Part 6 (1/2)
”I'll tell you in a et you some broth, for I can see that you're about done up, and need so, that you see and dropped off to sleep I seized the chance to get soainst the time when you woke up I'll fetch it in half a jiffy”
So saying, Billy disappeared into thea -hot, savoury-s me up with cushi+ons, he cautiously fed ht I had taken asthe cushi+ons, he loweredposition,himself by s succeeding my accident
CHAPTER SEVEN
Billy tells hoe becaet in a hurry the awful look of the sky, that night, when you ordered me to come below, and I heard you slam the companion doors behind me, and draw over the slide I felt certain that, with a sky blazing like that, when it was gettin' on toward the oin' to happen; and--it did, didn't it? I was frightened enough, to start with, but when you battened me down I tell you, Mr Blackburn, I was fairly terrified, and two or three times I climbed half-way up the companion stairs, intendin' to shout to you to let ain that you wouldn't have sent me below if you hadn't known it was the best place for ain and curled up on the locker cushi+ons And then came the hurricane I heard it, even before it struck the shi+p; and when it hit her, and I felt her shi+ver, I made sure that it was all up with us, and I knelt down on the cabin floor and kept on sayin' ain
”I was still sayin' 'em when I suddenly heard the slide pushed back and the co of feet on the stairs, and I heard Enderby and Chips warnin' one another to be careful
Then they came into the cabin, carryin' you between 'em; and they laid you on the cabin table, and said you'd met with an accident; and I saw that your head was bleedin' They undressed you, all in a hurry, put you in your bunk, told ain, shuttin' me in, just as you did
”You were insensible then, so I got to work and hunted up soes with Then I opened the ot out the book of instructions; and while I was trying to find out as the proper thing to do I heard the bosun and Chips shoutin' so I listened, tryin' to hear what they were shoutin' about; and then, above the noise of the wind, I heard another sound, like--well, I can hardly describe it, but you can hear it now, the roar of the surf on the reef
It grew louder, and louder still, until it ell, just deafenin'; then I felt the shi+p hove, first up and then down; then she touched so, but didn't seem to hit it very hard; I felt a blow, like a heavy sea hittin' her; I heard the fall and rush of water on her deck, and a crash that sounded as if the ain--harder--three or four ti over until she seeht across the cabin floor; and all the time I could hear that she was bein' swept by awfully heavy seas But after a bit things got ratherheavily, and I could hear at every roll a sort of crunching sound, as though the planking of the shi+p's botto aboard now nearly so heavy nor so often as they were, and after a ti ht, from the sound, that it didn't seem to be blowin' quite so hard
”All this time you were in your bunk, insensible; but as soon as I was able to stand without bein' flung down again I got some water from the pantry filter, and bathed your head There was a nasty cut in it, and it was still bleedin', but I washed it as well as I could, and htly over it, accordin' to the directions I found in the book And then I think Imore happenin' until I awoke and saw the sun shi+nin'
through your scuttle and the cabin skylight
”You were still insensible, so I bathed your head afresh, put a new dressing on it, and then went on deck to have a look round My word!
Mr Blackburn, I _was_ astonished when I pushed open the companion slide and looked out The shi+p is ashore on a reef; a total wreck; both one by the board; bulwarks carried away; decks swept, and everything but the galley gone--and you and I are all that are left of the crew”
”Good Heavens, Billy, you surely don't mean to say that all hands except ourselves are lost!” I exclaimed, in horrified tones
”Yes, I do, Mr Blackburn,” protested the boy; ”and you wouldn't be surprised if you had heard--as I did--the tremendous seas that swept the shi+p when she first hit the reef I shouldn't have been a bit surprised if she had gone to pieces right then It's no wonder that the decks were clean swept”
”No wonder, indeed,” I agreed ”You say that we are ashore on a reef, Billy What sort of a reef is it; just ordinary rocks, or--?”
”No,” answered Billy; ”it's not just jagged, seaweed-covered rocks, but all white, alh and uneven, but not like the rocks we get at horeat, tremendously thick wall--”
”Yes,” I interrupted; ”I think I understand It is probably a coral reef How far does it extend?”
”How far?” reiterated Billy ”Why,”--pointing--”it comes froht across to as far as you can see on the other side”
”Ay,” I agreed; ”a coral reef, without a doubt And how side?”
”Not more than two or three feet, at her out of the water than hen afloat When I first noticed it I thought it was because it happened to be loater when I looked; but it isn't that, because it's always pretty nearly the same I don't think there's a difference of h and loater”
”In that case,” I commented, as much to myself as to my companion, ”the explanation probably is that e hit the reef the sea was heaped up by the gale considerably above its usual level, and that it has now subsided again, leaving us nearly high and dry Now, Billy, is there any land in sight? If so, what does it look like?”
Billy considered for aup a mental picture Then he answered:
”First, about two miles off, there's a beach of very white sand Then there's a lot of trees--pale of the beach, and, behind them, bushes and more trees--thousands--reen, red, purple--but I don't remember seein' any that were really black”
”Is there a mountain on the island?” I asked