Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1900-04-12
CHAPTER XXI.
The Mystery Increases.

"" Inc Mystery increases.
An immediate search was resolved
upon. Lots were cast for the one who
was to remain behind to guard our
property and the duty fell upon me.
Armed with the boat stretchers, or
with clubs which they had carefully
selected and cut from the trees, His
lop departed with all my companions,
and after proceeding over the grassy
plain, they soon disappeared in the
woods that covered all the lower slope
OF the great mountain.
/ cannot describe the sensations of
loneliness that came over me on find
ing myself for the first time single,
alone, and left entirely to my own
reflections and resources.
The carpenters Ratchet was my on
ly weapon; and armed with it | sat
on a grassy slope midway between the
hut and sea gazing anXiously inland,
listening for any passing sound; but
all remained still, save the chatting of
the waves on one hand, and the loud
buzz of tropical insect life in the thick
cts or among the long grass on the
other
What, / asked myself, If savages
were actually lurking in the woods,
and, on seeing that ali my companions
were gone, they should come tumultu-
Ously down upon the hut and boat?
l would at cnce become their victim.
Or what would be my fate if my
friends fell into an ambush, or per-
ished in detail?
Could any human beings be lurking
in the two adjacent isles? was my next
surmise
We had never seen anything alive
on them-not even wild goats or boars,
and if there were other inhabitants.
the steepness of the rocks, which rose
sheer from the water and the fury
of the surf that rolled between, for
bade any attempt to cross.
So in such painful surmises. and in
keen watching, l passed the most OF
the day alone.
In the afternoon, one by one. all my
shipmates returned to our little head
quarters on the shore. weary and
jaded-torn by briers and brambles in |
the thickets-and all had the same
tale to tell. They had seen and heard |
of nothing save wild bears, wild goats /
and sea birds.
Hislop now directed that one of our I
number should guard the hut by night. |
and second the boat, with orders TO
hail each other in this fashion:
Boat, ahoy!"
Hut, ahoy"
This was TO insure a watchful look
out; but with all these precautions
wise and necessary though they we're
our feeling of security and even of
reliance on each other, was gone for
the time.
AS these occurrences excited the i'm
agination of our companions. some of
those who watched the hut and boat
by night asserted that when all orr
party, save themselves, were safely
lodged and asleep. something like the
inquire OF very tall man had appeared
for an instant on the bluffs that over
hung the sea, between them and the
But OF this mysterious parsonage. if
such existed anywhere, except In the
overstrained Imagination of a lonely
midnight watcher. we could discover
no trace during the day.
One night, when Francis Probart
and Ned Carlton were on watch
sound like the distant report of a pistol
was heard by them, and at the same
instant both saw a flock of petrels
ana storm fnches rise up in the moon
light from the face of the blum, where
sney revoived above the breakers, like
swarm of knats in a sunbeam
So II Ned and the carpenter were
mistaken in the sound the birds were
Also reused and alarmed.
Mark Hfslop ridiculed their story hut
he was considerably bewildered. and
80 were we all when two days after
ward seaman named Hugh Chute
when rambling In tho woods, found
one OF our goats. which we knew by
The fragment of rope still tied round