Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1898-03-15
IL >~. PART I'LL. ~
MY SHORE ADVENTURE.
CHAPTER KIT.
HOW I BEGAN MY SHORE ADVEN
TURE.

CHAPTER XIII.
HOW I BEGAN MY SHORE ADvEN-
TURE.
The appearance of the island when I
| came on deck next morning was al
together changed. Although the
breeze had now. utterly failed, we had
made great deal of way during the
night, and were now lying becalmed
about half mile to the southeast of
the low eastern coast. Gray-colored
| woods covered a large part of the sur
face. This even tint was indeed
broken up by strealls of yellow sand
break in the lower lands, and by many
tall trees of the pine family, out-top-
ping the others-some singly, some in
| clumps; but the general co!oring was
| uniform and sad. The hills ran up
clear above the vegetation in spires of
naked rock. All were strangely
shaped, and the Spy-glass, which was
by 300 or 400 feet the tallest on the
island, was likewise the strangest in
configuration, running up sheer from
almost every side, and then suddenly
cut off at the top like pedestal to put
| a statue on.
The "Hispaniola" was rolling SOUP
pers under in the ocean swell. The
booms were tearing at the blocks, the
rudder was banging to and fro, and
the whole ship creaking. grooming, and
| jumping like a manufactory. l had to
cling tight to the backstay, aud the
world turned giddily before my eyes;
for though I was a good enough sailor
| when there was way on, this standing
still and being rolled about like a bot
tie was thing never learned to stand
without qualm or so, above all in the
morning, OH an empty stomach.
Perhaps it was this-perhaps it was
| the look of the island, with it's gray,
! melancholy woods, and wild stone
spires, and tile surf that we could both
| see and hear foaming and laundering
| on the steep beach-at least, although
the sun shone bright and hot, and the
shore birds were fishing and crying ali
around us, and you would have though
anyone would have been glad to get to
land after being SO long at sea, my
| heart sunk, as the saying is, into my
boots; and from that first look onward,
hated the very thought of Treasure
| Island.
| We had dreary mornings work be-
| fore Us, for there was no sign of any
wind, and the boats had to be got out
and manned, and the ship warped three
! or four miles round the corner of the
| island, and up the narrow passage to
| the haven behind Skeleton island. |
volunteered for one Of the boats, where
| had, of course, no business. The
heat was sweltering, and the men
| grulnbled iercely over their work.
Anderson was in command of my boat,
and instead of keeping the crew in
order, he grumhled as loud as the
| worst.
WELL" he said, with an cath, cts
| not forever"
thought this was a very bad sign;
for, up to that day. the men had gone
brisl1]y and willingly about their busl-
ness; but the very sighu of the island
had relaxed the cords Of discipline.
All the way in, Long John stood by
the steersman and conned the ship.
He knew the passage like the palm of
his hand; and though the man in the
chains got everywhere more water
| than was down ia the chart, John never
hesitated once.
There's strong scour with the
ebb," he said, land this here passage
has been dug out, in a manner of speak
ing, with a spade"
We brought up just where the an
Choir was in the chart, about Il third of
| a mile from either shore. the mainlan
| on one side, and Skeleton island on the
other. The bottom was clean sand,
The plunge of our anchor sent up
clouds of birds wheeling and crying
over the woods; but in less than min
ute they were all down again, and all
was once more silent.
The place was entirely land-locked,
buried in woods. the trees coming
right down to high water mark. the
shores mostly fiat, and the hill-tops
omphitheater, one here. one there. Two
little rivers, or, rather, two swamps,
e1nptied out into this pond, as you
might call it; and the foliage round
that part of the shore had kind of
poisonous brightness. From the ship,
we could see nothing of the house or
stcckade, for they were quite buried
among trees; and if it had not been
for the chart on the companion. we
might have been the first that had ever
| anchored there since the island arose
| out of the seas.
There was not breath of air NOV
ing, nor a sound but that of the surf
booming half mile away along the
beaches and against the rocks outside.
A peculiar stagnant smell hung over
the anchorage smell of sodden
leaves and rotten tree trunks. I OBJ
served the doctor shifting. and shifting,
like some one tasting bad egg.
II don't know about treasure" he
said, "but I'll stake my wig there's
fever here" &>:,.
If the conduct of the men had been
= 1or>1OiDr in tho hoot II hnconno 4r,,|