CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
TAKEN BY SURPRISE.
It was the next day, when the yacht was just beginning to glide over thewater again to pass through the opening in the reef, that Jack wassitting by Ned's berth.
"Here, I call it foolishness, Mr Jack, sir, I do really. What is thegood of my lying here?"
"To get strong and well. Doctor Instow knows best."
"Well, he thinks he knows best, sir; but he can't know so well as I dohow I feel."
"You lie still and be patient."
"But I can't, sir. Here's Mr Bob Murray, who's a good enough steward,valeting you and Sir John, and of course he can't do it properly."
"Nonsense. He is very good and attentive."
"Pooh, sir! So could any chap in the ship be good and attentive, butwhat's the use of that if he don't understand his work?"
"Why, there's nothing to understand."
"Oho! Isn't there, sir! Don't you run away with that idea. There's alot. It seems nothing to you because things go so easy with you and theguv'nor. You find your clean shirts and fresh socks all ready laid outat the proper time, and you put 'em on just as you do your clothes, andthink it's nothing; but all the time there's some one been therethinking it out first. Cold and dull morning; these trousers and thatsilk shirt won't do, and warmer ones are there. Going to be a scorchinghot day, and it's the thinnest things in the bunks. Then don't I managethe buttons the same? and when did you ever find a button off anywhere?"
"No, I never did, Ned."
"There! I suppose you think, sir, that when a button's knocked offanother one comes up like a mushroom in the night; but you take my wordfor it, sir, buttons don't come up so how, and it's never having notroubles like that to a gentleman that means having a good valet. Idon't say nothing about holes in socks or stockings, because when itgets to that a gentleman ought to give 'em away. No, sir, it won't do.Every man to his trade, and I'm fretting to get back to my work, for itwherrits me to have other people meddling with my jobs. I don't believeI shall find a thing in its place."
"Never mind all that, Ned. I've got something to tell you."
"Have you, sir? Let's have it."
"I don't know what you'll say to it."
"More do I, sir. Let's hear what it is."
Ned told him of what had passed on deck concerning the stay at theisland.
"Glad of it, Mr Jack," said Ned excitedly. "I should have been wild ifyou'd give it up because of me getting that arrow in my arm. But lookhere, I ain't a grudger, but if I do get a chance at the chap as shot atme--well, I'm sorry for him, that's all."
"What would you do to him, Ned?" said Jack, smiling.
"What would I do to him, sir? What wouldn't I do to him, sir!"
"You don't mean to say you'd kill him?"
"Kill him, sir?" cried Ned, in a tone full of disgust; "now do I lookthe sort of chap to go killing any one?"
"Well, no, Ned, you do not."
"Of course not, sir. Murder ain't in my way. I ain't a madman. Ofcourse if one's in a sort o' battle, and there's shooting and some ofthe enemy's killed, that's another thing. I don't call that murder;that's killing, no murder. But in a case like this: oh no, I wouldn'tkill him, I'd civilise him."
"What, and forgive him?" said Jack, who felt amused.
"Not till I'd done with him."
"And what would you do?"
"Do, sir! Why, what I say, sir; I'd civilise him, and show himsomething different to hitting a man behind his back. There'd be nocall for him to strip, he'd be all ready; but I'd just have off myjacket and weskit, and some of the lads to see fair, and I'd show himthe way Englishmen fight. I'd give him such a civilising as should makehim respect the British nation to the end of his days. That's what I'ddo with him. Fists!"
"Very well, Ned, look sharp and get strong so as to do it."
"Strong, sir? Why, I could do it now if you'd let me get up instead ofmaking me bask about like a pig in a sty. I just feel, sir, as we usedto say at school, as if I could let him have it, though it would hardlybe fair. He'd have the greatest advantage."
"Yes, I should say he would," said Jack, laughing.
"Ah, you mean about muscle, sir. I don't. I mean that if he managed toget home with his fists in my face--not as I think he would--he'd makeme look disgraceful, and not fit to appear before the guvnor for afortnight. And all the time I might pound away for an hour and make nodifference in him. Whoever heard of a nigger with a black eye?"
"Well, no, Ned, I never did," said Jack, laughing. "Nature ain't beenfair over that, sir. Black chaps' eyes ought to go white after a fight;but I suppose it's because they don't fight fair. Hitting a man in theback, and with a poisoned arrow too! It makes me feel wild; it's socowardly. But there, they don't know any better. I say though, MrJack, I am glad we're going to stay, and it makes me feel proud of ourcrew. I'll shake hands with the lot as soon as I may go on deck."
"That's right enough, Ned, and as soon as you're fit Doctor Instow willlet you go."
"Tell you I'm fit as a fiddle now, sir," said the mate testily. "Why,nothing would do me more good than to stretch myself by having a set-towith that nigger as shot me."
"With one hand," said Jack dryly.
"Eh? With one hand, sir?" said the man, beginning to feel hisclosely-bandaged arm.
"Yes; how could you fight with one hand?"
"I forgot all about that," said Ned thoughtfully. "Would be ratherawkward, wouldn't it?"
"Yes, I should think it would."
"Like fighting with one hand tied behind you, same as you did atschool."
"I never did have a fight at school," said Jack, quietly.
"No, of course not, sir; I remember you said so once before. Seems rum,though. I used to have lots. But you were different, sir. My wordthough, Mr Jack, how you have altered since we left home!"
"Think so, Ned? Have I?"
"Wonderful, sir. Don't you be offended, sir, at what I say."
"Not I, Ned."
"You would have been then, Mr Jack. Seems to me that you were quite anold gentleman then, and now you've got to be quite a boy."
"Then I'm going backwards, Ned?"
"Not you, sir. You make me feel quite proud of you. Why, Bob Murraytold me yesterday that you'd been right up all three masts as high asthe sailors can get."
"Yes, I went up with my glass to look out for canoes. What of that?"
"What of that, sir? Well, fancy you trying to do such a thing a fewmonths ago!"
"Perhaps I am a little stronger now," said Jack thoughtfully.
"Stronger, sir! I should just think you are. But I say, Mr Jack."
"Yes?"
"About my arm. I should get licked now. Think it will ever come rightagain?"
"Doctor Instow says it will, only it must have time. Do you feel anysensation in it now?"
"Not a bit, sir. Doctor asked me if he hurt me when he altered thebandages this morning, but I had to tell him he might do anything and Ishould not feel it. Just as if it was quite dead. Rum, ain't it, sir?"
"It's very sad, Ned."
"Oh, I don't know, sir. It's a nuisance; but the doctor says it willcome right in time, so one's got to wait. He says he'll get the woundhealed up, and then we can talk to the nerves and muscles with some goodfriction. Treat it like a lucifer, sir; give it a sharp rub and make itgo off. But I shall be glad when he'll let me come on deck. Might do abit o' fishing, sir."
"You shall, Ned, as soon as you can."
There were no signs of the savages' visit when they passed inside thelagoon again, and, in the hope that they might remain now unmolested,the yacht steamed right away from the entrance and cast anchor nearly onthe opposite side of the island, where the lagoon was at its widest, soas to give ample room for manoeuvring in case of attack, where the shorewas more beautiful than in any part they had yet seen.
One of the tiny rivers ran down a precipitous gully in a series offern-hung f
alls, to lose itself in the golden sands, and close at handthe sheltering trees were of the grandest in size and loveliness,overhung as they were with festoons of flowers, each tree affordingample study for Sir John and his friend; and the collecting went onapace from morn to eve, so that the boxes they had brought began to fillup and smell strongly of the aromatic gums and spices used to keep antsat a distance.
The sailors took the keenest delight in the birds, and were eager tolearn to skin, and carefully laid them in the hot sunshine till theydried. They gloried too in the pickle-tub, as they called thespirit-cask, to which the abundant snakes and lizards were consigned.Then of an evening they were always waiting for Jack to give the wordfor fishing, partly as an interesting sport, but after the first fewtimes, for the sake of what Lenny called the pot, though in almost everycase the capture was fried.
It needed a good deal of care and discrimination though, and thedoctor's natural history knowledge was often called upon to decidewhether some gorgeously-armoured creature would be wholesome or no, someof the tropic fish being poisonous in the extreme.
Then in addition there were the handsome birds which were collected;these, especially the fruit-pigeons, being very toothsome, though thelarger parrots and cockatoos were, as Wrensler the cook said, not to besneezed at, though he declared that they would have been far better ifplucked instead of skinned.
So beautiful was the shore by the stream that the temptation was verygreat to erect a tent and live on the land, but it was considered toorisky.
"Only fancy, Jack," said the doctor with a queer look, "our meeting withthe same trouble out in this solitary island as we should in London."
"What trouble?" said Jack, laughing. "You don't mean the noise?"
"No, but I mean the blacks," said the doctor.
"Oh, I see," cried Jack; "but it does seem such a pity. I should liketo have a tent ashore."
"It would be delightful under one of those big trees, but canvas is apoor safeguard against the point of a spear. It wouldn't do."
"No," said Jack with a sigh, "it would not do."
Many excursions into the interior were made--the interior meaning aclimb up the slope of the great mountain--and in all cases a grandselection of beautifully-plumaged birds was secured. Many of these werethe tiny sun-birds, glittering in scales of ruby, amethyst, sapphire,and topaz; then too at the sides of the streams vivid blue-and-whitekingfishers with orange bills were shot, many of them with two of thetail-feathers produced in a long shaft ending in a racket-like flat,giving the birds a most graceful aspect.
Then there were plenty of paroquets, rich in green, orange, andvermilion; rain-birds as the Malays call them, in claret and white, withblue and orange beaks; parrots without number, and finches, swallows,and starlings of lovely metallic hues; but the greatest prizes were thebirds of paradise, of which several kinds were secured, from thegrandly-plumaged great bird of paradise to the tiny king. Whenever oneof these was shot in some great grove at daybreak, Jack hesitated tohave it skinned for fear of injuring the lovely feathers, over whichadornments Nature seemed to have done her best. Now it was one of thefirst-named, a largish bird, with its feathers standing out to curveover in a dry fountain of golden buff, ornamented with their beautifullyflowing; wave-like shafts; and this would be of a prevailing tint ofsoft cinnamon red; while the smaller kinds were lavishly adorned withcrests and tippets and sprays of feathers brighter than burnished metal.
"I don't know how it is," said Jack one day, "but every bird we findseems more beautiful than the last."
He had just picked up a fresh specimen which had fallen to the doctor'sgun.
"Well, it is more novel than beautiful, Jack," said the doctor, as theyturned over and re-arranged the dark purple, or dark-brown, or claret,or black, or green metallic plumage, for it might have been calledeither according to the angle at which it was viewed. "Come, this willhelp to make them believe that birds of paradise are of the crowfamily."
"No one ever saw a crow half as beautiful as that," cried the lad.
"At home--no. But look at the shape of this bird--its wings, claws, andbuild altogether; doesn't he look as if he could be a crow?"
"There is a slight resemblance, certainly," said Jack; "but this isn't abird of paradise."
"It is next door to one, my lad, and I am surprised to find it here."
"You know what it is then?"
"I know there's a northern Australian bird almost like it, if not quite.I think it is the rifle bird. We'll have a good look when we get back.Take special care of that one, Lenny."
"Ay, ay, sir. I takes special care of all of 'em, when the bushes andthorns 'll let me."
They were well up the gully through which the stream off which the yachtwas anchored ran, for, finding the place rich in specimens, they hadtoiled up higher and higher that morning.
Ned was for the first time of the party, on the condition that he wouldbe very careful, for his arm was still stiff and numb, though otherwisehe was much better; but he kept pretty close to his young master, andlet the men with him carry the guns and ammunition, and in several waysmade silent confession that he was not so strong as he was.
Jack noticed it, and made some allusion to the fact.
"Oh, don't you fidget about me, Mr Jack, I'm getting on glorious," saidthe man quietly. "I feel as if the sun and wind up here were doing meno end of good, drinking 'em in like. Doctor said I was to take itcoolly; so coolly I take it, as the sun 'll let me, so as to get strongagain as soon as I can. But, my word, what a place it is!"
"Lovely," said Jack. "It grows upon one."
"Ah, I should like to grow upon it," said Ned, grinning. "I don't feelas if I should like to go away again."
"There's no place like home, Ned," said Jack, who had stopped to watch apair of vivid sun-birds probing the tiny trumpet blossoms of a whitecreeper with their beaks.
"They say so, sir; but I say there's no place like this. When are wegoing right up to the top?"
"When you are quite well, Ned. We should have started before now, but Iasked my father to put it off till you were strong enough to carry mygun and wallet."
Ned said nothing, but he looked as if he thought a great deal, and whenhe next spoke as they went on mounting the gully, it was directly afterthe doctor had added a lovely kingfisher to the bag.
"I say, Mr Jack, sir, of course the doctor knows a deal, but do youthink he is always right?"
"I suppose no one is always right, Ned. Why?"
"About that bird--bird he shot. He said it was a kingfisher."
"Well, so it is. You heard him explain about its habits?"
"Yes; and that's what bothers me. How can it be a kingfisher if itdon't fish?"
"You might just as well say, how can it be a kingfisher if it don't fishfor kings."
"No, I mightn't, sir," replied Ned, whose illness seemed to havedeveloped a kind of argumentative obstinacy. "Nobody nor nothing doesfish for kings, sir, so that's nonsense. But what I say is, how canthat bird be a kingfisher if it don't fish?"
"But it does fish."
"No, it don't, sir; it flits about and catches butterflies, and moths,and beetles. Doctor said it never caught fish at all, and never diveddown into the water. So what I say is, that it can't be a kingfisher."
"Well, but Doctor Instow says that far away back in the past itsancestors must have lived on fish; and then the land where they werechanged, till perhaps it was one like this, with plenty of beautifullittle rivers in it, but few fish, and so they had to take to livingupon insects, which they capture on the wing, and they have gone ondoing so ever since."
"Seems rum," said Ned thoughtfully. "Then I suppose if this island wasto change, so that there were no more butterflies, moths, or beadles,and more fish took to living in the rivers--they'd take to fishingagain?"
"Yes, I suppose so; all things adapt themselves to circumstances."
"Do they now, sir?"
"Yes; but you don't know what I mean."
"How stupid! why don't you ask then?"
"'Cause I don't want to bother you, sir, when you're getting tired."
"What nonsense! Always ask if you don't understand me. I meant that Ihave read about plants and animals altering in time to suit the placewhere they are. If dogs are taken up into the arctic regions they getin time to have a very thick fur under the hair; and if they are takeninto a hot country like this, they have a very fine silky coat."
"Do they now, sir?" said Ned. "Now I wouldn't have thought that a dogwould have so much gumption. But I don't know, dogs are very knowing."
"I don't think the dog has anything to do with it, Ned; it is a naturallaw. Now, if a fir tree is in a sheltered place, where the soil is deepand sandy, it grows to a tremendous size; but if the seed falls in arocky place, where it has to get its roots down cracks to find food, andcling tightly against the cold freezing winds, it keeps down close tothe ground, and gets to be a poor scrubby bush a few feet high, orless."
"Then the trees have got gumption too, sir. That's better than beingblown down."
"I don't know about gumption, Ned; but it's the same with flowers. Theygrow thin and poor on rocks and stones, and rich and luxuriant on goodmoist soils, and--Hallo! where are the others? we mustn't be leftbehind."
"Oh, we're all right, sir. They're only just ahead, and we can't loseourselves, because all we've got to do is to go back along by thetrickling water here. I'll shout if you like."
"Oh no; I could blow my whistle, but I don't want to, because it wouldstartle the doctor. He'd think there was something wrong."
"Don't whistle him, sir. Here's a nice comfortable bit o' rock here;would you like to sit down?"
"You're tired, Ned," said Jack quickly.
"Am I, sir? Well, I dunno--p'r'aps you're right. I s'pose I am a bitfagged. Legs don't seem to go quite so well as they used. If youwouldn't mind, I think I should like just ten minutes' rest to freshenme up a bit."
"Sit down then."
"After you, sir."
"Very well: there. No, sit down--or, better still, lie down on yourback."
"Make the things about puzzled, and want to know what I am. I shall behaving snakes and lizards going for a walk up my arms and legs, sir.But I don't know as I mind for a bit--I'll risk it."
Jack had halted at the foot of a perpendicular wall of moss-grown rock,and set the example, after disturbing the grass and ferns at the foot,of sitting down, and Ned lay at full length.
"Lovely, sir," he said. "It's worth while to get regular tired so as toenjoy a rest like this. I don't s'pose they'll go much farther, andthey must come back this way, I suppose."
"I think so, Ned. They couldn't come back through the forest, and theywould not as soon as they missed us, they'd be sure to come this way soas to pick us up."
He was silent for a few moments, and then went on softly, as his eyeswandered over the trees and creepers about them--
"How lovely it all is, with the sun sprinkling light through the leaves.It looks just like silver rain. Look at that great flapping moth.That must be an Atlas, I suppose. I ought to try and catch it, but itseems such a pity to go out and destroy every beautiful thing one sees,so as to turn it into a specimen. Look at those orchid clusters growingout of the stump where the tree branches. Shall I pick it, Ned? Sayyes, and I won't. I haven't forgotten the little snake which crept outon to my hand that time. Hallo! What bird's that? What a chance for ashot!"
As he sat there with a gun across his knees, first one and thenhalf-a-dozen large birds, emboldened by the silence, came stalking outfrom beneath the bushes, looking something like so many farmyard hens asthey began to peck and scratch about.
"What a chance!" thought Jack. "I might get a couple for roasting, butwe've killed enough things for one day."
He sat perfectly still, watching the birds till they had crossed alittle opening in front and slowly began to make their way up the slopein the direction taken by the doctor, Lenny, and the four men with them.
Then all at once one of the birds uttered a low clucking sound, andstood up with outstretched neck gazing in Jack's direction.
The bird was absolutely motionless for a few moments, then it duckeddown its neck and ran off beneath the undergrowth.
"Birds are beginning to know that we're dangerous," he said aloud. "Didyou see those, Ned?"
There was no answer, and Jack turned to gaze down at his companion, whowas fast asleep and breathing heavily.
"Poor fellow, he is not so strong as he thinks," said Jack to himself,"or else he will not own to his weakness for fear of being a trouble tous. What a wonderful thing strength is! I suppose I'm a good dealsturdier than I was. Must help father to-night arranging and makingnotes of some of the insects we got yesterday. Why, we shall have aregular museum by the time we get back to England."
And as he sat there in the calm silence, with the huge trees toweringabove his head, as if to filter the light and let it fall in streams anddrops, it seemed to him that the best way to observe Nature was to sitdown perfectly still as he had, and watch. For in different directionshe saw next how animal and even insect stole out now to pursue itsordinary courses, and he sat watching till the whole place seemed alive.
Twice over he heard shots, but they were faint and distant, and oncethere was a peculiar bump as if a large stone had fallen from far up themountain side. Then all was still again, and the birds he had seenpause in alarm resumed their pecking and climbing about.
"How soundly he sleeps!" thought Jack; and at last, when a good hour hadpassed away, he began to wish for the return of the doctor and the men,but there was no rustle of leaves, no sound of breaking strand or twig,everything was perfectly still, and the lad shifted his position alittle so as to find a place to rest his back, and as he did so apeculiar sensation came over him. It was as if a mental shadow crossedhis mind, begetting a shock of dread. The next moment a heavy blow frombehind fell upon his head, and all was blank.
Jack at Sea: All Work and No Play Made Him a Dull Boy Page 28