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Mother Carey's Chicken: Her Voyage to the Unknown Isle, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 33. How The Circumnavigators Rested And Heard News |
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_ CHAPTER THIRTY THREE. HOW THE CIRCUMNAVIGATORS RESTED AND HEARD NEWS "This here's just what I like, mates," said Billy Widgeon, as he sat on the sand in the full light of the blazing fire with his fellow-sailor opposite to him, and a large piece of palm-leaf for a table-cloth. Jack was on his right munching fruit, and Bruff on his left, sitting up, patiently attentive, waiting for bones from the hissing, hot maleo bird that had been kept for the sailors' dinner. Small and the other men were close by smoking, and Jimpny, with his head neatly and cleanly bandaged, was lying upon his chest, resting his elbows on the sand and his chin in his hands, kicking up his heels as he stared at Billy Widgeon and listened to his adventures. Billy was hungry, and so was his mate, and when Billy carved he prepared so to do by opening his jack-knife and whetting it on his boot, after which he seized the bird, which was double the size of a large fowl, by one leg. "Now, shipmet," he said to his companion, "lay holt o' t'other understanding with both hands, and when I say haul! you put your back into it." The sailor took hold of the leg, Billy held on by the other, and placed the blade of the knife between two of the fingers of the left hand while he made believe to spit in his right. Then seizing the knife firmly, he plunged the point right into the breast of the fat, juicy bird, a gush of gravy came oozing out, and he began to cut so as to divide the food into two equal portions. "My hye! he is a joosty one," cried Billy. "It's worth waiting till now to get a treat like this, mates. Can't you smell him? Anyone going to jyne in?" "No," said Small; "we've all had plenty, my hearty. So go on, and tell us all about what you've done to-day." "All right!" cried Billy. "Now, then, messmet, she's nearly through. Now haul, my son. Hauly, hi, ho!" Billy's fellow-traveller hauled at the bird's leg; but that bird was rather overdone. Mrs Strong, aided by Mary O'Halloran as cook and kitchen-maid, had done their best in the rock kitchen with a fire of cocoa-nut shells and barks; but some piled-up pieces of coral and basalt, though they are great helps, do not form a patent prize kitchener; and though the result was very tempting to hungry men, there was a want of perfection in the browning of that bird. In fact here and there it was a bit burned, notably in its right leg--the one Billy's companion held--and that leg was so horribly charred that when the man hauled it snapped off like a burned stick, and the bird, by the recoil and drag, came right into Billy's lap. "What are you up to now?" cried the latter. "Well, you are a chap, playing your larks when we're so hungry! Don't you want none?" As he spoke, he worked his knife to and fro, and ended by making a division of the bird that could hardly be called a fair one. "Look at that," he said. "You've got first pick, as I'm carver; and though I feels a deal o' respect for you, matey, I don't think as how as you'd pick out the smallest bit, and hang me if I would, so here goes for another try." Billy made another cut at the bird, hewing off a good slice of the plump breast, which he laid on to the smaller side, giving it a flap with his blade to make it stick, and then passed it over. "There," he said, "that's fair; so here goes to begin. Hullo, matey, won't you bite?" he continued to the dog. "There, then, you can amoose yourself with them till your betters is done." He hacked off the bird's head and neck; and after slicing off a portion of the meat, added the drumstick to Bruff's share. He then began eating voraciously, giving his messmates a version of their "adventers," as he called them, since the morning. Billy would have made a splendid writer of fiction--a most exciting narrator, for he forgot nothing, and he added thereto in a wonderful manner. He threw in, with his mouth full, touches of description that made his companion stare, and his eloquence about the blackened hull of the vessel was wonderful. "Talk about charkle fires," he cried; "why, if my old mother was here she'd nail the lot and save it, to use up the fruit off some of these here trees and make jam." "Why, you can't make jam out of a burnt ship," said the stowaway. "Who ever said you could, Davy Jimpny?" cried Billy. "But you wants charkle to make it with, don't yer?" "Yes, if you can't get coke," said the stowaway sadly. "Well, I aren't seen no gasworks on those here shores nowheres, and so you can't get no coke, can you?" "Course not." "Well, then, charkle it is. The whole deck's charkle, and so's the bulwarks, and the chunk end o' the bowsprit?" "And the masts, Billy?" said Small. "Dessay they are, but they're floated away. The whole ship's a reg'lar cellar." Billy then got on about the length of time they stopped, about the wonderful nature of the crater bay, and the depth of the water. "Why, when you was rowing acrost it you could feel as it must go right through to the other side, it was so deep. No water couldn't be so black as that was without being hundreds o' knots deep." "I say, Billy, ain't you getting hundreds o' knots into your yarn?" said Small. "Not I, bosun. It's all fact; you ask my mate here if it aren't. I suppose you don't want to know about that there shark?" he continued, as he picked a bone in a very ungentlemanly manner, taking his hands to it, and once leaving it stuck across his mouth like a horse's bit, while he altered his position. "Oh yes, we do! Let's hear about the shark," cried all present. "Well," said Billy, "there aren't much to tell, only that as we was going along I says to the skipper, I says, 'There's a whacking great shark along yonder.' "'Ay, Billy,' he says, 'that's a thumper, and no mistake.' "There he was, going round and round us with his back fin above water, just like a steam launch, and before you knew where you was he puts his head out o' water, gives a squint at us to see which was the best looking to swaller--" "And he chose you, Billy, because you've got such short legs as wouldn't kick about much when you was down." "Wrong, Mr Small, sir," said Billy, handing the remains of his half of the bird to the dog and cleaning his knife by sticking it in and out of the sand; "wrong, sir. I think he meant Jack here; but the monkey squeals out and hops under my legs in no time, and Mr Jack-shark alters his mind and goes for Muster Gregory, shoots out o' the water, he does, and he was aboard of us afore we knowed where we was." "Get out!" said Small. "It's a fact, Mr Small, sir; ask my mate if it aren't. He didn't stop aboard cause he come crostwise over the bows; but there he was aboard for a moment afore he slips off, and when he comes round to try it again the skipper and Mr Greg lets him have it out o' their guns, and scared him off; and, bless your 'arts, I have seen a few rum games in the sea, but the way his mates chawed him up arterwards beat everything. Why, the lagoon, as they calls it, was chock full o' sharks--millions of 'em." "Were there now, Billy?" said Small, smiling. "Well, of course I can't say to a few, for we was a good ways off; but what I do say is that it seemed the sharkiest spot I ever see; and, if they'd only have stood still, you might have walked on their backs for miles." "Give Billy Widgeon a cocoa-nut to stop his talk," said the boatswain; "and there's a bit o' 'bacco for you, Billy, to clear your memory, my lad." "Oh, my memory's clear enough, Mr Small, sir," said Billy, who was eating something all the time; "but thanky all the same. And now, how have you got on?" "Oh," said the boatswain, "we've had a bit of a scare!" But a narration of this was being given where the other occupants of the boat were partaking of their evening meal. "Did the creature seem to come any nearer?" said the captain as the little group sat beneath the edge of the cocoa-nut grove, satisfying themselves with the reflected light of the men's fire, which had been lit as a beacon to attract them home. "I think yes, decidedly," said Morgan, who was rapidly getting better. "So did I at first," said the major; "but I have been in Africa as well as India, and have heard lions roar. When one of these gentlemen is doing a bit of nightingale he roars in one direction, then in another, now with his head up, and now with it down; and when you add to it that he roars loud and roars soft, he seems to be quite a ventriloquist, and you are puzzled." "But I think the animal came nearer, my dear," said Mrs O'Halloran. "I think so, too," said Mrs Strong. "I'm sure it did, papa," cried Mary. "Then I'm not," said her father. "It is impossible to tell how near a cry from a jungle may be." "Well," said the captain, "it is not pleasant to know that such a savage creature is close to our camp. Something must be done." "Seems a pity to pull up stakes and move," said the major. "Pity!" said the captain. "Suppose we do move to the far side, we shall still be within reach. We are fixed here, and it seems to me to be the best spot we can find, and the farthest from the volcano. I'm afraid it must be a case of war. Either our friend must be driven away or killed. What do you say, major, to an expedition in search of him?" "I'm willing," said the major. "But the risk?" said Mrs Strong. "More risk in waiting to be attacked than in attacking," said the captain. "I feel that we must put this danger beyond doubt, or we shall have everyone in the camp suffering from nervousness." "If you would wait a few days I could be of some use," said Morgan. "Then we will wait a few days," said the captain sharply. "It will give you something to anticipate and help you to get well." "I am well now," replied Morgan. "I only want strength." The report of all was the same, that over and over again the creature had been heard to roar savagely, and to be at times very close at hand. Still all this did not interfere with Mark's appetite. On the whole, though sorry that his mother and the O'Hallorans should have been alarmed, he was rather pleased to find that he had been right in his belief that from time to time he could hear the roaring. Maleo bird roasted--the repast being made off those that were first shot--was excellent; so was the acid fruit squeezed over it--fruit picked by Mrs O'Halloran while the others cooked. Then there was a kind of oyster which was delicious roasted in its shells. And one way and another Mark felt that he had never before partaken of so appetising a repast, especially as he sat sipping cocoa-nut milk when it was done. Everyone was in good spirits, for the captain promised tea and chocolate from the stores that were untouched by fire, and plenty of flour and biscuit--treasures, which would make their stay on the island far more bearable, without counting upon the many other things which the ship would supply. At last they separated to their couches of leaves and sand, after an arrangement being made for an early start next day to explore the island by a party well armed and ready to do battle with any enemy that might present itself. Mark's, sleeping-place was next to the major's now, the hospital being closed, for the stowaway wanted to be along with his mates; and the other wounded sailor sturdily declared that he was quite well now, and walked very nimbly to the men's hut. Mark recollected lying down, and then all was perfectly blank till he began dreaming in the morning that his father told him that he was not to go with the expedition; but just then the savage beast in the jungle roared and repeated its cry in a way which suggested that he was to come, for the creature particularly wanted him. This woke him; but all was perfectly still, and he could not tell whether the sound had rung upon his ears or not. It was daylight though, and, rising, he went out, to find that Small and Mr Morgan were taking the morning watch, while Billy Widgeon was lighting a fire in the rock kitchen. He was very sleepy still, and his couch coaxed; but he mastered the sluggishness, fetched his piece of calico which did duty for a towel, and after a careful inspection of the water, in company with Mr Morgan, he had a good bathe, and came back to shore feeling as if filled with new life, and ready for the expedition of the coming adventurous day. _ |
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