The Castaways of the Flag (22 page)

           
Several
elephants appeared as well. They moved quietly through the thick woods, and one
could imagine the longing eyes with which Jack would have regarded them if he
had been there!

           
"While
we have been away," Fritz said, "Jack may have succeeded in capturing
an elephant, and taming and training it, as we did Storm and Grumbler and
Lightfoot!"

           
"It's
quite possible, dear," Jenny answered. "After fourteen months'
absence we must expect to find something new in New Switzerland."

           
"Our
second fatherland!" Frank said.

           
"I am
already picturing other houses there," Dolly exclaimed, "and other
farms— perhaps a village even!"

           
"Well,"
said the boatswain, "I could be quite content with what we see about us;
and I can't imagine anything better in your island than we have here."

           
"It is
nothing compared with the Promised Land, Mr. Block," Dolly declared.

           
"Nothing,"
Jenny agreed. "M. Zermatt gave it that Bible name because it deserved it,
and we, more blest than the children of Israel, are about to set foot in the
land of Canaan."

           
And John
Block admitted they were right.

           
At six o
'clock they stopped for the night.

           
There was
little likelihood of change in the weather at this season, and the cold was not
formidable. Indeed, they had suffered rather from heat during the day, in spite
of the fact that they were in the shelter of the trees during the hottest
hours. After that, a few isolated woods and copses had enabled them to walk in
the shade without wandering too far from the direct route.

           
Supper was
prepared, as the earlier meal had been, before a crackling fire of dry wood.
This night would not be spent within a cave, but, with fatigue to rock them,
not one of them lay awake.

           
As a matter
of precaution, however, Fritz and Frank and the boatswain decided to keep
alternate watch. When darkness fell, roaring could be heard in the far
distance. There were wild beasts in this part of the island.

           
Next morning
a start was made at daybreak. They hoped to get through the defile of Cluse in
the second stage of the journey, if they met with no obstacles on the way.

           
There were no
more hardships about the march to-day than there had been the day before. They
went from wood to wood, so to speak, avoiding as much as possible the rays of
the sun.

           
After the
mid-day meal, taken by the side of a fast-running river twenty to thirty yards
in width, flowing towards the north, they merely had to go along the left bank.

           
Neither Fritz
nor Frank knew this river, since their expeditions had never brought them into
the heart of the island. They had no idea that it had already received a name,
that it was called the Montrose, as they had no knowledge of the new name of
Jean Zermatt peak, on whose summit the British flag was floating. What a
pleasure it would be to Jenny to learn that this river bore the name of her
family!

           
After
marching for an hour they left the Montrose, which bore off sharply to the
east. Two hours later Fritz and Frank, who had taken the lead, set foot at
length on country known to them.

           
"The
Green Valley!" they shouted, and saluted it with a cheer.

           
It was the
Green Valley, and now they only had to get to the rampart enclosing the
Promised Land to be at the defile of Cluse.

           
This time, no
consideration, no hunger or fatigue, could have availed to hold back any of
them. Following Fritz and Frank, they all hurried forward, although the path
was steep. They seemed to be impelled forcibly towards the goal which they had
despaired of ever
attaining
!

           
Oh, if only
by some extraordinary good luck M. Zermatt and Mr. Wolston might be at the
hermitage at Eberfurt, and their families with them, as the custom was during
the summer season!

           
But that
would have been too good to be true, as people say. Not even John Block dared
to hope for it.

           
The beams
across the entrance were all in place, fixed firmly between interstices among
the rocks so as to resist the efforts of even the most powerful animals.

           
"That is
our door!" Fritz cried.

           
"Yes,''
said Jenny, "the door into the Promised Land where all our dear ones
live!"

           
They only had
to remove one of the beams, a task which took but a few minutes.

           
And then at
last they were through the defile, and all had the feeling that they were
entering their own home—home, which, only three days ago, they had supposed to
be hundreds and hundreds of miles away!

           
Fritz and
Frank and John Block replaced the beam in its proper grooves so as to bar the
way against wild beasts and pachyderms.

           
About
half-past seven night was falling with the suddenness peculiar to the tropics
when Fritz and his companions reached the hermitage at Eberfurt.

           
Nobody was at
the farm, and, although they regretted this, there was no occasion for them to
be surprised.

           
The little
villa was in perfect order. They opened all the doors and windows, and
proceeded to make themselves comfortable for the ten hours or so they would
stay.

           
In accordance
with M. Zermatt's practice, the house was quite ready for the reception of the
two families, who visited it several times in the course of the year. The
bedsteads were given to Jenny and Dolly, Susan and little Bob, and to Captain
Gould. Dry grass spread on the floor of the out-house would be good enough for
the others this last night before their return home.

           
Moreover,
Eberfurt was always provided with stores to last a week.

           
So Jenny only
had the trouble of opening large wicker hampers, to find preserves of various
kinds, sago, cassava, or tapioca flour, and salted meat and fish. As for
fruit—figs, mangoes, bananas, pears and apples—they only had to take a step to
pick them from the trees, and only another to gather vegetables in the kitchen
garden.

           
Of course the
kitchen and larder were properly equipped with all necessary utensils. Directly
a good wood fire was crackling in the stove, the pot was set upon its tripod.
Water was drawn from an off-shoot from the Eastern River, which supplied the
reservoir belonging to the farm. And it was with special pleasure that Fritz
and Frank were able to offer their guests glasses of palm wine drawn from the
barrels in the cellar.

           
"Ah-ha!"
cried the boatswain. "We've been teetotallers a very long time."

           
"Well,
we will pledge you now, good old Block!" Fritz exclaimed.

           
"As much
as you like," the boatswain answered. "Nothing could be more pleasant
than drinking one another's health in this excellent wine."

           
"Let us
drink then," said Frank, "to the happiness of seeing our parents and
our friends again at Falconhurst or Rock Castle!"

           
And, clinking
glasses, they gave three cheers for the Zermatts and the Wolstons.

           
"Seriously,"
John Block remarked, "there are plenty of inns in England and elsewhere
which aren't nearly so good as this hermitage of Eberfurt."

           
"Moreover,
Block," Fritz answered, "here the entertainment is free!"

           
When supper
was finished all sought the repose of which they had such need after their long
day's march.

           
Every one of
them slept until the sun rose next morning.

           
AT seven o'clock next morning, after breakfasting off the remains of
supper and drinking a stirrup-cup of palm wine, Fritz and his companions left
the hermitage at Eberfurt.

           
They were all in haste, and intended to cover the seven and a half miles
that lay between the farm and Falconhurst in less than three hours.

            "
It is possible that our people may be settled now in
their dwelling in the air," Fritz remarked.

           
"If so, dear," said Jenny, "we shall have the joy of
meeting them quite an hour sooner."

           
"Provided they have not gone into summer quarters on Prospect
Hill," Frank observed. "In that case we should be obliged to go back
to False Hope Point."

           
"Isn't that the cape from which M. Zermatt must watch for the
Unicorn?"
Captain Gould enquired.

           
"That is the one, captain," Fritz replied; "and as the
corvette must have completed her
repairs, it will not be long before
she reaches the island."

           
"However
that may be," the boatswain remarked, "the best thing we can do, in
my opinion, is to start. If there is nobody at Falconhurst we will go to Rock
Castle, and if there is nobody at Rock Castle we will go to Prospect Hill, or
anywhere else. But let us get on the march!"

           
Although
there was no lack of kitchen utensils and gardening tools at the hermitage,
Fritz had looked in vain for any sporting guns and ammunition. When his father
and brothers came to the farm they brought their guns, but never left them
there. However, there was nothing to be afraid of in crossing the Promised
Land, since no wild beasts could get through the defile of Cluse.

           
A cart
road—and how often already had it been rolled by the waggon which the buffaloes
and the onager drew!—ran between the cultivated fields, now in their full
vegetation, and the woods in their full verdure. The sight of all this
prosperity gladdened the eye. Captain Gould and the boatswain, and James and
Susan Wolston, who saw this district for the first time, were amazed. Most
certainly might colonists come here; it could support hundreds, the island as a
whole could thousands!

           
After
marching for an hour and a half, Fritz stopped for a few moments, nearly mid
way between the hermitage of Eberfurt and
Falconhurst, before a stream which he did not know existed in this part of the
district.

           
"That is something new," he said.

           
"It certainly is," Jenny answered. "I do not remember any
stream in this place."

           
"It is more like a canal," Captain Gould remarked.

            "
You are right, captain,'' said Fritz. "Mr. Wolston
must have conceived the idea of drawing water from Jackal River to supply Swan
Lake and keep it full during the hot weather, which would enable them to
irrigate the land round Wood Grange."