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Jack at Sea, a novel by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 38. Not Beaten Yet |
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_ CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT. NOT BEATEN YET "How are you, boy?" The voice seemed to come from a great distance, and the face of the speaker looked far away, and yet his hand was being held in his father's firm palm. "Ah!" sighed Jack in answer. Then quickly, "Ned! Ned! Where's Ned?" "Safe here," said Sir John. "In the boat. We were only just in time." "He's coming to," said another familiar voice. "Pull away, my lads. Well, Jack, old fellow, you've been carrying on a nice game. How are you? Glad to see you. No, no, lie back for a bit. We'll soon have you on board." Jack said nothing for a few moments. Then quickly-- "Who was it fired that shot?" "Oh, never mind about who fired it," said the doctor gruffly; but he picked up a double rifle lying against one of the thwarts, and mechanically opened the breech, drew out a spent cartridge, and thrust in another. "Have your pieces ready, my lads. Half at the word cease rowing, aim, and fire. Are you ready, gentlemen? They're coming on very fast." "Yes; all right," said the doctor; and Sir John rose in the boat, rifle in hand, and gave the mate, who had spoken, a nod, and then he smiled as Jack rose up quickly and picked up one of the loaded pieces at his side. But no one fired at the rapidly advancing canoes, which were crowded with men; for suddenly there was a deep roar from the yacht, a heavy charge of grape-shot ploughed up the water in front of the first canoe, and the paddling in both ceased. Another shot sent the water flying over the second canoe, and as if animated by one brain, the paddles began to work again, not to send the vessels forward, but back toward the island; and five minutes later the boat was alongside the yacht. The men sent up a hearty cheer as Captain Bradleigh held out his hand to assist Jack on board, and his words were almost drowned in the welcoming cries; but Jack heard him, as the warm grip retained his hand, and another pressed his shoulder. "The best day's work, my lad, we ever did. God bless you, and thank Him for giving you safely back." Five minutes later the boat was swinging to the davits. "Don't want to punish them any more, Sir John, I suppose?" cried the captain. "No, no, let the miserable wretches go," said Jack's father. "Then we'll go back to the old anchorage, sir, for there's a look about the sky I don't like." The signal was given, and the yacht began to glide rapidly through the water, back toward where the volcano rose up glowing with colour in the morning light, while Jack was at Ned's side as he lay coming to on the deck. He stared about him for a few moments, and then fixed his eyes on those of Jack, breaking out half hysterically-- "I couldn't help it, Mr Jack, sir; don't set me down for a cowardly cur." "Help what?" said the lad wonderingly. "Turning like a woman, and fainting away that how. Oh, do give me a dose o' something, doctor, I feel sick as a dog." "No, no; lie still for a minute or two, and you'll be all right," said the doctor, patting his shoulder, and Ned uttered a cry. "Don't, don't, sir. It's agony--my bad shoulder--the arrow--and he hit me there with his club." "Ned, Ned," said Jack softly, as he bent over the poor fellow and held his hand, "who could think you a coward for saving my life?" The men began to cheer again when Ned was helped by the doctor and Jack down to his berth, wincing at the slightest touch, for his arm had received a nasty jar, but a smile came into his drawn face as he heard the hearty welcome. "Thankye, lads, thankye kindly," he kept on saying till he got below, where the steward helped him to change his clothes, and Jack went to his cabin for the same purpose. "Ever so much better, sir," cried Ned half-an-hour later, when Jack went to see him, and found him dressed and ready to go on deck. "That crack was just like one on the funny-bone, sir, but it's all gone off now. My eye, though! suppose it had been where he meant it! What a headache I should have had!" By the time Jack reached the deck, the islands from whence the blacks came were hidden by a peculiar-looking haze, and the _Star_ was racing through the sea to gain the shelter of the lagoon. "A hurricane, my lad," said the captain, "and we shall get into shelter none too soon." "A nice hunt you gave us, Jack," said his father. "Here have we been with half the crew hard at work every day looking for you two. Well, thank Heaven you are both back safe and sound." "We did our best to get back, father," said the lad, looking at Sir John wistfully. "Of course, I know that, my boy, and I hope you think we did our best to find you. The doctor here pretty well lamed himself with walking." "Of course I did," said that gentleman. "Doctors don't like to lose their patients, do they?" Go where he would during their run back to the harbour, Jack found the men ready to smile and salute him with a hearty "Glad to see you back, sir," till it set him wondering, and finding Ned forward alone, he went to him and said something about it. "Yes, sir, ain't it queer? I was thinking the same. I ain't done nothing but be civil to the chaps since we come aboard, but they're as pleased as Punch to see us back again. They're a bit disappointed though that Sir John didn't go in for giving the black beggars an out-and-out good thrashing." "My father says he came for a pleasure-trip," said Jack quietly, "and he does not wish to go back home feeling that it was obtained at the cost of killing a number of fellow-creatures." "No, no, of course not," said Ned quickly; "only you must draw the line somewhere, and I want to know whether black fellows who shoot poisoned arrows into you, and when you're swimming for your life, and ain't never interfered with them, and they come and try to knock your brains out with clubs, is fellow-creatures. Why, if it was me, I'd rather try to make friends with a respectable set o' wild beasts. They wouldn't eat you unless they was hungry. Strikes me that if I hadn't dodged that gentleman when he hit at me, I shouldn't have been here; nor I shouldn't neither if some one hadn't fired that shot. I say, Mr Jack, sir; it was Sir John, wasn't it?" "No, Ned, it was Doctor Instow." "Then that's two I owe him. I always used to think that Sir John was best man with a gun, but after that--well, I'm done. All I can say is, I hope my turn 'll come to do something for the doctor, and till it does I'll take anything he likes to give me, even if it's jollop, and won't make a face." Jack laughed. "Oh yes, it's easy to smile a grin, sir," said Ned, "but if you'd tasted some of the stuff he gave me you wouldn't." "Ah, well, you will not want any physic now, Ned." "Hah! it seems more natural on board now," said the mate, coming up smiling. "You two have given us an anxious time. We must have it all over as soon as we're safe from the hurricane." "Hurricane?" said Ned, staring. "What hurricane? Where?" The mate pointed astern, and Ned stared out to sea as the yacht raced along. "Well, I can't see anything," he said. "Can't you see that thick, hazy look astern?" "What, that bit o' fog?" "Yes; it is chasing us pretty sharply; I'm afraid we shall not get into harbour before it's down upon us. Ah, there's the skipper." The speaker walked quickly aft, and found Captain Bradleigh, who had just come on deck from the cabin, and after a look round there was a brief consultation, and all hands were piped on deck. Then for the next hour there was a busy scene. The tops were sent down, the sails doubly secured, boats swung inboard and lashed, and every possible precaution taken to make all that could be caught by a furious tempest thoroughly secure. "Well, I suppose they know what they're about, Mr Jack, sir," said Ned; "but it looks to me like taking a lot of trouble because the sky's getting a bit dark, and a shower's coming." But Ned's knowledge of the typhoon of the eastern tropical seas was naturally not very extensive, and he altered his opinion an hour later, when, in spite of the speed with which the yacht had rushed away before the terrible storm sweeping after them, the sea was white, and half the heavens black as night. It was at half-speed the yacht ran in through the gates of the reef into smooth water, and then turning round at full speed again, went on and on, till she was well under the lee of the great volcano, which did its part when anchors were down, and head to the wind they lay facing the quarter from which the awful hurricane blew. There was no narrative of adventure given by the seekers or the sought that night, nor any thought of sleep, for officers and men never left the deck, but passed a terrible time of anxiety in the expectation that one of the terrific blasts would tear the little vessel from her moorings and cast her upon the inner side of the reef. But the steam was kept up, and the propeller gently turning, sufficient to ease the strain upon the cables, and the anchors held fast. "She's a splendid craft, gentlemen," said the captain, when they had assembled for refreshment in the cabin, during one of the brief lulls of the furious blast; "but I'm afraid we should none of us have seen another day if we had been caught outside. A man feels very small at a time like this. The worst hurricane I was ever in. Didn't think the wind could blow so fiercely, Mr Jack, eh?" Jack shook his head. "It feels," he said slowly, "as if the world had broke away, and was rushing on through space faster and faster, and never to stop again." "Yes, sir," said the captain quietly, as he gazed at the thoughtful lad. "You're a scholar, and have read and studied these things. So have I, sir, but not from books, and it seems to me that these things work by their wonderful laws for reasons far beyond our little minds to grasp, and all are working for some great end." No one answered, and the wind began to increase in violence again, the noise almost stifling the captain's next words:-- "But we have not broken away, sir, and the sun will rise to a minute in the morning, just as if this hurricane had not come, and please God everything around us will be calm; but be sure yonder you will hardly know the island, it will be such a wreck." The captain's words were true enough as to the calm, for just before daylight the intense blackness which had covered the heavens passed away, leaving the stars glittering with a most wondrous brilliancy; there was a deep murmur dying away in the distance, and, utterly exhausted, Jack laid himself down on one of the cabin lounges, to drop off into the deep sleep of utter exhaustion, one from which he awoke to find the warm glow of evening shining in at the open window, and his father watching him with an anxious expression upon his face. Captain Bradleigh was quite right. The hurricane had passed, and the aspect of the island from where Jack stood with his glass on deck, sweeping the mountain slopes, in places a terrible wreck. The hollows and deep ravines had naturally escaped, but the higher portions, even on that side, were swept bare, and every now and then the lad gazed through his binocular at piled-up masses of tangled bough and branch shattered and splintered as if they had been straws. "Yes, my lad, it looks a terrible ruin here and there," said the captain, as Jack handed him the glass to try; "but changes take place quickly out here, and the sun's hard at work already repairing damages. Those heaps will soon rot away, and fresh growth cover the bare patches. It's bad enough, but an eruption from the mountain there would have done more mischief than this." Over a late meal there was a discussion about their future proceedings, and the elders went into the pros and cons of their position. "You could find us another island, captain, couldn't you?" said Sir John. "Oh yes, sir; several that I dare say would answer your purpose, but I'm afraid that we shall have the native difficulty go where we may, for these sanguinary blacks are a restless lot, and wherever there is a beautiful spot they generally take possession of it." "Of course," said the doctor gruffly. "We should do the same." "We have done the same all the world round," said Sir John, laughing. "Of course. 'It is their nature to,'" quoted the doctor. "For my part it seems a sin to go away when we have not secured half the grand specimens of birds to be found." "And my cases of insects not half filled," said Sir John. "But after his rough experience," said the captain dryly, "I cannot wonder at Mr Jack here feeling anxious to be homeward bound." "I?" cried Jack, turning upon the captain excitedly. "I anxious to go back? Why, what made you think that, Captain Bradleigh?" "Oh, I thought you must be, sir, after what you have gone through. Nobody could like that." "Of course I did not," said the lad, flushing. "It was terrible and risky while it lasted, but I don't mind it all now, and we might stay here for months and never see the blacks again." "That means you would like to stay a little longer?" "Yes, father," cried the lad excitedly. "It would be dreadfully disappointing to go away and not climb right to the crater now I have been so near, and know the way." An hour later Jack was on deck watching the stars, and listening to the deep, heavy boom of the surf on the reef, thinking of how wonderful the contrast was, and mentally going over the horrors of the past night, when he heard a familiar air being whistled forward, one he had often heard coming from the pantry at home, and he walked ahead, to find Ned leaning over the side. "Ah, Mr Jack! here you are then. I say, I'm not going to have any more of this nonsense. Doctor's all very well, but it's a strange thing if a man don't know best how he is." "Why, what's the matter?" "Doctor Instow's the matter, sir; and after all he ain't my master. If the guv'nor says I ain't to do a thing, or you, my young guv'nor, says it, why that's enough; but Doctor Instow don't pay me my wages." "What has he been saying to you?" "Put his foot down, and wouldn't let me wait dinner, sir. But I mean to go on as usual to-morrow morning." "Oh, very well; go on, then. But what do you think of our starting for home to-morrow morning, Ned?" "What, sir? Start for home--to-morrow morning?" "Yes, aren't you glad?" "Glad, sir? Will you excuse me asking you a question?" "Of course. What is it?" "Would you be good enough to tell me why we come out here, if, as soon as we find a place like this, we want to start back?" "The place is dangerous. These blacks--" "Bother the blacks! Who cares for the blacks, sir? Why, haven't we licked 'em over and over again? Oh, well, sir, I'm not master. All I've got to say, sir, is, I'm jolly sorry we came." "Then you are glad we are going back?" "That I ain't, sir. I say it's a shame. Why, the fun has only just begun." "Ah, well, we're not going yet. I said I should like to stay and see more, and do more collecting, and ascend the mountain by the way we came down." "There, I beg your pardon, Mr Jack, sir, I do indeed, for I was all wrong. Thought you were saying that because of the niggers; and I did hope you were too English for that." "Well, Ned, I hope I am." _ |
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