Page:The New Arcadia (Tucker).djvu/233

Rh threatened, so nearly, to mark the scene of their watery graves.

We may not stay to tell of pleasant rambles about the azalea groves and live-oak clumps of Walpole Island. It was quite uninhabited, being, as the captain explained, outside the beaten tracks of commerce, that follow one marked highway as closely as if buoys floated at every knot. It was removed, too, from the Polynesian groups, he showed, and was too small to maintain a population of its own.

"Woe betide," continued the skipper, "the trader marooned or sailor cast away on this lonely isle! A year he might wait the passing of some craft, swept, like ourselves, out of its course. A canoe driven to sea from the distant islands might land here for water and cocoanuts; but the visitors would, most likely, gobble up the marooner, if he were not too utterly starved to be toothsome."

These remarks impressed the benevolent doctor. Ere they weighed anchor, after a few pleasant days' repose, a supply of stores was landed and stowed away in a cave that was duly walled up. Directions were inscribed on a board beside the beach.

When a last visit was made to the island by the doctor, accompanied by Elms, together with the first mate and apprentice, Doctor Courtenay further supplemented the provision made for any possible castaway by flinging into the cave a tomahawk, a few rough tools, a gun and ammunition, fishing-lines, and also a copy of Shakespeare and of the Bible. "The poor fellow would die," he remarked, "even if he had plenty to eat, with nothing to read. I am sure I should."

The party, having a few hours to spare, ascended the one cliff to which the backbone-like central ridge