of the trees, not even a fisherman's hut on the shore.
But if the island was deserted, the sea which surrounded it was none the
less so, for not a ship showed itself within the limits of what, from
the height of the cone, was a considerable circuit.
Godfrey having finished his exploration had now only to get down to the
foot of the hill and retake the road through the forest so as to rejoin
Tartlet. But before he did so his eyes were attracted by a sort of
cluster of trees of huge stature, which rose on the boundary of the
prairie towards the north. It was a gigantic group, it exceeded by a
head all those which Godfrey had previously seen.
"Perhaps," he said, "it would be better to take up our quarters over
there, more especially as if I am not mistaken I can see a stream which
should rise in the central chain and flow across the prairie."
This was to be looked into on the morrow.
Towards the south the aspect of the island was slightly different.
Forests and prairies rapidly gave place to the yellow carpet of the
beach, and in places the shore was bounded with picturesque rocks.
But what was Godfrey's surprise, when he thought he saw a light smoke,
which rose in the air beyond this rocky barrier.
"Are there any of our companions?" he exclaimed. "But no, it is not
possible! Why should they have got so far from the bay since yesterday,
and round so many miles of reef? Is it a village of fishermen, or the
encampment of some indigenous tribe?"
Godfrey watched it with the closest attention. Was this gentle vapour
which the breeze softly blew towards the west a smoke? Could he be
mistaken? Anyhow it quickly vanished, a few minutes afterwards nothing
could be seen of it.
It was a false hope.
Godfrey took a last look in its direction, and then seeing nothing,
glided down the slope, and again plunged beneath the trees.
An hour later he had traversed the forest and found himself on its
skirt.
There Tartlet awaited him with his two-footed and four-footed flock. And
how was the obstinate professor occupying himself? In the same way. A
bit of wood was in his right hand another piece in his left, and he
still continued his efforts to set them alight. He rubbed and rubbed
with a constancy worthy of a better fate.
"Well," he shouted as he perceived Godfrey some distance off--"and the
telegraph office?"
"It is not open!" answered Godfrey, who dared not yet tell him anything
of the situation.
"And the post?"
"It is shut! But let us have something to eat!--I am dying with hunger!
We can talk presently."
And this morning Godfrey and his companion had again to content
themselves with a too meagre repast of raw eggs and shell-fish.
"Wholesome diet!" repeated Godfrey to Tartlet, who was hardly of that
opinion and picked his food with considerable care.
CHAPTER XI.
IN WHICH THE QUESTION OF LODGING IS SOLVED AS WELL AS IT COULD BE.
The day was already far advanced. Godfrey resolved to defer till the
morrow the task of proceeding to a new abode. But to the pressing
questions which the professor propounded on the results of his
exploration he ended by replying that it was an island, Phina Island, on
which they both had been cast, and that they must think of the means of
living before dreaming of the means of departing.
"An island!" exclaimed Tartlet.
"Yes! It is an island!"
"Which the sea surrounds?"
"Naturally."
"But what is it?"
"I have told you, Phina Island, and you understand why I gave it that
name."
"No, I do not understand!" answered Tartlet, making a grimace; "and I
don't see the resemblance! Miss Phina is surrounded by land, not water!"
After this melancholy reflection, he prepared to pass the night with as
little discomfort as possible. Godfrey went off to the reef to get a new
stock of eggs and mollusks, with which he had to be contented, and then,
tired out, he came back to the tree and soon fell asleep, while Tartlet,
whose philosophy would not allow him to accept such a state of affairs,
gave himself over to the bitterest meditations. On the morrow, the 28th
of June, they were both afoot before the cock had interrupted their
slumbers.
To begin with, a hasty breakfast, the same as the day before. Only water
from a little brook was advantageously replaced by a little milk given
by one of the goats.
Ah! worthy Tartlet! Where were the "mint julep," the "port wine
sangaree," the "sherry cobbler," the "sherry cocktail," which he hardly
drank, but which were served him at all hours in the bars and taverns of
San Francisco? How he envied the poultry, the agouties, and the sheep,
who cheerfully quenched their thirst without the addition of such
saccharine or alcoholic mixtures to their water from the stream! To
these animals no fire was necessary to cook their food; roots and herbs
and seeds sufficed, and their breakfast was always served to the minute
on their tablecloth of green.
"Let us make a start," said Godfrey.
And behold the two on their way, followed by a procession of domestic
animals, who refused to be left behind. Godfrey's idea was to explore,
in the north of the island, that portion of the coast on which he had
noticed the group of gigantic trees in his view from the cone. But to
get there he resolved to keep along the shore. The surf might perhaps
have cast up some fragment of the wreck. Perhaps they might find on the
beach some of their companions in the -Dream- to which they could give
Christian burial. As for finding any one of them living, it was hardly
to be hoped for, after a lapse of six-and-thirty hours.
The first line of hills was surmounted, and Godfrey and his companion
reached the beginning of the reef, which looked as deserted as it had
when they had left it. There they renewed their stock of eggs and
mollusks, in case they should fail to find even such meagre resources
away to the north. Then, following the fringe of sea-weed left by the
last tide, they again ascended the dunes, and took a good look round.
Nothing! always nothing!
We must certainly say that if misfortune had made Crusoes of these
survivors of the -Dream-, it had shown itself much more rigorous towards
them than towards their predecessors, who always had some portion of the
vessel left to them, and who, after bringing away crowds of objects of
necessity had been able to utilize the timbers of the wreck. Victuals
for a considerable period, clothes, tools, weapons, had always been left
them with which to satisfy the elementary exigencies of existence. But
here there was nothing of all this! In the middle of that dark night the
ship had disappeared in the depths of the sea, without leaving on the
reefs the slightest traces of its wreck! It had not been possible to
save a thing from her--not even a lucifer-match--and to tell the truth,
the want of that match was the most serious of all wants.
I know well, good people comfortably installed in your easy-chairs
before a comfortable hearth at which is blazing brightly a fire of wood
or coals, that you will be apt to say,--
"But nothing was more easy than for them to get a fire! There are a
thousand ways of doing that! Two pebbles! A little dry moss! A little
burnt rag,"--and how do you burn the rag? "The blade of a knife would do
for a steel, or two bits of wood rubbed briskly together in Polynesian
fashion!"
Well, try it!
It was about this that Godfrey was thinking as he walked, and this it
was that occupied his thoughts more than anything else. Perhaps he too,
poking his coke fire and reading his travellers' tales, had thought the
same as you good people! But now he had to put matters to the test, and
he saw with considerable disquietude the want of a fire, that
indispensable element which nothing could replace.
He kept on ahead, then, lost in thought, followed by Tartlet, who by his
shouts and gestures, kept together the flock of sheep, agouties, goats,
and poultry.
Suddenly his look was attracted by the bright colours of a cluster of
small apples which hung from the branches of certain shrubs, growing in
hundreds at the foot of the dunes. He immediately recognized them as
"manzanillas," which serve as food to the Indians in certain parts of
California.
"At last," he exclaimed, "there is something which will be a change from
our eggs and mussels."
"What? Do you eat those things?" said Tartlet with his customary
grimace.
"You shall soon see!" answered Godfrey.
And he set to work to gather the manzanillas, and eat them greedily.
They were only wild apples, but even their acidity did not prevent them
from being agreeable. The professor made little delay in imitating his
companion, and did not show himself particularly discontented at the
work. Godfrey thought, and with reason, that from these fruits there
could be made a fermented liquor which would be preferable to the water.
The march was resumed. Soon the end of the sand dunes died away in a
prairie traversed by a small stream. This was the one Godfrey had seen
from the top of the cone. The large trees appeared further on, and after
a journey of about nine miles the two explorers, tired enough by their
four hours' walk, reached them a few minutes after noon.
The site was well worth the trouble of looking at, of visiting, and,
doubtless, occupying.
On the edge of a vast prairie, dotted with manzanilla bushes and other
shrubs, there rose a score of gigantic trees which could have even borne
comparison with the same species in the forests of California. They were
arranged in a semi-circle. The carpet of verdure, which stretched at
their feet, after bordering the stream for some hundreds of feet, gave
place to a long beach, covered with rocks, and shingle, and sea-weed,
which ran out into the water in a narrowing point to the north.
These "big trees," as they are commonly called in Western America,
belong to the genus -Sequoia-, and are conifers of the fir family. If
you ask the English for their distinguishing name, you will be told
"Wellingtonias," if you ask the Americans they will reply
"Washingtonias." But whether they recall the memory of the phlegmatic
victor of Waterloo, or of the illustrious founder of the American
Republic, they are the hugest products known of the Californian and
Nevadan floras. In certain districts in these states there are entire
forests of these trees, such as the groups at Mariposa and Calaveras,
some of the trees of which measure from sixty to eighty feet in
circumference, and some 300 feet in height. One of them, at the entrance
of the Yosemite Valley, is quite 100 feet round. When living--for it is
now prostrate--its first branches could have overtopped Strasburg
Cathedral, or, in other words, were above eighty feet from the ground.
Besides this tree there are "The Mother of the Forest," "The Beauty of
the Forest," "The Hut of the Pioneer," "The Two Sentinels," "General
Grant," "Miss Emma," "Miss Mary," "Brigham Young and his Wife," "The
Three Graces," "The Bear," &c., &c.; all of them veritable vegetable
phenomena. One of the trees has been sawn across at its base, and on it
there has been built a ball-room, in which a quadrille of eight or ten
couples can be danced with ease.
But the giant of giants, in a forest which is the property of the state,
about fifteen miles from Murphy, is "The Father of the Forest," an old
sequoia, 4000 years old, which rises 452 feet from the ground, higher
than the cross of St. Peter's, at Rome, higher than the great pyramid
of Ghizeh, higher than the iron bell-turret which now caps one of the
towers of Rouen Cathedral, and which ought to be looked upon as the
highest monument in the world.
It was a group of some twenty of these colossi that nature had planted
on this point of the island, at the epoch, probably, when Solomon was
building that temple at Jerusalem which has never risen from its ruins.
The largest was, perhaps, 300 feet high, the smallest nearly 200.
Some of them, hollowed out by age, had enormous arches through their
bases, beneath which a troop of horsemen could have ridden with ease.
Godfrey was struck with admiration in the presence of these natural
phenomena, as they are not generally found at altitudes of less than
from 5000 to 6000 feet above the level of the sea. He even thought that
the view alone was worth the journey. Nothing he had seen was comparable
to these columns of clear brown, which outlined themselves almost
without sensible diminution of their diameters to their lowest fork. The
cylindrical trunks rising from 80 to 100 feet above the earth, ramified
into such thick branches that they themselves looked like tree-stems of
huge dimensions bearing quite a forest in the air.
One of these specimens of -Sequoia gigantea---one of the biggest in the
group--more particularly attracted Godfrey's attention.
Gazing at its base it displayed an opening of from four to five feet in
width, and ten feet high, which gave entrance to its interior. The
giant's heart had disappeared, the alburnum had been dissipated into
soft whitish dust; but if the tree did not depend so much on its
powerful roots as on its solid bark, it could still keep its position
for centuries.
"In default of a cavern or a grotto," said Godfrey, "here is a
ready-made dwelling. A wooden house, a tower, such as there is in no
inhabited land. Here we can be sheltered and shut in. Come along,
Tartlet! come!"
And the young man, catching hold of his companion, dragged him inside
the sequoia.
The base was covered with a bed of vegetable dust, and in diameter could
not be less than twenty feet.
As for the height to which its vault extended, the gloom prevented even
an estimate. For not a ray of light found its way through the bark wall.
Neither cleft nor fault was there through which the wind or rain could
come. Our two Crusoes would therein find themselves in a position to
brave with impunity the inclemency of the weather. No cave could be
firmer, or drier, or compacter. In truth it would have been difficult to
have anywhere found a better.
"Eh, Tartlet, what do you think of our natural house?" asked Godfrey.
"Yes, but the chimney?" answered Tartlet.
"Before we talk about the chimney," replied Godfrey, "let us wait till
we have got the fire!"
This was only logical.
Godfrey went to reconnoitre the neighbourhood. As we have said, the
prairie extended to this enormous mass of sequoias which formed its
edge. The small stream meandering through the grassy carpet gave a
healthy freshness to its borders, and thereon grew shrubs of different
kinds; myrtles, mastic bushes, and among others a quantity of
manzanillas, which gave promise of a large crop of their wild apples.
Farther off, on ground that grew gradually higher, were scattered
several clumps of trees, made up of oaks and beeches, sycamores and
nettle-trees, but trees of great stature as they were, they seemed but
simple underwood by the side of the "mammoths," whose huge shadows the
sun was throwing even into the sea. Across the prairie lay minor lines
of bushes, and vegetable clumps and verdant thickets, which Godfrey
resolved to investigate on the following day.
If the site pleased him, it did not displease the domestic animals.
Agouties, goats, and sheep had soon taken possession of this domain,
which offered them roots to nibble at, and grass to browse on far beyond
their needs. As for the fowls they were greedily pecking away at the
seeds and worms in the banks of the rivulet. Animal life was already
manifesting itself in such goings and comings, such flights and gambols,
such bleatings and gruntings and cluckings as had doubtless never been
heard of in these parts before.
Then Godfrey returned to the clump of sequoias, and made a more
attentive examination of the tree in which he had chosen to take up his
abode. It appeared to him that it would be difficult, if not impossible,
to climb into the first branches, at least by the exterior; for the
trunk presented no protuberances. Inside it the ascent might be easier,
if the tree were hollow up to the fork.
In case of danger it would be advisable to seek refuge among the thick
boughs borne by the enormous trunk. But this matter could be looked into
later on.
When he had finished his inquiries the sun was low on horizon, and it
seemed best to put off till to-morrow the preparations for their
definitely taking up their abode.
But, after a meal with dessert composed of wild apples, what could they
do better than pass the night on a bed of the vegetable dust which
covered the ground inside the sequoia?
And this, under the keeping of Providence, was what was done, but not
until after Godfrey, in remembrance of his uncle, William W. Kolderup,
had given to the giant the name of "Will Tree," just as its prototypes
in the forests of California and the neighbouring states bear the names
of the great citizens of the American Republic.
CHAPTER XII.
WHICH ENDS WITH A THUNDER-BOLT.
It must be acknowledged that Godfrey was in a fair way to become a new
man in this completely novel position to one so frivolous, so
light-minded, and so thoughtless. He had hitherto only had to allow
himself to live. Never had care for the morrow disquieted his rest. In
the opulent mansion in Montgomery Street, where he slept his ten hours
without a break, not the fall of a rose leaf had ever troubled his
slumbers.
It was so no longer. On this unknown land he found himself thoroughly
shut off from the rest of the world, left entirely to his own resources,
obliged to face the necessities of life under conditions in which a man
even much more practical might have been in great difficulty. Doubtless
when it was found that the -Dream- did not return, a search for him
would be made. But what were these two? Less than a needle in a hayrick
or a sand-grain on the sea-bottom! The incalculable fortune of Uncle
Kolderup could not do everything.
When Godfrey had found his fairly acceptable shelter, his sleep in it
was by no means undisturbed. His brain travelled as it had never done
before. Ideas of all kinds were associated together: those of the past
which he bitterly regretted, those of the present of which he sought the
realization, those of the future which disquieted him more than all!
But in these rough trials, the reason and, in consequence, the reasoning
which naturally flows from it, were little by little freed from the
limbo in which they had hitherto slept. Godfrey was resolved to strive
against his ill-luck, and to do all he could to get out of his
difficulties. If he escaped, the lesson would certainly not be lost on
him for the future.
At daybreak he was astir, with the intention of proceeding to a more
complete installation. The question of food, above all that of fire,
which was connected with it, occupied the first place; then there were
tools or arms to make, clothes to procure, unless they were anxious of
soon appearing attired in Polynesian costume.
Tartlet still slumbered. You could not see him in the shadow, but you
could hear him. That poor man, spared from the wreck, remained as
frivolous at forty-five as his pupil had formerly been. He was a gain
in no sense. He even might be considered an incubus, for he had to be
cared for in all ways. But he was a companion!
He was worth more in that than the most intelligent dog, although he was
probably of less use! He was a creature able to talk--although only at
random; to converse--if the matter were never serious; to complain--and
this he did most frequently! As it was, Godfrey was able to hear a human
voice. That was worth more than the parrot's in Robinson Crusoe! Even
with a Tartlet he would not be alone, and nothing was so disheartening
as the thought of absolute solitude.
"Crusoe before Friday, Crusoe after Friday; what a difference!" thought
he.
However, on this morning, that of June 29th, Godfrey was not sorry to be
alone, so as to put into execution his project of exploring the group of
sequoias. Perhaps he would be fortunate enough to discover some fruit,
some edible root, which he could bring back--to the extreme satisfaction
of the professor. And so he left Tartlet to his dreams, and set out.
A light fog still shrouded the shore and the sea, but already it had
commenced to lift in the north and east under the influence of the solar
rays, which little by little were condensing it. The day promised to be
fine. Godfrey, after having cut himself a substantial walking-stick,
went for two miles along that part of the beach which he did not know,
and whose return formed the outstretched point of Phina Island.
There he made a first meal of shell-fish, mussels, clams, and especially
some capital little oysters which he found in great abundance.
"If it comes to the worst," he said to himself, "we need never die of
hunger! Here are thousands of dozens of oysters to satisfy the calls of
the most imperious stomach! If Tartlet complains, it is because he does
not like mollusks! Well, he will have to like them!"
Decidedly, if the oyster did not absolutely replace bread and meat, it
furnished an aliment in no whit less nutritive and in a condition
capable of being absorbed in large quantities. But as this mollusk is of
very easy digestion, it is somewhat dangerous in its use, to say nothing
of its abuse.
This breakfast ended, Godfrey again seized his stick, and struck off
obliquely towards the south-east, so as to walk up the right bank of the
stream. In this direction, he would cross the prairie up to the groups
of trees observed the night before beyond the long lines of shrubs and
underwood, which he wished to carefully examine.
Godfrey then advanced in this direction for about two miles. He
followed the bank of the stream, carpeted with short herbage and smooth
as velvet. Flocks of aquatic birds noisily flew round this being, who,
new to them, had come to trouble their domain. Fish of many kinds were
seen darting about in the limpid waters of the brook, here abouts some
four or five yards wide.
It was evident that there would be no difficulty in catching these fish,
but how to cook them? Always this insoluble question!
Fortunately, when Godfrey reached the first line of shrubs he recognized
two sorts of fruits or roots. One sort had to pass through the fiery
trial before being eaten, the other was edible in its natural state. Of
these two vegetables the American Indians make constant use.
The first was a shrub of the kind called "camas," which thrives even in
lands unfit for culture. With these onion-like roots, should it not be
found preferable to treat them as potatoes, there is made a sort of
flour very rich and glutinous. But either way, they have to be subjected
to a certain cooking, or drying.
The other bush produces a species of bulb of oblong form, bearing the
indigenous name of "yamph," and if it possesses less nutritive
principles than the camas, it is much the better for one thing,--it can
be eaten raw.
Godfrey, highly pleased at his discovery, at once satisfied his hunger
on a few of these excellent roots, and not forgetting Tartlet's
breakfast, collected a large bundle, and throwing it over his shoulder,
retook the road to Will Tree.
That he was well received on his arrival with the crop of yamphs need
not be insisted on. The professor greedily regaled himself, and his
pupil had to caution him to be moderate.
"Ah!" he said. "We have got some roots to-day. Who knows whether we
shall have any to-morrow?"
"Without any doubt," replied Godfrey, "to-morrow and the day after, and
always. There is only the trouble of going and fetching them."
"Well, Godfrey, and the camas?"
"Of the camas we will make flour and bread when we have got a fire."
"Fire!" exclaimed the professor, shaking his head. "Fire! And how shall
we make it?"
"I don't know yet, but somehow or other we will get at it."
"May Heaven hear you, my dear Godfrey! And when I think that there are
so many fellows in this world who have only got to rub a bit of wood on
the sole of their boot to get it, it annoys me! No! Never would I have
believed that ill-luck would have reduced me to this state! You need
not take three steps down Montgomery Street, before you will meet with a
gentleman, cigar in mouth, who thinks it a pleasure to give you a light,
and here--"
"Here we are not in San Francisco, Tartlet, nor in Montgomery Street,
and I think it would be wiser for us not to reckon on the kindness of
those we meet!"
"But, why is cooking necessary for bread and meat? Why did not nature
make us so that we might live upon nothing?"
"That will come, perhaps!" answered Godfrey with a good-humoured smile.
"Do you think so?"
"I think that our scientists are probably working out the subject."
"Is it possible! And how do they start on their research as to this new
mode of alimentation?"
"On this line of reasoning," answered Godfrey, "as the functions of
digestion and respiration are connected, the endeavour is to substitute
one for the other. Hence the day when chemistry has made the aliments
necessary for the food of man capable of assimilation by respiration,
the problem will be solved. There is nothing wanted beyond rendering the
air nutritious. You will breathe your dinner instead of eating it, that
is all!"
"Ah! Is it not a pity that this precious discovery is not yet made!"
exclaimed the professor. "How cheerfully would I breathe half a dozen
sandwiches and a silverside of beef, just to give me an appetite!"
And Tartlet plunged into a semi-sensuous reverie, in which he beheld
succulent atmospheric dinners, and at them unconsciously opened his
mouth and breathed his lungs full, oblivious that he had scarcely the
wherewithal to feed upon in the ordinary way.
Godfrey roused him from his meditation, and brought him back to the
present. He was anxious to proceed to a more complete installation in
the interior of Will Tree.
The first thing to do was to clean up their future dwelling-place. It
was at the outset necessary to bring out several bushels of that
vegetable dust which covered the ground and in which they sank almost up
to their knees. Two hours' work hardly sufficed to complete this
troublesome task, but at length the chamber was clear of the pulverulent
bed, which rose in clouds at the slightest movement.
The ground was hard and firm, as if floored with joists, the large roots
of the sequoia ramifying over its surface. It was uneven but solid. Two
corners were selected for the beds and of these several bundles of
herbage, thoroughly dried in the sun, were to form the materials. As for
other furniture, benches, stools, or tables, it was not impossible to
make the most indispensable things, for Godfrey had a capital knife,
with its saw and gimlet. The companions would have to keep inside during
rough weather, and they could eat and work there. Daylight did not fail
them, for it streamed through the opening. Later on, if it became
necessary to close this aperture for greater safety, Godfrey could try
and pierce one or two embrasures in the bark of the sequoia to serve as
windows.
As for discovering to what height the opening ran up into the trunk,
Godfrey could not do so without a light. All that he could do was to
find out with the aid of a pole ten or twelve feet long, held above his
head, that he could not touch the top.
The question, however, was not an urgent one. It would be solved
eventually.
The day passed in these labours, which were not ended at sunset. Godfrey
and Tartlet, tired as they were, found their novel bed-clothes formed of
the dried herbage, of which they had an ample supply, most excellent;
but they had to drive away the poultry who would willingly have roosted
in the interior of Will Tree. Then occurred to Godfrey the idea of
constructing a poultry-house in some other sequoia, as, to keep them out
of the common room, he was building up a hurdle of brushwood.
Fortunately neither the sheep nor the agouties, nor the goats
experienced the like temptation. These animals remained quietly outside,
and had no fancy to get through the insufficient barrier.
The following days were employed in different jobs, in fitting up the
house or bringing in food; eggs and shell-fish were collected, yamph
roots and manzanilla apples were brought in, and oysters, for which each
morning they went to the bank or the shore. All this took time, and the
hours passed away quickly.
The "dinner things" consisted now of large bivalve shells, which served
for dishes or plates. It is true that for the kind of food to which the
hosts of Will Tree were reduced, others were not needed.
There was also the washing of the linen in the clear water of the
stream, which occupied the leisure of Tartlet. It was to him that this
task fell; but he only had to see to the two shirts, two handkerchiefs,
and two pairs of socks, which composed the entire wardrobe of both.
While this operation was in progress, Godfrey and Tartlet had to wear
only waistcoat and trousers, but in the blazing sun of that latitude the
clothes quickly dried. And so matters went on without either rain or
wind till July 3rd. Already they had begun to be fairly comfortable in
their new home, considering the condition in which they had been cast on
the island.
However, it was advisable not to neglect the chances of safety which
might come from without. Each day Godfrey examined the whole sector of
sea which extended from the east to the north-west beyond the
promontory.
This part of the Pacific was always deserted. Not a vessel, not a
fishing-boat, not a ribbon of smoke detaching itself from the horizon,
proclaimed the passage of a steamer. It seemed that Phina Island was
situated out of the way of all the itineraries of commerce. All they
could do was to wait, trusting in the Almighty who never abandons the
weak.
Meanwhile, when their immediate necessities allowed them leisure,
Godfrey, incited by Tartlet, returned to that important and vexed
question of the fire.
He tried at first to replace amadou, which he so unfortunately lacked,
by another and analogous material. It was possible that some of the
varieties of mushrooms which grew in the crevices of the old trees,
after having been subjected to prolonged drying, might be transformed
into a combustible substance.
Many of these mushrooms were collected and exposed to the direct action
of the sun, until they were reduced to powder. Then with the back of his
knife, Godfrey endeavoured to strike some sparks off with a flint, so
that they might fall on this substance. It was useless. The spongy
stuff would not catch fire. Godfrey then tried to use that fine
vegetable dust, dried during so many centuries, which he had found in
the interior of Will Tree. The result was equally discouraging.
In desperation he then, by means of his knife and flint, strove to
secure the ignition of a sort of sponge which grew under the rocks. He
fared no better. The particle of steel, lighted by the impact of the
silex, fell on to the substance, but went out immediately. Godfrey and
Tartlet were in despair. To do without fire was impossible. Of their
fruits and mollusks they were getting tired, and their stomachs began to
revolt at such food. They eyed, the professor especially, the sheep,
agouties, and fowls which went and came round Will Tree. The pangs of
hunger seized them as they gazed. With their eyes they ate the living
meat!
No! It could not go on like this!
But an unexpected circumstance, a providential one if you will, came to
their aid.
In the night of the 3rd of July the weather, which had been on the
change for a day or so, grew stormy, after an oppressive heat which the
sea-breeze had been powerless to temper.
Godfrey and Tartlet at about one o'clock in the morning were awakened by
heavy claps of thunder, and most vivid flashes of lightning. It did not
rain as yet, but it soon promised to do so, and then regular cataracts
would be precipitated from the cloudy zone, owing to the rapid
condensation of the vapour.
Godfrey got up and went out so as to observe the state of the sky.
There seemed quite a conflagration above the domes of the giant trees
and the foliage appeared on fire against the sky, like the fine network
of a Chinese shadow.
Suddenly, in the midst of the general uproar, a vivid flash illuminated
the atmosphere. The thunder-clap followed immediately, and Will Tree was
permeated from top to bottom with the electric force.
Godfrey, staggered by the return shock, stood in the midst of a rain of
fire which showered around him. The lightning had ignited the dry
branches above him. They were incandescent particles of carbon which
crackled at his feet.
Godfrey with a shout awoke his companion.
"Fire! Fire!"
"Fire!" answered Tartlet. "Blessed be Heaven which sends it to us!"
Instantly they possessed themselves of the flaming twigs, of which some
still burned, while others had been consumed in the flames. Hurriedly,
at the same time, did they heap together a quantity of dead wood such
as was never wanting at the foot of the sequoia, whose trunk had not
been touched by the lightning.
Then they returned into their gloomy habitation as the rain, pouring
down in sheets, extinguished the fire which threatened to devour the
upper branches of Will Tree.
CHAPTER XIII.
IN WHICH GODFREY AGAIN SEES A SLIGHT SMOKE OVER ANOTHER PART OF THE
ISLAND.
That was a storm which came just when it was wanted! Godfrey and Tartlet
had not, like Prometheus, to venture into space to bring down the
celestial fire! "It was," said Tartlet, "as if the sky had been obliging
enough to send it down to them on a lightning flash."
With them now remained the task of keeping it!
"No! we must not let it go out!" Godfrey had said.
"Not until the wood fails us to feed it!" had responded Tartlet, whose
satisfaction showed itself in little cries of joy.
"Yes! but who will keep it in?"
"I! I will! I will watch it day and night, if necessary," replied
Tartlet, brandishing a flaming bough.
And he did so till the sun rose.
Dry wood, as we have said, abounded beneath the sequoias. Until the dawn
Godfrey and the professor, after heaping up a considerable stock, did
not spare to feed the fire. By the foot of one of the large trees in a
narrow space between the roots the flames leapt up, crackling clearly
and joyously. Tartlet exhausted his lungs blowing away at it, although
his doing so was perfectly useless. In this performance he assumed the
most characteristic attitudes in following the greyish smoke whose
wreaths were lost in the foliage above.
But it was not that they might admire it that they had so longingly
asked for this indispensable fire, not to warm themselves at it. It was
destined for a much more interesting use. There was to be an end of
their miserable meals of raw mollusks and yamph roots, whose nutritive
elements boiling water and simple cooking in the ashes had never
developed. It was in this way that Godfrey and Tartlet employed it
during the morning.
"We could eat a fowl or two!" exclaimed Tartlet, whose jaws moved in
anticipation. "Not to mention an agouti ham, a leg of mutton, a quarter
of goat, some of the game on the prairie, without counting two or three
freshwater fish and a sea fish or so."
"Not so fast," answered Godfrey, whom the declaration of this modest
bill of fare had put in good humour. "We need not risk indigestion to
satisfy a fast! We must look after our reserves, Tartlet! Take a couple
of fowls--one apiece--and if we want bread, I hope that our camsa roots
can be so prepared as to replace it with advantage!" This cost the lives
of two innocent hens, who, plucked, trussed, and dressed by the
professor, were stuck on a stick, and soon roasted before the crackling
flames.
Meanwhile, Godfrey was getting the camas roots in a state to figure
creditably at the first genuine breakfast on Phina Island. To render
them edible it was only necessary to follow the Indian method, which the
Californians were well acquainted with.
This was what Godfrey did.
A few flat stones selected from the beach were thrown in the fire so as
to get intensely hot. Tartlet seemed to think it a great shame to use
such a good fire "to cook stones with," but as it did not hinder the
preparation of his fowls in any way he had no other complaint to make.
While the stones were getting warm Godfrey selected a piece of ground
about a yard square from which he tore up the grass; then with his hands
armed with large scallop shells he dug the soil to the depth of about
ten inches. That done he laid at the bottom of the cavity a fire of dry
wood, which he so arranged as to communicate to the earth heaped up at
its bottom some considerable heat.
When all the wood had been consumed and the cinders taken away, the
camas roots, previously cleaned and scraped, were strewn in the hole, a
thin layer of sods thrown over them and the glowing stones placed on the
top, so as to serve as the basis of a new fire which was lighted on
their surface.
In fact, it was a kind of oven which had been prepared; and in a very
short time--about half an hour or so--the operation was at an end.
Beneath the double layer of stones and sods lay the roots cooked by this
violent heating. On crushing them there was obtainable a flour well
fitted for making into bread, but, even eaten as they were, they proved
much like potatoes of highly nutritive quality.
It was thus that this time the roots were served and we leave our
readers to imagine what a breakfast our two friends made on the chickens
which they devoured to the very bones, and on the excellent camas roots,
of which they had no need to be sparing. The field was not far off where
they grew in abundance. They could be picked up in hundreds by simply
stooping down for them.
The repast over, Godfrey set to work to prepare some of the flour, which
keeps for any length of time, and which could be transformed into bread
for their daily wants.
The day was passed in different occupations. The fire was kept up with
great care. Particularly was the fuel heaped on for the night; and
Tartlet, nevertheless, arose on many occasions to sweep the ashes
together and provoke a more active combustion. Having done this, he
would go to bed again, to get up as soon as the fire burnt low, and thus
he occupied himself till the day broke. The night passed without
incident, the cracklings of the fire and the crow of the cock awoke
Godfrey and his companion, who had ended his performances by falling off
to sleep.
At first Godfrey was surprised at feeling a current of air coming down
from above in the interior of Will Tree. He was thus led to think that
the sequoia was hollow up to the junction of the lower branches where
there was an opening which they would have to stop up if they wished to
be snug and sheltered.
"But it is very singular!" said Godfrey to himself.
"How was it that during the preceding nights I did not feel this current
of air? Could it have been the lightning?"
And to get an answer to this question, the idea occurred to him to
examine the trunk of the sequoia from the out side.
When he had done so, he understood what had happened during the storm.
The track of the lightning was visible on the tree, which had had a
long strip of its bark torn off from the fork down to the roots.
Had the electric spark found its way into the interior of the sequoia in
place of keeping to the outside, Godfrey and his companion would have
been struck. Most decidedly they had had a narrow escape.
"It is not a good thing to take refuge under trees during a storm," said
Godfrey. "That is all very well for people who can do otherwise. But
what way have we to avoid the danger who live inside the tree? We must
see!"
Then examining the sequoia from the point where the long lightning trace
began--"It is evident," said he, "that where the flash struck the tree
has been cracked. But since the air penetrates by this orifice the tree
must be hollow along its whole length and only lives in its bark? Now
that is what I ought to see about!"
And Godfrey went to look for a resinous piece of wood that might do for
a torch.
A bundle of pine twigs furnished him with the torch he needed, as from
them exuded a resin which, once inflamed, gave forth a brilliant light.
Godfrey then entered the cavity which served him for his house. To
darkness immediately succeeded light, and it was easy to see the state
of the interior of Will Tree. A sort of vault of irregular formation
stretched across in a ceiling some fifteen feet above the ground.
Lifting his torch Godfrey distinctly saw that into this there opened a
narrow passage whose further development was lost in the shadow. The
tree was evidently hollow throughout its length; but perhaps some
portion of the alburnum still remained intact. In that case, by the help
of the protuberances it would be possible if not easy to get up to the
fork.
Godfrey, who was thinking of the future, resolved to know without delay
if this were so.
He had two ends in view; one, to securely close the opening by which the
rain and wind found admission, and so render Will Tree almost habitable;
the other, to see if in case of danger, or an attack from animals or
savages, the upper branches of the tree would not afford a convenient
refuge.
He could but try. If he encountered any insurmountable obstacle in the
narrow passage, Godfrey could be got down again.
After firmly sticking his torch between two of the roots below, behold
him then commencing to raise himself on to the first interior knots of
the bark. He was lithe, strong, and accustomed to gymnastics like all
young Americans. It was only sport to him. Soon he had reached in this
uneven tube a part much narrower, in which, with the aid of his back and
knees, he could work his way upwards like a chimney-sweep. All he feared
was that the hole would not continue large enough for him to get up.
However, he kept on, and each time he reached a projection he would stop
and take breath.
Three minutes after leaving the ground, Godfrey had mounted about sixty
feet, and consequently could only have about twenty feet further to go.
In fact, he already felt the air blowing more strongly on his face. He
inhaled it greedily, for the atmosphere inside the sequoia was not,
strictly speaking, particularly fresh.
After resting for a minute, and shaking off the fine dust which he had
rubbed on to him off the wall, Godfrey started again up the long tunnel,
which gradually narrowed.
But at this moment his attention was attracted by a peculiar noise,
which appeared to him somewhat suspicious. There was a sound as of
scratching, up the tree. Almost immediately a sort of hissing was heard.
Godfrey stopped.
"What is that?" he asked. "Some animal taken refuge in the sequoia? Was
it a snake? No! We have not yet seen one on the island! Perhaps it is a
bird that wants to get out!"
Godfrey was not mistaken; and as he continued to mount, a cawing,
followed by a rapid flapping of wings, showed him that it was some bird
ensconced in the tree whose sleep he was doubtless disturbing.
Many a "frrr-frrr!" which he gave out with the whole power of his lungs,
soon determined the intruder to clear off.
It proved to be a kind of jackdaw, of huge stature, which scuttled out
of the opening, and disappeared into the summit of Will Tree.
A few seconds afterwards, Godfrey's head appeared through the same
opening, and he soon found himself quite at his ease, installed on a
fork of the tree where the lower branches gave off, at about eighty feet
from the ground.
There, as has been said, the enormous stem of the sequoia supported
quite a forest. The capricious network of its upper boughs presented the
aspect of a wood crowded with trees, which no gap rendered passable.
However, Godfrey managed, not without difficulty, to get along from one
branch to another, so as to gain little by little the upper story of
this vegetable phenomenon.
A number of birds with many a cry flew off at his approach, and hastened
to take refuge in the neighbouring members of the group, above which
Will Tree towered by more than a head.
Godfrey continued to climb as well as he could, and did not stop until
the ends of the higher branches began to bend beneath his weight.
A huge horizon of water surrounded Phina Island, which lay unrolled like
a relief-map at his feet. Greedily his eyes examined that portion of the
sea. It was still deserted. He had to conclude once more, that the
island lay away from the trade routes of the Pacific.
Godfrey uttered a heavy sigh; then his look fell on the narrow domain on
which fate had condemned him to live, doubtless for long, perhaps for
ever.
But what was his surprise when he saw, this time away to the north, a
smoke similar to that which he had already thought he had seen in the
south. He watched it with the keenest attention.
[Illustration: There was the column of smoke. -page 152-]
A very light vapour, calm and pure, greyish blue at its tip, rose
straight in the air.
"No! I am not mistaken!" exclaimed Godfrey. "There is a smoke, and
therefore a fire which produces it! And that fire could not have been
lighted except by--By whom?"
Godfrey then with extreme precision took the bearings of the spot in
question.
The smoke was rising in the north-east of the island, amid the high
rocks which bordered the beach. There was no mistake about that. It was
less than five miles from Will Tree. Striking straight to the north-east
across the prairie, and then following the shore, he could not fail
to find the rocks above which the vapour rose.
With beating heart Godfrey made his way down the scaffolding of branches
until he reached the fork. There he stopped an instant to clear off the
moss and leaves which clung to him, and that done he slid down the
opening, which he enlarged as much as possible, and rapidly gained the
ground. A word to Tartlet not to be uneasy at his absence, and Godfrey
hastened off in the north-easterly direction so as to reach the shore.
It was a two hours' walk across the verdant prairie, through clumps of
scattered trees, or hedges of spiny shrubs, and then along the beach. At
length the last chain of rocks was reached.
But the smoke which Godfrey had seen from the top of the tree he
searched for in vain when he had reached the ground. As he had taken the
bearings of the spot with great care, he came towards it without any
mistake.
There Godfrey began his search. He carefully explored every nook and
corner of this part of the shore. He called. No one answered to his
shout. No human being appeared on the beach. Not a rock gave him a trace
of a newly lighted fire--nor of a fire now extinct, which could have
been fed by sea herbs and dry algæ thrown up by the tide.
"But it is impossible that I should have been mistaken!" repeated
Godfrey to himself. "I am sure it was smoke that I saw! And besides!--"
As Godfrey could not admit that he had been the dupe of a delusion, he
began to think that there must exist some well of heated water, or kind
of intermittent geyser, which he could not exactly find, but which had
given forth the vapour.
There was nothing to show that in the island there were not many of such
natural wells, and the apparition of the column of smoke could be easily
explained by so simple a geological phenomenon.
Godfrey left the shore and returned towards Will Tree, observing the
country as he went along a little more carefully than he had done as he
came. A few ruminants showed themselves, amongst others some wapiti, but
they dashed past with such speed that it was impossible to get near
them.
In about four hours Godfrey got back. Just before he reached the tree he
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