Mother Carey's Chicken Part 46

"I'm going to hold on if I can," said Mark between his teeth; "but I shall let him run if he's going to pull me out of the boat."

As he spoke the fish was tugging furiously at the line, drawing the holder's arms out to their full stretch, and actually threatening to jerk him over the side of the boat. Now it rushed to right, now to left, and then made straight once more for the sea, and so full of strength that this time Mark set his teeth, feeling sure that line, hook, or his fingers must give way.

"You'll lose him. I know you will," cried Small, though how the fisherman was to prevent the catastrophe now that he was at the end of the line the boatswain did not say; and while finding fault, after the fashion of lookers-on, it never occurred to him that he might help the capture by letting the boat follow the fish.

Matters then had just as it were reached a climax, when, instead of the line breaking or Mark going over the side, the strong cord, which had been hissing here and there through the water, suddenly grew slack, and the tension was taken off Mark's muscles and mind to give place to a feeling of despair.

"Well, you are a fisherman, sir," growled Small, spitting a little tobacco juice into the water in disgust. "You've lost as fine a fish as was ever pulled out of the sea."

"How do you know?" said Mark, beginning to haul in the line slowly hand over hand. "You didn't see it."

"See it! Why, I see it pull. It was a fine un, and badly as we wants a bit o' fish too. There, haul in sharp and put on a fresh bait."

"It doesn't seem much use," said Mark bitterly. "My hands are quite sore."

"You'll be obliged to let me have a try. Skipper'll come down on me if we don't have something to show when we get back. Ah! there's a nice fish now," he continued, as a great fellow looking like a fifty-pound salmon sprang a full yard out of the water and fell back with a tremendous splash.

"Why, that's him," cried Mark, "and he's on still."

"Hooray! then: get him this time, my lad," cried Small; and it was evident now that, finding its course out to sea checked, the fish had suddenly turned and darted back, swimming toward the boat and causing the slackening of the line, but directly in the hauling it felt the hook it sprang right out of the water and made a fresh rush.

But this was not so powerful a run as the first, and as Mark held on, the fish repeated its manoeuvre and swam toward the boat.

This time Mark was able to haul in nearly half the line before the fish made another dart, but only to be checked, and rush to and fro, forming zigzags through the water, which it varied by a series of leaps clear out.

"You'll lose him, my lad, you'll lose him," grumbled Small at every bound; but the hook was fast in, and Mark instinctively gave line at every rush till the fish grew weary, and was drawn in closer to the boat after the wild dashes, and then, for the seventh or eighth time as it was hauled in, and Mark was prepared for a new dart, and in dread that this time the hook should straighten or break away, the panting creature suddenly turned up and floated upon its side.

"Well hauled," shouted Small. "You have done it this time, my lad."

"Not caught yet!" said Mark. "How are we to get it in the boat?"

"Oh, I'll show you about that," said the boatswain, loosening his hold of the rock, and, watching his opportunity, he gaffed the great fish cleverly with the boat-hook by drawing it into the prize's gills, and the next instant it lay splashing at the bottom of the boat.

"Well done us!" cried Small, as Mark stood gazing down at his prize, a magnificent fish of over forty pounds weight, with brilliant silvery scales double the size of those of a salmon, and all flashing in the morning sunshine.

"What is it?" said Mark.

"Well, I don't rightly know," said Small drily. "'Taint a sole."

"Why, of course not."

"Nor it arn't a salmon, you see, cause it's got all them stickles on its back. Some kind o' shark, I should say. Look at its teeth."

"And you've been to sea all your life, Small, and don't know a shark!"

cried Mark. "Why, I know that isn't a shark, or anything of the kind."

"Yes, because you've had books to go at all your life, my boy, while I've been knocking about in ships. Man may learn to be a good sailor, but he don't learn much else aboard ship afore the mast."

"Never mind," said Mark; "the question for us to settle is--Is it good to eat?"

"Just you wait till we've cooked him over the fire," said Small, as he extracted the hook from the fierce jaws. "I'll answer that question then. 'Most anything's good to eat when you're half starved, my lad.

I've knowed men eat their shoes. Going to have another try?"

"Yes, I should like to get some more," said Mark; and as soon as the captured fish was laid under the thwart he baited and threw out again.

This time he waited so long that he began to draw in the line, expecting to find the bait gone; but long before it reached the surface it was seized by another ravenous fish, and after a sharp fight this was also got into the boat, proving to be something similar to the other, but only about half the size.

"As I said before, I says it again," said Small oracularly, "we sha'n't starve here."

Mark thought of his words as he paddled ash.o.r.e--Small cleaning the fish the while and throwing the offal overboard for ground-bait, as he said-- when he helped carry the prizes up to the fire in triumph, for there he found that the major had returned, he and Widgeon having quite a load of sh.e.l.l-fish; the men had cut down the cocoa-nut tree, and the nuts were lying on the sand; while the captain and the ladies were back, the former with about a dozen small c.o.c.katoos, and the latter with handkerchiefs full of jungle fruit, a good deal of which promised to be valuable.

A large fire of drift-wood and old cocoa-nuts and their husks was burning, making a fierce blaze, before and partly over which the fish were soon roasting on wooden spits, the sailors being particularly handy in obeying orders for anything which they could provide by means of their knives.

The sh.e.l.l-fish soon followed, being ranged round the glowing embers to cook in their sh.e.l.ls, and before long there was an odour rising that was little short of maddening to the hungry throng, several of whom directed envious glances at the birds which were hung up in the shade to be prepared for the next meal.

"Well, not so very badly," said the major about half an hour after the fish had been declared done. "I missed my cup of coffee and my dry toast, but I never ate fresher fish; and as to the scalloped gentlemen in their sh.e.l.ls, captain, with one exception I never ate anything more delicious. Whether they were oysters, clams, c.o.c.kles, or mussels, I'm sure I don't know, and what's more, I don't care. I say they were good."

"What was the exception?" said Mrs O'Halloran, smiling, for that lady seemed to bear everything with equanimity, and always proved herself a campaigner's wife.

"The exception, my dear," said the major, "was that spiral gentleman handed to me all hot by friend Mark, who took it sizzling out of the fire with a bit of bent stick held like tongs."

"But I meant that for Miss O'Halloran, sir," said Mark, flushing.

"Then, for what reason, sir, did you try to poison my daughter?" cried the major. "That fish, or mollusc as the naturalists would call it, was undoubtedly something of the whelk family; and if you can only find some of them large enough to cut up in slices, we shall have nothing to ear as to a supply of india-rubber shoe-soles. I've had some experience of contract beef in the army; but that is calves'-foot jelly compared to Mark's whelk."

"I thought it would be a delicacy, sir," said Mark, whose ears were particularly red as he saw Mary laughing.

"And I thought it was a trick," said the major; "so, after wriggling the monster out with my penknife and trying it fairly, I gave it to Mark's dog, and he has looked very unwell ever since."

The major's high spirits, and the calm matter-of-fact way in which his wife and daughter bore their privations, had an influence on the rest of the party, the captain looking less troubled, and Mr Gregory less serious. As for the sailors, they appeared to be quite enjoying themselves and treating the whole as a kind of picnic.

But there was plenty of work to be done, for as soon as the captain had seen to the two wounded men, who were able to talk now feebly, but without a trace of delirium, he began to make his plans, talking the matters over with the major and the mate; while the men, pending instructions, cut off all the cocoa-nut leaves to lay to dry, and gathered plenty of fuel for the cooking fire, whose place Small decided ought to be in a nook among some rocks, where it would be sheltered from the wind, and the rocks would grow heated and help the roasting or baking.

"It is gloriously fine now," the captain commenced by saying; "and one of the first things we ought to do is to provide a kind of hut or shed against the tremendous showers we are sure to have before long."

"My dear Strong," said the major, "I'm ready for anything, from shooting savages to cutting down trees."

"Then take your gun," said the captain, "and shoot a few savages, only keep yourself to the smaller inhabitants of the place, as we are not cannibals."

"Can I have Mark for my game-bearer?" said the major; and the lad darted a grateful look at him.

"I was going to propose that he should take a gun and go with you," said the captain. "He can catch a fish, and the sooner he can shoot us food the better. But be careful, my lad, and don't waste powder."

"I'll drill him," said the major; "and, by the way, would it not be as well to hoist something in the shape of colours on the top of the highest tree one of the men can mount?"

"I had planned that too," said the captain. "I hope our signals will soon be seen; but we must go on as if we expected to be in this place for years."

"That's good policy, my dear Strong," said the major; "so we'll leave you to your work, while we two idlers see what we can find inland. Now, Mark, guns and cartridges, and call your dog. His leg seems to be healing fast."