Blown to Bits by Robert Michael Ballantyne (books under 200 pages txt) 📖

must go or the bottle must burst! Both events happened on that terrible night. All night long the corks were going, and at last--Krakatoa burst!

In the hurly-burly of confusion, smoke, and noise, no eye could note the precise moment when the island was shattered, but there were on the morning of the 27th four supreme explosions, which rang loud and high above the horrible average din. These occurred--according to the careful investigations made, at the instance of the Dutch Indian Government, by the eminent geologist, Mr. R.D.M. Verbeek--at the hours of 5.30, 6.44, 10.2, and 10.52 in the morning. Of these the third, about 10, was by far the worst for violence and for the wide-spread devastation which it produced.

At each of these explosions a tremendous sea-wave was created by the volcano, which swept like a watery ring from Krakatoa as a centre to the surrounding shores. It was at the second of these explosions--that of 6.44--that the fall of the mighty cliff took place which was seen by the hermit and his friends as they fled from the island, and, on the crest of the resulting wave, were carried along they scarce knew whither.

As the previous wave--that of 5.30--had given the brig a tremendous heave upwards, the captain, on hearing the second, ran down below for a moment to tell Kathleen there would soon be another wave, but that she need fear no danger.

"The brig is deep and has a good hold o' the water," he said, "so the wave is sure to slip under her without damage. I wish I could hope it would do as little damage when it reaches the shore."

As he spoke a strange and violent crash was heard overhead, quite different from volcanic explosions, like the falling of some heavy body on the deck.

"One o' the yards down!" muttered the captain as he ran to the cabin door. "Hallo, what's that, Mr. Moor?"

"Canoe just come aboard, sir."

"A canoe?"

"Yes, sir. Crew, three men and a monkey. All insensible--hallo!"

The "hallo!" with which the second mate finished his remark was so unlike his wonted tone, and so full of genuine surprise, that the captain ran forward with unusual haste, and found a canoe smashed to pieces against the foremast, and the mate held a lantern close to the face of one of the men while the crew were examining the others.

A single glance told the captain that the mud-bespattered figure that lay before him as if dead was none other than his own son! The great wave had caught the frail craft on its crest, and, sweeping it along with lightning speed for a short distance, had hurled it on the deck of the _Sunshine_ with such violence as to completely stun the whole crew. Even Spinkie lay in a melancholy little heap in the lee scuppers.

You think this a far-fetched coincidence, good reader! Well, all we can say is that we could tell you of another--a double--coincidence, which was far more extraordinary than this one, but as it has nothing to do with our tale we refrain from inflicting it on you.


CHAPTER XXVI.


A CLIMAX.

Three of those who had tumbled thus unceremoniously on the deck of the _Sunshine_ were soon sufficiently recovered to sit up and look around in dazed astonishment--namely Nigel, Moses, and the monkey--but the hermit still lay prone where he had been cast, with a pretty severe wound on his head, from which blood was flowing freely.

"Nigel, my boy!"

"Father!" exclaimed the youth. "Where am I? What has happened?"

"Don't excite yourself, lad," said the mariner, stooping and whispering into his son's ear. "We've got _her_ aboard!"

No treatment could have been more effectual in bringing Nigel to his senses than this whisper.

"Is--is--Van der Kemp safe?" he asked anxiously.

"All right--only stunned, I think. That's him they're just goin' to carry below. Put 'im in my bunk, Mr. Moor."

"Ay ay, sir."

Nigel sprang up. "Stay, father," he said in a low voice. "_She_ must not see him for the first time like this."

"All right, boy. I understand. You leave that to me. My bunk has bin shifted for'id--more amidships--an' Kathy's well aft. They shan't be let run foul of each other. You go an' rest on the main hatch till we get him down. Why, here's a nigger! Where did you pick him--oh! I remember. You're the man we met, I suppose, wi' the hermit on Krakatoa that day o' the excursion from Batavia."

"Yes, das me. But we'll meet on Krakatoa no more, for dat place am blown to bits."

"I'm pretty well convinced o' that by this time, my man. Not hurt much, I hope?"

"No, sar--not more 'n I can stan'. But I's 'fraid dat poor Spinkie's a'most used up--hallo! what you gwine to do with massa?" demanded the negro, whose wandering faculties had only in part returned.

"He's gone below. All right. Now, you go and lie down beside my son on the hatch. I'll see to Van der Kemp."

But Captain David Roy's intentions, like those of many men of greater note, were frustrated by the hermit himself, who recovered consciousness just as the four men who carried him reached the foot of the companion-ladder close to the cabin door. Owing to the deeper than midnight darkness that prevailed a lamp was burning in the cabin--dimly, as if, infected by the universal chaos, it were unwilling to enlighten the surrounding gloom.

On recovering consciousness Van der Kemp was, not unnaturally, under the impression that he had fallen into the hands of foes. With one effectual convulsion of his powerful limbs he scattered his bearers right and left, and turning--like all honest men--to the light, he sprang into the cabin, wrenched a chair from its fastenings, and, facing round, stood at bay.

Kathleen, seeing this blood-stained giant in such violent action, naturally fled to her cabin and shut the door.

As no worse enemy than Captain Roy presented himself at the cabin door, unarmed, and with an anxious look on his rugged face, the hermit set down the chair, and feeling giddy sank down on it with a groan.

"I fear you are badly hurt, sir. Let me tie a handkerchief round your wounded head," said the captain soothingly.

"Thanks, thanks. Your voice is not unfamiliar to me," returned the hermit with a sigh, as he submitted to the operation. "I thought I had fallen somehow into the hands of pirates. Surely an accident must have happened. How did I get here? Where are my comrades--Nigel and the negro?"

"My son Nigel is all right, sir, and so is your man Moses. Make your mind easy--an' pray don't speak while I'm working at you. I'll explain it all in good time. Stay, I'll be with you in a moment."

The captain--fearing that Kathleen might come out from curiosity to see what was going on, and remembering his son's injunction--went to the girl's berth with the intention of ordering her to keep close until he should give her leave to come out. Opening the door softly and looking in, he was startled, almost horrified, to see Kathleen standing motionless like a statue, with both hands pressed tightly over her heart. The colour had fled from her beautiful face; her long hair was flung back; her large lustrous eyes were wide open and her lips slightly parted, as if her whole being had been concentrated in eager expectancy.

"What's wrong, my girl?" asked the captain anxiously. "You've no cause for fear. I just looked in to--."

"That voice!" exclaimed Kathleen, with something of awe in her tones--"Oh! I've heard it _so_ often in my dreams."

"Hush! sh! my girl," said the captain in a low tone, looking anxiously round at the wounded man. But his precautions were unavailing,--Van der Kemp had also heard a voice which he thought had long been silent in death. The girl's expression was almost repeated in his face. Before the well-meaning mariner could decide what to do, Kathleen brushed lightly past him, and stood in the cabin gazing as if spell-bound at the hermit.

"Winnie!" he whispered, as if scarcely daring to utter the name.

"Father!"

She extended both hands towards him as she spoke. Then, with a piercing shriek, she staggered backward, and would have fallen had not the captain caught her and let her gently down.

Van der Kemp vaulted the table, fell on his knees beside her, and, raising her light form, clasped her to his heart, just as Nigel and Moses, alarmed by the scream, sprang into the cabin.

"Come, come; away wi' you--you stoopid grampusses!" cried the captain, pushing the intruders out of the cabin, following them, and closing the door behind him. "This is no place for bunglers like you an' me. We might have known that natur' would have her way, an' didn't need no help from the like o' us. Let's on deck. There's enough work there to look after that's better suited to us."

Truly there was enough--and more than enough--to claim the most anxious attention of all who were on board of the _Sunshine_ that morning, for hot mud was still falling in showers on the deck, and the thunders of the great volcano were still shaking heaven, earth, and sea.

To clear the decks and sails of mud occupied every one for some time so earnestly that they failed to notice at first that the hermit had come on deck, found a shovel, and was working away like the rest of them. The frequent and prolonged blazes of intense light that ever and anon banished the darkness showed that on his face there sat an expression of calm, settled, triumphant joy, which was strangely mingled with a look of quiet humility.

"I thank God for this," said Nigel, going forward when he observed him and grasping his hand.

"You knew it?" exclaimed the hermit in surprise.

"Yes. I knew it--indeed, helped to bring you together, but did not dare to tell you till I was quite sure. I had hoped to have you meet in very different circumstances."

"'It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps,'" returned the hermit reverently. "God bless you, Nigel. If you have even aimed at bringing this about, I owe you _more_ than my life."

"You must have lost a good deal of blood, Van der Kemp. Are you much hurt?" asked Nigel, as he observed the bandage round his friend's head.

"Somewhat. Not much, I hope--but joy, as well as blood, gives strength, Nigel."

A report from a man who had just been ordered to take soundings induced the captain at this time to lay-to.

"It seems to me," he said to Nigel and the hermit who stood close beside him, "that we are getting too near shore. But in cases o' this kind the bottom o' the sea itself can't be depended on."

"What part of the shore are we near, d' you think, father?"

"Stand by to let go the anchor!" roared the captain, instead of answering the question.

"Ay, ay, sir," replied the second mate, whose cool, sing-song, business-like tone at such a moment actually tended to inspire a measure of confidence in those around him.

Another moment, and the rattling chain caused a tremor through the vessel, which ceased when the anchor touched bottom, and they rode head to wind. Coruscations of bluish light seemed to play about the masts, and balls of electric fire tipped the yards, throwing for a short time