Carefinotu threw himself between G.o.dfrey and the reptile, which hurried off under a thick bush.
But the negro pursued it and smashed in its head with a blow of the axe.
When G.o.dfrey rejoined him, the two halves of the reptile were writhing on the blood-stained soil.
Then other serpents, not less dangerous, appeared in great abundance on this part of the prairie which was separated by the stream from Will Tree.
Was it then a sudden invasion of reptiles? Was Phina Island going to become the rival of ancient Tenos, whose formidable ophidians rendered it famous in antiquity, and which gave its name to the viper?
"Come on! come on!" exclaimed G.o.dfrey, motioning to Carefinotu to quicken the pace.
He was uneasy. Strange presentiments agitated him without his being able to control them.
Under their influence, fearing some approaching misfortune, he had hastened his return to Will Tree.
But matters became serious when he reached the planks across the river.
Screams of terror resounded from beneath the sequoias--cries for help in a tone of agony which it was impossible to mistake!
"It is Tartlet!" exclaimed G.o.dfrey. "The unfortunate man has been attacked! Quick! quick!"
Once over the bridge, about twenty paces further on, Tartlet was perceived running as fast as his legs could carry him.
An enormous crocodile had come out of the river and was pursuing him with its jaws wide open. The poor man, distracted, mad with fright, instead of turning to the right or the left, was keeping in a straight line, and so running the risk of being caught. Suddenly he stumbled. He fell. He was lost.
G.o.dfrey halted. In the presence of this imminent danger his coolness never forsook him for an instant. He brought his gun to his shoulder, and aimed at the crocodile. The well-aimed bullet struck the monster, and it made a bound to one side and fell motionless on the ground.
Carefinotu rushed towards Tartlet and lifted him up. Tartlet had escaped with a fright! But what a fright!
It was six o"clock in the evening.
A moment afterwards G.o.dfrey and his two companions had reached Will Tree.
How bitter were their reflections during their evening repast! What long sleepless hours were in store for the inhabitants of Phina Island, on whom misfortunes were now crowding.
As for the professor, in his anguish he could only repeat the words which expressed the whole of his thoughts, "I had much rather be off!"
CHAPTER XXI.
WHICH ENDS WITH QUITE A SURPRISING REFLECTION BY THE NEGRO CAREFINOTU.
The winter season, so severe in these lat.i.tudes, had come at last. The first frosts had already been felt, and there was every promise of rigorous weather. G.o.dfrey was to be congratulated on having established his fireplace in the tree. It need scarcely be said that the work at the palisade had been completed, and that a sufficiently solid door now a.s.sured the closure of the fence.
During the six weeks which followed, that is to say, until the middle of December, there had been a good many wretched days on which it was impossible to venture forth. At the outset there came terrible squalls.
They shook the group of sequoias to their very roots. They strewed the ground with broken branches, and so furnished an ample reserve for the fire.
Then it was that the inhabitants of Will Tree clothed themselves as warmly as they could. The woollen stuffs found in the box were used during the few excursions necessary for revictualling, until the weather became so bad that even these were forbidden. All hunting was at an end, and the snow fell in such quant.i.ty that G.o.dfrey could have believed himself in the inhospitable lat.i.tudes of the Arctic Ocean.
It is well known that Northern America, swept by the Polar winds, with no obstacle to check them, is one of the coldest countries on the globe.
The winter there lasts until the month of April. Exceptional precautions have to be taken against it. It was the coming of the winter as it did which gave rise to the thought that Phina Island was situated in a higher lat.i.tude than G.o.dfrey had supposed.
Hence the necessity of making the interior of Will Tree as comfortable as possible. But the suffering from rain and cold was cruel. The reserves of provisions were unfortunately insufficient, the preserved turtle flesh gradually disappeared. Frequently there had to be sacrificed some of the sheep or goats or agouties, whose numbers had but slightly increased since their arrival in the island.
With these new trials, what sad thoughts haunted G.o.dfrey!
It happened also that for a fortnight he fell into a violent fever.
Without the tiny medicine-chest which afforded the necessary drugs for his treatment, he might never have recovered. Tartlet was ill-suited to attend to the petty cares that were necessary during the continuance of the malady. It was to Carefinotu that he mainly owed his return to health.
But what remembrances and what regrets! Who but himself could he blame for having got into a situation of which he could not even see the end?
How many times in his delirium did he call Phina, whom he never should see again, and his Uncle Will, from whom he beheld himself separated for ever! Ah! he had to alter his opinion of this Crusoe life which his boyish imagination had made his ideal! Now he was contending with reality! He could no longer even hope to return to the domestic hearth.
So pa.s.sed this miserable December, at the end of which G.o.dfrey began to recover his strength.
As for Tartlet, by special grace, doubtless, he was always well. But what incessant lamentations! What endless jeremiads! As the grotto of Calypso after the departure of Ulysses, Will Tree "resounded no more to his song"--that of his fiddle--for the cold had frozen the strings!
It should be said too that one of the gravest anxieties of G.o.dfrey was not only the re-appearance of dangerous animals, but the fear of the savages returning in great numbers to Phina Island, the situation of which was known to them. Against such an invasion the palisade was but an insufficient barrier. All things considered, the refuge offered by the high branches of the sequoia appeared much safer, and the rendering the access less difficult was taken in hand. It would always be easy to defend the narrow orifice by which the top of the trunk was reached.
With the aid of Carefinotu G.o.dfrey began to cut regular ledges on each side, like the steps of a staircase, and these, connected by a long cord of vegetable fibre, permitted of rapid ascent up the interior.
"Well," said G.o.dfrey, when the work was done, "that gives us a town house below and a country house above!"
"I had rather have a cellar, if it was in Montgomery Street!" answered Tartlet.
Christmas arrived. Christmas kept in such style throughout the United States of America! The New Year"s Day, full of memories of childhood, rainy, snowy, cold, and gloomy, began the new year under the most melancholy auspices.
It was six months since the survivors of the _Dream_ had remained without communication with the rest of the world.
The commencement of the year was not very cheering. It made G.o.dfrey and his companions antic.i.p.ate that they would still have many trials to encounter.
The snow never ceased falling until January 18th. The flocks had to be let out to pasture to get what feed they could. At the close of the day, a very cold damp night enveloped the island, and the s.p.a.ce shaded by the sequoias was plunged in profound obscurity.
Tartlet and Carefinotu, stretched on their beds inside Will Tree, were trying in vain to sleep. G.o.dfrey, by the struggling light of a torch, was turning over the pages of his Bible.
About ten o"clock a distant noise, which came nearer and nearer, was heard outside away towards the north. There could be no mistake. It was the wild beasts prowling in the neighbourhood, and, alarming to relate, the howling of the tiger and of the hyaena, and the roaring of the panther and the lion were this time blended in one formidable concert.
G.o.dfrey, Tartlet, and the negro sat up, each a prey to indescribable anguish. If at this unaccountable invasion of ferocious animals Carefinotu shared the alarm of his companions, his astonishment was quite equal to his fright.
During two mortal hours all three kept on the alert. The howlings sounded at times close by; then they suddenly ceased, as if the beasts, not knowing the country, were roaming about all over it. Perhaps then Will Tree would escape an attack!
"It doesn"t matter if it does," thought G.o.dfrey. "If we do not destroy these animals to the very last one, there will be no safety for us in the island!"
A little after midnight the roaring began again in full strength at a moderate distance away. Impossible now to doubt but that the howling army was approaching Will Tree!
Yes! It was only too certain! But whence came these wild animals? They could not have recently landed on Phina Island! They must have been there then before G.o.dfrey"s arrival! But how was it that all of them had remained hidden during his walks and hunting excursions, as well across the centre as in the most out-of-the-way parts to the south? For G.o.dfrey had never found a trace of them. Where was the mysterious den which vomited forth lions, hyaenas, panthers, tigers? Amongst all the unaccountable things up to now this was indeed the most unaccountable.
Carefinotu could not believe what he heard. We have said that his astonishment was extreme. By the light of the fire which illuminated the interior of Will Tree there could be seen on his black face the strangest of grimaces.