The Castaways

by Mayne Reid

  CHAPTER SIX.

  A GIGANTIC OYSTER.

  "Water! water!"

  The pain of hunger is among the hardest to endure, though there is stilla harder--that of thirst. In the first hours of either, it is doubtfulwhich of the two kinds of suffering is the more severe; but, prolongedbeyond a certain point, hunger loses its keenness of edge, through thesheer weakness of the sufferer, while the agony of thirst knows no suchrelief.

  Suffering, as our castaways were, from want of food for nearly a week,their thirst was yet more agonising; and after the thanksgiving prayerhad passed from their lips, their first thought was of water--their cry,"Water! water!"

  As they arose to their feet they instinctively looked around to see ifany brook or spring were near.

  An ocean was flowing beside them; but this was not the kind of waterwanted. They had already had enough of the briny element, and did noteven turn their eyes upon it. It was landward they looked; scanning theedge of the forest, that came down within a hundred yards of the shore--the strip of sand on which they had beached their boat trending alongbetween the woods and the tide-water as far as the eye could trace it.A short distance off, however, a break was discernible in the line ofthe sand-strip--which they supposed must be either a little inlet of thesea itself, or the outflow of a stream. If the latter, then were theyfortunate indeed.

  Saloo, the most active of the party, hastened toward it; the othersfollowing him only with their eyes.

  They watched him with eager gaze, trembling between hope and fear--Captain Redwood more apprehensive than the rest. He knew that in thispart of the Bornean coast months often pass without a single shower ofrain; and if no stream or spring should be found they would still be indanger of perishing by thirst.

  They saw Saloo bend by the edge of the inlet, scoop up some water in hispalms, and apply it to his lips, as if tasting it. Only for an instant,when back to them came the joyful cry,--

  "_Ayer! ayer manis! sungi_!" (Water! sweet water! A river!)

  Scarce more pleasantly, that morning at day-break, had fallen on theirears the cry of "Land!" than now fell the announcement of the Malaysailor, making known the proximity of water. Captain Redwood, who wasacquainted with the Malay language, translated the welcome words. Sweetwater, Saloo had described it. Emphatically might it be so termed.

  All hastened, or rather rushed, toward the stream, fell prostrate ontheir faces by its edge, and drank to a surfeit. It gave them new life;and, indeed, it had given them their lives already, though they knew itnot. It was the outflow of its current into the ocean that caused thebreak in the coral reef through which their boat had been enabled topass. Otherwise they might have found no opening, and perished inattempting to traverse the surging surf. The madrepores will not buildtheir subaqueous coral walls where rivers run into the ocean; hence theopen spaces here and there happily left, that form deep transversechannels admitting the largest ships.

  No longer suffering from thirst, its kindred appetite now returned withundivided agony, and the next thought was for something to eat.

  They again turned their eyes toward the forest, and up the bank of thestream that came flowing from it. But Saloo had seen something in thesea, near the spot where the pinnace had been left; and, calling uponMurtagh to get ready some dry wood and kindle a fire, he ran back towardthe boat.

  Murtagh, the rest accompanying him, walked to the edge of the woodswhere the stream issued from the leafy wilderness.

  Just beyond the strip of sand the forest abruptly ended, the treesstanding thick together, and rising like a vast vegetable wall to aheight of over a hundred feet. Only a few straggled beyond this line.The very first of them, that nearest the sea, was a large elm-like tree,with tall trunk, and spreading leafy limbs that formed a screen from thesun, now well up in the sky, and every moment growing more sultry. Itoffered a convenient camping-place; and under its cool shadow they couldrecline until with restored strength they might either seek or buildthemselves a better habitation.

  An ample store of dry faggots was lying near; and Murtagh havingcollected them into a pile, took out his flint and steel, and commencedstriking a light.

  Meanwhile their eyes were almost constantly turned toward Saloo, all ofthem wondering what had taken him back to the boat. Their wonder wasnot diminished when they saw him pass the place where the pinnace hadbeen pulled up on the sand, and wade straight out into the water--as ifhe were going back to the breakers!

  Presently, after he had got about knee-deep, they saw him stoop down,until his body was nearly buried under the sea, and commence whatappeared to be a struggle with some creature still concealed from theirobservation. Nor was their wonder any the less, when at length he roseerect again, holding in his hands what for all the world looked like ahuge rock, to which a number of small shells and some sea-weed adhered.

  "What does the Malay crather want wid a big stone?" was theinterrogatory of the astonished Irishman. "And, look, captin, it's thatsame he's about bringin' us. I thought it moight be some kind ofshill-fish. Hungry as we are, we can't ate stones?"

  "Not so fast, Murtagh," said the captain, who had more carefullyscrutinised the article Saloo had taken up. "It's not a stone, but whatyou first supposed it--a shell-fish."

  "That big thing a shill-fish! Arrah now, captin, aren't you jokin'?"

  "No, indeed. What Saloo has got in his arms, if I'm not mistaken, is anoyster."

  "An oysther? Two fut in length and over one in breadth. Why, it's asmuch as the Malay can carry. Don't yez see that he's staggerin' underit?"

  "Very true; but it's an oyster for all that. I'm now sure of it, as Ican see its shape, and the great ribs running over it. Make haste, andget your fire kindled; for it's a sort of oyster rather toostrong-flavoured to be eaten raw. Saloo evidently intends it to beroasted."

  Murtagh did as requested, and by the time the Malay, bearing his heavyburden, reached the tree, smoke was oozing through a stack of faggotsthat were soon after ablaze.

  "Tha, Cappen Ledwad," said the Malay, flinging his load at the captain'sfeet. "Tha plenty shell-fiss--makee all we big blakfass. Inside findgood meat. We no need open him. Hot coalee do that."

  They all gathered around the huge shell, surveying it with curiosity,more especially the young people.

  It was that strange testaceous fish found in the Indian seas, and knownto sailors as the "Singapore oyster"--of which specimens are not raremeasuring a yard in length, and over eighteen inches in breadth at thewidest diameter.

  Their curiosity, however, was soon satisfied; for with stomachs cravingas theirs, they were in no very fit condition for the pursuit ofconchological studies; and Saloo once more lifting the large oyster--just as much as he could do--dropped it among the faggots, now fairlykindled into a fire.

  More were heaped around and over it, until it was buried in the heart ofa huge pile, the sea-weeds that still clung to it crackling, and thesalt water spurting and spitting, as the smoke, mingled with the brightblaze, ascended toward the overshadowing branches of the tree.

  In due time Saloo, who had cooked Singapore oysters before, pronouncedit sufficiently roasted; when the faggots were kicked aside, and with aboat-hook, which Murtagh had brought from the pinnace, the oyster [Note1.] was dragged out of the ashes.

  Almost instantly it fell open, its huge valves displaying in theirconcave cups enough "oyster-meat" to have afforded a supper for a partyof fifteen individuals instead of five--that is, fifteen not so famishedas they were.

  With some knives and other utensils, which the Irishman had also broughtaway from the boat, they seated themselves around the grand bivalve; nordid they arise from their seats until the shells were scraped clean, andhunger, that had so long tortured them, was quite banished from theirthoughts.

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  Note 1. Strictly speaking, the Singapore oyster is a gigantic speciesof Clam, (_Tridacna_).