At the end of a three hours" row they turned the skiff to the sloping rock of an island sh.o.r.e, and landing, tied the painter to a big bowlder.
"This is a fine egg island," said Jimmy, as they set out with their bags. "Partner brought me out here last year."
Squawking birds rose in every direction as they approached, and clouds of gulls circled around crying the alarm. Down in rock creva.s.ses along the sh.o.r.e they saw many sea pigeon eggs, and Bobby wanted to get them, but they were generally well out of reach.
"They"re too small to bother with anyway," said Jimmy. "Come on."
"There! There!" shouted Bobby. "There goes an eider duck! And another!
And another! _Their_ eggs are fine and big! Let"s find the nests!"
Presently they discovered, under a low, scrubby bush, a down-lined nest containing eight greenish-drab eggs.
"There"s one!" shouted Jimmy. "This is an eider"s nest."
And so, hunting among the bushes and rocks, they soon had their bags filled with eider duck, tern, gull, and b.o.o.by eggs, while the birds in hundreds flew hither and thither, violently protesting, with discordant notes, the invasion and the looting. But the eggs were good to eat, and the boys smacked their lips over the feasts in store--and Mrs. Abel wanted them; that was the chief consideration, after all.
"Now," said Jimmy, "let"s go over to the mainland and boil the kettle.
It"s away past dinner time and I"m as hungry as a bear."
"All right," agreed Bobby. "I"m so hungry I"ve just got to eat. Where"ll we go?"
"I know a dandy place over here, and there"s a brook coming in close to it where we can get good water. It"s just a few minutes" pull--just below the ledges."
Ten minutes" strong rowing landed them on a gravelly beach near the mouth of a brook, which rushed down to the bay through a deep gulch. To the eastward the gulch banks rose into high cliffs which overhung the sea. Kittiwakes, tube-nosed swimmers, ivory gulls, cormorants, little auks and other birds were flying up and down and along the cliff"s face, or perching upon ledges on the rock, and, like the birds on the island, making a great deal of discordant noise.
"It seems as though there were no end of birds," said Bobby, as they secured their boat. "I"d like to see what kind of nests those make up there, and after we eat I"m going to look at some of them."
"You can"t get up there," said Jimmy. "I"ve tried it lots of times. They take good care to leave their eggs where n.o.body can get at them."
"Well, I"m going to try, anyhow," Bobby declared, as he turned to the brook for a kettle of water.
"I wish we had something to boil eggs in," said he, as he set the kettle of water down by Jimmy, who was whittling shavings for the fire.
"What"s the matter with the old tin bucket we use for bailing the skiff?" Jimmy suggested. "I don"t believe it leaks enough to hurt."
"That"s so!" said Bobby. "We can boil "em in that."
With the ax--in this country men never venture from home without an ax, for in wilderness traveling it is often a life saver--Jimmy split some sticks, and then with his jackknife whittled shavings from the dry heart. He stopped his knife just short of the end of the stick, until six or eight long, thin shavings were made, then, with a twist of the blade, he broke off the stub with the shavings attached to it. Thus the shavings were held in a bunch.
Several of these bunches he made, working patiently, for patience and care are as necessary in building a fire as in doing anything else, and Skipper Ed had taught him that whatever he did should be done with all the care possible. And so in making a fire he gave as much care to the cutting of shavings and placing of sticks as though it had been something of the highest importance, and doing it in this way he seldom failed to light his fire, rain or shine, with a single match. Fire making in the open is a fine art.
When Jimmy had collected enough shavings for his purpose, he placed two of his split sticks upon the ground at right angles to each other, an end of one close up to the end of the other. Then, holding a bunch of shavings by the thick, or stub, end, he struck a match and lighted the thin end, and when it was blazing well placed the unlighted end upon the two sticks where they met. Other bunches of shavings he laid on this, the thin ends in the blaze, the thick ends elevated upon the sticks.
Then came small splits, and bigger splits, and in a moment he had a crackling fire.
He now secured a pole six or seven feet in length, and fixed one end firmly in the ground, with the other end sloped over the fire. On this he hung first, by its bale, the old bailing kettle, filled with water, and then the tea pail, in such a way as to bring them directly over the blaze, and though the fire was a small one, it was not many minutes before the kettles boiled. Then while Bobby dropped half a dozen eggs into the bailing kettle, Jimmy lifted the tea pail off, put some tea into it, and set it by the fire to brew.
"Now," said Jimmy, presently, "let"s go for it."
And they ate, as only hungry boys can, and with the keen relish of youths who live in the open.
"Let"s see if we can"t get some of the eggs off the cliff now,"
suggested Bobby, when they were through. "I know I can climb down there."
"I"ve tried it plenty of times," said Jimmy, "and I don"t believe it can be done. You can"t get in from this end, and the top hangs over so you can"t get in from the top."
"Let"s go up on top and try to get down, anyhow," insisted Bobby. "I know what! There"s a harpoon line in the skiff. Father always keeps it stuffed in under the seat aft. We can tie an end of it under my arms and you can let me down, and then pull me back."
And so without loss of time the young adventurers secured the harpoon line, and climbing out of the gully followed the top of the cliff to a place where birds were numerous.
Jimmy tied a bowline knot at the proper distance from one end of the line, pa.s.sed the line around Bobby"s body under the arms, ran the end of the line through the loop, and secured it. With this arrangement the line could not tighten and pinch, and still was tight enough to hold Bobby securely.
"Now," said Jimmy, indicating a high bowlder, "I"ll bring the line around this rock, so I"ll have a purchase on it and it can"t slip away from me, and let it out as you climb down. You holler when you want to stop and holler when you want to come up."
The plan worked admirably for a while. Very slowly Bobby descended, calling out now and again for Jimmy to "hold" while he picked eggs from nests on shelving rocks.
At last his bag was full, and he was ready to ascend.
"All right, Jimmy. Pull up now," he called.
Jimmy pulled, but pull as he would he could not budge Bobby one inch. He did not dare release the line where it made its turn around the bowlder, for without the leverage he feared the line would get away from him, in which case Bobby would crash to the bottom of the cliff. So Jimmy pulled desperately. But it was of no avail, and presently he took another turn of the line around the bowlder, and secured it so that it could not slip, and ran forward.
Bobby was shouting to be drawn up, and Jimmy, throwing himself upon his face and peering down over the edge of the cliff, saw Bobby dangling in mid air some forty feet below him and thirty feet above the deep black water. He also saw that, supported only by the line, Bobby was in a strained and perilous as well as most uncomfortable position.
His first impulse was to lower Bobby to the base of the cliff, and let him wait there until he could get the boat, bring it around and take him off. But he saw at a glance that at its foot the rocky cliff rose out of the deep water in a perpendicular wall, so smooth that there was not even a hand hold to be had, and this was its condition for a considerable distance on either side. Neither was there hope that, in the strong outgoing tide, and enc.u.mbered by clothing, Bobby could swim in the icy waters to a point where a footing could be had.
"Hurry, Jimmy; I can"t stand this much longer! I can"t stand it much longer!" Bobby shouted, as he caught a glimpse of Jimmy"s head.
Jimmy in return shouted rea.s.surance to Bobby, and ran back for another effort to pull him out. But again he pulled and pulled in vain. With all the strength he had he could not pull Bobby up a single inch. With a sickening dread at his heart, he refastened the line.
CHAPTER V
THE RESCUE
Jimmy realized that there was no help to be had from outside. There was no one at home but Mrs. Abel, and rowing the skiff alone against the tide fully four hours would be consumed in reaching there and another three hours in coming back. Then it would be well past dark. An easterly breeze was springing up, and a chop was rising on the bay. This easterly wind was likely to bring with it a cold storm, and Bobby, suspended thirty feet above the water, and not warmly dressed, might perish.
"Yes," said Jimmy, "he might perish! He might perish! And it would be my fault!"
The thought brought a cold perspiration to Jimmy"s forehead, and a cold, unnatural feeling to his spine, and in desperation he tried the line again. But it was useless effort. He could not pull it up. And again he ran to the cliff, crawled out and peered over at the dangling and by no means silent Bobby.
"Hey there, Jimmy! Pull me up! Hurry!" shouted Bobby.
"I can"t! I can"t budge you! Oh, Bobby, what are we going to do?"
"If you can"t pull me up, let me down!" Bobby was growing impatient. "I can"t stand this much longer. The line is cutting me in two."