The Island of Gold Part 39

"But he brought back with him two huge nuggets that I could see were gold.

"This was the price, he told me, that he had been paid for the _kee-waaee_. [youth].

"I never saw those nuggets again, but believe they were fas.h.i.+oned into spear-heads for the king."

While Halcott and James were talking quietly down below, Tandy was walking the deck with considerable uneasiness. There was a strange appearance far away in the north that he did not like. No banks of clouds were rising, only just a curious black, or rather purple, haze.

It had been so very clear all round up till an hour ago, that danger would have been the last thing Tandy would have thought about.

He looked towards the distant island through his gla.s.s at three o'clock, and it was then visible; but now, though the dog-watch had only just begun, it was wiped out, swallowed up in the mysterious haze.

But when a bigger wave than usual rolled in, and others and others followed, and when the surface became wrinkled here and there with cat's-paws, he hesitated no longer.

"All hands on deck!" he shouted, stamping loudly on the planks to arouse those below. "Hands loosen sail! Man the winch, lads! It must be up anchors, and off!"

There was wind enough shortly to work to windward till they were quite clear of the bay, then they kept the barque away on the starboard tack, until well clear of the island.

They now worked northwards as far as possible, till the wind got too strong, when they were obliged to lie to, almost under bare poles.

Neither Tandy, Halcott, nor James could remember having encountered so terrible a storm before. No one thought of turning in that night, for, being so short-handed, every man was needed on deck.

About midnight this fearful gale was evidently at its worst. The sea was then making a clean breach over the s.h.i.+p from fore to aft. The darkness was intense; hardly any light was there at all from the sky, save now and then a bright gleam of lightning that lit up mast, rigging, and shrouds, and the pale faces of the men as they clung in desperation to bulwark or stay.

Each lightning flash was followed by a peal of thunder that sounded high above even the incessant roaring of the wind.

Surely it was every one for himself now, and G.o.d for all who put their trust in Him.

It was probably about five bells in the middle-watch, the hatches being firmly battened down, when Ransey Tansey crept under the tarpaulin that covered the after companion, and lowered himself down as well as the terrible motion of the s.h.i.+p permitted him. He staggered into the saloon.

A light was burning in his father's state-room, the light of a candle hung in gimbals.

Towards the door he groped his way, hoping against hope that he would find his little sister asleep and well.

"O Jane, are you here?" he said; "so glad."

Janeira rose as he entered, clinging to the edge of the upper bunk in the endeavour to steady herself.

"Iss, I'se heah, sah. Been praying heah all de night to de good Lawd to deliber us. Been one big night ob feah, sah. But de sweet child, she go to sleep at last."

"Did she cry much?"

"No; she much too flighten'd to weep."

Ransey bent low over his sister, and felt relieved when certain that she was breathing and alive, for she slept almost like one in a trance.

Ransey had long since become "sea-fast," as sailors call it. No waves, however rough, could affect him, no s.h.i.+p's motion however erratic.

But just at that moment his head suddenly swam; he felt, as he afterwards expressed it, that he was being lifted into the clouds; next moment a crash came that extinguished the light and hurled him to the deck.

For a moment he felt stunned and unable to move; and now, high above the shrieking of the storm-wind, came the sound of falling and breaking timber, and Ransey knew the s.h.i.+p was doomed.

Book 3--CHAPTER FIVE.

FORTIFYING THE ENCAMPMENT.

The sound was that of falling masts. A sailor of less experience than Ransey could have told that.

The barque had been dashed stern-foremost upon the rocks. She had been lifted by one of those mighty waves, or "bores," that during a storm like this sometimes rise to the height of fifty feet or more, and hurrying onwards sweep over islands, and pa.s.s, leaving in their wake only death and destruction.

After the masts had gone clean by the board, there were loud grating noises for a short time, then the motion of the s.h.i.+p ceased--and ceased for ever and ay.

Nelda's voice, calling for her father, brought the boy to himself.

"I'm here, dear," he sang out. "It is all right; I'll go and get a light; lie still."

"Oh, don't leave me. Tell me, tell me," wept the wee la.s.s, "is the s.h.i.+p at the bottom? And are we all drowned?"

Luckily, Janeira now managed to strike a light, and poor Nelda's mind was calm once more.

Bob had slept on the sofa cus.h.i.+ons all throughout this dreadful night; but Ransey was now very much astonished, indeed, to see the stately 'Ral walk solemnly in at the door, and gently lower his head and long neck over Nelda, that she might scratch his chin.

"Oh, you dear, droll 'Rallie," cried the child, smiling through her tears, "and so you're not drowned?"

But no one could tell where the 'Ral had spent the night.

Under the influence of great terror, the Admiral was in the habit of "trussing" himself, as the sailors called it--that is, he close-reefed his long neck till his head was on a level with his wings, and his long bill lying downwards along his crop. Then he drew up his thighs, and lowered himself down over his legs. He was a comical sight thus trussed, and seemed sitting on his tail, and no taller than a barn-door fowl. It was convenient for him, however, for he could thus stow himself away into any corner, and be in n.o.body's way.

Daylight came at last, and it was now found that the _Sea Flower_ had been lifted by the mighty wave, and after being dashed into a gully in the barrier of rocks that stretched along the eastern side of Treachery Bay, had been left there high and dry.

The marvel is that, although several of the hands had been more or less shaken and bruised, no one was killed.

The position of the wrecked barque was indeed a strange one. Luckily for her the sea had risen when the tide was highest, so that she now lay on an even keel upon the shelf of rocks, twenty feet above the bay at low water.

The monster wave seemed to have made a clean breach of the lowland part of the island, and gone surging in through the dead forest, smas.h.i.+ng thousands of the blackened trees to the ground, and quite denuding all that were left of their beautiful drapery of foliage, climbing flowers, and floral parasites.

At each side of the gully the black rocks towered like walls above the hulk, but landwards, a green bank, of easy ascent, sloped up to the well-wooded table-land above.

As speedily as possible the main part of the wreckage was cleared away.

This consisted of a terrible entanglement of ropes and rigging. But the spars were sawn up into lengths that could be easily moved, and so, in a few hours' time, the unfortunate _Sea Flower_ was simply a dismantled hulk.

When the work was finally accomplished, the men were permitted to go below, to cook breakfast, and sleep if they had a mind to.

But not till prayers were said, and thanks, fervent and heartfelt, offered up to the G.o.d who, although He had seen fit to wreck the s.h.i.+p, had so mercifully spared the lives of all.