The Boats of the Glen Carrig by William Hope Hodgson

hideous valley sent up to heaven the reek of its
burning; whilst we, filled with murderous desires, ran hither and thither
with our weapons, seeking to destroy the vile creatures that had brought
the poor lad to so unholy a death. Yet nowhere could we discover any
brute or creature upon which to ease our vengeance, and so, presently,
the valley becoming impassable by reason of the heat, the flying sparks
and the abundance of the acrid dust, we made back to the body of the boy,
and bore him thence to the shore.
    And during all that night no man of us slept, and the burning of the
fungi sent up a mighty pillar of flame out of the valley, as out of the
mouth of a monstrous pit and when the morning came it still burned. Then
when it was daylight, some of us slept, being greatly awearied; but some
kept watch.
    And when we waked there was a great wind and rain upon the island.

X - The Light in the Weed
*
    Now the wind was very violent from the sea, and threatened to blow down
our tent, the which, indeed, it achieved at last as we made an end of a
cheerless breakfast. Yet, the bo'sun bade us not trouble to put it up
again; but spread it out with the edges raised upon props made from the
reeds, so that we might catch some of the rainwater; for it was become
imperative that we should renew our supply before putting out again to
sea. And whilst some of us were busied about this, he took the others and
set up a small tent made of the spare canvas, and under this he sheltered
all of our matters like to be harmed by the rain.
    In a little, the rain continuing very violent, we had near a breaker-full
of water collected in the canvas, and were about to run it off into one
of the breakers, when the bo'sun cried out to us to hold, and first taste
the water before we mixed it with that which we had already. At that, we
put down our hands and scooped up some of the water to taste, and thus we
discovered it to be brackish and quite undrinkable, at which I was
amazed, until the bo'sun reminded us that the canvas had been saturated
for many days with salt water, so that it would take a great quantity of
fresh before all the salt was washed out. Then he told us to lay it flat
upon the beach, and scour it well on both sides with the sand, which we
did, and afterwards let the rain rinse it well, whereupon the next water
that we caught we found to be near fresh; though not sufficiently so for
our purpose. Yet when we had rinsed it once more, it became clear of the
salt, so that we were able to keep all that we caught further.
    And then, something before noon, the rain ceased to fall, though coming
again at odd times in short squalls; yet the wind died not, but blew
steadily, and continued so from that quarter during the remainder of the
time that we were upon the island.
    Upon the ceasing of the rain, the bo'sun called us all together, that we
might make a decent burial of the unfortunate lad, whose remains had lain
during the night upon one of the bottom-boards of the boat. After a
little discussion, it was decided to bury him in the beach; for the only
part where there was soft earth was in the valley, and none of us had a
stomach for that place. Moreover, the sand was soft and easy to dig, and
as we had no proper tools, this was a great consideration. Presently,
using the bottom-boards and the oars and the hatchet, we had a place
large and deep enough to hold the boy, and into this we placed him. We
made no prayer over him; but stood about the grave for a little space, in
silence. Then, the bo'sun signed to us to fill in the sand; and,
therewith, we covered up the poor lad, and left him to his sleep.
    And, presently, we made our dinner, after which the bo'sun served out to
each one of us a very sound tot of the rum; for he was minded to bring us
back again to a cheerful state of mind.
    After we had sat awhile, smoking, the bo'sun divided us into two
parties to make a search through the island among the rocks, perchance
we should find water,