DINSHAW TELLS OF HIS ISLAND
"Here," said Locke, "comes Rip Van Winkle--without his dog."
"A beggar!" whispered Marjorie, looking past Trask. "Poor old man!"
Trask turned from the table, and saw at the end of the veranda an
old man approaching with a package under his arm. He looked like a
vagabond, in khaki trousers with the bottoms fringed by tatters
through which showed his bare ankles; pitiful old cloth shoes; a
patched coat of white drill with frogging across the front such as
Chinese mess boys wear; and a battered, rimless straw hat. He drew
near the table with weary feet, hesitatingly and dazed, as though
he had lost his way, peering about like an owl thrust into the
light of mid-day from a darkened belfry.
"Why, it must be Captain Dinshaw!" said Trask.
The old man stopped ten feet from the trio and lifting his head
like a hound who has taken scent, gazed at them suspiciously. Then
he smiled toothlessly and swung off his bowl of a hat with a grand
air.
"Aye, sir," he said, in a weak but shrill voice. "Cap'n Dinshaw,
late of the bark, _James B. Wetherall_, lost in a typhoon an' Lord
ha' mercy on us!"
"This is a shame!" said Locke, in a cautious whisper to Trask, as
he leaned back in his grass chair to light a cigar. "I hate to see
a white man like that in this country."
"He looks hungry," said Marjorie. "Dad, call the boy!"
"It's an interesting case," said Trask. "I want you to hear him.
Wilkins had him up so I could talk to him. He's got an island."
"Would the lady buy a picter?" inquired Dinshaw, with a little bow.
"Hand painted by myself, out of my head, from my own recollections.
A good suvverner." He began to unwrap his flat parcel.
"Come over here and sit down," said Locke, rising, and pushing
forward a chair. "You ought to have something to drink and a bite
to eat. Shouldn't be out in sun like this with that sort of
headgear."
Dinshaw muttered a thanks, and dropped into the chair, his thin,
wrinkled face drawing into a queer smile. He let the package fall
across his knees, and his hat dropped from his trembling fingers.
He stroked a tuft of whisker under his chin.
"I don't mind the heat, but the soup's bad," he remarked.
"Here's the boy," said Trask. "Now what's it to be?"
"Eh! Oh, Ah Wing! That boy knows me. A tot of gin with a stinger,
and thank you kindly. A master should go with his ship," and he
touched his sparse white hair which showed his scalp, and nodded
his head, staring out over the bay as if in a reverie. The colour
was bleached out of his failing eyes and they had a habit of roving
about unsteadily, a quality common in old sailors and probably
acquired in a lifetime of watching heaving seas.
"Bring some more of the fish, and a big cup of coffee," said Trask,
as Ah Wing grinned and turned to go.
"So you sell pictures," encouraged Marjorie. "And paint them
yourself!"
"Aye, ma'am. All hands lost but myself--piled up on a reef of this
island. A master should go with his ship." He clutched at his
parcel and began tearing off the string.
"Picters o' my island. I allus was a painter," he continued, "if I
did foller the sea. Why, in my bark, the _Wetherall_ it was, I had
fancy picters on the bulkheads an' gold linin' over the white but
she got in a twistin' jimmycane, such as we have in these waters.
Thar's my island!"
He held up one canvas, a foot high and two feet wide, tacked over a
piece of board. It was a gaudy representation of an island wrought
with pathetic lack of skill. There was a conical peak at the left
end smeared with a slash of purple, and over it a very red and very
round sun. The land sloped away from the peak to the other end of
the island, and was lost in a white streak extending seaward, the
the bony finger of a skeleton, marking a reef clothed with fuzzy
breakers. A rocky ledge ran down to where the reef began and a big
gray stone stood up abruptly, giving the island the appearance of
a bluff-bowed vessel, and under it, a triangular patch of beach.
Near the rock were four palm trees. One bent over at a sharp angle,
as if it had been partly uprooted, and its moppy fronds almost
trailed in the still water of a pool formed by a second reef, not
so clearly defined, which ran parallel with the land. Except inside
this natural basin the whole shore of the island was wreathed by
white rollers and behind the shore line was a fringe of vividly
green jungle.
"Oh, isn't that splendid!" exclaimed Marjorie.
"It's a work o' art, that's what everybody says," remarked the old
man with a show of pride.
"What do you call the island?" asked Locke.
"The name don't matter, sir. 'Dinshaw's Island' they call it
hereabouts, in honour o' the fact I was wrecked on it. Blown off my
course in a typhoon at night and went smash into this reef ye see
here. I was washed out o' the riggin', an' when I come to I was on
the beach here, wreckage all round, an' the sun shinin' bright as a
whiffet, an' me all beat out an' water-logged. Right there it was,"
and he put his thumb on a spot near the rock.
"Is it a big island?" asked Trask.
"Not in the way ye might think. Big enough as it goes, but it ain't
the size what counts," and he broke into a cackling laugh, wagging
his head, as if he held the secret of a great joke.
"Where is it?" asked Locke.
"Thar's lots as would like to know, sir," said Dinshaw, gravely.
"But I ain't in the way o' tellin', not until I can see my way
clear to go myself."
"It is near the mainland of Luzon?" asked Trask.
Dinshaw turned quickly and peered at him suspiciously, pursing his
lips.
"It is," he said, finally.
"I don't see any other land in the picture," ventured Trask,
scanning the canvas with more care.
"Ye bet ye don't!" snapped Dinshaw, with sudden asperity. "I left
that out so they can't find it. Lots as would like to find
Dinshaw's island, young man, but I'm savin' it for myself. Jarrow
said he'd take me, but he never did. He wants to go steal it
himself. I know. I know. They can't fool me, if I am old."
"Steal your island?" asked Marjorie. "Why, how could anybody steal
an island?"
"What's on it?" whispered Dinshaw.
"Oh, ho," said Locke. "Then there's something on it, is there? Now
we're interesting! Treasure, I suppose."
"Gold on it," piped Dinshaw, with childish simplicity. "Gold enough
to make us all rich. Gold enough to ballast a hundred ships!"
"Ye see that reef? Well, I lay in that bight thar, an' the sun come
out. The eye o' the storm it was, and after awhile it come on to
blow again, as is the custom with twisters. When the weather
cleared again, I don't know how long it was, I crawled down and
overhauled the flotsam. There was part of Number One boat, with a
beaker o' water an' a ham from the cabin stores. Later, I found my
mate, Seth Colburn. He was dead. He'd sailed with me all his life,
come from down Eastport way, and a smart man he was, too, at
figgers. I dug his grave with my bare hands in this patch o' sand,
right there under the ridge, and it was all yaller, shinin' in the
sun, as it run through my fingers. All glittery an' soft, like corn
meal. That island's full o' it, I'm tellin' ye! It'll make us all
rich!" His voice rose, and quavered with excitement.
Locke looked at Trask questioningly.
"Here," said Trask, passing Dinshaw the glass which the bar-boy
brought. "Drink this."
"Jarrow said he'd take me," gasped Dinshaw after he had drunk.
"Who's Jarrow?" asked Trask.
"Oh, he's got a schooner," said Dinshaw.
"So your island is full of gold," said Locke, with a skeptical wink
for the benefit of Trask and Marjorie. "And you sell pictures of
it, eh?"
"Aye, gold. An' Seth Colburn's buried in it. He'd laugh if he knew.
But Jarrow'll take me some day, an' when he does, I'll go back to
Yarmouth an' build a big house, all snug an' shipshape, with a
piazza like the quarter-deck of a frigate, an' a garden with
petunias, an'--an'--have good soup for supper. I fed my crew
better'n Prayerful Jones does, an' I tell him so every day. Them
that sailed with Cap'n Dinshaw had duff twice a week with raisins
in it, sir, an' Wes' Injia m'lasses."
Marjorie passed Dinshaw a plate of sandwiches and served him with a
cup of coffee. Trask drew aside, and Locke followed him.
"This is right in your line," said Locke.
"I've a mind to investigate it," said Trask. "Heard some talk about
it on my way down from Amoy."
"Sounds fishy to me," said Locke. "I believe he's off his head."
"That's what they say here. Wilkins was telling me about him."
"You think there's gold there?"
"Possibly. The formation of the ledge looks promising. He may have
run into a deposit washed out by the sea, merely a pocket, but
significant. You see, if the ledge in the picture is a continuation
of a crest from the mainland, I might follow up the lead on Luzon.
There is gold out here but the country hasn't been properly
prospected, owing to the troubles with the natives. I'd like to
look things over on my own hook. Of course the company would go in
on it with me. I've always wanted to come here but my chief never
thought much of it. So I'm on a vacation, and what I find for
myself I'll be able to swing. If Dinshaw would split----"
"You'd get yourself into a tangle with him," said Locke. "He'd most
likely go around telling folks you wanted to steal his island if
you talked with him about it."
"I'll go slowly and I may get his confidence after awhile."
"Well, I wish you luck," said Locke. "I'm going to make the
Thursday boat."
"I wasn't thinking of going on this trip for a couple of weeks,"
Trask hastened to say.
"Hong Kong for mine," said Locke.
"Dad! Come here, please," called Marjorie. "Captain Dinshaw wants
to go to his island. It seems to me that you men who are looking
for something to do might help him out."
"I'll give him ten _pesos_ for one of those pictures," said Locke.
"The other for me at the same price," said Trask.
"Stingies!" cried Marjorie. "If I were a man, I'd go find his
island."
"Perhaps I will," said Trask.
"None of this Count of Monte Cristo stuff for me," said Locke, as
he laid down a bill before Dinshaw. "Say, captain, I'll tell you
what I'll do, I'll pay your passage home first class if you'll go
so that you can get back to your relatives. Now you can't say I'm
a piker, Marge."
"Ten _pesos_!" whispered Dinshaw, staring at the bill. "Thank ye
kindly, sir. I'll make ye all rich."
"But how about going home?" said Locke. "I'll fix you up with some
clothes. This is no place for an old man like you."
"Home!" said Dinshaw. "I'm at the Sailors' Home."
"But you ought to be back in the States."
"I'm goin' back to my island, that's what," insisted Dinshaw.
"Jarrow said he'd take me."
"Dad, you said I could go anywhere I wanted on this trip," pouted
Marjorie.
"Where do you want to go, Miss Trinkets?"
"I think it would be gorgeous fun to find this island. I've never
done anything romantic in my life, and I've always wanted to elope,
or something. I'll run away with a drummer in a band--or something
like that, if I have to go home without finding an island--a
tropical island, with a wreck, too--and sailors buried on it--and
gold! I'm for it, strong."
"Not so strong as I am for a touch of cool weather," laughed Locke.
"That reminds me, it's time for another soda----"
"Dad!"
But Locke disappeared into the hall, laughing, saying something
about Timbuctoo and other places he would not care to visit.
"And he's finding fault about having to live in tourist hotels and
listen to bored guides! And here's a chance to get off the main
stamping ground, as he calls it, and help a poor old man."
"We don't like to get far from the comforts of civilization, after
all," said Trask. "But I don't know of anything I'd rather do than
take you and your father cruising."
"I wish there wasn't any old Thursday boat," wailed Marjorie. "We
might argue him into going if we had more time."
"You've got to miss that Thursday boat," declared Trask. "We ought
to be able to kidnap him or something."
"What's the name?" asked Dinshaw, rising from the table and putting
on his hat.
"Locke," said Marjorie. "Mr. Locke. You come up again to-morrow and
see us."
"I'll have to paint another picter," said Dinshaw.
"Here," said Trask. "You take this one with you, and bring it back
to-morrow, when I'll pay you twenty _pesos_ for it. That'll give
you an excuse for coming back. And don't say a word to anybody."
"Locke," murmured Dinshaw. "Mr. Locke."
"You ought to eat some more," said Marjorie.
"Can't stop," said Dinshaw, gathering up the other picture, which
he had not unwrapped. "Can't wait for the tide. I'll go see Jarrow.
He said he'd take me."
"Now look here," said Trask. "Don't you say a word to anybody.
Understand? Don't tell anybody!"
"I'm a clam, sir, a clam," said Dinshaw, solemnly, and blinking his
eyes at the sun which assailed him from the bare Luneta, he hurried
down the steps and hastened away.
"Poor old duffer," said Trask.
"We've got to help him find his island," said Marjorie. "I'll tell
you what to do. Dad wants to get up to Hong Kong because there's a
man at the King Edward he can beat at billiards."
"What's that got to do with it?" asked Trask, vaguely.
"You're a regular man!" she retorted. "Can't you see? Can you play
billiards?"
"A little," admitted Trask.
"Come up to our rooms and have tea," she said. "Then you get Dad
into a game of billiards, play as well as you can and--lose."
"A whale of an idea!" exclaimed Trask.
"And don't say anything more about the island," warned Marjorie.
"Dad's stubborn, but he's easy to handle. We'll act as if we didn't
care a whoop about this Dinshaw business--until we miss the
Thursday boat. Then we'll give him no rest. But remember, I'm for
the Thursday boat. That's just to throw him off his guard. He's a
dear old Dad, but sometimes he's balky."