The Boats of the Glen Carrig (9 page)

It may be conceived with truth that the above happenings had put a very
considerable strain upon my nerves, so that I looked to and fro
continually, with ever and anon a quick glance behind me; for it seemed
to me that I might expect some demoniac creature to rush upon me at any
moment. Yet, for the space of many minutes, there came to me neither any
sight nor sound of living creature; so that I knew not what to think,
being near to doubting if I had heard aught beyond the common.

And then, even as I made halt upon the threshold of doubt, I was assured
that I had not been mistaken; for, abruptly, I was aware that all the
valley was full of a rustling, scampering sort of noise, through which
there came to me occasional soft thuds, and anon the former slithering
sounds. And at that, thinking a host of evil things to be upon us, I
cried out to the bo'sun and the men to awake.

Immediately upon my shout, the bo'sun rushed out from the tent, the men
following, and every one with his weapon, save the man who had left his
spear in the sand, and that lay now somewhere beyond the light of the
fire. Then the bo'sun shouted, to know what thing had caused me to cry
out; but I replied nothing, only held up my hand for quietness, yet when
this was granted, the noises in the valley had ceased; so that the bo'sun
turned to me, being in need of some explanation; but I begged him to hark
a little longer, which he did, and, the sounds re-commencing almost
immediately, he heard sufficient to know that I had not waked them all
without due cause. And then, as we stood each one of us staring into the
darkness where lay the valley, I seemed to see again some shadowy thing
upon the boundary of the firelight; and, in the same instant, one of the
men cried out and cast his spear into the darkness. But the bo'sun turned
upon him with a very great anger; for in throwing his weapon, the man had
left himself without, and thus brought danger to the whole; yet, as will
be remembered, I had done likewise but a little since.

Presently, there coming again a quietness within the valley, and none
knowing what might be toward, the bo'sun caught up a mass of the dry
weed, and, lighting it at the fire, ran with it towards that portion of
the beach which lay between us and the valley. Here he cast it upon the
sand, singing out to some of the men to bring more of the weed, so that
we might have a fire there, and thus be able to see if anything made to
come at us out of the deepness of the hollow.

Presently, we had a very good fire, and by the light of this the two
spears were discovered, both of them stuck in the sand, and no more than
a yard one from the other, which seemed to me a very strange thing.

Now, for a while after the lighting of the second fire, there came no
further sounds from the direction of the valley; nothing indeed to break
the quietness of the island, save the occasional lonely splashes that
sounded from time to time out in the vastness of the weed-continent.
Then, about an hour after I had waked the bo'sun, one of the men who had
been tending the fires came up to him to say that we had come to the end
of our supply of weed-fuel. At that, the bo'sun looked very blank, the
which did the rest of us, as well we might; yet there was no help for it,
until one of the men bethought him of the remainder of the bundle of
reeds which we had cut, and which, burning but poorly, we had discarded
for the weed. This was discovered at the back of the tent, and with it we
fed the fire that burned between us and the valley; but the other we
suffered to die out, for the reeds were not sufficient to support even
the one until the dawn.

At last, and whilst it was still dark, we came to the end of our fuel,
and as the fire died down, so did the noises in the valley recommence.
And there we stood in the growing dark, each one keeping a very ready
weapon, and a more ready glance. And at times the island would be
mightily quiet, and then again the sounds of things crawling in the
valley. Yet, I think the silences tried us the more.

And so at last came the dawn.

Now with the coming of the dawn, a lasting silence stole across the
island and into the valley, and, conceiving that we had nothing more to
fear, the bo'sun bade us get some rest, whilst he kept watch. And so I
got at last a very substantial little spell of sleep, which made me fit
enough for the day's work.

Presently, after some hours had passed, the bo'sun roused us to go
with him to the further side of the island to gather fuel, and soon we
were back with each a load, so that in a little we had the fire going
right merrily.

Now for breakfast, we had a hash of broken biscuit, salt meat and some
shell-fish which the bo'sun had picked up from the beach at the foot of
the further hill; the whole being right liberally flavored with some of
the vinegar, which the bo'sun said would help keep down any scurvy that
might be threatening us. And at the end of the meal he served out to us
each a little of the molasses, which we mixed with hot water, and drank.

The meal being ended, he went into the tent to take a look at Job, the
which he had done already in the early morning; for the condition of the
lad preyed somewhat upon him; he being, for all his size and
top-roughness, a man of surprisingly tender heart. Yet the boy remained
much as on the previous evening, so that we knew not what to do with him
to bring him into better health. One thing we tried, knowing that no food
had passed his lips since the previous morning, and that was to get some
little quantity of hot water, rum and molasses down his throat; for it
seemed to us he might die from very lack of food; but though we worked
with him for more than the half of an hour, we could not get him to
come-to sufficiently to take anything, and without that we had fear of
suffocating him. And so, presently, we had perforce to leave him within
the tent, and go about our business; for there was very much to be done.

Yet, before we did aught else, the bo'sun led us all into the valley,
being determined to make a very thorough exploration of it, perchance
there might be any lurking beast or devil-thing waiting to rush out and
destroy us as we worked, and more, he would make search that he might
discover what manner of creatures had disturbed our night.

Now in the early morning, when we had gone for the fuel, we had kept to
the upper skirt of the valley where the rock of the nearer hill came down
into the spongy ground, but now we struck right down into the middle part
of the vale, making a way amid the mighty fungi to the pit-like opening
that filled the bottom of the valley. Now though the ground was very
soft, there was in it so much of springiness that it left no trace of our
steps after we had gone on a little way, none, that is, save that in odd
places, a wet patch followed upon our treading. Then, when we got
ourselves near to the pit, the ground became softer, so that our feet
sank into it, and left very real impressions; and here we found tracks
most curious and bewildering; for amid the slush that edged the
pit—which I would mention here had less the look of a pit now that I had
come near to it—were multitudes of markings which I can liken to nothing
so much as the tracks of mighty slugs amid the mud, only that they were
not altogether like to that of slugs; for there were other markings such
as might have been made by bunches of eels cast down and picked up
continually, at least, this is what they suggested to me, and I do but
put it down as such.

Apart from the markings which I have mentioned, there was everywhere a
deal of slime, and this we traced all over the valley among the great
toadstool plants; but, beyond that which I have already remarked, we
found nothing. Nay, but I was near to forgetting, we found a quantity of
this thin slime upon those fungi which filled the end of the little
valley nearest to our encampment, and here also we discovered many of
them fresh broken or uprooted, and there was the same mark of the beast
upon them all, and now I remember the dull thuds that I had heard in the
night, and made little doubt but that the creatures had climbed the great
toadstools so that they might spy us out; and it may be that many climbed
upon one, so that their weight broke the fungi, or uprooted them. At
least, so the thought came to me.

And so we made an end of our search, and after that, the bo'sun set each
one of us to work. But first he had us all back to the beach to give a
hand to turn over the boat, so that he might get to the damaged part.
Now, having the bottom of the boat full to his view, he made discovery
that there was other damage beside that of the burst plank; for the
bottom plank of all had come away from the keel, which seemed to us a
very serious matter; though it did not show when the boat was upon her
bilges. Yet the bo'sun assured us that he had no doubts but that she
could be made seaworthy, though it would take a greater while than
hitherto he had thought needful.

Having concluded his examination of the boat, the bo'sun sent one of the
men to bring the bottom-boards out of the tent; for he needed some
planking for the repair of the damage. Yet when the boards had been
brought, he needed still something which they could not supply, and this
was a length of very sound wood of some three inches in breadth each
way, which he intended to bolt against the starboard side of the keel,
after he had gotten the planking replaced so far as was possible. He had
hopes that by means of this device he would be able to nail the bottom
plank to this, and then caulk it with oakum, so making the boat almost
so sound as ever.

Now hearing him express his need for such a piece of timber, we were all
adrift to know from whence such a thing could be gotten, until there came
suddenly to me a memory of the mast and topmast upon the other side of
the island, and at once I made mention of them. At that, the bo'sun
nodded, saying that we might get the timber out of it, though it would be
a work requiring some considerable labor, in that we had only a hand-saw
and a small hatchet. Then he sent us across to be getting it clear of the
weed, promising to follow when he had made an end of trying to get the
two displaced planks back into position.

Having reached the spars, we set-to with a very good will to shift away
the weed and wrack that was piled over them, and very much entangled with
the rigging. Presently we had laid them bare, and so we discovered them
to be in remarkably sound condition, the lower-mast especially being a
fine piece of timber. All the lower and topmast standing rigging was
still attached, though in places the lower rigging was stranded so far as
half-way up the shrouds; yet there remained much that was good and all
of it quite free from rot, and of the very finest quality of white hemp,
such as is to be seen only in the best found vessels.

About the time that we had finished clearing the weed, the bo'sun came
over to us, bringing with him the saw and the hatchet. Under his
directions, we cut the lanyards of the topmast rigging, and after that
sawed through the topmast just above the cap. Now this was a very tough
piece of work, and employed us a great part of the morning, even though
we took turn and turn at the saw, and when it was done we were mightily
glad that the bo'sun bade one of the men go over with some weed and make
up the fire for dinner, after which he was to put on a piece of the salt
meat to boil.

In the meanwhile, the bo'sun had started to cut through the topmast,
about fifteen feet beyond the first cut, for that was the length of the
batten he required; yet so wearisome was the work, that we had not gotten
more than half through with it before the man whom the bo'sun had sent,
returned to say that the dinner was ready. When this was dispatched, and
we had rested a little over our pipes, the bo'sun rose and led us back;
for he was determined to get through with the topmast before dark.

Presently, relieving each other frequently, we completed the second
cut, and after that the bo'sun set us to saw a block about twelve
inches deep from the remaining portion of the topmast. From this, when
we had cut it, he proceeded to hew wedges with the hatchet. Then he
notched the end of the fifteen-foot log, and into the notch he drove
the wedges, and so, towards evening, as much, maybe, by good luck as
good management, he had divided the log into two halves—the split
running very fairly down the center.

Now, perceiving how that it drew near to sundown, he bade the men haste
and gather weed and carry it across to our camp; but one he sent along
the shore to make a search for shell-fish among the weed; yet he himself
ceased not to work at the divided log, and kept me with him as helper.
Thus, within the next hour, we had a length, maybe some four inches in
diameter, split off the whole length of one of the halves, and with this
he was very well content; though it seemed but a very little result for
so much labor.

By this time the dusk was upon us, and the men, having made an end of
weed carrying, were returned to us, and stood about, waiting for the
bo'sun to go into camp. At this moment, the man the bo'sun had sent to
gather shellfish, returned, and he had a great crab upon his spear, which
he had spitted through the belly. This creature could not have been less
than a foot across the back, and had a very formidable appearance; yet it
proved to be a most tasty matter for our supper, when it had been placed
for a while in boiling water.

Now so soon as this man was returned, we made at once for the camp,
carrying with us the piece of timber which we had hewn from the topmast.
By this time it was quite dusk, and very strange amid the great fungi as
we struck across the upper edge of the valley to the opposite beach.
Particularly, I noticed that the hateful, mouldy odor of these monstrous
vegetables was more offensive than I had found it to be in the daytime;
though this may be because I used my nose the more, in that I could not
use my eyes to any great extent.