clearly defined and his resolution firmly fixed, +it still required skillful maneuvering on Fenton's part to manage the +one little climax on which he finally determined. +</P> + +<P> +But night, with her shadows, her softening moods, and her veiling ways +of comfort, was an ally worthy of his trust. When he finally +engineered the unsuspicious Grenville to the upper deck, where Elaine +had already been enticed, evasion of the issue was done. +</P> + +<P> +"It's amazing," said Fenton, in a pleasant, easy manner, "how I am +becoming the talker of the crowd, when both you fond adventurers should +be spilling out lectures by the mile. However, such is life." He +paused for a moment, but the others did not speak. +</P> + +<P> +"The genuine wonder of it all," he presently continued, "is seeing you +both come back thus, safe and sound. I underwent my bit of grief when +the news of the monstrous disaster finally arrived, as, of course, did +many another. I thought I had lost the dearest friend and the—well, +the dearest two friends—the dearest two beings in the world to me, in +one huge cataclysm." +</P> + +<P> +He paused once more and relighted his pipe. The flame of his match +threw a rosy glow on the two set faces on either side of his position, +as well as on his own. No one looked at anyone else, and the two still +failed to answer. +</P> + +<P> +"Well—here you both are!" the smoker resumed, crushing the match and +throwing it away. "If I were to lose your love and friendship now—— +But never mind that—I sha'n't! You were dead to me, both of you, all +those months, and mourned rather poignantly. That's the point I want +you both to understand—that I had accepted the fact of losing you +both, forever." +</P> + +<P> +Grenville slightly stirred, but did not speak. Elaine was clasping her +hands in her lap and locking her fingers till they ached. +</P> + +<P> +"Naturally," Fenton told them, quietly, "I conformed my thoughts to +your demise, at last, as we all must do in actual cases. I adjusted my +heart-strings, when I could, anew. Nobody else came into my life, to +occupy your places, for nobody could. Yet I did adjust things as I've +said. Well—now that brings us up to the point." +</P> + +<P> +Grenville sank back against his seat, but restlessly leaned forward as +before. Elaine alone remained absolutely motionless, rigid with +attention, if not also with suppressed excitement at something she felt +impending. Fenton thumbed at the glowing tobacco in his pipe. +</P> + +<P> +"It appears to me," he continued, "all the circumstances I have +mentioned being taken into consideration, that you two friends that I +love so well have so many times saved one another's lives that no one +living has the slightest right to think or to act as might have been +the case if you had not passed so entirely from his ken, and his plans, +and daily existence. His claims to your resurrected selves +are—different, let us say, or secondary." +</P> + +<P> +The silence that fell for a moment became acutely painful. +</P> + +<P> +"That's all I'm really driving at, after all my long and labored +preamble," Fenton concluded, deliberately rising and facing about to +confront the pair on the bench. "I recognize certain inevitable +things—and I know they're right—and the way the Almighty intended.... +Don't let me lose my friends again.... Let's all be sensible.... I +don't ask or expect to be loved the way you love one another—but I'd +like to be old Gerald to you both." +</P> + +<P> +He turned and went slowly down the narrow stairs, and his pipe trailed +a spark behind him. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" ALIGN="center"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +After a time, when Grenville moved over and placed his arm about +Elaine, she struggled for a moment, feebly. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't—I don't love you in the least!" she protested. "I hate +you—as I always have—and the way I always shall!" +</P> + +<P> +Her arms went swiftly about his neck, however, in a passionate, fierce +little hug. She was laughing and crying together. +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said Grenville, calmly. "That's the kind of hate I want." +</P> + +<P> +He kissed her once on her upturned lips for every hour they had +suffered. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="finis"> +THE END +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of As It Was in the Beginning, by +Philip Verrill Mighels + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING *** + +***** This file should be named 22554-h.htm or 22554-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/5/5/22554/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: As It Was in the Beginning + +Author: Philip Verrill Mighels + +Release Date: July 29, 2011 [EBook #22554] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: FOR A MOMENT OR MORE THERE WAS ABSOLUTE STILLNESS IN +THAT GRASSY ARENA] + + + + +AS IT WAS + +IN THE + +BEGINNING + + + +BY + +PHILIP VERRILL MIGHELS + + +Author of _The Furnace of Gold_ and _Thurley Ruxton_ + + + + +New York + +Desmond FitzGerald, Inc. + + + + +Copyright, 1912 + +By DESMOND FITZGERALD, INC. + +_All Rights Reserved_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I. A TRUSTED MESSENGER + II. AN UNEXPECTED OUTBURST + III. A MIDNIGHT TRAGEDY + IV. THE NIGHT AND MORNING + V. THE ISLAND + VI. VARIOUS DISCOVERIES + VII. A GREWSOME GUARDIAN + VIII. PRIMITIVE CONDITIONS + IX. THE MOTHER OF INVENTION + X. THE MASTER POACHER + XI. A MYSTERY + XII. AMBITIOUS PLANS + XIII. A MIDNIGHT VISITOR + XIV. TRUANTS OUT OF SCHOOL + XV. A NIGHT IN THE JUNGLE + XVI. A DEAD MAN'S SECRET + XVII. FEVERISH EMPLOYMENTS HALTED + XVIII. AT THE TIGER'S KILL + XIX. GRENVILLE'S RADIANT STAR + XX. A GIRDLE OF GOLD + XXI. MOLTEN METAL AND HOPES + XXII. A TOMB OF STONE + XXIII. A DESPERATE CHANCE + XXIV. A DREADED VISITOR + XXV. AN IRREPARABLE LOSS + XXVI. AFTER TO-MORROW---- + XXVII. A FATEFUL EXPLOSION + XXVIII. WHAT THE BLAST DISCOVERED + XXIX. AN INTERRUPTED DIVERSION + XXX. REVEALING AN INTENT + XXXI. THE SILENT VISITORS + XXXII. DEATH AS A BROTHER + XXXIII. THE GIRL BEHIND THE GUN + XXXIV. DYAK DARTS AND METHODS + XXXV. A BATTLE IN THE SMOKE + XXXVI. THE LAST CUP OF WATER + XXXVII. A BREATHLESS MARGIN + XXXVIII. GRENVILLE'S DESPERATE CHANCE + XXXIX. ADDITIONAL HEAD-HUNTERS + XL. PLOT AND COUNTER PLOT + XLI. A LIVING BAIT + XLII. LONG HOURS OF DOUBT + XLIII. THE HOUR OF CLIMAX + XLIV. A LOTUS BLOSSOM + XLV. THE LAST BOMB + XLVI. A GIFT REFUSED + XLVII. A FRIEND IN NEED + + + + +AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING + + + +CHAPTER I + +A TRUSTED MESSENGER + +Grenville was not the type to be readily excited, yet a glow of +exceptional brilliance shone in his eyes as he met the searching gaze +of his friend, and wondered if Fenton could be jesting. + +That he had made no reply whatsoever to Fenton's proposition he failed +to realize till Gerald spoke again. + +"Well, Sid," demanded that impetuous lieutenant of finance, "gone dumb? +Perhaps I haven't made it plain," and he particularized on his fingers. +"You get an ocean trip of eight or ten weeks' duration, tropic sun at +its best, leisurely business without a fleck of bother, absolute rest, +good provender, thorough recuperation, your entire expenses cheerfully +paid, vast service rendered to me, no time lost on your equilibrator, +time for countless new inventions to sprout in your fertile brain--and +the unutterable joy of escaping this abominable climate, practically at +once!" + +Grenville's smile, still brightly boyish, despite the many reverses and +hardships of his six and twenty years, came creeping to his eyes. His +wan face suggested a tint of color. + +"Don't wake me up for a moment, Fen," he answered. "I haven't dreamed +anything like it for years." + +"Dreamed?" repeated Fenton, resuming his interrupted pacing up and down +the rug, where the firelight reddened his profile. "Does that mean you +like it?--you'll go?" + +"Would Cinderella go to a ball?" replied the still incredulous +Grenville, half seriously. "What's the joker, old chap? What is the +worst that could happen at the midnight stroke of twelve?" + +Fenton came at once and laid his hands on the broad, bony shoulders of +his friend. + +"Have I ever played a joker with you yet?" said he. "Never mind the +apology. I forgive you. I understand the compliment. Proposal sounds +too good to be true, and all that sort of rubbish. The fact is, old +man, I want you to go to Canton, China, and bring home my affianced +bride. That's absolutely all there is to the business. You need the +change and voyage; I haven't the time to go out there and fetch her +myself. Elaine is alone in that heathenish country, miserably +heartsick over her uncle's sudden death. She wishes to return at once. +I can't let the poor girl come alone. I've no one in the world but you +I'd care to send--and there you are." + +The glow departed from Grenville's eyes. His doubts of any proposition +with a woman in the case lurked deep in his level gaze. His face +became once more the rugged mask with which he had so long confronted a +world persistently gray. The smile he summoned to his lips was more +quizzical than mirthful. + +"It sounds perfectly simple," he replied. "But--you know there are +several tales, recorded in prose and verse, of kings who have sent a +trusted messenger on precisely such an errand. The joker somehow +managed to get into play." + +"Just so," agreed Fenton, readily. "Three or four times in a thousand +cases the girl and the--er--messenger rather thoughtlessly--well, a +complication arises. The percentage, however, is excessively low. +We'll consider that a negligible possibility. You see, I know both you +and Elaine, and I am not a king. The question is--will you go?" + +Grenville was always amused by Fenton's arguments. + +"I have seen no statistics on the subject," he admitted. "In this +particular instance you think there is not the slightest danger?" + +"Of finding in old Sid a modern Launcelot?" Fenton turned his friend +about till both of them faced down the length of the room. "Well," he +added, "to be sure----" + +Grenville's quick glance had sped to the massive mirror, ten feet away, +where both himself and Fenton were reflected from heels to crown. He +comprehended in a glance the ill-clothed, thin, ungainly figure he +presented: his big hands hanging loosely down, his face too ruggedly +modeled, too sallow for attractiveness, his hair too rebellious for +order. + +A Launcelot indeed! The irony of the situation struck home to his +sense of humor. + +"Have a look," continued Fenton, his nervous glance indifferent to his +own athletic fitness, the perfect grooming of his person, the grace and +elegance of his tailoring. "Do you discern anything of the disloyal +ambassador in that hard-worked friend and comrade of my happiest +years?" His eyes gleamed irresistibly. "You see, old chap, you have +trusted an invention of perhaps incalculable worth to my honor, and +must leave both your fame and possible fortune in my keeping while you +are long away." + +"Yes, but----" + +"I know, exactly. This is the sort of thing you and I have always done +by one another. I had no thought of refusing your trust in me, and +so--I have booked your passage for Wednesday." + +He turned again to the mantel and began to fill his pipe. + +Grenville pivoted slowly and rubbed the corner of his jaw. + +"You have--booked my passage--for Wednesday?" + +Fenton nodded. "Elaine is quite desolate and lonely. You need +immediate sunshine and warmth, and can do no good remaining here. Fine +day all round for starting, Wednesday, and no boat sailing sooner. +There are one thousand dollars in that wad by the statue of Anubis, for +your outfit and incidental cash." + +Grenville glanced mechanically at the dog-headed god of the ancient +Egyptians, apparently guarding the money towards which Fenton had waved +a careless gesture. + +"One thou----" + +"If it isn't enough, draw on my bankers for more," interrupted Fenton, +puffing at his calabash industriously. "I have written Elaine so fully +you'll have nothing to explain." + +"By George!" said Grenville, more aggressively, "I like your nerve--the +way you'd plunge me into trouble! Do you think I'm a mere senseless +rack of wires and bones because I'm not my usual self? What's to +prevent me from falling head over heels---- What's the rest of her +name--Elaine what? And you probably have her photograph somewhere +among your possessions." + +"Her full name," Fenton answered, moving to the desk beside the mirror, +"is Elaine Lytton--twenty-one this month. We've known each other seven +years." He returned, extending a small-sized photograph. "Fine girl. +That's her picture. Good likeness--sent me last winter from China." + +Grenville studied the photograph superficially. He used it to tap on +the table as he once more faced his host. + +"About as I expected," he announced with his customary candor. +"Nice-looking girl--nothing extra, perhaps, but nice enough. Now tell +me how any healthy male friend of yours can guarantee not to fall in +love with Elaine, on a long, lazy trip through the tropics," and he +cast the picture from him towards the lamp. + +Fenton relighted his pipe. "Well, suppose he did commit the folly you +describe, what then?" + +"What then?" echoed Grenville, incredulously. "By the long, curved +lashes of Juno's eyes, if I were the man you'd certainly see what then!" + +"All right," said the imperturbable Fenton. "I accept your conditions, +fully, and about your outfit I'd suggest----" + +"Hold on!" interrupted Grenville. "I haven't accepted your commission, +much as the trip----" + +"The trip!" said Fenton. "Ah! that's the point! I insist on your +making the trip, you see, and taking the rest. Fetching Elaine from +China is merely incidental--only don't forget her completely and come +back here empty-handed." He sat down to wrestle with his pipe. + +Grenville looked at him amusedly. + +"Now, see here," he said, "don't you make the slightest mistake, you +confident old idiot. If I should just happen to fancy Elaine, I +wouldn't give you twenty cents in Mexican money for your chances at the +wedding bells and trimmings." + +"Then you'll go!" Fenton suddenly exploded, springing to his feet. +"Come on, that's settled--shake." + +But Grenville retreated from the outstretched hand, a queer smile +playing on his features. + +"Hang your infernal self-conceit," he answered; "you don't think I +could win her if I tried." + +"I don't believe you'll try." + +"That isn't the point. I might. If I loved her I would, you can bet +your final shoe peg! Your proposition isn't fair--subjecting a man, +and a friend at that, to possible temptation, all kinds of treachery, +and a war between love and duty. Rot that kind of duty! I want you to +know that if I take the trip and happen to fall in this muddle with +your girl, I'm going to pitch your infernal old duty game overboard in +less than two seconds and go in and win her, if I can!" + +"Well, what's all the row about, after that?" inquired Fenton as +before. "Haven't I said I accept your challenge? Go out there and +fetch her, that's all. As for the rest--win her, if you can!" + +"I don't say I'll try to win the girl. I may not like her for a cent." + +"Then why all this futile argument and waste of valuable time?" + +"But I may--confound your egotistic nerve, and your insistence! And I +warn you, Fen, I mean every word, in case----" + +"I understand--I understand you fully, without repetition," Fenton once +more interrupted. "For Heaven's sake, give me your hand, old man, and +cease firing." + +"You meant it, then--no strings on the proposition?" + +"Not a string--absolutely not a string." + +A strange new thrill of pleasure crept into Grenville's being, warming +his thin, anaemic pulses suddenly, as he met Fenton's gaze and once more +permitted his thoughts to dwell on all the proposal embraced. Since +Fenton refused to be worried concerning himself and the girl who +supplied the motive for the trip, then why should he consider it +further? Elaine was, in fact, swiftly fading from his reflections. + +All his nature yearned towards the tropic seas. All his overwrought +frame and substance ached for the long, lazy days of indolence, rest, +and recuperation that alone could restore him to himself. He had +always longed for precisely this excursion to the far-off edge of the +sphere. His faculties leaped to the new-made possibility of a contact +with the ancient world, heretofore so wholly inaccessible. + +Already new color had come to his face and a new blaze of fire to his +eyes. Privations and toil, those two unsparing allies that had made +such inroads on his health and strength, seemed fading harmlessly away. +The prospect was far too alluring to be resisted. There was no good +reason in the world for refusing this favor to a friend. + +The brightness of face that had ever made him so lovable, came +unbidden, there in the glow. + +"I suppose I'll have to go," he presently admitted, "if it's only to +win your girl." + +"Shake," said Fenton; and they shook. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +AN UNEXPECTED OUTBURST + +The sea is an ancient worker of miracles in amazing transformation, but +rarely does it bring about a more complete or startling metamorphosis +than that which was wrought upon Grenville--trusted messenger for a +friend. + +Long before the shores of Cathay loomed welcomely upon his vision he +had lost all sense of weariness or depression, and likewise all that +worn and gaunt appearance of a large, thin frame inhabited by a dogged +but thoroughly exhausted spirit. + +He was once more his strong, bold, interested self, merry of speech, +bright-eyed, untamed in his buoyant nature, lovable, thoughtful of +those about him, impetuous, and never to be repressed. He had flirted +uninterruptedly with all the old women and the children on the outward +voyage, and was now as cheerfully repeating this gay performance on the +steamship "Inca," homeward bound, on which he was certainly the +favorite of the crew and his fellow-passengers. + +The fortnight passed with Elaine upon the sea had been wholly +uneventful, save for the vast commotion astir in Grenville's being. +The worst that could happen, he told himself, had happened. His daily +deportment towards his charge had baffled, piqued, and amused that +young lady alternately, and convinced her that here was a brand-new +specimen of the genus man with which she had never had a genuine +experience. + +She found him boyish, unexpected, apparently indifferent, and even +unaware, at times, of her existence on the vessel, then fairly +effervescent with deviltry that left her all but gasping. He was not +to be classified, fixed, or calculated, save in certain traits of +fearlessness, generosity, and kindness to those most needful of a +helping smile, a merry word, or a spell of relief from daily cares. + +He commanded a certain admiration from the puzzled girl, but as yet her +actual feelings towards him were quite unanalyzed. She was constantly +finding herself astonished at the scope and variety of his information; +she was glad to listen when he talked; she was frequently touched to +the very heart by his tender care of one or two frail little beings on +the ship to whom much of his time was devoted. + +There they were, with the situation between them apparently commonplace +to dullness--till this one particular day. + +It was not a common day on the ocean. Despite the fact he was neither +mariner nor meteorologist, Grenville felt some vast disturbance +impending in all the lifeless air, regardless of the fact the barometer +was steady and the calm, rainless spell had been exceptionally +prolonged. It was not precisely a premonition that addressed itself to +his senses; it was something he could not explain. + +A wave of heat passed swiftly through his body, leaving a strange +excitement in its train, as he paused for a second to wonder if the +"symptoms" he sensed were concerned not at all with sea or weather, but +wholly with Elaine. + +He admitted the love--the wild, free, passionate love that had swept +him away, past all safe anchorage, with her entry into his existence. +He had made no effort to conceal it from himself, to deny its +overwhelming force. He had cursed Gerald Fenton most heartily and +consistently for casting him into this maelstrom of conflicting +emotions, and daily and nightly he had waged mighty war with that +fortunately absent individual, who had calmly accepted his challenge. + +The trouble had come unbidden. Elaine was so wholly different from the +girl represented by Fenton's photograph! The picture had seemed so +lifeless--and she was so gloriously alive! That one fact alone seemed +sufficient excuse to Grenville for all that had happened to him since. +He had not been fully informed, he argued, respecting her wondrous +charms. + +The two weeks mentioned, with Elaine at his side, had certainly +accomplished the world-old complication once more, despite all his hard +and honest struggling. When the fight had ceased he did not even know. +What Elaine's private attitude was towards himself he had taken no time +to inquire. That part mattered less than nothing at all--at least as +concerned the present. He had warned old Fenton what to expect, but +now--by the gods--how deeply he was mired in the quandary! + +He was certainly mighty hard hit, he confessed, but meantime was +equally positive that the singular something he plainly felt, invading +the air and telling its message to some faint, imperfect sense of his +being, had nothing whatsoever to do with this business of passionate +emotions. Yet not a sign of uneasiness on the part of officers and +crew could his keenest wit discover, in any quarter of the iron craft +plowing steadily on across the sea. + +He had climbed to the topmost deck of the ship, where he and a +carpenter, who was hewing out a boat thwart with a gleaming adze, were +temporarily alone. It was not Grenville's manner of wooing to hover +beside Elaine throughout the day or evening. He had done no wooing, as +a matter of fact, beyond assuming a somewhat bold but unoffending +guardianship, which she might have found refreshing had it not so +frequently taken her breath with its very matter-of-factness. + +At the present moment, as Grenville was well aware, she was somewhere +down on the shaded portion of the promenade, where the erstwhile stir +of tropic air had ebbed to utter sluggishness and finally expired. One +of the purser's young assistants, dressed in wrinkled white duck, was +dumbly adoring at her side. + +Impatiently banishing Fenton from his thoughts, Grenville gazed idly at +the sultry sky, and as idly at the carpenter, wielding the polished +adze. When a deckhand presently called this workman away, Grenville +took up the implement left behind, felt he would like to swing it just +once at the root of the complication now arisen between himself and his +distant friend--on whose money he was voyaging--and whose sweetheart +his nature demanded for a mate--and, replacing the tool on the +weathered planks, he thrust both hands in his pockets and paced to and +fro, beside a pair of inverted lifeboats and a raft, that occupied most +of the deck. + +He finally flung himself down on a hatch, in the shade of a +white-painted funnel, and plunged his warring faculties into +concentrated study of a problem in mechanics involved in a new +invention. On the back of a letter, drawn from an inside pocket, he +drew black hieroglyphics, that to him were wheels and levers that +relieved his state of mind. + +Absorption claimed him for its own. The swift, weird changes of the +sky and atmosphere escaped his engrossed attention. He was not even +aware of her presence till Elaine had been standing for fully five +minutes, a few feet only from his side. + +When he looked up at last and beheld once more that singular glow and +beauty in the depths of her luminous eyes, and felt the subtle flattery +involved in the fact she had come to the place to find him, seek him +out, a flood of tidal passion surged to his outermost veins. + +It was just the one straw too much, this unforeseen encounter, with the +smile upon her lips. His sturdy resolutions all went down in utter +confusion before the wild gladness of his heart. Yet he made no +outward sign for Elaine to read. + +Calmly, to all appearances, he placed the letter in his pocket. + +"I hope," said Elaine, "I haven't disrupted anything important." + +He arose and gazed at her oddly. + +"You have, Elaine," he answered, in a voice he strove hard to control. +"You've not only disrupted everything heretofore moving along its +accustomed path of order, law, and calm, but you've also upset all +sorts of established institutions and raised some merry Hades." + +A spirit of the lively old Nick was infusing with his youthful blood as +he stood there gazing upon her. Elaine, however, either failed to +detect its presence, or she failed to understand. + +"I?" she said, "Mr. Grenville. I'm sorry. What have I done?" + +He could not have done the conventional thing, the deliberate, calm, or +expected thing, to save his immortal soul. His nature was far too +honest, too unabashed. He came a step nearer--and then she knew, but +she could not have moved at the moment had death been the oncoming +penalty for remaining where she stood. She had never been so startled +in her life. + +They two were absolutely alone and unobserved. Of this the impulsive +Grenville was aware--and the knowledge had fired a certain madness in +his being he was powerless to quell. + +"Elaine," he said, as he suddenly caught her unresisting hands, "you've +put old Fenton entirely out of the game. You're going to marry me." + +She was dimly conscious of pain in her hands, where he crushed them in +his ardor. But her shocked surprise was uppermost, as she faced him +with blazing eyes. + +"Mr. Grenville!" she said. "Mr. Grenville--you---- To say--to +speak----" + +"Elaine," he interrupted gayly, bright devils dancing in his boyish +eyes, "it simply couldn't be helped. We were intended to meet--and +were cut out for one another. So the hour must come when you'll pitch +old Gerald's ring in the sea by order of the very Fates themselves!" + +She snatched away her hands in indignation. + +"For shame!" she cried in rising anger, her whole womanly being aflame +with resistance to all his growing madness. "You haven't the slightest +right in the world----" + +"Right?" he repeated. "Right? I love you, Elaine! I love you! +Haven't I said----" + +"Oh, the treachery--the treachery to Gerald!" she cut in, with swiftly +increasing emotion. "To say such things when your honor----" + +"Wait!" he interrupted, eagerly. "I told him what he might expect from +any such arrangement. I warned him precisely what might happen. He +understood--accepted my conditions--made it a challenge--declared if I +tried I couldn't win! And now----" + +"You can't--you can't!--you can't!" she cried at him, angrily. "To +think that Gerald--to think you'd dare----" + +He suddenly caught her in his arms and crushed her against his breast. +He kissed her on the mouth, despite her struggles. + +"Elaine," he said, "you are mine--all mine--my sweetheart--my +comrade--my mate!" + +She finally planted her fists against his throat and thrust him from +her in fury. + +"You brute!" she answered, sobbing in her anger. "I hate you--I loathe +you--despise you utterly! I wish I might never see your face again!" + +"I'll make you love me, Elaine," he answered, white at last with +intensity and deep-going passion. "I'll make you love me, as I love +you--as madly--as wholly--as wondrously--before ever we two get home." + +Already Elaine was retreating from the place. + +"Never!" she answered, wildly. "Never, never, never!--do you +hear?--not if it takes this boat a hundred years!" And gropingly, +almost blinded by her sense of shame and rage, she fled from the deck +and down the stairs, leaving him shaken where he stood. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A MIDNIGHT TRAGEDY + +Not the slightest alarm had invaded the ship, when Grenville finally +urged his senses back to the normal, notwithstanding the unaccustomed +suddenness with which the aspect of the day had been reversed. + +The storm broke at last, about one in the afternoon, with a deluge of +rain and an onslaught of wind that seemed for a time refreshing. The +huge steel leviathan appeared to elevate her nose, give her shoulders a +shake that settled her firmly in the gray disorder of the elements, and +then to accept the rude old contest with a certain indifference, born +of well-established prowess. + +By two o'clock there was nothing refreshing suggested. A dull, +stubborn struggle was waging in the drab of a wild and narrow field of +commotion. Chill, musty billows of air, made thick by something that +was neither scud nor mist, pounced heavily upon the laboring "Inca" in +a manner chaotic and irregular. The sea was rising sullenly, its +waves, like tumultuous cohorts, with ragged white banners, ceaselessly +advancing. + +With an easy, monotonous assurance the great device of steam and iron +plugged steadily onward. It could ride out a sea of tremendously +greater violence. It knew from long experience every crest and every +abyss of these mountains of air and water. It met huge impacts +majestically, with a prow that cleaved them through, while its huge, +wet bulk plowed up its mileage with a barely diminished speed. + +Few of the passengers were actually alarmed. A storm evolved so +suddenly, they were confidently informed, would expend itself in one +brief spasm of impotent fury and subside almost as it had come. It was +all some mere local disturbance that the spell of dry, calm weather had +accumulated too swiftly for any save a violent discharge. + +Discomfort increased to a certain pitch; locomotion about the saloon +became impracticable. The crew alone remained upon their legs. It +seemed like the climax to the storm. But another stage swiftly +developed. + +It might have been somewhat after three P.M. when a shroud of darkness +settled from the heavens, its substance foreign both to cloud and sea. +It was thicker than before, and decidedly more musty. As black as +night, but unrelated to all ordinary essences of darkness, it wrapped +the stormy universe in Stygian folds with a suddenness strangely +disquieting. + +The cataclysm followed almost instantly, as if from behind a concealing +curtain. It came in dimensions incredible, a prodigious wall of +rumpled water, like a mobile mountain chain. It towered forbiddingly +above the quivering vessel for one terrible moment of threat, then +confusion, utter and seemingly eternal, plunged roaringly over and +under the helpless ocean toy of steel, submerging the very sea itself +in Niagaras of sound and weight and motion. + +A hideous shudder quivered through the feeble plaything of the +elements. Strange, muffled thunderings, sensations of oblivion +sweeping miles deep across the ocean, and a horrible conviction of the +ship's insignificance, impressed themselves pellmell upon the senses, +while ebon blackness closed instantly down, like annihilation's swift +accompaniment, and the hull seemed sinking countless fathoms. + +Such a moment expands to an aeon. Doom seemed an old acquaintance when +a complex gyration, a sense of being flung through space, and a +reassertion of the engine's throb preceded the struggle to the surface. +Yet it seemed as if no miracle of buoyancy and might could survive till +the great steel body rose once more to the air. Men held their breath +as if they must drown if the top were not immediately achieved. + +A stupendous lurch, an incredible list to starboard, another streaming +by of immeasurable torrents, and the steamer wallowed pantingly out +into daylight once again, to flounder like a thing exhausted till she +steadied once more to the roll and pitch of the former storm-driven sea. + +There had been no time for any man to act till the monstrous thing had +come and gone its way. As helplessly as all the others, Grenville had +clutched at the table, there beside Elaine, while death passed and +roared in their faces. He had gone to her chiefly for appearances, yet +quite as if nothing had happened, despite their scene above, while +Elaine had issued from her stateroom in terror of the storm. It was +not till new, sharp sounds of activity broke on his senses, from above, +that Sid left her side and went to inquire concerning the sum of their +damage. + +His face had lost a shade only of its usual cheerfulness, when he +finally returned. The ship was rolling heavily, fairly in the trough. + +"Our rudder is gone, with six of the lifeboats and as many men," he +told his charge, whose courage he had previously gauged. "The worst is +undoubtedly over. We can steer with the screws, sufficiently to make +the nearest port." + +"Our rudder!--half a dozen men," Elaine faintly echoed, her brown eyes +ablaze with dread and sympathy, as she steadied from the shock of +Grenville's news. "What was it? How did it happen?" + +"A tidal wave. There must have been a huge volcanic disturbance, +doubtless under the sea. Or it may have been an earthquake, +tremendously violent. Nothing else, according to the Captain, could +account for a storm so sudden, or for all this strange thickness of the +air. He is confident now of our safety. The storm may subside in an +hour." + +There was not the slightest cessation of the storm, however, till eight +o'clock in the evening. Even then the night continued thick and wild. + +Fortunately the sea was vast and deep. There was nothing known in two +hundred miles on which the ship could blunder. Hour after hour the +crippled "Inca" limped erratically onward, buffeted helplessly here and +there, and scalloping angry abysses of darkness and water, as first one +screw and then the other was driven full speed, or slowed to half, or +reversed altogether, to hold her nose to the altered course that would +finally fetch them to a port for highly essential repairs. + +The rage of the elements, abating at last a trifle, had far exceeded +the Captain's expectations. And when at length the center was passed, +and comparative ease had supervened, the wind was still a considerable +gale, while the sea would run high till nearly morning. + +The passengers, however, were sufficiently assured to retire at a +fairly early hour. Elaine had readily responded to Grenville's +matter-of-fact instructions, and, long before midnight, was fitfully +sleeping, although she had not undressed. + +When eight bells struck from the bridge somewhere above him, Grenville +still sat on the edge of his berth, rumpling his hair with one vigorous +hand, while the other prisoned a book on his knee with a piece of white +paper upon it. The paper was literally covered with mechanical designs +and hieroglyphics, involved in his latest problem. + +He arose at last, removed his coat, and began to fumble with his tie. +His eyes were fixed upon his paper. The problem's spell was cast again +upon him. He sank, as before, to his inconvenient seat, and drew yet +another design. + +How long he remained there, tranced by the lines that represented +levers, gears, and eccentrics, the man could never have stated. He was +dimly subconscious it was time to go to bed, and from time to time one +hand would return to his collar. As a matter of fact, the hour was +past one of the morning. + +Then, of a sudden, apparently beneath his very feet, the frightful +_thing_ occurred. + +It came all together--the grinding crunch, the colossal upheaval of the +ship's great belly full of vitals, the scream of iron ripped from iron, +the roar of steam from broken pipes, and the tremor of death-throes, +shuddering thus promptly down to the canted bow and stern from the +wedge-shaped split amidships. + +They had struck on a rock, upheaved by the earthquake, where a hundred +fathoms of crystal brine had existed the previous noon! + +The hideous conviction of doom and horror sped as swiftly as the shiver +of destruction to the farthest confines of the vessel. Screams far and +near, hoarse bellowing, a shrill, high paean of mortal fright, and +sounds of disordered scurrying followed with a promptness fairly +appalling. + +Grenville waited for nothing. As well as the most experienced officer +on board, he realized the significance of the impact, the ship's awful +buckling, and the quiver stilling the creature's heart--the engines +that had ceased at once to throb. + +His door had been flung widely open. Before he could reach the turning +of the corridor, the one electric bulb, left glowing for the night, +abruptly blackened. But he knew the way to Elaine. + +He seemed to be plunging through a torture hall, so hurtling full was +the darkness of fearful cries and confusion. The broken hulk of the +steamer slightly lurched, as the plates broke yet farther apart. +Sidney was flung against a cabin wall, but he righted and pitched more +rapidly down the already canted passage. + +"Elaine!" he called. "Elaine!" + +"Yes!" she answered. "Yes! I can't get out!" She was not at all in a +panic. + +Someone, a man, rushed headlong by and nearly bowled Grenville over. +He was spilling golf clubs from a bag and calling for the steward. + +Grenville caught at the knob of Elaine's hard-fastened door and threw +his weight upon it. A stubborn resistance met his effort. The frame +had been distorted by the splitting of plates and ribs. The wedging +was complete. + +"Stand back!" he called out sharply. "I must break it in at once!" + +He knew they were late already--that swarms of beings, nearer the +exits, were wildly pouring from the ship's interior, to be first to the +boats, so fatally reduced in numbers. + +With all his might he hurled his shoulder against the door, that merely +creaked at his impotent assault. The hall was narrow. He could gain +no momentum for his blow. The second and third attack made no +impression. + +A clammy sweat exuded from his forehead. That the sea was tumbling +torrentially into the helpless vessel he knew by countless indications. +Elaine must perish helplessly in her trap, could he not immediately +force the barrier. He suddenly got down, full length, upon the floor, +braced his shoulders against the opposite cabin, and, with knees +slightly raised, placed both his feet against the door. Then he +strained with superhuman strength. The door remained immovable, but +its paneling slightly cracked. + +Meantime the shrieks, the shouts, the roaring of steam, and the +terrible chaos of destruction had increased to a horrifying chorus. +The corridor was filling with hot, moist vapor from the burst pipes. A +dozen stokers had perished. Fire had attacked a portion of the vessel +abaft the midships section. + +Once more, with a wild, fanatic conjuring of energy, Grenville spent +himself upon the door--and a panel snapped out, flinging little +splinters on Elaine. In a fury of desperate activity the man on the +floor beat out more with his driving feet. + +"It's large enough! It's large enough!" cried the girl as the orifice +widened. "Don't wait to break it larger!" + +She was now fully dressed, having swiftly prepared for any sort of +emergency. A candle, provided from her bag, was glowing in her hand. + +This she thrust forth for Grenville to take, and then, with deliberate +care, she wormed her way out through the jagged hole with the confident +skill of a child. + +"Not there!" called Grenville, as she hastened ahead to gain the +forward companionway. "Everybody's there, all fighting for their +lives!" + +He caught her actively about the waist, as a further lurch and settling +of the "Inca" would have hurled her to the floor. Down through a +shorter passage and up a strangely tilted stair he drew her rapidly, +his heart assailed by a sickening fear of what their delay might have +cost them. Yet less than five minutes had actually passed since the +first vast shock of disaster. + +They emerged to a portion of the slanted deck that seemed to be utterly +deserted. A gust of wind blew out the candle. The sky was clear. An +uneven fragment of the aging moon shone dully on the broken ship, +whence fearful sounds continued to arise. + +Only one of the boats had been dropped to the tide--to be instantly +whirled _inside_ the parting steamer, on the torrent filling her mighty +belly, where the latest lurch had laid her widely open. + +Grenville ran to the starboard rail for a glance towards the struggle +farther forward. There, about the impotent crew, laboring hotly with +people, boats and davits no longer adjusted to normal working order, +the wildest confusion existed. + +A boat that hung out above the sea was filled with screaming beings. +Some madman arose and slashed with maniacal fury at the rope of the +blocks, to hasten the craft's descent. Of a sudden its bow shot +perpendicularly downward, its stern still high in the air. Its cargo +dropped out like leaden weights, while the empty shell, like a +pendulum, swayed to and fro above the smothered cries. + +To join such a throng would be but to choose a larger company in which +to perish. Grenville saw that the steamer must presently drop from her +rock and sound illimitable depths. This could hardly be delayed for +more than ten minutes longer. + +A sickening qualm assailed his vitals at the thought of Elaine, doomed +to drown thus helplessly, along with himself and the others. He knew +that not only were the boats insufficient, but there was no time left +to load and launch them! + +Then, at length, he remembered the life-raft on the roof. Once more, +with his arm supporting Elaine, he clambered up a tilted stairway. The +place was deserted. The raft was there--but securely fastened to the +planking, fore and aft and at the sides! The ropes that bound it down +were thick and doubled! + +With his knife the man attacked them desperately. The blade broke out +of the handle when one strand only had been severed. His second blade +was small and useless for such a labor. + +He groaned, for a ghastly tremor was seizing the "Inca" as she hung +above some crumbling abyss for a final plunge to the bottom. Then the +moonlight gleamed on the carpenter's adze, which had slid down the deck +to the railing. He darted upon it like an animal, and, hastening back, +swung it with swift and savage blows that severed the ropes like cheese. + +"Quick! Quick!" he shouted to Elaine, as he flung the implement from +him; and, catching her roughly about the waist, he bore her face +downward beside himself, full length upon the raft. + +It was already slightly in motion, where the ship was toppling to her +grave! + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE NIGHT--AND MORNING + +With a rattle and scraping along the deck, the device with the two +prone figures desperately clinging to its surface, was halted and +tilted nearly level as it struck a spar and partially mounted upon it. + +A sudden glare lit up the scene where the fire had burst through +shattered windows. Screams yet more appalling than those already +piercing the gale arose with the movement of the vessel. A picture +grotesque and monstrous was for one awful moment presented. The huge +iron entrails of the vessel heaved up into sight with her breaking. +Her funnels, masts, and superstructure pointed outward, strangely +horizontal. Innumerable loose things rattled down the decks. She +belched forth flame and clouds of steam, against which one huge iron +rib, rudely torn on its end to the semblance of a giant finger, seemed +pointing the way to inscrutable eternity. + +The lantern, up at the "Inca's" masthead, describing an arc as it swept +across the heavens, was the last thing Grenville noted. He thought how +insignificantly it would sizzle in the sea! Then he and Elaine, with +raft and all, were flung far out, by the suddenly accelerated velocity +of the doomed leviathan, turning keel upwards as it sank. When they +struck, their puny float dived under like a crockery platter, shied +from some Titanic hand. + +With all his strength the man clung fast to Elaine and the lattice-like +planking of their deck. It seemed to Grenville, still submerged, he +could never resist the force of the waves to wash them backwards to +death. It appeared, moreover, the raft would never return to the top. +A million bubbles broke about his ears. He felt they were diving to +deeps illimitable. + +With a rush of waters drumming on their senses, it shot precipitately +upward at last, till air and spray greeted them together. Then, sucked +deep under, anew, and backward, by the gurgling vortex where the ship +had gone, and swirling about, pivoting wildly, as the raft now +threatened to plunge edge downward to the nethermost caverns of the +hungry sea, they met a counter-violence that forced it once more +towards the surface. + +The boilers had burst in the steamer's hold, with confusion to all +those tides of suction. Erratically diving here and there, a helpless +prey to chaotic cross currents in all directions, the float swung +giddily in the mid abyss, while the water walls baffled one another. + +Elaine, even more than Grenville, was bursting with explosive breath +when, at length, the raft came twisting once more to the chill, sweet +region of the gale. And even then strong currents drew it fiercely in +their wake before it rode freely on the waters. + +Dripping and gasping, Grenville half rose to scan the troubled billows +for companions in distress. Not a sound could he hear, save the swash +of the waves. Not a light appeared in all that void, save the distant, +indifferent stars. + +Elaine, too, stirred, and raised herself up to a posture half sitting. +She was hatless. Her hair was streaming down across her face and +shoulders in strands too wet for the wind to ravel. Her eyes were +blazing wildly. + +"The ship?" she said. "What happened?" + +"Sunk." He stood up. Their platform was steadying buoyantly as it +drifted in the breeze. "I can't even see the spot," he added, +presently. "We couldn't propel this raft to the place, no matter who +might be floating." + +"It's terrible!" she whispered, faintly, as one afraid to accuse the +Fates aloud. "Couldn't we even---- You think they are all--all gone?" + +"I'll shout," said Grenville, merely to humor the pity in her breast. +His long, loud "Halloo" rolled weirdly out across the wolf-like pack of +waves, three--four--a half dozen times. + +There was not the feeblest murmur of response. Yet he felt that, +perhaps, one boatload at least might have sped away in safety. + +"God help them!" he said, when the silence became once more +insupportable. "He only knows where any of us are!" + +"After all we'd been through!" she shivered in awe. "If only we two +were really saved---- Oh, there must be land, somewhere about, if the +Captain was trying to reach a port! But, of course, this isn't even a +boat, and, perhaps, it will finally sink!" + +He tried to summon an accent of hope to his voice. + +"Oh, no; it will float indefinitely. It's sure to turn up somewhere in +the end." + +"We haven't food--or even water," she answered him, understandingly. +"What shall we do to-morrow?" + +"We are drifting rapidly northward. We may arrive somewhere by +to-morrow.... You'd better sit down. It taxes your strength to stand." + +"God help us all!" she suddenly prayed in a broken voice, and, sinking +lower where she sat, was shaken by one convulsion of sobbing, in pity +for all she had seen. She had no thoughts left for their earlier, +personal encounter. + +For a time Grenville stood there, braced to take the motion of the +raft. The wind continued brisk and undiminished. Aided by tides, +which had turned an hour earlier, to flow in its general direction, it +drove the raft steadily onward over miles of gray, unresting sea. + +The water slopped up between the slats whereon Elaine was sitting. She +was cold, despite the tropic latitude. She was hopeful, only because +she wished to contribute no unnecessary worry to the man. + +Grenville at length sat down at her side, but they made no effort to +converse. Elaine was exhausted by the sickening strain and the shock +of that tragic end. For an hour or more she sat there limply, being +constantly wet by the waves. She attempted, finally, to curl herself +down and make a pillow of her arm, and there she sank into something +akin to sleep. + +Gently Grenville thrust out his foot and lifted her head upon the +cushion of flesh above his ankle. The night wore slowly on. Three +o'clock came grayly over the world-edge, where the waves made a +scalloped horizon. + +Slowly the watery universe expanded, as the dawn-light palely +increased. By four Grenville's gaze could search all the round of the +ocean, but nothing broke either sky or sea. + +Five o'clock developed merely color on the water, but no sign of a sail +or a funnel. Elaine still slept, while Grenville, cramped almost +beyond endurance, refused to move, and thereby disturb her slumber. + +But at six, as he turned for the fiftieth time to scan the limited +horizon, he started so unwittingly, at sight of a tree and headland, +flatly erected, like a bit of sawed-out stage scenery, above the waste +of billows, that Elaine sat up at once. + +"It's land!" he said. "We're drifting to some sort of land!" + +She was still too hazy in her mind, and puzzled by their surroundings, +to grasp the situation promptly. + +"Land?" she repeated. "Oh!" and a rush of hideous memories swept +confusedly upon her till she shivered, gazing at the water. + +Grenville had risen to his feet, and Elaine now rose beside him. +Somewhat more of the flat, wide protrusion from the sea became thus +visible to both. It still appeared of insignificant extent, a blue and +featureless patch against the sky, with one half-stripped tree upon its +summit. + +"I should say it's an island," Grenville added, quietly, restraining an +exultation that might prove premature. "It is still some miles away." + +"There must be someone there," Elaine replied, with an eagerness that +betrayed her anxious state of mind. "Almost anyone would certainly +help us a little." + +What doubts he entertained of some of the island inhabitants in this +particular section of the world, Sidney chose to keep to himself. + +"It's land!" he said, as he had before. "That means everything!" + +"Do you know of any island that ought to be in this locality?" + +"I haven't the remotest notion where we are--except we are somewhere, +broadly speaking, in the neighborhood of the Malay peninsula. The +steamer must have drifted tremendously out of her course after we lost +our rudder." + +"Have you been awake for long?" + +"I haven't slept." + +"Have you seen or heard anything of any of the others?" + +"Not a sign.... We may find some of them, landed on this island." + +He had no such hope, and this she felt. She summoned a heart full of +courage to meet the situation, however, and gazed off afar at the misty +terra incognita enlarging imperceptibly as they drifted deliberately +onward. + +"It's fortunate," she said, "the steamers pass this way." + +"Yes," he said, unwilling to shake this solitary hope that brightened +her uncertain prospect, but he knew they were leagues from the nearest +track that the ocean steamers plowed. "And I trust we'll find it +entirely comfortable while we're waiting," he added. "We're sure to +get dry and find something fit to eat." + +She was silent for a moment. A sense of constraint was returning at +last for their scene of the previous day. "It seems to be rather far +away," was all she said. + +"About another hour--if the breeze and tide continue favorable." + +It was nearer an hour and a half, however, before they were finally +abreast the headland with the tree, and swinging and turning slowly by +the island's coast on the surface of a complicated tide. + +The features of the land had developed practically everything usual to +this latitude except habitations of men. That it was entirely +surrounded by water was convincingly established. Indeed, it was not +an extensive outcrop of some ocean-buried range, and, despite the +luxuriance of its various patches of greenery and jungle, it was +decidedly rugged in formation. + +The edge past which the raft was leisurely floating was a broken and +cavern-pitted wall of rock affording no promise of a landing. Above +this loomed the solitary tree that Grenville had seen from a distance. +Nothing suggestive of hearth smoke arose against the sky from one end +of the place to the other. + +This one vital fact, in her excitement, Elaine entirely overlooked. +She likewise failed to note the look of concern that Grenville could +not have banished from his eyes. The prospect of reaching a dry, firm +soil outweighed her immediate worries. + +"Couldn't we paddle in closer?" she said. "Where do you mean to land?" + +"Where the Fates shall please," he answered, grimly. "Without even a +line for me to take ashore we must not be over fastidious." + +"We could swim--if we have to," she told him, bravely. "We seem to be +floating farther out." + +They were, at that particular moment. The powerful current carried +them swiftly seaward a considerable distance, till at length the raft +was drawn to a species of whirlpool, some two hundred yards in +diameter, the inner rim of which was depositing weed at the edge of +something like an estuary, indenting the shore of the island. + +On the huge circumference of this whirlpool they were finally rounding +towards the one bit of beach that Grenville had been able to discover. +Yet when they approached within almost touching distance of this sunlit +strand, the current failed, permitting the breeze to waft them again +towards the center. + +"Stand by to go ashore," said Grenville, resolving suddenly on his +course, and overboard he slipped, at the float's outer edge, and, using +his legs like a powerful frog, he pushed at the raft with sufficient +force to overcome the action of the wind. + +For a moment his efforts seemed in vain--and then the clumsy affair +nosed reluctantly shoreward an inch, and was once more assisted by the +tide. Ten feet out he found the water shallow and, planting his feet +on the solid sand, drove the raft at once to the estuary's edge, where +Elaine leaped lightly ashore. + +Some startled creature slipped abruptly into the pool that the tiny +harbor formed. This escaped Elaine's attention. A moment later the +raft rode scrapingly over a bar that all but locked the inlet, and +Grenville stood dripping on the sand. + +"Welcome to our city," said he, an irrepressible emotion of joyousness +and relief possessing him completely at the moment, and, going at once +to the near-by growth, where a long stout limb had been broken from a +tree, he dragged this severed member forth to the beach and across the +estuary's mouth, where it effectually blocked the channel against the +raft's escape. Then he folded a couple of large-sized leaves with his +hands, secured each with a slender twig, and, giving one to Elaine for +a cap, placed the other upon his head. + +Elaine was no less relieved than he, so elastic and buoyant is youth. + +"The villages must be on the farther side," she said. "What language +do you suppose the natives speak?" + +"Well--doubtless some Simian, in any case," he answered, having fancied +one movement half seen in the trees beyond was made by an ape or a +monkey. "I'd suggest you recall your fondness for fruit for breakfast." + +She comprehended his meaning with amazing promptness. Her face took on +its serious expression. + +"You don't believe we shall find the island inhabited? We shall have +only fruit this morning?" + +"I am sure we shall find some fruit," he said, "and we must certainly +look for water." + +A sense of helplessness and despair attacked Elaine momentarily. She +began to wonder, with alarm, how long they might be stranded on the +place--and what attitude Grenville might assume. She had thoroughly +comprehended the passion of his nature in the outburst she had seen. A +sense of distrust she dared not show came creeping to her mind. + +"We must make the best of it, of course," she said, as calmly as +possible. "We can't even light a fire, I suppose." + +"I certainly have no matches," he answered, cheerfully. "All I had +were in my coat. Suppose we explore the island first and leave despair +till after breakfast." + +She met his gaze with fearless eyes that set his heart to pounding. + +"I shall never despair," she answered, more bravely than she felt,--"at +least, I shall try to do my part, till we are taken off." + +He understood the challenge in her attitude. + +"I felt that from the first," he answered, easily. "Perhaps we'd +better begin by climbing up to the headland." + +He caught up a short, heavy stick and turned about to force a way up +through the rocks and tangled growth between the shore and summit. + +And what a figure he presented--even to the frightened girl, whose +anger still lingered in her veins--stripped, as he was, to his +shirtsleeves, a powerful, active being, masterful and unafraid. With a +strange, dreadful sense of isolation and the primitive, aye, even +primal, conditions in which they had been cast, she followed helplessly +at his heels for their first real look at the island. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE ISLAND + +The ascent was steep and difficult, so unbroken was the undergrowth, +except where jagged and pitted rocks rose grayly on the slope. +Bananas, nut palms, and mangoes Grenville promptly noted. Indeed, +every tropical tree, shrub, and fruit of which he had ever learned was +represented in the thicket, together with long, snake-like creepers, +huge ferns, and many plants with which he had no acquaintance. + +There was abundant life in all directions. Here, with a grunt, and +beyond with a bound of startled surprise, some animal scuttled to cover +in alarm at their approach. A small flock of parrots abruptly arose, +flashing their brilliant plumage in the sunlight and screaming +raucously. Half a dozen leeches, clinging firmly to the fat, green +leaves next the ground, where all was moist and shaded, attracted +Grenville's notice as they lifted their heads and groped about for +flesh upon which to fasten. + +Here and there in the tree tops a monkey obscured a patch of sky for a +moment and chattered or squeaked a warning to his kind. Grenville, +almost wholly convinced that man seldom or never visited the place, and +puzzled to account for a fact so extraordinary, now emerged at the edge +of a natural clearing and promptly discovered a small patch of sugar +cane, reared above the grass and vines. He was certain that man had +brought it to the island. + +A half minute later he underwent a decidedly complex set of emotions. +He was barely five feet ahead of Elaine, who was following blindly in +his trail, a prey to new dreads of all the sounds about them, when he +halted in a tense and rigid attitude of alertness. Elaine glanced +quickly ahead. + +Apparently a patch of orange sunlight was lifting from the grass. Then +Elaine, too, saw the black, irregular stripes, the huge, topaz eyes, +and the lazy movement of a mighty shoulder muscle, as the beast before +them arose and blocked their path. + +It was not the fact that he had rarely if ever seen a tiger so large +that most impressed the man, thus unexpectedly confronted by this +unfrightened monarch of the island--_the brute bore a collar about his +neck, gleaming with gold and the facets of some sort of jewels_! + +He had obviously once been a captive! He knew the form of man, if not +his nature! + +For a moment or more there was absolute stillness in that grassy arena, +where two world-old enemies stood face to face in their first, +preliminary contest of courage. A certain arrogance, a contempt of all +possible adversaries, here in his undisputed realm, shone unmistakably +in the eyes of the motionless brute. His paunch was rounded +significantly. He had recently dined. + +Grenville could think of but one thing to do, unarmed as he was, and +unwilling to compromise an encounter so vitally important. + +He let out a shout such as a demon might have uttered, and, rushing +madly forward, with his club upraised, yelled again and again, his +aspect one to strike terror to the heart of a giant. He was almost +upon the astonished tiger when the brute abruptly fled. The roar the +great beast delivered, as he bounded from sight in the jungle, was the +sullen note of a creature that obeys, reluctantly, the command of one +superior to himself. + +"Now, then, a little discretionary haste," said Grenville, quickly +returning to Elaine. "I prefer the top of the rocks." + +But she did not move, so helpless was her will and so rigid all her +being. Once more, with his arm about her waist, Sidney firmly urged +her forward, on a beaten trail he took no time to study. + +It led in a tortuous manner up the last steep acclivity, where, with +every rod, the growth became less luxuriant, and the rocks more thickly +strewn. Thus they presently came upon a second natural clearing, a +sort of uneven terrace, some fifty feet lower than the dominating +headland crowned by the solitary tree. + +The trail to this final eminence was plainly scored along a narrow, +crumbling ledge, where the volcanic tufa, comprising the ancient +upheaval, had for years disintegrated in a honeycomb fashion that left +all the bowlders and even the walls deeply pitted. + +When they turned about together on this dominating mount, the island +lay mapped irregularly beneath them in the purple sea, revealed +well-nigh in its entirety. + +In all its expanse there was not a sign of a human habitation. + +They knew, without a word of argument, they were absolutely alone on +this tropic crumb of empire, sole survivors of the frightful wreck, +completely ignorant of their whereabouts, and surrounded not only by +savage and inimical jungle brutes, but also by some mystery that was +not to be understood. + +"Well," said Grenville, presently, "such as it is, it's ours." + +"Ours," said Elaine. A cold little shiver ran along her nerves, at +thoughts of her plight between the man she had called a brute, and the +still more savage creatures of the jungle. "Where are you going?" she +added, as Grenville moved away. + +"To look about for a moment," he replied, "and then I must pick some +breakfast." + +The examination of the hilltop was promptly concluded. It proved to be +a flat, uneven plateau of small dimensions, with precipitous walls on +every side, except where the trail led downward. Much loose rock was +scattered on its surface. Three-quarters of its boundary rose +perpendicularly out of the sea. The remainder plunged down into jungle +greenery, and the natural clearing that lay between two dense, rank +growths on either side. Not far from the center of the table-rock a +fair-sized cave, that bore unmistakable signs of former occupancy and +fires once ignited on its floor, afforded a highly acceptable shelter, +both from the sun and the elements. It occupied, of course, a position +that could be readily and easily defended. + +There were other, smaller caverns close at hand, but none with a whole +or unpierced roof. Fragments of broken clay utensils lay scattered +about, together with the whitening bones of small-sized animals that +had one time served some denizens for food. There was nothing in or +about the principal cave of which Grenville could make the slightest +use. + +The view of the island from this point of vantage was not particularly +encouraging. Midway of its rugged bulk, that jutted from the azure +tides, and on the side directly opposite the estuary, another wall of +rock loomed, gray and barren, above the tops of the trees. Behind +this, at the island's farthest, left-hand extremity, a third +"intrusion" of volcanic stuff rose to a height only barely lower than +this whereon the raftmates stood. It was not, however, flat. + +A portion only of the estuary was visible--the outer bay, where the +raft was plainly floating. Save for areas covered with rock and brush +together, the remaining surface of the island appeared to be thickly +grown to jungle, the forest comprising foliage of infinite variety. + +With Elaine walking silently at his side, afraid to be with him, yet +more afraid to be alone, Grenville passed from this hasty examination +of the island's general topography to a closer inspection of the +perpendicular scarp of the terrace. On the seaward side it rose about +one hundred feet above the mark of high water. Its right front +appeared to overhang its base, a reassuring distance above the highest +tree. Across its entire bulk at this place the cliff had once been +cracked, and a "slip" had formed a ragged shelf. Then came the slope +where the trail was worn, beyond which forty feet or more of unscalable +tufa was reared above a section of the jungle once devastated by fire. + +In the midst of this section, being rapidly reclaimed by vines and +creepers, stood the shell of a huge old tree, the heart of which had +been consumed, from the roots to its blackened top, leaving walls still +thick and solid. + +"Well," said Sidney, returning again to the principal cave, which he +reinspected critically, "it doesn't take long to overlook our +possessions. You'd better begin to make yourself at home, while I go +below for fodder," and, taking up his club from a ledge where he had +let it fall, he went at once down the long-abandoned trail and out +across the clearing. + +Elaine had followed to the scarp, where she watched till he +disappeared. How helpless she was in the hands of this man, whose +declaration and deeds had so aroused her indignation and hatred, she +thoroughly understood. A sickening conviction that days might elapse +before she could hope to escape, increased her sense, not only of +alarm, but also of distrust in Grenville. His action in taking up his +stick had not escaped her attention. Strangely enough, a horrible pang +went straight to her breast as she suddenly thought of that tiger +again--and of what it might mean if Grenville never returned. Whatever +else might happen, nothing could be so terrible as to perish here +alone. She tried to assure herself, however, that Grenville was +thoroughly competent to cope with the dangers of the place. + +Yet the silence of the jungle where she had seen him disappear, +oppressed her unendurably. Not even a tree was shaken, to indicate +where he had gone. Summoning all her resolution, she returned to the +cavern, alone. + +A slab of rock, once doubtless employed for a table, lay with one end +resting on the earth, while the other leaned upon a second rock, +against the wall of the cave. She lifted this slab to a second prop, +then blew the last fragment of dust and sand from its surface, by way +of preparing it for breakfast. She looked about, longing for further +employment, but, inasmuch as two rude fragments of the rock already +reposed beside her table for seats, there was absolutely nothing more +she could add, either by way of utensils or furnishings, from the +boulders scattered loosely on the terrace. + +When she thought of leaves, whereon to serve what fruits the jungle +might surrender, she started briskly for the trail--but halted at its +summit. A horror of unknown things that might be lurking at the +thicket's edge impressed itself upon her. Nevertheless, she shook it +off, and, descending rapidly, soon filled her arms with large, clean +"platters" from a rankly growing plant of the "elephant's ear" variety, +then clambered back to her aerie. + +Two of the leaves she dropped at the bend of the trail and left them +there in the sun. Twice after that she returned to the edge, to search +all the greenery for Grenville. Her uneasiness respecting his long +absence was rapidly increasing when she turned once more toward the +cave. He emerged at that moment from the farther thicket of the +clearing, came unobserved to the winding trail, and discovered the +leaves she had abandoned. + +He was amazingly "loaded" with similar leaves for breakfast purposes, +as well as with fruits, and a singular bowl of water, yet he paused, +with a smile upon his lips, to discard every leaf he had provided, in +order that Elaine's thoughtful effort at assistance might not be in the +least belittled. + +She met him just as he came to the top, and began to take a portion of +his burden. + +"Oh," she said, "you've found water--or is it the juice of the melon?" + +"Water," he answered, moving towards the cave. "The bowl is half of a +paw-paw, which, next to that spring itself, is the welcomest thing I've +discovered." + +She was glad to note bananas among his several fruits, but she made no +further observations. More and more her sense of constraint increased, +as she clearly foresaw her dependence upon and intimate association +with this man, who had overstepped the bounds of honor to his friend, +and to whom she had spoken in such anger. + +Breakfast was soon begun. Elaine consumed all she could relish of the +fruits, although neither the loco (loquet, a yellowish sort of plum), +the guava--green and full of seeds--nor the custard apple, which was +somewhat sickishly sweet, appealed irresistibly to her fancy. + +She drank from a leaf, curled up to form a cup, and found the water +decidedly refreshing and agreeable, despite the fact it was slightly +flavored by the juices of the paw-paw shell in which it had been served. + +Grenville leaned back, when his appetite was thoroughly appeased, and +began to empty his pockets. He produced the remains of his broken +knife, a few loose coins, a ring of keys, a pig-skin purse with several +pieces of gold as its contents, the stub of a pencil, and his watch, +which, by great good fortune, was waterproof, and still in good running +condition, despite its several immersions. + +Elaine was watching his movements, puzzled to guess his intent. + +"Taking stock," he said, presently, "by way of facing the situation and +formulating plans.... These trifling chattels are all I possess in the +world--our world, at least--with which to begin certain labors. You +probably haven't even hairpins." + +Elaine had coiled her hair upon a twig. She shook her head, and +faintly resented his allusion to the island as a sort of partnership +property. + +Grenville began to segregate his belongings. + +"Money, keys, pencil, and watch--all mere encumbrances, absolutely +worthless. One broken knife--invaluable. We shall require, as soon as +possible, water-jugs, basins, cooking utensils, something to make a +fire, implements to chop our fuel, some primitive weapons, and tools +with which to fashion a boat. I must lose no time in exploring beyond +the spring. I have found nothing yet that will especially lend itself +to our uses." + +Elaine's brown eyes were very wide. "You expect to remain here long +enough to build a boat, when the raft---- I know it can't be rowed, of +course, but--couldn't you try a sail?" + +"We couldn't sail it in its present form," he answered, "even if we +knew which direction to take when we started. With a small, swift boat +we might venture a few explorations from the island as a base." + +She was silent for a moment, and grave. + +"You haven't much faith, then, in hailing some passing steamer?" + +"I think it wiser to prepare against a probable wait that may be rather +long." He read and understood her impatience with the situation--a +situation rendered infinitely more complicated and delicate by what he +had dared to say and do the previous afternoon. + +Once more black dreads that she dared not permit to reveal themselves +completely arose to engulf her mind. She could not doubt that +Grenville knew, far better than herself, how meager were their hopes of +immediate rescue or escape from this exile in the sea. More than +anything else, however, she wished to be worthy of and loyal to the man +to whom her plighted word had been given. That she owed so much to +Grenville already was an added irritation. A braver, finer spirit than +she summoned to her needs never rose in a woman's breast. + +Her eyes met his with a cold look of resolution in their depths. + +"I know you will show me how to help. I must do my share in +everything. Can you tell how long it must have been since anyone was +here?" + +Grenville had never thought her finer--never loved her so madly before. +Yet he quelled the merry demons of his nature. + +"No," he replied, as he took in his hand a bit of bone, bleached +cleanly white. "I can't even understand why an island so abundantly +supplied with fruits and game, to say nothing of useful woods and the +like, should be so utterly abandoned. There seems to be nothing wrong +with the place, and much that is quite in its favor." + +"Perhaps that tiger," she suggested. + +Sidney shook his head. "It's something that goes a bit deeper--at +least, there may once have been something sinister. The natives of all +this part of the world are rather accustomed to tigers." + +Her sense of divination was exceedingly keen. + +"You think there is something worse? You haven't already encountered +something more----" + +"Nothing," he hastened to interrupt. "The problem of our daily +existence affords our greatest present cause for concern--and I frankly +admit I considerably relish the prospect of proving we are equal to all +that our situation may demand." + +She was not to be satisfied so readily. + +"But there may be something wrong with the island?" + +"Possibly--from a native's point of view." + +"But--you are almost certain to meet that tiger again." + +"All the more reason for getting to work at once." He arose in his +quick, active manner, and once more surveyed their camp. + +"A few rocks piled in your doorway," he continued, "and your cave will +meet your requirements admirably. I should say mine would better be +this small retreat, the roof of which I can readily restore. It is +close enough to be neighborly, and is nearer the head of the trail." + +The smaller cave thus indicated occupied a position suggestive of a +sentry's box, before precincts to be guarded. Its opening faced the +gateway of the trail, while its size was sufficient for the needs of +any primitive man. + +Elaine, who had mechanically followed Grenville from the shelter, +looked resignedly about. She had failed till now to think, concretely, +of actually remaining, perhaps night after night, in such a place. + +"It was terrible!" she said, "--the accident--everything!--terrible!" +She suddenly thought of the threat he had made--to compel her to love +him as he loved her, before they should reach their home--and shivered +anew at the unforeseen predicament in which she was plunged, and hated +him more than before. + +"Bad business," he answered, briefly, "but at present the task before +us is to cut a lot of grass and strew it about on the rocks to dry." + +He opened the stubby blade of his knife, glanced at it ruefully, and, +selecting a bit of stone, began to whet its edge. But he halted the +action abruptly. + +A low, weird sound, like a human wail, came from somewhere over behind +them. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +VARIOUS DISCOVERIES + +The sound had no sooner died on the air than a second, far louder, and +far more uncanny in its suggestiveness of someone in mortal pain, +followed piercingly, up around the rock, and rang in their startled +ears. + +The third sound more resembled a scream. It was immediately succeeded +by a chorus of hideous cries and moans, singularly distressing. They +rose to a pitch incredible; they seemed to involve every accent of +human grief and torture, and to wrap the rock escarpment completely in +an agonizing appeal. + +This chorus sank, but a haunting solo of wailing arose as before, to be +followed again by the air-splitting scream, and at length once more by +the mingling of many dreadful voices. + +The island exiles glanced at one another inquiringly, Elaine blanched +white with awe. + +"By Heavens!--it can't be human," Grenville muttered, as the programme +recommenced with only a slight variation. + +To Elaine's dismay he started for the cliff. + +"Mr. Grenville!" she cried, and helplessly followed where he went. + +The wail was dying, in a horrid series of feebler repetitions, when +Grenville came to the edge of the wall and peered down below at the +water. + +There was absolutely nothing to be seen in any direction. The direful +sounds, fast progressing once more to that nerve-destroying climax, +appeared to issue from a natural cove, a little along to the left. + +Grenville continued around the edge, to a point directly above them. +But here, as before, there was nothing in all the sea suggestive of +boats or beings. The tide, Grenville thought, ran in and out with +particular force, reversing at a certain point, and performing singular +movements in a basin of hollowed stone. + +Elaine had paused behind him, a rod or more from the brink. He waited +deliberately for all the cycle of sounds to be repeated, then turned +away with a smile. + +"I think we have come upon the explanation of the island's uninhabited +condition," he informed the girl, as he came once more to her side. +"Those noises are made by the sea, forcing air to some cavern in the +cliffs. It is doubtless repeated twice a day at a certain stage of the +tide." + +"It's horrible!" Elaine replied in dread, as a feebler rehearsal of the +chorus filled all that tropic breeze, "simply horrible!" + +"It may be our greatest bit of good fortune," Grenville informed her, +sagely. "I much prefer those sirens to a colony of Dyaks who might +otherwise live on the place." + +"We shall have to endure it twice a day?" + +"Possibly not. I may be entirely mistaken, concerning that. I can +only be certain it is caused by the tide, and is, therefore, not to be +dreaded." + +For fully ten minutes, however, the tidal conditions were favorable to +the sound's continuance. It subsided by degrees, the last moaning +notes possibly more suggestive than the first of beings perishing +miserably. + +Meantime Grenville had gone indifferently about the business of cutting +huge armfuls of the tall grass and ferns abundantly supplied in the +clearing. This moist and not unfragrant material Elaine in silent +helpfulness carried to the top of the terrace, where she spread it +about on the rocks. She was certain Grenville was providing far more +than they could use in reason, yet although his stubby knife-blade was +a poor tool, indeed, for the business, he toiled away unsparingly, +blithesomely whistling at his task. + +"You may be glad by nightfall to burrow into a stack of this hay," he +told Elaine as he brought the last load up the trail. "If you wouldn't +mind turning it over from time to time I think I'll look about again to +get an idea of the island." + +Elaine had as little inclination to remain on the terrace alone, with +all manner of worries respecting Grenville's safety, as she had to +follow where he would lead through the shades and thickets of the +jungle. She was aware, however, her presence at his side would be more +of a care than assistance; while the necessity for his explorations +addressed itself clearly to her mind. She made no confession of her +natural wish to see him returning promptly. + +He departed, with his club in hand, quite certain he should not be gone +above an hour. He had not, however, reckoned with the jungle. + +Despite the fact he had set his mind on the region about and beyond the +spring, the flow of which formed the estuary, some wonder respecting +the area once blackened and cleared by fire attracted his attention +immediately upon his descent from the hill. + +Through a fringe of scrub he forced his way to this region close under +the walls, discovering old, charred stumps, many dead saplings, and +quantities of half-consumed branches, affording a large supply of fuel. +There could be no doubt the fire had raged within the previous year. +Human visitors of some complexion had come, left this scar, and +departed. + +Hopeful of some enlightening sign as to who or what they might have +been, he searched the earth about and between the shrubs and grasses +with considerable care. Not so much as a bone, however, rewarded his +scrutinizing gaze. He came to the tree trunk left hollow by the +flames, and paused to marvel at its size. Above his head it was four +feet through, while the base was certainly eight. An arch had been +formed in its substance, near the ground, and into this he curiously +peered. + +Kneeling thus on the earth, he was readily enabled to look straight up +through and out at the top. The hollow in the stout old jungle +champion was fully two feet in diameter, and almost perfectly round. +There was nothing else of interest to be found about the place, save a +huge, smooth log, lying with one end resting on a rock, and long enough +to make a splendid boat. + +Attempting the passage of the jungle from this point across to the +midway wall of tufa, Grenville expended fully fifteen minutes of the +toughest sort of effort, and was then obliged to retreat once more to +the trail. He encountered here the first wild animal discovered since +his meeting with the tiger. + +It was a porcupine, bristling with trouble for any attacking beast. +Grenville could have slain it with his club. He was fairly on the +point of providing this much meat for the sadly empty larder, when the +fact that he could ignite no fire deterred his ready weapon. He +thought, in that extremity, of his watch, the crystal of which might +serve to give him a white-hot spark from the sun. + +Trusting the porcupine might await the result of his quick experiment, +he lost no time in submitting the glass to a trial. It formed a ring +of brilliant light on the back of his hand, but the rays would not come +to a focus. + +"Go thy ways," he said to the porcupine, and he continued at once on +his own. + +Observing the trail more closely than he had on his earlier excursion, +he presently discovered a divergence to the left that led towards the +central wall of stone. Here he frightened a considerable troop of +monkeys that swung in a panic of activity through the avenues of +foliage overhead. There were likewise sounds of heavier beasts that +escaped observation on the moist and thickly cumbered earth. + +The trail under foot was rather well worn, and not, the man was +certain, by the hoofs or feet of brutes. The explanation was presently +forthcoming, at least in part, for the path emerged at a clay pit that +lay against the frowning tower of stone. + +Grenville could have shouted for joy as he took a bit of the smooth, +sticky substance in his hand, and began thus promptly, in his fancy, +making pots and jugs innumerable to meet their every need. The deposit +had been previously worked. The evidence of this was unmistakable. +But none of the tools employed by former craftsmen had been left for +Grenville to discover. + +He spent some time investigating all the mute signs of former activity +expended at the pit, and finally glancing up at the cliff above, +abandoned all thought of conquering its summit, and retraced his steps +along the trail. + +Where the path to the spring made a second fork, he continued straight +on through the jungle. One glance only of the estuary, tortuously +penetrating the waist of the island, was vouchsafed him through the +thicket. Beyond this point, in swampy ground, flourished a forest of +giant bamboo. The creepers and vines in that immediate section were +particularly varied and abundant. The bird life was equally +impressive. Hundreds of swallows were skimming in the air, a number of +argus pheasants wildly fled from the visitor's presence, parrots +screamed and wheeled in huge flocks above the light green bamboo +foliage, and several fine flamingoes made shift to find concealment in +the reeds. + +"It's a haunted paradise," Grenville muttered to himself, his thought +having gone for a moment to the wails and moans that had startled +himself and Elaine. + +Regretting that his broken knife was a wholly inadequate implement with +which to assail such a bamboo stem as he would gladly have taken to the +camp, he was once more making his way from the thicket when his foot +crashed audibly through something brittle, on the earth. + +He parted the shrubbery and uttered a low exclamation. He had stepped +upon a human skeleton, white and suggestively huddled, every fragment +of it perfect--except that it lacked a head. + +In a certain sort of anxiety Grenville searched about to find the +missing member. The skull was not to be discovered. Persuading +himself this might be accounted for by many natural explanations, and +resolving to keep his discovery entirely to himself, he forced his way +around this grewsome inhabitant--and came upon another. + +This one he did not strike with either foot. It lay outstretched +before him, in company with scattered and broken bits of rock--and, +like its neighbor, it was headless. + +Had some monstrous head-hunter written "Dyaks" on all the empty lattice +of those human ribs, Grenville could not have been more convinced of +what this business meant. He returned to the trail accompanied by a +sense of dread that all but sent him back to Elaine. His thought was +entirely of her, and of their helplessness, cast thus alone upon this +unpeopled island, clean stripped of weapons and of all things else save +their wits and bodily strength. + +"We've got to escape," he told himself in a new, swift fever of +impatience. "There is not an hour to lose!" + +He continued on through the jungle towards the hill at the farther end. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A GREWSOME GUARDIAN + +Apparently the trail, that had once been formed through the axis of the +island, had been found of little use. It was overgrown by all manner +of plants well-nigh to extinction. + +The region hereabout was obviously the final retreat of many beasts, +both timid and bold. Grenville found signs of at least one Malay bear +and of many wild hogs in the thickets. He fancied he saw one flash of +moving orange, where either his tiger or another of his ilk moved +silently through the growth behind him. Of the monkeys there appeared +to be no end; and the snakes were amply represented. + +He was glad for every clearing that he came upon and crossed, and felt +a decided sense of relief on achieving his hill at last. This worn old +eminence of rock and substances volcanic was far more steep and rugged +than the one where he had left Elaine. It possessed no caves, and no +particular flatness at the summit. + +Grenville explored it rapidly, considerably disappointed to find +nothing of special utility upon its broken surface. He had hoped for +some hard and useful stone at least, if not for actual flints. +Completing its round in a haste that the rapidly increasing heat of the +day considerably accelerated, he presently came upon an unusual ledge +protruding from the slope's unpromising surface. + +Here he halted in idle curiosity. The ledge was of sulphur--a blow-out +from the hill's once molten interior, lying untouched and useless in +the sun for the elements to wear away and sluice at last to the sea. +With no particular purpose in view, he broke away a fragment, dropped +it carelessly into his pocket, and continued on his way. + +His gaze returned with a certain steadfast eagerness to the hill and +camp beyond. He was not precisely disappointed on failing to discover +Elaine, who might have been waiting to wave him a signal from the +heights; he was somewhat concerned to know if all was well upon her +rock. She was not to be seen at all about the place. He clambered to +the top of a broken bowlder for a view more comprehensive. + +This, too, appeared a wasted effort, at least as concerned Elaine. The +island map, however, was laid out before him in a manner to complete +his former survey of the place. There were several clearings thus +revealed that could never be seen from the farther point of vantage. + +Acknowledging each of these in turn, Grenville was once more about to +direct his footsteps homeward when one of the smaller, near-by breaks +in the jungle, quite at the top of a species of rift in the island's +ruggedness, down upon his left, attracted a second glance. + +For a moment he fancied some colossal remains, as of an animal long +since extinct, were lying there in the clinging embrace of the +creepers. He decided, then, it was a boat, but dismissed this notion +as preposterous, so high above the water's edge, and so near the +island's center, did it lie. About ready to conclude that certain +giant shadows contributed much to round out a half-imagined form, his +gaze encountered a bowsprit thrust through all the foliage, its +identity not to be mistaken. The hull of a ship was undoubtedly there. +He hastened down, expectantly, to make its better acquaintance. + +The wonder when he came there was--how it came to be stranded so high +and far above the water. As for the vessel itself, it was merely a +rotted old shell, with its cargo bursting through its ribs. + +So far as Grenville could judge from its fast-decaying remains, it had +been an inferior type of the old-fashioned barque, and of very modest +dimensions. Its masts, however, were gone, together with every +accessible piece of metal that eager hands could remove. Its moldy and +slimy old cabin had partially collapsed. Without effecting an entrance +through the treacherous deck, Sidney could discover nothing respecting +its interior. + +He could peer through the ribs at several places along the hull, and +even near the keel, by stooping low, but the most he could determine by +such a superficial examination was that there was nothing even here +that he could use. The cargo he thought for a moment to be chalk, or +lime. He scraped a clean sample from the weathered heap, and rubbed it +in his palm. Its crystalline structure was not that of either lime or +chalk. When he placed a particle on his tongue, he dropped all he held +with no further interest. + +The stuff was common saltpeter. That the vessel had been westward +bound, perhaps from Borneo, with this mineral common to so much of that +tropical section, he understood at once. But to find her stranded thus +so loftily was amazing. He scraped at the soil with the toe of his +boot to dig below the surface. + +As he had rather expected, seashells and pebbles of a former beach were +readily brought to view. Some old upheaval had undoubtedly lifted +beach, vessel, and all to this altitude above the tides, and left it +there to decay. + +Considerably disappointed to find the hulk so completely stripped of +the metal furnishings of which he might have wrought some sort of tools +or weapons, Grenville hesitated between an impulse to continue home to +Elaine without greater delay, and a strong desire to investigate the +cabin of the barque. The latter temptation was not to be resisted. + +He grasped the branch of an overhanging tree and, by dint of much +active scrambling, clawing, and thrusting his toes into various chinks, +at length gained the planks of the slanted deck and broke his way into +the one-time sanctum of the captain and his mates. + +This, too, had been pillaged with exceptional thoroughness. There was, +however, a passageway leading to another apartment beyond, where a +door, half open, was revealed by sunlight streaming through the broken +roof. Thither Grenville made his way--to behold an extraordinary sight. + +The place was a room, partitioned off from considerably larger +quarters. It contained one object only--a form, half mummy, half +skeleton, that had once been a powerful man. _And this was chained to +the wall!_ + +It was sitting propped against the lintel of a second door, a panel of +which was raggedly broken out. It had never been robbed of its head. +A strong, black beard still remained upon the emaciated face, and the +eye-sockets stared straight forward at the door by which the visitor +had entered. + +Grenville was not to be easily dismayed, yet the attitude of this +grewsome thing was very far from being pleasant. The being had been +almost naked when he perished here alone with a heavy iron band about +his waist. All this his visitor swiftly discerned while inclined to +turn about and flee the place. He discovered, then, an additional +mystery. + +The skin, in a patch fully six inches square, had disappeared from the +helpless being's breast. That it had not wasted away by a natural +process was, moreover, perfectly obvious, since the square-cut edges of +parchment, which the remainder of his cuticle had become by the +mummifying process, were distinctly to be seen. It had been removed +with a knife. It appeared to Grenville that the captive had been +propped artificially where he sat, as if to guard the passage. A +trickle of water, saturated with saltpeter, had served to embalm both +his flesh and skin, in part. + +That the cabin beyond had likewise been despoiled of its treasure was +almost a foregone conclusion. However, Sidney stepped closer to the +silent form and peered through the broken panel. + +The room into which he was gazing was dimly lighted by the rays of +daylight filtering through a number of cracks which the weather had +opened in its ceiling. When his sight grew accustomed to the darkness, +he saw that the place had evidently served not only as quarters for the +former crew, but likewise as a storage hold for ropes, paints, extra +furnishings, and, doubtless, victuals. + +Its contents lay scattered about in confusion and decay, yet promised +more "treasure" for Grenville's needs than all the rest of the vessel. +He drove his shoulder against the door, and its lock broke the rotted +woodwork away with a suddenness the man had not expected. He passed +the mummified guardian at the portal somewhat hurriedly, as he lurched +inside the chamber; and he nearly fell across a box that had spilled +out a dozen old pieces of brass. + +Upon these he pounced with avidity, despite the fact they were greenly +incrusted with "rust." Among other articles of plunder thus provided +to his hand were several row-locks, a broken turnbuckle, a dozen at +least of useless hinges, and a hatful of screws more or less cemented +together. + +With vague ideas of employing the metal somehow, he filled his pockets +with the smaller articles and looked about for possible tools. From a +broken locker in a corner much similar scrap stuff had fallen. Here +was a large brass porthole rim, parts of a broken binnacle, half of the +brazen cap from a towing-bit, two heavy bronze handles of swords now +fallen to pieces with decay, an old brass lantern with a useless lamp, +a large coil of excellent copper wire, a ball of lead, and remains of +several iron marlinespikes, mere effigies now in flaky rust. + +From beneath a heap of rotted cordage a greenish cylinder protruded. +Grenville drew it forth. It proved to be a small brass cannon, +unmounted, and apparently filled with mud. Near by he discovered the +rapidly disintegrating remnants of an old-time flintlock musket. This +was a priceless treasure, for the flint, which was still intact. He +likewise saved a bit of the steel that the cordage had protected. + +The thin and wasted skeleton of a hand-saw hung upon a hook. When he +took the blade between his fingers it fell apart like paper, charred, +but still holding its original form. Not an object he found of iron +was worth removing to the camp. Resolved to return at an early date, +to annex the old cannon and such other heavy bric-a-brac as he could +not conveniently carry away to-day, Grenville finally left the +mysterious dead man still sitting in chains beside the door, and once +more regained the wholesome earth. + +He finally glanced at his watch. The time was nearly twelve! He had +been for at least three hours away from Elaine, who was waiting alone +upon the hill! Back to the trail, and then along its sinuous windings +through the jungle, he strode at his swiftest pace. + +When he came to the final clearing before the towering rock, he was all +but paralyzed with dread at a bit of drama being there enacted. + +At the edge of the jungle stood Elaine, her arms and jacket filled with +fruits she had gathered against his coming. By the foot of the trail +that ascended to their camp, posed in a waiting attitude, his long tail +only in motion, gracefully sweeping his great tawny side, was the tiger +that wore the golden collar. + +Not a sound escaped from Elaine's white lips, as she turned to glance +across at Sidney. Then she limberly sank on the earth. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +PRIMITIVE CONDITIONS + +A short, sharp cry was the only note that Grenville uttered. + +The tiger had turned his blazing eyes on the man he but partially +feared. Sidney was coming less at him than towards the helpless, +prostrate form that lay upon the grass. + +The man had forgotten his danger in his greater concern for Elaine. He +reached her side before he confronted the jungle beast, who still +remained undecided. Slowly then, deliberately, the malignant animal, +superb not only in his strength and splendid proportions, but also in +his arrogance, his indifference to man, the master butcher of the +world, ran out his tongue to lick his chops, stretched his terrible +mouth in a fang-revealing yawn, and trod his way into the thicket. + +The fruits she had gathered were scattered all about as Grenville +lifted Elaine in his arms and carried her up the steep ascent. Not +having actually swooned, she had fairly begun to revive once more +before he reached the cave. + +When he placed her down on a heap of half-dried grass she had thrown +together while awaiting his return, a faint tinge of color was +returning to her face, and her eyes dimly focused upon him. + +"You've worked too much, that's what it means," he said. "You see +you're tired." + +"I'm--sorry," she faltered, faintly. "I really--didn't mean to be--so +weak." + +"Never mind," he said. "I'll kill the brute. His skin is certainly a +beauty." With the utmost apparent indifference to Elaine's recovery, +he went at once to the clearing for the bits of old junk he had dropped. + +When he returned, his mind was still on the tiger. + +"We've got to live--move about--and not be annoyed," he said. "If I +had a single rifle! But I'll get him somehow, soon!" + +Elaine still remained upon the hay. + +"If he doesn't get us sooner," she replied, a little grimly, but not as +one in fear. + +"I shall wall up the trail," mused Grenville, aloud, looking about at +the quantity of rock so readily afforded. "That much I can do this +afternoon." + +She sat up a bit more sturdily. + +"I dropped our luncheon, I suppose.... I hope to do better, later on, +when I get more used to conditions." She was mortified to think he had +been thus promptly obliged to carry her "home" in his arms. + +"You are doing fairly well," he said, in his off-hand manner. "We +shall soon be all right. It's a fine and tight little island." + +Her one idea was to get away as soon as possible. + +"Shouldn't we put up a flag, or something, in case a steamer should +happen to be passing?" + +"As soon as I can cut a long bamboo. I must have both tools and fire +as promptly as possible." + +"You must be hungry," she remarked, arising rather weakly and going to +the end of her cave, where all the water that remained in the half of +the paw-paw shell had been carefully stored, in Grenville's absence. +Then, emerging with her burden, she added, "I meant to have your +luncheon ready, but we have almost nothing left." + +"All that you gathered was left by the tiger," he answered, cheerfully. +"The beast prefers more solid diet." Once more descending the trail, +he presently returned with the fruits that had fallen from her arms. + +They ate, as before, in the shade of her cave, for the sun on the rocks +was becoming hot. + +"The wall this afternoon," said Grenville, as he finally concluded his +simple repast with a drink of tepid water. "Then our mast and signal +of distress must be erected. I shall try for fire directly. I must +make a bow and some arrows. A clay pit I found will provide us with +earthenware utensils, and then--if only I could manage to melt some +brass---- You see, the worst of it is, no stone I've discovered on the +place is fit to use for a tool." + +Elaine avoided the boyish gleaming of his gaze. "Are we thrust so far +back as the stone age, then? It's really as bad as that?" + +"Bad?" he said. "It's tremendously diverting. I've got to begin, as +it were, with my naked hands. But fortunately, I believe, for us, the +bronze and stone ages lap," and he drew from his pockets some bits of +the heterogeneous collection he had brought from the rotting barque. + +"You have found some metal?" Elaine inquired, excitedly. "But where?" + +"In a wreck that must have arrived here years ago." He related as much +as he thought advisable and undisturbing to the thoroughly wondering +girl. + +She could see no possible use for all the rusted bronze and brass he +had earned away from the wreck so strangely discovered, but she made no +discouraging comments to dampen an ardor which to her was not precisely +comprehensible. + +"I hope I can help," she told him, as she had before. "I'm afraid I'm +not very clever." + +"We'll see," he answered, cheerfully. "Necessity is rather a strict +instructor." + +But she could not assist him with the wall, at which he was presently +perspiring. The stones he rolled and carried to the narrowest shelf or +ledge that was scaled by the trail were far too heavy for her delicate +hands and muscles. + +"Can't I do something else?" she begged, eager for any employment. +"There must be some work I could do." + +"You might plait a basket of some sort," he said. "We shall need some +presently." + +He thereupon went below again, cut all he could carry of tough and +limber creepers, and, fetching them up to the shade of her cave, +instructed Elaine in such of the rudiments of basket-weaving as he +himself could readily invent, and left her busily employed. + +The wall he required to prevent any possible night attack on the part +of the beast that was already inclined to stalk either one of them, or +both, was not of any considerable length, owing to the narrowness of +the pass he had chosen to block with bowlders. He had, however, to +make it thick and high. By taking advantage of three large blocks, +which he rolled down hill to the place selected, he secured a +substantial foundation with comparative ease. After that it became a +matter merely of carrying stone after stone, from their inexhaustible +supply on the summit, to lodge in rough, uneven tiers to the height +desired. + +He had left a narrow gateway next the natural wall that made his +structure complete. This he could block with a heavy log, or even more +stones, for the night. + +For fully three hours he wrought prodigiously, returning from time to +time to Elaine, to guide and assist her with her basket. Between them +they managed to produce from their rough material a crude, misshapen +receptacle, coarse of mesh and clumsy, yet strong and not to be +despised. Grenville expected to use it to fetch his clay from the pit. + +It was not until this product of their combined ingenuity was fairly +complete that Grenville discovered he could split the bark of the +creepers readily, and tear out a smooth white core, like a withe, far +more suitable to their uses. He then not only stripped out several +full-length cores, but he also found that the bark or covering thus +removed was constructed of numerous thread-like strands amazingly tough +and long. These fibers were not so readily separated as the core had +been from the covering with which they were incorporated, although +their recovery was not a difficult operation. His inventive mind saw +ample employment for them later. + +The wall was not entirely finished when, at length, he left it for the +day. He was weary in all his bone and sinew, despite the prodding of +his will. He had made no attempt at kindling fire, and none towards +procuring a mast to erect for a flag of distress. These were tasks +that must wait for the morrow, with the others he was eager to attack. + +The dinner at sundown was necessarily a repetition of the previous +meals of the day. It could not be followed by the cheer and comfort of +a fire, and the darkness, that drew on rapidly, brought a sense of +chill and depression to Elaine, notwithstanding her bravery of spirit. + +The wind had ceased, except for the merest intermittent puffs of breath +that floated upward from the sea. Not even the lapping of the tide +against the wall arose to break the silence. The stillness was +painfully profound, though Elaine's imagination depicted a hundred +nocturnal brutes of the jungle, prowling in every trail and clearing, +in a savage quest for blood. + +As a matter of fact, the nightly tragedies were already well begun. +But it was not until some victim shrilly voiced its animal fear and +agony, just beneath the towering wall, that Elaine had a realizing +sense of her nearness to these creatures of the darkness, or the +working of life's inexorable laws. + +Her mind reverted, by natural process, to all the terrible occurrences +crowded into her life within the last couple of days--occurrences that +seemed so needlessly tragic, and all the alarms excited in her breast, +not only by the frightful accident to the "Inca," but likewise by the +almost unknown man upon whom she was now dependent. + +She recalled with singular vividness every accent, every gesture, look, +and deed that had accompanied Grenville's declaration. She burned +again, with shame and indignation, to think of the things he had dared +to say and do--the treachery done to his friend--the indignity done to +herself. + +She hated him now more intensely than before, since he seemed, by some +enormity of purpose, to have been in some manner responsible for the +fate that had brought her here in his company, absolutely at his mercy. +That his promptness of action had saved her life she willingly and +justly conceded--but to fetch her here, all by herself, to an island +unpeopled and awful, far from the track of ocean-going steamers--with +his threat to compel her love still ringing in her ears--this seemed to +outweigh any possible service he had done or could ever accomplish. + +What would he do, she wondered, on the morrow? When would he speak of +his passion again? What means, in this situation, might he presently +adopt to coerce the love she knew she should never bestow? + +There could be no answer to her questions--least of all from the man +himself. He, too, had fallen into silence, and a study of the vast and +merciless problems, not only of existence till their escape could be +effected, but likewise as to how that escape could be attempted, in +safety, and where they must steer their ocean course to come to a land +which should not prove inhospitable. + +He seemed, for the time, to have quite forgotten the presence of the +girl at the cave. This she finally observed. She wondered, then, what +sinister outcome his brooding might presage. + +Keyed to a pitch of nervous sensibility she had never experienced +before, she retired at length within her shelter like a child thrust +alone in the dark. Much as she felt she disliked the man, she found +herself most reluctant to move very far from his presence, or refuse +his protecting care. She was certain her dread of all it meant to be +hopelessly cast upon this island, with one doubtful human being only +for comfort and companionship, would haunt her to sleeplessness +throughout the night. Yet she fell into slumber almost at once, and +only dreamed she was still awake and worried. + +It was still quite early in the evening. Elaine was finally +approaching a thoroughly restful oblivion, when a low, moaning wail, +and then shrill screams, abruptly ushered once more into play that +hideous chorus of the morning, produced by some phenomenon of the tides. + +"Sidney! Sidney!" came an answering cry; and Grenville arose, to see +Elaine running wildly towards him from her cave. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE MOTHER OF INVENTION + +It was not until the entire cycle of haunting sounds had been repeated +for its final time that Elaine could consent to return to her pallet of +grasses. And even when she had once more knelt upon this improvised +bed, she could not consent to resign herself to the mercies of the +night without one more glance towards Grenville's cavern. + +She returned, unseen, to her door, and peered forth through the starlit +night, discerning his dimly outlined figure, as he sat before his door. + +He even arose as she paused there, uncertainly. She noted his +listening attitude, the alertness of his pose. Then he sat once more +upon the stone at his threshold, where she knew his club lay ready to +his hand. + +A sense of security, despite her bitterness of feeling, came slowly +stealing upon her. She went back to her couch and slept. + +Sidney, for his part, sat there alone, while hour after hour went +silently by, and the constellations hung in higher arches. A thousand +ramifications of thought he pursued in his active brain. But through +them all, like an ever recurrent _motif_, stole a troubled reminder of +the tiger, twice encountered in the day. + +To slay this contemptuous, savage beast that already drooled about the +jaws at thoughts of a human morsel, was the one imperative business to +be promptly executed. Elaine and himself could live on fruits, and +neglect all else, without serious results, for a week, or even a month, +but this affair was not to be delayed. + +He thought of pitfalls, giant traps, and automatic engines of +destruction by the score, each deadly device absurdly impracticable and +beyond all power of his achievement. His mind, accustomed to civilized +ways, ran in higher ingenuities that were absolutely useless in this +primal state of their existence. + +When at length he leaned back against his wall and began to wonder if, +in the end, he must arm himself with primitive man's crude bow and +arrow, and thus engage the master prowler of the jungle, he was ready +for Nature's claims. He slept there, too utterly exhausted to drag +himself in to his bed. And there Elaine found him in the morning. + +That day was a long one, of varied and wearying employments. The wall +was finished across the trail, Elaine's too widely opened cavern was +partially blocked up with stone, and, at length, in addition to +searching the jungle for something particularly downy and inflammable +for tinder, to use in making fire, Grenville went with his basket down +to the clay pit and fetched sufficient of this moist and plastic +material to mould a number of vessels. + +This last useful art was not, however, immediately attempted. Unfired +jugs and basins were absolutely useless--and as yet they had no fire. +The search for tinder had resulted only in producing a silken, fluffy +material that grew in a fat green pod. It was moist, when found, with +the natural juices of the plant. + +While it dried in the sun, under Elaine's supervision, Grenville worked +at a stout, elastic tree-branch to taper out a bow. His stub of a +knife-blade served indifferently against the close-grained wood, which, +nevertheless, was obliged to yield to his persevering efforts. + +At noon the weapon, save for the cord, was rudely finished. No arrows +had been as yet provided. Obliged at this hour to replenish the camp +supply of water, Grenville once more visited the spring. So fresh were +the tracks of the tiger here, in the mire about the trickling stream, +that he felt they must almost be warm. The brute was undoubtedly near +at hand, but, perhaps, well fed, as before. + +"There is nothing quite so important now as fire," was Grenville's +remark, as he once more rejoined Elaine. "Without it we are +practically helpless. With it--there is almost nothing we may not hope +to achieve." + +He had thought of a number of extraordinary and highly important +implements and arts that only flame and glowing heat could render +possible. + +Elaine brought the fluff she had thoroughly dried, while Grenville +cleaned his flint and steel. For an hour, then, he strove in vain to +ignite his bit of tinder. It was not at all an easy matter to strike a +spark from the stone. What few brilliant specks of incandescence sped +occasionally downward like vigor transmuted into swiftly fading stars +from Grenville's varied and over-eager strokes, either died on the air +or missed their mark or struck it and found it uncongenial. + +"This must be a vegetable asbestos," he finally declared. "If I had +just a pinch of powder, this flint might recognize---- By Jove!" and +he started at once to his feet. "I'm the greatest fool on legs!" + +"What seems to be the trouble?" said Elaine, who could not possibly +comprehend his meaning. "Have you made some sort of mistake?" + +"I've been asleep--my brain defunct! Excuse me half a minute!" + +He started madly down the trail, running like a boy. Before Elaine +could do more than stare in wonder at his antics, he had reached the +bottom of the wall, darted across the clearing, and disappeared in the +jungle growth beyond. + +He smashed his way hotly to the wrecked old barque, and, pawing deeply +beneath the surface of the wasting saltpeter, that had been for long +somewhat protected in the hold, promptly filled two pockets with the +mineral, and went racing back as he had come. + +But beyond the clearing he altered his course to enter the region once +blackened by fire. Here he went directly to the hollow tree he had +once before examined, and, wriggling inside, through the ample orifice +burned out by the flames, he attacked the charred interior with his +knife as if his very life depended on his haste. + +In the briefest time he had chipped off more than a double handful of +crisp, but inferior, charcoal. Retreating no less promptly than he had +entered, he gathered this carefully in a giant leaf, and hastily +rejoined Elaine. + +"Powder!" he said, belatedly explaining. "Everything lying here and +ready, and my brain a howling blank!" + +To Elaine this was not precisely clear. + +"There is gunpowder here on the island?" + +"No! The ingredients merely. But any child---- Ah! here's my bit of +sulphur! There's a ton of it ready to be gathered. Powder? I can +make enough to blow a dozen tigers into ribbons! The wreck is full of +niter and, once we have a fire, I can burn all the jungle into +charcoal!" + +The mystery had not entirely lifted for Elaine, but this she hardly +expected. + +"How can I help?" she asked him, quietly. "There must be something I +can do." + +"It's a matter of grinding these materials," he answered, more calmly, +depositing sulphur, saltpeter, and charcoal on a rock before them. +"It's a simple composition, after all." + +Barely less feverishly than before he began a search for suitable +stones to employ as mortars and pestles. There were many small +bowlders slightly hollowed by the elements, but a number of these had +surfaces ready to crumble, and were, therefore, reluctantly discarded. +In throwing about some loosely huddled fragments, to liberate a smooth, +hard slab of stone that was dished from its edges to its center, +Grenville was doubly rewarded by coming upon a large, thick seashell, +practically perfect. + +With this and the basin of harder rock, he returned at once to the +shade. He was soon reducing the charcoal, while Elaine no less +industriously attacked the lump of sulphur. + +"We need a little only for a trial," he said, as he presently sifted +out his powdered product, and began to grind the niter. "I wish I +remembered the proportions." + +In his haste to obtain results as soon as possible, he finally shook up +and ground together a large-sized pinch from each of the three +materials, producing thereby a grayish, unpromising mixture, decidedly +too rich in both the charcoal and sulphur. + +This he placed on a rock, a safe distance away, and attacked with his +flint and steel. Elaine had ceased her grinding operations, to stand +at his side and watch. He struck, perhaps, a dozen times before he +produced a shower of sparks--and nothing occurred. He looked at the +stuff for a moment, helplessly, discouragement swiftly lodging in his +bosom. Half-heartedly he struck the steel again. + +A single spark flew hotly from the flint. It seemed to curve to the +outside edge of the powder. Instantly, however, the mixture was +ignited. + +It did not burn in a quick, fierce flash, but more with a sputtering, +imperfect combustion, productive of stifling fumes. Grenville's hand +was slightly scorched--but his joy in the triumph was complete. + +"We're kings!" he cried, sublimely indifferent to genders. "We're +monarchs of all we survey!" He leaped up, waving his flint about his +head, his face outbeaming the sun. + +Elaine was vaguely glad of his results. + +"I'm afraid I don't understand it in the least." + +"Not at all necessary," he informed her, candidly. "It's the very +worst powder ever made. My charcoal is poor and my proportions wrong, +and I only half ground it all together. But it burned! That's enough +for me--it burned! It assures us a fire, and I'll make a new batch, +that will go off like a Spanish revolution!" + +He went below at once to gather twigs and fuel, bits of dried grass, +and other kindling, and brought a large bundle to the terrace. More +carefully, then, he mixed and ground his succeeding sample of the +powder. Recalling more clearly the accepted formula, he increased the +proportion of saltpeter to something nearer seventy-five per cent. of +the whole, approximating thus the standard long since established. + +Aware that, when he finally came to manufacture an explosive of higher +efficiency, he would do much better to wet the ingredients and later +dry the finished product, he now proceeded, as before, merely to try +for a fire. + +Thus he presently laid a train of his grayish mixture from one small +heap to another, in a place selected for his trial. Over one of the +powder pyramids he arranged his combustible straws, twigs, and branches +with the nicest care. And when, at length, he struck a white-hot star, +divinely potential, into the midst of the second heap, a hissing snake +of incandescence and smoke darted swiftly along the surface of +rock--and his fire leaped into being. + +On the towering rock, as on an altar, the flames that meant life to the +exiled pair rose goldenly bright and clear. + +A strange exultation in Grenville's prowess possessed Elaine, as she +stood by in wonder, looking on his face. + +"It shall never go out," he told her, presently, "not if I can prevent +it." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE MASTER POACHER + +There were woods in abundance about the base of the tufa cliff that +would burn almost as slowly and retain their glow about as long as the +hardest of anthracite coal. + +Yet it was not on these that Grenville depended, that particular night, +to maintain the fire he had conjured from flint and steel. All those +long dark hours he served his altar flame with fuel gathered for the +purpose. An easier method for its preservation, by means of the woods +that were promptly discovered, he adopted, however, very soon. + +Each day that was ushered in and closed by the island's haunting wails +and chorus, now beheld some new development in the plans that Grenville +was laying. Elaine, less disturbed by the hideous sounds, might have +learned more promptly to accept them as part of the ordeal of living in +this extraordinary fashion, had they always come at stated hours. But, +born of the tides, they came with the tides, which, all the world over, +shift with each day till every hour of the twenty-four has had its +visitation. Like a horrid reminder of the brevity of life, the thing +was fore-ordered to rise unexpectedly, fret forgetful senses, and +linger longest, apparently, in the deadest hours of the night. +Concerning her companion, her mind was far more calm. Her distrust and +dislike were unabated, but he gave her no cause for added worry. + +By the third day after his fire had been accomplished, Grenville had +considerably altered their aspects and prospects of living. Their +bamboo flagpole stood in a crevice of the highest rock, with "rags" of +banana leaves idly flapping out a signal of distress; a number of +pipkins, large and small, were grayly drying in the sun, to be +subsequently fired; his bow was strung, beside three unfeathered +arrows, crudely tipped with points that Sidney had pounded out of +screws; charcoal was burning, down in the blackened clearing; a number +of traps and dead-falls were nearing completion; and several basket +loads both of sulphur and saltpeter were stored in caverns, which the +man had roofed to protect them from the rain. + +Much toil had been involved in these achievements. The bamboo pole, +for instance, had been most laboriously burned off, close to its base. +To accomplish this end, the man had carried coals of fire to the +estuary swamp, created a blaze, and repeatedly heated his longest piece +of brass, which had slowly charred a channel through the wood when +smartly applied to its surface. + +The cord that secured the "flag" upon this serviceable mast, had been +made, like the string for the bow, by twisting together innumerable +threads of the fiber imbedded in the bark of the creepers. This had +then been "waxed" with the glutinous ooze from the nearest rubber tree, +with which the jungle abounded. He had also found wild sisal in the +rocky places of the island. This plant had a leaf like a bayonet, +sometimes six feet long, and readily split into fibers of most +astonishing strength, especially when three were braided into a cord. + +Considerably to Grenville's amazement, the molding of jugs, some +crucibles, and other essential vessels suggested by the presence of the +clay, was not at all a simple matter. His material, which at first was +mixed too soft, was readily stiffened to a workable consistency, and +the bases and first six inches or more of flaring walls of his pipkins +had been fashioned as a child would fashion "pies." It was when he +undertook to crimp and contract this flaring rim that the craftsmanship +known to the potter required once again to be evolved. + +For a time the longer he wrought at the stubborn material the more +completely Grenville was defeated by the clay. He discovered at last, +as similar workmen in every age and clime have ultimately discovered, +that potteries thus constructed by hand must be built up in rings, one +ring at a time, especially where the walls draw in to an ever narrowing +diameter. + +When, at length, this simple fact had been established--the first +success having come to Elaine, whose feminine wit had been nimbler far +than the man's--a highly respectable family of jugs and useful +receptacles had rapidly come into being. + +Mid-afternoon of this busy day found Grenville engrossed with his +labors. Despite the fact they had not yet dined on anything but fruit, +he was preparing salt for meat. The shell he had found was full of +water from the sea, evaporating rapidly in a bed of hot ashes and +coals. This, however, was resigned to Elaine's efficient vigilance, +while Sidney worked absorbingly to complete a number of small clay +molds designed for the casting of tools. + +When, at length, the last of these was done and set aside to dry with +the jugs and assorted vessels, he glanced briefly up at the sun. There +were several hours of this blazing light remaining. Resolved in one +moment to hasten to the jungle with his bow and the unfeathered arrows, +which might be relied upon at easy range to fly sufficiently straight +for all his purposes, Grenville determined in the next to make them a +bit more certain. + +A branch and leaf from a freshly despoiled banana plant had suggested +"feathers" for his shafts. It was the work of a moment only to cut out +and trim a slender bit of the fibrous branch from which the leaf +substance projected. The leaf part itself, which was rather tough, and +considerably like a stiffened cloth in texture, he cut to shape no less +quickly. Then, binding on each of the arrows a trio of these +improvised "rudders," he took up his club, informed Elaine he might be +absent half an hour, and descended at once to the clearing. + +His porcupine, seen no less than half a dozen times when his arms had +been burdened, or his club was not at hand, was not to be found for all +his elaborate searching, now that he was desirable for dinner. +Naturally, Grenville had no particular preference for porcupine where +pheasants were not impossible. But the fact that the bristling +hedgehog is not to be despised, he knew from past experience. +Moreover, he had fondly hoped this somewhat stupid quarry might be +readily found and taken. + +Notwithstanding the fact that for three days past not a sign had been +vouchsafed him of the tiger, Grenville took to himself no fulsome sense +of security as he made his way slowly through the jungle, towards the +estuary swamp. The island was small; the brute was always near--and +some day the contest between they two must be waged to a definite +conclusion. + +The axiom is old that the most game is seen when the huntsman has no +weapon. It seemed to Grenville, slipping as noiselessly as possible +down towards the water, where birds and beasts had always been +encountered, that the island had been suddenly deserted. He saw not a +thing, beyond the vaguest movements in the trees, perhaps for the very +fact he moved so cautiously, and thereby assumed an aspect that was +crafty, sinister, or suspicious. + +Some reptile glided to the water, starting a ripple on the surface, but +not even its head was visible to the watchful eyes of the man. An +arrow was notched upon his bow, and, while the practice in which he had +indulged had been far too brief to develop the skill he knew he might +finally acquire, Sidney was certain that up to a range of five or ten +yards his shaft would prove fairly deadly. + +He had heretofore seen no game at all that was not, in fact, almost +under his very feet. Of the pheasants, flushed before on at least +three separate occasions, he detected not so much as a hint. The +monkeys were silent. Not even the noisy parrots flew out with their +usual disturbance. All about the growth of bamboo he trod, wherever a +space was open, but in vain. + +Reflecting that the pheasants might have gone beyond, to a section +where rocks and shrubbery doubtless afforded the seeds or berries on +which they would probably feed, he started more briskly towards the +trail that would take him past the wreck. + +He had not entirely cleared the bamboo growth when, abruptly, there in +the open space before him, hardly fifteen feet away, a wild hog paused, +fairly startled to inaction where it had entered the clearing from the +jungle. It had turned its head to stare at the man inquiringly. Its +two little eyes, maliciously gleaming, increased its threatening aspect +as the bristles slowly rose on its back. + +Without making the slightest unnecessary movement, Grenville raised his +bow. He drew the arrow fairly to the head. A sharp twang followed +instantly. A streak of gray sped swiftly and obliquely towards the +earth. Then, for a second, Grenville saw the stout shaft quiver where +it was buried in the base of the creature's neck. + +One challenging grunt the wild hog uttered, starting as if to charge. +But the arrow had shattered the nerves that make for rage and courage, +cleaving to the seat of life itself. + +The boar staggered blindly, instinctively, back to the dense, +concealing jungle. + +Grenville heard it grunt once savagely, as it broke its way past +interfering branches of the growth. He realized it was escaping, that +it might reach a hole or other concealment before it fell, and cheat +him of his dinner. + +He dropped his bow, as a useless impediment in such a tangle, and +plunged in a reckless manner through the shrubbery and vines where his +quarry was no longer in sight. + +The hog must have stumbled forward with considerable speed. A +vibrating palm, ten feet ahead of his position, urged Sidney +impulsively forward. He was baffled and retarded in a most +exasperating fashion by the creepers woven through the thicket. + +Obliged to make a slight detour, he smashed a path between two stout +banana palms--and came upon a hidden clearing. There was one +unexpectedly violent movement of the growth just opposite, and there he +thought his hog was dying. + +Instantly upon his startled vision impinged a blot of yellow color. +The full active form of the tiger was immediately revealed, as the +brute leaped forth and sank his teeth in the neck of the sinking boar. + +There was one shrill mort cry only as the hog became inert. Half +raising the limber form in his massive jaws, the while his eyes wildly +blazed his challenge to and defiance of the man who had halted in the +clearing, the great supple creature, with the studded gold band about +his neck, slowly strode once more within the jungle. + +With a horribly disquieting comprehension of the fact he had doubtless +been stalked for the past half hour, which fully accounted for the +absence of game along the trails, Grenville retreated from the place. +Why he had not been leaped upon and instantly slain was too much to +understand--unless the unknown beings who had placed a collar, like a +badge of inferiority, upon the animal's neck, had so impressed him with +a dread of man that he dared not make an attack. + +All zest for the hunt had departed from his being when Sidney recovered +his bow. Anger and exasperation took its place as he reflected on the +ease with which this insolent, fearless beast could continue to rob him +of his quarry. And one day, he knew, the animal's boldness would +increase to a point where a treacherous leap would restore his +undisputed mastery of all this bit of land. + +"I'll kill him!" said Grenville, unexcitedly. "I'll blow him clean out +of his skin!" + +He went boldly down to the rotting wreck, climbed eagerly up to the +slanted cabin, and saluted the dead man, sitting there in chains. + +"Brother, I've come for the cannon," he said. "There's little else +left for you to guard." + +Although the small bit of ordnance would make a load of fully fifty +pounds, Grenville determined, then and there, to make a clean sweep of +all the old hulk's remaining bits of brass and bronze not appropriated +earlier. He, therefore, heaved the cannon out through a gap in the +rotting planks, and began a hurried overhauling of everything left in +the lockers. + +He had drawn out coil upon coil of ancient cordage, that broke like +wetted paper in his hands, before the largest and last of the lockers +had been emptied of its junk. This was a deep and comparatively sound +sort of box beneath a former bunk. Its interior was absolutely dark. + +Unwilling to overlook the slightest metal object, Grenville got down on +his hands and knees, to peer to the farthest corner. There seemed to +be nothing remaining in the place. Nevertheless, he reached well +inside and swept his hand about the walls, till it came to a slight +obstruction. + +This was a screw-head, so far as he could determine, in the planking +just to the left of the door, in one of the nearest corners. He +pressed rather heavily against the moldy woodwork, and his fist went +through, breaking away a decayed square of wood that had once been a +tiny door. + +Convinced at once that a small and, heretofore, undiscovered locker, of +insignificant dimensions, had been made between the walls of two of the +usual compartments, he conceived it to be a secret hiding-place, and +strained the full length of his reaching arm, blindly to explore its +interior. + +He could not touch its wall at the rear without crawling fully inside +the larger locker, and for this he felt but little relish. With a plan +worth two of that discomfiting scheme, he arose and kicked out the +paneling from the front of the narrow box. + +Once more he knelt, and thrust his arm to the end of the place. His +fingers came gropingly upon a round, metallic object, wedged tightly +down between two supports of wood. He broke it out in his vigorous +way, and drew it to the light. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A MYSTERY + +With an odd sensation tingling in his veins, Grenville examined his +find. + +It was merely a cylinder, made of brass, fully three inches in +diameter, and, perhaps, eight inches long. Its cap was rusted so +firmly in place that he could not possibly remove it. He gave the tube +a shake. There was something inside, but its weight was exceedingly +light. + +Once more he knelt before the secret locker to examine all its walls. +But although his fingers finally played upon every square inch of the +sides and ceiling, there was nothing further to be found. Apparently +the only "treasure" the place had concealed was contained within the +tube. + +He thought of a score of documents the one-time captain of the barque +might have thus desired to preserve, but the sun was rapidly nearing +its purple horizon, and the old ship's hold was growing dark. +Grenville gathered the last of the metal spoils he had found in an +empty box, half rotted, on the floor. The tube he thrust firmly in his +pocket. + +What with the cannon balanced on his shoulder, his box of rusted metal +hugged beneath his arm, and his bow, club, and arrows clutched tightly +in his hand, he presented a singular figure as he finally made his way +along the darkening trail, and came at length to the clearing, to be +hailed from the heights by Elaine. + +"Just for the sake of variety," he said, when he came to the terrace +with his burdens, "we'll eat one more dinner of fruit." + +"I couldn't think what you had killed," said Elaine, "when I saw you +coming with this," and she placed her foot on the cannon he had gladly +dropped to the ground. "What is it, anyway?" + +"A pop-gun," he said, "to tickle my friend the tiger." + +She was instantly apprehensive. "You have met him again?" + +He had no intention of arousing her alarm. + +"The brute is still about the island. I should like his skin for a +rug." + +"You could really shoot him with this?" + +"Well--I shall mount it, in any case, though I have my doubts of his +standing while I blow a few rocks through his person." + +When he went for a fresh supply of fruits he brought up a log some four +or five feet in length, with a burned-off prong at its end. This he +intended to prepare as a "carriage" for the gun. He placed the pronged +end down in his fire, to burn out a niche for the little brass piece, +which he cleaned of its mud then and there. + +His preliminary work on the bit of ordnance was soon concluded. When +his log had burned to a moderate depth, he removed it to a near-by rock +and gouged the charred portions away. Into the hollow thus rudely +formed, the breach of the gun loosely fitted, ready to be firmly bound +in place. + +But the day was done, and Elaine had spread their "table," to which +Sidney was glad to repair. + +He had mentioned nothing of the tube still fatly bulging his pocket. +Until he should first determine what the cylinder contained, he meant +to arouse no unnecessary speculations in the breast of his companion. +How much she might yet have to know of the barque and the mummy chained +in its cabin he could not determine to-night. That something sinister +lurked behind the mystery which this and the two headless skeletons +involved was his constantly growing conviction. + +It was not until night was heavily down, and Elaine had crept gladly to +the comfort of her cave, that Grenville produced the brass cylinder, +and stirred up new flames of his fire. + +Then, sitting alone in the ruddy glow, with a rock for a stool, and +another before him for an anvil, he scraped all he could of the +greenish oxidation from the cover of the tube, and tried, as before, to +wrench it off. The stubborn parts remained solidly rusted together. + +This he had apparently expected. For he took up a rock of convenient +size and, gently beating the cylinder just below its union with the +cover, he bent it slightly inward about its entire circumference, +meanwhile pausing from time to time to thrust his knife between the +cemented pieces and force them a little apart. + +The tube was considerably mangled by this process, while the cover +still adhered. In a final burst of impatience, Grenville thrust the +battered cap in the crevice between two bowlders and wrenched it +roughly away. + +Then he turned the hollow tube to the light, revealing, within, the +edge of some document, thick and loosely rolled. This he readily +removed and straightened in his hands, placing the tube beneath his arm. + +For a moment the parchment seemed, despite the firelight upon it, a +mere blank square, of leathery texture and weight. Then he fancied he +saw upon its surface some manner of writing, or signs. + +He resumed his seat and held the thing to the fullest light of the +flames. It was yellowish tan in color, a trifle stiff, and inclined to +curl to the shape it had held so long. Grenville turned it over, so +dim were the characters it bore. There was nothing, however, on its +outer side, wherefore he bent more closely towards his wavering light +above such signs as he could finally discern. + +Perhaps the fact that he began by expecting to find some ordinary map, +or printed or written characters, for a short time baffled his wits. +Howbeit, he began at length to discover the fact that a few large signs +or hieroglyphics had been rudely sketched upon the parchment. When +this discovery was finally confirmed, he had still considerable +difficulty in tracing the lines that comprised these singular designs. + +The firelight cast dark shadows in certain crease-like traceries that +folds in the substance had formed. It was not until he presently +managed to discriminate between these mere wrinkles and the "writing," +that he made the slightest progress. His eyes at last became more keen +to follow the artist's meaning. With his stub of a pencil, on a +whittled bit of wood, he began to copy what he "read." + +The result was, crudely, this: + +[Illustration: parchment with signs and hieroglyphics] + +It was not a map; it could hardly be a message--unless expressed in +some short-hand system heretofore unknown--yet it must at some time or +other have been accounted important to have been so elaborately +preserved. + +Grenville turned it upside down, compared his copy with the original +repeatedly, and then examined the parchment with most minute +particularity in search of some smaller writing to explain these +mysterious signs. + +There was nothing further to be seen--at least by the light of his +fire. Two of the symbols only did he recognize as ever having come to +his attention before. These were, first, the lines like a series of +M's, and second the oval, about a human figure. This last suggested +unmistakably an ancient Egyptian cartouch--the name or title of a king. +But containing one sign only, and that apparently representing a mummy, +it puzzled the inventor no less than the pyramids and curves. + +That some either crude or crafty mind had combined this mixture of +Egyptian and nondescript hieroglyphics with intent to reveal some +secret message or information to other initiated beings, while +concealing its import from all accidental beholders of the script, +seemed to Grenville perfectly obvious. + +He sat for three hours replenishing the fire and goading his brain for +a key to the puzzle, before it occurred to his mind at last the tube +might contain the explanation. + +All this while he had held it beneath his arm, hard pressed against his +body. As he peered down its dark interior once more, he likewise +thrust in his fingers. It was they that discovered and fastened upon +another sheet of something he had missed. + +This clung so close to the tube's metal walls he wetted his finger to +remove it. The light then shone opaquely through its substance. It +was ordinary foolscap paper, the half of a sheet, gone yellowish with +age, but otherwise very well preserved. + +It was covered with roughly scrawled characters. + +Grenville glanced it through--and irrelevantly longed for a pipe. He +felt he should like some good tobacco to assist in the puzzle's +solution. + +He felt convinced, however, that a crude example of the simplest, most +primitive cipher was contained upon the sheet. Should the words later +prove to be in English he could finally read it all. He began to +compare the recurrence of the various symbols at once, discovering that +the sign in the form of a cross had been used no less than fourteen +times, and was therefore almost certainly E. The next in importance +was the figure 3, which he felt might be either A, or N, or S, since +these, after E, are among the characters in English spelling most +frequently employed. + +[Illustration: second message] + +On another clean chip of whittled wood he jotted down a few of the +"words" with E's in each instance substituted for the crosses, and then +began attempting to make clear sense by substituting A's, N's, and S's +for the figure three, the figure one, and open squares, which, he +found, had been often represented. + +It was a blind and tedious business. His fire burned low, in his +absorption, and the midnight constellations marched past the zenith of +the heavens before he finally realized the folly of his quest. + +"It's not a bit of good in the world, if I knew all about it," he +finally confessed, "no matter what it means." + +He went to bed. But he did not sleep. Those singular pyramids and the +cipher still lingered before his inner vision. What was the mystery +hidden behind the dead man chained in the rotting barque, the headless +skeletons lying near the swamp, and now these documents, found in the +tube and so carefully concealed? + +"I give it up," he told himself at last, in an effort to dismiss it all +and compose his active brain. "I wish I had a stouter tube to make a +good bomb for the tiger." + +He thought perhaps he could use the oxidized cylinder as it was, and +began thereupon to wonder how he should make a fuse by which its powder +contents might be ignited. Thus he drowsed off at last, with fantastic +dreams swiftly solving the sum of his problems. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +AMBITIOUS PLANS + +Grenville awoke with a brilliant idea, born in his brain as he slept. + +It was not concerned with the documents found in the old brass +receptacle, but entirely with the tiger. He knew how to fashion a fuse. + +The creepers had answered this latest need, with their bark so readily +hollowed. He had burned up yards of the drying stuff with the core +removed, all of it shrunk and twisted tight, like long coils of +vegetable tubing. He had only to fill it with his powder while green, +and then let it dry in the sun. + +He could likewise fill the useless cylinder, wrap it about to increase +its resistance to the powder--and thereby render its explosion far more +violent. If, after that, a chance were presented to ignite it under +the tiger---- + +It was possible always, he confessed, the tiger might prove unwilling. +However, both the cannon and bomb should be immediately prepared. +There could be no peace upon the island while the brute remained alive. + +All thoughts of the cipher were postponed for evening recreation. The +day's work began after breakfast in preparing large quantities of +powder. + +At this Elaine assisted. She was glad of any employment. No less in +her veins than in Grenville's the promptings of being in the primitive +were daily surging stronger. Like himself, she was hungry for meat; +and while she had no thoughts of turning Amazon herself, she felt an +increasing interest in all that Grenville was attempting in his task of +coping with nature. + +Meanwhile Sidney was daily assuming a wild and unkempt aspect that he +could not possibly avoid. His beard was an unbecoming stubble that he +was powerless to shave; his hair was uncombed and a trifle long; his +clothing was not without its rents. But what an active, muscular being +he appeared, as he moved about at his work! He seemed so thoroughly +fearless, so competent and at home with naked Nature. His +thoughtfulness, moreover, had no limits, and neither had his cheer. He +had made no further disquieting advances, but seemed rather to have +forgotten, utterly, the lawless emotions to which he had one day given +way. + +This day it was he started the fires to bake his vessels of clay. They +were all sufficiently dry for the purpose, and, huddled together, a bit +removed, in a rudely constructed furnace made of rock, were piled about +with abundant fuel to provide an even heat. + +The morning was sped between the various duties. Some ten or more +pounds of powder Grenville finally stored in his cave. The labor of +grinding and mixing had undergone many interruptions while he attended +the fire about his jugs. He finally fetched some creepers from the +growth and, stripping out the pliable cores, poured powder in several +of the hollow coverings, bound them together, here and there, with +fibers, and placed them out on the rocks to dry. + +With the withes thus provided to his hand, the cannon was bound upon +the log he had hollowed a bit to receive it. This he knew to be crude +and, perhaps, even quite insufficient, but the gun was, in any event, +far too unwieldy for use against the tiger, unless the brute should +deliberately pose as a target, in the clearing down below. + +That mid-day the porcupine once more volunteered for dinner. His +services were accepted. Grenville dispatched him with a club--and +skinned him in the thicket. He was far too considerate of a woman's +sensibilities to fetch the creature into camp, with his arsenal of +spears still upon him. But the task of removing the hedgehog's hide +was amazingly difficult. + +Aware of two important facts--namely, that meat too freshly cooked is +certain to be tough, while even fresh meat for three hours wrapped in +paw-paw leaves becomes incredibly tender, Grenville lost no time, when +the skinning was done, in thoroughly swaddling his "game." He had +carved it up for more convenient handling. When he finally brought it +for Elaine to see, it looked decidedly attractive. + +"I shall save some scraps for bait," he said. "To-morrow we'll try for +fish." + +What with carving a number of tough, wooden hooks, preparing some line +from various fibers, and supplying new fuel to the flames that were +firing his needed potteries, his remaining hours were full. + +At length, in preparation for their dinner of meat, he went below, dug +a hole somewhat laboriously in the sand and earth of the clearing, and +started another brisk fire in the hollow thus created, Elaine tossing +down a few glowing twigs for the purpose. + +And how brave she looked, he paused to note, as she came to the brink +to be of this much assistance! How beautiful she was--and how delicate +she seemed, to be cast into such conditions! Despite her sturdiness of +heart and limb, she had always been tenderly reared. How far might she +go, enduring this life, reduced to savagery? + +These were thoughts that had come and been banished from his mind +innumerable times. There was nothing he could do to alter or even +greatly alleviate the hardships by which she was surrounded. Her +aloofness from personal contact with himself, even her constant +suspicions of his motives, and her lingering indignation for what he +had done, he felt every hour of the day. But he could not have begged +her forgiveness if he would--and would not have done so if he could. + +How long would it last, he asked himself--and what would be the end? +Would no ship ever come--or how long might it be till succor finally +arrived? Would a search be made for the missing boat that had gone to +the bottom of the sea? Or, before this could happen, would smaller +craft arrive--the strange, swift craft of these eastern waters, manned +by fanatical outlaws, pirates, or even the wild, head-hunting Dyaks, +who had probably been here before? + +When he finally placed his meat in the pit, where the fire had burned +down to glowing embers, his mind was filled with the many plans he was +impatient to materialize without another half hour's delay. He covered +the leaf-and-clay-wrapped dinner, first with portions of the coals and +heated ashes, and then with all the sand he had dug to make his natural +oven, after which he returned to the terrace. + +Neither the process of cooking, nor that of firing his earthenware +could be hastened now by Grenville's presence.. He saw that his +pottery furnace was properly supplied with fuel, and then sat down +where Elaine was busily plaiting a flat sort of mat with withes she had +somehow split to half their former size, and there he began to carve at +some slender branches of wood he had brought from down below. + +"What are you making?" he presently asked, as he watched her nimble +fingers at their task. + +"A platter for the meat," she told him, briefly. "And what are your +sticks to become?" + +"Forks for the same. I hope we shall need no knives.... I must soon +find time to dig about and, perhaps, unearth some yams. They are not +so good as potatoes, but they answer at a pinch." + +"You have planned so many things to accomplish," she said. "Do you +think you shall ever have the time?" + +"Can't tell, but meantime I thoroughly enjoy this wresting an existence +from more or less stubborn conditions. Just as soon as I eliminate the +tiger I shall melt up my pieces of metal to make a number of tools." + +Elaine looked up at the man in wonder, but not incredulously. + +"What perfect confidence you seem to have in your ability to accomplish +difficult things." + +His utterance sank a tone lower as he answered: + +"What I say I'll do--I'll do. What I say I'll have--I'll have." + +It was the first word he had spoken since their coming to the island +that might have been construed as a survival of the feelings he had +demonstrated on the steamer. + +Elaine felt her whole being suddenly burn with strange excitement. She +felt the underlying significance of his speech, and her soul was +instantly bristling with defiance. + +His words went too deep and were uttered too gravely for any mere idle +boasting. She had already seen, and partially acknowledged, the power +that lay in this strong man's hands to compel his desired ends. She +felt this potency emanating from him now--and resented the fact that +she herself had been as much selected as the tiger for his ultimate +conquering. + +She was angry again on the instant, ready to fight like a very little +demon, should he dare so much as lay a finger on her hand. She +resolved anew that, though a hundred years should pass before they two +escaped this island exile, not the tiniest bud of answering love should +ever sprout in her breast. + +For the past few days she had felt a new sense of security and ease. +The man with whom she was working out this singular and intimate +existence had made no sign of renewing his advances, had seemed to +forget he had ever broached the subject of his passion, and had been a +most agreeable companion, cheerful, resourceful, and courageous to the +last degree. + +Now that she knew what unworthy thoughts still lingered beneath the +surface of his calm, indifferent demeanor, not even their earlier +friendship seemed to her possible again--and for this she was +disappointed and annoyed. + +Her glance had fallen instantly back to her work. That her color +burned up, to the tips of her ears for Grenville to see and, perhaps, +enjoy, she felt with added irritation. But she would not confess, by +word or deed, she understood the meaning of his speech. + +When she spoke she employed a quiet and common-place tone of voice, and +returned to impersonal subjects. + +"I can understand," she said, "how you might possibly shoot the tiger, +but I thought one needed furnaces, tall chimneys, and things, to melt +up bronze and brass." + +"Dead right," he answered, readily. "You see, you've got such a grasp +on things that I never cease to be surprised--and delighted. I've +engaged quite a chimney already." + +She forced herself to continue the conversation, if only by way of +ignoring the personal element of his answer. + +"Engaged a chimney?" + +"You'll see about that, later. If getting the tiger were only half as +easy as some of the other things I expect to accomplish, I'd certainly +be tickled clean to death." + +She felt--she almost knew, indeed---that she and her love were +classified among the things he expected to "accomplish" so easily at +last, and her hot resentment burned hotter. She was tempted to flash +out her wildest cry of the loathing--the bitter, eternal loathing--his +words had begotten in her bosom. She was tempted again to a desperate +wish that the tiger might rend him in pieces--as _she_ would do if ever +he touched her again. But she dared not trust herself to speak, or +even to show, by the slightest sign, that his threat was comprehended. +She clung in desperation to the subject she felt to be safe. + +"Then--you do think the tiger dangerous--hard, at least, to kill?" + +"Well, I wouldn't call him exactly plum pudding and gravy." + +"Your cannon would kill him, though, of course?" + +"If he'd pose in front of the muzzle, a rod or so away." + +A cold chill crept along her nerves at thoughts of the savage animal +she herself had twice encountered. She wondered just what Grenville's +method would be--in overcoming some of the things he had vowed to +conquer. + +"You hardly expect to shoot the creature, then, after all?" + +He held up the fork he was carving, for critical examination. + +"I'm rather inclined to favor the plan of leaving a bait in the jungle, +and letting go a bomb when he comes to dine." + +Her natural concern for the man's own safety could not be long expelled. + +"How shall you know when he comes?" she inquired, and she dared look up +as before. + +Grenville continued to bend his gaze on his labor. + +"I expect to hang around and see." + +A sudden fear and sinking of the vitals seized her, unaware. + +"But--doesn't a tiger usually feed at night?" + +"His club hours are usually rather late, I believe." + +"And you'll wait around for him to come in the dark?" + +"What else can I do? Can't expect him to 'phone me he's arrived." + +"Oh!" she said, impulsively, "couldn't we build a wall of stone around +enough of the fruit for just ourselves? I could help at that. I'd do +so gladly!" + +If an exquisite thrill shot directly to the deeps of Grenville's +nature--a thrill aroused by her courage, her generous spirit, her +honest and helpful sympathy--he permitted himself to make no sign. +Also, he took no fulsome flattery to his soul. But he pictured her +forth, with bleeding hands, and torn and grimy garments, as she rolled +and carried great stones to the brink, to supply him with blocks for a +wall; and his spirit was wondrously glad to think he had made no error +of judgment in appraising her character. + +That all she could do she would do, as mere assistance--do for anyone +else in a similar situation, he comprehended fully. But he felt not a +whit less exultant for the knowledge of the fact. She was never for a +moment a mere useless dependent. She was daily, aye, hourly, assisting +in his wholly unequal combat for their lives, and this was a joy to his +heart. + +But he spoke with his usual bluntness, and without a single hint of +sympathy in all she had eagerly suggested. + +"Wholly impractical scheme. I've thought of a dozen just as poor." + +Elaine was instantly sorry she had proffered him her help. She placed +a withe between her teeth, bit through it neatly, and began to divide +it with her fingers. + +"Here, don't do that. You'll spoil your teeth," said Grenville, +brusquely. "I'll split you enough for half a day." + +She made no reply as he went at the withes and split them with skillful +ease, but she hoped he could feel, through some sensitive chord, how +intensely she disliked him. + +He could not. "I've been thinking," he said, "I may be obliged to make +a loom to weave these fibers into some sort of cloth for garments. May +need them before we get away." + +Elaine once more responded, in her honest, impulsive manner. + +"I could knit some things, I'm sure, if you'd cut me a pair of needles." + +"Cut 'em to-night," he answered. "That meat must be done, and my +potteries need attention." + +He dropped in her lap the forks he had roughly completed, and strode +away to his fire. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A MIDNIGHT VISITOR + +The porcupine dinner was good. In its ball of clay, Grenville brought +it to the cave in the basket that he used for heavy burdens. + +It was far too hot to be handled carelessly. And when he broke away +the earthy covering and leaves, and arranged the steaming pieces on the +platter Elaine had prepared, it was perfectly cooked, as tender as +quail, and of a flavor surprisingly fine. + +The banquet, however, would have been immeasurably improved by the +commonest of bread and potatoes. To provide some palatable substitute +for these essential commonplaces of civilization became another of +Grenville's problems, which, he told himself, he must tackle--after the +tiger. + +Everything was after the tiger, or else over-fraught with danger. The +thought of this made Grenville fret more than anything demanding his +attention. That night, when Elaine had finally retired, he went to his +fuses, broke off a length, and returned to light it at his fire. It +was still too damp, from the juices of the plant, to burn efficiently. +His bomb he, therefore, would not make until the following afternoon. + +The fire about his potteries he was now permitting to die. It could +not be altogether abandoned, since a too sudden cooling of the vessels +would crack and ruin every one. Therefore, from time to time, he went +to the furnace to regulate the heat. He had leveled a rock for a +table, at the fireplace near his cave, and on this he finally spread +the mysterious paper and parchment recovered from the tube. + +They had been all day neglected. Grenville had thoroughly intended a +daylight examination of the parchment, concerning the nature of which +he was considerably in doubt. + +A new supply of whittled wooden "tablets" on which to write lay ready +to his hand. Scratching at his head with his pencil, he studied the +hieroglyphics for an hour or more before he returned to the written +sheet with the scrawl spelled out in cipher. + +As a matter of fact, his mind refused the task on which he was +endeavoring to focus his attention. Despite his utmost efforts, his +thoughts would return to Elaine. He would have given almost his hope +of eternity to secure her absolute comfort and freedom from anxiety. +And, inasmuch as the tiger was responsible for much of her worry, his +mind was made up that a trial should be made to slay the brute without +another day's delay.... It is always so easy to plan! + +He was finally staring straight into the fire, though his hand still +rested on the parchment and the paper. The flames sank lower and +lower, wavering finally like dull red spear-heads among the glowing +embers. + +At some fancied sound he turned sharply about, to peer through the +darkness of the trail. All appeared as silent and calm as the grave. +He wondered if, perhaps, Elaine had arisen to come to her door. + +She was not to be seen at the indistinct entrance of her cave. He +turned once more to stir his fire--then wheeled like one on a pivot. + +His senses had not been deceived. Beyond, in the darkness, a few feet +only from the cavern occupied by Elaine, two blazing coals had been +fixed like twin stars by his movement. + +A sudden recollection that he had failed to close the gap in the wall +swept hotly and accusingly through him. Some beast of the jungle had +passed the barrier, perhaps to enter the very cave that the wall had +been built to protect! + +With a note that broke the stillness abruptly, Grenville caught up a +flaming branch of wood from the mass of embers in the fire, and sprang +to the path to the cavern. + +The prowling animal stood for a moment undecided, then started as if to +spring before the oncoming man to the shelter of Elaine's rock retreat, +doubtless to turn there in desperation for a mad encounter in the dark. + +But, perhaps by a yard, the man was there before him. The brute, even +then, refused to retreat towards the trail by which it had come. It +leaped towards the place where Grenville made his bed--a shadowy form +that he knew at last was not the arrogant tiger. + +It turned for a moment in the mouth of the cave, as if aware this +smaller retreat was too shallow for adequate shelter. But before the +man could crack his fiery brand upon the creature's head, it leaped +wildly past him, growling a savage protest, and reluctantly retreated +towards the trail. + +One more attempt it made, even then, to escape by Grenville's active +form, and regain the larger cavern. But his fierce, hot rushes were +not to be withstood. It finally turned with another sort of bellow, +and cowered uncertainly upon the downward path. + +After it no less desperately than before, Sidney plunged along the +steep descent, his firebrand brightly glowing in the wind. A whine of +fear escaped the jungle creature as he slunk at last through +Grenville's gate to the outer precincts of the wall. + +Almost immediately followed a frightful din of growls and wauling. +There were certain deep gutturals and mouthings that Grenville was sure +his tiger only could produce. There were sounds of a conflict, fierce +and bloody, retreating down the trail. Like a battle of cats, +enormously exaggerated, with screams and roars intermingled, the +disturbance rose on the air. But Grenville had blocked his gate with +logs and bowlders, and calmly returned to his place. + +Elaine was crouching by the fire when he came once more to the terrace. +She had called him in vain, and was visibly trembling as his form +appeared within the glow. + +"What was it?" she cried. "What has happened?" + +"Why--it sounds like a couple of jungle politicians engaged in a tariff +argument." + +"You weren't down there?" + +"I strolled to the wall, to make sure it was closed for the night." + +"There was nothing--up here? I dreamed there was something--fighting +with you--some terrible creature--like that." + +She waved her hand towards the hideous sounds, retreating swiftly in +the darkness. + +"Can't understand such a dream," he said. "We've had no corned beef +and cabbage. You'd better go back and try again." + +He started at once for his pottery fire, in his brusque, indifferent +manner. + +Elaine stood there, watching his figure, retreating in the darkness, +and made no move to retire. Like a dim silhouette of Vulcan, projected +against the reddened glare of his furnace, he presently appeared, from +the place where she eagerly kept him in her vision. She felt she could +not bear to creep away until he should return. + +She saw him stand for a little time observing his waning heaps of +embers before he faced about to return once more to his seat. Then, +slowly, as she heard his footsteps approaching, she glided silently +back to her shelter, and so at length within the door. Even then she +lingered eagerly, to make certain he was not far away. Until he sat +down, and stirred up the flames, she did not return to her couch. + +"To be so perfectly fearless!" she murmured, half aloud, and so crept +away to her dark, uncomfortable cave. + +Grenville pocketed the documents, still lying face up on his rock. He +finally slept beside the fire, to finish his plans in dreams. + +These plans, which were vague enough that night, matured fairly early +in the morning. He had resolved to try for the tiger at the spring. + +Fully expecting to encounter abundant signs of the animal conflict of +the midnight hours, he descended the trail before Elaine had appeared, +intent upon removing such evidence of trouble as might be found +disturbingly near their tower. + +There was nothing at all along the trail to show that a fight had taken +place. Where the grass and shrubbery began in the clearing below the +walls, there was one mere tuft of hair upon a twig. But a rod removed +from this there was at least a hint as to what might have caused the +engagement. + +This was a trampled and slightly reddened ring where something had been +eaten--some quarry doubtless captured by the smaller of the prowlers, +who had found himself suddenly attacked and driven from the feast by +the master hunter of the jungle, on whose sacred preserves he had +probably dared to poach. + +Grenville proceeded to the spring, not only to fetch a fresh supply of +water, but as well to indulge in a vigorous washing of his hands and +face, and to make some observations. + +He found that by breaking several limbs a none too comfortable seat in +the branches of a rubber tree might be prepared, provided he could +climb to the perch. With a very long fuse attached to his bomb he +might be enabled to execute a coup upon the tiger, under cover of the +night. Could he only slay some animal--another wild hog, for +instance--and place it here as a lure, his chances of securing the +tiger's attendance would be infinitely increased. + +A number of things were essential to his plan. The first, a rope +ladder, was the simplest of the lot. That he could fashion with ease. +His greatest problem was the fire with which to ignite his fuse, should +he wish to explode his bomb. The wood he had found, that so amazingly +retained its glow, might answer his needs for, perhaps, two hours, as +he sat high up in the tree. It was all he possessed, and upon it he +must needs rely. But how he should manage to discern his beast, in the +darkness, when the prowler came at last to drink, was more than he +could determine. + +"A dead-fall might do for the brute," he soliloquized aloud, as the +business revolved in his mind. "But I couldn't get one ready by +to-night." + +For several reasons a dead-fall was impracticable. The thought was, +therefore, abandoned, while the details of loading and placing the bomb +were elaborately planned. So vivid was Grenville's imagination that +already he pictured himself high in the tree, heard the tiger come to +lap the water, lighted his fuse--and ended that trouble forever. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +TRUANTS OUT OF SCHOOL + +He returned to the terrace, lightly whistling. The morning was +perfect, a delightfully refreshing zephyr lightly stirring in the +trees. Elaine beheld him approaching, and nodded from the cliff. + +"The jugs look beautiful!" she called, enthusiastically. "The fire is +barely warm." + +He had brought their supply of water in the sea-shell, so variously +employed. Before providing fruits for their breakfast, he went to his +furnace with Elaine. The firing was complete, though the vessels were +not yet cool. A few were cracked, slightly, despite the care that +Grenville had exercised, and one was hopelessly ruined. However, he +felt the product as a whole was surprisingly satisfactory, especially +some of his molds and the crucibles meant for his foundry. + +"At noon we'll fill a jug with water," he said, "and you'll find it +will keep surprisingly cool. The clay is slightly porous. The water +oozes through, evaporates on the surface, and thereby chills the +contents. They use nothing else in Egypt, and, I think, in Mexico. + +"If it weren't for the tiger," said Elaine, "I could often go to the +spring." + +"Right ho!" said Grenville, cheerily, believing he understood a wish +that lay beneath her speech. "That reminds me. I believe I could +manage to deepen a basin I saw in the rock on our lowermost shelf above +the sea, back yonder, and easily fill it by dipping salt water with a +jug on the end of a rope. Any nymph should enjoy such a pool." + +"Oh!" said Elaine, delighted by the thought; "do you really think you +could make it?" + +"Well--I've thought of it, you see, on an empty stomach. After +breakfast---- There's quite a bit to do, by the way, after breakfast." + +With the fruits now presently gathered, he brought a fresh supply of +creepers and leaves of the sisal, for labors soon to begin. And while +Elaine prepared what was left of the meat, and the other things +afforded by their larder, he went to the shelf of rock so completely +protected by its wall, and made up his mind that, with one good tool, +plus a hammer, he could hew out a bath with amazingly little trouble. + +"Meant to go fishing this morning!" he confessed, as the sight of the +clear, limpid tide below aroused new desires in his being. "There must +be oysters and many good fish, if I had the time to get them." + +Fish-lines and other "diversions" were again postponed when the +breakfast was concluded, while Grenville braided fibers and tied stout +rungs along their length, to form a rude sort of ladder. This he +carried to the spring at length, and hung across the limb of his tree +by lifting its end on a pole. + +Once in the tree, he labored diligently, breaking or cutting away a +number of interfering branches, and arranging a makeshift for a seat, +on which to rest as he waited. The bomb would be better prepared in +the afternoon. + +On his way, returning to the camp, he gathered a bundle of the special +wood that he used to retain his fire. It was while he was thus +engaged, in an unexplored part of the thicket, that he came upon a +fallen tree, fairly brittle with resin. He snapped off branch after +branch of this, till his load was too heavy to carry. With all he +could take he climbed the trail. + +A piece that he tried at the embers of his fire blazed promptly enough, +producing a volume of thick, black smoke, and a flame that burned +slowly down the wood, as he held the lighted end aloft. + +"If we happen to need a torch," he said to Elaine, who, as usual, was +watching results, "this will always be stored here, ready." He placed +the fagots in a near-by hollow of the rocks, against possible future +need. + +There was nothing further to be done at the spring until the hour of +sunset. The jugs and vessels from the furnace were found to be +sufficiently cool for handling, and were brought to the rear of his +shelter. + +The molds he had made excited anew his various ambitions. + +"To-morrow I shall start operations on the smelter," he told his +companion. "No tools means no boat--and no boat means no escape." + +Elaine felt a bound of excitement in her veins at the mere suggestion +of escape. She inquired: "How long will it take to build your boat?" + +"Can't tell," said Grenville, briefly. "Never built one on a toolless +island before." + +"I only meant about how long," Elaine explained. "It will take at +least a week, I suppose." + +"More likely two," he answered, as before. "Meantime I'm going +fishing. Want to come?" + +Elaine had little liking for any such off-hand invitation. + +"Not at present, thank you." She turned away from him, coldly. + +"It's an art and a sport you ought to cultivate," he informed her, +cheerfully. "Might sometime keep you from starving." He gathered up +the necessary paraphernalia, adding, "I hope the fish will bite," and +started on his way. + +He had fully two hundred feet of the line he had braided from fibers. +It was thoroughly "waxed" with juices from the rubber tree, and +although it was frequently knotted along its length, it was strong as a +wire, and not inclined to kink. + +His wooden hook was clumsy, but tough as steel, while its point and its +barb were exceedingly sharp. Also, the bait he thrust upon it +concealed it well, except where the line was stoutly attached. With +one of his old rusted hinges for a sinker, it was presently ready for +use. + +He had chosen that protected shelf of rock whereon he meant to hew out +a bath for Elaine, since this was the nearest possible approach he +could make to the water from the cliff. There, alas! at the very first +cast attempted, his line was atrociously tangled, while the hook +remained suspended some ten feet up from the tide. + +In patience he sat himself down on the ledge to restore the line to +order. Elaine, who had doubtless pondered wisely on his observation, +anent fishing as an art to be acquired, came half reluctantly wandering +over to his side, while Grenville was still engrossed with his mess of +tangles. She watched him in silence for a time, then, finally, sank to +the bench of rock and began to lend her assistance. He made not the +slightest comment, and even failed to thank her when the task was +finally concluded. + +Once again, at last, he swung the line for a cast far out in the +waters. It seemed to Elaine the hook and sinker would never cease +sailing outward. Yet they fell and sank, much closer in than even +Grenville had expected. + +He began to pull it back at once, since there might be rocks on which +the hook would foul, and his labor be wholly lost. The sinker, and +then the bait, emerged from the crystal depths of brine without so much +as a nibble. Again Grenville sent them full length out, and again drew +in with no results, save a possible inquiry, far below, where he +fancied he saw a gleam of silver. + +The third cast fared no better than the others. But the fourth was no +more than started homeward when a sharp, heavy strike was briskly +reported on the line, and Grenville's jerk responded. + +"Oh! you've got one!--you've got one!" cried Elaine, with all the true +pleasure of a sportsman. "Please, please don't let it get away!" + +Grenville was taking no chances on slack in the line, with his simple +wooden hook. He hauled in, hand over fist, while his catch fought +madly to escape. With a wild inward dash and a mighty flop, the +silvery captive on the barb leaped entirely out of the water. + +Grenville's answering maneuver with the line, snatching up fully a yard +of its length, and instantly stooping to clutch it low again, was all +that saved the situation. His fish barely touched the surface, after +that, then was swiftly sailing up in air. + +He was a beautiful specimen of his kind, but the species was new to his +captor. + +"What's the use of going to school?" was Grenville's query, his eyes as +bright as a boy's. "The next one may be a whale." + +The next one, however, was a long time coming. When it was hooked, the +wise fisherman knew it was small, and, most unexpectedly, he delivered +the line to Elaine. + +"Now, then, give him the dickens!" he instructed. "You want to make +him think he's struck by lightning." + +Surprised as she was, and unprepared for this particular favor, Elaine +did her best, and hauled in valiantly, but the captive got away. + +Five or six casts were made after that before the hook was once more +nibbled. Grenville was rather inclined to change for a spot more +popular with the purple water's tribe. Yet he made another of his +longest throws, and had drawn in much of the dripping line when a clean +young tortoise so deeply swallowed the hook that he could not have spat +it out to save him. + +The fight he offered was tremendous. He dived and skittered through +the crystal tides like some giant saucer of dynamics. Whole lines of +the brightest silver bubbles arose as he visibly flapped about and +scuttled towards the bottom. The line raced wildly here and there, +cutting the waves with the sound of something hot and sizzling. + +But it held for a full half hour of fighting. It was strong enough for +the weight of a man, as Grenville afterward declared. It conquered the +tortoise finally, and drew him up, but not before he had wearied the +fisherman's muscles and greatly fatigued Elaine, who was panting with +sheer excitement. + +"There you are," said Grenville, boyishly exultant, "he's wash basin, +comb, a few hairpins, and what-not, all in one, not to mention turtle +soup." + +There was no more fishing done that afternoon, nor were knitting +needles carved. What with his turtle, his fish, the digging of several +yams, and the making of his bomb, Grenville was amply employed. + +Elaine was at length made acquainted with his programme for the night. +She made no effort to dissuade him from his purpose, but excitement +rose in her bosom. She feared for what the tiger might by mischance +accomplish, and, also, she felt that in some occult way her own fate +and the animal's were alike, if not related--that if such a brute must +helplessly succumb to the man's superior prowess, there was no chance +at all for anything as feeble as herself. + +A wild, unreasoning hope was in her breast that the tiger might escape, +or die in some different manner--do something, almost anything, rather +than contribute one more testimony to Sidney Grenville's might. She +could not wish the creature to live, nor yet to injure this bold, +audacious man. She only knew that some dread of the being who could +dare engage or attack this savage monster of the jungle was once more +assailing her quaking heart and stirring her nature to rebellion. + +In a manner that was largely automatic, she assisted in providing an +early evening meal. It was dusk, however, when Grenville was finally +ready to leave her on the hill. + +She followed him down to the gate against the wall, in the way of a +child who fears long hours alone. + +"Good-night," he said to her, cheerily. "If you hear my little +imitation of Bunker Hill--you might drop one tear for the departed." + +Her dread of the night, and the outcome of his excursion, had suddenly +increased. "If you kill him," she said, "you'll come home?" + +He nodded. "Tickled to death and bragging like a pirate." + +Then he placed the logs and rocks against the barrier, and once more +bade her good-night. She waited till his final footsteps died away in +the gloom, then hastened once more to the brink above for a final +glimpse of his form. + +He had passed, however, across the clearing, and not even the spark +that he bore to the gathering darkness threw her back a dull red ray. + +He had lost little time after leaving the foot of the trail. The +jungle was wrapped in somber shadows as he made his way to the spring. + +Some nimble little creature leaped lightly away when he came to the +place. Otherwise there was not a sign or a sound to disturb the +ringing silence. His bomb he placed beside the ebon water, where a +ledge of rock would throw its violence outward. The fuse, which he +carefully uncoiled and laid upon the grass, was amply long to meet his +needs. + +At length, with his fire-stick held between his teeth, he ascended the +ladder to his perch. The end of the fuse he now brought to the limb, +conveniently near for lighting. Then he settled himself to wait. + +Once he blew on the coal slowly eating his brand, to clean the +incandescent cone. Of a sudden, then, he heard the sound of something +directly beneath him, rudely brushing the foliage aside. + +His heart for a second stood still. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A NIGHT IN THE JUNGLE + +It was not the tiger Grenville heard above the pounding of his heart. + +The squealing of some little insignificant beast, apparently more in +sport than apprehension, betrayed very soon the fact that no sinister +visitor was even prowling near. So heavy a sound as the little brute +had made would doubtless be avoided when the master of the jungle +should arrive. + +All the excitement unduly engendered in Grenville's system rapidly +subsided. He listened as intently as before, and peered below in an +effort to pierce the densest shadows, but could not detect the form or +whereabouts of his early visitor. He doubted if this small creature +drank, since the pool of the spring was still quite clearly visible, +like a surface half of ebony and half of tarnished silver. + +At length the absolute silence prevailed as it had before. Save for +the lightest of zephyrs, that barely sufficed to fan the topmost +foliage, not even the slightest stir could be detected. The darkness +below became absolute, where shadows, tree-trunks, and thicket all +blended into one. A portion only of the pool was now discernible, and +in this, clearly mirrored, were two bright stars, that burned dull gold +in the ebon. + +Grenville sat back in his lumpy perch and blew, as before, on his coal. +Its slender wreath of invisible smoke ascended pungently. The hour was +still very early for nocturnal business to begin. The tiger might not +come till midnight. Sidney reflected that the brute would doubtless +eat before a drink would be desired. + +He regretted, vainly, that no bait had finally been provided. Even the +fish they had only partially eaten for dinner might have been +attractive to the tiger. Any price now would be cheap enough to rid +themselves of this terror. + +His reflections ran the gamut of their island world, and sped far over +seas. He thought of that day with Fenton, and of what this friend +would think. Had they heard the news, in that far-away home, of the +steamer gone down with every soul? + +He thought of the morning he had greeted Elaine--and the something that +had happened to his nature. He remembered in detail every hour of +every day they had spent together on the steamer. Then the hideous +details of all that last experience, in the storm and night, paraded by +for his review. + +One after another the swiftly moving procession of events brought him +back to this present hour. He was, then, confronted once again by the +questions--how long would it last?--how might it end? The island's +mystery impinged once more on his varied cogitations, making him wish +he might have had a torch, by which to study the documents reposing in +his pocket. + +Mentally picturing forth the signs on the leathery piece of parchment, +he busied himself for above an hour for a clew as to what they could +mean. They suggested nothing to his mind that made the slightest +sense. He tried to recall the characters on the "explanatory" sheet. +But this was a hopeless task. + +Aware of the value of deduction, he began on a reasoning line. +Anything to occupy his thoughts and time till the hour when the tiger +might have fed, and would come for his evening drink, was highly +welcome. + +He began by a natural presumption that both the documents, found +together in the tube, and so carefully concealed, related to this +particular island. Did they not, then of what possible value would be +their final decipherment and solution? + +Granting this premise, then what should follow next? Certainly some +mention of the island--with its name--in the written message, at least. +There would naturally be, in these circumstances, some word in the +cipher spelling "Island"--but what would the place be called? + +Such places, he knew, were frequently named quite unofficially, by +wandering sailors, adventurers, and drifters on the sea. Attempting to +level his state of mind to that of such human beings, he wondered what +he, if left to himself, would christen this bit of rock and jungle. + +So often, he reflected, a place was named for its appearance. This +one, for instance, might aptly be called "Three Rocks," "Three Walls," +or "Three Towers." He remembered, finally, the abominable sounds +produced by the tides twice daily--sounds he had thought might have +frightened the natives away. The cognomen, "Haunted Island," might not +seem wholly inappropriate to a superstitious mind. + +The more he reflected, the more certain he felt that some one of the +names suggested to his mind might also have occurred to those of +others. Considerably aroused in his centers of curiosity, and +convinced that even by the dull cherry glow of his firebrand he might +be enabled to confirm or confute his theory, he moved sufficiently to +draw from his pocket the closely folded documents, and held them up to +his torch. + +The one with the inexplicable signs he promptly returned as of no +immediate avail. At that instant his attention was arrested, by a +sound below him on the earth. + +Something, he thought, was lapping at the water! + +He leaned far forward, tense and rigid on the limb, shielding his spark +in one of his hands, while he peered about the pool. + +There was nothing he could possibly discern--no form of a head +projected out to obliterate his stars. Yet the sounds at the edge of +the silent basin rose distinctly to his ears. + +All but ready to bend to the end of his fuse, and touch his fire upon +it, he paused, looked closer, saw ripples move to disturb his mirrored +planets--and then beheld some form darkly limned on the waters. + +For a moment he was certain his insolent tiger was there. Some huge +blunt muzzle seemed inkily contrasted with the dull gray surface of the +spring. Then the muzzle suddenly detached itself from the imagined +form behind. The entire figure of some little beast was seen as it +waded the pool. + +Once more, disgustedly, Grenville reclined and relaxed the strain on +his nerves. It was some time, then, before he thought to return to his +quest of the cipher. He remembered, finally, he had meant to count the +characters in some of the words to see if the number of signs thus used +might not correspond with the number employed in "Island," "Three," +"Haunted," "Wall," or "Tower." + +A dull red glow, of most unsatisfactory dimensions and illuminative +capacity, was the most he could procure from his brand. It barely +sufficed to present the "writing" to his vision. For a moment, indeed, +he despaired of discriminating clearly between the ending of one word +and the beginning of the next. Fortunately, however, the writer had +used large periods between his every word. + +Considerably to Grenville's satisfaction, the third word thus denoted +he was almost convinced was "Three." Not only had it the proper number +of letters, or signs, but the two final characters were exactly alike, +and both were the crosses he had previously selected as probably +representing E. + +The next word along, he was equally certain, was either "Wall" or +"Hill." Its two final characters were the same particular sign +repeated, while its meaning, in conjunction with the preceding word +"Three," fulfilled his logical deduction. + +A word of two characters followed this, and then, to Grenville's +intense delight, occurred a word of seven letters, which not only met +the numerical requirements of "Haunted," but, also, in proper sequence, +employed the various letter-signs already somewhat proved by the word +he felt certain was "Three." + +This was more than sufficient evidence on which to base a test of the +message's sense, if it were not, indeed, enough of a key with which to +decipher the entire inscription. + +Eagerly fumbling in his pocket for his pencil, with the intention of +attempting a bit of substitution of letters for the signs contained +upon the sheet, Grenville shifted his position--and the paper fell from +his fingers, fluttering obliquely from his sight. + +He leaned quickly forward, as if to follow the flight of the missive +through the darkness so densely spread beneath him. But it disappeared +almost instantly--with its mystery still unsolved. + +On the point of descending, at whatever cost, to recover the important +bit of foolscap, Sidney was halted in movement and impulse by some new +arrival at the spring. + +As a matter of fact, two animals were there, as he presently +discovered. That neither was his tiger he was presently persuaded, but +that one or both were fairly large seemed equally assured. + +It was certainly not a time to leave the tree. And while the +reflection that, perhaps, the silent visitors were leopards was +presented to Grenville's mind, and a momentary thought of slaying the +pair by igniting his fuse became a strong temptation, he contented +himself by staring more or less blindly down upon the place where they +seemed to be, and bided his time as before. + +At nine o'clock it seemed, to the cramped and impatient hunter in the +tree, that ages had passed since he bade good-night to Elaine and came +to this lonely vigil. There were sounds in abundance about him now, +arising from time to time. Some were the cries of the lesser beasts, +in the clutches or jaws of their captors; some were sounds of munching. +All of them indicated rather grimly the tiger's absence from the scene. +There would be no petty murderers thereabout when the arch brute came +for his drink. + +Leaning back once more, and long since weary of his fruitless +adventure, Grenville stared at the glowing cone of fire slowly eating +away his brand. It was lasting far longer than he had believed would +be possible--yet certainly less than one hour more could the consuming +substance serve to give him a spark. + +He could almost fancy he saw a face, in the film of ash upon its +surface. He was sure the face was developing a likeness to Elaine. +Even the soft clear radiance of her cheek---- How eagerly she had +asked concerning his coming "home"--but how far it seemed away.... He +could hear her saying "You'll come home ... come home ... come back...." + +He awoke with a start, for something had burned him on the wrist. + +The firebrand, all but consumed in his relaxing fingers, had dropped +and deposited a blister. In his sudden move to rid himself of the +torture to his flesh, he threw off the red-hot candle of wood, and it +fell straight downward, sizzling once where it struck in a trickle of +the water. + +Reviling himself for a stupid blunderer, and arousing vividly to a +sense of where he was, and why, he began to question the expediency of +returning at once to the terrace. He was still debating the wisdom of +the move, when the question was decided by the tiger. + +That belated midnight reveler--the old roue of the jungle--was ushered +in with questionable pomp--the panic of lesser brutes in flight. And +when he drank, beside the useless bomb, there was no mistaking his +presence. He presently paused, half satisfied, and lifted his head, +against the shudder of the water, to sniff at the jungle breeze. + +The wind had betrayed the presence of the man, and the great brute +voiced his satisfaction. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A DEAD MAN'S SECRET + +That was a long, weird night in the jungle. + +What hour it was the tiger finally departed was more than Grenville +could have told. And whether the daylight, finally approaching, or a +royal disgust, or some easily captured morsel, had served to urge the +brute upon his way, was equally unknown. + +Grenville descended from his perch at last, when the palms and ferns +had darkly emerged from the velvety blackness of the thicket. He took +up his club, left the bomb in its place, and, searching about, +recovered the sheet of parchment dropped in the darkness. Aware that +the silently moving enemy might still be lurking by the pathway, he +made his way no less boldly from the shadows, and came duly to the hill. + +His chagrin was complete when he told Elaine that his night had been +spent in vain. She had scarcely slept, as he could see, for her face +was still pale with worry, while her eyes showed her lack of rest. + +"I shall try again to-night," he said, but from that he was dissuaded. + +The strain was too great upon Elaine, if not upon himself. He +presently promised to wait a day, and see what might develop. He could +not subject his companion to another such session of agonizing worry as +Elaine had undergone until he felt more certain of results. + +But to wait a day in idleness, while he felt that every hour that +passed might bring new dangers upon them, could scarcely accord with +his intentions. + +He declared the tiger an arrant coward, who dared not confront him in +the day. + +"We have faced far greater perils than this," he told her, as they ate +their simple breakfast, "and we may be called upon to face the like +again. We're enormously fortunate to have nothing more than this +striped beast to limit our freedom on the island." + +Elaine could have thought of countless other animals, including snakes, +that would amply curtail her roaming inclinations, but she was not in +the least in the habit of rehearsing her many dreads. + +Grenville went promptly to work, after breakfast, fetching clay in the +basket from the pit. It was not brought up to the terrace, but dumped +in a heap beside the hollow tree, in the burned space under the walls. +This tree, he at last explained to Elaine, he intended to use as a +smelter. + +"It's a natural chimney I've annexed," was the way he presented the +problem. "If I built a fire in it now, however, it would burn, and be +destroyed. I intend to line it with clay--plaster it on, inside, some +eight or ten feet high. Then when this fire-resisting substance dries, +I can smelt my metal and run it in the molds. The draught will make a +prodigious heat--far more than brass requires." + +"I see," said Elaine. "Meantime I am utterly idle." + +"I'll cut you those needles. You can knit," he said, "unless you +prefer to go fishing." + +He had come to the camp for one of the jugs in which to carry water for +the clay. This task was temporarily abandoned while he sat in the +shade, beside Elaine, and carved out the promised tools. These were +made of wood, instead of bone, since the latter material was far too +hard for his fragment of a blade, and one of the woods provided by the +jungle was so straightly grained and elastic, that even a slender +splinter would bend like steel before it broke. + +For a short time after they were finished, he sat there to watch the +craft displayed by Elaine's nimble fingers, as a slender bit of the +fiber stuff began to accumulate in stitches. + +"You were made for a home-builder's mate," he said, and arose and left +her to her thoughts, and to certain inflammable emotions. + +He carried his jug down the trail and to the spring, resuming the +business in hand. The sight of the pool not only served to arouse his +disgust anew, but he was likewise reminded of the documents, reposing +still unread in his pocket. The bomb, he knew, should be carried back +to camp, lest the fuse become dampened in the thicket. With this and +his jug full of water, he hastened back to the foot of the trail--and +forgot them both forthwith. + +The half sheet of paper, readable at last, had enslaved him then and +there. + +He sat on a rock, with the paper on his knee, and was lost to all +things else. + +For a moment he thought, perhaps, he had dreamed of obtaining the key +to the hidden message. But one hurried glance at the words he had read +convinced him the trick had been done. + +On the back of the sheet he began at once to jot down the signs of +which he felt most certain. The results, as he made them, were these: + +[Illustration: THREE, HILL, HAUNTED, and their symbols] + +The next word, according to his deductions, should be "Island." This, +he felt, was indisputably confirmed by the fact it contained precisely +the required number of "letters," with the sign for L, A, and D, +already discovered, occupying their proper positions. He, therefore, +added: + +[Illustration: "ISLAND" and its symbols] + +to his growing collection of letters, and promptly produced the +following results by the process of substitution: + +[Illustration: many words, and their symbols] + +There could be so little doubt, after that, concerning such words as +"Under," "High," "Important," and "Water," which supplied the +characters, U, G, M, P, W, and O, which was also suggested in "Or," +before "Haunted," that a bit of additional substitution very promptly +cleared the entire affair. + +Grenville jotted it down, to make sense, in the following fashion: + +"Under tree, Three-Hill, or Haunted Island, Cave. Get in (during) high +water (in) Spring time when noise loud. Important. Make no mistake. +Map on Buli shows same." + +The one word which he felt to be doubtful was "Buli," which, he +confessed, might as readily be "Zuli," "Juli," or "Quli," but this was +of no significance, one way or another. Its meaning was still obscure. + +There were several things in the message or statement, however, that +confirmed his earlier uneasiness. The principal of these was the +statement that it was important for the possible seekers of some cavern +under the greater wall of rock to visit the island only during the time +when the hideously haunting sounds were at their height. This argued, +he thought, that the sounds would finally subside, or altogether cease, +when complications--doubtless in the form of visitors--might be +expected to develop. + +That the visitors would be natives and, probably, Dyaks, Grenville +could have no doubt. As to what there was in the cave beneath the +rock, he had small curiosity only, since it was hardly likely such +tools as he desired would be so concealed from a prying world, and +tools alone had value for him now. + +He could not doubt, however, that something there was in the cave here +described, for which men had risked their lives. He thought of the +headless skeletons, and then of the mummy in chains. + +Suddenly, at thought of that guardian of the barque, his heart gave an +added leap. He snatched from his pocket the parchment referred to as a +map. He could instantly see, by the light of day, that the leathery +substance was leather, indeed, of the most grewsomely repellent +description! It was simply _tanned human skin_! + +And abruptly he understood that phrase--"Map on Buli shows same." The +pyramids represented the island's three great hills, and other signs +the cave. The pole with a knob, on the tallest hill, was the tree so +near his camp. + +Aye, the thing was a map in very truth--and once it had been ON Buli! +For Buli was he who sat in the barque, chained fast to prevent his +escape! + +_This map he had borne, tattooed on his breast, from which it had +finally been stripped!_ + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +FEVERISH EMPLOYMENTS HALTED + +A species of horror attacked the man on whom the truth had flashed. +What abominable cruelties and crimes lay back of the business thus +finally to some extent revealed, he could only faintly imagine. + +He felt quite certain of one or two things, that were not to be told to +Elaine. First, he could not for a moment doubt that the barque had +been brought to the island with the sole intent and purpose of looting +the cave of treasure. He was equally convinced its crew had been +foully slaughtered--and their heads removed. This smacked of Dyak +atrocities. Finally, there was ample evidence that men of some sort +had visited the island long since the wreck was stranded, and probably +within the year. + +He had not required the warning made "important" on the sheet to urge +him to haste in preparing a boat with which to attempt an escape. To +learn that the haunting sounds of the tide would at length subside was +a new and disquieting addition to what he had previously deduced. He +had accurately hit upon the natives' superstitious awe of the sounds to +account for the island's desertion. + +How long these invaluable shrieks and moans might be counted upon to +continue became a vital question. Could they only last till a boat +could be completed, launched, provisioned, and directed away to a safer +retreat, he would ask for nothing more. + +He returned again to an inspection of the "map"--now singularly plain. +The island was graphically represented by the three conventional +"hills," with the sign for water inscribed at either end. The tree, so +conspicuous upon the tallest wall of rock, was no less vividly +portrayed. + +Below this identifying picture of the place the hill with the tree was +repeated, with the cave and design for water, while just to the right +the detail of the cavern, with more water signs, indicating both high +and low tide, was depicted somewhat enlarged. The cartouch was not so +readily comprehended. Grenville was inclined to believe it spelled +some crude king's name, while the scarab, or beetle, was, of course, an +old Egyptian symbol concerned with life and death. + +It would hardly have been human of Grenville not to wonder about the +cave or to contemplate a visit there--just to have the merest look +about the place. He even went so far as to wonder if its entrance +might not be effected from the upper brink, by means of a longer rope +ladder than the one he had already made. + +He did not, however, seriously contemplate delaying affairs more +important to gratify this whim. Indeed, he was fired with new +impatience to work night and day against the hour of escape. The +thought put him back on his feet, then and there, with the documents +stored away. There was no time to lose--not a moment--not even to fool +with the tiger! + +He left his bomb and its fuse upon the rocks, and carried the water to +his clay. To line his hollow-tree furnace as promptly as possible must +be his first concern. No boat could be made without suitable tools, +and---- He wondered how he should make it, even then. + +The log he had found on the day they arrived was such a huge affair to +attack with the implements his limited craft made possible, despite all +the bronze he could melt. And yet, without it, he was helpless. The +raft was far too clumsy for propulsion. It afforded practically +nothing transformable into a boat, as he had no nails, no saw, no +anything with which it might be first dismembered, and finally +reconstructed. + +"By Jove!" he exclaimed to himself, aloud, as a new thought crept +subtly to his brain. "I can hollow the log with fire!" + +He went at once to the straight and ample tree-trunk, lying propped +upon a rock. Its ends had already been partially consumed, and thereby +rounded, in the flames that had ravaged the place. How he could cover +such parts as he must not burn with a plaster of his clay, Grenville +instantly conceived. And there was the log already lifted away from +the earth, for the fire to be kindled beneath! + +The wisdom of starting this process at once, even before his tools were +made, was immediately apparent. Back to his clay heap he hastened +eagerly, and, pawing it over to form a hollow pyramid, he poured in the +water to soak through the mass, and so make it soft enough to use. + +A new, unsparing spasm of labor seized the man in that hour, and he +worked unremittingly. He felt he had loafed away his time which +important requirements demanded. + +The task of digging the clay from the pit and fetching it up to his +hollow tree in the basket, made of creepers, was interminable. The +sticks and wooden "spades" he had managed to fashion, not only broke +from over-use and straining, but they were dull and heavy and awkward. +The basket was scarcely more convenient than the implements in +fulfilling its simple function. He could manage to carry its weight +upon his head, but at this he had meager skill. + +For three days he worked to get the clay, or to work it up and apply it +with his hands. A considerable portion of the fallen log was thus +quite promptly covered. He had then to wait for the clay to dry before +his fire could be ignited. + +The supply of clay he had managed to amass was clearly insufficient. +He paused, on one of those warm and breathless afternoons, to set a +number of traps in the animal pathways, and construct an awning for +Elaine. This was merely a structure before her cave, to support a roof +of leaves and grasses. It afforded a shade, however, that was +exceedingly grateful. + +There were numerous interruptions, also, for procuring meat and fruits. +Grenville had brought down a pheasant with the last of his two +remaining arrows. And not even a quill, supplied by the wings, had +blown away from his "store." He had cut new shafts by his evening +fire, and tipped them with points of sharpened wood. Elaine had +feathered them skillfully, after once being properly directed. + +Not a sign, all this time, had Grenville seen of the tiger, still +haunting the jungle. He had been too industriously engrossed, either +to wonder or to care where the brute had recently been lurking. + +On the fourth warm morning of his toil about the furnace, the reminder +came home with a jolt. Some few yards away from the clay pit's edge +lay the master murderer's kill. It was part of a freshly eaten boar. + +Grenville was neither revolted nor angered by the sight. He was +suddenly excited with a new hope of getting a certain robe to lay at +the feet of Elaine. It never occurred to his eager mind that the brute +who bore it might be lying near, in a mood to resent his intrusion +here, where the kingly banquet had been left for a sitting again that +night. + +His first concern was to keep away, as far as possible, lest the smell +of his boots offend the lordly brute when he finally returned. +Meantime such preparations as the scene made possible must not be +unduly delayed. + +The trees above the reddened spot afforded more choice for his +necessary perch than he had found on the previous occasion. He rapidly +sketched his plans for the night with mental notes and observations. +Where the bomb could lie, to prove most efficacious, and still at the +same time offer no great menace to himself, was readily determined. +The ladder required for ascending to his stand would better be hung on +the side most removed from the trail, for which he must a little clear +the thicket. + +His club, without which the visit here at sunset was not to be +undertaken, could lean on the tree-trunk while he sat above, since +there, should any need arise, he could find it in the dark. + +He abandoned all thought of treading back and forth from the clay pit +to his smelter, and carried his basket away. The ladder he brought at +once from the spring, and, expending an hour in more careful +preparation for his comfort than had even been possible before, he +finally departed from the site of the tiger's gory refreshment, well +satisfied with all he had been able to accomplish. + +He returned to the camp, made a careful examination of the bomb and its +fuse, and selected the wood to be finally used in preserving his +essential spark of fire. Then, willing at last to turn his attention +again to his daily occupation, he once more descended to his +clay-covered log and found the plaster sufficiently dry upon it for the +first of the burning to be started. He called to Elaine, who threw him +down some glowing embers, from the fire always burning near his shelter. + +All day he found abundant employment, working with flame and clay. The +eating away of the log in a manner to leave a hollow shell, could not, +he found, be accomplished as swiftly as he had hoped. Moreover, the +fires required his constant attention, lest they burn too deeply to +right or left, and thus destroy, or considerably impair, the walls he +desired to protect. + +In the afternoon he permitted this fire to die. Until more clay could +be plastered about and the blackly charred portions of the wood removed +with a tool, the process must be halted. He had still a small section +inside his natural smelter to cover before he could undertake the +melting of his metal, but his heap of clay was gone. + +Once more, as he had on the previous occasion, he informed Elaine in +the late afternoon of his intentions for the night. Her look of alarm +was the only sign that escaped her resolute being. She had silently +noted his earlier activity with the bomb and his fire-preserving wood; +she was not surprised by his plans. + +"I shall not be down at the spring," he said, "but over there nearer +the clay pit. I have found a place where I rather expect our friend to +arrive at a decently early hour." + +Her eyes were startled and wide. + +"Do you mean he sleeps where you have been walking every day?" + +"No--certainly not. But I'm sure he was there last night--and I hope +he'll come again." + +She was quick to divine the unpleasant truth that Grenville was +striving to avoid. + +"You mean--he's been eating there--and left some awful----" + +"Good pork," he agreed, as he took up his bomb; "a fine wild +boar--enough to have done us for a week." + +She resumed her work of knitting, on a small, round basket-like affair. + +"I hope there are more of those hogs for him to get," she told him, +quietly. "I hope they are easy prey." + +"Right ho! But I trust he'll not be off with the old pig before he is +on with the new. I want him to come to the party there to-night." + +Elaine looked up for a moment, and thrilled to the look in his eyes. + +"Yes," she said, "I suppose you do." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +AT THE TIGER'S KILL + +The island twilight was brief. When the sun departed from that speck +of verdure in the purple sea, the covetous darkness seemed to form like +a presence that had crouched to bide its time. + +Grenville was early on the scene of the tiger's previous feast. He had +no idea how soon after sundown the jungle monarch might appear. It was +not such a place as inspired hilarious joy in the heart, in any +circumstances. Moreover, one last examination of the bomb and fuse, +and one clear impression of the features beneath and about his tree, +seemed to Sidney a wise precaution. + +The day had, therefore, barely ended when he climbed aloft to his +perch. The end of the fuse was tied to a limb a little removed from +his feet. He closed his eyes and found it with his hand, by way of +making certain it should not be missed in the dark. The larger and +denser of the forms below, created by shadows and growing plants, he +noted in their relation to the kill. The latter was not to be clearly +seen, since a screen of leaves he had purposely left to conceal his +presence from the banqueter, served to shield it from his view. + +Finally, closing his eyes again, he practiced retreating behind the +trunk itself, as he knew he must do when nothing could be seen and his +fuse was finally lighted. This was rather a delicate operation to +manage in the dark. He made up his mind it must be calmly done, for +ample time would be provided by the generous length of fuse. + +This length, by the way, was considerably less than he had formerly +employed. The bomb was, therefore, nearer to his stand. Yet the bulk +of the tree-trunk was, he thought, an entirely adequate protection +should he have the delight of hearing his powder explode. + +Through the lattice of leaves he presently beheld the last of the day's +dying splendor. The army of shadows, already on the march, was taking +rapid possession of all the jungle deeps. The same impatience he had +felt before, the same vague dread and loneliness previously +experienced, and the same slow drag of time impressed themselves upon +his senses. + +He wondered how long his brand would last, although it was longer than +the other. He wondered about Elaine, on the hill, and how tedious the +hours would seem to her. But the constant, underlying worry was--when +would the tiger arrive? + +Elaine's suggestion was a bother. Might there not be hogs so +plentiful, quarry so readily captured, that the overdisdainful monarch +would prefer warm meat to cold? + +There was no mysterious cipher to be studied here to-night. There was +nothing, in fact, with which to pass the time. Not even a new +speculation concerning the cave and the rotting barque arose to give +him entertainment. The haunting, suggestive stillness engulfed him +where he sat. The world below had merged in one featureless gloom. +Except for a few fringed patches of sky between the leaves and +branches, there was nothing but velvety blackness to be seen above or +below. + +He waited and waited, a time that seemed eternal. His resting-place +was hard and uneven. One of his legs was cramped. To shift about and +make no noise was not an easy matter. + +Without the slightest warning, suddenly down below him something leaped +and crashed through the thicket with a most unexpected sound. Whatever +it was, it went bounding off, recklessly parting the jungle. Some +creature in fright it undoubtedly was--and Grenville was instantly +rigid and alert for the next development. + +He was certain the tiger, coming to his feast, had thrown some timid +creature into a panic of blind and desperate fear. He listened, with +all his powers of concentration, for the sounds that should presently +succeed. + +But save for another plunging, far beyond, there was absolute silence +as before. For fully half an hour after that the stillness was +well-nigh insupportable, so fraught was it all with the tragic sense of +noiseless life where both hunted and hunters moved about with the +cushioned feet of shadows. + +Far off towards the spring, or the estuary, a disturbance finally +arose. It was neither loud nor clear. It seemed to interpret some +struggle for life, or pursuit of the weak by the strong. It approached +for a time, then ceased for nearly half a minute, only to break into +clearer accents of some brute's agony, poignant but mercifully brief. + +At this the discouragement in Grenville's breast was unavoidably +increased. He was certain the tiger had taken fresher prey, and would +now ignore his former kill. So intent were his senses on that far-off +bit of jungle drama that he failed to detect a nearer sound repeated +beneath his feet. + +When his sharp ears abruptly warned him that something was moving down +below, an extraordinary climax to his adventure was swiftly coming to a +focus. + +Some creature had come to the tiger's kill--of that there could be no +doubt. It was lapping, or chewing at the meat! + +Unable to distinguish the slightest thing in all that Stygian darkness, +Grenville paused, with his brand slightly shielded from the creature's +possible notice, waiting a moment to confirm the fact that a banqueter +was present before he touched the fuse. + +A tremendous roar instantly startled the silence, a few feet beyond the +boar's remains. Before the man could move a hand, either to light the +ready fuse or steady himself in the branches, some heavy form was +hurled against the tree in which he sat--_and that something was +climbing madly upward_! + +Only a tremor had shivered through the trunk, but the limbs were bent +and the foliage stirred as if from a breath of heavy wind. That the +creature might run against himself and turn to fight, in its double +fear and desperation, Grenville was keenly aware. + +Subconsciously, also, he was equally sure the tiger was below. The +catlike thing in the tree with himself had undoubtedly dared to sit +down at the huge brute's kill, to flee for its life a moment later. + +Instinctively turning to protect himself and thoroughly disturbed by +this unforeseen complication, Grenville heard his unwelcome companion +utter one sudden whine, of surprise and added terror, as it came +abreast him in the branches. + +It dared not retreat, and, therefore in a wilder panic, clawed its way +higher up the tree. The limbs continued to shake their leaves for +another protracted moment. Then the beast found a place to halt above +his head, and doubtless glared down upon the unknown peril which man +supplies to all the brutes. + +Grenville recovered his wits as best he might. He had no particular +dread of the animal crouched somewhere in his neighborhood, but neither +did he relish its presence. What effect the affair would have on the +creature he had come there to engage he could not, of course, determine. + +He bent to listen for sounds from the space below. Not the faintest +suggestion of a moving or feeding animal could his focused senses +detect. He thought perhaps the tiger might have smelled him or seen +him in the tree. It occurred to him, also, the brute might be waiting +for the catlike thief to descend and be slain at the kill. + +But a far more likely supposition was that the tiger, having sniffed +the taint of some beast without caste, now left on the meat that was +sacred to himself, had disdained to touch it, and had gone away, to +return to the place no more. + +Ready to curse the despicable animal now sharing the tree's security +with himself, Sidney was all but resigned to another long night, spent +in vain and in utter discomfort, when once again a lapping sound came +crisply to his attention. + +His brute was at the feast! + +With heart abruptly pounding and senses suddenly tense, Grenville +leaned down, with his glowing brand, to complete his work for the night. + +His hand felt blindly along the limb, to pick up the end of the fuse. +But someway the place was lost. More eagerly then, and telling off +each twig like a sign that blazed the trail, he explored the branch +anew. + +He found the fiber that had held the fuse--but the fuse itself was +gone! The panic-stricken creature that had climbed the tree had clawed +or broken it down! + +A bitterer disappointment to Grenville could scarcely have been +planned. He was sickened all through by disgust, and a sense of the +utter uselessness of all he had striven to accomplish. With fire in +hand, the bomb all laid, and the tiger actually present--he was +helpless, after all! + +It was futile to rage at the cowering beast, above him somewhere in the +darkness. He glanced up once and saw its eyes--two blazing coals of +fear and malice, like near-by sinister stars! + +"By Heavens! I'll not be cheated!" he murmured to himself. A mad new +thought had possessed him. + +The fuse had been drawn about the tree before it could be fastened near +his perch. Had it fallen straight down, when torn from its hold, it +would still lie close at hand. + +His ladder was hidden from the tiger's position by the tree. Any +sounds he must make might be thought to be those of the cat. There was +no particular danger in descending to the ground--with the ladder near +with which to regain a safe position. + +Noiselessly, yet not without excitement, he began his retreat from the +branches. With every step he paused for a bit, to listen to the sounds +of the tiger. + +The brute was seemingly quite engrossed in the business of filling his +belly. But, despite his utmost efforts at silence, the leaves of one +of the branches loudly rustled as Grenville's weight was intrusted to +the ladder. + +He halted and held his breath. The tiger continued his eating. +Holding his firebrand firmly in his teeth, Grenville slowly and +cautiously descended, with the furtive alertness of a thief. + +When he reached the earth, he was certain his heart would betray his +presence with its pounding. He leaned there, heavily, against the +tree, to still the mad leap of his pulses. Then, at length, he began +to feel about for the fuse that should be at his feet. + +It was not to be found--and he moved a little outward. His hand came +in contact with a long, slender thing--but it proved to be a creeper. + +Further and further out he moved, blindly groping with his fingers. He +encountered a shrub, and, fumbling between it and the tree, bethought +him to feel about its crest. There he found one end of the fuse he +sought--but it proved that the length had been broken! He held the +useless end! + +One despair after another had seized him within an endless minute. +More recklessly, in a burning fever of impatience, he pawed about and +moved even closer to the tiger--whose sounds were horribly near. + +He could almost have uttered a cry of joy when the severed fuse was +discovered. He waited for nothing, but immediately pressed his brand +against the sun-dried substance. + +There was no powder there. It had spilled when it broke, and it +harmlessly smoked as it burned. + +Why a groan did not escape him, Sidney could never have told. He broke +off the tough, resisting substance six inches further along and again +applied his spark. + +It seemed as if in all its length there could be no powder remaining. +He was savagely grasping the fuse once more, to break it at a fresher +place, when a fiery-red line, some four feet away, seemed creeping like +a snake out beyond him. + +The spark that was racing along to the bomb had been started while +still he was sweating there with baffled and excited impatience. + +He took no time for further caution, but sprang away to the shelter of +the tree and caught at a lungful of breath. + +There was not a sound in all the place. This much he knew in that +second, as he hugged up close to the trunk. The tiger had ceased to +lap at the meat, and perhaps was poised for a spring. + +It seemed to Grenville, waiting there, that nothing would ever happen. +A thousand doubts went darting through his brain. The fuse had failed! +It was broken again. Or, perhaps---- + +A low growl broke the stillness. There was a sound of something moving +towards the tree! + +Instantly a frightful red-and-yellow glare leaped upward from the +earth. A deafening, crashing detonation rent the intimate universe and +shook down incredible stars. The air was filled to overcrowding with +rushing billows of concussion that rocked the trees as in a storm. + +Grenville went down, dazed and helpless, unable to think, so jarred to +chaos were his senses. But, beyond being stunned for a moment, he was +totally unhurt. + +He leaped to his feet, aware of some mighty disturbance in the curdled, +heavy darkness that had followed. + +The tiger it was, in some extravagant activity, moving towards +Grenville and the thicket. He was almost upon the staggering man +before he could move to escape. Then Grenville stumbled towards the +ladder. + +The jar to the limb, as he tugged at a rung, brought something down +from above. This was the creature that had hidden in the tree. It had +partially fallen, earlier stunned by the huge concussion. It dropped +upon Grenville leadenly--and down he went in a heap. + +The three sworn enemies--tiger, man, and jungle-cat--were embroiled on +the earth together. Before the man could sufficiently recover to +stagger from his knees to his feet and grasp his club, the tiger flung +out a mighty paw, that struck him a blow upon the chin. + +Without a sound he sank limberly down, inert and helplessly unconscious. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +GRENVILLE'S RADIANT STAR + +Even had sleep overcome Elaine, the explosion must have startled her +awake like a wildly fluttering bird. + +All her life she had known the sound of guns, but never before had her +ears received such an air-splitting shock as this. + +Her alarm could know no bounds. It had come so suddenly and +unexpectedly; it had been such a cataclysmic destruction of the +island's haunting calm! She was certain some hideous blunder had +occurred--that Grenville, too, had perished by the thing he had +fearlessly dared to create. + +She had seen for an instant that fan-like glare, as she gazed far out +across the jungle. And now, as she stood there, rigid with fears and +fixedly staring at the formless gloom--why did she hear no sound? + +"Oh, he might--he might call!" she said, and she tried to halloo, but +in vain. + +She waited a time that seemed endless for some little sign from the +jungle. He had promised before that, if all went well, he would hasten +home at once. Surely this promise held good to-night--especially after +that explosion! + +Perhaps it was not yet time; perhaps it was farther away than she had +thought. The glare had seemed near, but he had no torch, and must walk +but slowly through the thicket. How dark it must be along the trails, +in that tangle growth, with nothing for a light! How could he possibly +hasten? + +She was standing out on the brink of the wall, staring down at the +gloom of the clearing, convinced that her ears, if not her eyes, would +detect the first sign of his coming. Just the merest red gleam from +the firebrand was all she would ask of the darkness--just that dull +little star in the firmament of black! + +But the ebon remained unbroken. That he might be lost occurred to her +mind, but again she thought it was yet too soon for his return. She +stumbled swiftly to the fire again, to stir it to brighter refulgence. +It would seem to him a beacon against the sky to guide his footsteps +home! + +She thought of a blazing brand she could carry to the brink of the +wall. With the largest limb afforded by the fire she returned, in +haste and eagerness, to wave him a signal of welcome. And still +nothing came from the clearing. + +"Sidney!" she cried through the stillness, at last. "Sidney! Are you +there?" + +The night surrendered no response, save some animal cry far off where +the barque was rotting. + +"If he's dead!" she moaned. "If he's dead!" + +But he might be wounded and helpless, she thought, with no one to come +to his side. He might not be hurt unto death itself--if aid could +reach him now! + +If he died--if he left her thus alone---- A thousand times she +preferred to die beside him! + +"Sidney!" she cried, as before. + +With a strange dry note, choked back between her lips, she fled once +more to the fire. + +Meantime the man by the tiger's kill continued to lie without motion on +the earth. Not even the glow of his cheering brand remained like a +sign of life in that silent theater. + +The jungle cat, smitten and addled in its brain, had dragged itself +painfully away to the cover of the thicket, its instinct feebly alive. +There was not a sound in all the place, where crash and roar had been +so tremendously expended for one prodigious second. + +A vague, weird dream came finally creeping intangibly through +Grenville's brain, resuming an intermittent function. When at length +it began a little to clear, he dreamed he was trying his utmost to +rise, but something held him down. + +Consciousness poured a trickle through his being, and he felt he was +partially awake. Then a flood, a cataract of surging life, rushing +back to its centers, brought confusion and tumult to his thoughts. He +was still only partially aroused. + +His eyes at length were opened. The darkness which their gaze +encountered seemed more complete than that of his region of dreams. He +attempted to rise, but his muscles and nerves refused their customary +obedience to his will. He tried to remember what had happened, but the +glancing blow sustained on his chin had blotted him out, temporarily, +like a stroke of death itself. And, had the stroke been more direct, +his jaw or his neck must have broken. + +When he raised his head a bit from the ground and propped himself up on +his elbow, the sense of dullness and leadlike weight in both his feet +and legs continued unabated. He was battling to retain his +consciousness. + +He began to remember, slowly. The process was only well started, +however, when it was singularly interrupted. He was staring blankly +through the jungle, which he partially recollected. It was funny, he +thought, how a star should fall and wander through all those aisles of +trees. + +It was a star, he was fully convinced, coming haltingly through the +gloom. Its course was erratic. He lost it at times, but still it +persisted in approaching. How beautiful it was--the largest star he +had ever known--with its flames divinely ascending. + +He sat up stiffly, his will momentarily gaining strength to resume the +sway of his body. Some mantle partially fell from his brain, to +accompany his physical rousing. Then he knew, not only what had +happened, but also what was happening. + +"Elaine!" he tried to call aloud, vainly striving to rise or regain the +use of his limbs, then once more he sank in oblivion. + +A strange, wild note broke from her lips as Elaine came plunging along +the trail with a torch redly blazing in her hand, held well above her +face. + +She saw, before she could reach his side, that the tiger lay lifeless +upon him. She feared the man was dead, but, with wits exceptionally +clear and ordered, she thrust her torch-end firmly in the earth, laid +hold of the huge, limber beast she so fearfully dreaded, and tugged and +dragged it feverishly off with all her fine young strength. + +The face of the inert man beside the tree was redly smeared with blood. +He lay horribly loose and still upon the grass. She knelt at his side +and placed her hands upon him, feeling above his heart. + +"Sidney!" she said to him. "Sidney! You cannot--you shall not die! I +never meant the things I said--or thought--or anything! Oh, please, +please don't--don't look like that! You've got to come back--you've +got to!" + +She tore at the band about his neck and lifted his head on her knee. +She wiped the red from his pallid face with the hem of her briar-torn +skirt. + +"I'll find the spring!" she told him eagerly, starting as if to rise, +but the still form moved, and, dully at first, the two heavy eyes were +opened. + +"Oh!" she said. "Oh, you're hurt. Don't try to do anything but +rest.... You didn't come--you didn't come home!" + +Despite her entreaty, Grenville weakly raised his head and propped +himself, half sitting. The weight being gone from his outstretched +legs, his normal circulation was returning. He regained his strength +with characteristic swiftness. + +"Hurt?" he said. "No--I don't believe---- I must have got a knockout +blow. The tiger? Did I get the tiger?" + +He sat up uncertainly and, glancing about, saw the huge striped form +where Elaine had dragged it from his body. She still remained on her +knees, fixedly gazing on his face. Her strength was ebbing rapidly, as +Grenville's now returned. + +"You didn't come home," she repeated, by way of explaining her presence +at his side. "I couldn't live here alone." + +Grenville arose and assisted her weakly to her feet. She stumbled to +and leaned against the tree. + +"By George!" he said, "I'll bet a hat you could!" + +He knew what courage had come to her aid before she could make her +excursion. "I went down like a dub," he added, in his customary +manner. "No good excuse, but I do apologize. Better get out of this, +I'm thinking." + +He took up the torch she had planted in the earth, to examine the +tiger, dead and mangled in the grass, One of the creature's great front +paws had been rudely torn from his body. He could only have escaped +instantaneous death by having moved from the bomb at the moment of its +explosion. + +"Your robe looks mussed," Grenville continued, with a gesture towards +the animal's motionless body. "But I think it can be washed." + +Elaine slightly shivered at sight of the frame now done with life. + +"You've killed him," she said. "I'm glad!" + +He took her firmly by the arm and led her away through the thicket. + +When they reached the camp, Elaine was not yet fully convinced that +Grenville was uninjured. She brought him a rag she had torn from some +of her clothing and begged him to wash his reddened jaw. Even the +restoration of his former stubbled complexion could not suffice to +bring her that sense of certainty and calm essential before she could +sleep. + +She remained beside him at their fire till long past the midnight hour. +Indeed, she had made no move to retire when at length the weird, +unwelcome disturbance made by the tide had begun its uncanny chorus. +Perhaps she had waited for the conclusion of this added feature of the +night's long ritual of nerve-attacking events, for she seemed to be +considerably cheered when its final wail had died upon the air. + +"It seems to me that doesn't continue quite as long as it did at +first," she said to Grenville, as she rose at last to go alone to her +cavern.... "I think you ought to rest. I wish you would." + +"I will," said Sidney. "Good-night." + +But, for some time after she had gone, he sat there wondering if those +abominable but protective cries, that haunted the island's solitude, +were actually on the wane. + +"God help us if they are!" he said, to himself, but he went to bed and +slept. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A GIRDLE OF GOLD + +Elaine had not yet appeared on the scene when Grenville went down to +the jungle. The morning hour was still decidedly early, but plans and +impatience to be up and at work had prodded the man from his rest. The +lassitude that should have followed his night of excitement had not yet +laid its weight upon him. + +Apparently nothing had come to the jungle scene where the tiger had met +his end. The great form lay there, torn and rigid, but no sign of the +cat could be discovered. + +Grenville passed his trophy, presently, to examine the space beyond. +The spot where the bomb had exploded was a gaping hole in the earth. +This was not the place where Grenville had placed the deadly tube, +which he knew must therefore have been moved--doubtless when the fuse +was pulled and broken by the creature taking refuge in the tree. + +All about the spot where the kill had been the shrubbery was shredded. +The boar's remains had been blown away when the gap was made in the +sod. The trail, Grenville saw, must be repaired or a new one must be +made about the place. + +He returned to the tiger, and was suddenly elated to behold the metal +collar, half-hidden by the fur about his neck. He had quite forgotten +this bauble, thus singularly employed, and, kneeling down to inspect it +closely, not only found it was massive gold and set with costly jewels, +but also discovered he must break or force a heavy link to take it from +the creature. + +It was not until he had brought two sharp-edged rocks to his needs that +the collar was finally freed. Its weight and worth then amazed him. +The band was fully two inches in width, with the edges curved up and +turned under, in a simple and hammer-marked finish. It was all +hand-wrought, each blow that the smith had struck with his tool being +faintly recorded in the metal. The jewels--three sapphires, three +rubies, and one diamond--were simply and solidly set with bands that +barely clasped their bases. The rubies only were cabochon cut, the +other stones gleaming with facets. + +There was not a mark upon the collar's outer surface to show what was +meant by its presence here in such extraordinary keeping. But +Grenville presently bethought him to glance at the inner circumference. +He was not in the least astonished, but he was a bit concerned, to +discover a number of those mystic symbols, deeply graved in the gold, +that had once been tattooed on the man sitting dead in the barque. + +Here were the three hills, bounded by the water, and one with the tree +on its summit, while on either side the cartouch appeared, bounded by +crude drawings of the tiger. That the brute had been liberated here +upon the island as a sort of sacred guardian of the cave that was +mentioned by the writing found secreted with the map, Grenville could +not, or did not, doubt. There was nothing more to be found engraved on +the gold. + +He finally slipped the heavy band about his own smooth, sun-tanned neck +and went at the task of securing Elaine's promised robe. This toil was +far more difficult than even his lack of proper appliances had led him +to anticipate. Although he had sharpened his stub of a knife-blade to +a very respectable cutting-edge, it was far too small for the business. + +His doggedness and application were the assets on which he had most to +count, and without them here he must have failed. As it was, he +remained so long away that Elaine, who was up, was alarmed. And, when +at last he appeared below with the heavy, striped skin across his +shoulder, she started abruptly, till she saw he was not another tiger. + +"I thought you might like to see the size of his hide," he said, as he +brought it to the terrace, "before I take it down by the shore for +tanning. I shall soak it a while in a mixture of brine and saltpeter. +Both are highly preservative---and the best the island affords." + +"He was simply tremendous!" Elaine replied, when the skin had been +spread on the rocks. "What have you got about your neck?" + +"Oh, this?" said Grenville, removing the golden collar. "This is a +symbol of royalty that his Bengal highness wore--your property now, as +a trophy of the hunt." + +She took it a little uncertainly as he held it forth in his hand. + +"Why--it's gold!" she said. "These jewels---- The tiger was wearing +this?" + +"About his kingly neck." + +"But how--unless someone put it on?" + +"Undoubtedly someone did. He must have been a captive once, and +probably escaped." + +It could serve no good end to acquaint her with his actual suspicions, +which might be ill-founded, after all. + +"It's beautiful," she continued, gazing in admiration on the collar's +simple massiveness. "But it's not for me, I'm sure." She held it out +for him to take. But he bent above the skin. + +"Then pitch it away," he instructed, laconically. "Toss it into the +sea." + +She colored, looking at him strangely. She could not throw away his +property--anything of such great intrinsic value. She was baffled +again, as he managed so frequently. Her hand and the golden circlet +fell at her side. She could think of no appropriate speech of final +rejection. A whimsical notion only arose to her groping mind. + +"Fancy me wearing this priceless band of splendor," she said, "and +eating with a stick!" + +"It will just about fit around your waist," he conjectured, taking it +from her as he rose. With easy strength he bent it in his hands, to +make it more snugly conform to her slender and graceful little body. + +Why should he not bend it thus, she thought, who had wrenched it from a +tiger? She felt how weak and inadequate was her own diminishing +struggle. But to wear this band--a symbol, almost, of Grenville's +ownership---- A hot recurrence of her former pride came surging to her +bosom. + +"It's too heavy to wear," she told him, a trifle coldly. She once more +accepted the girdle, however, despite herself, from his hand. "The +tiger that wore it," she concluded, "met with a lot of trouble." + +"You've met with some yourself," he answered, candidly, and he +shouldered the skin and started off for the estuary's mouth. + +Elaine burned suddenly scarlet, interpreting his speech in some manner +of her own. Helplessly she carried the girdle to her cave, and left it +there in a hollow of the rock. + +The incident concerned with the tiger was practically closed. A new, +bright era of security and liberty thereupon commenced, particularly +for Elaine. She could not take immediate advantage of the comfort thus +vouchsafed in moving about the island, but at least her worry was +lessened when Grenville was obliged to venture in the jungle. + +His return to the work so frequently interrupted was delayed but the +briefest time. So eager did he constantly feel to accomplish his +boat's completion that he had grudged every hour the tiger had cost him +from his labors. + +With no thought of sparing his tireless strength, he promptly resumed +the task of digging and fetching the clay. Elaine might have joined +him in the clearing now had not some task she was eager to complete +engrossed her attentions at the shelter. + +That day the remaining surface of his prostrate log was plastered by +Grenville's eager hands. He likewise mixed sufficient clay to finish +his furnace in the morning. The fire that was helping to hollow his +log was once again ignited. Much of the old charred substance, left +from previous operations, Grenville knocked away with an improvised +tool of brass, in order to daub more clay inside the shell before the +flames could continue removing the wood as he required. + +On the following day, while the walls in his smelter were drying, +Sidney wove a two-piece door of wattle--framework of creepers, +plastered with clay--to fit across the orifice at the bottom of his +tree. With this he felt he could regulate the draught and protect +himself while removing his crucibles of metal. The top door only would +be tossed aside to accomplish this latter purpose. + +He likewise plastered the edges and sides of the hole that pierced his +smelter. He knew the heat, when he came to melt the brass, would +spread at once to all unprotected wood. After that he had still to +contrive a clay-covered implement for lifting out his crucibles, and a +tripod affair to be placed inside the furnace to support these +crucibles upon. + +What with more work done upon the boat-to-be, and a goodly portion of +the afternoon expended in killing and preparing another of the +pheasants for their dinner, Grenville's hours sped swiftly away. + +A weary but elated craftsman he was that day-end when at length he +returned for the final time to the terrace. He had been to the shore, +where the tiger-hide was curing in a strong solution of brine and +saltpeter, mixed in a hollow in the sand, and, having there turned it +over, had washed himself to a fresh and ruddy color. + +Notwithstanding the unbecoming growth of beard upon his face, he +appeared to Elaine the most commanding figure she had ever taken time +to inspect. He looked every inch a master of the island, if not also +of his fate and her own. But she was more than usually excited that +evening, as she disappeared within her shelter. + +She presently emerged with such an air of uncertainty and diffidence +about her as had never before appeared since their coming to the +island. But she did not hesitate in the task she had set herself to +perform. + +"I have finished my first bit of knitting," she said, "and there it is." + +To Grenville's thorough amazement, the clean, new article held in her +hand, and shyly offered for his acceptance, was a cap she had made for +his head. It was not unlike a golf-cap in shape, but the visor was +considerably wider, to protect his eyes from the sun. + +She had woven this of finely divided creeper-core on a frame neatly +made of the same. Its meshes had then been filled by fibers, snugly +and neatly plaited back and forth to make it opaque to the light. The +frame was firmly knitted to the cap. + +"Pretty good," said Grenville, busied with several arrows. "Thanks;" +and, placing it carelessly on his head, continued with his employment. + +Elaine, who had conjured all her resolution to make of the presentation +the merest commonplace affair, was wholly confounded in her thoughts by +the man's unheard-of conduct, after all she had recently undergone +before she could make him such a gift. + +She had feared some demonstration of the passion shown on the ship--or +at least some disturbing outburst she had armed herself to quench. But +this--such scant courtesy or gratitude as this--left her absolutely +impotent and baffled. + +She was piqued, disappointed, chagrined. It was horrid of anyone, she +was sure, to be so outrageously unfeeling. There was nothing, however, +she could do, and nothing she could say. Standing there, mortified, +almost angry, and conscious she was burning guiltily red with various +emotions that he did not even notice, was such a footless and +irritating proceeding, with the situation robbed of its point. + +She turned away, fairly ready to cry with vexation, and pretended to +make herself busy with things already well prepared for their evening +meal. But the new rebellion of her nature, partially begotten by the +uncontrolled and uncontrollable impulses loosed in the jungle the +previous night, when Grenville lay helplessly stunned, with his head +loosely pillowed on her knee, was not to be longer contained. She +presently fled from before the cavern, across, through the shadows of +the terrace, to the hidden shelf where Grenville had angled for fish. + +There she suddenly sank to her knees on the rocks and covered her face +with her hands. + +"I hate him!" she said, in a hot and passionate utterance, suggestive +of a sob. "I hate him! I hate him! I hate every man that ever +lived--and you, Gerald Fenton, as much as all the others!" + +She snatched off the ring from her finger. It was Fenton's ring, with +a single stone that gleamed in the failing light. It seemed to her to +represent the man far absent from her side. + +"It was you who brought it all about!" she continued, in her fiercely +waging conflict, and, overwrought, she cast it down on the ledge as if +it burned her palm. + +It bounded lightly where it struck and, clearing the shelf, fell +swiftly downward to the water. A gasp and a moan escaped her lips +together. Vividly, of a sudden, she remembered Grenville's prediction +that she would throw it away in the sea. + +"Oh, Gerald, I didn't mean to!" she moaned. "I didn't! You've got to +believe me!" She sank farther forward on the ledge, her face closely +hidden in the curve of her loose brown arm. She wept and wept there, +bitterly, in a mood of mixed emotions. + +"I hate him! I hate him!" she said, as before. "It's not my fault in +the least!" + +And after a time, as Grenville did not come, she returned to the camp +alone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +MOLTEN METAL AND HOPES + +The following day was calmer for Elaine, and vastly interesting, since +Grenville's smelting operations were begun. She told herself that +interest only laid its hold upon her nature, and, being a woman, she +knew. + +The clay that lined his hollow tree was sufficiently dry at last for +Grenville's fire. The other accessories, all more thinly coated, were +likewise ready for his use. He began in the morning to heat his +natural chimney against the actual needs of afternoon. The small fire +kindled upon its hearth established at once the efficiency of the +draught. + +Not without a certain boyish eagerness in the culmination of his +labors, Sidney began the assemblage of his various paraphernalia an +hour at least before noon. His molds and crucibles he carefully +brought from the summit of the terrace, disposing them as conveniently +as his crude conditions permitted. All his rusted scraps and useless +bits of brass and bronze were divided into parcels, while salt, some +powdered charcoal, and an over-abundant supply of saltpeter were +provided to be used as flux, according as the smelting might demand. +He could not be certain of which he should use till experiment should +determine which, if any, rendered good results. + +The principal difficulty, he soon discovered, would be adding the fuel +to his flames. His smelter-door was not well arranged for this +essential business. He expected, however, to heap a considerable +quantity of wood inside before the chimney should become too hot. +Later he thought a lot of short material could be readily introduced, +and against this need he gathered an impressive heap of branches, which +he broke to a workable length. + +Elaine was with him when at last the work began. She was far more +excited than Grenville seemed, since it appeared to her no less than a +miracle that any man, in a place like this, should dare assume such a +mastery over Jovian metals and flame. She had never before seen +anything of smelting. This intimate acquaintance with its mysteries +seemed to her a privilege, greatly enhanced by the fact that the lord +of it all pretended she was actually helpful. + +She assisted when he bound the sections of his clay-made molds +together. She handed him fuel when the furnace-door was opened and +gushes of heat came voluminously forth. + +The fire, which for a time had loudly roared, was now more intense and +quiet. The volumes of smoke, which the "chimney" had belched, had +likewise finally ceased. Only a quiver of superheated air and a +greenish bit of gas and fume now ascended to the sky. + +From time to time, Grenville opened the top of the door to peer within. +He wrinkled his features, in the waves of heat, and held his hand +before his face. At length he adjusted his "tongs" about a crucible +and drew it entirely forth. + +It was white with heat, its surface sparkling with a hundred tiny stars +that died on its glowing surface. + +"Just toss in some of that stuff there on the leaf," he quietly +instructed Elaine. "It will soon be ready to pour." + +The "stuff" was flux, and Elaine obeyed directions like the stanch +assistant that she was. She wondered what was coming next. + +It came very soon. She was certain no ruddier figure of Vulcan, +employing mighty flame, had ever been presented than now when Grenville +made ready for the climax of his work. + +He removed the door as he had not previously done, and set it aside +from his path. He thrust in his tongs, while flame and heat came +pouring out to paint him a deep and glowing color. Then, seemingly +hotter than ever before, and smoking goldenly above its blinding +incandescence, the first of the crucibles, itself fairly dripping, +where some of the flux had trickled down its surface, was supported +over to the molds, to be quickly and vigorously skimmed of its oxidized +matter. + +But the molten brass, indescribably beautiful, with ruby and gold and +silver gleams imbedded and breaking in its substance, was the wonder of +it all. Elaine stood entranced, to see it flow and fill the hollows of +the molds. + +The second was hastily drawn from the flame, and then the third and +last. But not till all lay finally empty and smoking on the earth, +their surfaces rapidly dulling, did Grenville pause to look at Elaine +and smile. + +"Can't even tell what we've done," he said, "till the molds are cooled +and opened." + +"Must you wait very long till you know?" + +"I couldn't wait long," Grenville answered. "I'm too much of a curious +kid." + +As a matter of fact, brass poured in a mold begins to harden at once. +In less than fifteen minutes, Grenville was gingerly untwisting the hot +copper wire that bound each mold together. Soon after that the first +of his tools, a heavy and serviceable chisel, lay uncovered to the air. + +It was still glowing hot, although no longer red. It was darker, less +brassy in appearance than Elaine had expected to see, but it seemed to +her a wonderful thing to be made of those useless bits of metal. + +The tool next in importance was much like a butcher's cleaver--an +implement intended for cutting or hacking wood or branches, either to +clear a path in the jungle or to rough out anything of timber. The +edge of this casting was imperfect, where the metal had failed to flow. +Both it and the chisel had a thin fringe of brass along those sections +where the halves of the mold had come together, but this would be +readily broken away and was quite to be expected. + +Smaller chisels, a blade that Sidney expected to notch along its edge +to make a species of saw, and a number of smaller implements were +contained in the other sets of molds. None of these was perfect, and +one or two merely served to instruct the master-molder in the way to go +to work another time. But the net results were highly satisfactory, +and seemed to Elaine a veritable triumph. + +The poorness of their quality as tools with which to accomplish swift +results developed the following day. Grenville had melted a part of +his lead and cast the head of a hammer. With this and the largest of +his chisels he attacked the log chosen for a boat. + +So long as his gouging was confined to the portions charred by the +fire, the tool held well to the labor. Its edge soon went to pieces, +however, when the solider substance was encountered. It was sharpened +repeatedly. He early foresaw that, work as he might, the business of +conjuring forth a boat from material so raw was certain to be slow, if +not exhausting. + +Indeed, at this time a tedious period began. There were days and days +of dull, stupid repetition ahead like the ones that were presently +past. Fire after fire he maintained beneath the log, which must always +be newly plastered with the clay. Hour after hour he chiseled off the +black and dusty flakes that the flames would leave behind, since it +hastened the work to present a new surface to the heat. It seemed as +if the task could never have an end. + +But, if this was a season of dogged application to an uncongenial +business, it was likewise the one long era of peace vouchsafed to the +exiled pair. There was nothing to rouse a sense of alarm in any near +portion of the jungle. And, if those fast succeeding days brought no +welcome sign of a steamer approaching on the distant blue horizon, +neither did their lengthening hours develop those craft upon the sea +for which Grenville was constantly and apprehensively watching. They +were happy days, as well as peaceful. Concerning the ring she had lost +in the sea, Elaine could not force herself to worry. Grenville never, +by any chance, gave her occasion for alarm. + +There were many full afternoon vacations from his work when the fire +was left to hollow out his log that Sidney spent at her side. He wove +her a hammock of the creeper withes and built a shady bower by the +shore. He had sawed her a comb from the tortoiseshell, bent hairpins +of the copper wire, and made her a comfortable couch. Her tiger-skin +robe he had worked with his hands to a soft and pliant finish. The +skin of a cheeta he had killed he used to supplement his rapidly +vanishing shirt. Sewing was strongly, if not prettily, accomplished +with such needles and thread as his ready ingenuity provided. + +They were busy days that were doomed, however, to pall. Elaine was +assisting with a loom to weave a sail, while between times Grenville +chipped out the stone for the bath he had promised on the ledge. He +became a skillful marksman with his bow, and knew every animal trail +the island afforded. In many of these his traps did deadly service. +Their larder rarely lacked for meat, made tender by paw-paw leaves. +Elaine caught many a silver fish that they roasted together in the sand. + +But her gaze more frequently roved afar, for the ship that did not +come. The days were growing sultrier, and constantly more monotonous. + +The new moon had come and waxed to the full and was once more waning in +the heavens. They were marvelous nights the old orb made upon the +island, but always weird and exciting a sense, in Elaine at least, of +loneliness and aloofness from the world. On their cliff above the +murmurous tides, she and Grenville frequently sat for hours at a time +without exchanging a word. + +Such times were fraught with strangely exciting moments; and subtle +tinglings came unbidden to her nature, giving her pleasures wildly +lawless and precious beyond expression. Yet she feared them also when +they came, and refused to give them meaning. + +But to-night a new wistfulness burned in her eyes as she turned to her +silent companion. + +"I wonder," she said, "if we couldn't put a fresher flag on our pole +to-morrow." + +"Sure shot," said Sid, "the freshest flag that ever grew." + +She was silent again for several moments. Then she said: + +"What should we do if a year went by--two years, perhaps, or even +more--and a ship should never come?" + +"Do?" said Grenville. "Sail away." + +"I know. But I mean, supposing we found no place to go--and had to +come back every time." + +"H'm!" said Grenville, rubbing the corner of his jaw, "you probably +also mean to suppose we were always unmolested." + +"Why, yes, of course. Who could come to molest us here?" + +"Molesters," he said, "if anyone. But perhaps they never would." + +He had given no answer to her question, which she hardly cared to +repeat. It was one of the times, which frequently came, when she could +not prevent herself from wondering if this strong, primal man she had +once called a brute could have utterly forgotten the passionate +declaration made on the steamship "Inca" the day before the wreck. + +She wondered also, had he meant it at the time? Or had one of his many +inscrutable moods possessed him, barely for the moment? She had never +dared recently confess to herself what feelings might instantly invade +her tingling nature should she learn he had only pretended, perhaps on +some wager with Gerald, as a test of her faithfulness and love. + +It was womanlike, merely, on her part, to desire to know his mind. No +woman may long resent being loved by a strong and masterful man. And +Elaine was delightfully typical of all her delightful sex. + +"Well," she presently said, "we've been here now much longer than we +ever expected that day when we arrived." + +His gaze, which had been averted, now swung to a meeting with her own. +She had never seemed lovelier, braver, more sweetly disposed than now. +The moonlight deepened her luminous eyes till the man fairly held his +breath. + +"Elaine," he said, finally, glancing once more towards the silvered +sea, "what is your notion of love?" + +The shock of the word threw all her wits into confusion. + +"My notion?" she stammered, helplessly, feeling the hot flames leap +like floods of his molten metal to her neck, her face, and her bosom. +"I don't believe--I have--any notions." + +"Your convictions, then?" he amended. "Or, if you like, your +principles?" + +"My--my principles of--of all that--are--just about like--everyone +else's, I suppose," she managed to answer, fragmentarily, "--being +honest--and true--and faithful--unto death." + +"To the one that you _really_ love?" + +"Why--certainly--of course." The heat in her face increased, so +significant had she felt his words with that low even tone of emphasis. + +He stared so long at the sea after that she began to suspect he had not +even heard her reply. After a time she was tempted to play, just a +trifle, with the fire. She added, "Why did you ask?" + +"Wanted to know." Once more he fell dumb, and again she waited, afraid +he would, and more afraid he would not, continue the delicate topic. +Once again, also, she was tempted. + +"And what," she inquired, "is your--notion?" + +He did not turn. "Of love or crocodiles?" + +"Of--of love--was what you asked me." + +"I believe I did," he responded. "Oh, about the same as yours!" + +Elaine had received but scanty satisfaction. After another long +silence she ventured to say: + +"We might have to be here a year--or even longer." + +He turned to her directly. "Do you like it here, Elaine?" + +She would not reply, and therefore demanded, "Do you?" + +"I'm a savage," he admitted. "This sort of thing appeals to something +in my blood." + +"I know," she answered, understandingly, "--building up an empire with +your naked hands, unaided--conquering metals and elements--wresting the +island's dominion from the brutes. Naturally you love it!" + +He reddened. "I can't make an apple dumpling and make it right! This +island's dominion? Great Caesar's frying-pan--this is a regular +picnic-ground, with everything on earth provided!" + +She smiled. "And things all made and ready, including tools and +powder, not to mention a tiger-skin rug.... You refuse to admit you +like it for itself?" + +"Like it or not," he answered, "we must get away--and home." + +"Home," she repeated, oddly. "Home.... I wonder if home will ever +seem---- It certainly would be wonderful, a miracle, I think, to see a +steamer really coming--and to go on board and have it take us back +to--everything--somewhere home---- But we'd sometimes think of this--a +little?" + +"Probably." + +To save his life, he could not banish thoughts of Fenton. + +"I'm sure we would," murmured Elaine. She gazed away, to the jungle's +softened shadows. She wanted to cry out abruptly that she loved it +to-night, with a love that could never die. She wanted the comfort of +something, she hardly dared wonder what. After another long silence, +she finally said, with eyes averted and excitement throbbing in her +veins: + +"I know the name of this little place--do you?" + +"No," he said, wondering what she might have discovered. "What do you +think it is called?" + +It seemed to Elaine her heart pounded out her reply. + +"The Isle of Shalimar." + +If Grenville knew the Indian name for Garden, he made no sign that she +could read. He made no reply whatsoever, but gazed as before at the +sea. + +He was turning at last when a low, but distinctly briefer, recurrence +of the island's haunting wails arose to disturb the wondrous calm--as +well as his peace of mind. There could be no doubt the tidal +phenomenon was gradually but steadily failing. + +What might occur when it altogether ceased was more than the man could +divine. He felt a vague dread of that approaching hour and of what it +might develop. + +"It must be after midnight," he said, at last, "--time for night's +ordinary dreams." + +Yet, when he was finally stretched on his bed, he did not lose himself +in slumber. Instead he lay thinking of the island's haunting sounds +and the cave somewhere underneath the headland. + +He had meant to attempt an inspection of this place, if only to gratify +a natural curiosity. The thought occurred to him now that, in case of +dire necessity, it might afford such a shelter as was not to be found +on any other portion of the island. It was not a thing to be +neglected. He made up his mind that the following day he would make an +exploration. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A TOMB OF STONE + +The ladder that Grenville constructed in the morning was not entirely +new. He had found upon testing the original contrivance, made for his +seance with the tiger, that, although the creepers had become quite +dry, they were neither weak nor brittle. + +He fortified the older section with additional material, however, to +make absolutely certain it would not abruptly part and drop him into +the sea. All morning he worked, while his smoldering fires continued +to eat out the hollow for his boat, securing new length to the rungs +already provided, since the distance down from the brink of the cliff +was fully one hundred feet. + +To Elaine he explained that he thought perhaps a cave might exist in +the rock. The wailing sounds, it was easy to argue, would indicate +some such cavity, which he felt it important to examine. If she +somewhat divined the further fact that he hoped to discover a possible +retreat, should unforeseen dangers threaten, she made no revelation of +her thought. + +It was not without considerable anxiety, however, that she finally +discovered precisely what he meant to attempt. His ladder, she was +certain, was far too frail for any such business as climbing down, +above that boiling tide. One careless step, or a parting of the +strands, and nothing on earth could save the man from death on the +jutting rocks below. She had glanced at the waters under the cliff, +and their crystal depths were not at all reassuring. + +The thorough precautions against a mishap that Grenville finally +completed considerably lessened her fears, yet she had no wish to watch +him descend when at length he slipped over the edge. She was gazing +with fixed and wide-open eyes at the heap of rocks in which he had +fastened the ladder. + +The matter to Grenville seemed simple enough. The brink overhung the +wall itself, in consequence of which the ladder swung quite free, down +the face of the scarp, till it touched at a jutting ledge below. It +swayed to and fro and sagged a bit loosely at some of the rungs, but it +could not be broken by his weight. + +He made no attempt at a rapid descent, neither did he pause to enjoy +the scenery. When the ledge was reached he rested, made certain no +sharp-edged stone could impinge upon and perhaps cut into his twisted +creepers, and again proceeded downward. + +His course for a matter of two or three fathoms was rendered rather +more difficult by the fact the ladder lay closely bent against the +wall, instead of hanging free. The rock face was pitted and +exceedingly rough, its indentations ill-arranged for footholds and far +too treacherous for any such employment. + +Grenville was nearly at the lower lip of this projection before he +attempted a look below to determine what he was approaching. He +discovered then it was undercut again--and likewise that his ladder was +considerably short. Its lower end dangled about with irregular +gyrations as he shifted his weight from rung to rung. It was fully two +yards above the water. There was nothing in sight on which to plant +his feet, so far as he could discern from the point then occupied. + +He continued down the ledge. When he reached its base, his suspicions +were immediately confirmed. It overhung a cavern, which was not, +however, the cave. To the final rung but one of his ladder he +descended, and there he rested to have a look about. + +He was hanging directly before a massive pot-hole in the cliff--a huge, +roughly rounded sort of chamber, the roof of which was arched. On the +left, it shared its pitted wall with a second and smaller chamber. On +the right, its edge was jaggedly broken against a yawning hole. This +hole was undoubtedly the cave-mouth described by the documents found in +the hidden tube. + +From this point only, as Grenville could see, would its mouth be +readily discovered. Thick curtains of greenery, draped from its +neighboring walls of rock, would shield it from view from passing +boats, unless they should nose to its portals. This, with a swirling +and dangerous tide, no craft would be likely to attempt. + +The shrubbery, hanging so thickly from the ledge, afforded Grenville a +puzzle. He knew it could not be a seaweed, since the tide never rose +to such a level. He presently realized it was simply an air plant of +unusually luxuriant growth. Its roots had found lodgment in a crevice, +where nothing would be likely to disturb it in its possession. + +Concerning the possible contents of the cave, its extent, or immediate +surroundings, there was nothing to be discovered from his ladder, twist +as he might or crane his neck to stare in the cavern's mouth. + +He had practically determined to return to the top, shift his ladder +along, and once more make the descent, when he realized his effort +would be wasted. A thick, broken shelf of the pitted tufa jutted many +feet out above the cave, and even beyond the growing weed. Should he +hang his ladder directly before the opening, he would find himself, +when he came to its end, swung helplessly over the water. + +He could see distinctly where the final base of the wall projected into +the tideway. It would certainly be no less than ten feet removed from +the nearest point he could possibly reach by this particular method. + +It occurred to his mind he could lengthen his strands, drop himself off +the ladder-end, and swim to the edge of the cave. But, even as he +turned to examine the physical features afforded to a swimmer, a huge +dark form loafed like a shadow through the crystal tide, to rise beyond +and cut the sparkling surface with a blackish dorsal fin. There was no +mistaking Mr. Shark. + +Grenville nodded, grimly. "Thanks for the timely suggestion," he said, +as the monster once more sank. He presently added, "It's a boat or no +explorations." Somewhat disappointedly, he returned up the ladder to +the top. + +"The cave is there," he told Elaine, who promptly sat down, in sheer +relief, when she saw him finally safe, "but it has to be entered from +the water." + +"Oh!" said Elaine. "But why does it have to be entered?" + +"Well," said Sidney, at a loss for a better argument, "it might be full +of treasure;" and he smiled. + +Elaine was no less ready with her answer. "Treasure is certainly +indispensable to us here. No wonder we've felt that something was +strangely lacking." + +"There you are," he rejoined. "I think I can paddle the raft about the +cliff, for the tide could never be better." + +She was certain that Grenville attached some unusual importance to an +inspection of the cave. + +"Couldn't I help?" she asked him. "What was the fault of the ladder?" + +"Fully six feet too short. Perhaps you'd better watch for passing +steamers. If we missed one--whom should we blame?" + +They had slowly returned to the shelter, where the table was +attractively spread. + +"What a luncheon!" said Grenville, enthusiastically. "I'll eat in a +rush and be back before you know I've gone." He certainly ate with +lively promise. + +But, after the raft was launched on the tide, he lost all sense of +time. He had left his shoes and stockings on the shore. He had +brought a torch, lighted, which he lashed in an upright position on the +raft. Wading and paddling, punting, pulling, and at times even pushing +his craft along the beach, he warmed to his work in the briefest space, +since the tide could hardly have been more favorable to his needs. + +The pole he had brought had a hook at the end, bound firmly in place +with copper wire. This was an excellent provision, especially when he +came to the cliff, where wading was out of the question. He was thus +enabled to catch at a ledge, or any open crevice, and draw his unwieldy +float along, while fending it off from various rocks on which it might +otherwise have pounded. + +His work was hard and slow. The distance was not discouraging, +however, and with some of the swirls to assist, here and there, he +finally came to a broken sort of cape, from which he readily saw his +dangling ladder. After that a hot bit of fighting was required to +maintain his position near the wall. The tide was uneasy--a hungry, +ugly swirl that alternately came and subsided. + +When he passed it at last his task was done, for the cave was a stone's +toss away. It was not even then to be seen, and its presence in the +cliff would scarcely have been suspected. But Grenville knew the +luxuriant plant that grew across a portion of its entrance. When he +presently moored his raft to a rock fairly under the shadow of the +weed, the cave was just above him. + +Under his feet the ledge was rough and sloping. It was pitted so +completely as to form a rude natural stairway to the opening under the +overhanging shelf. This mouth to the cavern was hardly six feet wide +and not more than four in height. Its access was comparatively easy. + +Grenville, with his torch in hand, was presently gazing within. +Obliged to stoop, and beholding nothing but absolute darkness ahead of +his light, he stumbled against a lumpy vein of rock--and nearly met +with disaster. He barely halted at the edge of a pool of ebon water. + +After all his effort to gain the cave, it appeared to be filled with +this inklike accumulation. The pool was absolutely still. Not a +ripple disturbed its shining surface. How deep it was and how far it +extended from the ledge that held it from flowing into the sea, could +not be gauged by Grenville's torch, as he held it aloft to stare at the +wall of velvet gloom. + +He sounded a note that rolled about and reverberated weirdly. But he +could not determine from the echoes how far the waves had traveled. + +Casting his dull-red illumination to the left, and lower down, he +proceeded a little along the ledge, till it merged in an upright wall. +There was nothing at all to be seen in this direction save water and +rock, that faded away into Stygian darkness beyond. + +He retraced his steps and explored the ledge on the right. This led +him considerably further than the first had done before it was +similarly ended. He was then aware the cavern was of no inconsiderable +dimensions, at least with regard to its width. He raised his eyes +towards the ceiling, where nothing was to be seen. + +At length he bethought him of another test--that of throwing lumps of +rock against the walls. There were fragments in plenty scattered +loosely at his feet. The first one he threw went straight out +ahead--and presently thumped on something solid. He reckoned the +distance some sixty feet away, but admitted it might have been eighty. + +Every missile he cast right, left, or at an angle promptly reported a +wall; and some plumped back into water. The cave was not gigantic, but +all its floor was apparently flooded. His hand, which he thrust in the +water where he stood, groped blindly and found no bottom. He rolled up +his sleeve and tried again, without more definite results. The water, +however, was warm. + +"Good place for a swim, in any case," he told himself, aloud; and, +planting his torch with a sudden determination that he would not +retreat with information so utterly meager, he stripped off his +clothing at once. He let himself into the ebon depths, with his torch +held well above the water. He had rather expected to be able to wade, +but he sank to his neck without sounding to the bottom. + +Swimming almost perpendicularly, employing one hand only, he presently +lost all sight of the walls and was out in an unknown pool of +blackness. Save for a slight sensation of its weirdness, the +experience was decidedly pleasant. He tasted the water as he swam and +found that it was fresh. He turned to look out at the opening, but +could barely see light through the weeds. + +Some twenty or thirty feet from the ledge, his feet encountered a +ridge. It was stone, and across it he waded to a greater depth beyond. +Yet once again he was soon enabled to stand erect and walk along the +bottom. The broken, uneven surface that he felt with his feet made his +progress slow and careful. + +He had presently crossed the underground pond, up the sloping bank of +which he was soon making rapid progress. He emerged on a dry ledge +beyond. Even then the walls were not to be seen till he walked a rod +straight onward. + +The briefest examination sufficed to establish the fact he had come to +a sort of natural antechamber to the larger cavern he had crossed. +Also, apparently, the entire place was as empty as a last year's +bird's-nest. + +Vaguely disappointed, though he hardly knew why, the man surveyed the +place anew, by the light that entered at the opening as well as by that +of his torch. He saw at once that, could it be drained, the place +would afford a retreat of amazing security for anyone needful of +shelter. He was also certain he could drain it in a day by blasting +through the ledge of rock that blocked the entrance from the sea and so +retained the pool. + +With one more brief and cursory examination of the rocky structure +about him, he was turning away when something foreign about a slab of +stone, that seemed a fragment of the solid wall, attracted his +attention. + +He laid his hand upon its top as if to pull it down. It came away so +readily it all but fell on his feet. Behind it the crudest sort of +masonry walled up a natural door. + +Ten minutes later, standing on the heap of blocks he had tumbled +rapidly down in forming a gap through four feet at least of this +bulkhead, Grenville thrust his torch within a nichelike chamber of the +cavern. + +A low exclamation of astonishment burst from his lips at the vision +thus suddenly encountered. + +The place was a tomb for dead kings' gold and precious stones that +threw back the gleams from his torch! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A DESPERATE CHANCE + +For fully a minute Grenville was motionless, there in the gap, +surveying the treasure crypt. + +The more his eyes became accustomed to the yellowish light and inky +shadows, the more extensive became his estimate of the wealth the cave +contained. + +The symbols and trinkets of solid metal and glistening stones were +arranged not only on rudely-hewn shelves about the cavern's walls, but +likewise in several stone receptacles, like sarcophagi in miniature, +cut from the tufa of the island. It was partially because of this +feature of the hidden niche that Grenville concluded the property here +had once belonged to either Indian or African native chiefs and that +this was a mortuary house of guarded treasure. + +There was, however, further confirmation of his theory. This was a +crude inscription on the wall above the shelves and caskets. It was +simply that same cartouch he had found on the map or parchment--once +part of a living being--with the figure of a mummy in the oval. On +either side of this the beetle or scarab was repeated. + +The utter inutility of gold and gleaming jewels was momentarily +forgotten as Grenville stared in from the wall. The island, its +perils--everything save an underlying current of thought that wove +about Elaine--had ceased for the moment to impress his newly dazzled +senses. He withdrew his arm to plant his torch in the stones already +removed. Then lustily heaving out stone after stone, like some naked +god of the underworld, half revealed in the smoky glare, he began to +demolish the barrier so carefully erected in the cave. + +He had torn down nearly half the bulk of this uncemented wall, filling +the larger cavern weirdly full of the crashing and thudding noises, +when one of the fragments, tossed unthinkingly behind him, bounded from +another rock and struck down his torch and its light. + +Utter darkness instantly descended. He tried to grope his way quickly +forward, thinking the torch might be recovered and blown to a flame +again. But he stumbled, fell down upon his knees, and was bruised on +the stones about his feet. When he finally found the torch with his +hand, a rock lay squarely upon it; the last of its fire was gone. + +Thoroughly disgusted with his carelessness, he stood undecidedly above +the unseen ruin he had wrought. To attempt further work of removing +the wall by the faint diffusion of light that entered from the outside +world, was out of the question. To enter the crypt before the aperture +could be considerably enlarged was equally impossible. Moreover, the +treasure was safe, as he presently admitted. + +As a matter of fact, he began to realize at last how futile had been +his labor. He remembered, abruptly, where he was, the details of his +helpless situation. Except as something to show Elaine, or to load her +with as presents, the stuff in the cave was as worthless as so much +dross. + +There was nothing to do but retreat as he had come. This he presently +did, reluctantly turning from the half-uncovered cavern and wading into +the pool. + +Without his torch, and swimming towards the light, he was now enabled, +to some extent, to discern the limits of the cave. He could see a +portion of the ceiling and a bit of the wall on his left. Both were +featureless, to all appearances. The water's surface presented a more +extensive aspect with the light thus spread before him, but its farther +limits could not be descried, where its inkiness blended with the gloom. + +When he came at length to the ledge that formed a natural dam across +the entrance, thereby impounding the water, he looked it over with +greater care than when he had first trod upon it, to determine where +would be the likeliest spot for a blast to break it down. + +There could be no debate upon this subject. Over against the upright +wall, on the left-hand side looking out, the ledge not only narrowed +down, where a pot-hole pitted it deeply, but a tiny crevice extended so +nearly through the remaining substance that a trickle of water already +oozed downward towards the sea. The perpendicular wall here also was +broken, a number of fragments of exceptional size appearing so loose as +to threaten toppling over. + +Grenville was leisurely in all this examination. He was either obliged +to permit his body to dry in the air or dress while dripping wet. Yet +at length he was once more clothed and ready to depart. He remained +for a moment, taking a final survey of the place and planning the +details of his blasting operations, then stooped and made his exit from +the place. + +The brilliant light of outer day bewildered him momentarily. He stared +below, however, as if he felt he might be blind. The raft was not +where he had left it. + +Hastily scrambling down the incline of the ledge, he promptly arrived +at its base. His view was limited, even then, to a segment of the +open, purple sea. But the worst of his fears was confirmed. The raft +had floated away. It was nowhere to be seen! + +The tide had run out with amazing swiftness. Its level was such that +the ceaseless swells ran under his ledge, instead of up about it. The +creeper-cord, which he had utilized to moor his craft to the bowlders, +hung uselessly over the edge. It had parted at once when the ponderous +raft had been caught in the swirl of an eddy. + +This eddy was running intermittently, as Grenville soon discovered. +Disgust with himself for his carelessness, and a vague disquiet +concerning his helpless situation, addressed his comprehension +together. He was bounded by huge overhanging walls and a water +abounding in sharks. If only by boat could the cavern be reached, then +only by boat---- + +He thought of his ladder, dangling in air where he had left it, and +believed for a second he could hook it in with his pole, still lying on +the rocks. But no sooner had he climbed a little up the ledge, to a +point from which the ladder could be seen, than he realized the folly +of his hope. It was twenty feet off at the least, and fully eight +above the water. + +The fact that the tide was continuing to fall, that the raft had +doubtless departed the island forever, and that night might find him +here, a helpless prisoner, was no great motive for alarm. But +Grenville was not slow to realize that escape from his predicament +would be no more readily accomplished on the morrow than it could +to-day--that high tide and low tide were alike of no avail to return +him to the terrace and Elaine. + +The thought of Elaine and the fears she must certainly experience, did +he fail to return that night, aroused a new impatience in his blood. +He could almost have made up his mind to slip overboard at once and +take his chances of swimming about the base of the wall, despite its +treacherous currents, had he not remembered the sharks. + +"It's the ladder--or night," he murmured, paraphrasing Wellington's +utterance at Waterloo, somewhat grimly, and again he went down to the +edge of the shelf of rock left dripping by the tide. + +"Elaine!" he called, with a lusty breath, yet without an accent of +distress. "Elaine! ... Elaine! ... Are you there?" + +There was no response, save the swashing of the waves, which he knew +were constantly retreating, leaving the ladder yet more high above the +heaving surface. + +Once more he shouted as before, perhaps a trifle louder. And again he +heard no reply. He began to fear the shelf of rock that projected out +above him might send the sound waves too far outwards, towards the sea, +for Elaine on the terrace to hear. + +He had no alternative but to shout repeatedly. This he did, at regular +intervals, all the time striving to eliminate the slightest accent that +would rouse her sense of fear. It seemed, however, as if no sort of +cry could bring a response from the top. He moved to another position +at last and tried with a longer, shriller tone. + +"Yes! Yes!" came a bright, clear call, at last. "Can you hear me now +any better?" + +She had answered before, as he instantly knew, but her voice had been +snatched afar from the cliff by a circular current of wind. + +"All right!" shouted Grenville, enormously relieved. "I'm down here +below and I'd rather return by the ladder. Can you hear me quite +distinctly?" + +"Oh, yes!" cried Elaine, whose fears were vast, though she would not +betray them in her voice. "Do you want me to change it--or something?" + +"A trifle, yes--as I'll direct you." He paused for a moment to make +his directions as clear and concise as possible. Then he shouted: + +"First move a few of the rocks to a point as near the edge as possible +and about ten feet to the left of the present position.... Is that +clear?" + +"Yes--very clear--quite clear---- And then?" + +"Then lift off the others and remove the ladder--carefully. Mind it's +just a bit heavy." + +He paused, and she cried: "Yes! I hear you!" + +"Take the ladder at once to the rocks already placed and roll them on +its end, to hold it down." + +"Then heap all the others upon it?" Her question came ringing down the +cliff. + +"Yes--and as promptly---- But don't overtax your strength." + +There was no reply to this final instruction. That the quickest of +action was highly essential, she had felt in the very air. She was +hotly, valiantly tugging at the rocks before his last words had died +upon the breeze. + +He presently saw the ladder-end jerk about spasmodically and ascend for +perhaps a foot. Elaine had the weight of it in her hands--and her +strength was equal to the task! + +He watched it, his heart wildly thrilling at the thought of her ready +wit and courage--her certain, sturdy helpfulness in every trying crisis. + +With more wild gyrations about the ledge, the ladder-end now +disappeared. It was gone for a moment only, to return at a point more +directly above his head. Here it halted, moved about uncertainly, then +lowered jerkily downward, to dangle at last with its last rung all but +on the water, some eight or ten feet away. He knew that its upper end +was lightly anchored and would soon be firmly held in place. + +He caught up his pole, with the hook at its end, to fish the ladder +inward. But, fearing that any untimely tug might fetch it all doubling +down the cliff, he instantly halted the maneuver and compelled himself +to wait. + +Five minutes went by--five ages for slowness of movement. He was +certain by then Elaine had made the end too secure to be readily +dislodged. He stepped to the outermost edge of the shelf, with the +pole horizontally extended. + +It was short by perhaps six inches. Strain as he would, he could not +reach either one of the rungs or supports. A light puff of wind then +bent it slightly inward, and he fished out wildly, in the hope the +discrepancy thus amended might be wholly overcome. + +But his hook still prodded the empty air, while the zephyrs that played +with the dangling thing seemed solely bent on his torture. The sweat +oozed out on his temples, for the straining made him warm. A sense of +disappointment amounting almost to despair attacked him for a moment. + +"I shall leap out and swim!" he told himself, at last. "I'll not +remain here for the night!" + +He returned to the point from which Elaine had finally been heard. + +She did not immediately answer when he called as he had before. When +her voice came down, he was certain her breath was broken. + +"I've--carried the last rock--over--and one or two--extra, besides." + +"Right ho!" responded Grenville, cheerfully. "You might stand away +while I test it." + +He knew that a sudden throwing of his weight upon the ladder might +suffice to fetch it down. He could not be sure that, with all her +ready helpfulness and promptness, Elaine had so heaped the rocks above +as to make the thing secure. + +"I can always get back here for the night," he murmured to himself, as +he scanned the swirl below. "And when it calms down from that bally +twist----" + +The whirlpool was even then subsiding, in its intermittent way. He +quickly ascended the sloping ledge, the better to run and leap far +outward. His pole he dropped upon the rocks as he hung there poised +for his plunge. His eyes were keenly fixed on the tide. + +The waters became quiescent. Swiftly Grenville darted down the ledge, +leaping well out, towards the end of the ladder. He was fairly in +midair when his gaze was directed to a dark form loafing in the depths. + +Before he struck, by some quick flirt the huge form rose, coming +inward, and a black fin cut through the waves. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +A DREADED VISITOR + +What it was that happened when he felt the waters swiftly rising all +about him Grenville could never have told. He was almost certain his +foot had come in contact with a heavy, pulpy surface, like a wet thing +made of rubber, as he did his utmost to strike his assailant with his +heel. + +He could only be certain that he seemed to plunge downward +interminably, and that afterwards a horrible rush of waters, lashed to +violence, was sounding wildly in his ears and confusing his staring +eyes. + +Then he came to the top with a sickening conviction, that one of his +legs would be gone almost before he could feel the incisions of the +teeth where the shark was closing upon it. He lurched tremendously +forward in the water, to close the short but vital gap between himself +and the ladder. + +It seemed to him then a nightmare must be binding his limbs to +inaction--that incredible time was elapsing while he still remained in +the tide. As a matter of fact, he had moved with prodigious energy, +his strokes and velocity through the water phenomenally swift. And, +when he caught at the lowermost rung, he shot from the depths like some +weirdly living projectile, doubled up in a knot by its speed. + +For his knees were drawn sharply upward, and hand over hand he scaled +up his swaying support. But his ears heard the hiss where that +terrible fin was cutting the waves beneath him. One quick glance he +sped to the place comprehended the turning monster's belly, the open +mouth, and even the hideous nose that shot beneath his very foot like +the point of a speeding torpedo. + +To the round above he scrambled no less galvanically--only to feel a +sudden giving of the ladder. A wild conviction of the structure's +insecurity above--its giving way beneath the incautious strain he had +unavoidably put upon it--scorched its way into his brain, while he +still looked down upon the shark. + +But that one slip ended as abruptly as it had come. It was all in the +rung he had clutched in desperate violence, and not in the ladder +itself. Elaine's rock anchorage was firm! + +A swift and weakening reaction now ensued in all his being, as he clung +there, dripping but safe. He leaned on the ladder-rung heavily, to +regain his breath and strength. He was panting and all but exhausted +for the moment. When at length he resumed the upward climb, the shark +was no longer to be seen. + +He paused a bit longer on the shelving ledge above to gather his wits +in proper order. + +"Sidney!" he heard. "Are you coming? Are you there?" + +"Well, rather!" he called out, cheerily. "Stopped like a kid +to--examine the geological formation." He started upward promptly, +whistling as he went. + +It was not, however, without a tremendous effort that he finally pulled +himself over the brink, in all the weight of his soaking garments, and +struggled to his feet. + +"Why--you're wet!" said Elaine, concealing her hands, which were cut +and bruised from the heavy stones she had carried. "Did you have to +swim to get the ladder?" + +He knew her hands were hurt, but maintained his usual manner. + +"I did. But the water is warm--in fact, it was very warm, indeed." + +"But couldn't you use the raft?" + +"I couldn't," he answered, candidly. "The raft got away while I was +pothering about, and, unless it faithfully floats ashore, we may never +see its honest face again." + +Elaine's expression brightened. + +"I'm perfectly delighted to hear it! Now you never can go there again!" + +Grenville was amused at the turn of her reflections. + +"But what about the treasure in the crypt?" + +"I don't believe there's any treasure in the crypt. There never is, +except in wonderful stories. And, if there was, what good could it be +to us?" + +Grenville met her magnetic gaze, now brightened by her challenge. It +was not a time to excite new alarms in her heart by divulging the facts +he had discovered. For she would be alarmed were she once informed of +the wealth concealed beneath their feet. She would instantly +understand the dangers to them both from the men who had hidden the +treasure. + +"Well," he said, with an air of lightness he was very far from feeling, +"I confess I'd rather have a good pot of steaming black coffee at this +particular juncture than all the gold and jewels of the land." + +"Oh, please don't mention it!" said Elaine. "Haven't I tried every +leaf I could find, to make you something to drink?" And a wistful +pucker came to her brow that made her more than ever enchanting. +"You've no idea," she added, "what horrid messes this island foliage +can make." + +"Wouldn't wonder," said Grenville, calmly. But, having come to the +shaded cave, he was grateful for a drink of cool, sweet water and glad +to sit down for a rest. + +The subject of the cave was dropped, but his thoughts could not fade in +Grenville's mind. They lay in substrata, beneath more homely plans for +resuming his interrupted labors. But, beyond going down to dig some +yams to roast with a pheasant killed the previous day, he returned to +no toils that afternoon. He paused to examine the shell of his boat, +which fire, plus his chisel, was finally evolving from the log, and, +finding unusual quantities of blackly charred stuff to be gouged away +in the morning, determined to be early at the task. + +This plan was one of the sort that "gang aglee." He fished, with +Elaine, till nine o'clock the following day, to provide a needful +change of their diet; then placed some fresh signals on their flagpole. +At eleven, however, he was once more at his boat, with his fires +freshly blazing. He was working gayly, aroused to a new enthusiasm +over final results to be achieved by the excellent progress his former +fires had made upon the log. A few more days of work like that--and he +would have to be thinking of the launching. + +This was not a thought he had neglected. In a vague sort of way the +problem of moving his boat to the water's edge had bothered him from +the first. It would have to be run on rollers, he admitted. Doubtless +a way would have to be cleared through some of the undergrowth. + +Reflecting that this was a task to be performed while the fires were +doing their daily stint, he made a preliminary survey of the jungle to +select the most practical route. The way across the grassy clearing +was not only long, but in places inclined to be rough. Fortunately, in +either direction the way was all down-grade. + +He had never yet forced a way to the shore through the jungle beyond +his tree-trunk smelter. Thither he wended his way to note what this +route might offer. + +Breaking the branches from before his path, and rather inclined to +believe a trail might once have been forced through the thicket, he was +penetrating deeper and deeper into the moist and thickly shaded region +when he presently halted, almost certain he had heard someone calling +his name. + +"Sidney! Sidney!" came the cry again, from Elaine up above him on the +cliff. "Sidney! Where are you? A boat! I've seen a sail! There's +someone coming at last!" + +He had smashed his way out while she was calling. + +"A sail!" she repeated, excitedly, the moment he appeared. "Oh, +come!--please come at once!" + +She disappeared swiftly from the edge, running back, lest the sight be +lost forever. + +Actively, Grenville went bounding across the clearing and up their +narrow trail. He was panting and eager when Elaine ran forward to meet +him, and clutched him by the arm. + +"I knew it would come!--I knew it!" she cried, as she hastened hotly +forward at his side. "We must wave things as hard as we can!" + +She had guided him swiftly to the great lone tree that stood like the +island's landmark, to be seen for many a mile. She pointed in triumph +afar across the sea--and Grenville beheld a tiny sail, like the merest +white notch in the sky. + +"Can they see us yet? Shall we wave?" said Elaine. "They couldn't go +by and miss us now?" + +She was still clinging fast to Grenville's arm, and tears had sprung to +her eyes. What long, long hours of torture, anxiety, and hope she had +expended, uttering no complaint as the days went by, the man abruptly +knew. Then something indescribably poignant shot boltlike through his +heart. + +Elaine felt him harden, grow rigid, as his gaze narrowed down on the +distant thing she had found in their purple sea. The note that broke +from his lips at last made a shiver go down her spine. + +He suddenly turned, and his arm was wrenched from her clasp. He sped +like a madman back to their mast and heaved all his weight against it. +He threw back the rocks that held it in place in the crevice to which +it had been fitted. + +Before she could follow, to question what he did, Elaine saw him drop +the pole over. + +"Sidney!" she said, but the face that he turned wore a look that was +new to her ken. + +"Pull up the ladder from the rocks!" he called. "Then go to the +shelter and stay!" + +He himself ran to the cavern, to take up their largest jug of water. +With this in his arms, he hastened down the trail to quench the flames +beneath his boat. + +And when, with more water, hurried from the spring, he had drowned the +last blue wisp of smoke, he brought the full jug to the cave again and +tore down the improvised awning. + +"We had better hail death than that craft!" he said, "unless I am very +much mistaken!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +AN IRREPARABLE LOSS + +Elaine was dumbly appalled for a moment by the words that Grenville had +uttered. She finally found her voice. + +"But--why? I don't believe I understand. It isn't someone--some +horrible men who hunt human heads for trophies?" + +Grenville was glad she knew what a head-hunter means. He loathed the +necessity of making revolting explanations. He vainly wished he might +spare her now--that his judgment might be in error. But the rakish +angle of that sail, though so far away on the water, had left him no +room to doubt that natives were manning the craft. + +"They may be friendly visitors, after all," he answered. "And then +again they may not. It may be as wise for us to see them first, and +determine our conduct later." + +"You do fear them, then? But how can we hide--if they land and come up +on the hill?" + +"They shall never come up--if I can help it! If I only had a few more +bombs!" He had gone to his cave and was dragging forth his little +cannon. "I haven't even a hatful of slugs with which to charge this +plaything!" + +Elaine had remained obediently at her shelter, in the door of which she +stood. + +"Won't they see you?" she said, her voice already lowered, as if in +fear its accents might be overheard where the distant boat was +approaching. "Have you more old pieces of brass?" + +"Some," said Grenville, reluctant to use his remaining metal in such an +extravagant manner. "I have nothing else that will answer, hang the +luck! ... They can't see us yet, but we'll move about with caution.... +I wish I had made more powder! I have only a few feet of fuse. I must +get some additional creepers at once and let them dry out in the sun." + +He went down to the jungle immediately for a fresh supply of this +highly essential growth, leaving Elaine at the shelter, a prey to dread +that had utterly obliterated her bitter disappointment. She stooped, +to steal forward on the rocks and look for the sail again. It was +still so far on the sun-lit surface of the ocean that it seemed no +nearer than before. She returned once more to the cave. + +Grenville came up, fairly laden with freshly severed creepers. + +"I've thought of a means for making bombs!" he told her, triumphantly. +"Perhaps you can split these creepers and take out the cores while I go +to fetch some bamboo poles." + +"Couldn't I fill them with powder?" Elaine inquired, anxiously. "I +watched you before. I am sure I would make no great mistakes." + +He knew she was nervous, eager to be employed. + +"Sure shot you could," he answered, briskly, and, going to the cave +employed as his "powder magazine," he brought her a jar of explosive. +"Don't be afraid to put in all that the creeper tube will carry," he +instructed. "And tie it with fibers here and there, to keep the edges +together." + +With his heaviest tools he descended at once to the bamboo growth, +where he was presently toiling hard. Elaine, no less industriously, +was hotly assailing the creepers, held firmly down with heavy rocks, to +make their manipulation easy. + +She had filled and bound a considerable length of this simply +manufactured fuse when Grenville returned to the terrace. For his +part, he bore across his shoulder three great long steins of green +bamboo that were three inches through at the base. + +"I can cut this stuff at its divisions," he explained, "fill the +smaller sections with powder, and fit the larger ones over them, like a +shell within a shell. A natural growth plugs each one up at the end, +and I'll also cap each end with a rock, and wrap the whole contraption +about with creepers. Of course, the fuse will go in first. I wish the +stuff were dry!" + +The spirit of battle was no less aroused in Elaine, whose mood was the +equal of his own. + +"Couldn't we use the cannon first--keep them off with that while the +fuses and things are drying?" + +"It's our only chance, if they raid us by the trail. They can scarcely +arrive for two or three hours more. The tide will be against them---- +If we keep out of sight, they may not detect our presence." + +"Anyway," added Elaine, sagely, "they needn't know how few we are in +numbers." + +"Right ho!" he answered, cheerily. "The trail is steep and narrow. We +can train the gun to rake its entire width. For the second shot, and +any succeeding charges, we can load the piece with stones---- I'm in +hopes our visitors may not land, but we'll keep our fire smoldering, +making no smoke; and I'll fetch all the fruit and water we may need for +a couple of days." + +Elaine looked up at him quickly. + +"A couple of days? We may have to fight two days?" + +Grenville smiled, suggestively. + +"Not if they come within range of the cannon or linger about a bomb. +In time of peace prepare for the worst--and then a little extra." + +He moved out cautiously, as Elaine had done, to scan the distant sail. +He could see that it was steadily approaching. With eager impatience +he hastened below to lay in needful provisions. + +Luncheon was forgotten. When a large supply of fruits and water, with +fuel sufficient for perhaps a week of flameless fire, had been stored +in the coolness and protection of the caves, Grenville immediately set +to work constructing the shells to fill with powder. + +This was a task involving much difficult cutting. For this employment +his tools were not encouragingly suited. Of fuse, Elaine had finally +produced as much as all his bombs would require, with lengths for the +cannon as well. + +The gun was finally charged and primed, after Grenville had rebound it +to its "carriage." It was lodged in the rocks, where it covered the +trail, and stones were piled abundantly about it. A fuse was laid to +the vent. + +From time to time both the exiles had crept towards the one lone tree +on the wall, to observe the on-coming boat. By three o'clock of the +afternoon the wind had practically failed, but the craft drifted slowly +forward. It was plainly in sight by then--a fair-sized affair with a +singular out-rigger and a queer, unmistakable sail. So far as +Grenville could determine at the distance, there were three or four +natives aboard. + +"If none of them ever go back to tell the tale," he announced, a bit +grimly to Elaine, "we may be all right for quite a time." + +She understood at once. + +"You think, if they leave, they may return here later--with a larger +force--if they find we are ready for a fight?" + +"If they do, we'll not be at home--provided the boat can be finished." + +Elaine was evidently thinking much--of the battle that might presently +ensue, with all its unknown results. + +"They'd kill us if they could, I suppose, if only to cut---- They are +not human beings, really--the kind we ought not to shoot?" + +Grenville could hardly repress a smile. + +"If they try to steal the gun, I think we'd be justified in firing. At +any rate, I shall fire first and debate the question later." + +Elaine was growing nervous, now that all they could do was practically +accomplished. + +"Oh, I wish it was over!" she declared. "Do you think they'll attack +us soon after landing?" + +"They may not land this evening." + +Grenville was thinking of the tidal sounds that haunted the island's +wall. These were still of considerable volume every day, and, +according to his theory, frightened the ignorant natives away. He +added, presently: "You see, they may be aware the tiger was living here +before we disturbed his possession. In that event they might be +cautious of landing after dark. They rarely take chances, I believe, +by attacking in the night." + +"But suppose they arrive an hour or two before sunset?" + +"They might, if the breeze should freshen.... We can only wait and +see." + +But this waiting was an irritating business, so slowly did the craft +appear to move against the tide and so fraught with possibilities was +its visit to the place. + +Sitting or stooping behind the rocks, Elaine and Grenville kept a +constant watchfulness on the boat, now less than half a mile away. It +was apparently becalmed. The day grew old and still it came no nearer. + +The sun at length departed from the scene, with the riddle still +unsolved. It appeared to Grenville the day-end breath would have +wafted the stranger to the shore. He thought perhaps it did approach +considerably closer, but of this he was not at all certain. + +The brief, soft twilight soon began to wane. At Sidney's suggestion, +their simple repast of island fruits was eaten. The fish they had +captured in the morning was not cooked, in the absence of the customary +fire. The calm that settled on the "Isle of Shalimar" was far from +being reassuring. It seemed fraught with silent agencies of fate, +moving noiselessly about the shadowed jungle. + +When the darkness came down, the mysterious craft was no longer to be +seen. Grenville had fancied it drifting rapidly in when he last +discerned its form. No lights were displayed upon its mast or deck to +indicate its presence off the headland. + +Elaine was persuaded at last to retire, though she knew she should not +sleep. Grenville remained on guard alone, pacing back and forth from +the head of the trail to the lone tree reared above the cliff. His +senses were strained to catch the slightest sound, but none came upward +from the sea. From time to time he halted by their smoldering bit of +coals to assure himself the last of the sparks had not been permitted +to die. + +At length, far in the silent night, the tidal wailing began, its +weirdness increased an hundredfold by the tension of the hours. It +seemed to Grenville unusually loud, so acute had the darkness made his +hearing. + +No sooner had the final note died out on the gently stirring air than +answering cries, no less weird and shrill, arose from out upon the +water. The visiting craft had drifted past the headland and was +somewhere off on Grenville's right. The cries from its deck were like +a response to some spirit of the island. They were rather more awed +than exultant, Grenville felt, and he fancied some chanting, that came +to him brokenly out of the heavy shades of night, was possibly a prayer. + +When he came before her shelter again, Elaine was standing in the door. +She had heard the cries from the boat. + +"They haven't landed yet?" she said, in a whisper. + +"They won't land now till daybreak, and perhaps not then," he answered. +"Go back--and go to sleep." + +"I'll try," said Elaine, and disappeared. + +For Grenville, however, there could be no sleep, though the darkness +rendered up no further sound. Like the outer sentry of a picket-line, +with the enemy close, and his whereabouts unknown, he glided silently +from one dark edge of the terrace to another, as the hours wore on, +alert for the slightest alarm. + +He finally sat by the head of the trail, convinced that the visitors +would give him no trouble till morning, yet guarding the only way by +which they could gain the summit of the hill. + +He was weary and doubtless he nodded, lulled by the softness of the +breeze that came up at last, burdened with its ozone from the sea. +And, despite the fact he was afterwards positive the nod was the +briefest in the world, full daylight was spread to the ends of the +world, and the sun was gilding the island's tufa walls, when at length +he started to his feet. + +It seemed to him then some sound from below had played through the +fabric of his dream. But nothing disturbed the usual calm, save the +morning cry of distant parrots. Stooping, he moved through the +scattered rocks, to survey the waters far and wide. + +There was nothing to be seen, in all that expanse, of the craft that +had ridden near at midnight. All the round of the wall he made in this +manner of caution. When he came at length above the blackened +clearing, where for day after day he had toiled with fire and chisel, +he gazed about the open space bewildered and incredulous. + +His half-finished boat was gone! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +AFTER TO-MORROW---- + +The truth of his loss was hardly to be credited as Grenville continued +to stare below where the hollowed log had been. + +There was not a sign of a living thing in the clearing or near-by +jungle. There had been no sounds of unusual movement in the thicket, +he was sure, or otherwise he must have wakened. No voices had spoken, +since his ears had all but ached to catch the slightest disturbance. + +On the blue of the sea, so tremendously expanded from this particular +point of vantage, there was not a hint of a sail. But the fact +remained his boat was gone, with all the work it represented, and all +the hope their situation had centered upon it for them both. + +An utter sinking of the heart assailed him. His moment of sleep, he +told himself, could have been no more treacherous had it been planned +by a scheming enemy to complete their abandonment to some rapidly +impending fate. And yet had he waked in the gray of the dawn, with his +bombs and fuses still too damp for employment, and his cannon planted +only to guard the trail, the boat could hardly have been saved. At +most, his protest would merely have betrayed the fact he was camped +there on the terrace. + +A new line of thought sprang into his brain, as one suggestion after +another was swiftly deduced from his loss. The natives who had landed +and carried off his precious craft must certainly have found the wall +with which he had barred the trail. He could hardly doubt they knew of +his presence on the hill. They might even now be lying in wait to get +him the moment he appeared. + +His preconceived theory, that they dared not land while those tidal +sounds still haunted this end of the island, received a shattering +blow. Their craft was doubtless hidden now behind either one of the +other lofty walls comprised by the neighboring hills. The thieves had +cut off all possible hope of his escape with Elaine by means of his +solid, if crude, canoe, and could finally starve them on the hill, if +they had no courage for a battle. + +Yet how had they happened on his boat and why had they removed it? +That they must have carried it bodily down to the shore, through the +jungle, was absolutely certain. And this, he thought, argued a +half-dozen men, though it might have been done by four. + +He remained there, stunned by this utterly defeating discovery, +watching the thicket for the slightest sign that might betray the +presence of the enemy and revolving the proposition over and over in +his mind. When at last he admitted that the natives might have known +the log was lying there, if they had not indeed prepared it with fire +for some of their uses the previous year, he was more than verging on +the facts. They had felled it solely for a boat--and much of their +work he had completed. + +This line of reasoning did not, however, serve to quiet further +questions. The visitors must certainly have wondered how it came about +that the log was so nearly hollowed. The clay, still plastered upon +it, must have suggested to their minds the work of a craftsman minus +tools. That the workman must be present on the island would be more +than suspected, since his boat was not even launched. + +They might suppose the tiger had captured and devoured him--always +admitting they knew of the brute's former presence on the place. It +seemed far more likely to Grenville they had found his tracks about the +spring, his gate on the trail, and the signs of his recent fires and +general activity about the region of his smelter, and would therefore +conclude he was still encamped on the hill. + +He could fancy a half-dozen pairs of maliciously glittering eyes +fastened even now upon the crest and edges of the terrace, all hidden +by the thickets. Had the poisoned dart from a blowpipe come winging +swiftly up from the shadows of the foliage, he should not have been +surprised. + +But not a leaf below him was disturbed. Not a sound arose to warn his +eager ears. With a sense of bitter rage and humiliation in all his +system, he finally crept once more to the trail, and beyond it to the +cliff's final shelving. + +From this extremity of the heights new aspects of the island were in +view, as well as different expanses of the sea. His keen eyes searched +the jungle and the clearings first, with no more results than before. + +It was not until he gazed afar, on the darkening silver of the waters, +that his search was at all rewarded. Even then, for a moment he was +not wholly convinced that what he saw was not a spearlike leaf of +foliage projected beyond the clean-cut edge of the farthest of the +island's tufa towers. + +But the angle of color detached itself and receded in far perspective. +It was plainly the sail of the visiting craft, previously hidden from +his sight by the hill at the island's end. It was already far on a +northern course, where he should not have thought to find it. The +freshening breeze was heeling it over gracefully; it would vanish in +less than half an hour. + +He wondered instantly--had they towed away his boat? Or might they +have left it moored in some inlet of the island, to be taken upon some +future visit? + +Stifling an impulse to hasten down the trail, and aware that one, or +even more, of the natives might have been left concealed upon the +place, to ambush himself and Elaine, or anyone else suspected of being +present on the rock, he remained behind his barrier of stones, no less +cautious than before. + +The fact that the entire morning passed in apparent security, with +never the flicker of a leaf below to advertise a lurking menace, could +not suffice to render Grenville careless or overconfident. He had told +Elaine of their loss--which worried her less than himself. Together +they maintained an all-day vigilance, half expectant of the +sailing-craft's return and keyed to the highest tension of expectancy +at every stirring of a shrub below them in the jungle. + +Grenville finally armed himself with his bow and straightest arrow, to +descend the trail, go quietly over to the spring, and then to the spot +from which his boat had vanished. About the pool of crystal water +there was not so much as a track of human boots or feet, other than his +own. There were none to be seen about the foot of the trail, where +there was ample dust in which they might have been recorded. + +Where his boat had lain, with its end on a rock, there were far fewer +footprints in the ash and soil than Sidney could have believed +possible, judging the visitors at only four in number and their task +not particularly light. Apparently, however, they had landed down +beyond the jungle, proceeded straight to the log, and, wasting no time +in wondering how it chanced to be covered with clay or hollowed to a +shell, had taken it up, to depart with it as swiftly and directly as +possible. + +Even his tools still lay beside the hollow tree utilized for a smelter. +The one explanation that addressed itself to his mind as being +plausible was that the visitors, knowing of the log and having planned +to secure it, perhaps in merely passing by the island, had come ashore +so soon as the first faint gray of dawn broke the shadows of the +jungle, when they had taken their prize and halted for nothing, not +even a search for whatsoever tools they must have seen had been +employed. + +Once more his original theory of their superstitious fright of the +island's "haunt" seemed to Grenville to be confirmed. He felt the +natives had sneaked ashore--not in fear of himself, since they could +not have foreknown his presence on the hill, but in possible fear of +some spirit of the place whose wailing filled them with dread. + +Barely less cautiously than heretofore, he followed the faintly +imprinted trail of the boat's mysterious abductors, where it led across +the clearing. He was certain now that a cleared path did exist where +he had partially explored the previous morning. But branches and +shrubbery had been freshly cut, as if to insure the silent passage of +the log. + +The lane thus created through the thicket led directly down an easy +slope to a broken bit of seawall at the bottom. This, at high tide, +would be scarcely a foot above the water. Here the log had undoubtedly +been rested. Both broken clay and a charcoal smudge recorded the +unseen fact. + +The entire inlet was no more than twenty feet across. It was bounded +on either side by pitted walls that permitted no access to the jungle. +The last faint hope of again beholding his precious boat now vanished +from Grenville's mind. It had not been moored, nor probably even +towed, but doubtless loaded bodily on the visitor's deck, to be taken +to parts unknown. + +But, if this heavy fact sunk home in his breast, the man was somewhat +relieved, at least, concerning a probable native left behind. He felt +practically certain that none of the crew of the native craft had +stepped beyond his clearing. How much they might guess as to who had +hollowed the heavy log was another matter altogether. He knew that +their tale would be widely told--and felt that developments would +follow. + +He went to Elaine, to whom he owed a report. + +"I think we're alone on the place," he said, and related all he had +discovered. "We may as well re-light our fires," he added, in +conclusion, "and eat the best our sunny possessions afford." + +Elaine could not so promptly recover from all she had undergone. She +still sat staring at his face, a prey to confused emotions. + +"Suppose they had really been friendly, after all--and we let them go +and leave us here like that?" + +"In that event they may return, since the boat will excite a bit of +wonder." + +"You mean they will know, of course, that someone must be here who made +it?" + +"It certainly tells that story rather plainly." + +She was thinking rapidly. + +"Then--if they shouldn't happen to be friendly, they would know it all +just the same--and may still come back to--look us up?" + +Grenville nodded. + +"I shall certainly go to work with that chance in view." + +"Yes," she agreed, "we'll certainly do all we can. But another boat +would take you weeks! After all your patient, tedious work--to have it +stolen like that! Oh, I could cry, if I weren't so vexed and sorry!" + +Grenville smiled despite his sense of loss. + +"Perhaps I can rig some sort of a catamaran," he answered. "But for +day and night sailing, such as we would doubtless have before us, the +best of boats would be none too comfortable." + +"And we don't know where to sail." + +"Well--not precisely." + +"Then--what is the first thing to do?" + +"Cook and devour a hearty dinner." + +"But after that--to-morrow?" + +"Thank God for peace--and prepare for war, meanwhile praying it may not +come." + +Elaine was grave, but her voice was clear and steady. + +"You think it will--that a fight will come? ... I'd much rather know +the worst." + +"So would I!" said Grenville, cheerfully. "We can't. We can only get +ready to acquit ourselves like--well, like gentlemen, and keep out an +eye for a steamer.... Would you mind retreating to the cave I found, +if dire necessity arose?" + +"I'll go wherever you tell me," she answered, with a smile that went to +his heart. "But of course I can't help wishing that a steamer would +really come." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +A FATEFUL EXPLOSION + +With feverish energy Grenville was at work, attempting to achieve a +dozen ends at once. + +Nearly a week of high-pressure application appeared to have +accomplished so little. Yet a hundred pounds at least of his liveliest +powder had been mixed and stored away, either loosely or packed in the +bamboo bombs, of which he had a dozen; much extra bamboo had been cut +and brought to the terrace; a new lot of jugs had been molded of clay +and were finally being fired in his former smelter; baskets were made +and ready for fruits, should retreat to the cave be rendered expedient, +and his first small raft, or catamaran, for gaining the exit to the +cavern, was all but ready to launch. + +He had taken the bowsprit of the barque and three large stems from the +bamboo growth as a basis for this craft. The bamboo stems were firmly +lashed together, to act as a mate for the bowsprit. They were held +away from the latter at a distance of about three feet by some of the +few unrotted bits of board he had torn from the old vessel's cabin, +plus more bamboo, split and employed for his platform. + +Two half-cylindrical sections of this useful plant he had lashed to +eight-foot poles of considerable stiffness to complete a pair of oars. +His rowlocks, saved from the smelting processes, he finally tested in +their sockets, where a rigid bridge had been stoutly secured across his +raftlike contrivance, and found them all he could desire. The seat he +had planned to occupy in rowing he abandoned now as quite superfluous. + +He felt he must lose no time in draining the cave, for possible use in +a siege. There was no other task that had been altogether neglected. +The flagpole was once more standing on the terrace; abundant fuse was +made, dried, coiled, and safely stored from damp or accident, and a +mold was hardening in the fire for running lead slugs that would make +the cannon effective. + +For this latter need he meant to sacrifice his hammer. It, with the +lead he had saved before, would supply some six or seven pounds of this +needful ammunition. Now, as he swiftly braided three slender creepers +in a "painter" for his crudely fashioned catamaran, he glanced at the +tide inquiringly, and likewise up at the sun. There was over an hour +in which to get to the cave, lodge a bomb in the ledge, and blow out +the dam that held back the water, but the tide was still running +against him. + +With ten feet only of his mooring-line completed, he abandoned the +braiding impatiently, secured one end to his raft at the estuary's +entrance, and, wading in behind the clumsy structure, launched it with +one impetuous heave across the sandbar to the sea. Boarding +immediately with his oars, he rowed it far enough only to prove he +could drive it against the tide, and then brought it back to the shore. + +"One bomb and a torch," he meditated, aloud. "I can hang the bomb +across my shoulder to keep it out of the wet." + +The catamaran having been made thoroughly secure, he hastened away to +the terrace. He missed Elaine. She was down at the "smelter," +attending the fire that was roasting the new clay vessels. + +With a bomb and his lighted torch in hand--held well apart and not for +a moment handled carelessly--he hailed Elaine from the edge of the +thicket by the wall. + +"Just thought I'd drop around and drain out that water from the cave," +he announced. "Everything's ready--and I've nothing else to do. When +you hear the salute, you'll know it's a commonplace affair." + +"Oh!" said Elaine, who had her doubts concerning his various +explosions. "I'll watch to see you from the cliff." + +"Well--er--I wouldn't stand just at the edge, you know--not till you +know it's all over." + +"You're not going to blow down the hill?" + +"Hope not, I've taken a baby bomb, but I didn't wish to let it off till +I'd told you what to expect. I'd keep away, in case of flying pieces." + +"I will," said Elaine. "But I'll go up now, and perhaps you can call +to let me know how well you have succeeded." + +"I'll send you a wireless." + +Grenville hastened to his raft. "Please God she may never have to hear +me fire another!" he thought, as he went, reflecting on things that +might happen. He could not have known that only a mild beginning had +been made on their programme as scheduled by the Fates. + +He was soon rowing eagerly and vigorously against the current of the +tide, which would run with lessening velocity for perhaps another hour. +When he came to the cave, he promptly discovered why the injunction to +enter its mouth at high water only had been made a point in the mystic +directions found with the map in the tube. + +The ledge whereon he had landed before was deeply undercut. During a +tide no more than two or three feet lower than this that would serve +him to-day, the place could scarcely be approached, and could never be +entered at all. The swirl, which was rarely ever absent from the +place, increased in violence steadily with the lowering levels of the +water. + +It was not without some chance of catastrophe that he presently landed +on the shelf. He lost little time in securing his painter to the +rocks, the line so adjusted he could readily slip it from the crevice +should a hasty retreat seem wise. + +The task of blasting out the ledge was not a simple matter. To lodge +the bomb where its energy would be directed almost wholly against the +dam, or rock, and yet protect it from the trickling stream that could +readily render it useless, involved an extra toil of piling rocks, on +which he had not reckoned. + +Fortunately, much of the thickest wall was opposed to the pot-hole in +the dam, while one or two extra-heavy fragments from the cliff were so +lightly poised he could drop them in the breach. Despite these natural +advantages, however, he labored hotly for fully half an hour before he +could even lay his fuse. + +Meantime, his torch was blazing smokily, against his final need of +igniting the match and later exploring for results. At length he +looped the fuse along a ragged line of broken honeycomb, where pits had +been eaten in the tufa, and trailed it well down to the brink of the +ledge, with its end propped high between two bowlders. + +With one last look at all his careful arrangements, he slipped off his +raft-line, caught up his torch, and was stepping down to board his +float when a sharp piece of rock broke away beneath his foot and +dropped him forward on his hand. + +The torch was flung against the fuse, where it lay along the slope. He +heard it hiss, where the powder had caught, and aware that, by three or +four feet, it was shorter now than he had ever intended to light it, he +lurched full-length upon his raft and fumbled to clutch up the oars. + +But the swirl was on, and the catamaran seemed possessed to bump +against the ledge. + +In a final desperate outburst of strength, he sent the thing shooting +outward. Its bow would have turned in the whirlpool then, but he drove +it clear of the point. + +Like a madman he pulled at the clumsy oars, to reach the protection +where the wall all but folded the basin from the sea. + +His raft was around it--half of the raft--and another good foot would +have covered himself, when the blast abruptly boomed. + +Even out of the tail of his eye he saw the dull-red flare behind a blot +that represented ragged rock in motion. + +A fragment no larger than a man's two fists came as straight as a +cannon projectile and struck the pitted wall beside his head. + +He had ducked instinctively forward, which doubtless saved his life. +But dozens of smaller and barely less violent fragments were broken +away from the edge of the wall by the piece with the meteoric speed. +One of these struck him above the ear--and down he went, face forward, +on the platform, to hang with arms and shoulders loosely supported on +the bridge that was used for the sockets of his rowlocks. + +A rain of loose pieces hissed about in the sea. The cave belched smoke +like a suddenly active volcano. The tide took the raft, with its +motionless burden, and floated it back whence the man had come, but not +so close in the shore. + +Then up on the cliff, when the shock and hail had subsided from all the +air about her, Elaine came inquiringly over to the brink, to receive +some word that all was well. + +The smoke still rose from down below and obscured the face of the +waters. There was nothing Elaine could discover. She waited a time +that seemed very long, in her usual determination not to seem unduly +alarmed or importunate concerning Sidney's safety. + +But at last she called his name. + +There was no response. Her uneasiness increased. She called again, +and moved along the brink, staring eagerly down at the sea. + +Then at last a sound like a stifled moan escaped her whitened lips. +She had seen that prostrate, helpless figure drifting down by the shore +on his raft. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +WHAT THE BLAST DISCOVERED + +Grenville revived, with his characteristic pertinacity. An impulse to +save himself was still alive in his brain. Actuated by its survival, +he struggled galvanically to rise. + +"Oh, please!" said a voice, that sounded remarkably familiar. "Please +try to keep quiet for a little!" + +Yet he had to sit up, with one hand to support him, if nothing more. + +He was still on the raft, and there was Elaine, on her knees, pulling +hard at his oars to drive the float ashore. She was dripping wet from +head to foot. + +For a moment Grenville regarded her blankly, while the situation +cleared in his brain. + +"What ho, skipper!" he said, a bit faintly. "You didn't swim out to +this contraption?" + +"You are bleeding," she answered, tugging no less stoutly at the oars. +"I thought you might be dead. The tide was floating you away--and I +don't see why---- Won't you please sit still and behave?" + +Grenville had felt of his head, then arisen to take the sweeps from her +hands, though the catamaran was about to ground on the beach. + +"You did swim!" he said. "I should have warned you of the sh---- I'm +an idiot!--trying to blow my head off!" He knelt on the edge of the +platform and began to bathe his scalp. + +"I hate that cave!" Elaine declared, with emphasis. "And I hate those +awful bombs! I sha'n't have any clothing left, if you go on killing +yourself like this every day!" She was tearing another bandage from +her petticoat and felt obliged to scold. + +Grenville was not at all certain it would not be decidedly pleasant to +be wounded constantly. It was perilously joyous to be scolded and +bandaged by Elaine. He certainly submitted most meekly as she now tied +up his head. He was not deeply cut, and felt considerably aggrieved +that the blow had rendered him unconscious. + +"You'll find the skull isn't dented," he observed, "unless it's from +the inside out." + +"There's a great big swelling," said Elaine. "And suppose you had been +killed?" + +Grenville made no immediate reply. He was gazing abstractedly out +across the water. His inner vision conjured up the picture of a brave, +unselfish little comrade, swimming fearlessly out to board a raft +whereon a helpless figure was lying--a pale-faced girl who would +doubtless have had no hesitation had she known of all the sharks in the +world. He could see her scramble on the float to ease him where he +lay. And then her hot tussle with the clumsy oars, as she knelt on the +wave-slopped platform, to urge it and him to the shore! + +"I'm a thoughtless brute," he told her, finally. "But I felt the work +was important." + +"It is important! I'm sure of that," she answered, at once all +contrition. "But perhaps next time--you might take me along---- If +anything should kill us both--why, that would be simple and easy." + +He understood her thoroughly. + +"Quite an idea," he answered, briefly. "I was sure you understood the +situation---- To-morrow I'll go and see what the blast accomplished. +I shall have no more explosions, however--so I may not need a chaperon." + +She was slightly hurt. His offhand speeches were not always absolutely +welcome, despite her former attitude and declarations. After all, it +was God, she told herself, who had brought this partnership into being. +It was He who had cast her into exile with the bravest man she had ever +known. + +"You mean," she said, "you do not want me along." + +"It's the tide that's ungallant," he said. "It objects to anyone's +landing on the ledge." + +"But you said I might be obliged to hide there later." + +"I did, and till then--let's enjoy the sunshine--while it lasts." + +Elaine said no more. The hint of inimical things to come sufficed once +more to carry her thoughts away from all personal emotions. + +They returned in silence to the terrace, Grenville first having urged +his catamaran within the estuary, to secure it with the line. The +commonplace duties of their daily existence were promptly resumed, and +the cave as a topic was forgotten. + +The following day, while he waited for the tide to rise to its highest +level, Grenville completed the labor at the furnace, where additional +vessels for water were being permitted to cool. The importance of +being enabled to store an unusual quantity of water, should the need +arise for such a storage, had early been presented to his mind. He was +therefore particularly gratified to find this present firing of jugs +considerably more successful than the first. + +Elaine was engaged in weaving two nets, in which these clay vessels +could be carried. With a yoke for Grenville's shoulders, or even for +her own, a pair of the jugs could thus be fetched at once and the labor +thereby materially hastened, should a moment arrive in which such haste +would be wise. + +It was ever disturbing to her mind to reflect on this possible need. +The thought was never wholly absent from her as she watched the +horizon, far and near, for the steamer that did not come. Not even in +her happiest moments--and many were happy, she confessed, despite all +the hardships of their daily life, as they two toiled together, an +exiled pair alone in this tropical garden--not even in these was that +sinister, underlying _motif_ too indistinct to be acknowledged. It +hung like a thing in vague suspense above their every occupation, +throughout the day and night. + +A tremor more tangible played through her breast as Elaine watched +Grenville take a torch as before and depart for the third of his visits +to the cave. + +Without consulting the lord and master of the island, she moved her +work from the shelter of her "house" to the cliff-edge, from which she +could watch him a time before he should come to the cavern itself and +so be lost to sight. + +She was thus enabled, unobserved, to inspect him, to her heart's +content, as Grenville came rowing his raft along the tide, far down +below her rocky aerie. + +The man was absorbed in the task thus set to be accomplished. He did +not look up, as Elaine thought he might, as he skimmed along under the +wall. + +When he came to the cave he was somewhat surprised at the wreckage his +blast had accomplished. Not only was the former ledge completely +shattered, but much had fallen below in the sea, while the wall to the +right, where the bomb had expended its energy, was agape with +new-formed fissures. + +Chiefly concerned with the dam of rock, Grenville secured his raft with +boyish impatience and carried his torch ashore. A moment afterwards he +walked through the breach in the erstwhile solid ledge, and could +readily imagine the roar with which the water, formerly behind the +barrier, had tumbled torrentially into the swirling tide. + +There was still a tiny trickle flowing down the channel made by the +bomb. The basin formed by the bottom of the cavern was still +exceedingly damp, and here and there it retained a shallow pool of +water too low for the gateway to drain. He walked about freely, +pausing here and there to hold his torch aloft and measure the cave's +dimensions by means of the light from both the open entrance and his +blazing, yellow flame. + +He was struck, in gazing at the wall he had broken near the cavern's +mouth, with the size of one of the fissures there, where the blast had +wrought its havoc. So black and significant appeared this new-formed +aperture that, although a certain eagerness to proceed forthwith to the +treasure niche was upon him, he returned at once to investigate the +hole. + +What he found upon his first superficial examination was merely a +crevice, half as wide as his body, where a plinth of rock had been +split from the mass and dropped towards the breach in the dam. Into +this crevice he thrust his torch, and was instantly interested to note +that its flame blew decidedly from him, in a draught of air that was +flowing unmistakably upward. Moreover, on lifting himself sufficiently +high to look about in the dimly lighted space, he became convinced that +either a second chamber or a passage like a hall existed just back of +the principal cavern, from which it was partitioned by the wall. + +He planted his torch between some loosened fragments and shook at the +piece that blocked this auxiliary cave. He thought he could topple the +slab out forwards on the ledge. But, when he rocked it with his +customary vigor, it fell abruptly backwards and disappeared in the +gloom. + +The hole he had thus created was quite large enough to admit him, +squeezing in sideways. He promptly entered with his torch, finding the +foothold rough and insecure. The chamber itself was small and low. He +could readily touch the ceiling. + +Ahead it apparently ended in a wall, with a gaping crack. On moving +there, however, he found, to his surprise, an angular turn, still wide +enough to admit of easy passage. The way under foot was slightly +upward. It was pitted rock, but surprisingly free from broken +fragments. + +Persuaded at once that no other man had ever discovered this +channel-like chamber in the tufa, and that therefore no treasure would +be found concealed in its depths, Grenville continued onward with +unabated interest, curious to see how far the passage might extend. + +It narrowed again, and pierced decidedly upward through the bulk of the +huge rock mass. Obliged at last to stoop too low for comfort, +Grenville began to wonder if the thing would never end. It appeared to +be exceptionally straight for a natural tunnel in volcanic rock, but +Sidney began to realize its upward incline had rapidly increased. + +When he presently found himself enabled to stand once more erect, he +paused to cast a light on the walls to confirm a new thought in his +mind. He had finally remembered a feature long before noted on top of +the terrace itself--the long straight crack through the massive tower +of tufa and the "slip" that had once formed a shelf. + +Not without a certain sort of excited hope did he now discover +unmistakable signs that some convulsion of the island had at one time +actually parted the right-hand mass of rock from the larger portion on +the left and permitted the former to drop. If this channel could only +continue---- + +He went upward again, more swiftly, wondering thus belatedly how far he +might have come and regretting he had not thought to pace the distance. +Through a place ahead he was barely able to force his supple body. +Then came another passageway that was not only narrow but low. +Fragments of stone were likewise under foot, and the passage formed +another angle. + +Beyond this turn he found himself confronted by more broken stone and a +difficult ascent. But, toiling up there eagerly, he presently raised +his eyes and beheld a bright white line, as narrow as a streak of +lightning. + +It was simply a crack through a shattered bit of wall that closed up +the end of the passage. It was daylight--sky--that he saw thus +slenderly defined, and the man could have shouted in joy! + +He could not, however, escape to the outside world when he presently +came to the wall. For all the fragments he loosened and threw back +behind him, he could not open the exit, or even determine where it was. +Only work outside could accomplish this end, and this he was wild to +begin. + +About to turn back and hasten to the terrace, he realized instantly how +utterly impossible might be the task of finding the place from without. +But Elaine was doubtless on the terrace. If only his voice could be +carried to her ears, she could mark the spot at once. + +But, although he called with all his lusty might, there was no response +from the camp where Elaine was doubtless working. His torch was +burning low, with the draught fanning constantly past him through the +channel. It occurred to his mind to go back to Elaine and instruct her +how she could assist him. He also thought to place his torch against +the crack and permit its smoke to filter through and perhaps thereby +blacken the fissure. + +Until he felt he must save what remained, to illumine his way downward, +he burned the torch close to the rocks. And thus, when he came to the +larger cave again, he was once more obliged to depart with not even a +sight of the treasure. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +AN INTERRUPTED DIVERSION + +Not only had Grenville to a small extent succeeded in smudging the +outside terminal of the passage discovered through the rock, but also +Elaine had discovered the smoke so strangely ascending in the air. + +She had been thoroughly mystified by the singular sight, but had crept +about the place inquiringly, expecting perhaps a volcano to begin some +destructive demonstration. She had likewise fancied that rumbling +sounds proceeded from somewhere in the "mountain." The entire +phenomenon had finally ceased, however, greatly to her relief. + +On a narrow ledge, some four feet down from the terrace-level, and +directly beneath the extensive crack that had once been formed in the +massive upheaval of tufa, the broken fragments that blocked the +subterranean hallway were wedged to their places in the wall. The +place was sunk in a shallow niche that was screened by the trees of the +jungle. + +This ledge Grenville not only promptly rendered accessible, but, after +the opening had once been cleared, he fashioned a door of the lightest +construction, that still resembled solid rock, with which to conceal it +again. + +His door was of wattle, plastered with clay, which he then thrust full +of tufa fragments. These, when the substance presently hardened, were +found to be substantially cemented to the framework. The clay itself +dried yellowish gray and could hardly be distinguished from the rock. +He was thus enabled to plaster over all the chinks and other ragged +openings which the door could not completely cover. When the job was +done, not the faintest suspicion of anything unusual about the niche +could the keenest eye have discovered. Grenville was none the less +glad, however, that the tallest foliage of the near-by growth still +further concealed the spot. + +He was toiling no less feverishly than before, thankful each day that +the tidal wailing still continued and anxiously watching the round of +the purple horizon for the cut of a rakish sail. + +Despite the fact that several days had passed since the passage was +discovered, he had made no effort to return to the treasure crypt +below. The communicating gallery was too important to be neglected. +He had spent long hours in its upper reaches, clearing the rock from +underfoot, to make its use entirely practical for Elaine and himself in +all conditions, either with or without some needed burden. + +He had managed to widen the narrowest squeeze by chipping the rock with +his chisel. He had carefully rearranged the broken fragments down +where the corridor entered, or branched from, the cavern, and there +provided a second of his wattle doors, considerably heavier than the +first and more artfully studded with stone. This he had made to be +adjusted from without or within the passage it concealed. From within +it could also be barred in place with a heavy billet of the toughest +wood his brazen tools would shape. + +This late afternoon, when the last of his jugs had been taken down and +concealed by the spring, all ready for filling and carrying back the +moment occasion should arise, Grenville felt that, save for a meat +supply, he had made nearly every possible provision against attack and +siege. + +The day was practically spent. He glanced at the sun. Undecided +between an hour of hunting with his bow and a quick excursion down to +the crypt of treasure, he remembered certain ornaments Elaine might +wear and decided to go for the gold and gleaming jewels. They had meat +for dinner, already being roasted in a sandpit with several newly +gathered yams. + +Elaine, with a basket of tempting fruits, returned to the terrace from +the thicket before he was ready for his trip. The fact that he bore a +torch and basket aroused no query in her mind, so frequently had he +made his underground excursions. + +He left the door at the gallery entrance open and made an easy descent. +Glad to be independent of both the tide and his raft, he paused when he +came to the main cave's ragged opening, for a moment thoroughly +startled. + +The weird tidal wail had just commenced, so close at hand it echoed all +through the place. It had never before occurred while he was actually +in the cavern. Immediately rendered curious to see whence and how it +was produced, he hastened down the outside ledge, completely baffled by +the intermingled reverberations. + +He had barely concentrated his attention on a certain hole in the rock, +below the tidal level, when the last uncanny moan seemed choked to a +horrible gurgle which could not be renewed. + +The thing had never before been so brief or so abruptly ended. Its +brevity jarred upon him no less unpleasantly than its prolongation had +done when he and Elaine first arrived upon the island. As if the +occurrence sounded a warning not to be mistaken, he proceeded at once +within the cave. + +His mind was filled with thoughts of native visitors, who might only be +waiting for this natural phenomenon to cease before they came swarming +across the sea, perhaps to search and loot this very cavern. He +reflected they might have searched it before, and had either been +baffled by the water it formerly contained or had missed the niche his +accidental interest had discovered. + +Though he thought that less than half the wall he had previously +assaulted could now remain in the arch of the treasure cavern, yet +fully a half-hour's labor was essential before he could worm his way +inside where the gold and the stones dully glittered. He cleared out a +few more stones to admit his carrying basket. + +A thrill went through him as he laid his hands upon the priceless +treasures disposed in the tomblike place. Notwithstanding the fact the +cave had been scaled, almost hermetically, a coating of thin, +impalpable dust veiled everything he touched. The things had +undoubtedly been here years on years, till perhaps tradition only still +affirmed their existence, while old fanatics might, for generations, +have persisted in tattooing that "map" on some victim's breast for the +cavern's living concealment and the faithful preservation of its +contents. + +The gold was all wrought in ornaments--like anklets, bracelets, +amulets, and girdles. It had all been crudely pounded into shape from +virgin metal. There were pieces of odd, unfamiliar shape, the uses for +which could hardly be conjectured. It was all of it heavy and massive, +many pieces crudely resembling cumbrous seals with mystic devices +stamped on either side. + +Of the stones--comprising principally diamonds, rubies, and +sapphires--many were still uncut, while others, by the handful, were +crudely mounted in hammered gold to form girdle after girdle. A crown, +exhibiting nothing of the jeweler's modern or even ancient craft, was +none the less of extraordinary intrinsic value for the heft of gold +that formed its band and the huge stones thrust rudely through its +substance. + +Despite his impatience to collect the lot in his basket and depart the +place, Grenville remained there inactively, absorbed in a study of this +piece or that, to identify, if possible, the curious workmanship. That +much, if not all, the gold work argued craftsmen of the African wilds +he felt convinced. But the stones could have come from India only, he +was sure, either through tribute or plundering, and the latter was by +far the more likely method. + +He had heard from one of his oldest friends, who was likewise the best +informed of all his military acquaintances, that the West Coast +Africans still conceal vast treasures of kings or chiefs deceased, such +buried wealth to be utilized by former possessors in some life beyond +the grave. That this hoard, by some strange and unusual chance, had +resulted from that barbaric practice he felt there could be no doubt. +The fact it was hundreds of miles from Africa argued nothing against +the theory, since either by imitation or as a result of far excursions +over sea the present collection could have landed here in this +remarkably hidden and "spirit"-guarded cave, where even the hardiest, +cleverest seeker of fortune would never be likely to search. + +He was still engaged, like some merely scientific archeologist, in +examining piece after piece of the metal, or one after another of the +stones, which were cut as never he had seen them before, when he +fancied some weird, faint echo called his name. + +With pounds of the trinkets in his hands, he returned to the broken +heap of stones he had lately overthrown. Out of the ringing silence of +the larger cave came a distant wisp of sound---- + +He knew that Elaine was calling from somewhere in the passage. + +It was only the work of a moment to catch up his basket and place in +its hold the small stone sarcophagi of jewels. Carelessly then, on top +of these, he swept in the ornaments of gold. They fell, dully ringing, +from the shelves, where perhaps they had lain for above a century--a +heterogeneous collection which he was sorry to disturb till the various +positions in which they had been disposed could be noted and remembered. + +He was certain no less than a hundredweight of the treasure taxed his +strength when he presently lifted his burden from the place and bore it +across the larger chamber. + +Elaine was calling again. Her voice was clearer in the passage. +Grenville came there, panting from his effort, with his dusty and +useless riches. He answered at once on entering the gallery, where he +paused to close and secure his concealing door. + +"Please come!" was the cry, in response to his shout, like an unreal +voice from the blackness of a tomb. "They're here! They're close to +the island!" + +With a short but inarticulate ejaculation, Grenville once more took up +his basket, blundered forward with it a few feet only, and set it down +against the wall. Why he had paused to bother with it, for a moment he +did not understand. With his torch flaring back, in his greater speed, +he plunged along and up the passage. + +Around the first of the sharper angles he came upon Elaine. She had +brought no torch, in her hurry to sound the alarm, but had groped her +way downward through the Stygian blackness of the gallery, calling time +after time as the gloom rendered up no reply. + +Her eyes were dilated wildly, from her efforts to see in the dark. Her +face seemed intensely white against the impenetrable ebon. + +"Oh, I thought you'd never come!" she said, as Sidney approached with +his light. "They were almost up to the island before I dreamed such a +thing could be! The tree must have hidden the sail!" + +Grenville placed the torch in her hand and urged her upward before him. +They presently emerged on the ledge. + +He had no more than crept to the terrace-edge and studied the craft +below on the sea than he came once more to Elaine. + +"No use in striking our flag," he said. "They've seen it. We'll fly +it till the end." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +REVEALING AN INTENT + +The native ship, that had sailed unobserved within almost hailing +distance of the headland, was not the one that had come to the island +before. It was larger. Six men at least comprised its crew, a +villainous-looking collection. + +Grenville had seen them close at hand, as they passed by the entrance +to the cave. That they contemplated an immediate landing seemed +probable, making as they were towards the crescent indentation along by +the estuary's mouth. + +Sidney had lost little time in vain regrets for the hour spent +uselessly below. He had gone at once to the gallery and hidden its +entrance with the door. He had caught up Elaine's well-finished nets +and the pole for a yoke she had been working to complete when the +visitors' sail was discovered and, only pausing to make certain he +could not be seen, went at once to the spring for extra jugs of water. + +The sun was already dipping redly in its bath when he brought his first +burden to the terrace. He paused to observe the maneuvers of the ship, +now coming about in the sunset breeze, just off the tiny inlet where +his catamaran was moored. + +The queer sharp sail was reefed while he was watching. He saw three +men heave overboard an anchor, which promptly sounded the shallow +depths where the strange craft presently swung. + +Considerably to Elaine's discomfort of mind, he hastened once more down +the trail. She was certain the Dyaks would go to the spring before +Sidney could got away. However, he brought another pair of jugs, an +armful of fuel, and a basket of fruit with the greatest possible +expedition. + +The boatmen made no movement to come ashore as long as the twilight +revealed them. The highest notes of their voices floated indistinctly +to the terrace, towards which the men were frequently seen to gesture, +but even these sounds were finally lost as darkness enwrapped the +island. + +Despite the fact that four of his water-jugs still remained in the +thicket near the spring, Grenville made no more trips for water that +evening, since Elaine was obviously distressed by the thought of the +risk he might incur. + +He was awake all night, maintaining the life of their smoldering fire, +and alert for any signs or sounds of movement in the clearing by the +trail. In one of the darkest hours before the dawn he heard the +familiar wails and moans of the headland cave rise briefly on the wind. + +From the anchored ship the cry was returned, as on the former occasion. +After that a droning chant came fitfully up from the darkness of the +waters, to die at last in the silence. Later he heard a shout, and +then vague accents of speech. But, when daylight arrived, the craft +had disappeared. + +Elaine had not yet risen. Grenville quietly moved from one extremity +of the headland to the other, searching the sea in all directions. He +was soon convinced the visitor had not decamped, but had moved the +vessel to one or another of the island's hidden inlets, that its +movements, as well as those of its crew, should be no longer observed. + +One lingering hope, which he had fostered in his breast, that the +natives might not prove a bloodthirsty lot of head-hunters after all, +he felt he must definitely abandon. This furtive move under cover of +the dark was not the sort of maneuver to excite one's trust or +confidence. + +Elaine was standing in her shelter door when at length he came once +more to his place by the top of the trail. She, too, had discovered +the absence of the native vessel. + +"I think another one came in the night," she said, when Sidney +explained his belief that the boat was in hiding behind the farther +walls. "I am sure I heard another voice." + +Grenville recalled the shout that had followed the chanting and felt +that this accounted for Elaine's conviction that more of the Dyaks had +arrived. + +"We have not been actually seen as yet," he assured her. "Our flag of +distress is not a positive sign of anyone's presence on the island. We +shall soon determine by their movements whether these chaps intend to +be friendly or not." + +"Would they hide if they meant to be friendly?" + +"It isn't a friendly sign---- You see, I'm still of opinion the +island's wail is a sound they rather dread. Have you noticed it's +rapidly failing?" + +"I've been ever so glad it seems so short and growing fainter." + +"Yes," he drawled. "I'm afraid it will soon cease altogether, when our +friends may buck up their courage and--show us their state of mind." + +"What can we do in the meantime?" + +"Sit tight and watch for developments." + +But all that day there was never so much as a sound or a sign of the +crew they had seen arrive. At one time, just before noon, Grenville +fancied some movement occurred in the rocks that crowned the second +hill. But he detected no further indication that someone might have +scaled the cliff to spy on himself and Elaine. + +He had never in his island rambles discovered a place by which that +hill could be surmounted. That easy access might be obtained on the +seaward side he readily understood. He fretted under the long +suspense--the uncertainty brooding over the island. He much preferred +that the visitors exhibit a downright hostile intent than to feel that +beneath the sinister calm of thicket and jungle might lurk insidious +death. + +He felt that Elaine and himself would lack for nothing, except fresh +meat, for at least a couple of days, yet he knew that even their fruit +supply was wholly inadequate for a siege, should the new arrivals make +up their minds to starve them on the terrace. Rather than weakly +submit to any such abominable tactics, he was fully determined to bring +about an attack. But how was an open question. + +When once again the night drew on the man was impatient and weary. He +had taken no rest after all his long previous day of toil, yet to sleep +and invite disaster up the trail was quite impossible. + +"We shall have to divide the night," said Elaine, with her customary +practical courage. "We have simply got to be sensible to preserve our +strength in case we have to fight." + +Grenville consented to give her the watch till midnight. The island's +wail in the late afternoon had seemed no fainter than that of the +previous day. He was quite convinced there would be no night attack. +Yet he stretched a cord across the trail that must pull at his arm and +so give an alarm should anyone enter at his gate. + +Doubtless in this confidence he fell asleep with more than usual +promptness. He was far more weary than he knew, and Nature demanded +her dues. + +Elaine was glad he could slumber so profoundly. The night was barely +cool; she was not in the least uncomfortable as she sat at Grenville's +side. She knew he would waken at the slightest tug on the cord so +quickly contrived to warn of an enemy's approach, and therefore felt a +decided sense of security, despite the living silence of the night. + +Long before midnight she was tense with nervous apprehension. Sounds +from the jungle arose from time to time where some animal prowled for +its prey. A whisper came up from the waves that lapped the cliff, and +haunted the air as if with spirits. She had steeled her heart, +however, and would not weaken by a jot. The hours would wear away +somehow, and meantime--Sidney was resting. + +She did not arise to walk about as Grenville would have done. Instead +she sat there, stiffly alert, turning her head from side to side, as +the minutes dragged heavily by, listening, staring through the +darkness, fancying shapes had begun to move in the shadows of the rocks. + +It was finally late in the dead of night when a sound of unusual +heaviness arose from the brink of the cliff. Had someone dropped a +rock in the sea, the disturbance could scarcely have been clearer. + +It had come, she thought, from over beyond the great black tree that +loomed against the sky. She wondered if perhaps she ought to speak to +Sidney. She put out her hand to touch him lightly on the shoulder, but +withdrew it again with a smile. He was sleeping so like a tired boy! + +The sound had doubtless been nothing to rouse the slightest alarm. If +it came again---- + +It did come again, less loud and distinct, but none the less +unmistakable. Her heart responded immediately with a quicker, heavier +beat. Perhaps she should try to ascertain the source or the cause of +the noise. She should feel so ashamed, so weak and burdensome, to +Grenville if she woke him for nothing at all. To look about was +assuredly part of her duty while on guard. It was only a step to the +edge of the terrace, across familiar ground. + +Chiding herself for unwarranted timidity and lack of courage, she +silently left her seat at last and stepped from Grenville's side. One +of his sticks was lying near. She took it in her hand. Then over +through the shadows she glided as noiselessly as a spirit, goading +herself to the ordeal with thoughts of the bold and fearless manner the +man would show were he in her place on this safe and childish excursion. + +She had heard nothing more, though she frequently paused to hold her +breath and await a further sound. It was wholly absurd, she told +herself, for her heart to pound so madly. Just there to the brink, +past those few large stones and shadows, and she would probably hear +some slopping of the waves that would quiet her liveliest suspicion. + +Despite her utmost efforts, however, she could not stand upright as she +went, and she could not continue quite to the edge without one or two +more pauses to catch her breath that would not come calmly to her lips. +But she forced herself all the way--save just the final cautious edging +to the scarp, where she suddenly knelt and leaned a little forward. + +She was still a bit short of the brink, but remained where she was to +calm her heart and listen. She could hear the water plainly. She felt +entitled to arise and hasten back to Sidney--since of course there was +nothing further to be heard. + +But, before she could gather the strength to rise, a series of short, +percussive sounds all but froze the core of her heart--so much did it +seem like someone heavily panting. + +Then, as she sat there staring helplessly at the jagged edge, four dark +things--four fingers--crept actively over the lip of the wall--and a +face abruptly followed, with a knife between its teeth! + +"Sidney!" she cried, and, madly thrusting the stick she had brought +against the dark and hideous countenance, she arose and fled wildly +from the place. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE SILENT VISITORS + +Grenville came running across the rock-strewn terrace as if guided by +superinstinct. He fancied a sound like a heavy splash arose from the +base of the shadowy wall, and momentarily sickened to the bottom of his +soul with the thought that Elaine had fallen over. + +He saw her darting towards him a moment later, however, and caught her +protectingly in his arms as she stumbled on a rock and plunged headlong +against his breast. + +She instantly regained her foothold and clung to his arm, brokenly +stammering her story and facing back the way she had come to show where +the loathsome apparition had appeared above the brink. + +Sidney hastened there at once, armed only with a stone. Elaine, in a +violent tremble, stood a few feet only away, having followed in +unabated dread. + +Not another sound could Grenville detect as he leaned above the +precipitous plunge attempting to pierce through the shadows and gloom, +as he watched for some movement below. Whether the man had fallen +backward from the lip, to go hurtling down through the darkness, or +whether he had accomplished some swift and silent retreat, Sidney had +no means of ascertaining. Only the ceaseless lap of the tide made a +whisper in the air. + +He arose and returned to Elaine. + +"I had no idea the cliff was scalable," he told her, quietly. "I doubt +if that means of spying will be attempted again---- It was a beastly +way of showing their intentions towards us, but I'm glad to know what +to expect." + +"Where has he gone?" Elaine faintly chattered. "If he should only be +waiting to come again---- Such a horrible fright---- I don't know why +I didn't faint, or what I did. I'm so weak I can hardly walk." + +"Oh, you're as right a trivet!" said Grenville, with a ready +comprehension of the need of keeping up her courage. "You can now +retire with a comforting sense of having saved the night." + +But Elaine's sense of comfort was a woefully negative quantity. She +was shaken to the center of her nerves. She dreaded to be left for a +moment. + +Grenville, however, sent her off to bed in the most peremptory manner. +A realizing sense that their trials had only well begun was his one +deeply settled conviction. + +"Cheer up!" he said to her, finally, "the worst is still to come." + +"I'll try," she answered, courageously. "But please don't let it come +to-night." + +For more than two hours she did not sleep, or even close her eyes. +Then she dragged her couch to a space outside her door. Every movement +made by Grenville, as he watchfully policed the edge of the terrace, +she thus followed for a time, half rising beneath her tiger-skin rug in +her dread to hear him go. + +When she finally slept she dreamed once more of the murderous eyes, the +clenched white teeth, and the flame-shaped blade she had seen at the +brink of the cliff. Grenville heard her laboredly call his name as in +her dreams she once more underwent her disturbing ordeal, but he did +not move from his seat. + +At dawn she was slumbering more peacefully, a smile on her lips as she +lay there facing his position. What a royal little princess of the +island she appeared with her colorful robe lying out upon the rocks, +her hair so much more golden than the tawny hide, and the warm, healthy +glow restored once more to her cheeks! + +Grenville was sure he had never half appreciated the wonder and +abundance of her hair, the darker penciling of her arching brows, the +delicate beauty of her features. + +He presently once more bent his attention on the island that rendered +up never a sign. + +Neither the jungle, the summits of the further hills, nor the sea that +stretched interminably about them enlightened his searching eyes. Save +for that night experience, it might have seemed preposterous that +enemies existed in the miniature world by which they were surrounded. + +He crept in his cautious manner to the crumbling edge where Elaine had +seen the face. There was nothing below in the water. He could readily +follow the bits of shelf and succession of pits in the wall, however, +whereby a daring, barefooted native might grope his way to the summit, +even in the dark. It would doubtless be possible here, he reflected, +to explode a bomb against the pitted surface and break away so large a +cavity as to render all future ascents impossible. But this was a task +to be deferred for a time, since he had no wish to acquaint the +visitors oversoon with the fact that he possessed an explosive. + +When he returned to the shelter again, Elaine had waked and carried her +couch to the cave. Despite the fact the hour was early and the sun +only well above the ocean's rim, she declared she had rested much +longer than was either wise or essential. + +Yet there was nothing to do for either, now that the day was begun. +Their breakfast of fruits was soon concluded, then of occupation there +was none. Grenville felt it inadvisable to move about too freely on +the terrace, and thereby risk betraying the fact they were only two in +number. A watcher stationed on the second hill could not, as a matter +of fact, examine the entire top of the terrace, or even discern its +principal features, but he might ascertain decidedly too much, should +they carelessly expose themselves to view. + +The morning proved for Grenville another exasperation. He thought of +nothing by way of labor he could advantageously perform. Their +defense, though crude, was fairly complete, and could scarcely be +improved. To watch the edge of the jungle, hour after hour, where +never a sign was vouchsafed his vigilance, was a dulling inactivity, +yet a highly essential precaution that was not to be neglected. + +By noon he was fairly in a mood to seek out the island's invaders +alone, to hasten some definite action. That the natives intended to +starve them into a visit to the spring seemed all too obvious. +Grenville felt assured, however, the water down in the cavern would +suffice for their needs, if no better could be relied upon, when once +their jars were empty, while gathering fruit would not be wholly +impossible under cover of the night. + +With the thought in mind that only the trail would be kept under watch +by the Dyaks, he made up his mind he could readily contrive a +ladder-like platform to extend from the brink, whereby the distance to +the nearest tree might be conveniently bridged to permit easy access to +the jungle. Of creepers and extra bamboo poles he had laid in ample +stock. For the lack of better employment, he began the construction of +his bridge when their meager luncheon had been finished. + +His mind, as he worked, spun schemes innumerable for the daily defeat +of the natives. Aware that as long as the terrace could be held +starvation and thirst would be their only unconquerable enemies, he +entertained no end of plans for catching fish without bait and even +trapping or fishing up small animals that might rove at night below the +cliff. From these reflections he returned to the men who prowled about +them after dark. + +To secure his cord across the trail and thereby provide an alarm, or +notice of the enemy's approach, from that direction, was a very simple +matter. When he finally invented, in his mind, a singular "rattle" to +guard the approach by the cliff, he dropped all employment on the +bridge at once and began forthwith on the other. + +What he made was a series of bamboo buckets, or cuplike sections of the +hollow tube, with stones suspended inside to knock against the walls +when the things were lightly shaken. These he intended to hang, one +beside another, in a line from the brink of the wall, where a climber +must strike them unawares and sound a resonant warning. + +But he found, on hanging a pair some ten feet down along the face, +where the man had climbed in the night, that the wind would sway them +to and fro against the rock and constantly ring their hollow tones. + +This defect he presently remedied by forming a frame, some ten feet +long and one foot wide, in which all his cups were suspended, or +moored, both top and bottom. They were thus so lightly hung that the +smallest jar against the frame would joggle them all to musical +utterance, while the wind could have no effect on any single one. + +The entire frame was lowered down till it rested a bit unevenly on two +projecting shelves of rock, where it leaned a trifle outward like a +picture on a wall, as the creepers that held it from falling were +finally made secure. When Grenville, by way of a trial, nudged it once +with a pole thrust down against it for the purpose, it rattled out a +decisive alarm that one could have heard from the trail. + +Grenville thereupon brought out a bomb from his store and lowered it +down below the frame, and six or eight feet to the side. This was +secured not only by the fuse, but likewise by more of the creeper. + +Elaine, who during his absence had maintained the watch of the trail, +now ran to the place, at Grenville's signal, for a moment's inspection +of the whole arrangement and instruction concerning its use. + +It was while they were there that the haunting wail arose for a gasping +spasm. It had practically failed. Sidney doubted if its loudest note +could have been heard as far as the spring. But still the end of the +tiresome day developed no attack. + +Grenville was completely puzzled by the tactics the boatmen had +adopted. That they knew Elaine was present on the terrace there could +be not a shadow of doubt. Even if the man she had thrust away from the +cliff-edge fell to the sea and was dashed to pieces, or drowned, his +friends who had brought him around to the place must have heard her +voice and recognized its feminine quality. + +They would likewise know she could hardly be alone, and would guess her +companions were not numerous or likely to be armed. No plundered +wreckage lay about the shore from which castaways could have drawn +ammunition or rifles. It was utterly impossible for any ignorant +natives to imagine the loading of a cannon or the making of bombs from +materials on the place. + +What, then, was the reason of their long delay? They could scarcely be +waiting for reinforcements. They would hardly be dreading the island's +"spirit" now, since the sounds had practically ceased, and one man had +dared ascend the cliff with a knife between his teeth. That they +feared an open attack by day and dreaded the tiger by night was the +only tenable theory that Grenville could devise. + +Yet the fact of the matter was that, until the cavern "spirit" should +be absolutely silenced, the superstitious Dyaks could only be forced by +the bulldozing threats and ferocity of their fiendish leader to set +foot upon the land. It was he who had sent the climber up the wall, +having thrust a pistol behind the fellow's ear. A certain tragic +outcome of this premature adventure had been wholly attributed by the +victim's companions to the anger of the wailing soul who inhabited the +headland. + +The bridge, constructed of bamboo supports, was a simple affair, +completed and ready by sunset. Before the darkness was absolute, +Grenville conveyed it along to the eastern jutting of the cliff, slid +it down to a ledge below the level of the terrace, and easily thrust +the end across to the nearest tree, where it rested securely on the +branches. + +He found that it bore his weight remarkably well. With an ordinary +length of pliable ladder he could reach the ground beneath the tree +without the slightest difficulty, thereby escaping all the undergrowth +and broken rock that would render a straight descent from the brink not +only a noisy piece of business, but likewise one of considerable hazard +and discomfort. And descending thus, instead of employing the trail, +he could certainly expect to escape the shrewdest observation on the +part of any native set to watch for some night adventure. + +Indeed, so alluring became the prospect of leaving the hill, to conduct +some helpful and informing explorations, that he could scarcely wait +for the shadows of night to settle on the island before he should test +his apparatus. + +Elaine was frankly and confessedly alarmed when at length he could +resist the temptation no longer and announced his intentions for +expending a portion of the evening. + +He set an alarm at the gate on the trail, however, and, arming himself +with his heavy, cleaver-like implement for chopping, instructed his +worried companion to fire the cannon without delay should attack +develop in his absence. + +"I am sure you will have no visitors, but, in case you do, don't wait +to see who it is, or how many," he said; "let the little gun count the +numbers." + +"But suppose--it might be you!" + +"I shall not return that way. You may look for me back in fifteen or +twenty minutes at the most. I feel it's important to know what is +going on, as well as to gather a bit of fruit, and see what I may be +enabled to do by way of setting some traps for game. If one of my +snares could be brought a trifle closer, it might provide us with the +meat we certainly ought to have." + +Without another word, she watched him depart for his bridge and ladder +to the jungle. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +DEATH AS A BROTHER + +Despite the ease with which, in theory, he expected to descend to the +ground, Grenville was fully ten minutes escaping from the tree. + +A number of twigs that he could not have passed without creating a +disturbance he cut away with his knife. His ladder was also badly +caught and stubbornly refused to be adjusted. One violent rustling of +a heavy limb he caused when it finally slipped straight down, with his +feet all but striking on the ground. + +He remained perfectly silent, ready for immediate retreat, regaining +his breath and straining his ears for the slightest sound, for a long, +uneventful minute. When he finally drew his sharp brass cleaver from +his pocket and started through the thicket, there was not the slightest +sound in all the region about him, either of animals or men. + +Into one of the numerous wild creatures' trails he found his way with +greater ease because of his thorough familiarity with all that end of +the island. + +The trail, as he knew, led down by the spring, where a branch wound +first towards the estuary and then across the bed of the rill, where it +cut the path through the axis of the island. + +Almost as noiselessly as one of the creatures hunted or hunting in the +hours of blackest shadow, he made his way down to the rear of the pool, +where he paused as before to listen. The squeal of some little +nocturnal beast and the patter of something paddling about in the water +convinced him at once the Dyaks were certainly not there, or else were +most skillfully hidden. + +With a steadily increasing conviction that the boatmen would stick to +their craft at night, he felt his boldness strengthen. The importance +of discovering the enemy's position was duly impressed on his mind. He +felt that once he could gain the principal pathway down the island's +length he could follow the edge of a narrow bit of clearing, off to the +left of the rotting old barque, and thus arrive above the inlet, where +he was certain their vessel was concealed. + +No less quietly than before he continued out around the spring, then +turned to the left, in the narrow runway of the animals, and emerged +behind the estuary, where absolute stillness prevailed. + +He presently fancied, as he slowly continued towards the old-time +wreck, that a murmur of distant voices arose from off at the left. +This became a certainty when he reached his irregular clearing. +Moreover, he was halfway only down this slope of rock and thicket when +simultaneously, out on the tide, some eighty or ninety feet apart, two +matches were lighted, as he could see, for pipes or cigarettes. + +Elaine had been right! There were two of the boats that were anchored +here together! + +But, although more murmurs continued to arise, where a desultory +conversation was from time to time renewed on either craft, he could by +no means ascertain either the number of the Dyaks or what it was of +which they talked. Satisfied with what he had discovered, and certain +now the fellows were afraid to remain on the island after dark, he +returned up the slope with an easier stride, determined to see what +might be done by way of collecting some fruit. + +He came once more to the main trail through the island, pausing to +hearken once again as a sound of splashing in the inlet came +uncertainly on the breeze. Doubtless the crew had dipped a pail of +water, he thought, or thrown overboard some refuse from their dinner. + +He had no more than headed again towards the hill where Elaine was +waiting, and swung about from the branch to the principal trail, when, +without the slightest warning sound, he suddenly and heavily collided +with someone moving as noiselessly as himself in the opposite direction. + +He only saw that the man thus encountered was bare of shoulders and +taller than himself as he thrust out to fend the fellow off. He knew +on the instant it was one of the boldest of the head-hunters, if not +indeed their chief. + +The fellow had grunted at the impact, and, quick to discover it was not +a member of the vessels' crews, abruptly sounded one triumphant yell as +he reached for his knife and lunged forward. + +There were answering cries from a few feet only behind him--which +Grenville heard as he crashed precipitately through the near-by thicket +and made for the trail to the barque. + +The hue and cry was instantly raised as the fellow pursuing came wildly +through the jungle on his track. Shouting instructions to his +following, this obvious leader of the prowling band continued as +closely as possible on Grenville's heels, while the others headed +swiftly towards the estuary, convinced that their man would dart around +and make for his camp on the hill. + +The chief of the natives entertained the same belief, as Grenville +immediately comprehended. Having planned exactly as they had supposed +he would, Sidney altered his course on the instant, dived down on +all-fours in an animal path he had frequently followed before, and thus +crept noiselessly off to the left, once more towards the plundered +wreck. + +Almost at once an ominous silence reigned as before in the place. The +natives, having soon missed their quarry, stood perfectly still, at +command of their chief, to listen and gain a new guidance. + +Tempted to put all possible distance between himself and his pursuers, +Grenville continued on, a bit incautiously. A branch he had thrust +from before his face slipped back before he had intended its release. +At once the listening head-hunters plunged forward again in his +direction. + +Fortunately, Sidney retained his presence of mind and continued to +crawl on hands and knees, instead of attempting swifter flight through +the branches that closed above the trail. With the sounds of his eager +enemy approaching to a sweat-starting proximity, he dared lie perfectly +motionless on the earth, till he heard them quietly exploring as before +on the lines he must take to regain the terrace at the rear. + +As silently now as a shadow, he wormed his way forward as before. He +had gained perhaps a matter of twenty or thirty feet in this manner +when, on coming at last to the edge of the clearing where the old +barque lay, he heard the natives beating back, convinced that he had +not passed. + +For one moment only was he seized by indecision. Then he darted across +the clearing unobserved and, slipping between the ribs of the wreck, as +he had on a previous occasion, went rapidly groping to the cabin, where +sat the mummy-skeleton in chains. + +He had not achieved this maneuver in absolute silence, having +sacrificed something to speed. Two of the head-hunters broke through +the fringe of the thicket with furtive swiftness, as he noted through a +hole in the planks. They were followed, a little further on, by the +tall man first encountered, and later by a small but constantly moving +companion, who disappeared again. + +At a given signal two of the creatures ran swiftly about the barque, +one going in either direction. They had evidently expected to corner +their intended victim crouching behind the empty shell. When they +presently returned to their leader, a brief consultation was held. + +Grenville watched them breathlessly, aware that Elaine's position, +alone on the hill, was tremendously jeopardized every moment he now +remained away. Should more of the Dyaks be summoned from the +boats--the time would be short for prayers. + +Considerably to his relief, the three dark figures resumed the search +along the edge of the clearing. + +They were gone from sight for several minutes, and again returned, +apparently persuaded their quarry had not escaped them back to the +camp. One even ventured to approach the barque and peer through its +rotted ribs. + +Grenville had quietly moved aside, though the darkness would have +shielded him completely. When the fellow rejoined his companions +again, the chief issued new commands. A brief expostulation followed. +Sidney was certain that one of two things portended. Either the leader +had ordered his man to go down to the boats and compel a force to land +and storm the now half-guarded hill, which the fellow argued was more +than he could do with Dyaks afraid of the darkness as well as the +island's spirit, or the order was--to board and search the wreck. + +Either was sufficiently disquieting, as Grenville controlled his +breathing and watched for the next development to follow. He presently +saw the tall, bare-shouldered native strike his protesting follower a +savage blow across the face, thrusting something that gleamed against +the shaken creature's ear so soon as he had righted. + +The craven was then ready to obey. He accepted something that +Grenville could not see, doubtless another revolver, and came forward +as if to enter the old ship's hull--but not through the hole in her +side. Meantime, the fourth of the party had once more appeared from +the growth. He apparently suggested that crews from the vessels be +summoned, doubtless to attack the hill. Also he presumably volunteered +to go and compel their attendance on their chief. His gestures and +those of the leader, as they thus conversed in murmurs, were all +towards the inlet where the boats were anchored or towards the distant +hill. + +He who had plainly been commanded to enter and search the wreck took +advantage of the colloquy to linger with the group. It was not until +the small and active demon of the lot had darted away to land more men +that the chief once more turned his attention to the coward. + +Whining his impotent excuses and expostulations, the fellow +affrightedly climbed upon the deck and was ordered to explore the +cabin. That he might be killed by the desperate white man possibly +hiding in the vessel's hold, the chief was well aware. The sacrifice +of a man more or less was unimportant--provided the quarry was thereby +discovered in a hole where he could not escape. + +This fact was fully appreciated by two other persons concerned. One of +these persons was Grenville, the second the terrified native. This +shivering wretch, who had known for years of the terrible guardian +sitting in iron chains within, blundered noisily about in the upper +quarters, so afraid he could have offered no defense to a child's +attack. + +Grenville was undecided as to what he were wiser to do. To sink his +cleaver through the Dyak's skull would presently be comparatively +simple. And, should absolutely silent death overtake this miserable +slave of the man outside, the moral effect might be of value. It might +be supposed by his companions he had died of fright alone. Yet Sidney +argued that any fate whatsoever silencing the fellow now might be +construed as proof of his own presence in the wreck. + +Instantly deciding that, once they concluded he was not here, the Dyaks +would leave and permit his escape, Grenville silently crept to the open +door beside the dead man held in chains, slipped behind the rotted old +partition, and, without a sound, replaced the door almost as he had +originally found it. + +The chief had meantime approached the barque, to order his man to the +hold. To the musty cabin where "Buli" sat, the fellow was forced to +stumble. Some report he quavered in accents of terror was not received +with favor, and a new command was issued. + +Grenville made ready to drop the man, should he dare push open the +door. He was certain the craven had been ordered to this fatal +exploration. But, instead, the whining demon lighted a match, to +reveal all the contents of the place. + +By the yellow light both this fellow and the leader, peering through +the side, met the vacant stare of "Buli's" eyes--and both were +frightened to utterance. The chief's brief note was a rigmarole of +charm, to avert the evil eye. His slave's shrill performance was a +scream, as the fellow reeled back, stumbling blindly away and falling +as he went. + +The pistol he carried was discharged. The fellow was wounded in the +hip. His groans, as he dragged himself out on the deck, were drowned +by the curses of the leader. + +This dominant brute, having noticed the door where Sidney stood +concealed, now ordered the second of his men to explore where the first +had failed. As Grenville once more looked out through a ragged hole to +observe the proceedings, this second fellow began a somewhat stouter +objection than his predecessor had done, but was even more promptly +cowed or persuaded to submission. + +Meanwhile, the cries of a horde of Dyaks from the boats arose from the +jungle below. They had evidently landed with considerable willingness +of spirit, as Grenville was thoroughly aware. He thought of Elaine +with a sudden sinking of the vitals. No sooner had the second of the +natives started to mount to the deck, where number one still lay +groaning, than a wild idea shot into Sidney's mind. At any cost, he +must make one dash for the hill. + +He quietly slipped to the cabin again, where "Buli" had long been +captain and crew of the barque. The one brief glance he bestowed, +through the hole, on the leader of the murderous demons, now hastening +to the place, showed that ingenious savage standing perhaps a rod away +and calling to the on-coming crews. + +The fellow on deck was making sufficient noise to mask a fair +disturbance in the cabin. Taking instant advantage of this fact, +Grenville groped downward with his hands--and encountered "Buli" +promptly. + +"I need your services, brother," he murmured, grimly, and, finding the +chain that shackled the sitting skeleton, he placed one foot upon its +upper end and tore the staple entirely out of the rotten wood it +pierced. + +Bodily lifting the mummified thing in his arms, he hastened forward, to +the hole that he alone had dared to utilize, broken through the +decaying hulk, where he passed first his burden and then himself +between the ancient ribs. + +A cry had been sounded from within the barque. The chief of the Dyaks +suddenly turned and rushed, knife in hand, upon the man he beheld +escaping from the hold. + +Grenville waited for him, deliberately. Just as the fellow lunged +actively forward, Sidney thrust the hideous effigy of a human being +into the arms and against the face of his wildly stabbing assailant and +nimbly leaped towards the trail. + +A sound of horror broke from the Dyak's lips as he rolled on the earth +with the skeleton rattling down upon him. But a brief time only was he +prostrate there with his terror. Uttering screams as shrill as a +woman's and darting swiftly to meet his crew of men, who suddenly +swarmed from the thicket, he headed a wild, fanatic pursuit where +Grenville was speeding for the terrace. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE GIRL BEHIND THE GUN + +Alone on the hill, and already strung to the highest tension of dread +by Grenville's long absence, after what he had said of a prompt return, +Elaine had been struck with alarm to the core of her being, as the +various sounds came clearly up from the jungle about the disintegrated +wreck. + +It was fears for Sidney, not for herself, that had finally possessed +her fluttering heart as the muffled shot and subsequent cries floated +uncertainly from down there in the darkness. She knew that Grenville +had no gun, and was, therefore, certain it was he who must have +suffered a wound. + +With a blazing torch she had run to the edge of the terrace, to light +Sidney home, if, by any bare chance, he had escaped. She was there, +transfixed by apprehension, when at length, with cries like a pack of +wolves, the Dyaks came racing towards the clearing. + +Meantime Grenville had gained a considerable lead of the devils on his +heels, and, on passing the spring, had caught a glimpse of Elaine with +her brand of fire. He paused for a second to shout essential +directions, lest she might have forgotten in her plight. + +"Don't fire, Elaine, till you see them on the trail!" + +With that he darted abruptly to the left, for the animal trail that +would lead him to his ladder. He had no more than gained it when, with +a chorus of demoniac yells and screams of triumph, the straggling +pursuers broke madly into the clearing and darted across it for the +trail. + +Even then, afraid that Elaine might fail to perform her allotted task, +Grenville sped up his ladder like a creature of the wild, and came to +the end of his platform. + +The Dyaks were immediately storming the barrier, the breach of which +was promptly discovered, and Sidney's alarm was jerkily resounding. + +Like a spirit of maternity, nerved to any ordeal by the sense of +protecting one she loved, Elaine crouched low beside the cannon, her +dilated eyes intent upon the trail. She had clung to a hope that +Grenville might yet appear in time to take charge of the gun. But +suddenly now, to her terror, four or more figures darkly appeared on +the ledge above the gate, coming swiftly towards her position. + +She thrust the torch desperately down upon the fuse, saw the powder +spew out a shower of sparks, and rolled and tumbled hotly from the +place. + +She was suddenly agonized by the thought that the thing would fail, but +Grenville had barely reached the solid rock when the cannon abruptly +thundered. + +A wide-spreading cataract of fire was projected in a red-and-yellow +cone across the space between the brink and the wall behind the trail, +as the powder poured its punishment into the ranks of the creatures +leaping upward to destruction. The detonation, sharp, crisp, +appallingly loud in the stillness of the island, fairly stunned Elaine, +now kneeling helplessly among the rocks. + +Shrieks of dismay and sudden agony immediately succeeded the explosion, +while its echoes still rattled wildly back from the distant hills of +rock. In the utter darkness, by contrast following the one brief +glare, there was nothing to be seen along the path. But wounded men +were staggering downward, in blind retreat, already abandoned by their +unscathed companions, in flight below the gate. + +Grenville had run to his store of bombs, instead of coming straight to +the gun. He meant to be prepared against a second attack. As his +active figure now appeared where he hastened brinkward, watching both +trail and clearing, Elaine beheld him at last. She arose and stumbled +towards him, her feet still heavy with her dread, her heart wildly +leaping in joy. + +"Were you shot?" she cried. "Are you hurt?" + +"No, right as a fiddler!" he assured her, quickly, glancing down at the +shadowy path. "I only wish I could bait them again and lead the +remainder to the gun!" + +He charged the piece at once, having brought for the purpose a bamboo +canister of powder, open and heaping at the end. This he thrust +complete down the muzzle of the cannon, to be rammed home with dozens +of his slugs. + +Cries still arose from the jungle, more faintly, now, as the Dyaks +retreated down the island. Excitement still rang in the air. Neither +Grenville nor Elaine felt certain the attack would not be renewed. +There was something dark that Sidney could see, crawling painfully down +the incline of the trail, assisting something more inert. He purposely +shielded Elaine from the sight, lest she understand too well. He much +preferred that the Dyaks recover their possible slain from about the +place. + +Elaine was still too tensely wrought for reaction. She could hardly +understand how the situation had been changed so abruptly from attack +into utter rout. Her ears were still ringing from the cannon's +deafening roar. She had taken no time to comprehend the results of +what she had accomplished. + +"How shall we know if they do come back?" she questioned, excitedly. +"They probably broke the alarm." + +"I'll repair it soon. Did it ring? But, of course, you couldn't have +taken time to hear. Did you understand me when I shouted?" + +"I heard it, horribly shaken," said Elaine. "I heard so many awful +noises. I heard you call, of course. But, perhaps, I didn't wait long +enough, after all. I don't seem to remember. I waited as long as I +could. I hope I only frightened them away!" She sat down, overtaken +at last by weakness in her limbs. + +The torch she had used had fallen from her hand. It barely smoldered +on the rocks. Grenville extinguished it completely, then continued to +prime the cannon as before, with powder sprinkled on the vent, and a +fuse laid for several feet along the ledge. He was glad to note the +little piece had been securely held in place upon its log by its +wrappings and the weight of heavy stones. + +"I'll go down and examine the gate," he said, aware that, though the +Dyaks had undoubtedly suffered severely, a still attack might yet be +attempted in the dark. Therefore, leaving Elaine to recover as best +she might, he was soon moving cautiously along the narrow ledge. + +The night had precipitated war. That he and Elaine would be called +upon to endure war's customary hazards, hardships, and horrors he was +grimly ready to concede. She had made an amazingly fine beginning. It +was certainly not the time for him to weaken her now by misplaced +tenderness, vastly as he wished to spare her shock and trial. + +The crawling objects he had seen from above had vanished beyond the +solid wall he had built to shut out the tiger. All the way down to +this barrier he made his way, Elaine meanwhile watching from the cliff. +There were dark, irregular blotches here and there along the rocks, and +on these he scraped a hiding film of dust. How much of the contents of +the gun had been expended uselessly against the wall could not be +determined in the dark. He felt assured a heavy toll had been +collected on the trail, if not in killed, at least in wounded and, +doubtless, disabled men. + +The cord arranged to sound his alarm had been broken in the charge. He +found the ends, repaired the damage, crept further along to scan the +silent and deserted clearing, then promptly returned to secure a +basket, and boldly went down to gather extra fruit. + +"I wish I knew where to get some meat," he told Elaine, as he came with +his plunder to the terrace. "I don't know when I shall have another +hour so absolutely safe." + +But beyond removing his ladder and bridge, he performed no more labor +that night. It was not yet late. Elaine was too excited to retire. +She sat with him, nervously listening to all the far sounds of the +jungle, as he kindled their fire to a blaze. + +"I wonder how long we can keep it up--go on as we are going now," she +reflected aloud at last. "Mustn't they get us in the end?" + +"Well--not till we've made it a fair exchange, at least." + +"There must be a dozen of them about us, six or more to our one." + +"There were, perhaps, an hour ago, but hardly so many now. One shot +himself, down in the jungle, gunning for me, while the cannon---- But +your intuition was accurate--a second boatload did arrive to join the +first." He added a brief recital of what he had seen and what had +taken place at the rotted barque, sparing the details which, he felt, +would more alarm than assure her, respecting "Buli" and the drama +played at the clearing. + +"Two boatloads!" she repeated. "What reason could they possibly have +for coming at last to this island? They couldn't have known we were +here--at least not the first who came." + +"No," said Grenville, slowly, reflecting that the time for his +revelation was, perhaps, a trifle overdue, "they came, I believe, to +secure the treasure in the cave." + +Elaine glanced up at him quickly. + +"The treasure you have joked about before?" + +"It was not altogether a joke. The treasure is there--or, at least, it +was, before I removed it to the passage." + +"Not something actually valuable? What sort of things do you mean?" + +"Gold and precious stones--a lot of heavy plunder--enough of the jewels +alone to fill a hat." + +Elaine slightly gasped. "And they came for that? And you have taken +it out--have hidden it, rather--and you think, perhaps, they have +missed it?" + +"No, I hardly believe they have been to the cave as yet. It isn't +theirs, the beggars! Not that it's of any account to us, but I don't +feel sure if I gave it up they'd depart and leave us in peace. At any +rate, I don't propose they shall have it." + +Elaine was silent for a moment, and filled with wonder. + +"How did you manage to find it?" + +"Entirely by accident. I pulled down a stone that concealed a secret +chamber, where someone had walled it in. It has doubtless been there +for many generations--as these fellows have probably known." + +"And suppose they find the chamber looted--may they not be all the more +savage and eager to tear us to pieces?" + +"Well--I should say their ambition in that respect has already about +reached its limit." + +Elaine could still feel her heart pounding heavily in her bosom. She +returned to her original query. + +"If we go on like this for a week, what then? Is there anything in the +world to prevent them from waiting and waiting and waiting, till----" +She did not finish her sentence, but the slightest shudder shook her +frame. + +"They were goaded to action to-night," said Grenville, hopefully. +"They may feel sufficiently aggrieved to return for more. If not--they +must be invited." + +"But surely you'll not attempt such a venture as this again?" + +Grenville rubbed at his jaw. "I wish it might be duplicated! No such +luck is likely. But I feel very certain we'd both rather cash in +fighting than to starve like rats in a trap." + +"Yes," Elaine faltered, in her quiet way of courage, "but--if it has to +come--let's try to--receive it here together." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +DYAK DARTS AND METHODS + +Long-distance fighting began an hour after sunrise in the morning. It +was rather a long-distance attack, since Grenville, armed only with the +cannon, was powerless to retaliate, except at great expense of +ammunition, and with questionable results. + +One of the Dyaks had stationed himself on the central hill of the +island with some sort of ancient rifle. He took a deliberate shot at +Sidney the moment that unsuspecting thorn in their sides chanced to +make an appearance on the western section of the terrace. The bullet +went wide, having struck among the rocks some fifteen feet away, +arousing Grenville's contempt. + +Not even Elaine was greatly frightened by this overture from the enemy, +whose marksman could have but a limited view of that unused section of +the headland. + +But the first small dart that sped lightly up from the jungle, to drop +almost at Grenville's feet, was another affair altogether. He knew the +thing was not only sharp, but literally soaked with poison. It had +only to prick through the skin of one's hand, or even, perhaps, through +the thinness of their garments, to perform its deadly function. The +merest chance shot was thus extremely likely to achieve what the +rifleman could not. + +These hideous little messengers of agony and death were rained all +morning on the terrace. They fell near the furnace for keeping fire; +they dropped by the door of the shelter. A few even sped as far as the +powder magazine, where Grenville found them on the rock and gravel roof. + +Ample protection was afforded by remaining under cover, but this was +not altogether wise or safe, except, perhaps, for Elaine. Grenville +felt he must constantly watch the clearing. In the light of day his +alarm could be discovered and removed, to permit an attack too sudden +to be opposed. + +He, therefore, constructed a bamboo shield, with which to protect his +head and a part of his body, as he moved about among the rocks, or +concealed himself near the cannon. + +Not more than twice in all the morning did he see so much as one of the +tubes--the long, slender blowguns of the hidden foe--while this silent +bombardment continued. It was useless to think of slewing about his +little brass piece for a shot at mere motionless jungle. It was +equally impossible, he confessed, to excite the Dyaks to another charge +until they should finally make up their minds a sudden assault would +succeed. + +He was rather surprised they had made no attempt to rush him at +earliest dawn. The ledge was, however, very narrow. It afforded the +one and only approach, and the dire disaster of the night before had +rendered far more cowardly the set of treacherous and utterly craven +murderers these boatmen undoubtedly were. + +All afternoon the darts continued falling, intermittently--and +Grenville made no response. His silence, indeed, was a mystery which +the Dyaks not only failed to understand, but, likewise, a little +dreaded. That he had no rifle they were thoroughly convinced. But +that roar of his cannon they had understood, and to hear it again they +had no appetite. Moreover, its deadly hail and detonation had come so +unexpectedly, from the erstwhile silent terrace, that they knew not +what to expect concerning the future. + +Not without hopes of actually slaying some of the unknown forces on the +crest of the hill, they shot an exceptional number of their darts from +the nearby thicket as the sun at last declined. Grenville, having at +length established what he thought to be a line of the little missiles' +flight, hastily made and bound up a bomb of no more than two pounds' +weight. + +This, with a fuse too short for ordinary safety, he finally carried to +the westward brink with one of his glowing coals of fire. + +The patient rifleman, waiting on his hill, immediately blazed away, as +before--and missed the entire bulk of rock. Grenville paid not even +the tribute of a glance at the opposite summit, as he thrust his fuse +down upon his coal. + +The hiss of the powder gave him a start, so swiftly did it travel +towards the bomb. With all his might he threw the thing outward at the +shadowed spot whence he thought the darts were flying. + +The quick, sharp bark and the patch of flame behind the design of a +palm leaf, came like a clap of thunder, just before the second when the +bomb would have struck on the earth. + +A yell of dismay, or anguish, or both, and a scattering shower of +shredded greenery supplied the only report of results that Grenville +was destined to receive. The flight of darts was ended. A few hurried +movements in the thicket, and a groan that Sidney felt was smothered, +were the only signs vouchsafed him that the powder had not been cheaply +wasted. + +"It's a poor way to fight the hidden devils," he told Elaine, as he +came once more to the shelter, "but it may possibly serve to keep them +further away, and force them to different tactics." + +It certainly had this latter effect, but not immediately. + +There was no attack that night, and no disturbance in the jungle, +though Sidney descended to the thicket and returned, not only with more +fresh fruit he had located during the day, but also with a small wild +hog he had captured in one of the older traps which the Dyaks had +failed to discover. + +The morning developed nothing aggressive, save the presence of the +marksman on hill number two with the rifle that Grenville said would +only be deadly around a corner. Some plan of patient waiting appeared +to have been matured in the Dyaks' mind, since one of their boats +issued forth at last from its place, to circle about the headland like +a vulture atilt for prey, while down in the cover of the greenery other +natives undoubtedly lurked. + +They affrighted a flock of parrots here and there, from time to time, +or set the timid monkeys to chattering and leaping through the upper +foliage, apprising Grenville thus that the thickets were haunted below. +No darts sped upward from the jungle edge, however, which, Sidney +argued, might signify that the men with the deadly blow-guns possibly +hoped to excite over-confidence in the keepers of the terrace, who +might finally expose themselves to fewer, but more accurate, shots. + +In his forced inactivity, Grenville once more waxed impatient. He felt +the heat of the blazing sun, which was daily growing more intense. He +chafed at the thought of doing nothing while their water supply was +steadily diminishing, and the Dyaks apparently planned to subdue him by +thirst or famine. He dared not risk an exposure of the door to the +secret passage by going for water to the cave below, especially as all +his jugs were porous and permitted the water's escape by percolation, +whereas the supply in the basins below might be better preserved where +it was. + +A hundred useless plans for taking the war to the enemy's camp were +presented to his mind, always to be promptly abandoned. He could only +utilize his artillery for defense, and could not even hasten an attack. +He could devise no means of ascertaining how many of the natives had +either been killed or disabled. That fully ten survived, however, he +felt was probable. One or two at the most was all the little cannon +would be likely to rake in a charge. + +Early in the afternoon there was ample evidence of exceptional activity +down in the heavy jungle growth, though none of the Dyaks was seen. +The movements of birds and animals, as well as the swaying of branches +or trees in various thickets under the cliff, sufficiently advertised +the facts. + +Grenville was puzzled to understand what might be occurring, till, at +length, he discovered that some of the fruit-bearing trees, on which he +had counted for supplies, had been quietly denuded of their burdens, or +even altogether destroyed. One large banana palm with fruit of +exceptional quality, he even beheld as it toppled to the earth, where +some fiendish head-hunter hacked through its fibrous trunk. + +Something sank in his breast as he witnessed this atrocious vandalism, +and realized his helplessness to avert the oncoming famine of himself +and the girl in his charge. That the spring would be guarded, night +and day, was, of course, a foregone conclusion. And not even a plan +for goading the Dyaks to another attack came in working order to his +brain. + +That was a thoroughly disheartening day, sultry, and fraught with +menace from all directions, as the Dyak craft continued to hover about +upon the sea, and the pillaging continued in the thickets. All the +work was, moreover, silent, grim, and ominous, with once in a while a +dart spinning swiftly up from the tangle below, or, from time to time, +an echoing shot coming from the opposite height with a bullet singing +crazily by, or ripping along the rocks. + +Sidney made no attempt to descend that night, aware of the folly of an +exploration into the enemy's lines, and the utter impossibility of +discovering fruit in a nearer portion of the jungle. His entire wild +hog had been roasted. For, perhaps, two days the meat might keep, in +the coolness of the passage to the cave. + +Once more the night was uneventful, and silent. Once more came the +day, and a blazing hot sun poured unveiled caloric on the summit of the +terrace, where sultriness drank up the water that oozed through the +substance of the jugs. + +"I've got to do something," Sidney declared. "We can't go on like +this." Elaine was already denying herself the food and water she +required. "I shall try to invent some means of enticing the creatures +to the cave below--and, perhaps, explode a mine. If the watchers on +that hovering ship saw me disappear in the hole, it is rather more than +likely they would follow, thinking they had me bottled." + +Elaine always manifested interest, no matter what his scheme. + +"But how could that possibly be managed, now that you haven't your +raft?" + +"I think by a ladder and platform, the ladder anchored as we had it the +day I came up with your assistance, and the platform arranged of bamboo +poles, which I can carry down through the passage. It will take me +some time to get it ready--but something has got to be done." + +Elaine's eyes brightened with hope. + +"Please say there is something I can do to help," she begged. "You +work so hard and constantly." + +"There will be rather warm employment for us both," he assured her, in +his former way of cheer, "particularly towards the end." + +He brought his neglected ladder to the shelter, where Elaine was +presently as busy as himself, rewinding the rungs in the creepers, and +testing it all for strength. Just what his final plan would be she did +not understand, but her confidence in his ability and resourcefulness +was almost wholly without bounds. + +The usual vigilance was not for a moment neglected, but nothing +occurred in the world below, save a repetition of the former day's +activity on the part of the unseen natives. It was not until well in +the afternoon that the Dyaks' plan developed. + +A breeze had sprung up from the north, bringing gushes of heat and +jungle fragrance across the summit of the hill. Then, at length, as if +this steadying wind was the final agency for which they had waited, the +Dyaks set up a queer, wild chant from various places in the thicket. + +A few minutes later a cloud of smoke arose from one of their centers. +This was followed by several more. A huge, thick smudge was soon +rising upward from the earth, and rolling on the breeze to envelop all +the headland. + +The Dyaks had gathered enormous quantities of resinous wood, and had +deliberately fired the jungle! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +A BATTLE IN THE SMOKE + +No doubts could be for long entertained as to what the smudge was +expected to accomplish. Its dense and suffocating fumes not only +rendered a further watch upon the clearing or the trail practically +useless, but it seemed to Grenville highly improbable that he or Elaine +could for long survive the pungent reek they were soon obliged to +breathe. + +There were two slight elements only in their favor. One was the +passageway, through the rock, where clean fresh air was constantly +flowing upward; the other was the very breeze itself that swept the +smoke upon them. It frequently split the cloud of black and gray upon +two juttings of the headland, or even beat it down and mingled its own +overheated but acceptable ozone with the otherwise stifling fume. + +Anger and horror together had lodged in Grenville's being. That the +Dyaks would soon attempt a sneak upon them, under cover of the cloud, +he felt was as certain as that hideous death must be their portion, +were this business sufficiently prolonged. Even retirement to the +cavern could avail them nothing but a short delay of the fate they must +finally face when their food and water should be presently exhausted. + +Under cover of the drifting smudge, he sent Elaine to the passage. As +long as a breath remained in his lungs he resolved he would not desert +his post, where he waited for attack by the trail. To permit the +fiends to swarm upon the terrace, destroy or capture his powder and the +gun, and prison himself and Elaine in the narrow gallery, was a thought +that aroused him through and through. + +All further contemplation of his scheme for alluring the Dyaks to the +cavern was necessarily abandoned. The most he could do was to watch as +before, and, perhaps, convey his bombs and stores to the passage, as +time and his highly essential vigilance permitted. + +Back and forth through the smoke he moved upon the hill, seeking the +better air that came occasionally through the billows, and listening +intently for the faintest sound from the always ready alarm. When an +hour had gone and no attack had developed, his heart underwent a new +despair. He began to doubt that the Fates would supply him an +opportunity for further retaliation on the fiends below, who could +finally overcome him with the fumes. + +The drift of smoke was intermittently broken, near the trail, where +apparently a current of wind that assumed a rotation as it rose through +a half-round niche of considerable dimensions in the wall, swept +vertically upward to lift the billowing cloud. Thus for at least a +portion of the time Grenville could glimpse the ledge behind the trail +where besiegers must finally pass. + +So dense became the reek, however, that he feared his post must soon +become insupportable. There was neither time nor air in which to +arrange a longer fuse, which, as a matter of fact, would be too long +for accurate work with the gun. + +He knew at last the hour was nearing sunset, and silence still seemed +to roll with the smoke across the enveloped terrace. His eyes were +burningly filled with water; his head had begun to ache. He went +weakly over towards the gallery, intent upon breathing a little fresher +air before resuming his duties. + +Suddenly, above the ringing in his ears, came a sound from his gate +alarm. Its deep hollow tone was strangely resonant in all that blanket +of smoke. He darted back, where lay his bombs and the short fuse laid +to the cannon. + +The smudge had, unfortunately, fallen like a pall, concealing all the +trail. It lifted slightly, however, as a fog may lift over waters, +revealing one half-seen form upon the ledge. + +Then, in the second that Grenville laid his fire to the powder, his +second alarm, from the frame of bamboo buckets, hung behind him on the +wall, rattled out its xylophonic warning. The head-hunting demons, +front and rear, were practically upon him! + +He fired the gun. Its orange flame shot out through the smoke in +ragged spears, mingling the fume of imperfect powder with all that reek +from the jungle. + +A gap was apparently torn in the rolling cloud, to be filled with a +denser substance. Nothing could possibly be discerned where the charge +must have splattered on the wall. There were cries in the air, but +whether from pain, or the Dyaks' exultation, Grenville could never have +told. + +Aware that the demons were capable of sacrificing some of their number +to the gun, to beget its discharge, and thus clear the way for +concerted attack by greater numbers, Grenville promptly lighted the +fuse of a bomb and hurled it from him down the trail. + +It burst in the smoke, its red blot of fire a lurid illumination in the +black and gray billows from the smudge. Again a cry succeeded, this +one unquestionably voicing some wretch's mortal agony in the +all-concealing fume. + +Without for a moment pausing, Grenville plunged swiftly through the +drifting envelope, to gain the brink at the rear. He caught up a rock +as he stumbled half blindly onward, and blew on the fire of his brand. + +A thicker shroud of the reek revolved about him, halting him there to +gasp for breath, which he stooped in the hope of finding. He dropped +the stone as a useless burden. Once more he staggered onward--and +blundered against a Dyak, more blinded than himself! + +The creature had scaled the wall despite the bamboo framework and its +cups, or wooden bells! He and Sidney were instantly locked in a fierce +and deadly embrace! + +A battle as silent as it was swift and ferocious was curtained there in +the smoke. + +That the edge was near was a knowledge equally shared, as each man +wrestled in desperate violence to overcome his antagonist and hurl him +down to the sea. + +More by instinct than design, Grenville had paused to grip his +firebrand hotly between his teeth. He had seen that the head-hunter +held a knife, which was instantly turned, as the boatman writhed in +Sidney's arms, in an effort to sink it to the hilt. + +Grenville, however, clutched the wiry wrist with all his might, and +tried to fetch it upward for a quickly planned maneuver. It slipped +from his grip, and together he and the native froze more savage than +before. The Dyak once more attempted a stabbing pass, and Sidney again +caught the sinewy hand, in a clutch that he knew must fail. + +The wrist left his impotent fingers like a snake. The whole arm +writhed backward for the stroke. Sidney abruptly leaned forward, +turning his head, and jabbed the red-hot firebrand against the Dyak's +eye. + +With a shriek of pain the fellow lurched galvanically, to stab with +demoniacal might. But the blow went wide, in his agony, and when +Grenville had caught the wrist in a grip that a serpent could scarcely +have broken, he instantly laid hold of it with his second hand, with a +motion incredibly swift. Then turning his back with the skinny brown +arm across his shoulder, and abruptly stooping forward, Sidney hoisted +the scoundrel free from the rocks, on his shoulders, and, moving +quickly towards the cliff, ended the fight then and there. + +He broke the arm thus used as a leverage against the Dyak's weight, and +literally slammed the shuddering creature down on the rocks, at the +brink of the wall, where he poised but a moment over death. + +If he tried to writhe backward to the solid ledge, the effort was +belated. With a piercing scream he toppled over, flinging out his +broken arm in a gesture grotesque and disordered. Then he suddenly +grayed, in the limbo of smoke, and shot swiftly downward to his doom. + +Grenville still bit upon the branch that glowed with fire. He searched +about pantingly, found his end of fuse, and saw the powder sputter with +ignition. He had barely stepped back when, from over at the trail, +came a sudden and tremendous detonation. + +That the Dyaks were there on the terrace, after all, destroying his +bombs, was the one thought that flashed through the smoke in his brain, +as his own sharp explosion shook the air and hollowed huge masses from +the cliff. + +He stumbled and groped laboriously across the uneven heaps of stone to +reach the secret passage, where Elaine must be crouching in fear. In +his ears rang her words "If it has to come, let's receive it here +together." + +Already he feared her one grim wish had been brutally denied her in +this hideous pall of smoke. He saw a figure, dimly, through the reek, +and crouched to take revenge. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +THE LAST CUP OF WATER + +The figure was Elaine's. Grenville was almost upon her, prepared for +some swift and terrible deed of retaliation, when a swirl in the shroud +that enveloped them both revealed her standing near the edge. + +She still held a glowing fire-stick in her hand, as she peered through +the billowing cloud of smoke where she had flung an ignited bomb. She +had fled from her shelter, in desperate dread, lest a murderous fate +overtake her companion, battling alone with the fiends. She had found +his post deserted, and, having discerned two figures on the trail, had +instantly obeyed an impulse to protect the hill with the only means +provided. + +She uttered a cry as she saw Grenville crouching behind her, raising +her brand like a weapon, then sinking in relief. + +"You!" he said. "Elaine! I might have known!" + +"I am sure they are coming up behind us there!" she answered. "I know +I heard the bamboo buckets jangling! Have you been across to see?" + +"I fired the bomb," he answered. "Didn't you know?" + +She shook her head. Her ears, that had been so finely attuned to catch +the warning from the rearward cliff, had received or recorded no +impression whatsoever of the huger disturbance, while her own bomb's +colossal thunder and shock engrossed her eager attention. + +"Was anyone there?" she asked, half choking with the reek. "I suppose +you couldn't see." + +"I saw no one when lighting the fuse," he answered. "What was +happening here?" + +She related what she had seen and what she had done. + +"I hope I killed them!" she added, weak and dizzy from the smoke. "But +they probably ran away!" + +It was the first time she had entertained such a feeling. + +He urged her again to the shelter, where he coaxed her to drink, and +bathe her face, for the freshening and soothing influence of which she +was sadly in need. Returning, then, to the shelter for some of their +fruit, he groped his way down along the trail--and found that one or +the other of the bombs had so shattered the ledge, as to render it +useless for passing till the gap could in some way be bridged. + +They were safe from invasion in the night--but they were, likewise, +marooned on the hill! It was hardly likely the Dyaks would attempt to +construct a platform across the yawning cavity, under the shadow of the +gun, while, as for themselves, descent at present was entirely out of +the question. + +Meantime the smoke was unabated, if it was not, indeed, more dense and +choking than before. All the man's characteristic doggedness of +purpose was required in preparations for the night. The sun was down; +the brief and usually comforting twilight seemed entirely absent, as +darkness was hastened by the fumes. + +Back and forth from the now deserted shelter to the passage Sidney +groped time after time, fetching her couch and robe for Elaine, and +their meager supplies for dinner. The gallery then became her boudoir, +sanctified to her uses. Outside on the ledge, where at least a breath +of air trailed upward from the cave beneath, to escape at the door and +a little dilute the stifling smoke, he finally made his sentinel post +to pass the long session of darkness. + +He was roused repeatedly in the night by the sheer discomfort of his +resting-place, and the smoke that smarted his nostrils. All the long +hours through the dull red flames glowed fitfully, down through the +jungle. He was tempted, times without number, to throw out his +platform to the tree and descend with a bomb, to hurl at some group of +the demons, there in the nether gloom of the Hades they created. He +curbed his impatience rigidly, however, and crowded the impulse back. +That one or two natives at the most maintained the fires was a +supposition not to be ignored. The possible results of such an +enterprise were incommensurate with the risk that must be incurred. + +Despite his uneasiness of mind and body he slept for a time between +midnight and dawn as the mere result of overstrain and the weariness +accumulated for several days. + +For a brief time after sunrise the northerly breeze abated, permitting +the smoke to ascend more nearly straight. The headland was thereby +freed and sweetened, only, however, to be re-enveloped later, and, +veiled from the other features of the island. + +Grenville took advantage of the respite to make an examination of the +cliff at the rear of the camp. It had been so shattered, where the +bomb shook down the disintegrated tufa, that its ascent would never +again be attempted. The framework of bamboo cups was gone. There was +nothing below to indicate whether or not a Dyak boat might have been +swamped by falling rock. + +The cavity torn in the regular trail was rather more exaggerated than +diminished by the morning's revelations. Grenville was certain the +enemy would hardly hazard bridging the gap while they thought a single +ounce of punishment remained upon the terrace. He was not altogether +certain he should not construct a bridge himself, since only when they +charged upon his position could he hope to decimate the blood-desiring +savages, who must still remain in menacing numbers on the island. + +The little brass cannon was once more charged, though its use was +hardly likely. The wind and the smoke resumed their steady flow across +and about the hill before Elaine appeared. + +She was pale and plainly weary, when at length she emerged from the +passage. Her sleep had been broken, and haunted by dreams of countless +new atrocities committed by the demons below. Her courage was +phenomenal. She made no complaint, but attempted a smile and a cheery +outlook on the day. + +Grenville was wrung, more than comforted, at the wistful effort she was +making to sustain her slender hope and encourage his own flagging +spirit. When he found that hardly a pint of water remained in the jugs +he had thought would supply them at least for a couple of days, his +despair for Elaine became intensely acute, and his heart began dully to +ache. Two of the clay receptacles had developed tiny cracks, perhaps +from the jarring of explosions, while a third had toppled over and +spilled its precious contents after having been placed in the passage. +Percolation and usage had drained the others inevitably--and the day +was beginning with heat and stifling reek. + +Much of the fruit that Sidney had gathered was now unfit for use, and +was, therefore, thrown away. By way of conserving the water supply, +they made a breakfast of paw-paws and bananas only, though the meat +remaining from the previous day was still acceptable. + +Grenville descended to the cavern as soon as this scant and oversweet +meal was concluded. He bore two jugs, to be filled from the basins in +the rock. When the light from the blazing torch he held above his head +dimly outlined but one of the pools he had seen on a former occasion, +he realized that some insignificant fissure must have resulted from his +blast, and permitted the other pools to trickle to the sea. + +He filled his jugs with the utmost care, scooping up the water at the +deepest hole to leave all unclean sediment undisturbed. That the pool +must soon succumb to evaporation was obvious. Vaguely he wondered +which might last the longer, this underground well, or the breath in +his body and Elaine's. + +Even the sight and touch of the precious water excited his mouth to +thirst. With the jugs both full and set carefully aside, he sprawled +out eagerly, flat on the rocks, for a deep and satisfying draught. + +Hardly had the water reached his palate, however, when he lifted his +head with a sound like a stifled groan. The pool was connected with +the tides--_the liquid there was brine_! + +He rose to his knees, with his fist before his eyes, his whole body +tense and rigid with his soul's recoil from the visions abruptly +shadowed in his mind. The cordon about the helpless girl was so +hideously complete! It seemed like the bitterness of her doom that he +tasted on his tongue. + +It appeared so useless now to struggle. How he should take this latest +news to the uncomplaining comrade of his destiny was more than he could +determine. Wild thoughts of offering all the treasure he had found, as +ransom for Elaine at least, possessed his mind, as he conjured up the +final, triumphant approach of the Dyaks, whom the two famished keepers +of the terrace would at length be no longer able successfully to resist. + +He likewise thought of offering himself, could Elaine be finally +spared. But through it all he was sickeningly conscious that neither +course could avail with these treacherous fiends. A human head was +more to them than treasures of earth or heaven. Moreover, the +murderous savages had already paid a heavy toll, and would smart in +their blood for revenge. + +There could be no bargain made with such an enemy, all but victorious +already, and certain of final success. They should never find that +treasure, however, Grenville swore, if he had to sink it in the sea! +And as for a final triumph--there were many ways, in a last extremity, +whereby at least the unspeakable horrors, certain to follow their +capture alive, could be escaped by both himself and Elaine. + +Wild rage possessed him, kneeling there, as he thought of the merciless +head-hunters smoking them out on the hill, and waiting as loathsomely +as vultures for the slowly approaching end. Mad plans for sinking +their anchored boats, for loading himself with torch and bombs, to +charge like a Nemesis through their ranks, or for luring them up to +some deadly mine, ranged erratically through his brain. + +He thought of attempting a condensation of sea water to provide Elaine +with drink. He was swiftly possessed by a plan, even more absurd, of +making a float with his bamboo stems, and sailing away with Elaine on +board, under cover of the darkness. + +He arose at last, dizzy, with the vortex of impractical suggestions +revolving in his mind. He emptied his jugs and strode to the mouth of +the cavern, looking out on smoke and sea. The tide was low. Whole +colonies of mussels clung there below him on the rocks. They were +food! The thought came home to him swiftly--only to be immediately +succeeded by the realization they were salt, and would make for greater +thirst. He thought of the wail that had formerly haunted the island--a +friendly, invaluable phenomenon that had not been repeated for days. +He thought of the raft he had rowed with such ease when he came here to +blow out the ledge. Was it floating still in the estuary's mouth, or +had some of the Dyaks destroyed it? + +The estuary!--could he only reach its tepid pool, creep towards its +source, fill one of his jugs, and return to gladden Elaine! His busy +mind was instantly working on the various steps by which he might +succeed in lashing together some sort of raft, for a night excursion to +the tiny rill that fed the vine-surrounded inlet where the water was +not brine. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +A BREATHLESS MARGIN + +Grenville returned for his jugs and the torch, impatient to be +employed. The clay receptacles were useless on the hill, but he +carried them back to the gallery, to leave them on the floor. The +lower rock-and-wattle barrier he carefully readjusted to its place, and +secured with the bar of wood. + +"The water below is rather poor," he informed Elaine, when he once more +rejoined her above. "I believe I can reach a supply considerably +better by building a bamboo platform that will give me access to a +larger and fresher pool." + + Elaine was thinking of another, more personal danger. + +"Do you think these creatures have visited the cave?" + +"If they have, they left no signs." + +"You are not afraid they may go there soon--and discover the end of +this passage?" + +Grenville shook his head. "I only wish they would try--every man Jack +of them hunting there at once! If it weren't for this smoke, I should +try to lure them in!" + +Glad of an occupation, no matter how forlorn the hope it afforded, he +went promptly to work fetching all of the largest bamboo stems from his +generous supply, together with wood for fuel and many lengths of +creeper. By the time these various transfers were complete, he had +left but little of their meager possessions in or about the former camp. + +Bombs, fuses, torch-wood, and much of his extra powder he now proceeded +to store along the wall, and in a niche of the gallery, where they +should neither obstruct the passage under foot, nor yet be exposed to +possible accident from necessary fire. The terrace continued to be +wrapped in smoke, as on the previous day. Instructing Elaine to call +him instantly, should any attempt be made by the Dyaks to bridge the +gap on the trail, he now began the laborious task of carrying one after +another of the bamboo stems down the passage to the cave. + +The stems were large, some of them fully six inches through at the +butt, and while they were never heavy, yet the twelve or more feet of +length to which he had reduced them made their transfer through the +narrow and angular gallery an awkward and troublesome maneuver, with +only a torch for light. + +He had made up his mind that six of these stems, lashed together in +pairs, or even laid side by side, and slightly separated, would +complete a float on which he could readily find sufficient buoyancy for +himself and a couple of water jugs, more especially as he thoroughly +intended to stretch himself out flat, full length, upon it while moving +about the shore. He felt, moreover, it must be so light he could not +only launch it from the cave, but even withdraw it inside again, should +danger so require. + +Fortunately, he reflected, none of the stems was split. Each comprised +a set of water-tight compartments that a load of double his avoirdupois +could hardly sink beneath the surface. If he found that four of the +lengths would answer as well as six, he would certainly use no more. + +As he stumbled and edged his way downward once again, with the last of +his load colliding here and there along the wall, he thought, perhaps, +it might be possible to test the float in the salty pool that remained +in the basin of the cavern. Could this be done, much time would be +saved, and no risk of being discovered at his work need be incurred. + +For his greater convenience in assembling materials and tools, he +placed both his torch and final burden for a moment within the passage, +when he came once more to the cave. Three of the bamboo stems were +then in the cavern proper, while all of the creeper and the other +essentials remained on the gallery floor. He paused to wipe his brow, +for he was sweating. His mouth was dry with a growing thirst that +refused to be forgotten. + +He had barely stepped out to survey the space for the likeliest site +convenient to his needs, when, abruptly, a human voice sent a murmurous +echo through the hollow tomb. A sharp command immediately +followed--all in some barbaric tongue. But before the noise of +something dully scraping on the outside ledge could add its +confirmation to the somewhat belated alarm, Grenville was certain that +a Dyak boat had come to the cavern, and its crew were about to land. + +Instantly pouncing upon the nearest length of his precious bamboo, he +darted with it to the passage. The second stem struck on the inner +wall, not only delaying his movements, but sounding a thud that he felt +must be heard through all the vast bulk of the hill. + +Yet he dared not either betray the fact he had been in the cave, or +lose that final pole. Once more, as he heard the Dyaks coming, and +even beheld a shadow, preceding its owner to the place, he darted +silently out at his door to lay hold of the last remaining stem. + +He was certain its end must be plainly seen, as the Dyaks now rose +above the ledge. A sound that he made seemed incredibly loud--and his +door was out where the boatmen's torch must play a red light upon it! + +He stumbled across his materials, now congesting his narrow space. He +thrust out an arm, laid hold of his door, and had barely drawn it +across the opening when the glare of the torch the Dyaks held sent red +rays in upon him. + +Not another move could he make without betraying his presence near at +hand. To adjust the barrier solidly in place might readily prove +fatal. To leave it loose, a palpable sham where all should appear as +solid wall, was scarcely less of a risk. + +Holding it firmly, lest it slip, and peering breathlessly out through +the chink which it failed by an inch to cover, Grenville beheld three +half-naked forms, incredibly magnified and diabolized not only by the +torch they held, but also by the shadows they cast upon the rocks, and +the general aspect of the region, black as Inferno. Three thinner, +more furtive fiends of the nether abyss would have been hard, indeed, +to imagine. In the tallest Sidney recognized the chief. + +As they turned about to scan the wall, and the breach he had made with +his explosion, the whites of their eyes and the gleam of their teeth +rendered all of their faces strangely hideous, with the yellowish glare +projecting them indistinctly against the ebon of the tomb. + +That their keen, malicious eyes must instantly discover the wall's +decided imperfection, where the gallery door was askew, seemed to +Grenville inescapable. They motioned towards him, and down at the +floor, in manifest wonder that the place was no longer filled with +water. Their voices were low. They spoke as if with a certain awe in +which the place was held. + +It seemed to Grenville they would never go about their business. His +muscles ached with the unaccustomed strain put upon them to support the +heavy door. How long he could stand there, making no sound, and +permitting no movement of the barrier, was a question he could not +answer. If only his cleaver had not been dropped around the bend, +beside his torch, he would almost have dared spring out on the +unsuspecting Dyaks to brain them where they stood! + +At thought of his torch, redly glowing, in beyond, he sweated anew, +convinced that as soon as the boatmen grew accustomed to the darkness +of the cavern, these torch rays must impinge upon their vision, and +instantly divulge the secret of the passage to the top. + +One of the Dyaks now approached even closer than before. Savagely +determined he would slay the man, should he raise a hand, or otherwise +give the slightest intimation that the door was seen at last, Sidney +grew hot in his farthest pulse, and became as tense as a tight-coiled +spring as he steadied to leap from the place. + +But the man in command now grumbled another of his orders. The fellow +so near discovery and death turned slowly about, made one more gesture +towards the shattered ledge, and followed the other where they made +their way across the uneven floor. + +Until they had passed to a second ridge, where their feet disturbed a +few loose fragments that rattled down towards the base, Grenville made +not the slightest move to alter his position. Then cautiously, without +a sound, he adjusted the door to its proper place and secured it with +the bar. + +He still had a chink through which to peer, but he first moved back to +his blazing torch and smothered its light on the rocks. When he once +more groped his way to the tiny opening, the Dyaks had come to the +rifled chamber. He could hear their exclamations of disgust and anger, +but only their torch could be seen. + +Aware they might still return to his wall and discover the one +remaining retreat where Elaine was even remotely secure, Grenville was +seized with an irresistible impulse to destroy the fiends on the +instant, if such a denouement could be rendered possible. + +He turned about to grope his way upward and secure a bomb as swiftly as +the darkness would permit. Over the basket of treasure, some time +since deposited there by the wall, he blundered, and fell to his knees. +The thing was in the way. He took it up impatiently and carried it +well up the passage to one of the broadest galleries, where he placed +it again on the floor. + +With one of the smallest of his bombs, and carrying one of his +firebrands only for a torch, he once more descended, feeling his way +along the wall, eager to regain the lower entrance, lest it might be +already discovered. He had been delayed in securing the brand, without +which his bomb was useless. He had told Elaine his measures were only +of defense. + +They were hardly even that. When he came to the door he could see no +torch, for the Dyaks had gone, in new exasperation, and their voices +echoed back from the ledge. The impulse to rush out thus belatedly, +ignite his fuse, and hurl his engine of destruction upon them, or their +boat, was one he curbed with difficulty, at the dictates of sober +sense. For a dozen reasons the maneuver might fail to destroy the +murderous trio. And should one escape to advertise the fact he was +somehow concealed in the cavern, no possible cleverness could avail to +protect Elaine or himself. + +Should a larger number come to the cave---- But he knew it was hardly +likely, now, that even a few would return. If the Dyaks had, as he +felt convinced, concluded that the open niche meant that the tomb had +been pillaged, that the treasure was gone, either taken by himself or +another, they would have no conceivable reason left for courting +disaster here again. For unless they should dare approach the place by +night, it was only under cover of the rolling smoke they would risk +attack from above. + +He even thought of hastening back to the terrace now to drop a bomb +upon them. It was only a recollection of the all-engulfing smoke that +halted this intent. Instead he dislodged the wooden bar, removed the +door to his secret gallery, and crept out to glide to the breach in the +ledge for a possible view of the boatmen. + +Only the disappearing end of their craft was shown through the fumes +that veiled the tide. It was Grenville's useful catamaran, as he +instantly discerned. A new resentment burned in his blood, but left +him as helpless as before. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +GRENVILLE'S DESPERATE CHANCE + +At noon Elaine reluctantly consumed the last remaining drop of water. +Grenville had taken a sip, and pretended to take a swallow. To refuse +it longer, Elaine quite clearly comprehended, would be but to see it +ooze away through the jar, to be drunk by the merciless heat. + +"I shall get a new supply," said Sidney, attempting an accent of cheer, +"but I'd rather avoid using that of the cavern, for fear it may not be +wholesome." + +Elaine, in her way of divining the truth, was only partially deceived. +She felt that the water below in the cave was wholly unfit for +consumption. She knew that if anything even remotely possible could be +done to refill their vessels, Sidney would have filled them long before. + +She made no discouraging comments, however, despite the fact her hope +was succumbing to despair. The smoke continued to roll in sullen +clouds across and about the terrace; the sun beat down through it +redly, soaking the rock in caloric, that sank to the gallery itself. + +The noonday meal had been slight and unrefreshing--a bit of fruit, too +warm and too ripe for relish on the palate, and a few odd scraps of the +meat. It was water that both insistently craved, and for which they +grew fevered and distressed. + +The smoldering brands in the furnace of rocks could not be permitted to +die away in ash. Elaine had undertaken the maintenance of this, their +altar spark, which rarely rose to a flame. She was safe enough to come +and go from the passage entrance to the nearby furnace Grenville had +moved to facilitate her duties, but the smoke seemed far more stifling +and hot than it had the previous day, while, with headache, thirst, and +a heaviness in all her weary being, the endlessly cheerful and +courageous little companion of Grenville's maddening ordeal felt ready +to drop and rise no more. + +Again at his task of constructing a float that should bear him from the +cavern to the inlet formed by the spring, Sidney toiled with no mercy +to himself in the workshop far down in the rocks. He felt at times he +must gulp down even the water of the sea, so parched was his throat, +and so craving was his system. + +At five o'clock his bamboo raft was completed, even with braces for his +jugs. It had also been tried in the basin of the cave, and made +finally ready for launching. But the tide would be low till eight. +His blast had made the water more approachable than formerly, yet to +fight his way against a powerful current would over-tax his strength. +In any event he must wait for the darkness of night. + +He returned to Elaine, and although he, too, was weary to the bone, her +patient endurance of suspense and suffering aroused him to a state of +anguish in which no exhausting task would have seemed too great for him +to undertake. He was wrung by her wistful attempt at a smile. + +"The day is nearly done," she said. "The night is sure to be cooler." + +It was considerably cooler, but scarcely more fresh, since the smoke +appeared to pour in even vaster volumes from the greenery below. That +the Dyaks were keeping strict watch on the water supply there could be +no reason to doubt. From time to time a weird bit of chanting arose +from that fume-creating garden that had once been so fair as to win +from Elaine the prettiest name she knew. + +Grenville felt certain, in fact, the boatmen's camp had been made about +the inlet or the spring. The short stretch of beach where he and +Elaine had landed, and where he had later made a bower of the trees, +would be certain to attract these half-amphibious savages, though their +boats were moored behind the opposite hill. + +For a time he wondered if he might not be more wise to pass entirely +around the island, to approach the pool of fresh water from below. But +reflecting that various currents of the tide would buffet and beset +him, in addition to which he must run the gauntlet past the Dyak boats, +he surrendered the suggestion without delay, and impatiently awaited +the tide. + +Three times he went down the passage, torch in hand, to examine the +stages of the water. At length he bethought him of two short +scoop-like paddles, to assist in propelling his craft, and feverishly +set about their construction. + +They were done in less than half an hour, since they consisted merely +of two half-sections of bamboo cylinder, lashed to a pair of handles. + +Elaine was aware he was making ready for more than an ordinary +adventure, as she watched him with her wide and lustrous eyes. + +"Perhaps relief may come to-morrow," she finally observed. "You are +quite exhausted. Might you not be wiser to rest to-night? We can get +along, I am sure." + +But even her voice made a rasp in her throat, so distressed was her +system for water. + +"I need a bit of change," he said. "It is certain to do me good." + +With a touch of his former brusqueness, he presently bade her seek her +couch, during the time he expected to be gone, and vanished once more +down the dark, steep passageway, with his paddles and torch in hand. + +The torch was left in the gallery, extinguished. The concealing door +was adjusted to its place. These were mere precautions against the +cave's discovery, yet Grenville was certain no Dyaks would approach the +place that night. His two best jugs were placed on the ledge; his +cleaver was hung at his belt. He could take no bombs or lighted brands +on such an expedition. + +The task of launching his raft on the tide involved unexpected labor. +Its lightness made it an easy prey to the swirl that always filled the +cavern's walled approach. It was sucked once nearly under, its farther +end disappearing entirely from view--and Granville withdrew it, +desperately glad the jugs had not been placed upon it. + +Awaiting a quieter mood of the whirlpool, half seen in the darkness, he +launched the float again, and beheld it rest there, quietly, nosing +against the ledge. He turned for the jugs, but, casting a quick glance +backward, at the slightest of scraping sounds, saw the raft swinging +outward from his reach. + +His arm was too short for its recovery. Leaping wildly out in the +water, he caught it again, and was washed against the jagged wall +before he once more returned it to the landing. He was soaked to the +skin, but his pulses throbbed with heat and dogged energy that would +think of no defeat. + +With his jugs finally laid flat between the bamboo supporters, front +and rear, and with paddles in hand, as he lay at full length on the +light but half-submerged platform, he rowed the raft out with a motion +as if he were swimming. + +Indeed, like a giant oar-bug, more or less helplessly carried by the +current that it rides, he spun slowly about in the maelstrom of the +gathering tide before he could escape past the portal and head for the +inlet below. + +He soon discovered that to continue far in this fatiguing attitude +would abominably strain his neck, if not his entire body. Not without +considerable difficulty, in balancing the craft, he effected a change +of position, and knelt upon the supports. + +The waves washed up about his knees and feet, but of this he was +practically oblivious. Assisted now by the current, and with eyes +intent on the darkened shore, beyond the uprise of the cliff, he +propelled himself much farther out than formerly, with the purpose of +avoiding the possible vigilance of Dyaks on the beach. + +The night was not exceedingly dark, so brilliant was the light from the +stars. Once the region of smoke was left behind, the blurred and +blended features of the island were sufficiently well revealed for his +purposes, since he knew its every silhouette as well as the contours of +the coast. + +He had rowed and drifted, perhaps, half the distance essential to land +at the estuary mouth, when the sound of voices, floated out from the +shore, abruptly halted his movements. The Dyaks were there. Either +motion or any unusual disturbance would suffice to betray his presence +off the land. + +And now, as if every fate had become malignant, the current drifted him +inward, where he knew he should keep well away. At the risk of +exciting curiosity, if nothing more, he dipped his paddles, with a slow +and silent expenditure of strength, and swept the float powerfully +outward again, till the shore seemed a part with the sea. + +For a time that seemed interminable he hung about that outer stretch, +awaiting a further sound of the voices. They did not come. Once more +at last he paddled silently inward, finally worming, as before, to a +prostrate position on the raft. The chant of the head-hunters came +again, as if from the depths of the jungle. + +"Now, if ever!" muttered Grenville, half aloud, and impelled by a new +and reckless desperation, increased by his thirst and his impotent rage +at the creatures still feeding the fumes that Elaine could not avoid, +he sent his craft swiftly landward, thankful, at least, for the mild +disturbance of breaking ripples on the shore that would drown what +slight noises he might make. + +Tempted to moor his float outside the estuary, he readily agreed it +might thereby lead to his discovery, and must, as a matter of fact, be +completely concealed in the shadows of the pool. Excited now by the +possibility that his catamaran, with the oars and rowlocks, might still +remain in its former harbor, he was doomed to prompt disappointment on +gaining the estuary basin. There was nothing whatsoever in the place. + +His jugs and paddles he had placed upon the sand. It was only the work +of a moment to draw his float across the bar and gently thrust it away +from sight beneath the overhanging verdure. Then he stood there, +knee-deep in the water, straining his ears for the slightest sound of +the Dyaks stirring in the thicket. + +Only the drone of a halting voice was wafted to the place. In silence +he concealed his paddles, and took up his jugs, to wade with the utmost +caution up the pool, towards the spring that formed its source. The +water about him was brackish, from its mixture with the tide. + +Deeper and deeper grew the basin. The water had risen to his waist. +He sank in steadily with every step, despairing now with the sickening +thought he might be compelled to swim. Such a task, with two filled +jugs, would be impossible, as he bitterly realized. But on he went, as +noiselessly as before. + +The water was now about his breast, and he held his jugs above it. +Something gently nosed against him--and gave him a start. Thoughts of +the tropic serpents so frequently inhabiting the water, chilled a thin +channel down his spine. Then he saw that the thing which might have +been a reptile head was the cork and neck of a bottle. He dipped down +and caught it between his teeth, more gratified in all his being than +if it had been a thing of gold. + +It almost seemed to the man like a sign that the tide of ill-fortune +had turned--the tide of luck. He had certainly passed the deepest +section of the estuary; he was rising on higher ground. + +To avoid the soundings of dripping water, ready to fall from his +clothing, he proceeded more slowly than before. When at length he came +to a strip of barren sand, he rested his jugs, withdrew the cork from +his bottle, and was gratified to detect the odor of stale beer, or +stout, which the thing had formerly contained. He rinsed it then and +there, to make it sweet, and crowded it into his pocket. + +When he once more took up his jugs, to resume his quest of drinkable +fluid, he was presently confronted by an exceptional tangle of the +shrubbery, arching the tortuous windings of the estuary's head. Here +he found himself obliged to pause and noiselessly bend back or break a +number of the slender branches before he could wade as before. + +He started some small nocturnal animal out through the growth, and the +rustling disturbance made by the beast was heard by the Dyaks beyond. +One of them called out sharply. To Grenville's complete astonishment +and dismay another man, barely a few yards off, replied with a species +of grunt. The fellow had come there, either to visit or to set a +snare, and must have believed he had frightened the animal himself. + +Sidney could hear him working now, as he leaned a bit closer to the +foliage, incapable of moving further while the hunter delayed in the +thicket. The fellow presently arose, as if to go. Instead, however, +he approached even closer to Grenville's place of concealment, and +Sidney oozed cold perspiration, helplessly occupied, as he was, with a +jug in either hand, and his cleaver still swung at his waist. + +To have moved, or attempted to place either jug in the water at his +feet, must have been fatal to his mission. Yet he felt convinced the +Dyak must fairly run against him, unless he could move to the side. +One of his shoes, moreover, was sinking deeply in slimy mire. + +That his balance must be overcome seemed well-nigh inevitable. A +branch from one of the larger trees that grew above him on the bank now +swept so forcibly against the other foliage as the Dyak hauled it +downward, to sever a twig for his trap, that Grenville's face was +lightly brushed. When the limb sprang upward a moment later, he pulled +his foot from the hole. + +It seemed to the man a quarter of an hour at least that the trapper +remained there, a few feet away, making one more sound, from time to +time, when it seemed at last he must have departed. When he finally +went, there could be no assurance he would not return again. +Notwithstanding this possibility, Grenville slipped furtively along +once more, disturbed to find how far towards the spring this narrowing, +sea-level neck of the inlet continued through the growth. + +When he came at length to a rise of the island, down which the trickle +from the spring had made its course, he found himself at the edge of a +small, grass-grown clearing, that could hardly be more than a stone's +toss away from the Dyaks' temporary camp. A small, deep basin, filled +with the precious water he sought, reflected a star at the zenith of +the heavens. It some way gave him hope. Of courage he had no lack. + +Noiselessly, but without hesitation, he crept forward to the place and +bent to drink, then to fill his bottle and jugs. At a snap that came +from the shadows beyond he looked up alertly, beholding through the +leaves a bright bit of fire upon the earth, with two of the Dyaks at +its side. Every accent of their halting conversation came clearly to +his ears. + +With his three receptacles filled at last, he began his retreat from +the place. He had barely vanished from the clearing, and come to the +cover of the growth once more, when the man who was laying the snare in +some pathway of the small jungle animals came back to complete his work. + +Grenville thought his arms must relinquish the holds in their sockets +before the unsuspecting hunter was content to leave the neighborhood. +The jugs, so long and silently held, were rested a moment on the bank, +when, at last, the moment did arrive when Sidney could dare retreat. +Then down through the stubborn tangle, once more, he moved like a +silent shade. With every yard thus placed between himself and the +natives by the spring, the hope in his breast increased. + +He came once more to the deeper estuary pool and, lifting his jugs to +his shoulders, waded cautiously forward, nearly up to his throat in the +tepid brine that smelled too rank for anything but swamp. He paused by +his raft, for a moment undecided as to whether he should place his jugs +in the braces lashed upon it, before he pushed it past the bar, or +after it should float on the tides. + +While he stood there, with a sense of exultation daring to warm in his +soul--an exultation centered on Elaine and the joy it must presently be +to see her thirst allayed--he suddenly stiffened at the sound of Dyak +voices, alarmingly near at hand. + +Retreating instantly, under the shadow of the foliage and against the +end of his raft, he placed one jug upon it, noiselessly, and put out +his hand to grasp at a branch to draw himself further from sight. + +But the branch on which he laid his grip was suddenly alive. It +writhed and lashed sharply at his knuckles until, with a shudder of +comprehension that he had clutched the tail of a snake, he flung it off +and knew it had glided away. + +He had no choice but to try again, and this time met with better +fortune. Out through the foliage, arranged thus hurriedly about him, +he peered towards the low bit of beach. There was no one in sight, but +beyond, on the sea, suddenly looming before him, and coming about to +face the protected inlet, a third of the Dyak sailing-boats, a new +arrival, manned by an additional group of head-hunters, nosed +gracefully up against the tide. + +Her anchor was cast, and there she rode, not twenty yards out from the +shore. + +Like shadowy demons from some world beyond, arrived on some mission +mysterious and tragic--some service of the foulest fiend in Hades--four +half-seen figures moved along the railing of the craft, destroying the +hope in Grenville's bosom. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +ADDITIONAL HEAD-HUNTERS + +The boatmen thus newly arrived off the estuary's mouth were proceeding +in a leisurely and confident manner to make themselves and their vessel +snug for the night, and Grenville had placed his second jug upon his +raft when, without a sound having come to announce their movements, two +or three Dyaks from the camp in the growth called some greeting or +challenge from the shore. + +That their words were interpreted in a friendly spirit by the shadowy +natives on the anchored boat seemed to Grenville entirely obvious. +There was something akin to cheer in the voices that replied across the +water. Every man was seen to halt at his work and come to the +shoreward side of the craft, to peer through the darkness towards the +beach. + +Three of the fiends with whom he had waged unequal battle now appeared +on the sand strip a rod from where Sidney was standing. Their backs +were presented as they called and gestured to the men beyond, and +Grenville identified the chief once more by the fellow's unusual height. + +Apparently an argument ensued, conducted, as to the shoreward end, by +the tall and dominant leader. He waved quick, eloquent gestures, +frequently towards the headland whence Grenville had come. That some +report of recent proceedings was being thus delivered there could be no +reasonable doubt. Expressions of astonishment, satisfaction, and a +diabolical glee came back in guttural staccatos from the blood-loving +creatures on the vessel. + +Grenville almost forgot where he was, and why, such indignation burned +in his breast as he grasped at the substance of the conference thus +held across the tide. Four more head-hunters, come to swell the +already heavily outnumbering forces of the island, was too much for +Heaven to permit! Against such odds and such diabolism, what possible +chance---- + +He smiled in a grim, sardonic manner at the thought that a fight +between himself and the now augmented Dyaks would ever again be likely, +with this boat anchored here before him, Dyaks camping in the jungle, +and no trail left by which he could reach the terrace and Elaine, even +could he creep away in the shadows and silence of the thicket. + +It appeared to him now that the chief on shore was becoming impatient, +or angry. He shouted orders and waved his hand down the length of the +island in a style growing rapidly more and more imperative, while the +new arrivals answered back in a stubborn and sullen dissatisfaction +that Sidney began to hope might lead to open rupture. Should one of +the factions war against the other, he would think these four boatmen a +Godsend. + +Even then, he reflected, the situation, as bearing on himself, might +present no altered aspect till all was decidedly too late. Should he +fail to return to Elaine with water to-night--she would doubtless never +see his face again. Should morning still find him hiding here--their +fates would have a sudden termination. And now, with this craft at +anchor in the current, so close inshore, there could be no chance to +escape around it unobserved, what possible alternative was offered but +to stand here, nearly to his waist in the water, aware that the +deadliest sort of snakes might be coiled within a foot of his hand? + +One of the Dyaks a rod away now sat upon the sand. The colloquy +continued. The domineering leader, waxing more and more imperious, +made gestures now in both directions. That what he imparted and +declared was again concerned with himself and Elaine, Grenville could +not fail to understand. He was puzzled, however, to determine the +reason for this lengthy contest of words. + +It occurred to his mind the dispute might have sprung from rival claims +as to sharing the trophies, when, at last, the defenders of the terrace +should no longer require their heads. The ghastliness of the +suggestion did not greatly disturb him; he was too far dulled and +wearied by things already undergone. + +When it seemed at last as if the verbal combat might result in a +deadlier feud, the matter between the land and water factions was +suddenly adjusted with accents amazingly mild from either side. +Considerably to Grenville's astonishment, the boatmen heaved up their +anchor, eased off their sail, and put about towards the farther end of +the island. + +The three men ashore called out additional instructions, presumably, +and followed for a distance down the shore. The boat was presently +gone from Sidney's view. He did not stir, though he ached in every +bone and muscle, from his long, hard session of suffering and toil, and +this cramp and strain of hiding. He was well aware that even the Dyaks +would soon be obliged, either to retrace their steps and return as they +had come, or force a way up through the jungle to cross to the island's +farther side. + +That the vessel would join the others, already at anchor behind the +second hill, he had finally comprehended with a wildness of hope his +heart could scarcely contain. The chief had undoubtedly ordered the +craft away from this particular anchorage lest it be too readily seen. + +With barely a grunt or two of conversation between them, the trio seen +before him on the sand now presently returned. They stood about the +estuary inlet for a moment, as if debating some second affair of +importance, then finally glided away. + +Even then Grenville stirred with silent caution, waiting with +heartbeats once more quickened lest he move too soon, and be discovered +after all. The place, however, was deserted. Stiffly, but none the +less eagerly, and alert for the slightest alarm, he coaxed his raft +from the overhanging shrubbery, urged it gently out across the bar, +and, hurriedly lashing his jugs to the braces provided, pushed away and +headed far out in the tide. + +The current had turned. It was flowing strongly towards the cliff, in +a certain impetuous manner that was far from being assuring. For +while, in a measure, it assisted Grenville's float, it swirled and +battled with other counter currents, into which he was helplessly +carried. His frail, narrow raft was not infrequently threatened with +disaster. + +Twice, for a second, he well-nigh despaired of righting before he +should sink or plunge end downward, capsizing himself and his jugs. He +was shot far outward from his course by one of the treacherous torrents +of tide, then rocketed straight for the rocks of the cliff by another. +His paddles were wholly inadequate for such a struggle; his arms +refused the demands that his will insistently made upon them. It +seemed as if he must break at some vital center of his being before he +at length was enabled to avoid a collision with the cliff. Then he +sank exhausted, obliged for a moment to pause and rest, when the tide +once more drifted him outward. + +Before he could rouse his flagging sinews to another effort, he had +floated by the cave. He was prodded to new desperation. The struggle +he waged to regain that rocky niche--only to have the whirlpool cast +him to the outside current as before, with his raft entirely +submerged---was enough to break his heart. + +Nothing save the thought of Elaine could have availed to spur him yet +once more to fighting vigor. He did fight again, till it seemed he +must topple like a man of lead, and sink almost gladly in the sea, with +a sense of welcome to its endless peace. + +A weak and staggering figure he presented when the landing was finally +achieved. He barely pulled his raft within the cavern. He had no +strength left to conceal it in the passage. + +Hugging his two heavy jugs of precious liquid, and also with the bottle +weighing down his pocket, he groped and stumbled slowly up the gallery, +pausing with ever increasing frequency to lean against the walls and +recuperate his strength. + +Elaine was aroused from a state of lethargy, where she watched and +listened at the upper door, by sounds that for a moment filled her with +alarm. That some noisily breathing animal was making its way up the +passage from the sea was her first half-waking impression. + +With a cry of relief and worry blended, she immediately understood. It +was Grenville's labored panting she had heard, where he would not call +for assistance for fear she should be alarmed. She caught up the torch +she had kept so faithfully alight for his guidance, and ran hastily +down to give him welcome. + +He was leaning against the wall once more, his mouth a little open for +the air his lungs demanded, his face drawn and white with his utter +weakness and exhaustion. In one keen glance Elaine comprehended his +condition. + +"Sidney!" she cried. "Oh! but why did you go? Why would you work so +hard to-night?" + +He could conjure no smile to his lips. "I love you, Elaine," he +answered. "It kills me to see you suffer." + +"Oh please--please don't," she begged him. Her eyes were brimming with +tears. + +He sank on the floor of the passage as he tried once more to raise the +jugs. And yet, when Elaine pounced eagerly upon the bottle full of +water, and pressed it to his lips, his stubborn resistance was once +more reasserted. He accepted a few sips only, then thrust it firmly +away. + +"That last little pull was steeper than I thought," he admitted, as he +forced himself to rise and set his jugs more carefully in the rocks +against the wall. "If you will oblige me by taking a drink of +water----" + +"Not now," Elaine interrupted, as self-denying as before. "I am not +the least bit thirsty. If you'll only rest--if you'll go to sleep----" + +"I shall go to no rest till you have taken a cup of water." + +She knew he would not. She drank from the bottle, perhaps three +ordinary swallows of the liquid, like nectar to her palate. + +"Good-night," he said, with a touch of his old-time brusqueness, and, +adding nothing more, he continued on to the barrier and out to his post +of duty. There he sank on a rock before the door to guard Elaine from +harm. + +Elaine, softly crying, went back at last to her couch. And some time, +deep in the silence of the night, she awoke sufficiently to creep to +the door, where she listened to Grenville, deeply sleeping. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +PLOT AND COUNTER PLOT + +The smoke that for two forbidding days had veiled and grayed the +headland, continued to drift from the jungle, when Grenville roused +from his slumber. + +He was much refreshed, yet had not entirely recuperated the strength so +drained in the night. The aspect of the barren rock, engulfed in the +fumes, was only what he had expected. He felt convinced that, like the +mistral of the Riviera, this wind would continue for three full days at +least. And the Dyaks were hardly likely to permit an abatement of the +smoke while it brought no discomfort to themselves. + +Apparently they had made no effort to bridge the gap that rendered the +trail completely useless. It was clear to Sidney's mind, however, that +so soon as they believed the adventure safe, they would swarm upon the +terrace, if for nothing else, then in search of heads and the treasure. + +With the possible development of an earlier plan in his mind, he +crossed at once to his cannon, loaded and primed in its bed, and began +to adjust a lot of loose stones above and upon it, to hide it +completely from view. The fuse he drew, meantime, aside, where he +meant to splice another length to its end. + +Elaine came out from the narrow confines of her gallery in the hope of +lending assistance. She was wearing the tiger's jeweled collar about +her slender waist. + +"I'm hiding the gun--masking our battery," Sidney informed her, +quietly. "Its muzzle is still unobstructed and pointed as before. In +case it seems wise to permit the Dyaks to climb up at last and look +about, I prefer they shouldn't steal our thunder." If he noted the +golden girdle, he made no unusual sign. + +Elaine was considerably puzzled. + +"But--why should we let them come?" + +"To convince them their prisoners have flown. It may give us a chance +to punish them harder, later on." + +"If a steamer would only come!" she said, turning vainly to the sea, +still shrouded from view. "Even a Chinese junk! Anything, almost, but +more of these horrible fiends!" + +"You see," continued Grenville, "I can make an imitation cannon, from +one of my bamboo lengths, and leave it here to fool them. They may be +led to think it the only gun we've had, and search no farther for our +ordnance. The smoke is likely to lift, I think, which is why I'm at +work before breakfast." + +He did not complete the arrangements of his ruse before they broke +their fast, however, since the making of an imitation cannon required +at least an hour. The last of their meat, save a little intended for +fishing-bait, was consumed with the insignificant remnants of their +fruit supply, and Grenville took time to catch one silvery fish from +the ledge in front of the cavern, as well as to gather a lot of the +mussels, for luncheon and dinner, before he returned to the terrace. + +Already the breeze was failing. There were streaks of highly +acceptable air interspersed with the billows of smoke. Not without a +certain impatience to have this business concluded before the veiling +fumes should leave the terrace entirely exposed to the penetrative +sight of the Dyaks, Grenville hastened the construction of his +imitation gun, to be left by the heap of stones. + +That a more convincing appearance of over-use might assist in creating +the desired impression, he selected one of the bamboo sections already +badly split. This he readily blackened by burning a handful of powder, +loosely, inside its muzzle. With a rude vent cut and similarly +treated, the affair was ready to be bound with discarded creepers, then +lodged in the rocks above the genuine bit of artillery still ready for +grim engagements. + +All that remained of the powder in his cave was carefully moved to the +passage, there to be most cautiously deposited, away from all possible +fire, along with his coils of fuse. Somewhat to his disappointment, +the northerly breeze seemed once more freshening as the morning hours +advanced. He had hoped not only for a lifting of the smoke, but +likewise to find the Dyaks' boat once more encircling the headland. + +Beyond transferring his water supply from the jugs to a number of +bamboo buckets, which permitted no waste by percolation, he had nothing +further to employ his time as the day wore slowly on. The heat in the +meantime was intolerable. The fish was roasted in an "oven" he +fashioned of the heat-retaining tufa. The mussels were likewise +"steamed" in their own exuding juices, occupying the large and +basin-like sea-shell for the purpose. + +It was not until nearly four in the afternoon that the wind definitely +veered. Grenville had noted the coming alteration that would clear the +hill of fumes in time to make all essential preparations for the Dyak +watchfulness. His furnace of fire was duly banked, to continue a +smoldering glow among the ashes without producing smoke. Elaine had +retired within the passage, and the entrance door to this secret +hiding-place was adjusted against the rock. + +Grenville remained upon the terrace. No less a degree of vigilance +than that previously exercised was, he felt, highly essential. +Concealed in the caves or rocks comprised by the former camp he could +not only guard against surprise by a bridging of the ruined trail, but +his view of the sea, that might once more be haunted by the Dyak craft, +was practicably without limit. + +Apparently the Dyaks, too, had been aware the breeze would serve them +no longer. The smudges in the jungle were extinguished. In a time +comparatively brief, after the shifting of the wind, no smoke at all +was visible. But during the final hour preceding sunset another phase +of fiendish ingenuity developed. + +The Dyaks began shooting arrows of fire all about on the summit of the +terrace. They were shafts made highly inflammable by means of resin +and pitch. Their flight through the air was not sufficiently violent +to extinguish their glowing ends. If they did not blaze upon alighting +on the rocks, they still retained sufficient heat and redness to ignite +a pan of powder. + +It was this that occurred to Grenville as he made up his mind that some +genius of diabolism among the new arrivals was doubtless responsible +for this effort to explode his magazine. His satisfaction with himself +for his foresight in storing his powder anew was his one real joy of +the day. He wondered how long this business might continue, and how +many of the enemy must now be reckoned with. + +As a matter of fact, with the four who had come under cover of the +night, there were nine unscathed by previous engagements. Also, it +was, as Grenville had suspected, one of the latest comers who had +counseled the use of burning arrows. Since the terrace defenders were +employing some dreaded explosive, the one course readily suggested was +to reach his supply with a brand of fire--and, perhaps, thereby destroy +its maker. In any event, deprived of this one deadly means of defense, +the whites could be readily slaughtered. + +Already the Dyaks had built a bridge, to be used, when the time should +at last arrive, for spanning that gap on the trail. It was not +impossible, many had urged, that the prisoners lodged on the headland's +summit were already either dead or dying. How they had managed to +survive so long, with no supply of water, was sufficiently mysterious. +Should they still be found alive another day--all the greater the joy +of bringing about the end! + +The Dyak plan for reaching the magazine had been too hastily concocted. +The supply of tarred and resined arrows was decidedly insufficient. +Less than a score had been sent to the top of the terrace when the last +was speeded on its way. But during the short remaining hour of +daylight, and even by firelight, after dark, the shafts accumulated +swiftly, against the coming of the dawn. + +Meantime to Grenville had come an inspiration. His one clear hope for +the morning was that more of the arrows might be shot from below to +make his plans complete. If the Dyaks were busy after dark, they could +scarcely have matched the fever with which he likewise toiled. + +Down to the cool, dry chamber of the cavern he had carried no less than +eight of his largest bombs, with coil upon coil of his fuse. Two mines +of four bombs each he planted, concealing all with rocks. From each of +the mines one fuse only was laid, to the inner angle of the passage. +Each bomb had a shorter bit of fuse thrust in a handful of powder, to +which the two main fuses led. The lines were carefully protected, not +only against discovery, but as well against himself, or his boots, as +he tramped back and forth from the cave. When this arrangement had +been made complete, he could do no more in that direction till his +favorable hour should arrive. + +His next attention was directed to his bamboo float, which had been +practically dismembered. He had utilized the heavy stems to construct +a long and narrow platform, with two rude hooks lashed on the end to +engage a rung of his ladder. This ladder he not only lowered down from +the wall to a position in front of the cavern's opening, securing its +end with more than ordinary caution among the rocks he piled upon it, +but also he had tested the length, and every rung, by extending his +platform across from the ledge and climbing from the sea to the terrace. + +It was midnight before his final preparation was complete. This had +been simply arranged. He had carried a canister of powder to the +outside rocks, considerably back of Elaine's former shelter, together +with two small bombs. The powder he laid in a six-foot ring, or +spiral, that narrowed towards the center, merely to provide a lasting +and widespread flash when at length it should be ignited. + +The bombs were placed near by, simply laid in a cave of no considerable +dimensions. Their fuses were trailed across the rocks to a place of +observation, and were opened out in such a manner as to fire both the +spiral and the noisy but harmless explosives. + +Despite his nervous tension and the worry occasioned in his mind, lest, +the Dyaks fail of their allotted part, Grenville finally slept as +soundly as a boy, when at length he could work no more. But Elaine, +strangely tingling with apprehension, concerned with the part that she +must likewise play to render his plans effective, had not Sidney's +weariness to overcome her nerves, and therefore rested badly. + +For long she lay there, listening, as always, to the silence enfolding +the island, thinking how fair it had really been when the wail alone +had been with them, and wondering, eagerly wondering, if by chance her +companion of the hours both bright and dark had noticed the girdle she +was wearing. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +A LIVING BAIT + +The morning dawned in beauty, a few clouds riding with thistle-down +lightness athwart the illimitable dome of blue, as intense as that of +the sea. A light breeze stirred in the jungle, to wander aimlessly +from one deep chalice of fragrance to another, before it trailed across +the hill. Sea tang arose from the restless tide, that washed at the +cliff incessantly. + +As far as sight could pursue the richness of its causeway, the sun laid +gold in glittering mosaic across the tropic ocean. Never had the +sparkling waves seemed brighter, the world more promising, as Elaine +peered forth through her chink in the door, awaiting--God only knew +what. + +She had never been more excited, and rarely more alarmed. The unknown +element in Grenville's plans kept her nerves at the highest tension. +They had eaten a breakfast solely of fish before the light of daybreak. +Grenville had carefully closed the passage barrier, and crept out upon +the terrace. On no account must she open the door, or call him, to her +side. She must wait, and not even expect to hear a report of what was +occurring. + +The longest cord she had ever helped to braid was lightly secured to +her arm. Its farther end was tied in the rocks at the lower exit of +the passage. Until she should feel his tug upon this signal line, she +could only imagine that Sidney was near, or, perhaps, was climbing down +his ladder. + +She dreaded the thought of that ladder, so frailly depending above the +rocks and water, not to mention all its use might mean when the time +for the signal should arrive. And she might be obliged to wait all +day, as Sidney had warned her, duly--all day, while the wildest, the +most tormenting of conjectures would leisurely elaborate themselves in +her brain to convince her that Sidney was no more. + +Should he fall from the cliff, should he chance to underestimate the +Dyaks' treacherous activities--should any one of a dozen possible +calamities occur--how long must she wait till she knew? + +Meantime Grenville was barely less keyed to excited expectancy than +Elaine in her prison-like retreat. Times without number he goaded his +mind to review once more the inventory of his scheme, where the lack of +one small detail might prove his entire undoing. Yet, after all, there +were a few links only in the chain, though each was vitally important. + +He counted them over carefully--the signs or proof of calamity, here on +the hill, to convince the head-hunting demons his magazine was gone, +and with it all possible defense; the ladder and platform down below, +whereby he could reach the cave; the bombs for the climax, should his +hope succeed; and fire for their certain ignition. + +He had taken a double precaution to provide himself with fire. Down in +the passage several brands were smoldering slowly in their ashes, while +others did the same on the hill. He could think of nothing +lacking--not even the cord to warn Elaine to open her door and flee +outside when at length he should give her the signal! + +But as if in mockery of all this careful business, the day began with +never a sign from the jungle. The Dyaks, he feared, had altered their +plan, and might shoot no more of their arrows. He could not have known +they were waiting for the breeze to freshen and fill a certain sail. +One of their boats had been prepared and manned to police the headland +as before. + +When Grenville at length beheld it, gracefully sharp and picturesque, +as it rounded towards the master cliff, he was filled with conflicting +emotions. He had wished for this, precisely, but not without the rest. +The arrows first, had been his hope, and then this silent vulture, +atilt in the purple tides. + +The arrows presently arrived. He was still engaged in watching the +movements of the boat, in an effort to count the crew, when the first +of the flaming messengers struck dully against a bowlder and lay there, +fiercely blazing. + +Then the sudden flight, which, against an inky background, must have +presented an extraordinary spectacle, afforded a sight strange enough, +as Grenville presently conceded. The pitch and resin with which the +shafts were tipped, burned with a black and heavy smoke, that trailed +in their wakes like nebulous tails of cloud-producing comets. There +were some of the flames that the flight only served to fan to fiercer +heat and color. Like a candle sputtering in a draught they sounded as +they flew. + +Others that lost their yellow blaze smoked the more blackly in the air. +In half a dozen different spots the hotly burning lengths of wood were +soon consuming bits of scattered leaves and grass, one almost at +Grenville's feet. + +He was soon convinced that, should this rain of fire be long continued, +he should have no need to fire his bombs and spiral. The arrows would +actually accomplish the mission for which they were intended. He had +no wish for a premature climax to the singular attack, but rather hoped +to create the impression he was fighting desperately to protect his +magazine. + +When a heap of waste and useless creepers was presently ignited, he ran +from his place and promptly beat it out. He wished he might be seen. +He was gratified without delay. The rifleman, posted, as on previous +occasions, in the rocks that crowned the second hill, promptly +discharged his erratic weapon, and nearly killed one of his kind. + +Grenville ran as if to cover. A shout of exultation came from below. +A larger and swifter flight of the blazing shafts immediately ensued. + +Sidney now cast a glance about for the ship that was cruising by the +headland. Somewhat to his disappointment it had gone about as if to +return to the west, from which the cave, his platform, and ladder could +not, of course, be seen. He fancied, however, it had come up in stays +at the sound of the shot on the hill. It certainly appeared to be +paying off to continue about the headland. He dared not longer delay. + +The arrows were blazing all about him. He feared at last that one +lucky shot might even fire his cannon. Almost amused by the irony of +the situation, he caught up the nearest blazing shaft of fire, and used +it to light his fuse. + +In the briefest time the serpent of fire sped down through the hollowed +creeper to the spiral, where, also, lay the bombs. Of a sudden the +powder was ignited. + +With a flash of quickly leaping flames and a grayish geyser of fume, +the destruction began. Then, as a cry of glee arose from the clearing +below, the bombs went off in quick succession. + +They made a splendid noise and smoke, scattering fragments of the tufa +far and wide, till a rain of the smaller pieces spattered thickly down +in the jungle. Grenville arose from his hiding-place, quite unharmed, +and ran about on the terrace crazily, holding his head between his +hands for the distant rifleman to witness his discomfort. + +The Dyak was overjoyed. He shouted in reckless delight to his kind, +who howled like a pack of wolves now certain of feasting. Yet they did +not emerge from their places of concealment, nor undertake to bridge +the trail, and immediately ascend the hill, as Grenville had somewhat +feared. + +He crept to a point of vantage, watching the clearing for a +demonstration which, much to his gratification, did not arrive. Back +once more towards the cliff at the rear he scuttled, beholding the Dyak +craft at last heading well around towards the cave. The moment was +ripe for his scheme! + +Hurriedly creeping to the eastern brink, with one of his firebrands +gripped between his teeth, he began a descent of the ladder. Halfway +down he paused for breath, and furtively watched, from the tail of his +eye, for the boat that should presently appear. + +It came within range of his vision silently, and down he continued as +before. He could only hope that he might have been seen, for never a +sound arose from the crew to make the matter certain. For, perhaps, a +distance of twenty feet he must have been plainly in view. The last +fleeting sight he caught of the boat, she was putting about with a +suddenness enormously exciting to his blood. + +That the Dyaks had seen him, and were now intent upon turning away +before he should turn and see their boat, and know himself discovered, +was an inescapable conclusion. A moment later he was hidden by the +ledge, and descended more at leisure, climbing inside the ladder +presently, where it hung well out from the overhanging shelf, and so +coming down upon his platform, with little or no exertion. + +Immediately on landing under the mouth of the cavern, he lifted the +platform bodily, disengaged the hooks from the ladder's lower rung, and +drew it behind him to the cave. The ladder itself he could not remove +without climbing up to the terrace and issuing forth at the hidden +door, which would doubtless prove fatal to his plans. + +He proceeded at once to his supplementary firebrands, in the larger +spread of the gallery. Here all was going well. He extinguished one +or two branches of the smoldering wood, to conserve the limited supply. +After that it was simply a matter of waiting. + +How long it would take for the boat crew to land, inform their fellow +head-hunters of what they had seen, and fetch the entire company to +capture him, here in the chamber, was not a matter for easy estimation. +He hoped it might happen soon. + +In this he was doomed to disappointment. The Dyak sailors had seen +him, clearly enough. They had hastened back to report this eminently +satisfying outcome of their tactics, and the nine eager fiends had then +and there commenced their counter scheming. But they meant to commit +no errors, assume no unnecessary risks. + +For, notwithstanding the fact they were fully convinced the white man's +explosives had been reached by their arrows and destroyed, they +retained a vivid memory of punishments inflicted by the gun, where one +more deadly hail of slugs might lurk to find them again. It was, +however, important that one or more men should mount the terrace, to +watch at the head of the white man's ladder, and even render its use a +fatal experiment, should the climber attempt to regain the summit by +its means. + +They began investigations cautiously--all noted by Elaine. Peering +breathlessly out at her narrow chink, her heart consumed with haunting +worries, lest Grenville had met with some accident when the bombs were +finally exploded, she now beheld a pair of the Dyaks in the clearing, +apparently exposing themselves as if to draw any latent fire from the +hill. + +As the minutes went by and trouble failed to come, their boldness +plainly increased. They were not particularly hurried, however, in +producing their bridge for the trail. When at length four natives +brought it from the jungle, Elaine's heart pounded in her breast like a +hammer forging at her soul. + +She had instantly recognized the bamboo platform. She thought that +Sidney ought to come--to know of what was occurring. But he did not +come, and could not leave his post below, where one of his fuses, he +had found, had opened and spilt out its powder. This he was feverishly +and gingerly working to repair, by the light of a glowing brand. + +Not for a moment daring to abandon her place by the door, Elaine felt a +horrible sense of weakness attack her entire system as the Dyaks +cautiously adjusted their bridge, while watching against a new surprise. + +That the four men now constantly visible must presently succeed in +placing the slender platform from one broken ledge to the other, to +mount in full possession of the terrace, Elaine could not fail to +comprehend. The impulse to creep from her hiding-place and once more +fire the cannon was fairly overwhelming. She was certain that Sidney, +with all his wonderful scheming, had never contemplated this! + +He had simply instructed her to wait--to remain in the passage, behind +the concealing barrier, no matter what occurred, till she felt at last +the tug of the cord on her arm. She felt she must obey, that even to +desert her post for the little time required to hasten down the gallery +and let him know of the dangers now about her might cost them +everything! + +Never had she in her life been subjected to such a trial as that which +presently developed. + +The Dyaks had spanned the gap where the ledge was broken. Two of them +crept a little forward on the bridge. It was now or never to fire the +gun, while the four were still in range. She dared not disobey the +order given by her chief. Suddenly darting past the spot where the +cannon had taken its toll before, the Dyaks gained the summit--and were +finally in possession of the camp! + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +LONG HOURS OF DOUBT + +Grenville had hoped to be able to hasten for a moment up the gallery +and assure Elaine that all was well, and the matter now merely one of +patience. + +His belated discovery that one of his fuses was deficient had somewhat +shaken his nerves. Except for this timely restoration, his whole +project must have been weakened, perhaps to absolute failure. His line +of fuse was necessarily long, to assure essential safety for himself. +He was obsessed with a fear that countless defects might have developed +in the long line of powder-loaded creeper since the day it was made and +laid away. + +In a fever of anxious searching, he examined practically every inch of +both the lines, meantime returning frequently to the cavern's mouth, to +guard against surprise. Before he felt certain the fuse could all be +relied upon to perform its part in the business, he finally detected a +Dyak boat attempting to go about and escape his possible observation +from the dark retreat, while obviously hovering near, to watch that he +did not escape. + +After that he dared not for a moment desert his post. And the longer +the expected Dyaks remained away, the more imperative became his +watchfulness and constant attendance at the cave. + +Meanwhile, up at her flimsy door, Elaine leaned affrightedly against +the chilling wall, no longer peering forth at the chink, but tensely +listening--listening for the sounds of feet above her head. All four +of the Dyaks were there on the terrace, and, therefore, a few rods only +from the passage in which she crouched, alone. + +There was nothing to see, save the platform and part of the trail, and +she dared not stand so close to the door, lest her very breathing, or +the beat of her heart, betray her presence at her post. + +When at length the unmistakable sound of beings on the rocks directly +overhead came dully down through the roof of pitted stone, she shrank +entirely down to the floor, her heart in a sickening flutter. Just to +have cried out Sidney's name and to run like a child down the passage +to his arms, would have been a relief so incredibly vast its comfort +could not have been measured. + +But she did not move. She still obeyed, like the faithful comrade in +arms she was, awaiting her portion, allotted by the Fates, though it +might be death in its most revolting form. + +What sounds were made by the Dyaks, in retreat from that particular +position, failed to come down through the rock. She was, therefore, +denied the abatement of her apprehension which she might otherwise have +known. She was thoroughly convinced that one of the fiends had been +posted above the passage opening to remain indefinitely on guard. + +The Dyaks had, however, concluded their examination of the terrace +rather promptly. There was almost nothing worth investigation. +Grenville's imitation cannon had served its purpose to perfection. The +head-hunters marveled that a gun so simply and readily constructed +could have wrought such havoc in their ranks. But they found no reason +to doubt it had been used, and they readily overlooked the small brass +piece so artfully hidden by the stones. + +They had lost no time in removing the bowlders that supported Sidney's +ladder. One or two only they suffered to remain--sufficient to anchor +the affair in place, yet permit their man to drop back in the tide, +should he intrust his weight to it. + +That the white man's powder magazine had been greatly diminished before +their flaming arrows completed its destruction seemed indisputable. +The bombs had torn out and blackened so much of a cavity that the +Dyaks' gratification was complete. It was scarcely possible, they +argued, that the man seen running crazily about had escaped a mortal +hurt. He had certainly summoned the strength to escape to the cave, +but there he might have died. + +All the waste sections of Sidney's bamboo were thrown with his cannon +and his flag-pole in the sea. A thorough search was made of Elaine's +former shelter, as well as of all the rock heaps on the place, for the +treasure the man might have taken from the cave and concealed about his +camp. + +Not until some time after noon did the visitors finally leave the hill +and disappear in the jungle growth to mature their further plans. +Elaine knew nothing of their departure. She still remained back in the +darkness of the gallery, and, therefore, neither heard nor saw the +movements made on the ledge. She was hardly less prepared than before +to see the door of the gallery rudely torn away at any moment, and the +hideous head-hunters confidently pouncing in upon her. + +Grenville, down in the blackness of the cavern, was hardly more easy in +his mind. The Dyaks had failed to appear before the cave. He realized +they might conclude to starve him to death in the tomb-like place, +rather than risk another of his traps. To return to the terrace was +out of the question. Not only might the natives be present, but, if +once he were seen, they must immediately realize he had some unknown +means of passage from the cave to the summit. + +That the ladder would be watched he was certain. It was also more than +likely, he was sure, the Dyaks would either cut through the strands to +weaken it, near the top, or displace the rocks he had heaped upon its +end. Reflecting that to pull it down while one of their craft was +cruising about the headland might convince them he had fallen in the +sea, he laid his platform out on the ledge for the purpose before the +terrace had been deserted. But the boat was not to be seen. + +At noon the sun beat down on the rocks about the cave with a hot, +intolerable glare. Grenville was weary, as well as thirsty once more, +and faint from lack of food. He dared not abandon the cavern now, +however, since any moment might find the Dyaks slipping to the open +niche to complete the deed they had vainly attempted before. + +Never had the long, sultry hours of afternoon dragged by more +tediously. Never had the man so vividly realized how much it meant to +be near Elaine, to hear her voice, to gaze in the depths of her eyes. + +It was not till the sun was about to set that his long, impatient vigil +was somewhat rewarded at last. The Dyak boat drifted barely in sight, +as he crouched there on the shattered ledge. + +Without a moment's hesitation, even as he saw that the craft was +beating back, as before, to the shelter behind the cliff, he ran out +his platform, dropped its end across a rung of the ladder, and cast a +heavy stone as far out upon it as possible. + +It hung there, solidly enough, for a moment, then slipped a foot--and +abruptly the whole writhing length came down, to land in the whirlpool +and sink. The platform, however, was recovered. Returning at once to +his place behind the wall, Sidney waited in new expectancy for the +Dyaks to appear. + +They did not come. The sun went down--and with it Grenville's hope. +The head-hunters feared him still! They must have determined some +trick was prepared against their invasion of the cave! He was utterly +sick with discouragement. His long, hard day, to say nothing of +Elaine's, had been spent like this, in vain. He felt he had merely +lost ground. The Dyaks were doubtless already in possession of the +terrace, where he could not attack them to advantage, since precisely +as soon as he made his appearance on the hill-top the passage must be +revealed. + +He clung to the hope that dusk would bring the murderous pack to his +stand--that they might have waited for darkness to sneak upon him +unawares. But the twilight faded into blackest night, with clouds +obscuring the friendly stars, and still no head-hunters came. + +When at length he was certain no native would dare intrust himself or +his boat to the treacherous maelstrom of the niche, he abandoned hope +for the night. Returning to the passageway, he closed its door behind +him, secured it with the bar, and groped his way upward through the +velvet gloom for a word of cheer with Elaine. + +He called to her softly as he came towards the top, and she hastened +down to meet him. She was certain something had gone amiss, but her +courage was sufficient to sustain almost anything, so long as she knew +he was safe. + +"Got a bit hungry," he told her, off-handedly. "Those chaps do keep +one waiting!" + +"Sh-s-s-sh!" she said, in a warning whisper; "I think they're just +outside." + +"You saw them come up?" he asked her, eagerly. + +"Four of them--after you fired the bombs. They put a bridge across the +hole, as you thought, perhaps, they might." + +"H'm," said Sidney, quietly, going to the door and peering forth on the +jungle. "They haven't gone down since?" + +"Not that I saw. I wasn't watching all the while." + +"You haven't heard them talking, near the door?" + +"No, oh no! I haven't heard a thing! I haven't known what to do--or +whether you were alive or dead. I didn't know what my duty was when I +saw them come up, and wanted to fire the cannon! I thought the day +would never end! Have you had to give up at last?" + +"Certainly not!" he assured her, cheerfully, aware from every accent of +her voice what tortures she had suffered there alone. "I must soon +return--and you must go to bed. I haven't the slightest idea they will +come before next high tide, about eight, or later, in the morning. +Meantime you did exactly right. They haven't the slightest notion of +this secret passage, you may be sure, or nothing on earth could have +kept them out. And they long since returned to their boats.... I +suppose you have had neither food nor water. A little hurried supper +for us both, and I must go down to the basement for the night." + +Elaine had removed the cord from her arm, and secured it by the door. +Sidney ignited a slender piece of torch-wood, by the smoldering brands +maintained in the upper passage. He carried it promptly around the +angle of the gallery, however, as an added precaution against the +escape of one revealing beam through the chink that pierced the barrier +facing the jungle world. + +The dinner they ate was neither warm nor comforting. Cold fish is +barely sustaining, while the tonic properties of water are scarcely +worth describing. Elaine, however, was enormously reheartened, thus to +have Sidney there again, and know he had suffered no hurt. She bade +him good-night when their meager repast was finished, with the bravest +cheer that Grenville had taken to heart for many a weary day. Then, +with the cord once more on her arm, she resumed her place by the door. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +THE HOUR OF CLIMAX + +Grenville made no attempt to sleep as the long night went laggardly by. +He dozed, from sheer weariness, now and again, with his back against +the rocks, but two or three times in every hour he rose from his place +to go out on the ledge, where he listened to catch the slightest sound +that might be made above the ceaseless lapping of the water. He would +then return to the gallery, assure himself the smoldering brands were +ready for use at any moment, and once more sit down to wait and nod. + +Elaine was equally sleepless. Far more than Grenville she feared night +treacheries on the part of the Dyaks from the jungle. The state of her +nerves, since the terrace was so readily accessible to the head-hunting +butchers, permitted no thought of sleep. Moreover, never since their +arrival on the island had Grenville so far exiled himself from her side +throughout a night. She had always felt protected heretofore, and upon +that protection had relied. + +As restlessly as the man below she came to the door, times without +number, to listen for sounds the jungle might surrender, as well as to +watch through the darkness for the slightest inimical sign. Not a +sound, however, did the night vouchsafe her straining senses; not the +slightest movement in all the world of shadows, life, and tragedy about +and below her position could her blazing eyes detect. + +She had never known a night so long, or one so haunted with fears. Her +imagination played cruelly upon her heart, picturing one dread scene of +butchery after another, with Sidney completely overwhelmed and finally +slain, while she, no longer desirous of life, awaited her fate in a +dumb and dulled indifference. She was certain the morning would never +dawn again, or, if it did, the one man pitted against these savages +might not even have time for one faint tug on the cord about her arm, +more like a farewell than a signal. + +It was a red and troubled break of day that finally reddened the +eastern sky, where clouds were banked above the sea. Grenville had +dozed for perhaps as much as twenty minutes. He awoke with a start +from lurid dreams in which he had fancied himself awake after +criminally oversleeping, only to find himself and Elaine pinned down by +a horde of the merciless brutes to whom human heads are trophies. + +The red of the sky for a moment confirmed some remaining disorder of +his thoughts. He had stumbled quickly to the cavern's mouth, from +which the sanguinary streaks and blotches, now painting the far horizon +and dully reflected in the sea, were confusedly presented. + +The coolness of the haunting breeze, that crept like a presence about +the silent island, restored him soon and cleared the mists from his +brain. He stood for several minutes, gazing listlessly forth, +disgusted with the outcome of the night. + +Once more he returned to the gallery to inspect his brands of fire. +And once again, on returning to the chamber, his inclination was to +prop his back against the wall and let himself sink in slumber. + +The dawn-light was slowly increasing. He watched it dully for a moment +more, and yawned as he stumbled heavily towards the utter discomfort of +his resting-place. + +Once more he adjusted his weary limbs upon the ledge, reflecting on +what expedient he must now adopt, since this, his _coup-de-main_, had +so egregiously failed. He thought he was planning brilliantly when he +once more fell asleep. The slightest of sounds that was foreign alike +to tide or breeze now failed to arouse his senses as his head came +forward on his breast. + +Not another sound was made where that one had strangely risen from the +front of the shattered ledge. Even the sharpest eyes would have been +for a moment tricked by the shadows of the rocky niche, where the tide +was darkly swirling. A fragment of the lower cliff then appeared to be +detached. + +It was simply Grenville's catamaran, with two or three natives upon its +deck, silently maneuvering to land. Back of it, just well off the +frowning headland wall, the bow of a larger Dyak craft appeared for the +fraction of a minute. + +The head-hunting fiends had arrived! They had chosen the hour when +exhaustion finally culminates and claims the helpless sentinel, heavily +dreaming that all is well! + +Aware that the slightest disturbance might warn their intended victims +in the cave, the Dyaks labored with the utmost caution to fetch the +float to the ledge. This they presently accomplished, fending it off +at a vital moment lest it scrape against the rock. + +Two of the half-clad demons now landed, their movements as sinuous and +silent as a serpent's. Instantly flattening down upon the tide-lapped +shelf, while the third of their party skillfully guided the catamaran +once more to the larger craft without, they waited as patiently as the +shadows, of which they seemed a part. + +The plans of the crew on the boat without had been matured with much +sagacity. The transfer of two more men to the raft was quickly and +noiselessly accomplished, and once again the catamaran was permitted to +swing on the tide's rotation into the open entrance of the inlet. + +This second pair, with knives between their teeth and hands therefore +unencumbered, were a trifle overeager to gain the mouth of the cave. +One of them caught at the fissured edge of tufa with avid fingers, +while the float was responding to the force of the whirl. His hold was +rudely broken, yet so sharply had he dug in his nails that a fragment +of rock was broken away. It plumped with a gurgle in the water. + +Grenville was suddenly awakened--not so much by the sound the bit of +rock had made as by something more subtle in the very air--a something +only to be interpreted by that instinct surviving from ages dark and +old. + +He was suddenly alive to a sense of imminent danger lurking fearfully +close at hand. None too soon and none too silently he rose to his +feet, for there at the ledge the catamaran was halted and, even as the +two impatient Dyaks landed, their companions came worming up the shelf. + +A moment more and all must have been too late, as Grenville clearly +realized. Indeed, with the utmost caution only could retreat to his +gallery be effected without a betrayal of his presence. He dared not +move swiftly from his post--and yet he must be quick! + +Slowly and noiselessly withdrawing from his place beside the wall, he +took one long step inwards, towards the door he must place against the +open gallery entrance. + +The dawn-light, redder and more intense, now cast an intangible shadow +in the chamber as a Dyak's head appeared above the ledge. The fiends +were all but on his heels! + +He slipped within the passage, without creating the slightest sound, +save the loud, tumultuous pounding of his heart. Lifting the door no +less cautiously into its proper position, he left a crack, that was +barely a half-inch wide, through which to watch his visitors, writhing +like so many pythons over the shelf and into the ebon well of gloom. + +Their plan was to crawl to the confines of the cave--unless they should +creep by chance upon their sleeping victims sooner, leaving a couple +crouched outside to prevent the quarry's escape. Torches were not to +be lighted until every man was posted, and then would be thrown to the +center of the cavern where their light would reveal the chamber's +occupants, while the outer rim of darkness still concealed the gleaming +knives. A counter attack would be rendered out of the question. The +cordon would be complete. + +Three of those strangely-moving shadows Grenville plainly discerned. +There was nothing more to be seen--and nothing to be heard. That +several Dyaks were almost at his feet he felt, but could not have +proved. He had hoped for half a dozen at the least. He hoped for them +still, and deliberately waited, trusting they might arrive. + +It seemed such a pity to waste his mines and not obliterate the lot! +He wondered if more of them might not come--then how he should know, if +they did. + +Meanwhile, the three not included here in the cave-attacking party were +equally active above. The red of the dawn had seen them advancing +through the jungle where they meant to take the hill and block the +retreat of the victims to that eminence by any chance of extra ladders +or white man's baffling magic. + +Elaine beheld them, through the strengthening light, so soon as they +crossed the clearing. They paused there as if for a signal, which they +may or may not have received. It gave the girl, who had watched with +an ever-increasing fever through the night and that blood-red dawn, a +long wild moment in which to imagine fates untold that must have +overtaken Sidney. + +She was certain at last he was murdered in the cave, and that now, with +the passageway finally known, the fiends, whose passion was taking +human life, had come to complete their tale of butchery and plunder. +Why else should they once more visit the hill at such an hour of the +morning? They had barely waited for the dawn to make certain of their +work! + +She saw them coming furtively up the trail, aware, she was sure, that +by means of the hidden gallery their movements might be seen. She had +held a wasting firebrand in her tense little fist for the past two +hours. And now--if only Sidney had told her what to do in such an +extremity as this! If only it might be her duty to fire the cannon! + +It seemed as if she must obey the impulse--and perhaps save both of +their lives! The Dyaks were almost at the bridge. They must soon come +fairly in range of the gun! After that--it would be too late! + +Below, in the cavern, during this time, Grenville was haunted with +doubts. He had waited in hopes other Dyaks would come, and not a sound +had rewarded his straining senses. He began to fear he had waited too +long--that the creatures whose shadows had crept within had searched +all the place and departed. + +Yet he knew that they could not have passed him and left him unaware. +The light was now all in his favor, and steadily increasing. With a +sudden determination to take what toll the Fates had offered, he groped +his way back to his brands of fire, and then to the ends of his fuse. + +Elaine, with her heart all but bursting, with excitement for which she +had no vent, saw the head-hunters pause on the slender bridge before +they crept upward as before. Her weight was leaned against the door +till it moved a little from its bearings. + +She was sure it had made some far-reaching sound that the Dyaks could +not fail to hear. They had paused again--and again moved up the +trail--and found her helpless. The cord on her arm!--if Sidney would +only pull the cord---- + +The sharp little tug that suddenly came now startled a cry from her +lips. Instantly thrusting away the door and bounding from the narrow +ledge to the upper level of the terrace, she ran towards the fuse with +her cone of fire, just as Grenville, down in the gallery of rock, came +madly plunging upward. + +He had lighted the fuse, and was groping towards the top, a fear that +he might be buried pursuing at his heels. He stumbled across the heavy +load of treasure, left in its basket by the wall. + +As one in an earthquake or fire clutches up something to save it, +instinctively, so he laid hold of this useless dross and tugged it +hotly up the passage. He reached the upper angle thus before he +realized the folly of his action. He was certain then, as he dropped +the load, that something had happened to his mines. + +Before this time---- + +With the thought half finished in his swiftly-working brain came the +thud and shock of his explosion--a tangible movement in the bulk of +rock--and then the cataclysm. + +Almost as one with Elaine's small detonation, the mighty jar, the +air-confounding concussion, the smothered boom, and the dizzying tremor +that swayed the hill, shook down the girl's bewildered senses. She saw +the red leap from the cannon's mouth--and saw three men, surprised to +inaction on the deadly angle of the trail--then down she went, her mind +convinced she had rended the island asunder. + +Sounds of colossal destruction stormed through the air for a time that +seemed to have no end. The roar of a cataract of broken stone, +confusedly toppling from estates erected by the ages, was lost in a +tumult of other sounds where the headland seemed to fill the sea. + +Dust of the rock and smoke of the rock ascended with fumes of the +powder. Tidal disturbances splashed and seethed where the sea, having +split to receive those tons of chaos, surged back with augmented +violence at this displacement of its waters. + +The cave had been blotted from existence! Its walls and its ceiling +had crashed from their several places. to leave only an ugly scar. +Whole towers of rocks, cleaved from the hill's main mass in sudden +violence, had hung in disordered ruin against the quaking air for a +second, then rioted downward on the Dyak boat to plunge it, rent and +shivered, to the bottom. + +Not a man of that murderous group below had survived the climax of that +second. The place that had once been a treasure tomb, with a wailing +"spirit" at its portals, was at last a very tomb indeed; but nevermore +would its tidal wail arise on the air to render the cavern sacred. + +Like a veritable spirit of underground destruction, Grenville emerged +from the passage, unaware of all he had done. His thought was only of +Elaine. He called, as he climbed to the terrace, but no glad little +cry made response. + +Then, abruptly, he saw her prostrate figure on the rocks--and beyond +her two men, with one limberly inert, limping blindly down the trail. +To dart to his store, snatch the last of his bombs, and pursue these +three who had threatened Elaine was the first wild impulse of his +being. Just one such blow, to follow up his victory, and perhaps they +should need no more! + +But he ran instead to the helpless figure near the cannon. He knew +what she had done. He took her up swiftly, calling on her name, and +carried her back to the former cave, where a rosy light from the risen +sun made it seem like a haven of promise. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +A LOTUS BLOSSOM + +It was still very early in the morning when Grenville finally +discovered, afar out northward on the sea, two Dyak boats making +swiftly away from the island. + +He feared for a moment, when the sails were first discerned, they were +new craft about to arrive. He could not have known that his mines sunk +the third of the boats formerly at anchor in the inlet, and was in no +way enabled to determine how many of the enemy had perished at the cave. + +It was almost too much to credit, this apparent retreat of the fiends +so bent upon his capture. He made no positive report to Elaine of the +fact he felt he must verify, lest he find himself obliged to retract it +later. + +She had quickly responded to his ministrations, having fainted as much +from lack of food and rest as from shock in that final moment. +Concerning the final effect of her shot, she was destined never to +know. Grenville was far too wise to let her believe she had taken the +life even of a fiend in human semblance. + +He told her the Dyaks had fled from the place, which flight he had +personally witnessed. He was certain, moreover, they would hardly +return again that day, if they did not quit the island. Assured of the +safety of the adventure, he descended to the jungle and returned with +an armful of fruit. He proceeded later to the spring for a fresh +supply of water. + +Estimating the final fighting force of the Dyaks at ten, and conceding +that five, at the least, must have perished at the cave, since one or +two must have guarded the boats while three were searching the chamber, +he concluded that no more than four at the most could still remain +uninjured. + +He had gone to the edge of the ruin, above the obliterated cave, and, +having discovered no boat either near or far, had arrived at a fairly +accurate conjecture respecting the fate of the craft the Dyaks had +employed. One more calculation, respecting the number of able seamen +required to navigate the retreating vessels, convinced him the island +was deserted to the uses of Elaine and himself. + +It was not, however, till that afternoon that he cautiously explored +their former possessions and confirmed the hope in his breast. There +was ample evidence about the spring, and in the jungle, of the methods +of living the Dyaks had employed, but neither at the western inlet, +back of the central hill of rock, nor at the friendly estuary, was +anything boatlike to be found. His catamaran had vanished, along with +the larger craft, and its fate he could readily surmise. + +He lost no time in arranging a number of his snares and traps for the +meat of which they were in need. Their camp was made as before on the +terrace proper, despite the heat of the sun. + +It was not until many of these essential comforts had been once more +established that Sidney explored the gallery to determine what +destruction had been wrought by his double mine. + +Everything stored in the lower depths had been hopelessly buried by the +rock. The passage was open for no more than half its former length. +His bamboo raft was among the possessions sacrificed to the ruse that +had finally succeeded beyond even his wildest dreams. Not ten feet +back of his basket-load of treasure the last of the caving had been +halted. + +When Elaine's robe and couch, their water-jugs, and his last remaining +bomb had been once more returned to the earlier camp, practically +nothing but the gold and precious stones remained in the gallery. +Elaine was aware the trinkets were lying there on view, but so vast was +her relief at the vanishment of danger--though it might be temporarily +only--she had no desire for gauds and baubles, and no particular +curiosity respecting their worth or appearance. + +Indeed, these two had endured too much to dwell upon jewels and gold. +They were free from menace for a time, but--the future still loomed +before them, inimical and obscure. Their life in this tropic exile was +still to be faced, day after day. + +That morning and long sweet afternoon, however, they passed in restful +inactivity, possessed by ineffable thankfulness and a sense of relief +that was utterly relaxing to their racked and exhausted nerves. It +seemed a strange, impossible state, this peacefulness, security, and +freedom to move about once more, alone in their Shalimar. And +Grenville knew it was far too good to last. + +Yet for several days it seemed as if the propitiating Fates made every +possible endeavor to erase from the tablets of their memory all records +of the agonies and apprehensions they had recently undergone. + +They were wonderful days, for sheer inspiriting beauty. A cool, spicy +breeze was wafted, with the sunshine, across the smiling ocean. The +jungle was redolent of fragrances of intoxicating sweetness. Down on +the beach her leafy bower once more found Elaine idly resting in her +hammock, or busily preparing a tempting repast from the once more +generous larder. + +The girdle of gold she continued to wear in happiness that stole +unbidden to her heart--a happiness as subtle and welcome as the +perfumes that stole to her senses on the breeze. And when she finally +found and plucked a solitary lotus blossom, floating near the estuary's +edge, it seemed as if the ecstasy possessing all her nature must bring +about some miracle of untold joy and bliss. + +Grenville was hardly less transported by the hourly pleasures that day +and night alike seemed bearing to this island world, like argosies from +Eden. Subconsciously, beneath it all, he knew the boats that had +sailed away would one day return, perhaps with more of their species, +and better prepared for a swift and merciless revenge. Yet even then +he was slow to employ his wits and energies to prepare for another +siege, his disinclination for more revolting ordeals casting a lethargy +on all his fighting attributes, while days like these, voluptuously +serene and toxicant, suggested vast contentment to his spirit. + +Indeed, his spirit as well as his body needed rest. To this he was +constantly urged by Elaine, who understood, far better than himself, +how unsparingly he had drained the vital essences of his being through +all these uncounted weeks. + +She, too, was aware they were only secure for a moment, that untold +dangers must be lurking just beyond the rim of their purple horizon. +She had finally learned from Sidney's lips how the vessels had sailed +away. She had, however, seen this sign of security previously +fail--and felt it would fail again. + +The future her soul avoided. Darkness and tragedy were only too +readily imagined. At best it was all uncertain, rife with shadows, +peopled with ghosts of doubt and haunting dreads. Meantime, their own +green Shalimar was once more fresh with sunny smiles that enticed her +spirit to song. + +She sang to herself through many hours of joyous "household" duties. +The songs she chose were happy little fragments wherein she imagined +Grenville set, with herself always traipsing at his side. She sang her +songs to and of him, watching him shyly when he was near, and sending +her thoughts to seek him out when he hunted or wandered in the jungle. + +It was not until one of those incomparable mornings, with the tropic +greenery fresh as a breath over clover, that he finally heard the notes +she had prisoned in her bosom break forth in clear, sweet utterance, as +crystal bright as the sun. + +He paused in the screen of ferns and palms to partake of her wild, +sweet rapture. And how lightly and gladly she sang! + + "_Come out, come out, my dearest dear, + Come out and greet the sun! + The birds awake on tree and brake, + The merry May's begun!_ + + "_Come out and drink the diamond dew, + Come out and tread the lea! + The world is all awake, and you + Are all the world to me!_" + + +All that was starved in his nature stirred in response to the song. +His blood leaped faster, its glow like that of rich and +sense-delighting wine. A vivid memory of the one lawless kiss he had +dared to snatch from Elaine's red lips inflamed a sweet desire. + +He had called her his sweetheart, called her his mate, for the frenzy +of joy, the ecstasy, her nature had wrought upon his own. He felt +to-day his claim had been proved, by their life alone with God. They +had worked and fought and planned the days away together, like a mated +pair fresh created and cast to an Eden of the sea. They belonged to +one another. + +Love had come at last to Elaine--a love to match the strength and +purpose of his own--a love overwhelming, natural, unabashed--was their +rightful heritage. Its holiness gave it sanction; its rightness made +it as pure as fire that makes hard metal molten. + +He started slowly towards the hill whereon Elaine was busied. He +halted, however, hidden from view by a new banana foliage, wondrously +unrolling. Another song was floating on the air. + + "_Pale hands I loved, upon the Shalimar, + Where are you now? Who lies beneath thy spell? + Whom do you lead on rapture's roadway jar + Before you agonize them, in farewell?_ + + "_Pale hands I loved, upon the Shalimar, + Where are you now? Where are you now?_" + + +The mad intoxication of his senses rocked him strangely, there in the +thicket. He saw the gleam of the jeweled girdle that spanned Elaine's +lithe figure, as she moved about on the brink of the terrace above. +Once again his heart struck mightily against its walls, as it had the +first day she had worn this gold, by way of a maid's confession. + +He knew at last her Shalimar was a wild little garden of love, to be +sacredly shared between them. Excited to trembling he started again to +join her at the cavern. Before he could come to the foot of the trail +she suddenly ran to the terrace-edge, looking down like a vision of +despair. + +"Sidney!" she cried, "another Dyak boat! I've just this minute seen +the sail!" + +Ready to curse the merciless Fates, as well as his own recent laziness, +which had made calamity possible, Grenville ran swiftly up the mended +trail and followed Elaine to the tree. + +The sail was certainly plain enough to see, far out in the purple +waters. It was, to all appearances, bearing directly down upon the +island. But, as Grenville watched, it altered shape. His face showed +a sign of relaxing. + +"I don't believe it's a Dyak craft," he told her, hoarsely. "It looks +like---- I think it's a yacht." + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +THE LAST BOMB + +It certainly was a modern yacht that the two of them saw, straining +their eyes to identify the stranger roving afar in their waters. + +A trick of the sun, or perhaps her paint, had concealed both masts and +funnel for a time, presenting only a rakish angle of her prow and +quarter, incredibly like a sail of the shape the Dyaks employ. + +But, if eager excitement surged uninterruptedly through the pulses of +the two ragged exiles, there on the barren headland, the bitterness of +vain disappointments promptly began their inroads to its centers. The +yacht was not only in great apparent haste, but was heading far off to +the eastward, with not the slightest curiosity respecting the tiny +island of whom no one could give a good report. + +The flagpole was gone--and a new one had been neglected. There was no +time now to erect another, as Grenville realized. He stood with Elaine +on the brink of the rock, frantically waving his arms and cap, and even +a large banana leaf, while the slender distant visitor came abreast +them and continued straight ahead. + +"They've got to see! They've got to!" he cried, in the desperate +plight of mind begotten by this promise thus mercilessly snatched away. + +Suddenly abandoning all other possible devices, he ran to his powder +"magazine," where the last of the bombs was stored. He came with it +hugged against his breast, in thoughtless and dangerous proximity to +the firebrand clutched in his fist. + +"Run back!" he said. "I haven't time to make it thoroughly safe!" + +But Elaine remained to see him lower it down on the broken rocks, where +the cave had formerly existed. She waited, indeed, till he lighted the +fuse and drew her away towards the shelter. + +His eyes were on the distant yacht, fast fading once more from their +vision. The bomb must have failed. The fuse was deficient, he was +sure. He started back to recover the thing and make it certain of +explosion. + +Then it burst, and flung shattered fragments along all the face of the +wall. + +Grenville was watching the distant yacht with fixed, almost frenzied, +expression. + +"They haven't heard!" he groaned, despairingly. "They're going faster +than before!" + +It certainly seemed as if the hurried stranger would no more halt than +would a fiery meteor overdue at some cosmic appointment. + +Then of a sudden, from its bow, broke a pure-white cloud of smoke. She +had answered with the small brass piece employed to fire a salute. Her +prow was turned before the sound came dully across the waters. Sobbing +and laughing together, in sudden relief, Elaine sank down on her knees, +among the bowlders, to watch this deliverance come. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +A GIFT REFUSED + +The yacht was the "Petrel," luxurious hobby of Sir Myles Kemp, diverted +from her homeward course by the merest whim of her owner to run up +northward for a day while Sir Myles should inspect the rubber +plantation and estate of his old fellow-officer, Captain Williams, who +was not even present at the place. + +The inspection was never made. The utter amazement occasioned by the +chance discovery of the exiles of Three-Hill Island, plus their story +of its fateful occupation, completely overshadowed all else in the +minds of the "Petrel's" commander and crew, whose one idea was to +assist the castaways home with the greatest speed of which steel and +steam were capable. The picture the pair presented as they came +aboard--Elaine amazingly tattered, a supple, tanned, incredibly sweet +and womanly little figure--Grenville, a bearded, active master of the +wild, clad in the skin of a cheeta for a coat, and bearing a richly +colored tiger-skin, rolled up to contain a hundredweight of +treasure--was one that Sir Myles was destined never to forget. He was +likewise always destined to misunderstand the emotions with which, as +they steamed away at last, Elaine looked back, with tears in her eyes, +at the unpeopled Isle of Shalimar, so green in its purple setting, +presenting its headland to the sea with that lone tree reared above its +summit. + +Grenville, too, had seen her eyes--and he more nearly comprehended. + +By great good-fortune much of Lady Kemp's wardrobe had been left aboard +the yacht. She and Elaine must have been of a size, to judge from the +manner in which her yachting apparel and her dainty boudoir adjusted +themselves to the form of the girl whom Sir Myles began forthwith to +treat as he might a daughter. + +The "Petrel" was put about and headed for Colombo--the nearest port at +which an Orient steamer would be likely to be encountered. It was not +until after dinner had been served and his guests had been made as +thoroughly comfortable as warm-hearted hospitality, admiration for the +two of them, and exceptional thoughtfulness could compass that Sir +Myles related the accepted fate of the "Inca," from the wreck of which +they escaped. + +The news had gone forth that she foundered, and not a soul was saved. +A few insignificant pieces of wreckage had been found afloat, far from +the unknown ledge of rock the earthquake had lifted in the sea, but no +one till now had heard so much as a theory as to what had been her fate. + +That some such intelligence must have been sent to the worried and +waiting relatives and friends beyond the seas, both Grenville and +Elaine had long before comprehended, despite the preoccupation +engrossing their minds all these many age-long weeks. But now, when at +length they were homeward bound, the facts presented an aspect which +there had been no occasion to prepare against while struggling for +existence on the island. + +There was one thought only in their minds. It was Fenton, and what he +might have done when that news had expended its shock. And what would +be the outcome of the story, now that the home-coming journey was +resumed--now that he, Sidney Grenville, could at last complete and +discharge his original commission? + +He faced the business hardly more calmly than did Elaine. No argument +possible to him now, respecting the warning Fenton had received, +availed to allay and satisfy his haunting sense of honor. The man had +matured on Shalimar, and his soul had been refined. + +But what strange days those were that now succeeded! How they robbed +him of his happiness, as they brought him nearer home! His spirits +sank and would not rise, the nearer Colombo was approached. He told +himself then, once he could wire, acquaint Gerald Fenton with the fact +they were safe, and would soon be with him, he would come to some peace +of mind. + +But, when at length the wire was sent, he experienced no such relief. +Relief, indeed, had failed to come when for three days and nights the +Orient boat had been plowing across the Indian Ocean, rushing headlong +from the tropic heat to the distant ports beyond. + +He thought, perhaps, if he informed Elaine, the business would be +settled. He attempted that day to introduce the subject, but in vain. +Elaine was so sparklingly happy! He postponed the ordeal for the night. + +The moon had returned to the skies again, bringing to the wanderers +ineffable memories of other nights, when peace lay tranquilly fragrant +on the world of their Shalimar. He detected its subtle influence on +the ever-vivacious little woman who had shared his perils and his joys. + +Elaine was softly thrilling to the spell of it all as she halted beside +him, finally, on a strip of the deck abandoned to their uses. She felt +that the atmosphere was overcharged, and wondered what might be +impending. To still the pounding of her heart she leaned on the +taffrail, ecstatically in touch with Grenville's arm. She spoke of the +wonder of the night. + +"Yes," drawled Grenville, in his old dry way, "great facilities here +for manufacturing nights---- I wired Gerald from Colombo." + +For a moment Elaine was puzzled by this wholly irrelevant remark. Then +her heart began to rock uneasily. + +"You--wired we were coming home?" + +"Wired I was fetching you home, after unavoidable delay." + +She recognized the difference between the way that she and he had +expressed the principal fact. She felt herself, as it were, already +surrendered to a man grown singularly foreign to her nature. It seemed +to her incredible that Sidney and she should ever again be parted, or +work out their several destinies in any manner save +together--especially after all he had said and even done. + +"Was that--all you said?" she asked him, faintly. + +"No. I said I'd be best man--or something of the sort." + +Elaine felt something leaden go down to the point of her heart. + +"You wanted him to know that you had no idea---- You wanted Gerald to +understand----" She could not finish her sentence. Her face was hotly +flaming, but at least she could turn it away. + +Grenville's voice was hard and strange. + +"It was barely his right to know that we were coming. I could do no +less, as you'll certainly agree." + +His speeches were constrained, unnatural, as Elaine had instantly felt. +Her own were scarcely less embarrassed--after all these months when +their entire world had comprised themselves alone. It seemed a +monstrous error that anything but free, unfettered companionship and +candor should exist between them now. + +"I know," she said. "Of course." She added, after a moment, "It seems +so peculiar, that's all--to--resume as we were before." + +He was looking at his fist, for no good reason in the world. + +"It is what you have hoped for every day." + +"To get away from the Dyaks--why, of course." + +Another silence supervened. After three unsuccessful efforts at +speech, Elaine at last found the voice and the courage for a question: + +"Do you wish to be--best man?" + +Grenville spread out his fingers, for further inspection. + +"I probably shouldn't have suggested it otherwise." + +She turned upon him impulsively. "Sidney, are you absolutely honest?" + +"Oh, I wouldn't trouble old Diogenes to get out of his grave and look +me up," he answered, in his customary spirit, "but I've got a faint +idea what honor means." + +How well she knew his various manners of evasion! Her heart was +pounding furiously. She leaned with all her weight against the rail, +as if for fear he must hear its clamorous confessions. + +She had never been so excited in her life--or more courageous. +Likewise she felt she possessed certain God-given rights that were +poised at the brink of disaster. For a love like hers comes never +lightly and is not to be lightly dismissed. Her utterance was +difficult, but mastered. + +"One night--in the smoke--on the island--when we might have died of +thirst--and you came with water---- You remember what you said?" + +"Concerning what?" + +"Concerning--love." + +He was gripping a stanchion fiercely; his fingers were white with the +strain. + +"Vaguely---- I think I was exhausted." + +"Oh! you're not--you're not honest at all!" she suddenly exploded. +"That day of the wreck--on the steamer--you know what you said to me +then! And any man who has acted so nobly, so thoughtfully----" + +He turned and gripped the small, soft hand by his coat-sleeve on the +rail. + +"Don't do it, little woman--don't do it!" he said, in a low voice, +charged with passion. "You told me some stinging truths that day, and +now--they're truer than ever!" + +"I didn't!" she said, no longer master of her feelings. "I didn't tell +the truth! I said I hated--said I loathed---- And you _said_ I'd +throw his ring in the sea--and you said you'd make me--like +you--some--and you know that I couldn't help liking you now--when +you've treated me so horribly all the time! And after everything we've +done together----" + +"Elaine!" he interrupted, hoarsely, "when did you throw away his ring?" + +"After the tiger--the night I gave you the cap, and you acted so +hatefully and mean! It bounced and went into the water." + +He was white, and tremendously shaken, while gleams of incandescence +burned deeply in his eyes. How he stayed the lawless impulse to take +her to his arms he never knew. He dropped her hand and turned away, +with a savage note of pain upon his lips. + +"Good Heavens!" he said, "why don't you help me a little? I had no +right then! I have no right now! ... I'm going to take you home to +Fenton, if it's the very last act of my life!" + +She, too, was white and trembling. + +"I know what you mean--you _never_ loved! You don't know the meaning +of the word!" + +"All right," he said. "We'll let it go at that." + +"Oh, you're perfectly horrid!" she suddenly cried, the hot tears +springing to her eyes. "I refuse to be taken back to Gerald! I refuse +to have anything more to do with any selfish man in the world!" + +She retreated a little towards the saloon, her two hands going swiftly +to a gleaming band that all but spanned her waist. + +"And there's your old girdle, with Gerald's ring, that you made me +throw away!" she added, flinging the tiger's collar towards the sea. + +It struck on a stanchion, bounded to the deck, and settled against a +near-by chair. She waited a second, instantly ashamed, and longing to +beg his forgiveness. But he leaned as before against the rail, his +eyes still bent upon the water. + +Weakly, with drooping spirits, Elaine retreated through an open door, +still watching, in hopes he would turn and call her back. Then, +stoutly suppressing her choking and pent emotions, she fled to the +dismal comfort of her stateroom, and, falling face downward in her +narrow berth, surrendered to the vast relief of sobbing. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +A FRIEND IN NEED + +That one more shock of surprise could overtake the returning castaways +before the final landing could be accomplished would have seemed +incredible to either Grenville or Elaine--and yet it came. + +They had spent a number of wretched days--days far more miserable and +hope-destroying than any their dire experience had brought into being, +as the mere result of that final scene enacted in the moonlight by the +rail. + +The steamer had touched in the night at some unimportant, outlying port +of call to which no one had paid the tribute of interest usual on the +sea. A single male passenger had boarded. + +The man was Gerald Fenton. The message dispatched from Colombo had +fetched him, post haste, to this midway ground for the meeting. But +the meeting occurred in a manner wholly unexpected. + +Like the wholly considerate gentleman he was, Fenton had made all +preparations for removing the startling elements from the fact of his +presence on the boat. Like so many of life's little schemings, +however, the plans went all "aglee." + +Elaine not only did not linger in her stateroom in the morning late +enough to receive his note from the stewardess, but, when she hastened +up to the topmost deck for her early morning exercise before the more +lazy should appear, she literally ran into Fenton's arms at the head of +the narrow stairs. + +Her surprise could hardly have been greater. She recoiled from the +contact automatically, before she had time to see who it was with whom +she had collided. Then a note of astonishment broke from her lips as +she halted, leadenly. + +"Why--Gerald!" she managed to stammer, without the slightest hint of +gladness in her tone. "Here?" + +"Well, little girl!" he answered, smilingly; and, coming to her in his +quiet way, he took her hands to greet her with a kiss. + +A note of uncertainty forced itself to audible expression as she +slightly retreated from his proffered caress and received it on her +cheek. + +"Well! well!" Fenton continued, "you're certainly fit--and brown! You +couldn't have had the note I sent to break the news. I tried to give +you warning." + +"No," she said, constrainedly, "I've had no word. How did you get +here--come aboard? I don't see how---- It took me so by surprise." + +"I'm sorry," he said, his smile losing something of its brightness. "I +boarded at midnight, when the steamer touched at Fargo. When I got +Sid's wholly incredible wire that you were both safe and well and +coming home---- But how is the good old rascal?" + +Elaine's constraint increased. + +"Quite well, I believe--as far as I know." + +"Isn't he with you, here on the boat, going home?" + +"Oh, yes, he's on the steamer." + +Fenton was groping, without a woman's intuitions, through the something +he felt in the air. + +"Don't you like him, Elaine?" he asked her, bluntly. "What's wrong?" + +"Why--nothing's wrong," she answered, unconvincingly. "It's just the +surprise of meeting you like this." + +"I'm sorry," he said, as he had before, his eyes now entirely +smileless. "I might have managed it better, I suppose---- Aren't you +a little bit glad to see me?" + +Elaine attempted a smile and a manner more cordial. "Of course--I'm +delighted! But it takes me just a minute or so to realize it's really +you." + +"Never mind. Take your time," he told her, indulgently. "Perfect +miracle, you know, that you and old Sid should have come through the +wreck of the 'Inca'--the sole survivors of the accident--and lived out +there--somewhere--on an island, I hear--and now be nearing home. I'm +eager to hear the story." + +"Yes," she agreed, "it doesn't seem real to me, now. It's more like a +long, strange dream." + +"I have only heard a little from the captain," he continued, forcing a +conversation which he felt was wholly unspontaneous and hardly even +congenial. + +"Naturally, all his information----" + +She saw his eyes quickly brighten as his gaze went past her to the +stairs. + +"Sid!" he cried, moving swiftly forward; and Grenville appeared on the +deck. + +His face was suddenly reddened, beneath the veneer of tan. But the +boyish joy with which he rushed for Fenton was a heartening thing to +see. + +The two simply gripped, with might and main, and hammered each other +with one free hand apiece, and laughed, and called one another +astonishing names till it seemed they might explode. + +"You savage! You tough old Redskin!" Fenton finally managed to +articulate, distinctly. "If it isn't yourself as big as life! And I +want you to know I haven't made your fortune--not exactly--yet--but +it's certain at last. And how about your winning my little girl? +Speak up, you caveman of the---- Oh, Elaine!" + +But Elaine had fled the scene. + +That moment began the tug at the ties of friendship and the test of the +souls of the three. It was not a time of happiness that thereupon +ensued. Elaine avoided both the men as far as possible. Grenville +alone seemed natural, and yet even his smiles were tinged with the +artificial. + +He was glad to relate their varied adventures--the tale of the perils +through which they had finally won. But how much of it all Gerald +Fenton really heard no man could with certainty tell. + +Fenton was neither a self-conceited person nor a blind man, groping +through life. Through the stem of his finely colored calabash he +puffed many a thought, along with his fragrant tobacco fume, and +revolved it in his brain. + +Between certain lines of Grenville's story he read deep happenings. +That Sidney had saved and preserved Elaine, and battled for her comfort +and her very life, against all but overwhelming odds, was a fact that +required no rehearsal. + +Mere propinquity, as Fenton knew, has always been the match-maker +incomparable, throughout the habited world. Add to the quite +exceptional propinquity of a tropic-island existence a splendid and +unfaltering heroism in Grenville, together with a mastery of every +situation, months of daily service and devotion, and the rare good +looks that Sidney had certainly developed--and what wonder Elaine +should be changed? + +The change in her bearing had struck him at once at the moment of their +meeting by the stairs. He had never got past that since. When at +length his course was clearly defined and his resolution firmly fixed, +it still required skillful maneuvering on Fenton's part to manage the +one little climax on which he finally determined. + +But night, with her shadows, her softening moods, and her veiling ways +of comfort, was an ally worthy of his trust. When he finally +engineered the unsuspicious Grenville to the upper deck, where Elaine +had already been enticed, evasion of the issue was done. + +"It's amazing," said Fenton, in a pleasant, easy manner, "how I am +becoming the talker of the crowd, when both you fond adventurers should +be spilling out lectures by the mile. However, such is life." He +paused for a moment, but the others did not speak. + +"The genuine wonder of it all," he presently continued, "is seeing you +both come back thus, safe and sound. I underwent my bit of grief when +the news of the monstrous disaster finally arrived, as, of course, did +many another. I thought I had lost the dearest friend and the--well, +the dearest two friends--the dearest two beings in the world to me, in +one huge cataclysm." + +He paused once more and relighted his pipe. The flame of his match +threw a rosy glow on the two set faces on either side of his position, +as well as on his own. No one looked at anyone else, and the two still +failed to answer. + +"Well--here you both are!" the smoker resumed, crushing the match and +throwing it away. "If I were to lose your love and friendship now---- +But never mind that--I sha'n't! You were dead to me, both of you, all +those months, and mourned rather poignantly. That's the point I want +you both to understand--that I had accepted the fact of losing you +both, forever." + +Grenville slightly stirred, but did not speak. Elaine was clasping her +hands in her lap and locking her fingers till they ached. + +"Naturally," Fenton told them, quietly, "I conformed my thoughts to +your demise, at last, as we all must do in actual cases. I adjusted my +heart-strings, when I could, anew. Nobody else came into my life, to +occupy your places, for nobody could. Yet I did adjust things as I've +said. Well--now that brings us up to the point." + +Grenville sank back against his seat, but restlessly leaned forward as +before. Elaine alone remained absolutely motionless, rigid with +attention, if not also with suppressed excitement at something she felt +impending. Fenton thumbed at the glowing tobacco in his pipe. + +"It appears to me," he continued, "all the circumstances I have +mentioned being taken into consideration, that you two friends that I +love so well have so many times saved one another's lives that no one +living has the slightest right to think or to act as might have been +the case if you had not passed so entirely from his ken, and his plans, +and daily existence. His claims to your resurrected selves +are--different, let us say, or secondary." + +The silence that fell for a moment became acutely painful. + +"That's all I'm really driving at, after all my long and labored +preamble," Fenton concluded, deliberately rising and facing about to +confront the pair on the bench. "I recognize certain inevitable +things--and I know they're right--and the way the Almighty intended.... +Don't let me lose my friends again.... Let's all be sensible.... I +don't ask or expect to be loved the way you love one another--but I'd +like to be old Gerald to you both." + +He turned and went slowly down the narrow stairs, and his pipe trailed +a spark behind him. + + * * * * * + +After a time, when Grenville moved over and placed his arm about +Elaine, she struggled for a moment, feebly. + +"I don't--I don't love you in the least!" she protested. "I hate +you--as I always have--and the way I always shall!" + +Her arms went swiftly about his neck, however, in a passionate, fierce +little hug. She was laughing and crying together. + +"All right," said Grenville, calmly. "That's the kind of hate I want." + +He kissed her once on her upturned lips for every hour they had +suffered. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of As It Was in the Beginning, by +Philip Verrill Mighels + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING *** + +***** This file should be named 22554.txt or 22554.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/5/5/22554/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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