The flight - The pursuit - Despair and its results - The lion bearded in his den again - Awful danger threatened and wonderfully averted - A terrific storm.
AS the time for our meditated flight drew near, we became naturally very fearful lest our purpose should be discovered, and we spent the whole of the following day in a state of nervous anxiety.We resolved to go a-shore and ramble about the village, as if to observe the habits and dwellings of the people, as we thought that an air of affected indifference to the events of the previous day would be more likely than any other course of conduct to avert suspicion as to our intentions.While we were thus occupied, the teacher remained on board with the Christian natives, whose powerful voices reached us ever and anon as they engaged in singing hymns or in prayer.
At last the long and tedious day came to a close, the sank into the sea, and the short-lived twilight of those regions, to which I have already referred, ended abruptly in a dark night.Hastily throwing a few blankets into our little boat, we stepped into it, and, whispering farewell to the natives in the schooner, rowed gently over the lagoon, taking care to keep as near to the beach as possible.We rowed in the utmost silence and with muffled oars, so that had any one observed us at the distance of a few yards, he might have almost taken us for a phantom-boat or a shadow on the dark water.Not a breath of air was stirring; but fortunately the gentle ripple of the sea upon the shore, mingled with the soft roar of the breaker on the distant reef, effectually drowned the slight plash that we unavoidably made in the water by the dipping of our oars.
Quarter of an hour sufficed to bring us to the over-hanging cliff under whose black shadow our little canoe lay, with her bow in the water ready to be launched, and most of her cargo already stowed away.As the keel of our little boat grated on the sand, a hand was laid upon the bow, and a dim form was seen.
"Ha!" said Peterkin in a whisper, as he stepped upon the beach, "is that you, Avatea?""Yis, it am me," was the reply.
"All right! Now, then, gently.Help me to shove off the canoe,"whispered Jack to the teacher; "and Peterkin, do you shove these blankets aboard, we may want them before long.Avatea, step into the middle; - that's right.""Is all ready?" whispered the teacher.
"Not quite," replied Peterkin."Here, Ralph, lay hold o' this pair of oars, and stow them away if you can.I don't like paddles.
After we're safe away I'll try to rig up rollicks for them.""Now, then, in with you and shove off."
One more earnest squeeze of the kind teacher's hand, and, with his whispered blessing yet sounding in our ears, we shot like an arrow from the shore, sped over the still waters of the lagoon, and paddled as swiftly as strong arms and willing hearts could urge us over the long swell of the open sea.
All that night and the whole of the following day we plied our paddles in almost total silence and without halt, save twice to recruit our failing energies with a mouthful of food and a draught of water.Jack had taken the bearing of the island just after starting, and laying a small pocket-compass before him, kept the head of the canoe due south, for our chance of hitting the island depended very much on the faithfulness of our steersman in keeping our tiny bark exactly and constantly on its proper course.
Peterkin and I paddled in the bow, and Avatea worked untiringly in the middle.
As the sun's lower limb dipped on the gilded edge of the sea Jack ceased working, threw down his paddle, and called a halt.
"There," he cried, heaving a deep, long-drawn sigh, "we've put a considerable breadth of water between us and these black rascals, so now we'll have a hearty supper and a sound sleep.""Hear, hear," cried Peterkin."Nobly spoken, Jack.Hand me a drop water, Ralph.Why, girl what's wrong with you? You look just like a black owl blinking in the sunshine."Avatea smiled."I sleepy," she said; and as if to prove the truth of this, she laid her head on the edge of the canoe and fell fast asleep.
"That's uncommon sharp practice," said Peterkin, with a broad grin.
"Don't you think we should awake her to make her eat something first? or, perhaps," he added, with a grave, meditative look, "perhaps we might put some food in her mouth, which is so elegantly open at the present moment, and see if she'd swallow it while asleep.If so, Ralph, you might come round to the front here and feed her quietly, while Jack and I are tucking into the victuals.
It would be a monstrous economy of time."I could not help smiling at Peterkin's idea, which, indeed, when Ipondered it, seemed remarkably good in theory; nevertheless Ideclined to put it in practice, being fearful of the result should the victual chance to go down the wrong throat.But, on suggesting this to Peterkin, he exclaimed -"Down the wrong throat, man! why, a fellow with half an eye might see that if it went down Avatea's throat it could not go down the wrong throat! - unless, indeed, you have all of a sudden become inordinately selfish, and think that all the throats in the world are wrong ones except your own.However, don't talk so much, and hand me the pork before Jack finishes it.I feel myself entitled to at least one minute morsel.""Peterkin, you're a villain.A paltry little villain," said Jack, quietly, as he tossed the hind legs (including the tail) of a cold roast pig to his comrade; "and I must again express my regret that unavoidable circumstances have thrust your society upon me, and that necessity has compelled me to cultivate your acquaintance.
Were it not that you are incapable of walking upon the water, Iwould order you, sir, out of the canoe."
"There! you've wakened Avatea with your long tongue," retorted Peterkin, with a frown, as the girl gave vent to a deep sigh.
