Part 11 (2/2)
”I fancy I can guess,” answered Ned. ”Unless I am mistaken, it is your intention to rejoin the pa.s.sengers as soon as possible.”
”Precisely,” agreed the skipper. ”You could not have hit it off more accurately if you had tried for an hour. Yes; these villains are going to put it most effectually out of my power to do my duty to my owners, but they shall not prevent me from doing my duty to my pa.s.sengers.
Manners and I will make our way to that island as soon as ever we can knock something together to carry us there. Poor souls! I hope they will manage to keep soul and body together until we can get to them.
After that I flatter myself that matters will not go so very hard with them after all.”
”Quite so, sir,” said Ned. ”From the moment that Williams announced his intention of putting you ash.o.r.e here, the thought has been in my mind that it would be a good thing for all hands if you could manage to join Mr Gaunt and his party.”
But whilst he said this, the lad could not help smiling at the unconscious egotism displayed by the skipper in his last remark; Ned's own private opinion being that, with a man of such inexhaustible resource as the engineer had proved himself to be, at the helm of affairs, the little party on the island were likely to get on almost as well without Captain Blyth as with him. He had, however, far too much respect for his commander to allow this idea to reveal itself either in his speech or his manner.
”Very well,” said the skipper, in reply to Ned's last remark, ”you now know our intentions, so I will trouble you, Ned--since I understand you to say that Williams has commissioned you to look out a few things for us--to look out as good a supply as you can of such things as will enable us to carry out our plans. We shall want first a small supply of provisions and water to carry us along until we can get into the way of foraging for ourselves. Next, we shall want arms and plenty of ammunition. And, after that, our wants, I think, will be confined to a few useful and handy tools, and as much rope and canvas, and as many nails as you can persuade them to spare us. If there is anything else you can think of which will be likely to be useful, just heave it into the boat with the rest of the things, will ye?”
”Ay, ay, sir, I will,” answered Ned. ”You may rely upon my doing the very best they will allow me to do for you. And now, sir, as time presses, and I may not have a better opportunity, let me say good-bye to you both. G.o.d bless you, Captain Blyth, and you, too, Manners, and may the day not be far distant when we shall all meet once more in peace and safety.”
”Good-bye, Ned, dear boy,” answered the skipper, with deep emotion; ”good-bye, and G.o.d bless _you_ and that poor dear girl who shares your cruel captivity. May He preserve you both, protect you from all evil, and, in His own good time, accord you a happy deliverance from the wretches who now hold you in bondage. We have had no time to talk about yourself and your own plans for the future; but I have no fear for you, boy. Yours is an old head though it is on young shoulders; and I firmly believe that by and by you will somehow manage to handsomely give the rascals the slip and carry off that poor girl with you. Good-bye, my lad, once more; good-bye and G.o.d bless you!”
Ned grasped the outstretched hands which were offered him and, too deeply moved for speech, wrung them silently, after which he beat a hasty retreat, and forthwith set himself about the task of providing as plentiful a supply as he dared of all those articles which the skipper had enumerated.
Ned had scarcely finished his task when the s.h.i.+p rounded-to under the lee of the island, which was now discovered to be a small affair of about three miles long by two miles wide, or thereabouts, its greatest elevation being perhaps two hundred and fifty feet above the sea-level.
Like the island on which the pa.s.sengers had been landed, its most rugged face seemed to be turned to the westward, the eastern side sloping gradually to the water's-edge, where it terminated in a smooth sandy beach, upon which a landing might be effected without difficulty. For a distance of about half a mile inland from the beach the ground was carpeted with a smooth velvety green-sward, the rest of the island appeared to be densely wooded.
”That will do!” exclaimed Williams, as he closed his telescope, after a long and searching examination of the place; ”the spot is quite large enough to enable a couple of men to pick up a living upon it, and I see no sign of savages anywhere about. Lower away the quarter-boat and bundle those things down into her. Have you looked out all you think they will need, Ned?”
”Yes,” said Ned, who was most anxious that his collection should not be subjected to too close a scrutiny--”yes, I think they may perhaps manage to rub along and make themselves fairly comfortable in time with what I have put out for them. And, if I may be allowed to offer a suggestion, I would advise that the landing should be effected as speedily as possible, for when I was in the saloon just now I noticed that the gla.s.s showed a slight tendency to fall, a warning which ought not to be neglected in these seas.”
”Ay, ay, that's true enough!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Williams, in some alarm. ”Look alive with the boat, there, you, Martin tumble the things in, and let's get the job over as quick as possible.”
”No, no,” said Ned, ”there is no need for _quite_ so much hurry as all that, and I must beg that you will handle those cases carefully or their contents will be spoilt or wasted and two human lives placed in jeopardy, which _you_, Williams, I know, would be the last to wish. If you have no objection I will superintend the loading of the boat myself, and whilst that is going forward I hope you will allow Captain Blyth and Mr Manners to step into the saloon and say good-bye to Miss Stanhope.
It can cause no possible harm, and I am sure the young lady would like it.”
”Very well,” said Williams, after a moment's consideration; ”I have no objection. Rogers, let the prisoners' irons be knocked off, and then send them into the saloon until the boat is ready to take them ash.o.r.e.”
Sibylla was at that moment on the p.o.o.p affecting to inspect the island through her own private binocular, but in reality--having overheard Williams' announcement of his intention to land the two officers there-- watching for an opportunity to say good-bye to the hapless men. Ned, whose intuition was peculiarly quick and sensitive where this young lady was concerned, had divined her wishes in an instant, hence the suggestion he had thrown out; and the moment Sibylla heard that her desire was to be granted she hastened down into the saloon to await with a beating heart and swimming eyes the arrival of her two friends.
In a few minutes Captain Blyth and Bob Manners entered the cabin, accompanied by and apparently in the custody of Rogers, who seemed undecided whether to go or stay during the progress of the interview.
Sibylla detected the fellow's state of indecision in a moment, and at once helped him to make up his mind.
”Thank you, Mr Rogers,” said she, with one of her most radiant smiles.
”Oblige me by placing chairs for the two gentlemen, if you please; and would you be so kind as to close the door as you pa.s.s out--so that we may not be interrupted, you know?”
”Yes, miss, cert'nly,” stammered the bewildered Rogers, nastily fulfilling her bidding, and as hastily effecting his bungling retreat.
”Oh, Captain Blyth, I am so pleased to see you--and so sorry!” burst out Sibylla, as she clasped the skipper's hand and gazed tearfully into his care-worn face. ”How you must have suffered all this cruel time, pent up there in that horrid, _horrid_ place! Do you know, I have tried, oh, ever so many times, to get permission to go and sit with you and cheer you up a bit, but those dreadful wretches would not allow it; and at last Ned--that is--I mean--Mr Damerell said perhaps I had better not try any more, as my evident sympathy with you might only make them angry and result in your further ill-treatment. And now they are going to put you on sh.o.r.e on a wretched desert island--as they did with my poor sister and Lucille and--and the rest yesterday, and you are come to bid me good-bye.”
”Yes, my dear, yes,” said the skipper huskily, ”that is just about the sum and substance of it. But don't you trouble about us, or about your sister and the rest of them either for that matter. We shall be all right, never fear. The island yonder, though it is but a small strip of a place, is not exactly a desert by what I could see of it as I came aft; there is gra.s.s and trees--and, no doubt, water--upon it; and where such things are to be found it ought to be no very hard matter for a couple of handy men like Manners here and myself to pick up a living for a month or two, which is as long as we intend to remain upon it. For, hark ye, my dear,” continued the skipper, sinking his voice to a whisper of mystery, ”the moment that this s.h.i.+p is fairly out of sight we are going to set to work upon a boat, and as soon as ever she is finished it is our intention to make sail for your sister's island. Ned has told me its whereabouts; and if they can only hold out until we reach them they will be all right afterwards. And, by this day twelvemonth, if all goes well, we will not only be, all hands of us, back among civilised people, but we will have half the men-of-war of the British navy scouring the seas in search of you. Do you think you can manage to hold out for so long, my dear?”
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