CHAPTER VIII.
ANXIOUS TIMES.
"How would I like it?" cried Eric, his face beaming. "Why, above allthings. I've often seen pictures of the great ugly creatures, and Ithink it would be just splendid to shoot one and get his tusks."
"All right, my boy," replied Ben. "We'll start the first thing in themorning."
Accordingly, the next morning the two set out upon their ponies for thewest end. Ben carried a heavy musket that would send a load of slugsthrough a ship's side, and Eric a light smooth-bore, the accuracy ofwhich he had proved by frequent practice. As they would be away allday, they took plenty of biscuits with them. Prince, of course,accompanied them, and as soon as they had disposed of breakfast theystarted.
There were many creatures to be found on Sable Island in those dayswhich would be vainly sought for now. Besides the ponies, a largenumber of wild cattle and hogs roamed about the interior, and furnishedthe wreckers with abundant meat; while during the winter the morse, orwalrus, and the great Greenland seal paid the beaches regular visits.The common harbour seal was there all the year round. Of theseanimals, only the ponies and common seals still remain; the others havebeen all killed off.
When Ben and Eric drew near the end of the island they dismounted andtethered the ponies, so that they could not run back to the corral.They then made their way cautiously to the edge of the bank thrown upby the waves. Ben was a little ahead of Eric, and the moment he peepedover the bank he turned and motioned Eric to follow.
"Look, lad!" said he, in a voice full of excitement, as he pointed tothe beach in front. "There they are! Aren't they beauties?"
Eric looked, and his face showed the surprise he had too much sense toput into words. "Beauties!" he thought to himself. "Why, they are themost hideous monsters I ever saw in my life."
And they certainly were hideous, with their huge, dun-coloured,ungainly bodies, their bullet heads, their grizzly beards, theirterrible tusks, and their bulging eyes. They looked as ugly as somenightmare vision. Plucky as he was, Eric could not restrain a tremoras he gazed at them. But he had no time to indulge his feelings, forBen said in a hoarse whisper,--
"You take that tusker right in front of you, and I'll take the bigfellow to the right, and when I say 'Fire!' let drive. Be sure and aimright at the nose."
Eric's heart was beating wildly, and he could scarcely breathe forexcitement; but his hand was steady as he drew the musket to hisshoulder, and took careful aim at the nose of the walrus Ben hadassigned to him. Giving a quick glance to see that all was ready, Bencalled "Fire!"
Like the report of one the two muskets cracked together, and themarksmen peered eagerly through the smoke to see the result. Clearlyenough their aim had been good; for while the remainder of the littlepack of walruses lumbered off into the water snorting with terror, thetwo that had been picked out as targets did not follow. Ben's fellover on the sand, to all appearance dead; but Eric's plunged madlyabout, seeming to be too bewildered to take refuge in flight.
Hastily reloading, the hunters rushed upon their prey, and Ben, seizinga good opportunity, put another charge of slugs into the strugglingcreature's head, just behind the ear, which cut short its sufferings.
"Hurrah!" cried Ben, radiant with pride and satisfaction. "We've gotthem both, and no mistake. We'll each have a fine pair of tusks, won'twe?"
Eric was no less delighted, and all his nervousness having vanished,executed a sort of war-dance around the prostrate forms of thesea-monsters, which looked all the uglier the closer he got to them.Drawing a big knife from his belt, Ben approached his walrus to severthe head from the body, Eric standing a little distance off to watchhim. They were quite sure the creature was dead; but the instant thesharp steel touched its neck it came to life, for it had been onlystunned. With a sudden sweep of its fore-flipper, it hurled Ben overupon his back, sending the knife flying from his hand.
"Eric! quick! for God's sake!" cried Ben, as he fell.
The infuriated monster was right over him. In another moment thoseterrible tusks would have been buried in his body, when, with a roarlike that of a lion, Prince launched himself full at the walrus's head,and his great fangs closed tightly in the soft part where the headjoins the neck. Uttering a roar quite equal to the dog's, the morseturned upon his new assailant; but just as he did so, Eric's riflespoke again. Its bullet crashed into the monster's brain, and with amad flurry, which loosened even Prince's hold, it rolled over upon thesand, this time dead beyond question.
Ben sprang to his feet, and rushing upon Eric flung his arms aroundhim, and gave him a hug that fairly squeezed the breath out of him.Then, without a word, he turned to Prince, and repeated the operation.He then expressed his gratitude in these words,--
"It was a good day for me when I saved your lives. You've done me goodever since; and now you've saved my life, and it's only tit for tat.All right, my lad; so long as there's a drop of blood in my body, noharm shall come to either of you that Ben Harden can fend off."
The business of beheading, which had been so startlingly interrupted,was now resumed. From the way Ben handled his knife, he was evidentlyquite experienced at the work. They wanted only the tusks, but to getthem out in perfect condition, it would be necessary to boil the headsuntil the flesh came off readily; so they had to take them back to thehut for that purpose.
Well satisfied with the result of their hunt, they ate their lunch andtook a good rest before returning to the hut, which they reached earlyin the afternoon. They both felt that they were now bound to eachother by ties of peculiar strength. Eric, uncertain and full ofdifficulty as to the future, somehow felt convinced that Ben wouldbring it out all right for him. He little imagined how much he wouldhelp himself in escaping.
Chasing ponies and hunting walruses were not the only amusements SableIsland afforded Eric. As has been already mentioned, the grassy dellsabounded with rabbits and the marshy lake and ponds with wild fowl.The rabbit-shooting was really capital sport. The bunnies were finebig fellows, as lively and wary as any sportsman could wish, and tosecure a good bag of them meant plenty of hard work.
It was the rabbit-hunting that found Prince in his glory. Had he beena greyhound instead of a mastiff he could not have entered moreheartily into the chase. To be sure, he proved, upon the whole, rathermore of a hindrance than a help; but no suspicion of this fact everdashed his bright spirit, and not for the world would Eric have hintedit to him. His redeeming quality lay in his retrieving, for he hadbeen carefully trained to fetch and carry, and he quickly learned tohunt out and bring to them the victims of their muskets. The rabbitswere not killed in the mere wantonness of sport. There was always anactive demand for them at the hut, where Black Joe made them intosavoury stews.
About the same time as the walruses came great numbers of the Greenlandseal, which a little later brought forth their funny little whelps.These looked like amphibious puppies as they sprawled about the beachor scuttled off into the water. They took Eric's boyish fancy sostrongly that he longed to have one for a pet.
Ben soon gratified him by creeping cautiously upon the pack one day,and grasping by the tail a fine, sleek, shiny little fellow. After acouple of weeks' confinement in a pen, that Eric built for him, withconstant, kind attention, the captive became so contented with his newlife, and so attached to his young master, that he was allowed hisliberty. He showed not the slightest disposition to run away. Ericfound him quite as intelligent and docile as a dog, and taught him manyamusing tricks.
So long as the weather was fine Eric had plenty of cures for lowspirits. But in the winter the proportion of fine days to foul is verysmall on Sable Island. For a whole week at a time the sun would notappear, and long storms were frequent. Happily, there was one resourceat hand for the stormy weather.
Among the spoils of the _Francis_ was a leather-covered box, sohandsome and so heavy that one of the wreckers, feeling sure itcontained something valuable, brought it carefully ashore. When hebroke it ope
n he was much disgusted to find that it contained nothingbut books. He flung it into a corner, boasting that "he had no booklarnin', and what's more, didn't want none."
Eric afterwards picked it up, and was delighted to find in it a largeassortment of interesting books. He stowed the box carefully away atthe back of his bunk, and thenceforth, when compelled to stay indoors,was never without a book in his hands. He read over and over thosewell-selected volumes, enriching his mind with their finest passages.
Yet, despite all those exertions, Eric was far from being really happyor content. His one thought was deliverance from his strangesituation, and he could not disguise from himself how dark his futurelooked. Ben, of course, could now be relied upon to the uttermost.But while his protection availed so long as they remained upon theisland, matters would, no doubt, be different when the time came toleave the place. Then not only Evil-Eye, but all the other wreckers,would undoubtedly see to it that there was no fear of his becoming aninformer, and placing them in peril of the law.
As the winter wore away, they often talked about going to Boston; andEric gathered from their conversation that with the coming of springthey looked for a schooner sent out by confederates to take them andtheir booty home. This schooner now became the supreme object of hisconcern. In it he saw his best, if not, indeed, his only hope ofdeliverance. Many an evening when he seemed deep in his books he was,in reality, with strained ears and throbbing pulses, listening to thewreckers discussing their plans for the future. Tax his brains as hemight, he could invent no satisfactory scheme.
More than once he tried to talk with Ben about the matter. But whetherBen did not wish to confess that he had no plan himself, or whether hethought it best not to excite uncertain hope, he always refused to talkabout it, generally saying,--
"We'll see, my lad, we'll see. I'll do my best for ye, never you fear."
As spring drew near, signs of excitement and eager expectation becamevisible among the wreckers. They spent most of the clear days upon thehighest hills, peering out across the waves in search of the schooner.They did not know just when to expect her. Indeed, had a date beenfixed, they would not have been any better off, for they were withoutany means of keeping an account of the days, except by observing thesun and moon.
The days grew steadily longer and warmer, and yet no schooner appeared.Hope long deferred did not make the hot temper of the wreckers any moreamiable, and Eric, worried as he was with his own troubles, found lifeharder than ever. Moreover, a new danger presently appeared.
The majority of the wreckers showed entire indifference toward him. Heand his big dog were Ben's belongings, and so long as they got innobody's way they were let alone. But when day after day and weekafter week slipped by, and the schooner did not arrive, the boy beganto notice a change. Ugly, suspicious, threatening glances were castupon him, and interchanged. Beyond a doubt, the peril of his positionwas alarmingly on the increase.
The explanation was simple enough. Like all men of their class, thewreckers were intensely superstitious, and the wily villain Evil-Eye,though indirectly, shrewdly seized upon the delay of the schooner tostrike at Eric. He suggested to the men that the boy's presence wasthe cause of the vessel's non-appearance. He had brought themill-luck, for not a wreck had come their way since his life had beenspared. Now he was playing them another scurvy trick and, by somewitchery, interfering with the carrying out of their plans.
The seed so craftily sown took root at once. Only the curious feeling,half-fear, half-admiration, that they held toward Ben saved Eric for atime from falling a victim to their superstition.
Even his influence would not have availed much longer, had not, onefine morning in May, the welcome cry of "Sail ho! sail ho!" rung outlustily from a watcher on the highest hill. Soon the broad sails of aschooner appeared.
Everything else was forgotten in the joy occasioned by this sight. ButEvil-Eye, again foiled in his base designs, snarled savagely at Eric,and swore that he would have his own way yet.
The water being too shallow, the schooner hove-to about a mile fromshore, and fired a gun to announce her arrival. But that was notnecessary. All the inhabitants of the island were already on the beachto welcome her. Presently a boat was lowered, and three personsgetting in, it was rowed swiftly ashore. The breakers weresuccessfully passed with the aid of a number of the wreckers, whodashed into the surf, and drew the boat up high and dry upon the beach.
The new-comers were very heartily if somewhat roughly greeted. Afterthe first excitement was over, Eric noticed they were looking at himcuriously.
Evil-Eye whispered among them, whereupon they shook their heads asthough to say,--
"Oh no, that can't be done. We're quite sure that won't do at all."
Eric's heart sank when he saw this, and rightly guessed its meaning.There seemed, at best, but two chances for him. He would either beleft behind upon the island in helpless solitude, or be taken toBoston, and there got rid of somehow--in such a way that he could giveno trouble to the wreckers. On the latter, surrounded although it waswith uncertainties and dangers innumerable, he pinned all his hopes.It offered some faint chance of ultimate deliverance. But would theytake him on board the schooner?