King o' the Beach: A Tropic Tale

by George Manville Fenn

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

  "Oh, do make haste and get me quite well, doctor," cried Carey.

  "What a fellow you are!" said the doctor, laughing. "I can do no more."

  "Can't you?" said the boy, plaintively. "Oh, do try. I heard thecaptain say one day to one of the passengers that you were one of thecleverest surgeons he ever knew."

  "That was very complimentary of the captain, I'm sure."

  "Then if you are, can't you get my bone mended more quickly? It's somiserable to be like this."

  "Why, you told me last night after our supper that you never enjoyed aday more in your life. Surely you had adventures enough, findingpearl-oysters and pearls, eating green cocoanuts off the trees, fishing,and finishing off with an interview with a gigantic saurian and a sailback here."

  "Yes, yes, yes, it was all glorious, but every minute I was beingchecked either by you or old Bob, or by a sharp pain. Can't you putsome ointment or sticking plaster over the broken place and make it healor mend up more quickly?"

  "No, sir, I cannot," said the doctor, smiling. "That's Dame Nature'swork, and she does her part in a slow and sure way. She is forming newbone material to fill up the cracks in your breakage, and if you keepthe place free from fretting it will grow stronger than ever; but youmust have patience. The bark does not grow over the broken limb of atree in a week or two; but it covers the place at last. Patience,patience, patience. Just think, my boy, isn't it wonderful that themending should go on as it does? Waking or sleeping, the bony matter isforming."

  "Oh, yes, I suppose it's all very wonderful, but--"

  "But you want me to perform a miracle, my dear boy, and you know as wellas I do that I can't."

  Carey sighed.

  "I know it is very irksome," continued the doctor; "but just think ofyour position. Only the other day I was afraid you were going to die.Now here you are, hale and hearty, with nothing the matter with you butthat tender place where the bone is knitting together. Don't you thinkyou ought to be very thankful?"

  "Of course I do!" cried Carey. "That was only a morning growl. Buttell me this: will my shoulders and neck be all right again some day?"

  "I tell you yes, and the more patient you are, and the more careful notto jar the mending bone, the sooner it will be."

  "There, then, I'll never grumble again."

  "Till next time," said the doctor, smiling.

  "I won't have any next time," cried Carey, eagerly. "Now then, what arewe going to do to-day?"

  "You must be tired with your exertions yesterday."

  "No; not a bit," cried Carey, "and going out seemed to do me so muchgood."

  "Very well, then, we'll sail to the island again, and fish and collect."

  "And get some more cocoanuts. I say, I could climb one of the trees,couldn't I? That wouldn't hurt my shoulder."

  The doctor gave the boy a droll look.

  "There, how stupid I am!" cried the boy, flushing. "I want to do thingslike I used to, and I keep forgetting."

  "Try not to, then, my boy. Surely your own common-sense tells you thatnothing could be more injurious than the exertion of dragging yourselfup a tree by your arms."

  "Of course, doctor," said the boy, grinning. "It's my common-sense hasa bad habit of going to sleep."

  "Keep it awake, then, not only now, but always."

  "All right, sir. What are we going to collect, then?"

  "Well, it is tempting to try and find some more pearls."

  "Yes, very; but I say, doctor, oughtn't we to--I don't want to go yet,for there's so much to see here--but oughtn't we to try and do somethingabout going on to Moreton Bay?"

  "Ha!" ejaculated the doctor. "I've lain awake night after nightthinking about that, my lad, but I always came to one conclusion."

  "What's that?" asked the boy, eagerly.

  "That we are perfectly helpless. I don't think we could construct aboat sufficiently seaworthy to warrant our attempting a voyage in her.There is plenty of material if we tore up the deck or the boards frombelow, and of course Bostock is very handy; but I am wanting in faith asto his making us a large enough boat."

  "Why not a bigger raft?"

  "My dear boy, we should be washed off in the first rough sea. Besides,a raft would be perfectly unmanageable in the fierce currents. We mightbe stranded on the mainland, but more probably we should be drifted outto sea. Either there or ashore we should perish from want of food. Iam not wanting in enterprise, Carey, my lad, and it is terrible in spiteof the beauty of the place to be stranded here; but I think our course,surrounded as we are with every necessary of life, is to wait patientlyand see what may turn up. There is the possibility that some of the_Chusan's_ boats may get to one of the western ports or be picked up bya vessel, and in time, no doubt, the agents of the company will send asteamer round the coast to see if there are any traces of their greatvessel. I believe we have a large sum in gold stowed somewhere below."

  "No fear of our taking any of it to spend," said Carey, laughing. "Isay, then, you think we ought to settle down quietly, not bother aboutbuilding a boat, and make the best of it."

  "Certainly, for the present. Let's get you sound to begin with, and letthe matter rest till you can swing by your arms and climb cocoanut-treeswithout a twinge."

  "All right! I want to see my father and mother again, and I'd giveanything to be able to send them word that we're safe; and every nightwhen I've lain down in my berth it's just as if my conscience wasfinding fault with me for not doing something about getting away, forall day long I seem to have been enjoying myself just as if this was ajolly holiday; and you know, doctor, I can't help feeling that I shouldlike to stay here for ever so long."

  "You can be quite at rest, Carey, my lad," said the doctor. "Certainlyfor the present."

  "Then hurrah for a day ashore and some more fishing! How soon shall westart?"

  "As soon as Bostock is ready. He's cooking now."

  "Yes, those two big pigeons. I'll go and tell him."

  "And I'll load a dozen cartridges with ball ready for the crocodiles."

  "Are they crocodiles or alligators?"

  "Crocodiles, my lad. You may take it for granted that alligators belongexclusively to America."

  Carey hurried forward, led by his nose partly, for there was a pleasantsmell of roasting, and he reached the cook's place--a neatly fitted-upkitchen more than a galley--to find Bostock looking very hot, and in theact of taking the pigeons, brown and sizzling, from the oven.

  "Not quite done, sir," he said. "I shall put 'em in the oven again forhalf an hour just before you want 'em. It wouldn't have done to leave'em waiting. Things soon turn in this hot country."

  "We're going ashore again as soon as you're ready."

  "That'll be in ten minutes, then, my lad."

  "You'll take a stronger fishing-line this time?"

  "Don't you be feared about that," said the old fellow, nodding his headsideways; "but come along o' me on deck. I've saved this here onpurpose for you to see."

  "Pah! How nasty!" cried the boy, as Bostock brought forward an ironbucket containing the internal parts of the pigeons.

  "Don't look very nice, but I thought I'd save it till you come."

  "What for?"

  "Come and see. I'm just going to chuck it overboard and wash out thebucket."

  Carey grasped the man's reason directly, and they went on deck to theside where the water was deepest.

  As they looked over the side they could gaze down through thecrystal-clear water into the groves of seaweed and shrubberies of coral,where the anemones and star-fish were dotting every clear spot with whatlooked like floral beauties.

  "Seems a shame to throw all that filth overboard, and spoil all thatlovely clearness," said Carey.

  "Do it, sir? Ah, it won't spoil it long. There's them there as'llthink it good enough, and in five minutes the water'll be as clear asever."

  "But I don't see a single fish."

  "More
do I, sir, but they're all about somewhere. Ah, look yonder;there's one of them black and yaller snakes. He's a big thick one too.See him?" said the man, pointing.

  "No--yes, I do," cried the boy eagerly, and he shaded his eyes to watchthe strikingly coloured reptile lying apparently asleep on the surface,twined up in graceful curves, some thirty yards away.

  "You see if he don't go like a shot as soon as I make a splash."

  A line was attached to the handle of the bucket, which was then raisedfrom the deck.

  "Stand clear," cried Bostock, and with a dexterous heave he spread itscontents far and wide, dropping the bucket directly after to fill itselfand be washed clean.

  "Where's the snake?" he said.

  "It went down like a flash, Bob; but what a horrid mess, and there areno fish."

  "Aren't there?" said the old fellow, coolly.

  "Yes! hundreds; where did they all come from?"

  "Oh, from below, I suppose," and after giving the bucket three or fourrinses the old sailor stood watching the water, now alive withgood-sized fish, darting about and bearing off every scrap of therefuse, not even a floating feather being left, so that in five minutesthe water was as crystal-clear as ever.

  "What do you think of that, sir?" said Bostock, smiling. "Fish arepretty hungry about here. Be 'most ready to eat a chap who was having aswim."

  "It's plain enough that we could catch plenty from the deck here."

  "Yes, sir, if you didn't get your lines tangled in the coral. I'drather moor the raft out in deeper water yonder off the shore. Couldn'thave a better place than we had yesterday."

  Half an hour later they were being gently wafted towards their previousday's landing place, where cocoanuts were obtained, fish caught, and alarge addition made to the number of pearl shells, which were laid onthe sand in the bright sunshine, it being decided that on a large scalethe task would be too laborious to open the great molluscs one by one.

  "I'll show you how it's done, gen'lemen," said Bostock. "I've seen it.Before long those shells 'll be gaping, and the oysters dead. Thenwe'll haul one of the biggest casks we can get ashore and scrape out theoysters and drop 'em in along with some water."

  "To decay?" said the doctor.

  "That's it, sir. Give 'em time and a stir-up every now and then, andthey go all into a nasty thin watery stuff which you can pour away, washwhat's left with clean water, and there at last are all the pearls atthe bottom without losing one, while the shells have lain in the sun andgrown sweet."

  Enough pearling being done for the day, Bostock attacked one of theheaviest laden cocoanut-trees, making a "sterrup," as he called it, bypassing a short piece of rope round himself and the tree, tying it fast,and then half-sitting in it and pressing against the trunk with hislegs, hitching the rope up foot by foot till he reached the leafy crown,where he screwed off a dozen fine nuts and threw them down upon the sandbefore descending.

  "Why, Bob," cried Carey, "I didn't think you were so clever as that."

  "More did I, sir."

  "But you must have had lots of practice."

  "Nay, sir, I never did it afore; but I've seen the blacks do it often,and it seemed so easy I thought I'd try."

  Later on, when well refreshed, they went cautiously to the mouth of thelittle river, stalking the crocodiles by gliding from rock to rock, butwithout result; not a single pair of watchful eyes was to be seen on thesurface. There were, however, plenty of a mullet-like fish.

  But the party preferred to make use of their lines from the raft mooredat the edge of the deep water, where they were not long in securinghalf-a-dozen fine fish partaking of the appearance of the John Dory asfar as the great heads were concerned, but in bodily shape plumper andthicker of build.

  Then the raft was unmoored and the sail hoisted, to fill out in the softland breeze, which wafted them back to their stranded home.