Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/270

 30 THE CRATER; as much skill and decision as Mark directed those of their husbands. The boat did not reach the Reef until dusk, or for an hour after the savages had been seen. The colonists had just left their work, and the evening being cool and refresh ing after a warm summer s day, they were taking their suppers under a tent or awning, at no great distance from the ship-yard, when the governor joined them. This tent, or awning, had been erected for such purposes, and had several advantages to recommend it. It stood quite near the beach of the spring, and cool fresh water was always at hand. It had a carpet of velvet-like grass, too, a rare thing for the Reef, on the outside of the crater. But, there were cavities on its surface, in which foreign substances had collected, and this was one of them. Sea-weed, loam, dead fish, and rain-water had made a thin soil on about an acre of rocks at this spot, and the rain constantly assisting vegetation, the grass-seed had taken root there, and this being its second season, Betts had found the sward already sufficient for his purposes, and caused an awning to be spread, converting the grass into a carpet. There might now have been a dozen similar places on the reef, so many oases in its desert, where soil had formed and grass was growing. No one doubted that, in time and with care, those then living might see most of those naked rocks clothed with verdure, for the progress of vegetation in such a climate, favoured by those accidental causes which seemed to prevent that particular region from ever suffer ing by droughts, is almost magical, and might convert a wilderness into a garden in the course of a very few years. Mark did not disturb the happy security in which he found his people by any unnecessary announcement of danger. On the contrary, he spoke cheerfully, compli mented them on the advanced state of their work, and took an occasion to get Betts aside, when he first communicated the all-important discovery he had made. Bob was dum- founded at first ; for, like the governor himself, he had be lieved the Reef to be one of the secret spots of the earth, and had never anticipated an invasion in that quarter. Recovering himself, however, he was soon in a state of mind to consult intelligently and freely.