King o' the Beach Part 22

"Don't you be feared about that," said the old fellow, nodding his head sideways; "but come along o' me on deck. I've saved this here on purpose for you to see."

"Pah! How nasty!" cried the boy, as Bostock brought forward an iron bucket containing the internal parts of the pigeons.

"Don't look very nice, but I thought I'd save it till you come."

"What for?"

"Come and see. I'm just going to chuck it overboard and wash out the bucket."

Carey grasped the man's reason directly, and they went on deck to the side where the water was deepest.

As they looked over the side they could gaze down through the crystal-clear water into the groves of seaweed and shrubberies of coral, where the anemones and star-fish were dotting every clear spot with what looked like floral beauties.

"Seems a shame to throw all that filth overboard, and spoil all that lovely clearness," said Carey.

"Do it, sir? Ah, it won't spoil it long. There's them there as'll think it good enough, and in five minutes the water'll be as clear as ever."

"But I don't see a single fish."

"More do I, sir, but they're all about somewhere. Ah, look yonder; there's one of them black and yaller snakes. He's a big thick one too.

See him?" said the man, pointing.

"No--yes, I do," cried the boy eagerly, and he shaded his eyes to watch the strikingly coloured reptile lying apparently asleep on the surface, twined up in graceful curves, some thirty yards away.

"You see if he don't go like a shot as soon as I make a splash."

A line was attached to the handle of the bucket, which was then raised from the deck.

"Stand clear," cried Bostock, and with a dexterous heave he spread its contents far and wide, dropping the bucket directly after to fill itself and be washed clean.

"Where's the snake?" he said.

"It went down like a flash, Bob; but what a horrid mess, and there are no fish."

"Aren't there?" said the old fellow, coolly.

"Yes! hundreds; where did they all come from?"

"Oh, from below, I suppose," and after giving the bucket three or four rinses the old sailor stood watching the water, now alive with good-sized fish, darting about and bearing off every sc.r.a.p of the refuse, not even a floating feather being left, so that in five minutes the water was as crystal-clear as ever.

"What do you think of that, sir?" said Bostock, smiling. "Fish are pretty hungry about here. Be 'most ready to eat a chap who was having a swim."

"It's plain enough that we could catch plenty from the deck here."

"Yes, sir, if you didn't get your lines tangled in the coral. I'd rather moor the raft out in deeper water yonder off the sh.o.r.e. Couldn't have a better place than we had yesterday."

Half an hour later they were being gently wafted towards their previous day's landing place, where cocoanuts were obtained, fish caught, and a large addition made to the number of pearl sh.e.l.ls, which were laid on the sand in the bright sunshine, it being decided that on a large scale the task would be too laborious to open the great molluscs one by one.

"I'll show you how it's done, gen'lemen," said Bostock. "I've seen it.

Before long those sh.e.l.ls 'll be gaping, and the oysters dead. Then we'll haul one of the biggest casks we can get ash.o.r.e and sc.r.a.pe out the oysters and drop 'em in along with some water."

"To decay?" said the doctor.

"That's it, sir. Give 'em time and a stir-up every now and then, and they go all into a nasty thin watery stuff which you can pour away, wash what's left with clean water, and there at last are all the pearls at the bottom without losing one, while the sh.e.l.ls have lain in the sun and grown sweet."

Enough pearling being done for the day, Bostock attacked one of the heaviest laden cocoanut-trees, making a "sterrup," as he called it, by pa.s.sing a short piece of rope round himself and the tree, tying it fast, and then half-sitting in it and pressing against the trunk with his legs, hitching the rope up foot by foot till he reached the leafy crown, where he screwed off a dozen fine nuts and threw them down upon the sand before descending.

"Why, Bob," cried Carey, "I didn't think you were so clever as that."

"More did I, sir."

"But you must have had lots of practice."

"Nay, sir, I never did it afore; but I've seen the blacks do it often, and it seemed so easy I thought I'd try."

Later on, when well refreshed, they went cautiously to the mouth of the little river, stalking the crocodiles by gliding from rock to rock, but without result; not a single pair of watchful eyes was to be seen on the surface. There were, however, plenty of a mullet-like fish.

But the party preferred to make use of their lines from the raft moored at the edge of the deep water, where they were not long in securing half-a-dozen fine fish partaking of the appearance of the John Dory as far as the great heads were concerned, but in bodily shape plumper and thicker of build.

Then the raft was unmoored and the sail hoisted, to fill out in the soft land breeze, which wafted them back to their stranded home.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

The weather was glorious, and the days glided by in what would have been a luxurious life had it not been for the busy, investigating spirit which kept them active.

For they were in the midst of abundance. The well-stored ship, victualled for a couple of hundred people, offered plenty for three, while from sea and land there was an ample supply in the form of fish, fowl, and eggs, both birds' and turtles', places being discovered which were affected by these peculiar reptiles, and where they crawled out to deposit their round ova in the sand, while a fine specimen could be obtained by careful watching.

Then, too, there was an abundant supply of fresh water easily to be obtained by taking a water cask up the river on the raft.

As Carey's injury mended he was restlessly busy either superintending the pearl fishing, whose results were visible in half-a-dozen casks sunk in the sands and an ever-increasing stack of the great sh.e.l.ls carefully ranged in solid layers by Bostock, to whom fell the lot of pouring water in the casks and giving their contents a stir-up from time to time.

"Smell, sir?" he said, in answer to a remark from Carey, who always went carefully to windward. "Oh, I s'pose they do; so does fish if you keep it too long, but I don't mind."

"But it's horrid sometimes," said Carey; "and if it wasn't for the pearls I wouldn't have anything to do with the mess."

"Dirty work brings clean money, my lad; and if you come to that, the fresh lots of sh.e.l.ls I piles up don't smell like pots of musk. But it's all a matter o' taste. Some likes one smell, and some likes another, and then they calls it scent. Why, I remember once as people used to put drops on their hankychies as they called--now, what did they call that there scent, my lad?"

"Eau de Cologne."

"No, nothing like that."

"Lavender water?"

"Nay, nay."

"Millefleurs?"