The Castaways | Page 9

Captain Mayne Reid
ocean was flowing beside them; but this was not the kind of water
wanted. They had already had enough of the briny element, and did not
even turn their eyes upon it. It was landward they looked; scanning the
edge of the forest, that came down within a hundred yards of the
shore-- the strip of sand on which they had beached their boat trending
along between the woods and the tide-water as far as the eye could
trace it. A short distance off, however, a break was discernible in the
line of the sand-strip--which they supposed must be either a little inlet
of the sea itself, or the outflow of a stream. If the latter, then were they
fortunate indeed.
Saloo, the most active of the party, hastened toward it; the others
following him only with their eyes.
They watched him with eager gaze, trembling between hope and fear--
Captain Redwood more apprehensive than the rest. He knew that in this
part of the Bornean coast months often pass without a single shower of
rain; and if no stream or spring should be found they would still be in
danger of perishing by thirst.
They saw Saloo bend by the edge of the inlet, scoop up some water in

his palms, and apply it to his lips, as if tasting it. Only for an instant,
when back to them came the joyful cry,--
"Ayer! ayer manis! sungi!" (Water! sweet water! A river!)
Scarce more pleasantly, that morning at day-break, had fallen on their
ears the cry of "Land!" than now fell the announcement of the Malay
sailor, making known the proximity of water. Captain Redwood, who
was acquainted with the Malay language, translated the welcome words.
Sweet water, Saloo had described it. Emphatically might it be so
termed.
All hastened, or rather rushed, toward the stream, fell prostrate on their
faces by its edge, and drank to a surfeit. It gave them new life; and,
indeed, it had given them their lives already, though they knew it not. It
was the outflow of its current into the ocean that caused the break in the
coral reef through which their boat had been enabled to pass. Otherwise
they might have found no opening, and perished in attempting to
traverse the surging surf. The madrepores will not build their
subaqueous coral walls where rivers run into the ocean; hence the open
spaces here and there happily left, that form deep transverse channels
admitting the largest ships.
No longer suffering from thirst, its kindred appetite now returned with
undivided agony, and the next thought was for something to eat.
They again turned their eyes toward the forest, and up the bank of the
stream that came flowing from it. But Saloo had seen something in the
sea, near the spot where the pinnace had been left; and, calling upon
Murtagh to get ready some dry wood and kindle a fire, he ran back
toward the boat.
Murtagh, the rest accompanying him, walked to the edge of the woods
where the stream issued from the leafy wilderness.
Just beyond the strip of sand the forest abruptly ended, the trees
standing thick together, and rising like a vast vegetable wall to a height
of over a hundred feet. Only a few straggled beyond this line. The very

first of them, that nearest the sea, was a large elm-like tree, with tall
trunk, and spreading leafy limbs that formed a screen from the sun,
now well up in the sky, and every moment growing more sultry. It
offered a convenient camping-place; and under its cool shadow they
could recline until with restored strength they might either seek or build
themselves a better habitation.
An ample store of dry faggots was lying near; and Murtagh having
collected them into a pile, took out his flint and steel, and commenced
striking a light.
Meanwhile their eyes were almost constantly turned toward Saloo, all
of them wondering what had taken him back to the boat. Their wonder
was not diminished when they saw him pass the place where the
pinnace had been pulled up on the sand, and wade straight out into the
water--as if he were going back to the breakers!
Presently, after he had got about knee-deep, they saw him stoop down,
until his body was nearly buried under the sea, and commence what
appeared to be a struggle with some creature still concealed from their
observation. Nor was their wonder any the less, when at length he rose
erect again, holding in his hands what for all the world looked like a
huge rock, to which a number of small shells and some sea-weed
adhered.
"What does the Malay crather want wid a big stone?" was the
interrogatory of the astonished Irishman. "And, look, captin, it's that
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