Bunyip Land Part 2

"Ah, yes; a good guide and companion."

"There, Master Joseph, you hear," said nurse. "Doctor Grant means that sarcastical."

"No, I do not, nurse," said the doctor quietly; "for I think it a very brave and n.o.ble resolve on the part of our young friend."

"Doctor!"

"It has troubled me this year past that no effort has been made to find the professor, who, I have no doubt, is somewhere in the interior of the island, and I have been for some time making plans to go after him myself."

Nurse Brown's jaw dropped, and she stared in speechless amazement.

"Hurray, doctor!" I cried.

"And I say hurray too, Joe," he cried. "I'll go with you, my lad, and we'll bring him back, with G.o.d's help, safe and sound."

The shout I gave woke Jimmy, who sprang to his feet, dragged a boomerang from his waistband, and dashed to the door to throw it at somebody, and then stopped.

"You'll break his mother's heart, doctor," sobbed nurse. "Oh! if she was to hear what you've said!"

"I did hear every word," said my mother, entering from the next room, and looking very white.

"There, there," cried nurse, "you wicked boy, see what you've done."

"Mother!" I cried, as I ran to her and caught her--poor, little, light, delicate thing that she was--in my arms.

"My boy!" she whispered back, as she clung to me.

"I must go. I will find him. I'm sure he is not dead."

"And so am I," she cried, with her eyes lighting up and a couple of red spots appearing in her cheeks. "I could not feel as I do if he were dead."

Here she broke down and began to sob, while I, with old nurse's eyes glaring at me, began to feel as if I had done some horribly wicked act, and that nothing was left for me to do but try to soothe her whose heart I seemed to have broken.

"Oh, mother! dear mother," I whispered, with my lips close to her little pink ear, "I don't want to give you pain, but I feel as if I must--I must go."

To my utter astonishment she laid her hands upon my temples, thrust me from her, and gazing pa.s.sionately in my great sun-browned face she bent forward, kissed me, and said:

"Yes, yes. You've grown a great fellow now. Go? Yes, you must go.

G.o.d will help you, and bring you both safely back."

"Aw--ugh! Aw--ugh! Aw--ugh!" came from the verandah, three hideous yells, indicative of the fact that Jimmy--the half-wild black who had attached himself to me ever since the day I had met him spear-armed, and bearing that as his only garment over the shoulder, and I shared with him the bread and mutton I had taken for my expedition--was in a state of the utmost grief. In fact, he had thrown himself down on the sand, and was wallowing and twisting himself about, beating up the dust with his boomerang, and generally exciting poor old nurse's disgust.

"Mother!" I cried; and making an effort she stood up erect and proud.

"Mr Grant," she exclaimed, "do you mean what you say?"

"Most decidedly, my dear madam," said the doctor. "I should be unworthy of the professor's friendship, and the charge he gave me to watch over you in his absence, if I did not go."

"But your practice?"

"What is that, trifling as it is, to going to the help of him who gave me his when I came out to the colony a poor and friendless man?"

"Thank you, doctor," she said, laying her hand in his.

"And I go the more willingly," he said smiling, "because I know it will be the best prescription for your case. It will bring you back your health."

"But, doctor--"

"Don't say another word," he cried. "Why, my dear Mrs Carstairs, it is five years since I have had anything even approaching a holiday. This will be a splendid opportunity; and I can take care of Joe here, and he can take care of me."

"That I will--if I can," I cried.

"I know you will, Joe," he said. "And we'll bring back the professor with all his collection of new plants for that London firm, on condition that something fresh with a big red and yellow blossom is named after me--lay the Scarlet Grantii, or the Yellow Unluckii in honour of my non-success."

"You're never going to let him start, Miss Eleanor?" cried nurse.

"Would you have me stand between my son and his duty, nurse?" cried my mother, flushing.

"Dearie me, no," sighed the old lady; "only it do seem such a wild-goose chase. There'll be no one to take care of us, and that dreadful black, Jimmy"--nurse always said his name with a sort of disrelish--"will be hanging about here all the time."

"Iss, dat's him, Jimmy, Jimmy, here Jimmy go. Hi--wup--wup--wup, Jimmy go too."

"Nonsense, Jimmy!" I said; "I'm going to New Guinea to seek my father."

"Iss. Hi--wup--wup--wup, Jimmy going to look for his fader."

"Why, you said he was dead," I cried.

"Iss, Jimmy fader dead, little pickaninny boy; Jimmy go look for him, find him dere."

"Be quiet," I said, for the black was indulging in a kind of war-dance; "you don't understand. I'm going across the sea to find my father."

"Dat him. Jimmy want go 'cross sea find him fader bad. Hi! want go there long time."

"Why, you never heard of the place before," I said.

"No, never heard him fore; want to go long time. Jimmy go too."

"Why, what for?" I said.

"Hunt wallaby--kedge fis--kill black fellow--take care Ma.s.s Joe--find um fader. Hi--wup--wup--wup!"

"He would be very useful to us, Joe," said the doctor.

"And I should like to take him," I said eagerly.

"Iss, Jimmy go," cried the black, who contrived, in spite of his bad management of our language, to understand nearly everything that was said, and who was keenly watching us all in turn.

"He would be just the fellow to take," said the doctor.