CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
As Carey landed he glanced at the now enormous stack of pearl shells andat the tubs once more well filled with oysters, for the beachcomber hadnot let his men be idle. But the sight of the treasures of which theyhad been robbed only irritated the boy, and he turned away to forget itin encountering the grinning face of Black Jack close by.
"Come, fro boomerang," he said, handing the wooden scimitar-like blade,and pointing along the sands.
"Ah," cried the boy, eagerly, "give me hold."
As he caught the boomerang, the other blacks started off along the sandsas if they were going to field for a ball, and Carey laughed as heprepared to throw.
"It will begin to sail up before it gets to them," he thought tohimself, laughingly, and he rather enjoyed the idea of the big, lithefellows running through the hot sand in vain.
Then, imitating, as he thought, the black's action exactly, Carey sentthe weapon spinning along about a yard above the sand; but it did notbegin to rise, and before it dropped one of the men caught it cleverlyand sent it back with such accuracy that Jackum caught it in turn andhanded it to the boy.
Carey threw again half-a-dozen times, for the curved blade to be caughtby one or the other, no matter how wildly diverse were the casts, andsent back to Jackum, who never missed a catch, standing perfectly calmand at the proper moment darting out his right or left hand, when_flip_, he had it safely and handed it back, grinning with delight.
"White boy no fro boomerang," he said.
"No," cried Carey, who was hot and irritable with the failure attendinghis exertions. "You're cheating me; this one won't go."
"No make um go," cried Jackum, slapping his thighs and dancing withglee.
"No; it's a bad one; it won't fly back."
"Yes, fly bird come back."
"But it doesn't when I throw it."
"No, won't come back."
"And it won't when those black fellows throw."
Black Jackum understood him perfectly and threw himself down on the hotsand to roll himself over in the exuberance of his delight.
"Look here," cried Carey, growing more irritated; "you're a cheat. Youknew that thing wouldn't go when you gave it to me. Get up, or I'llkick you."
He made a rush to put his threat in execution, but the black rolled overand sprang up laughing.
"White boy get wild likum big Dan. No fro boomerang. Look, see."
"It's too bad, you're a cheat. Bad one. Bah!" cried Carey, throwingthe wooden blade down. "You've changed it."
"Look, see," cried the black, catching it up; and in the most effortlessway he sent it skimming along the sand right away, full fifty yardsbeyond the farthest fielder, before it began to mount high in the air,executing a peculiar series of twirls and flutterings as it came back,till the momentum died out as it dropped not half-a-dozen yards fromCarey's feet.
"Ah!" cried the boy, excitedly, "I see how you do it now. Here, let metry."
"Jackum fro makum come back ebry war."
"Yes, but let me try."
_Bang, bang_, came softened by the distance, and, looking sharply in thedirection of the stranded vessel, two faint puffs of white smoke werevisible.
"What does that mean?" cried Carey, as he saw the fielders come runningtowards him.
"Big Dan shoot, shoot. Say go hunt, get bird to cookie, cookie. Come,run fas'."
He set the example and plunged at once into the great cocoanut grove,followed by Carey and his companions.
"Big Dan no see now," cried Jackum, and he grinned and pointed up at thenuts overhead. "Good, good?"
"Yes," cried Carey; "let's have some."
The black said something to his companions, two of whom took off theirplaited hair girdles, joined them together, and then the band was passedround a likely tree, knotted round one of the wearers' loins, and thenext minute he was apparently walking like a monkey up the tree,shifting the band dexterously and going on and on till he reached thecrown of leaves and the fruit, which he began screwing off and pitchingdown into the sand, where they were caught up, the pointed end of aclub-handle inserted, and the great husk wrenched off. Then a few chopswith a stone axe made a hole in the not yet hardened shell, and a nutwith its delicious contents of sweet, sub-acid milk and pulp was handedto the boy, the giver grinning with satisfaction as he saw how it wasenjoyed.
The blacks were soon similarly occupied, each finishing a nut, and thenJackum led the way inland.
"Are you going to the river?" asked Carey.
"No, walk, kedge fis'," said Jackum, shaking his head. "Bully-woollydar."
"Bully-woolly?" said Carey, wonderingly.
Jackum threw himself on the ground, with his legs stiffened out behind,and his hands close to his sides. Then with wonderful accuracy he wentthrough the movements of a crocodile creeping over the sand, and thenmade a snap at the boy's leg with his teeth, making believe to havecaught him, and to be dragging his imaginary prey down to the water,ending by wagging his legs from side to side like a tail.
"I see," cried Carey. "Crocodiles. Yes, I know."
"Big, big. Mumkull black fellow, white boy. Come 'long."
Jackum started off, followed by Carey and the rest in single file, theirleader with his head down and eyes reading the ground from right to leftas if in search of something lost. He made straight for the forest, butselected the more open parts where the undergrowth was scarce, so as toget quickly over the ground, stopping suddenly by a great decayed tree,about which his companions set to work with the sharp ends of theirclub-handles, and in a very short time they had dug out of the decayedwood some three double handfuls of thick white grubs as big as a man'sfingers, and these were triumphantly transferred to the grass bag oneman had hanging to his girdle.
Starting once more, Jackum suddenly caught sight of traces on the groundwhich made him begin to proceed cautiously, his companions closing up,club, spear, or boomerang in hand, and then all at once there was a rushand a spring, then another, and a couple of little animals bounded away,kangaroo fashion, in a series of leaps through the open, park-likeforest, till as they were crossing a widish patch Carey saw the use ofthe boomerang, one of which weapons skimmed after the retreatinganimals, struck it, and knocked it over, to lie kicking, till one of themen ran swiftly up and put it out of its misery with one blow of hisclub.
The other was missed, the boomerang hurled just going over its back andreturning to the thrower after the fashion of a disappointed dog, whilethe little animal took refuge in a tree, leaping from bough to boughtill brought down by one of a little shower of melon-headed clubs.
Jackum held up the two trophies with a grin of delight, tied their legstogether, and hung them on a stump.
"Back, come fetchum," he said, nodding.
The hunt continued till a couple of brush turkeys sprang up and began torun and flutter among the bushes, but only to be brought down by theunerring boomerangs; and these were also hung against a tree ready forpicking up as the hunting party returned.
The traces on a sandy patch, showing that a snake had crossed and leftits zigzag groove, were next spied, and a little tracking showed themaker of the marks coiled up on an ant-heap basking in the sun.
The reptile was on the alert, though, and raised its spade-shaped headhigh above its coils, displaying a pair of tiny diamond-bright eyes fora few moments, before a blow from the end of a spear dashed it down,broken and quivering.
"Mumkull--bite a fellow," said Jackum. "Makum swellum. Brrr!"
Carey grasped the fact that the snake was of a poisonous tendency, andit was left writhing on the ant-heap, with the little creatures swarmingin an army out of their holes to commence the task of picking its bonesinto skeleton whiteness.
A couple more large turkey-like birds were brought down and hung up inthe shady forest they were now passing, the spreading branches of thehuge trees being most grateful interposed between Carey's head and thesun. Here the blacks proceeded with the greatest care, starting no
lessthan three snakes, which were allowed to scuffle off. At last one ofthe blacks uttered a faint cry, and he took the lead, following thetrail of something quickly, till he stopped short beneath a hugefig-tree whose boughs spread far and wide.
The black here turned to Carey and pointed upward with his spear towhere, half hidden by the dense foliage, a clump of knots and folds uponsome interlacing horizontal boughs revealed the presence of a carpetsnake, whose soft warm brown and chocolate markings of various shadeswere strikingly beautiful.
"Ugh! the monster!" exclaimed Carey, shrinking back. "Are you going tokill it?"
"Mumkull, eatum. Good, good," cried Jackum, and the noise made belowroused the sleeping serpent, whose head rose up, showing the mark wherethe mouth opened, and Carey could see the glistening forked tonguedarting in and out through the orifice at the apices of the jaws. Andnow the creature seemed all in motion, fold gliding over fold, and onegreat loop hanging down from the bough some fifteen feet above theirheads.
"I mustn't run off," thought Carey; "but it looks a dangerous brute."
He stood fast then, and the attack began, the blacks hurling their clubsup at the reptile with such accuracy and force that in less than aminute the creature had been struck in several places, and was strikingout with its jaws and lashing its tail furiously.
Another blow from a whizzing boomerang made the creature cease itsattempts to get to a safer part of the tree and writhe so violently in ahorrible knot of convolutions that it lost its hold upon the branch andcame down through the interlacing boughs with a rush and a thud upon theground.
Here it seemed to see its aggressors for the first time, and, gatheringitself up, its head rose with the jaws distended, and it struck at thenearest black.
But his enemy was beforehand. Holding his spear with both hands he usedit as a British yeoman of old handled a quarter-staff, and a whistlingblow caught the reptile a couple of feet below the head, which droppedinert, the vertebrae being broken, and a series of blows from otherspears, one aimed at the tail, finished the business.
The danger was over, and the serpent began to untwine itself, till itlay out, a long heaving mass of muscles, completely disabled and dyingafter the slow fashion of its kind.
"Why, it must be sixteen or eighteen feet long," thought Carey, and thenhe stood looking on while the delighted blacks, who looked upon theirprize as a delicacy that would be exclusively their own, cut a fewcanes, twined them into a loose rope, made a noose round the writhingcreature's neck, and after one of the party had passed this rope over aconvenient bough the reptile was hauled up so that the tail was clear ofthe ground and safe from the attacks of marauding ants.
Then the hunt was continued. Several splendid birds were knocked over,and they were now high up in the river valley, where the great monitorlizards haunted the sun-baked volcanic stones.
"Knock one of those down, Jackum," said Carey, who was anxious to seehow the blacks would deal with the tail-lashing creatures.
"Plenty, plenty," said the black, grinning; but he obeyed directlyafter, sending his boomerang whizzing at one, which suddenly bounded onto a rock and turned defiantly with open jaws upon those who hadinterrupted his noon-tide sleep.
Carey had ocular proof that the nude blacks were cautious enough to keeptheir skins clear of the fearful lash formed by the steel-wire-liketails. For the boomerang struck the distended jaws with a sharp crack,and the next moment the reptile was down, with its silvery-grey scalesflashing in the sun like oxidised silver, as it lashed its tail aboutlike a coil-whip. It was not round Jackum's legs, however, when he ranup to recover his boomerang, but round and round the spear-shaft whichhe held ready for the purpose.
A few minutes later the great lizard was dead. "Plenty cookie now,"said Jackum, and they began to return, picking up their trophies as theywent back exactly over their trail.
"They'll only cut a piece out of the carpet snake," thought Carey."It's too big to take back."
But he was mistaken. That serpent was too fat and juicy, and promisedtoo many pleasant cookings, to be left behind, and it was soon lowereddown, to be dragged after the party by two of the blacks, who harnessedthemselves to the canes about the reptile's neck, the smooth hard scalesmaking the elongated body glide easily enough over the grass and sandyearth.
"But I'm not going to ride in the canoe with that horrid beast,"muttered Carey. "It's alive and moving still."
But he did, for, when all their game had been successively picked up andthey reached the edge of the lagoon, the great serpent was dragged inand fitted itself in the bottom of the canoe, and the rest was thrownfore and aft. Carey set his teeth, for he dared not let the blacks seehim shrink, and stepped calmly in, to sit down with his knees to hischin and the thickest part of the serpent passing round behind hisheels, the head and tail lying forward, with the paddlers sitting insidethe loop it formed.
They had cargo enough to make the slight vessel seem heavily-laden, butit was sent rapidly across the lagoon, the blacks eager and triumphantto display their successful efforts to their companions, who were allperched up on the bulwarks on either side of the gangway, face outward,waiting to see the portion that would come to their share.
King o' the Beach: A Tropic Tale Page 22