Jack at Sea Part 38

"Eh, what's that?" said Sir John. "Think we were sleeping through all this? Oh no! What a glorious sunrise, my boy."

"Glorious," cried the doctor, grasping the boy's arm. "I didn't think Nature could be so grand. Here, I don't feel as if I could wait for breakfast. Oh, Jack, my lad, what times we're going to have out there."

"Well, gentlemen," said the captain, coming up with his face shining in the morning light, "will this do for you? What do you say to my island now?"

"Thank you," said Sir John, offering his hand. "I don't think we shall want to go any farther, Bradleigh. There will be enough here to last us for life."

"Right," cried the doctor, rubbing his hands. "Only to think of our pottering away our existence at home when there were places like this to see. I say, you know, Nature isn't fair. The idea of such grand, clever chaps as we are--or think we are--having to put up with our gloomy, foggy island, and a set of naked savages having such a home as that. I say it's quite unnatural."

"I don't suppose they appreciate the beauties of the place," said Sir John.

"Will it do?" cried the doctor. "I'm philosopher enough to say that this is just the sort of place where a man can be happy. You don't get me away from here, I can tell you. I mean to stay."

"For the present, at all events," said Sir John. "I question though whether Captain Bradleigh here will want to stop very long."

"Just as long as you like, gentlemen," said the captain. "I can make myself contented anywhere. That is," he added with a laugh, "if I can find good safe anchorage for the vessel I command. Well then, if you think this place will do for a stay, the first thing to be done is to find the way through the reef into the lagoon. There's an opening somewhere near here."

Just about that time Jack cast his eyes aft and saw that Edward was standing by the cabin hatch with one of Sir John's serge jackets in his left and a clothes-brush in his right hand, for though the clothes on ship-board seemed as if they could not by any possibility gather dust-- they did get some flue in the corners of the pockets--Edward gave them all a thorough-going turn every morning before he rubbed over the shoes with paste, the blacking bottle remaining unopened and the brushes unused.

Jack went quickly up to him, and Edward began rubbing his head with the back of the clothes-brush; but before the lad could speak the man began.

"Beg pardon, sir," he said, "but you didn't happen to see me on deck in the middle of the night, did you?"

"No, Ned," said Jack, staring.

"Of course you didn't, sir," said the man, speaking as if relieved.

"Made me feel as if my head was getting a bit soft."

"No wonder, if you keep on tapping it with the clothes-brush."

"Oh, that won't hurt it, sir, my head's hard as wood. I'm a bit late this morning--over-slept myself. Had the rummiest dream I ever knowed of."

"What did you dream?"

"Dreamt as I come up in the middle of the night, just when it was thinking about getting to morning, and we'd sailed to about the horridest place as ever was, and then I looked round and saw you like a black shadow going about the deck without making a sound."

"I had no shoes on," said Jack.

"Then it wasn't a dream, and it was only that the place looked so dismal drear in the dusk."

"Of course it was, Ned."

The man gave his head a rap with the clothes-brush. "Then that's a lesson for a man never to be in too much of a hurry. 'Pon my word, Mr Jack, sir, when I came just now and had a look, I felt as if I must have been dreaming, for as soon as I went below I lay down for a snooze, and went off like a top."

"The light has made a wonderful change, Ned," said Jack. "Well, what do you think of it now?"

"It's beyond thinking, sir, it's wonderful. We've seen some tidy places as we come along, but this beats everything I ever saw. Seems to me that we'd better stop here altogether. They say 'there's no place like home,' but I say there's no place like this."

"It really is beautiful, Ned. You should have stopped on deck and seen the wonderful transformation as the sun rose."

"Couldn't have been anything like coming upon it sudden, sir, after going below feeling that you'd been cheated. How I should like to send for my poor old mother to see it. But I dunno: she wouldn't come.

She's got an idee that Walworth is about the loveliest place in the world. But it ain't, Mr Jack, you may believe me, it really ain't, not even when the sun shines; while when it don't, and it happens to be a bit muddy, or it rains, or there's a fog, it's--well, I don't think there's anything short of a photo to show what it really is like, and one of them wouldn't do it credit. But this isn't Walworth, sir, and the next thing I want to do is to go ash.o.r.e and see what the place is like."

"All in good time, Ned. I suppose we shall soon begin collecting now."

"Any time you like, Mr Jack, sir, and please remember that your obedient servant to command, Edward Sims, is aboard, and whether it's sticking pins through flies and beetles like Sir John does, or shooting and skinning birds and beasts like the doctor, I want to be in it. My word, there ought to be some fine things here."

"There's no doubt about it."

"Then if you'll remember me, sir, as the song says, there isn't anything I won't do, even to being your donkey for you to ride when you're tired, and," added the man with a smile full of triumph, as if defying any one to surpa.s.s his offer, "you can't say fairer than that."

"I'll try for you to come, Ned," he replied.

"Do, sir, if it's only to carry the vittles. Thankye, sir, all the same."

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

FINDING THE WAY IN.

Meanwhile the captain went forward. The men were piped on deck, and in a short time they were under easy sail in search of the opening, the captain keeping about a mile from the lovely sh.o.r.e, which Jack scanned eagerly with a gla.s.s as they glided on, but he saw no sign of inhabitants either in the open or among the palms.

Then he searched the open spots which could be seen here and there among the trees where the ground began to rise, but there was nothing in the shape of hut or shelter of any kind.

"Well, can you make anything out?" said Sir John, coming up to where Jack was resting his elbows on the rail and sweeping the island in a peculiarly effortless way, which only necessitated his keeping the gla.s.s steadily to his eye and holding himself rigid, the result being that the object gla.s.s had three separate motions given to it by the yacht, namely, its gliding straight on, its fore and aft rise and fall as it pa.s.sed over the gently heaving swell, and thirdly the careening movement as the _Silver Star_ yielded to the pressure of the wind. Hence every part along the sh.o.r.e was being thoroughly searched.

"No, father, nothing. I thought I should see some canoes drawn up on the sh.o.r.e of the lagoon, but there is no sign of any one being there.

Oh, I do hope it is an uninhabited island."

"So do I, my boy; but we may come at any time upon a village. The place is quite big enough to hold towns even on the other side, hidden from us by the mountain."

"But Captain Bradleigh thinks that if we do find any one there it will only be a wandering party who have sailed from some other island. He says that they are famous people in this direction for taking long journeys in their canoes, sailing from island to island, for the sea is dotted with them in every direction for hundreds and hundreds of miles."

"So I suppose," said Sir John thoughtfully; "but I do not see any signs of an opening in the reef to let us through into the smooth water. All depends upon that, for if we do not get into a sheltered part we can only make a few short visits."

The wind began to fall so light when they had sailed a few miles, that it was evident that before long they would have a similar calm to that which they had experienced on the previous day.

"My brain's a little foggy about where the opening in the reef is," said the captain soon after breakfast; "and I am rather anxious to get inside before the wind drops, for one never knows what weather one is going to have in these lat.i.tudes at this time of year, especially after a calm."

"Are you sure there is an opening in the reef?" asked the doctor anxiously.

"Oh yes, I'm sure of that," said the captain, "for I rowed through it and landed; but it's some years ago, and one can't recollect everything.

Suppose you go aloft, Bartlett, with the gla.s.s, and see what you can make out."

"May I come with you, Mr Bartlett, and bring mine?" said Jack eagerly.

"Glad of your company," replied the mate. "You take one side and I'll take the other."