The Island Queen | Page 8

you might perhaps prefer to rest, and dry your
clothes in the sun," replied Dominick.
"Walking will dry them better," said Pina. "Besides, I have quite
recovered."
"You're a plucky little woman," said Otto, as they set off. "Isn't it nice
to be here all by ourselves, on a real uninhabited island, quite fit for
Robinson himself? Who knows but we may find Friday in the bushes!"
"Wouldn't that spoil it as an uninhabited isle?"
"A little, but not much."
"The thicket is too small to contain anything with life, I fear," said
Dominick, whose anxiety as to food and drink prevented his
sympathising much with the small-talk of the other two. "Luckily the
weather is warm," he added, "and we won't require better shelter at
present than the bushes afford, unless a storm comes.--Ho what have
we here?--a path!"
They had reached the entrance to the thicket, and discovered what
appeared to be an opening into it, made apparently by the hand of man.
"Nothing more likely," said Pauline. "If so many wrecks have taken
place here--as you seem to think--some of the crews must have landed,
and perhaps lived here."
"Ay, and died here," returned Dominick, in a grave, low tone, as he
pointed to a skeleton lying on a spot which had once been cleared of
bushes, but so long ago that the vegetation had partially grown up again.
The man whose bleached bones lay before them had evidently perished
many years before. On examination, nothing was found to afford any
information about him, but when they had advanced a dozen yards
further they came upon six little mounds, which showed that a party--
probably a wrecked crew--had sojourned there for a time, and finally

perished: so far their story was clear enough. One by one they must
have sunk, until the last man had lain down to die and remain unburied.
Pushing past these sad evidences of former suffering, and feeling that
the same fate might await themselves, they came to a sight which
tended slightly to restore their spirits. It was a pool of water of
considerable size, whether a spring or a rain-pool they could not tell.
Neither did they care at that time, for the sudden feeling of relieved
anxiety was so great, that they ran forward, as if under one impulse,
and, lying down on their breasts, took a long refreshing draught. So
powerful was the influence of this refreshment and discovery on their
spirits that they became totally regardless and forgetful for the moment
about food--all the more that, having so recently had a good meal, they
were not hungry.
"I was sure we would find water," said Otto, as they continued to
explore the thicket, "and I've no doubt that we shall find yams and
plantains and breadfruits, and--aren't these the sort of things that grow
wild on coral islands, Dom?"
"Yes, but I fear not on such a little scrap of reef as this. However, we
shall not be quite destitute, for there are cocoa-nuts, you see-- though
not many of them. Come, our prospects are brightening, and as the sun
is beginning to sink, we will look out for a suitable camping-ground."
"As far away from the skeleton, please, as possible," said Otto.
"Surely you don't suppose it can hurt you?" said Pauline.
"N-no, of course not, but it would be unpleasant to have it for a
bedfellow, you know; so, the further away from it the better."
As he spoke they emerged from the thicket, at the end opposite to the
spot where they had entered, and had their spirits again powerfully
cheered by coming suddenly into a blaze of sunshine, for the bright orb
of day was descending at that side of the islet, and his red, resplendent
rays were glowing on the reef and on the palm-trees.

They also came in full view of the islet beyond, which, they now
perceived, was of considerable size, and covered with vegetation, but,
as Dominick had suspected, separated completely from the reef or outer
isle on which they stood by a deep lagoon.
"Splendid!" exclaimed Pauline.
"As I feared," muttered Dominick, "and no means of reaching it."
"Pooh! Didn't Robinson Crusoe make rafts?" said Otto; "at least if he
didn't, somebody else did, and anyhow we can."
"Come, let us continue our walk," said Dominick. "You don't fully
appreciate the loss of our boat Otto. Don't you see that, even if we do
build a raft, it will at best be a clumsy thing to manage, and heavy to
pull, slow to sail, and bad to steer, and if we should chance to be on it
when a stiff breeze springs up from the land, we should probably be
driven out to sea and lost--or separated, if Pina should chance