The Boats of the Glen Carrig (4 page)

Here, we entered at once among the trees; for they grew right up to the
edge; but we had no trouble in making a way; for they were nowhere
close together; but standing, rather, each one in a little open space
by itself.

We had gone a little way among the trees, when, suddenly, one who was
with us cried out that he could see something away on our right, and we
clutched everyone his weapon the more determinedly, and went towards it.
Yet it proved to be but a seaman's chest, and a space further off, we
discovered another. And so, after a little walking, we found the camp;
but there was small semblance of a camp about it; for the sail of which
the tent had been formed, was all torn and stained, and lay muddy upon
the ground. Yet the spring was all we had wished, clear and sweet, and so
we knew we might dream of deliverance.

Now, upon our discovery of the spring, it might be thought that we should
set up a shout to those upon the vessel; but this was not so; for there
was something in the air of the place which cast a gloom upon our
spirits, and we had no disinclination to return unto the vessel.

Upon coming to the brig, the bo'sun called to four of the men to go down
into the boats, and pass up the breakers: also, he collected all the
buckets belonging to the brig, and forthwith each of us was set to our
work. Some, those with the weapons, entered into the wood, and gave down
the water to those stationed upon the bank, and these, in turn, passed it
to those in the vessel. To the man in the galley, the bo'sun gave command
to fill a boiler with some of the most select pieces of the pork and beef
from the casks and get them cooked so soon as might be, and so we were
kept at it; for it had been determined—now that we had come upon
water—that we should stay not an hour longer in that monster-ridden
craft, and we were all agog to get the boats revictualled, and put back
to the sea, from which we had too gladly escaped.

So we worked through all that remainder of the morning, and right on into
the afternoon; for we were in mortal fear of the coming dark. Towards
four o'clock, the bo'sun sent the man, who had been set to do our
cooking, up to us with slices of salt meat upon biscuits, and we ate as
we worked, washing our throats with water from the spring, and so, before
the evening, we had filled our breakers, and near every vessel which was
convenient for us to take in the boats. More, some of us snatched the
chance to wash our bodies; for we were sore with brine, having dipped in
the sea to keep down thirst as much as might be.

Now, though it had not taken us so great a while to make a finish of our
water-carrying if matters had been more convenient; yet because of the
softness of the ground under our feet, and the care with which we had to
pick our steps, and some little distance between us and the brig, it had
grown later than we desired, before we had made an end. Therefore, when
the bo'sun sent word that we should come aboard, and bring our gear, we
made all haste. Thus, as it chanced, I found that I had left my sword
beside the spring, having placed it there to have two hands for the
carrying of one of the breakers. At my remarking my loss, George, who
stood near, cried out that he would run for it, and was gone in a moment,
being greatly curious to see the spring.

Now, at this moment, the bo'sun came up, and called for George; but I
informed him that he had run to the spring to bring me my sword. At this,
the bo'sun stamped his foot, and swore a great oath, declaring that he
had kept the lad by him all the day; having a wish to keep him from any
danger which the wood might hold, and knowing the lad's desire to
adventure there. At this, a matter which I should have known, I
reproached myself for so gross a piece of stupidity, and hastened after
the bo'sun, who had disappeared over the top of the bank. I saw his back
as he passed into the wood, and ran until I was up with him; for,
suddenly, as it were, I found that a sense of chilly dampness had come
among the trees; though a while before the place had been full of the
warmth of the sun. This, I put to the account of evening, which was
drawing on apace; and also, it must be borne in mind, that there were but
the two of us.

We came to the spring; but George was not to be seen, and I saw no sign
of my sword. At this, the bo'sun raised his voice, and cried out the
lad's name. Once he called, and again; then at the second shout we heard
the boy's shrill halloo, from some distance ahead among the trees. At
that, we ran towards the sound, plunging heavily across the ground, which
was every-where covered with a thick scum, that clogged the feet in
walking. As we ran, we hallooed, and so came upon the boy, and I saw that
he had my sword.

The bo'sun ran towards him, and caught him by the arm, speaking with
anger, and commanding him to return with us immediately to the vessel.

But the lad, for reply, pointed with my sword, and we saw that he pointed
at what appeared to be a bird against the trunk of one of the trees.
This, as I moved closer, I perceived to be a part of the tree, and no
bird; but it had a very wondrous likeness to a bird; so much so that I
went up to it, to see if my eyes had deceived me. Yet it seemed no more
than a freak of nature, though most wondrous in its fidelity; being but
an excrescence upon the trunk. With a sudden thought that it would make
me a curio, I reached up to see whether I could break it away from the
tree; but it was above my reach, so that I had to leave it. Yet, one
thing I discovered; for, in stretching towards the protuberance, I had
placed a hand upon the tree, and its trunk was soft as pulp under my
fingers, much after the fashion of a mushroom.

As we turned to go, the bo'sun inquired of George his reason for going
beyond the spring, and George told him that he had seemed to hear someone
calling to him among the trees, and there had been so much pain in the
voice that he had run towards it; but been unable to discover the owner.
Immediately afterwards he had seen the curious, bird-like excrescence
upon a tree nearby. Then we had called, and of the rest we had knowledge.

We had come nigh to the spring on our return journey, when a sudden low
whine seemed to run among the trees. I glanced towards the sky, and
realized that the evening was upon us. I was about to remark upon this to
the bo'sun, when, abruptly, he came to a stand, and bent forward to stare
into the shadows to our right. At that, George and I turned ourselves
about to perceive what matter it was which had attracted the attention of
the bo'sun; thus we made out a tree some twenty yards away, which had all
its branches wrapped about its trunk, much as the lash of a whip is wound
about its stock. Now this seemed to us a very strange sight, and we made
all of us toward it, to learn the reason of so extraordinary a happening.

Yet, when we had come close upon it, we had no means of arriving at a
knowledge of that which it portended; but walked each of us around the
tree, and were more astonished, after our circumnavigation of the great
vegetable than before.

Now, suddenly, and in the distance, I caught the far wailing that came
before the night, and abruptly, as it seemed to me, the tree wailed at
us. At that I was vastly astonished and frightened; yet, though I
retreated, I could not withdraw my gaze from the tree; but scanned it
the more intently; and, suddenly, I saw a brown, human face peering at
us from between the wrapped branches. At this, I stood very still, being
seized with that fear which renders one shortly incapable of movement.
Then, before I had possession of myself, I saw that it was of a part
with the trunk of the tree; for I could not tell where it ended and the
tree began.

Then I caught the bo'sun by the arm, and pointed; for whether it was a
part of the tree or not, it was a work of the devil; but the bo'sun, on
seeing it, ran straightway so close to the tree that he might have
touched it with his hand, and I found myself beside him. Now, George, who
was on the bo'sun's other side, whispered that there was another face,
not unlike to a woman's, and, indeed, so soon as I perceived it, I saw
that the tree had a second excrescence, most strangely after the face of
a woman. Then the bo'sun cried out with an oath, at the strangeness of
the thing, and I felt the arm, which I held, shake somewhat, as it might
be with a deep emotion. Then, far away, I heard again the sound of the
wailing and, immediately, from among the trees about us, there came
answering wails and a great sighing. And before I had time to be more
than aware of these things, the tree wailed again at us. And at that, the
bo'sun cried out suddenly that he knew; though of what it was that he
knew
I had at that time no knowledge. And, immediately, he began with
his cutlass to strike at the tree before us, and to cry upon God to blast
it; and lo! at his smiting a very fearsome thing happened, for the tree
did bleed like any live creature. Thereafter, a great yowling came from
it, and it began to writhe. And, suddenly, I became aware that all about
us the trees were a-quiver.

Then George cried out, and ran round upon my side of the bo'sun, and I
saw that one of the great cabbage-like things pursued him upon its stem,
even as an evil serpent; and very dreadful it was, for it had become
blood red in color; but I smote it with the sword, which I had taken from
the lad, and it fell to the ground.

Now from the brig I heard them hallooing, and the trees had become
like live things, and there was a vast growling in the air, and
hideous trumpetings. Then I caught the bo'sun again by the arm, and
shouted to him that we must run for our lives; and this we did,
smiting with our swords as we ran; for there came things at us, out
from the growing dusk.

Thus we made the brig, and, the boats being ready, I scrambled after the
bo'sun into his, and we put straightway into the creek, all of us,
pulling with so much haste as our loads would allow. As we went I looked
back at the brig, and it seemed to me that a multitude of things hung
over the bank above her, and there seemed a flicker of things moving
hither and thither aboard of her. And then we were in the great creek up
which we had come, and so, in a little, it was night.

All that night we rowed, keeping very strictly to the center of the big
creek, and all about us bellowed the vast growling, being more fearsome
than ever I had heard it, until it seemed to me that we had waked all
that land of terror to a knowledge of our presence. But, when the morning
came, so good a speed had we made, what with our fear, and the current
being with us, that we were nigh upon the open sea; whereat each one of
us raised a shout, feeling like freed prisoners.

And so, full of thankfulness to the Almighty, we rowed outward to the
sea.

Now, as I have said, we came at last in safety to the open sea, and
so for a time had some degree of peace; though it was long ere we
threw off all of the terror which the Land of Lonesomeness had cast
over our hearts.

And one more matter there is regarding that land, which my memory
recalls. It will be remembered that George found certain wrappers upon
which there was writing. Now, in the haste of our leaving, he had given
no thought to take them with him; yet a portion of one he found within
the side pocket of his jacket, and it ran somewhat thus:—

"But I hear my lover's voice wailing in the night, and I go to find him;
for my loneliness is not to be borne. May God have mercy upon me!"

And that was all.

For a day and a night we stood out from the land towards the North,
having a steady breeze to which we set our lug sails, and so made very
good way, the sea being quiet, though with a slow, lumbering swell from
the Southward.

It was on the morning of the second day of our escape that we met with
the beginnings of our adventure into the Silent Sea, the which I am about
to make as clear as I am able.

The night had been quiet, and the breeze steady until near on to the
dawn, when the wind slacked away to nothing, and we lay there waiting,
perchance the sun should bring the breeze with it. And this it did; but
no such wind as we did desire; for when the morning came upon us, we
discovered all that part of the sky to be full of a fiery redness, which
presently spread away down to the South, so that an entire quarter of the
heavens was, as it seemed to us, a mighty arc of blood-colored fire.

Now, at the sight of these omens, the bo'sun gave orders to prepare the
boats for the storm which we had reason to expect, looking for it in the
South, for it was from that direction that the swell came rolling upon
us. With this intent, we roused out so much heavy canvas as the boats
contained, for we had gotten a bolt and a half from the hulk in the
creek; also the boat covers which we could lash down to the brass studs
under the gunnels of the boats. Then, in each boat, we mounted the
whaleback—which had been stowed along the tops of the thwarts—also its
supports, lashing the same to the thwarts below the knees. Then we laid
two lengths of the stout canvas the full length of the boat over the
whaleback, overlapping and nailing them to the same, so that they sloped
away down over the gunnels upon each side as though they had formed a
roof to us. Here, whilst some stretched the canvas, nailing its lower
edges to the gunnels, others were employed in lashing together the oars
and the mast, and to this bundle they secured a considerable length of
new three-and-a-half-inch hemp rope, which we had brought away from the
hulk along with the canvas. This rope was then passed over the bows and
in through the painter ring, and thence to the forrard thwarts, where it
was made fast, and we gave attention to parcel it with odd strips of
canvas against danger of chafe. And the same was done in both of the
boats, for we could not put our trust in the painters, besides which they
had not sufficient length to secure safe and easy riding.