A SAILOR'S KNIFE
'She is perfectly sound and watertight,' he called back to her as,
with the hand which was uninjured, he threw the oar over the boat's
stern, and worked her out from the shore. 'If we want her to help us
off to another island she will do it, if I can only find another oar
floating about somewhere.'
Then he propelled her as swiftly as he could to where the _Emperor of
the Moon_ lay outside the rock, her keel and copper bottom gleaming in
the bright morning sun.
As he drew near to the ship he began to perceive how all hope of the
likelihood that any one should still be alive and imprisoned in the
ship must be abandoned. She had turned over even more than he had at
first imagined when regarding her from the shore of the island, so
that the keel was almost level in a manner exactly the opposite from
what sailors mean when they talk about a 'level keel.' It stuck up
now, so far as it was out of water, as some sharp mountain ridge seems
to stick up when regarded from a valley, and showed an almost
horizontal line; while, beneath the keel and above the water, for half
the length of the vessel, there was visible a portion of the outside
of the main hold, down to (or up from) her diagonal ribboned-lines.
And, here, there was a great gaping wound, a hole smashed into her
side large enough to have let the whole Indian Ocean pour into the
devoted ship directly it was made, and (although there might well be
others which were not visible) sufficient to have filled and sunk,
forthwith, the largest vessel that was ever launched. The force of the
impact was to be appreciated, too, by the manner in which her copper
sheathing was driven into her and burst, so that, where the blow had
been struck by the jagged tooth of the rock, the latter looked like a
destroyed _chevaux-de-frise_, or, for a better comparison, a paper
hoop through which an acrobat had passed. And, in this burst and
broken protection, as in other and less terrible circumstances it
might have been (though naturally it had proved useless here), the
sheathing-nails stuck out like brilliant, gleaming yellow teeth, all
broken and distorted.
Charke brought the quarter-boat alongside the upturned or leaning
bottom, so that, by looking through this gaping wound, he could peer
into the now reversed decks and see that there lay, on what had once
been the roof of it but was now the floor, a mass of articles, such as
is usually stowed away in a ship's lower decks. A mass, composed of
cables and old and new sails, as well as some stores, consisting of
dozens of tinned-meat cans unopened, boxes of sardines, and so forth,
and several old sea chests and trunks--all lying, of course,
helter-skelter, as they had been thrown together by the ship's
reversal.
'There are some things of use here,' Charke thought, 'and worth taking
away,' whereupon he ran the painter through a small hole in the
sheathing and tied it tightly, and then scrambled up the vessel's
inverted side until he was able to drop himself through the opening
into the deck, taking care that he tore neither his flesh nor his
clothes in doing so. Being there, he selected a small sail which he
found; it was indeed, a boat sail, and had its gear of mast and tackle
attached, while, passing it through the orifice, he dropped it
carefully into the boat, and then he took next a few of the tins of
provisions, and dropped them into her, too. And, also, he found
something which would be to him, in the utterly unprovided condition
in which Bella and he had escaped to the island, of the greatest
service. This was a long, sharp knife in its leather sheath, such as
sailors strap to their sides, and was new and in good condition, so
that he did not doubt that the last seaman who had been sent below to
this deck had dropped it there, and he was able to picture to himself
the man's annoyance, probably expressed aloud and with a good deal of
vehemence and strong language, over his loss. This done--and the doing
of it had not taken long--he prepared to leave the disordered hold,
when he remembered that there was one thing he wanted, namely, some
cable. 'That tiger has to die at once,' he muttered to himself.
'With a piece of stout rope and this knife--which would slay anything,
from a horse downwards--its death should not be difficult of
accomplishment.'
Then, having selected two or three pieces of cable of different
strands, he got out through the hole again and into the boat.
It is almost needless to write down that he found no sign of human
life as he rowed about and round the wrecked _Emperor of the Moon_ for
some moments afterwards. Needless, too, perhaps, to add that he had
never expected to find any. He was a sailor, accustomed to disaster at
sea and full also of much acquired knowledge pertaining to many of the
calamities which it had never been his lot to experience heretofore;
and he knew--he felt sure, and would have staked his life upon the
certainty of his convictions--that of all who had been in that doomed
ship an hour before she struck, none except Bella Waldron and himself
were now alive. Those who had been below in the cabins or saloon,
those also who were in forecastle or galley, had met, must have met,
not only with their deaths but their graves at one and the same time;
while as for the unhappy and blind young officer who had caused him so
much heartache by winning the woman whom he loved so fondly, and whom
he had once hoped to win--why, it was impossible that he should still
be alive. If he had been washed ashore, it could be only as a corpse,
and it was most improbable that even that should have happened. In
truth, he believed that, with all the others, he had been carried
below by the overturning of the ship and then pinned down, buried,
beneath the mass of the fabric. Otherwise, since the boat had floated
ashore, so, too, would he have done by now.
'The woman he had hoped to win,' he repeated softly to himself, as
still he sculled the quarter-boat round and round while peering down
into the dark blue depths as far as he could penetrate; and while
endeavouring also to perceive some sign or memorial--even so much as a
cap or straw hat--of one of those poor drowned sailors imprisoned
below--'the woman he had hoped to win!' And as the phrase rose to his
mind, though not to his lips, he recalled as well how he had cherished
the thought of the length of voyage that had lain before her ere she
could join her lover in India; how, too, he had pondered on half a
hundred things which might happen ere the old _Emperor_ should be
anchored in Bombay harbour. Almost, now, those meditations seemed to
have been prophetic--for what had not happened! The girl's lover was
gone, removed by death, and she had none other in the world on whom to
lean but himself. And what was more, she spoke kindly to him; she
pitied him, he could well perceive; there was something between them
now, a deep sympathy, a reliance on each other in their misfortunes,
which had never existed before.
'The woman he had hoped to win?' Well!--he scarce dared whisper the
thought to his longing heart, yet it was there!--the thought, the hope
that in days to come, in after-months, perhaps years, when her grief
for Gilbert Bampfyld was mellowed and softened by time, when she knew
him better and should fully recognise how profound his adoration for
her was, he might still win her! She could not, young as she was, and
with all the years of a long life before her, sorrow for ever--sorrow
for a memory that would at last be nothing but a shadow.
'He _would_ win her!' he said aloud to himself now, as he worked the
boat ashore, 'he was resolved he would.' The one obstacle in his path
was removed, the brave, gallant young officer was gone, brushed aside
by Fate. He would win her yet!
He stepped ashore now to where she was standing watching him, and it
seemed almost--if his recent thoughts had not tinged his present
fancies with a roseate hue--that there was a look of greeting and
welcome to him in her eyes, even as she saw that he had come
back--even at the ending of so short an absence as his had been! Was
she beginning now--now that she had none other in the world to watch
for--to desire to have him always near her? Ah, if that were indeed
so! Then--then he might win her at last.
'You found,' she asked, speaking low, and in those sad tones which had
come into her voice of late, and since disaster had fallen heavily on
them, 'you found no sign of any others having been saved?'
'No,' he said, also softly. 'No, there are no signs of that. Miss
Waldron--I am neither cruel nor hard of heart, but--oh, how can I say
it!--it is useless to hope.'
'Useless! Ah, well, I suppose it is--it must be! And, God help me, it
must also be borne.' Then she turned away from him with the desire to
prevent the tears which had risen to her eyes from being seen by him,
and went back to the shade of the trees under which she had been
sitting until she saw the quarter-boat returning with him in it. And
he followed her, carrying the cable which he brought away from the
ship; the knife which he had found being in his pocket and the sail
with its gear left in the boat. The sun was terribly fierce now, so
fierce that to be beneath its rays for only a few moments was to risk
sunstroke or to be burnt more red than he had long since been, or she
since her exposure on the island; and, of course, he could not attempt
the projected tour of the place until that sun once more sank low in
the west. There was, therefore, nothing now to do but to sit idly
gazing out to sea and watch for signs of any ship which might pass
near enough to perceive them, when they should have erected signals.
'After the tour round the island,' he said to her, as he sat by her
side beneath the palm trees and occupied his time in plaiting some of
the long, thick grass which grew at their feet into something that
should serve for hats, or, at least, coverings for their heads, 'after
the tour, when we have had the last sad satisfaction of knowing that
there can be none who have escaped, you will not object to my
endeavouring to arrange for our being taken off? The Mozambique
Channel is full of ships on their way to India during the time of the
southwest monsoon--you will let me make signals, will you not?'
'I am in your hands,' she replied, her eyes on him. 'You must do all
that you think best. Ah, Mr. Charke, you do not know how grateful I
feel to you!'
'Never say that. Not a word. I knew, I thought, I could save one
besides myself, and, naturally,' he went on simply, 'I saved you.'
Then both sat on musing and meditating in silence.
'Here comes the tiger,' he said now, seeing the creature stalking
towards them in the lithe, treacherous manner peculiar to its race. 'I
imagine it has been endeavouring to find food. I brought off some
tinned things from the ship; yet, cruel as it seems to be, it is not
advisable, I think, to give it anything in the shape of flesh.
Meanwhile, if it will only go to sleep we ought to secure it,' and, as
he spoke, he took up one of the pieces of cable and commenced tying
what is known to sailors as a double-diamond knot. But, previously, he
had fastened the other end securely round one of the palm trees that
grew close by him.
'There will be one advantage in this,' he said, 'namely, that the more
it pulls against it the tighter will come the loop, so that its
intelligence will prevent it from straining at the rope and strangling
itself.'
'Poor wretch,' Bella exclaimed, 'how gaunt and lean it is growing! I
recognise that it cannot be kept alive or even taken off with us when
we are found here; yet--yet I am sorry for it.'
'Yes,' he answered, 'I understand that, but it has to be done--must be
done--it is imperative. In the state it is now in from hunger, and
also owing to its increasing strength, our lives are no longer safe
with it, and certainly not with it at large; while, if one of us were
to scratch our hands, or even get the slightest wound, and the
creature smelt the blood, which it would undoubtedly do--well, the
result might be terrible. Now, see, it's going to sleep; it appears
exhausted. I must drop the loop over its head.'
'No,' she answered, 'let me do that. It is still very docile with
me,' and, as she spoke, she took the loop from his hand and, while
patting the creature's head--whereon it raised it as a dog will raise
its head when stroked by a loved hand--she dropped that hand down
until the rope was round its neck, though not without muttering some
words of regret as to what she deemed her treachery.
'It is no treachery,' he said, 'no more treachery, indeed, than to tie
up a mastiff in its kennel. And, even though it were, it would not
matter. These creatures are themselves the incarnation of treachery.
However, the main point is that it is now secure. It is not yet strong
enough to burst this rope.'
Such was the case, yet it was strange that to so acute a mind as
Charke's there had not occurred the idea that it would not take a
tiger very long to gnaw a ship's rope through if it desired its
release.