Masterman Ready; Or, The Wreck of the Pacific
Page 46
CHAPTER FORTY SIX.
The subject was introduced to Mrs Seagrave, while they were atbreakfast, and as she perceived how much more secure they would be, shecheerfully consented. In less than an hour afterwards, William andReady had prepared the boat, and were pulling out among the rocks of thereef to find a passage, which, after a short time, and by keeping two orthree cables from the point, they succeeded in doing.
"This is very fortunate, William," observed Ready; "but we must now takesome marks to find our way in again. See, the large black rock is on aline with the garden point: so, if we keep them in one, we shall knowthat we are in the proper channel; and now for a mark abreast of us, tofind out when we enter it."
"Why, Ready, the corner of the turtle-pond just touches the right wallof the house," replied William.
"So it does; that will do; and now let us pull away as hard as we can,so as to be back in good time."
They soon were on the south side of the island, and pulling up along theshore.
"How far do you think that it is by water, Ready?"
"I hardly know; but at least four or five miles, so we must make up ourminds to a good hour's pull. At all events, we shall sail back againwith this wind, although there is but little of it."
"We are in very deep water now," observed William, after a long silence.
"Yes, on this side of the island we must expect it; the coral grows toleeward only. I think that we cannot be very far from the littleharbour we discovered. Suppose we leave off rowing for a minute, andlook about us."
"There are two rocks close to the shore, Ready," said William, pointing,"and you recollect there were two or three rocks outside of theharbour."
"Very true, William, and I should not wonder if you have hit upon thevery spot. Let us pull in."
They did so; and, to their satisfaction, found that they were in theharbour, where the water was as smooth as a pond.
"Now, then, William, we will step the mast, and sail back at ourleisure."
"Stop one moment, Ready; give me the boat-hook. I see something betweenthe clefts of the rocks."
Ready handed the boat-hook to William, who, lowering it down into thewater, drove the spike of iron at the end of it into a large crayfish,which he hauled up into the boat.
"That will be an addition to our dinner," said Ready; "we do not go backempty-handed, and, therefore, as the saying is, we shall be morewelcome; now, then, let us start, for we must pull here again thisafternoon, and with a full cargo on board."
They stepped the mast, and as soon as they had pulled the boat clear ofthe harbour, set sail, and in less than an hour had rejoined the partyat the house.
William had brought up the crayfish, which had only one claw, and Junoput on another pot of water to boil it, as an addition to the dinner,which was nearly ready. Tommy at first went with his sister Caroline tolook at the animal, and as soon as he had left off admiring it, hebegan, as usual, to tease it; first he poked its eyes with a stick, thenhe tried to unfold his tail, but the animal flapped, and he ran away.At last he was trying to put his stick into the creature's mouth, whenit raised its large claw, and caught him by the wrist, squeezing him sotight that Tommy screamed and danced about as the crayfish held on.Fortunately for him, the animal had been so long out of water, and hadbeen so much hurt by the iron spike of the boat-hook, that it was morethan half-dead, or he would have been severely hurt. Ready ran to him,and disengaged the crayfish; but Tommy was so frightened, that he tookto his heels, and did not leave off running until he was one hundredyards from the house, while Juno and Ready were laughing at him till thetears came into their eyes. When he saw the crayfish on the table, heappeared to be afraid of it, although it was dead.
"Well, Tommy," said Mr Seagrave, "I suppose you won't eat any of thecrayfish?"
"Won't I?" replied Tommy. "I'll eat him, for he tried to eat me."
"Why did you not leave the animal alone, Tommy?" said Mr Seagrave; "ifyou had not tormented it, it would not have bitten you; I don't knowwhether you ought to have any."
"I don't like it; I won't have any," replied Tommy. "I like salt porkbetter."
"Well, then, if you don't like it, you shall not have it forced uponyou, Tommy," replied Mr Seagrave; "so now we'll divide it among therest of us."
Tommy was not very well pleased at this decision, for he really did wishto have some of it, so he turned very sulky for the rest of thedinner-time, especially when old Ready told him that he had had hisshare of the crayfish before dinner.