CHAPTER SIX.
HOW JIMMY WAS FRIGHTENED BY THE BUNYIP.
"Oh, I don't know that I've got any more to say about it," said JackPenny to me as we sat next day in the bows of the schooner, with ourlegs dangling over the side. "I heard all about your going, and therewas nothing to do at home now, so I said to myself that I'd go, and hereI am."
"Yes, here you are," I said; "but you don't mean to tell me that youintended to go up the country with us?"
"Yes, I do," he said.
"Nonsense, Jack! it is impossible!" I said warmly.
"I say!"
"Well?"
"New Guinea don't belong to you, does it?"
"Why, of course not."
"Oh, I thought p'r'aps you'd bought it."
"Don't talk nonsense, Jack."
"Don't you talk nonsense then, and don't you be so crusty. If I like toland in New Guinea, and take a walk through the country, it's as freefor me as it is for you, isn't it?"
"Of course it is."
"Then just you hold your tongue, Mister Joe Carstairs; and if you don'tlike to walk along with me, why you can walk by yourself."
"And what provisions have you made for the journey?" I said.
"Oh, I'm all right, my lad!" he drawled. "Father lent me his revolver,and I've got my double gun, and two pound o' powder and a lot o' shot."
"Anything else?"
"Oh, I've got my knife, and a bit o' string, and two fishing-lines and alot of hooks, and I brought my pipe and my Jew's-harp, and I thinkthat's all."
"I'm glad you brought your Jew's-harp," I said ironically.
"So am I," he said drily. "Yah! I know: you're grinning at me, but aJew's-harp ain't a bad thing when you're lonely like, all by yourself,keeping sheep and nobody to speak to for a week together but Gyp. Isay, Joe, I brought Gyp," he added with a smile that made his face lookquite pleasant.
"What! your dog?" I cried.
"Yes; he's all snug down below, and he hasn't made a sound. He don'tlike it, but if I tell him to do a thing he knows he's obliged to doit."
"I say, I wonder what the captain will say if he knows you've got a dogon board?"
"I sha'n't tell him, and if he don't find it out I shall pay him forGyp's passage just the same as I shall pay him for mine. I've got lotsof money, and I hid on board to save trouble. I ain't a cheat."
"No, I never thought you were, Jack," I said, for I had known him forsome years, and once or twice I had been fishing with him, though wewere never companions. "But it's all nonsense about your going with us.The doctor said this morning that the notion was absurd."
"Let him mind his salts-and-senna and jollop," said Jack sharply."Who's he, I should like to know? I knowed your father as much as hedid. He's given me many a sixpence for birds' eggs and beetles andsnakes I've got for him. Soon as I heard you were going to find him, Isays to father, `I'm going too.'"
"And what did your father say?"
"Said I was a fool."
"Ah! of course," I exclaimed.
"No, it ain't `ah, of course,' Mr Clever," he cried. "Father alwayssays that to me whatever I do, but he's very fond of me all the same."
Just then the captain came forward with his glass under his arm, and hishands deep down in his pockets. He walked with his legs very wideapart, and stopped short before us, his straw hat tilted right over hisnose, and see-sawing himself backwards and forwards on his toes andheels.
"You're a nice young man, arn't you now?" he said to Jack.
"No, I'm only a boy yet," said Jack quietly.
"Well, you're tall enough to be a man, anyhow. What's your height?"
"Five foot 'leven," said Jack.
"And how old are you?"
"Seventeen next 'vember," said Jack.
"Humph!" said the captain.
"Here, how much is it?" said Jack, thrusting his hand in his pocket."I'll pay now and ha' done with it."
"Pay what?"
"My passage-money."
"Oh!" said the captain quietly, "I see. Well, I think we'd bettersettle that by-and-by when you bring in claim for salvage."
The captain pronounced it "sarvidge," and Jack stared.
"What savage?" he said. "Do you mean Joe Carstairs' black fellow?"
"Do I mean Joe Carstairs' grandmother, boy? I didn't say savage; I saidsalvage--saving of the ship from pirates."
"Oh, I see what you mean," replied Jack. "I sha'n't bring in any claim.I knew that Malay chap wasn't doing right, and stopped him, that'sall."
"Well, we won't say any more about stowing away, then," said thecaptain. "Had plenty to eat this morning?"
"Oh yes, I'm better now," drawled Jack. "I was real bad yesterday, andnever felt so hollow before."
The captain nodded and went back, while Jack turned to me, and noddinghis head said slowly:
"I like the captain. Now let's go and see how your black fellow's headis."
Jimmy was lying under a bit of awning rigged up with a scrap of thestorm-torn sail; and as soon as he saw us his white teeth flashed out inthe light.
"Well, Jimmy, how are you?" I said, as Jack Penny stood bending downover him, and swaying gently to and fro as if he had hinges in his back.
"Jimmy better--much better. Got big fly in um head--big bunyip fly.All buzz--buzz--round and round--buzz in um head. Fedge doctor take umout."
"Here, doctor," I shouted; and he came up. "Jimmy has got a fly in hishead."
"A bee in his bonnet, you mean," he said, bending down and laying hishand on the black's temples.
"Take um out," said Jimmy excitedly. "Buzz--buzz--bunyip fly."
"Yes, I'll take it out, Jimmy," said the doctor quietly; "but notto-day."
"When take um out?" cried the black eagerly; "buzz--buzz. Keep buzz."
"To-morrow or next day. Here, lie still, and I'll get your head readyfor the operation."
The preparation consisted in applying a thick cloth soaked in spiritsand water to the feverish head, the evaporation in the hot climateproducing a delicious sense of coolness, which made Jimmy say softly:
"Fly gone--sleep now," and he closed his eyes, seeming to be asleep tillthe doctor had gone back to his seat on the deck, where he was studyinga chart of the great island we were running for. But as soon as he wasout of hearing Jimmy opened first one eye and then another. Then in awhisper, as he gently took up his waddy:
"No tell doctor; no tell captain fellow. Jimmy go knock brown fellowhead flap to-night."
"What?" I cried.
"He no good brown fellow. Knock head off. Overboard: fis eat up."
"What does he say; he's going to knock that Malay chap's head off?"drawled Jack.
"Yes, Jimmy knock um head flap."
"You dare to touch him, Jimmy," I said, "and I'll send you back home."
"Jimmy not knock um head flap?" he said staring.
"No. You're not to touch him."
"Mass Joe gone mad. Brown fellow kill all a man. Jimmy kill um."
"You are not to touch him," I said. "And now go to sleep or I shall goand tell the captain."
Jimmy lifted up his head and looked at me. Then he banged it down uponhis pillow, which was one of those gooseberry-shaped rope nets, stuffedfull of oakum, and called a fender, while we went forward once more totalk to the doctor about his chart, for Jack Penny was comportinghimself exactly as if he had become one of the party, though I had madeup my mind that he was to go back with the captain when we were setashore.
All the same, at Jack Penny's urgent request I joined him in the act ofkeeping the presence of the other passenger a secret--I mean Gyp thedog, to whom I was stealthily introduced by Jack, down in a veryevil-smelling part of the hold, and for whom I saved scraps of meat andbits of fish from my dinner every day.
The introduction was as follows on the part of Jack:
"Gyp, old man, this is Joe Carstairs. Give him your paw."
It was very dark, but I was just able to make out a pair of fiery eyes,
and an exceedingly shaggy curly head--I found afterwards that Gyp's papahad been an Irish water spaniel, and his mamma some large kind of hound;and Jack informed me that Gyp was a much bigger dog than his mamma--thena rough scratchy paw was dabbed on my hand, and directly after myfingers were wiped by a hot moist tongue. At the same time there was awhimpering noise, and though I did not know it then, I had made one ofthe ugliest but most faithful friends I ever had.
The days glided by, and we progressed very slowly, for the weather fellcalm after the typhoon, and often for twenty-four hours together we didnothing but drift about with the current, the weather being so hot thatwe were glad to sit under the shade of a sail.
The doctor quite took to Jack Penny, saying that he was an oddity, butnot a bad fellow. I began to like him better myself, though he didnothing to try and win my liking, being very quiet and distant with usboth, and watching us suspiciously, as if he thought we were alwaysmaking plots to get rid of him, and thwart his plans.
Gyp had remained undiscovered, the poor brute lying as quiet as a mouse,except when Jack Penny and I went down to feed him, when he expressedhis emotion by rapping the planks hard with his tail.
At last the captain, who had been taking observations, tapped me on theshoulder one hot mid-day, and said:
"There, squire, we shall see the coast to-morrow before this time, and Ihope the first thing you set eyes on will be your father, waving his oldhat to us to take him off."
Just then Jimmy, whose wound had healed rapidly, and who had forgottenall about the big bunyip fly buzzing in his head, suddenly popped hisface above the hatchway with his eyes starting, his hair looking moreshaggy than usual, and his teeth chattering with horror.
He leaped up on the deck, and began striking it with the great knob atthe end of his waddy, shouting out after every blow.
"Debble, debble--big bunyip debble. Jimmy, Jimmy see big bunyip downslow!"
"Here, youngster, fetch my revolver," shouted the captain to me. "Here,doctor, get out your gun, that Malay chap's loose again."
"A no--a no--a no," yelled Jimmy, banging at the deck. "Big bunyip--nobrown fellow--big black bunyip debble, debble!"
"Get out, you black idiot; it's the Malay."
"A no--a no--a no; big black bunyip. 'Gin eat black fellow down slow."
To my astonishment, long quiet Jack Penny went up to Jimmy and gave hima tremendous kick, to which the black would have responded by a blowwith his war-club had I not interposed.
"What did you kick him for, Jack?" I cried.
"A great scuffle-headed black fool! he'll let it out now about Gyp.Make him be quiet."
It was too late, for the captain and the doctor were at the hatchway,descending in spite of Jimmy's shouts and cries that the big bunyip--thegreat typical demon of the Australian aborigine--would eat them.
"Shoot um--shoot um--bing, bang!" _whop_ went Jimmy's waddy on the deck;and in dread lest they should fire at the unfortunate dog in the dark, Iwent up and told the captain, the result being that Gyp was called up ondeck, and the great beast nearly went mad with delight, racing about,fawning on his master and on me, and ending by crouching down at my feetwith his tongue lolling out, panting and blinking his eyes, unaccustomedto the glare of daylight.
"You're in this game, then, eh, Master Carstairs?" said the captain.
"Well, yes, sir; Penny here took me into his confidence about havingbrought the dog, and of course I could not say a word."
"Humph! Nice game to have with me, 'pon my word. You're a prettypenny, you are, young man," he added, turning to Jack. "I ought to tossyou--overboard."
"I'll pay for Gyp's passage," said Jack coolly. "I wish you wouldn'tmake such a fuss."
The captain muttered something about double-jointed yard measures, andwent forward without another word, while Gyp selected a nice warm placeon the deck, and lay down to bask on his side, but not until he hadfollowed Jimmy up the port-side and back along the starboard, sniffinghis black legs, while that worthy backed from him, holding his waddyready to strike, coming to me afterwards with a look of contempt uponhis noble savage brow, and with an extra twist to his broad nose, tosay:
"Jimmy know all a time only big ugly dog. Not bunyip 'tall."