Jethou; or, Crusoe Life in the Channel IslesSuffling, Ernest R. (Ernest Richard)
General
Jethou; or, Crusoe Life in the Channel Isles
Suffling, Ernest R. (Ernest Richard)
Channel Islands; Jethou
We consulted Dr. Ogilvie's book upon all kinds of accidents that bones
are heir to, and came to the conclusion that either my collar bone was
broken or displaced, or my arm was out of the socket at the shoulder.
Alec soon set to work, and ripped my coat and shirt off, and after a
deliberate diagnosis of my upper man, concluded that my shoulder was out
of joint and must be put in. Again my comrade wished to fire the big
gun for assistance, but I made up my mind to attempt my own cure with
his help, as I had seen several cases of a similar nature treated on the
hunting field.
My arm is a strong one, and I must draw a veil over the agony which
resulted from the clumsy way in which we hauled the poor limb about; but
we clicked the bone in at last, and then faint from pain I must have
gone off into a deep sleep, for the last I remember was feeling Alec
wipe the perspiration from my forehead as I fell back on my pillow in a
faint.
For days I kept my bed, as every part of my anatomy had received a
tremendous battering when I took my flight over the jagged stones that
barred my way.
My constant thought as I lay on the bed with the glorious sunshine
streaming in from the open window, which gave me a view of the dark
trees standing out against the azure sunlit sky, was about the
hieroglyphics on the paper. What did the skull portend, and what did the
letters and figures refer to?
The skull I set down as the point to which the most importance was to be
attached, and as I believed it referred to some hidden articles or
treasure stowed away more than a century ago, I was naturally very eager
to find out its whereabouts.
Well, say the skull represented the treasure spot, what did the square
surrounding it mean? I gave it up. "Then what," I asked myself, "is the
meaning of the letters at certain angles round the square both inside
and out?" These I assumed to be the bearings of certain objects, as the
person stood at the spot in which the goods were hidden; the figures I
conjectured were the number of feet or yards distant of the "treasure
spot" from the various objects.
Next, where was it most likely a man would hide anything of value,
beneath the sea or upon dry land? Land certainly. Would it be among the
rocks or where the ground was softer? Certainly the latter, I should
say.
Then I set to thinking of the different places on the island where the
nature of the soil would allow of digging, and could call to mind but
few, and these mostly on the higher parts of the island. I determined
when I was able to get about that I would inspect all these places, and
see if I could find objects to correspond with the bearings and
distances given in the sketch. Having thus promised myself to pursue the
search further at a more appropriate time, I dismissed the subject from
my mind for the time being.
After several days of enforced idleness I was at length able once more
to go out, but at first felt very weak in the legs for want of exercise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account