The Coral Island, Robert Michael Ballantyne [inspirational novels .TXT] 📗
- Author: Robert Michael Ballantyne
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a low cloud or fog-bank, on the seaward horizon. The day was a
fine one, though cloudy, and a gentle breeze was blowing, but the
sea was not rougher, or the breaker on the reef higher, than usual.
At first we thought that this looked like a thunder-cloud; and, as
we had had a good deal of broken weather of late, accompanied by
occasional peals of thunder, we supposed that a storm must be
approaching. Gradually, however, this line seemed to draw nearer,
without spreading up over the sky, as would certainly have been the
case if it had been a storm-cloud. Still nearer it came, and soon
we saw that it was moving swiftly towards the island; but there was
no sound till it reached the islands out at sea. As it passed
these islands, we observed, with no little anxiety, that a cloud of
white foam encircled them, and burst in spray into the air: it was
accompanied by a loud roar. This led us to conjecture that the
approaching object was an enormous wave of the sea; but we had no
idea how large it was till it came near to ourselves. When it
approached the outer reef, however, we were awe-struck with its
unusual magnitude; and we sprang to our feet, and clambered hastily
up to the highest point of the precipice, under an indefinable
feeling of fear.
I have said before that the reef opposite Spouting Cliff was very
near to the shore, while, just in front of the bower, it was at a
considerable distance out to sea. Owing to this formation, the
wave reached the reef at the latter point before it struck at the
foot of Spouting Cliff. The instant it touched the reef we became
aware, for the first time, of its awful magnitude. It burst
completely over the reef at all points, with a roar that seemed
louder to me than thunder; and this roar continued for some
seconds, while the wave rolled gradually along towards the cliff on
which we stood. As its crest reared before us, we felt that we
were in great danger, and turned to flee; but we were too late.
With a crash that seemed to shake the solid rocks the gigantic
billow fell, and instantly the spouting-holes sent up a gush of
water-spouts with such force that they shrieked on issuing from
their narrow vents. It seemed to us as if the earth had been blown
up with water. We were stunned and confused by the shock, and so
drenched and blinded with spray, that we knew not for a few moments
whither to flee for shelter. At length we all three gained an
eminence beyond the reach of the water; but what a scene of
devastation met our gaze as we looked along the shore! This
enormous wave not only burst over the reef, but continued its way
across the lagoon, and fell on the sandy beach of the island with
such force that passed completely over it and dashed into the
woods, levelling the smaller trees and bushes in its headlong
course!
On seeing this, Jack said he feared our bower must have been swept
away, and that the boat, which was on the beach, must have been
utterly destroyed. Our hearts sank within us as we thought of
this, and we hastened round through the woods towards our home. On
reaching it we found, to our great relief of mind, that the force
of the wave had been expended just before reaching the bower; but
the entrance to it was almost blocked up by the torn-up bushes and
tangled heaps of sea-weed. Having satisfied ourselves as to the
bower, we hurried to the spot where the boat had been left; but no
boat was there! The spot on which it had stood was vacant, and no
sign of it could we see on looking around us.
“It may have been washed up into the woods,” said Jack, hurrying up
the beach as he spoke. Still, no boat was to be seen, and we were
about to give ourselves over to despair, when Peterkin called to
Jack and said, -
“Jack, my friend, you were once so exceedingly sagacious and wise
as to make me acquainted with the fact that cocoa nuts grow upon
trees; will you now be so good as to inform me what sort of fruit
that is growing on the top of yonder bush? for I confess to being
ignorant, or, at least, doubtful on the point.”
We looked towards the bush indicated, and there, to our surprise,
beheld our little boat snugly nestled among the leaves! We were
very much overjoyed at this, for we would have suffered any loss
rather than the loss of our boat. We found that the wave had
actually borne the boat on its crest from the beach into the woods,
and there launched it into the heart of this bush; which was
extremely fortunate, for had it been tossed against a rock or a
tree, it would have been dashed to pieces, whereas it had not
received the smallest injury. It was no easy matter, however, to
get it out of the bush and down to the sea again. This cost us two
days of hard labour to accomplish.
We had also much ado to clear away the rubbish from before the
bower, and spent nearly a week in constant labour ere we got the
neighbourhood to look as clean and orderly as before; for the
uprooted bushes and sea-weed that lay on the beach formed a more
dreadfully confused-looking mass than one who had not seen the
place after the inundation could conceive.
Before leaving the subject I may mention, for the sake of those who
interest themselves in the curious natural phenomena of our world,
that this gigantic wave occurs regularly on some of the islands of
the Pacific, once, and sometimes twice in the year. I heard this
stated by the missionaries during my career in those seas. They
could not tell me whether it visited all of the islands, but I was
certainly assured that it occurred periodically in some of them.
After we had got our home put to rights and cleared of the DEBRIS
of the inundation, we again turned our thoughts to paying the
penguins a visit. The boat was therefore overhauled and a few
repairs done. Then we prepared a supply of provisions, for we
intended to be absent at least a night or two, perhaps longer.
This took us some time to do, for while Jack was busy with the
boat, Peterkin was sent into the woods to spear a hog or two, and
had to search long, sometimes, ere he found them. Peterkin was
usually sent on this errand, when we wanted a pork chop (which was
not seldom), because he was so active, and could run so wonderfully
fast that he found no difficulty in overtaking the hogs; but, being
dreadfully reckless, he almost invariably tumbled over stumps and
stones in the course of his wild chase, and seldom returned home
without having knocked the skin off his shins. Once, indeed, a
more serious accident happened to him. He had been out all morning
alone and did not return at the usual time to dinner. We wondered
at this, for Peterkin was always very punctual at the dinner hour.
As supper-time drew near we began to be anxious about him, and at
length sallied forth to search the woods. For a long time we
sought in vain, but a little before dark we came upon the tracks of
the hogs, which we followed up until we came to the brow of a
rather steep bank or precipice. Looking over this we beheld
Peterkin lying in a state of insensibility at the foot, with his
cheek resting on the snout of a little pig, which was pinned to the
earth by the spear! We were dreadfully alarmed, but hastened to
bathe his forehead with water, and had soon the satisfaction of
seeing him revive. After we had carried him home he related to as
how the thing had happened.
“You must know,” said he, “I walked about all the forenoon, till I
was as tired as an old donkey, without seeing a single grunter, not
so much as a track of one; but, as I was determined not to return
empty-handed, I resolved to go without my dinner and - “
“What!” exclaimed Jack, “did you REALLY resolve to do that?”
“Now, Jack, hold your tongue,” returned Peterkin; “I say that I
resolved to forego my dinner and to push to the head of the small
valley, where I felt pretty sure of discovering the hogs. I soon
found that I was on the right scent, for I had scarcely walked half
a mile in the direction of the small plum tree we found there the
other day, when a squeak fell on my ear. ‘Ho, ho,’ said I, ‘there
you go, my boys;’ and I hurried up the glen. I soon started them,
and singling out a fat pig, ran tilt at him. In a few seconds I
was up with him, and stuck my spear right through his dumpy body.
Just as I did so, I saw that we were on the edge of a precipice,
whether high or low I knew not, but I had been running at such a
pace that I could not stop, so the pig and I gave a howl in concert
and went plunging over together. I remembered nothing more after
that, till I came to my senses and found you bathing my temples,
and Ralph wringing his hands over me.”
But although Peterkin was often unfortunate, in the way of getting
tumbles, he was successful on the present occasion in hunting, and
returned before evening with three very nice little hogs. I, also,
was successful in my visit to the mud-flats, where I killed several
ducks. So that, when we launched and loaded our boat at sunrise
the following morning, we found our store of provisions to be more
than sufficient. Part had been cooked the night before, and, on
taking note of the different items, we found the account to stand
thus:-
10 Bread-fruits, (two baked, eight unbaked.)
20 Yams, (six roasted, the rest raw.)
6 Taro roots.
50 Fine large plums.
6 Cocoa nuts, ripe.
6 Ditto green, (for drinking.)
4 Large ducks and two small ones, raw.
3 Cold roast pigs, with stuffing.
I may here remark that the stuffing had been devised by Peterkin
specially for the occasion. He kept the manner of its compounding
a profound secret, so I cannot tell what it was; but I can say,
with much confidence, that we found it to be atrociously bad, and,
after the first tasting, scraped it carefully out and threw it
overboard. We calculated that this supply would last us for
several days, but we afterwards found that it was much more than we
required, especially in regard to the cocoa nuts, of which we found
large supplies wherever we went. However, as Peterkin remarked, it
was better to have too much than too little, as we knew not to what
straits we might be put during our voyage.
It was a very calm sunny morning when we launched forth and rowed
over the lagoon towards the outlet in the reef, and passed between
the two green islets that guard the entrance. We experienced some
difficulty and no little danger in passing the surf of the breaker,
and shipped a good deal of water in the attempt; but, once past the
billow, we found ourselves floating placidly on the long oily swell
that rose and fell slowly as it rolled over the wide ocean.
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