The Castaways of the Flag (24 page)

           
To east, the
vast arm of the sea spread out between False Hope Point and Cape East, behind
which lay Unicorn Bay. There was not a sail to be seen at sea, not a boat along
the shore. Nothing was visible but the vast plain of water, from which, to
north-east, projected, the reef upon which the
Landlord
had struck long
ago.

           
Turning
towards the south, the eye could only see, about two miles and a half away, the
entrance into Deliverance Bay, near the wall of rock which sheltered the
dwelling of Rock Castle.

           
Of that
house, and its annexes, nothing was visible except the green tops of the trees
in the kitchen garden, and, a little more to southwest, a line of light which
indicated the course of Jackal River.

           
Fritz and
John Block came down to the balcony again, after spending some ten minutes in
the first examination. Making use of the telescope which M. Zermatt always kept
at Falconhurst, they had looked carefully in the direction of Rock Castle and
the shore.

           
No one was to
be seen there. It seemed that the two families could not be on the island now.

           
But it was
possible that M. Zermatt and his people had been led by the marauders to some
farmstead in the Promised Land, or even to some other part of New Switzerland.

           
To this
suggestion, however, Captain Gould raised an objection which it was difficult
to meet.

           
"These
marauders, whoever they may be," he said, "must have come by sea:
must even have landed in Deliverance Bay. Now we have observed none of their
boats. The conclusion would seem to be that they have gone away again—perhaps
taking –"

           
He stopped.
No one ventured to make answer.

           
Certainly
Rock Castle did not seem to be in
habited
now. From the top of the tree no smoke could be seen rising above the fruit
trees in the kitchen garden.

           
Captain Gould then suggested that the two families might have left New
Switzerland voluntarily, since the
Unicorn
had not arrived at the appointed time.

           
"How could they have gone?" Fritz asked, who would have been
glad to have this hope to cling to.

           
"Aboard some ship that came to these waters," Captain Gould
replied; "one of the ships which must have been sent from England or
perhaps another vessel which arrived off the island in the ordinary chances of
navigation."

           
This theory was possible. And yet there were many grave reasons to
suppose that the desertion of New Switzerland was not due to any such
circumstance.

           
Fritz spoke again.

           
"We must not hesitate any longer. Let us go and look!"

           
"Yes, let us go!" said Frank.

           
Fritz was just preparing to go down again when Jenny stopped him.

           
"Smoke!" she said. "I think I can see smoke rising above
Rock Castle."

           
Fritz seized the telescope and turned it towards the south; for more
than a minute his eye stayed glued to the instrument.

           
Jenny was right. Smoke was passing across
the curtain
of green, above the rocks which enclosed Rock Castle to the rear.

           
"They
are there! They are there!" cried Frank. "And we ought to have been
with them already!"

           
This
assertion nobody denied. They all had such dire need to recover hope that
everything was forgotten, the solitude that lay round Falconhurst, the pillage
of the yard, the absence of the domestic animals, the empty sheds, the ruin of
the rooms at the foot of the mangrove tree.

           
But cold
reason came back, to Captain Gould and John Block at least. Manifestly Rock
Castle was occupied at this moment—the smoke proved that. But might it not be
occupied by the marauders? At any rate, it would be necessary to approach it
with the utmost caution. Perhaps it would be best not to go along the avenue
which led to Jackal River. If they went across fields, and, as much as
possible, from wood to wood, they might have a chance of getting to the
drawbridge without being sighted.

           
At last, as
all were getting ready to leave the aerial dwelling, Jenny lowered the
telescope, with which she had been scanning the coast of the bay.

           
"And the
proof that both families are still here," she said, "is that the flag
is flying over Shark's Island."

           
The white and
red flag, the colours of New Switzerland, was indeed waving over the battery.

           
But did that
make it absolutely certain that M. Zermatt and Mr. Wolston, and their wives and
children, had not left the island? Did not the flag always float at that spot?

           
They would
not argue the point. Everything would be explained at Rock Castle, and before
an hour had passed.

           
"Let us
go! Let us go!" said Frank again, and he turned towards the staircase.

           
¹¹
Stop! Stop!'' the boatswain suddenly said, lowering his voice.

           
They watched
him crawl along the balcony, to the side overlooking Deliverance Bay. Then he
moved the leaves aside, put his head through them and drew it back
precipitately.

           
"What is
the matter?" Fritz asked.

            "
Savages!"
John Block replied.

           
IT was now
half-past two in the afternoon. The foliage of the mangrove was so dense that
the rays of the sun, though almost vertical, could not penetrate it. Thus Fritz
and his companions ran no risk of being detected in the aerial dwelling of
Falconhurst, of the existence of which the savages who had landed on the island
had no idea.

           
Five men,
half naked, with the black skins of natives of Western Australia, armed with
bows and arrows, were coming along the path. They had no notion that they had
been seen, or even that there were other inhabitants of the Promised Land
besides those of Rock Castle.

           
But what had
become of M. Zermatt and the others? Had they been able to make their escape?
Had they fallen in unequal combat?

           
Of course, as
John Block remarked, it could not be supposed that the number of aborigines who
had landed on the island was limited to these few men. Had they been so inferior
numerically, they could not have got the better of M. Zermatt and his two sons
and Mr. Wolston, even if they had made a surprise attack. It must have been a
large band that had invaded New Switzerland, whither they must have come in a
fleet of canoes. The fleet was doubtless lying at the present moment in the
creek, with the boat and the pinnace. It could not be seen from the top of
Falconhurst because the view in that direction was cut off by the point of
Deliverance Bay.

           
And where
were the Zermatts and the Wolstons? What inference must be drawn from the fact
that they had not been encountered at Falconhurst or thereabouts?

           
That they
were prisoners at Rock Castle, that they had had neither time nor opportunity
to seek refuge in the other farms—or that they had been massacred?

           
Everything
else was explained now—the havoc wrought at Falconhurst, and the deserted
condition in which the Promised Land was found between the Swan Lake canal and
the shore.

           
How could
they cherish any but the faintest hope? So, while Captain Gould and the
boatswain kept the natives in view, the others sorrowed together.

           
There was one
last chance. Could the two families have taken refuge in the westward, in some
part of the island beyond Pearl Bay? If they had caught sight of the canoes in
the distance, across Deliverance Bay, might they not
have had time to make their escape in the waggon, taking provisions and
arms?

           
Captain Gould and John Block continued to watch the approaching savages.

           
Was it their intention to come into the yard? The house had been visited
and pillaged by them already. Now they might discover the door at the foot of
the staircase. In that event, however, they could easily be disposed of. For
when they stepped out on to the platform they could be surprised, one by one,
and hurled over the balustrade, a drop of forty or fifty feet.

           
"And," as the boatswain remarked, "if after a tumble like
that they had legs enough left to get to Rock Castle, the beasts would be more
like cats than the monkeys they resemble!"

           
But when they reached the end of the avenue, the five men stopped. The
watchers did not miss a single movement they made. What was their business at
Falconhurst? If the aerial dwelling had escaped their observation so far, were
they not now on the point of discovering it, and the people inside it? And
then, they would come back in larger numbers, and how was the attack of a
hundred natives to be withstood?

           
They came to the palisade and walked all round it. Three of them entered
the yard, and went into one of the out-houses on the left, coming out again
presently with fishing tackle.

           
"The rascals are a bit too familiar!" the
boatswain murmured. "They don't only not ask your leave –"

           
"Can
they have a canoe on the beach, and are they going to fish along the
shore?" said Captain Gould.

           
"We'll
soon find out, Skipper," John Block replied.

           
The three men
returned to their companions. Then they went down a little path bordered with a
stout thorn hedge, which ran along the right of the Falconhurst river and
passed on to the sea.

           
They were in
sight until they reached the cutting through which the river flowed to its
outlet into Flamingo Bay.

           
But as soon
as they turned to the left, they became invisible, and would only be seen again
if they put out to sea. It was probable there was a boat upon the
beach—probable, too, that they generally used it for fishing near Falconhurst.

           
While Captain
Gould and John Block remained on the watch, Jenny controlled her grief and
asked Fritz:

           
"What
ought we to do, dear?"

           
Fritz looked
at his wife, not knowing what to answer.

           
"We are
going to decide what we ought to do," Captain Gould declared. "But to
begin with, it is idle to remain on this balcony, where we are in danger of
being discovered."

           
When they were all together in the room, while Bob, who was tired by his
long march, slept in a little closet next to it, Fritz answered his wife's
question: