Part 11 (1/2)
”Indeed he was a G.o.d-fearing man, I'm sure, this uncle of laddie's.”
”He was,” agreed Captain Jeb; ”a little rough-talking sometimes, but all sailors are.”
”Well, it's a rough life,” said Brother Bart, recalling his own late experience. ”It's little chance it gives you to think or pray. But the old man ye talk of prayed; I am sure of that. The beads here bear token of it.”
”Aye,” answered Captain Jeb. ”He held to them to the last as tight as if they was an anchor chain,--why I don't know.”
”That's yer ignorance, poor man!” said Brother Bart, compa.s.sionately. ”Ye should pray morning and evening for light, and perhaps ye'll be given the grace to know what the hould of blessed beads is to a dying hand. Now, if ye don't mind, I'll rest a bit in this quiet place, and try to say me own prayers that I missed last night; for it was a sore trying time to me, both body and soul. There's no harm can come to the boys, now that they are safe here.”
”I wouldn't swear to four younkers like them anywhere,” was the grim answer. ”But ye can rest easy, Padre: I'll keep an eye on them, never fear.” And, closing the old Captain's door on his anxious guest, Captain Jeb proceeded to ”keep an eye” on the boys who were exploring Killykinick in every direction.
As it had little more than half a mile of visible surface, the exploration was naturally limited; but there was a ”deal more below,” as Captain Jeb a.s.sured them,--reefs and shoals stretching out in every direction, and widening every year with the silt carried down from the sh.o.r.e. There were one or two wide hollows between the rocks, where that same silt, top-dressed with richer earth imported from more favored spots by Captain Jeb, served as kitchen garden, in which beans, cabbages and potatoes made a promising show. On another sheltered slope, green with coa.r.s.e gra.s.s, brown Betty was pasturing peacefully; while in a henhouse beyond there was clucking and cackling, cheerfully suggestive of chickens and eggs.
”We used to hev mostly s.h.i.+p rations,” said Captain Jeb. ”But the old man got sort of picky and choosy these last years, and turned agin the hard-tack and old hoss meat that had been good enough for him before. So I got a few boat-loads of good earth and took to growing things. And things do grow here for sure, if you only give them a chance. All they want is root hold; the sun and the air and the soft mists do the rest.”
Then there was the pump house; for even the toughest of old ”salts” must have fresh water. And it had cost many a dollar to strike it in these rocks; but strike it at last the well-borers did, and the pump was roofed and walled in as Killykinick's greatest treasure.
”Stick round here, younkers, along by the 'Lady Jane' and the wharf and the garden beds, and down by the 'Sary Ann' and the boats to the south beach, and you'll be pretty safe. But I'm going to show you a place whar you can't do no monkey s.h.i.+ning, for it ain't safe at all.”
And as Captain Jeb spoke he turned to the high wall of rock that had backed and sheltered the ”Lady Jane” for nearly fifty years; and, bending his thin form, he pushed through a low, narrow opening, with, it is needless to say, four wide-eyed boys scrambling breathlessly behind him,--Dan, as usual, in the lead, pulling Freddy on.
For a moment they stumbled in darkness, through which came a thunderous sound like the swell of some mighty organ under a master hand; and then they were out in light and s.p.a.ce again, with the ocean cliff of Killykinick arching above and around them in a great cave hollowed by the beating waves out of solid rock. Wall and roof were rough and jagged, broken into points and ledges; but the floor was smoothed by the tide into a s.h.i.+ning, glittering surface, that widened out to meet the line of breakers thundering white-foamed beyond, their sprays scattering in light showers far and near.
”Jing! Golly! Hooray!” burst from the young explorers; and they would have dashed off into bolder investigation of this new discovery, but Captain Jeb's sudden trumpet tone withheld them.
”Stop,--stop thar, younkers! Didn't I tell you this warn't no play-place?
How far and how deep these caves stretch only the Lord knows; for the sea is knawing them deeper and wider every year. And thar's holes and quicksands that would suck you down quicker than that whale in the Good Book swallowed Jonah. And more than that: in three hours from now these here rocks whar we are standing will be biling with high tide. This ain't no play-place! I'm showing it to you so you'll know; for thar ain't no reefs and shoals to easy things here. It's deep sea soundings that no line can reach, this nor'east sh.o.r.e. Them waves hev a clean sweep of three thousand miles before they break here. And thar ain't to be no ducking nor swimming nor monkey s.h.i.+ning around here unless me or Neb is on watch. Neb ain't much good for navigating since he got that hit with the marline spike, but for a watch on s.h.i.+p or sh.o.r.e he is all right. So them 'orders'
is all I hev to give: the Padre, being a bit nervous, may hev some of his own; but thar ain't nothing to hurt four strapping younkers round Killykinick except right _here_. And now, I reckon, it's about time for dinner. I'm ready for some of Neb's clam-chowder, I know; and I guess you are, too.”
”Jing! but this is a great place of yours, Freddy!” said Dan, as they turned back to the s.h.i.+p house. ”We could not have found a better.”
”That's all you know,” scoffed the lordly Dud. ”I mean to keep on the right side of the old duffer,” he added _sotto voce_, ”and get over to Beach Cliff in that tub of his whenever I can. Minnie Foster asked me to come; they've taken a fine house down on the sh.o.r.e, and have all sorts of fun--dances, picnics, boat races. I'll get sick of things here pretty soon; won't you, Jim?”
”I don't know about that,” was the lazy answer. ”About as good a place to loaf as you'll find.”
”Loaf?” put in Dan. ”There isn't going to be any loafing at Killykinick for me. I'm for boating and fis.h.i.+ng and clamming and digging up those garden beds. I don't know what those others are paying,” said Dan, who had fallen behind with Captain Jeb; ”but I've got no money, and am ready to earn my board and keep.”
”You are?” said the Captain, in surprise. ”As I took it, the Padre bunched you all together for as fair a figure as I could ask.”
”Not me,” replied Dan. ”These other chaps are plutes, and can pay their own way; so cut me out of your figures and let me work for myself.”
”Well, that's sort of curious talk for a younker with a high-cla.s.s schooling,” said Captain Jeb, dubiously. ”You mean you want to hire out?”
”Yes,” said Dan, remembering Aunt Winnie and how doubtful his claim was upon St. Andrew's.
”Thar will be considerable stirring round, I'll allow,” was the reflective answer. ”I was thinking of getting Billy Benson to lend a hand, but if you'd like the job of sort of second mate--”