CHAPTER II.

ASHORE.

When the captain had read the mate’s letter he was more angry than ever, and said that Mr. March was the most cruel and cowardly hypocrite that ever lived. I did not know what to think, for though the mate had turned pirate, and stolen the captain’s ship, he had saved the captain from being murdered by the crew and had saved Tom and me from what would have been worse than being murdered. It was certain that he was a very bad man, but for all that he did seem to be kind-hearted, and it was good in him to write that letter, for without it we could never have found the river.

When we came near the shore we could see nothing but a long stretch of sand beach with low sand hills, and a thick forest of pine-trees behind them. There were two pines that were about half a mile apart, so far as we could judge, and stood out separate from the rest of the trees, for, as we afterwards found, the forest had been cleared away around them. We brought these two trees in line with one another and then steered for the beach, where we found an inlet with the tide running into it. This brought us into a little lagoon that lay between the beach and the mainland. Continuing to keep the trees in line we crossed the lagoon and found ourselves at the mouth of a small river, up which we pulled, delighted to find ourselves in the shade of the forest.

It was a beautiful river. It was so narrow that the trees on each bank nearly touched their branches overhead, and half a mile from the lagoon the water became perfectly clear, so that we could often see the sandy bottom, though in most places the river was very deep. All sorts of strange and beautiful birds were among the trees, and we saw more snakes in the water and on the shore than we wanted to see. Once we startled a large wild beast that was sleeping on the shore and that was spotted like a leopard, but as soon as it saw us it bounded into the forest. Tom and I were perfectly happy. The beautiful river was so much better than the cabin of the Swansea, that we began to be glad that the crew had mutinied and driven us away.

A mile up the river we came to a small clearing where there was a sort of fort, very near the river, and a nice landing-place for boats. The fort was quite deserted, and at once we went ashore to explore it.

It was built of great pine logs, squared and fitted closely together. It had only two windows, high above the ground, one at each end, and was loop-holed, like a real stone fort on every side. There was an immensely thick door in the side toward the river, which could be fastened from the inside with an iron bar, but it stood wide open and the doorway was filled with the biggest spider-webs I ever saw. There was another smaller door in the opposite side of the house, which also had its iron bar, and was closed.

There was nothing in the house but loose straw, which was scattered all over the floor; a long table, some rough benches, and a few pots, pans and plates. Grass had grown up between the boards of the floor in many places, and it was plain that nobody had been inside the fort for a long while. There was a curious smell about the place that reminded me of a menagerie I had once seen in Bristol, and I could not understand why Captain Fearing would not at first let us search the fort, but told us to go and bring up the things that were in the boat.

While we were busy the captain found a long pole with which he carefully stirred up the straw, and finally threw it all out of the back door. Then he made us help him stop up the holes in the floor with clay, and finally we scrubbed the place out with thick branches of trees, and then made beds out of pine twigs that we cut and brought into the fort.

We had a dinner of cold ham and biscuit, and then the captain when he had lit his pipe told us that the fort must have been built by pirates as a place to stay in while repairing their vessels. Near the brink of the river there was a great tar-kettle that was empty, but which had been used for heating pitch with which to calk seams. “You see,” said the captain, “that villain the mate knows this place, and has been a pirate at some time in his life. Perhaps his gang was the only one which used the fort, for in my opinion, nobody has been here for a good many years.”

In the afternoon Tom and I went out to explore, after the captain had warned us to keep a sharp lookout for snakes, especially a terrible variety with watchmen’s rattles at their tails, which can kill a man in an hour or two, they are so venomous.

We went out of the back door and up a sloping path which led through bushes so tall and thick that you might have stood close to the side of it without suspecting that there was a path there. The path itself was pretty well grown up with weeds and bushes, but still we could make it out and we followed it till we came to a hill, in the side of which was the entrance to a cave.

Mr. March had kindly given us a lantern, and Tom ran back to get it. We lit it with a flint and steel that I always carried in my pocket, and then we entered the cave. It was so large that we could stand up straight in it, and the bottom, which was fine gravel, sloped downward pretty steeply. There was not much to see in the cave until we had gone, I should think, twenty rods into it, when we came to a wonderful little lake which occupied the whole floor of the cave and prevented us from going any further. The roof of the cave glittered beautifully, for it was all full of white crystals, some of which hung down in long points and sparkled like frost on a window when the sun strikes it.

There was a small skiff lying partly in the water and partly on the shore, with a short paddle lying in the bottom of it. There was a little water in the skiff, but when we launched it the water did not increase, which showed that the skiff did not leak. We hauled it up on the shore again to keep it from drifting away, and resolved to come back and make a voyage on the lake the next day.

On the way back to the house we found an orange-tree full of delicious fruit, and some bushes covered with large, beautiful berries such as we had never seen before. We did not venture to eat the berries, for oftentimes it happens that strange fruit is deadly; but we carried some of them to the captain, who said that they were wholesome and particularly refreshing on a hot day.

When night came the captain loaded the two guns and placed his powder-horn and bullets where he could easily reach them. Then he barred the big door, and we all lay down and Tom and the captain soon fell asleep.

I was not sleepy, and was lying and watching the pattern that the bright moonlight made on the floor, as it streamed through the loop-holes, when I heard a curious rattling noise under the floor, and thought at once of the terrible snakes of which the captain had spoken. The noise kept growing louder and more frequent, as if there were a great number of reptiles under the floor. I was about to waken my companions when I saw a serpent gliding over the floor just where the moonlight that came through one of the windows made a great square patch of light.

The snake was close to Tom and was moving towards him, but as soon as it passed out of the moonlight it became invisible. It was making a slow rattling noise as it writhed along, but this stopped the moment I struck my flint and steel. I kindled the lantern as soon as possible, and saw the snake close to Tom and just beginning to crawl across his body. My brother was always a sound sleeper and he did not wake until the snake had passed over him and crawled a dozen feet away. Then I shouted, and both Tom and the captain started up, and I thought at first the captain would have shot me before I could explain what was the matter.

When we came to look about us carefully we found five of the serpents in the room, four of which we killed, but the fifth escaped down an opening in the floor which we had overlooked when we were stopping up the holes, and through which our horrible visitors had without doubt entered. When we had made this hole safe by turning a large iron pot upside down over it, and had thrown the carcasses of the dead reptiles out of the door, we lay down to sleep again. Under the floor, the snakes kept up their rattling, and the captain said there were probably hundreds of them there, but as we were now sure that they could not get at us, we did not mind them.

But about midnight we had another visit. We heard the branches and twigs crackling in the woods outside, and thought at first that the pirates must be approaching, but presently near the door some animal began to snarl and growl, like a lion—or as I suppose a lion growls, for I am thankful to say I never heard one. We were all awake and listening, and after a while made out that there were at least two of the beasts, for they began to quarrel and swear at one another, and every one knows that it takes two to quarrel.

The captain was at first all for getting up and shooting the beasts through a loop-hole, but he remembered that our supply of ammunition was small and that we might need it to defend ourselves against worse foes than wild beasts. “Let ’em growl, boys,” said he. “They’re like sailors; the more they growl the less mischief there is in them; that is, if so be that they are growling on the other side of a stout wall.”

The beasts were really what the colonists of the country farther north called panthers. They growled and fought, and made a hideous noise, so that the snakes, not liking it, rattled all the louder, but we knew that no beast could break the door open, and so we felt perfectly safe.

Suddenly a great dark object came flying through one of the windows and landed on the floor with a heavy thud. Of course we were on our feet in an instant, for we knew by the growling of the beast and the flashing of its eyes that it was a panther. As soon as it saw us it retreated to a corner, where it crouched, watching us and making up its mind on which one of us it would spring. But it did not have much time for thinking, for the captain fired at it and killed it instantly with a brace of bullets between its eyes.

All this was exciting, and Tom and I being too young to be sensible naturally enjoyed it. Still I was tired and would gladly have slept, and could have wished that the snakes and beasts were less fond of visiting strangers. There was no way of closing the window, and it was quite possible that another panther or some new kind of animal would use it to pay us another visit, so we resolved that one of us should stay awake and keep watch while the others slept.

Tom agreed to be the first to keep watch, so the captain and I were soon asleep. But I am sorry to say that Tom, forgetting his duty, followed our example, though doubtless it was his purpose to remain watchful, and he fell asleep by accident. But we were not to sleep much more that night, for before very long a scream from Tom awoke us all, and we found that another panther had come in at the window.

This time the beast had fallen directly upon my brother and had sunk its claws deeply into his arm, but being alarmed at the noise that followed it, lay still, growling and threatening, but not biting. Once again I lit the lantern, the captain all the while telling Tom to lie perfectly still and feign to be dead, which was his only chance of escape.

The captain and I stood each with a gun in hand at a short distance from the panther, who watched us as closely as we watched him. We did not dare to shoot lest we should hit Tom as well as the enemy, and we could only wait and see if the beast would not move away from Tom, and give us the occasion to fire. But the panther was not in the least hurry. He was not at all afraid of us, and was apparently wondering whether he had better make a meal of Tom, without killing the captain and me, or whether it would not be better policy to kill us first and enjoy his dinner afterwards.

The only thing that disturbed him was the lantern, which stood on the floor near the captain. Doubtless the beast thought it was the eye of some monstrous animal, though he must have wondered what had become of the animal’s body. He turned his head toward it every few minutes and growled fiercely, but he never let go his hold of Tom, and gave us no chance to fire at him.

At last the captain could contain himself no longer, and he thought of a way of frightening the beast. He took a paper from his pocket, and crumpling it together, lit it at the lantern. When it had become a flaming ball of fire he boldly approached the panther and threw it in the monster’s face. The panther let go his hold of Tom and sprang back, but almost instantly he leaped with amazing swiftness upon the captain, bringing him violently to the floor. I was now desperate, for if Tom and the captain were killed it would be only misery for me to live in that wild place. The captain was lying on his back with the panther on his chest, and it was as dangerous to fire at the beast from a distance as it had been when poor Tom was in his clutches. But I ran close up to the panther, and putting my gun against its shoulder pulled the trigger, trusting that the bullets would not pass through its body and pierce the poor captain.

As it turned out I had done the best thing that could have been done, for the beast was instantly killed, and the captain, pushing the carcass from him, rose up unhurt except for a few scratches, none of which were serious. Tom was in a dead swoon. This, however, was not so much from fright, for he was a brave fellow, as from the pain of his wound. The creature’s claws had somewhat torn the flesh of his left arm, and it had sunk its claws deeply into his left breast.

However, by chafing his sound arm and hand we soon brought Tom back to his senses, and the captain bound up his wounds and made him lie down where no creature springing through the window could reach him. I was surprised to see the captain carefully pick up the burnt fragments of the paper he had thrown at the panther, and then drop them with a sigh. I asked him what the paper might be.

“It was my commission, lad,” he replied. “My commission as master of the Swansea. But of what use could it be to me now? All the papers in the world could not make me less a poor drunken wretch who has let his ship be taken from him.”