Part 28 (1/2)
”I don't suppose we will,” said the other--”that is, not intentionally.
But, brother, we will have to guard our tempers with a strong hand; for, when two persons are thrown together in such close a.s.sociation as we shall be during the next ensuing months--with no one else to speak to and no authority to control us, save our own consciences and the knowledge of the all-seeing Eye above, weighing and considering our actions--it will require a good deal of mutual forbearance and kindly feeling on the part of one towards the other to prevent us from falling out sometimes, if only for a short while. Even brothers like us, Eric, who love each other dearly, may possibly fall out under such trying circ.u.mstances!”
”Aye, but we mustn't,” said Eric. ”Instead of falling out, we'll fall into each other's arms whenever we agree to differ, as old nurse Lorischen would have said!” and he gave his brother an enthusiastic hug as he spoke, putting his words into action with a suddenness that almost threw Fritz off his feet.
”Hullo!” exclaimed the latter good-humouredly, smiling as he disengaged himself from Eric's bear-like embrace. ”Gently lad. Your affectionate plan, I'm afraid, would sometimes interfere with the progress of our work; but talking of that, as the vessel has now disappeared, there's no use in our standing here any longer looking at the sea. Suppose we begin to make ourselves at home and arrange our things in the snug little cottage which our good friends have built for us?”
”Right you are!” responded Eric, starting off towards the cliff, under the lee of which the Tristaner had directed the hut to be built, so that it might be sheltered from the strong winds of the winter, which would soon have blown it down had it been erected in a more exposed situation.
Fritz followed more leisurely to the level plateau by the waterfall, where stood their cottage.
Here, arresting his footsteps, he remained a moment surveying the little domain before joining his brother, who had already rushed within the building.
That boy was all impulse: always eager to be doing something!
The territory of the young crusoes was of limited dimensions. Extending about a mile laterally, it was bounded on either side by lofty headlands that projected into the sea, enclosing the narrow strip of beach that lay between in their twin arms. The depth of the valley inwards was even more confined by a steep cliff, down whose abrupt face slipped and hopped through a gorge, or gully, a little rivulet. This stream, on its progress being arrested by a shelf in front of the rocky escarpment, tumbled over the obstacle in a sheet of cloud-like spray, being thus converted into a typical ”waterfall” that resembled somewhat that of Staubbach, as the brothers had noticed when making their first observations from the s.h.i.+p. The rivulet, collecting its scattered fragments below, made its way to the beach in a meandering course, pa.s.sing by in its pa.s.sage the slight hollow in the plateau at the base of the furthermost crag, close by where the cottage was situated.
The ”location,” as Captain Brown would have termed the sloping ground between the cliff and the sea, was certainly not an extensive one; for, in the event of their wis.h.i.+ng to expand their little settlement, in the fas.h.i.+on of squatters out West, by ”borrowing” land from adjacent lots, the inexorable wall of volcanic rock to the rear of the plateau and on its right and left flank forbade the carrying out of any such scheme; still, the place was big enough for their house, besides affording room for a tidy-sized garden--that is, when the two had time to dig up the soil and plant the potatoes and other seed which the skipper had provided them with, so that they might have a supply of vegetables anon.
At first sight, there did not appear to be any means of exit from this little valley; for, the steep cliffs that hedged in its sides and back lifted themselves skywards to the height of nearly a thousand feet, while their fronts were generally so smooth and perpendicular that it would have been impossible even for a monkey to have climbed them--much less human beings, albeit one was a sailor and pretty well accustomed to saltatory feats! But, on their inspecting the apparently insurmountable breastwork a little closer, Fritz noticed, as the young Tristaner had pointed out to them, that, by the side of the gorge through which the waterfall made its erratic descent to the lower level, the face of the cliff was more strongly indented; so that, by using the tussock-gra.s.s, which grew there in great abundance, as a sort of scaling ladder, and taking advantage of the niches in the rock to step upon where this failed, the summit could be thus easily gained. The top, however, was so far away from the beach and the foothold so insecure that the work of ascending the crag would be a most hazardous proceeding at the best of times, to the elder brother at all events.
While Fritz was thus cogitating, and diligently studying the features of the scene around, Eric was waiting for him impatiently at the door of the rough-looking hut which the sailors had built for them under the superintendence of Captain Brown and the Tristaner.
The young sailor was too restless to remain quiet very long.
”Do come along, brother!” he called out after a while. ”What a time you are, to be sure; we'll never be able to unpack our things before it's dark, unless you look sharp!”
”All right, I'm coming,” replied the other; and he was soon by the side of Eric, who had already begun to overhaul the various articles that had been brought up from the boat by the sailors and piled up in a corner of the hut.
”What a lot of things!” exclaimed the lad. ”Why, there are ever so many more parcels than I thought there were!”
”Yes,” said his brother; ”it is all that good Captain Brown's doing, I suppose. When we were parting, he told me that he had left me a few 'notions,' besides our own traps.”
”He has too, brother. Just look here at this barrel of beef; you didn't pay him for that, eh?”
”No,” said Fritz; ”I only bought some pork and s.h.i.+p's biscuits, besides flour and a few groceries.”
”Then he has thought of much that we forgot,” remarked Eric with considerable satisfaction. ”I don't think our groceries included preserved peaches and tinned oysters, Fritz; yet, here they are!”
”You don't say so--the kind old fellow!” exclaimed Fritz; and then he, too, set to work examining the stores as eagerly as his brother.
Before leaving Providence, the two had purchased a couple of spades and shovels, an American axe, a pick, a rake, a wheelbarrow, and a hoe for agricultural purposes--the skipper having told them that the soil would be fertile enough in the summer at Inaccessible Island for them to plant most sorts of kitchen produce, which they would find of great help in eking out the salted provisions they took from the s.h.i.+p, besides being better for their health; while, to give emphasis to his advice, he presented them with a plentiful stock of potatoes to put into the ground, besides garden seed.
For cooking, the brothers were provided with a large kettle and frying pan, a couple of saucepans, several knives and forks, some crockery, and, in addition, a large iron cauldron for melting down seal blubber; for hunting purposes, to complete the list of their gear, they had two harpoons, a supply of fis.h.i.+ng hooks and a grapnel, two Remington rifles--besides Fritz's needle-gun which he had used in the first part of the Franco-German war, before he became an officer and was ent.i.tled to carry a sword--a supply of cartridges, five pounds of loose powder, lead for making bullets, and a mould.
Among their weapons, also, was an old muzzle-loading fowling piece for which shot had been taken, Fritz thinking that it might come in handy for shooting birds--although, as he subsequently found out, all of the feathered tribe they saw were penguins, and these did not require any expenditure of powder and shot on their behalf, being easily knocked down with a stick.
Nor did they forget to bring with them three or four strong sheath knives, for skinning the seals and any other use for which they were applicable; and, to add to their stock of cutlery implements, the skipper had presented Fritz with a serviceable bowie knife, whose broad double-dagger-like blade was powerful enough to cut down a tree on an emergency or make mince-meat of an enemy!
Fritz had likewise purchased in Rhode Island a good stock of winter clothing for himself and Eric, a couple of thick blanket rugs, and two empty bed-tick covers--to be afterwards filled with the down they should procure from the sea birds. He bought, too, a strong lamp, with a supply of paraffin oil, and several dozen boxes of matches; so that he and Eric should not have to adopt the tinder and flint business, or be obliged to rub two pieces of dry stick together, in the primitive fas.h.i.+on of the Australian aborigines, when they wanted a light.