The Island School — page 220: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

moot > ets /. : SOME STRANGE EXPERIENCES. Lal said he would go, and Chorker could take back some food to the starving masters. Chorker was loth to stir, he was in such a replete condition; but on being threatened with the venge- ance of the boys if he did not do as he was told, he consented to carry out their wishes; so they went on board and filled a sack with biscuit and meat, which they floated ashore on a raft made by Lal, and he was despatched with it to his late companions. As they were now pretty well sure of their position, as soon as Chorker was out of sight Lal struck out, making a bee-line for the castle across the higher sround. He reckoned he must pass about a mile to the west of the lagoon to be with Jim by the noonday hour. With good luck they would have a party to unload the vessel by tne shore before sunset, and start work the first thing in the morning. Now Lal was not possessed of the bump of locality, and as he had to travel over broken ground, now rising to small hills and now sinking to hollows thick with brushwood, he soon lost his way. The sea was out of sight, and the castle hidden somewhere among the distant woods. He paused and looked round him when he had travelled for an hour or so, and took refuge in the commonplace action of scratching his head in doubt. “Blest if I can be sure of my way now,” he | muttered ; bear more to the left. “Tam inclined to think that I ought to But if I do so, and it should be wrong, I shall get right out of the track, and land | myself goodness knows where.” In sober truth, he got. so bewildered that he could not, after a few minutes’ twisting and turning about in a hesitating way, have said offhand from which direction he had come. It was a parlous fix, and not so easily got out of, for there were no hills near of sufficient altitude for him to see far about the surrounding country. Look which way he might, there was nothing to guide him with accuracy. “T’ll try an old-fashioned trick,” he muttered. Picking up a small stick, he pointed one end of it, and holding it over his head, chanted the following refrain : * Tell me quick, and tell me true, Oh, stick of mine, which way to go.” He tossed it into the air and it fell. The point indicated that the path he ought to take—if there was anything in his way of seeking guidance—lay to the right, “I don’t believe it is correct,” said Lal, ruefully , “but I must take your guidance. If you have lied to me, oh, stick, Tl break you in two!” He walked on tothe right until the many undula- tions in his path changed to smoother ground; but ‘ 183 on ahead he beheld some jagged rocks, and standing on the top of one of the highest, the figures of nee men. They were so far off that that they were mere little dolls to his eye; but he could shrewdly guess who they were. The trio too clearly suggested the three schoolmasters. Almost at the some moment he became aware of a solitary figure staggering across the level at a dis- tance of half a mile. This, of course, was Chorker, betrayed by the burden of food he bore upon his back. It occurred to Lalthat, as he had come so far out of his way, he might as well go on and have a word with the schoolmasters; so he directed his steps across the level, which, after all, was not so level as it seemed at first sight. Phere were rents and cracks in the earth, unseen and unsuspected till one was close upon them—not very wide, it is true, but requiring some amount of nerve to eS over, as their depth was in many cases considerable. At length Lal came to one too wide to be leaped over, but not so very deep, and having descended to the bottom of it by means of its craggy sides, he found quite a smooth sandy path to travel on. It led him in the right direction, and he decided to keep to it. Asit was almost as straight as a ruled line for a considerable distance he was not likely to lose his way, and he kept to the lower road for nearly a mile, and then, as it abruptly terminated, he was obliged to ‘climb up to higher ground. But ere he reached the top he heard voices, and recognised the tones of the masters and Chorker, the former pleading and the latter arrogant. It was evident that the three men must have hur- ried up to meet the bearer of food, and for a share in it they were now asking. “ Chorker,” said Mr. Farrell, in the thin voico of a starving man, “at the peril of our lives we have crossed the water, fearing evil had befallen you. Have some consideration for us. By what strange good fortune you have come across food we know not; but, at least, as we shared other things of late, let us share in that.” “ Yes,” said Mr. Turner and the other undermaster together; “let us share. We are onthe verge of dis- | solution with hunger.” “Stand orf!” cried Chorker, threateningly; “ I’ve got a knife, and I'll use it if you come a-rushing me. You crossed the water, did you? Yes, when there warn’t none to cross. Now, look here: I wishes to act manly and fair. I had to buy this ‘ere erub, and Vl sell some of it to you.” “ Sell it!” exclaimed Mr. Farrell, 00 (G0) NIC cS co