CHAPTER IV

RAINBOW ISLAND

Across the parched bones lay the stick discarded by Jenks in his alarm.  He picked it up and resumed his progress along the pathway.  So closely did he now examine the ground that he hardly noted his direction.  The track led straight towards the wall of rock.  The distance was not great—­about forty yards.  At first the brushwood impeded him, but soon even this hindrance disappeared, and a well-defined passage meandered through a belt of trees, some strong and lofty, others quite immature.

More bushes gathered at the foot of the cliff.  Behind them he could see the mouth of a cave; the six months’ old growth of vegetation about the entrance gave clear indication as to the time which had elapsed since a human foot last disturbed the solitude.

A few vigorous blows with the stick cleared away obstructing plants and leafy branches.  The sailor stooped and looked into the cavern, for the opening was barely five feet high.  He perceived instantly that the excavation was man’s handiwork, applied to a fault in the hard rock.  A sort of natural shaft existed, and this had been extended by manual labor.  Beyond the entrance the cave became more lofty.  Owing to its position with reference to the sun at that hour Jenks imagined that sufficient light would be obtainable when the tropical luxuriance of foliage outside was dispensed with.

At present the interior was dark.  With the stick he tapped the walls and roof.  A startled cluck and the rush of wings heralded the flight of two birds, alarmed by the noise.  Soon his eyes, more accustomed to the gloom, made out that the place was about thirty feet deep, ten feet wide in the center, and seven or eight feet high.

At the further end was a collection of objects inviting prompt attention.  Each moment he could see with greater distinctness.  Kneeling on one side of the little pile he discerned that on a large stone, serving as a rude bench, were some tin utensils, some knives, a sextant, and a quantity of empty cartridge cases.  Between the stone and what a miner terms the “face” of the rock was a four-foot space.  Here, half imbedded in the sand which covered the floor, were two pickaxes, a shovel, a sledge-hammer, a fine timber-felling axe, and three crowbars.

In the darkest corner of the cave’s extremity the “wall” appeared to be very smooth.  He prodded with the stick, and there was a sharp clang of tin.  He discovered six square kerosene-oil cases carefully stacked up.  Three were empty, one seemed to be half full, and the contents of two were untouched.  With almost feverish haste he ascertained that the half-filled tin did really contain oil.

“What a find!” he ejaculated aloud.  Another pair of birds dashed from a ledge near the roof.

“Confound you!” shouted the sailor.  He sprang back and whacked the walls viciously, but all the feathered intruders had gone.