A PAIR OF BLUE EYES.
My mother, who was very sharp about some things, could not have failed
to discover from me, or else from Uncle Bill, who was as simple as a
child, that he had spent a long time in telling me a portion of one of
his manifold adventures; which recalled to my mind, once or twice, the
rare doings of that grandest of all rovers, Captain Robinson Crusoe. But
when she returned from a very long visit to Mrs. Windsor, she had such a
quantity not only to tell, but to give her own opinion on, and to get it
confirmed by mine (whenever she could stop), that it was next to
impossible for her to look about, as she generally did, or even wait to
be talked to, unless it was about the matter she was so wrapped up in.
And she declared that she had not heard a quarter of it yet; being
forced by her duties here, to come away abruptly--though she could not
have had less than five hours there, however well she steered the
cabman--and if she could only be sure, that her dear invalid would not
miss her so very much, she had promised to go again, and give her very
humble advice about many things, to-morrow. It was very painful for
her--she confessed that freely--when she remembered what might have
been; and £12,125 might better have stopped in the boiling connection,
than gone into the meat trade, to buy up opposition. However, her dear
boy would not break his heart; had he cared to come forward, he might
have put a spoke in somebody's wheel; and there always had been
something about Polly, which she would be the last to remind her mother
of.
When the coast was quite clear, as Captain. William expressed it, after
looking down the "drive," as we called it (which was very nearly twelve
yards long, whenever the gate was opened outwards), and receiving a wave
from a new white handkerchief--for my dear mother had taken three that
day, having wept into her capstrings yesterday--he made his
preparations, or directed me to make them, for a very long voyage in the
narrative trade. He had three pipes ready, not to smoke them hot, for
fear of any tendency towards coughing, and a glass of "regulation," to
be served when he made signal, and his little spy-glass handy, that he
might see the bus from Hampstead, at a turn of the road a long way up
the hill; and he always expected to see sailors on it, and if he saw
one, he would be sure to drink his health.
"Tommy," he said in a determined tone; "I mean to have a quid, and no
mistake. It is six months now, since I have had a quid. In the pocket of
that coat behind the door----"
"But, sir," I answered, looking at him with surprise; "you have been
most strictly forbidden to do it. You spoke of it yesterday, and Dr.
Flebotham said that congestion at least might ensue. Try to wait till
mother comes, and if she allows it----"
"Don't be crafty, Tommy, now. I hate crafty people. Your mother would
never allow it, you know well; and my only chance for it is, when she is
gone away. Do as I tell you. I am the skipper here. Mutiny, indeed, from
a younker just shipped! You won't hear another word, until you bring my
knife from the pocket with the yellow button to it, and a cake of
Cavendish from the little midship locker. Very good; now cut where I
scar my nail. It's not so much the comfort of it that I want, as to keep
the throat juicy, and prevent me coughing, from hauling so many dry
words out of my hold. Very well done, Tommy; I shall promote you. Now,
where did I break my yarn off?"
"About your all getting safe into the ship, sir, with two men wounded,
and poor little Tommy dead. And you said, you hadn't come to the best
part yet. Though I thought it was very good indeed already."
"Well, my son, you shall hear the rest of it, and judge. As soon as we
had brought ourselves round with victuals, for the sake of the hard day
we had been through, I sent for the man we had rescued, and held a long
talk with him in my cabin. As yet, I have only been able to meet with
two men who had the gift of gratitude, and both of those happened to be
Welshmen. The name of this man was Rees Edwards; and a smarter hand
never went aloft. Welshmen, as a rule, are not first-rate seamen; but
when they are good, they beat everything; and Rees Edwards was the best
of them I ever came across. His last trip had been in an American bark
called the _Beaver_, engaged in the Beachymess, and sponge-trade, among
these Pacific islands. She had struck in the night, on the great
coral-reef surrounding these two islands, and a smart breeze from
seaward setting in, they had found it impossible to haul her off. A
heavy sea got up, and she broached to, with the rocks grinding through
her timbers. But the crew contrived to launch their boats, and finding a
passage through the reef, made land, and were very soon surrounded by
the natives.
"These fellows shammed to be as good as gold at first, (though of course
they knew nothing of their lingo) and supplied them with food, and gave
them huts to live in, and laid themselves out to be obliging. So that
the castaways, eighteen in number, began to go about the place, as if
they were at home, and prepared, with the rough tools they could make,
to build a craft big enough to carry them away. But suddenly two of
their number were missing, and then two more, and then another couple;
and the natives endeavoured to persuade them by signs, that these had
only wandered away into the woods, and would soon find their way home
again. The surviving dozen did their best to hope so, but took more care
to keep together, and not to go abroad at all at night.
"But very soon, they found out the horrible meaning of it. For suddenly
the savages, having lost all patience, with their appetites whetted by
the relish of white flesh, fell upon them in the night, and killed them
all but three, leaving nothing but their bones by the morrow night.
Those three they kept alive, because they were too thin; until they
fattened up two, and devoured them. The third, and last, was our friend
Rees Edwards, who fell into a melancholy frame of mind, and refused to
grow eatable, upon any kind of ration. So they put him in the temple,
where they kept their chief idol, believing that this would improve his
texture, and consecrating him to be sacrificed, whether he were fat, or
whether he were lean, upon the appearance of the following moon.
"Edwards, however, was a very clever fellow, and pretending to be
altogether resigned to his fate, obtained some privileges, as a holy man
now, and devoted to the glory of their great idol, _Jumbilug_. He kept a
sharp watch upon the moon as well; and took strengthening victuals, as
he saw her getting thinner. He had learned a good deal of their lingo by
this time, and found out from them about the white man's fort, over
against the further end of that island. And the very night before the
new moon would appear, he slipped through a hole, which he had long been
boring in the mud wall of the joss-house, and escaped into the woods,
with a long start of his enemies. He made his way eastward by the stars,
till sunrise, and eastward the whole of the following day, with his
enemies upon his track, as you have heard already.
"'Now, captain,' he said, when his tale was finished; 'you have done me
the best turn one man can do another; and I wish I could make you some
small return. _Jumbilug_ is the finest woman I ever saw; and it would
not be so very hard to run away with her.'
"I told him, that this was not in my line at all, having always been shy
of the sex; except to make a joke, or pass a compliment. But he laughed,
and said--
"'No fear of her tongue, captain, although she has got a very handsome
one; and her teeth are all pearls, and her lips are coral, and her eyes
are as blue as the sky, and much brighter, and her hair is spun gold;
you never saw such a beauty.'
"'I don't care a d--n for all that,' I replied, 'a woman aboard is the
devil himself.'
"But, when I found that all these beauties were real, and could have no
deception about them, (because the fair woman was made of wood) I became
very eager to possess these charms, if it might be done, without
fool-hardiness. Edwards assured me, that with a little dash, and
management, it might well be done; for _Jumbilug's_ house was a good bit
away from the town of these savages, and very near the sea. And if we
desired to punish the barbarians--as every man John of us burned to
do--for the murder of poor little Tommy, and the massacre, roasting, and
devouring of seventeen helpless white men, nothing could be such a
desperate blow to them, as to lose their idol. For generation, after
generation, had spent their best treasures in adorning her.
"'If she's worth a penny, she's worth £50,000; and they'd rather lose
their biggest chief, and all their wives, and daughters. I'm no judge of
jewels, captain, but her eyes are something to beat all female
embellishment. They come after you, all over the place, and they shine
by night, like a million fire-flies. The tradition of the people is,
that they were brought by a bird with great wings, from a country far
away; perhaps an old trading ship from Borneo. Anyhow, there they are;
and the pearls of teeth, as big as my thumb pretty nearly, and the
tongue some red jewel they pick out of the rocks, and the hair spun gold
almost down to her waist, and the whole of the breast covered up with
fine pearls--ah, you should have seen her when the full moon shone, as
it did upon the night when I was dedicated!'
"This description, my dear Tommy, produced a very fine effect upon my
mind. I have heard your dear mother say, a hundred times, that nothing
is so elevating to the male nature as admiration of a virtuous female.
And where could I hope to find any female, half so virtuous as
_Jumbilug_? But I cautioned Rees Edwards, not to let our fellows know,
what the value of this fair maiden was.
"'You are right,' he made answer, 'we should lose half her pearls;
though the other things won't come out easily at all. When the priest
was asleep one night, I just ventured to feel the bright tip of her
tongue; but it was firm, anchored in good holding ground. We must have a
scheme to bring her off entire, and not let them know that we do it for
her value, but for the outrage and cruelty of them. All that we can plan
out afterwards; but first find out, whether they are up for it. Of
course if they are not, we can't drive them to it.'
"I questioned our fellows about this matter, and found them not only
quite ready, but eager, and I might say wild, to go forth upon this
venture. And that, not only for the spree, as sailors call it; but with
the prospect combined, of revenge for the loss of little Tommy, and of
punishing niggers for eating superior flesh, and of bringing back snug
bits of plunder, on their own account. For I promised them everything
they could lay hold of, and carry away, except _Jumbilug_ herself--not
for her value, as I told them plainly, but as a curiosity for a Museum;
which might even give me £50 for her. They knew that I had never been a
greedy man, and they promised to give me some of their own share, if it
should be worth my acceptance.
"Being hard-set for time, we resolved to do it, on the very next night,
having made up our minds to keep our allies at the fort outside it,
because of the claims they might set up. There would be no moon, and
those wretched man-eaters would be all fast asleep, as Rees Edwards told
us, within two hours after sunset. They might have set a watch upon the
schooner; but they could not see boats at that distance from the shore,
and they had no canoes on this side of the point. So we left the wounded
men, to mind the craft, with the two brass carronades loaded; and
slipped off, all in the yawl this time, ten of us, I think, besides the
Welshman, with muffled oars, and all guns loaded.
"By water the distance was less than by land, and with Rees Edwards
steering, we made the land, right under the joss-house in about three
hours. It was very dark here; for the starlight was shut out, by trees
overhanging the water; and leaving two hands to mind the yawl, and just
keep her afloat, for all was calm as a duck-pool, nine of us landed with
guns and axes, and without a word, made for the temple.
"We found the very hole, by which Edwards had escaped, only roughly
stopped with brushwood, which we removed quietly; and then the Welshman
entered, and went round the place, knowing every corner of it, as soft
as a mouse, and then came back, and whispered--
"'Only the old priest here, and he's snoring in the lobby. Captain,
come in, and the rest wait signal.' This had been settled between us;
and first we gagged the old priest, and corded him, for he was not a bad
fellow, compared with some, and had been pretty good to his captive.
Then we rolled up _Jumbilug_, whose eyes were sparkling, in a piece of
sailcloth, which I had brought for the purpose, and we lashed it round
her ankles, and above her golden hair. Then we ran to the front gate,
and let in our fellows, and they struck a light, and looked about them.
"There was plenty of glitter, and a lot of little images, and Brummagem
beads, and bits of glass, and such like, but very little gold--except
_Jumbilug's_ own--for the island produced none, I dare say. However,
there were pearls upon almost every image, and a lot of lovely shells,
and shining spar, and coral. Every man took whatever caught his eye,
while Edwards and myself lifted _Jumbilug_, who was about five feet
long, from her pedestal, and carried her--though she was a precious
weight--to the boat, and laid her in the stern-sheets. Then we ran back,
and fetched out our men, for fear of accidents; and all well-laden made
off in high feather. And it was high time, I can tell you, Master Tommy,
for we heard a tremendous row, before we turned the point, screeching,
and wailing, and the shrieks of women. Perhaps they had seen our lights
up in the village, which was not more than half a mile away, and the
building had windows in the dome made of talc, or some such
half-transparent stuff. We were heartily pleased with our job, and gave
them three cheers for their liberality.
"In the morning, we made sail for the fort all pledged to say nothing
about our exploit, even to the factor; but every man stowing away his
own loot, without any quarrelling about it, and, of course, giving
proper share to those outside. But when Rees Edwards came into my cabin,
and we unrolled _Jumbilug_ privately, I can tell you that I stared, as I
never stared before at any female figure. She was ten times as gorgeous
as he had described her; and the wealth of whole ages was in and upon
her. I insisted that Edwards should take his fair share, though he laid
no claim to anything. We stood her upright against the bulk-head, as
handsome as paint, and as bright as a star; and then we looked at her,
and she looked at us, as if begging us not to spoil her beauty.
"'First choice to you, captain,' said the Welshman; but I answered, 'No,
let us toss for it;' and so we did, and I won, and made choice of her
eyes. And then we went on, turn and turn, until there was nothing left
but the wooden block; and even that was very clever, I can tell you, and
would fetch £50 for a museum, I believe. He got the teeth, which I was
very glad of,--a dozen large pearls half as big as my thumb; but I got
the golden hair, and made a present of it all, except one lock, to Rob
McAlister, who was prouder of it than of his sweetheart. Also I got--but
there, what's the use of talking of it? You have heard what careless
scattergoods all honest sailors are. There is nothing left of all of it,
but only these here; and they'd have gone long ago, but for being in my
caul."
Uncle William sighed a little, at the end of his long yarn, as if he
should never spin such another; and then, from inside the blue woollen
thing he wore on the hoops of his ribs, out he pulled a little packet,
something (like a worn-out piece of bladder from a jam-pot) rolled, and
tied with yellow silk.
"Open it yourself," he said, "but have a care of my caul, young Tommy,
which has saved me fifteen times from drowning; though the Lord knows, I
shall never want it any more. This old ship is chartered for a voyage to
Kingdom come. Perhaps that Coast-fever has been and spoiled the colour
of them. I haven't seen them, now, for a twelvemonth or more; though I
feel 'em going into my ribs pretty often. One will be for you, and one
for your mother; as soon as you have put me under ground."
"Uncle Bill," I said, "we don't mean to do anything of that kind. You
shan't go aloft, as you call it, for forty years yet. Why, what most
wonderful things, I declare! What lovely gold, and what amazing stones!"
He looked at me with a very pleasant smile; "Something like your hair,
the gold is spun up, Tommy, ain't it? Only yours have got more touch of
nut-colour in it. Indian work, that is, I reckon; stolen out of some
wreck, with the stones, no doubt. No savage work there, and no English
goldsmith, nor French either, could come near it. Mysore, or Tanjore, or
Trichinopoly; but I believe the stones must have come from Borneo. At
least, so the only knowing man I ever showed them to, thought they must
have done, though he couldn't say how; and _Jumbilug_ had worn them for
three hundred years, at a rough guess; for ten men's time, the savages
told Edwards. He told me, he believed they must be blue diamonds; but I
never heard of such things; I call them sapphires. And I wouldn't tell
you, what the island is--why, do you think? Because such a Government
as we've got now, would insist upon what they call 'restitution.' They'd
send out one of them iron pig troughs things they have turned the
British navy into to re-build _Jumbilug_, and fit her up again, with her
eyes at our expense; and all the rest at the cost of the British
taxpayers; and then give her a Royal salute, and steam away, for fear of
hurting the feelings of the natives."
"And perhaps," I replied--for this reminded me of Roly's views upon that
subject--"they would put half a hundred of plump Englishmen ashore, as a
meet and proper offering to the injured _Jumbilug_."