Part 8 (1/2)
”What do you call that?” demanded Williams, pointing ahead, as soon as he became conscious of Ned's presence beside him.
”Land--unmistakably land!” exclaimed Ned, shading his eyes with his hand to get a clearer view.
”And do you know how far the s.h.i.+p has run during the night?” angrily demanded the mutineer.
”Not far, I should think; perhaps fifty or sixty miles,” replied Ned, glancing aloft and away toward the horizon to note the appearance of sea and sky.
”And did you not tell me only last night that we had a clear sea to the eastward of us for something like three hundred miles? Yet there is the land; and if it had happened to blow fresh during the night we should perhaps have run upon it before making it out in the dark. How do you account for your being so strangely out of your reckoning?” sternly asked Williams.
”I am not out of my reckoning,” hotly retorted Ned; ”and I cannot account for the appearance of that island except upon the supposition that this particular portion of the ocean has never yet been thoroughly examined, and that therefore the island ahead has never been observed and set down on the chart. One thing at all events is certain, and that is that, as I said last night, the chart shows a clear sea a long way ahead of us.”
”Bring the chart to me, and let me have another look at it,” growled Williams.
Ned produced the chart and spread it out on the deck, when Williams kneeled down and examined it for some time with very evident suspicion, not scrupling at last to hint pretty plainly his impression that Ned had deliberately intended to cast away the s.h.i.+p. Of course Ned indignantly repudiated any such intention, and at length apparently succeeded in partially rea.s.suring Williams, who finally grumbled out; ”Well, if what you say be true, the only conclusion we can come to is that yonder island has never yet been visited by civilised beings; and if that is the case it is all the more suitable a spot on which to land some of our useless live lumber. So go aft and tell the pa.s.sengers to pack up their traps at once, as I am about to put them ash.o.r.e. And tell the boatswain to open the after-hatch and to pa.s.s these people's dunnage on deck all ready for sending ash.o.r.e with them. I am quite tired of running about looking for a suitable spot for them, and will look no further. They will have to do the best they can yonder, savages or no savages.”
Ned hurried aft to the p.o.o.p, on which the little group of ladies and gentlemen was congregated, and delivered his message, adding:
”I am very glad--in some respects--that you are going, for I may now tell you that unconsciously you have been in some sort acting as hostages for my good behaviour, and I have been dreadfully afraid that some involuntary slip on my part might complicate matters for you. When once you are all safely out of the s.h.i.+p I shall feel more at liberty to take a few risks, if I can see that any good is likely to arise therefrom. I was at first in hopes that Captain Blyth and young Manners would have been put on sh.o.r.e with you, in which case I would have joined you, even if I had had to swim for it; but I am afraid Williams--the scoundrel--intends to land them elsewhere, in which case I am sure it is my duty to stick to the s.h.i.+p so long as they remain on board. But, at all events, I will try to give you the lat.i.tude and longitude of the island before you leave us, for, if I mistake not, you, Mr Gaunt, can navigate?”
”Yes,” said Gaunt, ”I am a fairly good navigator, and not a bad seaman, in an amateurish sort of way, you know. But do not trouble about the position of the island. I have here,” producing his watch, ”an excellent chronometer, showing Greenwich time, and books and instruments among my luggage which, with the aid of sun, moon, and stars, will enable me to obtain all the information I need. True, I have no charts; but I have a capital atlas, which will serve our turn, so far as finding our way from place to place is concerned. And now, Ned, whilst we have the opportunity, let me say that we all thoroughly understand the peculiar and difficult position in which you are placed on board here, and that we consider you have conducted yourself admirably and with remarkable discretion from the very commencement of this deplorable business of the mutiny. And if, as is by no means improbable, you should by and by find yourself involved by your involuntary a.s.sociation with these mutineers in a situation of difficulty or peril, we shall be most happy and willing to bear testimony to that effect, if we happen to be in a situation to do so. We shall of course endeavour to escape from our island prison; and should we succeed, our first act on reaching a civilised country will be to make to the authorities a full and detailed report of all the circ.u.mstances of the mutiny, so that a man-of-war may be sent out in quest of the s.h.i.+p. But I think it will be well for _you_ to do the same, for your own sake. You can perhaps manage it by writing an account of the transaction, sealing it up in a bottle, and throwing the bottle overboard when you happen to be in some well-frequented s.h.i.+p track; not forgetting to state in your report the position of the island on which we are landed, as well as that of the spot on which poor Captain Blyth and young Manners may be put on sh.o.r.e. And now, as we may not have another opportunity to say it, good-bye, my dear lad, remain honest and true to your duty, as you have been hitherto, and leave all the rest to G.o.d, who will not allow you to suffer for the faults of others. Good-bye, Ned, and G.o.d bless and guide and deliver you from all evil. Amen.”
Gaunt then shook Ned heartily by the hand, after which the others stepped forward one by one and did the same, each saying a hopeful word or two to cheer and encourage him under the pang of parting, which it was evident enough the poor lad felt keenly. Sibylla hung back until all the others, the poor children included, had spoken their farewell, and then she too advanced and held out her hand. She was very pale, and the small shapely trembling hand which Ned grasped in his was icy cold; but however keenly she may have felt the parting under such terrible circ.u.mstances she contrived to maintain at least a semblance of outward composure, though there was a tremor in her voice which she found it quite impossible to control. She murmured a few low half-inarticulate words of farewell, gave Ned's hand a slight involuntary pressure ere she released it, and then hastily retreated to her state-room.
As for poor Ned, on releasing Sibylla's hand he turned and staggered out of the cabin, looking like a man who had been suddenly struck a numbing blow, and feeling as he might have felt had the saloon been a felon's dock in which he had just received his death-sentence. This miserable parting, though he had been constantly expecting it any time within the previous fortnight, and though he honestly believed--as he had said-- that he was glad of it, now seemed to have come upon him with startling suddenness, and it had called up with it an unexpected feeling of bitter anguish for which he was wholly unprepared, and for which he found it difficult to account. It was not, he thought, that he had conceived for these people an exceptionally warm friends.h.i.+p; he had made many friends during his sea-going career for whom he had felt quite as strong a regard, yet when the time for it came he had been able to say farewell with a cheery voice and a comparatively light heart. But now it seemed altogether a different matter; though the sun still shone brilliantly, as of old, and the warm soft wind still roughened the sapphire sea and caused it to laugh and sparkle as joyously as ever, the whole world looked dark, cheerless, and gloomy to him, and he felt as though he had suddenly become the victim of some terrible calamity. In the endeavour to get rid of the horrible feeling of depression which had thus unaccountably seized upon him, Ned went and hunted up the boatswain, and delivered Williams' order respecting the removal of the pa.s.sengers'
baggage from the hold; after which he mounted the p.o.o.p, on which Williams had by this time stationed himself. But, actuated by the new and peculiar feeling which was just then so strongly a.s.serting itself within his breast, the lad could think only of the mysterious island ahead, and of those who were so soon to be landed upon it; and his imagination, powerfully stimulated as it just then was, already pictured the little party abandoned there, and reduced to the most primitive state of self-dependence, given over to battle for their very existence as best they might: houseless, exposed to a thousand perils, and dest.i.tute of even the commonest necessaries of life until such could be provided by their own exertions. There was one--and only one--grain of comfort to brighten the gloomy prospect as it presented itself to Ned's mental vision, which was that Mr Gaunt seemed to be a man of infinite resource; one of those extremely rare individuals who can never be taken wholly by surprise, and who no sooner find themselves confronted by a difficulty than they are ready with a remedy for it. The doctor, too, though a singularly quiet and una.s.suming man, struck Ned as one who, his work once fairly cut out for him, would go manfully through with it.
But what could two men, however resolute, do in the position they would soon occupy, unless well provided with arms, ammunition, and tools?
And, determined to let slip no opportunity to help those in whom he was so strongly interested, the lad turned to Williams and said:
”As I suppose you do not intend to turn these people adrift without arms, or the tools with which to construct for themselves some sort of a shelter, would it not be well to look up a few things for them at once, so that the s.h.i.+p may not be detained in a position of danger when the landing takes place?”
”Arms! tools!” growled Williams. ”Who spoke of supplying them with either?”
”n.o.body,” answered Ned; ”but you cannot surely be thinking of putting them ash.o.r.e without them?”
”Now, supposing that you had the management of this job,” snarled Williams, ”what would you give them?”
”Well,” said Ned, ”I should let them have one of those spare topsails out of the sail-room; a couple of rifles apiece, including the women, with plenty of ammunition, two or three axes, a hammer or two, and a few bags of nails.”
”Oh! you would, eh?” sneered Williams. ”And what use do you suppose all those things would be to them?”
”The sail,” said Ned, ”would serve them for a tent until they could build a house, the tools would enable them to build the house, and the arms would give them a chance to defend themselves if attacked, as well as to provide themselves with food.”
”Well, yes, that's true,” answered Williams, rather reluctantly. ”Very well,” he continued, ”go and rout the things out; and let me see them when you have got them together.”
Without waiting to give the fellow a chance to change his mind, Ned hurried off, and summoning the boatswain and his gang to his a.s.sistance, soon had the topsail on deck; after which he procured the keys of the arm-chest and selected not ten but a dozen rifles, fitted with bayonets, a goodly stock of ammunition, three new axes with helves complete, a couple of shovels, two hammers, half a dozen bags of nails, mostly large, a coil of inch rope, an adze, and a quant.i.ty of tinware--as less liable to breakage than crockery. And, as a suitable finish to the whole, he topped off with a case which he routed out from the lazarette, and which bore on its side the legend ”a.s.sorted tinned meats.”
Breakfast was by this time ready; and on its being announced, Williams ordered Ned to take charge of the deck, and, in the event of anything noteworthy occurring, to report to him at once. Ned was by no means sorry to be thus left to himself for a short time; but, fully alive to the exceptional nature of the responsibility laid upon him at that particular moment, deemed his proper position just then to be in the fore-top. And, first procuring his telescope, thither he quickly made his way.
The s.h.i.+p was by this time within about five miles of the land; and the first thing the lad noticed, on reaching his more elevated post, was that the sea was breaking heavily all along the sh.o.r.e. Hailing the boatswain, who was on deck, Ned instructed that functionary to report this circ.u.mstance to Williams, who, in consequence, soon made his appearance on deck again.