Commodore Junk Part 23

"Ye needn't mind," said Dinny, sawing away; "the inhabitants all along here are a moighty dacent sort of folk, and won't tell where we're gone.

They're not handsome, and they've got into a bad habit o' wearing little tails wid a moighty convanient crook in 'em to take howld of a tree."

"Monkeys?" said Mary, eagerly.

"Yes, Masther Jack, monkeys; and then there's the shmiling crockidills, and a few shnakes like ships' masts, and some shpotted cats. There's n.o.body else lives here for hundreds o' miles."

"Then you are safe, Abel," said Mary, with the tears standing in her eyes.

"Yes, Ma--yes, Jack," cried Abel, checking himself; and then meaningly, as he glanced at Bart, "you're a brother of whom a man may well be proud."

"Ay," cried Bart, excitedly, "a brother of whom a man may well be proud."

"Hurroo!" cried Dinny. "Howlt still, my lad, and I'll soon be through."

And the boat sped onward toward the west.

The island was found just as the Irishman had foretold, and as evening approached, without having even sighted a sail on their way, the little boat began coasting along, its occupants eagerly scanning the low, rock-reefed sh.o.r.e, above which waved a luxuriant tropic growth, but for some time no landing-place was found, while, though the sea was calm, there was a heavy swell to curl up and break upon the various reefs in a way that would have swamped their craft had they attempted to land.

The last fetter had been laboriously sawn through, Dinny having persisted in continuing the task, and he now sat resting and watching the sh.o.r.e with a critical eye.

All at once, upon sailing round a jagged point to which they had to give a wide berth on account of the fierce race which swept and eddied among the rocks, a pleasantly-wooded little bay opened out before them with a smooth sandy sh.o.r.e where the waves just creamed and glistened in the sun.

"Look at that, now," said Dinny. "That's where we landed; but I was ashleep after pulling a long time at the oar, and I disremembered all about where we went ash.o.r.e."

"How beautiful!" said Jack, gazing thoughtfully at the glorious scene, and asking herself whether that was to be her future home.

"An' d'yer caal that beautiful?" said Dinny, contemptuously. "Young man, did ye iver see Dublin Bay?"

"No," said Jack, smiling in the earnest face before him.

"Nor the Hill of Howth?"

Jack shook his head.

"Then don't call that beautiful again in me presence," said Dinny.

"Puts me in mind of Black Pool," said Bart, thoughtfully.

Further conversation was checked by the interest of landing, the boat being run up on the sh.o.r.e and hidden among the rocks, not that it was likely that it would be seen, but the position of the fugitives and the dread of being retaken made them doubly cautious, Bart even going so far as to obliterate their footprints on the sand.

"Now, then," said Dinny, "you've got the mushket and the bagnet, and those two make one; but if I was you I'd cut down one of them bamboos and shtick the bagnet an that, which would make two of it, and it would be a mighty purty tool to kill a pig."

The hint was taken, Bart soon cutting down a long, straight lance shaft and forcing it into the socket of the bayonet.

"Then next," said Dinny, "if I was captain I should say let's see about something to ate."

"Hear that, Abel?" said Bart.

"Yes. I was thinking of how we could get down some cocoa-nuts. There are plenty of bananas."

"Hapes," put in Dinny; "and there's a cabbage growing in the heart of every one of thim bundles of leaves on the top of a shtick as they call palms; but them's only vegetables, captain, dear, and me shtomach is asking for mate."

"Can we easily shoot a pig--you say there are some," said Abel.

"And is it aisily shoot a pig?" said Dinny. "Here, give me the mushket."

He held out his hand for the piece, and Abel, who bore it, hesitated for a moment or two, and glanced at Jack, who nodded shortly, and the loaded weapon was pa.s.sed to the Irishman.

"Ye doubted me," he said, laughing; "but niver mind, it's quite nat'ral.

Come along; I won't shoot anny of ye unless I'm very hungry and can't get a pig."

He led the way through an opening in the rough el if, and they climbed along a narrow ravine for some few hundred yards, the roar of the sea being hushed and the overhanging trees which held on among the rifts of the rocks shutting out the evening light, so that at times it was quite dusk. But the rocky barrier was soon pa.s.sed, and an open natural park spread before them, in a depression of which lay a little lake, whose smooth gra.s.sy sh.o.r.es were literally ploughed in every direction with shallow scorings of the soil.

"Look at that now," said Dinny in a whisper, as he pointed down at some of the more recent turnings of the soft earth. "The purty creatures have all been as busy as Pat Mulcahy's pig which n.o.body could ring.

Whisht! lie down, ye divils," he whispered, setting the example, and crouching behind a piece of rock.

The others hid at once, and a low grunting and squeaking which had suddenly been heard in the distance increased loudly; and directly after a herd of quite two hundred pigs came tearing down through a narrow opening in the rocky jungle and made straight for the lake.

They were of all sizes, from little plump fellows, half the weight of ordinary porkers, to their seniors--the largest of which was not more than half the dimensions of an English pig.

They trotted down to the water side, where they drank and rolled and wallowed at the edge for a few moments, and then came back in happy unconsciousness of the fate which awaited one of their number, and pa.s.sing so near the hidden group that Dinny had an easy shot at a well fed specimen which rolled over, the rest dashing on through the trees squealing as if every one had been injured by the shot.

"We sha'n't starve here," said Dinny, with a grin of satisfaction, and before many minutes had pa.s.sed a fire was kindled in a sheltered nook, where the flame was not likely to be seen from the sea, and as soon as it was glowing, pieces of the pig, cut in a manner which would have disgusted a butcher, were frizzling in the embers.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

"MASTER JACK."

They had been a month on the island, leading a dreamy kind of existence, and had begun to sleep of a night deeply and well without starting up half a dozen times bathed in sweat, and believing that the authorities from Plantation Settlement were on their track and about to take them by surprise. The question had been debated over and over again--What were they to do? but Dinny generally had the last word.

"Why, who wants to do anything? Unless a man was in Ireland, where could he be better than he is here, with iverything a man could wish for but some more powder and a wife. Eh! Master Jack, ye handsome young rascal, that's what ye're always thinking about."

"Jack" gave him an angry look, and coloured.

"Look at him!" cried Dinny. "There's tell-tales. Niver mind, lad, it's human nature, and we're all full of it, and a good thing, too. Now come and get some cocoa-nuts, for the powder's growing very low and we shall have to take to pig hunting instead of shooting when its done."

"Jack" hesitated, and then, as if suddenly making up his mind, accompanied the Irishman to the nearest grove where the cocoa palms grew close down to the sea.

Here Dinny rolled up the sleeves of his coa.r.s.e and ragged shirt, and climbed one tree as a lad does a pole; but the fruit when he reached it was immature, and he threw only one of the great husks down.

"We don't want dhrink, but mate," said Dinny, selecting another tree, and beginning to climb; but the day was hot, there was a languid feeling induced by the moist atmosphere, and Dinny failed three times to reach the glorious green crown of leaves where the nuts nestled, and slid down again, sore in body and in temper.

"A failure, Dinny!" said Jack.

"Failure! yes. Can't ye see it is?" said the Irishman sourly, as he bent down and softly rubbed the inner sides of his knees. "Here, I'm not going to do all the climbing. You have a turn."