By the middle of the night the noise outside ceased, and we both being thoroughly3 wearied out, slept soundly. All at once I was awaked by feeling cold, wet hands on my throat and mouth, and struggled to free myself and shout out; while Bill, roused by my struggles, grunted4 out, “What’s up?”
A voice said, “No make bobbery. Be plenty quiet. Me be Calla come make good for you.”
Evidently some one was watching, for we heard people outside speaking, and the noise of the gate being unbarred. While this was doing, Calla stole noiselessly away; and when one of the priests of the temple came in, bearing a great, flaming torch of palm leaves, and searched about the cave, he could only find me and Bill; so, giving us a couple of kicks apiece, he went back and fastened the gate again, evidently displeased5 at being disturbed.
As soon as he had gone and all was again quiet, Bill and I whispered together, wondering where Calla had come from, and where he had gone.
“I have it,” I said, almost forgetting the necessity for speaking low, but remembering myself in time. “Calla was wet; he must have come by the water.”
“How could he?” answered Bill. “There’s no passage there.”
“Never mind,” I said; “that’s where he came from. Let’s get down there, and see what we can.”
To get to the pool in the dark was easier said than done; but at last we found our way to the part of the cave where it was, which was dimly lighted by the hole in the side through which we had seen Bristol Bob’s island, and we groped about to try to find some way by which Calla could have got in.
Whilst we were thus engaged, we heard a long-drawn breath, and then a rippling6 in the pool, and then we distinguished7 a dark form coming to its shore.
“Hist! hist! me Calla,” he said as he emerged; and we hurried to him and asked what he wanted, and what was the news of Tom.
“Oh! Tom he live plenty good. But now one time make go. Dem other men no catch. Know eberyting. Me sabe dis hole no shut below—one time easy go and come—make people tink plenty ting.”
Evidently Calla had dived in from the outside, and if we could manage to dive as well, we might make our way out of our prison.
Calla proposed that we should dive down, and gave us the direction we were to swim in; and Bill, who was a capital swimmer and diver, according to European standards, slipped fearlessly into the pool, and taking a long breath sank below its surface.
The dive, however, was beyond his capabilities8, for he soon reappeared puffing9 and blowing, and declared that he could not possibly manage it; and when he had rested a bit, he told me he had gone down and down into a sort of passage, where he could feel the rock on either side of him, when he felt as if he would burst, and could endure it no longer, so he had given himself a shove backwards10, and returned to the surface.
“No be far,” said Calla; “see me go and come back one time;” and suiting the action to the word he glided11 down through the water, and in about four minutes returned with a handful of grass which he said he had plucked on the outside.
Bill, encouraged by this, made another attempt, but like ill success attended it; and as for me, I knew that if Bill could not dive out, it was hopeless to think of my being able to do it.
Calla at first seemed very much annoyed; but after a bit he said, “Me sabey,” and dived out of the cave, and soon returned bringing with him a line of cocoanut fibre, and made us understand that he would haul us through the passage.
To be dragged through an underground drain at the end of a rope was a nervous piece of work, but to remain where we were meant danger and captivity12; whilst on the other side of the passage was freedom and comparative safety, if Calla was to be trusted, and we did not take long to make up our minds to consent to his proposal.
After a little discussion, Bill and I settled that he should be the first to go; and he promised, if he got through safe, to tie a peculiar13 knot in the end of the line to show me that he was all right.
We did not take long in securing the line to Bill, and then Calla took the other end in his teeth, and the two together disappeared below the surface. I waited and waited for Calla to come back, and the time seemed intensely long before he again was with me with the piece of line.
I anxiously examined the end for Bill’s knot, and when I felt it and learned that he was safely out of the cave, my joy was great, though I was still in a great fright as to what would happen to me. Calla secured the line round, me, so that I could not struggle, and telling me to keep my mouth shut, put me in the pool. I felt myself sinking, and then being dragged along, touching14 rock sometimes above, sometimes below, and sometimes on either side of me; and I felt as if the drums of my ears would be broken in, and a sense of oppression on my chest which was almost intolerable. I thought that I would be constrained15 to open my mouth and shout, and I know that if my limbs had been at liberty I should have struck out, and would have added much to the difficulty of the task Calla had set himself; but just when I could have endured no longer, I felt myself emerge from the water, and was dragged to the bank by Bill and Calla.
I blew like a porpoise16 while my lashing17 was being undone18; and when I had got some breath in my body again, Calla told Bill and me to follow him, and that he would lead us to where Tom was.
We hurried along narrow paths, through tangled19 woods, and in a very short time arrived at the shores of the bay in which Bristol Bob’s island was. Here we found a canoe, into which we got, and paddled off stealthily to the island, where we found Tom safe and sound, and Bristol Bob’s little craft prepared for sea, and Bos’n with him.
I longed to ask him what had happened since we were parted; but Calla was urgent that we should get to sea at once, and run down to some islands where he said “missionary20 men” lived. And as we had to keep a good lookout21 for fear of being pursued, and then all of us were so tired, we agreed to sleep in turns, and when we were all rested to communicate our different adventures.
When we were all rested and awake, the island where we had been prisoners had almost faded out of view, and we were safe from pursuit, and running before a steady trade wind.
“Now, mates,” said Tom, “I think we have all to thank Calla for saving us, as without him we could have done nothing, and I vote he tells us first how he came to help us.”
Calla very shortly told us that we had saved his life, and that he thought it therefore belonged to us; and when his father came to where he was kept prisoner, and provided him with means of escaping, lest he should be killed, he first of all went to Bristol Bob’s island, which, after the explosion we had heard (which was indeed the magazine, and which had killed four men), had been tabu, where he found Tom and Bos’n, and told them to get the boat ready, while he went himself and got Bill and me out of our prison.
When his story was told, Tom insisted on hearing what had happened to Bill and myself; and having been satisfied, he narrated22 his own adventures.
“You see, mates, I was away in the magazine when you was carried off, and knowing as I could do nothing, I kept low for a bit, and hid behind some bushes, so as to keep a lookout on what happened. After some time I saw some fellows, who had been hunting all over the island, and several times came nigh on finding me, had made out the whereabouts of the magazine, and got some torches to go down into it, and almost directly I heard the place blow up.
“Their mates seemed to be pretty well frightened, and didn’t wait many minutes nor look for their chums, but bolted to their canoes, and paddled away to the big island for dear life.
“After a bit two big canoes came and paddled round with drums, and a man in one of them shouted out something, and among what he said I could make out ‘tabu, tabu,’ being repeated several times, and then they went away again.
“When night came, I set to work to get the boat ready if possible; and presently Bos’n, who had been hiding, came to me and helped. Calla came after a while, and told us he would fetch you; and that’s the end of it, till you came along of him, and we started.”
Our adventures were now almost over, for the next day we fell in with the missionary schooner23 Dayspring, and the missionaries24 took care of us, and took us to their headquarters.
When we came to overhaul25 the things we had brought away with us in Bristol Bob’s boat, we found that the money and pearls were worth over four thousand pounds, which we divided into four lots, one for each of us, and one for Calla.
Calla said he would now become a “missionary man;” and he, after careful instruction, became a Christian26, and lived for many years happy and respected.
Tom Arbor27 also became a “missionary man,” shipping28 in the Dayspring, as did the faithful Bos’n, and had risen to be her mate when he met with his death at the hands of savages29, to whom he was trying to take the message of peace, and added his name to the list of those martyrs30 who have sacrificed their lives in the cause of Christianity in the Pacific.
Bill and I, by the advice of the missionaries, went home, and were bound apprentices31 on board a fine Indiaman, and we both made rapid progress. We always sailed together till Bill’s death. He lost his life in attempting to save a shipwrecked crew.
Of the Golden Fleece and her crew we never heard, and her fate is one of the mysteries of the sea.
For myself, I have been fortunate and prosperous; and now, after having for some years commanded my own ship, I have settled down to pass the evening of my days in peace and quietness, full of thankfulness for the mercies which have been vouchsafed32 to me.
THE END.
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1
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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2
idols
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| 偶像( idol的名词复数 )； 受崇拜的人或物； 受到热爱和崇拜的人或物； 神像 | |
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3
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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4
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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5
displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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rippling
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| 起涟漪的，潺潺流水般声音的 | |
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7
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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8
capabilities
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| n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力 | |
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9
puffing
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| v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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10
backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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11
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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12
captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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13
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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14
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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15
constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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16
porpoise
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| n.鼠海豚 | |
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lashing
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| n.鞭打；痛斥；大量；许多v.鞭打( lash的现在分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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narrated
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| v.故事( narrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23
schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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overhaul
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| v./n.大修，仔细检查 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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arbor
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| n.凉亭；树木 | |
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28
shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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29
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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30
martyrs
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| n.martyr的复数形式；烈士( martyr的名词复数 )；殉道者；殉教者；乞怜者（向人诉苦以博取同情） | |
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apprentices
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| 学徒，徒弟( apprentice的名词复数 ) | |
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32
vouchsafed
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| v.给予，赐予( vouchsafe的过去式和过去分词 )；允诺 | |
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