第 9 页

Oldroyd took the instrument and stared long and steadily through it. He handed back the glass, saying quietly—

“I guess you’ve won, Massey. The stakes are yours. The thing is undoubtedly a masonry structure of some sort, and certainly looks like the top of a tower. But how in the nation did it get there, and who built it? That’s what gets me! Not savages, I dare swear; the workmanship appears to be too good for that. And, if not savages, who, then? Let’s go down and have a near look at it.”

“Ay; let’s,” returned Mason. And forthwith the pair turned to walk round the lip of the crater toward the spot where we had made our ascent.

“Stop a bit, you two,” I remonstrated; “not quite so fast, if you please. The ascent of this cone is rather too stiff a job to be lightly undertaken a second time; and while I am here, with the whole island spread out before me, I intend to make a map of our domain. The opportunity is too good to be wasted. I shall not be long. There is not very much to sketch, and half an hour will about see me through.”

In general shape the island roughly represented a scalene triangle with somewhat bulging, slightly indented sides. The trend of a line drawn from its southern to its north-western extremity—these points forming two of its three angles—was North-West by North, the distance along that line between the two points being, as I subsequently ascertained, exactly twenty and a half miles. The two lagoons and the lake, with the peaks, formed the only prominent features of the island, the southern lagoon—our lagoon, as we soon came to call it, being the most prominent feature of all, apart from the peak. The peak formed, approximately, the centre of the island; the lake lay to the north-west of it—and the mysterious tower stood about midway between the peak and the lake.

Slightly within the half-hour which I had allowed myself for the task, my map was finished, saving for such additions as might result from future discoveries; and then arose the question of how best to make our way to the tower. It was already after two o’clock in the afternoon, which left us a scant four hours in which to reach our destination and return to camp before dark; and after some debate we arrived at the conclusion—a wise one, I think—that the time was too short, and that the expedition had better be deferred until the morrow.

This settled, we made a start upon our return to camp, after I had satisfied myself that there was no land visible in any direction from the peak.

We reached the camp about half an hour before sunset, to learn that its occupants were beginning to feel a trifle uneasy at our prolonged absence; indeed, at the moment of our arrival the menfolk had just started a discussion as to the desirability of instituting a search party for us. To speak more correctly, it was the Doctor who broached the subject to the two seamen; but the latter were all for leaving us to find our own way back, which they were sure we should do unaided.

Everybody was anxious to hear a full and detailed account of our day’s wanderings, and our adventures, if any; but, hot and unusually fatigued, we felt that a swim in the sea before dinner was a necessity, we therefore hurried down to the beach, and in a few minutes were disporting ourselves in the calm waters of the lagoon. And it was as we reached the beach, prior to our plunge into the sea, that we experienced a pleasant little surprise; for there, partially hauled up on the sand, we saw a serviceable, well-made raft of bamboo, which the two seamen of the party, Wilkinson and Dartnell, had amused themselves by constructing during the day. The raft was some sixteen feet long by about eight feet wide, and consisted of a sort of mat of bamboo, firmly and ingeniously lashed together with long, tough, pliant “monkey-rope” or lianas, of which there was an abundance in the woods, close at hand. Furthermore, the raft was fitted with a pair of paddles, also ingeniously constructed of bamboo; and although the contraption sagged so much in the middle when she was manned by a crew of two persons that the twain had to sit in some four inches of water, she would serve admirably for fishing from, which was what her designers intended her for; thus obviating the necessity for continually withdrawing our boat from her place of concealment.

Our dinner, that night, was a feast of Lucullus compared with what our fare had been during the boat voyage; for we had oysters, discovered and gathered by the two girls in the boat creek while bathing, crayfish from the same source, “red mullet,” caught by the seamen while making an experimental trip on their raft, roasted bread fruit, bananas fried in the lid of a biscuit tin, and a sumptuous dessert of fruit, the whole washed down with tea!

The principal topic of conversation, both during the dinner and afterwards was, naturally, our day’s exploration and the discoveries we had made. And, also naturally, the discovery which excited the greatest amount of interest was that of the mysterious round tower. The announcement was received with more than a shade of incredulity but when we had succeeded in convincing our audience that the structure undoubtedly existed, their interest and enthusiasm—particularly that of the Doctor—knew no bounds. He insisted that a pilgrimage to the tower must, without fail, be made on the morrow.

“I should not be surprised,” he said, “if this tower were to afford proof that, ages ago, long before Christopher Columbus was born or thought of, certain groups of these Pacific islands were occupied by a race of people possessed of an intellect, a refinement, and a civilisation falling not far short of that which we Americans enjoy to-day.”

This expression of opinion was sufficient to stimulate our curiosity and enthusiasm, and it was there and then resolved that on the following morning, immediately after breakfast, the entire party should set out for the tower, with the object of subjecting it to an exhaustive examination, even if such examination should entail the sojourn of the expedition at the building for two or three days, or even a week.

We had no anxieties concerning provisions or water, for we had already assured ourselves that the forest abounded with nutritious fruits, to say nothing of vast flocks of pigeons, while as for water, we had seen a brook flowing down the hillside and pursuing a course which promised to carry it not very far from the spot occupied by the tower, we therefore decided to travel light, carrying with us nothing but a little tea, a can or two of condensed milk, our rather primitive cooking utensils, our small stock of crockery, and of course our weapons and ammunition.

Then arose the question of the route to be taken. My sketch map was produced and studied, but naturally it helped us little or nothing. All it showed was that the route which we had that day followed, namely, up the bed of the brook was, although rough and toilsome generally speaking, in the right direction, while experience had taught us that to cut a path through the forest must be the work of days, if not of weeks; no great amount of argument, therefore, was needed to convince us that the brook route, rough and toilsome as it might be, was the only one to follow, at least until a better one should be found.

With the knowledge of the impassable character of the forest, which we had already gained, fresh in our minds, we decided that the maintenance of a night watch over the camp was unnecessary; and accordingly at about nine o’clock, by which time our fire had died down to a heap of glowing ashes, we all turned in to get a good night’s rest preparatory to the toil of the next day.

I was the first of the party to wake; and I lost no time in arousing the others.

Within half an hour after breakfast, we had packed our baggage, such as it was, divided it up among the males of the party, and were ready to start. My share consisted of one of Oldroyd’s rifles, a full bandolier of cartridges, a tin of condensed milk in one pocket, and a packet of tea in the other. Oldroyd acted as pilot, leading the way, followed by the Doctor, who in his turn was followed by Mason, who had undertaken to look after Miss Stroud, or Lucy, as she insisted we should call her. I followed Lucy, and preceded Miss Anthea, who by some incomprehensible whim had chosen me, of all the party, to help her over the difficulties of the way! The rear was brought up by the two seamen, who carried between them our few pots and pans, and the boat’s sail, to be utilised as a tent for the two girls.

Travelling at a moderate pace, for the sake of the girls, we reached the lava bed surrounding the crater shortly after noon, and at once availed ourselves of the period of rest which we felt to be our due, to take luncheon. Miss Shirley-Winthrop seated herself beside me at the commencement of the meal, quite as a matter of course, and accepted my little courteous attentions equally as a matter of course, with a charming air of appreciation that caused me to ask myself more than once whether I was really awake. She joined fully in the conversation, for the first time since we had known her, and that, too, so vivaciously and naturally that even her own father stared at her, while her changed attitude acted upon us all like a stimulant.

We took our time over the meal, for the mysterious tower was our goal, for that day at least, and as our road lay all down-hill, we knew that we should soon reach our journey’s end. But when we had rested for about an hour and a half the Doctor began to manifest signs of impatience; we therefore rose to our feet and, making our way over the lava bed, worked round to the northern side of the cone, from which a fine view of the whole of the north side of the island was to be obtained. The summit of the tower, however, was not visible, our elevation being just insufficient to reveal it above the tops of the trees. The lake, of which we caught a partial glimpse, was a good guide, as was also the stream flowing into it, the source of which we found without difficulty.

We at the same time also found out something else, which was that the forest on the north side of the cone was more open than that on the southern half of the island. For some inexplicable reason the trees grew less thickly together, while the underscrub grew only in isolated patches, so that it was easy to make our way through the timber without having to follow the rough, boulder-strewn bed of the stream. We were thus able to proceed with comparative rapidity, for where no scrub occurred the soil was covered with long grass, though of a fresher, greener, less tangled kind than that on the south side of the hill. Yet, although the going was easy, my companion of the morning still kept to my side, making free use of the support of my arm, and maintaining a continuous prattle upon the many strange and wonderful things which we saw in the course of our march.

And certainly we all began to feel that only now, since we had crossed the spurs of the mountain dividing the island into two nearly equal parts, were we beginning to learn what a wonderful place was our new domain. The more open, park-like character of the forest enabled us to see that the trees and shrubs of which it consisted comprised an immense variety of trees, some of which—the ceibas—were of enormous size, while the Doctor, who was something of a botanist, pointed out others which he assured us yielded timber of the utmost value to the cabinet maker. Fruit trees also were abundant, while the orchids were perfectly wonderful. Birds, too, seemed to be in greater variety here on the north side of the island, for we now saw, for the first time, great flocks of white parakeets; also several specimens of that curious bird, the hornbill. Lizards of several varieties were common, and we now found that they were not the only four-footed creatures on the island, for we saw several specimens of a creature not unlike a squirrel, but rather larger, the fore and hind legs of which on either side were connected by an extension of the skin which enabled them to convert themselves into miniature aeroplanes and to accomplish the most amazing leaps from tree to tree. The Doctor pronounced them to be flying foxes, though he was careful to explain that they did not actually fly, but merely—to borrow an airman’s expression—vol-planed through the air. Last, though by no means least, we found that this part of the forest was the favourite habitat of many varieties of butterflies, some of which were the most beautiful things I ever beheld, while others were chiefly remarkable for their size, one specimen having a spread of wing of a full foot, as I subsequently ascertained.

Although we did not actually use the bed of the brook as a pathway, we took the stream itself as our guide, following its course as closely as the nature of the ground would permit. Our rate of progress was slow, for we frequently paused to admire the exquisite beauty of some butterfly, poised with outspread wings upon a flower, the nectar of which perchance it was sipping, or to gaze in wonder upon the amazing leaps of the flying foxes, and once to rescue a beautiful little sunbird from the meshes of a tough and huge spider’s web, the owner of which had a black, hairy body as big as a thrush’s egg, a pair of eyes that gleamed like red-hot coals, and a most villainously combative temper, for no sooner did I begin to free the unhappy sunbird from the toils of the web in which it had become entangled than the black brute came charging along the web, the hairs of his body bristling and his eyes blazing with fury, and he would certainly have attacked my hands had I not struck him to the ground and crushed him beneath my boot.

But at length, after a delightful saunter of about an hour through the forest, we emerged into an open space, ten or fifteen acres in extent, in the midst of which rose the mysterious tower, a massive block of rough masonry, some twenty feet in diameter and about ninety high. The structure was very old, for much of its surface was moss-grown, while here and there tufts of grass, plants, and even shrubs of considerable size had taken root and were growing from between the stones. The top of it presented a ragged appearance, as though it were crumbling away, yet the tower as a whole, seemed to promise that it might still endure for ages.

I have spoken of the area in which the tower stood, as an open space; but this was only partially true; the space was entirely free of those lofty forest trees through which we had been making our way; on the other hand, however, it was densely overgrown by scrub, thorn and other bushes ranging from three or four feet to fifteen or twenty feet high, with here and there a few fruit trees of different kinds, interspersed with clumps of feathery bamboo and thickets of cane. So dense was this scrub that it was a long time before we were able to penetrate it; but we did so at last, to find that it formed a sort of belt round the tower, completely encircling it but leaving a clear, open area of grass about sixty feet wide all round it. Incidentally, while searching for a practical passage through this belt of scrub, we also discovered that the tower was only one of several structures, for in the course of our search we came upon the remains of five other buildings, completely buried in the undergrowth.