"When was that, sir?"
"Ten or fifteen minutes back."
"We"ll see soon enough, sir," put in Forsythe. "The wind is driving it down to the south"ard."
Sullenly, reluctantly, the forbidding ma.s.s moved across the headland. All gla.s.ses were bent upon it. Without taking his binocular from his eyes, Trendon began to ruminate aloud.
"If he could have got to the beach.... No vapour there.... Signal, though.... Perhaps he hadn"t time.... And I"d hate to risk good men on that h.e.l.l"s cauldron.... Just as much risk here, perhaps. Only it seems--"
"There it is," cried Forsythe. "Look. The highest point."
Dull, gray wisps of murk, the afterguard of the gaseous cloud, were twisting and spiraling in a witch-dance across the landscape, and, seen by s.n.a.t.c.hes and glimpses through it, something flapped darkly in the breeze.
Suddenly the veil parted and fled. A flag stood forth in the sharp gust, rigid, and appalling. It was black.
"The Jolly Roger, by G.o.d! They"ve come back!" exclaimed Forsythe.
"And set up the sign of their shop," added Barnett.
"If they stuck to their flag--good-bye," observed Trendon grimly.
"Dr. Trendon," said Captain Parkinson, "you will arm yourself and go with me in the gig to make a landing."
"Yes, sir," responded the surgeon.
"Mr. Barnett."
"Yes, sir."
"Should we be overtaken by the vapour while on the highland and be unable to get back to the beach, you are to send no rescuing party up there until the air has cleared."
"But, sir, may we not--"
"Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir."
"In case of an attack you will at once send in another boat with a howitzer."
"Yes, sir."
"Dr. Trendon, will you see Mr. Slade and inquire of him the best point for landing?"
Trendon hesitated.
"I suppose it would hardly do to take him with us?" pursued the commanding officer.
"If he is roused now, even for a moment, I won"t answer for the consequences, sir," said the surgeon bluntly.
"Surely you can have him point out a landing place," said the captain.
"On your responsibility," returned the other, obstinately. "He"s under opiate now."
"Be it so," said Captain Parkinson, after a time.
Going in, they saw no sign of life along the sh.o.r.e. Even the birds had deserted it. For the time the volcano seemed to have pretermitted its activity. Now and again there was a spurtle of smoke from the cone, followed by subterranean growlings, but, on the whole, the conditions were rea.s.suring.
"Penny-pop-pinwheel of a volcano, anyhow," remarked Trendon, disparagingly. "Real man-size eruption would have wiped the whole thing off the map, first whack."
As they drew in, it became apparent that they must scale the cliff from the boat. Farther to the south opened out a wide cove that suggested easy beaching, but over it hung a cloud of steam.
"Lava pouring down," said Trendon.
Fortunately at the point where the cliff looked easiest the seas ran low.
Ropes had been brought. After some dainty manoeuvring two of the sailors gained foothold and slung the ropes so that the remainder of the disembarcation was simple. Nor was the ascent of the cliff a harsh task.
Half an hour after the landing the exploring party stood on the summit of the hill, where the black flag waved over a scene of utter desolation. The vegetation was withered to pallid rags: even the tiniest weedling in the rock crevices had been poisoned by the devastating blast.
In the midst of that deathly scene, the flag seemed instinct with a sinister liveliness. Whoever had set it there had accurately chosen the highest available point on that side of the island, the spot of all others where it would make good its signal to the eye of any chance farer upon those shipless seas. For the staff a ten-foot sapling, finely polished, served. A mound of rock-slabs supported it firmly. Upon the cloth itself was no design. It was of a dull black, the hue of soot. Captain Parkinson, standing a few yards off, viewed it with disfavour.
"Furl that flag," he ordered.
Congdon, the c.o.xswain of the gig, stepped forward and began to work at the fastenings. Presently he turned a grinning face to the captain, who was scanning the landscape through his gla.s.s.
"Beggin" your pardon, sir," he said.
"Well, what is it?" demanded Captain Parkinson.
"Beggin" your pardon, sir, that ain"t rightly no flag. That"s what you might rightly call a garment, sir. It"s an undershirt, beggin" your pardon."
"Black undershirt"s a new one to me," muttered Trendon.
"No, sir. It ain"t rightly black, look."
Wrenching the object from its fastenings, he flapped it violently. A cloud of sooty dust, beaten out, spread about his face. With a strangled cry the sailor cast the shirt from him and rolled in agony upon the ground.
"You fool!" cried Trendon. "Stand back, all of you."
Opening his medicine case, he bent over the racked sufferer. Presently the man sat up, pale and abashed.
"That"s how poisonous volcanic gas is," said the surgeon to his commanding officer. "Only inhaled remnants of the dust, too."
"An ill outlook for the man we"re seeking," the captain mused.
"Dead if he"s anywhere on this highland," declared Trendon. "Let"s look at his flag-pole."
He examined the staff. "Came from the beach," he p.r.o.nounced. "Waterworn.
H"m! Maybe he ain"t so dead, either."
"I don"t quite follow you, Dr. Trendon."