For Treasure Bound Part 30

"No such luck, Bob, I am afraid," replied I; "this man is grey-haired, and my poor father's hair was dark brown, if you recollect."

"True," answered Bob; "but if not the skipper hisself, it may be somebody belonging to him."

"That cannot be, either," I returned; "for according to the account we received from the seaman, there was no one left with him but the chief- mate, who, I presume, was Winter--who, you will recollect, was put into your berth when you met with your accident; and Winter was quite a young man--scarcely thirty, I believe."

"Well, whoever it may be, we shall soon find out all about him now, for we shall be alongside the little hooker in another five minutes,"

remarked Bob philosophically, but with evident disappointment in the tone of his voice.

This was true, for we were nearing the canoe fast. I again had recourse to my telescope, and, with its a.s.sistance, was now able to see with perfect distinctness the occupants of the canoe.

I scanned with the greatest intentness the features of him who was steering, and who was facing directly towards us; and as I did so, in a tumult of the most painful agitation and suspense, feature after feature once more became familiar, and notwithstanding the grey hair and beard, I at length recognised, with unspeakable joy, my father.

"Hurrah!" I shouted; "hurrah! it is he--it _is_ my father, Bob; and we have found him after all, and that when we little expected to do so.

Thank G.o.d; oh! thank G.o.d!"

"Amen," answered Bob, taking off his tarpaulin reverently for a moment, while the tears rolled down his weather-beaten cheeks.

We took room, and rounded the cutter to, and as she came up into the wind, with all her canvas shaking, the natives vigorously plied their paddles, and with a few l.u.s.ty strokes shot their light craft alongside.

I went to the gangway, and held out my hand to a.s.sist my father in over our low bulwarks, whilst Bob hove the end of a coil of line into the canoe, shouting to the blacks, "Now then, darkies, look out, and catch a turn with this here rope's-end, will ye? for if you goes astarn, you'll have all your work afore ye to overhaul us and get alongside again."

"Good Heaven! that voice--surely I should know it," murmured my father.

"Thank you, sir. Yours is the first sail I have seen for--Why, how is this?"

I had been unable to control myself any longer; and, to my father's infinite surprise, he suddenly found himself in my embrace, and, as suddenly, recognised the tones of the voice which called him "father."

I thought the dear old man would have fainted, but he rallied himself with a powerful effort, though it was some little time before he could speak. At length--

"My son! my n.o.ble boy Harry," exclaimed he. "Great G.o.d! Merciful Father! I thank Thee for this great and unexpected mercy. Little did I think, my dear boy, when I saw your white sails standing in for the island, what unexpected happiness awaited me. And, if I mistake not,"

added he, "this is my old friend and staunch s.h.i.+pmate, Robert Trunnion.

This is indeed a happy day for me," grasping Bob's hand heartily, "a day I have despaired of ever seeing again. But, tell me, what has happened, and how come you to be here in this small c.o.c.kle-sh.e.l.l of a craft? You surely cannot have been cast away, and have built her yourselves. If you have, you are wonderfully good s.h.i.+pwrights. And how came you to find out that I was here? or is this happy meeting the result of accident? Everything is so surprising that I feel perfectly bewildered."

"You shall know all, dear sir, in good time," I answered. "The story is too long to be told in a breath. Let us get inside, and come to an anchor; and as soon as we are sufficiently recovered from our present excitement to tell an intelligible tale, you shall know everything."

"Well, well, so be it," answered my father; "and I suppose I had better play pilot in navigating this 'seventy-four' of yours through the channel. What water do you draw?"

"Seven feet aft," I answered, "and she works to perfection; so you will have no difficulty with her."

"So much the better," answered my father, "as it will be rather ticklish work. Keep her well to windward, Robert; do not go closer than forty fathoms to the southern extremity of the surf. And now, my dear boy, one word more. How is your sister?"

"Well; quite well, I am happy to say. At least, she was so when we left England, little more than four months ago," I answered; "and so was everybody else in whom we are interested."

"I am delighted beyond measure to hear it," returned my father; "this is _good_ news, better than I could have dared to hope. Now keep her away, Robert. Starboard your helm--hard a-starboard; so, steady now as you go. Do you see the opening of the channel? Steer as straight as you like for it. This _will_ be a surprise for Winter, indeed."

"He is still with you, then, dear sir?" said I. "I trust he is in good health."

"Yes, I am happy to say he is quite well," returned my father. "Indeed, we have neither of us had a day's illness since we have been on the island. I was quite an invalid at the time that the s.h.i.+p was lost, certainly; but I soon recovered, thanks to Winter's care and good nursing. But how did you know of his being with me?"

"We learned your whole story, from the time of your sailing for home up to the day of your being so shamefully abandoned," I replied, "and that by the merest accident. We happened to fall in with one of the men whom you s.h.i.+pped at Canton, on board a vessel which we boarded on the line, on our pa.s.sage out. But here is some one with whom I must make you acquainted, dear sir," I continued, as Ella's fair head appeared at the companion.

I then introduced her to my father, briefly narrating the circ.u.mstances under which she became a member of our little crew, and frankly explaining the relation in which we now stood towards each other. When I had finished my explanation, my father took the dear little girl by the hand, kissed her on the forehead, and said a few kind words to relieve the embarra.s.sment and agitation under which it was evident she was suffering; and I had the very great satisfaction of seeing that these two beings, in whom I was so warmly interested, were mutually impressed very favourably towards each other.

We soon worked through the short pa.s.sage in the reef, and then stood away to the westward, rounding the southern extremity of the island very shortly afterwards. The moment that we cleared this point, and opened the western side of the island, Bob shouted, "Ah! there lies the dear old barkie, sure enough. Look at her, Harry, lad. She's sorely mauled about, poor old beauty, but I should still ha' knowed her anywheres, as far as these old eyes could see her."

There, indeed, lay the wreck of the _Amazon_, close to the beach, about two miles off, and sorely mauled about she was; so much so, that I greatly doubted whether Bob would ever have identified her as our old s.h.i.+p, had not my father's presence, and the story we had already heard of her loss, a.s.sisted him. Her three lower-masts were still standing, but the whole of her upper works were gone, and I at first supposed that they had been used for fire-wood, until we opened up a tiny bay somewhat nearer us to the southward, and saw a small vessel in process of being built on the beach.

"You have established a s.h.i.+p-yard here, I see, sir," I remarked, as this object came in view.

"Yes," answered my father; "but we have made but poor progress, so far.

You will be of the greatest a.s.sistance to us, my dear boy--you and Robert here. Since you have managed to turn out such a sweet little craft as this cutter, I shall be strongly inclined to pull our work to pieces and begin all over again."

"How do you mean, sir?" I inquired. "You surely do not imagine that Bob and I built this cutter?"

"Did you not?" returned my father. "Then where did you pick her up?"

"She was built on the Thames," I replied; "and Bob and I have managed to bring her out here between us."

My father was greatly surprised at hearing this, but as we were now approaching the anchorage, it was decided to defer all explanations until we could have an opportunity of proceeding with them in a straightforward fas.h.i.+on. Sail was shortened, and in about ten minutes afterwards we dropped our anchor in a pretty little well-sheltered bay, within a couple of cables' length of the beach, and in full view of a neat little cottage constructed of bamboo, which stood on a lawn of about an acre in extent, environed with beautiful tropical trees and plants.

Winter was down on the beach full of curiosity respecting the new- comers, and I will leave to the reader's imagination the surprise and delight with which he recognised in them two of his old s.h.i.+pmates.

The two canoes conveyed all hands of us ash.o.r.e, and my father, after welcoming us heartily to "his dominions" as we stepped from the canoes to the beach, gave his arm to Ella, and with me on his other side, and Bob and Winter following arm-in-arm astern, and the two natives bringing up the rear, we at once wended our way to the cottage, where we found that Winter had prepared a sumptuous breakfast in antic.i.p.ation of our arrival.

Whilst discussing this meal, I related, at my father's earnest solicitation, our whole story, commencing with an account of the wreck on Portland beach, and of the tale of the treasure-island told by the dying Spaniard, and then going on to relate how we had been induced, by a belief in this story, to build and fit out the _Water Lily_ and sail in her in search of the treasure, mentioning, in due course, our meeting with the seaman who had given us a clue to the _Amazon's_ fate, and of our resolve, therefore, to search the whole Archipelago, if need be, for the abandoned ones; and winding up with an account of our late achievement of the destruction of the _Albatross_ and of the consequent imprisonment of her crew, upon the island we had so recently sailed from.

Great was the surprise of my father and his companion as I proceeded, and frequent their comments and interruptions; but at last I got through with it, and then, of course, I became anxious, in my turn, to hear how matters had gone with my father and Winter during their long stay where they now were.

"I have very little to tell," replied my father, in answer to my questions; "and that little I should not now be alive to relate, but for the unceasing care and attention of my friend and comrade, Winter, here, who refused to save himself from a possible lifetime of captivity on this island by deserting his commander. He watched me all through a long and tedious illness, and, under G.o.d, was the means of saving my life for this happy moment. We have never _quite_ despaired of being restored to home and friends, but latterly we have felt that our deliverance might be the work of years. At first, we were kept buoyed up by the hope of being rescued by some pa.s.sing vessel; but, though we have maintained a ceaseless watch, we have never sighted a single sail from the moment of our first arrival here until you hove in sight this morning. All my charts and instruments of every description were carried off when the mutineers left in the boats, so that I have but a very remote idea of our actual whereabouts, but we must be in a very out-of-the-way corner of the globe, as indeed I now gather clearly from what you have told me. Our first work, after my recovery, was the building of this hut: and then followed the preparation of a garden, a short distance inland from here, so that we might secure the means of existence. As soon as this was completed to our satisfaction, we went to work upon the building of a small vessel but our appliances were so inadequate to the task, that our progress has been excessively slow, as you may judge when I tell you that we have been at work now fully two years, and the craft is yet barely half-finished. Latterly, indeed, we have got on somewhat better, for the two blacks--who, as far as I can learn from their signs and the few words of English they have picked up since being with us, were blown off their own island in a gale of wind, and came ash.o.r.e here in the last stage of exhaustion--have been of the greatest a.s.sistance to us in the mere handling of heavy weights; and now that you have joined us, I think we may make short work of the remainder of the job."

I was at first disposed to suggest the abandonment of the half-finished schooner (for such she was), but, on more mature consideration, I came to the conclusion that it would be better to finish her, on many accounts--the chief of which was that as we now mustered seven hands, all told, including the blacks, whom we could not leave behind, we should be uncomfortably crowded on board the cutter; and I doubted much whether we could find room to stow away, in so small a craft, a sufficiency of water, to say nothing of provisions for so large a party.

The day was, of course, declared a high holiday on the island; and, after our mutual explanations had been fully given, we all--the whites, of course, that is--proceeded to the beach to inspect the craft on the stocks. She was a much larger craft than the _Lily_, measuring fully thirty tons. My father and Winter had given a great deal of care and attention to her design, and the result was a very pretty model, though her lines were by no means so fine as the cutter's. She was immensely strong, owing to the fact that it was less laborious to build in the timbers just as they were taken from the _Amazon_, or only with such alterations as were imperatively necessary to bring them to the required shape, than it would have been to reduce them with the imperfect tools in the possession of the builders. The whole of her framing was set up and secured, and the garboard and two adjacent streaks on each side bolted to: and that was all. I could easily understand, as I looked on her ma.s.sive timbers, how great must have been the labour for two pair of hands to bring her even thus far forward; and, in addition to this, there was the pulling of it all to pieces, in the first instance, on board the parent s.h.i.+p, and the rafting of the materials down to the bay afterwards.

After taking a good look at the craft, we shoved off in the canoes for the wreck, calling on board the cutter on our way, that my father and Winter might satisfy the curiosity they felt concerning the little craft which had so successfully traversed so many thousand miles of ocean.

They were, naturally, delighted at everything they saw, and admired her model greatly: but were, nevertheless, loud in their expressions of wonder at what they termed our temerity in venturing on so long a voyage in such a mere boat.

A quiet paddle of about half-an-hour took us alongside the wreck, which lay grounded in about ten feet of water, pretty much as she had been left by the mutineers. We had no difficulty in boarding, a substantial accommodation-ladder having been constructed to facilitate so frequent an operation. There was not much to see when we stood upon her deck-- the whole of the p.o.o.p having been removed to furnish materials for the schooner; but Bob and I naturally felt a deep interest in the s.h.i.+p which had formerly been our floating home, and as to whose fate we had for so long been in a state of such painful uncertainty.

We remained on board about an hour, during which Ella insisted on having pointed out to her the exact spot which my old berth had formerly occupied; and then we returned to the sh.o.r.e and visited the garden, which had been formed in a small natural clearing within about a quarter of a mile of the house. Here we found a goodly patch of wheat, almost ready for the sickle: a large plot of potatoes, which, my father said, grew but indifferently well in that climate; a few other English vegetables, some yams, and several fruit-trees of various kinds, including the very useful bread-fruit, which had been carefully selected and as carefully transplanted to their present position, where they had flourished amazingly under the not very efficient gardening skill which had been bestowed upon them by the two recluses. Of animal food there was no lack, the small island being almost overrun by the many descendants of three pigs and half-a-dozen fowls, which the mutineers had, in an unaccountable paroxysm of generosity, left behind.

The remainder of the day was spent in a tour quite over my father's limited dominions, Bob and Winter having, however, devoted the afternoon to the rigging up of a couple of tents close alongside the hut, for the accommodation of us of the cutter's crew. During our ramble, which Ella shared--though she at first wished to remain aloof, thinking my father and I might have private matters to discuss after so long a separation-- the subject of the treasure-island again came uppermost; and my father seemed to be strongly of opinion that, in spite of our failure to find it, it really existed, and that our disappointment had arisen in some error as to its exact position. For my own part, I hardly knew what to think. I could not for a moment believe that the Spaniard, knowing himself to be a dying man, would tell a wanton and objectless falsehood; and I had never supposed him to be otherwise than in the full possession of his senses whilst relating his story. But he had given the position of the island definitely, and, on our arrival at the lat.i.tude and longitude named, we had found no land at all. True, there had been a certain amount of reservation in his statement. He had given the position "as near as he could ascertain it," or in words to that effect; but, allowing the possibility of an error, that error was not likely to exceed a few miles, and I thought that, had the island really existed, we ought to have been able, at all events, to see it from our mast-head when in the position ascribed to it.

We talked the matter over at some length--for no one is quite indifferent to the advantages accruing from the possession of wealth-- but we could make nothing very satisfactory of it; so at last the subject was changed, and we discussed and arranged our plan of immediate operations, my father's longing for home being a thousand times increased now that he knew we had sent information home of the possibility of his still being in existence. We all fully shared in his impatience, as I knew that Ada would soon begin to feel uneasy, if she were not already so, at the long period which had now elapsed since she could last have heard from or of us. As for Winter, he was a Portland man, and the stories Bob told him of his kith and kin fully aroused his semi-dormant longings to see them all once more.

The next morning, we all turned to with a will upon the schooner. It happened that more materials were required from the wreck; and the obtaining of these, and the rafting of them down to the s.h.i.+p-yard, had hitherto been a work involving the expenditure of much time and great labour, as, until the arrival of the two blacks in their canoe about six months before, my father had nothing in the shape of a boat, excepting a rude catamaran sort of an affair; and after the acquisition of the canoe, though she was, of course, most useful for many purposes, the rafting down of the timbers and planking was almost as tedious and laborious an operation as ever, the canoe being too small and too light for towing purposes, and their usual mode of procedure had been to kedge down everything.

But our arrival put an entirely new phase upon this part of the business. We got out our tube-boat, and put her together and rigged her; and then we six men--four whites and the two natives, who were strong, active lads--manned her and the cutter, and proceeded to the wreck, where we combined our forces in taking apart such portions of the wreck as we thought most suitable for our purpose.