Blown to Bits; or, The Lonely Man of Rakata by R. M. Ballantyne (suggested reading txt) 📖

the chief the hermit explained matters to him, and bade Moses get ready for a start several hours before dawn.

"You see we must do the first part of our trip in the dark, for Baderoon has a keen eye and ear. Then we will land and sleep all day where the sharpest eye will fail to find us—and, luckily, pirates have been denied the power of scenting out their foes. When night comes we will start again and get out of sight of land before the next dawn."

"Mine frond," said the professor, turning his moon-like goggles full on the hermit. "I vill go viz you."

"I should be only too happy to have your company," returned the hermit, "but my canoe cannot by any contrivance be made to hold more than three."

"Zat is no matter to me," rejoined Verkimier; "you forget zee trader's boat. I vill go in zat to Sumatra. Ve vill find out zee port he is going to, ant you vill meet me zere. Vait for me if I have not arrived—or I vill vait for you. I have longed to visit Sumatra, ant vat better fronds could I go viz zan yourselfs?"

"But, my good friend," returned the hermit, "my movements may not exactly suit yours. Here they are,—you can judge for yourself. First I will, God permitting, cross over to Sumatra in my canoe."

"But it is t'ree hoondert miles across, if not more!"

"No matter—there are plenty of islands on the way. Besides, some passing vessel will give me a lift, no doubt. Then I will coast along to one of the eastern ports, where I know there is a steamboat loading up about this time. The captain is an old friend of mine. He brought me and my companions the greater part of the way here. If I find him I will ask him to carry my canoe on his return voyage through Sunda Straits, and leave it with another friend of mine at Telok Betong on the south coast of Sumatra—not far, as you know, from my home in Krakatoa. Then I will proceed overland to the same place, so that my friend Nigel Roy may see a little of the country."

"Ant vat if you do not find your frond zee captain of zee steamer?"

"Why, then I shall have to adopt some other plan. It is the uncertainty of my movements that makes me think you should not depend on them."

"Zat is not'ing to me, Van der Kemp; you joost go as you say. I vill follow ant take my chance. I am use' to ooncertainties ant difficoolties. Zey can not influence me."

After a good deal of consideration this plan was agreed to. The professor spent part of the night in giving directions about the preserving of his specimens, which he meant to leave at the village in charge of a man whom he had trained to assist him, while Van der Kemp with his companions lay down to snatch a little sleep before setting out on their voyage, or, as the Dyak chief persisted in calling it, their flight!

When Nigel had slept about five minutes—as he thought—he was awakened by Moses.

"Don't make a noise, Massa Nadgel! Dere may be spies in de camp for all we knows, so we mus' git off like mice. Canoe's ready an' massa waitin'; we gib you to de last momint."

In a few minutes our hero was sleepily following the negro through the woods to the spot where the canoe was in waiting.

The night was very dark. This was in their favour,—at least as regarded discovery.

"But how shall we ever see to make our way down stream?" asked Nigel of the hermit in a whisper on reaching the place of embarkation.

"The current will guide us. Besides, I have studied the river with a view to this flight. Be careful in getting in. Now, Moses, are you ready?"

"All right, massa."

"Shove off, then."

There was something so eerie in the subdued tones, and stealthy motions, and profound darkness, that Nigel could not help feeling as if they were proceeding to commit some black and criminal deed!

Floating with the current, with as little noise as possible, and having many a narrow escape of running against points of land and sandbanks, they flew swiftly towards the sea, so that dawn found them among the mud flats and the mangrove swamps. Here they found a spot where mangrove roots and bushes formed an impenetrable screen, behind which they spent the day, chiefly in sleep, and in absolute security.

When darkness set in they again put forth, and cautiously clearing the river's mouth, were soon far out on the open sea, which was fortunately calm at the time, the slight air that blew being in their favour.

"We are safe from pursuit now," said Van der Kemp in a tone of satisfaction, as they paused for a breathing spell.

"O massa!" exclaimed Moses at that moment, in a voice of consternation; "we's forgotten Spinkie!"

"So we have!" returned the hermit in a voice of regret so profound that Nigel could scarce restrain a laugh in spite of his sympathy.

But Spinkie had not forgotten himself. Observing probably, that these night expeditions were a change in his master's habits, he had kept an unusually watchful eye on the canoe, so that when it was put in the water, he had jumped on board unseen in the darkness, and had retired to the place where he usually slept under hatches when the canoe travelled at night.

Awakened from refreshing sleep at the sound of his name, Spinkie emerged suddenly from the stern-manhole, right under the negro's nose, and with a sleepy "oo, oo!" gazed up into his face.

"Ho! Dare you is, you mis'rible hyperkrite!" exclaimed Moses, kissing the animal in the depth of his satisfaction. "He's here, massa, all right. Now, you go to bed agin, you small bundle ob hair."

The creature retired obediently to its place, and laying its little cheek on one of its small hands, committed itself to repose.

Van der Kemp was wrong when he said they were safe. A pirate scout had seen the canoe depart. Being alone and distant from the rendezvous of his commander, some time elapsed before the news could be conveyed to him. When Baderoon was at length informed and had sailed out to sea in pursuit, returning daylight showed him that his intended victim had escaped.

CHAPTER XVII. TELLS OF THE JOYS, ETC., OF THE PROFESSOR IN THE SUMATRAN FORESTS, ALSO OF A CATASTROPHE AVERTED.

Fortunately the weather continued fine at first, and the light wind fair, so that the canoe skimmed swiftly over the wide sea that separates Borneo from Sumatra. Sometimes our travellers proceeded at night when the distance between islets compelled them to do so. At other times they landed on one of these isles when opportunity offered to rest and replenish the water-casks.

We will not follow them step by step in this voyage, which occupied more than a week, and during which they encountered without damage several squalls in which a small open boat could not have lived. Beaching at last the great island of Sumatra—which, like its neighbour Borneo, is larger in extent than the British Islands—they coasted along southwards, without further delay than was absolutely necessary for rest and refreshment, until they reached a port where they found the steamer of which they were in search just about to start on its return voyage. Van der Kemp committed his little craft to the care of the captain, who, after vainly advising his friend to take a free passage with him to the Straits of Sunda, promised to leave the canoe in passing at Telok Betong. We may add that Spinkie was most unwillingly obliged to accompany the canoe.

"Now, we must remain here till our friend Verkimier arrives," said the hermit, turning to Nigel after they had watched the steamer out of sight.

"I suppose we must," said Nigel, who did not at all relish the delay—"of course we must," he added with decision.

"I sees no 'ob course' about it, Massa Nadgel," observed Moses, who never refrained from offering his opinion from motives of humility, or of respect for his employer. "My 'dvice is to go on an' let de purfesser foller."

"But I promised to wait for him," said the hermit, with one of his kindly, half-humorous glances, "and you know I never break my promises."

"Das true, massa, but you di'n't promise to wait for him for eber an' eber!"

"Not quite; but of course I meant that I would wait a reasonable time."

The negro appeared to meditate for some moments on the extent of a "reasonable" time, for his huge eyes became huger as he gazed frowningly at the ground. Then he spoke.

"A 'reasonable' time, massa, is such an oncertain time—wariable, so to speak, accordin' to the mind that t'inks upon it! Hows'eber, if you's promised, ob coorse dat's an end ob it; for w'en a man promises, he's bound to stick to it."

Such devotion to principle was appropriately rewarded the very next day by the arrival of the trading prau in which the professor had embarked.

"We did not expect you nearly so soon," said Nigel, as they heartily shook hands.

"It vas because zee vind freshen soon after ve set sail—ant, zen, ve made a straight line for zis port, w'ereas you possibly crossed over, ant zen push down zee coast."

"Exactly so, and that accounts for your overtaking us," said the hermit. "Is that the lad Baso I see down there with the crew of the prau?"

"It is. You must have some strainch power of attracting frondship, Van der Kemp, for zee poor yout' is so fond of you zat he beg ant entreat me to take him, ant he says he vill go on vit zee traders if you refuse to let him follow you."

"Well, he may come. Indeed, we shall be the better for his services, for I had intended to hire a man here to help to carry our things. Much of our journeying, you see, must be done on foot."

Baso, to his great joy, thus became one of the party.

We pass over the next few days, which were spent in arranging and packing their provisions, etc., in such a way that each member of the party should carry on his shoulders a load proportioned to his strength. In this arrangement the professor, much against his will, was compelled to accept the lightest load in consideration of his liability to dart off in pursuit of creeping things and "bootterflies" at a moment's notice. The least damageable articles were also assigned to him in consideration of his tendency at all times to tumble into bogs and stumble over fallen trees, and lose himself, and otherwise get into difficulties.

We also pass over part of the journey from the coast, and plunge with our travellers at once into the interior of Sumatra.

One evening towards sunset they reached the brow of an eminence which, being rocky, was free from much wood, and permitted of a wide view of the surrounding country. It was covered densely with virgin forest, and they ascended the eminence in order that the hermit, who had been there before, might discover a forest road which led to a village some miles off, where they intended to put up for the night. Having ascertained his exact position, Van der Kemp led his followers down to this footpath, which led through the dense forest.

The trees by which they were surrounded were varied and magnificent—some of them rising clear up seventy and eighty feet without a branch, many of them had superb leafy crowns, under any one of which hundreds of men might have found shelter. Others had trunks and limbs warped and intertwined with a wild entanglement of huge creepers, which hung in festoons and loops as if doing their best to strangle their supports, themselves being also encumbered, or adorned, with ferns and orchids, and delicate twining epiphytes. A forest of smaller trees grew beneath this shade, and still lower down were thorny shrubs, rattan-palms, broad-leaved bushes, and a mass of tropical herbage which would have been absolutely impenetrable but for the native road or footpath along which they travelled.

"A most suitable abode for tigers, I should think," remarked Nigel to the hermit, who walked in front of him—for they marched in single file. "Are there any in these parts?"

"Ay, plenty. Indeed, it is because I don't like sleeping in their company that I am so anxious to reach a village."

"Are zey dangerows?" asked the professor, who followed close on Nigel.

"Well, they are not safe!" replied the hermit. "I had an adventure with one on this very road only two years ago."

"Indeed! vat vas it?" asked the professor, whose appetite for anecdote was insatiable. "Do tell us about it."

"With pleasure. It was on a pitch-dark night that it occurred. I had occasion to