The Island Queen

The Island Queen, by R.M.
Ballantyne

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Title: The Island Queen
Author: R.M. Ballantyne
Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21741]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
ISLAND QUEEN ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

THE ISLAND QUEEN, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.
CHAPTER ONE.
DETHRONED BY FIRE AND WATER--A TALE OF THE

SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.
THE OPEN BOAT.
Early one morning, in the year 18 hundred and something, the great
Southern Ocean was in one of its calmest moods, insomuch that the
cloudlets in the blue vault above were reflected with almost perfect
fidelity in the blue hemisphere below, and it was barely possible to
discern the dividing-line between water and sky.
The only objects within the circle of the horizon that presented the
appearance of solidity were an albatross sailing in the air, and a little
boat floating on the sea.
The boat rested on its own reflected image, almost motionless, save
when a slight undulation of the water caused the lower edge of its
reflection to break off in oily patches; but there was no dip of oars at its
sides, no rowers on its thwarts, no guiding hand at the helm.
Evidently the albatross regarded the boat with curiosity not unmixed
with suspicion, for it sailed in wide circles round it, with outstretched
neck, head turned on one side, and an eye bent inquiringly downward.
By slow degrees the circles diminished, until the giant bird floated
almost directly over the boat. Then, apparently, it saw more than
enough to satisfy its curiosity, for, uttering a hoarse cry, it swooped
aside, and, with a flap of its mighty wings, made off towards the
horizon, where it finally disappeared.
The flap and the cry seemed, however, to have put life into the little
boat, for a human head rose slowly above the gunwale. It was that of a
youth, of about twenty years of age, apparently in the last stage of
exhaustion. He looked round slowly, with a dazed expression, like one
who only half awakes from sleep. Drawing his hand across his brow,
and gazing wistfully on the calm sea, he rose on his knees with
difficulty, and rested his arms on a thwart, while he turned his gaze
with a look of intense anxiety on the countenance of a young girl who
lay in the bottom of the boat close beside him, asleep or dead.

"It looks like death," murmured the youth, as he bent over the pale face,
his expression betraying sudden alarm; "and it must--it must come to
this soon; yet I cannot bear the thought. O God, spare her!"
It seemed as if the prayer were answered at once, for a fluttering sigh
escaped from the girl's bloodless lips, but she did not awake.
"Ah! sleep on, dear sister," said the youth, "it is all the comfort that is
left to you now. Oh for food! How often I have wasted it; thought
lightly of it; grumbled because it was not quite to my taste! What
would I not give for a little of it now--a very little!"
He turned his head away from the sleeping girl, and a wolfish glare
seemed to shoot from his eyes as they rested on something which lay in
the stern of the boat.
There were other human beings in that boat besides the youth and his
sister--some still living, some dead, for they had been many days on
short allowance, and the last four days in a state of absolute
starvation--all, save Pauline Rigonda and her little brother Otto, whose
fair curly head rested on his sister's arm.
During the last two nights, when all was still, and the starving sailors
were slumbering, or attempting to slumber, Dominick Rigonda--the
youth whom we have just introduced to the reader--had placed a small
quantity of broken biscuit in the hands of his sister and little brother,
with a stern though whispered command to eat it secretly and in
silence.
Obediently they ate, or rather devoured, their small portion, wondering
where their brother had found it. Perchance they might have relished it
less if they had known that Dominick had saved it off his own too scant
allowance, when he saw that the little store in the boat was drawing to
an end--saved it in the hope of being able to prolong the lives of
Pauline and Otto.
This reserve, however, had been also exhausted, and it