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

by volcanic debris. This was owing to the protection afforded to it by the cone of Rakata, and the almost overhanging nature of some of the cliffs on that side of the mountain; still the track was bad enough, and in places so rugged, that Winnie, vigorous and agile though she was, found it both difficult and fatiguing to advance. Seeing this, her father proposed to carry her, but she laughingly declined the proposal.

Whereupon Nigel offered to lend her a hand over the rougher places, but this she also declined.

Then Moses, stepping forward, asserted his rights.

"It's _my_ business," he said, "to carry t'ings w'en dey's got to be carried. M'r'over, as I's bin obleeged to leabe Spinkie in charge ob de boat, I feels okard widout somet'ing to carry, an' you ain't much heavier dan Spinkie, Miss Winnie--so, come along."

He stooped with the intention of grasping Winnie as if she were a little child, but with a light laugh the girl sprang away and left Moses behind.

"'S'my opinion," said Moses, looking after her with a grin, "dat if de purfesser was here he 'd net her in mistook for a bufferfly. Dar!--she's down!" he shouted, springing forward, but Nigel was before him.

Winnie had tripped and fallen.

"Are you hurt, dear--child?" asked Nigel, raising her gently.

"Oh no! only a little shaken," answered Winnie, with a little laugh that was half hysterical. "I am strong enough to go on presently."

"Nay, my child, you _must_ suffer yourself to be carried at this part," said Van der Kemp. "Take her up, Nigel, you are stronger than I am _now_. I would not have asked you to do it before my accident!"

Our hero did not need a second bidding. Grasping Winnie in his strong arms he raised her as if she had been a feather, and strode away at a pace so rapid that he soon left Van der Kemp and Moses far behind.

"Put me down, now," said Winnie, after a little while, in a low voice. "I'm quite recovered now and can walk."

"Nay, Winnie, you are mistaken. The path is very rough yet, and the dust gets deeper as we ascend. _Do_ give me the pleasure of helping you a little longer."

Whatever Winnie may have felt or thought she said nothing, and Nigel, taking silence for consent, bore her swiftly onward and upward,--with an "Excelsior" spirit that would have thrown the Alpine youth with the banner and the strange device considerably into the shade,--until he placed her at the yawning black mouth of the hermit's cave.

But what a change was there! The trees and flowering shrubs and ferns were all gone, lava, pumice, and ashes lay thick on everything around, and only a few blackened and twisted stumps of the larger trees remained to tell that an umbrageous forest had once flourished there. The whole scene might be fittingly described in the two words--grey desolation.

"That is the entrance to your father's old home," said Nigel, as he set his fair burden down and pointed to the entrance.

"What a dreadful place!" said Winnie, peering into the black depths of the cavern.

"It was not dreadful when I first saw it, Winnie, with rich verdure everywhere; and inside you will find it surprisingly comfortable. But we must not enter until your father arrives to do the honours of the place himself."

They had not to wait long. First Moses arrived, and, shrewdly suspecting from the appearance of the young couple that they were engaged in conversation that would not brook interruption, or, perhaps, judging from what might be his own wishes in similar circumstances, he turned his back suddenly on them, and, stooping down, addressed himself to an imaginary creature of the animal kingdom.

"What a bootiful bufferfly you is, to be sure! up on sitch a place too, wid nuffin' to eat 'cept Krakatoa dust. I wonder what your moder would say if she know'd you was here. You should be ashamed ob yourself!"

"Hallo! Moses, what are you talking to over there?"

"Nuffin', Massa Nadgel. I was on'y habin' a brief conv'sation wid a member ob de insect wurld in commemoration ob de purfesser. Leastwise, if it warn't a insect it must hab bin suffm' else. Won't you go in, Miss Winnie?"

"No, I'd rather wait for father," returned the girl, looking a little flushed, for some strange and totally unfamiliar ideas had recently floated into her brain and caused some incomprehensible flutterings of the heart to which hitherto she had been a stranger.

Mindful of his father's injunctions, however, Nigel had been particularly careful to avoid increasing these flutterings.

In a few minutes the hermit came up. "Ah! Winnie," he said, "there has been dire devastation here. Perhaps inside things may look better. Come, take my hand and don't be afraid. The floor is level and your eyes will soon get accustomed to the dim light."

"I's afeared, massa," remarked Moses, as they entered the cavern, "dat your sun-lights won't be wu'th much now."

"You are right, lad. Go on before us and light the lamps if they are not broken."

It was found, as they had expected, that, the only light which penetrated the cavern was that which entered by the cave's mouth, which of course was very feeble.

Presently, to Winnie's surprise, Moses was seen issuing from the kitchen with a petroleum lamp in one hand, the brilliant light of which not only glittered on his expressive black visage but sent a ruddy glare all over the cavern.

Van der Kemp seemed to watch his daughter intently as she gazed in a bewildered way around. There was a puzzled look as well as mere surprise in her pretty face.

"Father," she said earnestly, "you have spoken more than once of living as if in a dream. Perhaps you will wonder when I tell you that I experience something of that sort now. Strange though this place seems, I have an unaccountable feeling that it is not absolutely new to me--that I have seen it before."

"I do not wonder, dear one," he replied, "for the drawings that surround this chamber were the handiwork of your dear mother, and they decorated the walls of your own nursery when you were a little child at your mother's knee. For over ten long years they have surrounded me and kept your faces fresh in my memory--though, truth to tell, it needed no such reminders to do that. Come, let us examine them."

It was pleasant to see the earnest face of Winnie as she half-recognised and strove to recall the memories of early childhood in that singular cavern. It was also a sight worth seeing--the countenance of Nigel, as well as that of the hermit, while they watched and admired her eager, puzzled play of feature, and it was the most amazing sight of all to see the all but superhuman joy of Moses as he held the lamp and listened to facts regarding the past of his beloved master which were quite new to him--for the hermit spoke as openly about his past domestic affairs as if he and Winnie had been quite alone.

"He either forgets that we are present, or counts us as part of his family," thought Nigel with a feeling of satisfaction.

"What a dear comoonicative man!" thought Moses, with unconcealed pleasure.

"Come now, let us ascend to the observatory," said the hermit, when all the things in the library had been examined. "There has been damage done there, I know; besides, there is a locket there which belonged to your mother. I left it by mistake one day when I went up to arrange the mirrors, and in the hurry of leaving forgot to return for it. Indeed, one of my main objects in re-visiting my old home was to fetch that locket away. It contains a lock of hair and one of those miniatures which men used to paint before photography drove such work off the field."

Winnie was nothing loth to follow, for she had reached a romantic period of life, and it seemed to her that to be led through mysterious caves and dark galleries in the very heart of a still active volcano by her own father--the hermit of Rakata--was the very embodiment of romance itself.

But a disappointment awaited them, for they had not proceeded halfway through the dark passage when it was found that a large mass of rock had fallen from the roof and almost blocked it up.

"There is a space big enough for us to creep through at the right-hand corner above, I think," said Nigel, taking the lantern from Moses and examining the spot.

"Jump up, Moses, and try it," said the hermit. "If your bulky shoulders get through, we can all manage it."

The negro was about to obey the order when Nigel let the lantern fall and the shock extinguished it.

"Oh! Massa Nadgel; das a pritty business!"

"Never mind," said Van der Kemp. "I've got matches, I think, in my--no, I haven't. Have you, Moses?"

"No, massa, I forgit to remember him."

"No matter, run back--you know the road well enough to follow it in the dark. We will wait here till you return. Be smart, now!"

Moses started off at once and for some moments the sound of clattering along the passage was heard.

"I will try to clamber through in the dark. Look after Winnie, Nigel--and don't leave the spot where you stand, dear one, for there are cracks and holes about that might sprain your little ankles."

"Very well, father."

"All right. I've got through, Nigel; I'll feel my way on for a little bit. Remain where you are."

"Winnie," said Nigel when they were alone, "doesn't it feel awesome and strange to be standing here in such intense darkness?"

"It does--I don't quite like it."

"Whereabouts are you?" said Nigel.

He carefully stretched out his hand to feel, as he spoke, and laid a finger on her brow.

"Oh! take care of my eyes!" exclaimed Winnie with a little laugh.

"_I_ wish you would turn your eyes towards me for I'm convinced they would give some light--? to _me_ at least. Here, do let me hold your hand It will make you feel more confident."

To one who is at all familiar with the human frame, the way from the brow to the hand is comparatively simple. Nigel soon possessed himself of the coveted article. Like other things of great value the possession turned the poor youth's head! He forgot his father's warnings for the moment, forgot the hermit and Moses and Spinkie, and the thick darkness--forgot almost everything in the light of that touch!

"Winnie!" he exclaimed in a tone that quite alarmed her; "I--I--" He hesitated. The solemn embargo of his father recurred to him.

"What is it! Is there danger?" exclaimed the poor girl, clasping his hand tighter and drawing nearer to him.

This was too much! Nigel felt himself to be contemptible. He was taking unfair advantage of her.

"Winnie," he began again, in a voice of forced calmness, "there is no danger whatever. I'm an ass--a dolt--that's all! The fact is, I made my father a sort of half promise that I would not ask your opinion on a certain subject until--until I found out exactly what you thought about it. Now the thing is ridiculous--impossible--for how can I know your opinion on any subject until I have asked you?"

"Quite true," returned Winnie simply, "so you better ask me."