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King o' the Beach: A Tropic Tale, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 22 |
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_ CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. As Carey landed he glanced at the now enormous stack of pearl shells and at the tubs once more well filled with oysters, for the beachcomber had not let his men be idle. But the sight of the treasures of which they had been robbed only irritated the boy, and he turned away to forget it in encountering the grinning face of Black Jack close by. "Come, fro boomerang," he said, handing the wooden scimitar-like blade, and pointing along the sands. "Ah," cried the boy, eagerly, "give me hold." As he caught the boomerang, the other blacks started off along the sands as if they were going to field for a ball, and Carey laughed as he prepared to throw. "It will begin to sail up before it gets to them," he thought to himself, laughingly, and he rather enjoyed the idea of the big, lithe fellows running through the hot sand in vain. Then, imitating, as he thought, the black's action exactly, Carey sent the weapon spinning along about a yard above the sand; but it did not begin to rise, and before it dropped one of the men caught it cleverly and sent it back with such accuracy that Jackum caught it in turn and handed it to the boy. Carey threw again half-a-dozen times, for the curved blade to be caught by one or the other, no matter how wildly diverse were the casts, and sent back to Jackum, who never missed a catch, standing perfectly calm and at the proper moment darting out his right or left hand, when _flip_, he had it safely and handed it back, grinning with delight. "White boy no fro boomerang," he said. "No," cried Carey, who was hot and irritable with the failure attending his exertions. "You're cheating me; this one won't go." "No make um go," cried Jackum, slapping his thighs and dancing with glee. "No; it's a bad one; it won't fly back." "Yes, fly bird come back." "But it doesn't when I throw it." "No, won't come back." "And it won't when those black fellows throw." Black Jackum understood him perfectly and threw himself down on the hot sand to roll himself over in the exuberance of his delight. "Look here," cried Carey, growing more irritated; "you're a cheat. You knew that thing wouldn't go when you gave it to me. Get up, or I'll kick you." He made a rush to put his threat in execution, but the black rolled over and sprang up laughing. "White boy get wild likum big Dan. No fro boomerang. Look, see." "It's too bad, you're a cheat. Bad one. Bah!" cried Carey, throwing the wooden blade down. "You've changed it." "Look, see," cried the black, catching it up; and in the most effortless way he sent it skimming along the sand right away, full fifty yards beyond the farthest fielder, before it began to mount high in the air, executing a peculiar series of twirls and flutterings as it came back, till the momentum died out as it dropped not half-a-dozen yards from Carey's feet. "Ah!" cried the boy, excitedly, "I see how you do it now. Here, let me try." "Jackum fro makum come back ebry war." "Yes, but let me try." _Bang, bang_, came softened by the distance, and, looking sharply in the direction of the stranded vessel, two faint puffs of white smoke were visible. "What does that mean?" cried Carey, as he saw the fielders come running towards him. "Big Dan shoot, shoot. Say go hunt, get bird to cookie, cookie. Come, run fas'." He set the example and plunged at once into the great cocoanut grove, followed by Carey and his companions. "Big Dan no see now," cried Jackum, and he grinned and pointed up at the nuts overhead. "Good, good?" "Yes," cried Carey; "let's have some." The black said something to his companions, two of whom took off their plaited hair girdles, joined them together, and then the band was passed round a likely tree, knotted round one of the wearers' loins, and the next minute he was apparently walking like a monkey up the tree, shifting the band dexterously and going on and on till he reached the crown of leaves and the fruit, which he began screwing off and pitching down into the sand, where they were caught up, the pointed end of a club-handle inserted, and the great husk wrenched off. Then a few chops with a stone axe made a hole in the not yet hardened shell, and a nut with its delicious contents of sweet, sub-acid milk and pulp was handed to the boy, the giver grinning with satisfaction as he saw how it was enjoyed. The blacks were soon similarly occupied, each finishing a nut, and then Jackum led the way inland. "Are you going to the river?" asked Carey. "No, walk, kedge fis'," said Jackum, shaking his head. "Bully-woolly dar." "Bully-woolly?" said Carey, wonderingly. Jackum threw himself on the ground, with his legs stiffened out behind, and his hands close to his sides. Then with wonderful accuracy he went through the movements of a crocodile creeping over the sand, and then made a snap at the boy's leg with his teeth, making believe to have caught him, and to be dragging his imaginary prey down to the water, ending by wagging his legs from side to side like a tail. "I see," cried Carey. "Crocodiles. Yes, I know." "Big, big. Mumkull black fellow, white boy. Come 'long." Jackum started off, followed by Carey and the rest in single file, their leader with his head down and eyes reading the ground from right to left as if in search of something lost. He made straight for the forest, but selected the more open parts where the undergrowth was scarce, so as to get quickly over the ground, stopping suddenly by a great decayed tree, about which his companions set to work with the sharp ends of their club-handles, and in a very short time they had dug out of the decayed wood some three double handfuls of thick white grubs as big as a man's fingers, and these were triumphantly transferred to the grass bag one man had hanging to his girdle. Starting once more, Jackum suddenly caught sight of traces on the ground which made him begin to proceed cautiously, his companions closing up, club, spear, or boomerang in hand, and then all at once there was a rush and a spring, then another, and a couple of little animals bounded away, kangaroo fashion, in a series of leaps through the open, park-like forest, till as they were crossing a widish patch Carey saw the use of the boomerang, one of which weapons skimmed after the retreating animals, struck it, and knocked it over, to lie kicking, till one of the men ran swiftly up and put it out of its misery with one blow of his club. The other was missed, the boomerang hurled just going over its back and returning to the thrower after the fashion of a disappointed dog, while the little animal took refuge in a tree, leaping from bough to bough till brought down by one of a little shower of melon-headed clubs. Jackum held up the two trophies with a grin of delight, tied their legs together, and hung them on a stump. "Back, come fetchum," he said, nodding. The hunt continued till a couple of brush turkeys sprang up and began to run and flutter among the bushes, but only to be brought down by the unerring boomerangs; and these were also hung against a tree ready for picking up as the hunting party returned. The traces on a sandy patch, showing that a snake had crossed and left its zigzag groove, were next spied, and a little tracking showed the maker of the marks coiled up on an ant-heap basking in the sun. The reptile was on the alert, though, and raised its spade-shaped head high above its coils, displaying a pair of tiny diamond-bright eyes for a few moments, before a blow from the end of a spear dashed it down, broken and quivering. "Mumkull--bite a fellow," said Jackum. "Makum swellum. Brrr!" Carey grasped the fact that the snake was of a poisonous tendency, and it was left writhing on the ant-heap, with the little creatures swarming in an army out of their holes to commence the task of picking its bones into skeleton whiteness. A couple more large turkey-like birds were brought down and hung up in the shady forest they were now passing, the spreading branches of the huge trees being most grateful interposed between Carey's head and the sun. Here the blacks proceeded with the greatest care, starting no less than three snakes, which were allowed to scuffle off. At last one of the blacks uttered a faint cry, and he took the lead, following the trail of something quickly, till he stopped short beneath a huge fig-tree whose boughs spread far and wide. The black here turned to Carey and pointed upward with his spear to where, half hidden by the dense foliage, a clump of knots and folds upon some interlacing horizontal boughs revealed the presence of a carpet snake, whose soft warm brown and chocolate markings of various shades were strikingly beautiful. "Ugh! the monster!" exclaimed Carey, shrinking back. "Are you going to kill it?" "Mumkull, eatum. Good, good," cried Jackum, and the noise made below roused the sleeping serpent, whose head rose up, showing the mark where the mouth opened, and Carey could see the glistening forked tongue darting in and out through the orifice at the apices of the jaws. And now the creature seemed all in motion, fold gliding over fold, and one great loop hanging down from the bough some fifteen feet above their heads. "I mustn't run off," thought Carey; "but it looks a dangerous brute." He stood fast then, and the attack began, the blacks hurling their clubs up at the reptile with such accuracy and force that in less than a minute the creature had been struck in several places, and was striking out with its jaws and lashing its tail furiously. Another blow from a whizzing boomerang made the creature cease its attempts to get to a safer part of the tree and writhe so violently in a horrible knot of convolutions that it lost its hold upon the branch and came down through the interlacing boughs with a rush and a thud upon the ground. Here it seemed to see its aggressors for the first time, and, gathering itself up, its head rose with the jaws distended, and it struck at the nearest black. But his enemy was beforehand. Holding his spear with both hands he used it as a British yeoman of old handled a quarter-staff, and a whistling blow caught the reptile a couple of feet below the head, which dropped inert, the vertebrae being broken, and a series of blows from other spears, one aimed at the tail, finished the business. The danger was over, and the serpent began to untwine itself, till it lay out, a long heaving mass of muscles, completely disabled and dying after the slow fashion of its kind. "Why, it must be sixteen or eighteen feet long," thought Carey, and then he stood looking on while the delighted blacks, who looked upon their prize as a delicacy that would be exclusively their own, cut a few canes, twined them into a loose rope, made a noose round the writhing creature's neck, and after one of the party had passed this rope over a convenient bough the reptile was hauled up so that the tail was clear of the ground and safe from the attacks of marauding ants. Then the hunt was continued. Several splendid birds were knocked over, and they were now high up in the river valley, where the great monitor lizards haunted the sun-baked volcanic stones. "Knock one of those down, Jackum," said Carey, who was anxious to see how the blacks would deal with the tail-lashing creatures. "Plenty, plenty," said the black, grinning; but he obeyed directly after, sending his boomerang whizzing at one, which suddenly bounded on to a rock and turned defiantly with open jaws upon those who had interrupted his noon-tide sleep. Carey had ocular proof that the nude blacks were cautious enough to keep their skins clear of the fearful lash formed by the steel-wire-like tails. For the boomerang struck the distended jaws with a sharp crack, and the next moment the reptile was down, with its silvery-grey scales flashing in the sun like oxidised silver, as it lashed its tail about like a coil-whip. It was not round Jackum's legs, however, when he ran up to recover his boomerang, but round and round the spear-shaft which he held ready for the purpose. A few minutes later the great lizard was dead. "Plenty cookie now," said Jackum, and they began to return, picking up their trophies as they went back exactly over their trail. "They'll only cut a piece out of the carpet snake," thought Carey. "It's too big to take back." But he was mistaken. That serpent was too fat and juicy, and promised too many pleasant cookings, to be left behind, and it was soon lowered down, to be dragged after the party by two of the blacks, who harnessed themselves to the canes about the reptile's neck, the smooth hard scales making the elongated body glide easily enough over the grass and sandy earth. "But I'm not going to ride in the canoe with that horrid beast," muttered Carey. "It's alive and moving still." But he did, for, when all their game had been successively picked up and they reached the edge of the lagoon, the great serpent was dragged in and fitted itself in the bottom of the canoe, and the rest was thrown fore and aft. Carey set his teeth, for he dared not let the blacks see him shrink, and stepped calmly in, to sit down with his knees to his chin and the thickest part of the serpent passing round behind his heels, the head and tail lying forward, with the paddlers sitting inside the loop it formed. They had cargo enough to make the slight vessel seem heavily-laden, but it was sent rapidly across the lagoon, the blacks eager and triumphant to display their successful efforts to their companions, who were all perched up on the bulwarks on either side of the gangway, face outward, waiting to see the portion that would come to their share. _ |
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