"All right, sir, you're master.--Good-bye, good victuals!" Ned added in an undertone.--"Won't have hurt the taters, sir, there was all this thick layer of ashes between."
"Are they burnt up?"
"No, sir, just right, and floury as can be. Look at that."
It was getting too dark to see much; but Jack made out that the little round vegetable was all floury where it was broken.
The whole cooking was raked out, the ashes scattered away, and Ned proceeded to take out his knife and hand it to his young master, with instructions to cut out his shirt-sleeves just at the shoulder.
"I shall be warm enough without them, sir," he said. "There: now we'll just tie up the ends, and here we have a good bag apiece to carry the taters in. Nothing like having a bit of string in your pocket, sir. I wonder whether Robinson Crusoe had a bit o' string when he was wrecked; I 'spose he would have, because he could have twisted up a bit out of the old ropes. It's always useful, sir. There you are, now. I'll tie the bags together, and swing 'em over my shoulder, one on each side."
"I'll carry one."
"You shall have 'em both, sir, when I'm tired and want a bit of a rest.
Now then, ready, sir?"
"Yes."
"Then shoulder arms: march!" They made for the ridge of lava, climbed upon it without much difficulty, and began to ascend the gradual slope it formed, till they were shut in by the trees rising on either side, when the darkness became so intense that their progress was very slow, and they had to depend a good deal upon their spears used as alpenstocks. But one great need urged them on, and it chased away the thoughts of pursuit, and of the risks they were running. This need acted as a spur, which kept them crawling up the solidified river for fully a couple of hours, which were diversified by slips and falls more or less serious.
At last, as the lava flood took a bend round toward the north, they became aware of a bright glow high above their heads, where the summit of the volcano must be, and after a remark from Ned that it looked as if a bit of the sunset was still there, Jack grasped its meaning.
"It's the reflection of the fire that must be burning up at the top of the mountain."
"Think so, sir? Well, I suppose it's too far off to hurt us. That's miles away."
"Yes; but we are walking on one of the rivers which ran down, and these stones we keep kicking against were once thrown out."
"Ah, you've read a lot about such things, sir; I haven't. Then you say it's all fire up there?"
"Yes, Ned; look, it's getting brighter."
"Then what's the good of our expecting to find water?"
"Because so many springs rise in mountains, and so much water condenses there. Hark! what's that?"
Ned listened.
"Can't hear anything, sir."
"Not that?" cried Jack, whose senses seemed to be sharpened by his needs.
"No, sir, nothing at all."
Jack made no remark, but pressed on with more spirit than he had before displayed. Then he stopped short in the darkest part they had encountered, a place where the trees encroached so much from the forest on either side that they seemed to be completely shut in.
"Now can you hear it, Ned?" cried the boy triumphantly.
"Yes, sir, I can hear it now--water, and a lot of it falling down the rocks. It must be there just below."
Ten minutes after they had lowered themselves down amongst the trees, to where in the darkness they could lie flat at the edge of a rocky basin, scooping cool, sweet water with one hand, and drinking with a sense of satisfaction and delight such as they had never experienced before.
"There, Mr Jack," said Ned joyously, "I don't know what you think, but I say that it's worth going through all the trouble we've had for a drink like that. Here goes again."
He bent down over the stone basin, scooping up the water with his hand.
"Have another, Mr Jack, sir," he cried. "That first one was nothing.
It's coming down over the fall sweeter and fresher than ever."
Jack, nothing loth, went on drinking again, but in a more leisurely manner.
"That's it, sir; have a good one. We shall be wanting it to-morrow, when perhaps we can't get any. Fellow ought to be a camel in a place like this, and able to drink enough to last him a week. Go on, sir; I feel as if it's trickling into all kinds of little holes and corners that had got dried-up. Think it goes into your veins, because I'm getting cosy now, right to the tips of my toes, where I was all hard and dry."
"I've had enough now, Ned," said Jack with a sigh, as if he were sorry to make the announcement.
"Don't say that, sir. We've got no bottles, so we must take what we want inside. Have another drink, sir, so as to get yourself well soaked, then you'll be able to stand a lot. I didn't like to howl about it, so as to put you out of heart when you were as bad as me; but my mouth was all furred inside like a tea-kettle, and as for my throat, it was just as if it was growing up, and all hard and dry."
"That was just as I felt, Ned."
"I thought so, sir. Hah!" with a loud smack of the lips. "I've tasted almost every kind of wine, sir, from ginger up to champagne, and I've drunk tea and coffee, and beer, and curds and whey, thin gruel, and cider, and perry, but the whole lot ain't worth a snap compared to a drink of water like this; only," he added with a laugh, "you want to be thirsty as we were first. Done, sir?"
"Yes, quite, Ned."
"Then I tell you what, Mr Jack, sir; we'll try and hunt out a snug place somewhere close handy and have a good sleep."
"I don't feel sleepy, Ned. I want to get back and end my father's terrible suspense."
"So do I, sir; but I put it to you--can we do anything in the dark to-night?"
"No. There is only the satisfaction of trying."
"Yes, sir; but you have to pay a lot for it. Say we try for home now-- that's all we can do,--shan't we be less fit to-morrow?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Very well then, sir; it's a lovely night, let's have a good sleep.
Then as soon as it's light we'll set to work and eat one of these sleeves of potatoes, come down here again, and take in water enough to last us for the day, or till we find some more, and try all we can to get down to the shore somehow or another. By this time to-morrow night, if I don't find some way of showing that a white man can manage to live where a black can, my name's not what it is."
It was rough work searching for a resting-place, and the best they could find was upon some rough, shrubby growth, not unlike heather, in a recess among several mighty blocks of stone. But if it had been a spring bed, with the finest of linen, they could not have slept better, or awoke more refreshed, when the forest was being made melodious by the songs of birds. The mountain top was beginning to glow, and just below there came the soft tinkling splash of the falling water.
"Morning, sir," cried Ned, springing up. "Your shower-bath's waiting, sir. Come along, sir. Do us no end of good to have a dip. We shall take in a lot of water that way, and get rid of the dust that choked us yesterday."
Jack needed no farther invitation, and upon descending the sides of the stone river, there was the natural bath ready to send a thrill of strength through them, for the rivulet came down in a series of little falls each having its well-filled basin.
There was the drawback that there were no towels to use, and Jack said so.
"What, sir?" cried his man. "You don't mean to say that you would have used a towel if you had had one!"