"Yase, it vas me," said Jan Steenbock, at once turning round and
confronting the other, not in the least discomposed by his sudden
appearance, and speaking in his usual slow, deliberate way. "I zays to
ze leedel boys here you's von big vool, and zo you vas!"
"Tarnation!" exclaimed Mr Flinders, stepping out on to the deck over
the coaming of the booby hatch, and advancing in a threatening manner
towards the Dane, who faced him still imperturbably. "Ye jest say thet
agen, mister, an' I'll--"
The second-mate did not wait for him to finish his sentence.
"I zays you's von big vool, the biggest vool of all ze vools I vas
know," he cried in his deep tones. Every word sounded distinctly and
trenchantly, with a sort of sledge-hammer effect, that made the Yankee
mate writhe again. "But, my vren', you vas badder dan dat, vor you vas
a droonken vool, and vas peril ze sheep and ze lifes of ze men aboord
mit your voolness and ze rhum you vas trink below, mitout minting your
duty. Oh, yase, you vas more bad dan one vool, Mister Vlinders; I vas
vatch yous ze whole of ze voyage, and I spik vat I zink and vat I zees!"
"Jee-rusalem, ye white-livered Dutchman!" screamed out the other, now
white with rage, and with his eyes glaring like those of a tiger, as he
threw out his arms and rushed at Jan Steenbock, "I'll give ye goss fur
ev'ry lyin' word ye hev sed agen me, ye bet. I'm a raal Down-East
alligator, I am, ye durned furrin reptyle! Ye'll wish ye wer never
rizzed or came athwart my hawse, my hearty, afore I've plugged ye out
an' done with ye, bo, I guess; for I'm a regular screamer from Chicago,
I am, an' I'll wipe the side-walk with ye, I will!"
This was `tall talk,' as Hiram remarked, he and several others of the
crew having turned out from their bunks by this time, roused by the
altercation, all gathering together in the waist, full of interest and
expectancy at witnessing such an unwonted treat as a free fight between
their officers. But, the first-mate's brave words, mouth them out as he
did with great vehemence and force of expression, did not frighten the
stalwart Dane, self-possessed and cool to the last, one whit.
No, not a bit of it.
Quietly putting himself into an easy position of defence, with his right
arm guarding his face and body, Jan Steenbock, throwing out his left
fist with a rapidity of movement quite unexpected in one of his slow,
methodical demeanour, caught the blustering Yankee, as he advanced on
him with hostile thoughts intent, full butt between the eyes, the blow
being delivered straight from the shoulder and having sufficient
momentum to have felled an ox.
At all events, it was enough for Mr Flinders.
Whack!
It resounded through the ship; and, uttering a half-stifled cry, the
mate measured his length along the deck, the back of his head knocking
against the planks with a sound that seemed to be the echo of the blow
that brought him low, though softer and more like a thud--tempered and
toned down, no doubt, by the subduing effect of distance!
This second assault on his thick skull, however, instead of stunning
him, as might have been imagined, appeared to bring the mate back to
consciousness, and roused him indeed to further action; for, scrambling
up from his recumbent position, with his face showing unmistakable marks
of the fray already, and his eyes not glaring quite so much, for they
were beginning to close up, he got on his feet again, and squared up to
Jan Steenbock, with his arms swinging round like those of a windmill.
He might just as well have tried to batter down a stone wall, under the
circumstances, as endeavour to break down the other's guard by any such
feeble attempt, although both were pretty well matched as to size and
strength.
Jan paid no attention to his roundabout and random onslaught, fending
off his ill-directed blows easily enough with his right arm, which was
well balanced, a little forward across his chest, protecting him from
every effort of his enemy.
He just played with him for a minute, during which the Yankee mate,
frothing with fury and uttering all sorts of terrible threats, that were
as powerless to hurt Jan as his pointless attack, danced round his
watchful antagonist like a pea on a hot griddle; and then, the Dane,
tired at length of the fun, advancing his left, delivered another
terrific drive from the shoulder that tumbled Mr Flinders backwards
under the hood of the booby hatch, where he nearly floored Captain
Snaggs, on his way up from the cuddy--the skipper having been also
aroused by the tumult, the scene of the battle being almost immediately
over his swinging cot, and the concussion of the first-mate's head
against the deck having awakened him before his time, which naturally
did not tend to improve his temper.
"Hillo, ye durned Cape Cod sculpin!" he gasped out, Mr Flinders'
falling body having caught him full in the stomach and knocked all the
wind out of him. "Thet's a kinder pretty sorter way to come tumblin'
down the companion, like a mad bull in fly time! What's all this
infarnal muss about, hey?"
So shouting, between his pauses to take breath, the skipper shoved the
mate before him out of the hatchway, repeating his question again when
both had emerged on the poop. "Now, what's this infarnal muss about,
hey?"
Taken thus in front and rear Mr Flinders hardly knew what to say,
especially as Jan Steenbock's fist had landed on his mouth, loosening
his teeth and making the blood flow, his countenance now presenting a
pitiable spectacle, all battered and bleeding.
"The--the--thet durned skallawag thaar hit me, sirree," he stammered and
stuttered, spitting out a mouthful of blood and a couple of his front
teeth, which had been driven down his throat almost by Jan Steenbock's
powerful blow. "He--he tried to--to take my life. He did so, cap.
But, I guess I'll be even with him, by thunder!--I'll soon rip my bowie
inter him, an' settle the coon; I will so, you bet!"
Mr Flinders fumbled at his waistbelt as he spoke, trying to pull out
the villainous-looking, dagger-hilted knife he always carried there,
fixed in a sheath stuck inside the back of his trousers; but his rage
and excitement making his hand tremble with nervous trepidation, Captain
Snaggs was able to catch his arm in time and prevent his drawing the
ugly weapon.
"No ye don't, mister; no ye don't, by thunder! so long's I'm boss hyar,"
cried the skipper. "Ef ye fits aboord my shep, I reckon ye'll hev to
fit fair, or else reckon up with Ephraim O Snaggs; yes, so, mister,
thet's so. I'll hev no knifing aboord my ship!"
The captain appeared strangely forgetful of his own revolver practice in
the case of poor Sam Jedfoot, and also of his having ran a-muck and
nearly killed the helmsman and Morris Jones, the steward, thinking he
was still in pursuit of the negro cook--which showed the murderous
proclivities of his own mind, drunk or sober. However, all the same, he
stopped the first-mate now from trying to use his knife; although the
latter would probably have come off the worst if he had made another
rush at Jan Steenbock, who stood on the defence, prepared for all
emergencies.
"No, ye don't. Stow it, I tell ye, or I'll throttle ye, by thunder!"
said the skipper, shaking Mr Flinders in his wiry grasp like a terrier
would a rat; while, turning to Jan, he asked: "An' what hev ye ter say
about this darned muss--I s'pose it's six o' one an' half-dozen o'
t'other, hey?"
"Misther Vlinders vas roosh to sthrike me, and I vas knock hims down,"
said Jan Steenbock, in his laconic fashion. "He vas get oop and roosh
at me vonce mores, and I vas knock hims down on ze deck again; and zen,
you vas coom oop ze hatchway, and dat vas all."
"But, confound ye!" cried the other, putting in his spoke, "you called
me a fule fust!"
"So ye air a fule," said Captain Snaggs, "an' a tarnation fule, too, I
reckon--the durndest fule I ever seed; fur the old barquey wouldn't be
lyin' hyar whaar she is, I guess, but fur yer durned pigheadedness!"
"Zo I vas zay," interposed Jan Steenbock. "I das tell hims it vas all
bekos he vas one troonken vool dat we ras wreck, zir."
"Ye never sed a truer word, mister," replied the skipper, showing but
little sympathy for Mr Flinders, whom he ordered to go below and wash
his dirty face, now the `little unpleasantness' between himself and his
brother mate was over. "Still, hyar we air, I guess, an' the best thing
we ken do is ter try an' get her off. Whaar d'yer reckon us to be,
Mister Steenbock, hey?"
"On ze Galapagos," answered the second-mate modestly, in no ways puffed
up by his victory over the other or this appeal to his opinion by
Captain Snaggs, who, like a good many more people in the world,
worshipped success, and was the first to turn his back on his own
champion when defeated. "I zink ze sheep vas shtruck on Abingdon
Island. I vas know ze place, cap'n; oh, yase, joost zo!"
"Snakes an' alligators, mister! Ye doan't mean ter say ye hev been hyar
afore, hey?"
"Ja zo, cap'n," replied Jan Steenbock, in his slow and matter-of-fact
way, taking he other's expression literally; "but dere vas no shnake,
dat I vas zee, and no alligator. Dere vas nozings but ze terrapin
tortoise and ze lizards on ze rocks! I vas here one, doo, dree zummers
ago, mit a drading schgooner vrom Guayaquil after a cargo of ze orchilla
weed, dat fetch goot price in Equador. I vas sure it vas Abingdon
Islant vrom dat tall big peak of montane on ze port side dat vas cal't
Cape Chalmers; vor, we vas anchor't to looard ven we vas hunting for ze
weed orchilla and ze toordles."
"Oh, indeed," said the skipper. "I'll look at the chart an' take the
sun at noon, so to kalkerlate our bearin's; but I guess ye're not fur
out, ez I telled thet dodrotted fule of a Flinders we'd be safe ter run
foul o' the cussed Galapagos if we kept thet course ez he steered!
Howsomedever, let's do sunthin', an' not stan' idling hyar no longer.
Forrad, thaar, ye lot o' star-gazin', fly-catchin' lazy lubbers! make it
eight bells an' call the watch to sluice down decks! Ye doan't think,
me jokers, I'm goin' to let ye strike work an' break articles 'cause the
shep's aground, do ye? Not if I knows it, by thunder! Stir yer stumps
an' look smart, or some o' ye'll know the reason why!"
This made Tom Bullover and the other hands bustle about on the
fo'c's'le, although buckets had to be lowered over the side aft to wash
down the decks with, so as to clear away all the volcano dust that was
still lying about, for the head-pump could not be used as usual on
account of the forepart of the ship being high and dry.
Meanwhile, Hiram and I busied ourselves in the galley, blowing up the
fire and getting the coffee ready for breakfast, so that ere long things
began to look better.
The sun by this time was more than half-way up overhead, but as a steady
south-west breeze was blowing in still from the sea right across our
quarter, for the ship was lying on the sand with her bowsprit pointing
north by west, the temperature was by no means so hot as might have been
expected from the fact of our being so close to the Equator; and so,
after our morning meal was over, the skipper had all hands piped to
lighten the vessel, in order to prepare her for our going afloat again.
Captain Snaggs took the precaution, however, of getting out anchors
ahead and astern, so as to secure her in her present position, so that
no sudden shift of wind or rise of the tide might jeopardise matters
before everything was ready for heaving her off, the sheet and starboard
bower being laid out in seven-fathom water, some fifty yards aft of the
rudder post, in a direct line with the keel, so that there should be as
little difficulty as possible in kedging her. These anchors were
carried out to sea by a gang of men in the jolly-boat, which was let
down amidships just where we were awash, by a whip and tackle rigged up
between the main and crossjack yards for the purpose.
By the time this was done, from the absence of any shadow cast by the
sun, which was high over our mastheads, it was evidently close on to
noon; so, the skipper brought his sextant and a big chart he had of the
Pacific on deck, spreading the latter over the cuddy skylight, while he
yelled out to the dilapidated Mr Flinders, who was repairing damages
below, to watch the chronometer and mark the hour when he sang out.
Captain Snaggs squinted through the eye-glass of his instrument for a
bit with the sextant raised aloft, as if he were trying to stare old Sol
out of countenance.
"Stop!" he sang out in a voice of thunder. "Stop!"
Then he took another observation, followed by a second stentorian shout
of "Stop!"
A pause ensued, and then he roared below to Mr Flinders, asking him
what he made it, the feeble voice of the first-mate giving him in return
the Greenwich time as certified by the chronometer; when after a longish
calculation and measuring of distances on the chart, with a pair of
compasses and the parallel ruler, Captain Snaggs gave his decision in an
oracular manner, with much wagging of his goatee beard.
"I guess yo're about right this journey, Mister Steenbock," he said,
holding up the chart for the other's inspection. "I kalkelate we're
jest in latitood 0 degrees 32 minutes north, an' longitood 90 degrees 45
minutes west--pretty nigh hyar, ye see, whaar my finger is on this
durned spec, due north'ard of the Galapagos group on the Equator. This
chart o' mine, though, don't give no further perticklers, so I reckon it
must be Abingdon Island, ez ye says, ez thet's the furthest north,
barrin' Culpepper Island, which is marked hyar, I see, to the nor'-west,
an' must be more'n fifty leagues, I guess, away."
"Joost zo," replied Jan Steenbock, mildly complacent at his triumph. "I
vas zink zo, and I zays vat I zink!"
The point being thus satisfactorily settled, the men had their dinner,
which Hiram and I had cooked in the galley while the anchors were being
got out and the skipper was taking his observation of the sun; and then,
after seeing that everything was snug in the caboose, I was just about
sneaking over the side to explore the strange island and inspect more
closely the curious animals I had noticed, when Captain Snaggs saw me
from the poop and put the stopper on my little excursion.
"None o' y'r skulking my loblolly b'y!" he shouted out. "Jest ye lay
aloft an' send down the mizzen-royal. This air no time fur skylarkin'
an' jerymanderin'. We wants all hands at work."
With that, I had, instead of enjoying myself ashore as I had hoped, to
mount up the rigging and help the starboard watch in unbending the
sails, which, when they reached the deck, were rolled up by the other
watch on duty below, and lowered to the beach over the side, where they
were stowed in a heap on the sand above high-water mark.
The lighter spars were next sent down, and then the upper and lower
yards by the aid of strong purchases, all being similarly placed ashore,
with the ropes coiled up as they were loosed from their blocks and
fastenings aloft; so, by the time sunset came the ship was almost a
sheer hulk, only her masts and standing rigging remaining.
Poor old thing, she was utterly transformed, lying high and dry there,
with all her top hamper gone, and shorn of all her fair proportions!
I noticed this when I came down from aloft, the _Denver City_ looking so
queer from the deck, with her bare poles sticking up, like monuments
erected to her past greatness; but, although I was tired enough with all
the jobs I had been on, unreeling ropes, and knotting, and splicing, and
hauling, till I hardly knew whether I stood on my head or my heels, I
was not too tired to take advantage of the kind offer Hiram made me when
I went into the galley to help get the men's tea ready.
"Ye ken skip, Cholly, an' hev a lark ashore, ef ye hev a mind to," said
he; "I'll look arter the coppers."
Didn't I `skip,' that's all.
I was down the sides in a brace of shakes, and soon wandering at my own
sweet will about the beach, wondering at everything I saw--the lava bed
above the sand, the tall, many-armed cactus plants, with their fleshy
fingers and spikes at the ends, like long tenpenny nails, the giant
tortoises, which hissed like snakes as they waddled out of my path--
wondering, aye, wondering at everything!
Hearing the cooing of doves again, as I had done in the morning, I
followed the sound, and presently came to a small grove of trees on an
incline above the flat lava expanse, to the right of the head of the
little bay where the ship was stranded.
Here grass and a species of fern were growing abundantly around a pool
of water, fed from a tiny rivulet that trickled down from the cliff
above; and I had no sooner got under the shelter of the leafy branches
than I was surrounded by a flock of the pretty grey doves whose gentle
cooing I had heard.
They were so tame that they came hopping on my head and outstretched
hand, and I was sorry I had not brought some biscuit in my pocket, so
that I might feed them.
It was so calm and still in the mossy glade that I threw myself down on
the grass, remaining until it got nearly dark, when I thought it about
time to return to the ship, though loth to leave the doves, who cooed a
soft farewell after me, which I continued to hear long after I lost
sight of them.
I got back to the shore safely without further adventure, until I was
close under the ship, when I had a fearful fright from a huge tortoise
that I ran against, and which seemed to spit in my face, it hissed at me
so viciously.
It must have been four feet high at least, and what its circumference
was goodness only knows, for I could have laid down on its back with
ease, as it was as broad as a table.
I did not attempt to do this, however, but scrambled up the ship's side
as quickly as I could, and made my way to the galley, in order to get my
tea, which Hiram had promised to keep hot for me.
Outside the galley, though, I met the American, who frightened me even
more than the big tortoise had done the minute before.
"Say, Cholly," he cried, his voice trembling with terror, "thet ghost of
the nigger cook air hauntin' us still; I seed him thaar jest now,
a-sottin' in the corner of the caboose an' a-playin' on his banjo, ez
true ez I'm a livin' sinner!"