Fire Island - Being the Adventures of Uncertain Naturalists in an Unknown Track
Fenn G. Manville 1831-1909
English
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Below is a summary of Fire Island - Being the Adventures of Uncertain Naturalists in an Unknown Track
Fire Island, by George Manville Fenn.
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This is good vintage Fenn, with dreadful situation following dreadful
situation, and the heroes (mostly) managing to get out of it somehow.
Right up to the last chapter the reader never knows how the problems
that throw themselves upon a little group of naturalists and the sailors
that brought them to the island on which all these frightening events
occur, will be solved. NH
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FIRE ISLAND, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.
CHAPTER ONE.
WILD TIMES.
"Do I think it would be wise to put on a life-belt, Mr Lane?"
"Yes."
The words were shouted into the ear of one of the speakers, and yelled
back as, like others about the vessel, they clung to the side, now to be
raised high, now to be plunged down again, as the _Planet_, with only a
rag or two of storm canvas set, rode over a huge wave and seemed as if
turned into some new and ponderous kind of diving apparatus about to
seek the wonders at the bottom of the eastern seas. But after her
tremendous plunge right into a hollow she rose again, shook off the
water which deluged the deck and staggered on.
Just then a dimly seen figure sidled up to the two speakers, held on
tightly, and shouted--
"I say, Mr Rimmer, isn't that man steering very wildly?"
"Who's to steer tamely, sir, in a sea like this? Man has enough to do
to keep from being washed overboard."
The newcomer nodded and took a fresh grip of the top of the bulwark as a
sea came over the bows again, and swept along the deck, leaving them
breathless and panting, with the water streaming from oilskin and
mackintosh.
"Don't you want to put on a life-belt, too?" shouted the first speaker,
as in the darkness of that terrible night his words seemed to be
snatched away as soon as uttered.
"Yes; it would be safer; where are they?"
"Bah! Nonsense! Look down there. Suppose you had on a life-belt, what
could you do in such a sea? You'd both be knocked to pieces or have the
breath choked out of you in five minutes. Stick to the ship while you
can. That's good advice."
"Is there any danger?" shouted the young man who was nearest the last
speaker.
"Of course there is. No one could be in such a tornado without being in
danger."
"But shall we be wrecked?" asked the fresh-comer.
"Heaven only knows, sir. We're all amongst the islands and reefs, and
if one of them is in our way nothing can save us."
No words were spoken then for some time, and every man on board the
_Planet_ brig, which after a short stay at Singapore was off on a voyage
of discovery along the coast of New Guinea, clung to bulwark, shroud and
stay, or sheltered himself the best way he could from the waves which,
like the wind, seemed ready to pluck them from their hold.
Everything possible in the way of navigation had been done when the
frightful storm came on, after scant warning in the way of a falling
barometer. Then nothing was left for the unfortunates on board but to
hold on and wait for the end of the hurricane as they were swept along
swiftly in its course.
Three days before, they had been sailing gently within sight of the
towering volcanoes of Java. Now, as Mr Rimmer, the chief mate, said,
they were "anywhere," the wind having veered round as if blowing in a
vast circle, and all government of the brig being pretty well at an end.
Matters had been bad enough while it was daylight. When darkness came
on the little hope which had remained was pretty well quenched; and
Oliver Lane began to think of the home in England that he might never
see again, and of how different the reality of the expedition was from
all that he had pictured in his rather vivid imagination.
When the trip was planned, and he obtained permission to join it through
the influence of his father, a famous naturalist, he saw himself sailing
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