We five--Jan Steenbock, Tom Bullover, Hiram, Sam Jedfoot, and lastly,
though by no means least, myself--sole, solitary survivors of the awful
catastrophe that had swallowed up our comrades, stood on the cliff above
the yawning chasm, watching the tidal wave that still ebbed and flowed
in diminishing volume at each reflux.
This it continued to do for a full half-hour afterwards, when the sea
returned to its normal state, welling up tranquilly on the beach, and
quickly washing away all traces of the recent convulsion of nature, as
if nothing had happened--a sort of sobbing moan, only, seemed afterwards
to come from the water every now and then at spasmodic intervals, as if
the spirits of the deep were lamenting over the mischief and destruction
they had wrought!
Scarcely could we believe our eyes; for, while not a single plank or
piece of timber was cast ashore of the ship, which must have been taken
down bodily by the remorseless wave that had hurried our cruel captain
and no less cruel mate, and the rest of the crew, nineteen souls in all,
into eternity, without the slightest forewarning of their doom, the
little bay now looked as quiet and peaceful as of yore, with its
outstretching capes on either hand, and everything still the same--
equally wild, desolate, deserted, as when we first beheld it!
Most wonderful of all, though, was the fact that we alone were saved.
We were saved!
That thought appeared to flash through all our minds at once
simultaneously; and, falling on our knees, there, on the summit of the
headland, whence we had witnessed the terrible tragedy and now gazed
down on the once more placid, treacherous sea, we each and all thanked
God for our deliverance from the peril of the waters, as He had already
delivered us from the cruelty of man--in the person of that treacherous,
drunken demon who had abandoned us there to the solitude and the misery
of exile and sailed off to enjoy, as he thought, the ill-gotten treasure
of which he had robbed us. But he had met even a worse fate than he had
meted out to us; for, what could have been worse for him than to die and
be called to account for his misdeeds at the very moment of the
realisation of his devilish design?
However, peace to his evil spirit, One greater than us poor marooned
sailors would be his Judge!
That feeling was uppermost in my mind, and I'm sure it was reciprocated
by the others, after we had returned thanks to the watchful Providence
that had saved us while snatching Captain Snaggs away in the middle of
his sins; but his name was not mentioned by any there at that moment,
nor did either of us utter a word afterwards, to each other at least, so
far as I can remember, about his treatment of us--not even Sam, to whom
throughout he had behaved the most cruelly of all.
Sailor-folk, as a rule, are not revengeful, and death we held, had
blotted out the past; so we, too, buried the skipper's misdeeds in
oblivion!
We stopped there on the cliff without speaking until it was close on
sunset.
Our hearts were too full to express the various thoughts that coursed
through our minds; and there we remained, silent and still, as if we
five were dumb.
All we did was to stare out solemnly on the vast ocean that spread out
from beneath our feet to the golden west in the far distance, where sky
and sea met on the hazy horizon--with never a sail to break its wide
expanse, with never a sound to break our solitude, save the sullen
murmuring wash of the surf as it rippled up on the beach, and the heavy,
deep-drawn sigh of the water as it rolled back to its parent ocean,
taking its weary load of pebbles and sand below, as if sick of the
monotonous task, which it was doomed to continue on without cessation,
with ever and for ever the same motion, now that its wild, brief orgy
was o'er, and its regular routine of duty had to be again resumed!
Tom Bullover was the first to break the silence.
"Come boys," he said, when the sun's lower limb was just dipping into
the sea, leaving a solitary pathway of light across the main, while all
the rest of the sea became gradually darker, as well as the heavens
overhead, telling us that the evening was beginning to close in. "Come,
Mr Steenbock and you fellows, we'd best go back to the cave for the
night, so as to be out of the damp air. Besides, it won't be so
lonesome like as it is here!"
"Ay, bo," acquiesced Hiram. "Thaar's Sam's old sail thaar, which 'll
sarve us fur a bed anyhow."
"Dat so," chimed in the darkey. "I'se belly comf'able dere till Mass'
Tom friten me wid duppy. I'se got some grub dere, too; an' we can light
fire an' boil coffee in pannikin, which I'se bring ashore wid me from
ship."
"Bully for ye!" cried Hiram, waking up again to the practical realities
of life at the thought of eating, and realising that he was hungry, not
having, like, indeed, all of us, tasted anything since the morning, the
events of the day having made us forget our ordinary meal-time, "I guess
I could pick a bit if I'd any thin' to fix atween my teeth!"
"Golly! don't yer fret, massa," said Sam cheerfully, in response to this
hint, leading the way towards his whilom retreat. "I'se hab a good hunk
ob salt pork stow away dere, an' hard tack, too!"
"Why, what made you think of getting provisions up there?" observed I,
laughing, being rather surprised at his precaution, when everyone else
had been taken up with the treasure, and believed that we were on the
point of leaving the island for good and all. "Were you going to give a
party, Sam?"
"I'se make de preparations fo' 'mergencies, Cholly," he replied gravely.
"Nobuddy know what happen, an' dere's nuffin' like bein' suah ob de
grub!"
"Thet's true enuff, an' good sound doctrine. Don't ye kinder think so,
mister?"
Jan Steenbock, to whom this question was addressed, made no reply; but,
as he got up and followed Sam, Hiram took this for his answer, and went
after him, the five of us entering the cave in single file.
Here, we found that, from its position on the higher ground, the tidal
wave had not effected any damage, the only alteration being that made by
the first shock of earthquake, causing the crack across the upper end,
which had dislodged the stone in the centre, and disclosed the
buccaneers' treasure. So, then, on Sam's producing a good big piece of
salt junk, with some ship's biscuit, which he had wrapped up in a yellow
bandana handkerchief and stowed away in one corner under his sailcloth,
we all imitated the American, and `put our teeth through' the unexpected
food, finding ourselves, now that we had something to eat before us,
with better appetites than might have been thought possible after what
we had gone through.
Sailors, though, do not trouble themselves much over things that have
happened, looking out more for those to come!
The next day, it seemed very strange to wake up and find ourselves alone
there, especially after the stirring time we had recently, with the
discovery of the treasure, and getting the ship afloat, and all; so,
when we crawled out of the cave and went down to the beach, we five
forlorn fellows felt more melancholy than can be readily imagined at
seeing this bare and desolate, and hearing no sound but that of our own
sad voices.
Even the coo of the doves was now unnoticeable, the birds having
deserted their haunt in the grove after the earthquake shock, as I
believe I have mentioned before. Lucky it was for them that their
instinct warned them to do this in time; for the tidal wave had swept
completely over the place, and the little dell was now all covered with
black and white sand, like the rest of the shore--the sloping strand
running up to the very base of the cliff, and trees and all traces of
vegetation having been washed away by the sudden inrush of the water.
Jan Steenbock, whose place it was naturally to be our leader, but who
had been so superstitiously impressed by the belief that our calamity
was entirely owing to our having anything to do with the buccaneers'
buried treasure, which he supposed, in accordance with the old Spanish
legend, to be accursed, now once more reinstated himself in our good
opinion, showing himself to be the sensible man that he always was,
despite the fact of his having hitherto, from the cause stated, been
more despondent than any of us.
"My mans," said he bravely, turning his back on the beach and away from
the treacherous, smiling sea, "we moost not give vays to bat toughts and
tings! Let us go inlants and do zometing dat vill make us dink of
zometing else! We vill go oop to dat blace vere ze groond vas blanted
mit tings bedween ze hills, and zee if we can zee any bodatoes or
bananes vot to eat; vor, as mein frent Sambo here zays, it vas goot to
look after ze grub, vor we hab no sheeps now to zupply us mit
provisions!"
This was sound advice, which we immediately acted on, our little quintet
abandoning the shore, and following our leader again up the cliff to the
old deserted plantation. This, it may be remembered, Tom and Hiram and
I had first lighted on in our quest for the treasure before we
discovered the cave, but we now found out that Jan Steenbock had been
previously acquainted with it from being formerly on the island.
Here we made a camp, bringing Sam's sailcloth from the cave, with a tin
pot and other mess gear he had stowed away for his own use when in
hiding there, and no one knew save Tom Bullover that he was anything but
a ghost; and here, thenceforward, by the help of the tortoises, whose
flesh we fared on, with an occasional wild hog, when we were lucky
enough to catch one, our meat diet being varied with the various
tropical vegetables which we found in the valley in profusion, we lived
until the rainy season came on, when we went back again to the cave for
shelter.
It must not be thought, though, that our time was entirely spent in
eating, or in devices how we should procure food, notwithstanding that
this was the principal care of our solitary desert island life, like as
in the case of most shipwrecked mariners.
No, we had a greater purpose than this.
It was the hope of escaping from our dismal exile, through the help of
some coasting vessel bound up or down the Pacific, or to ports within
the Gulf of Panama; and, in order to observe such passing craft we
erected a signal station on the top of Mount Chalmers, and took it in
turns to keep watch there throughout the day, with a bonfire hard by,
ready to be kindled the moment a sail was sighted.
Alas, our watch for weeks was in vain!
Sometimes we would see a ship in the distance, but she was generally too
far off to notice us; and our hearts would sink again to utter
despondency when this occurred, more than when we never noticed any sail
at all, on our seeing her gradually melting away, until she would be
finally lost in the mists of the sea and air.
At last, however, one morning, about six months or so after the loss of
the _Denver City_--I'm sure I cannot tell the precise date, for we began
then to forget even the passage of time--Tom Bullover, who was on the
look-out, came rushing down the sloping side of the cliff like a madman,
covering yards with each leap and bound he took in his rapid descent,
looking as if he were flying.
"A sail! a sail!" he shouted, as soon as he got near. "There's a ship
in sight, and she's just entering the bay!"
"Vere?--vere?" cried Jan Steenbock, equally excited, running to meet
him. "A sheep? You vas mat, mein pore vellow,--you vas mat!"
"Jee-rusalem--no, he ain't!" exclaimed Hiram, who, standing on the
summit of the little mound by the entrance to the cave, could see
further out to sea than Jan from below. "Tom's all right. Hooray!
It's a shep sure enuff, an' she's now tarnin' the p'int on the starboard
side over thaar!"
With that we all looked now in this direction; and, oh, the blessed
sight! There, as Hiram said, was a vessel under full sail rounding the
opposite cliff and coming into the bay!
"My golly! I shell bust--I'se so glad!" cried poor Sam, dancing, and
shouting, and laughing, and crying, all in one breath. "Bress de Lor'!
Bress de Lor'!"
What I and the rest did to express our joy under the circumstances it
would be impossible to tell; but I'm pretty sure we were quite as
extravagant in our actions and demeanour as the negro,--if not so hearty
in our recognition of the all-wise Providence that had sent this ship to
our rescue!
There is little more to add.
The vessel soon cast anchor in the bay; and on her lowering a boat and
reaching the beach where, as may be supposed, we eagerly awaited its
coming, we found out that she was a whaler, full of oil, and homeward
bound to San Francisco, her captain putting in at Abingdon Island for
fresh water and vegetables, as some of his crew were suffering from
scurvy, and they had run short of all tinned meat on board, having only
salt provisions left.
We were thus enabled to mutually accommodate each other, Hiram, and Sam,
and Tom Bullover, soon fetching a big store of green stuff from our
plantation in the valley, besides securing a batch of tortoises for the
men in the boat to kill and take on board; while Jan Steenbock and I
went with the whaler's captain to point out our water-spring near the
cave, where the doves' grove used to be, the stream from the hills still
finding its way down there to the sea below, although the little lake,
or pool, had become dried up by the accumulation of sand and the trees
all disappeared.
In return for these welcome supplies, the captain of the whaler gladly
agreed to give us all a free passage to `'Frisco'; although as I need
hardly tell, he would have willingly done this without any such
consideration at all, after hearing our story and being made acquainted
with the strange and awful catastrophe that had befallen our ill-fated
ship.
But we were not altogether destitute.
Our good fortune, if long in coming, smiled on us at the last; for, the
very morning of our departure from the island, a week after the whaler's
arrival, the captain remaining a few days longer than he first intended
in order to allow his sick hands to recover, Hiram, while routing out a
few traps left in the cave to take on board with us, found, much to Jan
Steenbock's regret,--the second-mate saying it would bring us ill-luck
again--one of the little chests containing the buccaneers' treasure,
which Captain Snaggs had left unwittingly behind him when he and Mr
Flinders cleared off with the rest, which they thought the entire lot.
The box contained a number of gold ingots and silver dollars, which the
whaler captain said were worth `a heap of money,' as he expressed it,
though he would not take a penny of it for himself.
The whaler skipper was an honest man, for he told Hiram Bangs and Tom,
who tried to press a certain portion of the treasure on him as his due,
that it all rightfully belonged to us, and that he should consider
himself a pitiful scoundrel if he took advantage of our misfortunes!
There--could anything be nobler than that?
"Guess not," said Hiram; and, so we all agreed!
We had a capital voyage to San Francisco from the island, which we were
glad enough to lose sight of, with its lava cliffs and cactus plants,
and other strange belongings in the animal and vegetable world, and,
above all, its sad memories and associations in other ways to us; and no
more happy sailors ever landed from board ship than we five did who set
foot ashore in the `Golden State,' as California is called, some three
odd summers ago.
The whaler captain sold our treasure for us; and the share of each of us
came to a good round sum--I, though only a boy, being given by the
others a fourth share, just as if I had been a man, for Jan Steenbock
refused to touch any.
My portion, when realised, amounted to over 400 pounds, a sum which, if
not quite enough to set one up in life and enable one to stop working,
was still `not to be sneezed at,' as Tom Bullover remarked to me
confidentially, when we made our way eastwards from San Francisco
towards New York, by the Union Pacific line, a month or so afterwards.
Hiram remained behind in California, saying he had gone through enough
sailoring, and intended trying something in the farming or mining line.
But Tom, and Jan Steenbock, and I, with our old friend Sam, stuck
together to the end, taking a ship at New York for Liverpool, where we
touched English ground again, just a year almost to a day from the time
we started on our ill-starred voyage in the poor _Denver City_.
All of us still see each other now and again, even Hiram meeting us
sometimes, when he ships in a liner and comes `across the herring pond,'
having soon got tired of a life ashore.
Our general rendezvous is a little shop kept by Sam Jedfoot, who has
married a wife, and supplies goods in the ship-chandling line to vessels
outward bound; for the darkey has a large acquaintance amongst stewards
and such gentry who have the purchasing of the same, and being a general
favourite with all this class of men--save and excepting Welshmen, whom
he detests most heartily, somehow or other!
I am now a grown-up sailor, too, like Tom Bullover, and he and I always
sail together in the same ship.
We are called the `two inseparables' by the brokers, for one of us will
never sign articles for a new vessel unless the other goes; and, when we
come off a voyage and land at Liverpool old town, as frequently is the
case, no sooner do we step ashore, at the Prince's Landing Stage or in
the docks, as may happen, than we `make tracks,' to use Hiram Bang's
Yankee lingo, for Sam Jedfoot's all-sorts shop, hard by in Water Street.
Here, `you may bet your bottom dollar,' adopting Hiram's favourite
phrase again, we are always warmly welcomed by our old friend, the
whilom darkey cook of the lost _Denver City_, whose wife also greets us
cordially whenever we drop in to visit her `good man,' as she calls him.
They are a happy couple, and much attached, though opposed in colour;
and, here, of an evening, after the hearty spread which Sam invariably
insists on preparing for our enjoyment, to show us that he has not lost
practice in his culinary profession, I believe, as well as from his
innate sense of hospitality, the ex-cook will--as regularly as he was
accustomed to do on board ship in his caboose, towards the end of the
second dog-watch, when, you may recollect, the hands were allowed to
skylark and divert themselves--take up his banjo, which is the identical
same one that he brought home with him from Abingdon Island.
The tune he always plays, the song he always sings, is that
well-remembered one which none of us, his shipmates, can ever forget,
bringing back as it does, with its plaintive refrain, every incident of
our memorable passage across the Atlantic and round Cape Horn--aye, and
all the way up the Pacific to the Galapagos Isles.
It is full of our past life, so pregnant with its strange perils and
weird surroundings, and which ended in such a terrible catastrophe:--
"Oh, down in Alabama, 'fore I wer sot free,
I lubbed a p'ooty yaller gal, an' fought dat she lubbed me,
But she am proob unconstant, an' leff me hyar to tell
How my pore hart am breakin' far dat croo-el Nancy Bell!"
Sam's wife, too, although she isn't a `yaller girl,' but, on the
contrary, as white as he is black, and Tom Bullover and I, with Hiram
and Jan Steenbock--should either or both happen likewise to be ashore in
Liverpool, and with us, of course, at the time--all, as regularly and
unfailingly on such occasions join in the same old chorus.
Don't you recollect it?
"Den, cheer up, Sam! don't let your sperrits go down;
Dere's many a gal dat I knows wal am waitin' fur you in de town!"
The ditty always winds up invariably, as in the old days at sea, with
the self-same sharp twang of the chords of the banjo at the end of the
last bar, that Sam used to give when sitting in the galley of the poor
_Denver City_.
"Ponk-a-tink-a-tong-tang. P-lang!"