Читать книгу Short Stories Volume 3 - John Arthur Barry - Страница 6

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Clinging to a round spar in a heavy sea is all very well to read about, but only when it comes to practice can the difficulty of the feat be fully realized. A score of times Brown thought he must let go and drown as the seas broke over and hid him, stifling, for minutes together. Luckily the spar was long and heavy—intended, indeed, to make a new foreyard of—and therefore, although not as buoyant as a lighter one might have been, it did not toss about so much. And he knew that the furious squall would presently clear off, also that land could not be far away—several small islets having been visible at sundown. The knowledge of these things sustained him as he lay along the spar full length, with legs and arms clasped around it.

Sure enough, at midnight the weather cleared and the sea began to fall as suddenly as it had risen, enabling him to sit up and gaze around. There was a second-quarter moon shining placidly in the now blue sky, and the castaway thought that perhaps the Humboldt might have hove to and be still somewhere in sight. He saw nothing of the ship. Seemingly quite close at hand, however, was a group of dark objects that looked like a fleet of canoes under sail, but which he knew were coco palms springing from some atoll; and whose very crests the waves appeared to wash, so low was the land. He could hear, too, quite distinctly the long roll of surf on a reef, and soon became certain that his spar was travelling towards it. As the hours wore slowly by and dawn showed he saw, about a mile off, a large atoll against whose encircling barrier the sea looked like a wall of scoured wool. The wind was blowing fair for the island, and to his dismay he realized that in a few hours he would be in the breakers. All at once, turning his head, he caught sight of something white rising and falling between himself and the red round sun, just dipping its lower limb in the water. Something white, crowned by a black spot, that the next minute stood upright, straddling in forked human shape, with arms outspread and wildly waving, whilst a loud "Halloa!" came down the wind. Then the figure, evidently losing its balance, abruptly vanished in a splash of white water. But it soon re-appeared, and, squatting on top of what Brown made out to be a hencoop, desperately paddled with a long flat bar until near enough to disclose to the other's astounded view Detective Barnes, hatless, half-naked, and salt-incrusted, but otherwise apparently safe and sound.

"Better come on to my craft," panted Barnes, as he paddled alongside. "But what a night it's been, eh? Good Lord, I never expected to see you again. This is a bit of luck, if you like! We ain't out o' the wood yet, though. Look how the sea's boilin' over yonder."

"Well, you're a sticker, and no mistake," replied Brown, the grim humour of the thing appealing to him, as with a few strokes he gained the big double coop and drew himself on to it. "There no escaping you! I suppose I may consider myself in custody again, eh?"

"Why, yes, of course," replied the other, as the pair shook hands heartily. "But you bet your boots I didn't come after you of my own free will. Well, of all the rummy things I think this one takes the cake! Nobody livin' yonder, I suppose?"

"I'm afraid not," said Brown, as he wrenched off a bar and began to paddle. "I expect we'd better make round to the other side and see if there's any entrance. There generally is."

Sure enough, as they dropped to leeward they saw a fairly wide gap in the reef, and steering for it were presently paddling between six-foot walls of roaring surf where the next minute an inrushing sea, hitting their craft broadside on, sent them head over heels into calm water, whence they easily swam to the shelving beach.

The first thing to catch their eyes as they dragged themselves up the shelving bank of white coral was a neat hut standing in a clump of palms.

"Thank the Lord!" exclaimed Barnes, devoutly, "there's somebody here. I'm fairly starving." And breaking into a trot he made for the hut and threw open the door, only to spring back the next minute with a look of horror on his still ruddy face. "A dead man!" he whispered, as Brown came up. "White, too!"

Looking in, his companion saw the body of a man stretched full length across the threshold. It was clothed in moleskin trousers and blue shirt, and lay staring upwards with the hands clasped across the breast. The features were those of an elderly man; the long brown hair and beard plentifully flecked with grey; and the pale face composed and calm. Near by stood a small blue phial which Barnes professionally pounced upon and put to his nose. "Chlorodyne!" he muttered. "Overdose, perhaps. Or got tired and pegged out purposely. Not so very long gone either. He gave me a start, though, at first. Lots o' tucker," continued the detective, pointing to strings of dried fish, an open cask of biscuits, and some tins of preserved meat. "Poor chap! Well, it must ha' been lonely. Wonder what his game was—hermetizing, eh?"

"Copra gatherer, I should say," replied the other. "And a lucky thing for us; as, sooner or later, a ship is bound to call here."

They buried the dead man before breaking their fast, soon digging a grave in the crumbly coral with a spade they found outside the house. Then, presently exploring, they found, farther towards the heart of the grove, a long, low building, roofed with iron and containing a few tons of coco-nut cut into pieces and dried in the sun—copra, in fact.

Buoyed up by the certain hope of ultimate rescue the castaways bore their lot patiently. Of food they had abundance, for there were pigs and fowls on the island: and in the sea turtle and fish. There was no fresh spring water; but an underground tank at one end of the copra-house contained enough to last them for years—replenished from the iron roofing as it was by every thunderstorm.

From papers in an old pocket-book they found that the man they had buried was a sailor who had figured in many ships' discharges, now by one name, now by another. There was also a memorandum of agreement between himself and a person in Honolulu in which for a certain wage the former agreed to stay on the island as caretaker, and to make copra, also look after the plantation of young coco trees. Thus, without doubt, the place was private property; and the pair, recognising the fact, and that they were bound to make some return for their keep, took upon themselves the dead man's duties as best they might, hoeing and weeding round the plants and maintaining the fences in pig-proof order. They, too, became experts at copra-making, a process that Brown had often seen before. And he even taught Barnes how to climb the trees and select the fittest nuts for the purpose. Thus the latter, to his immense delight, what with constant exercise and absence of "nips," found himself losing fat and gaining muscle. Inclined to corpulence, his greatest bugbear had long been what he called his "bingie," and to see not only this subsiding, but to find that he could do a mile run after a pig without getting winded, made the detective feel as if the days of his youth had been renewed.

Two months passed, and one morning at sunrise Brown sighted the first sail that had approached in all that time. It was a topsail schooner, evidently arrived during the night, and now lying nearly becalmed not more than half a mile away.

The two men made a fire on the beach, and running round to the nearest point and waving the remnants of their shirts, soon had the satisfaction of seeing the vessel lower a boat, which at once pulled through the entrance in the reef.

"Well," asked a man in the stern-sheets, as she lay off some score of yards. "What do you want? And where's Ruggy Jim?"

"What do we want!" exclaimed Barnes, indignantly. "Why, to be taken away from this place, o' course. What d'ye think? Haven't we been Robinson Crusoeing long enough to please you? And as for 'Ruggy,' why, I expect that's the gent we buried some time ago. Come along and let's get on board."

The five Kanakas who composed the boat's crew showed all their teeth at this, whilst the white man laughed and shook his head, saying, "No, thanks, we've got no use for beach-combers aboard the Lass o' Gowrie. That island belongs to a fellow 'way up north in Oahu. His boat comes round regularly, and you'll be able to explain your business to him."

"But I tell you," shouted Barnes, "that I want to get away. I'm a detective officer in the service of the New South Wales Government. I see 'Sydney' on your boat's stern. And by Heaven, if you don't take us, I'll make it hot for you when I do get home!" And in his excitement he capered wildly along the beach, an extraordinary figure of flapping rags held together by coir-sennit, and wearing slippers made of the same material, whilst his hat was formed of native mat after the fashion of a sou'-wester.

"And who's the other chap?" suddenly asked the man, pointing to Brown, who sat silently awaiting events.

"Why, that's the—er—er—person I went to 'Frisco for, and was bringing home in the Humboldt when she washed us overboard," replied Barnes. "And now I call upon you in the Queen's name to assist me. If you don't, I'll bet you'll be sorry for it if I ever catch you in Sydney."

"The deuce!" exclaimed the other, staring open-eyed and mouthed. "If you're Barnes and the other cove's the 'Toff Bird' I reckon that alters things. You've been given up this long time. Why, I do believe we've got some papers aboard with your lives and pictures in 'em."

"No doubt," replied Barnes, grimly; "packs o' lies and libels! However, here I am, and here's the—er—'Toff Bird.' Now, in the Queen's name, once more, are you going to take us or are you not?"

"Well, I must ask the skipper," said the other, gazing in respectful admiration at Brown. "Give way, boys!" and, the Kanakas bending to their oars, off went the boat back to the schooner.

Its stay there, however, was short. And this time the captain himself came ashore. He was a quiet, elderly Sydney native, who already had their story at his fingers' ends, and at once recognised Barnes and agreed to give them a passage.