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diff --git a/23141.txt b/23141.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ba1d22 --- /dev/null +++ b/23141.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7858 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Island Treasure, by John Conroy Hutcheson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Island Treasure + +Author: John Conroy Hutcheson + +Illustrator: W S Stacey + +Release Date: October 21, 2007 [EBook #23141] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ISLAND TREASURE *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +The Island Treasure, or The Black Man's Ghost, by John Conroy Hutcheson. + +________________________________________________________________________ +Starting with excuses, this book was rather hard to transcribe to +digital format. It was unevenly printed on a rather rough paper, so +that many words were hard to read, even to the naked eye. Several of +the characters in the book spoke in their own dialect or with a heavy +foreign accent, so that many of the words in the book were not words in +the English language. And if that were not all the copy used was +somewhat spotted. But we seem to have come though those trials, and we +present a very readable book. + +Another strange matter with the book was that the title on the cover, on +the title page, and at the start of the first chapter was "The Island +Treasure", while thereafter every even-numbered page is headed "The +Black Man's Ghost", which is the title under which the book was +copyrighted. + +The story is told from the viewpoint of a young cabin-boy, who had run +away to sea from a good vicarage home. There is a most unpleasant +captain, from the American "Down-East". The first-mate is pretty nasty +too, while the second-mate has a very strong Danish accent, but is a +good man, as is the ship's carpenter. The ship's cook, a black man from +Jamaica, is the protagonist, the ghost. + +The ship is wrecked intact on Abingdon Island in the Galapagos, being +carried ashore by a tsunami. There is a lot of treasure on the island, +dating from the buccaneers' time. We will take you no further into the +story, but it is well told, and makes a good read and a good listen. + +________________________________________________________________________ +THE ISLAND TREASURE, OR THE BLACK MAN'S GHOST, BY JOHN CONROY HUTCHESON. + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +OFF THE TUSKAR LIGHT. + +"All hands take in sail!" + +"Stand by y'r tops'l halliards!" + +"Let go!" + +Sharply shouted out in quick succession came these orders from Captain +Snaggs, the hoarse words of command ringing through the ship fore and +aft, and making even the ringbolts in the deck jingle--albeit they were +uttered in a sort of drawling voice, that had a strong nasal twang, as +if the skipper made as much use of his nose as of his mouth in speaking. +This impression his thin and, now, tightly compressed lips tended to +confirm; while his hard, angular features and long, pointed, sallow +face, closely shaven, saving as to the projecting chin, which a +sandy-coloured billy-goat beard made project all the more, gave him the +appearance of a man who had a will of his own, aye, and a temper of his +own, too, should anyone attempt to smooth him down the wrong way, or, in +sea parlance, "run foul of his hawse!" + +Captain Snaggs did not look particularly amiable at the present moment. + +Standing by the break of the poop, with his lean, lanky body half bent +over the rail, he was keeping one eye out to windward, whence he had +just caught sight in time of the coming squall, looking down below the +while at the hands in the waist jumping briskly to their stations and +casting off the halliards with a will, almost before the last echo of +his shout `let go!' had ceased to roar in their ears; and yet the +captain's gaze seemed to gleam beyond these, over their heads and away +forwards, to where Jan Steenbock, the second-mate, a dark-haired Dane, +was engaged rousing out the port watch, banging away at the fo'c's'le +hatchway and likewise shouting, in feeble imitation of the skipper's +roar,-- + +"All ha-ands, ahoy! Doomble oop, my mans, and take in ze sail! Doomble +oop!" + +But the men, who had only been relieved a short time before by the +starboard watch, and had gone below for their dinner when `eight bells' +were struck, seemed rather loth at turning out again so soon for duty, +the more especially as their caterer had just brought from the cook's +galley the mess kid, full of some savoury compound, the appetising odour +of which filled the air, and, being wafted upwards from below, made even +the swarthy second-mate feel hungry, as he peered down the hatchway and +called out to the laggards to come on deck. + +"It vas goot, ja," murmured Jan Steenbock to himself, wiping his +watering mouth with the back of his jacket sleeve and sniffing up a +prolonged sniff of the odorous stew. "It vas goot, ja, and hart to leaf +ze groob; but ze sheeps cannot wait, my mans; zo doomble oop dere! +Doomble oop!" + +Captain Snaggs, however, his watchful weather eye and quick intelligence +taking in everything at a glance, liked the second-mate's slowness of +speech and action as little as he relished the men's evident reluctance +at hurrying up again on deck; for, although barely a second or two had +elapsed from his first order to the crew, he grew as angry as if it had +been a "month of Sundays," his sallow face flushing with red streaks and +his sandy billy-goat beard bristling like wire, every hair on end, just +as a cat's tail swells at the sight of a strange dog in its immediate +vicinity when it puts up its back. + +"Avast thaar, ye durned fule!" he screamed in his passion, dancing about +the poop and bringing his fist down with a resounding thump on the brass +rail, as if the inanimate material represented for the nonce the back of +the mate, whom he longed to belabour. "Guess one'd think ye wer coaxin' +a lot o' wummen folk to come to a prayer-meetin'! Why don't ye go down +in the fo'c's'le an' drive 'em up, if they won't come on deck when +they're hailed? Below thaar, d'ye haar?--all hands reef tops'ls!" + +This shout, which the captain yelled out in a voice of thunder, finally +fetched the dawdlers on deck, first one and then another crawling up the +hatchway with lingering feet, in that half-hearted, dilatory, +aggravating way that sailors--and some shore people, too for that +matter--know well how to put on when setting to a task that runs against +their grain and which they do not relish; though they can be spry +enough, and with ten times the smartness of any landsmen, when +cheerfully disposed for the work they have in hand, or in the face of +some real emergency or imminent peril, forgetting then their past +grievances, and buckling to the job right manfully, in true `shellback' +fashion, as if many-handed, like Briareus, with every hand a dozen +fingers on it, and each finger a hook! + +So it could be seen now. + +The _Denver City_, a ship-rigged vessel of about thirteen hundred tons +burthen, bound from Liverpool to San Francisco with a general cargo, had +been two days out from the Mersey, battling against bad weather all the +way from the start, with a foul wind, that shifted from the west to +south-west and back again to the west, dead in her teeth, as she essayed +to shape her course down Saint George's Channel to the Atlantic. + +First, beating to the westward with the ebb tide, so as to give Great +Orme's Head a wide berth, and then making a short board south when she +had cleared Anglesey; what with the currents and the thick fog, +accompanied with driving rain, that she met on nearing the Welsh coast, +she nearly came to grief on the Skerries, the water shoaling rapidly on +the lead being hove, shortly before the bright fixed light showing above +the red on the Platters rocks loomed close in on the starboard bow. +This made it a case of 'bout ship at once, Captain Snaggs thenceforth +hugging the Irish side of the channel way and keeping it well on board +on the port tack; and so on this second morning after leaving Liverpool, +the ship was some six miles south of the Tuskar Light, with a +forty-fathom bottom under her and the wind still to the southward and +westward, right ahead of her true course, but shifting and veering from +one point to another, and with a sudden sharp squall coming every now +and then, by way of a change, to increase the labour of the men, already +pretty well worn out by forty-eight hours tacking to and fro in the +captain's endeavours to beat to windward in the face of the foul +weather. + +As the _Denver City_, too, reached the more open seaway, the water got +rougher, a northern stream setting up the Irish Sea from Scilly meeting +the incoming tide round Carnsore Point, and causing a nasty chopping +sea; which, save in the sullen green hollows of the waves, was dead and +lead-coloured as far as the eye could reach--as leaden, indeed, as the +heavy grey sky overhead, where some fleecy floating clouds of lighter +wrack, rapidly drifting across the darker background that lined the +horizon all round, made the latter of a deeper tone by contrast, besides +acting as the _avant courier_ of a fresh squall--the wind just then +tearing and shrieking through the rigging in short angry gusts and then +sighing as it wailed away to leeward, like the spirit of some lost +mariner chaunting the requiem of those drowned in the remorseless deep! + +When the port watch had gone below at `eight bells,' as mentioned +before, to have their dinner, the weather had looked a little brighter, +a small patch of blue sky, not quite as big as the Dutchman's proverbial +pair of breeches, showing right overhead at the zenith as the ship's +bell struck the midday hour, giving a slight promise of better things to +come; and so, as Captain Snaggs had been trying to `carry on' all he +could from the time the vessel left the Mersey, working the hands to +death, as they imagined, unnecessarily in tacking and beating about in +his attempt to make a fair wind out of a foul one, instead of waiting +more sensibly for a more favourable breeze, such as might reasonably be +expected in another day or two at most--judging by those signs sailors +know so well, as do farmers, but which are inexplainable according to +any natural meteorological laws--the hands now thought, on being so +suddenly summoned again on deck, and forced to leave their untasted meal +just as they were in the very act, so to speak, of putting it into their +mouths, and with its tantalising taste and smell vexing them all the +more, that the `old man' only roused them out again from sheer malice +and devilry, to make another fresh tack or short board, with the object +of `hazing' or driving them, as only slaves and sailors can be driven in +these days by a brutal captain and hard taskmaster! + +This it was that made them loth to leave their snug and warm fo'c's'le, +filled as it was with the grateful odour of the appetising lobscouse +which Sam Jedfoot, the negro cook, a great favourite with the crew by +reason of his careful attention to their creature comforts, had so +thoughtfully compounded for them; and thus it was that they crawled up +the hatchway from below so laggardly, in response to the second-mate's +pleading order and Captain Snaggs second stentorian hail, as if they +were ascending a mountain, and each man had a couple of half-hundred +weights tied to his legs, so as to make his movements the slower. + +"Hoo-ry oop, mans!" cried the second-mate, in his queer foreign lingo. +"Hoo-ry oop, or you vill have ze skipper after yous! He vas look as if +he vas comin' down ze poop ladder joost now!" + +"Durn the skipper! He ain't got no more feelin' in his old carkiss than +a Rock Island clam!" muttered the leading man of the disturbed watch, as +he stepped out over the coaming of the hatchway on to the deck, as +leisurely as if he were executing a step in the sword dance; but, the +next moment, as his eye took in the position of the ship and the scene +around, the wind catching him at the moment, and almost knocking him +backwards down the hatchway, as it met him full butt, he made a dash for +the weather rigging, shouting out to his companions behind, who were +coming up out of the fo'c's'le just as slowly as he had done: "Look +alive, mates! Ther's a reg'lar screamer blowin' up, an' no mistake. +We'll be took aback, if we don't get in our rags in time. Look smart; +an' let's show the skipper how spry we ken be when we chooses!" + +The captain, or `skipper', soon supplemented this advice by another of +his roaring commands, yelled out at a pitch of voice that defied alike +the shriek of the wind, and the noise of the sea, and the slatting of +the huge topsails as they bellied out into balloons one moment and then +flapped back again with a bang against the swaying masts, that quivered +again and again with the shock, as if the next blow would knock them out +of the ship. + +"Forrud there! Away aloft, ye lazy skunks!" cried Captain Snaggs, when +he saw the watch at last turn out, gripping the brass poop rail in front +of him with both hands, so as to steady himself and prevent his taking a +header into the waist below, as he seemed to be on the point of doing +every minute, in his excitement. "Lay out, thaar, on the yards, ye +skulking lubbers! Lay out, thaar, d'ye hear? Thaar's no time to lose! +Sharp's the word an' quick the motion!" + +The starboard watch, which had been waiting for the others, at once +rounded the weather braces, so as to take the wind out of the sails as +the men raced aloft, each anxious now to be first out on the yard; and, +the reef tackle being hauled out, the spilling lines were clutched hold +of, and the heavy folds of the canvas gathered up, the men at the +yard-arms seeing to the earring being clear and ready for passing, with +the hands facing to leeward, so as to lighten the sail and assist the +weather earring being hauled out, as they held the reef-line, and again +facing to windward and lightening the sail there in the same fashion, so +as to haul out the lee-earring before the signal was given by those out +at the end of the yard-arms to "toggle away!" + +It was risky work, especially as the ship was rather shorthanded, to +attempt reefing the three topsails all at once, but the job was at last +accomplished to the captain's apparent satisfaction, for he sang out for +them to come down from aloft; when, the topsail halliards being brought +to the capstan, the yards were bowsed again, the slack of the ropes +coiled down, and everything made comfortable. + +Captain Snaggs, however, had not done with them yet. + +"Clew up an' furl the mainsail!" + +"Man the jib down-haul!" + +"Brail up the spanker!" + +He shouted out these several orders as quickly as he could bawl them, +the creaking of the cordage and rattling of the clew-garnet blocks +forming a fitting accompaniment to his twangy voice; while the plaintive +`Yo--ho--hoy--e! Yo--ho--hai--e!' of the men, as they hauled upon the +clewlines and leech and buntlines of the heavy main course, chimed in +musically with the wash of the waves as they broke over the bows, +dashing high over the yard-arms in a cataract of spray, and wetting to +the skin those out on the fo'c's'le furling the jib--these having the +benefit also of a second bath below the surface as well, when the ship +dived under as they got on to the footrope of the jib-boom, plunging +them into the water up to their middles and more. + +"I guess, we're going to hev it rougher yet," said the captain +presently, when the second-mate came aft, after seeing all snug forward, +to ask whether he might now dismiss the port watch to their long delayed +dinner. "Thet thaar squall wer a buster, but thaar's worse comin', to +my reck'nin'. We'd best take another reef in them topsails an' hev one +in the foresail, too." + +"Verra goot, sir!" replied Jan Steenbock, the mate, respectfully, as he +made his way forward again to where the men were waiting, anxious to go +below to their lobscouse--cold, alas! by now. "Verra goot!" + +Captain Snaggs smiled contemptuously after him, and then broke into a +laugh, which was shared in by the first-mate, an American like himself, +but one of a stouter and coarser stamp and build, albeit he boasted of a +more romantic sort of name--Jefferson Flinders, to wit. This worthy now +sniggering in sympathy, as he came up the after companion and took his +place by the captain's side, having been roused out before his time by +the commotion on deck. + +"A rum coon thet, sir," said he to the captain, in response to his +laugh. "He'll be the death of me some day, I reckon, with thet durned +`verra goot!' of his'n, you bet, sir!" + +"We've a rum lot o' hands altogither aboard, Flinders--chaps ez thinks +they hev only come to sea to eat an' enj'y themselves, an' don't want to +work fur thaar grub; but, I guess I'll haze' 'em, Flinders, I'll haze' +'em!" snapped out Captain Snaggs, in reply, his wiry billy-goat beard +bristling again as he yelled out in a louder tone,--"Forrud thaar! +Mister Steenbock; what air ye about, man--didn't I tell ye I want +another reef taken in them topsails? Away aloft with ye agen; lay out +thaar, an' look spry about it!" + +The halliards were therefore again let go, and the same performance gone +through as before, with the addition of the men having to go up on the +fore yard after they had finished with the topsails, and take a reef as +well in the foresail--another piece of touch work. + +As the ship was then found not to steer so well close-hauled, without +any headsail, on account of the jib being lowered down, the foretopmost +staysail was hoisted in its place and the bunt of the spanker loosened, +to show a sort of `goose-wing' aft,--this little additional fore and aft +sail now giving her just the steadying power she wanted for her helm, +and enabling her to lie a bit closer to the wind. + +"Thet will do, the port watch!" cried Captain Snaggs at length, and the +men were scampering back to the fo'c's'le in high glee, glad of being +released at last, when, as if he'd only been playing with them--as a cat +plays with a mouse--he arrested their rush below with another shout,-- + +"Belay thaar! All hands 'bout ship!" + +"Ha! ha!" sniggered Jefferson Flinders, the first-mate, behind him, +enjoying the joke amazingly; "guess ye had 'em thaar, cap. Them coons +'ll catch a weasel asleep, I reckon, when they try working a traverse on +a man of the grit of yourn!" + +"Bully for ye," echoed the captain, grinning and showing his yellow +teeth, while his pointed beard wagged out. "Say, Flinders, I'll fix +'em!" + +The men, though, did not relish the joke; nor did they think it such an +amusing one! It might, certainly, have been necessary to put the ship +about, for the leeway she was making, coupled with the set of the cross +tides, was causing her to hug the Irish coast too much, so that she was +now bearing right on to the Saltee rocks, the vessel having covered the +intervening twenty odd miles of water that lay between the Tuskar and +this point since the hands had been first called up; but Captain Snaggs +could have done this just as well off-hand after the topsails were +reefed, without waiting until the men were ready to go below again +before giving the fresh order. + +It was only part and parcel of his tyrannical nature, that never seemed +satisfied unless when giving pain and annoyance to those forced to serve +under him. + +And so, the men grumbled audibly as they came back once more from the +fore hatch, manning the sheets and braces, when the skipper's warning +shout was heard,-- + +"Helm's a-lee!" + +"Tacks and sheets!" the next order followed; when the head sails were +flattened and the ship brought up to the wind. + +Then came,-- + +"Mainsail haul!" and the ponderous yards were swung round as the _Denver +City_ payed off handsomely, close-reefed as she was, on the starboard +tack, shaping a course at a good right angle to her former one, so as +now to weather the Smalls light, off the Pembroke shore, at the entrance +to the Bristol Channel--a course that required a stiff lee helm, and +plenty of it, as the wind had now fetched round almost due south, well +before the beam. + +"Thet will do, the watch!" then called out Captain Snaggs once more; but +the men were not to be taken in a second time, and waited, grouped about +the hatchway, to see whether he would call them back again. + +He did not, however. + +So, their stopping there made him angry. + +"Thet'll do, the watch! D'ye haar?" he shouted a second time. "If ye +want to go below fur y'r grub, ye'd better go now, fur, I guess I won't +give ye another chance, an' yer spell in the fo'c's'le 'll soon be up. +Be off with ye sharp, ye durned skallawags, or I'll send ye up agen to +reef tops'ls!" + +This started them, and they disappeared down the hatchway in `a brace of +shakes,' the skipper turning round to the first-mate then, as if waiting +for him to suggest some further little amusement for the afternoon. + +Mr Jefferson Flinders was quite equal to the occasion. + +"Didn't you call all hands, cap, jist now?" asked he, with suspicious +innocence; "I thought I kinder heerd you." + +"Guess so," replied Captain Snaggs. "Why?" + +"'Cause I didn't see thet precious nigger rascal, Sam Jedfoot. The +stooard an' thet swab of a Britisher boy ye fetched aboard at Liverpool +wer thaar, sir, an' every blessed soul on deck but thet lazy nigger." + +"'Deed, an' so it wer, I guess," said the captain musingly, as if to +himself; and then he slipped back from the binnacle, where he had been +talking to the first-mate, to his original position on the break of the +poop, when, catching hold of the brass rail as before, he leant over and +shouted forward at the pitch of his twangy voice; "Sam Jedfoot, ye +durned nigger, ahoy thaar! Show a leg, or ye'll lump it!" + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +"A GEN'LEMAN OB COLOUR." + +"Thet swab of a Britisher boy," so opprobriously designated by the +first-mate as having been "fetched aboard at Liverpool" by the captain, +as if he were the sweepings of the gutter, was really no less a +personage, if I may be allowed to use that term, than myself, the +narrator of the following strange story. + +I happened, as luck would have it, to be standing just at his elbow when +he made the remark, having come up the companion way from the cabin +below the poop by the steward's directions to tell Captain Snaggs that +his dinner was ready; and, as may be imagined, I was mightily pleased +with his complimentary language, although wondering that he gave me the +credit of pulling and hauling with the others in taking in sail on `all +hands' being summoned, when every idler on board ship, as I had learnt +in a previous voyage to New York and back, is supposed to help the rest +of the crew; and so, of course, I lent my little aid too, doing as much +as a boy could, as Mr Jefferson Flinders, the captain's toady and +fellow bully, although he only played second fiddle in that line when +the skipper was on deck, could have seen for himself with half an eye. + +Oh, yes, I heard what he said; and I believe he not only called me a +`swab,' but an `ugly' one as well! + +Indeed, I heard everything, pretty nearly everything, that is, and was +able to see most of what occurred from the time when we were off the +Tuskar Light until Captain Snaggs hailed the cook to come aft; for I was +in and out of the cuddy and under the break of the poop all the while, +except now that I went up the companion, and stood by the booby hatch +over it, waiting for the captain to turn round, so that I could give him +the steward's message. + +But the skipper wasn't in any hurry to turn round at first, sticking +there grasping the rail tightly, and working himself up into a regular +fury because poor Sam didn't jump out of his galley at the sound of his +voice and answer his summons; when, if he'd reflected, he would have +known that the wind carried away his threatening words to leeward, +preventing them from reaching the negro cook's ears, albeit these were +as big and broad as the bell-mouth of a speaking trumpet. + +The captain, though, did not think of this. + +Not he; and, naturally, not recognising the reason for the negro's +non-appearance immediately on his calling him, he became all the more +angry and excited. + +"Sam--Sambo--Sam Jedfoot!" he roared, raising his shrill voice a pitch +higher in each case, as he thus successively rang the changes on the +cook's name in his queer way, making the first-mate snigger behind him, +and even I could not help laughing, the captain spoke so funnily through +his nose; while Jan Steenbock, the second-mate, who was standing by the +mainmast bitts, I could see, had a grim smile on his face. "Sam, ye +scoundrel! Come aft hyar at once when I hail, or by thunder I'll +keelhaul ye, ez safe ez my name's Ephraim O Snaggs!" + +The bathos of this peroration was too much for Jan Steenbock, and he +burst into a loud "ho! ho!" + +It was the last straw that broke the camel's--I mean the captain's-- +back, and he got as mad as a hatter. + +"Ye durned Dutch skunk!" he flamed out, the red veins cross-hatching his +face in his passion. "What the blue blazes d'ye mean by makin' fun o' +yer cap'n? Snakes an' alligators, I'll disrate ye--I'll send ye forrud; +I'll--I'll--" + +"I vas not means no harms, cap'n," apologised the other, on the skipper +stopping in his outburst for want of breath, the words appearing to be +choking in his mouth, coming out too quick for utterance, so that they +all got jumbled together. "I vas hab no bad respect of yous, sare. I +vas only lafs mit meinselfs." + +"Then I'd kinder hev ye ter know, Mister Steenbock, thet ye'd better not +laugh with yerself nor nary a body else when I'm on the poop," retorted +Captain Snaggs, not believing a word of this lucid explanation, although +he did not seemingly like to tell him so, and quarrel right out. "I +guess though, as ye're so precious merry, ye might hev a pull taken at +thet lee mainbrace. If ye wer anything of a seaman ye'd hev done it +without me telling ye!" + +Having administered this `flea in the ear' to the second-mate, the +captain turned round abruptly on his heel, with a muttered objurgation, +having some reference to Jan Steenbock's eyes; and, as he looked aft, he +caught sight of me. + +"Jee-rusalem, b'y!" he exclaimed; "what in thunder air ye doin' hyar? +The poop ain't no place fur cabin b'ys, I reckon." + +"The steward sent me up, sir," I replied, trembling; for he looked as +fierce as if he could eat me without salt, his bristly beard sticking +out and wagging in the air, as he spoke in that snarling voice of his. +"He t-t-old me to tell you, sir, that dinner was ready in the cabin, +sir." + +The ship at the moment giving a lurch to port, as a fresh blast of wind +caught her weather side, sending a big sea over the waist, I rolled up +against him as I answered his question. + +"Then ye ken skoot right away an' tell him thet I guess I'm boss hyar," +cried he, after shoving me back with an oath against the cabin skylight, +which I almost tumbled over. "I'm goin' to hev my meals when I chooses, +I say, younker, an' not when anybody else likes, stooard or no stooard!" + +With this return message, I retreated nimbly down the companion, glad to +get out of his reach, he looked so savage when he shoved me; but I had +hardly descended two steps, when he called after me with a loud shout, +that echoed down the passage way and made my flesh creep. + +"B'y!" he yelled, making a jump, as if to grab hold of me. "B'y!" + +"Ye-e-e-yes, sir," I stammered, in mortal terror, looking back up the +hatchway, though too frightened to return to nearer quarters with him +again. "Ye-e-yes, sir." + +My alarm amused him. It was a sort of implied compliment to his +bullying powers; and he laughed harshly, nodding his head. + +"What in thunder air ye afeard on?" he said. "I ain't goin' to kill ye +this time, b'y; it's another cuss I'm after, a kinder sort o' skunk of a +different colour, I guess. Look hyar, b'y, jest ye make tracks forrud +when ye've told the stooard what I've said, an' see whether thet +tarnation black nigger's asleep in his galley, or what. Won't I give +him fits when I catch him, thet's all--thaar, be off with ye, smart!" + +I did not need any second intimation to go, but plunged down the +companion stairway as if a wild bull was after me; and, telling the +Welshman, Morris Jones, who acted as steward, a poor, cowardly sort of +creature, that the captain did not want his dinner yet, hastened through +the cuddy, and on to the maindeck beyond, coming out by the sliding door +under the break of the poop, which was the `back entrance,' as it were, +to the cabin. + +The ship being close-hauled, heeled over so much to leeward that her +port side was almost under water, the waves that broke over the +fo'c's'le running down in a cataract into the waist and forming a +regular river inside the bulwarks, right flush up with the top of the +gunwale, which slushed backwards and forwards as the vessel pitched and +rose again, one moment with her bows in the air, and the next diving her +nose deep down into the rocking seas; so, I had to scramble along +towards the galley on the weather side, holding on to every rope I could +clutch to secure my footing, the deck slanting so much from the _Denver +City_ laying over to the wind, even under the reduced canvas she had +spread. To add to my difficulties, also, in getting forwards, the +sheets of foam and spindrift were carried along by the fierce gusts-- +which came now and again between the lulls, when it blew more steadily, +cutting off the tops of the billows and hurling the spray over the +mainyard--drenched me almost to the skin before I arrived within hail of +the fo'c's'le. + +However, I reached the galley all right at last, if dripping; when, as I +looked in over the half-door that barred all admittance to the cook's +domain except to a privileged few, what did I see but Sam Jedfoot +sitting down quite cosily in front of a blazing fire he had made up +under the coppers containing the men's tea, which would be served out +bye and bye at `four bells', enjoying himself as comfortably as you +please, and actually playing the banjo--just as if he had nothing else +to do, and there was no such person as Captain Snaggs in existence! + +He had his back turned to me, and so could not notice that I was there, +listening to him as he twanged the strings of the instrument and struck +up that `tink-a-tink a tong-tong' accompaniment familiar to all +acquainted with the Christy Minstrels, the cook also humming away +serenely to himself an old ditty dear to the darkey's heart, and which I +had heard the negroes often sing when I was over in New York, on the +previous voyage I had taken a few months before, to which I have already +alluded--when I ran away to sea, and shipped as a cabin boy on board one +of the Liverpool liners, occupying a similar position to that I now held +in the _Denver City_. + +This was the song the cook chaunted, with that sad intonation of voice +for which, somehow or other, the light-hearted African race always seem +to have such a strange predilection. Sam touching the strings of the +banjo in harmonious chords to a sort of running arpeggio movement:-- + + "Oh, down in Alabama, 'fore I wer sot free, + I lubbed a p'ooty yaller girl, an' fought dat she lubbed me; + But she am proob unconstant, an' leff me hyar to tell + How my pore hart am' breakin' fo' croo-el Nancy Bell!" + +He wound up with a resounding "twang" at the end of the bar, before +giving the chorus-- + + "Den cheer up, Sam! Don' let yer sperrits go down; + Dere's many a gal dat I'se know wal am waitin' fur you in + de town!" + +"I fancy you do want cheering up, Sam," said I, waiting till he had +finished the verse. "The skipper's in a regular tantrum about you, and +says you're to come aft at once." + +"My golly, sonny!" cried he, turning round, with a grin on his ebony +face, that showed all his ivories, and looking in no whit alarmed, as I +expected, at the captain's summons, proceeding to reach up one of his +long arms, which were like those of a monkey, and hang the banjo on to a +cleat close to the roof of the galley, out of harm's way. "What am de +muss about?" + +"Because you didn't turn out on deck when all hands were called just now +to reef topsails," I explained. "The `old man' is in a fine passion, I +can tell you, though he didn't notice your not being there at first. It +was that mean sneak, the first-mate, that told him, on purpose to get +you into a row." + +"Ah-ha! Jess so, I sabby," said Sam, getting up from his seat; although +he did not look any the taller for standing, being a little man and +having short legs, which, however, were compensated for by his long arms +and broad shoulders, denoting great strength. "I'se know what dat mean +cuss do it fo'--'cause I wouldn't bring no hot coffee to um cabin fo' +him dis mornin'. Me tell him dat lazy stoo'ad's place do dat; me ship's +cook, not one black niggah slabe!" + +"He's always at me, too," I chorussed, in sympathy with this complaint. +"Mr Flinders is harder on me than even Captain Snaggs, and he's bad +enough, in all conscience." + +"Dat am true," replied the cook, who had been my only friend since I had +been on board, none of the others, officers or men, having a kind word +for me, save the carpenter, a sturdy Englishman, named Tom Bullover, and +one of the Yankee sailors, Hiram Bangs, who seemed rather good-natured, +and told me he came from some place `down Chicopee way'--wherever that +might be. "But, never yer mind, sonny; needer de cap'n nor dat brute ob +a mate ken kill us no nohow." + + "`Cheer up, Sam! Don' let your 'perrits go down--' + +"Guess, dough, I'se better go aft at once, or Cap'n Snaggs 'll bust his +biler!" + +And so, humming away still at the refrain of his favourite ditty, he +clambered along the bulwarks, making his way to the poop, where the +captain, I could see, as I peered round the corner of the galley, was +still waiting for him at the top of the ladder on the weather side, +holding on to the brass rail with one hand, and clutching hold of a stay +with the other. + +I pitied the negro; but, of course, I couldn't help him. All I could do +was to look on, by no means an uninterested spectator, though keeping +cautiously out of sight of Captain Snaggs' watchful eye. + +The wind was not making such a noise through the shrouds now, for one +could distinguish above its moaning whistle the wash of the waves as +they broke with a rippling roar and splashed against the side like the +measured strokes of a sledge-hammer on the ship breasting them with her +bluff bows, and contemptuously sailing on, spurning them beneath her +fore foot; so, I was able to hear and see nearly all that passed, albeit +I had to strain my ears occasionally to catch a word here and there. + +He had waited so long that perhaps his anger had cooled down a bit by +this time, for Captain Snaggs began on Sammy much more quietly than I +expected from his outburst against him when I was up on the poop. + +He was quite mild, indeed, for him, as I had learnt already, to my cost, +during the short acquaintance I had of his temper since we had left the +Mersey--as mild as a sucking dove, with a vengeance! + +"Ye durned nigger!" he commenced; "what d'ye mean by not answerin' when +I hailed ye?" + +"Me no hear yer, mass' cap'n." + +"Not haar me, by thunder," screeched the other, raising his voice. "Ye +aren't deaf, air ye?" + +"Golly, yeth, massa," said Sam eagerly. "I'se def as post." + +"Ye ken haar, though, when grog time comes round, I guess!" retorted the +captain. "Whar wer ye when `all hands' wer called jest now?" + +"Down in de bread room, gettin' out de men's grub wid de stooard," +answered the cook, with much coolness; "me no hear `all hands' call." + +"Thet's a lie," said Captain Snaggs, furiously. "The stooard wer up +hyar on deck, so ye couldn't hev been down below with him, ye durned +nigger! I've a tarnation good mind to seize ye up an' give ye four +dozen right away." + +"Me no niggah slabe," said Sam proudly, drawing himself up and looking +up at the captain, as if daring him to do his worst. "I'se one +'spectacle culled gen'leman, sah!" + +"Ho! ho! thet's prime!" laughed out the skipper, astounded at his cheek; +while the first-mate sniggered his aggravating "he! he!" behind him. +"Oh, ye're `a 'spectable coloured gentleman,' air ye?" + +"Yeth, massa; me free Jamaica born, an' no slabe," repeated Sam, +courageously, the first-mate's chuckle having put him on his mettle more +than the captain's sneer. "I'se a free man!" + +"Guess ye've come to the wrong shop then, my bo," said Captain Snaggs; +"ye'll find ye ain't free hyar, fur I'm boss aboard this air ship, an' +want all hands to know it. Ye shipped as cook, hey?" + +"Yeth, massa," replied Sam, as sturdily as ever. "I'se jine as cook fo' +de v'yage to 'Frisco at ten dollar de month." + +"Then, Master Sam, Sammy, Sambo Clubfoot, ye'll be kinder good enuff to +take yer traps out of the galley an' go furrud into the fo'c's'le, as +one of the foremast hands. As ye wouldn't turn out when all hands wer +called jist now, ye'll hev the advantage of doin' so right through now, +watch in an' watch out all the v'yage! D'ye hear thet, Sam Clubfoot?" + +"Dat not my name," said the other indignantly. "I'se chris'en Sam +Jedfoot." + +"Well then, d'ye underconstubble what I've sed, Mister Jedfoot, if ye +like thet better--thet ye're cook no longer, an' will hev to muster with +the rest of the crew in the port watch? I'll put him with ye, Flinders, +I know ye hev a hankerin' arter him," observed the skipper, in a stage +whisper, to the first-mate, who sniggered his approval of this +arrangement. "D'ye understand thet, ye durned nigger, or, hev yer ears +got frizzed agen, makin' ye feel kinder deaf?" + +"I'se he-ah, cap'n," replied Sam sullenly, as he turned away from under +the break of the poop, and made his way forward again to where I stood +watching his now changed face, all the mirth and merriment having gone +out of it, making him look quite savage--an ugly customer, I thought, +for any one to tackle with whom he might have enmity. "I'se he-ah fo' +suah, an' won't forget neider, yer bet!" + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +A TERRIBLE REVENGE. + +"I'm very sorry for you, Sam," I said, when he came up again to the +galley, making his way forward much more slowly than he had scrambled +aft to interview the skipper. "Captain Snaggs is a regular tyrant to +treat you so; but, never mind, Sam, we'll soon have you back in your old +place here, for I don't think there's any fellow in the ship that knows +anything about cooking like you!" + +"Dunno spec dere's am," he replied, disconsolately, speaking in a +melancholy tone of voice, as if overcome at the idea of surrendering his +regal post of king of the caboose--the cook's berth on board a merchant +vessel being one of authority, as well as having a good deal of licence +attached to it; besides giving the holder thereof an importance in the +eyes of the crew, only second to that of the skipper, or his deputy, the +first-mate. The next moment, however, the darkey's face brightened, +from some happy thought or other that apparently crossed his mind; and, +his month gradually opening with a broad grin, that displayed a double +row of beautifully even white teeth, which would have aroused the envy +of a fashionable dentist, he broke into a huge guffaw, that I was almost +afraid the captain would hear away aft on the poop. + +"Hoo-hoo! Yah-yah!" he laughed, with all that hearty abandon of his +race, bending his body and slapping his hands to his shins, as if to +hold himself up. "Golly! me nebber fought ob dat afore! Hoo-hoo! +Yah-yah! I'se most ready to die wid laffin! Hoo-hoo!" + +"Why, Sam," I cried, "what's the matter now?" + +"Hoo-hoo! Cholly," he at last managed to get out between his convulsive +fits of laughter. "Yer jess wait till cap'n want um grub; an' den-- +hoo-hoo!--yer see one fine joke! My gosh! Cholly, I'se one big fool +not tink ob dat afore! Guess it'll do prime. Yah-yah! Won't de `ole +man' squirm! Hoo-hoo!" + +"Oh, Sam!" I exclaimed, a horrid thought occurring to me all at once. +"You wouldn't poison him?" + +The little negro drew himself up with a native sort of dignity, that +made him appear quite tall. + +"I'se hab black 'kin, an no white like yer's, Cholly," said he gravely, +wiping away the tears that had run down his cheeks in the exuberance of +his recent merriment. "But, b'y, yer may beleeb de troot, dat if I'se +hab black 'kin, my hart ain't ob dat colour; an' I wouldn't pizen no +man, if he wer de debbel hisself. No, Cholly, I'se fight fair, an' +dunno wish to go behint no man's back!" + +"I'm sure I beg your pardon," said I, seeing that I had insulted him by +my suspicion; "but what are you going to do to pay the skipper out?" + +This set him off again with a fresh paroxysm of laughter. + +"My golly! Hoo-hoo! I'se goin' hab one fine joke," he spluttered out, +his face seemingly all mouth, and his woolly hair crinkling, as if +electrified by his inward feelings. "I'se goin'--hoo-hoo!--I'se goin'-- +yah-yah!--" + +But, what he was about to tell me remained for the present a mystery; +for, just then, the squalls ceasing and the wind shifting to the +northward of west, the captain ordered the lee braces to be slacked off, +and we hauled round more to starboard, still keeping on the same tack, +though. Our course now was pretty nearly south-west by south, and thus, +instead of barely just weathering the Smalls, as we should only have +been able to do if it had kept on blowing from the same quarter right in +our teeth, we managed to give the Pembrokeshire coast a good wide berth, +keeping into the open seaway right across the entrance to the Bristol +Channel, the ship heading towards Scilly well out from the land. + +She made better weather, too, not rolling or pitching so much, going a +bit free, as she did when close-hauled, the wind drawing more abeam as +it veered north; and Captain Snaggs was not the last to notice this, you +may be sure. He thought he might just as well take advantage of it, as +not being one of your soft-hearted sailors, but a `beggar to carry on +when he had the chance,' at least, so said Hiram Bangs, who had sailed +with him before. + +No sooner, therefore, were the yards braced round than he roared out +again to the watch, keeping them busy on their legs-- + +"Hands, make sail!" + +"Let go y'r tops'l halliards!" + +"Away aloft thaar, men!" he cried, when the yards came down on the caps; +"lay out sharp and shake out them reefs!" + +Then, it was all hoist away with the halliards and belay, the mainsail +being set again shortly afterwards and the jib rehoisted, with the +foretopmast staysail stowed and the reef let out of the foresail. + +Later on, the top-gallants were set, as well as the spanker; and the +_Denver City_, under a good spread of canvas, began to show us how she +could go through the water on a bowline; for, the sea having gone down a +bit, besides running the same way we were going, she did not take in so +much wet nor heel over half so much as she did an hour before, when +beating to windward, while every stitch she had on drew, sending her +along a good eight knots or more, with a wake behind her like a mill +race. + +During the commotion that ensued when we were bracing the yards and +letting out reefs and setting more sail, I had lost sight of Sam +Jedfoot, the men bustling about so much forward that I retreated under +the break of the poop, out of their way; but, from here, I noticed that +Sam made himself very busy when the clew-garnet blocks were hauled aft, +on the mainsail being dropped, his powerful arms being as good as any +two men tailed on to a rope, for there was "plenty of beef" in him, if +he were not up to much in the matter of size. + +After the bustle, however, I was called in to the cabin by the steward, +to help wait at table, as the captain had come down to dinner at last, +now that everything was going well with the ship and we were fairly out +at sea, the first-mate accompanying him, while Jan Steenbock was left in +charge of the deck, with strict orders to keep the same course, west +sou'-west, and call Captain Snaggs if any change should take place in +the wind. + +"I guess the stoopid cuss can't make no durned mistake about thet," I +heard the captain say to Mr Flinders, as he came down the companion +hatchway, rubbing his hands, as if in anticipation of his dinner; "an', +by thunder, I dew feel all powerful hungry!" + +"So do I, sir," chimed in the first-mate. "I hope the stooard hez +somethin' good for us to eat. I feels raal peckish, I dew!" + +"Hope ye ain't too partick'ler," rejoined Captain Snaggs; "fur this 'll +be the last dinner thet air conceited darkey, Sam, 'll cook fur ye, +Flinders. He goes in the fo'c's'le to-morrow, an' this hyar lout of a +stooard shall take his place in the galley." + +"`Changey for changey, black dog for white monkey,'" observed the +first-mate with a snigger. "Eh, cap?" + +"Ye've hit it, Flinders, I reckon," said the other; and, as he gave a +look round the cabin before taking his seat, which the Welsh steward +stood behind obsequiously, although he could not draw it out, as it was +lashed down to the deck and a fixture, the captain added: "Ye'd better +see about gettin' the deadlights up to them stern ports, Flinders, afore +nightfall. They look kinder shaky, an' if a followin' sea shu'd catch +us astern, we'd be all swamped in hyar, I guess." + +"Aye, aye, sir!" said the first-mate, seating himself, too; that is, as +soon as he noticed that the steward, who had instantly rushed forward to +the galley for the dinner, which was keeping hot there, had returned +with a smoking dish, which he placed in front of the captain, +dexterously removing the cover almost at the same instant--"I'll see to +it the first thing when I go on deck again." + +"An', Flinders," continued Captain Snaggs, ladling out a good portion of +the contents of the dish into a plate, which the steward passed on to +the first-mate, "I see a rope's-end hangin' down thaar, too, like a +bight of the signal halliards or the boom-sheet, which some lubber hez +let tow overboard. Hev it made fast an' shipshape. I hate slovenliness +like pizen!" + +"So do I, sir, you bet," answered the mate, with his mouth full. "I'll +watch it when I go on the poop agen; but, ain't this fowl an' rice jest +galumptious, cap?" + +"Pretty so so," said Captain Snaggs, who seemed somewhat critical, in +spite of his assertion of being ravenous and `a reg'ler whale on +poultry,' as he had observed when Jones took off the dish cover. +"Strikes me, thaar's a rum sort o' taste about it thet ain't quite +fowlish!" + +"M-yum, m-yum; I dew taste somethin' bitterish," agreed Mr Flinders, +smacking his lips and deliberating apparently over the flavour of the +fowl; "p'raps the critter's gall bladder got busted--hey?" + +"P'raps so, Flinders," rejoined the skipper; "but I hope thet durned +nigger hasn't be'n meddlin' with it! Them darkeys air awful vengeful, +an' when I hed him up jist now, an' told him he'd hev ter go forrud, I +heard him mutter sunthin' about `not forgettin''--guess I did, so." + +Captain Snaggs looked so solemn as he said this, with his face bent down +into his plate to examine what was on it the more closely, and his +billy-goat beard almost touching the gravy, that I had to cough to +prevent myself from laughing; for, I was standing just by him, handing +round a dish of potatoes at the time. + +"Hillo!" he exclaimed, looking up and staring at me so that I flushed up +as red as a turkey cock, "what's the matter with ye, b'y?" + +"N-n-nothing, sir," I stammered. "I--I couldn't help it, sir; I have +got a sort of tickling in my throat." + +"Guess a ticklin' on yer back would kinder teach ye better manners when +ye're a-waitin' at table," he said, grimly. "Go an' tell the stooard to +fetch the rum bottle out of my bunk, with a couple of tumblers, an' then +ye can claar out right away. I don't want no b'ys a-hangin' round when +I'm feedin'!" + +Glad enough was I at thus getting my dismissal without any further +questioning; and, after giving Jones the captain's message, I went out +from the pantry on to the maindeck, and so forward to the galley, where +I expected to find Sam. + +He wasn't there, however; but, hearing his voice on the fo'c's'le, I +looked up, and saw him there, in the centre of a little knot of men, +consisting of Tom Bullover, the carpenter, Hiram Bangs, and another +sailor, to whom, as I quickly learnt from a stray word here and there, +the darkey cook was laying down the law anent the skipper and his +doings. + +"De ole man's a hard row to hoe, yer bet," I heard him say, "but he +don't get over dis chile nohow! I'se heer tell ob him afore I ship't as +how he wer the hardest cap'n as sailed out ob Libberpool." + +"Then, why did you jine?" asked Hiram Bangs; "good cooks ain't so common +as you couldn't git another vessel." + +"Why did yer jine, Mass' Hiram, sin' yer sailed wid him afore, an' +knowed he was de bery debble?" + +"'Cause I wants ter go to 'Frisco," replied the other; "an', 'sides, I +ain't afeared of the old skunk. He's more jaw nor actin', an' a good +sailor, too, an' no mistake, spite of his bad temper an' hard words." + +"Golly, Hiram, nor ain't I'se funky ob him, neider! My fader in Jamaiky +he one big fetish man; an' I not 'fraid ob Captain Snaggs, or de debbel, +or any odder man; an' I wants ter go ter 'Frisco, too, an' dat's de +reason I'se hyar." + +Presently, when I had the chance of speaking to him, I told him of the +captain's suspicions; but he only laughed when I begged him to tell me +if he had put anything into the cabin dinner, and what it was. + +"Yah-yah, sonny! I'se tole yer so, I'se tole yer so--hoo-hoo!" he +cried, doubling himself up and yelling with mirth. "I'se tole yer, +`jess wait till bymeby, an' yer see one big joke;' but, chile, yer'd +better not know nuffin 'bout it; fo', den yer ken tell de troot if de +cap'n ax, an' say yer knows nuffin." + +This was no doubt sound advice; still, it did not satisfy my curiosity, +and I was rather indignant at his not confiding in me. Of course, I was +not going to tell the captain or anybody, for I wasn't a sneak, at all +events, if I was only a cabin boy! + +Vexed at his not confiding in me, I turned to look over the side at the +scene around. + +The sun had not long set, and a bit of the afterglow yet lingered over +the western horizon, warming up that portion of the sky; but, above, +although the leaden clouds had all disappeared, being driven away to +leeward long since, the shades of evening were gradually creeping up, +and the sea and everything was covered with a purple haze, save where +the racing waves rushed over each other in a mass of seething foam, that +scintillated out coruscations of light--little oases of brightness in +the desert of the deep. + +As for the ship, she was a beauty, and sailed on, behaving like a +clipper, rising and falling with a gentle rocking motion, when she met +and passed the rollers that she overtook in her course, as they raced +before her, trying to outvie her speed, and tossing up a shower of spray +occasionally over her weather bow, which the fading gleams of crimson +and gold of the sunset touched up and turned into so many little +rainbows, that hovered over the water in front for a moment and then +disappeared, as the vessel crushed them out of life with her cutwater. + +The wind still whistled through the rigging, but, now, it was more like +the musical sound of an Aeolian harp, whose chords vibrated rhythmically +with the breeze; while the big sails bellying out from the yards above +emitted a gentle hum, as that of bees in the distance, from the rushing +air that expanded their folds, which, coupled with the wash and `Break, +break, break!' of the sea, sounded like a sad lullaby. + +All was quietness on deck: some of the late hands having their tea +below, where one or two had already turned in to gain a few winks of +sleep before being called on duty to keep the first watch. Others +again, as I've already said, where chatting and yarning on the +fo'c's'le, as sailors love to chat and yarn of an evening, when the ship +is sailing free with a fair wind, and there's nothing much doing, save +to mind the helm and take an occasional pull at the braces to keep her +"full and by." + +All was quiet; but, not for long! + +It was just beginning to grow dark, although still light enough to see +everything that was going on fore and aft, when Captain Snaggs staggered +out from the cuddy, coming through the doorway underneath the break of +the poop, and not going up the companion hatch, as was his usual habit +when he came out on deck. + +He looked as if he had been drinking pretty heavily from the bottle of +rum the steward had brought in as I left the cabin, an impression which +his thick speech confirmed, when, after fetching up against the mainmast +bitts, in a vain attempt to work to windward and reach the poop ladder, +he began to roar out my name. + +"B'y! I wants thet b'y, Chawley Hills! Hillo, Chaw-ley! Chawley +Hills!--Hills!--Hills! On deck thaar! Where are ye? By thunder! I'll +spif-spif-splicate ye, b'y, when I catch ye! Come hyar!" + +I was rather terrified at this summons, the more especially from his +being drunk, but, I went all the same towards him. + +He clutched hold of me the moment I came near. + +"Ye d-d-durned young reptile!" he roared, more soberly than he had +spoken before; and, from a sort of agonised look in his face, I could +see that something more than mere drink affected him, for I had noticed +him before under the influence of intoxicating liquors. "Tell me wha-at +thet infarnal nigger put into the grub? Ye know ye knows all about it, +fur ye looked guilty when the mate an' I wer talkin' about it at table; +an' he's been pizened, an' so am I; an' he sez ye knows all about it, +an' so does I; an' what is more, b'y, I'll squeeze the life out of ye if +yer don't tell!" + +"Oh, please, sir," I cried out; as well as the pressure of his hands on +my throat would permit, "I don't know. I don't know anything." + +"Cuss ye, b'y. Ye dew know; an', if chokin' won't get it out of ye, +we'll try what larrupin' will do!" + +So saying, he ordered a couple of the hands standing by to seize me up +to the weather rigging; and taking hold of a thick piece of rope, which +he had brought with him out of the cabin, he proceeded to deliver blows +about my back and shoulders that made me howl again, the strokes seeming +to tear the flesh from my bones. + +"Won't ye tell, hey?" he exclaimed between each stroke of the improvised +cat, which lashed as well, I can answer, as if it had nine tails; "won't +ye tell, hey?" + +At the third stroke, however, he himself fell upon the deck, putting his +hands to his stomach and rolling about doubled up almost in two in his +agony; although, when the paroxysm of pain had ceased for the moment, he +got up on his feet once more and began lashing away at me again. + +But, my deliverer was at hand. + +Just as he raised his arm to deliver a fourth stripe across my back, and +I shrank back in expectation of it, I heard Sam Jedfoot's voice,-- + +"'Top dat, massa cap?" he called out. "What fur yer lick dat b'y fur?" + +"Oh, it's ye, is it?" roared the skipper, turning on him with a snarl. +"I wer comin' fur ye presently, ye durned cuss! But, ez ye air hyar, +why, ye scoundrel, what did ye make thet b'y do to the dinner? Me an' +the mate is both pizened." + +"De b'y didn't do nuffin, an' yer ain't pizened, nor Mass' Flinders, +neider," said Sam calmly, interrupting the captain before he could +scream out another word; "I'se dun it alone. I'se put jalap in the fowl +a puppose!" + +"Ye did, did ye!" yelled the captain fiercely; and there was a savage +vindictiveness in his voice that I had not noticed previously, as he +turned round to address the second-mate and a number of the men, who had +gathered round at the noise made by the altercation, those that had +turned in turning out, and even the look-out coming from off the +fo'c's'le away aft to see what was going on. "Men, ye've heard this +tarnation villain confess thet he's tried to pizen Mr Flinders an' +myself. Now ye'll see me punish him!" + +With these words, which he spoke quite calmly, without a trace of +passion, he drew out a revolver from the pocket of his jacket, cocking +it with a click that struck a cold chill to my heart, and made me +shudder more convulsively than even the brute's lashes had done the +moment before. + +"Bress de Lor'! don' shoot me, cap'n!" cried poor Sam, edging away from +the fatal weapon, as Captain Snaggs raised it; "don't shoot, fo' de +Lor's sake!" + +"I'm going to kill ye like a dog!" rejoined the other, taking aim; but +Sam, quick as lightning darted into the weather rigging, making his way +forward along the channels, the captain jumping after him and +repeating,--"It's no use. Ye won't escape me, I tell ye, darkey; ye +won't escape me! I'll kill ye ez dead ez a dog! Like a dog, d'ye +haar?" + +As he uttered the last words a second time, as if the repetition of the +phrase pleased his cruel ear, there was another `click,' followed by a +bright flash and a sharp report; and then, uttering a wild, despairing +cry, which was echoed by the men standing around, poor Sam dropped into +the sea alongside, his body splashing up the water right inboard into my +face as it fell! + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +FRIGHTENED TO DEATH! + +"That's murder--murder in cold blood!" + +The voice uttering this exclamation, which I at once recognised as that +of Tom Bullover, the carpenter, came from amidst a mass of the men, who, +attracted by the noise of the row, had gathered from forward, and were +clustered together--as I could see sideways from my position there, +spread-eagled in the rigging. They were standing by the long-boat, just +abaft of poor Sam Jedfoot's now tenantless galley, and immediately under +the bellying folds of the mainsail, that rustled and swelled out over +their heads, tugging at the boltropes and rattling the clew-garnet +blocks, as it was jerked by the wind, which ever and anon blew with +eddying gusts as it veered and shifted. + +"Who's the mutinous rascal thet spoke then?" cried Captain Snaggs, +wheeling round on the instant, quick as lightning, and cocking his +revolver with another ominous click, as he faced the group, aiming at +the nearest man to him. "Jest ye give me another word of yer jaw, an' +I'll sarve ye the same as I sarved thet durned nigger--I will so, by +thunder!" + +A hoarse murmur, partly of rage and partly expressive of fear, arose +from the crew as they shuffled uneasily about the deck, one trying to +get behind another; but neither Tom Bullover nor anyone else stepped out +to answer the captain, who, seeing that he had cowed them, lowered his +awkward looking weapon. + +"Ye're a pack of durned skallywags, with nary a one the pluck of a skunk +in the lot!" he exclaimed contemptuously, in his snarling Yankee voice; +but, just then, the head sails flapping, from the helmsman letting the +ship nearly broach to, forgetting to attend to his duties in his +eagerness to hear all that was going on, the captain's wrath was +directed towards those aft, and he wheeled round and swore at the +second-mate, who was on the poop, leaning over the rail, bawling out +louder than before:--"What the infernal dickens are ye about thaar, +Mister Steenbock? Snakes an' alligators! why, ye'll have us all aback +in another minute! Ease her off, ease her off gently; an' hev thet +lubber at the wheel relieved; d'ye haar? Ha ain't worth a cuss! Get a +man thet ken steer in his place. Jerusalem! Up with the helm at once!" + +Fortunately, the jib only gybed, while the fore-topsail slatted a bit +against the mast; and all the other sails remaining full and drawing, a +slight shift of the helm sufficed to put the ship on her proper course. +Still, the captain, now his blood was up, could not afford to lose such +a good opportunity both for rating the second-mate for his carelessness +in conning the ship and not making the helmsman keep her steady on her +course, and also in giving a little extra work to the hands who had +dared to murmur at his fearful vengeance on the cook for drugging his +food. So he made them bustle about the deck in style, slacking off the +lee braces and hauling upon these on the weather side, until we had +brought the wind almost over the stern, with the yards pretty nearly +square. We were now running before it, rolling from port to starboard +and back again from starboard to port, almost gunwales under, with the +sail we had on us now, for it was blowing a good ten-knot breeze from +the nor'-nor'-west, the breeze having shifted again since sunset, right +astern, instead of being dead ahead, as previously, of our proper tract +for the open sea. + +When Captain Snaggs had seen everything braced round, and the boom-sheet +of the spanker likewise eased off, he turned to where I was still lashed +up against the main shrouds, in dread expectancy every moment of his +renewing the thrashing he had commenced, and which poor Sam's plucky +intervention on my behalf had for the time interrupted. + +"Well, ye young cuss!" said the skipper, who had been giving all his +orders from the lower deck, which he had not left since he had rolled +out from the cuddy under the poop in the paroxysm of passion and pain +that led to such a dread catastrophe--all that had happened, although it +takes a long time to describe, having occurred within a very brief +interval of his first outburst on me. "What hev ye got to say for +y'rself thet I shouldn't give ye a thunderin' hidin', sich ez I hanker +arter, hey? I'm jiggered, too, if I don't, ye young whelp! Fur I guess +ye wer kinder in truck with thet durned nigger when he tried to pizen me +an' Mister Flinders. I'll skin ye alive, though ye aren't bigger nor a +spritsail sheet knot, my joker, fur ye hevn't got half enuff yet, I +reckon!" + +So saying, he picked up the rope's-end that he had dropped when he took +out his revolver, and was evidently about to lay it on my poor trembling +back again, when another groan came from the men forward, who still hung +about the windlass bitts, instead of going below after squaring the +yards. Tom Bullover's voice, I could hear, again taking the lead, as +they advanced in a body aft, in a much more demonstrative manner than +previously. + +"Stow that now, and leave the boy alone," I heard him say. "You've +wallopped him already; and there's been enough murder done in the ship!" + +Captain Snaggs let fall the cat he had taken in his hand to thrash me +with, and once more pulled out from his pocket the revolver; but, in the +half-light that lingered now after the sunset glow had faded out of the +sky, I noticed, as I screwed my neck round, looking to see what he was +doing, that his hand trembled. The next moment he dropped the revolver +on the deck as he had done the rope's-end. + +"Who's talkin' of murder? Thet's an ugly word," he stammered out, +evidently frightened at the result of his rage against poor Sam, and the +way in which the crew regarded it. "I--I only shot thet nigger because +he pizened me an' the first-mate." + +"You should have put hims in ze irons," interposed the second-mate, Jan +Steenbock, speaking in his deep, solemn tones from the poop above. "Ze +mans vas murdert in ze cold blood!" + +I could see Captain Snaggs shiver--all his coarse, bullying manner and +braggadocio deserting him, as Jan Steenbock's accents rang through the +ship, like those of an accusing judge; the index finger of the +second-mate's right hand pointing at him, as he leant over the poop +rail, like the finger of Fate! + +"I did not mean to shoot the coon like to kill him, I only meant to +kinder frighten the life out of him, thet's all," he began, in an +exculpatory tone, regaining his usual confidence as he proceeded. "The +durned cuss brought it on hisself, I reckon; fur, if he hedn't climb'd +into the riggin' he wouldn't hev dropped overboard!" + +"But, you vas shoot him ze first," said Jan Steenbock, in reply to this, +the men on the other side of the captain giving a murmuring assent to +the accusation, "you vas shoot him ze first!" + +"Aye, thet's so; but I didn't mean fur to hit him, only to skear him. +Guess I don't think I did, fur the ship rolled as I fired, an' the +bullet must hev gone over his woolly head, an' he let go from sheer +frit!" + +"Dat might be," answered the second-mate, whom the men left to do all +the talking; "but ze--" + +"Besides," continued the captain, interrupting him, and seeing he had +gained a point, "the darkey pizened my grub. He sea he put jalap in it. +Ye heerd him say so y'rselves, didn't ye?" + +"Aye, aye," chorussed the group of men in front of him, with true +sailor's justice, "we did. We heard him say so." + +"Well, then," argued Captain Snaggs, triumphantly, "ye knows what a +delicate matter it is fur to meddle with a chap's grub; ye wouldn't like +it y'rselves?" + +"No," came from the men unanimously, "we wouldn't." + +"All right, then; I see ye're with me," said the skipper, wagging his +beard about as he lay down the law. "I confess I didn't like it. The +nigger sed he hocussed our grub; but seeing ez how I an' the first-mate +wer took so bad, I believed he'd pizened us, an' it rizzed my dander, +an' so I went fur him." + +"Aye, aye," sang out the men, as if endorsing this free and rather +one-sided version of the affair, Hiram Bangs the captain's countryman, +chiming in with a "Right you air, boss!" + +"But you need not have shoot hims," insisted Jan Steenbock, perceiving +that the skipper was getting the men to take a more lenient view of the +transaction than he did. "Ze mans not go avays. You could put hims in +ze irons!" + +"So I could, me joker; though I can't see ez how it's yer place to top +the officer over me, Mister Steenbock," retorted the skipper, with some +of his old heat. "Ye've hed yer say, an' the men hev hed their'n; an' +now I'll hev mine, I reckon! The nigger wer in fault in the fust place, +an' I'm sorry I wer tew hard on him; but, now he's gone overboard, +thaar's nuthin' more to be done, fur all the talkin' in the world won't +bring him back agen! I'll tell ye what I'll do, though." + +"What?" shouted out Tom Bullover. "What will you do?" + +Captain Snaggs recognised his voice now, in spite of its being nearly +dark, and he uttered an expressive sort of snorting grunt. + +"Ha! ye're the coon, are ye, thet cried murder, hey?" I heard him +mutter under his breath menacingly; and then, speaking out louder he +said, that all could hear, "I tell ye what I'll do: I am willin' to go +ashore at the first available port we ken stop at an' lay the whole of +the circumstances before the British or American consul, an' take the +consequences--fur you all ken give evidence against me if ye like! I +can't say fairer nor thet men, can I?" + +"No, cap," they chorussed, as if perfectly satisfied with this promise, +"nothing can be fairer nor that!" + +"All right; thet 'll do, the watch, then." + +"But, thet b'y thaar?" called out Hiram Bangs, as they were all +shuffling forward again, now that the palaver was over and the subject +thoroughly discussed, as they thought, in all its bearings; "yer won't +leather him no more? The little cuss warn't to blame; the nigger said +so, hisself!" + +"No, I won't thrash him agen, since he's a friend o' yer's," replied the +skipper, jocularly, evidently glad that the affair was now hushed up. +"Ye ken cut him down if ye like, an' take him forrud with ye." + +"Right ye air, cap, so we will," said Hiram, producing his clasp knife +in a jiffey and severing the lashings that bound me to the rigging, +"Come along, Cholly; an' we'll warm ye up in the fo'c's'le arter yer +warmin' up aft from the skipper!" + +The hands responded with a laugh to this witticism, apparently +forgetting all about the terrible scene that had so lately taken place, +as they escorted me in triumph towards the fore part of the ship; while +the captain went up on the poop and relieved Jan Steenbock, speaking to +him very surlily, and telling him to go down into the cabin and see what +had become of the first-mate, Mr Flinders, and if he was any better, +and fit to come on duty. As for himself, he had now quite recovered +from the effects of whatever the unfortunate cook had put into the stew +he had eaten, and which had alarmed him with the fear of being poisoned. + +I, however, could not so readily put the fearful scene I had been such +an unwilling witness of so quickly out of my remembrance; and, as I went +forward with the kind-hearted but thoughtless fellows who had saved me +from a further thrashing, I felt quite sick with horror. A dread +weight, as of something more horrible still, that was about to happen, +filled my mind. + +Nor did the conversation I heard in the fo'c's'le tend to soothe my +startled nerves and make me feel more comfortable. + +The men's tea was still in the coppers, poor Sam having made up a great +fire in the galley before going off on his last journey, and this was +now served out piping hot all round, the men helping themselves, for no +one had yet been elected to fill the darkey's vacant place. No one, +indeed, seemed anxious to remain longer than could be helped within the +precincts of the cook's domain, each man hurrying out again from the old +caboose as quickly as he filled his pannikin from the bubbling coppers +with the decoction of sloe leaves, molasses and water, which, when duly +boiled together does duty with sailor-folk for tea! + +Then--sitting round the fo'c's'le, some on the edge of the +hatch-coaming, some dangling their legs over the windlass bitts, and +others bringing themselves to an anchor on a coil of the bower hawser, +that had not been stowed away properly below, but remained lumbering the +deck--all began to yarn about the events of the day. Their talk +gradually veered round to a superstitious turn on the second dog-watch +drawing to a close; and, as the shades of night deepened over our heads, +so that I could hardly now distinguish a face in the gloom, the voices +of the men sank down imperceptibly to a mere whisper, thus making what +they said sound more weird and mysterious, all in keeping with the scene +and its surroundings. + +Of course, Sam formed the principal subject of their theme; and, after +speaking of what a capital cook and good chum he was, `fur a darkey,' as +Hiram Bangs put it, having some scruples on the subject of colour, from +being an American, Tom Bullover alluded to the negro's skill at the +banjo. + +"Aye, bo, he could give us a toon when he liked, fur he wer mighty +powerful a-fingerin' them strings. He made the durned thing a'most +speak, I reckon," observed Hiram Bangs; adding reflectively,--"An' the +curiousest thing about him wer thet he wer the only nigger I ever come +athwart of ez warn't afeard of sperrits." + +"Sperrits, Hiram?" interposed one of the other hands; "what does you +mean?--ghostesses?" + +"Aye. Sam sed as how his father, a darkey too, in course, wer a fetish +man; an' I rec'l'ects when I wer to hum, down Chicopee way, ther' wer an +ole nigger thaar thet usest to say thet same, an' the ole cuss wud go of +a night into the graveyard, which wer more'n nary a white man would ha' +done, ye bet!" + +"You wouldn't catch me at it," agreed another sailor, giving himself a +shake, that sent a cold shiver through me in sympathy. "I'd face any +danger in daylight that a Christian ain't afeard on; but, as for huntin' +for ghostesses in a churchyard of a dark night, not for me!" + +"Aye, nor me," put in another. "I shouldn't like old Sammy to come back +and haunt the galley, as I've heard tell me. By jingo! I wouldn't like +to go into it now that it's dark, arter the way the poor beggar got shot +an' drownded--leastways, not without a light, or a lantern, or somethin' +or t'other; for, they sez of folks that come by any onnateral sort o' +death, that their sperrits can't rest quiet, and that then they goes +back to where they was murdered, and you ken see 'em wanderin' around +twixt midnight an' mornin', though they wanishes agen at the first +streak of daylight." + +"I've heerd tell the same," chimed in Hiram Bangs, in a sepulchral +voice, that made my heart go down to my toes; "but Sam, he usest to say, +sez he, ez how none o' them sperrits could never touch he, cos he hed a +charm agen 'em 'cause of his father bein' jest in the ring, an' one of +the same sorter cusses--his `fadder' he called him, poor old darkey! +Sam told me now, only last night ez never was, how he'd of'en in Jamaiky +talked with ghostesses, thet would come an' tote round his plantation! +He sed, sez he, ez how he'd got a spell to call 'em by whenever he +liked; thet's what he told me, by thunder!" + +"Aye, bo," said Tom Bullover; "and, before poor Sam went aft this very +evening, I heard him tell this younker, Charlie Hills, how thet he +weren't afraid of that brute of a bullying skipper, and if he came by +any harm he'd haunt him--didn't he, Charlie?" + +"Ye-es," I replied, trembling, feeling horribly frightened now with all +their queer talk, coming after what I had gone through before; "but, I +didn't hear him say anything of haunting the ship. I'm awfully sorry +for him, Tom; but I hope he won't come back again, as Hiram Bangs says." + +"He will, ye bet yer bottom dollar on thet, Cholly, if he ain't made +comfable down below in Davy Jones' locker, whar the poor old cuss air +now," said the American sailor in his deep voice, increasing my +superstitious fears by the very way in which he spoke. "Guess I +wouldn't mind shakin' fins with the nigger agen if he'd come aboard in +daylight, but I'm durned if I'd like to see him hyar 'fore mornin'! I'd +feel kinder skeart if I did, b'y, I reckon." + +I had no time to reply; for, the captain's voice hailing us from the +poop at the moment made us all jump--I, for one, believing that it was +Sam Jedfoot already come back to life, or his ghost! + +The next instant, however, I was reassured by a hoarse chuckle passing +round amongst the men; while Hiram Bangs called out, "I'm jiggered, +messmates, if it ain't the old man up on deck agen!" + +Like him, I then caught the sound of Captain Snaggs' nasal twang, +although he spoke rather thickly, as if he had been drinking again. + +"Fo'c's'le, ahoy!" he shouted; "wake up thaar an' show a leg! Let one +of the hands strike eight bells, an' come aft, all ye starbow-lines, to +take the first watch." + +"Aye, aye, sir!" answered Tom Bullover, leading the way towards the +skipper; while Hiram Bangs seized hold of the rope attached to the +clapper of the bell, hanging under the break of the fo'c's'le, and +struck the hour, then following in Tom's footsteps with a "Here I am, +sonny, arter ye!" + +I did not remain behind, you may be sure, not caring to stop in the +vicinity of Sam's galley after all that talk about him. Besides this, I +felt tired out, and my bunk being on a locker outside the steward's +pantry, and just within the door leading into the cuddy under the poop, +I was anxious to sneak in there without being seen again by the captain, +so as to have a lie down, or `turn in'--if it can be called turning in, +with all my clothes on, ready to turn out at a minute's notice! + +I managed to get inside, luckily unperceived by the skipper's eagle eye +and was furthermore assured of a quiet `caulk' by hearing him sing out +presently to the steward to bring him up some grog, as he was going to +remain on deck till the middle watch. I knew from this that I would be +undisturbed by his coming below for a good four hours' spell at least; +and I soon sank off to sleep, the last thing that I heard being the +tramping about on deck of the men when Captain Snaggs roared out some +order about making more sail, and the sluicing of the water washing from +side to side, as the _Denver City_ rolled and pitched, staggering along +under a cloud of canvas, with everything set now, right before the wind. + +The next thing I heard was a heavy crash of glass, and I woke up just in +time to catch the tail end of a combing wave, that dashed in through one +of the stern ports, washing the cabin fore and aft. The ship had +evidently been pooped by a heavy following sea, that travelled through +the water faster than she did before the stiff northward breeze, +although we were carrying on, too, at a good rate, as I've said. + +Aroused by this, I scrambled to my feet, and recognised Captain Snaggs' +voice coming down the companion way; but I did not fear his seeing me, +as the swinging lamp over the cuddy table had been put out, and all was +in darkness below, save when a sudden bright gleam from the moon, which +had risen since I had sought my bunk, shot down through the skylight as +the ship rolled over to port--making it all the darker again as she +listed to starboard, for her next roll the reverse way necessarily shut +out the moonlight again. + +Captain Snaggs, I could hear, was not only very drunk, but, as usual, in +a very bad temper, as he stumbled about the foot of the companion way in +the water that washed about the cabin door. + +"Durn thet fool of a Flinders--hic!" he exclaimed, steadying himself +before making a plunge towards his berth, which was on the left, as I +knew from the sound of his voice in the distance. "I t-t-t-old him them +ports would git stove in, an'--an'--order'd him to fix the deadlights; +but the durned fool ain't done nary a thing, an' there ye air, +streenger, thaar ye air!" + +He then staggered a bit and flopped about the water; and then, all at +once, as I listened, he gave vent to a queer gurgling cry of horror, +that seemed to freeze my blood. + +"Jerusalem!" he exclaimed, gasping as if choking for breath. "Thaar! +thaar!" + +A gleam shone down from the moon at the moment through the skylight; +and, wonderful to relate, I saw the captain's outstretched hand pointing +to-- + +Something! + +It was standing by the cabin door leading out on to the maindeck. + +The Something was the figure of poor Sam Jedfoot, apparently all +dripping wet, as if he had just emerged from his grave in the sea. + +His face, turned towards me, looked quite white in the moonlight, as it +became visible for a second and then instantaneously disappeared, +melting back again, into darkness as the moon withdrew her light, +obscured by the angle of the vessel's side, as the ship made another +roll in the contrary direction. + +I was almost paralysed with fear, being too much frightened to utter a +sound; and there I remained spellbound, staring still towards the spot +where I had seen the apparition--half-sitting, half-standing on the +locker, having drawn up my feet, so as to be out of the rush of the +water as it washed to and fro on the floor. + +As for Captain Snaggs, the sight of his victim seemed to affect him even +more--at least, so I fancied, from his frenzied cry; for, of course, I +could no longer see him. + +"Save me! save me!" he called out, in almost as despairing and +terror-stricken a tone as that of poor Sam, when he was shot and fell +into the sea; and then I heard a heavy splash, as if the captain had +tumbled down on his face in the pool slushing about the deck. "Save me! +Take him away! The darned nigger hez got me at last!" + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +ON FIRE IN THE HOLD. + +I think I must have swooned away with fright, for the next thing I +recollect on coming to myself was the steward, Morris Jones, shaking me. + +"Rouse up, you lazy lubber!" he roared in my ears. "Rouse up and help +me with the cap'en; he's fell down in a fit, or something!" + +Then, I noticed that Jones had a ship's lantern in his hand, by the dim +light of which the cabin was only faintly illuminated; but I could see +the water washing about the floor, with a lot of things floating about +that had been carried away by the big wave coming in through the broken +port in the stern sheets, that was also plainly discernible from the +phosphorescent glow of the sea without, which every moment welled up +almost on a level with the deck above, as if it were going to fetch +inboard again and vamp us altogether. + +"Wha--what's the matter?" I stammered out, half confused at the way in +which the steward shook me; and then, recollecting all that had +happened, as the fearful sight both the captain and I had seen flashed +all at once on my mind, I put my hands before my face shudderingly, +exclaiming, "Oh, the ghost! the ghost!" + +"The ghost your grandmother!" ejaculated Jones, giving me another rough +hustle. "Why, boy, you ain't awake yet. I'll douse you in the water, +and give you a taste of `cold pig,' if you don't get up and help me in a +minute!" + +"But I saw it," I cried, starting to my feet and looking wildly around +to see if the apparition were still there. "I saw it with my own eyes; +and so did Captain Snaggs, too!" + +"Saw what?" + +"The ghost of poor Sam Jedfoot." + +Morris Jones laughed scornfully. + +"You confounded fool, you're dreaming still!" he said, shaking me again, +to give emphasis to his words. "I should like to know what the nigger +cook's ghost were doin' in here. Where did you see his ugly phiz agen, +do you say?" + +"There!" I answered boldly, pointing to the corner by the cabin door, +where, as the steward flashed his lantern in the direction, I could +still see something black and hazy waving to and fro. "Why, there it is +still, if you don't believe me!" + +"Well, I'm blowed!" he exclaimed, going over to the place and catching +hold of the object that had again alarmed me. "You are a frightened +feller to be skeared by an old coat! Why, it's that Dutch second-mate +of ourn's oilskin a-hangin' up outside his bunk that you thought were +Sam's sperrit when the light shone on it, I s'pose. You ain't got the +pluck of a flea, Cholly Hills, to lose your head over sich a trifle. +There's no ghostesses now-a-days; and if there was, I don't think as how +the cook's sperrit would come in here, specially arter the way the +skipper settled him. Man or ghost, he'd be too much afeard to come nigh +the `old man' agen, with him carryin' on like that, and in sich a +tantrum. I wonder Sam hadn't more sense than to cross his hawse as he +did. I were too wary, and kep' close in my pantry all the time the row +were on, I did. I wern't born yesterday!" + +"But the cap'en saw it, too, I tell you," I persisted. "He yelled out +that Sam was there before he tumbled down; and that was how I came to +look and notice the awful thing. You can believe it or not, but I tell +you I saw Sam Jedfoot there as plain as life--either him or his ghost!" + +"Rubbish!" cried Jones, who meanwhile had put the lantern he carried on +the cabin table, and was proceeding to lift up the captain's head and +drag him into a sitting posture against the side of one of the settles +that ran down the cuddy fore and aft. "Just you light up one of them +swinging lamps, and then come and help me carry the skipper to his bunk. +He's dead drunk, that's what he is; and I wonder he ain't drownded, +too, lying with his nose in all thafe water sluicing round. As for the +ghost he saw, that were rum, his favour-rite sperrit. He ought to 'ave +seed two Sams from the lot he's drunk to-night--two bottles as I'm a +living sinner, barrin' a glass or two the first-mate had, and a drop I +squeezed out for myself, when I took him up some grog on deck at the end +of the second dog-watch!" + +"Two bottles of rum!" I exclaimed in astonishment. "Really?" + +"Aye; do you think me lying?" snapped out Jones in answer; "that is, +pretty nigh on, nearly. I wonder he ain't dead with it all. I 'ave +knowed him manage a bottle afore of a night all to hisself, but never +two, lor the matter o' that. It ought to kill him. Guess he's got a +lit of 'plexy now, an' will wake up with the jim-jams!" + +"What's that?" I asked, as the two of us lifted the captain, who was +breathing stertorously, as if snoring; "anything more serious?" + +"Only a fit of the horrors," said Jones nonchalantly, as if the matter +were an every-day circumstance, and nothing out of the common; "but if +he does get 'em, we must hide his blessed revolver, or else he'll be +goin' round the ship lettin' fly at every man Jack of us in turn! I'll +tell Mr Flinders to be on his guard when he comes-to, so that some one +'ll look arter him." + +As he spoke, the steward slung the body of the unconscious man into his +cot, I staggering as I lifted the captain's legs, which, although they +were very thin and spindleshanky, wore bony and heavy, while I was slim +and weak for my age. Besides which, the thrashing I had received the +evening previously had pretty well taken all the strength out of me, +combined with my subsequent fright from the ghost, which I could not +help believing in, despite all Jones's sneers and assertions to the +contrary. Of course, though, there was no use arguing the point with +him; he was so obstinate--like all Welshmen! + +However, between the two of us, we got Captain Snaggs laid in his bed, +where he certainly would be more comfortable than wallowing about in the +water on the cabin floor. Then, Jones and I left him, just propping up +his head with the pillows, so that he should not suffocate himself. He +could not well tumble out, the cot having high sides, and swinging +besides with the motion of the ship, being hung from the deck above on a +sort of gimbal joint, that worked in a ball and socket and gave all +ways. + +The steward then went back again into his bunk adjoining the pantry to +have his sleep out; but I felt too excited to lie down again. + +I did not like to remain there alone in the cabin after what had passed, +listening to the thuds of the waves against the sides of the ship, and +the weird creaking of the timbers, as if the vessel were groaning with +pain, and the heavy breathing of the captain in his cot, that rose above +all these sounds, for he was snoring and snorting away at a fine rate; +so, I proceeded out on to the lower deck, experiencing a chill shudder +as I made my exit by the door where I had seen Sam Jedfoot's spectre in +the moonlight. + +I almost fancied it was still there! + +When I got out under the break of the poop, I found all quiet, with the +port watch on duty, for Mr Flinders, the first-mate, was in charge, he +having relieved the second-mate, with whom the captain had remained +until he left the deck at midnight; and, an Tom Bullover and Hiram +Bangs, my only friends amongst the crew, had gone below with Mr +Steenbock and the rest of the starboard hands, there was nobody whom I +could speak to and tell all that I had seen. + +I felt very lonesome in consequence; and, although I was not a bit +sleepy, having managed to get a good four hours' rest before I was +awakened by Captain Snaggs coming stumbling down the companion way, as +well as by the noise made by the sea smashing into the cabin at the same +time, yet I was tired enough still not to be averse to stowing myself +away under the lee of the long-boat. I took the precaution, however, to +cuddle up in a piece of old tarpaulin that was lying about, so that the +first-mate should not see me from the poop, and set me on at once to +some task or other below, in his usual malicious way--Mr Flinders, like +Captain Snaggs, never seeming to be happy unless he was tormenting +somebody, and setting them on some work for which there wasn't the least +necessity! + +The moon was now shining brightly and lots of stars twinkling in the +heaven, which was clear of clouds, the bracing nor'-westerly wind having +blown them all away; and the _Denver City_ was bounding along with all +plain sail set before the breeze, that was right astern, rolling now and +again with a stiff lurch to port and then to starboard, and diving her +nose down one moment with her stern lifting, only to rise again +buoyantly the next instant and shake the spray off her jib-boom as she +pointed it upwards, trying to poke a hole in the sky! + +What with the whistling of the wind through the cordage, and the wash of +the waves as they raced over each other and broke with a seething +`whish' into masses of foam, and the motion of the ship gently rocking +to and fro like a pendulum as she lurched this way and that with +rhythmical regularity, my eyes presently began to close. So, cuddling +myself up in the tarpaulin, for the air fresh from the north felt rather +chilly, I dropped off into a sound nap, not waking again until one of +the men forward struck `six bells,' just when the day was beginning to +dawn. This was in spite of my being `not a bit sleepy,' as I said. + +I roused up with a start, not; knowing where I was at first; but it was +not long before the fact was made patent to me that I was aboard ship, +and a cabin boy as well to boot--a sort of `Handy Billy,' for every one +to send on errands and odd jobs--the slave of the cuddy and fo'c's'le +alike! + +Before he had imbibed so much rum, and just prior to his going on the +poop that time when he startled us all so much in the fo'c's'le by his +hail for Tom Bullover and the rest of the starboard hands to come aft +and relieve the port watch, Captain Snaggs, as I afterwards learnt, had +spoken to the steward, telling him that he was to take over poor Sam +Jedfoot's duties for awhile, until the men selected a new cook from +amongst themselves. Jones was told to commence work in the galley the +next evening, with especial injunctions to be up early enough to light +the fire under the coppers, so that the crew could have their hot coffee +at `eight bells,' when the watches were changed--this indulgence being +always allowed now in all decent merchant vessels; for Captain Snaggs, +if he did haze and bully the hands under him, took care to get on their +weather side by looking after their grub, a point they recollected, it +may be remembered, when he appealed to them in reference to his +treatment of poor Sam. + +Now, Morris Jones did not relish the job; but, as the first-mate had +been present when the captain gave his orders, albeit Mr Flinders was +rather limp at the time, from the physicking he, like the skipper, had +had from the jalap in the stew, the steward knew that he would recollect +all about it, even if the rum should have made the captain forget. So, +much against his inclination, he turned out of his bunk at daybreak to +see to lighting the galley fire; when, whom should he chance to come +right up against on his way forward but me, just as I had wriggled +myself out of the tarpaulin and sat up on the deck, rubbing my +half-opened eyes. + +Jones was delighted at the opportunity for `passing on' the obnoxious +duty. + +"Here, you young swab!" he cried, giving me a kick to waken me up more +thoroughly, and then catching hold of me by the scruff of the neck and +pulling me up on my feet, "stir your stumps a bit and just you come +forrud along o' me. I'm blessed if I'm going to do cook an' stooard's +work single-handed, an' you lazy rascallion a caulkin' all over the +ship! First I finds yer snug down snoozin' in the cabin, an' now here, +with the sun ready to scorch yer eyes out. Why, yer ought ter be right +down 'shamed o' yerself. I'm blessed if I ever see sich a b'y for +coilin' hisself away an' caulkin' all hours of the day and night!" + +Jones was fond of hearing himself talk, as well as pleased to have some +one he was able to bully in turn as the skipper bullied him; and so, he +kept jawing and grumbling away all the while we were getting up to the +galley, although that did not take very long--not by any means so long +as his tongue was and the stream of words that flowed from it when he +had once begun, as if he would really never end! + +"Now, you young beggar," said he, opening the half-door of the cook's +caboose and shoving me inside, "let us see how soon you can light a fire +an' make the water in the coppers boil. I'll fill 'em for you while +you're putting the sticks in; so heave ahead, an' I'll fetch a bucket or +two from the scuttle butt!" + +He spoke of this as if he were conferring a favour on me, instead of +only doing his own work; but I didn't answer him, going on to make a +good fire with some wood and shavings, which Sam used to get from the +carpenter and kept handy in the corner of the galley, ready to hand when +wanted. I knew by this time, from practical experience, that words on +board ship, where cabin boys are concerned at all events, generally lead +to `more kicks than ha'pence,' as the saying goes! + +Soon, I had a good blaze up, and the steward on his part filling the +coppers, they were both shortly at boiling-point; when, going aft to his +pantry, Jones fetched out a pound of coffee, which he chucked into the +starboard copper, which held about four gallons, and was not quite +filled to the brim. He evidently had determined to propitiate the crew +at the start by giving them good coffee for once and plenty of it; as +there were only eighteen hands in the fo'c's'le, now that Sam had gone, +besides himself and me--leaving out the captain and mates, who belonged +to the cabin, and of course did not count in, but who made our total +complement in the ship twenty-three souls all told. + +Jones, too, dowsed into the copper a tidy lot of molasses, to sweeten +the coffee; and so, when it was presently served out promptly at `eight +bells,' he won golden opinions in this his first essay at cooking, the +men all declaring it prime stuff. I think, though, I ought to have had +some of the credit of it, having lighted the fire and seen to everything +save chucking in the coffee and molasses, which anybody else could have +done quite so well as the steward! + +Jones kept me too busy in the galley to allow me time to speak to Tom +Bullover and Hiram Bangs, when they turned out to relieve the port +watch; but, later on, when the decks had been washed down, and the sun +was getting well up in the eastern horizon, flooding the ocean with the +rosy light of morning, I had an opportunity of telling my friend the +carpenter of what I had seen in the cabin. + +Much to my disgust, however, he laughed at my account of Sam Jedfoot's +ghost having appeared, declaring that I had been dreaming and imagined +it all. + +"No, Charley, I wouldn't believe it if you went down on your bended +knees an' swore it, not save I seed Sam with my own eyes, an' even then +I'd have a doubt," said Tom, grinning in the most exasperating way. +"Why, look there, now, at the skipper on the poop, as right as +ninepence! If he'd been in the state you say, an' were so orfully +frightened, an' had seed Sam's sperrit, as you wants to make me swallow, +do you think he'd look so perky this mornin'?" + +I could hardly believe my eyes. + +Yes, there was Captain Snaggs, braced up against the poop rail in his +usual place, with one eye scanning the horizon to windward and the other +inspecting the sails aloft, and his billy-goat beard sticking out as it +always did. He looked as hearty as if nothing had happened, the only +sign that I could see of his drunken fit of the night before being a cut +across the bridge of his long hooked nose, and a slight discolouration +of his eye on the port side, the result, no doubt, of his fall on the +cabin floor. + +Tom Bullover could read my doubts in my face. + +"You must have dreamed it, Charley, I s'pose, on account of all that +talkin' we had in the fo'c's'le about ghostesses afore you went aft an' +turned in, an' that's what's the matter," he repeated, giving me a nudge +in the ribs, while he added more earnestly: "And, if I was you, my boy, +I wouldn't mention a word of it to another soul, or the hands 'll chaff +the life out of you, an' you'll wish you were a ghost yerself!" + +Tom moved off as he uttered these last words with a chuckle, and +accompanied by an expressive wink, that spoke volumes; so, seeing his +advice was sound, I determined to act upon it, although the fear struck +me that Jones, the steward, would mention it even if I didn't, just to +make me the laughing-stock of the crew. + +However, I had no time then for reflection; Captain Snaggs, as if to +show that he had all his wits about him still, calling out for the hands +forward to overhaul the studding-sail gear and rig out the booms; and, +by breakfast time, when the steward and I had to busy ourselves again in +the galley, the _Denver City_ was covered with, a regular pyramid of +canvas, that seemed to extend from the truck to the deck, while she was +racing through the water at a rate of ten knots or more, with a clear +sky above and a moderate sea below, and a steady nor'-nor'-west wind +after us. + +At noon, when the captain took the sun and told us forward to "make it +eight bells," we learnt that we were in longitude 8 degrees 15 minutes +West, and latitude 49 degrees 20 minutes North, or well to the westward +of the Scilly Islands, and so really out at sea and entered on our long +voyage to California. + +This fact appeared to give no little satisfaction to the crew, who +raised a chorus whenever a rope had to be pulled or a brace taughtened, +the fine weather and brighter surroundings making the sailors apparently +forget, with that sort of happy knack for which seafaring folk are +generally distinguished, all the rough time we had coming down Saint +George's Channel, when off the Tuskar, and the terrible events of the +preceding day. + +That very afternoon, indeed, the last act that was to blot out poor Sam +Jedfoot's memory from the minds of all the hands took place, the skipper +ordering the usual auction of the dead man's effects to be held on the +fo'c's'le; when, such is the comedy of life, the very men who were so +indignant about the captain shooting him a few hours before now cut +jokes about the poverty of the darkey's kit, when his sea-chest was +opened and its contents put up for sale to the highest bidder! + +Sam's banjo led to a spirited competition, Hiram Bangs finally +succeeding in becoming its purchaser for five dollars, which Captain +Snaggs was authorised to deduct from the American sailor's wages-- +crediting it to the cook's account, should the dead man's heirs or +assigns apply for any balance due to the poor darkey when the ship +arrived in port. + +The rest of the things only fetched a trifle; and, with the disposal of +his goods and chattels, all recollection of the light-hearted Sam, who +was once the life of the fo'c's'le, passed out of everyone's mind. +Hiram stowed the banjo away in his box, for he could not play it, and +had only bought it from its association with its late owner, who used to +make him, he said, merry and sad, `jest as the durned nigger liked,' +with the melody he drew from the now silent strings. + +And yet, somehow or other, it seemed destined that Sam should not be so +soon forgotten, at least by me; for, in the evening, when I took in the +cabin dinner and remained to wait at table, in lieu of the steward, who +was too much occupied in cooking to come aft, Captain Snaggs brought up +the subject again. + +He was in high spirits at the manner in which the ship was travelling +along, appearing to have quite recovered from his drinking bout; and +when I uncovered the dish that I placed before him, he made a joke about +it to the first-mate, who, according to custom, shared meals with the +skipper in the cuddy and always sat down the same time that he did, the +second-mate having to shift by himself, and eat when he had the chance +between watches. + +"Guess thaar ain't no jalap in this lot, Flinders, hey?" said the +captain, with a snigger; "thet thaar cuss of a stooard would be too +skeart of my fixin' him same ez I done thet durned nigger to try on any +games, ye bet!" + +"I reckon so, boss," replied the other, with his mouth full, stuffing +away in his usual fashion. "Ye potted the coon nicely, ye did; an' +sarved him right, too, fur meddlin' with the grub. I thought I wer +pizened sure!" + +"An' so did I, by thunder!" echoed Captain Snaggs, bringing his fist +down with a bang on the table, that almost made Mr Flinders' plate leap +out of the `fiddle' in which it was placed, to prevent it from spilling +its contents as the ship rolled. "I did so, by thunder! I sw'ar, or +else I wouldn't a' shot the cuss. Them hands furrud thinks I'm going to +be sich a durned fool ez to call in at Bahia or Rio, an' make a +statement of the case, telling how the nigger got overboard; but ye +catch me stoppin' at any a port 'fore I drops anchor in 'Frisco. Ye +knows better ner thet, Flinders, hey?" + +The first-mate sniggered sympathetically at this, expressing by a wink +his confidence in the skipper's promise to the men; and the two laughed +with much heartiness and fellow feeling over the credulity of those who +had been so easily satisfied, and gone back to their work, confidently +trusting in Captain Snaggs' word and honour. + +A little later on, when the rum bottle was produced, the captain alluded +to his excess of the night before in the same jocular vein:-- + +"Must keep a kinder stiffer helm this evenin', Flinders," he observed, +helping himself to a tumblerful, and then passing on the bottle to the +mate; "guess I wer a bit sprung yesterday?" + +"Aye, cap, ye hed y'r load," replied Mr Flinders, with a grin; adding, +however, in fear of the skipper taking offence: "Not mor'n ye could +carry, though. Ye scooted down the companion all right at eight bells." + +"Thet's so," said the other; "but, d'ye know, Flinders, I wer flummuxed +up inter a heap when I got below, an' saw snakes terrible. I guess I +seed, too, thet air durned nigger, an' hed a notion he wer come back +agen to haunt me--I did so, Flinders, by thunder!" + +"Ye must take keer, cap," responded the first-mate to this confession. +"If ye don't draw in a bit ye'll be hevin' the shakes, an' thet 'd never +do, I reckon." + +"I guess not; but last night I wer kinder overcome with all the muss, +an' might jist hev swallerd a drop or so too much, I reckon. Good rum +can't hurt nary a one--thet is, in moderation, Flinders, strictly in +moderation." + +So saying, Captain Snaggs helped himself to another stiff tumblerful; +and how many more glasses he had afterwards I could not say, as he +dismissed me just then, telling me I could go forwards when I had +cleared away the things--which I did in a jiffy, glad to quit the cabin +and its occupants. + +On reaching the fo'c's'le, I found that the steward had, as I perceived, +told the men of my fright, and so I got finely chaffed about `Sam's +ghost.' The next day I was revenged, though; for, Jones spoiled the +crew's dinner, and got so mauled by the indignant sailors that he had to +beat a retreat back to the cabin, giving up thus ingloriously his brief +tenancy of the galley. + +Hiram Bangs was then elected cook in his place by the hands, with whom +the captain left the matter, to settle it as they pleased; and, as the +good-natured Yankee selected me to be his `mate' or assistant, by this +means I was relieved of any further association with the Welshman, and +released from his tyranny, taking up my quarters thenceforth with the +crew forward. + +The nor'-westerly wind lasted us right across the Bay of Biscay and down +to the Western Islands; and, we were only becalmed for a day or so, with +light, variable breezes between the Azores and Madeira, when we picked +up the nor'-east trades, which rattled us onward past the Canaries and +Cape Verde. + +From thence, all went well on board, nothing eventful happening until we +were close up with the Equator, in latitude 7 degrees North, and +longitude about 28 degrees West, when, late in the evening of our +thirtieth day out, just as the man at the wheel had been relieved, and +the port watch, under charge of the first-mate, come on duty at `eight +bells,' I smelt something burning in the forepeak. + +Looking to see what was the matter, I noticed a thin column of smoke +coming up from the small hatch under the fo'c's'le. + +Of course, I went aft at once and told Mr Flinders, who would not +believe me at first; but, as one of the other hands followed me up, +bringing the same report, he was at length induced to descend the poop +ladder and go forward to judge for himself whether we had told the truth +or not, muttering the while, though, that it was "all a pack o' durned +nonsense!" + +He did not think this long, however, for hardly had he got beyond the +long-boat, when the smoke, which had got much denser while he had been +wasting time palavering without taking action, blowing into his face +convinced him that the matter was really serious. + +All his nonchalance was gone in a moment, as well as his discretion; +for, without pausing to consider the effect that any sudden disclosure +of the danger might have on the crew by destroying their coolness and +pluck, he roared out at the pitch of his voice, as he banged away with +the heel of his boot on the deck: + +"All hands ahoy! Tumble up thaar! Tumble up! The shep's on fire in +the hold!" + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +CAPE HORN WEATHER. + +"Je-rusalem!" exclaimed Captain Snaggs, rushing out from the cabin in +his night-shirt, having just turned in, and not stopping to dress--as +the fluttering white garment and his thin legs showing beneath plainly +demonstrated. This I noticed when the mass of heavy clouds with which +the sky was covered overhead shifted for a moment, allowing a stray +gleam from the watery moon to light up the deck, and saw the skipper +hurrying up to the scene of action, where he was the first to arrive. +"What's all this durned muss about?" + +Jan Steenbock answered him. He had not gone below when his watch was +relieved, and being attracted by the row, was now preparing for +emergencies by rigging a hose on to the head-pump, so that this could be +at once passed down into the hold if necessary--the first-mate being too +frightened to do anything, even to reply to the captain when he spoke. +Indeed, he seemed perfectly paralysed with fear. + +"Dere vas shmoke come out vrom ze forepeak," said the second-mate, in +his deep guttural tones; "and I zinks dere vas one fire in ze holt. +Mishter Vlinders vas give ze alarm and cal't all hands." + +"Guess I heerd thet; an', I reckon, Mr Flinders hed better hev comed +an' told me quietly, instead of skearin' everybody into a blue funk!" +snapped out Captain Snaggs, dancing about on his spindleshank legs like +a pea on a hot griddle, and dodging the smoke as it puffed in his face, +while peering forward to see whence it came. "Hev any of yer chaps ben +down below to prospect whaar the durned thing is?" + +"It vas in ze forepeak, cap'n," said Jan Steenbock, in response to this +question. "I vas zee it meinselfs." + +"Is the hose ready?" + +"Aye, aye, sir!" shouted back a score of voices, all hands being now on +deck and every one forward, save the helmsman and steward--the latter, +no doubt, snoozing away comfortably in his bunk, and not troubling +himself about the disturbance, thinking, if he thought at all, that the +call of the first-mate was only probably to shorten sail, in which case +he might just as well remain where he was. "The hose is rigged and the +head-pump manned, sir." + +"Then let her rip!" shouted the skipper. "Go it, my hearties, an' flood +it out. I've hed nary a fire aboard my ship afore; an' I don't want to +be burnt out now, I reckon, with all them dry goods an' notions below, +by thunder! Put your back into it, ye lubbers, an' let her rip, I tell +ye; she's all oak!" + +One party of men attended to the pump, Jan Steenbock directing the end +of the hose down the half-opened hatch, the lid having been partly +slipped off by some one. The captain ranged the rest along the gangway, +passing the buckets; and these a couple of others standing in the +forechains dipped in the sea, hauling them up when full and handing them +to those nearest, the skipper clutching hold when they reached him and +chucking their contents down below. + +The smoke in a minute or two perceptibly diminished in volume; and, +presently, only a thin spiral wreath faintly stole up, in lieu of the +thick clouds that had previously almost stifled us. + +A wild hurrah of triumph burst from the crew; and the second-mate was +just about descending into the forepeak, to get nearer the fire and see +whether it had been thoroughly put out, when the entire cover of the +hatchway was suddenly thrown violently off, and the dripping head and +shoulders of a man appearing right under his very nose startled Jan +Steenbock so much that he tumbled backward on the deck, although, +impassive as usual, he did not utter a cry. + +The captain did though. + +"By the jumping Jehosophat!" he yelled out, also hopping back +precipitately, with his night-shirt streaming out in the wind, which +must have made his legs feel rather chilly, I thought, "who in thunder's +thaar?" + +"Me," replied a husky voice, the owner whereof coughed, as if he were +pretty well suffocated with the smoke and water. "It's all right; it's +only me." + +"Jee-rusalem!" ejaculated Captain Snaggs, rather puzzled. "Who's `me' +I'd like ter know, I guess?" + +"Tom Bullover," answered my friend the carpenter, now lifting himself +out of the forepeak, when shaking himself like a big Newfoundland dog, +he scattered a regular shower bath around. "It's all right below, and +there's no fire there no longer." + +"An' what in the name of thunder wer ye a-doin' on down thaar, hey?" +asked the skipper, quite flabbergasted at his unexpected appearance, Tom +looking like a veritable imp from the lower regions, all blackened and +begrimed, for the moon escaping from the veil of vapour that now nearly +concealed the entire vault of the heavens just then shone down on us +again, throwing a sickly light on the scene. "How kern ye to be down in +the forepeak at all, my joker?" + +"I went down just afore my watch was up to look up a spare old tops'l we +stowed away there, me and Hiram, the week afore last, to see whether it +wouldn't do in place o' that main to'gallant we carried away yesterday," +replied Tom, rather sheepishly; "an' I s'pose I fell asleep, for it was +only the water you kept a-pouring down as woke me up, an' I was most +drownded afore I could reach the ladder an' catch hold of the coamin' of +the hatch to climb up." + +"An' sarve ye right, too, if we hed drownded ye, by thunder!" roared +Captain Snaggs, thoroughly incensed, "ye durned addle-headed lubber! I +guess ye hed a lantern with ye, hey?" + +"Yes," confessed the delinquent; "in course I took a light down to see +what I was a-doin' of." + +"`In course'!" repeated the captain, in savage mimicry of Tom's way of +speaking; "an' yer durned lantern got upsot, or kicked over, or +sunthin', an' so, I guess ye sot fire to the sails, hey?" + +"No, sir, there's nothing hurt to mention," replied Tom, more coolly; +"it was only some old rags and greasy waste that the cook shoved down +there that caught, which were the reason it made such a big smoke." + +The skipper snorted indignantly at this explanation; and then, craning +his long neck over the hatchway, he sniffed about, as if trying to +detect some special smell. + +"`Big smoke,' hey!" he cried, as he stood upright again, and shook his +fist in Tom's face. "I guess theft's jest the ticket, ye thunderin' +liar! Ye've been shamming Abraham in yer watch, an' sneaked down thaar +to hev a pipe on the sly, when ye should hev bin mindin' yer dooty, +thet's what's the matter, sirree; but, I'll make ye pay for it, ye +skulkin' rascallion. I'll stop ye a month's wages fur the damage done +to the ship--if not by the fire, by the water we've hove in to put it +out, an' ye ken tote it up, if ye like, yerself!" + +Captain Snaggs then ordered the second-mate to go down and see if all +danger were really over, and nothing left smouldering, not trusting to +Tom's assurance to that effect; and, presently, when Jan Steenbock came +up again with a satisfactory report, the skipper, who was now shivering +with the wet and exposure in such a light and airy costume, returned +back to his cabin to finish his sleep in peace--not, however, without +giving a rating to Mr Flinders, for his behaviour, which he said was as +bad as that of the carpenter. + +The starboard watch were then told that they might go below, though it +was getting on for midnight, when they would have to turn out again, and +keep the deck till the morning. + +I don't know how it was, but, from that night, everything went wrong +with the ship. + +The very next afternoon, a tremendous thunderstorm broke over us, and a +nasty blue, zigzagging streak of lightning struck our mizzen-royal mast, +splintering the spar and sending the tye-block down on the poop, nearly +killing the second-mate. + +If it had been Mr Flinders it wouldn't have mattered so much, but Jan +Steenbock was a decent fellow and a good seaman, being much liked by all +hands, barring the skipper, who, of course, disliked him because he took +the men's part and let them have easy times of it in his watch. + +This was the beginning of a fourteen days' spell we had of rolling about +in the sweltering calms of the Doldrums; and then, when we at last +managed to drift cross the Line, we had another fortnight's stagnation +before we met the south-east trades, only a couple of degrees or so +below the Equator. + +By this time, every man on board was heartily sick of the ship and tired +of his company, for the captain was continually grumbling with the mates +and hazing the crew, and the hands as constantly falling out among +themselves. Only my two friends, Tom Bullover and Hiram, the Yankee +sailor, really remained chummy or contented out of the whole lot. The +rest seemed thoroughly dissatisfied, complaining of their grub and +everything. + +Some of them declared, too, that the vessel was unlucky and under a +curse, saying that they heard strange noises at night in the hold, +though I did not think much of this, Tom and Hiram between them having +nearly succeeded in chaffing me out of my belief in having seen Sam +Jedfoot's ghost. + +On getting a fair wind again, the ship, which had lost almost a lunar +month through bad weather and calms and no weather at all, began to +travel once more southward, steering almost west-sou'-west on the port +tack; but as we reached down the South American coast-line towards Cape +Horn, we nearly came to grief on the Abralhos, the _Denver City_ just +escaping laying her bones there by the `skin of her teeth,' to use Tom +Bullover's expression to me next morning, as I was serving out the +coffee--the peril having been met in the middle watch, when I was +asleep, and knew nothing about it until it was over and we were sailing +on serenely once more. + +Then, again, off the mouth of the La Plata, when nearly opposite Buenos +Ayres, although, of course, some five hundred miles or more from the +land, we suddenly encountered a terrific `pampero,' as the storms of +that region are styled; and, if Captain Snaggs hadn't smelt this coming +in time, we should have been dismasted and probably gone to the bottom +with all hands. + +As it was, we only managed to furl the upper sails and clew up the +courses before the wind caught us, heeling the vessel over almost +broadside on to the sea; and then everything had to be let go by the +run, the ship scudding away right before the gale, as if towed by wild +horses, with the sheets and halliards and everything flying--for, at +first, the hail that accompanied the wind beat down on us so fearfully +that no one was able to face it and go aloft. + +That night, one of the hands who came up to the galley to light his +pipe, and who had previously spoken of the noises he had noticed, as he +said, about the deck during the still hours of the early morning, when +all sounds seem so much louder than in the daytime, both aboard ship and +ashore, declared that during the height of the pampero he had heard Sam +Jedfoot's voice distinctly singing that old negro ballad of which he +used to be so fond when in life, chaunting it almost regularly every +evening on the fo'c's'le to the accompaniment of his banjo:-- + + "Oh, down in Alabama, 'fore I wer sot free, + I lubbed a p'ooty yaller gal, an' fought dat she lubbed me!" + +Of course, Hiram Bangs and Tom Bullover, who were smoking inside the +galley at the time, laughed at the man for his folly; but he persisted +in his statement, and went away at last quite huffed because they would +not believe him. + +This was not the end of it all, however, as events will show. + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +A HAUNTED SHIP. + +A week later, Captain Snaggs, after drinking heavily during the evening, +was seized with a fit of delirium similar to the one he had that night +when he frightened me so terribly, for he rushed out of the cuddy, +screaming that `thet durned nigger Sam' was after him again. + +He made my flesh creep; and I wouldn't have gone afterwards into the +stern of the ship at night, without a light, for a good deal, nor would +any of the fo'c's'le hands either, excepting, perhaps, Tom Bullover. I +am certain Hiram Bangs would have been even more reluctant than myself +to have ventured within the presumptive quarters of the ghost. + +But, it was when we were off Cape Horn itself, though, that we +encountered our greatest peril. + +The _Denver City_ had got down well below the latitude of the stormy +headland that is to mariners like the `Hill Difficulty' mentioned in the +`Pilgrim's Progress,' carrying with her up to then the light, favourable +breezes we had encountered after leaving the south-east trades which had +previously wafted her so well on her way; when, all at once, without +hardly a warning, the sea began to grow choppy and sullen, and the air +thick and heavy. The sky, too, which had been for days and days nearly +cloudless, became overcast all round, heavy masses of vapour piling +themselves upwards from the horizon towards the zenith, to the southward +and westward, gradually enveloping ship and ocean alike in a mantle of +mist. + +"Cape Horn weather," observed Tom Bullover meaningly, as he squinted to +windward; "we'll have a taste of it presently!" + +"Aye, bo," said Hiram, from the door of the galley opposite, where the +carpenter was holding on to the weather rigging; "I wonder what the +skipper's about, keepin' all thet hamper aloft an' a gale like thet +a-comin'! I reckon he'd better look smart, or we'll be caught nappin', +hey?" + +Captain Snaggs, however, was also on the look-out; and, almost ere Hiram +had finished his sentence, he shouted out for all hands to take in sail. + +"'Way aloft thaar!" he cried; "lay out on the yards, men, an' close reef +the tops'ls. We're going to hev a blow!" + +And we did have a blow. + +The men were just ready to haul in the weather earring of the +mizzen-topsail, the last they were handing, the fore and main having +been already made snug, when a storm of wind and hail and snow struck us +which in a few minutes coated the deck and rigging and every portion of +the upper works of the ship with thick ice. At the same time, the sea, +rolling in enormous waves, broke over our counter, throwing sheets of +water aboard, which seemed to freeze in the air before it fell. + +I was standing on the poop, lending a hand at the mizzen halliards with +the rest of the `idlers'--as those who are not regular sailors are +called, although I was fast trying to become a real salt under the apt +tuition of Hiram Bangs and the carpenter--when this fierce blast came. + +Goodness gracious! It pinned us all down to the deck, as if we were +skittle-pegs, making our faces smart again with the bitter downpour. + +Next, followed a short lull, during which the reef tackle was hauled out +and the halliards manned, the yard being swayed up again; and then, +those aloft were able to come down and find a more comfortable shelter +below than the rigging afforded. + +But, now, occurred a curious circumstance. + +As the hands who had been up on the mizzen-yard reefing the topsail +stepped from the ratlines on to the deck of the poop before getting down +to the waist below, one of the men, Jim Chowder, the same who had said +that he had heard Sam Jedfoot's voice in the ship since he had been lost +overboard, whispered to me as he passed:-- + +"Listen!" he said. + +That was all-- + +"Listen!" + +The wind had suddenly died away for a moment, although the sea was like +an ocean of mountains lumbering over each other; and as I `listened', as +Jim the sailor had told me, I heard a musical sound that I instantly +recognised. It was that of the negro cook's banjo, and Sam's voice, +too, most unmistakably, singing the same old air I knew so well: + + "Oh, down in Alabama, 'fore I wer sot free." + +The instrument seemed to give out a double twang at this point, as if +all the strings were twitched at once, and I noticed that Captain +Snaggs, who stood near me, turned as white as a sheet. + +"Thunder!" he exclaimed, his eyes almost starting out of his head. "The +Lord hev mercy on us! What air thet?" + +As if in answer to his question, the same wild, ghostly melody was +repeated, the sound seeming to hover in the air and yet to come from +underneath the deck under our feet, the tune swelling in intensity as we +all listened, so that every man on board must have heard it as well as +the captain and myself. + +And then, just as the last bar was struck with another resounding twang, +a fiercer blast than the first caught the ship on her port quarter, and +she heeled over to starboard until her deck was almost upright, while at +the same time a terrible wave washed over us fore and aft, sweeping +everything movable overboard. + +I held on to the weather rigging like `grim Death,' amidst a mass of +seething foam, that flowed over the poop as if it were the open sea, +with the roar of rushing waters around me and the whistling and +shrieking of the wind as it tore through the shrouds and howled and +wailed, sweeping onward away to leeward. + +The spirit of the storm seemed to have broken loose; its black +cloud-wings covering the heavens and fanning up the waves into fury, and +then hurling them at the _Denver City_, which, poor, stricken thing, +quailed before the onslaught of the cruel blast and remorseless rolling +billows which followed each other in swift succession. These bore her +down, and down, and down, until she was almost on her beam-ends, +labouring heavily and groaning and creaking in every timber, and looking +as if she were going to capsize every instant. + +Not a man on board but thought his last hour had come. + +The noise of the raging elements, however, in this mad commotion at once +drowned the sound of the weird, mysterious music that had previously +filled the air, affecting us all so strangely, especially Captain +Snaggs, who seemed to be stricken by a spell as long as the sad strain +echoed in our ears. But, the moment that we ceased to hear the phantom +chaunt, the skipper recovered himself, his sailor instincts getting the +better of his superstitious fears and sudden fright. + +Fortunately, he had clutched hold of the poop rail as the fierce gust +caught the vessel, or, otherwise, he would have been carried over the +side, and be struggling for dear life half a mile, at least, astern, +where the hen-coops and casks that had been washed overboard were now +bobbing about, as they sank slowly out of sight on the crest of the wave +that had cleared our decks. + +A thorough seaman, in spite of his malevolent disposition and bullying +manner, which, I suppose, he could not help, he knew at once what was +best to be done under the circumstances--what, indeed, was the only +thing that would save the ship, and which, if it could be done, had to +be done quickly. + +Still grasping the rail with one hand, he made a motion with the other +to Jan Steenbock to put the helm up, for the second-mate, being on the +poop, had immediately jumped to the wheel to the assistance of the man +there, who had as much as he could do single-handed to keep down the +spokes, the ship steering wildly in such a heavy, tumbling sea as was +boiling around us. The captain the next moment clambered to the +mizzen-topsail sheets and halliards, and let them go by the run, an +example that was instantly followed by those on the deck below, Tom +Bullover, who was in charge there, anticipating the skipper's intention, +although he could not catch the order he bawled out at the same time +that he lifted his hand to warn the helmsman--the terrible din kept up +by the waves and wind alike preventing a word from reaching any one +standing a yard beyond Captain Snaggs, had he spoken through a speaking +trumpet and been possessed of lungs of brass! + +At first, it looked as if these measures had been adopted too late, the +vessel lay so helplessly over on her side; but, in a little while, +although it seemed a century to us, with our lives trembling in the +balance, during the interval of a brief lull she slowly righted again. +Then, paying off from the wind, she plunged onward, pitching and rolling +and careering before the gale as it listed, yawing to port and starboard +and staggering along; throwing tons of water over her fo'c's'le as she +dived and then taking in whole seas over her quarter as she rolled on, +the following waves overtaking her--just like a high mettled steed that +had thrown its rider and was rejoicing in its temporary freedom. + +The canvas aloft was ballooning out, and the ropes slatting and +cracking, with blocks banging against the spars, all making a regular +pandemonium of noise, in conjunction with the hoarse shriek of the +sou'-wester and the clashing of the billows when they broke, buffeting +the _Denver City_ as if they would smash in her topsides at every blow! + +Mr Flinders, the first-mate, who had got his arm hurt shortly before +the first blast struck us and had gone below to have it bound up by the +steward, now crawled up the companion and approached the skipper, +shouting something in his ear that, of course, I could not catch. + +Captain Snaggs, however, apparently understood what he said, and +approved of his suggestion, for he nodded in answer; and, thereupon, the +first-mate, working his way down again through the cabin on to the deck +below, the poop ladder being unsafe with his injured arm, spoke to the +men, who were holding on as well as they could in a group by the +mainmast bitts, and they began to bestir themselves. + +Something was evidently going to be done to relieve the ship of all the +loose top hamper flying about aloft, which threatened every moment to +drag the masts out of her, for everything was swaying to and fro, and +the topsails jerking terribly as they swelled out, the clews fouling the +reef points as the wind threw them up, and all getting mixed in +irretrievable confusion from the continual slatting of the canvas--for +the whole of the running gear, having been let go, was now dangling +about in all directions and knotting itself up in the standing rigging, +round which the wind whipped the ropes, lashing them into a series of +bowlines and half-hitches that it would have puzzled a fisherman to +unbend. + +When the storm had burst so suddenly on us, the ship had been braced up +on the port tack, beating to windward as well as she could, to weather +Cape Horn; but now, of course, we were running right before the gale, +retracing at headlong speed every knot we had previously gained on our +true course. + +A few hours at this rate, as anyone with half an eye could see--even if +everything stood the strain, which was very questionable--would place us +on the chart pretty well where we were the day before; and, then, we +should have all our work to do over again, without having a cable's +length to boast of to the good so far as our onward progress was +concerned into the Pacific Ocean--most aptly named by the Spaniards, +from the marked contrast its placid bosom offered, no doubt, to the +rough sea these early voyagers met with on this side of the Land of Fire +and of the Stormy Cape. + +But still, although we were scudding with everything flying aloft, the +leebraces had not yet been let go, all that I have taken so long to +describe having occurred, so to speak, within the compass of a minute. +These, up to now, had remained fast, just as when we were close-hauled +on the port tack the moment before; for, it was as much as our few hands +could do at first to cast off the sheets and halliards, without minding +the braces, especially as the ropes had got jammed at the bitts with the +loose gear washing about the deck. However--`better late than never'-- +they were now quickly let go, and the braces on the weather side being +manned, the yards were squared. It was a job of some difficulty, +although accomplished at length, the ship showing herself all the better +for the operation by running easier and not staggering and yawing so +much as she raced along. + +This was the first step. + +The next was to stop the uproar aloft, and create a little order amidst +the chaos that there reigned, which was a much harder and far more +ticklish task, it being perilous in the extreme, and almost useless, for +any of the hands to venture up the rigging; for the wind was blowing +with such terrific force that they could not have possibly lain out on +the yards, even if they succeeded in reaching the futtock shrouds. + +It was no good shouting to the men. + +As I said before, they could not hear a word spoken, had it been bawled +in the loudest tone; so, Mr Flinders managed to explain his purpose by +signs, or some other means that I could not at the moment guess, for Tom +Bullover and the rest of the crew at once commenced hauling on the +maintopsail sheets. + +The effect of this was almost instantaneous. + +Puckering up into a bag where, as I mentioned, the clew had fouled the +reef points, the sail burst `bang' out of the boltropes with a noise +like thunder; and, then, carried forwards by the gale, it floated away +ahead, fortunately just clearing the foretopmast, which might have been +broken by the extra strain--the fluttering mass of canvas finally +disappearing, like a white kite, in the distance in the water ahead of +the ship. + +Getting rid of this sail was even a greater relief to the over-driven +vessel than squaring the yards had been, a consequence which the +first-mate and carpenter had fully anticipated when the sheets were +manned; so, a similar procedure was adopted with the fore-topsail, and a +like happy result followed, the ship still driving on before the wind, +very nearly at as great a rate as she had done before, although under +bare poles almost. + +But she now steered more easily, not taking in such a lot of water +aboard when she rolled, while the spars ceased to sway about, and it +looked as if we should save them, which had seemed impossible a short +time previously, from the ugly way in which the shrouds tightened, and +the after-stays sung, as if they were stretched to the last limit, +showing that the slightest increase of the strain on them would snap +them like pack-thread. + +The mizzen-topsail was by this time our only rag left remaining, and the +captain, evidently wishing to save this, so as to use it by-and-by when +the gale lulled, to help in bringing the vessel round again to the wind, +started off by himself hauling on the buntlines and clewlines, being +quickly aided by Jan Steenbock and little me--we being all the `hands' +on the poop except the helmsman, whom the second-mate was able at last +to leave for a minute or so unassisted, from the fact of the ship having +become more tractable since she had lost all that lot of loose top +hamper flapping about aloft. + +The three of us took `a long pull and a strong pull, and a pull all +together,' according to the old sailor phrase, I tugging my best with +the others; and, possibly the ounce or two of `beef' I was able to put +into the rope so far assisted as just to turn the scale. At all events, +we ultimately succeeded in clewing up the topsail pretty fairly; +although, of course, it could not be properly stowed until some of the +hands were able to get up on the yard and snug it comfortably by passing +the sea-gaskets. + +So far, everything had been accomplished satisfactorily, and the ship +was running free before the gale at the rate of ten or twelve knots, or +more, without a stitch of canvas set beyond the bunt of the +mizzen-topsail, which bagged and bulged out a bit still, in spite of our +efforts to clew it up tight. + +But, now, a new danger arose. + +We were bowling along before the wind, it is true; but, the heavy +rolling sea that had been worked up in a brief space of time was +travelling at a much faster rate, and there was every fear that one of +the monster billows which each moment curled up threateningly in our +wake would hurl itself on board, thus pooping the vessel and rendering +her altogether unmanageable, if not a hopeless wreck--such a mass of +water as the big waves carried in their frowning crests being more than +sufficient to swamp us instanter, and, mayhap, bury the poor _Denver +City_ deep in the depths below at one fell blow. + +Captain Snaggs saw this sooner than any one; and, although all his +previous orders had been carried out in dumb show, from our now having +the wind with us to waft his voice forward, he once more managed to make +himself heard. + +"Ahoy!" he shouted, putting his hands on either side of his mouth, to +carry the words well clear of his goatee beard, which was blown all over +his face. "On deck, thaar!" + +Tom Bullover raised his right fist, to show that he caught the hail; but +it was impossible for him to answer back in the very teeth of the gale. + +"We must try an' lay her to," continued the skipper. "Hev ye got a +tarpaulin, or airy sort o' rag ye ken stick in the fore-riggin'?" Tom +nodded his head, understanding what the captain meant in a jiffey; and, +with the help of two or three others, a piece of fearnought, that lay in +the bottom of the long-boat, was quickly bundled out on the deck and +dragged forwards, the men bending on a rope's-end to a cringle worked in +one corner of the stuff, so as to hoist it up by. + +"Over to port! Over to port!" roared the skipper, seeing them making +for the lee side of the ship. "I'm goin' to try an' bring her to on +thet tack, d'ye haar?" + +Another nod from the carpenter showed that he heard and appreciated the +command, he and the group with him by great exertions tricing up the +piece of fearnought into the fore-shrouds on the side indicated, +spreading the cloth out and lashing it outside the rigging. + +"Now, men," cried Captain Snaggs, "some o' ye aft hyar! Look sharp an' +man the cro'jack braces." + +"Dat vas goot," I heard Mr Jan Steenbock say behind me, his voice +coming right into my ear; "dat vas ze very tings!" + +The skipper heard him, too. + +"I guess ye're worth yer salt, an' knows what's what!" he screamed back, +with his face shoved into that of the second-mate, so that he should +catch the words. "Stand by to cast off the clewlines agen, an' slack +out the weather sheet, if we wants it!" + +"Aye, aye!" roared Jan Steenbock, in answer, jumping to the belaying +pins, to cast off the ropes as ordered. "I vas dere!" + +And so was I, too, following his example, ready to bear a hand when the +necessity arose. + +"Send another hand or two hyar aft, to the wheel!" now yelled out the +captain, on seeing that Tom Bullover had marshalled the watch on the +deck below at the crossjack braces, ready to ease off on the weather +side, and haul in gradually to leeward--so that the yard should not be +jerked round suddenly, and risk carrying away the mizzen-top mast and +all its hamper with the shock; and, finally, with a motion of his arm, +which those at the wheel readily understood, he ordered the helm to be +put down. + +It was a critical moment. + +The ship seemed a trifle stubborn, and would not obey the rudder, lying +sluggishly in the trough of the sea for a while, but the tail end of a +big wave then catching her on the quarter, she slewed round a bit; and, +the crossjack yard being braced up sharply in the nick of time, she +swung with her head to the wind, breasting the billows full butt the +next instant, instead of drifting on at their will as before. + +Jan Steenbock at once let go the clewlines; and the sheets of the +mizzen-topsail, which had already been close-reefed, being hauled home, +and the piece of fearnought in the fore-rigging acting as well as a sail +there would have done, the vessel was brought to lay-to at last, riding +safely enough, considering the heavy sea that was running, and thus +showing herself a staunch boat under very trying circumstances. + +"We've seen the worst of it now," shouted the skipper, trying to rub his +hands together, in token of his satisfaction, but having to leave off +and grasp the poop rail to steady himself again from the ship pitching +so much, as she met the big waves tumbling in on her bows, and rose to +them buoyantly. "The gale is moderating so the watch ken pipe down, I +guess, an' all hands splice the mainbrace!" + +The men couldn't hear him clearly, but the gesture which he made, of +lifting his fist to his mouth, was sufficiently explanatory to all; and, +when he presently dived down the companion and appeared at the cabin +door under the break of the poop, with the steward behind him, holding a +bottle of rum in one hand and a pannikin in the other, the men who had +so gallantly exerted themselves were to be seen standing by, ready to +receive the customary grog always served out on each occasions, fresh +hands being sent up to relieve those at the wheel, so that these should +not lose the advantage of the skipper's generosity--which was somewhat +unexpected from one of his temper! + +Later on, there was a glorious sunset, the black clouds all clearing +away, and the heavens glowing with red and gold, as the orb of day sank +below the horizon. + +This showed that we were going to have the chance of a finer spell than +we had been having; and, the wind soon afterwards shifting to the +westward, the foretop-mast-staysail was hoisted, followed shortly by the +reefed-foresail and main-trysail, the skipper setting all the fore and +aft sail he could to make up for the loss of our topsails, which, it may +be remembered, were blown away. + +The ship was then brought round on the starboard tack, and put on her +proper course again, for us to make another attempt to weather Cape +Horn. + +By the time all this was done it was quite dark, and getting on close to +`six bells' in the second dog-watch, the sun sinking to rest early in +those latitudes; so, as none of the men had got their tea yet, or +thought of it, for that matter, although they'd had nothing since their +dinner at midday, Hiram Bangs, calling me to follow him, started for the +galley, to see about the coppers. + +We found, however, that the seas we had taken aboard had washed the fire +out and made a regular wreck of the place, everything being turned +topsy-turvy and mixed up into a sort of "hurrah's nest." + +Indeed, the only wonder was, that the galley itself had not been carried +incontinently over the side, when the ship had canted over on her +beam-ends; and, it would have been, no doubt, but for its being so +securely lashed down to the ringbolts in the deck--a precaution which +had saved it when everything else had been swept to leeward. + +At all events, there it was still, but in a pretty pickle; and Hiram and +I had a hard job to light up the fire again under the coppers, all the +wood and coal that had not been fetched away by the sea being, of +course, wet and soddened by the water. + +"I guess," said Hiram, after one or two failures to get the fuel to +ignite, in spite of his pouring a lot of oil on it, so as to neutralise +the effect of the damp, "I'll burn thet durned old kiver of my chest ez +got busted t'other day in the fo'c's'le; fur it ain't no airthly good, +ez I sees, fur to kip pryin' folk from priggin' airy o' my duds they +fancies!" + +With this, Hiram started off for the fo'c's'le, taking one of the ship's +lanterns with him, to see what he was about. + +He returned a minute or two after, looking quite scared. + +"Say, Cholly," he exclaimed--addressing me as all the rest in the +fo'c's'le always styled me, following the mode, in which poor Sam +Jedfoot had pronounced my name, instead of calling me "Charley," +properly, all darkeys having a happy facility for abbreviation, as I +quite forgot to mention before--"Say, Cholly, guess I'll kinder make yer +haar riz! What d'yer reckon hez happened, b'y, hey?" + +"What, Hiram?" replied I, negligently, not paying any particular +attention to his words, having started to work at once, chopping up the +box cover, which he had thrown down on the deck at my feet. "What has +happened, Hiram--whatever is the matter now?" + +"Thar's matter enuff, I reckon, younker," said he solemnly, in his deep, +impressive tones. "Guess this air shep's sperrit-haunted, thet's all, +my b'y, an' the whole bilin' of us coons aboard air all doomed men!" + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +MAD DRUNK! + +"Good gracious, Hiram!" I exclaimed, dropping the wood and rising to my +feet, greatly alarmed at his mysterious manner of speaking, as well as +by the change in his voice and demeanour. "What d'you mean by talking +like that?" + +Instead of answering my question directly, however, he asked another. + +"D'yer rec'leck, Cholly, thet air banjo belongin' to Sam Jedfoot ez I +bought when the poor darkey's traps wer' sold at auction in the +fo'c's'le the day arter he wer lost overboard?" + +"Ye-es," I stammered breathlessly, as the remembrance came back to me +all at once of the strange chaunt we had heard in the air around, just +before the storm had burst over us in all its fury; our subsequent +bustling about having banished its recollection for the moment, "Wha-- +wha--what about Sam's banjo, Hiram?" + +"It's clean gone, skedaddled right away, b'y, that's all!" he replied, +in the same impressive way in which he had first spoken. "When I bought +the durned thin', I stowed it atop o' my chest thaar, in the fo'c's'le; +an' thaar it wer ez right ez a five-cent piece up to this very mornin', +ez I wer overhaulin' my duds, to see if I could rig up another pair o' +pants, an' seed it. But, b'y, it ain't thaar now, I reckon!" + +"Perhaps some one took it out, and forgot to put it back when the gale +burst over us," I suggested, more to reassure myself than because I +believed it, for I felt horribly frightened at the thoughts that rapidly +surged up in me. "You--you remember, Hiram, we heard the sound of some +one playing it just before?" + +"D'yer think, b'y, airy of the hands w'u'd hev ben foolin' round with +thet blessid banjo, an' the ship a'most took aback an' on her +beam-ends?" he retorted indignantly. "No, Cholly, thet wer no mortal +fingers ez we heerd a-playin' thet thaar banjo!" + +"And you--you--think--?" + +"It wer Sam Jedfoot's ghost; nary a doubt on it," he said solemnly, +finishing my uncompleted sentence; "thet air, if sperrits walk agen on +the airth an' sea, arter the folk's ownin' them is dead an' drownded!" + +I shivered at his words; while, as if to further endorse Hiram's +opinion, the steward, Morris Jones, just then came forward from the +cabin to look after the captain's dinner, although he did not seem in a +hurry about it, as usual--a fortunate circumstance, as the fire in the +galley under Hiram's expert manipulation was only now at last beginning +to burn up. + +"There's summut wrong 'bout this barquey," observed the Welshman, +opening the conversation in a wonderfully civil way for him, and +addressing Hiram, who did not like the man, hardly ever exchanging a +word with him if he could help it. "I larfed at that b'y Cholly for +saying he seed that nigger cook agen in the cabin arter he went +overboard, time the skipper had that row with the fool and shot him; but +sperrit or wot it was, I believe the b'y's right, for I've seed it, +too!" + +"Jehosophat!" exclaimed Hiram; "this air gettin' darned streenge an' +cur'ous. Whar did ye see the sperrit, mister?" + +"Not a minute or so agone," replied the steward, whose face I could see, +by the light of the ship's lantern in the galley, as well as from the +gleams of the now brightly burning fire, looked awe-stricken, as if he +had actually seen what he attested. "It was a'most dark, and I was +coming out of my pantry when I seed it. Aye, I did, all black, and +shiny, and wet, as if he were jist come out o' the water. I swear it +were the nigger cook, or I'm a Dutchman!" + +The two men looked fixedly at each other, without uttering another word +for a minute or more, I staring at them both in dread expectancy of what +they would next say, fancying each instant something more wonderful +still would happen. At last, Hiram broke the silence, which had become +well-nigh unbearable from a sort of nervous tension, that made me feel +creepy and shivery all over. + +"I tolled yer jest now, Cholly," said the Yankee sailor in his +`Down-East' drawl, which became all the more emphasised from his slow +and solemn mode o' speaking below his breath--"thet this air shep wer +doomed, an' I sez it now agen, since the stooard hyar hez seed the same +ez we all hev seed afore. Thaar's no denying b'ys, ez how poor Sam's +ghostess walks abroad this hyar ship, an' thet means sunthin', or it +don't! I specs thet air darkey's sperrit ain't comf'able like, an' ye +ken bet y'r bottom dollar he won't rest quiet till he feels slick; fur +ye sees ez how the poor cuss didn't come by his death rightful like, in +lawful fashion." + +"Aye, and I've heard tell that folks as been murdered 'll haunt the +place where they've been put away onlawfully," chimed in Morris Jones. +"Not as I've ever believed in sperrits and ghostesses till now; but, +seein' is believin', an' I can't go agen my own eyesight. I'd take my +davy 'twere Sam Jedfoot I seed jest now; and though I'm no coward, +mates, I don't mind saying I'm mortal feared o' going nigh the cuddy +agen!" + +"Never ye fear, old hoss," replied Hiram encouragingly; albeit, at any +other time he would have laughed at the steward's declaration that he +was `no coward,' when he was well known to be the most arrant one in the +ship. "It ain't ye thet the ghost air arter, ye bet. It's the skipper. +Ye remember ez how he promised us all he'd call in at the nearest port +an' hev all the circumferences overhauled, ez he sed?" + +"Aye," responded the Welshman, "that he did. He took his solemn davy, +afore the second-mate, an' Tom Bullover, an' the lot o' you, on the +maindeck, that time he shot the cook. I heard him from under the break +o' the poop, where I were standin'." + +"Yes, I seed ye keepin' well to looard!" said Hiram drily. "But, ez I +wer a sayin', the skipper agrees to call in at the fust port we fetches, +an' we've b'en close in to Bahia, when we near ran ashore, an' Rio an' +Buenos Ayres; an' he's never put into no port yet!" + +"No, nor doesn't mean to, neither," chorussed the steward. "I hear him, +t'other day, a jokin' with that brute of a fust-mate about it; an' both +was a sniggerin': an' he says as he'll see you all to old Nick afore he +stops anywhere afore he gets to 'Frisco!" + +"I reckon, then, sunthin' bad 'll come of it," said Hiram, shaking his +head gravely, "Thet nigger's sperrit don't haunt this ship fur nothin', +an' we ain't see the wuss yet, ye bet! Soon arter Cholly hyar seed +Sam's ghost, ye remembers, we hed thet fire aboard in the forepeak?" + +"Aye," agreed Morris Jones; "an' the next time--" + +"Wer the banjo we heered a-playin', afore we were caught in thet buster +of a gale, an' the ship wer a'most capsized on her beam-ends," continued +the American, full of his theme. "An' now, I guess--" + +"What?" cried I eagerly, anxiously drinking in every word, deeply +impressed with the conversation. "What do you think will happen?" + +"'Ructions, thet's all, b'y," replied Hiram, hitching up the waistband +of his overalls coolly, in the most matter-of-fact way, as if he were +only mentioning an ordinary circumstances. "Thet is, if the skipper +don't touch at Callao or Valparaiso. Fur my part, sonny, I guess this +hyar ship air doomed, ez I sed afore, an' I don't spec, for one, as ever +she'll reach 'Frisco this v'yage; an' so thinks old Chips, Tom Bullover, +thet is, too." + +"Hullo!" exclaimed the carpenter at that moment, poking his head within +the galley door, and making me and the Welshman jump with fright, +thinking he was Sam's ghost again. "Who's hailing me? What's the +row?--anything up?" + +"No, bo," said Hiram. "I wer only tellin' the stooard hyar an' Cholly +ez how yo agreed with me ez this wer a durned onlocky craft, an' bound +to meet with misfortun' arter all thet's come an' gone aboord." + +"That's so," acquiesced Tom; though he did not look much alarmed at the +prospect. "The `old man,' though, seems turnin' round into a better +sort--treating us all to grog and sich like." + +"He'd kinder ought to," growled the other, as he stirred the tea in the +coppers, which were just boiling by now; and he then proceeded to tell +Tom about the mysterious disappearance of the banjo, and the fact of +Morris Jones having seen the apparition again in the cabin aft, winding +up with the query--"An' what d'ye think o' thet now, Chips?" + +"Think?" echoed Tom Bullover, laughing; "why, that you're kicking up a +dust about nothing, my hearty! Missed the banjo out of y'r chest, eh-- +where are y'r eyes, bo? There it are, hanging right over y'r heads in +the galley, on the same cleat where poor Sam Jedfoot left it afore he +met his fate! Why, where are y'r peepers--old stick in the mud, hey?" + +As he said this, Tom Bullover reached up his hand overhead by the door +of the galley, above the spot where he was standing, and as our eyes +followed his motions we all could see now Sam's banjo hanging on the +cleat where it always used to be when the negro cook occupied the +caboose, the instrument swinging to and fro as Tom touched it. + +"Wa-all, I'm jiggered!" cried Hiram, taking up the lantern that he had +placed on the deck when he returned from the fo'c's'le and flashing it +on the suspended object, to make assurance doubly sure. "Thaar it air, +sure enuff; an' all I ken say is, I'm jiggered! It jest licks creation, +thet it dew!" + +"Lor' bless you, mate! you could ha' seed it afore if you'd only used +your eyes," replied Tom to this exordium, laughing again; "but, let's +stow all such flummery now about ghostesses an' sich like, for it's all +moonshine when you looks into the matter; an' you, an' Charley, an' the +stooard here, have been all busy rigging up `duppies,' as poor Sam used +to call 'em, out o' your heads, when we poor beggars forrud are dyin' +for our tea. Ain't it ready yet?" + +"Aye, bo, in a brace o' shakes," said Hiram, rousing himself and polling +up the fire. "I dessay I'm a doggoned fool to be skeart like thet, but +I'd hev taken my davy I put the durned thing in my chest a month ago--I +would so; an' then the stooard comed in with his yarn on top o' what +Cholly sed o' seein' Sam's ghost t'other day, an'--an' I'm a durned +fool; thet's all I sez!" + +"You're none the worse for that, bo," observed Tom, with a grin at the +American's rather shamefaced apology foe his superstitious fears; and +Hiram presently joined in the laugh against himself, as he busied +himself in stirring the coppers and tasting the tea, to see whether it +was all right yet. I, also, began to feel more comfortable in my mind; +while a little colour crept into Morris Jones' pale face, which had +become as white as a sheet before Tom's advent on the scene, the steward +looking as if he were going to faint from fright. + +It is wonderful what an effect the courage of one man has in restoring +the confidence of others under such circumstances! + +Bustling about the galley, ladling out the contents of the coppers as +the men came up one by one with their pannikins for their tea, I quickly +forgot my scare of a minute or so agone. So, too, apparently, did the +steward, who commenced preparing the captain's dinner, as soon as the +fire had burnt up and he could get space enough to use his frying-pan; +while, as for Hiram, he was singing away in fine style at his work, +dishing up some lobscouse for the men's supper, in friendly rivalry of +Morris Jones, whom he could `give points to' and easily beat in the +cooking line, none of us troubling ourselves any longer with any +recollection of poor Sam Jedfoot or his ghost. + +The gale continued to ease down, and the heavy, rolling sea gradually +subsided as night sped on; but, the wind veering round in the middle +watch more to the northwards of west, we had to come about on the port +tack, steering west-nor'-west, more in towards the Cape. We had plenty +of sea room to do this, though, from the good offing we had previously +made, being at least five or six degrees well to the southward of the +stormy headland at our last reckoning, before the gale came on. + +All next day the men were busy getting up a couple of old topsails out +of the forepeak and patching them up to take the place of those that had +been blown away; and these when got up were close-reefed beforehand, +prior to being set, as the wind was freshening again and the weather +looked squally. + +At the beginning of the second dog-watch the same afternoon, just when +we had got everything snug aloft, it came on to blow again, although not +quite so fiercely as the previous evening; and it was a case of clew up +and furl with all the lighter canvas, the ship being kept under +close-reefed topsails and storm staysails, heading out again to sea on +the starboard tack. + +Thus it continued all that night, squalls of rain and hail, with snow +and sleet at intervals for variety sake, sweeping over us, and the ship +having her decks washed frequently fore and aft by the heavy Southern +Ocean rollers. The next morning, though, it lightened again, and we had +a brief spell of fine weather until noon, when we had another buster of +it. This occurred just as Captain Snaggs was getting ready to take the +sun, and sent the first-mate down in the cabin to look at the +chronometer, and `stand by' in order to note the time when he sung out +`Stop!' so as to calculate our proper longitude. + +The skipper could not get his observation of the sun, however, for the +sky, which a moment before had been bright and clear, clouded over again +in an instant; and the next minute we were all on board battling again +with another specimen of "Cape Horn weather," too busy to think even +where we might be or what latitude or longitude we had fetched. We +might, indeed, have been anywhere, for the heavens were black as night, +though it was midday, and sky and sea met each other in one vast +turmoil, so that it was impossible to see half a cable's length off the +ship! + +So it went on for four days, the gale blowing for short periods in angry +gusts and then easing down for the space of a watch perhaps, the squalls +alternating with spells of fine weather; until, on the fifth morning, we +sailed into a comparatively calm sea, running free, with a full sheet on +the starboard tack, before a bright, cheery nor'-westerly breeze. + +At noon, when the skipper was able at last to take the sun for the first +time for six days, he found, on working out our reckoning, that we were +in latitude 58 degrees 5 minutes South, and longitude 82 degrees 10 +minutes West. In other words, we were considerably to the westwards of +the Horn, and fairly on the bosom of the placid Pacific, as indeed its +smooth waters already testified. + +"Hooray, b'ys; we've doubled the durned Cape at last, I guess!" shouted +out Captain Snaggs from the break of the poop, whither he had rushed up +from below as soon as he had finished his calculation on the log slate, +dancing about the deck with excitement; and, then he banged his fist +down on the brass rail with a thump that almost doubled it in two, while +his wiry billy-goat beard bristled out and wagged to and fro. "Brace up +yer yards sharp, an' keep them bowlin's taut! Lay her ez near due north +ez she'll fetch, an' we'll fix her on a bee-line fur 'Frisco. An', say, +Flinders!" + +"Aye, aye, sir!" + +"Send up y'r to'gallants an' r'yals, ez soon ez ye ken; an' let her +rip!" + +"Aye, aye, sir!" + +"An', main deck, below thaar!" + +"Aye, aye, sir!" shouted back Jan Steenbock, who was on duty here, and +was already seeing about getting abaft the upper spars for spreading +more sail, having overheard his order to the first-mate--"I vas here, +sir!" + +"Call all hands to liquor up, sirree. It ain't every day, I reckon, we +gits round the Horn!" + +A wild cheer burst from the men, who had clustered in the waist in +response to this summons; and the good news of getting round the Cape +and having a double allowance of grog proving too much for the majority, +the rest of the day was spent in a sort of a grand jollification, the +skipper and first-mate `carrying on' in the cabin, while the crew made +themselves merry in the fo'c's'le, whither an extra bottle or two of rum +had been smuggled, having been got out of the steward by the expeditive +of a little `palm oil' and wheedling in about equal proportions. + +I think I may say, without exaggeration, that, with the exception of Jan +Steenbock, the second-mate, who showed himself a regular steady fellow +all through the voyage, Tom Bullover, and lastly, though by no means +least, myself, there was not a single sober man on board the ship that +evening, all being more or less under the influence of liquor, from the +steward Morris Jones--who, mean Welshman that he was, seemed never loth +to drink at any one else's expense--up to Captain Snaggs, who, from +being `jolly' at `eight bells,' became still more excited from renewed +applications of rum by midnight; until, at length, early in the middle +watch, he rushed out on deck from the cuddy absolutely mad drunk. + +He was in a state of wild delirium, and his revolver, ready cocked, was +in his hand. + +"Snakes an' alligators!" he yelled out, levelling the weapon at the +mainmast, which he mistook for a figure in the half-light of morning, +which was just then beginning to break. "I've got ye at last, ye durned +nigger. Take thet, an' thet!" + +Quick as lightning one report followed another, the bullets coming +whistling by the galley where I was standing. + +Jan Steenbock, who was on the poop, hearing the crack of a revolver, +called out something; whereupon Captain Snaggs turned round and aimed +his next shot at him, although, fortunately, it missed the second-mate, +on account of Jan dodging behind the companion hatchway just in the nick +of time. + +The captain then made a bound at the poop ladder, and rushed up the +steps swearing awfully; and, first firing at the man at the wheel, whose +arm the bullet penetrated, as soon as he gained the poop, he dived down +the companion in pursuit of Jan Steenbock, who had disappeared below the +booby hatch. + +For the next five minutes or more, the ship was in a state of the +wildest confusion, the skipper chasing everyone he could see, and all +trying to get out of his way, as he dashed after them in his frenzy, +rushing, in a sort of desperate game of `catch who catch can,' from the +cabin out on to the maindeck, and then up the poop ladder and down the +companion into the cuddy again, the second-mate, the steward, and +first-mate alike being assailed in turn, and each flying for life before +the frantic madman. At last, just as the captain emerged from the cabin +for the third time, in hot haste after the steward, the other two having +succeeded in concealing themselves, Morris Jones stumbled against a coil +of rope by the mainmast bitts, and, his toe at the same time catching in +a ring bolt, he sprawled his length on the deck. + +"Good Lord!" cried the unfortunate steward, panting out the words with +his failing breath. "I'm a dead man! I'm a dead man!" + +"By thunder, ye air, ye durned black nigger! Ye air, ez sure ez +snakes!" screamed the skipper, in his delirious rage, mistaking the +Welshman, as he had the others as well, for poor Sam, the recollection +of whom seemed strangely to haunt him the moment the rum got possession +of his senses. "I've swan I'd shoot ye; so, hyar goes, me joker; y'r +last hour hez come, ye bet!" + +With these words he pointed his revolver down at Morris Jones, as he lay +rolling on the deck at his feet, and fired. + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +WRECKED! + +Although they had not been called yet, for it was only `six bells,' the +watch below had been roused out by the commotion and wild cries and +yells that rang about the deck. Every man Jack had tumbled up from +below, and they were all grouped about the fo'c's'le, hiding behind the +galley like myself, and watching the weird scene going on aft, which, +but for the maniacal rage of the captain and his murderous fury, would +have been almost comical in its main incidents. + +It was a regular steeplechase: the frenzied man hunted those he was +after in and out of the cabin, and up the poop ladder, and down the +companion stairs, in turn, to begin again anew the same strange game, +that was amusing enough save to those personally concerned! + +One of the hands, though, had his wits at work besides watching what was +going on; and this was Tom Bullover, my friend the carpenter. + +He recollected what the steward had said on a former occasion of the +captain having had a fit of the horrors from excessive drinking; and, +although it was too late now to take away the skipper's revolver before +he could effect any mischief with it, there was still time to prevent +his doing any further harm. + +So, Tom, with a coil of rope over his arm, stealthily made his way aft, +and just as Captain Snaggs aimed at the prostrate body of the steward +the carpenter threw a running bowline he had made in the rope round the +captain's shoulders, jerking him backwards at the very moment he fired +the revolver. This caused the bullet to be diverted from its aim, for +it passed through the bulwarks, instead of perforating Morris Jones' +somewhat corpulent person. + +The next instant, two or three more of the men going to Tom's +assistance, Captain Snaggs was dragged down on the deck, raging and +foaming at the mouth; when, binding him securely hand and foot, they +lifted him up and carried him into his cabin, where they strapped him +down in his cot, powerless to do any more injury to himself or anyone +else, until his delirium should be over. + +As for the steward, he fainted dead away from fright; and it required a +good deal of shaking and rubbing on the part of Tom Bullover and Jan +Steenbock to bring him back to life again--the latter now coming out of +the cabin, holding a slip noose similar to that used by the carpenter in +snaring the skipper with, and evidently intended for the same purpose, +although a trifle too late to be of service then. + +Captain Snaggs himself recovered his consciousness about noon the same +day, but did not have the slightest recollection of his mad orgy, the +only actual sufferers from which were Morris Jones, who really had been +more frightened than hurt, and the helmsman, Jim Chowder, who, in lieu +of having his arm broken, as he had at first cried out, had only a +slight bullet graze through the fleshy part of it; so, considering the +skipper fired off no less than five shots out of the six which his +revolver contained, it was a wonder more were not grievously wounded, if +not killed, when he ran a-muck like that! + +When Hiram Bangs and I met in the galley, shortly after the row was +over, we both compared notes, the American saying that he'd been roused +up from sleep, not by the noise of the shooting or rampaging about the +deck, but by the sound of Sam's voice singing in the hold, and he knew +at once that some mischief was going to happen, "ez it allers did when +he heerd the durned ghostess afore!" + +I declare he made me feel more alarmed by this remark than all that had +previously occurred, and I had to raise my eyes to assure myself that +Sam's banjo was yet hanging in its accustomed place over the door of the +galley, before I could go on with my task of getting the men's early +coffee ready, to serve out as soon as the watch was changed, `eight +bells' having been struck shortly before. + +Tom Bullover, though, when presently he lounged up forward, and I told +him what Hiram said, only laughed. + +"It's all stuff and nonsense, Charley," he chuckled out; "you an' Hiram +'ll be the death of me some day, with your yarns o' ghostesses an' such +like. The skipper didn't see no sperrit as you thinks when he got mad +this mornin'; it's all that cussed rum he took because he got round Cape +Horn. Guess, as our mate here says, the rum `got round' him!" + +Hiram laughed, too, at this. + +"Heave ahead an' carry on, old hoss," he said; "I reckon ye won't riz my +dander, fur what I tells Cholly I knows for true, an' nuthin' 'll turn +me agen it. Why, Tom, when I wer down Chicopee way--" + +"Avast there, mate, an' give us some coffee," cried Tom, interrupting +him at this point, and some others of the crew coming up at the moment, +the conversation was not renewed, which I was not sorry for, Hiram's +talk about ghosts not being very cheerful. + +During the day, as I've said, Captain Snaggs got better, and came on +deck again, looking like himself, but very pale. His face, however, +seemed to have become wonderfully thinner in such a short space of time, +so thin indeed that he appeared to be all nose and beard, the two +meeting each other in the middle, like a pair of nut-crackers! + +He was much quieter, too, for he did not swear a bit, as he would have +done before, at the man at the wheel, who, startled by his coming softly +up the companion without previous notice, when he fancied he was lying +in his cot, let the ship fall off so that she almost broached-to, in +such a way as almost to carry her spars by the board! + +No, he did not utter a single harsh word. + +"Steady thaar!" was all he called out; "kip her full an' by, an' steer +ez naar north ez ye ken!" + +This was about the beginning of July, and we had from then bright +weather, with westerly and nor'-west winds all the way up the Pacific, +past the island of Juan Fernandez, which we saw like a haze of green in +the distance. + +After this, making to cross the Equator for the second time--our first +time being in the Atlantic Doldrums--somewhere between the meridians 100 +degrees to 102 degrees, we proceeded on steadily northward, picking up +the south-east trade-winds in about latitude 20 degrees South, when +nearly opposite Arica on the chart, although, of course, out of sight of +land, being more than a couple of hundred leagues away from the nearest +part of the coast. + +In about twenty days' time we got near the Equator, when we met with +variable winds and calms, while a strong indraught sucked us out of our +course into the Bay of Panama. + +The temperature just then grew very hot, and the captain, taking to +drinking again, soon recovered his spirits and his temper, which had +latterly grown so smooth and equable that we hardly knew him for the +same man. + +In a short space, however, the rum fully restored him to his old +quarrelsome self, and he and the first-mate, Mr Flinders, had an awful +row one night, when the skipper threatened to send the mate forward and +promote Jan Steenbock in his place. Captain Snaggs had never forgiven +him for the cowardice and want of sailorly instinct he displayed at the +time of the alarm of fire in the forepeak; and the fact also of Mr +Flinders having lain for two days drunk in his bunk after their +jollification on rounding Cape Horn, did not tend to impress the skipper +any the more strongly in his favour. + +I remember the evening well. + +It was on the 28th July. + +We were becalmed, I recollect; but, in spite of this, a strong set of +tide, or some unknown current, was carrying us, in a west-nor'-west +direction, away out of the Bay of Panama, at the mouth of which we had +been rolling and roasting in the broiling tropical sun for a couple of +days, without apparently advancing an inch on our way northwards towards +San Francisco, our destination, which we were now comparatively near, so +to speak, but still separated by a broad belt of latitude of between +eighteen hundred and two thousand miles--a goodish stretch of water! + +I also remember well that Captain Snaggs roared so loudly to the mate +and the mate back to him during their altercation in the cuddy that we +on deck could hear every word they said; for, the night was hot and +close, with never a breath of wind stirring, and the air had that +oppressive and sulphurous feel which it always has when there is thunder +about or some great atmospherical change impending. + +The skipper and Mr Flinders were arguing about the ship's course, the +former declaring it to be right, and the latter as vehemently to be +altogether wrong. + +The mate, so opposite were their opinions, said that if we sailed on +much longer in the same direction towards which the ship had been +heading before being becalmed, she would be landed high and dry ashore +at Guayaquil; while the skipper, as strongly, protested that we were +already considerably to the northward of the Galapagos Islands. + +"Ye're a durned fule, an' a thunderin' pig-headed fule ez well," we +heard the captain say to the other, as he came up the companion, roaring +back behind him; "but, jest to show ye how thunderin' big a fule ye air, +I'll jest let ye hev y'r own way--though, mind ye, if the ship comes to +grief, ye'll hev to bear all the muss." + +"I don't mind thet, nary a red cent," boasted the other in his sneering +way. "Guess I've a big enuff pile to hum, out Chicago way, to buy up +ship an' cargy ez well!" + +"Guess ye shall hev y'r way, bo!" then yelled out the skipper, calling +at the same time to the helmsman to ease the helm off, as well as to the +watch to brace round the yards; and the light land breeze, just then +coming off from shore, made the _Denver City_ head off at right angles +to her previous course, the wash of water swishing pleasantly past her +bows, as her sails bellied out for a brief spell. + +But, not for long. + +Within the next half-hour or so the heavens, which had previously been +bright with myriads of stars overhead, became obscured with a thick +darkness, while the slight land breeze slowly died away. + +Then, a hoarse, rumbling sound was heard under the sea, and the ship was +violently heaved up and down in a sort of quick, violent rocking motion, +unlike any thing I had ever felt, even in the heaviest storm. + +"An airthquake, I guess," said Captain Snaggs, nonchalantly; "thet is, +if thaar's sich a thing ez an airthquake at sea!" + +He sniggered over this joke; but, just then, I heard the same strange, +weird music, like Sam's banjo, played gently in the distance, similarly +to what we heard before the burst of the storm off Cape Horn. + +"Lord, save us!" cried the captain, in hoarse accents of terror. "Thaar +it air agen!" + +Even as he spoke, however, the ship seemed to be lifted aloft on a huge +rolling wave, that came up astern of us without breaking; and, then, +after being carried forwards with wonderful swiftness, she was hurled +bodily on the shore of some unknown land near, whose outlines we could +not distinguish through the impenetrable darkness that now surrounded us +like a veil. + +We knew we were ashore, however, for we could feel a harsh, grating +noise under the vessel's keel. + +Still, beyond and above this noise, I seemed yet to hear the wild, sad +chaunt that haunted us. + +There was a light hung in the galley, and I looked in again to see if +the negro's banjo was in its accustomed place, so as to judge whether +the sound was due to my imagination or not. + +Holding up the lantern, I flashed its light across the roof of the +galley. + +I could hardly believe my eyes. + +Sam's banjo was no longer there! + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +ABINGDON ISLAND. + +After the first grating, grinding shock of going ashore, the ship did +not bump again; but, listing over to port, she settled down quietly, +soon working a sort of cradle bed for herself in the sand at the spot +where she stranded. + +This, at least, was our conclusion, from the absence of any subsequent +motion or movement on board, the deck being as steady now as any +platform on dry land, although rather downhill on one side, from the +vessel heeling as she took the ground. + +However, it was all guess work, as we could see nothing, not even our +own faces, save when brought immediately under the light of the galley +lantern, around which all the hands forward were closely huddled +together, like a drove of frightened sheep; for, the darkness could be +almost felt, as it hung over the ill-fated _Denver City_, a thick, +impenetrable, black pall, that seemed ominous of evil and further +disaster. + +This continued for nearly an hour; the men near me only speaking in +hushed whispers, as if afraid of hearing their own voices. + +The fact of not being able to see any fresh peril or danger that might +be impending over us, and so face it manfully, in the manner customary +with sailor-folk with any grit in them, took away the last lingering +remnant of courage even of the bravest amongst us; and I'm confident +there was not a single foremast hand there of the lot grouped by the +galley and under the break of the fo'c's'le, not excepting either Tom +Bullover or the American sailor, Hiram, plucky as both were in ordinary +circumstances, but was as panic-stricken, could their inmost feelings be +disclosed and the truth out-told, as myself--although I was too dazed +with terror to think of this then. + +And so we remained, awaiting we knew not what, coming from we knew not +where, in terrible uncertainty and dread expectancy. + +Anything might happen now, we thought, still more awful than what had +already occurred; for the gloomy stillness and mysterious mantle of +darkness that had descended on us increased our fears and suggested +every weird possibility, until the prolonged suspense became well-nigh +maddening. + +"I'm durned if I ken stand this much longer," I heard Hiram whisper +hoarsely, as if uttering his thoughts aloud, for he addressed no one in +particular. "Guess I'll jump overboard an' drown myself, fur the +devil's in the shep, an' thaar's a cuss hangin' over her!" + +A shuffling sound of feet moving on the deck followed, as if the poor, +distraught fellow was about to carry his senseless and wicked design +into execution; and then I caught the tones of Tom Bullover's voice also +coming out from amidst the surrounding gloom. + +"Hush, avast there!" cried the latter solemnly. "Is this a time for +running in the face of your Maker, when in another minute or two we may +all be mustered afore Him in eternity? Besides, bo, what's the use o' +jumping overboard, when you couldn't get drownded? for the ship's hard +and fast ashore!" + +Before Hiram could reply to this, or make any further movement, a shout +rang out from the poop aft, where previously all had been as still as +with us forwards, wrapped in the same impenetrable darkness and deathly +silence. + +I recognised Jan Steenbock at once as the person hailing us. + +"Land, ho!" he exclaimed; "I sees him! It vas lighten oop, and I sees +him on ze port bow!" + +As the second-mate spoke, there was a perceptible movement of the heavy, +close atmosphere, which had hitherto been still and sultry, like what it +generally is during a thunderstorm, or when some electrical disturbance +is impending in the air. Then, the land breeze sprang up again, the +wind, first coming in little puffs and subsequently settling down into a +steady breeze off shore, and the heavy curtain of black vapour that had +previously enveloped us began to drift away to leeward, enabling us +after a bit to see the ship's position and our surroundings--albeit all +was yet wrapped in the semi-darkness of night, as it was close on eleven +o'clock. + +The frowning outlines of a big mountain towered up above the vessel's +masts on our left or port bow, hazy and dark and grim, and on the +starboard hand a jutting point of land, evidently a spur of the same +cliff, projected past the _Denver City_ a long way astern, for we could +distinguish the white wash of the sea on the sand at its base; while, +right in front, nearly touching our bowsprit, was a mass of trees, whose +dusky skeleton branches were waved to and fro by the tropical night +breeze, making them appear as if alive, their mournful whishing as they +swayed bearing out this impression. + +It seemed, at first glance, that the ship had been driven ashore into a +small land-locked bay, no outlet being to be seen save the narrow +opening between the cliffs astern through which she had been carried by +the wave that stranded us--fortunately, without dashing us on the rocks +on either hand. + +As we gazed around in startled wonder, striving to take in all the +details of the strange scene, the misty, brooding vapour lifted still +further, and a patch of sky cleared overhead. Through this opening the +pale moon shone down, illuminating the landscape with her sickly green +light; but she also threw such deep shadows that everything looked weird +and unreal, the perspective being dwarfed here and magnified there to so +great an extent that the ship's masts appeared to touch the stars, while +the men on the fo'c's'le were transformed into giants, their forms being +for the moment out of all proportion to their natural size, as they +craned their necks over the head rail. + +Jan Steenbock's voice from the poop at this juncture recalled my +wandering and wondering imagination to the more prosaic and practical +realities of our situation, which quickly put to flight the ghostly +fancies that had previously crowded thick and fast on my mind. + +"Vo'c's'le ahoy!" shouted the second-mate, his deep, manly tones at once +putting fresh courage into all of us, and making the men pull themselves +together and start up eager for action, abandoning all their craven +fears. "How vas it mit yous vorvarts! Ze sheep, I zink, vas in ze deep +vater astern." + +"I'll soon tell you, sir," cried Tom Bullover in answer, jumping to the +side in a jiffey, with a coil of the lead line, which he took from the +main chains, where it was fastened. "I'll heave the lead, and you shall +have our soundings in a brace of shakes, sir!" + +With that he clambered into the rigging, preparatory to carrying out his +intention; but he had no sooner got into the shrouds than he discovered +his task was useless. + +"There's no need to sound, sir," he sang out; "the ship's high and dry +ashore up to the foremast, and there ain't more than a foot or two of +water aft of that, as far as I can see." + +"Thunder!" roared out the skipper, who had in the meantime come up again +on the poop from the cuddy, where he and the first-mate had no doubt +been drowning their fright during the darkness with their favourite +panacea, rum, leaving the entire control of the ship after she struck to +Jan Steenbock. "Air thet so?" + +"I says what I sees," replied Tom Bullover brusquely, he, like most of +the hands, being pretty sick by now of the captain's drunken ways, and +pusillanimous behaviour in leaving the deck when the vessel and all on +board were in such deadly peril; "and if you don't believe me, why, you +can look over the side and judge where the ship is for yerself!" + +Captain Snaggs made no retort; but, moving to the port bulwarks from the +companion hatchway, where he had been standing, followed Tom's +suggestion of looking over the side, which indeed all of us, impelled by +a similar curiosity, at once did. + +It was as my friend the carpenter had said. + +The _Denver City_ was for more than two-thirds of her length high and +dry ashore on a sandy beach, that looked of a brownish yellow in the +moonlight, with her forefoot resting between two hillocks covered with +some sort of scrub. This prevented her from falling over broadside on, +as she was shored up just as if she had been put into dry dock for +caulking purposes; although, unfortunately, she was by no means in such +a comfortable position, nor were we on board either, as if she had been +in a shipbuilder's yard, with more civilised surroundings than were to +be found on a desert shore like this! + +Her bilge abaft under the mizzen-chains was just awash; and, the water, +deepening from here, as the shore shelved somewhat abruptly, was about +the depth of four fathoms or thereabouts by the rudder post, where the +bottom could be seen, of soft, shining white sand, without a rock in +sight--so far, at least, as we were able to notice in the pale greenish +moonlight, by which we made our observations as well as we could, and +with some little difficulty, too. + +"Guess we're in a pretty tight fix," said Captain Snaggs, after peering +up and down alongside for some time, Tom Bullover in the interim taking +the hand lead with him on to the poop and sounding over the taffrail at +the deepest part. "We can't do nuthin', though, I reckon, till +daylight, an' ez we're hard an' fast, an' not likely to float off, I'll +go below an' turn in till then. Mister Steenbock, ye'd better pipe the +hands down an' do ditter, I guess, fur thaar's no use, I ken see, in +stoppin' up hyar an' doin' nuthin'." + +"Yous can go below; I vill keep ze vatch," replied the second-mate, with +ill-concealed contempt, as the skipper shuffled off down the companion +way again, back to his orgy with the equally drunken Flinders, who had +not once appeared on deck, after perilling the ship through his +obstinacy in putting her on the course that had led to our being driven +ashore. + +The very first shock of the earthquake, indeed, which we felt before the +tidal wave caught us, had been sufficient to frighten him from the poop +even before the darkness enveloped us and the final catastrophe came! + +As for Jan Steenbock, he remained walking up and down the deck as +composedly as if the poor _Denver City_ was still at sea, instead of +being cooped up now, veritably, like a fish out of water, on dry land. + +He did not abandon his post, at any rate! + +After a while, though, he acted on the skipper's cowardly advice so far +as to tell the starboard watch to turn in, which none of the men were +loth to do, for the moon was presently obscured by a thick black cloud, +and a torrent of heavy tropical rain quickly descending made most of us +seek shelter in the fo'c's'le. + +Here I soon fell asleep, utterly wearied out, not only from standing +about so long, having been on my legs ever since the early morning when +I lit the galley fire, but also quite overcome with all the excitement I +had gone through. + +I awoke with a start. + +The sun was shining brightly through the open scuttle of the fo'c's'le +and it was broad daylight. + +It was not this that had roused me, though; for, habituated as I now was +to the ways of sailor-folk, it made little difference to me whether I +slept by day or night so long as I had a favourable opportunity for a +comfortable caulk. Indeed, my eyes might have been `scorched out,' as +the saying is, without awaking me. + +It was something else that aroused me,--an unaccustomed sound which I +had not heard since I left home and ran away to sea. + +It was the cooing of doves in the distance. + +"Roo-coo-coo! Roo-coo-coo! Coo-coo! Roo-c-o-o!" + +I heard it as plainly as possible, just as the plaintive sound used to +catch my ear from the wood at the back of the vicarage garden in the old +times, when I loved to listen to the bird's love call--those old times +that seemed so far off in the perspective of the past, and yet were only +two years at most agone! + +Why, I must be dreaming, I thought. + +But, no; there came the soft, sweet cooing of the doves again. + +"Roo-coo-coo! Roo-coo-coo! Coo-coo! Roo-c-o-o!" + +Thoroughly roused at last, I jumped out of the bunk I occupied next +Hiram, who was still fast asleep, with a lot of the other sailors round +him snoring in the fo'c's'le; and rubbing my eyes with both knuckles, to +further convince myself of being wide awake, I crawled out from the +fore-hatchway on to the open deck. + +But, almost as soon as I stepped on my feet, I was startled, for all the +starboard side, which was higher than the other, from the list the ship +had to port, was covered, where the rain had not washed it away, with a +thick deposit of brown, sandy loam, like snuff; while the scuppers aft, +where everything had been washed by the deluge that had descended on the +decks, were choked up with a muddy mass of the same stuff, forming a big +heap over a foot high. I could see, too, that the snuffy dust had +penetrated everywhere, hanging on the ropes, and in places where the +rain had not wetted it, like powdery snow, although of a very different +colour. + +Recollecting the earthquake of the previous evening, and all that I had +heard and read of similar phenomena, I ascribed this brown, dusty +deposit to some volcanic eruption in the near neighbourhood. + +This, I thought, likewise, was probably the cause, as well, of the +unaccountable darkness that enveloped the ship at the time we +experienced the shock; but, just then, I caught, a sight of the land +over the lee bulwarks, and every other consideration was banished by +this outlook on the strange scene amidst which we were so wonderfully +placed. + +If our surroundings appeared curious by the spectral light of the moon +last night, they seemed doubly so now. + +The glaring tropical sun was blazing already high up in the heavens, +whose bright blue vault was unflecked by a scrap of cloud to temper the +solar rays, while a brisk breeze, blowing in from the south-west, gave a +feeling of freshness to the air and raised a little wave of surf, that +broke on the beach with a rippling splash far astern; the cooing of the +doves in the distance chiming in musically with the lisp of the surge's +lullaby. + +But, the land! + +It was stranger than any I had ever seen. + +The high mountain on our left, looked quite as lofty by day as it had +done the night before, two thousand feet or more of it towering up into +the sky. + +It was evidently the crater peak of an old extinct volcano; for, it was +shaped like a hollow vase, with the side next the sea washed away by the +south-west gales, which, as I subsequently learnt, blew during the rainy +season in the vicinity of this equatorial region. + +At the base of the cliff was a mound of lava, interspersed with tufts of +tufa and grass, that spread out to where the sloping, sandy beach met +it; and this was laved further down by the transparent water of the +little sheltered harbour formed by the outer edge of the peak and the +other lower projecting cliff that extended out into the sea on the +starboard side of the ship--the two making a semicircle and almost +meeting by the lava mound at the base of the broken crater, there not +being more than a couple of cables length between them. + +Most wonderful to me was the fact of the ship having been carried so +providentially through such a narrow opening, without coming to grief on +the Scylla on the one hand, or being dashed to pieces against the +Charybdis on the other. + +More wonderful still, though, was the sight the shore presented, as I +moved closer to the gangway, and, looking down over the bulwarks, +inspected the foreground below. + +It was like a stray vista of some antediluvian world. + +Near the edge of the white sand--on which the ship was lying like a +stranded whale, with her prow propped up between two dunes, or hillocks, +that wore up to the level of her catheads--was a row of stunted trees +without a leaf on them, only bare, skeleton branches; while on the other +side of these was a wide expanse of barren brown earth, or lava, utterly +destitute of any sign of vegetation. + +Then came a grove of huge cacti, whose fleshy, spiked branches had the +look of so many wooden hands, or glove stretchers, set up on end; and +beyond these again were the more naturally-wooded heights, leading up to +the summit of the mountain peak. + +The trees, I noticed, grew more luxuriantly and freely here, appearing +to be of much larger size, as they increased their distance from the +sterile expanse of the lower plain; until, at the top of the ascent, +they formed a regular green crest covering the upper edge of the crater +and sloping side of the outstretching arm of cliff on our right, whose +mantle of verdure and emerald tone contrasted pleasantly with the bright +blue of the sky overhead and the equally blue sea below, the latter +fringed with a line of white surf and coral sand along the curve of the +shore. + +This outer aspect of the scene, however, was not all. + +Right under my eyes, waddling along the beach, and rearing themselves on +their hind legs to feed on the leaves of the cactus, which they nibbled +off in huge mouthfuls, were a lot of enormous tortoises, or land +turtles, of the terrapin tribe, that were really the most hideous +monsters I had ever seen in my life. Several large lizards also were +crawling about on the lava and basking in the sun, and a number of +insects and queer little birds of a kind I never heard of. + +All was strange; for, although I could still catch the cooing of the +doves away in the woods in the distance, there was nothing familiar to +my sight near. + +While I was reflecting on all these wonders, and puzzling my brains as +to where we could possibly be, the second-mate, whom I had noticed still +on the poop when I came out from the fo'c's'le, as if he had remained up +there on watch all night, came to my side and addressed me. + +"Everyzing's sdrange, leedel boys, hey?" + +"Yes, sir," said I. "I was wondering what part of the world we could be +in." + +"Ze Galapagos," he replied laconically, answering my question off-hand, +in his solemn fashion and deep voice. "It vas call't ze Galapagos vrom +ze Spanish vort dat mean ze big toordles, zame dat yous zee dere." + +"Then Captain Snaggs was right after all, sir, about the ship's course +yesterday, when he said that Mr Flinders would run us ashore if it was +altered?" + +"Yase, dat vas zo," said Jan Steenbock. "Dat voorst-mate one big vool, +and he vas loose ze sheep! Dis vas ze Abingdon Islants, leedel boys-- +one of ze Galapagos groups. I vas recollecks him. I vas here befores. +It vas Abingdon Islants; and ze voorst-mate is von big vool!" + +As Jan Steenbock made this observation, a trifle louder than before, I +could see the face of Mr Flinders, all livid with passion, as he came +up the companion hatch behind the Dane. + +"Who's thet durned cuss a-calling o' me names? I guess, I'll +spifflicate him when I sees him!" he yelled out at the pitch of his +voice; and then pretending to recognise Jan Steenbock for the first time +as his detractor, he added, still more significantly, "Oh, it air you, +me joker, air it?" + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +SETTLING MATTERS. + +"Yase, it vas me," said Jan Steenbock, at once turning round and +confronting the other, not in the least discomposed by his sudden +appearance, and speaking in his usual slow, deliberate way. "I zays to +ze leedel boys here you's von big vool, and zo you vas!" + +"Tarnation!" exclaimed Mr Flinders, stepping out on to the deck over +the coaming of the booby hatch, and advancing in a threatening manner +towards the Dane, who faced him still imperturbably. "Ye jest say thet +agen, mister, an' I'll--" + +The second-mate did not wait for him to finish his sentence. + +"I zays you's von big vool, the biggest vool of all ze vools I vas +know," he cried in his deep tones. Every word sounded distinctly and +trenchantly, with a sort of sledge-hammer effect, that made the Yankee +mate writhe again. "But, my vren', you vas badder dan dat, vor you vas +a droonken vool, and vas peril ze sheep and ze lifes of ze men aboord +mit your voolness and ze rhum you vas trink below, mitout minting your +duty. Oh, yase, you vas more bad dan one vool, Mister Vlinders; I vas +vatch yous ze whole of ze voyage, and I spik vat I zink and vat I zees!" + +"Jee-rusalem, ye white-livered Dutchman!" screamed out the other, now +white with rage, and with his eyes glaring like those of a tiger, as he +threw out his arms and rushed at Jan Steenbock, "I'll give ye goss fur +ev'ry lyin' word ye hev sed agen me, ye bet. I'm a raal Down-East +alligator, I am, ye durned furrin reptyle! Ye'll wish ye wer never +rizzed or came athwart my hawse, my hearty, afore I've plugged ye out +an' done with ye, bo, I guess; for I'm a regular screamer from Chicago, +I am, an' I'll wipe the side-walk with ye, I will!" + +This was `tall talk,' as Hiram remarked, he and several others of the +crew having turned out from their bunks by this time, roused by the +altercation, all gathering together in the waist, full of interest and +expectancy at witnessing such an unwonted treat as a free fight between +their officers. But, the first-mate's brave words, mouth them out as he +did with great vehemence and force of expression, did not frighten the +stalwart Dane, self-possessed and cool to the last, one whit. + +No, not a bit of it. + +Quietly putting himself into an easy position of defence, with his right +arm guarding his face and body, Jan Steenbock, throwing out his left +fist with a rapidity of movement quite unexpected in one of his slow, +methodical demeanour, caught the blustering Yankee, as he advanced on +him with hostile thoughts intent, full butt between the eyes, the blow +being delivered straight from the shoulder and having sufficient +momentum to have felled an ox. + +At all events, it was enough for Mr Flinders. + +Whack! + +It resounded through the ship; and, uttering a half-stifled cry, the +mate measured his length along the deck, the back of his head knocking +against the planks with a sound that seemed to be the echo of the blow +that brought him low, though softer and more like a thud--tempered and +toned down, no doubt, by the subduing effect of distance! + +This second assault on his thick skull, however, instead of stunning +him, as might have been imagined, appeared to bring the mate back to +consciousness, and roused him indeed to further action; for, scrambling +up from his recumbent position, with his face showing unmistakable marks +of the fray already, and his eyes not glaring quite so much, for they +were beginning to close up, he got on his feet again, and squared up to +Jan Steenbock, with his arms swinging round like those of a windmill. + +He might just as well have tried to batter down a stone wall, under the +circumstances, as endeavour to break down the other's guard by any such +feeble attempt, although both were pretty well matched as to size and +strength. + +Jan paid no attention to his roundabout and random onslaught, fending +off his ill-directed blows easily enough with his right arm, which was +well balanced, a little forward across his chest, protecting him from +every effort of his enemy. + +He just played with him for a minute, during which the Yankee mate, +frothing with fury and uttering all sorts of terrible threats, that were +as powerless to hurt Jan as his pointless attack, danced round his +watchful antagonist like a pea on a hot griddle; and then, the Dane, +tired at length of the fun, advancing his left, delivered another +terrific drive from the shoulder that tumbled Mr Flinders backwards +under the hood of the booby hatch, where he nearly floored Captain +Snaggs, on his way up from the cuddy--the skipper having been also +aroused by the tumult, the scene of the battle being almost immediately +over his swinging cot, and the concussion of the first-mate's head +against the deck having awakened him before his time, which naturally +did not tend to improve his temper. + +"Hillo, ye durned Cape Cod sculpin!" he gasped out, Mr Flinders' +falling body having caught him full in the stomach and knocked all the +wind out of him. "Thet's a kinder pretty sorter way to come tumblin' +down the companion, like a mad bull in fly time! What's all this +infarnal muss about, hey?" + +So shouting, between his pauses to take breath, the skipper shoved the +mate before him out of the hatchway, repeating his question again when +both had emerged on the poop. "Now, what's this infarnal muss about, +hey?" + +Taken thus in front and rear Mr Flinders hardly knew what to say, +especially as Jan Steenbock's fist had landed on his mouth, loosening +his teeth and making the blood flow, his countenance now presenting a +pitiable spectacle, all battered and bleeding. + +"The--the--thet durned skallawag thaar hit me, sirree," he stammered and +stuttered, spitting out a mouthful of blood and a couple of his front +teeth, which had been driven down his throat almost by Jan Steenbock's +powerful blow. "He--he tried to--to take my life. He did so, cap. +But, I guess I'll be even with him, by thunder!--I'll soon rip my bowie +inter him, an' settle the coon; I will so, you bet!" + +Mr Flinders fumbled at his waistbelt as he spoke, trying to pull out +the villainous-looking, dagger-hilted knife he always carried there, +fixed in a sheath stuck inside the back of his trousers; but his rage +and excitement making his hand tremble with nervous trepidation, Captain +Snaggs was able to catch his arm in time and prevent his drawing the +ugly weapon. + +"No ye don't, mister; no ye don't, by thunder! so long's I'm boss hyar," +cried the skipper. "Ef ye fits aboord my shep, I reckon ye'll hev to +fit fair, or else reckon up with Ephraim O Snaggs; yes, so, mister, +thet's so. I'll hev no knifing aboord my ship!" + +The captain appeared strangely forgetful of his own revolver practice in +the case of poor Sam Jedfoot, and also of his having ran a-muck and +nearly killed the helmsman and Morris Jones, the steward, thinking he +was still in pursuit of the negro cook--which showed the murderous +proclivities of his own mind, drunk or sober. However, all the same, he +stopped the first-mate now from trying to use his knife; although the +latter would probably have come off the worst if he had made another +rush at Jan Steenbock, who stood on the defence, prepared for all +emergencies. + +"No, ye don't. Stow it, I tell ye, or I'll throttle ye, by thunder!" +said the skipper, shaking Mr Flinders in his wiry grasp like a terrier +would a rat; while, turning to Jan, he asked: "An' what hev ye ter say +about this darned muss--I s'pose it's six o' one an' half-dozen o' +t'other, hey?" + +"Misther Vlinders vas roosh to sthrike me, and I vas knock hims down," +said Jan Steenbock, in his laconic fashion. "He vas get oop and roosh +at me vonce mores, and I vas knock hims down on ze deck again; and zen, +you vas coom oop ze hatchway, and dat vas all." + +"But, confound ye!" cried the other, putting in his spoke, "you called +me a fule fust!" + +"So ye air a fule," said Captain Snaggs, "an' a tarnation fule, too, I +reckon--the durndest fule I ever seed; fur the old barquey wouldn't be +lyin' hyar whaar she is, I guess, but fur yer durned pigheadedness!" + +"Zo I vas zay," interposed Jan Steenbock. "I das tell hims it vas all +bekos he vas one troonken vool dat we ras wreck, zir." + +"Ye never sed a truer word, mister," replied the skipper, showing but +little sympathy for Mr Flinders, whom he ordered to go below and wash +his dirty face, now the `little unpleasantness' between himself and his +brother mate was over. "Still, hyar we air, I guess, an' the best thing +we ken do is ter try an' get her off. Whaar d'yer reckon us to be, +Mister Steenbock, hey?" + +"On ze Galapagos," answered the second-mate modestly, in no ways puffed +up by his victory over the other or this appeal to his opinion by +Captain Snaggs, who, like a good many more people in the world, +worshipped success, and was the first to turn his back on his own +champion when defeated. "I zink ze sheep vas shtruck on Abingdon +Island. I vas know ze place, cap'n; oh, yase, joost zo!" + +"Snakes an' alligators, mister! Ye doan't mean ter say ye hev been hyar +afore, hey?" + +"Ja zo, cap'n," replied Jan Steenbock, in his slow and matter-of-fact +way, taking he other's expression literally; "but dere vas no shnake, +dat I vas zee, and no alligator. Dere vas nozings but ze terrapin +tortoise and ze lizards on ze rocks! I vas here one, doo, dree zummers +ago, mit a drading schgooner vrom Guayaquil after a cargo of ze orchilla +weed, dat fetch goot price in Equador. I vas sure it vas Abingdon +Islant vrom dat tall big peak of montane on ze port side dat vas cal't +Cape Chalmers; vor, we vas anchor't to looard ven we vas hunting for ze +weed orchilla and ze toordles." + +"Oh, indeed," said the skipper. "I'll look at the chart an' take the +sun at noon, so to kalkerlate our bearin's; but I guess ye're not fur +out, ez I telled thet dodrotted fule of a Flinders we'd be safe ter run +foul o' the cussed Galapagos if we kept thet course ez he steered! +Howsomedever, let's do sunthin', an' not stan' idling hyar no longer. +Forrad, thaar, ye lot o' star-gazin', fly-catchin' lazy lubbers! make it +eight bells an' call the watch to sluice down decks! Ye doan't think, +me jokers, I'm goin' to let ye strike work an' break articles 'cause the +shep's aground, do ye? Not if I knows it, by thunder! Stir yer stumps +an' look smart, or some o' ye'll know the reason why!" + +This made Tom Bullover and the other hands bustle about on the +fo'c's'le, although buckets had to be lowered over the side aft to wash +down the decks with, so as to clear away all the volcano dust that was +still lying about, for the head-pump could not be used as usual on +account of the forepart of the ship being high and dry. + +Meanwhile, Hiram and I busied ourselves in the galley, blowing up the +fire and getting the coffee ready for breakfast, so that ere long things +began to look better. + +The sun by this time was more than half-way up overhead, but as a steady +south-west breeze was blowing in still from the sea right across our +quarter, for the ship was lying on the sand with her bowsprit pointing +north by west, the temperature was by no means so hot as might have been +expected from the fact of our being so close to the Equator; and so, +after our morning meal was over, the skipper had all hands piped to +lighten the vessel, in order to prepare her for our going afloat again. + +Captain Snaggs took the precaution, however, of getting out anchors +ahead and astern, so as to secure her in her present position, so that +no sudden shift of wind or rise of the tide might jeopardise matters +before everything was ready for heaving her off, the sheet and starboard +bower being laid out in seven-fathom water, some fifty yards aft of the +rudder post, in a direct line with the keel, so that there should be as +little difficulty as possible in kedging her. These anchors were +carried out to sea by a gang of men in the jolly-boat, which was let +down amidships just where we were awash, by a whip and tackle rigged up +between the main and crossjack yards for the purpose. + +By the time this was done, from the absence of any shadow cast by the +sun, which was high over our mastheads, it was evidently close on to +noon; so, the skipper brought his sextant and a big chart he had of the +Pacific on deck, spreading the latter over the cuddy skylight, while he +yelled out to the dilapidated Mr Flinders, who was repairing damages +below, to watch the chronometer and mark the hour when he sang out. + +Captain Snaggs squinted through the eye-glass of his instrument for a +bit with the sextant raised aloft, as if he were trying to stare old Sol +out of countenance. + +"Stop!" he sang out in a voice of thunder. "Stop!" + +Then he took another observation, followed by a second stentorian shout +of "Stop!" + +A pause ensued, and then he roared below to Mr Flinders, asking him +what he made it, the feeble voice of the first-mate giving him in return +the Greenwich time as certified by the chronometer; when after a longish +calculation and measuring of distances on the chart, with a pair of +compasses and the parallel ruler, Captain Snaggs gave his decision in an +oracular manner, with much wagging of his goatee beard. + +"I guess yo're about right this journey, Mister Steenbock," he said, +holding up the chart for the other's inspection. "I kalkelate we're +jest in latitood 0 degrees 32 minutes north, an' longitood 90 degrees 45 +minutes west--pretty nigh hyar, ye see, whaar my finger is on this +durned spec, due north'ard of the Galapagos group on the Equator. This +chart o' mine, though, don't give no further perticklers, so I reckon it +must be Abingdon Island, ez ye says, ez thet's the furthest north, +barrin' Culpepper Island, which is marked hyar, I see, to the nor'-west, +an' must be more'n fifty leagues, I guess, away." + +"Joost zo," replied Jan Steenbock, mildly complacent at his triumph. "I +vas zink zo, and I zays vat I zink!" + +The point being thus satisfactorily settled, the men had their dinner, +which Hiram and I had cooked in the galley while the anchors were being +got out and the skipper was taking his observation of the sun; and then, +after seeing that everything was snug in the caboose, I was just about +sneaking over the side to explore the strange island and inspect more +closely the curious animals I had noticed, when Captain Snaggs saw me +from the poop and put the stopper on my little excursion. + +"None o' y'r skulking my loblolly b'y!" he shouted out. "Jest ye lay +aloft an' send down the mizzen-royal. This air no time fur skylarkin' +an' jerymanderin'. We wants all hands at work." + +With that, I had, instead of enjoying myself ashore as I had hoped, to +mount up the rigging and help the starboard watch in unbending the +sails, which, when they reached the deck, were rolled up by the other +watch on duty below, and lowered to the beach over the side, where they +were stowed in a heap on the sand above high-water mark. + +The lighter spars were next sent down, and then the upper and lower +yards by the aid of strong purchases, all being similarly placed ashore, +with the ropes coiled up as they were loosed from their blocks and +fastenings aloft; so, by the time sunset came the ship was almost a +sheer hulk, only her masts and standing rigging remaining. + +Poor old thing, she was utterly transformed, lying high and dry there, +with all her top hamper gone, and shorn of all her fair proportions! + +I noticed this when I came down from aloft, the _Denver City_ looking so +queer from the deck, with her bare poles sticking up, like monuments +erected to her past greatness; but, although I was tired enough with all +the jobs I had been on, unreeling ropes, and knotting, and splicing, and +hauling, till I hardly knew whether I stood on my head or my heels, I +was not too tired to take advantage of the kind offer Hiram made me when +I went into the galley to help get the men's tea ready. + +"Ye ken skip, Cholly, an' hev a lark ashore, ef ye hev a mind to," said +he; "I'll look arter the coppers." + +Didn't I `skip,' that's all. + +I was down the sides in a brace of shakes, and soon wandering at my own +sweet will about the beach, wondering at everything I saw--the lava bed +above the sand, the tall, many-armed cactus plants, with their fleshy +fingers and spikes at the ends, like long tenpenny nails, the giant +tortoises, which hissed like snakes as they waddled out of my path-- +wondering, aye, wondering at everything! + +Hearing the cooing of doves again, as I had done in the morning, I +followed the sound, and presently came to a small grove of trees on an +incline above the flat lava expanse, to the right of the head of the +little bay where the ship was stranded. + +Here grass and a species of fern were growing abundantly around a pool +of water, fed from a tiny rivulet that trickled down from the cliff +above; and I had no sooner got under the shelter of the leafy branches +than I was surrounded by a flock of the pretty grey doves whose gentle +cooing I had heard. + +They were so tame that they came hopping on my head and outstretched +hand, and I was sorry I had not brought some biscuit in my pocket, so +that I might feed them. + +It was so calm and still in the mossy glade that I threw myself down on +the grass, remaining until it got nearly dark, when I thought it about +time to return to the ship, though loth to leave the doves, who cooed a +soft farewell after me, which I continued to hear long after I lost +sight of them. + +I got back to the shore safely without further adventure, until I was +close under the ship, when I had a fearful fright from a huge tortoise +that I ran against, and which seemed to spit in my face, it hissed at me +so viciously. + +It must have been four feet high at least, and what its circumference +was goodness only knows, for I could have laid down on its back with +ease, as it was as broad as a table. + +I did not attempt to do this, however, but scrambled up the ship's side +as quickly as I could, and made my way to the galley, in order to get my +tea, which Hiram had promised to keep hot for me. + +Outside the galley, though, I met the American, who frightened me even +more than the big tortoise had done the minute before. + +"Say, Cholly," he cried, his voice trembling with terror, "thet ghost of +the nigger cook air hauntin' us still; I seed him thaar jest now, +a-sottin' in the corner of the caboose an' a-playin' on his banjo, ez +true ez I'm a livin' sinner!" + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +THE GOLDEN MADONNA. + +"My goodness! you don't mean that, Hiram?" I exclaimed, seeing from his +earnest manner that he was not trying to hoax me, but stating what he +really believed to be a fact. "When was it that you saw the ghost?" + +"Jest on sundown, Cholly, arter the men hed thaar tea an' cleared out, +the whole bilin' ov 'em, skipper an' all, goin' ashore, like ez ye did, +sonny, afore 'em, to prospect the country an' look at the big turtle an' +other streenge varmint. Thaar warn't a soul left aboard but thet brute +Flinders an' myself; an' he wer so basted by the lickin' ez Jan +Steenbock giv him thet he wer lyin' down in the cabin an' pizenin' +hisself with rum to mend matters. But, I wer thet dead beat, with +shiftin' gear an' sendin' down yards, thet I wer fit fur nuthin' but ter +lean over the gangway an' smoke a pipe afore turnin' in, fur I wer +mighty tired out, I wer!" + +"You must have been, Hiram," said I, "for, I'm sure I was, and am so +still." + +"Yes, I wer dead beat, an' thaar I rested agen the gangway, smokin' an' +lookin' at the chaps that wer a-skylarkin' with a big turtle they had +capsized on ter his back, so ez he couldn't make tracks; when all at +oncest I thort o' the galley fire a-goin' out an' yer tea, Cholly, ez I +promist to keep bilin', an' so I made back fur the caboose. It wer then +close on dark, an' a sorter fog beginnin' to spring from seaward afore +the land breeze riz an' blew it orf." + +"And then," I put in, on his pausing at this point, hanging on his words +intently, "what happened then?" + +"Lord sakes! Cholly, it kinder makes the creeps come over me to tell +you," he replied, with a shudder, while his voice fell impressively. "I +wer jest nigh the galley when I heerd a twang on the banjo, same ez poor +old Sam used ter giv' the durned thin' afore he began a-playin' on it--a +sorter loudish twang, as if he gripped all the strings at oncet; an' +then, ther' come a softer sort o' toonfal `pink-a-pink-a-pong, pong,' +an' I guess I heerd a wheezy cough, ez if the blessed old nigger wer +clarin' his throat fur to sing--I did, so!" + +"Goodness gracious, Hiram!" I ejaculated, breathless with expectation, +"you must have been frightened!" + +"I wer so," he replied--"I wer so skeart thet I didn't know what ter +dew; but, thinks I, let's see if anythin's thaar; an' so I jest look't +round the corner o' the galley through the half-door, an', b'y, thaar I +seed Sam a-sottin', ez I sed, an' a-playin' his banjo ez nat'rel ez ever +wer!" + +"But the banjo wasn't there last night," I interposed here. "I looked +for it almost as soon as we heard the sound of it being played at the +time of the earthquake, and I couldn't see it hanging up over the door +where Tom Bullover, you remember, pointed it out to us." + +"Wa-all, all I ken say is thet I seed the ghostess with the durned thin' +thaar in his grip. I didn't wait fur to see no more, I can tell ye, +Cholly!" + +"What did you do?" + +"I jest made tracks for the fo'c's'le, an' turned inter my bunk, I wer +so skeart, till the skipper an' the rest o' the hands came aboard ag'in, +when I comed out an' stood hyar a-waitin' fur ye. I ain't seed Tom +Bullover yet; so ye're the fust I hev told o' the sperrit hauntin' us +agen, Cholly." + +"Do you think it's gone yet?" I asked; "perhaps it is still there." + +"I dunno," he replied. "P'raps ye'd best go fur to see. I'm jiggered +if I will!" + +I hesitated at this challenge; it was more than I bargained for. + +"It's all dark now," I said, glancing towards the galley, from which no +gleam came, as usual, across the deck, as was generally the case at +night-time; "I suppose the fire has gone out?" + +"'S'pose it air," answered Hiram; "guess it's about time it wer, b'y, +considerin' I wer jest a-going fur to make it up when I seed Sam. I +reckon, though, if ye hev a mind fur to look in, ye can get a lantern +aft from the stooard. I seed him a-buzzin' round the poop jest now, fur +he hailed me ez he poked his long jib-boom of a nose up the companion; +but, I didn't take no notice o' the cuss, fur I wer outer sorts like, +feelin' right down chawed up!" + +"All right," said I, anxious to display my courage before Hiram, his +fright somehow or other emboldening me. "I will get a lantern at once +and go into the galley." + +So saying, I went along the deck aft, passing into the cuddy by the door +under the break of the poop, and there I found Morris Jones, the +steward, in the pantry. + +He was putting a decanter and glass on a tray for the captain, who was +sitting in the cabin, preparing for a jollification after his exertions +of the day; for he had returned in high glee from his inspection of the +ship's position with Jan Steenbock, whom he took with him to explain the +different points of land and the anchorage. + +Jan Steenbock was just leaving the skipper as I entered, refusing, as I +surmised from the conversation, his pressing invitation to have a +parting drink--a sign of great cordiality with him. + +"Wa-all, hev yer own way, but a drop o' good rum hurts nary a one, ez I +ken see," I heard Captain Snaggs say. "Good-night, Mister Steenbock. I +guess we'll set to work in airnest ter-morrer, an' see about gettin' the +cargy out to lighten her; an' then, I reckon, mister, we'll try y'r +dodge o' diggin' a dock under her." + +"Yase, dat vas goot," said the Dane, in his deep voice, in answer. "We +will dig oop the zand vrom her kil: an' zen, she vill vloat, if dere vas +no leaks an' she vas not hoort her back by taking ze groond." + +"Jest so," replied the skipper; and Morris Jones having gone into the +cabin with the glasses and water on his tray, I heard a gurgling sound, +as if Captain Snaggs was pouring out some of his favourite liquor and +gulping it down. "Ah, I feel right chunky arter thet, I guess! Yes, +Mister Steenbock, we'll float her right off; fur, I don't think she's +started a plank in her; an' if we shore her up properly we ken dig the +sand from under her, ez ye sez, an' then she'll go off ez right ez a +clam, when we brings a warp round the capstan from the ankers astern." + +"Ja zo," agreed Jan Steenbock. "We vill wait and zee." + +"Guess not," retorted the skipper. "We'll dew better, we'll work and +try, me joker, an' dew thet right away smart ter-morrer!" + +Captain Snaggs sniggered at this, as if he thought it a joke; and then, +I could hear Jan Steenbock wish him good-night, leaving him to his rum +and the companionship of Mr Flinders--who must have smelt the liquor, +for I caught his voice muttering something about being `durned dry,' but +I did not listen any longer, looking out for the steward, who presently +followed Jan Steenbock out of the cabin. + +"Well, younker, what d'ye want?" Morris Jones asked me, when he came up +to where I was still standing alongside his pantry. "I didn't have time +to speak to ye afore. What is it?" + +"I want a lantern," said I. "The galley fire's gone out." + +"All right, here you are, you can take this," he replied, handing me one +he had lit. "Any more ghostesses about forrud? That blessed nigger's +sperrit oughter go ashore, now we've come to this outlandish place, and +leave us alone!" + +"You'd better not joke about it," I said solemnly. "Hiram has seen +something awful to-night." + +"What d'ye mean?" he cried, turning white in a moment, as I could see by +the light of the lantern, and all his braggadocio vanishing. "What d'ye +mean?" + +"Only not to halloo too loud till you're out of the wood," said I, going +off forwards. "Hiram has seen Sam's ghost again, that's all!" + +I felt all the more encouraged by this little passage of arms with the +funky Welshman; so, I marched up to the galley door as brave as brass, +holding out, though, the lantern in front of me, to light up the place, +Hiram, ashamed of his own fears, coming up close behind, and looking in +over my shoulder. + +Neither of us, though, saw any cause for alarm, for there was no one +there; and I was inclined to believe that Hiram had fallen asleep and +dreamt the yarn he told me, the more especially as there was a strong +smell of tobacco about the place, as if some one had been there recently +smoking. + +The American, however, was indignant at the bare suggestion of this. + +"What d'yer take me fur, Cholly," he said. "I tell ye I seed him +a-sottin' down thaar in thet corner, an' heerd the banjo ez plain ez if +it wer a-playin' now! Look at the fire, too; ain't that streenge? It +wer jest a-staggerin' out when I comed hyar fur to put on some more wood +to make it burn up, an' thaar it air now, ez if some one hez jest been +a-lightin' on it!" + +It was as he said. The fire seemed to have been fresh lit, for there +was even a piece of smouldering paper in the stoke hole. + +It was certainly most mysterious, if Hiram had not done it, which he +angrily asserted he had not, quite annoyed at my doubting his word. + +While I was debating the point with him, Tom Bullover appeared at the +door, with his usual cheerful grin. + +"Hullo!" cried he; "what's the row between you two?" + +Thereupon Hiram and I both spoke at once, he telling his version of the +story and I mine. + +"Well, don't let such foolish nonsense make you ill friends," said Tom, +grinning. "I dare say you're both right, if matters could only be +explained--Hiram, in thinking he saw Sam's ghost, and you, Charley, in +believing he dreamt it all out of his head. As for the fire burning up, +I can tell you all about that, for seeing it just at the last gasp, I +stuck in a bit of paper and wood to light it, so as to be more cheerful. +I likewise lit my own pipe arterwards, which fully accounts for what +you fellows couldn't understand." + +"Thaar!" exclaimed Hiram triumphantly; "I tolled you so, Cholly." + +"All right," I retorted. "It's just as I said, and there's nothing +mysterious about it." + +Each of us remained of his own opinion, but Tom Bullover chaffed us out +of all further argument, and we presently followed the example of the +other hands, who were asleep snoring in the fo'c's'le, and turned into +our bunks; while Tom went aft to relieve Jan Steenbock as look-out, +there being no necessity for all of the watch to be on deck, the ship +being ashore, and safer even than if she had been at anchor. + +In the morning, I was roused up by the cooing doves again, and the very +first man I met after turning out was Morris Jones, who looked seedy and +tired out, as if he had been awake all night. + +"What's the matter?" I asked him, as he came into the galley, where I +was busy at my morning duty, getting the coppers filled for the men's +coffee, and poking up the fire, which still smouldered, for I had banked +it, so as to keep it alight after I turned in. "Anything happened?" + +"You were right, Cholly, in tellin' me not to holler till I was out of +the wood last night," he said solemnly. "I seed thet arterwards the +same as Hiram!" + +"Saw what?" + +"The nigger's ghost." + +"Nonsense!" I cried, bursting out into a laugh, his face looked so +woe-begone, while his body seemed shrunk, giving him the most +dilapidated appearance. "You must have been taking some of the cap'en's +rum." + +"None o' your imperence, master Cholly," said he, aiming a blow at my +head, which I dexterously avoided. "I never touches none o' the +skipper's ruin; I wouldn't taste the nasty stuff now, after all I've +seen it's done. No, I tell you straight, b'y, I ain't lying. I see Sam +Jedfoot last night as ever was, jest soon arter you went away from the +cuddy with the lantern." + +"You did?" + +"Yes, I'll take my davy on it. He comed right through the cabin, and +walked past my pantry, stepping over the deck jest as if he was alive; +and then I saw something like a flash o' light'ing, and when I looked +agen, being blinded at first, there he were a-floating in the air, going +out o' sight over the side." + +"Did you go to see what had become of him?" I said jokingly, on hearing +this. "Where did he make for when he got over the side?" + +"I didn't look no more," answered the steward, taking my inquiry in +earnest. "I were too frightened." + +"What did you do, then?" + +"I just stopped up there in my pantry all night, locking the door, so as +to prevent no one from getting in. Aye, I kep' two lights burning, to +scare the ghost if he should come again; and theer I stop't till +daylight, when I heard you stirring, and comed here to speak to you, +glad to see a human face agen, if only a beast of a b'y like you--far +them sperrits do make a chap feel quar all over! Besides, too, the fear +o' seeing the blamed thing agen, I thought the skipper, who was drinking +awful arter Jan Steenbock left, he and Flinders having a regular go in +at the rum, might have another fit o' the horrors, and bust out on me +with his revolver. Lor, I 'ave 'ad a night on it, I can tell you!" + +"Poor fellow! wait and have a pan of coffee," said I sympathisingly, +pitying his condition and not minding his polite allusion to me as a +`beast of a boy,' which no doubt my manner provoked. "It will soon be +ready." + +"I will," he replied, thoroughly beaten and speaking to me civilly for +the first time. "Thank ye, kindly, Cholly!" + +By-and-by the crew turned out; and, after having their coffee, began +again the same work they had been at the previous day of lightening the +ship, Captain Snaggs superintending operations, and not looking a bit +the worse for his drinking bout in which Morris Jones said he had spent +the night with his kindred spirit, Mr Flinders. + +The scene on the beach all that day and the next was a busy one, all +hands hard at it unloading the _Denver City_, preparatory to our trying +to restore her to her native element, the sea--which latter rippled up +along her dry timbers forward, as far as the mizzen-chains, the furthest +point where she was aground, with a lisping sound, it seemed to me, as +if wooing her to come back and float on its bosom again once more, as of +yore! + +A great deal more had to be effected, however, before this could be +accomplished, for a sort of dock, or trench, had to be dug out beneath +the vessel's keel, so as to bring the water beneath her and help to lift +her off the sandbank where she was stranded; and this could not be done +in a day, work we our hardest, despite the men taking shifts turn and +turn about by watches at the task. + +Fortunately, while unloading the cargo, a lot of pickaxes were found +amongst the miscellaneous assortment of `notions' stowed in the +main-hold; and these now came in handy, the hands learning to wield them +just as if they had been born navvies, after a bit, under the +experienced direction of Captain Snaggs, who said he had been a +Californian miner during a spell he had ashore at one period of his +life. + +On the third day of this labour, the dock was becoming perceptibly deep +amidships and the water beginning to ooze through the sand; when, all at +once, Tom Bullover, who was wielding a pick like the rest, struck the +point of it against something which gave out a clear metallic ring. + +After a dig or two more, he excavated the object, which, preserved in +the lava that lay beneath the sand and shells on the beach, was found to +be an image of the Virgin, such as you see in Roman Catholic countries +abroad. It was of a bright yellow colour and shining, as if just turned +out of a jeweller's shop. + +It was a golden Madonna! + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +JAN STEENBOCK GETS CONFIDENTIAL. + +"My stars, Chips!" exclaimed Hiram, who was standing near by when Tom +Bullover held up his treasure-trove to view. "What hev ye got thaar, +ship met?" + +"Sorry o' me knows," returned the other, examining the object closely. +"Seems like one o' them blessed saints they has in the cathedral at +Lima, which I went over one day last v'y'ge I took this side, when I +sailed from Shields to Valparaiso, and arterwards come up the coast, our +skipper looking out for a cargy, instead o' going back home in ballast. +It seems a pretty sort o' himage, too, bo, and I'm hanged if I don't +think it's gold, for it's precious heavy for its size, I can tell you!" + +"Chuck it over hyar an' let's see what it's like," said Hiram, his +curiosity at once roused. "I'll soon tell ye if it's hunkydory ez soon +ez I hev the handlin' on it; fur I ken smell the reel sort, I guess, an' +knows it likewise by the feel it kinder hez about it." + +"Right you are, bo," sang out Tom Bullover, pitching it towards him. +"Catch!" + +"Bully far yer!" cried Hiram, putting up his hands and clutching hold of +the figure as, well thrown by the other, it came tumbling into his ready +grasp. "I'll soon tell ye what it's made on, I reckon!" + +He thereupon proceeded to inspect the object carefully, giving it a lick +of his tongue and rough polish with his palms, to remove the dirt and +dust with which it was partly encrusted, sniffing at it and handling it +as if it were a piece of putty. + +"Well, bo," asked Tom at length, tired of waiting and eager to learn the +result of the other's examination; "is it all right?" + +"You bet," responded Hiram, tossing up the image in the air and catching +it again, and raising a triumphant shout that at once attracted the +attention of the other hands, who dropped their pickaxes and shovels +instanter and came clustering round. "I'm jiggered if it ain't gold, +an' durned good metal, too, with nary a bit o' bogus stuff about it. +Hooray!" + +"Hooray!" yelled out the rest of the men in sympathy, the precious +figure being passed round from one to another, so that each could see it +in turn and judge for himself. "Hooray!" + +"Hillo!" cried Captain Snaggs, noticing the commotion and coming +bustling up, with his wiry goatee beard bristling and his pointed nose +and keen eyes all attention. "What d'ye mean droppin' work an loafin' +up hyar in a crowd, makin' all that muss fur, hey?" + +"We've just found this here figger, sir," explained Tom Bullover; "and +Hiram says it's made o' gold." + +"Thet's so, cap," corroborated the American sailor. "It air all thet; +an' goold of good grit, I reckon, too, or I'll swaller the durned lump, +I will, without sass!" + +"Humph!" snorted the skipper, holding out his hand for it; "give us +holt, an' I'll prospect it fur ye, if ye like. They usest to tell me I +warn't a bad jedge when I wer at the Carraboo diggin's an' went in fur +minin'." + +The little image of the Madonna was accordingly handed to him, and the +skipper's nose wrinkled up, and twitched and jerked sideways, while his +billy-goat beard bristled out like a porcupine's quills, as he sniffed +and examined the figure, turning it over and over in his hands and +feeling it, the same as Hiram had done. He even went so far as to pinch +it. + +"Jee-rusalem!" he at length exclaimed; "it's gold, sure enuff!" + +"Hooray!" again burst from the men around. "Hooray!" + +"I don't see nothin' to holler fur," said Captain Snaggs, in response to +this, bringing them up, as the saying goes, `with a round turn,' as he +turned round angrily. "Guess ye won't find no more o' the same sort +skatin' round the ranche!" + +But, just then, Jan Steenbock came on the scene. + +He had been busily engaged overseeing the construction of a species of +coffer-dam across the shore at right angles and up to the keel of the +ship at the point where the tide came up to, just by the mizzen-chains; +so that the water should not get down into the excavation that the men +were digging until this should be deep enough to float the vessel, or, +at all events, assist in easing her off the beach--for, if flooded +prematurely, the labour would be doubled. + +The hands helping him having, however, deserted for the nonce and joined +the rest of the crowd around Tom Bullover and Hiram, he came up, also, +to the spot where all of us were standing, with the object of coaxing +his gang back to their task. The sound of the men's wild shout and the +skipper's voice, raised in anger, as he thought, hastened his footsteps, +too, for he feared that some mischief was brewing, and that the crew had +mutinied at the least. + +The moment he got near, though, he could perceive, from the grinning +faces and expression of those close by, that nothing very desperate was +in the wind; and, he was just on the point of asking what the row was +about, when, all at once, he caught sight of the image. + +"Mein Gott!" he ejaculated, looking the picture of astonishment, and +more excited than I had ever seen him, from the first day I stepped on +board the ship until now,--"it vas ze Madonna of ze golt. Ze Madonna of +ze golt!" + +We all stared at him, filled with wonder at his apparent recognition of +the figure. The skipper, however, at once interrogated him on the +point. + +"Jehosophat, mister!" cried Captain Snaggs, with mixed curiosity and +impatience--"what d'ye mean? Hev ye ever seed this hyar figger afore?" + +"Yase," said the Dane, in his deep voice; "yase, I vas zee him one long +time befores I vas know him ver' well!" + +"Thunder, ye don't mean it! What, this durned identical image?" + +"Yase, mitout doubt. I vas know dat zame idenzigal vigure," replied the +other imperturbably, his passing fit of excitement having cooled, +leaving him as calm and impassive as usual. "It vas ze Madonna of ze +golt dat we vas loose overboart from ze schgooners, one, doo, dree year +ago." + +The skipper looked at him, without speaking further for a second or +more, Jan Steenbock confronting him as steadfastly and placidly as a +periwinkle might have been under the circumstances; while all of us +around gazed at them both, open-mouthed with expectancy. + +"What d'ye mean?" presently said Captain Snaggs, breaking the silence; +"what schooner air ye talkin' on?" + +"Ze schgooners dat I vas zail in vrom Guayaquil dat time as I tell yous, +vor to gatoh ze orchillas veeds." + +"But, mister, say, what hez thet stuff, which in coorse I knows on, to +do with this durned old image hyar?" again interrogated the skipper, in +an incredulous tone. "I guess ye air gettin' a bit kinder mixed up, an' +yer yarn don't hitch on an' run smooth like!" + +"Joost zo," returned the imperturbable second-mate, in no way disturbed +by this impeachment of his veracity. "You joost vait; I vas hab +zometing vor to zay. Joost vait and I vas tell yous." + +"Carry on then," said Captain Snaggs impatiently. "By thunder! ye air +ez long gettin' under way, I guess, ez a Cape Cod pilot. Fire away, an' +be durned to ye, an' tell us the hull bilin', mister!" + +Jan Steenbock, however, would not allow himself to be hurried in this +fashion. Quite unmoved by the skipper's impatience, he went on in his +slow, deliberate way, all of us listening with the keenest attention and +steadying ourselves for a good yarn. + +"It vas dree year ago dat I vas meet mit Cap'en Shackzon, of ze +schgooners _Mariposa_, at Guayaquil," he began sententiously, clearing +his throat, and seeming to speak in deeper and deeper tones as he +proceeded with his narrative. "He vas go, he tells me, vor a drading +voy'ge to ze Galapagos Islants, and vas vant a zecond-mate, and vas ask +me vor to come mit hims." + +"An' ye wented," interrupted the skipper--"hey?" + +"Yase, I vas go! Cap'en Shackzon zays, zays he, bevore we sdart, dat ze +schgooners vas to zail vor Jarls Islant, call't by ze Sbaniards +`Vloreana,' vere dere vas a lot of beeples vrom Equador dat collect ze +orchilla veeds, and vas drade likevise to ze mainland mit ze hides and +zalt veesh, and ozer tings." + +"I reckon all thet don't consarn us, mister," said the skipper, +arresting any further enumeration of the exports from Charles Island; +"an' so, ye went thaar to trade, hey?" + +"Nein," came Jan Steenbock's unexpected answer; "ze schgooners vas not +go to Jarls Islant." + +"Jee-rusalem!" exclaimed the skipper, taken aback by this naive +announcement. "Then, whaar in thunder did ye go?" + +"Vait, and I vas tell yous," said the other calmly, going on with his +story in his own way. "Ven we vas zail vrom Guayaquil and vas at zee +zome days, Cap'en Shackzon zays to me, zays he, `I vas engage yous'--dat +vas me--`vor and bekos I vas vant a man dat I can droost, mit all dis +crew of gut-throat Sbaniards arount me. Can yous be zeegret and keep in +ze gonfidence vat I tells you?' In ze course, I vas zay to Cap'en +Shackzon `yase;' and, den--" + +"What happened?" eagerly asked Captain Snaggs; "what happened?" + +"We zails to ze norzard," continued Jan, provokingly, refraining from +disclosing at the moment the confidential communication he mentioned +having been made to him. "We vas zail vor dree more day, and den we vas +zee dat cap dere, dat Cap'en Shackzon vas zay is Cape Chalmers, and dat +ze lant vas Abingdon Islant vere we vas now vas; and den he vas tell me +his zeegret." + +"An' thet wer what, eh, mister?" said the skipper, while all of us hung +on his words, breathless now with excitement, our curiosity being +aroused to the highest pitch. "Don't kep us a-waitin', thaar's a +friendly coon, fur I guess we air amost bustin' to haar what thet air +secret wer!" + +"I beliefs zere vas no harms vor to tell?" observed the Dane +reflectively, as if cogitating the matter over in his own mind and +anxious to have another opinion to say whether or no his narration of +the circumstances would be any breach of the trust reposed in him. +"Cap'en Shackzon was det, and ze crew vas det, and zere vas nobozy dat +vas aboart ze schgooners dat vas alifes but meinselfs." + +"Nary a bit o' harm at all, mister, ez I ken see," said Captain Snaggs +decisively; "not where ther' ain't no folk alive to complain o' ye +tellin' on it. Nary a bit o' harm, I reckon!" + +"Yase, I do not zee no harms," continued Jan Steenbock, as if he had now +made up his mind on the point; "and zo I vas tell yous. Ze zeegret dat +Cap'en Shackzon tell to me vas dat he hat discovert von dreazure in a +cave in ze islant von day dat he vas plown into ze bay in a squall; and +ven he vas go back to Guayaquil, he vas charter ze schgooners to zail +back to ze islant again. He vas tell ze beeples dere dat he vas go vor +ze orchilla veeds and ze toordle; but, he vas mean to dig oop ze +dreazure and take hims back zogreetly in ze schgooners to ze mainland, +as if he vas only hab ze orchilla veeds and ze toordle on boart. He +zays to me, zays Cap'en Shackzon, `ze Sbaniards in Equador is von bat +lot, and vill murter a mans like one mosquito vor a tollar,' and he vas +know dat zey vas kill hims if zey vas zink he vas hab ze dreazure on +boart; and, dat vas ze reason dat he vas vant von man dat he coot +droost, joost like meinselfs, mit hims!" + +"A treasure hyar, mister," said the skipper, with his eyes aglow and his +goatee beard bristling up, all agog at such news--"a treasure o' gold, +hey?" + +"Yase, yase," replied the other affirmatively; "oh, yase!" + +"How come it hyar?" + +"It vas burit by ze boocaneer in ze olt time--one, doo, dree huntert +year ago," explained Jan. "Cap'en Shackzon vas zee it writ in von book +dat he vas zee at Guayaquil; and den, ven he vas zail here, he vas come +to de zame blace dat ze boocaneer spoke of in ze book and hat burit ze +golt. It vas ze ploonder of ze churches of ze coast, dat ze boocaneers +hat collect in von big heep and zegreet in ze cave till zey coot take +hims avay mit dem, and dere it vas remain till Cap'en Shackzon vound +it." + +"He found it, hey?" + +"Yase, he vind it von day, as I zays. His voot vas sdoomble in ze hole, +and dat give vays; and den, he doombles into ze cave, and zee all ze +dreasure of golt and silber and ozer tings." + +"An' did ye see it, too, mister?" inquired Captain Snaggs anxiously. +"Pyaps thet air coon wer only bamboozlin' ye, an' made up the yarn!" + +"No, he vas not make it oop," replied Jan. "I vas zee dat Madonna of +golt dere and ozer tings dat he vas bring back vrom ze cave ven we vas +coom here in ze schgooners, and anchor't in ze bay dere as ze sheep vas +now lay. But, Cap'en Shackzon vas von sdrange mans!" + +"Thunder!" ejaculated the skipper, on the other pausing at this point, +as if waiting for the question to be put. "How wer he streenge, mister, +hey?" + +"He vas like to keep zings to himselfs," said Jan Steenbock meaningly. +"He vas not let me go to ze cave at all, and ze schgooner vas anchor't +here in ze bay more dan a veek!" + +"I s'pose he didn't want the crew--them rascally Spaniards ye spoke on-- +smellin' a rat an' spilin' his game, I reckon," suggested the skipper; +"but how did he manage, hey?" + +"He vas keep ze mans all day hunting for ze orchilla veeds up ze montane +dere," replied Jan; "and den, ven ze night vas coom, he vas tell me to +shtop on ze vatch, and den he vas go ashore to look for ze cave mit +himselfs." + +"He didn't spot it at once agen then?" + +"Nein. He vas look in vain vor dree nights, and vas near give oop ze +hoont in despair; but on ze ozer night he vas come back to ze schgooners +in goot sbirrits, and zays to me, zays he, `I vas vind ze cave at last.' +He vas zo glat he vas laf mit joy and I vas laf, too!" + +"I guess ye hed sunthin' to snigger over, hey?" + +"Yase, joost zo! I vas laf mit him; and den, he vas bring oot dat +Madonna dere, dat he vas hab stow avay in his shirt, and vas show it to +me, and ze vigure vas shin in ze moonlight. Ah, dat vas bat; vor, von +of ze Sbaniards of ze crew vas zee it shin in ze light and show ze golt, +and he vas tell ze ozers--a pack of raskels--and ze whole game was oop +vor us and ze dreazure!" + +"How's thet, mister?" inquired the skipper, as Jan paused again here, +his voice dropping. "Did the varmint spile ye?" + +"Humph!" growled the other. "Dey vas spile zemselves! In ze mittle of +ze night ze raskels go down into ze cabin vere Cap'en Shackzon vas +ashleep and shtab him mit dere knifes. Den, zey shtole ze golt Madonna +and brings it oop on ze deck; and den, zey get vighting vor ze vigure, +and shtab von ze ozers, and dey vas vake me oop mit ze row, vor I vas +tiret and vas ashleep in ze boate over ze taffrail." + +"An' how did ye come off with a hull skin?" asked Captain Snaggs. "I +guess ye wer in a durned tight corner." + +"Zee goot Gott vatch overs me!" replied Jan Steenbock gravely, raising +his eyes reverently upward as he uttered the word, "vor, in ze mittle of +ze row, ven ze raskels vas all of zem murtering each ozers and ze deck +vas rolling in bloot, a sudden gale vas spring oop; and ze schgooner vas +dash on ze rocks dere to port, and she vas go down in ze deep vater, mit +ze crew still vighting on ze deck to ze last. One--doo--dree--vore-- +mens vas already kil't, besides Cap'en Schackzon--ze lifing and ze det +going down zogeder into de zee, mit ze golt Madonna dat you vas now +vind!" + +"An' how did ye scrape through, hey?" + +"I vas schvim ashore," answered Jan Steenbock, in reply to this question +from the skipper, who followed his recital carefully, with his +inquisitive long nose twitching every now and then, and his billy-goat +beard wagging as he nodded his head, watching apparently to catch the +other tripping in his story. "I vas schvim ashore and go to landt all +raite." + +"What became o' ye then?" + +"I vas shtop heres till I vas pick oop by a passing sheep." + +"Her name, mister?" again interrogated Captain Snaggs, with keen +pertinacity. "Thet is if ye reck'lects." + +"Oh, yase, I vas remembers very well," rejoined the other, equal to the +occasion. "She vas ze whaling barque _Jemima Greens_, of Bostone, I +zinks." + +"Thet's right; I knows her," interrupted the skipper, quite satisfied. +"Joe Davis master, hey?" + +"Yase, joost zo," replied the other, "dat vas ze name of ze cap'en, I +remembers." + +"An' how long did ye remain aboard her?" + +"Vor more dan vore months. She vas veeshing vor ze whale ven she pick +me oop vrom here; and I vas hab to vait till she vas load up mit ze +oils, ven she vas go zouth, and landt me at Valparaizo. Vrom dat port I +vas vork mein passage back to England ze next zommer--and dat vas dree +year ago." + +"Waal, thet's a tall yarn, anyhow," said the skipper, when Jan Steenbock +had thus concluded his strange history; "but, dew ye mean ter say ez how +ye hev never ben nigh this place hyar agen sin' thet time?" + +"Nein," replied the other frankly, "nevaire!" + +"What! d'ye mean ter say ez how ye hed no kinder sort o' curiosity like +to find thet thaar cave, with the rest o' thet gold an' treasure what +them old buccaneers stowed away so snug, 'specially arter seein' it wer' +reel?" + +"No, cap'en," said Jan Steenbock firmly, as if he had previously well +considered all the bearings of the case and arrived at his final +decision. "I vas nevaire likes vor to zee dat blace nor ze golt again-- +no, nevaire!" + +"But, why, mister?" asked the skipper, with insatiable curiosity, +winking to the hands round, to call their attention to the fact that he +was about to take a rise out of the simple-hearted Dane, and `trot him +out,' as it were, for their mutual amusement. "Why shouldn't ye hanker +arter seein' the gold agen, mister? I guess ye didn't hev too much on +it afore; an', I'm durned if ye hev got much of a pile now, ez fur ez I +ken see!" + +Jan Steenbock's answer, however, completely staggered him, banishing all +his merriment and facetiousness in an instant. + +"It vas curst," said the Dane solemnly. "Ze golt and ze islandt and +everyting vas shtink mit ze black man's bloot!" + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +WE DISCOVER THE CAVE. + +"What d'ye mean?" Captain Snaggs managed to stammer out after a bit, +his long face perceptibly longer and his rubicund complexion turned to +an ashy grey. He was conscience-stricken and thoroughly frightened at +the second-mate thus bringing up again, as he thought, his cruel murder +of the negro cook; for, Jan Steenbock spoke in the same tone of voice, +and pointed his finger at him like an accusing judge, in almost the same +precise way he had done on that eventful day when we were off Scilly, +three months before. "What in thunder d'ye mean, man?--what d'ye mean?" + +"I vas mean vat I zays," answered the other calmly: "ze dreazure of ze +boocaneer vas shtain mit ze bloot of von schlave." + +"Oh," exclaimed the skipper, somewhat relieved by his not mentioning +again Sam Jedfoot's name, as he and all of us believed the second-mate +intended doing, imagining his remark to refer to none other than the +poor darkey. "I don't kinder foller ye, mister, nohow, an it strikes +me, it dew, ez if ye air gettin' sorter mixed up, same ez jest now! +What d'ye mean a-talkin' o' durned nigger slaves an' sichlike? Thaar +ain't none now, I reckon, under the Stars and Stripes this side, nor yit +fur thet matter in the hull o' the land, from Maine to Californy, sin' +the war busted up the great southern `institooshun,' ez they call'd it +in Virginny. Thaar ain't no slaves, sirree, now, I guess, on this hyar +free an' almighty continent! What d'yer mean, hey?" + +The men gave out another loud hooray at this stump speech, which the +skipper, quite relieved of his fears anent any allusion to Sam Jedfoot, +delivered with much unction, as if he were holding forth from a platform +at election time, his billy-goat beard wagging while he threw his arms +about in the excitement of his oratory. + +Jan Steenbock, for the moment, seemed puzzled how to reply; for, he +stood silently facing the other in the pause that ensued after he had +finished his harangue. + +At length, however, he spoke, the wild cheer of the hands spurring him +up and giving an impulse to the slow current of his thoughts and words-- +the Dane not being prone, like Captain Snaggs, to talking for the mere +pleasure of hearing his own voice. + +"I vill egshblain vat I means," he began, in his deliberate way, +answering the skipper's question, but speaking as if addressing all of +us collectively, his deep tones getting deeper and increasing in volume +as he proceeded, so that all could hear. "I vas shpeak vat I reat in ze +book dat Cap'en Shackzon vas bringt mit him vrom Guayaquil in ze +schgooners dat time. I vas likevise rec'lect vat I zees here ven we vas +arrife, an' Cap'en Shackzon's vas murter't, and ze mans vas kill ze +ozers, and dere vas nuzzing but bloot and murter; vor, ze schgooners vas +go down, mit only meinselfs dat vas eshgape mit mein lifes--and zo I +zays to meinselfs, dere vas a curse on ze golt and ze dreazure of ze +boocaneer vrom ze bloot of ze schlave dat vas murter't!" + +"Guess I don't foller ye yet, mister," said the skipper. "Who kil't +thet air darkey ye air a-talkin' on, hey?" + +"Ze boocaneer," promptly replied Jan. "Dey vas burit ze schlave vere +dey vas burit ze dreazure." + +"An' what did the cusses dew thet fur?" + +"It vas to make ze Sbaniards and ze ozer beebles not vor to dig oop ze +dreasure, or vor to go vere it vas burit. Zey vas zink dat ze sbirit of +ze black man vas harmt dem and vork mizcheef, ze zame as vas done to +hims, bekos he vas murter't vor ze dreazure. `Bloot vor bloot' vas ze +law of ze boocaneer, and dey vas zink dat ze black mans vas hab ze bloot +of ze ozer mans dat coom vere his sbirit vas!" + +"Oh, thet's the yarn ye hev got holt on!" exclaimed Captain Snaggs, with +a grin on his face, winking round to us. "Guess ye ain't sich a durned +fule ez ter swaller all thet bunkum, hey?" + +"I doos belief it, vor it vas droo," answered Jan Steenbock very +impressively. "Oh, yase, I vas zee it meinselfs. It vas droo as droo!" + +"Wa-al," drawled out the skipper, with a snigger, which raised a +sympathetic laugh from some of the men standing by, "thet beats +ev'rythin' I ever know'd, it dew! Jest ter think of a straight +up-an'-down coon like ye, mister, with raal grit in ye, a-believin' in +sich a yarn ez thet!" + +"I beliefs it, vor it vas droo," repeated the Dane, in no way +discomposed by the other's ridicule. "I vas hab ze cause to beliefs!" + +"What! Thet a durned nigger buried two hunder' year ago, or +thaarabouts, hez the power to kinder hurt airy a livin' soul now?" + +"I beliefs it," returned Jan, doggedly; adding, much to the skipper's +discomfiture and banishing his merriment in a moment. "Dere vas sdrange +zings habben zometimes. I vas hear ze mans zay dat ze ghost of ze cook +dat you shoots vas hoont dees very sheeps!" + +Captain Snaggs made no reply to this crushing rejoinder: but a sort of +murmur of assent came from the others, while I caught Hiram's voice +saying, "Thet's so; right enuff!" + +"And zo, cap'en," went on the Dane, perceiving that he had scored a +point, and that the laugh was no longer against him, "I van hab nuzzing +vor to do mit ze dreazure of ze boocaneer, and I vas hopes not vor to +zee it a gains. It vas accurst, as I vas zay, vor ze boocaneer +zemselves vas not able vor to vind it after zay vas burit it; and den, +ven Cap'en Shackzon vinds it, he vas also murter't, as the schlave vas, +and his crew vas murter't zemselves! Ze boocaneer dreazure vas accurst +and bringt goot to no beebles. And zo, cap'en, I zays; zays I, let us +not mindt it at all, mit its bat look, but go on vor to dig oot ze dock +for ze sheep. We vas vaste ze time for nuzzin', if we hoonts vor ze +dreazure; and if we vinds it, we vas nevaire get no goot vrom it-- +nevaire, nozzing but bat!" + +"Wa-all, thet's good advice, anyhow," said the skipper, thinking the +palaver had lasted long enough. "Guess ye chaps bed better sot to work +agen, ez Mister Steenbock sez. If we shu'd light on this air treesor, +well enuff, but our fust job, I reckon, 's to get the shep afloat agen; +an' we won't do thet, ye bet, by standin' hyar listenin' to ghost yarns +an' sichlike! Now, ye jokers, let me see ye handlin' them picks agen. +P'r'aps ye'll dig up another gold figger o' two; who knows?" + +This set all hands busy, the men excavating the sand and hard lava from +under the bilge of the vessel with an alacrity they had not displayed +before; and, each man putting his heart to the job, the broad trench in +which they were working was soon dug down considerably deeper than the +level of the sea. To prevent the encroach of this latter all the stuff +taken out was thrown up alongside, forming a sort of steep embankment on +either hand, so that the _Denver City_ looked by-and-by as if she had +run her head into a railroad cutting, the coffer-dam fixed across the +beach, right under her keel, by the mizzen-chains, where the water just +came up to, blocking the entrance to our dock effectually. The ship +herself aided us in this respect, by settling down more in the sand +there as it became loosened, and we only had to take care now that the +slight rise and fall of the tide should not cause too great a leakage +into the trench between the keel below and the upper strakes of her +timbers above, at the height to which the dam reached; and, after a +while, although a little water did trickle through the wall of sand and +lava forming the side of the excavation towards the sea, there was not a +sufficient quantity of it to interfere with the labour of digging to any +material extent, nor to arrest our efforts. + +The men, indeed, wielded their picks as if anxious to make up for the +half-hour or so that had been wasted since Tom Bullover found the golden +Madonna. + +Nor did they content themselves merely with digging. + +A keen watch was kept, in case something else might turn up, and every +piece of hard substance disinterred was carefully scrutinised; but, +alas! no more golden images or nuggets of the precious metal gladdened +our eyes! Nothing came in view but sand and lava, lava and sand, varied +occasionally by the sight of some fragment of half-fossilised +tortoise-shell, or the chalky bones of cuttlefish and similar debris of +the deep, washed up by the sea, and buried a fathom deep and more amid +the strata of the shore. + +This was disappointing; still, the men comforted themselves with the +reflection that they were really digging for something else beyond the +mere chance of picking up stray finds, such as that of Tom, who was +thought a right good fellow for declaring he didn't consider the Madonna +his own special property, but would sell the figure, and go shares with +all, when they got the ship afloat again, and reached San Francisco. My +friend the carpenter thus artfully `pointed his moral,' in order to make +us work the harder at the novel navvy work at which we were engaged-- +strange, at least, to us sailor-folk. + +Of course, though, while toiling like this, digging and splashing about +in the insidious water that percolated through the beach, and which +gradually accumulated until it was now almost knee-deep in the bottom of +the trench, we were by no means silent, for a lot of talk went on in +reference to the buccaneers' buried treasure that Jan Steenbock had +spoken of. So, in spite of the second-mate's warning as to the `curse' +which he declared was associated with the hidden hoard, and would attach +itself to any one discovering or touching the same, I heard more than +one of the men give expression to a resolve to hunt for Captain +Jackson's cave as soon as he should have an opportunity, when his spell +of work was over, or, at all events, on the completion of the dock and +the floating of the ship--a halcyon period most devoutly prayed for by +all of us as we slaved at our unaccustomed task. + +Amongst those who had thus made up their minds to go after the treasure +was myself; and I got full of the subject, though keeping my own council +the while, and not informing any one of my intention. + +Presently, at `eight bells,' the skipper told me I might leave off work +in the trench, and go with Hiram on board the ship to prepare tea for +the hands. Morris Jones was ordered to accompany us, at the same time, +to get the captain's dinner ready; for, although we were ashore on a +desert island, our ordinary routine as to meals and other matters was +adhered to as regularly as if we had been at sea--the only exception +being that no particular watch was kept, and that we all turned in +together of a night and out likewise in the morning without distinction, +all at the same time. Throughout the day we worked at digging out the +trench, or `dock' as Jan Steenbock persisted in calling it, under the +ship, in gangs, in similar fashion to the mode that had been employed +when unloading her, so as to get the task accomplished as quickly as +possible; and, to facilitate this, the hands were divided into two +batches, each having a spell of navvy's work and a rest off between +whiles, turn and turn about. + +"Thet wer a mighty rum yarn the Dutchman spun jest now, I guess," +observed Hiram, as soon as we had got on board and reached the galley, +Morris Jones leaving us awhile to ourselves, and going aft to fetch the +skipper's grub out of the pantry, where it was stowed. "I'm jiggered if +I ever heerd tell o' sich a yarn afore!" + +"Don't you think it true?" I said. "Mr Steenbock isn't given to +cramming, from all I have seen of him." + +"No; he air a straight up-an'-down coon, I reckon," replied Hiram, +proceeding to cut off a piece of tobacco from a plug he produced from +his pocket, and placing a `chaw' in his jaw. "Still, b'y, jest think o' +buccaneer tree-sors, an' all sorts o' gold an' silver a-waitin' fur us +to dig 'em up! Why, it beats Californy an' all I've heerd tell o' the +diggin' days, when thaar wer the first rush, an' the folks ez got in +time made their pile!" + +"But you heard what he said of the spirit protecting the treasure," I +remarked, "Don't you think he's right about the curse hanging over it? +I believe it would be unlucky to touch it." + +"B'y, thaar's allars a cuss tied on to gold an' greenbacks, sich ez we +used ter hev a little time back," said Hiram sententiously. "But, I +reckon, the harm don't lie in the durned stuff itself: it's in the way +some folks kinder handles it--thet's whaar the pizen is! Guess I ain't +afeard o' no cuss, once I comes across thet cave the Dutch mate wer +a-speakin' on!" + +"And the ghost?" + +"Oh, durn the sperrit, Cholly!" said he, with a laugh. "I ain't +afeard." + +"Recollect though, Hiram," I remarked, in answer to this, "how +frightened we all have been on board by Sam, and the way you were in +only a couple of days ago, when you said you saw him again here." + +He looked serious again in a moment. + +"Guess I don't want ter run down thet air ghostess," said he +apologetically. "Fur I reckon a man can't go agen a thin' he sees right +afore his eyes." + +"And how about the other one that Mr Steenbock spoke of?" + +"Oh, thet's different, Cholly. A chap ye sees a-sottin' down an' +a-playin' a banjo aint like a coon thet's ben buried two or three +hundred year, an' thet no one hez seed, ez I knows on, fur Jan Steenbock +never sed ez how he seed it hisself. No, b'y, I guess I'll hev a hunt +fur thet thaar tree-sor ez he spoke on, ez soon ez ever I hev the +chance." + +"Suppose we go this evening, when we strike off work?" said I--"that is, +Hiram, if you don't mind my coming with you?" + +"Nary a bit, Cholly," he replied good-heartedly to this tentative +question of mine; "glad to hev ye along o' me, seeing as how we both hev +ben a-prospectin' the line o' country already." + +"All right," I exclaimed joyfully. "We'll have a good hunt for the +cave. I wouldn't be surprised if we find it near the place where I saw +the doves, by the pool between the hills over there." + +"Most like, b'y," said he, bustling about the galley and going on with +his culinary work; "but hyar comes the stooard. Don't ye tell him +nuthin' o' what we hev ben talkin' on, or I guess the coon 'll be +wantin' to jine company, an' I don't wants him, I doesn't. He's a +won'erful slimy sort o' cuss, an' since he's ben skeart by Sam Jedfoot's +ghostess he hez ben a durned sight too mealy-mouthed fur me!" + +"I won't speak a word to him," said I. "He's a queer sort of man, and I +don't like him either." + +The entrance of the Welshman thus stopped our further conversation; for, +although Morris Jones seemed anxious to talk, Hiram only spoke in +monosyllables, giving curt answers, so that the steward in, the end +became silent too, busying himself in cooking the skipper's dinner at +one, fireplace, while the American attended to the men's tea at the +other--filling the copper with the proper ingredients, as mentioned +before, and diligently stirring its contents till it boiled. + +At `two bells,' later on, in the first dog-watch, work was abandoned for +the day, all hands coming aboard to have their tea, Tom Bullover amongst +them. + +"May I tell him?" I said to Hiram, when I saw the carpenter coming +forward, after slinging himself over the bulwarks; "may I tell Tom where +we are going, and ask him to come too?" + +"I don't mind, I guess," replied Hiram--"the more the merrier!" + +Tom was perfectly willing; and so, half an hour later, the three of us +started on our expedition, getting over the side of the ship while the +rest of the crew were still busy with their pannikins and beef and +biscuit, so departing unobserved. + +"Now we're off, I guess," said Hiram, when he had crossed over a plank +that served for a bridge over the trench alongside, which was getting +pretty deep by now. "Let us go straight fur thet buccaneers' tree-sor, +shepmates!" + +"And here's for the black man's ghost as the second-mate spoke on," +replied Tom Bullover, with a grin. "I specs we'll as soon find one as +t'other!" + +"Durned ef I kear," said Hiram defiantly; "ghostess or no ghostess, I'm +bound fur thet pile, I am, if we ken sorter light on it!" + +"I only hope we will, I'm sure," I chimed in, as the three of us made +our way across the beach and then traversed the sterile lava plain, +shaping a course for the cluster of trees between the hills, on the +right of the bay, which I had first investigated. + +The doves we found as tame as ever, coo-coo-cooing away with great +unction on our approach, and beside the borders of the pool were a lot +of tortoises crawling about; but, there was no cave near, concealed in +the brushwood, although we searched through it all carefully--so we +resumed our way up the hills. + +As we ascended, the scenery became wilder and wilder, the trees +increasing so greatly in size that some of the trunks of them, which +apparently belonged to the oak species, were over four feet in diameter, +growing, too, to a great height. + +Nor was the scenery only wild. + +About half a mile up a steep ravine, a drove of wild hogs rushed by us, +nearly knocking Hiram down, he being in advance of the exploring party. + +"Jehosophat, mate!" he exclaimed to Tom, laughing as he stumbled over +him; "thaar's y'r black man's ghost, I guess." + +"Carry on," replied Tom grinning; "we ain't come to him yet. You just +wait and see!" + +Further up, we came to a beautiful plain of some extent between the +hills, which had been at some former time planted for cultivation, for +bananas, sweet potatoes, yucca palms, and many other sorts of tropical +fruits were growing about in the wildest profusion. + +There were the remains, too, of old buildings and broken mill machinery, +such as used in the West Indies for crushing the sugar cane, a lot of +which was planted in the vicinity; but these were of giant proportions +from not having been cut possibly for years, for, stump sprang up on top +of stump, until the root clusters covered many square yards--the canes +themselves being over twenty-five feet in height and more than fifteen +inches in circumference, of a size that would have made a +sugar-planter's mouth water. + +"Guess some cuss hez ben a-cultivatin' hyar," observed Hiram, looking +critically round. "When I wer to hum down Chicopee way--" + +"Stow that, bo," said Tom Bullover, interrupting him, being always +afraid of letting the other sail off on the tack of his home +recollections, as he was doomed ever to hear the same old yarn, so that +he was sick of its repetition. "I don't think you'll find your cave +here; them old buccaneers wouldn't be sich fools to lug all their booty +up this long way, when they could bury it more comf'able near the shore, +and likewise come upon it the easier again when they wanted it." + +"Specs ye air about right, bo," answered Hiram, taking the interruption +kindly, and no ways hurt at having his Chicopee remembrances once more +nipped in the bud. "What shall we dew?" + +"Why, go down again," replied Tom. "Here's a fresh track down to the +beach on this side which leads to another bay, I fancy. Let's make for +it and see where it leads to." + +"Fire away; I'm arter ye, bo," said the other, the two now changing +places, and Tom Bullover showing the way. "`Foller my leader'--thet's +the game, I reckon!" + +All of us laughed at this, stepping gingerly in single file after Tom, +who found some difficulty at first in pushing through the branches of +the trees, which were thickly interwoven overhead and across the path; +but the latter was distinctly marked out, being well trodden as if it +had been a regular pathway of communication at some previous time. + +The bay below, to which this road led, was on the other side of the +point of land that stretched past the ship; and as we descended the hill +we could see the blue sea peeping through the trees. + +Half-way down, the pathway abruptly terminated in front of what seemed a +mound of earth, although this was now overgrown with trees, covered with +orchilla weed, that enveloped their trunks and gave them quite a +venerable aspect. + +"Hillo!" cried Hiram, "hyar's enuff o' thet orchilla weed thet they +vall'ys so in 'Frisco to make airy a nan's fortin' ez could carry it +thaar, I guess!" + +"Is that the orchilla?" I asked. "I was wondering what Mr Steenbock +meant when he spoke of it." + +"Aye," replied Hiram, dragging off a great bunch of it from what looked +like the decayed trunk of one of the oak trees, hollowed out by age and +exposure to the heavy tropical rains of the region, "thet's what they +calls the orchilla weed, I guess. Hillo! though, what's this?" + +"What?" exclaimed Tom Bullover and I, pressing up to where he was +stooping, scraping away at the timber; "what is it?" + +"I'm durned ef it air a tree at all," said Hiram, all excitement, and +his voice thick with emotion and eager exultation. "It's a door o' some +sort or t'other." + +"Really," I said, as eager as he, helping him to pull away the fungus +growth from the now partly-exposed woodwork which, certainly, looked +like a door, as he said, "do you think so?" + +"Aye, Cholly. I'm jiggered if we ain't found the cave at last!" + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +RIVAL APPARITIONS. + +"By Jingo!" said Tom, with a deep breath, bending down and helping Hiram +to clear away the weeds and debris from the rotten old door, now clearly +disclosed to view. "Jest fancy our lighting on it like this!" + +"Perhaps it isn't a cave at all," said I, likewise breathless with +excitement, but not wishing to place my hopes too high, lest I should be +disappointed; "it's too far from the sea, I think." + +"Nary a bit," retorted Hiram, doggedly. "I'll bet my bottom dollar it's +the place sure enuff. Hyar goes, anyhow, fur a try." + +So saying, rising from his stooping posture, he administered a thumping +kick with his heavy seamen's boot against the rotten woodwork. + +This instantly gave way, a thick cloud of dust rolling up; and then, a +hollow dark cavity appeared right in the centre of the mound, which we +could now see was heaped up over the wooden framework, so as to conceal +it from the notice of any one passing by. + +"Hooray!" shouted Tom Bullover, waving his hat and jumping up in the air +to further express his emotion. "We've found the buccaneers' blessed +treasure. Look out for the ghost, Hiram!" + +"Durn the ghost!" retorted the other; "not twenty on 'em wu'd kep me +back now, I guess!" + +At the same moment, he made a dive to enter the opening, but Tom put his +hand on his shoulder and half pulled him back. + +"Stop, bo," he said. "There might be foul air in it, 'cause of its +being so long closed up. Let's wait and see." + +"How ken ye tell thet?" asked Hiram; "guess it don't matter a red cent +if ther air." + +"You just wait," insisted Tom. "I'll find out in a jiffey; and then, if +it's safe, we can venture in. The cave ain't a-goin' to run away from +us, and you know the old saying, `more haste less speed!' We're going +to do things in proper shipshape fashion, bo, so none o your rushing +matters; it'll all come right in time!" + +With these words, Tom, who was a sensible, matter-of-fact fellow, with +his head screwed on straight and all his wits about him, took out a box +of matches from the inside lining of his hat, where he always kept his +pipe and tobacco and such things that he did not wish to get wet; and, +lighting one of the matches, he proceeded to hold it within the dark +cavity. + +The flame flickered and then suddenly went out, although there wasn't a +breath of air stirring, the trees around preventing the sea-breeze from +reaching the spot where we stood--a sort of little hollow between the +hills. + +"There you are, bo," said Tom; "see that?" + +"Guess I don't underconstubble," answered Hiram, staring at him in +perplexity. "What d'ye mean, hey?" + +"Didn't you watch the match go out?" returned Tom. "Lord, I never did +see such a feller!" + +"Wa-al, what ef the durned match did fiz out?" + +"Don't yer know what it means?" + +"Guess not." + +"It shows as how there's foul air there, bo--that's what the match's +going out means. It tells us not to go in!" + +Tom said this with a chuckle, for which Hiram gave him a dig in the +ribs. + +"Hev yer own way, Chips, fur a bit," he said; "but I'm jiggered if ye +air a-going to kep me from prospectin' thet thaar hole." + +"Nobody wants to," retorted Tom. "Only just wait a bit till the +wentilation gets better and blows out all the gas. It would a-pizened +you if I'd let you go in at first, as you wanted." + +"Wa-al, go ahead, an' hev another try fur to see ef it's right now." + +In reply, Tom lit a second match, and held it in the opening of the cave +as before. + +This time it did not flicker so much, burning for a longer time, before +the faint flame finally expired. + +"Better," said Tom; "but it ain't quite safe yet." + +"Hurry up," replied Hiram. "I'm bustin' to see thet boocaneer tree-sor +ez the mate wer talkin' on!" + +After an interval of another quarter of an hour or so, while we all +waited on the tenter-hooks of suspense, an inquisitive land tortoise +waddling up to see what we were about, Tom lit a third match. + +This time it burnt bravely with a clear light, which showed us something +of the interior of the cavern. It did not show us much, though, the +darkness being too great for such a feeble illuminant to penetrate far +into it. + +"Now, boys," said Tom, "I think we may venture in, as the foul air must +be pretty well spent by this time; but we'll have to get a torch or +something to see our way by, or else we shall be breaking our necks or +smashing our heads against the roof." + +"Guess one o' them port fires we hev aboard would lighten it up to +rights." + +"So it would," replied Tom; "but we ain't got it now, and must try and +find somethin' else to make a flare up." + +"Hyar's some o' the old wood," observed the other, taking up a fragment +of the broken door, which was crumbly with age. "Strike another match, +will ye. I think this timber 'll burn long enuff fur us to git inside +an' prospect a few." + +"Right you are, my hearty," returned the other, carrying out this +suggestion; and the next minute, the piece of old oak was in a blaze, +when, holding it up in one hand, Hiram stooped down once more and +stepped within the cave. + +There was nothing there, however. + +Nothing! + +"Wa-all," exclaimed Hiram, after bending here and there, and searching +in every direction. "I calls this a durned sell, I dew!" + +"Hold the light up again," said Tom; "a little more to the right, bo, so +as to throw it on that dark corner there." + +But nothing was to be seen save the rocky walls of the cave, which was +of peculiar shape, and more like a sort of fissure in the rock, riven +open possibly by some volcanic shock, than if made by man. The roof was +formed of lava, it seemed to me by the light of our impromptu torch, +similar to the same substance we noticed on the arid plain near the +shore of the bay, and again below the sand at high-water mark. + +There were queer fragments of rock also, placed round the hard floor of +the cavern like seats, with regular intervals between them; while +apparently in the middle, as near as we could approximate, was a raised +portion of the under stratum of rock shaped like a pulpit. + +"Guess if thaar's airy tree-sor hyar, b'ys," observed Hiram, pointing to +this, "it's thaar!" + +"No, bo," replied Tom, laughing, "that's the black man's pulpit, where +he preaches a Sunday, same as our `Holy Joes' do when they're ashore!" + +Hiram paid no attention to this remark, but continued poking about the +place, stamping with his feet and trying in every way to see whether the +treasure we were in search of might not be buried in some spot or other; +but his trouble was all in vain. + +Presently, the piece of blazing wood began to give forth a more feeble +light, being almost burnt out; and, then, all at once Hiram and I +noticed another spark of light like a round hole, at the opposite end of +the cave. + +"Hillo!" shouted Hiram, "I guess thaar's another end to the durned hole, +an' we hev taken the wrong track!" + +Making our way slowly, so as not to extinguish the torch, we advanced in +the direction of the new light, which got bigger and bigger as we +approached nearer to it. + +There was no doubt it was another entrance to the cave, and a far more +convenient one, too, for it opened out on to a little spur of the hill +that ran down a somewhat steep declivity to the seashore below. + +"It must be the buccaneers' cave," said Tom. "It's just the sort o' +place men that were sailors would choose. I misdoubted it at first, +from being so far inland, as I thought; but now I see it's near the +sea." + +"But there ain't nary a tree-sor thaar!" + +"Don't you be too cocksure o' that," returned Tom, looking about him +well, to make certain of his direction. "Howsomdever, we ain't got the +time to search the place properly now, as it'll be dark soon, and we +ought to be aboard." + +"Durned if I likes givin' it up like this." + +"Never mind, bo; there'll be plenty of time for us to look the cave over +to-morrer arternoon, and I'll bring one o' them port fires you spoke on +to light up the place." + +"Guess thet'll jest about do, Chips," replied Hiram, turning round, as +if about to go back within the entrance, loth to leave without finding +the buccaneers' hoard, repeating his previous exclamation: "I'm durned, +though, if I likes givin' it up like this!" + +"Come along, my hearty!" cried Tom. "Come along, Charley. But, mind, +neither on you be telling the hands what we've found out! There +wouldn't be a chance for us if the skipper or that drunken cur Flinders +knowed on it." + +"Not me," replied Hiram, following Tom along the curve of the shore +towards a little group of trees, which I recognised now as immediately +above the pool frequented by the doves. "I won't tell nary a soul, an' +I reckon we ken both on us anser fur Cholly?" + +"Certainly," said I, replying to his implied question, as I came up +behind the two, and we started off retracing our way at once to the +ship, on the fo'c's'le of which we could see several of the men already +gathered together. "I'm sure I won't tell anybody, for I have nobody to +tell except you, Tom, and Hiram--you're my only friends on board." + +"Wait till you get hold of the buccaneers' gold, Charley," said Tom +dryly. "You'll get plenty o' chums then, for money makes friends!" + +Nothing further was said by either of us, and we presently found +ourselves once more on board, when I turned in at once, for we had +walked a goodish distance, and I was tired out. + +The next afternoon, when work was ended and Hiram and I were ready to +start on another excursion to the cave, we could not find Tom. + +"Nary mind thet, Cholly," said Hiram. "I guess we ken go 'long, an' +Chips 'll pick us up by-an'-by." + +Passing the grove and pool of the doves, we made our way over the brow +of the little hill beyond, and sighted the second bay; when, just as the +opening to the cave became visible, both of us heard the familiar sound +of Sam Jedfoot's banjo. + +It was passing strange! + +The same old air was being played upon it that we had heard immediately +before the ship struck--and, indeed, almost always prior to every +catastrophe and mischance that had happened throughout our eventful +voyage. + +Hiram turned pale. + +"Jee-rusalem, Cholly!" he exclaimed, at once arresting his footsteps; +"what on airth air thet?" + +I was almost equally frightened. + +"It--it--it--sounds like poor Sam's banjo," I stammered out. "I--I-- +hope he ha--ha--hasn't come to haunt us again!" + +"Seems like," said he; and then, plucking up his courage, he started +once more for the mouth of the cave, I following close, like his shadow, +afraid to leave him now, because then I would be there by myself. +"Durned, though, if Sam's ghostess or any other cuss 'll kep me back +now. Come on, Cholly!" + +But, when we got up to the entrance, we saw a sight that stopped us at +once, Hiram dropping to the ground as if he had been shot. + +There, sitting on the very rock at the back which Tom Bullover had joked +about on the previous day as being the `ghost's pulpit' was the dim +apparition of a man, the very image of our whilom negro cook, leaning +back and playing the banjo, just as Sam used to do on board the _Denver +City_. + +But, stranger still, even as I looked, a queer supernatural sort of +light suddenly illumined the interior of the cavern, and I saw another +apparition rise, as it were, out of the darkness, immediately behind the +one on the rock, the last spectral form raising its hand threateningly. + +I stood there at the mouth of the cave, almost paralysed with terror, +watching the weird scene that was being enacted within, the wonderful +electrical glare making every detail come out in strong relief and +lighting up the whole place, so that it was as bright as day. + +Not the slightest incident escaped my notice. + +As the second apparition rose from behind the rock at the back of the +cavern, the first figure, which I had believed up to now really to be +the negro cook's ghost or spirit, permitted for some occult purpose or +other to revisit the earth, also jumped up out of the corner, dropping +the banjo incontinently. + +Not only this, the original ghost, spirit, or what you will, displayed +an abject fright that was too real for any inhabitant of the other world +to assume; for the face of the ghost in an instant grew as long as my +arm, while its woolly hair crinkled up on top of its head until it +became erect and stiff as a wire brush. + +At the same time, the eyes of this first `ghost,' distended with fear, +rolled round and round, the white eyeballs contrasting with the darker +skin of the face, which, however, appeared to have become of an ashy +grey colour, instead of black--though whether this was from the effects +of fear or owing to the peculiar light that shone full upon it I could +not tell, nor, indeed, puzzled my mind at the time to inquire. + +The two figures thus confronted each other for about the space of a +second, the headless apparition rising and rising till it seemed to +touch the roof of the cave, when it extended its wide arms and made a +clutch at the other, and now trembling, figure in front. + +This was too much for the banjo-playing spectre. + +Uttering a wild yell that only a human throat could have emitted, and +with his mouth open as wide as the mouth of the cave towards which he +rushed, Sam Jedfoot--for it was his own substantial self, I saw, and no +ghost at all, as I was now convinced--cleared in two bounds the +intervening space that lay between him and the entrance to the cavern, +seeking to get away as far as possible from his terrible visitant. +Apparently, he must have thought the other to be the `genuine Simon +Pure,' come to punish him for his false pretences in making believe to +be a denizen of the spirit world whilst he was yet in the flesh, and so +poaching unlawfully on what was by right and title the proper domain of +the ghostal tribe! + +In his hurry and haste, however, to avoid this avenging spectre, poor +Sam, naturally, did not see me standing in front of the cave blocking +the entrance, nor had I time to get out of his way, so as to avoid the +impetuous rush he made for the opening. + +The consequences may be readily surmised. + +He came against me full butt, and we both tumbled to the ground headlong +together all of a heap. + +Sam thereupon imagined the terrible apparition to be clutching him, and +that his last hour had come. + +"Oh, golly! De debbel's got me, de debbel's got me fo' suah!" he roared +out in an agony of terror, clawing at my clothes and nearly tearing the +shirt off my back in his attempts to regain his feet, as we rolled over +and over together down the decline towards the shore. "Lor', a mussy! +Do forgib me dis time, Massa Duppy, fo' play-actin' at ghostesses, an' I +promises nebber do so no moah! O Lor'! O Lor'! I'se a gone niggah! +Bress de Lor', fo' ebbah an' ebbah! Amen!" + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +SAM JEDFOOT'S YARN. + +"Ho-ho-ho! I shall die a-laughing!" exclaimed another voice at this +juncture, interrupting Sam's terrified appeal to the spiritual powers. +"Ho-ho-ho! I shall die a-laughing!" + +The voice sounded like that of Tom Bullover; but, before I could look up +to see if it were really he, Sam and I, the negro cook still clutching +me tightly in his frantic grasp as we rolled down the little declivity +on to the beach below the entrance to the cave, fetched up against +Hiram; who, only just recovering from the shock he had received, was +then in the act of rising from the ground, where he had dropped at the +sight of Sam and his banjo--still dazed with the fright, and hardly yet +knowing where he was or what had happened. + +"My golly!" cried Sam, thinking him another ghost. "Lor' sakes! Massa +Duppy, do forgib me! I'll nebbah do so moah, I'se swarr I'll nebbah do +so no moah!" + +"Wa-all, I'm jiggered!" ejaculated Hiram, on the two of us coming +against him with a thump, nearly knocking him again off his legs, as we +scrambled to ours. "What in thunder dew this air muss mean? +Jee-rusalem--it beats creation, it dew!" + +Neither Sam nor I could get out a word; but, while we all stared, out of +breath and speechless with astonishment, at each other, another wild +shout of laughter came right over our heads from within the cave above, +and I heard Tom's voice exclaiming, as before-- + +"Ho-ho-ho! you'll be the death o' me sure, sonnies! I never seed sich a +go in my life! Hang it all--Charley and Hiram, and you, Sambo--why, +it's only me! Ho-ho-ho! I shall bust meself, if you go staring round +and wool-gathering like that any longer! Ho-ho-ho! this is a game, and +no mistake!" + +With that, the three of us looked up, and now saw Tom Bullover standing +on top of the plateau in front of the cave, with a sort of long white +sheet like a piece of sailcloth round him, and Sam's banjo in one hand. + +Then, the real facts of the case flashed on my mind in a moment, and I +could not help joining in the carpenter's hearty merriment at the way in +which he had humbugged us all. + +"Oh, Tom!" I cried; "so it was you, after all?" + +"Yes; ho-ho! Charley; yes, my lad. Ho-ho-ho!" + +"Guess I don't see nuthin' to snigger over!" growled Hiram, shamefaced +at being so readily imposed on; but he was too good a sailor to mind a +joke against himself, and the comicality of the situation striking him, +too, like me, he was soon laughing as loudly as Tom and I. + +Sam only needed this further secession likewise to set him off, his +negro nature possessing the hysterical features of his race, and going +readily from one extreme to the other. + +A second before he had been paralysed with fright; now he was as +instantly convulsed with glee. + +"My gosh!" he yelled, showing his ivories as his whole face expanded +into one big guffaw that utterly eclipsed all our attempts at merriment. +"Hoo-hoo, yah-yah! Dat am prime, Cholly--black ghost fo' whitey! +Hoo-hoo, yah-yah! I'se die a-laffin', like Tom! Black ghost fo' +whitey!--Hoo-hoo, yah-yah, hoo-hoo! Golly! Dat am prime, fo' suah!" + +Sam's negro abandon and queer gestures, as he danced about and doubled +himself up in his wild convulsions of mirth, were absolutely +irresistible; and so we all roared in concert, like a party of lunatics, +laughing until the tears actually ran down our cheeks. + +"An' how did yer fix the hull thing so smartly?" inquired the American, +presently when he was able to speak. "Ye took me in finely, I guess; ye +did thet so!" + +"Lor', old ship! that were easy enough, when you comes to think of it." + +"But, how?" persisted Hiram, as Tom broke off his explanation to indulge +in another laugh. "Hyar's Sam, what was ded, alive agen an' kickin', ez +my shins ken tell, I reckon! How about his hauntin' the shep, an' all +thet?" + +"Yes, Tom," I put in here; "how was it that he wasn't killed?" + +"Oh, Sam 'll explain all about his bizness," replied Tom, laughing +again, the ridiculous nature of the whole thing appealing strongly to +his risible faculties. "I've got enough to do to tell you about my own +ghost--the sperrit, that is, of the black man that our second-mate spun +that yarn about yesterday arternoon!" + +"A-ah!" drawled out Hiram; "I begins to smell a rat, I dew." + +"But, suah dat 'perrit wasn't reel, hey, Mass' Tom?" interposed Sam, his +eyeballs starting again out of his head, as he recollected all the +mysterious occurrences in the cave. "Dat 'perrit wasn't reel, hey? +I'se take um fo' duppy, suah?" + +"No, ye durned fule!" exclaimed Hiram, quite indignantly; "don't ye know +thet?" + +"Some people weren't so wise just now," said Tom Bullover dryly; "eh, +Hiram?" + +"Nary mind 'bout thet," growled the American, giving Tom a dig in the +ribs playfully. "Heave ahead with yer yarn, or we'll never git in the +slack of it 'fore nightfall!" + +"Well then, here's the long and short of it," said Tom, sitting down on +the top of the little cliff-mound, so as to make himself as comfortable +as possible, while we stood grouped around him. "You see, now, our +Dutch mate's story about the nigger that the buccaneers used to bury +with their treasure put me up to taking a rise out of our friend Sambo +here, who, though he was artful enough to play at being a ghost and +haunt the ship, as you fellows thought all through the v'yage, was yet +mortal 'fraid of them same ghostesses hisself, as I well knowed!" + +"Oh, Lor', Mass' Tom, dunno say dat," interrupted Sam reproachfully. +"Speak fo' true, an' shame de debble!" + +"That's just what I'm doing, darkey. You know I'm speaking the truth; +and I'm sure Charley and Hiram here can judge for theirselves, from what +they saw not long ago!" + +"Bully for ye!" cried Hiram, confirming Tom Bullover's reference to +himself. "Why, ye durned nigger, ye wer a'most yeller with frit jest +now, when ye kinder thought ye seed one o' them blessed ghostesses thet +Tom wer a-talkin' on!" + +This effectually shut up Sam; and my friend the carpenter then went on +with his account of the phenomenon we had seen. + +"I knew," said he, "that the darkey would be up here this arternoon, for +I showed him the cave myself this mornin', afore any of you beggars +aboard the ship were up or stirring. I thought it would be just a good +place for him to hide in, besides preventing the skipper and that brute +Flinders, or any of the other hands, from coming spying round and +interfering with our diskevery, which, as you know--I means you Charley +and Hiram--we wished for to keep to ourselves." + +"Ay, bo," assented Hiram approvingly; "true enuff; ye acted rightly, +shipmet." + +"So I tells Sam to rig hisself up here as comf'ably as he could; and if +he should hear any footsteps comin' nigh the place he was to strike up a +tune on his banjo and frighten them away, makin' any inquisitive folk +think the place was haunted by the same old ghost they knew aboard the +ship." + +"What a capital idea!" said I; "how did you come to think of it?" + +"I thought of more than that, Charley," replied Tom, with a broad grin. +"It wasn't long arter I brought Sam here that I thought of makin' the +second ghost out of the proper black man belonging to the cave, that Jan +Steenbock had told us on, and which you, Hiram, said you wouldn't be +frightened at nohow." + +"Stow thet," growled Hiram, shaking his fist at Tom. "Carry on with yer +yarn, an' don't mind me, old stick-in-the-mud!" + +"I'm carryin' on, if you'll only let a feller tell his story in his own +way. You know we agreed to come up here together this arternoon, and +make a reg'ler up-and-down search for the buried treasure; and you told +me, you rec'lect, to bring a port fire, such as we had aboard, for to +light up the place." + +"Thet's right enuff," said Hiram, "thet's right enuff; but, durn it all, +heave ahead, bo! Heave ahead!" + +"Well then," continued Tom, "I gets this blessed jigmaree of a port fire +from the ship; and, having done my spell at digging out the dock, my +gang finishing work at four bells, I com'd up here afore you and +Charley. It were then that I thinks of having a bit of a game with old +Sam, while I was waitin' for you two to join company and look for the +treasure together, as we agreed atween us when we first diskivered the +place." + +"And you didn't intend to frighten us, Tom?" I asked him at this point; +"mind, really?" + +"No, I'll take my davy I didn't--that is, not at first," replied he, +grinning in his usual way. "Arterwards, in course, I couldn't help it, +when you and our Chickopee friend here took the bait so finely." + +"Ah! I'll pay you out, bo, for it," cried Hiram, interrupting Tom, as I +had done, "never you fear. I'll pay you out, my hearty, 'fore this time +to-morrow come-never--both me and Cholly will tew, I guess, sirree!" + +"Threaten'd men live long," observed Tom with a dry chuckle. "Still, +that ain't got nothin' to do with this here yarn. I com'd up, as I were +sayin', a good half-hour afore you; and, to spin out the time, I goes +round to the cave by the way where we first lighted on it t'other day, +and gets inside by the hole through the broken old door where we entered +it afore our reaching this end." + +"And then?" I asked, on Tom's pausing for a moment in his +narrative--"and then?" + +"Why, then I saw poor Sam, with his back turned towards me, a-sittin' +down on that rock as we called `the ghost's pulpit,' and playin' his +blessed old banjo as sweetly as you please, without thinkin' that I or +any one else were within miles of him! So, seein' this were a good +chance for finding whether Master Sammy, as was thought a ghost hisself +aboard, liked ghosts as he didn't know of, I catches up a bit o' +sailcloth that was lying on the ground, which he'd taken up there to +sarve for his bed, and, I claps this over my head and shoulders, like a +picter my mother had in the parlour at home of `Samuel and the Witch of +Endor.' Then, I lights the port fire and gives a yell to rouse up the +darkey, and arter that--ho-ho! my hearties, you knows what happened. +Ho-ho! it was as good as a play!" + +"Golly! Me taut yer one duppy, fo' suah, Massa Tom!" said Sam, after +another chorus of laughter from all of us all round. "Me taut yer was +de debble!" + +"Not quite so bad as that, my hearty," mildly suggested Tom, grinning at +the compliment. "Still, I don't think I made such a bad ghost +altogether for a green hand!" + +"Don't ye kinder think ye frit me, bo!" declaimed Hiram vehemently. "It +wer the sight o' thet durned nigger thaar, a-sottin' an playin' his +banjo--him ez we all thought ez ded ez a coffin nail, an' buried fathoms +below the sea, an' which all on us hed b'leeved ter hev haunted the shep +fur the hull v'y'ge. Ay, thet it wer, streenger, what ez frit me an' +made me fall all of a heap, an' thaar I lies till Cholly an' the durned +nigger riz me up agen by tumblin' athwart my hawse!" + +"I think I was the most frightened of all," I now frankly confessed, on +Hiram thus bravely acknowledging his own terror. "I really for the +moment believed that I was actually looking at two real, distinct +ghosts, or spirits--the one that of Sam, which you, Tom and Hiram, know +I already thought I had seen before on board the ship; and the second +apparition that of the negro slave which Mr Steenbock told us of. But, +how is it that Sam is here at all--how did he escape?" + +"Let him tell his yarn in his own way, the same as I have done mine," +replied Tom. "Ax him." + +"Now Sam," said I, "tell us all about it." + +"Ay, dew," chimed in Hiram; "fire away, ye old black son of a gun!" + +"All right, Mass' Hiram an' yer, too, Cholly. I'se tell you de trute, +de hole trute, an' nuffin' but de trute, s'help me!" + +"Carry on, you blooming old crocodile, carry on!" + +Taking Tom Bullover's words in the sense in which they were meant, as a +sort of friendly encouragement to proceed, Sam, nothing loath to air his +long-silent tongue, soon satisfied the eager curiosity of Hiram and +myself--giving us a full account of his adventures from the time that we +saw him drop from the rigging, when all the crew, with the solitary +exception of his ally the carpenter, believed him to have been murdered +and his body lost overboard. + +"I'se specks," he commenced, "dat yer all 'members when de cap'en shake +him billy-goat beard, an' shoot dis pore niggah in de tumjon, an' I'se +drop inter de bottom ob de sea, hey?" + +"Yes," replied Hiram; while I added: "But, how on earth did you manage +to save your life and get on board again?" + +"Dis chile cleberer dan yer tinks," replied Sam proudly. "When de +cap'en shoot, I'se jump one side like de Bobolink bird, an' de bullet, +dat he tink go troo my tumjon, go in de air. I'se make one big +miscalkerfation, dough, fo' my han' mis de riggin' when I'se stretch up +to catch him, an' I'se tumble inter de water." + +"Poor Sam!" said I. "Your heart must have come right into your mouth, +eh?" + +"Inter my mout, sonny?" he repeated after me. "Bress yer, it come up +inter my mout, an' I'se swaller it agen, an' him go right down to de pit +ob my tumjon! Lor', Cholly, I'se tink I wer drown, fo' suah, an' nebbah +come up no moah, fo' de wave come ober my head an' ebberyting! Den, +jest as I'se scrape along de side ob de ship an' wash away aft in de +wake astern, I'se catch holt ob de end ob de boom-sheet, dat was tow +oberboard." + +"Ye hev got thet durned lubber Jim Chowder to thank fur thet," said +Hiram, interrupting him to explain this fortunate circumstance, which I +now recollected Captain Snaggs alluding to when I was waiting at table +in the cabin the same evening, before the tragic occurrence happened. +"It's the fust time I ever recomembers ez how an unsailorlike act like +thet ever did good to airy a soul!" + +"Nebbah yer min' dat, Mas' Hiram," rejoined Sam, with much heartiness. +"I'se allers tink afore dat Jim Chowder one pore cuss, but now I'se pray +fo' him ebbery day ob my life!" + +"Ay, bo," said Tom, with affected gravity; "and for me to, eh?" + +"I will, suah," answered Sam, in the same serious way in which he had +previously spoken, not wishing to joke about the matter. "But, Jim +Chowder or no Jim Chowder, who ebbah let dat rope tow oberboard was sabe +my life! I'se catch holt ob him an' climb on ter de rudder chain, where +I'se hang wid my head out ob de water till it was come dark, an' de +night grow ober de sea. Den, when I'se tink de cap'en drink nuff rum to +get drunk, an' not fo' see me come on board agen, I'se let my ole leg +wash up wid de wave to de sill ob de stern port; an' den, when I'se look +an see dere was nobody in de cabin, I'se smash de glass ob de window an' +climb inside." + +"And then it was, I suppose," said I, taking up the burden of his story, +"that I took your real self, as you crept through the cabin, for your +ghost?" + +"Dat troo, Cholly. Yer see me, dough, by de light ob de moon, fo' I'se +take care blow out de swing lamp in cabin, dat nobody might see nuffin. +I'se reel glad, dough, dat I'se able friten de cap'en an' make him tink +see um duppy!" + +"Wa-all, I guess ye come out o' that smart enuff," said Hiram, with a +hearty thump of approval that doubled up poor Sam, more effectually than +his convulsions of laughter had previously done. "But, whaar did ye +manage ter stow yerself when ye comed out o' the cabin?" + +"I'se creep along de deck, keepin' under de lee ob de moonlight; an' den +when nobody was lookin' I'se go forwards an' crawl down into the +forepeak. Den, it was dat Mass' Tom hyar see me." + +"And a pretty fine fright you gave me too!" said that worthy, bursting +out into another laugh at the recollection. "It was the next mornin', +as I went down into the sail room under the forepeak, to fetch up a +spare tops'le, when I comes across my joker here. I caught hold at +first of his frizzy head, thinking it were a mop one of the hands had +forgotten below; but when I turned my lantern there I seed Sam, who I +thought miles astern, safe and snug in old Davy Jones' locker. Lord! +shipmates, you could ha' knocked me down with a feather and club-hauled +me for a nincompoop!" + +"Wer ye ez frit ez I wer jest now?" asked Hiram quizzingly. "Mind, +quite ez much ez I wer?" + +"Ay, bo," replied Tom, "I dessay I were, if the truth be told." + +This pleased Hiram immensely. + +"Then, I guess I don't see whaar yer crow comes in, my joker!" he +exclaimed, giving Tom a similar thump on the back to that which he had a +short time before bestowed on Sam--a slight token of affection by no +means to be sneezed at. "Why, ye wer cacklin' like a durned old hen +with one egg, 'bout Cholly an' I bein' frit jest now, thinkin' we seed +Sam's ghostess, when hyar, ye sez now, ye wer frit yerself the same at +the fust sight ye seed of him!" + +"Ay, bo; but I wern't going to tell you that, nor 'bout another fright I +next had, when the darkey and I were a-smoking down in the forepeak and +nearly set the ship a-fire," said Tom knowingly, with a shrewd, +expressive wink to each of us respectively in turn, before he resumed +his story. "But, to go on properly with my yarn from the beginning, +when I found Sam's head wasn't a mop, but belonged to his real darkey +self, and that he wasn't drownded after all, why, I made him as snug as +I could down below, thinking it were best for him to keep hid, for if +the skipper saw him on dock and knew he were alive he would soon be +shooting him again, or else ill-treating him in the way he had already +done. Sam agreed to act by my advice on my promising to take him down +grub and all he might want into the forepeak; but, bless you, the +contrary darkey wouldn't act up to this arrangement arter a day or two." + +"Dat was 'cause yer hab forget to bring de grub," interposed Sam, to +explain this apparent breach of contract on his part. "I'se cook, an' +not used fo' ter go widout my vittles fo' nobody!" + +"How could I get below to you when we had bad weather and the hatches +were battened down?" retorted Tom Bullover, in his turn. "Howsomdever, +to stop arguefying, Master Sammy, finding himself hungry and knowing +something of the stowage below from having been in the ship on a +previous voyage, he manages to work a passage through the hold to the +after part right under the cuddy; and from there my gentleman, if you +please, makes his way on deck again through the hatchway in the +captain's cabin, not forgetting to rummage the steward's pantry for +provisions when he goes by!" + +"An' mighty little grub was dere, suah," put in the negro cook, with +great dignity. "I'se feel mean as a pore white if yer was ebbah come to +my galley an' fin' sich a scrubby lot tings! Dere was nuffin' fit fo' a +decent culler'd pusson ter eat--dat feller Morris Jones one big skunk!" + +"I guess ye air 'bout right," agreed Hiram; while Tom and I signified +our assent likewise by nodding our heads with great unction. "He's the +biggest skunk I ever wer shipmets with afore!" + +"Let him slide, for he don't consarn us now," said Tom, continuing the +narrative of Sam's story. "Well, you must know, our darkey friend here, +having taken first to prowling about the ship for grub, keeps it up +arterwards for pleesure and devarshun, thinking it a jolly lark to make +the hands believe the old barquey was haunted. Then, one day he gets +hold of his banjo from out of Hiram's chest in the fo'c's'le, where old +Chicopee really did stow it away arter he bought it at the auction o' +Sam's traps, as he thought he did, although I persuaded him and you +Charley, too, if you remember, that the banjo had been left hanging up +still in the galley in the place where Sam used to keep it. Once, +indeed, when Sam forgot to put it back arter playing on it in the hold, +where he had taken it, I brought it up and hung it on its old peg in the +galley right afore your very eyes, Hiram!" + +"I recollect, Tom," said I; "and so, Sam used to play on it in the hold +below, then, when we heard the mysterious music coming from we knew not +where?" + +"Yes, that's so," replied he. "At first, Sam touched the strings only +now and then, 'specially when the wind was blowing high, and he thought +that nobody would hear the sound from the rattling of the ship's timbers +and all; but, when I noticed how you above on deck could distinguish, +not only the notes of the banjo, but also the very air that Sam played, +and how the skipper was terrified and almost frightened out of his boots +when he recognised the tune, which he had heard Sam chaunt often and +often in the galley of an evening, why, then, I puts up the darkey to +keep on the rig, so as to punish our brute of a skipper for his +cold-blooded attempt at murdering poor Sam--which, but for the +interposition of Providence, would have succeeded!" + +Before Tom could proceed any further, however, consternation fell upon +us all, as if a bombshell had burst in our midst; for, Sam, who was +looking the opposite way to us and could see over our heads, suddenly +sprang upon his feet, his mouth open from ear to ear and his teeth +chattering with fear, while his short, woolly hair seemed literally to +crinkle up and stand on end. + +"O Lor'! O Lor'!" he exclaimed. "Look dere! Look dere!" + +And there, right before us, stood the skipper himself, snorting and +sniffing and foaming with rage, his keen, ferrety eyes piercing us +through and through--so close, that his long nose almost touched me, and +his billy-goat beard seemed to bristle right into my face, I being the +nearest to him. + +I felt a cold shiver run through me that froze the very marrow of my +bones! + +Captain Snaggs had, no doubt, overheard all our conversation, listening +quietly, hidden behind the bushes that grew up close to the entrance to +the cave, until Tom's last words proved too much for his equanimity, +when his indignation forced him to come out from his retreat. He was +certainly in an awful rage, for he was so angry that he could hardly +speak at first, but fairly sputtered with wrath; and, if a look would +have annihilated us, we mast all have been killed on the spot. + +He was a terrible sight! + +"Oh, thet's yer little game, my jokers!" he yelled out convulsively, as +soon as he could articulate his words, glaring at us each in turn. "So, +thet durned nigger ain't dead, arter all, hey? Snakes an' alligators! +Why, it's a reg'ler con-spiracy all round--rank mutiny, by thunder! I +guess I'll hev ye all hung at the yard-arm, ev'ry man Jack of ye, fur +it, ez sure ez my name's Ephraim O Snaggs!" + +His passion was so intense that we were spellbound for the moment, not +one of us venturing to speak or reply to his threats--he staring at us +as if he could `eat us without salt,' as the saying goes, while we +remained stock-still and silent before him. + +As for Sam, he wallowed on the ground in terror, for the captain looked +and acted like a madman. + +Hiram Bangs alone had the pluck to open his mouth and confront the +skipper. + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +MR FLINDERS IN A FIX. + +Before relating what next occurred, however, I must break off at this +point and make a slight bend in my yarn here, in order to mention +something that happened immediately before, and which, although I did +not come to hear of it until afterwards, had to do with bringing the +skipper so suddenly down upon us. Something, indeed, that tended to +infuriate him all the more, with Tom Bullover and Sam; for, from his +hearing, by their own confession, that they had planned and kept up the +delusion about the cook's ghost on purpose to deceive him, he was led to +believe that these two had got the better of him in another matter, even +more important still in his estimation. + +And so, as I am only a youngster and a poor hand at telling a story, +though I find somehow or other I'm getting to the end of my yarn sooner +than I expected when I first set to work writing it, I think I had best +pat down everything that happened in its proper place and order, `in +regular shipshape Bristol fashion,' so that no hitch may occur by-and-by +that might `bring me up with a round turn,' when, perhaps, I could sail +on with a free sheet and a fair wind to what you landfolk and +longshoremen would call my `denouement'--a sad one, though, it be, as +you'll learn later on, all in good time, as I spin my yarn in my free +and easy way! + +Well, to go back a bit now, you must know that ever since the thrashing +he got from our second-mate, Mr Flinders had kept himself very quiet; +not interfering in any way with the work of dismantling and unloading +the ship, but leaving the charge of all this in the hands of Jan +Steenbock and Tom Bullover--under, of course, the immediate supervision +of Captain Snaggs, who, was here, there, and everywhere, pretending to +do an awful lot, although really only occupying his time when he wasn't +drinking in bullying those of the men, who being tame-spirited, put up +with his bad language. + +It must be said, though, for the skipper, that he generally left the old +hands alone, for they returned his choicest epithets in kind, always +giving him quite as good in the rude vernacular as he gave--discipline +being rather slack now the vessel was ashore, as in the merchant service +a wreck is supposed by the crew to dissolve all contracts and annul +whatever articles may have been signed. Such, at least, is my +experience of the sea. + +During this interregnum of duty, the first-mate hardly ever left his +bunk on board the ship save to go into the cabin and partake of what +meals Morris Jones, the steward, provided him with just when that lazy +beggar of a Welshman liked. + +Here he remained for over a week, nursing his damaged eyes and general +injuries and, no doubt, brooding over the revenge which he contemplated +taking at some future period on his late successful antagonist; for, his +jealousy had been keenly aroused by the marked partiality Captain Snaggs +had shown in favour of Jan Steenbock, although previously he had always +chummed with him--and, indeed, even now, in spite of all that had +passed, the captain still occasionally invited him to a friendly orgy in +the cabin, when both, as usual, of course, got royally drunk together as +of yore! + +But, since the finding of the golden Madonna and the development of the +treasure-hunting craze amongst us, Mr Flinders had begun to come out +from his temporary obscurity, while not at first actually pushing +himself forward, or taking any prominent part in our daily routine. + +This modest diffidence was due to the fact that the men used to make +audible remarks in reference to his `lovely black eyes,' but as soon as +the tint of these gradually merged from green to yellow and then buck to +their normal tone, the first-mate grew bumptious and endeavoured to +resume his old position of chief officer in the absence of the skipper, +when the latter frequently went off alone, as it was his habit now, in +solitary search of the buccaneers' buried hoard like all the rest of +us--notwithstanding that in public he utterly pooh-poohed its +problematical existence and urged on the crew in digging out the dock +under the ship, so as to get her afloat again, the only good, as he +said, that we could expect from the island being the hope of leaving it +behind us as quickly as possible. + +He was an artful hand, was Captain Snaggs! + +He thought that if he dissuaded the men from looking for the treasure he +might have the greater chance of coming across it himself. + +Such being the case, the skipper would sometimes sneak off in the middle +of the day when work used to grow rather slack at our excavating task, +in consequence of the greater heat at that time; for, the sea-breeze +which we used to have with us from the early morning then gradually died +away, while the light airs that blew off the land during the afternoon +and night-time did not usually spring up until nearly sunset. + +Then it was that Mr Flinders saw his opportunity; and, as regularly as +the skipper would disappear in the distance over the lava field fronting +the beach, saying, as he always did, that he was going up the cliff on +our port hand `to see if he could sight any passing vessel'--although +the sharpest eyes amongst our lookouts had never yet seen the captain's +lean and angular form on top of the said cliff--so, regularly, did the +first-mate stealthily descend the side ladder that led from the poop of +the ship down to the beach. + +Once arrived here, his delight was to overlook the men as they lazily +dug out the concrete-like sand and shingle at the bottom of the trench, +filling baskets with the debris below which their fellows above hoisted +up none the more energetically; and the first-mate could not help +noticing that while Jan Steenbock purred them on now and then for a +brief spell, he let them, as a rule, take things easily; at this heated +period of the day, for Jan was wise enough to see that by not +overworking them then he got more labour out of his gang when the +temperature grew cooler, and the men could dig with greater "go." + +For a while, Mr Flinders did not interfere with Jan's method of +procedure, seeing, as any sensible man would, that the second-mate's +plan answered its purpose of getting the most out of the hands without +making them grumble unduly at their unwonted task; but, soon his love of +carping at others asserted itself, and this feeling, coupled with the +desire to assert such petty authority as he still had, overcame his +sense of prudence, as well as all recollection of the sharp lesson he +had received from Jan not so very long before. + +The difference between the skipper and Mr Flinders was, that, although +the former was essentially cruel and a bully of the first water, he was +yet physically brave and a cute, cautious man, who, when sober, knew how +far he might venture in his harsh treatment of those under him; while +the first-mate, on the contrary, was an utter coward at heart, and of as +malicious and spiteful a disposition as he was fond of tyrannising over +such as he thought he could ill-treat with impunity. + +It never takes long for sailors to `reckon up' their officers; so, it +need hardly be said to which of the two the hands paid the most +attention when he gave an order. As to liking either, that was out of +the case; but where the men feared Captain Snaggs, the only feeling they +had for Mr Flinders was one of contempt--paying back all his snarlings +and bullyings in a way that the hands, well knew how to drive home to +one of his temperament, as sensitive as it was mean! + +Consequently, when, after a bit, he commenced finding fault with this +one and that, the men would shove their tongues in their cheek and shrug +their shoulders. They did not pay the slightest regard to anything he +said; while the more bolder spirits, perhaps, of the stamp of Jim +Chowder, winked openly the one to the other, expressing an opinion in a +sufficiently loud enough tone for him to hear that `if he didn't look +out,' he would soon become possessed of a pair of eyes "blacker than +he'd had afore!" + +Then, naturally, there would be a snigger all round, when Mr Flinders +had to turn away with a scowl on his unpleasant, cross-grained face. He +hated Jan Steenbock all the more, because when the jeering crew +displayed their insubordination more strongly than usual, Jan would very +properly recall them to their duty--an order which on being given by the +second-mate was promptly obeyed, whilst they utterly disregarded even +the most trivial command from him, just as they mocked at his +reprimands. + +This was only noticeable at first, though; for, after a few days' +experience of this `playing second fiddle,' Mr Flinders, waxing +stronger as his injuries improved and the discoloration of his `lovely +black eyes' became less apparent, seemed to resolve on trying a fresh +tack. Taking higher ground, instead of idly endeavouring to get the men +to treat him with respect, he once more tackled his subordinate superior +Jan, who, he thought, from his treating him civilly, was sorry for the +`little misunderstanding' that had occurred between them, and would +readily `knuckle under' now, the moment he assumed his legitimate role +and `topped the officer' over him. + +Mr Flinders never made a greater mistake in his life than in thus +attempting to act up to the axiom of the old Latin adage, which teaches +us that "necessity makes even cowards brave." + +He had far better have remained content with his titular dignity; for, +in seeking to resume the reins of power which he had once let fall, he +only received another lesson from Jan Steenbock, teaching him that a +placid man was not necessarily one who would quietly put up with insult +and rough treatment, and proving that the tables of life are frequently +turned in fact as they sometimes are in figure of speech! + +This is a long palaver; but I will soon come to the point of it all, and +tell what subsequently happened. + +You must recollect, though, that I was not on the spot myself, and am +only indebted to Jim Chowder for hearing of it--being indeed, at that +very time, on my way with Hiram to the cave and the wonderful surprise +that awaited us there, an account of which I have just related. + +Hiram and I had not long left the shore, said Jim, when the mate, who +had his dinner rather late that day, on account of having been up with +the skipper drinking all through the previous night, came down the +ship's side, looking very seedy and ill-tempered from the effects of his +carouse, and with his face all blotchy and his nose red. + +He had already been swearing at the steward for keeping him waiting for +his grub, and this appeared to have `got his hand in,' for he had no +sooner come up to where Jan Steenbock was at work with the port watch +digging in the trench, the second-mate setting the men a good example by +wielding a pick as manfully as the best of them, than Mr Flinders began +at Jan in his old abusive fashion, such as all on board the ship had +been familiar with before the wreck and prior to his thrashing, which +certainly had quieted him down for a time. + +"Ye durned lop-handled coon!" cried out the cantankerous bully, looking +down on Jan from the top of the plank that crossed the trench, and +served as a sort of gangway between the foot of the side ladder and the +firm ground beyond the excavation. "Why don't ye put yer back into it? +Ye're a nice sort o' skallywag to hev charge of a gang--ye're only +a-playin' at workin', ye an' the hull pack on yer; fur the durned dock +ain't nary a sight deeper than it wer at four bells yester arternoon, I +reckon!" + +Jan Steenbock was in no wise disturbed by this exordium. + +Dropping his pick, he looked up at the mate; while the rest of the men +likewise stopped working, waiting to see what would happen, and grinning +and nudging each other. + +"Mine goot mans," said he in his deep voice, with unruffled composure, +"vas you sbeak to mees?" + +Mr Flinders jumped up and down on the plank gangway, making it sway to +and fro with his excitement. + +"Vas I sbeak to ye?" he screamed, mimicking in his shrill treble the +Dane's pronunciation. "Who else sh'ud I speak to, ye Dutch son of a +gun? Stir yer stumps, d'ye haar, an' let us see ye airnin' yer keep, ye +lazy hound!" + +"Mistaire Vlinders!" + +"Aye, thet's me; I'm glad ye reck'lect I've a handle to my name." + +"Mistaire Vlinders," repeated Jan, paying no attention to the other's +interruption. "If you vas sbeak to me, you vas best be zee-vil." + +"What d'ye mean?" cried the mate. "Durn yer imperence; what d'ye mean?" + +"I mean vat I zays," returned Jan; "and eef you vas not zee-vil, I vas +make yous." + +"Make me!" shouted out Mr Flinders, dancing with rage on the plank, so +that it swung about more than ever. "Make me, hey? I'd like to see ye, +my hearty!" + +But, while the plank was yet oscillating beneath his feet, one of the +men in the trench below, by a dexterous drive of his pick, loosened the +earth on the side of the excavation; and, hardly had Mr Flinders got +out his defiant words than he and the plank on which he was standing +came tumbling down, the bully going plump into the pool of water that +had accumulated at the open end of the trench forming a little lake over +four feet deep. + +Of course, the hands all shouted with laughter, their mirth growing all +the merrier when the mate presently emerged from his impromptu bath, all +dripping and plastered over with mud. + +He was in a terrible rage, Jim Chowder said; and as Jan Steenbock came +up to help him, he aimed a blow at him with a spade which he clutched +hold of from one of the hands, almost splitting Jan's head open, for the +thick felt hat he wore only saved his life. + +"Thaar, ye durned Dutch dog!" he yelled out. "Take thet fur yer sass!" + +Jan fell to the bottom of the trench; whereupon, the men, thinking Mr +Flinders had murdered him, at once rushed upon the mate in a body, +thrusting him backwards into the water again and rolling him over in the +mud and refuse, until he was pretty well battered about and nearly +drowned. + +Indeed, he would, probably, have been settled altogether, but for Jan +rising up, little the worse for the blow that he had received, saving +that some blood was trickling down his face. + +"Shtop, my mans, shtop!" he exclaimed. "Let hims get oop, he vas not +hoort me, aftaire all; and I vas vorgif hims, vor he vas not know vat he +vas do!" + +But the hands were too much incensed to let the bully off so easily, for +they hated him as much as they liked Jan and were indignant at the +unprovoked assault Mr Flinders had made upon him. As luck would have +it, while they were debating how they should pay him out properly, and +whether to give him another ducking in the muddy water or no, a happy +means presented itself to them for punishing him in a much more +ignominious manner, and one which was as original as it was amusing. + +The big tortoises that inhabited the island used to come backwards and +forwards past the beach on their passage up to the hills, utterly +regardless of the ship and the men working, especially towards the +evening, as now; and just as the fracas happened, one of these huge +creatures waddled by the trench, making for its usual course inland. + +"Hullo, mates!" sung out the leading wag of the crew, "let's give our +friend a ride for to dry hisself; here's a cock hoss handy!" + +This was thought a capital lark; and, the suggestion being acted upon +immediately, the tortoise was summarily arrested in its onward career +and Mr Flinders lashed across its shelly back, like Mazeppa was +strapped upon the desert steed--the hands all roaring with laughter, Jim +said, while the mate struggled in vain with his captors and the giant +tortoise hissed its objections at the liberty taken with it in thus +converting it into a beast of burden without leave or license! + +It must have been a comical sight according to Jim Chowder's account. + +Even Jan Steenbock, he said, could not help grinning; for, although Mr +Flinders screamed and yelled as if he were being murdered, Jan saw that +the men were not really hurting him, and he thought there was no call +for his interference, especially after the manner in which the mate had +acted towards him previously--indeed, all along, arrant bully that he +was. + +Consequently, he let matters take their course, his smile breaking into +the general laugh that arose presently when, one of the men giving the +tortoise a dig with his boot as soon as the mate was securely mounted, +the unwieldy reptile waddled off into the bush with Mr Flinders, +bawling, spread-eagled on its back and brandishing his arms and legs +about, trying to free himself from his lashings. + +"Durn ye all for a pack o' cowards, ten ag'in one!" screamed out the +mate as he was lost to sight in the cactus grove, the prickles from +which no doubt tore his legs, thus heightening the unpleasantness of his +situation. "I'll pay ye out for this, ye scallywags, I will, by +thunder, when I get loose." + +"All right," shouted back the men between their bursts of laughter as he +disappeared from view, howling and shrieking and swearing away to the +end; the tortoise plodding on regardless of his struggles, which, +indeed, accelerated its pace onwards to its retreat in the hills. "You +can carry on, old flick, when you finds yourself free!" + +And, then, they raised one of their old sailor choruses with much +spirit-- + + "Oh, he'll never come back no more, boys, + He'll never come back no more; + For he's sailed away to Botany Bay, + And 'll never come back no more!" + +While they were in the middle of this--Jim Chowder singing the solo of +the shanty, and the others joining in with full lung power in the +refrain--who should appear from the opposite direction to that in which +the mate had disappeared on his strange steed, but, Captain Snaggs! + +The skipper looked very strange and excited. + +"Hillo, my jokers!" he exclaimed as soon as he got near enough to hail +the men, "whaar's Mister Flinders? I wants him at oncest." + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. + +"SKELETON VALLEY." + +"This wer a reg'ler sockdollager!" said Jim Chowder, when narrating the +circumstances to us; for on this unexpected enquiry after the mate +coming so suddenly after the men had treated him in so ignominious a +fashion, they were "knocked all aback!" + +So, for the moment, no one answered the skipper's question. + +Of course, this did not tend to allay his excitement. "Can't nary a one +o' ye speak?" he cried angrily. "Whaar's the fust-mate--ye ain't made +away with the coon, hev ye?" + +"He's out fur a ride, cap," at last said the wag of the party, whereat +there was another outburst of laughter. "Mr Flinders wer a bit out o' +sorts an' hez gone up theer fur a hairin'." + +"Thaar!" echoed the skipper, looking to where the man pointed with his +hand. "Whaar?" + +"Up in the hills," replied the other grinning hugely at Captain Snaggs' +puzzled expression. "He's gone fur a ride a-tortoise-back." + +"Ye're a durned fule!" shouted the skipper, thinking he was `taking a +rise' out of him. "Don't ye try on bamboozlin' me. What d'ye mean by +his goin' a-ridin', an' sich nonsense?" + +"He vas shbeak ze drooth, cap'en," put in Jan Steenbock, who was still +wiping the blood from his face as he got up to answer him. "I vas zee +Mistaire Vlinders zail avays oop dere on ze back of von beeg toordle +joost now." + +"By thunder, ye're all makin' game of me, I guess!" yelled the skipper, +seeing that Jan was grinning like the rest, "I s'pose ye've been hevin' +a muss ag'en. Now, I ain't a-goin' to stand no more bunkum. What hev +ye done with Mr Flinders, I axes fur the last time?" + +"I vas not do nuzzin," replied Jan quietly, continuing to wipe his face. +"Ze mate vas shtrike me, but I vas not touch him meinselfs, I vas not +lay von hand upon hims." + +"Then what in thunder air becom' of him?" + +"He wer gone a-ridin', cap," said the man who had previously spoken, +proceeding to explain what had occurred. "He came down drunk out of the +ship and went abusin' Mr Steenbock as never sed a word to him, and then +struck him with a spade, nigh killing him. So we tumbles him over in +the water theer to stop his doin' any more mischief, for he wer that mad +as he looked to murder the lot of us." + +"And then, boss," went on Jim Chowder, as he told up, taking up the +story, "ez he were pretty well wet with his ducking, we lashed him on to +the back of a tortoise ez come by, an' sent him up in the hills, fur to +dry hisself, `ridin' a cock horse to Banbury Cross' like!" + +At this the hands laughed again, and the skipper, whom they now surmised +must have been drinking again when away on his prospecting tour, became +perfectly furious; for he turned quite white, while his billy-goat beard +bristled up, as it always did when he was angry. + +"This air rank mutiny!" he shouted, drawing his revolver and pointing it +at Jim Chowder; "but I'll soon teach ye a lesson, ye skunks. Hyar goes +fur one o' ye!" + +Jan Steenbock, as on a previous occasion, however, was too quick for +him; for he knocked the weapon out of his fist, and then gripping him in +a tight grasp, threw his arms round the captain's body. + +The skipper foamed at the mouth, and swore even worse than Mr Flinders +had done just before; but, presently he calmed down a bit, and sat down +on the ground--shaking all over, as soon as Jan had removed his grip, +though keeping close to him, to be on the watch for his next move, as he +expected him to have one of his old fits again. + +But the convulsions seemed to pass off very quickly; and the captain, +looking like himself again after a few moments, jumped to his feet. + +He then stared round about him, as if searching for something or some +one, evidently forgetting all that had just happened. + +Suddenly his eyes brightened. + +"Thaar he is!" he cried, "thaar he is!" + +"Who, sir?" asked Jan, seeing his gaze fixed in the direction of the +cactus grove, behind which the mate had vanished on his +tortoise--"Mistaire Vlinders?" + +"No, man, no," impatiently cried the skipper; "I wanted him to come with +me, but ez he's not hyar, ye'll do ez wa-all, I reckon. It's the black +buccaneer cap'en I mean, thet I met jest now, over thaar in the vall'y." + +"Ze boocaneer cap'en," repeated Jan, utterly flabbergasted--"ze +boocaneer cap'en?" + +"Aye, ye durned fule; don't ye reck'lect the coon ez ye told me ez +burrit the treesure? Come on quick, or I guess we'll lose him!" + +"And yous have zeen hims?" + +"Aye, I hev seed him, sure enuff," replied Captain Snaggs, seizing Jan, +and trying to drag him with him; "an', what's more, he an' I've been +drinkin' together, me joker. We've hed a reg'ler high old time in the +vall'y thaar, this arternoon, ye bet!" + +"In ze valleys?" + +"By thunder! ye're that slow ye'd anger a saint, which I ain't one," +returned Captain Snaggs, indignantly. "I mean the vall'y whaar the +skeletons is crawlin' about an' the skulls grinning--thet air one +belongin' to the buccaneer cuss is a prime one, I ken tell ye. It beats +creation, it dew, with the lizards a-creepin' through the sockets, an' a +big snake in his teeth. Jeehosophat! how he did swaller down the +licker!" + +Up to now the men could not understand that anything out of the common +was the matter with the skipper beyond being drunk, perhaps, and in a +passion--no, not even Jan; but, as soon as he got talking on this tack +about snakes and skulls, then all saw what was the matter. + +So, now, on his darting off towards the hills in his delirium, Jan +Steenbock and Jim Chowder, with a couple of the other hands, quickly +followed in pursuit of the demented man. + +He had got a good minute's start, however, before they recovered from +their astonishment at his incoherent speech and were able to grasp the +situation; so, he was almost out of sight by the time they went after +him. + +It was a long chase, Jim said, for they went in and out between the +thorny fleshy-handed cactus trees and over the lava field, tumbling into +holes here and tearing themselves to pieces with the thorns there--the +skipper all the while maintaining his lead in front and running along as +freely and smoothly as if the track were an even path, instead of being +through a desert waste like that they raced over. + +After a bit, they passed over all the intervening lava field and struck +amongst the grass and trees; and then they came up to Mr Flinders, who +was still lashed on the back of his tortoise, which had `brought up all +standing' by the side of a little water-spring, and was greedily gulping +down long draughts of the limpid stream that rippled through the glade +beneath the shade of a number of dwarf oaks and zafrau trees which had +orchilla moss growing in profusion on their trunks--some of these being +nearly three feet in diameter, and bigger, Jim said, than any trees he +had previously seen on the island. + +Those in pursuit of the skipper thought he would have stopped on thus +meeting the first-mate. + +But, no. He did not halt for an instant. + +"Come on, Flinders," he only called out. "Come on, Flinders, we air +arter the buccaneer cap'en an' the treasure!" + +Then, plunging down the side of the hill he made for a bare space +further down beyond the trees, waving his arms over his head and +shouting and screaming at the pitch of his voice, like the raging madman +that he had become. + +Arrived at the bottom of the declivity, the captain abruptly paused; and +Jim Chowder and Jan, who were close behind, came up with him. + +There was no need to stop him; for the skipper flung himself on the +ground at a spot where, to their wonder, they now observed three +skeletons sitting up and arranged in a circle; while in the centre of +the terrible group of bony figures was a cask on end, whose odour at +once betrayed its contents. + +Rum! + +A pannikin was on the ground beside the hand of one of the remnants of +mortality, and this the skipper took up, drawing a spigot from out of +the cask and filling it. + +"Hyar's to ye, my brave buccaneers!" he cried, tossing it off as if it +had been water. "Hyar's to ye all an' the gold!" + +He was going to fill another pannikin and drain that; but Jan Steenbock +kicked over the cask, preventing him. + +Captain Snaggs at once sprung to his feet again. + +As before, he took no notice of Jan's action. + +It appeared as if his mind were suddenly bent on something else and that +he now forgot everything anterior to the one thought that possessed him. + +"Come on now, my brave buccaneers, an' show us the gold," he cried. +"Lead on, my beauties, an' I'll foller, by thunder, to the devil +himself!" + +So saying, back he climbed up the hill, and down a little pathway along +the top till he came to the entrance to the cave which Tom Bullover and +Hiram and I had first discovered; and then, suddenly, before Jan +Steenbock and Jim Chowder could see where he had gone, he disappeared +within the opening. + +Jan and Jim alone had continued the pursuit, the other hands having +remained behind to release the first-mate from his uncomfortable billet +on board the tortoise; and Jim Chowder giving up the hunt at this point, +and returning to rejoin his comrades, Jan Steenbock only remained, the +latter telling us later on, when we all compared notes, that, after +looking for the skipper over the cliff, where he at first believed him +to have fallen, he finally traced him into the cave. + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN. + +A WARNING SHOCK. + +"Wa-all, I'm jiggered!" ejaculated Hiram, having recourse to his usual +favourite expression when startled or surprised at anything, as the +skipper, after evading Jan Steenbock's pursuit, darted out of the cave +and appeared on the scene, destroying the harmony of our happy meeting +with Sam. "Keep yer haar on, cap, an' don't make a muss about nuthin'!" + +Captain Snaggs, in response to this, made a gesture as if he were going +to strike him. + +"Ye durned rep-tile!" he yelled out. "I'll soon knock the sass out o' +ye; I will so, by thunder!" + +"No, ye don't, cap; no, ye don't," said Hiram good-humouredly, putting +up his fists to guard himself, but not doing so offensively. "I guess +two ken play at thet game, I reckon, an' ye'd best let me bide; fur, I'm +a quiet coon when ye stroke me down the right way, but a reg'lar +screamer when I'm riled, an' mighty risky to handle, sirree, ez ye ken +bet yer bottom dollar!" + +"Jee-rusalem--this air rank mutiny!" exclaimed the skipper, starting +back. "Would ye hit me, yer own cap'en?" + +"No, cap; I don't mean fur to go ez fur ez thet,"--replied the other, +lowering his fists, but keeping his eye steadily on Captain Snaggs, the +two looking at each other straight up and down--"not if yer doesn't lay +hands on me; but, if yer dew, why, I reckon I'll hev to take my own +part, fur I ain't a-goin' to be knocked about by no man, cap'en or no +cap'en, ez we're now ashore an' this air a free country!" + +"Snakes an' alligators, this air a rum state o' things!" cried the +skipper, sobering down a bit at this reply, as well as awed by Hiram's +steadfast manner. "But, I don't kinder wish to be at loggerheads with +ye, my man, fur ye hev ben a good seaman right through the vy'ge, an I +ken pass over yer sass, ez I don't think ye means any disrespect." + +"Nary a cent, cap," agreed Hiram to this; "nary a cent o' thet." + +"But ez fur thet durned nigger thaar," continued the skipper, foaming up +with passion again on seeing Sam and Tom grinning together at his +backing down so mildly before Hiram's resolute attitude, neither of +them, nor any of us indeed, recognising that he was in a state of +delirium, "I'll hev him an' thet scoundrel of a carpenter in irons, an' +tried fur conspi-racy, I guess, when we git back to some civilised +port." + +"Better wait till ye fetch thaar, boss," said Hiram drily. "I guess we +air hard an' fast aground jest now; an' it ain't no good a-talkin' till +ye ken do ez ye sez; threat'nin's air all bunkum!" + +"I'll soon show ye the rights o' thet," shouted Captain Snaggs, making a +rush past Hiram to reach Sam, who drew away behind Tom, just beyond his +grasp. "Only let me catch holt on thet durned nigger, an' I'll skin him +alive. I'll ghost him, I will!" + +Hiram, however, protected the darkey with his outstretched arm, thus +barring the skipper's advance; while Tom Bullover also stood up in +front, further shielding Sam, who now spoke up for himself from his safe +position in the rear, whither I too retreated out of harm's way. + +"Golly! Massa Cap'en," said Sam, with a native dignity and eloquence +which I had not previously believed him to possess, "what fur am yer +wish ter injure a pore black man like me, dat nebbah done yer no harm? +But fur der impersition ob der good God abobe us all, yer'd a-murd'red +me, as yer taut yer hab dat time dat yer shoots me, an' I tumbles inter +de sea?" + +"Harm, cuss ye?" retorted Captain Snaggs. "Didn't ye try to pizen me +afore I went fur ye? It wer arter thet I drew a bead on ye with my +six-shooter!" + +"No, Mass' Snaggs," answered the negro solemnly; "I'se swan I nebbah +done dat ting! I'se nebbah pizen yer, nor no man. I'se only put one +lilly bit jalap in de grub, fo' joke, 'cause yer turn me out ob de +galley fo' nuffin'. I'se only done it fo' joke, I swan!" + +"A durned fine joke thet, I reckon," sneered the skipper, snorting and +fuming with rage at the recollection. "Why, me an' Flinders hed the +mullygrabs fur a week arterwards; an' I guess I don't feel all right +yet! I ain't half paid ye fur it, by thunder! But, thet ain't the wust +by a durned sight; fur, by yer dodrotted tomfoolery, an' carryin' on +with thet scoundrel yer accomplice thaar--thet British hound, Bullover, +I mean--ye hev so fuddled every one aboard thet ye hev caused the loss +of the shep an' cargy on this air outlandish island. I'll make ye +answer fur it, though--I will by the jumpin' Jeehosophet!" + +"Ye air wrong thaar, cap," put in Hiram here; "ye air wrong thaar!" + +"Wrong! Who sez I'm wrong?" + +"I dew," replied the other, in his sturdy fashion, in no ways abashed by +the question--"I sez ye air wrong. It warn't Sam ez lost the ship, or +'cashion'd the wrack in airy a way, nor yet yerself, cap, neither. It +wer summat else." + +"Thunder!" exclaimed the skipper, puzzled by this. "What dew ye make it +out fur to be?" + +"Rum, an' not `thunder,' mister," at once responded Hiram, equally +laconically. "I guess if ye hedn't took to raisin' yer elber thet +powerful ez to see snakes, an' hev the jim-jams, we'd all be now, slick +ez clams, safe in port at 'Frisco!" + +This home truth silenced the captain for the moment, but the next +instant he startled us all with an utterly inconsequent question, having +no reference to what he had before been speaking of. + +"Where hev ye stowed it?" + +Hiram stared at him. + +"I don't mean ye," said the skipper, dropping his eyes as if he could +not stand being gazed at; and I could see his face twitching about in a +queer manner, and his hands trembling, as he turned and twisted the +fingers together. "I mean the nigger an' thet other skunk thaar--the +white man thet's got a blacker heart inside his carkiss than the nigger +hez. Whaar hev they stowed it?" + +"Stowed what, cap?" inquired Hiram, humouring him, as he now noticed, +for the first time, in what an excited state he was. "I don't kinder +underconstubble 'zactly what yer means." + +"The chest o' gold," snorted out the skipper. "Ye know durned well what +I means!" + +"Chest o' goold?" repeated Hiram, astonished. "I hevn't seed no chests +o' goold about hyar. No such luck!" + +"Ye lie!" roared the captain, springing on him like a tiger, and +throwing him down by his sudden attack, he clutched poor Hiram's throat +so tightly as almost to strangle him. "I saw the nigger makin' off with +it, an' thet scoundrel the carpenter; fur the buccaneers told me jest +now. Lord, thaar's the skull rollin' after me, with its wild eyes +flashin' fire out of the sockets, an' its grinnin' teeth--oh, save me! +Save me!" + +With that, he took to crying and sobbing like mad; and it was only then +we realised the fact that the skipper was suffering from another of his +fits of delirium, though it was a far worse one than any we had seen him +labouring under during the voyage. + +Tom Bullover and Sam had the greatest difficulty in unclenching his +hands from Hiram's neck and then restraining him from doing further +violence, our unfortunate shipmate being quite black in the face and +speechless for some minutes after our releasing him. + +As for Captain Snaggs, he afterwards went on like a raging madman; and +it was as much as Tom and Sam could do, with my help, to tie his hands +and legs so as to keep him quiet, for he struggled furiously all the +while with the strength of ten men! + +In the middle of this, we heard a strange rumbling noise under our feet, +the ground beginning to oscillate violently, as if we were on board ship +in a heavy sea; while, at the same time, a lot of earth and pieces of +rock were thrown down on us from the heights above the little plateau +where the cave was situated. The air, also, grew thick and heavy and +dark, similarly to what is generally noticed when a severe thunderstorm +is impending. + +"Oh, Tom!" I cried in alarm, "what has happened?" + +"It's an earthquake, I think," he replied, looking frightened too. +"We'd better get under shelter as quickly as we can, for these stones +are tumbling down too plentifully for pleasure!" + +"Where can we go?" said I--"the ship's too far off. Oh dear, something +has just hit me on the head, and it hurts!" + +"Come in here to the cave; we'll be safe inside, if the bottom can stand +all this shaking. At all events, it'll be better than being out in the +open, to stand the chance of having one's head smashed by a boulder from +aloft!" + +So saying, Tom disappeared within the mouth of the cavern, dragging +after him the prostrate form of the skipper, who appeared to have fallen +asleep, overcome by the violent paroxysms of his fit, for he was snoring +stertorously. + +Sam and I quickly followed Tom, and the rear was brought up by Hiram-- +now pretty well recovered from the mauling he had received at the hands +of our unconscious skipper, the shock of the earthquake having roused up +our shipmate effectually, while the continual dropping of the falling +earth and stones, which now began to rain down like hail, hastened his +retreat. + +"I guess this air more comf'able," said he, as soon as he was well +within our place of shelter, now so dark and gloomy that we could barely +see each other, and Sam's colour was quite indistinguishable. "Talk o' +rainin' cats an' dogs! Why, the airth seems topsides down, an' +brickbats an' pavin' stones air a reg'ler caution to it!" + +Hardly, however, had he got out these words than there came a tremendous +crash of thunder, a vivid sheet of forked lightning simultaneously +illuminating the whole interior of the cavern; and, to our great +surprise, we perceived by the bright electric glare the figure of +another man besides our own party--the stranger standing at the upper +end of the cave, near the block of stone in the centre, where Sam had +been seated when I had seen him playing the banjo, and Tom gave him such +a fright by pretending to be a ghost. + +Sam, now, like the rest of us, saw this figure advancing in our +direction, and believed he was going to be treated to another visitation +from the apparition which had terrified him previously, and which he was +still only half convinced was but the creation of Tom's erratic fancy. + +"O Lor', Cholly!" he exclaimed, in great fright, clutching hold of my +hand, as I stood near him at the entrance to the cave. "Dere's anudder +duppy come, fo' suah! My golly! What am dat?" + +But, before I could say anything, much to our great relief--for I felt +almost as much terrified as he--the voice of Jan Steenbock sounded from +out from the gloomy interior in answer to his question. + +"It vas mees, mein frents--it vas mees!" + +"Goodness gracious, Mister Steenbock!" sang out Tom Bullover, looking +towards him, as the hazy figure advanced nearer and became more +distinct, although we could not yet actually see the second-mate's face. +"How did you get here?" + +"I vas hoont aftaire ze cap'en," replied Jan, coming up close to us now. +"He vas get troonk, and go mat again in ze valleys beyont ze sheep, and +I vas run aftaire hims, as he vas run avays, and den he vas go out of +zight in one big hole at ze top of ze hill. I vas vollow aftaire hims, +but den I loose hims, and ze erdquake vas come and ze toonder and +lightning, and I vas zee yous and here I vas!" + +"Oh, we've got the skipper all right," said Tom. "He nearly killed +Hiram jest now in his frenzy; but we've tied him up with a lashing round +his arms and legs, so that he can't get away and come to no harm till +he's all serene again. I'm a-sitting on him now to keep him down; as, +though he's sleepin', he tries to start up on us every minute. By +Jingo! there he goes again!" + +"He vas bat mans," observed Jan Steenbock, helping to hold down the +struggling skipper, whose fits of delirium still came back every now and +again. "He vas vool of mischiefs and ze rhoom! Joost now, he vas dink +dat he vas talk to ze boocaneer cap'en, and dat he vas show him dat +dreazure dat vas accurst, and he vas dink he vinds it, and dat I vas +shteal hims avay." + +"I'm jiggered!" ejaculated Hiram, in surprise. "Why, he comed up hyar +an' goes fur me to throttle me, sayin' ez how I hed took the durned +treesor, tew. I guess I only wish we could sot eyes on it!" + +"Bettaire not, mine vrents, bettaire not zee it no mores," said Jan, +solemnly shaking his head in the dim light. "It vas accurst, as I vas +tell yous, by ze bloot of ze schlabe dat vas kilt by ze Sbaniards. It +vas only bringt bat look to ze beeples dat vas touch hims. Bettaire +not, mein frent, nevaire!" + +"I ain't got no skear 'bout thet," replied Hiram, with a defiant laugh. +"Guess, we air all on us pretty wa-al season'd to them ghostesses by +this time, both aboard ship an' ashore, an' I don't care a cuss fur the +hull bilin' on them, I reckon!" + +"Shtop!--listen!"--whispered Jan Steenbock, in his deep, impressive +voice, as another vivid flash of lightning lit up the cave for a brief +instant, making it all the darker afterwards. This was followed by a +second crashing peal of thunder, as if the very heavens were coming down +and were rattling about our ears; while the ground heaved up beneath our +feet violently, with its former jerky motion.--"Ze sbirrits of eefel vas +valk abroat in ze shtorm." + +Even as he spoke, his solemn tones sending a thrill through my heart, +there came a still more violent shock of earthquake, which was succeeded +by a tremendous grinding, thumping noise from the back of the cave; and +then, all of a sudden, a large black body bounded past us through the +entrance close to where we stood. The rush of air knocked us all down +flat on our backs, as this object, whatever it was, made its way out, +and, finally, we could hear it, a second later, plunged into the sea +below at the foot of the declivity. + +"Bress de Lor'!" ejaculated Sam, in greater terror than ever. "Dere's +de duppy, fo' suah! Hole on ter me, Cholly! Hole on! I'se mighty +'fraid! Hole on ter me, for de Lor's sake, sonny!" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY. + +THE JUDGMENT OF FATE. + +We were all speechless, and could see nothing as we scrambled to our +feet in the darkness, for the cave was now filled with a thick dust, +that nearly suffocated us as well as blinded us--filling our eyes, and +mouths, and nostrils. + +Presently, the dust settled down; and, then, we found that the cavern +was no longer dark, for the crash which had so startled us at first was +occasioned by a portion of the roof breaking away, which let in the +daylight from above, right immediately over the big rock in the centre +that Tom had called "the pulpit." + +The rock, however, had disappeared, and this was, doubtless, the +mysterious body that had rushed by us through the mouth of the cave, so +frightening Sam. + +But something more surprising still had happened. + +The earthquake, in rending the rock, had upheaved all the earth around +it, and there, beneath, in a large cavity, was a collection of old oaken +chests, bound round, apparently, with heavy clamps of iron, similar to +those used by our forefathers a couple of centuries ago for the storage +of their goods and chattels--boxes that could defy alike the ravages of +age and the ordinary wear and tear of time, the carpenters and builders +of bygone days making things to last, and not merely to sell, as in +modern years! + +"Hooray!" cried Hiram, springing towards one of the chests, which had +been crushed open by a piece of detached rock from the roof of the cave, +thus disclosing to view a lot of glittering ingots of gold, with a +crucifix and some little images of the same precious metal, like the +Madonna figure we had first discovered. "Hyar's the boocaneer treesor, +I guess, at last!" + +"I vas mooch sorry," said Jan Steenbock, shaking his head solemnly, as +we gathered round the hole and eagerly inspected its contents, noticing +that there were seven or eight of the large chests within the cavity, +besides the broken one and a number of smaller ones, along with pieces +of armour and a collection of old guns and pistols, all heaped up +together. "I vas mooch sorry. It vas bringt us bat look, like it did +to ze schgooners, and Cap'en Shackzon, and all ze crew of zo sheep I vas +zail in befores!" + +"Why, old hoss," asked Hiram, all excitement, "I guess we air all +friends hyar, an' 'll go share an' share alike; so thaar's no fear on a +muss happenin' atween us, like thaar wer with ye an' them durned +cut-throat Spaniards. Why shu'd it bring us bad luck, hey?" + +"I vas avraid of ze curse," replied the other. "It vas hoonted mit +bloot, and vas bringt harm to every ones! I vill not touch it +meinselfs--no, nevaire!" + +"Guess I will, though," retorted Hiram. "I ain't afeard o' no nigger ez +was buried two hundred year ago; no, nor on his ghostess neither. What +say ye, Sam, consarnin' this brother darkey o' yourn?" + +"Golly, Massa Hiram!" said Sam, grinning from ear to ear at the sight of +the gold. "I'se tink I'se hab claim to de lot, if it am belong to de +nigger family. Ho-ho-ho!" + +With that we all laughed; whereupon the skipper, whom we had forgotten +for the moment, made a movement where he still lay on the floor of the +cave by the entrance, opening his eyes and trying to get up, which, of +course, he was unable to do, from our having tied his legs together. + +"Hillo!" he called out. "Whaar am I?" + +His voice now seemed quite rational, and on Tom going up to him, he +found that the delirium had left him, and that he was quite sober and in +his senses again, so he unloosed him, helping him on to his feet. + +Strange to say, Captain Snaggs did not utter a word about finding +himself tied, nor did he seem in any way surprised at being there +amongst us. He was not angry either a bit now! + +He simply walked up to where we stood and, looking down at the hole with +the chests piled up in it, as if following out a concentrated train of +thought which had been simmering in his brain before his fit, +exclaimed-- + +"Thaar it air, jest ez I told ye, an' ez the buccaneer cap'n told me. +Thaar it air all right, I reckon; an' now we must see about gettin' it +down to the shep." + +This staggered us somewhat; but Tom Bullover thought it best to humour +him. + +"How would you like it took down to the shore, cap'en?" he asked, +deferentially. "Shall I go and fetch some of the hands, sir?" + +"Yes, I guess thet'll be the best plan," replied Captain Snaggs, as easy +as you please, and as if only talking about some ordinary thing, and he +were giving his usual orders. "Wait a minnit, though. I guess I'll +come with ye ez soon as I've toted up the hull lot, fur thaar ain't no +fear of any coon walkin' off with the plunder while we're away, an' I +want to see how the shep's gettin' on. I reckon she ought to be pretty +near afloat by now." + +There seemed a method in his madness, even if he were yet mad, for he +carefully jotted down the number of chests in his pocket-book; and then, +turning away as composedly as possible, he made his way down to the +beach by our old path, just as if he had been in the habit of going that +way every day of his life and it was quite familiar to him. + +"Come on, men!" cried he. "Follow me!" + +So, down we all tramped after him in single file to the shore, where we +found a stranger thing had happened since our long absence, which, long +as it seemed from the series of occurrences that had happened, the one +succeeding the other in rapid succession, was not long in reality. + +However, it appeared months since we had left the ship; for, in the +short space of time, comparatively speaking, that we had been away, all +around her had been altered, and she more than anything. + +Instead of her being high and dry ashore, with her bows up in the air +between the two hillocks where they had been wedged, there she was now +afloat, placidly riding on the smooth waters of the harbour by her +anchors, which had been laid out, it may be remembered, the morning +after she stranded. + +This was a far more providential circumstance than our finding the +treasure; for even Mr Steenbock, sanguine as he had been at first when +he suggested digging the dock under her, had begun to have fears of our +eventually getting her off again into her native element--the operation +taking longer than he had expected, for the water at the last had +penetrated through the coffer-dam, thus preventing the men from digging +out the after part of the trench under the keel piece, between the main +and mizzen-chains. + +Now, through the effects of the earthquake, we were fortunately saved +all farther trouble on this score. + +The skipper did not appear the least surprised at what had happened, +displaying the same nonchalance as he did when gazing down into the +cavity where the buccaneers' gold was stowed--as if he had dreamt it all +beforehand and everything was turning out exactly according to the +sequence of his dream! + +As we got nearer, we saw that a number of the men were grouped about the +shore, collecting a lot of stray gear, which they were taking off to the +ship in the jolly-boat; so, calling to these, Captain Snaggs asked where +Mr Flinders was. + +"He's gone aboard bad," said one of the hands, with a snigger, whereat +they all laughed. "He don't feel all right this arternoon, sir, an' he +went into his cabin afore the ship floated." + +"I guess, then, we'd better go aboard, too," replied the skipper, quite +quiet like. "It's gettin' late now, an' we'll break off work till +to-morrow. We'll then set about gettin' the sticks up on her agen, my +men, as well as hoist the stores aboard; fur, I means to sail out of +this hyar harbour afore the end of the week!" + +The hands gave a hearty hurrah at this, as if the idea pleased them, for +they must have been quite sick of the place by this time; and the +skipper therefore ordered Jan Steenbock and Tom, with Hiram, Sam, and I, +to come off with him in the boat, telling us when we presently got +aboard not to mention about the treasure to any one yet, as it might +prevent the men working and rigging the ship, getting her ready for sea. + +This we promised to do, keeping our word easily enough, as we did not +find it difficult to hold our tongues in the matter, considering the lot +there was for all hands to talk about concerning Sam's restoration to +life, after being supposed dead so long. Several of the hands, though, +persisted that they knew of the deception all along, and had not been +taken in by the ghost business; but this was all brag on their part, for +I am sure they thoroughly believed in it at the time, just the same as +Morris Jones and Hiram and I did--only Tom being in the secret from +first to last! + +In the course of the next four days, all the hands working with a will, +even more energetically than they had done when dismantling her, the +_Denver City_ had her rigging up all ataunto again, while her graceful +yards were crossed, and most of her cargo got aboard, all ready to sail. + +During this time, the skipper had said not a word about the treasure, +nor did he speak of sending up any one to fetch it; and so, as none of +us had been back to the cave since quitting it with the captain, after +the earthquake and our discovery of the hoard, Hiram and Tom, with Sam +and I, stole away late on the afternoon of the fourth day to see whether +the boxes were all right--Jan Steenbock being the only one of the +original party present when it was found who did not accompany us; but +he said he knew it would be unlucky, for him, at all events, and so he +preferred stopping away. + +So it was that only we four went, though Jan came with us part of the +way from the ship, sitting down by the spring which had been the haunt +of the doves, to await our return. + +Jan did not have to remain there long alone. + +No sooner had we got to the cave than we found that the treacherous +skipper had anticipated and out-reached us; for, from the hurried look +we took, we could see that every single chest and box had been removed, +and that all were now probably stored in the captain's own cabin. No +doubt, too, by-and-by, he would swear that we had no hand in finding +them, whence, of course, it must follow from his reasoning, we were not +entitled to any share in the proceeds from the treasure! + +This was a pretty state of things, each and all of us thought; and, +boiling with indignation, we rushed back to Jan to tell him the news. + +But, we met with but sorry sympathy from him. + +"You vas mooch bettaire off," he said stolidly--"mooch bettaire off +mitout ze accursed stoof! It vas bringt harm to Cap'en Shackzon, and ze +crew of ze schgooners dat I vas in; and, markt mine vorts, it vas bringt +harms to Cap'en Schnaggs, as zertain as I vas here and dere!" + +"I'm durned, though, if I don't make him suffer fur it, if he don't +shell out!" cried Hiram hotly, as we all resumed the path back to the +shore, much more quickly than we had gone up to the cave. "I'll give +him goss!" + +"He vill meet his vate vrom elsevere," said Jan Steenbock solemnly, +hurrying after us, for Hiram and Tom seemed all eagerness to tackle the +skipper at once, and I trotted close after them. "Ze sbirrit ob ze +dreazure vill hoont him, and poonish him in ze end!" + +And, incredible as my story may seem, quite unwittingly, Jan became a +true prophet, as what occurred subsequently will show. + +When we got to the shore, we found that the ship had her boats hoisted +in, and her anchor weighed; while the topsails were cast loose, showing +that she was ready to sail at a moment's notice. + +What concerned us most, though, was that we could see no means for +getting on board; for the dinghy by which we had landed was towing +astern by its painter, and thus all communication was cut off with the +shore. + +"_Denver City_, ahoy!" shouted out Hiram, putting his hands to his mouth +as an improvised speaking trumpet. "Send a boat to take us off!" + +Captain Snaggs at once jumped up on the taffrail on our hailing her. + +"Not one o' ye durned cusses comes aboard my shep agen, if I knows it!" +he yelled back loudly. "Ye went ashore o' yer own accord, an' thaar ye +shell stop, by thunder!" + +"Ye durned thief!" cried Hiram, mad with rage at the villain for thus +cheating us, and abandoning us to our fate there on that lone desert +isle. "Whaar's our treesor?" + +"Guess ye're ravin', man," bawled Captain Snaggs; and then, as if this +ended the colloquy, he sang out to the hands forward to "Hoist away!" + +We then noticed a slight commotion on board, as if some of our shipmates +rebelled at the idea of leaving us behind, while they sailed homeward; +but this intervention on our behalf was futile, for the skipper +brandished his revolver, as we could easily see from the top of the +cliff, to which we had now climbed, in order to make our voices better +heard on board, and after a momentary pause the sails were let drop and +hauled out, and the vessel began to make her way out of the bay. + +The captain then called out to us, as if in bragging malice, "I've got +every durned chest aboard! D'ye haar? Flinders an' I brought 'em down +to the beach last night when ye wer all caulkin'; an' I guess ye air +pretty well chiselled at last!--Thet's quits fur the nigger's ghost, an' +yer mutiny, an' all! I reckon I've paid ye all out in full, ye durned +skellywags!" + +Those were the last words, in all human probability, that Captain Snaggs +ever uttered in this mortal life. + +There had been slight rumblings underground all the morning of that day, +as if nature were warning us of further volcanic disturbance throughout +the Galapagian archipelago; and now, of a sudden, an immense tidal wave, +that seemed sixty feet high at the least, rolled into the little harbour +like a huge wall, filling up the opening between the cliffs on either +hand up to the very tops of these, as it came sweeping inward from the +outside sea. + +The next instant, the _Denver City_, with all on board her, disappeared, +the wave sweeping back outwards with its prey, leaving the bottom of the +harbour bare for over a mile, where all previously had been deep water. + +The sea came back once more, though the tidal wave was not so high as +before. + +And still once again--ebb and flow, ebb and flow. + +It was awful! + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. + +RESCUED. + +We five--Jan Steenbock, Tom Bullover, Hiram, Sam Jedfoot, and lastly, +though by no means least, myself--sole, solitary survivors of the awful +catastrophe that had swallowed up our comrades, stood on the cliff above +the yawning chasm, watching the tidal wave that still ebbed and flowed +in diminishing volume at each reflux. + +This it continued to do for a full half-hour afterwards, when the sea +returned to its normal state, welling up tranquilly on the beach, and +quickly washing away all traces of the recent convulsion of nature, as +if nothing had happened--a sort of sobbing moan, only, seemed afterwards +to come from the water every now and then at spasmodic intervals, as if +the spirits of the deep were lamenting over the mischief and destruction +they had wrought! + +Scarcely could we believe our eyes; for, while not a single plank or +piece of timber was cast ashore of the ship, which must have been taken +down bodily by the remorseless wave that had hurried our cruel captain +and no less cruel mate, and the rest of the crew, nineteen souls in all, +into eternity, without the slightest forewarning of their doom, the +little bay now looked as quiet and peaceful as of yore, with its +outstretching capes on either hand, and everything still the same-- +equally wild, desolate, deserted, as when we first beheld it! + +Most wonderful of all, though, was the fact that we alone were saved. + +We were saved! + +That thought appeared to flash through all our minds at once +simultaneously; and, falling on our knees, there, on the summit of the +headland, whence we had witnessed the terrible tragedy and now gazed +down on the once more placid, treacherous sea, we each and all thanked +God for our deliverance from the peril of the waters, as He had already +delivered us from the cruelty of man--in the person of that treacherous, +drunken demon who had abandoned us there to the solitude and the misery +of exile and sailed off to enjoy, as he thought, the ill-gotten treasure +of which he had robbed us. But he had met even a worse fate than he had +meted out to us; for, what could have been worse for him than to die and +be called to account for his misdeeds at the very moment of the +realisation of his devilish design? + +However, peace to his evil spirit, One greater than us poor marooned +sailors would be his Judge! + +That feeling was uppermost in my mind, and I'm sure it was reciprocated +by the others, after we had returned thanks to the watchful Providence +that had saved us while snatching Captain Snaggs away in the middle of +his sins; but his name was not mentioned by any there at that moment, +nor did either of us utter a word afterwards, to each other at least, so +far as I can remember, about his treatment of us--not even Sam, to whom +throughout he had behaved the most cruelly of all. + +Sailor-folk, as a rule, are not revengeful, and death we held, had +blotted out the past; so we, too, buried the skipper's misdeeds in +oblivion! + +We stopped there on the cliff without speaking until it was close on +sunset. + +Our hearts were too full to express the various thoughts that coursed +through our minds; and there we remained, silent and still, as if we +five were dumb. + +All we did was to stare out solemnly on the vast ocean that spread out +from beneath our feet to the golden west in the far distance, where sky +and sea met on the hazy horizon--with never a sail to break its wide +expanse, with never a sound to break our solitude, save the sullen +murmuring wash of the surf as it rippled up on the beach, and the heavy, +deep-drawn sigh of the water as it rolled back to its parent ocean, +taking its weary load of pebbles and sand below, as if sick of the +monotonous task, which it was doomed to continue on without cessation, +with ever and for ever the same motion, now that its wild, brief orgy +was o'er, and its regular routine of duty had to be again resumed! + +Tom Bullover was the first to break the silence. + +"Come boys," he said, when the sun's lower limb was just dipping into +the sea, leaving a solitary pathway of light across the main, while all +the rest of the sea became gradually darker, as well as the heavens +overhead, telling us that the evening was beginning to close in. "Come, +Mr Steenbock and you fellows, we'd best go back to the cave for the +night, so as to be out of the damp air. Besides, it won't be so +lonesome like as it is here!" + +"Ay, bo," acquiesced Hiram. "Thaar's Sam's old sail thaar, which 'll +sarve us fur a bed anyhow." + +"Dat so," chimed in the darkey. "I'se belly comf'able dere till Mass' +Tom friten me wid duppy. I'se got some grub dere, too; an' we can light +fire an' boil coffee in pannikin, which I'se bring ashore wid me from +ship." + +"Bully for ye!" cried Hiram, waking up again to the practical realities +of life at the thought of eating, and realising that he was hungry, not +having, like, indeed, all of us, tasted anything since the morning, the +events of the day having made us forget our ordinary meal-time, "I guess +I could pick a bit if I'd any thin' to fix atween my teeth!" + +"Golly! don't yer fret, massa," said Sam cheerfully, in response to this +hint, leading the way towards his whilom retreat. "I'se hab a good hunk +ob salt pork stow away dere, an' hard tack, too!" + +"Why, what made you think of getting provisions up there?" observed I, +laughing, being rather surprised at his precaution, when everyone else +had been taken up with the treasure, and believed that we were on the +point of leaving the island for good and all. "Were you going to give a +party, Sam?" + +"I'se make de preparations fo' 'mergencies, Cholly," he replied gravely. +"Nobuddy know what happen, an' dere's nuffin' like bein' suah ob de +grub!" + +"Thet's true enuff, an' good sound doctrine. Don't ye kinder think so, +mister?" + +Jan Steenbock, to whom this question was addressed, made no reply; but, +as he got up and followed Sam, Hiram took this for his answer, and went +after him, the five of us entering the cave in single file. + +Here, we found that, from its position on the higher ground, the tidal +wave had not effected any damage, the only alteration being that made by +the first shock of earthquake, causing the crack across the upper end, +which had dislodged the stone in the centre, and disclosed the +buccaneers' treasure. So, then, on Sam's producing a good big piece of +salt junk, with some ship's biscuit, which he had wrapped up in a yellow +bandana handkerchief and stowed away in one corner under his sailcloth, +we all imitated the American, and `put our teeth through' the unexpected +food, finding ourselves, now that we had something to eat before us, +with better appetites than might have been thought possible after what +we had gone through. + +Sailors, though, do not trouble themselves much over things that have +happened, looking out more for those to come! + +The next day, it seemed very strange to wake up and find ourselves alone +there, especially after the stirring time we had recently, with the +discovery of the treasure, and getting the ship afloat, and all; so, +when we crawled out of the cave and went down to the beach, we five +forlorn fellows felt more melancholy than can be readily imagined at +seeing this bare and desolate, and hearing no sound but that of our own +sad voices. + +Even the coo of the doves was now unnoticeable, the birds having +deserted their haunt in the grove after the earthquake shock, as I +believe I have mentioned before. Lucky it was for them that their +instinct warned them to do this in time; for the tidal wave had swept +completely over the place, and the little dell was now all covered with +black and white sand, like the rest of the shore--the sloping strand +running up to the very base of the cliff, and trees and all traces of +vegetation having been washed away by the sudden inrush of the water. + +Jan Steenbock, whose place it was naturally to be our leader, but who +had been so superstitiously impressed by the belief that our calamity +was entirely owing to our having anything to do with the buccaneers' +buried treasure, which he supposed, in accordance with the old Spanish +legend, to be accursed, now once more reinstated himself in our good +opinion, showing himself to be the sensible man that he always was, +despite the fact of his having hitherto, from the cause stated, been +more despondent than any of us. + +"My mans," said he bravely, turning his back on the beach and away from +the treacherous, smiling sea, "we moost not give vays to bat toughts and +tings! Let us go inlants and do zometing dat vill make us dink of +zometing else! We vill go oop to dat blace vere ze groond vas blanted +mit tings bedween ze hills, and zee if we can zee any bodatoes or +bananes vot to eat; vor, as mein frent Sambo here zays, it vas goot to +look after ze grub, vor we hab no sheeps now to zupply us mit +provisions!" + +This was sound advice, which we immediately acted on, our little quintet +abandoning the shore, and following our leader again up the cliff to the +old deserted plantation. This, it may be remembered, Tom and Hiram and +I had first lighted on in our quest for the treasure before we +discovered the cave, but we now found out that Jan Steenbock had been +previously acquainted with it from being formerly on the island. + +Here we made a camp, bringing Sam's sailcloth from the cave, with a tin +pot and other mess gear he had stowed away for his own use when in +hiding there, and no one knew save Tom Bullover that he was anything but +a ghost; and here, thenceforward, by the help of the tortoises, whose +flesh we fared on, with an occasional wild hog, when we were lucky +enough to catch one, our meat diet being varied with the various +tropical vegetables which we found in the valley in profusion, we lived +until the rainy season came on, when we went back again to the cave for +shelter. + +It must not be thought, though, that our time was entirely spent in +eating, or in devices how we should procure food, notwithstanding that +this was the principal care of our solitary desert island life, like as +in the case of most shipwrecked mariners. + +No, we had a greater purpose than this. + +It was the hope of escaping from our dismal exile, through the help of +some coasting vessel bound up or down the Pacific, or to ports within +the Gulf of Panama; and, in order to observe such passing craft we +erected a signal station on the top of Mount Chalmers, and took it in +turns to keep watch there throughout the day, with a bonfire hard by, +ready to be kindled the moment a sail was sighted. + +Alas, our watch for weeks was in vain! + +Sometimes we would see a ship in the distance, but she was generally too +far off to notice us; and our hearts would sink again to utter +despondency when this occurred, more than when we never noticed any sail +at all, on our seeing her gradually melting away, until she would be +finally lost in the mists of the sea and air. + +At last, however, one morning, about six months or so after the loss of +the _Denver City_--I'm sure I cannot tell the precise date, for we began +then to forget even the passage of time--Tom Bullover, who was on the +look-out, came rushing down the sloping side of the cliff like a madman, +covering yards with each leap and bound he took in his rapid descent, +looking as if he were flying. + +"A sail! a sail!" he shouted, as soon as he got near. "There's a ship +in sight, and she's just entering the bay!" + +"Vere?--vere?" cried Jan Steenbock, equally excited, running to meet +him. "A sheep? You vas mat, mein pore vellow,--you vas mat!" + +"Jee-rusalem--no, he ain't!" exclaimed Hiram, who, standing on the +summit of the little mound by the entrance to the cave, could see +further out to sea than Jan from below. "Tom's all right. Hooray! +It's a shep sure enuff, an' she's now tarnin' the p'int on the starboard +side over thaar!" + +With that we all looked now in this direction; and, oh, the blessed +sight! There, as Hiram said, was a vessel under full sail rounding the +opposite cliff and coming into the bay! + +"My golly! I shell bust--I'se so glad!" cried poor Sam, dancing, and +shouting, and laughing, and crying, all in one breath. "Bress de Lor'! +Bress de Lor'!" + +What I and the rest did to express our joy under the circumstances it +would be impossible to tell; but I'm pretty sure we were quite as +extravagant in our actions and demeanour as the negro,--if not so hearty +in our recognition of the all-wise Providence that had sent this ship to +our rescue! + +There is little more to add. + +The vessel soon cast anchor in the bay; and on her lowering a boat and +reaching the beach where, as may be supposed, we eagerly awaited its +coming, we found out that she was a whaler, full of oil, and homeward +bound to San Francisco, her captain putting in at Abingdon Island for +fresh water and vegetables, as some of his crew were suffering from +scurvy, and they had run short of all tinned meat on board, having only +salt provisions left. + +We were thus enabled to mutually accommodate each other, Hiram, and Sam, +and Tom Bullover, soon fetching a big store of green stuff from our +plantation in the valley, besides securing a batch of tortoises for the +men in the boat to kill and take on board; while Jan Steenbock and I +went with the whaler's captain to point out our water-spring near the +cave, where the doves' grove used to be, the stream from the hills still +finding its way down there to the sea below, although the little lake, +or pool, had become dried up by the accumulation of sand and the trees +all disappeared. + +In return for these welcome supplies, the captain of the whaler gladly +agreed to give us all a free passage to `'Frisco'; although as I need +hardly tell, he would have willingly done this without any such +consideration at all, after hearing our story and being made acquainted +with the strange and awful catastrophe that had befallen our ill-fated +ship. + +But we were not altogether destitute. + +Our good fortune, if long in coming, smiled on us at the last; for, the +very morning of our departure from the island, a week after the whaler's +arrival, the captain remaining a few days longer than he first intended +in order to allow his sick hands to recover, Hiram, while routing out a +few traps left in the cave to take on board with us, found, much to Jan +Steenbock's regret,--the second-mate saying it would bring us ill-luck +again--one of the little chests containing the buccaneers' treasure, +which Captain Snaggs had left unwittingly behind him when he and Mr +Flinders cleared off with the rest, which they thought the entire lot. + +The box contained a number of gold ingots and silver dollars, which the +whaler captain said were worth `a heap of money,' as he expressed it, +though he would not take a penny of it for himself. + +The whaler skipper was an honest man, for he told Hiram Bangs and Tom, +who tried to press a certain portion of the treasure on him as his due, +that it all rightfully belonged to us, and that he should consider +himself a pitiful scoundrel if he took advantage of our misfortunes! + +There--could anything be nobler than that? + +"Guess not," said Hiram; and, so we all agreed! + +We had a capital voyage to San Francisco from the island, which we were +glad enough to lose sight of, with its lava cliffs and cactus plants, +and other strange belongings in the animal and vegetable world, and, +above all, its sad memories and associations in other ways to us; and no +more happy sailors ever landed from board ship than we five did who set +foot ashore in the `Golden State,' as California is called, some three +odd summers ago. + +The whaler captain sold our treasure for us; and the share of each of us +came to a good round sum--I, though only a boy, being given by the +others a fourth share, just as if I had been a man, for Jan Steenbock +refused to touch any. + +My portion, when realised, amounted to over 400 pounds, a sum which, if +not quite enough to set one up in life and enable one to stop working, +was still `not to be sneezed at,' as Tom Bullover remarked to me +confidentially, when we made our way eastwards from San Francisco +towards New York, by the Union Pacific line, a month or so afterwards. + +Hiram remained behind in California, saying he had gone through enough +sailoring, and intended trying something in the farming or mining line. +But Tom, and Jan Steenbock, and I, with our old friend Sam, stuck +together to the end, taking a ship at New York for Liverpool, where we +touched English ground again, just a year almost to a day from the time +we started on our ill-starred voyage in the poor _Denver City_. + +All of us still see each other now and again, even Hiram meeting us +sometimes, when he ships in a liner and comes `across the herring pond,' +having soon got tired of a life ashore. + +Our general rendezvous is a little shop kept by Sam Jedfoot, who has +married a wife, and supplies goods in the ship-chandling line to vessels +outward bound; for the darkey has a large acquaintance amongst stewards +and such gentry who have the purchasing of the same, and being a general +favourite with all this class of men--save and excepting Welshmen, whom +he detests most heartily, somehow or other! + +I am now a grown-up sailor, too, like Tom Bullover, and he and I always +sail together in the same ship. + +We are called the `two inseparables' by the brokers, for one of us will +never sign articles for a new vessel unless the other goes; and, when we +come off a voyage and land at Liverpool old town, as frequently is the +case, no sooner do we step ashore, at the Prince's Landing Stage or in +the docks, as may happen, than we `make tracks,' to use Hiram Bang's +Yankee lingo, for Sam Jedfoot's all-sorts shop, hard by in Water Street. + +Here, `you may bet your bottom dollar,' adopting Hiram's favourite +phrase again, we are always warmly welcomed by our old friend, the +whilom darkey cook of the lost _Denver City_, whose wife also greets us +cordially whenever we drop in to visit her `good man,' as she calls him. + +They are a happy couple, and much attached, though opposed in colour; +and, here, of an evening, after the hearty spread which Sam invariably +insists on preparing for our enjoyment, to show us that he has not lost +practice in his culinary profession, I believe, as well as from his +innate sense of hospitality, the ex-cook will--as regularly as he was +accustomed to do on board ship in his caboose, towards the end of the +second dog-watch, when, you may recollect, the hands were allowed to +skylark and divert themselves--take up his banjo, which is the identical +same one that he brought home with him from Abingdon Island. + +The tune he always plays, the song he always sings, is that +well-remembered one which none of us, his shipmates, can ever forget, +bringing back as it does, with its plaintive refrain, every incident of +our memorable passage across the Atlantic and round Cape Horn--aye, and +all the way up the Pacific to the Galapagos Isles. + +It is full of our past life, so pregnant with its strange perils and +weird surroundings, and which ended in such a terrible catastrophe:-- + + "Oh, down in Alabama, 'fore I wer sot free, + I lubbed a p'ooty yaller gal, an' fought dat she lubbed me, + But she am proob unconstant, an' leff me hyar to tell + How my pore hart am breakin' far dat croo-el Nancy Bell!" + +Sam's wife, too, although she isn't a `yaller girl,' but, on the +contrary, as white as he is black, and Tom Bullover and I, with Hiram +and Jan Steenbock--should either or both happen likewise to be ashore in +Liverpool, and with us, of course, at the time--all, as regularly and +unfailingly on such occasions join in the same old chorus. + +Don't you recollect it? + + "Den, cheer up, Sam! don't let your sperrits go down; + Dere's many a gal dat I knows wal am waitin' fur you in de town!" + +The ditty always winds up invariably, as in the old days at sea, with +the self-same sharp twang of the chords of the banjo at the end of the +last bar, that Sam used to give when sitting in the galley of the poor +_Denver City_. + +"Ponk-a-tink-a-tong-tang. P-lang!" + +I can hear it now. + +Bless you, I can never forget that tune--no, never--brimful as it is +with the memory of our ill-fated ship. + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Island Treasure, by John Conroy Hutcheson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ISLAND TREASURE *** + +***** This file should be named 23141.txt or 23141.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/1/4/23141/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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