King o' the Beach Part 14

"Now then," he cried, panting hard with his exertions, "did she tumble all to pieces, sir? I knowed better than that."

"Capital, Bostock," said the doctor. "It floats splendidly, but will it bear all three?"

"Will it bear all three, sir? Yes, and a ton o' stuff as well. Here, just you wait a minute."

He ran and got hold of the rope, hauled the raft alongside, and made it fast, before sliding down on to the raft, where he repeated his hornpipe performance, the buoyant framework rising and falling a little, but seeming as safe as could be.

"There," he cried, shouting up breathlessly to those looking out from the gangway; "it seems to me that she's far safer than any boat I could make, and you can pole her, or row her, or put up a sail, and go anywhere on her; but, you know, I don't say as she'll be fast. No; I don't say that."

"You ought to be proud of your work, Bob," cried Carey, laughing.

"Proud on her, sir? I just am. Them tubs are good uns; no fear o' them leaking for years."

"Leaking for years, Carey," said the doctor, in a low tone of voice; "he speaks as if he were quite settled down to staying here."

"Well, it will be nice," said the boy. "I mean," he added, hastily, "for a month or two, for, of course, we expect to be fetched away soon."

"Yes," said the doctor; "of course we expect to be fetched away soon."

The doctor turned away and went down into the cabin, leaving the boy looking after him.

"How strangely he spoke," thought Carey; "just as if he didn't like what I said. Of course, I don't want to stay here, but to go on to Brisbane to see _them_. Only, after being shut up like a cripple so long, it's natural to want to go ash.o.r.e on this island and see what the place is like. I say, Bob," he cried, going to the side, "do you think there's a volcano--a burning mountain, up yonder where the clouds hang so low?"

"Might be anything, sir. I shouldn't be a bit surprised. You never know what you're going to find in an island where n.o.body's been before."

"Want a hand up?"

"Nay, sir; I can swarm up the rope. We must lower down some steps, though, so as we can haul 'em up again of a night and keep out the savages as might come in their canoes."

"Savages? Canoes? Do you think there are any, Bob?"

"One never knows, sir. I don't think there's any here now, or we should have seen some of 'em; but they goes wandering about far enough, and they might turn up any time. Rather nasty ones they are, too, off the west coast and to norrard there, Noo Guinea. There we are," he continued, climbing on deck. "Won't take me long to-morrow morning putting on the oars, poles, and mast, and the bit o' sail we have made."

"Then we shall go to-morrow morning?"

"If it keeps fine," said the old sailor, shading his eyes and looking round. "And fine weather it is, my lad, as far as I can see."

CHAPTER TEN.

The old sailor was right--fine weather it was: and after a heavy meal and providing themselves with another in a basket, they stepped down on to the raft, where Bostock had rigged up a mast, and pushed off from their home, which lay looking enormous from where they stood.

The doctor had pa.s.sed judgment that if Carey did not exert himself he might do a little in the way of going about. He was bandaged still and debarred from using one arm at all; but as he half-lay on the raft looking round he was ready to declare that he would have liked to come even with both arms bandaged to his sides, for it was glorious on that sunny morning, with the air clear and soft, the sky of an intense blue, and the water, over which they glided very slowly, looking like crystal.

The square sail had been hoisted; it filled out slowly and, obeying the long rough oar which Bostock used as a scull, the raft behaved splendidly, leaving the long dark hull of the steamer behind, and steadily nearing the yellow stretch of sand backed by an enormous cocoanut grove.

There were birds circling overhead and flock after flock flying about the sh.o.r.e, which grew more beautiful each minute; but before they had glided far over the lagoon, Carey's attention was taken up by the shallowness of the water, and he reached out over the side to gaze in wonder through the perfectly limpid medium at what seemed to be a garden of flowers of the most beautiful and varied tints. There were groves, too, of shrubs, whose branches were of delicate shades of lavender, yellow, orange, and purple, and through the waving sea growths fishes, gorgeous in gold, orange, scarlet, and blue, flashed in the softened sunshine, as they were startled by the coming of the raft.

Bostock was very busy piloting their craft, but he was referred to from time to time as a mine of knowledge to be worked, for the old sailor had long been acquainted with the Eastern Seas, and had been fairly observant for an uneducated man.

Hence he was able to point out the fact that there were thousands of the great pearl-oysters cl.u.s.tering about the coral reefs which looked so shrub-like below.

"Look here, doctor," cried the boy, excitedly; "it's just like a lovely garden."

"Exactly," said the doctor; "a garden that lives and grows without a soul to admire its beauties."

"No, we're admiring them, sir," said Carey, promptly.

"But most likely we are the first white people who ever saw them."

"Don't let the raft go so quickly, Bob," cried Carey; "we want to have a long, long look at the things now we have found them. Look, doctor; oh, do look! there was a fish glided by all of a watch-spring blue, with a great bar across it like a gold-fish's."

"You are missing those flowers," said the doctor.

"No, I see them," cried the boy, with his face close to the water. "Sea anemones; cl.u.s.ters of them like those I've seen in Cornwall, only ten times as handsome. Look there, too, lying on the patch of sand there, seven or eight, oh! and there's one--a five-pointed one, scarlet, crimson, and orange-brown; but they don't seem to have any feelers."

"No; those must be star-fish--sea stars."

"Beautiful," cried the boy, who was half-wild with excitement. "Oh, what a pity we are going so fast! Look at all this lilac coral; why, there must be miles of it."

"Hunderds o' miles, sir," growled Bostock.

"Yes, it's very pretty to look at, and if you touch it, it feels soft as jelly outside; but it has a bad way o' ripping holes in the bottoms of ships. Copper and iron's nothing to it. Goes right through 'em. Ah!

that coral's sent hunderds o' fine vessels to the bottom o' the sea, the sea. 'And she sank to the bottom o' the sea.'"

The old sailor broke into song at the end of his remarks, with a portion of a stave of "The Mermaid"; but singing was not his strong point, and he made a noise partaking a good deal of a melodious croak.

"This is a famous region for coral reefs, I suppose, Bostock," said the doctor.

"Orfle, sir. Why, as soon as you gets round the corner yonder, going to Brisbane, they call it the Coral Sea, and there you get the Great Barrier Reef, all made of this here stuff."

"More of those great oysters," said Carey. "I say, Bob, are they good to eat?"

"Not half bad, sir, as you shall say. They make first-rate soup, and that aren't a thing to be sneezed at."

"Then we shan't starve," said Carey, laughing.

"Starve, sir? No. I can see plenty of good fish to be had out o' this lagoon."

"But are these the oysters they gather for the mother-o'-pearl?" asked the doctor.

"Them's those, sir, and it seems to me here's a fortune to be made gathering of 'em. Why, they fetches sixty and seventy pound a ton, and the big uns'll weigh perhaps ten or twelve pound a pair."

"Then we must collect some, Carey, ready to take away with us when we go."

"And that aren't all, sir," continued the old sailor; "when you come to open 'em you finds pearls inside 'em, some of 'em worth ever so much."

"Oh, doctor, what a place we've come to," said Carey, excitedly. "Isn't it lucky we were wrecked?"