Mother Carey's Chicken Part 55

"Here, father, here!" he shouted, but still wondering what it meant, till he heard the loud thud of approaching feet coming through the darkness, and once more there was a hail.

"Where away, lad?"

Mark ought to have answered, "Three points on your port-bow," but he was not well up in nautical terms in this, his first voyage, and so he simply cried out, "Here!"

The result was that in a few minutes the captain, Small, and Billy Widgeon came feeling their way into the hollow.

"Are you all right, my boy?"

"Yes, father."

"How dark it is! We were afraid we should miss you. Strike a light, Small, and let's see."

The boatswain struck a match, and while the thin splint burned there was time for the position of all to be observed, and Billy Widgeon immediately placed himself alongside of Jack.

"We started to come to your help directly the major came into camp,"

said the captain, "but we were driven to take shelter till the storm was over. I don't believe I was ever in such a downpour before."

"How long did you have to wait?" asked Mark, who felt guilty at having been to sleep.

"Six hours at least," said the captain. "It must be very nearly morning. How is Jimpny?"

"He has been fast asleep all the time."

"Well, then, we will not wake him," said the captain. "It is so intensely dark that we shall have difficulty in getting him home, and it can't be very long to-day."

It was longer than the captain thought, but he sat chatting about how busy they had been setting up the second hut and improving the first, besides making preparations for their home becoming permanent.

"The ship will supply us with endless useful things," he said, "even if much of the cargo is burned. This man has again proved himself a treasure, Mark, for it might have been a long time before we had explored far enough to enable us to find the hull."

"When shall you go to see it, father?" asked Mark.

"To-day, my boy. We'll get back to camp and have a good breakfast and then start. By the way, the major says you have got some capital birds."

"Eight, and they are bigger than fowls. Curious-looking things, with a sort of helmet on their heads."

"I think I know them," said the captain, "a sort of brush-turkey, I expect, the maleo birds I think they are called, and they are splendid eating. I don't think we shall starve, my lad."

"Day!" said Mark eagerly, pointing to a faint gleam away to his right.

"Yes; the first touch of dawn. I think we may prepare to go now. Get together the birds, my lads."

Widgeon and Small obeyed, finding them already tied, and slinging them over their shoulders.

"Now, Mark, wake up your companion," said the captain. "He ought to be able to walk after eight hours' rest."

Jimpny started into wakefulness at a touch, and on being spoken to answered, in a vacant wandering way, something about the fire and wanting his spear; but the day was rapidly coming round, and the faces of those in the shelter of the rocks growing visible.

"What's the matter?" said the stowaway suddenly. "Have they got off the bales and boxes.--No, I--I--is that you, Mr Mark?"

"Yes, all right, Jimpny. Had a good sleep?"

"Yes, I think so. I--I'm not quite awake. Yes, I recollect now."

"Can you walk a couple of miles or so, my lad?" said the captain.

"Yes, sir; yes, I can walk," said the stowaway; "but there are some birds here. Let me help carry the birds."

"No, no; they're all right, my lad," said Small. "You carry yourself.

That's enough for you to do. Ready, sir."

"Come along, then," said the captain; and he led the way out into the delicious early morning with the light growing rapidly now and showing the trees laden with moisture, whose only effect upon the sand had been to beat it down into a firm path, so that they would have been able to go rapidly had it not been for the weakness of the stowaway.

"Better when I've had some breakfast," he said feebly. "Been a bit bad, sir. Soon get well, though, now."

He did not look as if he would, but there was plenty of the spirit of determination in him, and he plodded on till they came in sight of the grove where the huts had been set up, and there in the first beams of the morning sun the ladies could be seen anxiously on the look-out for the lost ones, while, to mingle matter-of-fact with sentiment, there, from among the rocks rose up in the glorious morning the thin blue smoke of the so-called kitchen fire, telling of what was to follow after the welcome--to wit, a good breakfast of fruit and freshly-caught fish, with other delicacies, perhaps, by way of a surprise.

Safely back, and the night's anxieties soon forgotten in the light of the sun, the storm having made everything seem bright, and by comparison peaceful and calm.

"Now, Mark," said the captain after the refreshing sensation consequent upon a good bathe and a hearty meal, "you will be too tired to go in search of the ship to-day."

To which Mark gave a most emphatic "No," and declared himself quite ready for the start.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

HOW MARK SAW THE SEA-SERPENT.

"He's about the most misfortnatest chap as ever was born, Jimpny is,"

said Billy Widgeon. "He do get it bad and no mistake, allus."

For the stowaway had been at once taken up to the hospital, as the shady spot under the cocoa-nut trees had to find him lying there looking already quite another man. Kindly hands had been busy with water and bandages; he was decently clothed, and the feverish haunted look had gone out of his eyes, as he lay chatting with the sailors under a capital shedding of palm leaves and bamboos, which had been rigged up just in time for the storm, and which, like the other huts, had proved fairly water-tight.

"Oh yes, Mr Mark, sir, I'm a-getting on splendid now," he said. "This is a deal better than being aboard."

It was an understood thing that the party should start at once so as to have a long day for the search for the ship, and they had just prepared to start well armed for defence and to obtain fresh supplies of birds when Mark got back to the men's hut. The captain was loth to leave the camp, but most eager to see the ship, so it was decided that the major should remain and Mr Gregory be the captain's companion, Billy Widgeon and another man being appointed to the party.

"Good luck to you!" said the major. "We'll defend the camp, and have a splendid dinner of roast turkey ready when you come back. By the way, Mark, show them how to shoot these maleo birds. You will not run after them again as we did."

"No; I shall know better now," he replied; and, after another glance round at the arms, they were just setting off when an idea struck the lad.

"I say, father," he exclaimed; "it's going to be a very hot day, and all along by the side of those trees and rocks you get hardly a breath of air."

"I suppose not," said the captain drily.

"And after a time the guns get very heavy to carry."