The Coral Island by Robert Michael Ballantyne (interesting books to read in english TXT) đź“–
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companions. It was one of the common small crabs, like to those
that are found running about everywhere on the coasts of England.
While we gazed at it, we observed its back to split away from the
lower part of its body, and out of the gap thus formed came a soft
lump which moved and writhed unceasingly. This lump continued to
increase in size until it appeared like a bunch of crab’s legs:
and, indeed, such it proved in a very few minutes to be; for the
points of the toes were at length extricated from this hole in its
back, the legs spread out, the body followed, and the crab walked
away quite entire, even to the points of its nipper-claws, leaving
a perfectly entire shell behind it, so that, when we looked, it
seemed as though there were two complete crabs instead of one!
“Well!” exclaimed Peterkin, drawing a long breath, “I’ve HEARD of a
man jumping out of his skin and sitting down in his skeleton in
order to cool himself, but I never expected to SEE a crab do it!”
We were, in truth, much amazed at this spectacle, and the more so
when we observed that the new crab was larger than the crab that it
came out of. It was also quite soft, but by next morning its skin
had hardened into a good shell. We came thus to know that crabs
grow in this way, and not by the growing of their shells, as we had
always thought before we saw this wonderful operation.
Now I considered well the advice which Jack had given me about
preparing my tank, and the more I thought of it, the more I came to
regard it as very sound and worthy of being acted on. So I
forthwith put his plan in execution, and found it to answer
excellently well, indeed much beyond my expectation; for I found
that after a little experience had taught me the proper proportion
of sea-weed and animals to put into a certain amount of water, the
tank needed no farther attendance; and, moreover, I did not require
ever afterwards to renew or change the sea-water, but only to add a
very little fresh water from the brook, now and then, as the other
evaporated. I therefore concluded that if I had been suddenly
conveyed, along with my tank, into some region where there was no
salt sea at all, my little sea and my sea-fish would have continued
to thrive and to prosper notwithstanding. This made me greatly to
desire that those people in the world who live far inland might
know of my wonderful tank, and, by having materials like to those
of which it was made conveyed to them, thus be enabled to watch the
habits of those most mysterious animals that reside in the sea, and
examine with their own eyes the wonders of the great deep.
For many days after this, while Peterkin and Jack were busily
employed in building a little boat out of the curious natural
planks of the chestnut tree, I spent much of my time in examining
with the burning-glass the marvellous operations that were
constantly going on in my tank. Here I saw those anemones which
cling, like little red, yellow, and green blobs of jelly, to the
rocks, put forth, as it were, a multitude of arms and wait till
little fish or other small animalcules unwarily touched them, when
they would instantly seize them, fold arm after arm around their
victims, and so engulf them in their stomachs. Here I saw the
ceaseless working of those little coral insects whose efforts have
encrusted the islands of the Pacific with vast rocks, and
surrounded them with enormous reefs. And I observed that many of
these insects, though extremely minute, were very beautiful, coming
out of their holes in a circle of fine threads, and having the form
of a shuttle-cock. Here I saw curious little barnacles opening a
hole in their backs and constantly putting out a thin feathery
hand, with which, I doubt not, they dragged their food into their
mouths. Here, also, I saw those crabs which have shells only on
the front of their bodies, but no shell whatever on their
remarkably tender tails, so that, in order to find a protection to
them, they thrust them into the empty shells of wilks, or some such
fish, and when they grow too big for one, change into another.
But, most curious of all, I saw an animal which had the wonderful
power, when it became ill, of casting its stomach and its teeth
away from it, and getting an entirely new set in the course of a
few months! All this I saw, and a great deal more, by means of my
tank and my burning-glass, but I refrain from setting down more
particulars here, as I have still much to tell of the adventures
that befell us while we remained on this island.
CHAPTER XIII.
Notable discovery at the spouting cliffs - The mysterious green
monster explained - We are thrown into unutterable terror by the
idea that Jack is drowned - The Diamond Cave.
“COME, Jack,” cried Peterkin, one morning about three weeks after
our return from our long excursion, “let’s be jolly to-day, and do
something vigorous. I’m quite tired of hammering and hammering,
hewing and screwing, cutting and butting, at that little boat of
ours, that seems as hard to build as Noah’s ark; let us go on an
excursion to the mountain top, or have a hunt after the wild ducks,
or make a dash at the pigs. I’m quite flat - flat as bad ginger-beer - flat as a pancake; in fact, I want something to rouse me, to
toss me up, as it were. Eh! what do you say to it?”
“Well,” answered Jack, throwing down the axe with which he was just
about to proceed towards the boat, “if that’s what you want, I
would recommend you to make an excursion to the water-spouts; the
last one we had to do with tossed you up a considerable height,
perhaps the next will send you higher, who knows, if you’re at all
reasonable or moderate in your expectations!”
“Jack, my dear boy,” said Peterkin, gravely, “you are really
becoming too fond of jesting. It’s a thing I don’t at all approve
of, and if you don’t give it up, I fear that, for our mutual good,
we shall have to part.”
“Well, then, Peterkin,” replied Jack, with a smile, “what would you
have?”
“Have?” said Peterkin, “I would HAVE nothing. I didn’t say I
wanted to HAVE; I said that I wanted to DO.”
“By the by,” said I, interrupting their conversation, “I am
reminded by this that we have not yet discovered the nature of yon
curious appearance that we saw near the water-spouts, on our
journey round the island. Perhaps it would be well to go for that
purpose.”
“Humph!” ejaculated Peterkin, “I know the nature of it well
enough.”
“What was it?” said I.
“It was of a MYSTERIOUS nature to be sure!” said he, with a wave of
his hand, while he rose from the log on which he had been sitting,
and buckled on his belt, into which he thrust his enormous club.
“Well then, let us away to the water-spouts,” cried Jack, going up
to the bower for his bow and arrows; “and bring your spear,
Peterkin. It may be useful.”
We now, having made up our minds to examine into this matter,
sallied forth eagerly in the direction of the water-spout rocks,
which, as I have before mentioned, were not far from our present
place of abode. On arriving there we hastened down to the edge of
the rocks, and gazed over into the sea, where we observed the pale-green object still distinctly visible, moving its tail slowly to
and fro in the water.
“Most remarkable!” said Jack.
“Exceedingly curious,” said I.
“Beats everything!” said Peterkin.
“Now, Jack,” he added, “you made such a poor figure in your last
attempt to stick that object, that I would advise you to let me try
it. If it has got a heart at all, I’ll engage to send my spear
right through the core of it; if it hasn’t got a heart, I’ll send
it through the spot where its heart ought to be.”
“Fire away, then, my boy,” replied Jack with a laugh.
Peterkin immediately took the spear, poised it for a second or two
above his head, then darted it like an arrow into the sea. Down it
went straight into the centre of the green object, passed quite
through it, and came up immediately afterwards, pure and unsullied,
while the mysterious tail moved quietly as before!
“Now,” said Peterkin, gravely, “that brute is a heartless monster;
I’ll have nothing more to do with it.”
“I’m pretty sure now,” said Jack, “that it is merely a phosphoric
light; but I must say I’m puzzled at its staying always in that
exact spot.”
I also was much puzzled, and inclined to think with Jack that it
must be phosphoric light; of which luminous appearance we had seen
much while on our voyage to these seas. “But,” said I, “there is
nothing to hinder us from diving down to it, now that we are sure
it is not a shark.”
“True,” returned Jack, stripping off his clothes; “I’ll go down,
Ralph, as I’m better at diving than you are. Now then, Peterkin,
out o’ the road!” Jack stepped forward, joined his hands above his
head, bent over the rocks, and plunged into the sea. For a second
or two the spray caused by his dive hid him from view, then the
water became still, and we saw him swimming far down in the midst
of the green object. Suddenly he sank below it, and vanished
altogether from our sight! We gazed anxiously down at the spot
where he had disappeared, for nearly a minute, expecting every
moment to see him rise again for breath; but fully a minute passed,
and still he did not reappear. Two minutes passed! and then a
flood of alarm rushed in upon my soul, when I considered that
during all my acquaintance with him, Jack had never stayed
underwater more than a minute at a time; indeed seldom so long.
“Oh, Peterkin!” I said, in a voice that trembled with increasing
anxiety, “something has happened. It is more than three minutes
now!” But Peterkin did not answer and I observed that he was
gazing down into the water with a look of intense fear mingled with
anxiety, while his face was overspread with a deadly paleness.
Suddenly he sprang to his feet and rushed about in a frantic state,
wringing his hands, and exclaiming, “Oh, Jack, Jack! he is gone!
It must have been a shark, and he is gone for ever!”
For the next five minutes I know not what I did. The intensity of
my feelings almost bereft me of my senses. But I was recalled to
myself by Peterkin seizing me by the shoulder and staring wildly
into my face, while he exclaimed, “Ralph! Ralph! perhaps he has
only fainted. Dive for him, Ralph!”
It seemed strange that this did not occur to me sooner. In a
moment I rushed to the edge of the rocks, and, without waiting to
throw off my garments, was on the point to spring into the waves,
when I observed something black rising up through the green object.
In another moment Jack’s head rose to the surface, and he gave a
wild shout, flinging back the spray from his locks, as was his
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