[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
mirage where his thin legs softened and shifted from side to side, yet MOTOO EETEE 101 continued to support his sagging buttocks. The officer s shoulders were pink and the color was spreading down his back. The skin of their all bodies was becoming sunburned except on their hands and faces. Those had long since turned to the russet color which months in hazy sunlight and cold wind produced. A few more hours in the open and there would be more pain added to their scraped backs and legs. Captain Tobit and the mate searched the face of the bluff looking for a way up through the tangle of bushes and vines. A few places looked promising, but the growth at the foot of the bluff was so dense they couldn t reach the slope. Mr. Morgen probed his way into the small trees and scrub each time he suspected there might be an open- ing but was stopped by a tangle of vines and long, snaky limbs that ended in clusters of spiky leaves. The plants had threaded their way through the bushes and around the tree trunks. Halfway back to the slough, the mate found a gap by which he could advance through to the foot of the bluff, and then called for Thomas to take the lead and break a way to the top. The lad handed the jawbone to the carpenter and started to work his way up. It was slow going. He had to force the limbs aside or, if they were small, smash them down with his stick and trample them under foot. If they were too stout, Thomas crawled under them on hands and knees or climbed over. He advanced, push- ing the greenery back and beating it aside. The captain, who managed to keep ahead of the others on the shore, was a liability picking his way up through the heavy growth. He was continually gasping for air and had to be helped over limbs and up the sides of rocks. They stopped repeatedly and sat and listened to the warbling of the birds while they waited for him to catch up. Why not rest awhile here? Mr. Morgen suggested. When we find the way up, we will return for you. No! No! the captain snapped. We will all travel together. I want no stragglers, nor will I have that young one getting too far ahead. If we are scattered about, savages may take us easier. We will all rest and all go together. The mate and the crewmen could only wait for the captain to 102 MOTOO EETEE recover and then proceed when he said he was ready. They estimated the elevation of the bluff to be about three hundred to four hundred feet, yet it took the four of them an hour and a half to fight their way near the top edge. When he broke out of the trees, Thomas was dis- mayed. He was facing a sheer wall of stone. It was higher than it had appeared from below, nearly twice the height of a man and weathered smooth. There were chinks where its layers met, but none would admit more than a finger. Without any holes or projections that would serve as handholds, it blocked them like a bulwark. The carpenter peered at it closely. He hammered the heel of his fist against it twice and said, Limestone. I would say limestone, wouldn t you? Thomas nodded and uttered an agreeing, Ummph. It extended to the right and left so far the two crewmen saw it would be useless to attempt to edge along its base. The growth there was tough and springy. With a saber or a hanger, they might have cut a way through slowly, but they had none. Beating with their sticks had little effect, and they had no choice but to return to the foot of the bluff and try somewhere else. All their efforts had been for nothing. Once they reached the shore the captain and the mate waded out knee-deep into the waves and scanned the rim of the bluff for a lower portion of the wall that had blocked them. Trees hid some of that obstruction, possibly where there was a break in it. They started west again and could only make guesses that they had gone far enough to try once more. Each man pushed into any promising gap in the trees and underwood, hoping to find some possible way up. They were vexed time after time. Under the trees at the back of the beach, they met with sections of a low cliff and between those, huge stones tum- bled one onto another, overgrown with bushes and tough vines in a tangle. That blocked passage to the men who could only attempt to batter a way up. The carpenter took more time with his searches and lagged behind. Mr. Morgen stepped out from his last try. He looked up the beach and back and asked, Where is Harrison? MOTOO EETEE 103 Thomas turned and looked about too, then said, He was just back there a-ways. I saw him a minute ago. Find him now! the captain demanded. I said I wanted no strag- glers. All three men instantly started back, searching the bushes at each place footprints showed someone had entered before. Blast him! the mate swore. Where has he got to? Thomas led the officers in the hunt, running ahead from place to place, poking into the scrub and trees. Then it occurred to him that cannibals might have hidden in the trees, seized Harrison, carried him away to some camp. Then he felt foolish to have considered it possi- ble. Savages would have covered the island with their footprints. Their canoes would have been drawn up on the beach and they certainly would not have made their camp in such a thicket when they could take their choice of any part of the island. He found the next set of prints and followed them between two trees. A limb had been forced aside and partially splintered. He pressed on for another fifteen yards and suddenly entered a clearing beneath a rock overhang. The space [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |