CHAPTER FORTY ONE.
AFTER THE TYPHOON.
The repugnance and horror gave way to a sensation of joy. Here wasanother companion in misfortune, alive and ready to share the terribletrouble with us, but who was it?
I tried to withdraw my left hand from Ching's grasp; but as soon as hefelt it going, he clung to it spasmodically, and it was only by a sharpeffort that I dragged it away, and turned to the side of my othercompanion, and began to touch him. There was the bare arm, but that wasno guide; the face helped me no more; but the torn remnants of hisclothes told me it was not Mr Brooke, and my heart sank. I felt again,and my hand encountered a drawn-up leg, and then I touched a bandage.It was Tom Jecks, who had been wounded by the fire from the junk.
I could learn no more. I tried to speak; I shouted; but he made nosign, and I could not even hear my own cries. The darkness remainedprofound, and the deafening roar of the wind kept on without cessation.
But, feeling more myself at last, I determined to crawl about a little,and find out whether any more of our crew were near us. Then Ihesitated; but, summoning courage, I crept on my hands and knees, passedChing, and then crouched down nearly flat, for I had crept to where theshelter ceased, and to have gone on would have been to be swept away.
To test this I raised one hand, and in an instant I suffered quite ajerk, and each time I repeated the experiment I felt more and more thatto leave the shelter meant to die, for the power of the blast wasappalling.
Crawling back, I proceeded in the other direction, and found that Icould go what I guessed to be quite a dozen yards, feeling more and morein shelter. Then all at once I reached a point where the wind camethrough what afterwards proved to be a narrow pass between two masses ofrock, and I shrank back disheartened at the barrenness of my search.
In that black darkness it was very difficult to find my former position,even in so confined a space, and I found myself completely going wrong,and into the rushing wind, the effect being horribly confusing again.But, after lying flat down on the sand, which kept flying up and nearlyblinding me, I grew more composed, and, resuming my search once more,found where my two companions lay; and, after touching our woundedsailor, and finding him lying as I had left him, I began to think ofwhat I could do to help him, but thought in vain. To give help wasimpossible in the midst of that awful storm, and, utterly exhausted now,I sank back and reached out my left hand once more to try and touchChing.
He was on the alert, and caught my hand in both his, grasping it firmly,as if, boy as I was, he would gladly cling to me for protection; whileI, in my horror and loneliness, was only too thankful to feel the touchof a human hand.
Then, amid the strange confusion produced by the roar of the wind andthunder of the waves whose spray hissed over our heads, I lay wonderingwhat had become of Mr Brooke and the others--whether they had reachedthe land, and were screened behind the rocks as we were; then about the_Teaser_--whether she had been able to make the shelter of the riverbefore the typhoon came down upon them in all its fury.
I seemed to see the men at their quarters, with the spars lowered upondeck, the boats doubly secured, and everything loose made fast. Ifancied I felt the throb of the engines, and the whirr of the shaft, asit raced when the stern rose at some dive down of the prow; and thesharp "ting-ting" of the engine-room gong-bell struck on my ears abovethe yelling of the storm, for wild shrieks at times came mingled withthe one tremendous overpowering roar.
Then I began thinking again about Mr Brooke, and whether, instead oflying there in shelter on the sand, I ought not to be striving with allmy might to find him; and all at once the roar over my head, the thunderof the breakers somewhere near, and the hiss and splash of the cuttingspray, seemed to cease, and I was crawling about the shore, over sandand rocks, and through pools of water, to find Mr Brooke, while Chingfollowed me, crying out in piping tones, "Velly long of you. Windeeblow allee way." But still I toiled on, lying flat sometimes, andholding tightly to the rocks beneath me, for fear of being snatched upand sent whirling over the sea. Then on again, to come to a mass ofrock, up which I climbed, but only to slip back again, climbed once moreand slipped, and so on and on till all was nothingness, save that thedeafening roar went on, and the billows dashed among the rocks, but in asubdued far-off way that did not trouble me in the least. For mysleep--the sleep of utter exhaustion--had grown less troubled, thedreamy crawl in search of Mr Brooke died away, and I slept soundlythere, till the sun glowing warmly upon my face made me open my eyes, tofind Ching's round smooth yellow face smiling down at me, and Tom Jecksnursing his leg.
I started up in wonder, but sank back with a groan, feeling stiff andsore, as if I had been belaboured with capstan bars.
"You feel velly bad?" said Ching.
"Horribly stiff."
"Hollibly 'tiff; Ching lub you well."
Before I knew what he was about to do, he seized one of my arms, andmade me shout with agony, but he moved it here and there, pinching andrubbing and kneading it till it went easily, following it up with asimilar performance upon the other. Back and chest followed; and in tenminutes I was a different being.
But no amount of rubbing and kneading did any good to my spirits, nor tothose of our companion in misfortune, whose wound troubled him a gooddeal; but he sat up, trying to look cheerful, while, with my head stillconfused, and thought coming slowly, I exclaimed--
"But the storm--the typhoon?"
"Allee blow way, allee gone," cried Ching, smiling; "velly good job.You feel dly?"
I did not answer then, for I felt as if I could not be awake. I hadbeen lying in the lee of a huge mass of rock, amid stones and piled-upsand, upon which the sun beat warmly; the sky overhead was of a gloriousblue; and there was nothing to suggest the horrors of the past night,but the heavy boom and splash of the billows which broke at intervalssomewhere behind the rock.
At last I jumped up, full of remorse at my want of thought.
"Mr Brooke--the others?" I cried.
"We were talking about 'em, sir, 'fore you woke up," said Jecks sadly;and I now saw that he had received a blow on the head, while he spokeslowly, and looked strange.
"And what--"
"I'm afraid they're--"
"Allee dlowned; velly much 'flaid."
I groaned.
"I don't know how we managed to get ashore, sir," said Jecks faintly."I think it was because there was so little undertow to the waves. Whenthe boat struck, it felt to me as if I was being blown through theshallow water, and I shouldn't have been here if I hadn't come upagainst Mr Ching, who was pulling you along."
"Then you saved me, Ching?" I cried.
"Ching takee hold, and pullee here. Velly pull wolk. Him get hold oftow-chang, and pullee him both together."
"That's right, sir. I snatched at anything, and got hold of his tail,and held on. But you don't mind, Mr Ching?"
"No; mustn't cut tow-chang off."
"Let's try if we can find the others," I said; and, taking the lead, Iwalked round the mass of rock which had sheltered us, to gaze out at theheaving sea, which was rising and falling restlessly; but there was nowhite water, all was of a delicious blue, darker than the sky, and not asail in sight.
To right and left extended a low cliff, at whose feet lay huge masseswhich had fallen from time to time; then an irregular stretch of sandextended to where the waves came curling over, the swell being veryheavy, and the only trace of the storm to be seen was the way in whichthe sand had been driven up against the cliff, so as to form quite aglacis.
We could see about half a mile in either direction, but there was nosign of our companions, and my heart sank again. There were, however,here and there, ridges of rock, running down like breakwaters into thesea, and about which it fretted and tossed tremendously; and, in thehope that one of these ridges might hide our friends from our view, Iclimbed to the top of the highest piece of rock I could reach, and tooka long and careful survey.
"See anything, sir?" said Tom J
ecks.
"No," I replied, "nothing. Yes; about a quarter of a mile on there's aspar sticking up; it may be the boat's mast."
I came hurriedly down, and my announcement was enough to set mycompanions off, Jecks limping painfully through the loose sand, climbingrocks, and finding it no easy task to get over that so-called quarter ofa mile, which, like all such spaces on the sea-shore, proved to be aboutdouble the length it looked, while the nearer we got the higher and moreformidable the ridge seemed to grow, completely shutting out all beyond,where it ran down from the cliff at right angles into the sea.
All at once, as I was helping the coxswain over an awkward stone, thepoor fellow being weak and rather disposed to stagger, but alwayspassing it off with a laugh and an "All right, sir, I shall be betterafter breakfast," Ching uttered an ejaculation, and pointed to somethingthat the sea had washed up, and was pouncing upon again like a cat todraw it back.
My heart seemed to stand still, but a horrible fascination drew me tothe spot along with the Chinaman, for my first thought was that it wasthe body of Mr Brooke.
"Not jolly sailor boy," said Ching; and I felt a peculiar exaltation."Not Mis' Blooke. Pilate man dlowned. Ching velly glad."
We turned away, and continued our route, for I shrank from going intodangerous breakers to try and drag the man out, and my companion was tooweak. As to its being one of the pirates, it seemed possible, for Iknew that one, if not two, had gone overboard in the fight, and it wasprobably one of these.
We trudged on and reached the ridge at last, to find it bigger and moreprecipitous than I had expected. It ran out evidently for hundreds ofyards, its course being marked by foam and fretting waves, and I wasjust thinking what a fatal spot it would be for a vessel to touch theshore, when I reached the top and uttered a startled cry, which broughtthe others to my side; for there was the explanation of the presence ofthe drowned Chinaman! Spreading away for a couple of hundred yards, theshore was covered with timbers, great bamboo spars, ragged sails, andthe torn and shattered fragments of some large Chinese vessel; while,before I could shape it in my mind as to the possibilities of whatvessel this could be, though certain it was not the _Teaser_, Ching saidcoolly--
"That velly good job. That big junk blow all to pieces, and allee badpilate man dlowned. No go choppee off poor sailor head now. No 'tealsilk, tea, allee good thing, and burnee ship. Velly good job indeed;velly bad lot."
"You think it was the junk which cheated us?"
"Yes, velly muchee same. Look, allee paint, lacquee, gold. Allee samejunk; no use go find um now. No get head chop off for killee sailo'.Allee bad pilate allee dlowned."
"Hold hard there, sir," whispered Tom Jecks. "I can hear peopletalking. Quick! squat, hide; there's a lot on 'em coming down off thecliff."
We had just time to hide behind some rocks, when a party of about twentyChinamen came cautiously and slowly down on to the sands, and Chingwhispered as he peeped between the fragments of rock--
"Not allee pilate dlowned. Come along look at junk; take care; choppeeoff allee head; must hide."
Ching was quite right, and I was awake to the fact that we three wereprisoners on a little desert island, and in company with a gang of assavage and desperate enemies as man could have.