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King o' the Beach: A Tropic Tale, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 13 |
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_ CHAPTER THIRTEEN. "Oh, do make haste and get me quite well, doctor," cried Carey. "What a fellow you are!" said the doctor, laughing. "I can do no more." "Can't you?" said the boy, plaintively. "Oh, do try. I heard the captain say one day to one of the passengers that you were one of the cleverest surgeons he ever knew." "That was very complimentary of the captain, I'm sure." "Then if you are, can't you get my bone mended more quickly? It's so miserable to be like this." "Why, you told me last night after our supper that you never enjoyed a day more in your life. Surely you had adventures enough, finding pearl-oysters and pearls, eating green cocoanuts off the trees, fishing, and finishing off with an interview with a gigantic saurian and a sail back here." "Yes, yes, yes, it was all glorious, but every minute I was being checked either by you or old Bob, or by a sharp pain. Can't you put some ointment or sticking plaster over the broken place and make it heal or mend up more quickly?" "No, sir, I cannot," said the doctor, smiling. "That's Dame Nature's work, and she does her part in a slow and sure way. She is forming new bone material to fill up the cracks in your breakage, and if you keep the place free from fretting it will grow stronger than ever; but you must have patience. The bark does not grow over the broken limb of a tree in a week or two; but it covers the place at last. Patience, patience, patience. Just think, my boy, isn't it wonderful that the mending should go on as it does? Waking or sleeping, the bony matter is forming." "Oh, yes, I suppose it's all very wonderful, but--" "But you want me to perform a miracle, my dear boy, and you know as well as I do that I can't." Carey sighed. "I know it is very irksome," continued the doctor; "but just think of your position. Only the other day I was afraid you were going to die. Now here you are, hale and hearty, with nothing the matter with you but that tender place where the bone is knitting together. Don't you think you ought to be very thankful?" "Of course I do!" cried Carey. "That was only a morning growl. But tell me this: will my shoulders and neck be all right again some day?" "I tell you yes, and the more patient you are, and the more careful not to jar the mending bone, the sooner it will be." "There, then, I'll never grumble again." "Till next time," said the doctor, smiling. "I won't have any next time," cried Carey, eagerly. "Now then, what are we going to do to-day?" "You must be tired with your exertions yesterday." "No; not a bit," cried Carey, "and going out seemed to do me so much good." "Very well, then, we'll sail to the island again, and fish and collect." "And get some more cocoanuts. I say, I could climb one of the trees, couldn't I? That wouldn't hurt my shoulder." The doctor gave the boy a droll look. "There, how stupid I am!" cried the boy, flushing. "I want to do things like I used to, and I keep forgetting." "Try not to, then, my boy. Surely your own common-sense tells you that nothing could be more injurious than the exertion of dragging yourself up a tree by your arms." "Of course, doctor," said the boy, grinning. "It's my common-sense has a bad habit of going to sleep." "Keep it awake, then, not only now, but always." "All right, sir. What are we going to collect, then?" "Well, it is tempting to try and find some more pearls." "Yes, very; but I say, doctor, oughtn't we to--I don't want to go yet, for there's so much to see here--but oughtn't we to try and do something about going on to Moreton Bay?" "Ha!" ejaculated the doctor. "I've lain awake night after night thinking about that, my lad, but I always came to one conclusion." "What's that?" asked the boy, eagerly. "That we are perfectly helpless. I don't think we could construct a boat sufficiently seaworthy to warrant our attempting a voyage in her. There is plenty of material if we tore up the deck or the boards from below, and of course Bostock is very handy; but I am wanting in faith as to his making us a large enough boat." "Why not a bigger raft?" "My dear boy, we should be washed off in the first rough sea. Besides, a raft would be perfectly unmanageable in the fierce currents. We might be stranded on the mainland, but more probably we should be drifted out to sea. Either there or ashore we should perish from want of food. I am not wanting in enterprise, Carey, my lad, and it is terrible in spite of the beauty of the place to be stranded here; but I think our course, surrounded as we are with every necessary of life, is to wait patiently and see what may turn up. There is the possibility that some of the _Chusan's_ boats may get to one of the western ports or be picked up by a vessel, and in time, no doubt, the agents of the company will send a steamer round the coast to see if there are any traces of their great vessel. I believe we have a large sum in gold stowed somewhere below." "No fear of our taking any of it to spend," said Carey, laughing. "I say, then, you think we ought to settle down quietly, not bother about building a boat, and make the best of it." "Certainly, for the present. Let's get you sound to begin with, and let the matter rest till you can swing by your arms and climb cocoanut-trees without a twinge." "All right! I want to see my father and mother again, and I'd give anything to be able to send them word that we're safe; and every night when I've lain down in my berth it's just as if my conscience was finding fault with me for not doing something about getting away, for all day long I seem to have been enjoying myself just as if this was a jolly holiday; and you know, doctor, I can't help feeling that I should like to stay here for ever so long." "You can be quite at rest, Carey, my lad," said the doctor. "Certainly for the present." "Then hurrah for a day ashore and some more fishing! How soon shall we start?" "As soon as Bostock is ready. He's cooking now." "Yes, those two big pigeons. I'll go and tell him." "And I'll load a dozen cartridges with ball ready for the crocodiles." "Are they crocodiles or alligators?" "Crocodiles, my lad. You may take it for granted that alligators belong exclusively to America." Carey hurried forward, led by his nose partly, for there was a pleasant smell of roasting, and he reached the cook's place--a neatly fitted-up kitchen more than a galley--to find Bostock looking very hot, and in the act of taking the pigeons, brown and sizzling, from the oven. "Not quite done, sir," he said. "I shall put 'em in the oven again for half an hour just before you want 'em. It wouldn't have done to leave 'em waiting. Things soon turn in this hot country." "We're going ashore again as soon as you're ready." "That'll be in ten minutes, then, my lad." "You'll take a stronger fishing-line this time?" "Don't you be feared about that," said the old fellow, nodding his head sideways; "but come along o' me on deck. I've saved this here on purpose for you to see." "Pah! How nasty!" cried the boy, as Bostock brought forward an iron bucket containing the internal parts of the pigeons. "Don't look very nice, but I thought I'd save it till you come." "What for?" "Come and see. I'm just going to chuck it overboard and wash out the bucket." Carey grasped the man's reason directly, and they went on deck to the side where the water was deepest. As they looked over the side they could gaze down through the crystal-clear water into the groves of seaweed and shrubberies of coral, where the anemones and star-fish were dotting every clear spot with what looked like floral beauties. "Seems a shame to throw all that filth overboard, and spoil all that lovely clearness," said Carey. "Do it, sir? Ah, it won't spoil it long. There's them there as'll think it good enough, and in five minutes the water'll be as clear as ever." "But I don't see a single fish." "More do I, sir, but they're all about somewhere. Ah, look yonder; there's one of them black and yaller snakes. He's a big thick one too. See him?" said the man, pointing. "No--yes, I do," cried the boy eagerly, and he shaded his eyes to watch the strikingly coloured reptile lying apparently asleep on the surface, twined up in graceful curves, some thirty yards away. "You see if he don't go like a shot as soon as I make a splash." A line was attached to the handle of the bucket, which was then raised from the deck. "Stand clear," cried Bostock, and with a dexterous heave he spread its contents far and wide, dropping the bucket directly after to fill itself and be washed clean. "Where's the snake?" he said. "It went down like a flash, Bob; but what a horrid mess, and there are no fish." "Aren't there?" said the old fellow, coolly. "Yes! hundreds; where did they all come from?" "Oh, from below, I suppose," and after giving the bucket three or four rinses the old sailor stood watching the water, now alive with good-sized fish, darting about and bearing off every scrap of the refuse, not even a floating feather being left, so that in five minutes the water was as crystal-clear as ever. "What do you think of that, sir?" said Bostock, smiling. "Fish are pretty hungry about here. Be 'most ready to eat a chap who was having a swim." "It's plain enough that we could catch plenty from the deck here." "Yes, sir, if you didn't get your lines tangled in the coral. I'd rather moor the raft out in deeper water yonder off the shore. Couldn't have a better place than we had yesterday." Half an hour later they were being gently wafted towards their previous day's landing place, where cocoanuts were obtained, fish caught, and a large addition made to the number of pearl shells, which were laid on the sand in the bright sunshine, it being decided that on a large scale the task would be too laborious to open the great molluscs one by one. "I'll show you how it's done, gen'lemen," said Bostock. "I've seen it. Before long those shells 'll be gaping, and the oysters dead. Then we'll haul one of the biggest casks we can get ashore and scrape out the oysters and drop 'em in along with some water." "To decay?" said the doctor. "That's it, sir. Give 'em time and a stir-up every now and then, and they go all into a nasty thin watery stuff which you can pour away, wash what's left with clean water, and there at last are all the pearls at the bottom without losing one, while the shells have lain in the sun and grown sweet." Enough pearling being done for the day, Bostock attacked one of the heaviest laden cocoanut-trees, making a "sterrup," as he called it, by passing a short piece of rope round himself and the tree, tying it fast, and then half-sitting in it and pressing against the trunk with his legs, hitching the rope up foot by foot till he reached the leafy crown, where he screwed off a dozen fine nuts and threw them down upon the sand before descending. "Why, Bob," cried Carey, "I didn't think you were so clever as that." "More did I, sir." "But you must have had lots of practice." "Nay, sir, I never did it afore; but I've seen the blacks do it often, and it seemed so easy I thought I'd try." Later on, when well refreshed, they went cautiously to the mouth of the little river, stalking the crocodiles by gliding from rock to rock, but without result; not a single pair of watchful eyes was to be seen on the surface. There were, however, plenty of a mullet-like fish. But the party preferred to make use of their lines from the raft moored at the edge of the deep water, where they were not long in securing half-a-dozen fine fish partaking of the appearance of the John Dory as far as the great heads were concerned, but in bodily shape plumper and thicker of build. Then the raft was unmoored and the sail hoisted, to fill out in the soft land breeze, which wafted them back to their stranded home. _ |
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