Adrift in Pacific and Other Great Adventures – 17 Titles in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). Jules Verne
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the time was spent in visiting this part of the coast where the trees came down to the very edge of the rocks. The birds were as numerous as at French Den, and Briant was able to shoot a few tinamous for supper.
The main feature of the coast was the heaped-up granite masses that made the place a sort of field of Karnak, where the arrangement owed nothing to the hand of man.
In the space of half a mile Briant found a dozen halls and store-rooms that would have sufficed for the wants of the little colony.
He was naturally led to inquire why Baudoin had not taken up his quarters on this side of the island. There was no doubt he had visited it, for the main lines of the coast were accurately shown on the map. That he had left no trace behind him was probably because he had fixed his home at French Den, before he had explored this eastern territory, and finding the shore more exposed to the storms from the sea, had thought it best to remain where he was.
At two o'clock the time appeared favourable for a careful examination of the offing. Briant, Jack, and Moko set to work to scale an enormous rock which in outline somewhat resembled a bear. The block was about a hundred feet away from the little harbour, and it was not without difficulty that they clambered to its top.
When there, they looked back over the island. To
the west lay Family Lake, screened by a thick mass of verdure; to the south the country was seamed with yellow sandhills bordered by blackish firs as in the dry plains of the north ; to the north the outline of the bay ended in a low cliff which formed the limit of an immense sandy plain stretching beyond. In short, Charman Island was only fertile in its central portions, where the sweet waters of the lake spread life around as they flowed off to the sea.
Briant then turned his glasses to the east, where the horizon was now as clear as could be. Any land within seven or eight miles would certainly have been noticeable.
There was nothing in that direction, nothing but the sea and the unbroken line of sky.
For an hour Briant, Jack, and Moko continued to look around them, and they were about to descend to the beach again when Moko suddenly stretched out his hand to the north-east, and asked,—
" What is that ? "
Briant brought his glasses to bear on the spot indicated.
A little above the horizon was a whitish stain that the eye might have taken for a cloud, had not the sky been quite clear at the time. Briant kept it in the field of his glasses for a long time, and announced that it remained stationary, and its form did not alter.
" I do not know what that can be," he said, " unless it is a mountain, and a mountain would not look like that."
A few minutes afterwards the sun had sunk more to the west, and the spot had disappeared. Was it some high peak, or a light reflected from the waters, as Jack and Moko suggested ?
Soon all three were back at the mouth of East River where the yawl was moored. Jack collected some dry wood from under the trees, and then he lighted the fire while Moko cooked the roast tinamous.
At seven o'clock Jack and Briant were walking along
the beach, waiting for the tide to turn, and Moko had gone off up the river-bank in search of a stone pine from which he thought he would like a few fruits.
When he returned to the mouth of the river night had begun to close in. Away out at sea the waves were still lighted by the last rays of the sun, but the shore was plunged in semi-darkness.
When Moko reached the boat, Briant and his brother had not returned. As they could not be far off, he was in no way anxious about them.
But he was surprised to hear a violent sobbing, and then the sound of a loud voice. He could not be deceived ; it was Briant's.
Were the brothers in any danger ? Moko did not hesitate to run off at once along the beach and round the rocks which shut in the little harbour.
Suddenly he saw something which made him halt.
Jack was on his knees before Briant! He seemed to be pleading with him to be begging for pardon! And his were the sobs Moko had heard.
The cabin-boy would have run back, but it was too late. He had heard and understood! He knew now what Jack had done, and what he had just confessed, and why Briant was exclaiming,—
" You stupid boy! It was you—you who did it! You are the cause! "
" Forgive me ! forgive me!"
" That is why you keep apart from the rest ! That is why you are afraid of them ! May they never know ! No ! Not a word—not a word—to any one ! "
Moko would have given much not to have known the secret. But to pretend not to know it now he was face to face with Briant would never do. And a few minutes afterwards, when he found him alone by the boat, he said to him,—
" I overheard—"
" What!" said Briant, " you know that it was Jack ?"
" Yes, and you must forgive him."
" But will the others forgive him ? "
" Perhaps," said Moko. " In any case, better they should know nothing, I'd keep silence, you may depend."
" Ah ! Poor Moko ! " said Briant, clasping him by the hand.
For two hours up to the time of embarking, Briant did not say a word to Jack, who remained sitting at the foot of a rock close by, and evidently nearly brokenhearted now that he had made his confession.
About ten o'clock the flood-tide began to make itself felt, and Briant, Jack, and Moko took their seats in the boat. As soon as the grapnel was taken up she began to move with the current.
The moon had risen shortly after sunset, and gave good light till half-past midnight. When the ebb set in, the oars were got out, and after an hour's pulling not a mile up stream was gained.
Briant then prepared to anchor until daybreak, when the tide would flow again, and this was done. At six o'clock the voyage was resumed, and at nine o'clock the yawl was back in Family Lake. There Moko re-hoisted the sail, and with a fair beam wind steered straight for French Den.
About six o'clock in the evening, after a pleasant voyage, during which neither Briant nor Jack hardly spoke a word, the yawl was hailed by Garnett, who was out fishing on the bank; and a few minutes later she ran alongside, where Gordon gave her passengers a hearty welcome.
CHAPTER XI.
The New Chief
Briant thought it best to say nothing of what had passed between him and his brother, even to Gordon. But the story of his trip he told to all as they sat round him that evening.
He described the eastern coast of Charman Island all round Deception Bay; he told them how East River ran through the forest, and how rich the forest was in trees of all kinds. He stated that better quarters could be found on the east than on the west, if it ever became necessary to abandon French Den. As to the sea, there was no land in sight, but he mentioned the strange white patch above the horizon which he could not explain. Probably it was merely a column of vapour, and would be explained when the next visit occurred to Deception Bay. In short, it was only too certain that Charman Island had no land near it, and doubtless many hundred miles divided it from the continent or the nearest archipelagoes.
The boys had therefore to resume their struggle for existence, awaiting some help from without, for it seemed unlikely that they would ever be able to do anything of themselves towards a rescue. They set to work vigorously preparing for the winter. Briant worked harder than ever; and it was noticed that he had become quieter, and that like his brother he rather kept himself away from the rest. Gordon, in taking note of this change in his character, observed that Briant was always seeking to put Jack to the front on every occasion in which pluck had to be