Fire Island Part 52

Sure sign that you are getting better, my lad, isn't it, doctor?"

Mr Rimmer gave the speaker a good-tempered nod.

"Oh, yes," he said, "Mr Panton's coming right again, fast. Nice healthy appearance about his wound, and Mr Lane's, too. When the sea fails to get me a living I think I shall set up as quack doctor. Come, gentlemen, you are getting better, you know. Not long ago you were on your backs; then you managed to sit on deck; then to stand for a bit, and now you have been here for ever so long watching us. That don't look as if you were going back."

"No," said Oliver, "but I feel so weak, and it seems to be so long before we get strong."

"Oh, never mind that, my dear sir, so long as you are travelling on the right way. Patience, patience. Let's get a few more days past, and then you'll be running instead of walking, and getting such a collection together as will make us all complain about the smell."

Oliver smiled sadly.

"Ah, but we shall," cried the mate. "That's what I like in Mr Drew's collecting, he presses and dries his bits of weeds and things, and then shuts them up in books. Mr Panton's work, too, is pleasant enough only lumpy. I shall have to get rid of the brig's ballast and make up with his specimens of minerals to take their place."

"Then you mean to get the brig down to the sea again?" said Oliver sharply.

Mr Rimmer took off his hat and scratched his head, as he wrinkled up his forehead and gazed with a comical look at the last speaker.

"I didn't think about that," he said sadly. "Seems to me, that the sooner we set about building a good-sized lugger the better, and making for some port in Java."

"No, no," cried Oliver; "there is no hurry. This is an exceptionally good place for our purpose, and we can all join hands at ship-building when we have exhausted the natural history of the island."

"Very good, gentlemen, but in the meanwhile I shall strengthen our fort a little, so as to be ready for the n.i.g.g.e.rs when they come again. I'll get the carpenter at work to rig up planks above the bulwarks with a good slope outwards, so that they'll find it harder to climb up next time they come."

"Do you think they will come?" asked Panton, evincing more interest in the conversation.

"Oh, yes, sir," said the mate thoughtfully, "such a ship as this would be a prize for them, and we shall have them again some day, as sure as a gun."

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.

BILLY WRIGGS SMELLS MUSSELS.

That day and during the many which followed the shipwrecked party had plenty of proof of the truth of their theory about the animals and birds migrating from one side of the island to the other in consequence of fright caused by the eruption, for birds came back singly and in little flocks, many of them pa.s.sing right over the brig on their way to the forest-covered lower slopes of the burning mountain.

It was the same too with insects, while from time to time a roe-buck or two would trot across the wide opening, perhaps, to stand and gaze up at the peculiar-looking object in the middle of the wave-swept plain, but always ready to dart off on any attempt being made to approach them with a gun, for already they were learning the meaning of the report.

Oliver and Panton tried hard to be patient and bear their lot, but they often fell to and had a good grumble and murmur. But soon, as the days went on and they could walk about the deck with less exertion and suffering, they brought up their guns and sat waiting by the bulwarks for the brightly painted birds as they flew over, Panton helping largely to increase his friend's store of preserved specimens, securing for him several remarkably good lories and brilliant metallic cuckoos. The pot, as Panton called it, was not forgotten either, several large bustard-like birds being shot as they raced across the plain, besides wild duck and geese, which at times pa.s.sed over in plenty.

At last the happy day arrived when the mate suggested that the patients should make an effort to get a little way from the ship, and with eyes brightened the two young men were helped down the steps in spite of their irritable declarations that they could do better alone.

Oliver drew a long deep breath as he gave a stamp upon the sand.

"Hah! That's better," he sighed. "Well, Panton, how do you feel?"

"I don't know. So weak yet, but--yes, I am better, a good deal. I say, couldn't we make a little expedition somewhere, say as far as that cavern where the sulphur hole goes right down into deep strata?"

"No, no, let's keep out in the fresh air."

"That's better, gentlemen," said the mate, descending in turn from the deck of the brig, which now looked quite like a fort with its breastwork of new planks. "Puts strength into you, don't it, to get out here?"

"Oh, yes," cried Panton, "now one has got over the first bit of it. I felt as if I was too weak to walk down, but I'm coming round now. Hi!

One of you two go and get me my gun and the cartridges. Shall he bring yours, Lane?"

"Yes, I think so," said Oliver rather dubiously though, as Panton shouted to "One of you two," which proved to be Smith, who was standing looking out of a sheltered loophole with Wriggs.

"Think of going shooting?" said Mr Rimmer.

"Yes, a short trip would not hurt us, would it?" asked Oliver.

"No; do you good if you walk steadily and don't go too far. You'll go with them, Mr Drew?"

"Only too glad," said that individual, "I'm longing for a bit of a trip.

But hadn't we better send out scouts first?"

"Yes, of course," said the mate, "we mustn't be taken by surprise.

That's the worst of being down here on so flat a place, you can't make out whether there's any danger."

Hailing one of the men directly, he sent him up to the main-topgallant cross-trees with a spy-gla.s.s to carefully "sweep the offing," as he termed it, and then as Smith brought down the guns with a very inquiring look which said dumbly but plainly enough, "You won't leave me behind, will yer, gents?" the mate spoke out,--

"Let's see, you have been with these gentlemen before, Smith?"

"Yes, sir, me and Billy Wriggs," cried Smith excitedly.

"Humph. Like to have the same men again, Mr Lane, or try some fresh ones?"

"Oh, I say stick to the tools you know," said Oliver, smiling at Smith.

"Yes, let's have the same men again," put in Panton.

"Hi! Wriggs," said the mate--"down here."

Wriggs came down smiling all over his face, and after a certain amount of scouting had been done, and the man at the cross-trees had turned his telescope in every direction in search of danger, and seen none, the little party started once more, the mate accompanying them for a few hundred yards towards the south-west.

"I'd make for the sea," he said, "but don't go too far."

"I can walk that distance easily," said Panton. "The stiffness has gone out of my legs already."

"Glad of it," said the mate drily; "but it isn't the walking down to the sea."

"What is it, then?" asked Panton, who kept on turning his head in different directions to take great breaths of the warm spicy air.

"The walking back," said the mate. "There, take care of yourselves, and be very careful; mind, Mr Drew, they are not to go too far!"

"They will not want to," said Drew, smiling, and the mate gave them all a friendly nod, left them at the edge of the forest, to the south of the plain, and they at once began to move forward beneath the boughs which sheltered them from the ardent sunshine.

It was a glorious morning, and to the prisoners newly escaped from confinement the sight of the forest with the long creepers which draped the boughs with dewy leaf, tendril, and brilliant blossom seemed brighter than ever, and, once more all eagerness, the collecting began.

Panton, who grumbled a little at there being nothing in his way, devoted himself to helping first one and then the other of his companions, picking some fresh leaf or flower for Drew, or bringing down an attractive bird for Oliver.