"Land ho!"
It was Lenny, the black-bearded sailor, who raised the cry at sunrise
one morning, and made Edward spring out of his berth and run up, closely
followed by Jack, who appeared on deck half-dressed, and with his face
lit up by a strange look of animation, but he gazed round over the
golden waters in vain.
But it was not only a golden sea that met his eyes, for the sky was
golden too, and the _Silver Star_ from deck to truck, with every yard
and rope, appeared to be transmuted into the glittering metal.
"Morning," cried the captain, coming up to him. "Did you hear the
hail?"
"Hear it? yes," said Jack, "and it's a mistake, unless the land's hidden
by the sun. I can see nothing."
"No?" said the captain, smiling. "Well, it would take long-trained eyes
to make it out on a morning like this, when everything is dazzling. But
let's try."
As he spoke the captain took his glass from under his arm, laid it on
one of the ratlines of the mizzen shrouds to steady it, and took a long
and patient look through.
"Ah!" he said, raising himself and keeping the glass in position. "Now
take a peep through my spy-glass. One moment: do you see that little
patch of cloud like fire, just a little north of the sun?"
"Is that north? Yes. I think I see the patch you mean."
"Then fix your glass on the horizon just on the line where the sea melts
into sky, under the middle one of those three patches. Quick, before
they change."
Jack took the glass and looked through.
"See it?"
"No," he said.
"Haven't got the glass straight perhaps," said the captain. "Take a
shot with it first as if it were a gun--look along the top and fix it
upon the horizon line, and then sweep it right and left till you make
the land."
"I've got it," cried Jack.
"The land?"
"No, the line of the horizon. I wasn't looking through the eye-piece.
That's it; now I can see the edge of the sea quite plainly."
"Then you are clever," said the captain, laughing. "I never did. Well,
sweep it about to right and left. See the land?"
"No," said Jack after a good long try. "Isn't it a mistake?"
"Let me try again," said the captain, taking the glass. "Yes, there it
is plainly enough, just under the little golden cloud to the right; they
are floating northward. Try again."
Jack took the glass, brought it to bear, and was silent.
"See it?"
"No. I can make out that beautiful golden cloud."
"Well, now look under it."
"Yes, I've been looking right under it, but there's nothing there but a
little hazy patch."
"Then you do see it," said the captain.
"That?"
"Yes; what did you expect to see?"
"Why, the island you talked about."
"Well, I don't say that is it, because I want to make an observation
first, but I feel pretty sure that it is the place."
"But that looks so little."
"It's a little island."
"Yes, but that looks so very small."
"So would you seem small if you were thirty or forty miles away," said
the captain, taking the glass and having another good long look. "The
air is very clear this morning, and the island looms up. But we shall
see better by and by."
They had been steadily sailing east for some days, and land had been
sighted several times since. Jack had stood gazing longingly over the
starboard rail at the tops of the Java volcanoes, which had followed one
another in succession, some with the clouds hanging round their sides
and their peaks clear, but two with what looked in the distance like
tiny threads of smoke rising from their summits, and spreading out into
a top like a mushroom.
This long island had tempted him strongly, and he had suggested to his
father that they should make a halt there, but Sir John and the doctor
both shook their heads.
"No," said the latter, "I vote against it. I believe Java to be a very
interesting country, but for our purpose it is spoiled."
"Yes," said Sir John; "we don't want to get to a place full of
plantations and farms; we want an out-of-the-way spot where the
naturalist and traveller have not run riot over the land; where Nature
is wild and untamed."
"And where we can find something new," said the doctor. "That place the
captain talked about is the very spot."
"But we may not find it," said Jack.
"Let's chance it, my boy," said his father; "and even if we do not hit
upon that, there are plenty of places far more interesting to us than
Java is likely to be."
And now at last they were in sight of the very place, and a wild
excitement began to fill the boy's breast as he went over the doctor's
imaginary description, one which the captain declared to be perfectly
accurate, for so many islands existed formed upon that very plan.
It did not occur to Jack that a great change had come over him, nor that
people on board were noticing him when he hurried down to finish
dressing that morning, and back on deck with his powerful binocular
glass, to stand gazing away toward the east.
"This is clearer and better than the captain's glass," he thought to
himself, "and easier to use," as he made out the misty little undefined
patch, but was disappointed to find how slightly it had changed in the
time he had been below.
He ate his breakfast hurriedly, and came on deck again with his
excitement growing, and Sir John and the doctor exchanged glances, but
nothing was said, as they leisurely finished their meal and then
followed him.
"When shall we make the land, captain?" said Sir John.
"Perhaps not till to-morrow morning," was the reply, "under sail: the
wind's falling."
"Why, where is Jack?" said the doctor suddenly. "He came on deck."
The captain gave him a queer look, and jerked his head backward, as he
stood facing the wheel.
"Forward in the bows?" said the doctor.
"No: look up."
Sir John and the doctor looked up in astonishment to find that Jack had
mounted the mainmast shrouds, and was now perched in the little apology
for a top, with his arms about the foot of the topmast, against which he
held his glass, gazing east.
Sir John drew a deep breath, and looked at his friend.
"Don't take the slightest notice," said the latter; "treat it as quite a
matter of course. He has taken his spring and is out of his misery. He
won't want any corks to swim with now, nor for us to hold him up."
"That's right, gentlemen," said the captain. "His spirit's rising, and
that will carry him along. I wouldn't notice anything."
"Hi! father!" cried the lad, as he lowered his glass and caught sight of
them. "I can't make much out even here. I say, Captain Bradleigh, are
you sure this is the island?"
"Well, I'm sure it's land," replied the captain.
"But we don't seem to get a bit nearer."
"Sun's getting higher and makes it fainter. But the wind is falling,
and we'll clap on a little more sail."
As the morning went on sail after sail was added, the men springing
aloft and shaking out the squaresails, while long triangular pieces of
canvas were run up the stays till the yacht was crowded, and she glided
along with a delightfully easy motion.
But it was all in vain; the wind sank and sank, till at mid-day the
sails hung motionless in the glowing sunshine, while, save for a slow
soft heaving, the glassy transparent sea was absolutely without motion.
"Oh, this is vexatious!" cried Jack impatiently.
"Yes, you'll have to whistle for the wind, Jack," said the doctor,
stretching himself under the awning and lighting his cigar.
"Whistle for nonsense!" said the lad irritably. "So tiresome, just too
as we have come in sight of the place."
"Practice for your patience, my boy," said Sir John merrily. "Oughtn't
he to come under the awning out of the scorching sun?" he continued to
the doctor, as Jack went forward to where Captain Bradleigh was giving
orders about lowering some of the studding-sails.
"Won't hurt him so long as he does not exert himself," replied the
doctor. "The sun, sir, is the real fount of life. Nature incites all
animals to bask in it, even the fish. There's a shoal swimming yonder.
We'll have a try for some presently. Do him good."
"Then why don't you go and lie in it?" said Sir John, smiling.
"Because I don't want doing good. Too idle. I'm drinking all this in.
I never felt so well in my life."
"Nor I," said Sir John, watching his son's movements, "but I begin to
feel as if I should like to be doing something active. What's Jack
about?"
The answer came in the boy's voice, heard distinctly enough in the clear
air,--
"I say, don't take the sails down, Captain Bradleigh," he said; "the
wind may come again soon."
"Not before sundown," replied the captain, "and then we shan't want
stuns'ls."
"But it might!"
"Yes, and it might come with a sudden touch of hurricane, my lad. We're
getting where dangers lie pretty quickly, and we old sea-going folk
don't like to be taken unawares."
"What would it do then if a touch of hurricane did come?"
"Perhaps take our masts short off by the board before we could let
everything go. Not nice to have half our canvas stripped away. You
haven't been at sea so long as I have, squire."
"No, of course not," said Jack impatiently. "But I say, why don't you
get up steam?"
"Because we want to keep our coal for an emergency, or when we want to
get on."
"Well, we want to get on now."
The captain smiled.
"Go and ask your father what he thinks."
"Yes; come with me."
The captain humoured him, and they walked aft to where the awning cast
its grateful shade.
"Here, father, hadn't we better have the steam up and get on?"
"I hardly think so, Jack. What do you say, captain; will the calm
last?"
"Only till sundown, sir; then I think we shall have a nice soft breeze
again."
"Then I say no, Jack," said Sir John. "We're quite hot enough, and it
does not seem fair to the men to send them down making roaring fires
when there is so little need."
"You'd be getting brown on both sides at once, Jack," said the doctor.
"Look yonder; fish rising. What do you say to having a try?"
"Yes," said Jack eagerly, "let's get up the lines. Hi, Mr Bartlett,
come on."
The mate had taken the captain's place, and was superintending the
lowering of the studding-sails.
"Yes, all right, Bartlett," cried the captain, "I'll see to that;" and
giving the lad a friendly nod, he went forward, the mate coming aft.
"Look! Fish!" cried Jack. "What had we better do, Mr Bartlett?"
"Yes; send out some light lines floating in the current," said the
doctor.
"No, I don't think we should do much that way. More likely to get
something from close in under the bows with the grains," replied the
mate thoughtfully. "But what I should do would be to lower a boat and
gently scull her toward one of those shoals; we might do something
then."
"That's the way," cried Jack. "Here, hi! Lenny, we want you."
The big black-bearded fellow looked inquiringly at the captain, who
nodded, and the man came aft, while Jack and the doctor went below, the
former in a hurry, the latter with a good deal of deliberation. The
mate and the man then proceeded to lower the light gig and cast off the
falls, leaving her hanging by the painter.
"Strong tackle and bright artificial baits, Jack, my lad. The water's
wonderfully clear."
These were selected from the ample store, and carried up to the boat,
into which a basket, a bucket, and a big stone bottle covered with a
felt jacket, and full of fresh water, were lowered.
"Won't you come, father?" said Jack suddenly.
"Well--er--no," said Sir John; "there is hardly room for another in that
boat."
"Then we'll have a larger," cried Jack in a decisive tone, speaking as
his father had never heard him speak before.
"No, no," cried Sir John; "don't alter your plans. But look out there."
He pointed away from the side of the yacht, and Jack shaded his eyes,
for the sun flashed from the surface.
"Fish of some kind," said the lad eagerly. "Look, Mr Bartlett; what
are they--eels?"
"Snakes--sea-snakes," said the mate quietly; and they stood gazing at a
little cluster of eight or ten beautiful mottled creatures lying close
to the surface, almost motionless, except that one now and then changed
the S-like figure into which it lay by bending and waving its long
sinuous body into some other graceful curve, progressing by a slight
wavy motion of its tail.
"Proof positive, Jack, that there are sea-snakes," said Sir John.
"We shall have to look out," said the doctor, laughing. "Perhaps these
are the babies, and papa and mamma not far off."
"Hallo! what have you got there?" said the captain, coming up. "Snakes,
eh? Plenty of them to be found."
"And big ones?" asked Jack eagerly.
"I don't say that, my lad," replied the captain. "There's a pretty good
big one there though."
"What, that?" cried Jack. "Three or four feet long."
"Nearer eight when he is out of the water."
"Would they take a bait?"
"Doubtful. But I would not try. Those things can bite, and, as I said,
I've known cases out in the Indian Ocean where men have died from their
bites. They're best dealt with from a distance. Why don't you shoot
one for a curiosity? You could keep it in spirits."
"Ah, why not?" said the doctor; and he ran below, to return directly
with a double gun and some cartridges, a couple of which he inserted at
the breech.
Sir John looked at his friend inquiringly.
"There you are," said the doctor, handing the gun to Jack. "I'd rest
the barrels on the rails as we're rolling a little. Then take a good
aim as we're rising, not as we're going down, and fire as if you wanted
the shot to go under its head."
Jack hesitated, and shrank a little, but mastering his feeling of
trepidation, he took the gun, and rested the barrels on the rail.
"Why am I to fire under if I want to hit the snake?" he said.
"Because you will be in motion, and if you do not, your charge of shot
will be carried above the reptile for one thing; another is to allow for
the refraction, which makes the snake seem higher in the water than it
is."
"But that one has its back right out."
"Yes: quick! a quick aim, and then draw the trigger."
Jack had never fired a gun in his life, and he shrank from doing so now,
but every one was watching him; and as the barrels still lay on the
rail, he glanced along between them as he had along the captain's
telescope that morning, and pulled the trigger, but no explosion
followed.
"Quick!" cried the doctor. "Do you call that quick?"
"It won't go off," said Jack, with a touch of irritation in his voice.
"Of course it won't," cried the doctor. "Why, you had not cocked it."
Jack had had no experience of guns, but he knew what ought to be done,
and quickly drawing back the hammers, he took aim just beneath the
largest of the snakes, and fired.
He had not placed the stock close to his shoulder, so he received a
sharp blow, and the report sounded deafening, the smoke was blinding,
and it was some moments before he was able to see what luck had attended
his shot.
Better than he expected. The large snake was writhing and twining about
in the water, and splashing it with blows from its tail, but the others
had disappeared, and the mate had dropped down into the boat, and taken
up the long-handled gaff-hook.
"Mind what you're about, Bartlett," cried the captain. "Don't lift it
into the boat while it's so lively."
"I'll take care," was the reply, and after giving the gig a thrust which
sent it near enough, the mate watched his opportunity, and lowering the
hook made a snatch with it, catching the snake somewhere about the
middle.
The touch seemed to fill the reptile full of animation, and quick as
thought it twined itself in a knot about the hook, bit at it, and began
lashing at the strong ash pole with its tail.
"Don't be rash, Bartlett," cried the captain. "We mustn't have any
accidents. There, keep the end down in the water while Mr Meadows here
gives it the other barrel."
"Fire at it again?" said Jack, who was full of excitement.
"Yes; give it him and finish him off," cried the doctor.
Jack raised the piece again, and it was none too soon, for the serpent
was beginning to make its way along the pole toward the mate's hands,
while it held on by tightening the folds of the lower part of its body.
The lad took aim at the knot twined round the hook, and then shivered as
he saw the head of the dangerous beast gliding, or more correctly thrust
along the ash handle, and changing the direction of the muzzle of the
piece a little to the left, he once more fired, when the snake's head
fell with a splash into the sea, the tight knot about the hook relaxed,
the tail fell limply, and writhing with a feeble motion, the two ends
hanging down together, prevented from falling by one twist round the
gaff.
"Bravo! well done, Jack!" cried the doctor. "I say, my lad, if you
begin by shooting like that you'll turn out a good shot. Now, Bartlett,
let's have the beast on board and see what it's like."
The mate placed the gaff across the bows of the gig and thrust an oar
over the stern, sculling the boat alongside, with the snake trailing in
the water. Then taking hold of the gaff handle, climbed on board, and
the prize was drawn on the deck, to lie writhing feebly and quite beyond
the power of doing mischief, but it was scarcely disfigured, the small
shot having done their work without much injuring the skin.
"Well, this is something to begin with," said Sir John, examining the
beautifully mottled creature, as it lay in the sun, the dark, almost
black ground of the skin showing up the ochre yellow markings, while in
certain lights the black glistened with iridescent hues.
"A good eight feet long," said the captain; "but you'd better be
careful. Cut his head off: he won't revive and show fight then."
"What, and spoil that beautiful skin!" cried the doctor. "No!"
"Get a length of stout fishing-line, Lenny," said the captain quietly;
and the man trotted forward, his companions of the crew making way for
him to pass, and then closing round again to examine the capture, which
kept on raising its head a little and letting it fall back on the deck,
after which a wave ran along the body right to the tail, which, instead
of being round and tapering off, showed the creature's adaptability for
an aqueous life by being flattened so that the end was something like
the blade of a sword.
"We had better start a spirit tub at once," said the doctor; and he bent
down over the head. "What sharp eyes!" he continued. "Malignant
looking little beast."
"That's right," said the captain, as Lenny came up with the stout line.
"Now make a noose in it. No, no, not at the end: a couple of fathoms
in. That's the way. Take hold, one of you others. Now together draw
the loop over the thing's head."
"What are you going to do?" cried Jack excitedly.
"Take care that he doesn't do any mischief, my lad," cried the captain;
and standing about a dozen feet apart, the two sailors carefully drew
the noose along the deck, till the bottom touched the snake's head, but
it would not pass under.
"Bring your gaff, Bartlett," cried the captain, "and raise the head a
little."
Hardly had he uttered the words, when the snake lifted it of itself a
few inches from the white deck, and its whole body was in motion.
"Look out," cried Jack; and several of the men started back, but the
sailors who held the line stood fast, and drew the noose over the
reptile's head, and with a quick snatch tightened the strong cord about
its neck.
The effect seemed magical, and the shot to have done nothing more than
stun the creature for a time. It was now apparently as strong as ever,
twining itself into knots and then writhing free again, to beat the
white deck with its tail.
But this did not last many minutes, and as the men kept the line tight
across the deck the reptile gradually stretched itself out, till it hung
perfectly limp and almost motionless by the neck. Then a small cask was
brought on deck, a stone jar of prepared spirit poured in, and the snake
drawn over the mouth and allowed to sink in. Then the head of the cask
was held ready and the tightened fishing-line cut short off. There was
a hollow splash, and the cask was covered and secured.
"That's specimen the first," said the doctor, with a smile of
satisfaction. "We shall have to fill that pickle-tub up before we go
back, Jack. There, go and put away the gun and let's have our fish."
"I'll take the gun, Mr Jack, sir," said Edward, who had been watching
all the proceedings with the greatest interest. "I must clean it before
it's put away."