Blown to Bits | Page 5

gave them warning, and, remembering the visit of fourteen
years before, they made ready to receive the new visitor. All the boats
were hauled up to places of safety, and every other preparation was
made. Down it came, on the afternoon o' the 28th--worse than they had
expected. Many of the storehouses and mills had been lately renewed
or built. They were all gutted and demolished. Everything movable was
swept away like bits of paper. Lanes, hundreds of yards in length, were
cleared among the palm-trees by the whirling wind, which seemed to

perform a demon-dance of revelry among them. In some cases it
snapped trees off close to the ground. In others it seemed to swoop
down from above, lick up a patch of trees bodily and carry them clean
away, leaving the surrounding trees untouched. Sometimes it would
select a tree of thirty years growth, seize it, spin it round, and leave it a
permanent spiral screw. I was in these regions about the time, and had
the account from a native who had gone through it all and couldn't
speak of it except with glaring eyeballs and gasping breath.
"About midnight of the 28th the gale was at its worst. Darkness that
could be felt between the flashes of lightning. Thunder that was nearly
drowned by the roaring of the wind an' the crashing of everything all
round. To save their lives the people had to fling themselves into
ditches and hollows of the ground. Mr Ross and some of his people
were lying in the shelter of a wall near his house. There had been a
schooner lying not far off. When Mr Ross raised his head cautiously
above the wall to have a look to wind'ard he saw the schooner comin'
straight for him on the top of a big wave. `Hold on!' he shouted, fell flat
down, and laid hold o' the nearest bush. Next moment the wave burst
right over the wall, roared on up to the garden, 150 yards above
high-water mark, and swept his house clean away! By good fortune the
wall stood the shock, and the schooner stuck fast just before reachin' it,
but so near that the end of the jib-boom passed right over the place
where the household lay holdin' on for dear life and half drowned. It
was a tremendous night," concluded the captain, "an' nearly everything
on the islands was wrecked, but they've survived it, as you'll see.
Though it's seven years since that cyclone swep' over them, they're all
right and goin' ahead again, full swing, as if nothin' had happened."
"And is Ross the Third still king?" asked Nigel with much interest.
"Ay--at least he was king a few years ago when I passed this way and
had occasion to land to replace a tops'l yard that had been carried
away."
"Then you won't arrive as a stranger?"
"I should think not," returned the captain, getting up and gazing

steadily at the atoll or group of islets enclosed within a coral ring which
they were gradually approaching.
Night had descended, however, and the gale had decreased almost to a
calm, ere they steered through the narrow channel--or what we may call
a broken part of the ring--which led to the calm lagoon inside. Nigel
Roy leaned over the bow, watching with profound attention the
numerous phosphorescent fish and eel-like creatures which darted
hither and thither like streaks of silver from beneath their advancing
keel. He had enough of the naturalist in him to arouse in his mind keen
interest in the habits and action of the animal life around him, and these
denizens of the coral-groves were as new to him as their appearance
was unexpected.
"You'll find 'em very kind and hospitable, lad," said the captain to his
son.
"What, the fish?"
"No, the inhabitants. Port--port--steady!"
"Steady it is!" responded the man at the wheel.
"Let go!" shouted the captain.
A heavy plunge, followed by the rattling of chains and swinging round
of the brig, told that they had come to an anchor in the lagoon of the
Cocos-Keeling Islands.
CHAPTER THREE.
INTERESTING PARTICULARS OF VARIOUS KINDS.
By the first blush of dawn Nigel Roy hastened on deck, eager to see the
place in regard to which his father's narrative had awakened in him
considerable interest.
It not only surpassed but differed from all his preconceived ideas. The

brig floated on the bosom of a perfectly calm lake of several miles in
width, the bottom of which, with its bright sand and brilliant coral-beds,
could be distinctly seen through the pellucid water. This lake was
encompassed by a reef of coral which swelled here and there into
tree-clad islets, and against which the breakers of the Indian Ocean
were dashed into snowy foam in their vain