Chapter 15 - Page 2

mess, for, to say the
truth, Bridget refused the ship's butter on this occasion, but luckily,
enough oil remained to furnish a tolerable substitute. Mark declared he
had never tasted anything in his life half so good!

At the end of the week, the governor, as Heaton had styled Mark, and as
Bridget had begun playfully to term him, gave the opinion that it was
necessary for them to tear themselves away from their paradise. Never
before, most certainly, had the Reef appeared to the young husband a
spot as delightful as he now found it, and it did seem to him very
possible for one to pass a whole life on it without murmuring. His wife
again and again assured him she had never before been half as happy, and
that, much as she loved Anne and the baby, she could remain a month
longer, without being in the least wearied. But it was prudent to return
to the Peak, for Mark had never felt his former security against foreign
invasion, since he was acquainted with the proximity of peopled islands.

The passage was prosperous, and it gave the scene an air of civilization
and life, to fall in with the Neshamony off the cove. She was coming in
from Rancocus, on her last trip for the stores, having brought
everything away but two of the goats. These had been driven up into the
mountains, and there left. Bigelow had come away, and the whole party of
colonists were now assembled at Vulcan's Peak. But Betts had a
communication to make that gave the governor a good deal of concern. He
reported that after they had got the pinnace loaded, and were only
waiting for the proper time of day to quit Rancocus, they discovered a
fleet of canoes and catamarans, approaching the island from the
direction of the Group, as they familiarly termed the cluster of islands
that was known to be nearest to them, to the northward and westward. By
means of a glass, Betts had ascertained that a certain Waally was on
board the leading canoe, and he regarded this as an evil omen. Waally
was Ooroony's most formidable rival and most bitter foe; and the
circumstance that he was leading such a flotilla, of itself, Bob
thought, was an indication that he had prevailed over honest Betto, in
some recent encounter, and was now abroad, bent on further mischief.
Indeed, it seemed scarcely possible that men like the natives should
hear of the existence of such a mountain as that of Rancocus Island, in
their vicinity, and not wish to explore, if not to possess it.

Betts had pushed off, and made sail, as soon as assured of this fact. He
knew the pinnace could outsail anything the islanders possessed, more
especially on a wind, and he manoeuvred about the flotilla for an hour,
making his observations, before he left it. This was clearly a war
party, and Bob