"It may be, Mister Jacob; it may be that, though the devils ash.o.r.e there are the only ones that could tell you that. But you"re a man of understanding, and your part will be done. I rely upon you as between shipmates."
He took a pinch of snuff, and flapping his coat-tails (for he was always rigged out in the naval officer way) he answered what I wished.
"As between shipmates, I will do my duty," said he.
"I knew it; I"ve known it from the beginning," said I. "What"s left when you"ve done is the sh.o.r.e part, and that"s not so easy. Peter Bligh"s coming, and I couldn"t well leave Dolly on board. Give me our hulking carpenter, Seth Barker, and I"ll lighten the ship no more.
We"re short-handed as it is. And, besides, if four won"t serve, then forty would be no better. What we can do yonder, wits, and not revolvers, must bring about. But I"ll not go with sugar-sticks, you take my word for it, and any man that points a gun at me will wish he"d gone shooting sheep."
"Aye, aye, to that," cried Peter, who was ever a man for a fight; "the shooting first and the civil words after. That"s sense and no blarney.
When my poor father was tried at Swansea, his native place, for hitting an Excise man with a ham----"
"Mr. Bligh," cried I, ""tis not with hams you"ll be hitting folks yonder, take my word for it. This job may find us on a child"s errand or it may find us doing men"s work. Eight bells on the first watch will tell the whole of the story. Until that time I shall hold my tongue about it, but I don"t go ash.o.r.e as I go to a picnic, and I don"t make a boast about what I may presently cry out about."
Well, they were both of my way of thinking, and when we"d talked a little more about it, and I"d opened the arm-chest and looked over the few guns and pistols we"d got there, and we"d called the lad Dolly down and promised him that he should come with us, and the men had been given to understand that the skipper was to go ash.o.r.e by-and-bye on an important business, Peter and the others went to their dinner and I took my turn on the bridge. The swell was running strongly then, and the wind blew fresh from the north-east. We"d lost all sight of the island, and spoke but one ship, a small mail steamer from Santa Cruz bound for the Yellow Sea, which signalled us "All well" at six bells in the afternoon watch. From that time I went dead slow and began to bring the Southern Cross about. The work was begun that very hour, I always say.
Now, I"ve told all this, short and brief, and with no talk of my own about it. The thing had come so sudden, I knew so little of Ruth b.e.l.l.e.n.den"s trouble or of what had befallen her on the island, that I was like a man in the dark groping blindly, yet set on hearing the truth. As for the crew, well, you may be sure that Dolly Venn had put his side of the story about, and when they knew that my mistress was ash.o.r.e there and in some danger, I believe they"d have put me in irons if I"d so much as spoken of going back.
Risky it was, so much I won"t deny; but who wouldn"t risk more than his own paltry skin to save a woman in trouble, and she, so to speak, a shipmate? There was not a man aboard, stake my life, who wouldn"t have gone to the land willingly for Ruth b.e.l.l.e.n.den"s sake though he"d been told, sure and certain, that Ken"s Island must be his grave. And we"d always the ship, mind you, and the knowledge that she would go to "Frisco to get us help. A fool"s hope, I say now. For how could we know that the Southern Cross would be at the bottom of the sea, a thousand fathoms down, before the week was run? We couldn"t know it; yet that was what happened, and that is why no help came to us.
We had put the ship about at six bells in the afternoon watch, but it was eight bells in the second dog (the night being too clear for my liking and a full moon showing bright in the sky) that we sighted Ken"s Island for the second time, and for the second time prepared to go ash.o.r.e. The longboat was ready by this time, her barrels full of water and her lockers full of biscuit. Such arms as we were to carry were partly stowed in water-proof sheeting--the rifles, and the cartridges for them; but the revolvers we carried, and a good Sheffield knife a man, which we weren"t going to cut potatoes with. For the rest, I made them put in a few stout blankets, and more rations than might have served for such a trip. "Good beginnings make good endings," said I; "what we haven"t need of, lads, we can carry aboard again. The longboat"s back won"t ache, be sure of it."
All this, I say, was done when the moon showed us the island like a great barren rock rising up sheer from the sea. And when it was done, Mister Jacob called my attention to something which in the hurry of sh.o.r.e-going I might never have seen at all or thought about. It was nothing less than this--that their fool"s beacon was out to-night, and all the sea about it as black as ink. Whoever set up the light, then, did not use it for a seaman"s benefit, but for his own whim. I reckoned up the situation at a glance, and even at that early stage I began to know the terrible meaning of it.
"Mister Jacob," said I, "those that keep that beacon are either fools or knaves."
"Or both, sir," said he.
"Which one is the own brother to the other. Aye, captain, "tis lucky ye"ve the parish lantern, as my poor father used to say when----"
But Peter Bligh never finished it that night. The words were still in his mouth when a rocket shot up over the sea and bursting in a cloud of gold-blue sparks, cast a weird, cold light upon rock and reef and all that troubled sea. And as the rocket fell our big carpenter, Seth Barker, standing aft by the hatch, cries out,
"Ship ash.o.r.e! Ship ash.o.r.e, by----!"
CHAPTER V
STRANGE SIGHTS ASh.o.r.e, AND WHAT WE SAW OF THEM
Now, when Seth Barker cried out that a ship was ash.o.r.e on the dangerous reefs to the northward of the main island, it is not necessary to tell you what we, a crew of British seamen, were called upon to do. The words were scarcely spoken before I had given the order, "Stand by the boats," and sent every man to his station. Excited the hands were, that I will not deny; excited and willing enough to tell you about it if you"d asked them; but no man among them opened his lips, and while they stood there, anxious and ready, I had my gla.s.s to my eye and tried to make out the steamer and what had befallen her. Nor was Mister Jacob behind me, but he and Peter Bligh at my side, we soon knew the truth and made up our minds about it.
"There"s a ship on the reef, sure enough, and by the cut of her she"s the Santa Cruz we spoke this afternoon," said Mr. Jacob, and added, "a dangerous sh.o.r.e, sir, a dangerous sh.o.r.e."
"But full of kind-hearted people that fire their guns at poor shipwrecked mariners," put in Peter Bligh. I wouldn"t believe him at first, but there was no denying it, awful truth that it was, when a few minutes had pa.s.sed.
"Good G.o.d," cried I, "it can"t be so, Peter, and yet that"s a rifle"s tongue, or I"ve lost my hearing."
Well, we all stood together and listened as men listen for some poor creature"s death-cry, or the sounds which come in the stillness of the night to affright and unnerve us. Sure enough, you couldn"t have counted ten before the report of guns was heard distinctly above the distant roar of breakers; while flashes of crimson light, playing about the reef, seemed to tell the whole story without another word from me.
"Those devils ash.o.r.e are shooting the crew," cried I; "did man ever hear such b.l.o.o.d.y work? I"ll have a reckoning for this, if it takes me twenty years. Lower away the boats, lads; I"m going to dance to that music."
They swung the two longboats out on the davits, and the port crew were in their seats, when Mister Jacob touched my arm and questioned my order--a thing I haven"t known him to do twice in ten years.
"Beg pardon, sir," said he, "but there"s no boat that will help the Santa Cruz to-night."
"And why, Mister Jacob--why do you say that?"
"Because she"s gone where neither you nor I wish to go yet awhile, Mister Begg."
I stood as though he had shot me, and clapping my gla.s.s to my eye I took another look towards the northern reef and the ship that was stranded there. But no ship was to be seen. She had disappeared in a twinkling; the sea had swallowed her up. And over the water, as an eerie wail, lasting and doleful, came the death-cries of those who perished with her.
"G.o.d rest their poor souls and punish them that sent them there," said Peter Bligh fervently; but Mister Jacob was still full of his prudent talk.
"We"re four miles out, and the moon will be gone in ten minutes, sir.
You couldn"t make the reef if you tried, and if you could, you"d find none living. This sea would best the biggest boat that ever a ship carried--it will blow harder in an hour, and what then? We"ve friends of our own to serve, and the door that Providence opens we"ve, no right to shut. I say nothing against humanity, Captain Begg, but I wouldn"t hunt the dead in the water when I could help the living ash.o.r.e."
I saw his point in a moment, and had nothing to say against it. No small boat could have lived in the reefs about the northern end of the island with the sea that was running that night. If the devils who fired down upon the poor fellows of the Santa Cruz were still watching like vultures for human meat, fair argument said, the main island would be free of them for us to go ash.o.r.e as we pleased. A better opportunity might not be found for a score of months. I never blame myself, least of all now, when I know Ruth b.e.l.l.e.n.den"s story, that I listened that night to the clearheaded wisdom of Anthony Jacob.
"You"re right, as always, Mister Jacob. I"ve no call to take these good fellows on a fool"s errand. And it"s going to blow hard, as you say.
We"ll take in one of the boats, and those that are for the sh.o.r.e will make haste to get aboard the other."
This I said to him, but to the men I put it in a few seaman"s words.
"Lads," I said, "no boat that Southampton ever built could swim in yonder tide where it makes between the reefs. We"d like to help shipmates, but the chance is not ours. There"s another little shipmate ash.o.r.e there that needs our help pretty badly. I"m going in for her sake, and there"s not a man of you that will not do his duty by the ship when I"m gone. Aye, you"ll stand by Mister Jacob, lads, I may tell him that?"
They gave me a rousing cheer, which was a pretty foolish thing to have done, and it took all my voice to silence them. Lucky for us, there was a cloud over the moon now, and darkness like a black vapour upon the sea. Not a lamp burned on the Southern Cross; not a cabin window but had its curtain. What glow came from her funnel was not more than a hazy red light over the waters; and when five of us (for we took Harry Doe to stand by ash.o.r.e) stepped into the longboat, and set her head due west for the land, we lost the steamer in five minutes--and, G.o.d knows, we were never to see her again on the high seas or off.
Now, I have said that the wind had begun to blow fresh since sunset, and at two bells in the first watch, the time we left the ship, the sea ran high, and it was not oversafe even in the longboat to be cruising for a sh.o.r.e we knew so little about. I have always accounted it more good luck than good seamanship which brought us to the cove at last, and set us all, wet but cheerful, on the dry, white sand about the ladder"s foot. There was shelter in the bay both for man and ship, and when we"d dragged the longboat up on the beach we gave Harry Doe his orders and left him to his duty.
"If there"s danger fire your gun," said I--"once, if you wish to call us; twice, if you think we should stand off. But you won"t do that unless things are at the worst, and I"m hoping for the best, when you won"t do it at all."
He answered, "Aye, aye," in a whisper which was like a bear"s growl; and we four, Peter Bligh, Seth Barker, and the lad Dolly, besides myself, climbed the ladder like cats and stood at the cliff"s head. To say that our hearts were in our mouths would not be strict truth, for I never feared any man, beast, or devil yet; and I wasn"t going to begin that night--nor were the others more ready, that I will answer for them. But remembering the things we had seen on the reef, the words which Ruth b.e.l.l.e.n.den had spoken to me, and that which happened to the lad and myself last time we came ash.o.r.e; remembering this, it"s not to be wondered at that our hearts beat a bit quicker, and that our hands went now and again to the pistols we carried. For, just think of it--there we were at nine o"clock of a dark night, in a thick wood, with the trees making ghosts about us, and the path as narrow as a ship"s plank, and no knowledge who walked the woods with us, nor any true reckoning of our circ.u.mstance. What man wouldn"t have held his tongue at such a time, or argued with himself that it might end badly, and he never see the sun again? Not Jasper Begg, as I bear witness.
Now, I put myself at the head of our fellows and, the better to find the track, I went down on my hands and my knees like a four-footed thing, and signalling to those behind with a bosun"s whistle, I led them well enough through the wood to the wicker-basket bridge; and would have gone on from there straight down to the house but for something which happened at the clearing of the thicket, just as I stood up to bid the men go over. Startling it was, to be sure, and enough to give any man a turn; nor did I wonder that Peter Bligh should have cried out as he did when first he clapped eyes upon it.
"Holy Mother of Music," says he, ""tis the angels singing, or I"m a dirty n.i.g.g.e.r!"
"Hold your tongue," says I, in a whisper; "are you afraid of two young women, then?"
"Of three," says he, "which being odd is lucky. When my poor father----"
"To h.e.l.l with your father," says I; "hold your tongue and wait."
He lay low at this, and the rest of us gaped, open-mouthed, as though we were staring at a fairy-book. There, before us, coming down from the black rocks above, leaping from step to step of the stone, were three young girls; but, aye, the queerest sort that ever tantalized a man with their prettiness. You may well ask, the night being inky dark, how we managed to see them at all; but let me tell you that they carried good rosin torches in their hands, and the wild light, all gold and crimson against the rocks, shone as bright as a ship"s flare and as far. Never have I seen such a thing, I say, and never shall. There were the three of them, like young deer on a bleak hillside, singing and laughing and leaping down, and, what"s more, speaking to each other in an odd lingo, with here a word of French and there a word of German, and after that something that was beyond me and foreign to my understanding.
"G.o.d be good to me--saw man ever such a sight? And the dress of "em, the dress of "em," whispers Peter Bligh. But I clapped my hand upon his mouth and stopped him that time.
"The dress is all right," said I; "what I"m wondering is how three of that sort came in such a place as this. And well born too, well born, or I don"t know the meaning of the term!"