As they toiled over this neck of land which united the two principal peninsulas into which the island was divided, they could mark how, as had been noticed along the coast, the country was composed of a series of terraced hills, rising above a chain of lakes and lagoons that indented it deeply on either side and forming an endless succession of deep fords and harbours, the hills being almost invariably covered, from their crests down to a certain altitude, with perpetual snow. Below this line, their sides were clothed with green verdure, composed chiefly of a species of azorella and a rough spinated grass; while, the strangest feature of all was, that not a single tree, or plant approaching to the dimensions of a shrub, could be seen on any portion of the island!
The most charming characteristic of the scenery noticed, was the profusion of cataracts, cascades, and waterfalls, which leaped and sparkled from terrace to terrace of the basaltic net-work of peaks and ridges that ran here, there, and everywhere across the isthmus, enclosing the valleys and scarping the sea--the splashing of these natural fountains making soft music everywhere as the water gurgled down into tiny rivulets and brooks below, which stole their way along banks bordered by chickweed and liverwort into the lakes, and from the lakes into the ocean, only to be sucked up again by the clouds and deposited on the hills in the form of rain, forming the cascades and cataracts anew; and so on, _da capo_.
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
RESCUED.
"Snakes and alligators, mister!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope when the whole party were gathered together on the shore of Hillsborough Bay, united once more after the boat-carriage had been lugged over its final portage, and the boat itself had accomplished its last separate short trip before adventuring again on the open waters of the sea--"I guess your fifteen miles has come to a considerable sight more'n fifty, you bet."
"Oh! please be a little more moderate in your estimate," laughed Mr Meldrum. "I confess I somewhat understated the probable distance; but really, now, fifty miles is a little too much."
"Wa-al, then, let us call it five-and-twenty," said the American with a genial grin over his sharp-cut features, which were almost as elongated as his legs. "You can't grumble at that anyway, I reckon, boss!"
"That's pretty much like the story of the five hundred cats which came down, I believe, to two, if I'm not mistaken," slily put in Miss Kate, smiling.
"Now, don't you be too rough on a feller, missy," said Mr Lathrope, pretending to be very serious over the matter, in his humorous way. "I cave in to the fifty, that's a fact, as I kinder wanted to pile on the agony; but when I took my stand to be euchred on twenty-five miles, I meant the distance we've tramped over, and nary a bit of the water passage, for my old boots hev got busted up, I guess, and the sooner I git a noo pair the better for this child."
"Bedad, that's the same case wid mysilf," interposed Mr McCarthy, exhibiting the articles he wore as he spoke, which, from their repeated patchings and general state of dilapidation, would certainly have carried off the prize at a curiosity show. "Sure, and it's walkin' on my fut I've bin the last foor days entirely."
"You'd have ben a smart coon to have done the contrary, I guess, mister, anyhow," said the American drily.
"Sure, an' it's the sole of me fut I mane, sorr," explained the first- mate in Hibernian fashion.
"Jest so," said Mr Lathrope, laughing at the blunder; "and it would puzzle you to walk different, I kalkerlate, that is onless you tried the sole of your head!"
"Well, here we are, no matter what distance we have travelled," said Mr Meldrum, going back to business; while Frank and Kate, who had not been able to get much conversation together of late, were having a very interesting little _tete-a-tete_ confabulation in a corner, out of ear- shot of the rest. "We shall, however, soon have to separate our forces again, for we must make the next start on our journey by water, which will now be our travelling medium all the way."
"Be jabers, and it's glad I am to hear that same!" exclaimed Mr McCarthy, interrupting the speaker in his jubilation at not being forced to walk any more, a means of locomotion to which, from his long life at sea, the first-mate was strangely averse.
"As I was saying," continued Mr Meldrum, "we must now make up our minds for a short separation, the rest of our journey having to be performed by water. I'll tell you what I think will be the best plan, if you will listen:-- From here to Betsy Cove, the harbour I have mentioned where the whalers call every year, is in a bee-line just about thirty-five miles right ahead across the stretch of sea there; but as we may have to make a detour in order to avoid reefs and any rocks or islands which may come within this straight line, we'd better call it fifty miles."
"Better say a hundred, mister, while you're at it," said Mr Lathrope, with a wink to the others; "you kinder forget the fifteen miles you made it across the isthmus 'fore we started, hey?"
"There's no fear of my making that mistake here," replied Mr Meldrum.
"This is all plain sailing, with correct latitude and longitude to go by! It won't be more than fifty, indeed, even if we have to creep round the coast of the bay all the way, instead of shaping a course right across it, as I intend doing. Well, all things considered, it will be best for the boat first to take half of us this distance to Betsy Cove, going all the way in the one trip; and then to return for the other portion of the party. We have lightened her considerably of the provisions during the last ten days, and being able to carry twelve or fourteen hands ordinarily, she will now easily take us across the bay in two trips--that is, if some of you don't mind a little squeezing."
"Will--will--it be quite safe?" said Mrs Major Negus in a hesitating way, looking at the bright, frisking little wavelets which covered the blue sea of the bay with some slight alarm. She had imbibed a perfect horror of the water and all pertaining to it ever since the wreck.
"Quite," answered Mr Meldrum. "We've had peril enough without my seeking to endanger your safety now! I suppose," continued he, going on to explain the arrangements, "the boat will take a day, say, in getting to Betsy Cove, and another day coming back on the return voyage for the rest.--We'll call it three days, to allow for contingencies; so that, we shall not be apart more than four days at the outside, allowing due time for the boat reaching the Cove again after her second trip hither."
"Fancy!" whispered Frank to Kate. "Four whole days that I may not be able to see you! I know it will be just my luck that I shall have to stay behind at the camp; for, your father will most probably take all the ladies with him in the first trip, as he did at setting out."
"Oh, dear!" said Kate smiling, "that will be a terribly long separation, won't it?"
"You darling tease!" exclaimed he; "I don't believe you care for me half as much as I do for you!"
"Don't I!" she said softly; and her melting blue eyes would have disclosed a secret if Frank had been looking into them at the moment-- which very probably he was!
However, the sad eventuality he had conjectured did not occur. Mr Meldrum, knowing the condition of matters between the lovers, did not have the heart to separate the two, even temporarily; and so Frank had the supreme and unexpected felicity of accompanying Kate in the first trip the jolly-boat took across the bay to Betsy Cove--Mrs Major Negus and Maurice, Mr Meldrum and Florry, Mr Adams and Captain Dinks, of course, besides six of the seamen, being their fellow-passengers.
Mr Lathrope remained at the head of the inlet, with Mr McCarthy, in charge of the camp and the remaining hands until the jolly-boat came back to fetch them; and it really seemed, from the many earnest "good- byes" exchanged between those starting off and the ones left behind as if the castaways were parting for ever, the separation seemed to cause such a wrench after they had been so long together!
Thanks to the fine fresh breeze, and the fact of their being almost in the open sea now--for the sides of the bay diverged so greatly after a time that the opposite coasts could not be seen--the boat was under sail instead of being pulled along; and the motion was ever so much more pleasant than when it was oscillated to and fro by the sharp jerky strokes of the rowers.
The weather still continued fine and clear, with the sun shining on the water and a bright blue sky overhead; and as the boat glided along, heeling over to the wind every now and then and tossing the spray from her bows as she came down with a flop on the crest of some little wave which got in her way, Frank wished that he and Kate could glide on so for ever. Everything seemed so delightful around them after the dreary winter they had so recently passed through.
Nature herself was smiling again upon them in the bright summer dawn!
Even the penguins seemed to enjoy the change of season, for they raced after the boat as she pursued her way, moving through the water like a shoal of albacore, and rarely showing more than their heads above the surface for a little while. Then, all of a sudden, as if playing a game of leapfrog amongst themselves, they would spring out of the sea in long lines, one after another, showing their steel-grey backs and silvery sides, so that Kate could hardly believe they were not fishes jumping up in sport, like as she had frequently seen the bonito do when off the African coast in the Atlantic.
The jolly-boat had such a spanking breeze from the north-west all the way with her, right abaft the beam, that she accomplished the distance between the head of the inlet and Betsy Cove before nightfall, Mr Meldrum shaping her course so well by the old chart he had that she fetched the harbour in a bee-line almost from their point of departure, steering east by south.
There was no mistaking the place.
Betsy Cove was a second bay within a larger one, called "Accessible Bay"
on the chart and marked by a curious isolated mountain-peak which raised itself on the very extremity of a low spit of land that ran out into the sea, a long way out from the main shore.
On the beach were several old wooden huts and a large iron boiler that had evidently been used for "trying out" seal and whale oil from the blubber; while further up the shore was a small graveyard, a rather melancholy-looking spot with a few wooden crosses and piles scattered about it bearing dreary legends relating to the untimely end of different seamen who had either died there on shore, or had lost their lives at sea in the immediate vicinity. However, the most important point to our little party, was the fact that there were no signs of any vessels having recently visited the place; and, consequently, Mr Meldrum had carried out his original plan to the letter, having evidently arrived there in time before the annual coming of the whalers.
Early the next morning the jolly-boat was sent back to fetch the others, and towards the evening of the day following the whole of the party were once more together.
A week passed by without any event of note happening, during which period the little community did not suffer from any want of food or other necessaries, for they found a store of provisions in one of the huts that had evidently been placed there in case of need similar to their own; so, things jogged on evenly enough. Still, all were in a state of high-strung suspense, looking out eagerly from morning till night for the promised vessel that every one expected was coming to deliver them.
"I guess they'd better look alive, mister, if they're coming," said Mr Lathrope, "or else the summer'll be gone afore we git away, and then we shall have to go back to Penguin Castle for another winter. I'd sooner a durned sight be thar than haar if it comed on to blow!"
"Patience, my friend!" replied Mr Meldrum. "Don't you recollect that old French proverb, 'Everything comes to him who waits!'"
"Don't reckon I dew, mister," answered the other. "I guess, though, it warn't a waiter at one of them hotels that said that, hey?"
"Perhaps not," said Mr Meldrum, smiling at the American's hit; "but I've no doubt we shall be rescued this year, even if we have to wait."
He was not disappointed.
On the Monday morning of the following week the look out man--for they had set up another signal station here at the head of the harbour the same as at Penguin Castle--sang out the welcome call--"Sail ho!"
And, soon after, a large fore-and-aft rigged schooner was seen entering the bay.
She proved to be the _Matilda Ann_ of New London. She was engaged in the whale and seal fishery between Kerguelen Land and the neighbouring Heard Islands; and as she was empty, having transferred her oil to a homeward-bound whaler belonging to the same owners, her captain readily accepted the offer made him by Mr Meldrum on behalf of Captain Dinks, to charter the schooner to convey the survivors of the passengers and crew of the _Nancy Bell_ to the Cape of Good Hope, whence they would easily be able to get a passage back to England or to their original destination in New Zealand.
"I guess that air prime," said Mr Lathrope; "but I've hed enuff v'yging fur a spell, and I kinder kalkerlate I'll make tracks to hum. I don't mind either, darkey, if I take you along o' me! I've got a fust-rate brown-stone front in Philadelphy, and I'll chuck you in as cook, if you like, hey?"
"Golly, massa, you don't mean dat, suah!"
"Guess I dew," said the American deliberately.
"Tank you, massa; den you ken take down de bill, I ain't no longer to let--I'm on, yah, yah!" shouted Snowball, giving way to the most obstreperous merriment, in order to testify his satisfaction at Mr Lathrope's engaging him in his service, the darkey having always had a hankering after the American from his thorough appreciation of his cookery.