The yams, from growing wild, were not likely to be worth much, but the bananas, notwithstanding the lat.i.tude, appeared to be very fine. In vain, however, they gazed up at the cocoa-nuts. Jerry, though an active man, vowed that he could not attempt to reach the top unless they could get a rope over one of the branches. While they were discussing the matter, Pat Casey, who had been helping Tim, came up, having also caught sight of the cocoa-nut trees from a distance.
"Bedad, I"ll be afther doing it," he exclaimed; and running back to the boat, he returned with three or four fathoms of rope. This he twisted into a huge grummet round the tree, leaving s.p.a.ce enough for his own body to get in also. Then slipping it behind his waist, he began to swarm up, shoving the rope on the opposite side of the tree each time he moved on, as high as his shoulders. In a wonderfully short time he reached the top of the tree.
"Stand from under," he shouted out, as he threw down a cocoa-nut, which very nearly hit Billy, who had not attended to his warning. Several cocoa-nuts split by their fall, but Billy, rushing forward, seized one of them before all the milk had run out. This example was followed by the rest: Seeing this, Pat secured several about his neck, and then getting into his grummet he descended. That one tree gave them as many nuts as they could require.
"We ought not to take more than we want," said Tom; "though before we shove off, we will get a supply for the ship."
Tim now shouted out that the "taters" were cooked, and returning to the camp-fire, the party enjoyed a very satisfactory repast with the aid of the bananas and cocoa-nuts. After this they made their way for some distance inland, pa.s.sing large forests of tamanas, or mahogany trees, which appeared to cover the greater part of the island. Excepting in the deserted plantation, they could discover no other fruit-bearing trees or roots, but they observed traces of some wild animals, which Pat a.s.serted must be hogs.
As there was some risk of losing themselves, and there was nothing to induce them to continue their ramble, they returned to the boat.
Desmond, seconded by Billy, now proposed that they should set to work to fish, that they might carry a supply with them on board.
Tom agreed, and Pat having collected a quant.i.ty of crabs which he found among the rocks, to serve as bait, they once more embarked. They pulled out towards the mouth of the bay, just inside of a high reef, which completely shut out the sea from their view. Here, so clear was the water, that although fully three fathoms deep, the bottom could be clearly seen, covered with ma.s.ses of coloured coral and sea-weeds of various shades and tints. Amid them they observed beautiful fish of all sizes and tints, gliding in all directions, now disappearing under some cavern, now darting again into sight.
"As the creatures can see us and our lines, we shall have no chance of catching any," said Tom.
"Just try, your honour," exclaimed Pat; "they"re mighty hungry bastes, and not accustomed to the look of white faces, so that they will not know what we"re afther."
The hooks were accordingly baited with crabs, and scarcely was the first line let down than a big fish caught it, and was immediately hauled up.
"I told you so," cried Pat exultingly; "we shall have as many as we like to catch."
All were now eager to get their lines overboard, and no sooner had the hooks sunk towards the bottom than the fish, attracted by the tempting bait, dashed forward and seized them.
"We"ll mighty soon have a boat load," exclaimed Pat, as fish after fish was hauled in.
Suddenly a change came over the scene. From out of a cavern, far down below the reef, a huge form appeared, very similar to the monster which had attacked the boat in the stalact.i.te cave. Rapidly and noiselessly it glided up, and before Billy, who just then felt a bite, saw its approach, it had seized the fish which had bitten at his hook. Billy gave a pull, expecting to haul up his fish, and very nearly got his fingers cut through by his line, as the shark, finding something tickling his throat, darted off with it. Bird, seeing what had happened, cut the line, and away dashed the shark. The monster had put the other fish to flight, and it was some time before they returned.
Scarcely had they a.s.sembled, and a few more had been caught, than, other sharks appearing, the lines were immediately drawn up, to save them from the fate Billy"s had met with. As these pirates of the deep appeared, the smaller fish darted off in all directions.
"Shure, it matters very little to them whether they are caught by one of us or by those black brutes, excepting for the honour of the thing, and the pleasure of tasting a crab"s leg before they die," observed Desmond.
These interruptions prevented the party taking note of time. They had got no small number of fish, still they were eager to catch a boat load; and Tom, who ought to have looked at his watch, forgot to do so.
Thus hour after hour pa.s.sed by, until they all began to get hungry, when Desmond proposed going on sh.o.r.e and cooking some of their fish. The idea was too good a one to meet with dissenting voices; and returning to the beach, they quickly made up their fire, the embers of which had remained burning, and soon had three or four fine fish roasting on sticks round it, under the superintendence of Pat Casey. So busy were they with this interesting occupation, that no one had observed the changed appearance of the sky. The fish were, as Pat declared, "just done to a turn," and Tom and Desmond and Billy were served, the latter having filled his mouth with a dainty morsel, when they were startled by the booming sound of a gun. Another followed. It was evidently fired for their recall.
"We ought to have got back before this," exclaimed Tom, starting up and looking seawards.
The rest followed him, carrying the cooked fish down to the beach. What was their dismay to find, on reaching it, that the boat, which had been hauled up, had been floated by the rapidly rising tide, while a strong gust of wind had driven her a considerable distance from the sh.o.r.e, from which she was drifting further and further off.
Not a moment was to be lost. Tom felt that he had been guilty of an act of indiscretion in remaining so long on sh.o.r.e, and in not having seen that the boat was properly secured. He had not forgotten those huge monsters of sharks, which had been prowling about, but there was only one way by which the boat could be regained. Somebody must swim off to her. These thoughts rapidly pa.s.sed through his mind. The swim itself was nothing; he had often swum ten times further without fatigue. But those sharks! He recollected the shudder which had pa.s.sed through him as he had seen them approach the boat not two hours before. Without saying anything, he had quickly thrown off his clothes.
"Shout, all of you, as loud as you can," he exclaimed. "Good-bye, Desmond; good-bye, Billy," he said, shaking hands. "If I am swallowed by one of those brutes, say it happened while I was doing my duty."
Without another word, Tom plunged in, and the rest of the party, rushing forward up to their knees, began splashing the water about, and shouting at the top of their voices.
"I cannot let him go alone," said Jerry Bird, as soon as he saw what the midshipman was about. Throwing off his jacket and shirt, he followed Tom, shouting out l.u.s.tily.
"I am coming, Mr Rogers," he cried; "you climb in on one side of the boat, and I will on the other."
Tom was within a couple of fathoms of the boat, when to his horror he saw a dark fin, just rising above the water. It was stationary, however. Perhaps the savage brute was merely surveying the boat, and wondering what strange creature it was.
Tom, undaunted by the sight, swam on. He might manage to scramble on board before the shark caught sight of him.
"Do not lose heart, Bird," he cried out, for he guessed that his companion would have seen the shark"s fin; "the chances are that he won"t attack two of us."
A few strokes more, and Tom had got hold of the gunwale of the boat; Jerry had seized that on the other side.
Tom, being in no way fatigued, easily held himself up, and, having got his left leg over, was about to drag up the other, when Jerry threw himself in and tilted the boat over to the side he was on. It was a fortunate movement, for the shark ran his snout against the side, missing Tom"s foot almost by a hair"s breadth. Tom felt the brute"s head strike against the boat, and well knew what had happened. It made him draw his breath quickly; but he had work before him. Without stopping a moment, he and Jerry, seizing the oars, rapidly pulled the boat back to the beach. Their companions gave way to a hearty cheer as they reached it.
"Thank Heaven, you have escaped," said Desmond. "I saw what happened; my heart sank so low that I thought it would never get up again to its right place. However, "a miss is as good as a mile"; now the sooner we are away from this the better."
Tom"s and Jerry"s clothes having been handed into the boat, they dressed themselves, while the rest of the party pulled down the bay.
"I vote we eat the fish while it"s warm," said Billy Blueblazes, whose appet.i.te (as Gerald used to say of him) "no dangers could daunt."
"Just hand me a slice, and I"ll eat it as I pull." This proposal was seconded by the looks of the men, and Tom accordingly pa.s.sed portions, with some biscuit, forward. The crew ate the fish with gusto. They were wise in so doing, as they might have a long pull before them.
Another and another gun was heard.
"Those guns were not fired in the harbour," observed Tom; "the ship must have put to sea."
Gerald agreed with him; but as yet the reef, which ran across the mouth of the bay, concealed her from sight. The wind had lately been blowing from all quarters--now down the harbour, now directly across it--until at length a heavy squall came in through the entrance.
"We shall have a strong wind in our teeth, and a pretty heavy pull,"
observed Tom to Gerald. "I wish we had not spent so much time here; and I shall justly get the blame, if anything happens."
"It won"t much matter who gets the blame if we happen to be all drowned," answered Gerald. "However, as we were known to have gone in this direction, the captain will probably stand along the sh.o.r.e to pick us up; and the chances are that we shall be safe on board within an hour or so."
The men had now to bend their backs to the oars to force the boat over the heavy seas which came rolling in through the narrow entrance. Under other circ.u.mstances, Tom would have put back and waited for an improvement in the weather; but the signal of recall was peremptory, and he considered it his duty to try and get on board at all risks. The sea, which had been so calm when they pulled along the coast, was now tossed into heavy foam-crested billows, which came rolling on in rapid succession, bursting with loud roars against the rock-bound sh.o.r.e, and casting sheets of spray over the reef.
"We must heave our cargo overboard," said Tom, when he saw the heavy seas come tumbling in. "The lighter the boat is the better."
The fish, with which they hoped to regale their shipmates, were quickly thrown overboard.
"Shure, a fine feast we are giving to the sharks," observed Desmond, as he was engaged in the work. They retained, however, a dozen or so of the cocoa-nuts, in case they might be required for food. So slow was the progress they made against the sea and wind, that it was almost dusk before they got clear of the land. Tom had been keeping a look-out to the westward, the side on which he expected the ship to appear.
"There she is," he exclaimed at length; "but she is under sail, standing to the south-east, and I see no smoke coming out of her funnel."
Gerald agreed with Tom that such was the case. They asked Jerry Bird, the oldest seaman on board, to give his opinion.
"You"re right, sir," he said; "to my mind something has happened to the machinery. Either the shaft or the piston rod is broken, and they cannot get the screw to work. The commander, of course, did not like to remain in the bay, with the chance of a hurricane blowing right into it; and so he got up the steam, and was probably standing along the sh.o.r.e to look out for us, when the accident, whatever it was, happened; and the only chance he had of saving the ship was to go about and stand on the course he is now doing. Maybe he will come about again before long to look for us."
Tom and Gerald were very sure that the commander would not desert them, at the same time they felt far from comfortable at seeing the ship at so great a distance off. The wind was rapidly increasing; the seas came rolling in far more heavily than before, while the spray from their foaming crests being sent over the boat, soon thoroughly wetted through all hands. This, of course, no one cared much about; the question was whether their small boat would live in the furious sea they were likely to encounter before they got on board. If Jerry Bird was right, the ship herself must endeavour to get a good offing from the island in case a hurricane should come on. Of that there now seemed every probability.
The gloom of night had rapidly increased, and now they could only distinguish the ship from the light which she showed over her quarter.
Was it intended for a signal to them, or had the other two boats not yet returned to her? As the night advanced, the weather became worse and worse.
"It"s that old rascal Harry Cane at his tricks again," cried Tim; "I wish that he had waited a bit, and let us get comfortably on board."
"Never complain, Tim," observed Pat; "maybe we shall be glad that we haven"t left the boat; we have got a harbour under our lee, and plenty of grub on sh.o.r.e, and that"s what many a poor fellow has wished for, and not been able to find."