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Chapter VI.
How We Built our Huts.

A Group of weary, despondent men clustering round a big wood fire; a lean-to tent of sailcloth, now all sodden and torn; grey mist, grey sea, grey sky; and far away—how terribly far it seemed !—the dim outline of that other island—that Island of Dreams—upon which, if we could only have reached it, we should have found shelter, food, clothes and a boat.

That was the picture day after day as we waited on Disappointment Island for the coming of the Southern winter, which, so it seemed, would bring us to our deaths.

Such a gaunt, ragged set we were, with thin fever-wasted faces and long, unkempt hair and beards. Could those whom we had known and loved have seen us then they would not have recognized us, such miserable scarecrows had we become.

Day after day we sat and discussed things, but we could arrive at no conclusion. Our island could furnish us with nothing in the way of timber, and even if it had been overgrown with trees we were all still far too weak to page 104have undertaken the task of building a serviceable raft, even if we had been possessed of the tools to work with. But we were absolutely without anything of that sort, and the few knives which we had were getting sadly worn and broken—they had to be put to so many uses.

The weather got worse and worse. The hail and snow storms were more frequent; and the bitter bite of the wind seemed intolerable; so that even when we clustered close to our fire we felt half-frozen.

"What can we do ?" we asked each other as we sat there, staring hopelessly before us. And not one of us had an answer to that question.

"We have got to do something," said Knud-sen, the third mate," for we are fixed here for at least a couple of months. Even if we could build a raft, we could not cross with the sea as rough as this. We must wait here until the worst of the winter is over."

"And by that time we shall all be dead," muttered one of the men dolefully. And a groan came from Mickey.

"If we could only find a nice big cave now," he said," sure, we might be all right then."

"I don't believe there is a cave in the whole island, Mickey," I answered—" unless it is the big one where the ship struck."

"And it's not myself that would be after going there," was Mickey's answer.

"We shall have to try and build a cabin like they have in the Old Country." So said John Judge.

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As I have told you, he also was an Irishman. He was the man who had been on the yard with me the night when the ship sank. We discussed that point. We knew how the cabins were built, but, rude as they were, they still demanded some materials—wood and peat—-and they had not the gales to withstand which our cabin would have.

"Sure, it would have to be a powerful big cabin to hold us all!" sighed Mickey." And where's the stuff to build it, Judge ? "

"But the idea is good/' Mr. Maclaghlan urged." That word about a cave has put a thought in my head. We must follow the example of the earth-dwellers of bygone days."

Knudsen and Bob Ellis nodded; but some of us enquired what the mate meant. And Mr. Maclaghlan went on to explain how the old savages had dug holes in the earth, and covered them over with grass.

"We should want a big hole, and then we shall have to place a long piece of wood across it for a strong back, and cover it in with heaps of tussock."

"That is all very well," I interposed." But where are we going to get that strong back ? You won't find a piece of wood six feet long easily; and we should want a pole as long and, strong as a ship's topmast. If you come to pile tussock up, you will soon have a ton weight, remember."

"And how are you going to dig down ?" asked another man. "We haven't any tools. And though the earth is soft on top from the page 106rain it would not be an easy task to dig it up."

"Be aisy," said Mickey." When it comes to doing a thing or dying it is wonderful what a lot a fellow can do. We have just got to scratch it up with our nails, my boy, as if we were moles or rabbits."

"Wish I had a rabbit now," murmured. And Mickey answered:

"Oh, don't, Charlie! Sure, my mouth just waters at the mention of the same."

"Now, lads, we don't want to talk about what we haven't got," interrupted Knudsen." But we will think of what we have to do. Charlie says that we can't find any wood suitable for a strong back, and I agree with him."

"Then that settles the hut question."

"Not a bit of it! Instead of building one big hut we must make a lot of small ones. I propose that we work in pairs, each pair to make their own hut according to their own fancy. Don't be disheartened. It looks like a big job to dig out six or seven feet of earth with your finger-nails, but it isn't a thing that is going to beat us."

Why weren't we born worms?" muttered someone. And the words made us laugh, bad as our plight was.

And so we agreed to the third mate's proposal, and we paired off; and I had John Judge for my mate. Nor could I have wanted a better one, for Judge was no" stiff," and he was quite ready to take his full share of work.

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But what a job it was! First of all we marked out a space six feet by three feet, roughly speaking. We considered that this would give us all the room we wanted, for our hut was chiefly for sleeping purposes, and had we made it larger it would not have been so warm. The other fellows kept to about the same measurements; and then we started work.

Well, if anyone wants to try what it is like they can easily do so. All they need do is to go to some hard ground and start scratching a hole three feet wide, six feet long, and several feet deep, and they will soon understand the sort of thing that faced us; and it must be remembered that we were all so sick and weak that a very little knocked us up.

But painful as it was it gave us something to do, and the exertion kept us warm, so what with our scratching at the earth and going for wood for the fire, and catching and cooking our mollyhawks, our days were fairly busy ones.

But, oh, what objects we were—covered with mud, and drenched with rain, with our nails all broken and bleeding, and our clothes dropping off us!

"Charlie, my boy," said my mate to me, as we stood surveying the result of our toil," we will be through with this by the time we are old men if we go on at this rate." And, indeed, his words seemed true, for we had barely scratched the surface off the earth, for all our page 108hard work." We have got to get on a bit quicker somehow."

"Suppose we got pieces of wood and drove them in, like the fellows in London break up the earth when they are repairing the roads?" I suggested. And Judge applauded the idea.

So when we went for a supply of wood for the fires we looked about and selected some strong, tough pieces, and when we had made some sort of point to these we found that they answered our purpose very well; and soon all the other chaps had followed our example.

It was a bit easier now, and it saved our nails and fingers. We would drive the wood in—not too far, for fear of breaking it—and then work it about until it had cracked the earth, so that we could lift the pieces out. And so we went on working patiently, until we had sunk our foundations low enough.

I must say that when we had finished it looked unpleasantly like a grave, but we did not stop to think of that; it was a race between us and the weather; and it seemed as if the weather was going to win.

The hole finished, we next searched for two good strong pieces of wood which were forked at the end like a clothes-prop, and one of these we stuck up at the head of our future dwelling and the other at the foot, taking care to hammer them well in, for they would have to bear all the weight of the roof.

This done, we started to look for our strong back—that is, the piece of wood to run the length of the hut, and carry the roof. We page 109only wanted a piece six feet long, but, though we had a good search, we could not find one long enough, so we had to get two good, stout pieces and seize (lash) them together with a piece of our rope. This we hoped would do all right, and we placed it, resting in the forks of the head and foot pieces.

Now our hardest task was over, and the rest was fair sailing. We got a lot of pieces and slanted them from the sides of our hole up to the strong back, to make a sloping roof; and then, this done, we laid a lot of lighter sticks crossways on these, weaving them in and out like basket-work. And there we had something that looked like an open wicker-work roof over the hole.

But that would not have done for us. We had only got the skeleton of the thing, and our next task was to thatch it.

We tore up heaps and heaps of grass and covered our house a foot deep with it; we covered the grass with big tussocks, then we put on a second big layer of grass, and on the outside of that another pile of tussocks, and outside all, a lot of pieces of wood, to prevent the wind blowing our roof away.

It was a funny-looking sort of thing when it was done—something between an ant-hill an a hay-cock—but we felt that it would want a very heavy rain to soak through all that lot; and though it had taken us a whole fortnight to do, we were satisfied with the result.

But our task was only half done. We had finished the outside^ but the inside had to be page 110attended to. For, as it was, the ground was in a terrible state, and we sank right over our ankles in cold, liquid mud, so that, though our bed would have been soft enough, it would not have been very pleasant.

Well, after we had. talked things over, we started to line the inside with grass—sides first, bottom afterwards. We cut a lot of bundles of grass before we commenced, and then we set to work. Our method was to stick a peg of wood into the wall, driving it through the wooden framework into the tussocks outside; then we would take a piece of rope yarn and give it a turn round this peg, then take a bundle of grass, take a turn round that, and secure it on the other side with another peg; and and so on until we had the sides covered with bundles of grass, all pegged down, and securely held in place.

The sides done, we turned our attention to the floor. We got out as much of the soft mud as possible. We laid down some sticks and covered them with a foot of ferns, then we put grass, then more ferns, and lastly, grass again, and our house was complete.

A strange house—very dark inside—where you sank down over your feet in the floor. At the top end of it we could just manage to stand upright, but it sloped down towards the door, and we had to crawl in and out on hands and knees. That was a decided advantage, for the smaller the doorway the less cold and wet could get in.

But when it was all done, what a luxury it page 111was ! It repaid us for all the trouble. No cold earth to lie on, no dripping sailcloth to shiver under. We could get in and bury ourselves in our flooring; we felt quite snug and warm, compared with what we had done outside. And, best of all, we were dry. Those were the huts we made; and there, on Disappointment Island, I suppose that they remain to this very hour.

And about the time that our huts were finished two of our number made a discovery which was of the utmost importance to us. They had been out looking for wood, and in their wanderings they had got to the edge of a very steep cliff which overhung the shore, and from their dizzy standing-place they had seen something, they could not tell what it was, moving about on the beach, amongst the rocks and big boulders which had fallen down from the cliffs at some time or other.

They stood and watched it for some time, unable to decide what it was. It was an animal of some kind—of that they were certain; but what sort of animal, how it came there, or what it lived on—that they could not tell. And so abandoning their search for wood, they hastened back to us, and told us of what they had seen.

The younger and less experienced hands hazarded all sort of guesses as to what these creatures could be, but the older hands—men like Knudsen and the second mate—at once came to the conclusion that they must be seals.

Their opinion excited us greatly, for seals would mean a great deal to us. In the first page 112place, seal meat is wholesome and nutritious-far more so than the mollyhawk flesh which we were eating; and in the next, sealskin makes good clothes, and we were now nearly naked. So we clustered round our fire, talking of this latest discovery, and considering how we could reach that part of the beach where the seals had been seen, and how we could manage to catch them if they came again.

We had little doubt about that last point, for those who knew the habits of these creatures told as that they kept to one ground for a long time, unless something happened to scare them away.

That night we sat talking somewhat late; and at last, when we banked up the fires, we determined to pay a visit to the place the next morning and see if there was any way of getting down to the beach.

By this time all our matches were gone, so we had to be careful never to let our fires go out; and in order to avoid that danger, we always kept five or six going at the same time, banking them at night.

We banked them in this way. Just before dusk we got a great pile of green brushwood— as I have said, it was something like common blackberry—and we would burn this pile right down until it was a heap of glowing ashes. Then we would place two or three big pieces of wood about as thick as a man's arm right in the middle of these ashes, which we would heap high over them; and then over all we would place great lumps of earth, taking care to stop page 113up any holes through which the smoke was escaping.

You may think that to do this would have put the fire right out; but it is something like the method which the charcoal-burners use in their work.

In the morning when the earth was removed there was nothing but a heap of cold grey ash to be seen; but when this was raked aside, there the big pieces would be red and glowing, and all we had to do was to put a little bit of rope yarn, teased out like oakum, and some dry sticks on top, blow away for all we were worth, and very soon a big fire would be blazing merrily. Night and day we kept our fires, knowing that if once they went out we should have no chance of lighting them again; and knowledge like that makes men careful, I can assure you.

Well, on that morning after our comrade's discovery of the seals, we all turned out early, and under their guidance we went to the cliff from which they had seen them; but when we reached the spot our hearts sank.

Our mates had told us that it was a nasty place, but how nasty we had not thought.

We found ourselves on the verge of a huge bluff, which rose sheer from the sea some two hundred feet, the top, as I have said, overhanging the bottom, which had been worn away by the action of the waves.

We surveyed it carefully, but could discover, no possible way of reaching the beach, until at last we spied a path, down which a page 114bold hearted man might perhaps make his way.

But what a path it was!—just a narrow little ledge, like a groove cut in the face of the cliff, which ran diagonally down towards the beach. It was covered in moss, which was very loose and wet, owing to the water dripping from the overhanging cliff above, and it was just about as dangerous a pathway as a man might well want to tread.

"I fear that no man can get down there/' said Bob Ellis gravely; and we shook our heads. We remembered the story which Pul, Walters, and Queerfelt had told us of poor Low's death, and it is little wonder that we hesitated.

"Look, there is something moving!" said Judge in an excited whisper; and he pointed down to the rock-covered beach.

Yes, he was right—something was moving with awkward, floppy, jumpy jerks, across towards the sea.

Crouching on the cliff-top, we stared down to where we could see the seal, and we longed to be able to get at it.

"It's a female," said Ellis."Look, there is her pup behind her ! I tell you, boys, there is good eating there, if we could only manage to get at them."

"If," I said." It is like the island over' yonder. It would be all right if we could only manage to get across to it."

"And we shall do that yet, Charlie, never fear. We have managed so far, and we shall pull through yet."

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Now, whilst we talked, Michael Pul was examining the rocky edge carefully, studying its every twist, noting where it sloped, and where a man must jump or slide if he wished to reach the bottom alive and with unbroken limbs, and at last he announced his intention of making the attempt.

"You can't do it, Pul. It is madness," he was told. But he was not to be frightened.

"I am going to try it. It is not so bad as the place where we got up from the wreck."

And at that the other fellows who had been with him then confirmed his words.

"But remember poor Low," said the second mate; and he shrugged his shoulders.

"A man can only die once. I think that path is easier than it looks. At any rate, I am not going to stand seeing those seals down there waiting for us and not take a fling at them."

"Well, if you go, I go," said Walters.

But Pul would not listen to that.

"Where is the need ? One life is enough to risk. If I succeed, others can go afterwards."

"There is sense in that," muttered Judge.

But none of us were quite easy about letting Pul take such awful risks for us.

You see, the task might have been possible for a strong, hearty man, but none of us could answer to that description, though we certainly were a great deal better than we had been during those awful days when the first mate died.

"I think that we ought to draw lots who goes," was suggested. But Michael Pul was page 116obstinate. And so, armed with one of our precious knives, the Russian Finn commenced his terrible descent, whilst we clustered on the cliff-top and watched him, our hearts in our mouths, what with anxiety for him and hope that he might succeed.

Down he went, so slowly and cautiously, pausing at every step to survey the ground, and determine where to plant his foot next. He seemed to be a great deal cooler than we were, though the danger was his.

"Be jabers, there's a lot of them creatures down there !" muttered Mickey." They are jumping about all over the place ! "

"So much the better, Mickey," I answered."It will give Pul a chance."

"And if he kills it, how is he going to get it up at all, at all ?" came Mickey's query. And certainly there were grounds for the question.

I put the question to Knudsen, and he, seeing the difficulty, sent back to the camp for one of our lines. How thankful we had been again and again that we had secured them ere the wreck broke up, for already they had stood us in good stead upon more occasions than one !

Having sent for the line, we again turned our attention to our comrade, who, steadily and surely, was making his way down that perilous pathway which led to the shore.

Now we would lose sight of him as the cliff shut him from view, and then we would catch a glimpse of him as he reappeared clinging like a fly to the rough cliff face; and more than page 117once we gasped as we saw him slip over the moss and stagger ere he could recover his balance.

"By all the powers he will do it!" muttered Bob Ellis.

And the Chilian, Santiago Marino, added, half to himself:

"He will do it. He is a brave man!"

But now the cliff-path sloped inwards so much that, crane our necks as we would, we could not see our comrade. And so all we could do was to wait, staring down towards the spot where we expected him to make his appearance, if he was successful in his endeavour.

And what a time those minutes seemed! Again and again the question forced itself upon us: Had he met with an accident ? Had he slipped ? Was he lying crushed and mangled or helpless on the rocks below ?

We waited and waited, and then Ellis turned.

"I am going down after him," he said briefly. "He ought to be down now, and there is no sight of him. He must have met with an accident."

"Never a bit of an accident," said Mickey. "Look—there he is foreninst that big rock! Hurrah for ye, Pul, my jewel! And may your shadow never be less !" And Mickey let off: a real Irish yell as he spoke, loud enough to scarce every seal for a mile around.

But his words were true. There on the beach we saw Pul, the knife in his hand, and he glanced up and waved his hand as he heard the cheer.

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"Whist, then' cried Judge to his fellow-countryman," or you will scare the creatures ! "

But the creatures had evidently been scared already.

We saw them raise their heads and stare in wonder at Pul, as though they had never seen a man before—which, indeed, is most likely— and then whilst the females and their pups made towards the sea, one or two old dogs barked loudly, and, showing their formidable teeth, seemed disposed not to only defend their territory, but to attack the rash intruder. And let me tell you that, awkward as a seal appears on land, he is by no means a foe to be despised, but can render a good account of himself, and bite as well as a good bulldog.

Michael Pul had met seals before, being a Finn, and he knew what he was about. He avoided the big dogs, and, rushing across the beach, he strove to intercept the retreat of a half-grown pup. He had two objects in view. The battle would be less severe than with a full-grown animal, and it would have been impossible for him to have got a big seal up that pathway down which he had come.

"Hurrah !" yelled Mickey, as he saw his companion gain on his prey. "Now you have got him, Pul !" But then he uttered a warning cry: "Look out, my darlint, or that brute will have you ! "

Michael saw the big dog seal and avoided it, contenting himself with snatching up a piece of rock and hurling it at it as he passed, an action page 119which sent the old seal flip-flop towards the water as fast as it could go.

Meanwhile the Finn's quarry, being headed off from the sea, turned, and with incredible agility strove to gain an oblique path across the beach, all the time giving vent to angry cries, and calling for its dam; whilst from the waves seals' heads popped up, and angry barkings came, as the creatures watched the struggle upon the shore.

Flop, flop went the seal; but Pul knew that as far as the race was concerned, the thing was in his own hands. He was between the seal and the waves, and pulled himself up sharply, but with caution, for had he tripped, or had his enemy charged him and bowled him over—a trick which the creatures seem to understand—it would have been away ere he could have recovered himself, and all his efforts would have been in vain.

And now as he drew near he stooped and picked up a fairly heavy piece of rock, and as the seal turned, barking and showing its teeth, Pul hurled the rock with all his force, striking the creature fairly on the nose—its most vuluerable part.

"Got him!" cried Knudsen, who had stood surveying the conflict in silence. "That settles it !"

Pul lost not a moment; he followed up his stone with his knife, and soon we heard his yell of triumph, and the seal lay dead, whilst we cheered for all we were worth.

"Don't try to bring him up; we have sent page 120for a line !" we shouted. And he waved his hand, and kneeling down, commenced to flay and clean the animal. The entrails he carefully threw into the sea, to be carried out by the tide, a feast for some hungry shark, in all probability. And this rule we always followed afterwards, for those who knew the seal's habits best told us that did we leave the intestines upon the shore where the seals came it would scare them away from the place, perhaps for months.

The skin Pul carefully placed away, so that it could be got later, and then he cut off the primest parts of the carcase, as much as he could carry, and commenced the return journey. He had not understood our words, and so did not wait for the line, which arrived just as he made his appearance on top, to be greeted with a rush and a cheer, and relieved of his burden.

And now we felt that a load had been lifted from us, for we saw that the seals were plentiful, and since one of our number had been down successfully, the rest of us could follow suit. Besides, we might by our ingenuity find some means of mitigating somewhat the natural perils of the pathway, and increase the facilities for getting the carcases to the cliff-top.

Then we marched back to our huts.

We made up big, glowing fires, and we thrust sharpened sticks through the slices of seal-meat and set them up to broil, determined that on the morrow we would pay another visit to the seals, and secure the skin of the one upon which we were now going to feed.

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I do not suppose that any of my readers would care for seal-meat, especially when cooked in that primitive fashion, and served without sauce or vegetables. It is very fat and oily; but after the tough, fishy mollyhawk, it was delicious to us. Later we had to eat it under very different conditions. But that cannot be told yet. And, by the way, not long after we found a root on the island which answered for vegetables; but at this time our only green food was sea-weed.

And that evening, ere dusk, we sat together, feeling more hopeful than we had done for a long while, and we thanked God for His great mercies to us in the face of so many perils and hardships.

The weather was now almost at its worse, but we had warm and dry huts to sleep in; and with the finding of the seals we saw the prospects of renewing our clothing, even if the dresses which we should make would be something like that which Robinson Crusoe wore on his island. We had no fashions to study, and so long as we were warm we did not care.

"We can get thread from the sailcloth," said Ellis, as we talked the matter over, for we felt as though we had each a plentiful supply of skins already.

But Mickey shook his head.

"That's all very well; but where will we be after getting needles from ? "

And Ellis laughed.

"Listen!" he said, and we heard a shrill page 122screaming arise from the gloom of approaching night. It did not alarm us now, for we knew what occasioned it.

"There is your answer, Mickey. Plenty of needles there," Bob Ellis said.

And what he meant I must explain to you.