Part 6 (1/2)
”Oh, you poor fellow,” she said. ”How awful it must be! How did it happen? Let me tie it up.”
”It is not so bad now,” he said. ”It has been well soaked in salt water, you know. I think the nail was torn off when we--when a piece of wreckage miraculously turned up beneath us.”
Iris shredded a strip from her dress. She bound the finger with deft tenderness.
”Thank you,” he said simply. Then he gave a glad shout. ”By Jove! Miss Deane, we are in luck's way. There is a fine plantain tree.”
The pangs of hunger could not be resisted. Although the fruit was hardly ripe they tore at the great bunches and ate ravenously. Iris made no pretence in the matter, and the sailor was in worse plight, for he had been on duty continuously since four o'clock the previous afternoon.
At last their appet.i.te was somewhat appeased, though plantains might not appeal to a gourmand as the solitary joint.
”Now,” decided Jenks, ”you must rest here a little while, Miss Deane. I am going back to the beach. You need not be afraid. There are no animals to harm you, and I will not be far away.”
”What are you going to do on the beach?” she demanded.
”To rescue stores, for the most part.”
”May I not come with you--I can be of some little service, surely?”
He answered slowly: ”Please oblige me by remaining here at present. In less than an hour I will return, and then, perhaps, you will find plenty to do.”
She read his meaning intuitively and s.h.i.+vered. ”I could not do _that_,” she murmured. ”I would faint. Whilst you are away I will pray for them--my unfortunate friends.”
As he pa.s.sed from her side he heard her sobbing quietly.
When he reached the lagoon he halted suddenly. Something startled him.
He was quite certain that he had counted fourteen corpses. Now there were only twelve. The two Lascars' bodies, which rested on the small group of rocks on the verge of the lagoon, had vanished.
Where had they gone to?
CHAPTER III
DISCOVERIES
The sailor wasted no time in idle bewilderment. He searched carefully for traces of the missing Lascars. He came to the conclusion that the bodies had been dragged from off the sun-dried rocks into the lagoon by some agency the nature of which he could not even conjecture.
They were lying many feet above the sea-level when he last saw them, little more than half an hour earlier. At that point the beach shelved rapidly. He could look far into the depths of the rapidly clearing water. Nothing was visible there save several varieties of small fish.
The incident puzzled and annoyed him. Still thinking about it, he sat down on the highest rock and pulled off his heavy boots to empty the water out. He also divested himself of his stockings and spread them out to dry.
The action reminded him of Miss Deane's necessities. He hurried to a point whence he could call out to her and recommend her to dry some of her clothing during his absence. He retired even more quickly, fearing lest he should be seen. Iris had already displayed to the sunlight a large portion of her costume.
Without further delay he set about a disagreeable but necessary task.
From the pockets of the first officer and doctor he secured two revolvers and a supply of cartridges, evidently intended to settle any dispute which might have arisen between the s.h.i.+p's officers and the native members of the crew. He hoped the cartridges were uninjured; but he could not test them at the moment for fear of alarming Miss Deane.
Both officers carried pocket-books and pencils. In one of these, containing dry leaves, the sailor made a careful inventory of the money and other valuable effects he found upon the dead, besides noting names and doc.u.ments where possible. Curiously enough, the capitalist of this island morgue was a Lascar jemadar, who in a belt around his waist h.o.a.rded more than one hundred pounds in gold. The sailor tied in a handkerchief all the money he collected, and ranged pocket-books, letters, and jewelry in separate little heaps. Then he stripped the men of their boots and outer clothing. He could not tell how long the girl and he might be detained on the island before help came, and fresh garments were essential. It would be foolish sentimentality to trust to stores thrown ash.o.r.e from the s.h.i.+p.
Nevertheless, when it became necessary to search and disrobe the women he almost broke down. For an instant he softened. Gulping back his emotions with a savage imprecation he doggedly persevered. At last he paused to consider what should be done with the bodies. His first intent was to scoop a large hole in the sand with a piece of timber; but when he took into consideration the magnitude of the labor involved, requiring many hours of hard work and a waste of precious time which might be of infinite value to his helpless companion and himself, he was forced to abandon the project. It was not only impracticable but dangerous.