CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
THE DRIFTING RAFT.
Without losing an instant Leslie whipped out his knife, and with a fewstrokes of its keen blade freed the unfortunate girl from her bonds;then, without saying a word to her, or wasting time in asking questions,he raised her tenderly in his arms, and, hauling the canoe alongside thecatamaran, carried her aboard the latter and gently laid her upon themattress that he had brought along with him for her especial benefit.The girl was practically in a state of collapse from her protractedsufferings; but by pouring a little brandy between her lips, and gentlychafing her limbs where they had been compressed by the tightly drawnbonds, and thus restoring the arrested circulation of the blood, he atlength brought her back to a sense of her surroundings. And then, asmight have been expected, as soon as she fully realised that she hadbeen rescued, and that she had nothing further to fear from her latecaptors, her tensely strained nerves suddenly gave way and she brokeinto a passion of weeping so violent that it thoroughly alarmed Leslie,who, poor ignorant creature, knew not what to do. Therefore, in theextremity of his ignorance, he did the very best thing possible; that isto say, he took her into his arms and soothed her with many tender andloving words. And as soon as she was calm enough to eat and drink, heplaced food and wine before her, and set her a good example by eatingand drinking heartily himself, chattering trivialities all the time todivert her mind, so far as he could, from her recent terrible adventure.Then, when she had taken all that he could persuade her to swallow, heinsisted that she must lie down and endeavour to sleep.
The rescue of Flora having been happily effected, Leslie was naturallyanxious to get back to the island as quickly as possible; for he dreadedlest the fearful shock that the girl had sustained, the long hours ofintense physical suffering and of even more intense mental agony thatshe had endured, should seriously affect her health, and it was only onthe island itself that he could afford her the requisite care andattention to ward off or battle with such a result. He therefore atonce hauled his wind, and, with the captured canoe in tow, headed thecatamaran on her homeward journey.
And now it was that for the first time he fully realised how stronglythe trade wind was really blowing, for, close-hauled as the catamaranwas, she felt the full strength of the breeze. It piped through herscant rigging with the clamour of half a gale, and poured into hercanvas with a savageness of spite that threatened to tear the clothsclean out of the bolt-ropes, while it careened the craft until the leegunwale was completely buried in the hissing turmoil of foaming yeastthat roared out from under her lee bow and swept away astern at aheadlong speed that made Leslie giddy to look at. And so furiously didthe over-pressed catamaran charge into the formidable seas that camerushing at her weather bow that she took green water in on deck at everyplunge, that swept aft as far as her mast ere it poured off into thedizzy smother to leeward, while her foresail and mainsail were streamingwith spray to half the height of their weather leeches. Leslie knewthat he was not treating his craft fairly in driving her thus recklesslyin a strong breeze against a heavy sea; but he had perfect faith in her;he had driven every bolt and nail in her with his own hands, and wasconfident that there was not a weak spot anywhere about her; and theexcitement and tension of the last few hours had wrought him into acondition of desperate impatience that would brook nothing savouring ofdelay. And, being completely dominated by this spirit of impatience, itwas a vexation to him to find that he would be unable to weather theisland without making a board to the southward, for as he stood there atthe tiller the whole island--or at least as much of it as showed abovethe horizon--loomed out as a misty grey blot against the star-litheavens clear of the luff of his foresail.
Leaning forward, Leslie gently raised the corner of the tarpaulin withwhich he had covered Flora to protect her from the moon's rays and thedrenching spray, and found, to his intense relief, that she had fallenasleep, the sleep, probably, of complete exhaustion. Nor was he greatlysurprised at this, for, as a matter of fact, now that the frightfuldanger was past and his excitement was subsiding, he also began toexperience a sensation of weariness and a desire for sleep. But this itwas of course quite impossible to indulge just then, so he lighted apipe instead, and gave himself up to reverie, steering the craftmechanically, with his eye steadfastly fixed upon the luff of hismainsail, as a sailor will, although his thoughts may be thousands ofmiles away from his surroundings.
As Leslie stood there, gazing abstractedly ahead and puffingmeditatively at his pipe, he was startled back to a consciousness of hissurroundings by a violent shock that thrilled through the catamaran andcaused him to look anxiously over the stern, under the impression thatthe craft had struck and run over a piece of floating wreckage. Hecould see nothing, however, and was still staring and wondering when thesame thing occurred a second time; and Dick now noticed that the windhad suddenly fallen almost calm, also that the surface of the oceanappeared to be strangely agitated, the regular run of the sea out fromthe south-east having in a moment given place to a most extraordinaryand dangerous cross-sea that seemed to be coming from all directions atthe same moment, the colliding seas meeting each other with a rush andcausing long walls of water to leap into the air to a height of fromtwenty to thirty feet. These leaping walls or sheets of water were in amoment flying into the air all round the catamaran, and falling back indrenching showers of spray that instantly flooded her. They at onceawoke Flora, who started up in affright, crying to Dick to tell her whatfresh danger had arisen.
"Oh, nothing very serious this time," answered Leslie; "It is quite anovel experience to me, I admit; but there can be only one possibleexplanation of it, and that is that we have just sustained a shock ofearthquake. If I am right in my surmise, this extraordinary disturbanceof the sea will subside almost as rapidly as it has arisen, and thatwill be an end of the whole business. But, by Jove, I am not so surethat it will be, after all," he added in quite another tone of voice."Just look at that!"
And he pointed toward the island, over the peak of which there hovered afaint glow, like the reflection upon smoke of a hidden fire.
"Why, what does that mean, Dick?" demanded Flora. "It looks as thoughour volcano had become active again; but that is hardly likely, is it,after remaining quiescent for so many years?"
"Well, as to that," answered Dick, "its long period of quiescenceconstitutes no guarantee that it will not again break out into activity.And, as a matter of fact, it certainly has done so; that ruddy,luminous glow, hovering like a halo over the peak, can mean nothingelse. So long, however, as it is no more actively violent than it nowis, no very serious harm is likely to ensue; but, all the same, I wouldvery much rather it had not happened. As it is, it is a hint to us tohurry up with our preparations and get away as quickly as may be from aregion where such happenings are possible. And now, lie down, againdear, and get some more sleep, if you can. You need all that you canget. And it appears that the disturbance is all over, for the sea issmoothening down again, and here comes the wind, once more, back fromits proper quarter."
When dawn broke, Leslie found himself within some ten miles of hisisland, but to leeward of it, Point Richard, its most northerlyextremity, then bearing a good two points on his weather bow; hetherefore tacked and made a board to the southward, with the object ofgetting far enough to windward to weather the reef on the next tack.Being now close enough to the island to get a distinct view of itsgeneral outline, he scrutinised it most carefully in the endeavour todiscover whether the earthquake had seriously affected it; and it waswith some concern and anxiety that he thought he could detect certainslight alterations of shape, here and there. Not, of course, that itmattered to him, in the abstract, how much or how little the island hadaltered in shape, provided--but this was a very big proviso--that it hadnot so seriously affected his dockyard as to damage the cutter, orcaused the treasure-cave to collapse to such an extent as to obliterateits situation, or bury the treasure beyond the possibility of recovery.
Anxious now to
get back to the camp at the earliest possible moment,Leslie was alternately watching the island and the luff of his mainsail,impatiently waiting for the moment to arrive when it would be possibleto again tack to the eastward, when his eye was attracted by theappearance of an object some distance to the eastward and broad on hislee bow. Looking at it intently, it had to him the appearance of a mastwith a fragment of sail fluttering from it, and keen though he was uponreaching camp with as little delay as might be, it was impossible forhim, as a sailor, to pass such an object without examination. With alittle stamp of impatience, therefore, he put up his helm and bore awayfor it.
It was not very far distant--a couple of miles, perhaps: certainly notmore; and to reach it therefore involved no very serious loss of time.It was not long ere he was close enough to it to enable him to make outthat it was a raft of some sort, rigged with a boat's oar, or a smallspar, for a mast, upon which was hoisted the remains of what had oncebeen a boat's lug sail. He noticed also that it was occupied by alittle group of recumbent figures, whose attitudes were grimlysuggestive of an ocean tragedy. They were mostly lying prone upon theraft, with the water washing round them; but one figure was seated withhis back supported against the little mast. They were evidently allinsensible, for though the catamaran was by this time quite close tothem there was no attempt made by any one of them to signal her; therewas nothing indeed to indicate that life still lingered upon thatforlorn little ocean waif.
Taking room for the manoeuvre, Leslie tacked at the right moment, and,with fore sheet to windward, slid gradually and with steadily decreasingway up to the lee side of the raft, which he reached just as, with themain sheet eased full off, the catamaran lost way altogether. And as heglided up alongside the helplessly drifting fabric there came to hisnostrils a whiff of poisoned air that told its own tale only tooclearly. Still, although death was so obviously present, it waspossible that life might be there too; so taking a rope's-end with himhe sprang on to the little structure, and secured the two crafttogether. Then he rapidly examined the motionless figures, one afterthe other. There were five of them altogether, and of these five, threewere undoubtedly dead; but in the case of the other two it seemed justpossible that life was not quite extinct, and he therefore hurriedlyremoved them both to the catamaran, and as hurriedly cast the raftadrift again. Luckily Flora was once more asleep, and so escaped thedreadful sight presented by that little platform of broken planking andodds and ends of splintered timber, with its ghastly load, the emptywater-breaker and entire absence of food on the raft telling at a glancethe whole history of the tragedy.
The moment that the catamaran was again clear of the raft, Leslie turnedhis attention to the two pitifully emaciated and rag-clad objects thathe had rescued, and commenced operations by administering a smallquantity of brandy to each; his efforts being eventually rewarded by thediscovery of signs of returning animation in both. Thus encouraged, heassiduously persevered, and presently one of them opened his eyes, and,staring vacantly about him, huskily murmured: "O God, have pity, andgive me water--_water_!"
Leslie thereupon cautiously administered a further small quantity of theliquid, which the man eagerly swallowed, and at once asked for more; butgently laying him down on his back, with the promise that he should havemore a little later on, Dick next turned his attention to the secondman, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing him also restored toconsciousness. Having achieved this much of success, Leslie now arousedFlora, and, briefly explaining to her the circumstances of the case,turned the two castaways over to her care, with instructions to givethem, alternately and at brief intervals, small quantities of drink andfood, while he devoted his attention to the catamaran and the task ofnavigating her back into the harbour. Meanwhile the little raft, withher ghastly cargo, went driving away to the northward and westwardbefore the wind and the sea, and was soon lost to sight.
As the catamaran skirted close along the weather side of the reef,Leslie noticed that the brig had burnt herself out; for there was notthe faintest whiff of smoke rising from the spot where she had lain. Onthe other hand, a thin pennant of light yellowish brown vapour wastrailing away to leeward from the summit of the peak, showing that theeruption up there was still in progress. Dick was much comforted,however, to find that, even now, when he was so close in with the land,he could detect no evidences of disturbance by the earthquake on thesouthern slope of the mountain; and he began to cherish the hope that hewould find the dockyard and camp uninjured. And this hope became apractical certainty when, upon passing through the entrance channel, thecamp came into view, and he beheld not only the tent still standing ashe had left it, but the framework of the cutter erect upon the stocksand apparently uninjured. Twenty minutes later the catamaran slid intoher usual berth and gently grounded upon the sandy beach.
First assisting Flora to step ashore, and tenderly supporting her to thetent--to which he welcomed her back with a loving embrace--Dick nextconducted the two rescued men to the hut that had originally been builtand occupied by Sambo and Cuffy, into which he inducted them, with theintimation that they were to regard it as their future quarters. Theywere by this time so far recovered that both could walk, with a littleassistance. Leslie therefore thought that he might now venture to givethem a light meal, with a reasonable quantity of liquid to wash it down;and, this done, he recommended them to lie down and sleep for a whileafter they had refreshed themselves, and so left them.
As he walked from the hut down to the spot that he dignified with thename of The Dockyard, Leslie ruefully noted that the savages had playedhavoc with his belongings in their hurried search for booty; but as thehavoc appeared to consist in a general capsizal of everything ratherthan in actual damage, and as the few matters that they had appropriatedstill remained aboard the captured canoe, he consoled himself with theassurance that, after all, there was not very much to worry about--excepting, of course, the terror and suffering to which Flora had beenexposed, and the killing of poor Sailor, both of which filled him withbitter grief and anger.
As he passed on his way he detected evidences here and there of the factthat the island had not escaped altogether unscathed from the effects ofthe earthquake, small cracks in the ground showing here and there thathad not heretofore existed; and when he reached the dockyard he foundthat two or three of his shores had been shaken down, leaving the cuttersomewhat precariously supported; but to his infinite relief no actualdamage had been done, and a couple of hours of hard work sufficed to puteverything quite right once more. Then he returned to the tent, and,finding that Flora was lying down, he seized the opportunity to bury thebody of the faithful dog out of her sight ere lying down himself tosnatch an hour or two of much-needed sleep.
When he awoke, which he did of his own accord, the afternoon was welladvanced; and upon emerging from the tent he discovered that not onlywas Flora up and stirring, but that she had routed out from their amplestore of clothing a couple of suits to replace the rags in which the twocastaways had been garbed when rescued; and that these two individuals,having washed and dressed, were now sitting in the sun, smoking--Florahaving also supplied them with pipes and tobacco--and looking about themwith mingled curiosity and surprise. As he approached them, with theview of eliciting from them the particulars of their story, they rosesomewhat unsteadily to their feet, and while one lifted his cap insalute the other took his off altogether and lifted his finger to hisforehead as he gave an awkward kick out astern with one leg, in trueshellback style. That they were both English Dick had alreadyascertained; he therefore did not go through the formality of inquiringtheir nationality, but at once addressed them in his and their ownlanguage.
"Well, lads," he exclaimed cheerfully, "I hope you are feeling better?"
"Thank you, sir," answered the one who had lifted his cap, "yes, we arebeginning to pull round again all right. And I am glad to have thisearly opportunity to thank you on behalf of myself and the bo'sun herefor the service you've done us in taking us off the raft and bringing
usashore here. You've saved our lives, sir; there's no mistake aboutthat, and we're both very much obliged to you, I'm sure."
"Ay, ay; right ye are, Mr Nicholls; very much obliged indeed we are;and that's puttin' the matter in a nutshell," supplemented the secondman, with another sea-scrape of his foot.
Leslie was agreeably surprised at these men's appearance, now that theyhad removed from their persons the most repulsive evidences of theirlate misfortune, for whereas when he had taken them off the raft theywere a pair of perfect scarecrows, mere skeletons, dirty, and inrags, they now--although still of course thin, haggard, andcadaverous-looking--wore the semblance of thoroughly honest,trustworthy, and respectable seamen. One of them, indeed, the youngerof the two, who had been addressed by his companion as "Mr Nicholls,"presented the appearance of a quite exceptionally smart young sailor,and Leslie at once put him down for--what he presently proved to be--thesecond mate of the lost ship. As for the other, Nicholls had spoken ofhim as "the bo'sun;" and he looked it--an elderly man, of burly build nodoubt when in health, straightforward and honest as the day, and a primeseaman; "every finger a fish-hook, and every hair a ropeyarn." Lesliefelt delighted beyond measure at the acquisition of two such invaluableassistants as these men would certainly prove so soon as they hadrecovered their lost strength.
"Oh, that is all right," said Dick, in response to their expressions ofthanks; "I am, of course, very glad that it has fallen to my lot torender you such a service. And it was no doubt a lucky accident for youthat I happened to be cruising outside the reef to-day. But for thatcircumstance I should certainly not have seen the raft, and in that caseI am afraid there would have been no hope for you, for the raft wouldhave passed some miles to the westward of the island, and your chance ofbeing picked up would in that case have been remote in the extreme, foralthough I have now been here for some months I have not sighted asingle sail since I arrived here. And now, if you have no objection, Ishould like to hear your yarn."
"Well, sir," answered Nicholls, "I don't know that there's very much totell; but, such as it is, you're welcome to it. We belonged to a verytidy little barque--the _Wanderer_, of Liverpool--and sailed fromOtago--which, as I suppose you know, sir, is in New Zealand--for Londonon--what's to-day?"
Leslie gave him the date.
"The dickens it is," ejaculated Nicholls; "then I've lost a day of myreckoning! Must have been a day longer on that raft than I thought.Well, anyhow, if what you say, sir, be true--and I'm sure I don't doubtyour word--it's just a month ago, this blessed day, that we sailed fromOtago, bound, as I say, for London, with orders to call at Callao on ourway home. We sailed with a regular westerly roarer astern of us, towhich the `old man'--I mean the capt'n, sir,--showed every rag thatwould draw, up to to'gallant stunsails, and the skipper kept well to thesouth'ard, hoping to make all the easting that he wanted out of thatwesterly wind. And I reckon that he did, too, for we carried that samebreeze with us to longitude 115 degrees, when we hauled up to thenor'ard and east'ard. Then about two days later--wasn't it, Bob?"
"Ay," answered the boatswain, who seemed to know exactly to whatNicholls was referring, "just two days a'terwards, Mr Nicholls."
"Yes," resumed Nicholls, "two days later we got a shift of wind, thebreeze coming out at about east-north-east, and we broke off to aboutdue north, which was disappointing, as we hoped to pick up thesouth-east trades just where we then were. But we held all on, hopingthat the wind would gradually haul round. It didn't, however; on thecontrary, it came on to blow hard and heavy, until we were hove-to underclose-reefed topsails, and the sea--well _I_ never saw anything like itin all my born days; the _Wanderer_ was mostly a very comfortable littlehooker when she was hove-to, but this time she rolled so frightfully--being in light trim, you must understand, sir--that I, for one, expectedany minute to see her roll her masts over the side. And after we hadbeen hove-to for twenty-six hours she scared the skipper so badly thathe decided to up-helm and try whether she wouldn't do better at runningbefore it. Well, we watched for a `smooth,' but it didn't seem to come;and then, while we were still waiting, a sea came bearing down upon usthat looked as big as a mountain. The skipper sang out for all hands tohold on for their lives, and some of us managed to get a grip, butothers didn't. Down it came upon us, looking like a wall that wastoppling over, and the next second it was aboard of us! I had took tothe mizzen rigging, and was about ten feet above the level of the railwhen that sea came aboard, and I tell you, sir--what I'm saying is thepetrified truth--for half a minute that barque was so completely buriedthat there wasn't an inch of her hull to be seen, from stem to starn;nothing but her three masts standing up out of a boiling smother offoam. I made up my mind that the poor old hooker was done for, thatshe'd never come up again. But she did, at last, with every inch ofbulwarks gone, fore and aft, the cook's galley swept away, every one ofour boats smashed, and five of the hands missing--one of them being thechief mate.
"Well, as soon as she had cleared herself, the skipper sang out for thecarpenter to sound the well; and when Chips drew up the rod he reportedfour feet of water in the hold! Of course all hands went at once to thepumps; but by the time that we'd been working at them for an hour wefound it was no good, the water was gaining upon us hand over hand, andthe craft was settling down under our feet. So we knocked off pumpingand, our boats being all gone, went to work to put a raft together.But, our decks having been swept clean of everything, we hadn't muchstuff left to work up, and it took us a couple of hours to knocktogether the few odds and ends that you took us off of this morning. Wehadn't stuff to make anything bigger, and we hadn't the time, even ifwe'd had the stuff, for by the time that we had finished our raft thepoor old hooker had settled so low in the water that we expected her tosink under us any minute.
"Then we got to work to scrape together such provisions as we could layour hands on; but by this time the lazarette was flooded and not to begot at, while everything in the steward's pantry was spoiled, the pantryhaving been swamped by the sea that had broken aboard and done all themischief. But it was the grub from the pantry, or nothing; so we tookit--and there wasn't very much of it either--and also a small breaker offresh water that the steward managed to fill for us, and then it washigh time for us to be off.
"It wasn't a very difficult matter to launch the raft, for by this timeevery sea that came along swept over our decks, and the job for us wasto avoid being washed overboard. Well, we got afloat; but, as luckwould have it, a heavy sea swept over us just as we were launching andmade a clean sweep of all the provisions that we'd got together, exceptone small parcel, and of course, once afloat, it was impossible for usto get back to the barque, even if there had been any use in our goingback--which there wasn't.
"We had managed to find one oar and the jolly-boat's lug sail, and thiswe rigged up--as much by way of a signal as anything else, for of coursewe could do nothing but drive dead before the wind. And we hadn't leftthe barque above ten minutes when down she went, stern foremost, andthere we were left adrift and as helpless as a lot of babies in thatraging sea. There were ten of us altogether, and a pretty tight fit wefound it on that bit of a raft, all awash as she was. It was withinhalf an hour of sunset when we left the barque, and as darkness settleddown upon us it came on to blow harder than ever, while the seas washedus to that extent that we could do nothing but hold on like grim death.
"The misery and the horror of that first night on the raft won't beartalking about; and if they would it would need a more clever man than Iam to describe 'em. All I can remember is that I sat there the wholenight through, in the black darkness, holding on for my life with bothhands, with the sea washing over me, sometimes up to my neck, speakingto nobody, and nobody speaking to me.
"The gale broke about an hour before dawn; and when the sun rose heshowed us a sky full of clouds that looked like tattered bunting ofevery imaginable colour one could think of, all scurrying across the skyin a westerly direction. And then we found that the wind had veeredroun
d and was coming out from about east-south-east. As soon as it waslight enough to make out things, I took a look round to see how the restof us had weathered out the night; and I tell you, sir, it nearly brokemy heart to find that we mustered three less than we were when we leftthe barque, the poor old skipper being one of the missing. They hadbeen washed off and drowned during the night; at least that's how Iaccounted for their loss.
"Then we opened our little stock of provisions--consisting mostly ofcabin biscuit--that we had wrapped up in a bit of tarpaulin, intendingto put a bit of food into ourselves and so get a little strength andencouragement. But when we came to open the bundle we found it full ofsalt water--and no wonder, seeing what clean breaches the sea had beenmaking over us all night--so that our bread was just reduced to pulp,and no more fit to eat than if it was so much putty. And our water waspretty nearly as bad; the sea had got at it, too, and made it thatbrackish that it tasted more like physic than water. However, we took adrink all round, and tried to persuade one another that it wouldn't beso very long before something would come along and pick us up.
"The sea took a long time to quiet down; but by sunset it had smoothenedso far that it only just kept the raft awash and the water up to ourwaists as we sat; so, as we had by this time got pretty well used tobeing wet through, we were feeling fairly comfortable, or should havebeen if only we had had a morsel of something to stay our hunger, and adrain of sweet water to quench our thirst--for we soon found that themore water we drank out of our breaker, the thirstier we grew.
"That night the steward went crazy, and started singing. First of allhe began with the sort of songs that a sailor-man sings on theforecastle during the second dog-watch on a fine night; and from that hebranched off into hymns. Then he fancied that he was at home once more,talking to his wife and the chicks, and it made my heart fairly bleed tolisten to him. Then, after he had been yarning away in that style formore than an hour, he quieted down, and I thought he was getting better.But when daylight broke he was gone--slipped quietly overboard duringthe night, I reckoned.
"The next day was a terrible one. Our sufferings from hunger and thirstwere awful; and about midday one of the men--an A.B. named Tom Bridges--went raving mad, and swore that he didn't intend to starve any more;said that one of us must die for the good of the rest; and presently setupon me, saying that I was in better condition than any of the rest, andthat therefore I was the proper one to be sacrificed. He was a big,powerful man, and proved a match for the other five of us. We must havefought for a good twenty minutes, I should think, when he suddenly tookhold of me round the waist and, lifting me off my feet as easily as if Iwas a baby, made to jump overboard with me in his arms. But another mantripped him up; and although we both went overboard, poor Tom struck hishead as he fell, and must have been stunned, for I felt his grip slackenas we struck the water, and presently I managed to free myself and swimto the raft. But Tom went down like a stone, and we never saw himagain.
"That adventure just about finished us all, I think; I know it finishedme, for it completely took out of me what little strength I had left,and although I remember it falling dark that night, and also have aconfused recollection of getting up once or twice during the next day totake a look round, I know nothing of what happened after that until Icame back to my senses on the deck of that queer-looking craft of yours,and tasted the brandy that you were trying to pour down my throat."
"Well," remarked Leslie, "it has been a terrible adventure for you both,and one that you will doubtless remember for the remainder of yourlives. But your time of suffering is now past, and what you have to dois to get well and strong as soon as possible. Yet, even here, althoughyou run scant risk of perishing of hunger or thirst, and are in aslittle danger of drowning, there is another peril, namely, that ofsavages, to which we are all equally exposed; although I rather hopethat certain action that I felt it incumbent upon me to take yesterdayand last night may have averted it for a time at least. But perhaps,having heard your story, I had better tell you mine, and you will thenunderstand our precise position--yours as well as Miss Trevor's and myown."
To this speech Nicholls replied in effect that, having already seen agreat deal to excite his surprise and curiosity, it would afford himmuch pleasure to listen to anything in the way of explanation thatLeslie might be pleased to tell them; a remark that Simpson cordiallybut briefly endorsed by adding--
"Same here, sir."
Now, it has been said that no man can do two things well if he attemptsto do them both at one and the same time; but Leslie proved himself anexception to the rule. For he not only listened attentively toNicholls' story of the loss of the _Wanderer_, but he at the same timesucceeded in accomplishing the much more difficult feat of effecting avery careful appraisement of the characters of the two men whom he hadrescued from the raft. And the result was to him thoroughlysatisfactory; for ere Nicholls had arrived at the end of his yarn,Leslie had come to the conclusion that his new companions werethoroughly genuine, honest, steady, and straightforward men, upon whomhe could absolutely rely, and whom he could take into his confidencewith perfect safety. He therefore unhesitatingly told them the wholehistory of the loss of the _Golden Fleece_, and what had followed it, upto the moment of their meeting, judiciously reserving, however, for thepresent, all mention of the discovery of the treasure.
"Now," he said, by way of conclusion, "you see exactly how we are allsituated here. I tell you frankly that I do not believe there is verymuch prospect of your getting away from here until the cutter isfinished; although, should an opportunity occur, you will of course beat full liberty to leave the island, if you so please. But, so far asMiss Trevor and I are concerned, we shall now, in any case, stay hereuntil the cutter is ready, and sail at least part of the way home inher. Now, it is for you to say whether you will throw in your lot withus, and remain until we are ready to go; or whether you will availyourselves of any prior opportunity that may occur for you to escape.Whichever way you may decide, there is an ample supply of provisions andclothing--in fact, all the actual necessaries of life--for us all, to adue share of which you will be most heartily welcome. But, since I havemade free use of the brig and her cargo, I shall of course feel myselfbound to make good the loss to the underwriters upon my return toEngland; and I presume, therefore, that so long as you may remain uponthe island, you will be willing to assist me in my work of completingthe cutter, in return for your subsistence. Am I right in thisassumption?"
"You certainly are, so far as I'm concerned, Mr Leslie," answeredNicholls. "I am not the man to loaf about here in idleness, and watch agentleman like yourself working hard all day. I'd a precious sightsooner be doing a good honest day's work for my grub, than take all andgive nothing in return. What say you, Bob?"
"Same here, Mr Nicholls--_and_ Mr Leslie," answered Simpson.
"Very well," said Leslie; "then we will consider that matter as settled.You will not, of course, be in a fit state to turn-to for a few days;but as soon as you feel strong enough, let me know, and I shall be morethan glad to have your assistance. Meanwhile, if there is anything thatyou require, you have only to say what it is, and if the resources ofthe island are equal to it, your wants shall be supplied."
It appeared, however, that all their immediate requirements had beenmet; so Leslie returned to the tent, where he found Flora awaiting him.
"Well, little woman," he remarked, greeting her genially, "have you hada good rest? Upon my word you are looking but little, if anything, theworse for your adventure. How are you feeling?"
"As well as ever, thank you, Dick," she replied, "excepting that my poorwrists and ankles still feel rather sore from the pressure of the ropeswith which those wretches bound me. I have had a good rest, andalthough my sleep was disturbed at the outset by terrifying dreams, theypassed off at last, and now I feel, as you say, really none the worse.But oh, Dick, it was an awful experience, and I expect I shall often seethose dreadful savages' faces in my sleep for some time
to come."
"Yes," assented Dick, "I fear you will. But you must try as hard as youcan to forget your terror, dear; remembering that we are now two goodmen stronger than we were before, and that after the lesson I have giventhe natives they are not _very_ likely to repeat their experiment in ahurry. And now, if you think you can bear to talk about it, I shouldlike to learn just what happened after I left you."
"Well," said Flora, "there really is not very much to tell. I stood onthe beach and watched you until you passed out through the channel, anddisappeared behind the wall of surf; and then, accompanied by dear oldSailor--by the way, Dick, what has become of the dear old dog? I havenot seen him since I returned; and I am afraid the poor fellow washurt."
"Sweetheart," answered Dick, gently, "he did the utmost that a faithfulfriend can do; he died in your defence, and I have buried him."
"Dear old Sailor!" exclaimed the girl, the tears springing to her eyesat the intelligence of his death, "he fought bravely. I shall neverforget him." She sat silent for a while, with her handkerchief to hereyes, and presently resumed--
"As I was saying, I walked back toward the tent, Sailor, as usual,keeping close beside me. I was within half a dozen yards of the tentwhen the dog suddenly stopped dead, growling savagely. `Why, what isthe matter, Sailor?' I said, patting him. He looked up at me for aninstant, still growling, and his coat bristling with anger; then, with aquick yelp of fury he dashed off and darted behind the tent, and thenext instant there was a dreadful outcry, mingled with the fiercebarking and snarling of the dog. I was absolutely petrified withterror, for you were away, and already far beyond the reach of any soundor signal that I could make, while I was left alone on the island with Iknew not who or what. Then the thought came to me to make a dash forthe tent, and get the pistol that you gave me to practise with; butbefore I could carry out my idea, a perfect swarm of blacks, headed bySambo and Cuffy, rushed out from behind the tent--with Sailor in themidst of them, fighting furiously; and in an instant I turned and ranfor the beach, with them in pursuit.
"I have not the faintest idea what I intended to do; my one thought wasto keep out of their clutches as long as possible; but, of course, I wasalmost instantly overtaken and seized, and my hands held behind me bySambo, while Cuffy stood before me threatening me with a spear. Then,while some of the natives went off to the stack of stores and began to`overhaul' them, as you call it, others disappeared in the direction ofMermaid Head.
"It was a horrible sensation, and made me deadly sick to feel myselfactually in the clutches of those dreadful natives, and to see the lookin Cuffy's eyes as he stood before me brandishing his spear in my face;but worse was yet to come, for presently one of the wretches came upwith some pieces of rope in his hand, and then they bound my hands andfeet together, rendering me absolutely helpless, as you found me.
"I suppose it would be about a quarter of an hour after this--althoughit seemed very much longer--when the second party of natives returnedwith a canoe, into which they flung me most unceremoniously; and thenthey all went off together, leaving me alone and so tightly bound that Iwas soon enduring agonies of torment. I bore the pain for perhaps anhour, and then I must have swooned, for I knew no more until I recoveredmy senses in your dear arms, and knew that you had saved me. Oh,Dick--"
Then she suddenly broke down again, and sobbed so violently and clung toLeslie in such a frantic paroxysm of terror that poor Dick becamethoroughly alarmed, and, in his distraction, could do nothing but sootheher as he would a frightened child. This simple treatment, however,sufficed, for the sobs gradually diminished in violence, and at lengthceased altogether; and presently Flora arose, declaring that she washerself again, and denouncing herself as a poor, weak, silly littlemortal, who ought to be ashamed of herself.