CHAPTER XXVII.

Otago Witness, Issue 878, 26 September 1868, Page 17

CHAPTER XXVII.

The- perplexity into which Hazel was thrown by the outburst of his companion rendered him unable to reduce her demand at once to an intelligible form. For some moments he seriously employed his mind on the problem until it assumed this, shape. •

Firstly : I do not know where this island is, having no means of ascertaining either its latitude or longitude.

Secondly : If I had such a description of ita locality, how might the news be conveyed beyond the limits of the place 1

As the wildness of Helen's demand broke upon his mind, be smiled sadly, and sat down upon the bank of the little river, near his boat-house, and buried his head in his hands. A deep groan burst from him, and the tears at last came through his fingers, as in despair hej thought how vain must be any effort to content or to conciliate her. Impatient with his own weakness he started to his feet, when a hand was laid gently upon his arm. She stood beside him. "Mr Hazel," she said, hurriedly — her voice was husky, "do not mind what I have said. lam unreasonable ; and lam sure 1 ought to feel obliged to you for all the " Hazel turned his face towards her, and j the moon glistened on the tears that still flowed down his cheeks. He tried 4o check the utterance of her apology ; but, ere he could master his voice, the girl's cold and constrained features seemed to melt. She turned away, wrung her hands, and with a sharp quivering cry, she broke forth : " Oh, sir ! oh, Mr Hazel ! do forgive me. lam not ungrateful, indeed, indeec 1 , lam not ; but lam mad with despair. Judge me with compassion. At this moment, those who are very dear, to me are awaiting my arrival in London ; and i ■when they learn the loss of the Proserpine, how great will be their misery ! Well, that misery is added to mine. Then my poor papa : he will never know i how much he loved me until this news reaches him. And to think that lam dead to them, yet living ! living here hopelessly. Dear, dear Arthur, how you will suffer for my sake. Oh, papa, papa ! shall I never see you again 1" and she wept bitterly. "I am helpless either to aid or to console you, Miss Rolleston. By the act of a Divine Providence you were cast upon this desolate shore, and by the same Will I was appointed to serve and to I provide for your welfare. I pray God that He will give me health and strength to assist you. Grood-night."

She looked timidly at him for a moment, then slowly regained her hut. He had spoken coldly, and with dignity. She felt humbled, the more so, that he had only bowed his acknowledgment to her apology.

For more than an hour she watched him, as he paced up and down between the boat-house and the shore ; then he advanced a little towards her shelter, and she shrank into her bed, after gently closing the door. In a few moments she crept again to peep forth, and to see if he were still there, but he had disappeared. The following morning 1 Helen was surprised to see the boat riding at anchor in the surf, and Hazel busily engaged on her trim. He was soon on shore, and by her aide.

" I am afraid I must leave you for a day, Miss Rolleston," he said. " I wish to make a circuit of the island ; indeed, I ought to have done so many days ago.' 5 "Is such an expedition necessary ? Surely you have had enough of the sea."

"It is very necessary. You have urged me to undertake this enterprise. You see, it is the first step towards announcing to all passing vessels our presence in this place. I have commenced operations already. See on yonder bluff, which I have called Telegraph Point, I have mounted the boat's ensign, and now it floats from the top of the tree beside the bon-fire. I carried it there at sun-rise. Do you see that pole I have shipped on board the boat ? that is intended as a signal, which shall be exhibited on your great palm-tree. The flag will then stand for a signal on the northern coast, and the palm-tree, thus accoutred, will serve for a similar purpose on the western extremity of the island. As I pass along the southern and eastern shores, I propose to select spots where some mark can be erected, such as may be visible to ships at sea." " But will they remark such signals ?" " Be assured they will, if they come within sight of the place. w

Hazel knew that there was little chance of such an event ; but it was something not to be neglected. He also explained that it was necessary he should arrive at

a knowledge of the island, and the character of its shores ; and from the sea he could rapidly obtain a plan of the place, ascertain what small rivers there might be, and, indeed, see much of its interior ; for he judged it to be not more than ten miles in length, and scarce three in width.

Helen felt rather disappointed that no trace of the emotion lie displayed on the previous night, remained in his manner, ior in the expression o£ his face. She bowed her -permission to him rather haughtily, and sat down to breakfast on some baked yams, and some rough oysters, which he had raked up from the bay while bathing that morning. The young man had regained an elasticity of bearing, an independence of tone, to "which she was not at all accustomed; his manners were always soft and deferential ; but his expression was more firm, and she felt that the reins had been gently removed from her possession, and there was a will to guide her which ahe was bound to acknowledge and obey. She did not argue in this wise, for it is not human to reason and to feel at the same moment. She felt then instinctively that the man \va3 quietly asserting his superiority, and the child pouted. flazel went about his work briskly ; the boat was soon laden with every requisite. Helen watched these preparations asl kance, vexed with the expedition which she had urged him to make. Then she felL to reflecting on the change that seemed to have taken place in her character ; she, who was once so womanly, so firm, so reasonable, — why had she become so petulant, childish, and capricious 1

The sail was set, and all ready to run. the cutter into the surf of the rising tide, whsn, taking a sudden resolution, as it were, Helen came rapidly down, and said, " X will go with you, if you please," half in command, half in doubt. Hazel looked a little surprised, but very pleased; and then she added, "I hope I shall not be in your way."

He assured her, on the contrary, that she might be of great assistance to him ; and now, with doubled alacrity, lie ran out the little vessel, and leaped into the prow as she danced over the waves. He taught her how to bring the boat's head round with the help of an oar, and when all waa snug, left her at the helm. On reaching the mouth of the bay, if it could so be called, he made her remark that it was closed by reefs, except to the north and to the west. The wind being southerly, he had decided to pass to the west, and so they opened the sea about half-a-mile from the shore.

For about three miles they perceived it consisted of a line of bluffs, cleft at intervals by small narrow bays, the precipitious sides of which were lined with dense foliage. Into these fissures the sea entered with a "mournful sound, that died away as it crept up the yellow sands with which these nooks were carpeted. An exclamation from Helen attected his attention to the horizon on the north-west, where a long line of breakers glittered in the sun. A reef or low sandy bay appeared to exist in that direction, about fifteen miles away, and something more than a mile in length. As they proceeded, he marked roughly on the side of his tin baler, with the point of a pin borrowed from Helen, the form of the coast line.

An hour and a half brotightthem to the noith-western extremity of the island. As they cleared the shelter of the land, the southerly breeze coming with some force across the open sea caught the cutter, and she lay over in a way to inspire Helen with alarm ; she was about to let go the tiller, when Hazel seized it, accidentally enclosing her hand ui*der the grasp of his own, as he pressed the tiller hard to port. " Steady, please ; don't relinquish your hold ; it is all right — no fear," he cried, as he kept his eye on their sail.

He held this course for a mile or more, and then judging with a long tack he could weather tlie southerly side of the island, he put the boat about. He took occasion to explain to Helen how this operation was necessary, and she learned the alphabet of navigation. The western end of their little land now lay before them ; it was about three miles in breadth. For two miles the bluff coast line continued unbroken ; then a deep bay, a mile in width and. two miles in depth, was made by a long tongue of sand projecting westerly ; on its extremity grew the gigantic palm, well recognised as Helen's land-mark.

Hazel stood up in the boat to reconnoitre the coast. He perceived the sandy shore was dotted with multitudes of dark objects. Ere long, these objects were seen to be in motion, and, pointing them out to Helen, with a smile, he said : — "Beware, Miss R,olleston, yonder are your bugbears — and in some force too. Those dajjt masses, moving upon the hillocks of sand, or rolling on the surf, are sea-lions — the plwca, leonina, or lionseal." ■ J Helen strained her eyes to distinguish the forms, but only descried the dingy

objects. While thus engaged, fihe allowed the cutter to fall off a little, and, ere Hazel had resumed his hold upon the tiller, they were fairly in the bay; the great palm-tree on their starboard-bow. " You seem determined to make the acquaintance of your nightmares," he remarked; "you perceive that we are embayed." l

Her consternation, amused him; she saw that if they held their present course, the cutter would take the beach about a mile ahead, where these animals -were 1 densely crowded. At this moment, something dark bulged up close beside her in the sea, and the rounded back of a monster rolled over and disappeared. Hazel let drop the sail, for they were now fairly in the smooth water of the hay, and close to the sandy spit ; the gigantic stem of the palmtree was on their quarter, ahout half a mile off.

He took to the oars, and rowed slowly towards the shore. A small seal rose behind the boat and followed them, playing wita the blade, its gambola resembling those of a kitten. He pointed out to Helen the mild expression of the creature's face, and assured her that all thia tribe were harmless animals, and susceptible of domestication. The cub swam up to the boat quite fearlessly, and he touched its head gently ; he encouraged her to do the like, but she shrank from its contact. They were now close ashore; and Hazel, throwing out his anchor in two feet of water, prepared to land the beam of wood he had brought to decorate the palm-tree as a signal. The huge stick was soon heaved overboard, and he leaped after it. He towed it to the nearest landing to the tree, and dragged it high up on shore. Scarcely had he disposed it conveniently, intending to return in a day or two, with the means of affixing it in a prominent and remarkable manner in the form of a spar across the trunk of the palm, when a cry from Helen recalled him. A large number of the sea-lions were coasting quietly down the surf towards the boat ; indeed, a dozen of them had made their appearance around it.

Hazel shouted to her not to fear, and desiring that her alarm should not spread to the swarm, he passed back quietly but rapidly. When he reached the water, three or four of the animals were already floundering between him and the boat. He waded slowly towards one of them, and stood beside it. The man and the creature looked quietly at each other, and then the seal rolled over, with a snuffling, self-satisfied air, winking its soft eyes with immense complacency.

Helen, in her alarm, could not resist a smile at this conclusion of so terrible a demonstration ; for, -with all their gentle expressionjthejtusks of the brutes looked formidable. But, -when she saw Hazel pushing them aside, and patting a very small cub on the back, she* recovered her courage compleiely.

Then he took to his oara again ; and, aided by the tide, which -was now on the ebb, he rowed round the south-western extremity of the island. He found the water here, as he anticipated, very shallow.

It was mid- day when they were fairly on the southern coast ; and, now sailing with the wind aft, the cutter ran through the water at racing speed. Fearing that some reefs or rocky formations might exist in their course, he reduced sail, and kept away from the shore — about a mile. At this distance he was better able to see inland, and mark down the accidence of its formation.

The southern coast was uniform, and Helen said it resembled the cliffs of the Kentish or Sussex coast of England, only the English white was here replaced by the pale volcanic grey. By one o'clock they came abreast the very spot where they had first made land ; and, -as they judged, due south of their residence. Had they landed here, a walk of three miles across the centre of the island would have brought them home.

For about a similar distance the coast exhibited monotonous cliffs unbroken even by a rill. It was plain that the water-shed of the island was all northward. They now approached the eastern end, where rose the circular mountain of which mention has been already made. This eminence had evidently at one time been detached from the rest of the land, to which it was now joined by a neck of swamp about a mile and a-half in breadth, and two miles in length. Hazel proposed to reconnoitre this part of the shore nearly, and ran the boat close in to land. The reeds or canes with which this bog was densely clothed grew in a dark spongy soil. Here and there this waste was dotted with ragged trees which he recognised as the cypress : from their gaunt branches hung a black, funereal kind of creeper, a kind of moss, resembling iron grey horsehair both in texture and uses, though not bo long in the staple.

This parasite, Hazel explained to Helen, waa very common in such marshy ground,

and was the death flag hung out "by Nature 10 warn man that malaria and fever were the invisible and inalienable inhabitants of that fatal neighborhood. Looking narrowly along the low shore 1 for some good landing, where under shelter of a tree they might repose for an hour, and spread their midday repast, they discovered an opening in the reeds, a kind of lagoon of bayou, extending into the morass between ths high lands of the island and the circular mountain, .but close under the base of the latter. , .This inlet lie proposed to explore, and accordingly the sail was taken down and the cutter was poled into the narrow creek. The water here was so shallow that the keel slid over the quicksand into which the oar sank freely. The creek soon became narrow, the water deeper, and of a blacker colour, and the banks more densely covered with canes. These grew to, the height of ten and twelve feet, and as close as wheat in a thick crop. The air felt dank and heavy, and hummed with myriads of insects. The black water became so deep and the bottom so sticky that Hazel took to the oars again. The creek narrowed as they proceeded, until it proved scarcely wide enough to admit of his working the boat. The height of the reeds hindered the view on either side. Suddenly, however, and after proceeding very slowly through the bends of the canal, they decreased in height and density, and they emerged into an open space of about five acres in extent, a kind of oasis in this reedy desert, created by a mossy mound which arose amidst the morass, and afforded firm footing, or" which a grove of trees and innumerable shrubs availed themselves. Helen uttered an acclamation of delight as this island of foliage in a sea of reeds met her eyes, that had been famished with the arid monotony of the brake. They soon landed. Helen insisted on the preparations for their meal being left to her, and having selected a sheltered spot, she was soon busy with their frugal food. Hazel surveyed the spot, and selecting a red cedar, was soon seated forty feet above her head, making a topographical survey of the neighbourhood. He found that the bayou by which they had entered continued its course to the northern shore, thus cutting off the mountain or easterly end, and forming of it a separate island. He saw that a quarter of a mile farther on the bayou or canal parted, forming two streams, of which that to the left seeped the main channel. This he determined to follow. Turning to the west, that is towards their home, he saw at a distance of two miles a crest of hills broken into cliffs, which defined the limit of the mainland. The sea had at one time occupied the site where the morass now stood. These cliffs formed a range, extending from north to south ; their precipitous sides clothed here and there with trees, marked where the descent was broken by platforms. Between him and this range the morass extended. Hazel took note of three places where the descent from, these hills into the marsh could, he believed, most readily be made. On the eastern side, and close above him, arose the peculiar mountain. Its form was that of a truncated cone, and its sides densely covered with trees of some size.

The voice of Helen called him from his perch, and he descended quickly, leaping into a mass of brushwood growing at the foot of Ms tree. Helen stood a few yards from him, in admiration, before a large shrub.

" Look, Mr Hazel, what a singular production," said the girl, as she stooped to exatnine the plant. It bore a number of red flowers, each growing out of a fruit like a prickly pear. These flowers were in various stages ; some were just opening like tulips ; others, more advanced, had expanded like umbrellas, and quite overlapped the fruit, keeping it from Bun and dew ; others had served their turn in that way, and been withered by the suns-rays. But, wherever this was the case, the fruit had also burst open and displayed or discharged its contents, and those contents looked like seeds ; but, on narrower inspection proved to be little insects with pink transparent wings, and bodies of incredibly vivid crimson.

Hazel examined the fruit and flowers very carefully, and stood rapt, transfixed.

"It must be !— and it is !" said he, at last. "Well, I'm glad I've not died without seeing it." "What is it?" said she.

" One of the most valuable productions of the earth. It is cochineal. This is the Tunal tree."

"Oh 1 indeed," said Helen, indifferently ; " cochineal is- used for a dye ; but as it is not probable we shall require to dye anything, the discovery seems to me more curious than useful."

"You wanted some ink. This pigment, mixed with lime-juice, will form a beautiful red ink. Will you lend me your handkerchief and permit me to try if I

have forgotten the method by which these little inaecta are obtained." He asked her to hold her handkerchief under a bough of the Tunal tree, where the fruit was ripe. He then shook the bough. Some insects fell at once into the cloth. A great number rose and buzzed a little in the sun not a yard from where they were born : but the sun dried their blood bo promptly that they soon fell dead in the handkerchief. Those that the sun bo killed went through three phases of colour before their eyes. They fell down black or nearly. They whitened on the cloth: and after [that came gradually to their final colour, a flaming crimson. The insect thus treated, appeared the most vivid of all. They soon secured about half a tea-cup full ; they were rolled up and put away, then they Bat down and made a very hearty meal, for it was now past two o'clock. They re-entered the boat, and passing once more into the morassthey found the channel of the bayou as it approached the northern shore less difficult of navigation. The bottom became sandy and hard, and the presence of trees in the swamp proved that Bpots of terra firma were more frequent. But the water shallowed, and as they opened the shore he saw with great vexation that the tide in receding had left the bar at the mouth of the canal visible in some parts. He pushed on, however, until the boat grounded. This was a sad affair. There lay the sea not fifty yards ahead. Hazel leaped out, and examined and forded the channel, which at this place was about two hundred feet wide. He found a narrow passage near the eastern side, and to this he towed the boat. Then he begged Miss Rolleston to land, and relieved the boat -of the mast, sail, and oars. Thus; lightened, he dragged her into the passage ; but the time occupied in these preparations had been also occupied by Nature— the tide had receded, and the cotter stuck immovably in the water-way, about six fathoms short of deeper water.

"What is to be done now?" inquired Helen when Hazel returned to her side, panting, but cheerful. "We must await the rising of the &tle. I fear we are imprisoned here for three hours at least."

There was no help for it. Helen made light of the misfortune. The spot where they had landed was enclosed between the two issues of the lagoon. They walked along the shore to the more easterly, and the narrower canal, and on arriving, Hazel found to his great annoyance that there was ample water to have floated the cutter had he selected that, the least promising road. He suggested a return by the road they came, and, passing into the other canal, by that to reach the sea. They hurried back, but found by this time the tide had left the cutter high and dry on the sand. So they had no choice but to wait.

Having three hours to spare, Hazel asked Miss Rolleston's permission to ascend the mountain. She assented to remain near the boat while he was engaged in this expedition. The ascent was too rugged and steep for her powers, and the Beet- shore and adjacent groves would find her ample amusement during his absence. She accompanied him to the bank of the smaller lagoon, which he forded, and waving an adieu to her he plunged into the dense wood with which the sides of the mountain were clothed. She waited some time, and then she heard his voice shouting to her from the heights above. The mountain top was about three quarters of a mile from where she stood, but seemed much nearer. She turned back towards the boat, walking slowly, but paused as a faint and distant cry again reached her ear. It was not repeated, and then she entered the grove. The ground beneath her feet was soft with velvety moss, and the dark foliage of the treßS rendered the air-cool and delicioußly fragrant. After wandering for some time, she regained the edge of the grove near the boat, and selecting a spot at the foot of an aged cypress, Bhe sat down with her back against its trunk. Then she took out Arthur's letter, and began to read those impassioned sentences : as she read she sighed deeply, as earnestly Bhe found herself pitying Arthur's condition more than she regretted her own. She fell into reverie, and from reverie into a drowsy langour. How long she remained in this state she could not remember, but a slight rustle overhead recalled her senses. Believing it to be a bird moving in the branches, she was resigning herself again to rest when she became sensible of a strange emotion, a conviction that something was watching her with a fixed gaze. She cast her eyes around, but saw nothing. She looked upwards. Prom the tree immediately above her lap depended a snake, its tail coiled around a dead^branch. The reptile hung straight, its eyes fixed like two rubies upon Helen's, as very slowly it let itself down by its uncoiling tail. Now its head was on a level with hers ; in another moment it must drop into her lap. She was paralysed.