Captain Dinks was gradually getting better; but his recovery was so very
slow that it would be weeks before he would be able to quit his cot.
His wound had been a severe one, and had narrowly missed his heart.
Under these circumstances, therefore, Mr Meldrum still retained the
position of chief of the party--not only the first mate and Mr Adams
acquiescing in the arrangement, which the poor captain desired; but the
general bulk of the men themselves, who were prejudiced in his favour
from Ben Boltrope's frequent yarns of his ability when an officer in the
navy, requested his continuing to be their leader by acclamation, when
he expressed a wish of surrendering the command as soon as they had
landed safely from the wreck and things had been made comfortable for
them on the island. This was only a repetition of what they had done
when they were in peril of their lives on board the _Nancy Bell_, at
which momentous time, it may be remembered, Mr McCarthy, speaking on
behalf of all, had asked him to assume the direction of things and
endeavour to extricate them from danger, looking upon him as the most
competent person to guide them in the emergency.
Just so, now, on his speaking of relinquishing the leadership, he was
requested to retain it for the common benefit, at least until Captain
Dinks should be able to get about. This was the more desired from the
fact of Mr Meldrum having managed matters so well for them already that
they expected him to "see them through" all present difficulties.
As on the previous occasion, Mr Meldrum did not hesitate to retain the
post, believing from his training and experience in commanding bodies of
men that he really would be the best leader they could have, in default
of the captain; but, before consenting to the general wish, he addressed
all hands, impressing on them the necessity of implicit obedience to his
orders and a rigid attention to whatever duties he might set them--
adding that they might be certain he would not tell them to do anything
which was not, to the best of his impression, for their own good.
To this the men assented with a cheer of acquiescence, and he then
dismissed them with the assurance that he would endeavour to deserve the
confidence they had displayed in him. But, prior to separating from Mr
McCarthy and Adams, Mr Meldrum drew up a code of rules for their
guidance, premising that where a large party of seamen such as they had
under them were thus thrown ashore with no regular duties to perform,
such as they had on board ship, it was most urgently necessary that
employment of some sort should be made for them; not only to keep them
out of that mischief which the evil one is proverbially said to find
"for idle hands to do," but also to prevent them from dwelling on the
misery of their situation.
"We must keep watches, turn and turn about," Mr Meldrum explained,
"just the same as we did on board the ship; for, although there'll be no
sails to attend to, in the cold nights which we will shortly have the
fire will need careful looking after to prevent it from going out and
leaving us all perhaps to freeze to death, while, in the daytime, there
will be seal-hunting and water fetching to employ the hands, besides
seeing to keeping the rooms clean. These and such similar duties must
be performed regularly, so that through their aid the long hours will
pass the more rapidly, until we are able--as I trust we shall about
November, when the snow melts here, I believe, and we can travel--to
start towards the other side of the island, where I hope we'll fetch
some harbour where the whalers touch, and get taken on board and landed
at the Cape or some other civilised spot. But, mind, in order to do
this," he added in conclusion, "we must all work together in harmony;
and, to prevent discord, and all sorts of unpleasantness, we must keep
the men constantly employed--not too onerously, but so that they shall
always have something to do--in order that the weary time of waiting
shall not hang heavy upon them. However, my friends, to encourage them,
you must likewise find something to be busy at for yourselves, as I
shall find for myself! Excuse this little bit of a sermon, gentlemen,"
said Mr Meldrum at the end of his discourse; "but I thought it
necessary to say it, as I've seen the evil of having a lot of men about
me with nothing for them to do on a foreign station before now, and I've
learnt wisdom by experience!"
"True for you, sorr," replied Mr McCarthy, stretching out his brawny
fist; "and there's my hand on it to say I'll attind to your orders, if
it's to holystone the face of that ould cliff there."
"All right, my friend!" said Mr Meldrum, shaking the hand outstretched
cordially. "I see we understand each other; and, believe me, I'll not
be a hard taskmaster."
"I'm certain of that, sir," responded Mr Adams; and the trio then
parted company to carry these arrangements into effect, the first result
of which was that everybody looked more cheerful than they had been
since the completion of the house, after finishing which some dulness
and lassitude had been observable in the men, coupled with a tendency to
idle about and mope.
This soon disappeared now when the first mate and Mr Adams, in
pursuance of Mr Meldrum's directions, made them bustle about here and
there.
They did all sorts of jobs. They scraped the jolly-boat's planking, and
pitched her inside and out; after which they collected all the stray
blocks of basalt they could find and built a "shebeen," as Mr McCarthy
called it, to contain her, and then housed it and her over with all the
spare planks they could get hold of--marching miles along the black
sandy beach for the purpose of seeing what stray timber might be
stranded. In addition to this work achieved, they rigged up a flagstaff
on the head of the cliff and used to signal from thence at stated hours
of the day. In fact, they were employed in doing everything that could
be thought of to give employment to their minds and bodies, McCarthy and
Adams finding them fresh jobs continually.
Amongst all these various tasks, however, the very needful one of
replenishing their gradually diminishing larder was not forgotten.
"We've got some green-stuff," said Mr Lathrope--whom the question of
eating, or rather what to get to eat, seemed more materially to affect
than anyone else--"and I ain't a-going to gainsay but what it's fust-
rate green-stuff of the sort, and right down prime filling stuff too;
but, mister, we ain't all ben brought up to live on sauerkraut, like
them German immigrants as I've seed land at Castle Garden, New York. I,
fur one, likes a bit o' somethin' more substantial, that a feller can
chew. 'Spose we goes a-huntin', hey?"
"Very good," replied Mr Meldrum to this exordium; "but what shall we
hunt!"
"Anything you durned please, siree," said the other. "There's seals and
them penguins besides lots of cormorants and sichlike."
"Well, I don't think the seals will want much hunting or shooting," said
Mr Meldrum; "for, if we come across any, a stroke over the nose with a
stick will settle them, and the same can be said of the penguins--
although I don't want them to be disturbed yet, as it will soon be their
breeding season and I hope to get a lot of eggs from the little colony
adjacent to us. As for the cormorants, if you complained about the
former birds having a fishy taste, you'll find these fishier still.
However, to relieve your mind, I believe that there are a number of wild
rabbits on the island, so we'll try to shoot some of those."
"Bully for you!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope. "We'll go rabbit-hunting,
mister, as soon as you please. If there wer one thing I liked in the
old country it wer rabbit-pie, and it kinder made me lonesome to think
I'd never fix my grinders through another 'fore I got played out!"
"I've heard, too," continued Mr Meldrum, "that there's a very fine sort
of tern or duck here that is good eating; and I fancy I saw a brace fly
across the creek the other day. We might come across some!"
"If we dew," said the American complacently, tapping the barrel of the
old rifle he had brought ashore as his most valued possession, and
spoken of as the gift of his deceased grandfather, "I guess Colonel
Crockett haar ken give a sorter good account of 'em. When I draws a
bead with that thaar rifle, mister, what I shoot at's as good as a gone
coon!"
"I hope you'll have plenty of practice with it then, to the advantage of
our dinner-table," replied Mr Meldrum pleasantly, preparing for the
expedition by loading carefully a double-barrelled gun which he too had
saved from amongst the various goods and chattels he had left on board
the wreck. "You can have all the rabbits I kill if you let me have the
ducks."
"That's a bargain, mister," said Mr Lathrope; "though I guess you'll
gain by the swop."
"Sure and it sames to me you're both countin' your chickens afore
they're hatched," observed the first-mate with a huge grin at his own
joke.
"You're not far wrong, Mr McCarthy," said Mr Meldrum. "I, for one,
don't expect to come back overladen with game; but of course I can't
answer for my friend here, who may be another American `Deerslayer,' for
all I can tell, though he'll find rabbits his biggest quarry on this
island."
"Sir," retorted Mr Lathrope, "I ain't goin' to let out all I ken dew,
fur a leaky sieve's gen'rally bad for holdin' water, I guess; but, you
jest wait and see what you jest see!"
"Arrah sure and we will, sorr," said Mr McCarthy, bursting into a
regular roar of laughter, in which Mr Meldrum and the others joined--
Mrs Major Negus being especially prominent in her merriment, as she
always was when anything was said to the American's disadvantage, he
being apparently her direct antipathy. "But I hope, sorr, though it
goes agin my own counthry to say it, what you bring back won't be as
much as Paddy shot at."
"You slide along with your durned brogue," was all the retort that Mr
Lathrope condescended to make to this hit. It touched him, however, on
his tenderest point, for he certainly prided himself on his proficiency
in the use of "the lethal weapon;" so, when he turned round and observed
that Master Snowball had heard the remark and was indulging in a quiet
guffaw at his expense, he rounded on him a little more sharply. "I
guess you'd better stow that, you ugly cuss!" said he menacingly; "or
else I'll soon make you rattle your ivories to another toon!" Whereupon
the darkey reduced his grin to a proper focus and endeavoured to look as
grave as he could.
This appeased Mr Lathrope at once.
"Oh! durn it all, nigger, laugh away," he said, his wrath passing away
as quickly as it had risen. "I guess those ken laugh who win;" and he
handed Snowball a chaw of tobacco to show that he did not harbour any
ill-will.
Leaving their house on the creek--which, by the way, Florry had
christened "Penguin Castle," in consequence of its propinquity to the
colony of queer sea-fowl--Mr Meldrum and Mr Lathrope, with Frank
Harness, who was also of the shooting party as well as two men to help
in carrying back home the fruits of the sport, all pursued their way in
company up the valley in a north-easterly direction to the right of the
cliff against which the house was built.
The ground here rose gradually as they went along, and the walking
became rather heavy after a time, in consequence of the snow having
partly thawed and the soil beneath it being of some sort of peaty
substance, into which their feet sank deeply at each step.
Presently, Frank, to whom Mr Meldrum had lent a second gun he had
brought ashore, saw a bird just like a little bantam cock, which he at
once shot.
This bird was pure white, with strong yellowish feet, that were not
webbed like those of aquatic habits, rather short wings like those of a
game bird, a strong black bill, stout spurs, and a bold black eye, which
latter seemed to reproach Frank when he went to pick it up. Mr Meldrum
said it was what was called a sheathbill, and not good for eating, which
made Frank regret all the more having killed it, especially when its
mate hopped up to him presently--as if asking him why he had shot her
husband!
It was next Mr Lathrope's turn, a wild duck flying right over his head;
but, somehow or other, "Colonel Crockett's rifle" didn't happen to be
just ready in time, and the duck would have escaped but for Mr
Meldrum's bringing it down with his right barrel. It was really very
curious.
The same thing resulted when a second teal, or widgeon--the wild duck
appearing to partake of the characteristics of both varieties--came by.
Strange to say, the American's weapon again missed fire, and Mr Meldrum
had to kill the bird with his left barrel. These repeated failures to
bring down anything made Mr Lathrope use rather strong language anent
the rifle.
"Burn the old thing!" said he; "I can't make out what's come over it.
My old grandfather's shot scores of deer with the tarnation weppin, and
I guess it's jest cranky, that's all. I bet I'll shoot the next fowl
that comes across haar, or I'll bust it."
Unfortunately, however, no more ducks were to be seen; but as they
ascended a rather steep and bare hill at the back of their own cliff,
and somewhat sheltered, like that, from the ocean winds, they noticed
one or two little objects, jumping up and down out of holes in the
ground and then scuttling back again--not from any alarm at their
appearance, but as if only in play, for they did not interrupt their
pastime for a moment as the shooting party approached.
"By Jove! there are the rabbits," said Frank, levelling his gun.
"Jeerusalem! so they air," exclaimed Mr Lathrope. "Dew let me hev the
first shot!"
"All right; fire away!" replied Mr Meldrum, who was ready to aim at a
couple of the little creatures that were sitting up on a fragment of
rock right opposite the three sportsmen, apparently combing their
whiskers and eyeing them curiously the while. So near were they,
indeed, that the most unskilful marksman in the world could hardly have
missed them.
"Here goes, mister!" ejaculated Mr Lathrope, pulling the trigger of his
piece with as strong an effort as if he were wrenching back a gate-post.
"I guess you'll soon see the fur fly."
Instead of this, however, the phenomenon was witnessed of the fragments
of the rifle dispersing in all directions the moment it was discharged,
the American being at the same time knocked backward to the ground by
the kick of the weapon, which went off with a loud report.
"You're not hurt, I hope?" asked Mr Meldrum, who with Frank had at once
hurried to the American's side and taken hold of his hand to raise him
up.
"No, I guess not," replied Mr Lathrope slowly, getting up on to his
feet and proceeding to feel himself carefully all over. "No, I ain't
hurt; but I feels flummuxed by the durned old shootin'-iron. I
kalkerlate my grandfather was a fraud, and took me in on that job. I
would ha' betted my bottom dollar on the weppin, and now it ain't worth
a cent!"
There was a pretty good laugh round at "Colonel Crockett's rifle," and
what it had brought down, but the American took it all with very good
temper. After that, Mr Meldrum and Frank handing him their guns
alternately, so that they all three could have a fair number of shots
apiece, they managed to make a very good bag out of the rabbits, which
were not in the least dismayed either by the bursting of the rifle in
the first instance, or by the rapid disappearance of their companions
subsequently, although each discharge of the sportsmen's guns laid many
of them low.
Indeed, they might have shot the lot had not Mr Meldrum observed that
they had secured enough; besides which, the two sailors who accompanied
the party said they could not cram any more into the sacks they had
brought. Thereupon all set about counting the spoil, and found that
they had bagged no less than sixty-three brace.
These, with five wild ducks--Mr Lathrope bringing down a pair right and
left, on their way back, in a fashion which amply retrieved his
character as a shot, and Frank securing the odd one--were the nett
result of the day's sport, in addition to the little sheathbill; and the
shooting party returned to the house under the cliff as well satisfied
with their own prowess as the home party were to welcome them,
especially as they were now so plentifully provided with what all had
been longing for since the last sheep had been washed overboard the
_Nancy Bell_ when she was off the Cape--fresh-meat!
That very day Mr Lathrope had a pie made for his own special
delectation by Snowball as a sort of _amende honourable_ for the
darkey's laughter at Colonel Crockett's celebrated rifle, which had come
to such a deplorable and dangerous end; and, for some time after, the
entire community of "Penguin Castle," with the exception of the penguins
themselves, feasted upon bunnies _ad libitum_, until they could say, as
did the servants of that parsimonious nobleman who fed them without
change on similar fare:--
"Of rabbits young and rabbits old,
Of rabbits hot and rabbits cold,
Of rabbits tender and rabbits tough,
Thank the Lord, we've had enough!"