Jack took a pretty good sip and ejected it directly.
"Ugh!" he cried with a wry face. "It's horrible; hot, salt, bitter, filthy, like rotten eggs; and yet it's as clear as crystal."
"Yes, sir, it's about the worst swindle I ever had."
"Here, father--Doctor Instow," cried the boy; and they came up and tried the water in turn, and looked at each other.
"Regular volcanic water," said the doctor. "Why that would be a fortune in England; people would take it and bathe in it, and believe it would cure them of every ill under the sun, from a broken leg up to bilious fever. There's no doubt where that comes from. Look how full it is of gas."
He pointed to a stream of tiny bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass.
"Sea-water ain't it, sir?" said Edward respectfully; "but how did it get up there?"
"Sea-water? no, my man. Beautifully clear, but strongly charged with sulphur, magnesia, soda, and iron. Which spring did it come from?"
"That one which shoots out into the pool, sir," said one of the men.
"And is the other the same?" cried Jack.
"No, sir; cold as ice and quite fresh."
Jack and the doctor climbed up to see the sources of the two springs, finding the hot not many yards from the edge of the rocky wall, where it was bubbling up from a little basin fringed with soft pinky-white stone, while the bottom of the pellucid source, which was too hot for the hand to be plunged in, was ornamented with beautiful crystals of the purest sulphur.
The source of the cold stream of fresh water they did not find, for it came dancing down the dark ravine, which was choked with tree-ferns, creepers, and interlacing boughs laden with the loveliest orchids, and their progress was completely stopped when they had advanced some hundred yards or so.
"The beginning of the curious features of the place," said Sir John as they sat down to their pleasant meal, gazing through an arch of greenery at the sapphire lagoon and the silver foam of the billows on the creamy reef half-a-mile away.
Never did lunch taste more delicious to the rapidly invigorating boy, never was water fresher, sweeter, and cooler than that of which he partook. Then a good long hour's rest was taken as they all lay about listening to the hum of insects, the whistle, twitter, and shrieking of birds; and beneath it all, as it seemed, came the softened bass from the reef.
"What do you say to a start back, Mr Bartlett?" said Sir John at last, as he glanced at his son, who had just risen and gone knife in hand to dislodge a cluster of lovely waxen, creamy orchids from a tree overhanging the pool.
"I think we ought to be going soon, sir," said the mate.
"Here, Jack, my lad, what's the matter?" cried the doctor, springing up, as he saw the lad holding the flowers he had cut at arm's length. "Ah!
stand still! Don't move whatever you do."
"Help, help!" shouted Edward. "Snakes! snakes!"
"Down flat, my lads, quick!" cried the mate; and as the men obeyed he pointed out across the lagoon to where a great matting sail came gliding into sight, looking misty and strange as seen through the veil of foam hanging iridescent about the reef, and twice over rising up sufficiently for the long low hull of a great sea-going canoe crowded with men to come into sight.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
AN ADVENTURE.
Jack did not see the canoe, for his attention was taken up by the little serpent which had suddenly flung itself upon his hand, as he disturbed the cluster of flowers, and struck at his arm sharply--twice.
Sharply does not express the way in which the reptile attacked him, for the whole business from its springing, coiling, and striking seemed instantaneous. The effect upon the lad was peculiar. He had man's natural horror of all creatures of the serpent kind, and as he broke off the sweetly-scented bunch of flowers a pang shot through him--a sensation of pain which made him turn cold and wet, while his senses felt exalted, so that sight, smell, hearing, and feeling were magnified or exaggerated in the strangest way, but his muscular power seemed to have failed. His man's cries for help sounded deafening; the fragrant odour of the orchids made him feel faint; the little serpent appeared enormous, and its eyes dazzling, while the cold touch of its scaly body against his bare hand was of some great weight, and when it rapidly compressed his fingers with its folds, to give itself power to strike, and struck twice, the concussion of the lithe neck and jaws felt like two tremendous blows which paralysed him, so that he stood there as if turned to stone, with his arm outstretched staring down at the--as it seemed to him--gigantic head, which glided about over his enormously swollen arm, the sparkling malicious eyes seeming to search into his, and then about his arm for a fresh place at which to venom.
It was in its way beautiful, in its golden-brown and greenish tints, while the back appeared to be shot with violet and steel, as the light which flashed from the glittering sea was thrown up beneath the trees.
Jack was so utterly fascinated for the time being that his eyes took in every detail, and he noted how the reptile's tightly-closed mouth resembled a smile of triumph, and thought that the tiny forked tongue which kept on flickering in and out of the orifice in the front part of the jaws mocked at him as the creature laughed silently at his helplessness.
"It has killed me," was the predominant thought in the boy's mind, as he stood there for what seemed to be a long space of time, with Edward shouting for help and calling upon him to act, the words thundering in his ears.
"Throw it off, Mr Jack, sir. Chuck it away. D'ye hear me? Oh, I say, do something, or you'll be stung."
But the lad did not stir, merely remained in the same attitude with his arm outstretched. He was, however, fully conscious of what was going on, and he watched with a feeble kind of interest the action of the man, wondering what he would do.
For Ned, as he grasped his young master's peril, did the most natural thing in the world to begin with, he called loudly for help; but fully grasping the fact that as he was nearest the first help ought to come from him, he dashed to Jack's side.
"Ugh!" he cried angrily, "I can't abear snakes and toads. If I touch him he'll sting me too. Tied himself up in a knot too. Don't try to chuck it off, Mr Jack, the beggar will only be more savage and begin stinging again. If I could only grab him by the neck I could finish him, but he'd be too quick for me. Here, I know. That's right! Stand still, sir."
This last was perfectly unnecessary, for the lad could not have stood more motionless and rigid if he had been carved in marble.
"What a fool I am!" muttered Ned. "Thinking about cutting sticks when there's something ready here to be cut. I don't want a stick."
He whipped his long hunting-knife out of the sheath fitted to his belt, and the light flashed upon the keen-edged new blade which had never yet been used.
"Now then," he said softly, "if I can only get one cut at you, my gentleman, you shan't know where you are to-morrow."
The plan was good, but not easy of performance, for he could not cut straight down at the reptile's neck without injuring Jack's arm, and for a few moments he stood watching and waiting for an opportunity, but none seemed likely to occur, and the serpent still held on by the boy's wrist, and the front of its long, lithe, undulating body kept on gliding about over the brightly-ironed white duck sleeve, the head playing about the hollow of the elbow-joint, turning under the arm, and returning to the top again and again.
"I can't get a cut at him--I can't get a cut at him," muttered Ned; and then a happy thought came: he stretched out the point of the glistening blade toward the serpent's head, till it was a few inches from it.
"I don't like doing it," he muttered fretfully; "it's running risks, and setting a dose myself, but I must--I must;" and he made the blade glitter and flash by agitating his hand.
It had the desired effect, for the head was raised sharply from the lad's arm till it was six or seven inches above it, and the reptile seemed to be attracted for a moment by the bright light flashing from the steel.
Then the head was drawn back sharply, and darted forward as Ned expected, and with a slight jerk from the wrist he flicked the blade from left to right.
"Hah!" he cried joyfully, as the head dropped at his feet, and the long thin body writhed free from the lad's hand and wrist; "a razor couldn't have took it off cleaner. Hurray, Mr Jack! He half killed himself.
But don't--don't stand like that. You're not hurt bad, are you?"
"Here, let me look," cried the doctor, who had now climbed up to where they stood, closely followed by Sir John. "Snake, was it?"
"Yes, sir; there's his body tying itself up in knots, and here's his head."
As he spoke, the man stooped down quickly, made a dig with the point of his knife, and transfixed the cut-off portion through the neck just at the back of the skull, and the jaws gaped widely as he held it up in triumph.
"Here, let me see," cried Sir John excitedly. "Yes, look, Instow, the swollen glands at the back of the jaw, and here they are like bits of glass--the poison fangs. Jack, lad, where did it strike you?"
"Strike me?" said the lad feebly, and shuddering slightly, as he stood with his eyes half-closed, and dropped the cluster of orchids.
"Yes; speak out, quick!" cried the doctor, grasping the lad by the arm.
"Where are you hurt?"
"Twined round my hand, and bit at my arm twice--just there."