The Island Treasure Part 14

"Ze Galapagos," he replied laconically, answering my question off-hand, in his solemn fashion and deep voice. "It vas call't ze Galapagos vrom ze Spanish vort dat mean ze big toordles, zame dat yous zee dere."

"Then Captain Snaggs was right after all, sir, about the ship's course yesterday, when he said that Mr Flinders would run us ash.o.r.e if it was altered?"

"Yase, dat vas zo," said Jan Steenbock. "Dat voorst-mate one big vool, and he vas loose ze sheep! Dis vas ze Abingdon Islants, leedel boys-- one of ze Galapagos groups. I vas recollecks him. I vas here befores.

It vas Abingdon Islants; and ze voorst-mate is von big vool!"

As Jan Steenbock made this observation, a trifle louder than before, I could see the face of Mr Flinders, all livid with pa.s.sion, as he came up the companion hatch behind the Dane.

"Who's thet durned cuss a-calling o' me names? I guess, I'll spifflicate him when I sees him!" he yelled out at the pitch of his voice; and then pretending to recognise Jan Steenbock for the first time as his detractor, he added, still more significantly, "Oh, it air you, me joker, air it?"

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

SETTLING MATTERS.

"Yase, it vas me," said Jan Steenbock, at once turning round and confronting the other, not in the least discomposed by his sudden appearance, and speaking in his usual slow, deliberate way. "I zays to ze leedel boys here you's von big vool, and zo you vas!"

"Tarnation!" exclaimed Mr Flinders, stepping out on to the deck over the coaming of the b.o.o.by hatch, and advancing in a threatening manner towards the Dane, who faced him still imperturbably. "Ye jest say thet agen, mister, an' I'll--"

The second-mate did not wait for him to finish his sentence.

"I zays you's von big vool, the biggest vool of all ze vools I vas know," he cried in his deep tones. Every word sounded distinctly and trenchantly, with a sort of sledge-hammer effect, that made the Yankee mate writhe again. "But, my vren', you vas badder dan dat, vor you vas a droonken vool, and vas peril ze sheep and ze lifes of ze men aboord mit your voolness and ze rhum you vas trink below, mitout minting your duty. Oh, yase, you vas more bad dan one vool, Mister Vlinders; I vas vatch yous ze whole of ze voyage, and I spik vat I zink and vat I zees!"

"Jee-rusalem, ye white-livered Dutchman!" screamed out the other, now white with rage, and with his eyes glaring like those of a tiger, as he threw out his arms and rushed at Jan Steenbock, "I'll give ye goss fur ev'ry lyin' word ye hev sed agen me, ye bet. I'm a raal Down-East alligator, I am, ye durned furrin reptyle! Ye'll wish ye wer never rizzed or came athwart my hawse, my hearty, afore I've plugged ye out an' done with ye, bo, I guess; for I'm a regular screamer from Chicago, I am, an' I'll wipe the side-walk with ye, I will!"

This was 'tall talk,' as Hiram remarked, he and several others of the crew having turned out from their bunks by this time, roused by the altercation, all gathering together in the waist, full of interest and expectancy at witnessing such an unwonted treat as a free fight between their officers. But, the first-mate's brave words, mouth them out as he did with great vehemence and force of expression, did not frighten the stalwart Dane, self-possessed and cool to the last, one whit.

No, not a bit of it.

Quietly putting himself into an easy position of defence, with his right arm guarding his face and body, Jan Steenbock, throwing out his left fist with a rapidity of movement quite unexpected in one of his slow, methodical demeanour, caught the bl.u.s.tering Yankee, as he advanced on him with hostile thoughts intent, full b.u.t.t between the eyes, the blow being delivered straight from the shoulder and having sufficient momentum to have felled an ox.

At all events, it was enough for Mr Flinders.

Whack!

It resounded through the ship; and, uttering a half-stifled cry, the mate measured his length along the deck, the back of his head knocking against the planks with a sound that seemed to be the echo of the blow that brought him low, though softer and more like a thud--tempered and toned down, no doubt, by the subduing effect of distance!

This second a.s.sault on his thick skull, however, instead of stunning him, as might have been imagined, appeared to bring the mate back to consciousness, and roused him indeed to further action; for, scrambling up from his rec.u.mbent position, with his face showing unmistakable marks of the fray already, and his eyes not glaring quite so much, for they were beginning to close up, he got on his feet again, and squared up to Jan Steenbock, with his arms swinging round like those of a windmill.

He might just as well have tried to batter down a stone wall, under the circ.u.mstances, as endeavour to break down the other's guard by any such feeble attempt, although both were pretty well matched as to size and strength.

Jan paid no attention to his roundabout and random onslaught, fending off his ill-directed blows easily enough with his right arm, which was well balanced, a little forward across his chest, protecting him from every effort of his enemy.

He just played with him for a minute, during which the Yankee mate, frothing with fury and uttering all sorts of terrible threats, that were as powerless to hurt Jan as his pointless attack, danced round his watchful antagonist like a pea on a hot griddle; and then, the Dane, tired at length of the fun, advancing his left, delivered another terrific drive from the shoulder that tumbled Mr Flinders backwards under the hood of the b.o.o.by hatch, where he nearly floored Captain Snaggs, on his way up from the cuddy--the skipper having been also aroused by the tumult, the scene of the battle being almost immediately over his swinging cot, and the concussion of the first-mate's head against the deck having awakened him before his time, which naturally did not tend to improve his temper.

"Hillo, ye durned Cape Cod sculpin!" he gasped out, Mr Flinders'

falling body having caught him full in the stomach and knocked all the wind out of him. "Thet's a kinder pretty sorter way to come tumblin'

down the companion, like a mad bull in fly time! What's all this infarnal muss about, hey?"

So shouting, between his pauses to take breath, the skipper shoved the mate before him out of the hatchway, repeating his question again when both had emerged on the p.o.o.p. "Now, what's this infarnal muss about, hey?"

Taken thus in front and rear Mr Flinders hardly knew what to say, especially as Jan Steenbock's fist had landed on his mouth, loosening his teeth and making the blood flow, his countenance now presenting a pitiable spectacle, all battered and bleeding.

"The--the--thet durned skallawag thaar hit me, sirree," he stammered and stuttered, spitting out a mouthful of blood and a couple of his front teeth, which had been driven down his throat almost by Jan Steenbock's powerful blow. "He--he tried to--to take my life. He did so, cap.

But, I guess I'll be even with him, by thunder!--I'll soon rip my bowie inter him, an' settle the c.o.o.n; I will so, you bet!"

Mr Flinders fumbled at his waistbelt as he spoke, trying to pull out the villainous-looking, dagger-hilted knife he always carried there, fixed in a sheath stuck inside the back of his trousers; but his rage and excitement making his hand tremble with nervous trepidation, Captain Snaggs was able to catch his arm in time and prevent his drawing the ugly weapon.

"No ye don't, mister; no ye don't, by thunder! so long's I'm boss hyar,"

cried the skipper. "Ef ye fits aboord my shep, I reckon ye'll hev to fit fair, or else reckon up with Ephraim O Snaggs; yes, so, mister, thet's so. I'll hev no knifing aboord my ship!"

The captain appeared strangely forgetful of his own revolver practice in the case of poor Sam Jedfoot, and also of his having ran a-muck and nearly killed the helmsman and Morris Jones, the steward, thinking he was still in pursuit of the negro cook--which showed the murderous proclivities of his own mind, drunk or sober. However, all the same, he stopped the first-mate now from trying to use his knife; although the latter would probably have come off the worst if he had made another rush at Jan Steenbock, who stood on the defence, prepared for all emergencies.

"No, ye don't. Stow it, I tell ye, or I'll throttle ye, by thunder!"

said the skipper, shaking Mr Flinders in his wiry grasp like a terrier would a rat; while, turning to Jan, he asked: "An' what hev ye ter say about this darned muss--I s'pose it's six o' one an' half-dozen o'

t'other, hey?"

"Misther Vlinders vas roosh to sthrike me, and I vas knock hims down,"

said Jan Steenbock, in his laconic fashion. "He vas get oop and roosh at me vonce mores, and I vas knock hims down on ze deck again; and zen, you vas coom oop ze hatchway, and dat vas all."

"But, confound ye!" cried the other, putting in his spoke, "you called me a fule fust!"

"So ye air a fule," said Captain Snaggs, "an' a tarnation fule, too, I reckon--the durndest fule I ever seed; fur the old barquey wouldn't be lyin' hyar whaar she is, I guess, but fur yer durned pigheadedness!"

"Zo I vas zay," interposed Jan Steenbock. "I das tell hims it vas all bekos he vas one troonken vool dat we ras wreck, zir."

"Ye never sed a truer word, mister," replied the skipper, showing but little sympathy for Mr Flinders, whom he ordered to go below and wash his dirty face, now the 'little unpleasantness' between himself and his brother mate was over. "Still, hyar we air, I guess, an' the best thing we ken do is ter try an' get her off. Whaar d'yer reckon us to be, Mister Steenbock, hey?"

"On ze Galapagos," answered the second-mate modestly, in no ways puffed up by his victory over the other or this appeal to his opinion by Captain Snaggs, who, like a good many more people in the world, worshipped success, and was the first to turn his back on his own champion when defeated. "I zink ze sheep vas shtruck on Abingdon Island. I vas know ze place, cap'n; oh, yase, joost zo!"

"Snakes an' alligators, mister! Ye doan't mean ter say ye hev been hyar afore, hey?"

"Ja zo, cap'n," replied Jan Steenbock, in his slow and matter-of-fact way, taking he other's expression literally; "but dere vas no shnake, dat I vas zee, and no alligator. Dere vas nozings but ze terrapin tortoise and ze lizards on ze rocks! I vas here one, doo, dree zummers ago, mit a drading schgooner vrom Guayaquil after a cargo of ze orchilla weed, dat fetch goot price in Equador. I vas sure it vas Abingdon Islant vrom dat tall big peak of montane on ze port side dat vas cal't Cape Chalmers; vor, we vas anchor't to looard ven we vas hunting for ze weed orchilla and ze toordles."

"Oh, indeed," said the skipper. "I'll look at the chart an' take the sun at noon, so to kalkerlate our bearin's; but I guess ye're not fur out, ez I telled thet dodrotted fule of a Flinders we'd be safe ter run foul o' the cussed Galapagos if we kept thet course ez he steered!

Howsomedever, let's do sunthin', an' not stan' idling hyar no longer.

Forrad, thaar, ye lot o' star-gazin', fly-catchin' lazy lubbers! make it eight bells an' call the watch to sluice down decks! Ye doan't think, me jokers, I'm goin' to let ye strike work an' break articles 'cause the shep's aground, do ye? Not if I knows it, by thunder! Stir yer stumps an' look smart, or some o' ye'll know the reason why!"

This made Tom Bullover and the other hands bustle about on the fo'c's'le, although buckets had to be lowered over the side aft to wash down the decks with, so as to clear away all the volcano dust that was still lying about, for the head-pump could not be used as usual on account of the forepart of the ship being high and dry.

Meanwhile, Hiram and I busied ourselves in the galley, blowing up the fire and getting the coffee ready for breakfast, so that ere long things began to look better.

The sun by this time was more than half-way up overhead, but as a steady south-west breeze was blowing in still from the sea right across our quarter, for the ship was lying on the sand with her bowsprit pointing north by west, the temperature was by no means so hot as might have been expected from the fact of our being so close to the Equator; and so, after our morning meal was over, the skipper had all hands piped to lighten the vessel, in order to prepare her for our going afloat again.

Captain Snaggs took the precaution, however, of getting out anchors ahead and astern, so as to secure her in her present position, so that no sudden shift of wind or rise of the tide might jeopardise matters before everything was ready for heaving her off, the sheet and starboard bower being laid out in seven-fathom water, some fifty yards aft of the rudder post, in a direct line with the keel, so that there should be as little difficulty as possible in kedging her. These anchors were carried out to sea by a gang of men in the jolly-boat, which was let down amidships just where we were awash, by a whip and tackle rigged up between the main and crossjack yards for the purpose.

By the time this was done, from the absence of any shadow cast by the sun, which was high over our mastheads, it was evidently close on to noon; so, the skipper brought his s.e.xtant and a big chart he had of the Pacific on deck, spreading the latter over the cuddy skylight, while he yelled out to the dilapidated Mr Flinders, who was repairing damages below, to watch the chronometer and mark the hour when he sang out.