"If you please, sir, I"d be very glad to go, an" bring off what news there is," said Jack, the English sailor, whose surname was Brace.
At first Captain Folger refused this offer, but on consideration he allowed Jack to go, promising at the same time to keep as near to the sh.o.r.e as possible, so that if there was anything like treachery he might have a chance of swimming off.
"So your father is dead?" asked the captain, as he walked with Thursday to the side.
"Yes, long, long ago."
"But you called Adams `father" just now. How"s that?"
"Oh, we all calls "im that. It"s only a way we"ve got into."
"What made your father call you Thursday?"
""Cause I was born on a Thursday."
"H"m I an" I suppose if you"d bin born on a Tuesday or Sat.u.r.day, he"d have called you by one or other of these days?"
"S"pose so," said Thursday, with much simplicity.
"Are you married, Thursday?"
"Yes, I"m married to Susannah," said Thursday, with a pleased smile; "she"s a dear girl, though she"s a deal older than me--old enough to be my mother. And I"ve got a babby too--a _splendid_ babby!"
Thursday pa.s.sed ever the side as he said this, and fortunately did not see the merriment which him remarks created.
Jack Brace followed him into the canoe, and in less than half-an-hour he found himself among the wondering, admiring, almost awestruck, islanders of Pitcairn.
"It"s a _man_!" whispered poor Mainmast to Susannah, with the memory of Fletcher Christian strong upon her.
"What a lovely beard he has!" murmured Sally to Bessy Mills.
Charlie Christian and Matt Quintal chancing, curiously enough, to be near Sally and Bessy, overheard the whisper, and for the first time each received a painful stab from the green-eyed demon, jealousy.
But the children did not whisper their comments. They crowded round the seaman eagerly.
"You"ve come to live with us?" asked Dolly Young, looking up in his face with an innocent smile, and taking his rough hand.
"To tell us stories?" said little Arthur Quintal, with an equally innocent smile.
"Well, no, my dears, not exactly," answered the seaman, looking in a dazed manner at the pretty faces and graceful forms around him; "but if I only had the chance to remain here, it"s my belief that I would."
Further remark was stopped by the appearance of John Adams coming towards the group. He walked slowly, and kept his eyes steadily, yet wistfully, fastened on the seaman. Holding out his hand, he said in a low tone, as if he were soliloquising, "At last! It"s like a dream!"
Then, as the sailor grasped his hand and shook it warmly, he added aloud a hearty "Welcome, welcome to Pitcairn."
"Thank "ee, thank "ee," said Jack Brace, not less heartily; "an" may I ax if you _are_ one o" the _Bounty_ mutineers, an" no mistake?"
"The old tone," murmured Adams, "and the old lingo, an" the old cut o"
the jib, an"--an"--the old toggery."
He took hold of a flap of Jack"s pea-jacket, and almost fondled it.
"Oh, man, but it does my heart good to see you! Come, come away up to my house an" have some grub. Yes, yes--axin" your pardon for not answerin" right off--I _am_ one o" the _Bounty_ mutineers; the last one--John Smith once, better known now as John Adams. But where do you hail from, friend?"
Jack at once gave him the desired information, told him on the way up all he knew about the fate of the mutineers who had remained at Otaheite, and received in exchange a brief outline of the history of the nine mutineers who had landed on Pitcairn.
The excitement of the two men and their interest in each other increased every moment; the one being full of the idea of having made a wonderful discovery of, as it were, a lost community, the other being equally full of the delight of once more talking to a man--a seaman--a messmate, he might soon say, for he meant to feed him like a prince.
"Get a pig cooked, Molly," he said, during a brief interval in the conversation, "an" do it as fast as you can."
"There"s one a"most ready-baked now," replied Mrs Adams.
"All right, send the girls for fruit, and make a glorious spread-- outside; he"ll like it better than in the house--under the banyan-tree.
Sit down, sit down, messmate." Turning to the sailor, "Man, _what_ a time it is since I"ve used that blessed word! Sit down and have a gla.s.s."
Jack Brace smacked his lips in antic.i.p.ation, thanked Adams in advance, and drew his sleeve across his mouth in preparation, while his host set a cocoa-nut-cup filled with a whitish substance before him.
"That"s a noo sort of a gla.s.s, John Adams," remarked the man, as he raised and smelt it; "also a strange kind o" tipple."
He sipped, and seemed disappointed. Then he sipped again, and seemed pleased.
"What is it, may I ax?"
"It"s milk of the cocoa-nut," answered Adams.
"Milk o" the ko-ko-nut, eh? Well, now, that is queer. If you"d "a called it the milk o" the cow-cow-nut, I could have believed it.
Hows"ever, it ain"t bad, tho" raither wishy-washy. Got no stronger tipple than that?"
"Nothin" stronger than that, "xcept water," said John, with one of his sly glances; "but it"s a toss up which is the strongest."
"Well, it"ll be a toss down with me whichever is the strongest," said the accommodating tar, as he once more raised the cup to his lips, and drained it.
"But, I say, you unhung mutineer, do you mean for to tell me that all them good-lookin" boys an" girls are yours?"
He looked round on the crowd of open-mouthed young people, who, from six-foot Toc down to the youngest staggerer, gazed at him solemnly, all eyes and ears.
"No, they ain"t," answered Adams, with a laugh. "What makes you ask?"
""Cause they all calls you father."
"Oh!" replied his host, "that"s only a way they have; but there"s only four of "em mine, three girls an" a boy. The rest are the descendants of my eight comrades, who are now dead and gone."
"Well, now, d"ye know, John Adams, _alias_ Smith, mutineer, as ought to have bin hung but wasn"t, an" as n.o.body would have the heart to hang now, even if they had the chance, this here adventur is out o" sight one o" the most extraor"nar circ.u.mstances as ever did happen to me since I was the length of a marlinspike."
As Mainmast here entered to announce that the pig was ready for consumption, the amazed mariner was led to a rich repast under the neighbouring banyan-tree. Here he was bereft of speech for a considerable time, whether owing to the application of his jaws to food, or increased astonishment, it is difficult to say.
Before the repast began, Adams, according to custom, stood up, removed his hat, and briefly asked a blessing. To which all a.s.sembled, with clasped hands and closed eyes, responded Amen.
This, no doubt, was another source of profound wonder to Jack Brace, but he made no remark at the time. Neither did he remark on the fact that the women did not sit down to eat with the males of the party, but stood behind and served them, conversing pleasantly the while.