It was a ship,--a ship with its keel settled deep in the sand, and held
immovable against wind and storm by a rudely built foundation wall of
broken rock. The sunlight blinked cheerfully from the dozen portholes; the
jutting prow bore the weather-worn figurehead of the "Lady Jane,"--minus a
nose and arm, it is true, but holding her post bravely still. Stout
canvas, that could be pegged down or lifted into breezy shelter, roofed
the deck, from which arose the "lookout," a sort of light tower built
around a mast that upheld a big ship lantern; while the Stars and Stripes
floated in glory over all.
For a moment the four young travellers stared breathless at this
remarkable edifice, while Freddy eagerly explained:
"It's my Great-uncle Joe's ship that was wrecked here on Killykinick. He
had sailed in her for years and loved her, and he didn't want to leave her
to fall to pieces on the rocks; and so he got a lot of men, with chains
and ropes and things, and moved her up here and made her into a house."
And a first-class house the "Lady Jane" made, as all the boys agreed when
they proceeded to investigate Great-uncle Joe's legacy. True, there was a
lack of modern conveniences. The sea lapping the sands to the right was
the only bath-room, but what finer one could a boy ask? There was neither
dining room nor kitchen; only the "galley," as Captain Jeb, who came up
shortly to do the honors of this establishment, explained to his guests.
The "galley" was a queer little narrow place in the stern, lined with pots
and pans and dishes scoured to a shine, and presided over by another old
man more crooked and leathery-visaged than Captain Jeb, and who seemed too
deep in the concoction of some savory mixture simmering on his charcoal
stove to give look or word to the newcomers who crowded around him.
"That is Neb," said his brother, in brief introduction. "He don't hev much
to say, but you mustn't mind that. It ain't been altogether clear weather
in his upper deck since he shipped with a durned pirate of a captain that
laid his head open with a marline spike; but for a cook, he can't be beat
by any steward afloat or ashore. Jest you wait till he doses out that
clam-chowder he's making now!"
Then there was the long, low cabin that stretched the full length of the
"Lady Jane," and that--with its four cosy bunks made up shipshape, its big
table, its swinging lamp, its soft bulging chairs (for Great-uncle Joe had
been a man of solid weight as well as worth)--was just the place for boys
to disport themselves in without fear of doing damage. All about were most
interesting things for curious young eyes to see and busy fingers to
handle: telescope, compass, speaking trumpet, log and lead and line that
had done duty in many a distant sea; spears, bows and arrowheads traded
for on savage islands; Chinese ivories and lacquered boxes from Japan. A
white bearskin and walrus tusk told of an early venture into the frozen
North, when bold men were first drawn to its darkness and mystery; while
the Buddha from an Eastern temple, squatting shut-eyed on a shelf, roused
good old Brother Bart into holy horror.
"I never thought to be under the same roof with a haythen idol. Put it
away, my man,--put it out of sight while I'm in yer house; for I can't
stand the looks of it. I'll be after smashing it into bits if ye lave it
under me eyes."
And his indignation was appeased only by the sight of the Captain's room,
which had been respectfully assigned to the "Padre," as Captain Jeb
persisted in calling his older guest.
Here Great-uncle Joe had treasures rare indeed in the good Brother's eye:
a wonderful crucifix of ivory and ebony; the silver altar lamp of an old
Spanish monastery; a Madonna in dull tints that still bore traces of a
master hand; a rosary, whose well-worn beads made Brother Bart's pious
heart warm.
"Indeed he was a God-fearing man, I'm sure, this uncle of laddie's."
"He was," agreed Captain Jeb; "a little rough-talking sometimes, but all
sailors are."
"Well, it's a rough life," said Brother Bart, recalling his own late
experience. "It's little chance it gives you to think or pray. But the old
man ye talk of prayed; I am sure of that. The beads here bear token of
it."
"Aye," answered Captain Jeb. "He held to them to the last as tight as if
they was an anchor chain,--why I don't know."
"That's yer ignorance, poor man!" said Brother Bart, compassionately. "Ye
should pray morning and evening for light, and perhaps ye'll be given the
grace to know what the hould of blessed beads is to a dying hand. Now, if
ye don't mind, I'll rest a bit in this quiet place, and try to say me own
prayers that I missed last night; for it was a sore trying time to me,
both body and soul. There's no harm can come to the boys, now that they
are safe here."
"I wouldn't swear to four younkers like them anywhere," was the grim
answer. "But ye can rest easy, Padre: I'll keep an eye on them, never
fear." And, closing the old Captain's door on his anxious guest, Captain
Jeb proceeded to "keep an eye" on the boys who were exploring Killykinick
in every direction.
As it had little more than half a mile of visible surface, the exploration
was naturally limited; but there was a "deal more below," as Captain Jeb
assured them,--reefs and shoals stretching out in every direction, and
widening every year with the silt carried down from the shore. There were
one or two wide hollows between the rocks, where that same silt,
top-dressed with richer earth imported from more favored spots by Captain
Jeb, served as kitchen garden, in which beans, cabbages and potatoes made
a promising show. On another sheltered slope, green with coarse grass,
brown Betty was pasturing peacefully; while in a henhouse beyond there was
clucking and cackling, cheerfully suggestive of chickens and eggs.
"We used to hev mostly ship rations," said Captain Jeb. "But the old man
got sort of picky and choosy these last years, and turned agin the
hard-tack and old hoss meat that had been good enough for him before. So I
got a few boat-loads of good earth and took to growing things. And things
do grow here for sure, if you only give them a chance. All they want is
root hold; the sun and the air and the soft mists do the rest."
Then there was the pump house; for even the toughest of old "salts" must
have fresh water. And it had cost many a dollar to strike it in these
rocks; but strike it at last the well-borers did, and the pump was roofed
and walled in as Killykinick's greatest treasure.
"Stick round here, younkers, along by the 'Lady Jane' and the wharf and
the garden beds, and down by the 'Sary Ann' and the boats to the south
beach, and you'll be pretty safe. But I'm going to show you a place whar
you can't do no monkey shining, for it ain't safe at all."
And as Captain Jeb spoke he turned to the high wall of rock that had
backed and sheltered the "Lady Jane" for nearly fifty years; and, bending
his thin form, he pushed through a low, narrow opening, with, it is
needless to say, four wide-eyed boys scrambling breathlessly behind
him,--Dan, as usual, in the lead, pulling Freddy on.
For a moment they stumbled in darkness, through which came a thunderous
sound like the swell of some mighty organ under a master hand; and then
they were out in light and space again, with the ocean cliff of
Killykinick arching above and around them in a great cave hollowed by the
beating waves out of solid rock. Wall and roof were rough and jagged,
broken into points and ledges; but the floor was smoothed by the tide into
a shining, glittering surface, that widened out to meet the line of
breakers thundering white-foamed beyond, their sprays scattering in light
showers far and near.
"Jing! Golly! Hooray!" burst from the young explorers; and they would have
dashed off into bolder investigation of this new discovery, but Captain
Jeb's sudden trumpet tone withheld them.
"Stop,--stop thar, younkers! Didn't I tell you this warn't no play-place?
How far and how deep these caves stretch only the Lord knows; for the sea
is knawing them deeper and wider every year. And thar's holes and
quicksands that would suck you down quicker than that whale in the Good
Book swallowed Jonah. And more than that: in three hours from now these
here rocks whar we are standing will be biling with high tide. This ain't
no play-place! I'm showing it to you so you'll know; for thar ain't no
reefs and shoals to easy things here. It's deep sea soundings that no line
can reach, this nor'east shore. Them waves hev a clean sweep of three
thousand miles before they break here. And thar ain't to be no ducking nor
swimming nor monkey shining around here unless me or Neb is on watch. Neb
ain't much good for navigating since he got that hit with the marline
spike, but for a watch on ship or shore he is all right. So them 'orders'
is all I hev to give: the Padre, being a bit nervous, may hev some of his
own; but thar ain't nothing to hurt four strapping younkers round
Killykinick except right _here_. And now, I reckon, it's about time for
dinner. I'm ready for some of Neb's clam-chowder, I know; and I guess you
are, too."
"Jing! but this is a great place of yours, Freddy!" said Dan, as they
turned back to the ship house. "We could not have found a better."
"That's all you know," scoffed the lordly Dud. "I mean to keep on the
right side of the old duffer," he added _sotto voce_, "and get over to
Beach Cliff in that tub of his whenever I can. Minnie Foster asked me to
come; they've taken a fine house down on the shore, and have all sorts of
fun--dances, picnics, boat races. I'll get sick of things here pretty
soon; won't you, Jim?"
"I don't know about that," was the lazy answer. "About as good a place to
loaf as you'll find."
"Loaf?" put in Dan. "There isn't going to be any loafing at Killykinick
for me. I'm for boating and fishing and clamming and digging up those
garden beds. I don't know what those others are paying," said Dan, who had
fallen behind with Captain Jeb; "but I've got no money, and am ready to
earn my board and keep."
"You are?" said the Captain, in surprise. "As I took it, the Padre bunched
you all together for as fair a figure as I could ask."
"Not me," replied Dan. "These other chaps are plutes, and can pay their
own way; so cut me out of your figures and let me work for myself."
"Well, that's sort of curious talk for a younker with a high-class
schooling," said Captain Jeb, dubiously. "You mean you want to hire out?"
"Yes," said Dan, remembering Aunt Winnie and how doubtful his claim was
upon St. Andrew's.
"Thar will be considerable stirring round, I'll allow," was the reflective
answer. "I was thinking of getting Billy Benson to lend a hand, but if
you'd like the job of sort of second mate--"
"I would," said Dan. "What is a second mate's work?"
"Obeying orders," answered Captain Jeb, briefly.
"That's dead easy," said Dan, with a grin.
"Oh, is it?" was the grim rejoinder. "Jest you wait, younker, till you've
stood on a toppling deck in the teeth of a nor'easter, with some
dunderhead of a captain roaring cuss words at you to cut away the mast
that you know is all that's keeping you out of Davy Jones' Locker, and
then you'll find what obeying orders means. But if you want the job here,
it's yours. What will you take?"
"My board and keep," answered Dan.
"That ain't no sort of pay," said the other, gruffly.
"Wait till you see me eat," laughed Dan; "besides, I was never a second
mate before. Maybe I won't make good at it."
"Mebbe you won't," said Captain Jeb, his mouth stretching into its crooked
smile. "You're ruther young for it, I must admit. Still, I like your grit
and pluck, younker. Most chaps like you are ready to suck at anything in
reach. What's your name?"
"Dan--Dan Dolan," was the answer.
"Good!" said Captain Jeb. "It's a square, honest name. You're shipped, Dan
Dolan. I guess thar ain't no need for signing papers. This little chap
will bear witness. You're shipped as second mate in the 'Lady Jane' now
and here."