Marahuna. A romance

Front matter

MARAHUNA PRIXTED BY spornswooDE and co.. new-street square LONDON MABAHUNA §, "gm&m BY H. B. MARRIOTT WATSON LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. AND NEW YORK : 15 EAST 16* STREET 1888 All rights reserved TO THE AUTHOR OF 'ELSIE VENNER' CONTEN TS. CHAPTEH PAHE I. AN ANTARCTIC STORM . . I II. BEYOND THE BARRIER 13 III. MARAHUNA 28 IV. HOMEWARDS . . 37 V. AT MALTHORPE 55 VI. WHAT IS SHE ? • 73 VII. A TALK BY FIRELIGHT 83 VIII. FIRE ! 99 IX. AFRAID ? 118 X. ' ELSIE VENNER ' 131 XI. THE DAWN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 148 XII. AMONG THE POPPIES 164 XIII. A WILD GALLOP 178 XIV. WATER-LILIES 194 XV. PROBING FOR A SOLUTION 214 XVI. IN THE CAVE 231 XVII. ' IT IS FOLLY ' 248 XVIII. THE LURID STAR 262 XIX. HALEMAUMAU MAEAHUNA.

Chapter I. An Antarctic Storm

A storm had burst upon us in the bleak Antarctic regions, and H.M.S. 'Hereward' was flying helplessly before the wind. Already the gale had lasted forty-eight hours, and now seemed as fierce and its end as distant as ever. To the north-west the sky was veiled in utter darkness, which shrouded the sea even to our very quarter-deck. Our storm sails only were set, and yet the speed at which we were flying seemed prodigious. From the yards hung the tattered fragments of the main top sail, torn to pieces as by a giant's fingers. In some alarm I paced the quarter-deck, for the situation was not very palatable, and a general feeling of uneasiness pervaded the ship. Mingled, however, with my anxiety was a certain strong curiosity, which now and then came uppermost ; for I had never before experienced so terrific a storm, and the situation was not without its charm.

Provided our ultimate safety had been assured I could have given myself up to the B MARAHUNA 2 fascination of the scene ; but, as it was, the outlook was not bright. It was almost eighteen months since we had set sail from England. When the Admiralty fitted out H.M.S. ' Hereward ' for a scientific expedition they cast their eyes about for an experienced savant to whom they might entrust the conduct of the research. No one was better qualified for the post than the man they eventu ally selected, Mr. Erling, a veteran biologist and a capable geographer to boot. At this time I had been a few years at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. It was not as a profession, but out of pure love of the study that I had taken up biology, having acquired my first affection for it at Cambridge. So when Mr. Erling, whom I knew and valued for his high attainments, offered to take me as his, assistant, I was delighted beyond measure.

I easily obtained leave from my work at South Kensington, and was duly installed as assistant biologist on board H.M.S. ' Hereward,' bound for Southern waters. Hitherto our expedition had been a decided success. We had been for some months in the South Pacific, and had afterwards spent a considerable time in Australian waters. Here, how ever, Mr. Erling became seriously indisposed, and was eventually obliged to abandon thought of accompanying the expedition further. He was landed at Adelaide amid general regrets, and left me practically in sole charge of the scientific department. From Adelaide we intended to run down into polar regions as far as we could, for although we were not, strictly speaking, upon a voyage of exploration, yet one of the most important aims in science is the attainment of adequate know ledge concerning life in tli2 polar world, and it was with this purpose that we were in such southerly latitudes.

My departure from England was not unalloyed by a little melancholy arising from the peculiarity of my position ; for I had just become engaged to Ethel Wharncliffe, the daughter of my father's old friend, the vicar of Malthorpe, and parting from her to a large extent neutralised the pleasure of my new position. At this moment, as I paced the deck, my thoughts recurred to her in a little haze of melancholy not wholly dis pleasing. From a small Hampshire village, nestling securely under gentle downs, at that very hour, perhaps, her heart went out across the waters to me. And here was I within an ace of shipwreck on a tempest-tossed, wave-beaten vessel, the mere sport of the powers of air and sea. Certainly now the danger appeared very great. It is action which is best for everyone in the moment of danger ; suspense and inactivity are apt to destroy a man's nerve.

But I was not a sailor, and knew none of the thousand and one things which a sailor can find to do. I was, as Hardy frequently told me, ' as helpless as a baby ' on board. We were unable to turn our prow northwards, as seemed to me the best plan, for the seas were so heavy that to lay her broadside to them exposed us to a merciless flood which would soon send us to destruction ; so we kept on like cowards before the wind, trusting to time to wear out the strength of the storm. Everything was against us. Long rolling waves broke over us and Avashed our decks clear of everything movable, and when they could not attack us on one side they crept underneath and flooded our lee scuppers with salt foam. B MARAHUNA 4 But this was not all ; the Antarctic ' pack,' as the loose floating fragments of ice are called, hemmed us in an everstiffening mould and came crashing against our vessel, adding to the universal din.

We drifted past bergs frequently, and we feared the inevitable tightening of the pack further on. ' Hardy,' said I to the first officer as we were en deavouring to get some exercise by staggering along the deck, ' is this wind never to change ? How much longer are we to remain in suspense ? ' ' Heaven knows f ' he answered grimly. ' A reasonable gale would have blown itself out long ago. It almost looks like a conspiracy of the elements to get rid of us/ ' It's not my notion of nautieal propriety,' I said, half jestingly. ' We are not pirates, only innocent in vestigators of natural law. I suppose this blessed pack is the danger ? ' ' Yes. You see, if the pack gets tighter, as I imagine it will, we shall be jammed up at tbe very least. But the pack is not all. Bergs are not easily avoided in such a terrific gale as this.

We may go smash some where soon.' ' You're very consoling.' ' One can't afford to gloze the truth, my boy. See here ' — he stopped in his walk, and, steadying himself against the binnacle, pencilled some lines on a piece of paper, ' That's where we are, within a few miles, and that's where we shall be directly. In short, we're going bang in the direction of close packs, ice-barriers, and what not. But perhaps the gale will blow off before the morning.' At this juncture a heavy sea broke over the bulwarks and drenched us with spray and foam. The good ship shivered at the shock, and plunged her nose deeper into the seething torrent ahead. On each side of us the floating pieces of ice grew more numerous, and as even ing wore on the crash of tumbling ice became almost incessant. ' Look there,' said Enfield, the second lieutenant, pointing to some larger masses in the distance ; ' those are the avant-courriers of destruction.' As he spoke a dim white bulk passed silently by us on our starboard side.

I gazed after it until it bad vanished into the darkness, and then a couple more loomed up, and I descried others in front. ■ Plainly now, too, could be heard, during a lull in the storm, the cracking of floe ice in the distance. ' If you want to get to sleep to-night you had better turn in now,' suggested Hardy. ' Later, things may become too lively. Carpe diem, or rather noctem. I'm going to have an hour's snooze myself.' Bidding good night to Enfield, we descended the Sadder at breakneck speed, and went below. ' Now, don't go burying yourself in ' Darwin on Earthworms,' or Hochelschlitzner on fungi, or anything of ihe sort, but, like a sensible fellow, turn in.' I was not at all disposed either for Darwin or for the other gentleman, whom Hardy had facetiously invented ; but I did not feel sleepy.

Picking up Ross's ' Voyage of Discovery in Southern Seas,' I began reading. I could think of nothing but icebergs and packs. Sir James Ross entered the main pack late in the season in a terrible storm, and yet he managed to come out of it -safely. If he, in what he calls his little old-fashioned ' dullsailing ' ship, weathered the storm, the chances were that we, in our iron-sheeted modern man-o'-war, MARAHUNA with steam-power to boot, would also succeed. So far, so good. Now, however, sleep made way upon me. My head dropped forward, and icebergs, packs, floes, storms and auroras were beginning to drift before my eyes in a jumbled fashion, when a sudden shock sent me flying against the wall of the cabin, and thoroughly awoke me. Another and another shock succeeded. We had evi dently got into the thick of the pack.

Staggering to my feet, I guided myself through the passage, and crawled up the ladder to the deck. The scene which met my view was ghostly enough. The wind was as high as ever, and whistled and roared overhead through the bare rigging so loudly and so fiercely that I could hear nothing save only the boom ing noise of the waves thundering upon the deck. The night was a little clearer, and on all sides I could dis cern white spectral figures which seemed to be moving towards us, ready to close us in. Now and then there was a grating noise as the keel crashed over a fragment of ice, or a sudden shock and a quivering as she smote upon some larger and heavier floe. I heard Captain Crashawe's voice on the bridge above, and the cry of the man at the wheel repeating his in junctions monotonously. The air was so bitingly cold. that I was driven back to my cabin, and with a half breathed prayer for safety turned in to a troubled sleep.

In the morning the storm showed signs of abating ; the clouds looked less black and ominous, and the wind fell. It became a somewhat easier matter to pilot the vessel through the masses of ice which encumbered her path. The sea, too, was less boisterous, a,nd the vessel steadier than she had ever been. A more hopeful out look was before us. Yet our spirits, which had risen at these symptoms, were again cast down by a change at noon. Apparently, the wind had only been collecting strength for a fresh assault. Once more the clouds gathered behind us, and the horizon grew black as midnight. The wind whistled more furiously among the yards, and a blinding shower of sleet and snow came on. The cold grew intense. The sheets and rigging were crusted with icicles, and the spray from the sea was frozen ere it touched the decks.

The sleet was frozen on the faces of the sailors, and their beards and clothes, drenched with salt water, grew stiff and heavy. The sea became rougher. Huge mountainous waves curled over the bulwarks and flung large lumps of ice upon the deck, battering in the 2)lankmg. The captain and two of his lieutenants were on the bridge, for the danger was now imminent. Issuing forth from the shelter of the charthouse, I groped my way along the deck. The blast was so strong, and the cold so intense, that I had to stoop below the level of the bulwarks to escape the wind and snow, which cut at my neck like a knife. Scrambling up to the bridge, I could make out dim floating masses of white looming large to port and starboard. Above the roar of the hurricane came now and then a mighty crash, telling of bergs colliding somewhere in the darkness.

Some of them were of vast size, towering for a couple of hundred feet into the mists ; and, to render the scene more weird, flocks of Skua gull and gigantic stormy petrels flew round our stern with wild hoarse shrieks, like demons of the gale. MARAHUNA Gradually a dense black fog crept out from the sea, and shut off the outlook. We saw but dimly now, and any moment might find us dashing into an iceberg. All of a sudden, on our starboard quarter, seemingly bearing down upon us, we saw a huge berg, whose dim outline loomed a hundred feet above our masts. ' Port ! port ! ' roared Captain Crashawe. ' Port it is, sir,' came from the motionless helmsman. But at that moment another looming mass was visible beyond our prows. We were hemmed in by bergs. ' Hard a-port ! ' roared the captain again. But our impetus seemed to me too great to allow us time to clear the second obstacle.

Yet at least we should make a good fight with death. Captain Crashawe had wisely kept the fires alight, and the engines in readiness against any emergency. Now he screamed down the engineer's tube : ' Drive ahead ! ' We were actually under the shadow of the berg, if shadow there had been, and the ' Hereward ' steamed out slowly from her dangerous position, and made an effort to pass in front of the drifting monster. The solid wall of ice rose sheer from the very bulwarks. A collision seemed inevitable. ' Full speed ! ' roared the captain. Full speed she flew through the tossing water, actually grazing the berg in her course. Magnificently it towered to heaven, and through the blinding snow and fog I caught sight of some overhanging ledge of ice, which to my dazzled and bewildered eyes seemed to totter and tremble.

Forging ahead, the noble vessel swerved clear of the berg, and passed under the very jaws of death. A grinding of ice, a dull shock, a vibration through and through, and a terrible crash as from the ruin of a universe — a toppling crag of the berg had fallen, and our mainmast had gone by the board, and over the floating wreck hovered with shrill screams flocks of gulls and petrels. But we had escaped. Our ship was a drifting ruin, but we had escaped at least for a time, and felt thankful for that mercy. Destruction was in all likelihood merely postponed, for, among other calamities, our rudder had been rendered useless ; yet, even with that knowledge, even with imminent death on all sides, safety came upon us with a certain sense of relief. Hope is the last sentiment to vanish. Mere intellectual conviction will not evict her.

How we passed the succeeding night I scarcely remember, for a cloud of terror encircles my memory of that time. I can see vaguely now our drift ing, rudderless, shattered vessel, the heaving sea, and the black sky. I can see the huge bergs bearing down upon us from all quarters, and threatening to crush us into nothingness. I can hear, too, the hideous noises of sea and sky, as if the lower world had let loose its fiends upon us — the crash of falling bergs, the grinding of the floes, the shrieking of the wind, the thunder of the waters, and the shrill cries of the seabirds hovering in our wake and awaiting — God knows what. ■ At early dawn the fog lifted, and the morning light enabled us to get a more extended view of the realm of death. We had long resigned ourselves to what seemed a certainty, and it was with a certain angry defiance that I contemplated the 'approaching end.

At no time is the prospect of death pleasant, and, when one has to face it, after getting a renewed grip upon life, there is a bitterness in the position which makes one resentful. MARAHUNA 10 It seemed now as if it had been with covert irony that scarcely eighteen months before, I had promised mysel a lifelong happiness as I wandered through the swee country meadows with Ethel. At thirty, one can dan most things. But death in this form — Pah ! the idea was sufficiently nauseous. Philosophy alone is scarcely sufficient fortification ; it is want of thought, and not thought, which is the best preparation for the slow approach of death. At breakfast next morning we were still drifting slowly and surely before the wind. Some distance in front of us was discernible now a long line of white, which marked the eternal barrier of ice girdling here the south pole.

As far as we could conjecture, the ' Here ward ' must be dashed against this ice continent, and meet her doom, very much as she might have done upon some rocky headland on the English coast. As the morning wore on we drew nearer and nearer. The sea grew more open, the pack looser, as if our road to destruction were being cleared before us. Ahead uprose that white wall of ice, grim and ruthless, extending far away into obscurity on either side. All were assembled on the deck, and every eye was intent upon the death which lay now but a half-mile from us. The men were drawn up on the quarter-deck in review order. Cold and haggard they looked, worn out by the perils and hardships they had undergone. 'Steady, lads,' said Captain Crashawe. 'We have done our duty ; let us die like Englishmen.' Nearer we drifted to the great ice wall, which rose to the height of three hundred feet above us.

Another quarter of an hour, and we should be in eternity. The sea foamed around us, and broke over the bulwarks with AN ANTARCTIC STORM 11 a mighty roar, drenching us to the skin. The ship reeled from side to side, and the blue waters yawned, ready to engulf us fathoms deep. At this moment the dark cloud wrack lifted, and, as if to mock us, for the first time for some three days the sun broke through and shone brightly on the desolate scene. ' Surely,' said Hardy, who was standing by my side — ' surely she is much steadier than she has been. And the sea is so open. I wonder what it can be.' I made no reply, for I was scarcely in a mood for observation. But next moment I saw him jump upon the bridge, and level his glasses in the direction of the barrier. ' A channel, thank God ! ' he cried at the top of his voice. ' Hurrah ! ' shouted the doctor excitedly. ' I knew we were not destined to be drowned.

A channel through the ice.' I rushed to the side, and looked towards the huge wall now overshadowing us. In truth there seemed to be a current bearing us along ; and gazing steadily in the direction of the ship's nose, I saw a dark broken line in the ice wall, which must evidently mark a rift or fissure of some sort. The current grew swifter as we approached the fis sure, and we sped along over the blue water, now grown smoother beneath the shelter of the bergs. ' Hurrah ! ' shouted the sailors in a frenzy of delight. The swirl of the water grew fiercer and fiercer. The foam curled over the broken bowsprit and washed the decks. Then the ship's nose swung round the point, and with a dull swish we were swept violently into the passage. The next instant our stern collided with a cliff of ice, and MARAHUNA 12 a heavy shock hurled me with force against the deck house.

Thence I was dashed upon the bulwarks, but, luckily for myself, I fell upon one of the sailors, who was lying in the scuppers, so that the violence of my collision was lessened. Finding myself flying off again, dazed and confused, I instinctively put out my hand and grasped something, which proved to be a coil of rope attached to a belaying pin. Clutching this with the desperation of drifting consciousness, I was able to retain my position and recover myself. As my wits collected I took in the situation. The channel into which we had passed was very narrow, being barely more than two ships' length across ; and the force of the current was so strong that the ' Hereward ' was being tossed from side to side like a nautilus-shell in a storm. Perpen dicular cliffs of ice towered hundreds of feet into the air to right and left.

It was as if we were in some mys terious canon. The sea was in a terrible state of agita tion. From my position I could see the waves breaking over the lower deck incessantly. Sometimes the ship heeled over and became half submerged under the blue foam, which dashed up to within a few feet of me. I discerned these particulars in snatches, for I was kept busy preserving my head from bumping against the bulwarks, and it was extremely difficult to make any continuous observation. The head of the ship was never for two minutes in the same direction. Now she was tearing prow foremost down the channel ; next moment a gigantic wave struck her and, turning her broadside on, swept her against a projecting column of ice. Again the current swung her round upon a buttress, and twisted her like a teetotum in an eddy of the turbulent stream.

The din of waters was terrific. AN ANTARCTIC STORM 13 Upon the bridge I could see Captain Crashawe lashed to the railing ; but he was alone, and I could only see two or three prostrate forms upon the upper deck. Whether the others had been swept overboard, or what had become of them, I could not tell. I dared not leave go my hold of the belaying-pin at the risk of being flung across into the flood, so I clung to it like grim death, and waited for whatever end should come. The water roared in my ears deafeningly, and my head grew dizzy. A feeling of numbness overpowered me ; my eyes closed involuntarily, and I felt myself suc cumbing to unconsciousness. But in my dull stupor I was aware of a great crash, though I could not arouse myself sufficiently to discover the cause. Presently, however, the motion seemed to grow less violent, and the sea calmer.

The noise lulled and the roar of the waters became faint. I opened my eyes and looked about me. The white cliffs had vanished : we were in still waters.

Chapter II. Beyond The Barrier

With difficulty I dragged myself out of my uncomfort able position, and limped along the deck. As I did so I saw two or three of the sailors sit up and stare about them vacantly. With their assistance I managed to arouse a few more, whom we found stowed away in shel tered recesses, where they had either taken refuge or had been hurled during the passage through e channel. MARAHUNA 14 Several had received severe injuries, and one or two, I feared, were beyond recovery. While I was engaged in this way, I heard my name called, and, looking round, saw Hardy groping his way up the ladder. ' Thank God, you are alive ! ' I cried. ' Are you hurt ? ' ' Not much, only stiff and bruised. There are no bones broken.' ' What happened to you ? ' I asked. ' When we entered the channel I was standing on the deck just near you.' ' Yes, I saw you come down from the bridge.' ' The shock threw me violently against the railing overlooking the lower deck.

I clung like a leech to the pillars of the bridge, but the next shock tore them from my grasp as if I had been a child. I remember being hurled over the railing, and I fell upon the lower deck and became unconscious.' ' Then how on earth you were not swept overboard by the sea I can't imagine.' ' Well, when I came to myself I crawled into shelter and out of the reach of the waves. Otherwise I should have met the fate of poor Enfield.' ' Is Enfield gone ? ' ' Washed overboard,' said he sadly ; ' I saw him go.' ' The captain is still on the bridge. Let us make our way up to him, though I fear ' I did not finish my sentence. On the bridge we found Captain Crashawe alone. The helmsman had disappeared, and had doubtless found a grave in the fierce waters. And in his stead was the captain lashed to the useless wheel.

Life was gone from the gallant old sailor, and a fragment of the mizzenmast upon his head showed the manner of his death. He had evidently endeavoured to take the place of the helmsman when the latter had been washed overboard, and do what little good he could with a fractured rudder. Sadly we crept down again to the lower deck, and, with those of the sailors who were able to exert them selves, resumed our mournful inspection. It was a melancholy tale we had to tell after our duties were over. Many hands were missing, and the only conclu sion was that they had been washed off by the waves. Among these were Enfield, the second, and Dunlop, the fourth, lieutenant. Robinson, the third officer, had got off with a sprained arm ; Fitzroy, the doctor, with a few bruises ; the master seemed to have escaped all damage.

We had for so long been trembling on the verge of death that I doubt whether the catastrophe appalled us as much as would be expected. Yet that day was a day of great melancholy to us all. The ' Hereward ' lay a shattered hulk among the icebergs, to one of which we had managed-to anchor her. First we must bury our dead. Beside the captain, three or four ofthe crew had succumbed to the injuries they had received, and we that day committed their bodies to the great deep. The sun shone brightly in the western sky, and the sea was of that deep blue colour which tells of countless fathoms. All was suggestive of peace and solemnity ; for it was a solemn occasion for all. Apart from the hush imparted by the mournful ceremony we were going through, the shadow of death had been actually lifted from our lives, and we had not recovered from the awe of its presence.

One by one the shrouded forms shot out into the great blue waters. The white bergs towered aloft to MARAHUNA 16 heaven — silent witnesses of the dropping of man's earthly curtain ; for the drama of life had been played out for many a good man that day. A few gulls screamed noisily overhead, and a lazy seal basked in the sunshine on the neighbouring floe. We had now to face the position. We did not even know where we were, and we could not possibly decide upon our future course until we did. Accordingly at midday Hardy — who was now in charge of the corvette — took an observation. Presently he reappeared on deck with a paper in his hand, and his face wore a perplexed and even a startled look. ' Where are we ? ' cried Fitzroy eagerly. ' It is a most remarkable thing,' said Hardy calmly. ' I do not think you could even guess at the truth.

I never imagined that the channel could be a channel through the great ice-barrier. I thought it must be merely an outlying island of ice. Well, it turns out to have been the ice-barrier after all.' ' Good gracious ! ' ejaculated Robinson. ' I knew it — I knew it ! ' cried Fitzroy ecstatically. ' Then where are we ? ' I asked in amazement. ' Longitude 143° W., latitude 81° 50' S.,' he replied ; ' we are within the Antarctic circle.' ' Hooray, boys ! ' shouted the vivacious Fitzroy. ' We have passed the 80th parallel and are now within the region of the pole. Three cheers for the pole ! Then hey and away for the pole ! ' ' Wait a moment, Fitzroy,' said Hardy with a grim smile; 'just one moment before you allow your native enthusiasm to master you. It is quite true that we have reached the goal for which the ambition of navigators has for centuries been striving; we have passed the great ice-barrier which blocks the way to the pole ; yet it might be advisable to consider, before we make any rash plans, how we are to get back.' ' Ay, that's the question,' muttered the grey-haired sailing-master. ' How are we to get back ? ' Some thought, perchance, of his motherless children waiting his return in far-off old England moved the old man. ' Well, let us call a council of war,' went on Hardy ; ' for in these peculiar circumstances we must all consult for the public good.

The damages to the "Hereward" are undoubtedly severe, but a few days will suffice to patch her up for the present. At the end of that time we must make a move. Where is it to be ? We cannot return through the channel ; the idea is preposterous. 1 wait for your suggestions.' ' You're right, sir,' said the master after a pause. ' We can't return the way we came. None of us, God knows, would care to go through that experience again. Not that I care for myself personally, for I am some what of an old hulk, and have stood many storms and gone through many dangers, and for my own part I should be content to endure more yet. But a man doesn't live for himself only, and it is necessary for him first to think of his duty, and then of those who love him and depend upon him ; and we all of us, I think, are in that strait.