Notable discovery at the spouting cliffs - The mysterious green monster explained - We are thrown into unutterable terror by the idea that Jack is drowned - The Diamond Cave.
"COME, Jack," cried Peterkin, one morning about three weeks after our return from our long excursion, "let's be jolly to-day, and do something vigorous.I'm quite tired of hammering and hammering, hewing and screwing, cutting and butting, at that little boat of ours, that seems as hard to build as Noah's ark; let us go on an excursion to the mountain top, or have a hunt after the wild ducks, or make a dash at the pigs.I'm quite flat - flat as bad ginger-beer - flat as a pancake; in fact, I want something to rouse me, to toss me up, as it were.Eh! what do you say to it?""Well," answered Jack, throwing down the axe with which he was just about to proceed towards the boat, "if that's what you want, Iwould recommend you to make an excursion to the water-spouts; the last one we had to do with tossed you up a considerable height, perhaps the next will send you higher, who knows, if you're at all reasonable or moderate in your expectations!""Jack, my dear boy," said Peterkin, gravely, "you are really becoming too fond of jesting.It's a thing I don't at all approve of, and if you don't give it up, I fear that, for our mutual good, we shall have to part.""Well, then, Peterkin," replied Jack, with a smile, "what would you have?""Have?" said Peterkin, "I would HAVE nothing.I didn't say Iwanted to HAVE; I said that I wanted to DO.""By the by," said I, interrupting their conversation, "I am reminded by this that we have not yet discovered the nature of yon curious appearance that we saw near the water-spouts, on our journey round the island.Perhaps it would be well to go for that purpose.""Humph!" ejaculated Peterkin, "I know the nature of it well enough.""What was it?" said I.
"It was of a MYSTERIOUS nature to be sure!" said he, with a wave of his hand, while he rose from the log on which he had been sitting, and buckled on his belt, into which he thrust his enormous club.
"Well then, let us away to the water-spouts," cried Jack, going up to the bower for his bow and arrows; "and bring your spear, Peterkin.It may be useful."We now, having made up our minds to examine into this matter, sallied forth eagerly in the direction of the water-spout rocks, which, as I have before mentioned, were not far from our present place of abode.On arriving there we hastened down to the edge of the rocks, and gazed over into the sea, where we observed the pale-green object still distinctly visible, moving its tail slowly to and fro in the water.
"Most remarkable!" said Jack.
"Exceedingly curious," said I.
"Beats everything!" said Peterkin.
"Now, Jack," he added, "you made such a poor figure in your last attempt to stick that object, that I would advise you to let me try it.If it has got a heart at all, I'll engage to send my spear right through the core of it; if it hasn't got a heart, I'll send it through the spot where its heart ought to be.""Fire away, then, my boy," replied Jack with a laugh.
Peterkin immediately took the spear, poised it for a second or two above his head, then darted it like an arrow into the sea.Down it went straight into the centre of the green object, passed quite through it, and came up immediately afterwards, pure and unsullied, while the mysterious tail moved quietly as before!
"Now," said Peterkin, gravely, "that brute is a heartless monster;I'll have nothing more to do with it."
"I'm pretty sure now," said Jack, "that it is merely a phosphoric light; but I must say I'm puzzled at its staying always in that exact spot."I also was much puzzled, and inclined to think with Jack that it must be phosphoric light; of which luminous appearance we had seen much while on our voyage to these seas."But," said I, "there is nothing to hinder us from diving down to it, now that we are sure it is not a shark.""True," returned Jack, stripping off his clothes; "I'll go down, Ralph, as I'm better at diving than you are.Now then, Peterkin, out o' the road!" Jack stepped forward, joined his hands above his head, bent over the rocks, and plunged into the sea.For a second or two the spray caused by his dive hid him from view, then the water became still, and we saw him swimming far down in the midst of the green object.Suddenly he sank below it, and vanished altogether from our sight! We gazed anxiously down at the spot where he had disappeared, for nearly a minute, expecting every moment to see him rise again for breath; but fully a minute passed, and still he did not reappear.Two minutes passed! and then a flood of alarm rushed in upon my soul, when I considered that during all my acquaintance with him, Jack had never stayed underwater more than a minute at a time; indeed seldom so long.
"Oh, Peterkin!" I said, in a voice that trembled with increasing anxiety, "something has happened.It is more than three minutes now!" But Peterkin did not answer and I observed that he was gazing down into the water with a look of intense fear mingled with anxiety, while his face was overspread with a deadly paleness.
Suddenly he sprang to his feet and rushed about in a frantic state, wringing his hands, and exclaiming, "Oh, Jack, Jack! he is gone!
It must have been a shark, and he is gone for ever!"For the next five minutes I know not what I did.The intensity of my feelings almost bereft me of my senses.But I was recalled to myself by Peterkin seizing me by the shoulder and staring wildly into my face, while he exclaimed, "Ralph! Ralph! perhaps he has only fainted.Dive for him, Ralph!"It seemed strange that this did not occur to me sooner.In a moment I rushed to the edge of the rocks, and, without waiting to throw off my garments, was on the point to spring into the waves, when I observed something black rising up through the green object.
