"It is of no use to be down-hearted, Nat," said my uncle the next
morning. "Cheer up, my lad, and let's look our difficulties in the
face. That's the way to overcome them, I think."
"I feel better this morning, uncle," I said.
"Nothing like a good night's rest, Nat, for raising the spirits. This
loss of the boat and then of our follower, if he is lost, are two great
misfortunes, but we must bear in mind that before all this hardly
anything but success attended us."
"Except with the savages, uncle," I said.
"Right, Nat: except with the savages. Now let's go down to the shore
and have a good look out to sea."
We walked down close to the water, and having satisfied ourselves that
no canoes were in sight, we made a fire, at which our coffee was soon
getting hot, while I roasted a big pigeon, of which food we never seemed
to tire, the supply being so abundant that it seemed a matter of course
to shoot two or three when we wanted meat.
"I'd give something, Nat," said my uncle, as we sat there in the soft,
delicious sea air, with the sunshine coming down like silver rays
through the glorious foliage above our heads--"I'd give something, Nat,
if boat-building had formed part of my education."
"Or you had gone and learned it, like Peter the Great, uncle."
"Exactly, my boy. But it did not, so we must set to work at once and
see what we can do. Now what do you say? How are we to make a boat?"
"I've been thinking about it a great deal, uncle," I said, "and I was
wondering whether we could not make a bark canoe like the Indians."
"A bark canoe, eh, Nat?"
"Yes, uncle. I've seen a model of one, and it looks so easy."
"Yes, my boy, these things do look easy; but the men who make them,
savages though they be, work on the experience of many generations. It
took hundreds of years to make a good bark canoe, Nat, and I'm afraid
the first manufacturers of that useful little vessel were drowned. No,
Nat, we could not make a canoe of that kind."
"Then we must cut down a big tree and hollow it out, uncle, only it will
take a long time."
"Yes, Nat, but suppose we try the medium way. I propose that we cut
down a moderately-sized tree, and hollow it out for the lower part of
our boat, drive pegs all along the edge for a support, and weave in that
a basket-work of cane for the sides as high as we want it."
"But how could we make the sides watertight, uncle?" I said; "there
seem to be no pine-trees here to get pitch or turpentine."
"No, Nat, but there is a gum to be found in large quantities in the
earth, if we can discover any. The Malays called it _dammar_, and use
it largely for torches. It strikes me that we could turn it into a
splendid varnish, seeing what a hard resinous substance it is. Ebo
would have found some very soon, I have no doubt."
"Then I must find some without him, uncle," I said. "I shall go hunting
for it whenever I am not busy boat-building."
He smiled at my enthusiasm, and after examining the skins to see that
they were all dry and free from attacks of ants, we each took a hatchet
and our guns, and proceeded along by the side of the shore in search of
a stout straight tree that should combine the qualities of being light,
strong, easy to work, and growing near the sea.
We quite came to the conclusion that we should have a great deal of
labour, and only learn by experience which kind of tree would be
suitable, perhaps having to cut down several before we found one that
would do.
"And that will be bad, uncle," I said.
"It will cause us a great deal of labour, Nat," he replied smiling; "but
it will make us handy with our hatchets."
"I did not mean that, uncle," I replied; "I was thinking of savages
coming in this direction and seeing the chips and cut-down trees."
"To be sure, Nat, you are right. That will be bad; but as we are cut
off so from the rest of the island, we must be hopeful that we may get
our work done before they come."
We spent four days hunting about before we found a tree that possessed
all the qualities we required. We found dozens that would have done,
only they were far away from the shore, where it would have been very
difficult to move our boat afterwards to the water's edge.
But the tree we selected offered us a thick straight stem twenty feet
long, and it was so placed that the land sloped easily towards the sea,
and it was sufficiently removed from the beach for us to go on with our
work unseen.
We set to at once to cut it down, finding to our great delight as soon
as we were through the bark that the wood was firm and fibrous, and yet
easy to cut, so that after six hours' steady chopping we had made a big
gap in the side, when we were obliged to leave off because it was dark.
We worked the next day and the next, and then my uncle leaned against it
while I gave a few more cuts, and down it went with a crash amongst the
other trees, to be ready for working up into the shape we required.
Next morning as soon as it was light we began again to cut off the top
at the length we intended to have our boat, a task this which saved the
labour of chopping off the branches. I worked hard, and the labour was
made lighter by Uncle Dick's pleasant conversation. For he chatted
about savage and civilised man, and laughingly pointed out how the
latter had gone on improving.
"You see what slow laborious work this chipping with our axes is, Nat,"
he said one day, as we kept industriously on, "when by means of
cross-cut saws and a circular saw worked by steam this tree could be
soon reduced to thin boards ready for building our boat."
Birds came and perched near us, and some were very rare in kind, but we
felt that we must leave them alone so as to secure those we had
obtained, and we worked patiently on till at the end of a week the tree
began to wear outside somewhat the shape of a boat, and it was just
about the length we required.
It was terribly hard work, but we did not shrink, and at last, after
congratulating ourselves upon having got so far without being interfered
with by the savages, we had shouldered our guns and were walking back to
the hut one evening when we caught sight of a black figure running
across an opening, and we knew that our time of safety was at an end.
"It is what I have always feared, Nat," said my uncle quickly. "Quick;
put big-shot cartridges in your gun. We will not spill blood if we can
help it, but it is their lives or ours, and we must get safely back
home."
"What shall we do now?" I said huskily.
"Wait and see what the enemy mean to do, and--"
"Hi, yi, yi--Hi, yi, yi--Hi, yi, yi. Hey. Nat, mi boy. Ung-kul!" came
shrilly through the trees.
"Hooray!" I shrieked, leaping out of my hiding-place. "Ebo! Ebo! Hi,
yi, yi--Hi, yi, yi. Hooray!"
We ran to meet him, and he bounded towards us, leaping, dancing, rolling
on the ground, hugging us, and seeming half mad with delight as he
dragged us down to the sea-side, where a new surprise awaited us.
For there upon shore, with her anchor fixed in the sands, lay our boat
apparently quite uninjured.
As Ebo danced about and patted the boat and then himself, it was plain
enough to read the cause of his disappearance. He had gone off along
the shore following the savages to their village, and then watched his
opportunity to sail off. And this he had of course done, placing the
boat safely in its old moorings.
He made signs for something to eat, and then I noticed that he looked
very thin; and it was evident that the poor fellow had suffered terrible
privations in getting back our treasure, and proving himself so good a
friend.