# The Wreck of a World/Chapter 12

CHAPTER XII.
"And now," said I to Aurelia, as we sat in the cool evening in the company of the convalescent Gell, "now it is time for you to tell us by what miracle you preserved your life and reason during these four years, and finally managed to find us out and to get conveyed to us over these thousands of miles of ocean."
"Miracle indeed?" said William; "I have thought and thought over the mater, and though I never could quite bring myself to believe in your death, reason revolted from what seemed the ridiculous idea that you could possibly be alive."
"Well father," replied Aurelia, "if you want to hear all about it I will try and tell you. But it will be rather a long story. Are you quite comfortable dear?" added she as she rose and shifted the pillows in Gell's chair.
​"Quite comfortable, dearest, never ceased to be so since I came to myself and found you were really alive and still fond of me," he added in an undertone.
She kissed his brow and returned to her seat.
"You remember the day that I was lost—how we landed, the children and I, on a broad strip of greensward, while the boats drew up under the bank to take us back on board at sunset? Well I set them to work at running races and playing games of all sorts into which they entered heartily enough, poor little ones, after their long confinement on the boats. It was a real pleasure to me to enter into their childish delight, and for nearly two hours we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, and fairly tired ourselves out. Then just as the sun was getting low, and I was on the point of collecting them together in order to embark, a loud scream came from the wood behind, and as we hastily turned round, we saw two monstrous machines, the largest I had seen, coming from among the dark trunks and bearing down upon us."
"Yes," said I, "that is just the tale the children told. We thought they might have exaggerated through fright."
​"There was no time to be lost, so I shouted, "Run for the boats, children, run," and the little crowd at once set off for the shore, with the two monsters in hot pursuit. I saw that the poor little weary feet could never escape unless the attention of the foe was diverted. So I waved my arms and shouted and ran close up to the engines and succeeded in drawing the pursuit on myself."
"My brave girl!" murmured William pressing her hand.
"The two creatures turned on me, and I doubled back to the wood, thinking I should soon be able to double back again and get down to the water in spite of them. But I found these engines quite different from our own, which can only turn round on turntables, or by making immense sweeps of many yards' radius. No, they turned round almost as quickly as I could; and in straight runs, even over uneven ground, their pace was much greater than mine. Still had I not been tired with two hours running and racing I think I should have got safe away. As it was I made for the wood, which was an open one consisting of great pine trunks with no undergrowth between, and ​running from tree to tree gave the stupid monsters the slip a score of times. Still I felt my strength gradually failing, and the monsters at length realised that if they attacked me from two sides at once they would probably catch me, as indeed they nearly did, more than once."
"Good God!" groaned I with a shudder.
"It became clear to me that if I was to save my life and ever see you all again it must be by the aid of my wits and not my legs. I looked at the great trees but their smooth trunks were quite unclimbable. Presently I came to a sort of ditch, along which I crept out of sight of the 'hounds', and so gained a few yards by throwing them out. But a very few minutes brought them close on to me again, and my legs almost refused to move further. But I would not give up while a chance remained.
"My last rush was made towards a giant tree which stood alone in a small clearing. Providence must have directed me, for it was too far from all others to give me, wearied as I was, a good chance of another rush when driven from this position, and my judgment would have led me anywhere else. I heard the snort​ing of the monsters coming round the tree from both sides at once. This I thought was the end of all."
"Ah!" gasped Gell, "how I know every inch of the spot. It was there I traced the great wheel-tracks and your little footprints; there I saw you had made your last stand; and there that I picked up scraps which I knew to be portions of your hat and dress, which I brought home as the last relics of you. By what miracle can you have escaped after all? Go on and tell us. It passes my comprehension."
Aurelia looked much surprised. "So you did come and look for me after all? I always wondered you had gone off without any sign, but supposed the children must have told you I was killed, and you had thought it useless to waste time looking for my remains. But I am glad you did come to look for me—very, very glad."
It was Gell's turn to look surprised and pained as well. "What! have you really thought all this time that I would leave the place without doing all I could to find what had become of you, even had I been sure that I should only find my darling's bones? And thinking this you have yet been willing to love me still? Oh, my love, my love, how could you think this of me?"
​"Well dearest, I know better now. To go on then—as I gave myself up for lost, and cast a last thought on you, Father, and on you, William, and on the poor children whom I was thankful to have been allowed to save, I saw a cleft a few inches wide in the lower part of the giant bole. Tearing off my hat and jacket, I managed to squeeze myself into the hollow interior just as the two creatures came round, and by many snorts and screeches indicated their puzzlement as to what had become of me. My poor hat and jacket were torn to shreds and it must have been scraps of them that you found, and I dare say the stupid brainless things thought they had got hold of me at last. However, after fooling around for half an hour they finally disappeared, the sound of their steam-machinery died away, and I crept out to find it quite dark, and myself in the middle of a trackless wood, not knowing which way to turn.
For some time I tried to find a way out, but being dead-beat soon gave up the useless task till the morrow, and laid myself down at the foot of a tree to sleep. I awoke soon after sunrise, cold, stiff, and hungry. I now made a determined effort to make my way through ​the wood down to the coast, but seemed quite unable to get on the right track at all —."
"No wonder," said Gell, "without my compass I might have been wandering there still."
"At last I hit upon two pairs of great wheel tracks which I followed, thinking they were those of my enemies of the previous night, and would lead me down to the shore. Unfortunately however they bore direct towards the city of New Orleans.
"When I got in sight of the town I saw several engines moving about close under its walls and dared not approach nearer. So the whole of that day I was without food, and felt very weak and miserable. As soon as darkness came on I crept into the town and wandered about the desolate street in search of something to eat. At last I found a baker's shop when I regaled myself nobly on stale bread and cakes baked at least a week before. Then I crept back to the wood fearing to be in the town in daylight.
"If you had only stayed there," said I, "we should have met again, the time that I brought Lieut. Danvers up to see that it was deserted, which he would not believe on our word."
​"What! then you came into New Orleans while I was living in that wretched wood?"
"Yes, several days after we had lost you."
"Well then there must have been some fate which prevented our meeting. For several days I stole into the city in the evening for food, and back to the wood to sleep, till at last it occurred to me that sleeping out was by no means wholesome or agreeable, and that I should be just as safe in one of the empty houses as under a tree. So the next night I went into one of the houses and there remained, and in that house I passed most of the four years since.
"Without a soul to speak to! What an existence," said Gell.
"Well I was not idle, at all events. First I had my food to get, then my clothes to make, which kept me occupied. Then, as I found that the monsters kept outside the city for the most part, I began to go about more freely, and took what I wanted from the stores, or studied the books and maps in the public library. You see I knew you intended going to the Sandwich Islands, and made up my mind that somehow or other I would follow. For a girl to undertake such a voyage alone was no trifle."
​"I should think not," said I.
"So I set to work to study navigation, and I may say that I am quite prepared to command your Excellency's fleet, if you want an admiral, Sir," she added with a mock curtsy to me. "I mastered the art of taking observations, of great circle sailing, of working the log, and mapping a course on a chart. All that took time, but I wanted to insure as far as might be a successful voyage. Then I thought it necessary to get up the subject of steam engines, so that I might not by accident blow up my boiler, or otherwise come to grief. I then selected a beautiful and powerful vessel, one of the triumphs of our shipwrights before the new breed came in, and made little trial trips in her, till I could manage the steering gear and other apparatus. It was nearly two years before I felt in a position to start."
"Two years! but now it is four," cried Gell.
"You shall hear all about it. I now began to collect provisions of all sorts, as well as maps, books, instruments, and everything that I thought could be of use either on the voyage or for you when I reached these islands. I was single handed and this work ​took me six months. At last, when my preparations were all ready I set sail, but had not run a mile down the river when I went hopelessly ashore upon a sandbank.
"I tried every means to get off. I backed the engines furiously—it was useless. I waited till the next spring-tide, and even got another vessel and with infinite labour made fast a hawser and tried to tow her off, but with no result. I cried with vexation, but it was no good; I had to begin my preparations all over again.
"So I found another vessel, the one in which I came here, tried the machinery and found it satisfactory, and spent a whole year in lading her. The first ship had fortunately a large stock of fuel on board, but this one was almost empty, and tons upon tons of compressed naptha cakes I carried on board single-handed. Fortunately the stores of the city of New Orleans were at my disposal, and once on board the self-feeding appliances of the machinery would take all the business of stoking off my hands."
"But do you mean that you carried with your own hands several hundred tons of fuel on board that vessel?" asked I in amazement.
​"Well not exactly. I got the donkey engines to work, and made them lower and hoist the stuff to and from the boat. But every ounce of it I rowed across myself, making sometimes fifty journeys in the day. Oh, I wasn't idle.
"It was just six months ago that I made my second start. I knew more of the river now, although the constant shifting of its currents and sand banks used to puzzle the old pilots, I remember. So I got safe down to the mouth, when I found several large vessels lying at anchor across the outlet. These were ships of the new breed"—I observed she spoke very contemptuously of the new self-moving machines.
"By Jove!" said Gell, "they must have been the same we fought with."
"You fought them? Then that accounts for the distant cannonade I heard one day shortly after I had lost you? And what was the result? But I need not ask, for I know you got safely here."
"Oh we sank a lot of them, and cut our way through. Luckily we had the help of Dana and his crew who had just returned from a long cruise."
"Well there's more news for me," replied Aurelia. ​"As I was saying, I passed quietly through the line of ships, and was congratulating myself on having had no trouble with them, when to my vexation I heard the sound of an anchor being weighed, and presently the whole squadron or near it stood on the same course as I. Time after time did I try to shake them off or give them the slip, but they stuck to me like leeches, taking me no doubt for one of themselves. I drew the whole train of brutes with me as far as the Darien Canal, through which I meant to pass. Unfortunately it had completely silted up."
"Ah!" said I, "when we passed through we ran aground several times."
"It is dry now, quite full of sand. There was nothing for it but to go right round the Continent of South America, and to double the Horn. Off that Cape we encountered a tremendous storm, in which several of our consorts got separated from us, or else foundered, as many a time I expected to do. When the weather cleared I found myself with four vessels still in company, the same which came with me here, and which Mr. Dana and his companions so gloriously sunk. I thought he would have sunk me too, and I ​could have offered no resistance, even if I had wished."
"If he had—" said Gell, clenching his fist.
"You dear old stupid, I believe you are jealous of him still. Now that I am come on this island I don't mean to allow jealousy or any other bad passions to exist. So there, sir," said she, with an imperious little stamp of the foot.
"Well what next?" demanded I.
"There is no 'next,' save what you know. We had a fine and easy voyage from the South Pacific here, my troublesome companions ever at my heels, but I did not come quite straight, but touched at one one or two ports, ending with San Francisco, to see if I could find any vestige of human life. All were however deserted. From San Francisco we sailed on a straight course for Honolulu. And that's all," she added simply, as though the whole narrative had been of the most humdrum kind.
"Yes that's all," replied I. And its just the most wonderful tale I ever heard in my life, and that's all. My dear girl, I don't like to praise my own flesh and blood, but it is my conviction that there is not a man or woman living, no, nor one of all that I have ever ​known in the palmy days of the old country, that would have gone through all you have gone through and come out of it alive and in his right mind. Four years utter desolation—or rather such company as was worse than isolation—the company of demons—"
"My dear father, what nonsense. I wasn't afraid of the stupid clumsy things.
"No, that is the most wonderful part of the matter. The bravest of us would never say that. What do you say, William?"
"I say, Sir, that I have got for my sweetheart the bravest and noblest girl that ever blessed God's earth. And how she can ever bring herself to like a common ugly dull stupid fellow like me is one of those wonders that beats me quite as much as the story we have just heard."
And then Aurelia scolded him, and he pretended to be very penitent, and wasn't a bit, and then she scolded him again, and they were reconciled, with all the usual absurdities, which showed me that if Aurelia had the soul of a hero she had the heart of a woman. And then feeling myself in the way I turned into the garden and smoked a pipe, which I much needed as a ​sedative after all the wild adventures I had been following with my mind's eye,—and left the two lovers alone; and what they did or what they said after my departure I cannot guess, and they unaccountably neglected to tell me, so you, my dear children, must fill up the gap for yourselves.