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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 47. How They Sought Mother Carey's Chicken, And She Was Gone |
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_ CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN. HOW THEY SOUGHT MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKEN, AND SHE WAS GONE Singapore was reached in due time, and after communicating with the owners of his vessel, Captain Strong chartered a large schooner, engaged some additional hands, and sailed once more, this time for the purpose of reaching the _Petrel_--"Mother Carey's Chicken," as the men would call her--and getting out the portion of her cargo that remained uninjured. There was some talk of Mrs Strong and Mark going back to England, but Mark was so pressing to be allowed to accompany the expedition that the captain gave way, and they sailed together. "I may find the cargo so damaged as to be worthless," the captain said; "but if it is, I shall make expeditions to the best of the deposits, and come back laden with sulphur." It was a pleasant voyage, one not troubled by calms, so that they had but little fear of being overhauled by the Malay praus. The captain had worked out his course very carefully, calculating with minuteness exactly where the island must lie, and in due time a look-out was kept for the conical point of the mountain, which Mark was sailor enough to know would be the first to catch the eye. "No, my lad," said the mate, in answer to a question from Mark, "and I don't suppose we shall see it to-night. You come and keep the morning watch with me, and look out for the point when the sun touches it first. That's the time to see an island." Mark kept the watch with the mate, but they did not see the island, and the captain changed their course. "It must be somewhere here," he said; and he had a consultation with the two mates, who both agreed that they were near the spot, though no point was visible. The change of course produced no good effect, and after sailing here and there for several days the captain decided to make for the island where they had landed to have the day's shooting. This was reached with the greatest of exactness, and then, after examining the spot where the little engagement had taken place, a fresh start was made, and the vessel's course laid in a direction which they all felt must go over the same ground as the boat had drifted, and the ship had been carried after the fire, and she had gone ashore. "Breakers ahead!" "Ah! I thought we should manage it this time," said the captain eagerly, as, followed by Mark, he hurried on deck the next morning in the grey light, and there before them was a long curving reef of coral bending round to north-west and south-west, and inclosing smooth water apparently in a ring. "Why, Gregory!" exclaimed the captain. "Yes, sir; that's it!" said the mate. "Nonsense!" cried Mark, laughing at what seemed to him a joke. "Where's the mountain?" Where indeed! With very little difficulty the opening in the reef was found, and a boat lowered and rowed into the lagoon, where the lead was lowered several times but no bottom found. Returning to the ship sail was made again, and they went round to the north-west so as to prove that this was the reef by finding the opening which led into Crater Bay. Sure enough the opening was found, and the boat once more lowered to investigate and find that the coral-reef still spread out like a barrier, but the coral insects were dead, and as they investigated farther it was to find that there was not a single shell-fish of any kind living in the shoal water, nor any trace of life, but on the highest part of the bleached white coral there were a few blocks of blackish-grey vesicular or cindery-looking stone. "Gone?" said Mark, as he sat in the boat, "you think it's gone?" and he looked down with a feeling of awe. "Yes," said the captain; "gone as rapidly as no doubt it once rose from the sea." "But where was Crater Bay?" "Here where you are seated," said the captain. "Shall we try the depth?" "No," said Mark with a slight shiver; "it seems too awful. But do you really feel sure, father, that our wonderfully beautiful island has sunk down here?" "I have no doubt of it, my boy," replied the captain. "The eruption was awful, and the island was literally blown up, and its fragments sank beneath the waves. What do you say, Gregory?" "That's it," said the mate. "And all those lovely palms and ferns, Mark," said Morgan, laying his hand upon Mark's arm. "And I used to feel as if I should like to live there always," said Mark with a sigh. "Let's get back to the ship." The captain gave another glance round, sweeping the surface of the lagoon inclosed by the irregular ring of coral, and then gave orders for their return to the ship. While the men rowed back Mark tried to picture the scene as it last met his eyes; but turned from the contemplation with a shudder; and it was with a sigh of relief that he once more felt the firm planks of the deck beneath his feet. "And you mean to tell me," said Billy Widgeon, as he stroked and patted his monkey's head one evening during the homeward voyage--"you mean to tell me, Mr Small, as that there island sank outer sight and is all gone?" "That's it, Billy," replied the boatswain. "But it'll come up again, won't it?" said the stowaway. "That's more than anybody can tell, my lad," said Small. "All I know is as she's gone, and we're going back home. And a good job too." Mark Strong heard these words; and as he sat on the deck that night, beneath the clustering stars, with Bruff's head in his lap, he too began to think it was a good job they were going home, for his perilous voyaging was drawing to a close, and that solitary sunlit island that shone like a green jewel out of the purple sea was beginning to seem to him as if it had never been. "Thinking, Mark, my lad?" said a voice at his elbow. "Yes, father," said the lad, starting. "What about?" "The Island, and Mother Carey's Chicken." [THE END] _ |
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