Chapter Twenty Three.

Chapter Twenty Three.Nearly a Catastrophe!SLept till long after daybreak, did they?Why, it was getting on for noon when Mr McCarthy roused the crew from their unusually long caulk amongst the blankets in the corner of the tent reserved for them with his cheery call of “All hands ahoy! Tumble up there! tumble up!” coupled with the information that the sun was “scorching their eyes out”—which latter observation, it may be casually remarked, was a slight stretch of his imagination, considering the feeble power of the solar orb at that time of the year on the snow-covered wastes of Kerguelen Land!Still, late or early as they might be in rising, the first point to which everybody turned their gaze on getting out into the open, was the little spot on the horizon to seaward where they had left the ship, where she had been last seen on the previous afternoon just as the evening was beginning to close in. Since they had quitted her, however, the wind had been blowing pretty stiffly all night, although it had calmed down again towards the morning; while the last thing they had heard, ere they had sunk into the sound dreamless sleep all had enjoyed through the complete exhaustion of their frames, had been the roaring noise of the breakers thundering against the base of the cliffs beyond their sheltering fiord. So, it was with but very faint hopes of perceiving the remains of the poor oldNancy Bell’shull still fixed on the treacherous reef of her destruction, that they looked wistfully out into the offing!But, lo and behold! in spite of all their forebodings, there in the distance they could yet dimly descry the stern section of the ill-fated vessel still intact, as far as they could judge with the naked eye, amidst the rocks; and about it the waves played and circled and the surf showered its spray. Above the wreck, too, there still fluttered feebly the flag which Mr Meldrum had attached to the stump of the mizzen-mast, as if defying the powers of the wind and the waters to destroy the gallant old ship and her belongings, strive how they might in all their majesty!Every heart felt glad at the sight.“It does me ra-al good, mister, it dew!” said Mr Lathrope to the first mate, who was intently watching the object of general interest, as if he could not take his eyes off it. “When I riz just neow, I felt kinder lonesome, a thinking we’d parted company with the old crittur fur ever and wouldn’t never see her no more; but thar she is still as perky as ever, in spite of last night’s gale, which I thought would ha’ blown all her timbers to Jericho!”“Ah, sorr!” replied Mr McCarthy with a heavy sigh and a troubled look in his usually merry twinkling grey eyes, “you’ll never say another ship the likes of her again! If you’ll belave me, Mister Lathrope, sorr, she’d sail ten knots on a bowline; and I’d like to know where you’d bate that now?”“I’ll not deny she had her good pints,” said the American sympathisingly; “but I guess the poor thing’ll soon be bruk up.”“Yes, son, more’s the pity,” responded the other; “sure an’ I wish we had her safe ashore here and we’d save ivory plank of her.”“It wouldn’t be a bad notion,” observed Mr Meldrum, who just then came up to where the two were talking, “to take another trip out to the ship in the jolly-boat and see whether we could not land some more things that might be of use to us?”“Sure the hould’s gutted now enthirely,” said the Irish mate sadly, “and the divil a hap’orth we’d get by going. Look at the say that’s running, too; and considther the long pull out there and back again—not that I wouldn’t be afther going, sorr, if you were to say the word!”“Oh, no, never mind,” replied Mr Meldrum. “There’s not the slightest necessity for it, for I believe we brought away all the provisions that were left in her, and we’d find little enough now! I only thought we might secure some more of the timber work, as there doesn’t seem to be a particle of wood on the island.”“We’d better wait till she breaks up, sorr,” said Mr McCarthy; “sure and it’ll float in thin to us, widout the throuble of fetching it.”“All right!” answered the other. So the contemplated last trip to the stranded vessel would have been abandoned, had not Florry at that moment rushed up to her father.“Oh, poor puss!” she exclaimed, half-crying and almost breathless with excitement as she clung to his arm and looked up into his face entreatingly.“Puss!” repeated Mr Meldrum in astonishment; “what puss?”“The—the—poor pussy cat we used to play with in the cabin,” sobbed Florry. “It was shut up by the stewardess, and has been left behind in the ship!”“Yes, sir,” said Mary Llewellyn, who with Kate had followed Florry. “I clean forgot the creature in the flurry of coming away. I locked it in the pantry, as it seemed frightened and was scurrying about the cuddy; and when we went on deck, I didn’t think to take it out, so there it’ll be starved to death, or drownded!”“It was my fault as well,” interposed Kate, looking quite as unhappy as her sister and the stewardess. “I told Mary to lock it up.”“Be jabers!” ejaculated the first mate, “it’ll never do to lave it there. Sure and we’d be onlucky altogether if a cat came to harm in the old ship! I didn’t know it was aboord at all, at all. Sure an’ there’s no knowing but what all our misfortunes have been brought about by the same baste, bad cess to it?”“Oh, Mr McCarthy!” exclaimed Kate, “how can you believe that?”“Sure, and I mane it,” answered the Irishman promptly, as if he put the greatest faith in the superstition.“Well,” said Mr Meldrum, “I’m sorry for the poor animal; but it will have to stop there now! The sea is very rough, and I would hardly like to risk men’s lives to save a cat!”“I’ll go back for it, sir,” volunteered Frank Harness with a look at Kate, which said as plainly as looks could speak that he was ready to do a good deal more than that to please her. “You were speaking just now of sending off the jolly-boat to fetch what we could from the wreck; so we can bring the poor cat on shore at the same time.”“Yes, I certainly did suggest that just now,” said Mr Meldrum; “but, as Mr McCarthy pointed out, there is a good deal of sea on, and—”“Sure, but I said, sorr, I’d go if you liked,” interrupted the first mate eagerly, not wishing to be behindhand when Frank had offered; “and, faix, I’m ready at once.”“Let the durned animile slide,” put in Mr Lathrope. “It ain’t worth a cent, much less such a tall price as yar life.”“No, we won’t,” said Mr McCarthy, all anxiety now to start. “Who’ll volunteer to go back to the wreck and save the cat!” he called out aloud.“I will,” and “I,” and “I,” cried out several of the seamen, laughing and passing all sorts of chaff about the expedition; and soon there were more than enough offers to man the jolly-boat twice over if all had been taken who offered.Ben Boltrope was one of the first to stand out; but Mr Meldrum at once motioned him back.“You must not go,” said he. “I shall want your carpentering aid very soon, and can’t spare you.” It was the same with some others amongst the hands, Mr Meldrum picking them out as they stepped forwards.Before long, however, a crew was selected; when, the jolly-boat being run down into the water by the aid of a dozen other willing hands, besides her own special crew, she was soon on her way back to the scene of the wreck of theNancy Bell—McCarthy steering her, and Frank Harness, who would not relinquish his privilege of going in her after having been the first to volunteer, pulling the stroke-oar, no idlers being wanted on board. Kate looked at him and waved her hand in adieu as the boat topped the heavy rolling waves and got well out into the offing; and, after that, Frank did not mind what exertion he had to go through.It was a long pull and an arduous one, although, in spite of Mr McCarthy’s warning to the contrary, there was nothing dangerous in the accomplishment of the feat. The first mate had probably felt a little lazy when he endeavoured to set Mr Meldrum at first against the expedition, for after a couple of hours’ hard work, having the tide to contend with most of the way, they easily managed to approach the reef and bring up the boat under the vessel’s stern, where the side ropes and slung chair, which they had omitted to remove on board the raft remained just as they had left them, swinging about to and fro as the wind brushed by, causing them to oscillate with its breath.On climbing up to the deck, they found the poop pretty much the same, but the forward portion of the ship had all broken to pieces, hardly a timber being left, save part of the forefoot or cut-water, which had got jammed in between the rocks along with the anchor-stock, the heavy mass of iron belonging to which must have fallen down below the surface when the topgallant forecastle was washed away.Going down into the cuddy, Frank could hardly at first believe that its former tenants had quitted it for good and all, for the cabin doors were thrown wide open, and dresses and other articles of feminine attire scattered about—one special shawl of Kate’s, which he readily recognised as the one she had on her shoulders the night they had watched the stars together in the South Atlantic, being placed over the back of the captain’s chair at the head of the table, as if the owner had just put it down for a minute and was coming back to fetch it. He at once took charge of this, besides collecting sundry other little articles which he thought Kate might want; but he was soon interrupted in his quest of feminine treasure-hunting by a mewing and scratching at the door of the steward’s pantry, which made him recollect all at once what had been the ostensible object of his mission on board the vessel.“Gracious goodness!” he exclaimed, speaking to himself, for Mr McCarthy was busy raking amongst his clothes in his own cabin, also oblivious to the fate of the poor feline for whom they had come aboard the ship. “I almost forgot the cat after all. Puss, Pussy, poor Puss!” and he wrenched open the pantry door, setting the animal free.If ever mortal cat purred in its life, or endeavoured to express its pleasure and satisfaction by walking round and rubbing itself against a person, raising and putting down its fore-feet alternately, with the toes extended, as if practising the goose step or working on some feline treadmill, why that cat did then. The poor animal could not speak, of course, but it really seemed to utter some inarticulate sounds that must have been in cat language a paean of joy and praise and thanks at its deliverance; and, finally, in a paroxysm of affection and endearment, it turned itself head over heels on the cabin floor in front of Frank.“Poor Puss; poor little thing!” said the young sailor, taking it up in his arms. “I believe I would have come back for you even if it hadn’t been to oblige Kate—my darling!” and he kissed the fur of the animal as he held it in his arms, as if he considered it for the time being her deputy.Judging by several well-picked bones that could be noticed lying on the deck of the pantry, Frank assured himself that Puss had not been starved since she had been locked up; and, indeed, she could not have been in any serious want, as there was a freshly-cut ham on one of the shelves and a round of spiced beef, which she had not touched, both of which Frank took the liberty of appropriating for the benefit of those on shore.Then, still in company with Puss, who would not leave his side, he imitated the example of the first mate, and selected a coat or two and a change of clothes from out of his own sea-chest. He did not forget the others either, but gathered together various garments which he saw lying about in the captain’s cabin and that of Mr Meldrum, thinking that both might perhaps be glad of them bye and bye.Beyond what Frank had found in the pantry, however, neither he nor Mr McCarthy could discover any provisions, or other things that might be useful on shore, save the unbroken half of the cuddy skylight. This they carefully lowered down into the jolly-boat, for the glass framing would come in handy for the windows of any house they built—Mr Meldrum having hinted on the previous evening of some more substantial structure being necessary than the tent, which had been only put up for temporary accommodation on their first landing on the island.The several articles that had been collected being now put on board the jolly-boat, in addition to the accommodation chair, which was cut from the slings, at McCarthy’s especial request, and lowered down on board—“jest to plaze the meejor,” as he said, alluding to Mrs Negus’s weakness for sitting in high places during the voyage. Frank then descended with the cat in his arms and took a seat in the stern-sheets, the first mate very good-naturedly pulling the stroke-oar on the return journey in his place; and, all these little matters being thus arranged, Pussy’s rescuers started again for the shore. The tide, luckily, was with them all the way; so they accomplished the distance back to the beach inside the fiord in very nearly half the time they had taken in rowing out to the ship—getting everything ashore and the jolly-boat hauled up safely beyond high-water mark with none of the trouble they had anticipated on setting out, the wind and sea having both calmed down in the interim.Kate’s thanks to Frank need not be alluded to:— they were simply inexpressible; but, if Puss is described to have been pleased when she was first released from captivity and an untimely end on board the shipwrecked vessel, what can be said for her raptures now that she was landed onterra firma—which she probably had never expected to see again—especially when she recognised the bevy of old friends amongst whom she found herself alive once more.“I guess,” said Mr Lathrope, as he watched her affectionate antics, “the stoopid old cuss will purr herself to potato parings, and rub all her darned fur inter a door-mat with joy!”

SLept till long after daybreak, did they?

Why, it was getting on for noon when Mr McCarthy roused the crew from their unusually long caulk amongst the blankets in the corner of the tent reserved for them with his cheery call of “All hands ahoy! Tumble up there! tumble up!” coupled with the information that the sun was “scorching their eyes out”—which latter observation, it may be casually remarked, was a slight stretch of his imagination, considering the feeble power of the solar orb at that time of the year on the snow-covered wastes of Kerguelen Land!

Still, late or early as they might be in rising, the first point to which everybody turned their gaze on getting out into the open, was the little spot on the horizon to seaward where they had left the ship, where she had been last seen on the previous afternoon just as the evening was beginning to close in. Since they had quitted her, however, the wind had been blowing pretty stiffly all night, although it had calmed down again towards the morning; while the last thing they had heard, ere they had sunk into the sound dreamless sleep all had enjoyed through the complete exhaustion of their frames, had been the roaring noise of the breakers thundering against the base of the cliffs beyond their sheltering fiord. So, it was with but very faint hopes of perceiving the remains of the poor oldNancy Bell’shull still fixed on the treacherous reef of her destruction, that they looked wistfully out into the offing!

But, lo and behold! in spite of all their forebodings, there in the distance they could yet dimly descry the stern section of the ill-fated vessel still intact, as far as they could judge with the naked eye, amidst the rocks; and about it the waves played and circled and the surf showered its spray. Above the wreck, too, there still fluttered feebly the flag which Mr Meldrum had attached to the stump of the mizzen-mast, as if defying the powers of the wind and the waters to destroy the gallant old ship and her belongings, strive how they might in all their majesty!

Every heart felt glad at the sight.

“It does me ra-al good, mister, it dew!” said Mr Lathrope to the first mate, who was intently watching the object of general interest, as if he could not take his eyes off it. “When I riz just neow, I felt kinder lonesome, a thinking we’d parted company with the old crittur fur ever and wouldn’t never see her no more; but thar she is still as perky as ever, in spite of last night’s gale, which I thought would ha’ blown all her timbers to Jericho!”

“Ah, sorr!” replied Mr McCarthy with a heavy sigh and a troubled look in his usually merry twinkling grey eyes, “you’ll never say another ship the likes of her again! If you’ll belave me, Mister Lathrope, sorr, she’d sail ten knots on a bowline; and I’d like to know where you’d bate that now?”

“I’ll not deny she had her good pints,” said the American sympathisingly; “but I guess the poor thing’ll soon be bruk up.”

“Yes, son, more’s the pity,” responded the other; “sure an’ I wish we had her safe ashore here and we’d save ivory plank of her.”

“It wouldn’t be a bad notion,” observed Mr Meldrum, who just then came up to where the two were talking, “to take another trip out to the ship in the jolly-boat and see whether we could not land some more things that might be of use to us?”

“Sure the hould’s gutted now enthirely,” said the Irish mate sadly, “and the divil a hap’orth we’d get by going. Look at the say that’s running, too; and considther the long pull out there and back again—not that I wouldn’t be afther going, sorr, if you were to say the word!”

“Oh, no, never mind,” replied Mr Meldrum. “There’s not the slightest necessity for it, for I believe we brought away all the provisions that were left in her, and we’d find little enough now! I only thought we might secure some more of the timber work, as there doesn’t seem to be a particle of wood on the island.”

“We’d better wait till she breaks up, sorr,” said Mr McCarthy; “sure and it’ll float in thin to us, widout the throuble of fetching it.”

“All right!” answered the other. So the contemplated last trip to the stranded vessel would have been abandoned, had not Florry at that moment rushed up to her father.

“Oh, poor puss!” she exclaimed, half-crying and almost breathless with excitement as she clung to his arm and looked up into his face entreatingly.

“Puss!” repeated Mr Meldrum in astonishment; “what puss?”

“The—the—poor pussy cat we used to play with in the cabin,” sobbed Florry. “It was shut up by the stewardess, and has been left behind in the ship!”

“Yes, sir,” said Mary Llewellyn, who with Kate had followed Florry. “I clean forgot the creature in the flurry of coming away. I locked it in the pantry, as it seemed frightened and was scurrying about the cuddy; and when we went on deck, I didn’t think to take it out, so there it’ll be starved to death, or drownded!”

“It was my fault as well,” interposed Kate, looking quite as unhappy as her sister and the stewardess. “I told Mary to lock it up.”

“Be jabers!” ejaculated the first mate, “it’ll never do to lave it there. Sure and we’d be onlucky altogether if a cat came to harm in the old ship! I didn’t know it was aboord at all, at all. Sure an’ there’s no knowing but what all our misfortunes have been brought about by the same baste, bad cess to it?”

“Oh, Mr McCarthy!” exclaimed Kate, “how can you believe that?”

“Sure, and I mane it,” answered the Irishman promptly, as if he put the greatest faith in the superstition.

“Well,” said Mr Meldrum, “I’m sorry for the poor animal; but it will have to stop there now! The sea is very rough, and I would hardly like to risk men’s lives to save a cat!”

“I’ll go back for it, sir,” volunteered Frank Harness with a look at Kate, which said as plainly as looks could speak that he was ready to do a good deal more than that to please her. “You were speaking just now of sending off the jolly-boat to fetch what we could from the wreck; so we can bring the poor cat on shore at the same time.”

“Yes, I certainly did suggest that just now,” said Mr Meldrum; “but, as Mr McCarthy pointed out, there is a good deal of sea on, and—”

“Sure, but I said, sorr, I’d go if you liked,” interrupted the first mate eagerly, not wishing to be behindhand when Frank had offered; “and, faix, I’m ready at once.”

“Let the durned animile slide,” put in Mr Lathrope. “It ain’t worth a cent, much less such a tall price as yar life.”

“No, we won’t,” said Mr McCarthy, all anxiety now to start. “Who’ll volunteer to go back to the wreck and save the cat!” he called out aloud.

“I will,” and “I,” and “I,” cried out several of the seamen, laughing and passing all sorts of chaff about the expedition; and soon there were more than enough offers to man the jolly-boat twice over if all had been taken who offered.

Ben Boltrope was one of the first to stand out; but Mr Meldrum at once motioned him back.

“You must not go,” said he. “I shall want your carpentering aid very soon, and can’t spare you.” It was the same with some others amongst the hands, Mr Meldrum picking them out as they stepped forwards.

Before long, however, a crew was selected; when, the jolly-boat being run down into the water by the aid of a dozen other willing hands, besides her own special crew, she was soon on her way back to the scene of the wreck of theNancy Bell—McCarthy steering her, and Frank Harness, who would not relinquish his privilege of going in her after having been the first to volunteer, pulling the stroke-oar, no idlers being wanted on board. Kate looked at him and waved her hand in adieu as the boat topped the heavy rolling waves and got well out into the offing; and, after that, Frank did not mind what exertion he had to go through.

It was a long pull and an arduous one, although, in spite of Mr McCarthy’s warning to the contrary, there was nothing dangerous in the accomplishment of the feat. The first mate had probably felt a little lazy when he endeavoured to set Mr Meldrum at first against the expedition, for after a couple of hours’ hard work, having the tide to contend with most of the way, they easily managed to approach the reef and bring up the boat under the vessel’s stern, where the side ropes and slung chair, which they had omitted to remove on board the raft remained just as they had left them, swinging about to and fro as the wind brushed by, causing them to oscillate with its breath.

On climbing up to the deck, they found the poop pretty much the same, but the forward portion of the ship had all broken to pieces, hardly a timber being left, save part of the forefoot or cut-water, which had got jammed in between the rocks along with the anchor-stock, the heavy mass of iron belonging to which must have fallen down below the surface when the topgallant forecastle was washed away.

Going down into the cuddy, Frank could hardly at first believe that its former tenants had quitted it for good and all, for the cabin doors were thrown wide open, and dresses and other articles of feminine attire scattered about—one special shawl of Kate’s, which he readily recognised as the one she had on her shoulders the night they had watched the stars together in the South Atlantic, being placed over the back of the captain’s chair at the head of the table, as if the owner had just put it down for a minute and was coming back to fetch it. He at once took charge of this, besides collecting sundry other little articles which he thought Kate might want; but he was soon interrupted in his quest of feminine treasure-hunting by a mewing and scratching at the door of the steward’s pantry, which made him recollect all at once what had been the ostensible object of his mission on board the vessel.

“Gracious goodness!” he exclaimed, speaking to himself, for Mr McCarthy was busy raking amongst his clothes in his own cabin, also oblivious to the fate of the poor feline for whom they had come aboard the ship. “I almost forgot the cat after all. Puss, Pussy, poor Puss!” and he wrenched open the pantry door, setting the animal free.

If ever mortal cat purred in its life, or endeavoured to express its pleasure and satisfaction by walking round and rubbing itself against a person, raising and putting down its fore-feet alternately, with the toes extended, as if practising the goose step or working on some feline treadmill, why that cat did then. The poor animal could not speak, of course, but it really seemed to utter some inarticulate sounds that must have been in cat language a paean of joy and praise and thanks at its deliverance; and, finally, in a paroxysm of affection and endearment, it turned itself head over heels on the cabin floor in front of Frank.

“Poor Puss; poor little thing!” said the young sailor, taking it up in his arms. “I believe I would have come back for you even if it hadn’t been to oblige Kate—my darling!” and he kissed the fur of the animal as he held it in his arms, as if he considered it for the time being her deputy.

Judging by several well-picked bones that could be noticed lying on the deck of the pantry, Frank assured himself that Puss had not been starved since she had been locked up; and, indeed, she could not have been in any serious want, as there was a freshly-cut ham on one of the shelves and a round of spiced beef, which she had not touched, both of which Frank took the liberty of appropriating for the benefit of those on shore.

Then, still in company with Puss, who would not leave his side, he imitated the example of the first mate, and selected a coat or two and a change of clothes from out of his own sea-chest. He did not forget the others either, but gathered together various garments which he saw lying about in the captain’s cabin and that of Mr Meldrum, thinking that both might perhaps be glad of them bye and bye.

Beyond what Frank had found in the pantry, however, neither he nor Mr McCarthy could discover any provisions, or other things that might be useful on shore, save the unbroken half of the cuddy skylight. This they carefully lowered down into the jolly-boat, for the glass framing would come in handy for the windows of any house they built—Mr Meldrum having hinted on the previous evening of some more substantial structure being necessary than the tent, which had been only put up for temporary accommodation on their first landing on the island.

The several articles that had been collected being now put on board the jolly-boat, in addition to the accommodation chair, which was cut from the slings, at McCarthy’s especial request, and lowered down on board—“jest to plaze the meejor,” as he said, alluding to Mrs Negus’s weakness for sitting in high places during the voyage. Frank then descended with the cat in his arms and took a seat in the stern-sheets, the first mate very good-naturedly pulling the stroke-oar on the return journey in his place; and, all these little matters being thus arranged, Pussy’s rescuers started again for the shore. The tide, luckily, was with them all the way; so they accomplished the distance back to the beach inside the fiord in very nearly half the time they had taken in rowing out to the ship—getting everything ashore and the jolly-boat hauled up safely beyond high-water mark with none of the trouble they had anticipated on setting out, the wind and sea having both calmed down in the interim.

Kate’s thanks to Frank need not be alluded to:— they were simply inexpressible; but, if Puss is described to have been pleased when she was first released from captivity and an untimely end on board the shipwrecked vessel, what can be said for her raptures now that she was landed onterra firma—which she probably had never expected to see again—especially when she recognised the bevy of old friends amongst whom she found herself alive once more.

“I guess,” said Mr Lathrope, as he watched her affectionate antics, “the stoopid old cuss will purr herself to potato parings, and rub all her darned fur inter a door-mat with joy!”

Chapter Twenty Four.An Afternoon Call.“I’m glad you brought the skylight,” said Mr Meldrum to the first mate when the excitement attending the return of the boat’s crew with Miss Pussy had somewhat calmed down. “Its the very thing we’ll want presently!” He then proceeded to show Mr McCarthy what he and those who had remained ashore had done during the absence of the others.Adjoining the site of the tent, and under the lee of a sort of gable-end of the cliffs, a piece of ground had been cleared of the snow close to a freshwater tarn some little distance above the sea-shore, where it was not affected by the tide; and here the land had been levelled in the form of a parallelogram, some thirty feet long by twenty wide, round which a trench had been dug about a foot deep.At the four corners of this, stout posts, selected from some of the deck-beams of theNancy Bellthat had been secured for the under-structure of the raft, were set up in holes excavated of such a depth that they would firmly resist any lateral pressure brought to bear against them by the wind; and, round the top of these uprights, a scantling of deal had been nailed on, thus making the framework of a good-sized cottage.Mr McCarthy was quite surprised at the progress made.“You’ve been pretty busy, sorr,” he said. “Be jabers, you’ll have a cabin built in no time!”“Yes,” replied Mr Meldrum, “we have got along; but you must remember we’ve had fourteen hands at work besides the carpenter, including Mr Lathrope and myself; and such a number of men, when their labour has been systematically divided, can accomplish a good deal in a short time. I wish we had some more timber, though! We’ve got the roof yet to make, and a partition or two in the inside for the proper division of the building. I have planned out a separate room for the ladies, and one for us men; in addition to a general sort of apartment, where we can all have our meals together, and which will serve as a store-room as well.”“Sure an’ you don’t think, sorr, we’ll have to live here long!” said the first mate, a little alarmed at the magnitude of the other’s plans.“Indeed I do,” answered Mr Meldrum. “It is now only the beginning of August, which is the worst season here, as I mentioned to poor Captain Dinks; and the winter will probably last from four to five months; during which time, according to all accounts that I’ve read of the place, we may expect to experience the most bitter weather, and have to depend entirely on our own resources; for, none of the whaling schooners that go seal-hunting in these parts ever visit the island, as far as I know, before November or December—and even then they go generally to the eastern side and do not come here! Before that time, however, that is as soon as the snow melts and the spring sets in, we’ll have to try and cross over the land to one of the harbours which the whalers frequent, and which I’ve got marked on the chart. Until that period, Mr McCarthy, as you must perceive, we will have to remain here; so it is best for us to try and be as comfortable as we can under the circumstances. Last night, as you know, it was cold enough in all conscience; but that will be nothing to what we may expect later on when the regular gales and sea-fogs and snowstorms set in, and they continue for weeks, I believe!”“Begorrah, it’s a bad look-out!” said the mate,—“a bad look-out, anyway!”“It is; there’s no good of our blinking the fact,” replied the other,—“but, still, other shipwrecked crews have borne worse hardships than we’ll have to contend with, and, you know, what men have done men may do! I wish we had some more of the poor old ship’s planks, however. Besides their being necessary for completing our house properly, we shall want a large supply of them for fuel during the next four months.”“Sure and they’ll float ashore,” said the mate.“I don’t know about that,” responded Mr Meldrum. “You said just now, when you returned in the jolly-boat, that all the bows and forward parts of the vessel had been washed to pieces; and yet, of all that wreckage not a single scrap came ashore here to tell the tale before you brought the news:— what do you think of that, eh!”“Be jabers, it’s all that blissid current that takes it back agin! Sure an’ I’ve sane it floating in foreninst the land myself.”“Well, we’ll have to try and baulk the current, then,” said Mr Meldrum. “We must keep a good look-out on the ship; and, as soon as we see that the stern has broken up, the jolly-boat will have to be manned and cruise about to pick up and tow ashore whatever timber and stray planks may be seen.”“Right you are, sorr,” replied Mr McCarthy. “I’ll say to that!”“Say, mister,” interposed the American, who had remained silent during the deliberations of the other two, although he was supposed to be present at the council and a deliberative member. “How’ll the grub last all that air time! Twenty-seven folks all told, as I’ve kalkerlated ’em, take a powerful lot of feedin’ in four months!”“Ah!” said Mr Meldrum, “that’s a serious consideration. However, with that lot of penguins there,”—and he pointed to the little colony of the quaint birds, which were still croaking and grumbling at them, not having yet become accustomed to their strange visitors,—“I don’t think we’ll starve! Besides these gentry, too, there will be lots more sea-fowl, and perhaps some land ones as well. Still, it will be advisable, Mr Lathrope, as you have introduced the subject, to take stock of all the stores we have, and Master Snowball must be instructed to be not quite so lavish in his display at dinner-time as he was yesterday.”“Sorry I spoke,” said Mr Lathrope, rather chop-fallen at the way in which his suggestion had been taken. “I didn’t want you to cut short the vittles, but only to kinder kalkerlate!”“I’m just doing that,” replied the other, “and we’ll see what we’ve got to depend upon at once.”As the American had remarked, they were just twenty-seven souls in all:Imprimis, Captain Dinks—whose wound evidently was progressing favourably, for he had lost all those feverish symptoms that were apparent the day previous and was now in a sound sleep, after eating some thin soup which Snowball had concocted for him by Mr Meldrum’s direction—Mr McCarthy, Adams, Frank Harness, Ben Boltrope the carpenter, and Karl Ericksen the rescued Norwegian sailor, besides Snowball and thirteen others of the crew of theNancy Bell, making twenty of those belonging to the ship; while, of the passengers, there were six—Mr Meldrum, Kate, Florry, Mrs Major Negus and her son and only hope Maurice, and lastly, though by no means least, Mr Lathrope—the grand total, with the stewardess, who must not be forgotten, coming exactly to seven-and-twenty.Now, to feed all this large family, they had brought ashore on the raft three barrels of salt beef and four of pork, six hams uncooked, besides the one which Frank had removed from the steward’s pantry along with the round of spiced beef on his visit to the ship in search of the cat; some four dozen eight-pound tins of preserved meats and vegetables; about a couple of hundredweight of flour; five bags of biscuit; a few bottles of spirits; and sundry minor articles, such as pickles and salt, and one or two pots of preserves—not a very considerable amount of provender, considering the number of souls to be supplied, and the length of time Mr Meldrum thought it wise to estimate that the provisions would have to last.Just as they were rolling back the casks under the shelter of the tent, Maurice Negus rushed up to Mr Meldrum in company with Florry, both of the children being intensely excited evidently about something they had seen or heard.“Oh crickey!” cried out the former before he had quite got up to the party, so as to have the first voice in the matter,—“Do come! There’s an awful long thing just crawled out of the sea, and it is creeping up to the tent as fast as it can!”“Yes,” chorussed Florry, “and it’s like the seals we saw in the Zoological Gardens; only it’s twice as big and has a long trunk like an elephant!”“Jeehosophat!” exclaimed Mr Lathrope, feeling for his revolver. “It must be a rum outlandish animile, if it’s like that!”“Zee-oliphant,” said Karl Ericksen, the Norwegian sailor, in his broken English. “He is not harmful:— he good for man eat.”“Snakes and alligators! that’s prime anyhow, I reckon,” put in Mr Lathrope. “I guess this air animile’ll save your old stores, mister, hey?”“I hope so,” answered Mr Meldrum. “Although I’ve never tasted seal beef myself, I have heard it’s very fair when you can’t get the genuine article; the whalers generally use it, at all events, some of them even thinking it a dainty. But, let us go and see this sea-elephant that the children have discovered!”They did not have to go far; for, the queer-looking amphibious creature had by this time crawled up on to the rocks close outside the tent, and was quite near to where they were standing—the Norwegian sailor having already seen and recognised its species before he spoke.The animal was a gigantic sort of seal, some twenty-five feet in length and quite five high. If big, it was certainly also most unwieldy, for it appeared to waddle up from the shore with the greatest difficulty. Its body was covered with a short brown fur, with lighter hair of a dun colour under the throat; and, what gave it the singular appearance whence its name of “sea-elephant” was probably more derived than from its size, was the pendulous nostrils, which hung down over its mouth, just like the proboscis or long trunk of the children’s old friend, “Jumbo.”Karl Ericksen had managed to rummage out a harpoon one day amongst the odds and ends in the forecastle of theNancy Bell, and the sailor having been familiar with its use from long whaling experience, had not forgotten to bring it ashore when they abandoned the wreck—looking upon the weapon with almost as much veneration as Mr Lathrope regarded the rifle he had inherited from the celebrated Colonel Crockett.This harpoon Karl now brought forth, approaching the seal with the obvious intention of despatching it summarily; when another evidence of its elephantine character was displayed, well justifying its title.As the sailor came up to it and raised the harpoon to strike, the animal raised itself on its fore-flappers, snarling and emitting a hollow roar which startled everybody near, causing them to jump away, and give it a wide berth; while at the same time it erected its nose so that it stood out quite stiff, more than a foot long, and, opening its mouth, it exposed the bright scarlet palate and gullet, from the bottom of which its hoarse bellow proceeded. Karl, however, was not frightened by the sea-elephant’s rage, but with a single swinging blow from his harpoon on the snout stretched it lifeless on the ground, when all were better able to appreciate its enormous size. Its girth alone exceeded sixteen feet, and the animal appeared all the more imposing when dead than alive.The Norwegian sailor cut out the tongue, telling Mr Meldrum that this portion of the sea-elephant and the snout were considered great delicacies by the whalers; but none of the party relished either, although Snowball served up both at dinner in his most recherché fashion. The flesh of the body, too, was of a blackish hue, and had an oily taste about it, which made the sailors turn up their noses at it and wish to fling it away; but this Mr Meldrum would not allow.“We will probably be glad enough to get it bye and bye,” he said; and he then caused the despised seal “beef” to be cut up in pieces and salted down in one of their spare casks in case of future need.During the time Mr Meldrum had been taking stock of their stores, before the coming of the sea-elephant—“to pay them an afternoon call,” as Florry said—the carpenter, with a number of the hands working under him, had been proceeding with the house-building operations; but he had to stop at last, more from want of the proper timber wherewith to complete the job than through the darkening of the afternoon on account of the approach of night.“I can’t get along nohow,” Ben explained to Mr Meldrum, who was now regarded as the head of the party, and the one to look to in every difficulty. “I’m at a standstill for planking, sir. I can manage the roof part pretty well, by breaking up those old puncheons we brought under the raft and using the staves for shingles; but the joists and rafters bother me, sir.”“Well, we must hope to get some more to-morrow from the wreck,” said Mr Meldrum. “The ship cannot last much longer; but, recollect, we can’t get any ashore till she breaks up.”“Aye, aye, sir, I knows that,” replied Ben. “Still, I hopes it won’t all drift away to sea when she do go to pieces.”“We’ll try to prevent that, Boltrope,” said the other. “Mind, Mr McCarthy, and have a look-out stationed in the morning to keep an eye on the ship, with a man to relieve him watch and watch, the same as on board! She’s all firm now, for I saw the flag still waving when I looked before the light began to fail; but if the wind and sea get up again, as they very likely will towards midnight, tomorrow will tell a very different tale!”“I’ll have a look-out, never fear, sorr.”“And, McCarthy—”“Yes, sorr!”“See that the jolly-boat is ready and a crew picked for it to put off the moment any wreckage is observed floating inshore. We must not neglect any chance of securing all the timber we can for fuel, putting the house out of the reckoning entirely!”“Indade I will, sorr,” answered the mate cheerily; and then, all struck work for the day and retired into the tent, not sorry to have another easy night’s rest. Every one was anxious to turn in, for really there was nothing else to be done.

“I’m glad you brought the skylight,” said Mr Meldrum to the first mate when the excitement attending the return of the boat’s crew with Miss Pussy had somewhat calmed down. “Its the very thing we’ll want presently!” He then proceeded to show Mr McCarthy what he and those who had remained ashore had done during the absence of the others.

Adjoining the site of the tent, and under the lee of a sort of gable-end of the cliffs, a piece of ground had been cleared of the snow close to a freshwater tarn some little distance above the sea-shore, where it was not affected by the tide; and here the land had been levelled in the form of a parallelogram, some thirty feet long by twenty wide, round which a trench had been dug about a foot deep.

At the four corners of this, stout posts, selected from some of the deck-beams of theNancy Bellthat had been secured for the under-structure of the raft, were set up in holes excavated of such a depth that they would firmly resist any lateral pressure brought to bear against them by the wind; and, round the top of these uprights, a scantling of deal had been nailed on, thus making the framework of a good-sized cottage.

Mr McCarthy was quite surprised at the progress made.

“You’ve been pretty busy, sorr,” he said. “Be jabers, you’ll have a cabin built in no time!”

“Yes,” replied Mr Meldrum, “we have got along; but you must remember we’ve had fourteen hands at work besides the carpenter, including Mr Lathrope and myself; and such a number of men, when their labour has been systematically divided, can accomplish a good deal in a short time. I wish we had some more timber, though! We’ve got the roof yet to make, and a partition or two in the inside for the proper division of the building. I have planned out a separate room for the ladies, and one for us men; in addition to a general sort of apartment, where we can all have our meals together, and which will serve as a store-room as well.”

“Sure an’ you don’t think, sorr, we’ll have to live here long!” said the first mate, a little alarmed at the magnitude of the other’s plans.

“Indeed I do,” answered Mr Meldrum. “It is now only the beginning of August, which is the worst season here, as I mentioned to poor Captain Dinks; and the winter will probably last from four to five months; during which time, according to all accounts that I’ve read of the place, we may expect to experience the most bitter weather, and have to depend entirely on our own resources; for, none of the whaling schooners that go seal-hunting in these parts ever visit the island, as far as I know, before November or December—and even then they go generally to the eastern side and do not come here! Before that time, however, that is as soon as the snow melts and the spring sets in, we’ll have to try and cross over the land to one of the harbours which the whalers frequent, and which I’ve got marked on the chart. Until that period, Mr McCarthy, as you must perceive, we will have to remain here; so it is best for us to try and be as comfortable as we can under the circumstances. Last night, as you know, it was cold enough in all conscience; but that will be nothing to what we may expect later on when the regular gales and sea-fogs and snowstorms set in, and they continue for weeks, I believe!”

“Begorrah, it’s a bad look-out!” said the mate,—“a bad look-out, anyway!”

“It is; there’s no good of our blinking the fact,” replied the other,—“but, still, other shipwrecked crews have borne worse hardships than we’ll have to contend with, and, you know, what men have done men may do! I wish we had some more of the poor old ship’s planks, however. Besides their being necessary for completing our house properly, we shall want a large supply of them for fuel during the next four months.”

“Sure and they’ll float ashore,” said the mate.

“I don’t know about that,” responded Mr Meldrum. “You said just now, when you returned in the jolly-boat, that all the bows and forward parts of the vessel had been washed to pieces; and yet, of all that wreckage not a single scrap came ashore here to tell the tale before you brought the news:— what do you think of that, eh!”

“Be jabers, it’s all that blissid current that takes it back agin! Sure an’ I’ve sane it floating in foreninst the land myself.”

“Well, we’ll have to try and baulk the current, then,” said Mr Meldrum. “We must keep a good look-out on the ship; and, as soon as we see that the stern has broken up, the jolly-boat will have to be manned and cruise about to pick up and tow ashore whatever timber and stray planks may be seen.”

“Right you are, sorr,” replied Mr McCarthy. “I’ll say to that!”

“Say, mister,” interposed the American, who had remained silent during the deliberations of the other two, although he was supposed to be present at the council and a deliberative member. “How’ll the grub last all that air time! Twenty-seven folks all told, as I’ve kalkerlated ’em, take a powerful lot of feedin’ in four months!”

“Ah!” said Mr Meldrum, “that’s a serious consideration. However, with that lot of penguins there,”—and he pointed to the little colony of the quaint birds, which were still croaking and grumbling at them, not having yet become accustomed to their strange visitors,—“I don’t think we’ll starve! Besides these gentry, too, there will be lots more sea-fowl, and perhaps some land ones as well. Still, it will be advisable, Mr Lathrope, as you have introduced the subject, to take stock of all the stores we have, and Master Snowball must be instructed to be not quite so lavish in his display at dinner-time as he was yesterday.”

“Sorry I spoke,” said Mr Lathrope, rather chop-fallen at the way in which his suggestion had been taken. “I didn’t want you to cut short the vittles, but only to kinder kalkerlate!”

“I’m just doing that,” replied the other, “and we’ll see what we’ve got to depend upon at once.”

As the American had remarked, they were just twenty-seven souls in all:Imprimis, Captain Dinks—whose wound evidently was progressing favourably, for he had lost all those feverish symptoms that were apparent the day previous and was now in a sound sleep, after eating some thin soup which Snowball had concocted for him by Mr Meldrum’s direction—Mr McCarthy, Adams, Frank Harness, Ben Boltrope the carpenter, and Karl Ericksen the rescued Norwegian sailor, besides Snowball and thirteen others of the crew of theNancy Bell, making twenty of those belonging to the ship; while, of the passengers, there were six—Mr Meldrum, Kate, Florry, Mrs Major Negus and her son and only hope Maurice, and lastly, though by no means least, Mr Lathrope—the grand total, with the stewardess, who must not be forgotten, coming exactly to seven-and-twenty.

Now, to feed all this large family, they had brought ashore on the raft three barrels of salt beef and four of pork, six hams uncooked, besides the one which Frank had removed from the steward’s pantry along with the round of spiced beef on his visit to the ship in search of the cat; some four dozen eight-pound tins of preserved meats and vegetables; about a couple of hundredweight of flour; five bags of biscuit; a few bottles of spirits; and sundry minor articles, such as pickles and salt, and one or two pots of preserves—not a very considerable amount of provender, considering the number of souls to be supplied, and the length of time Mr Meldrum thought it wise to estimate that the provisions would have to last.

Just as they were rolling back the casks under the shelter of the tent, Maurice Negus rushed up to Mr Meldrum in company with Florry, both of the children being intensely excited evidently about something they had seen or heard.

“Oh crickey!” cried out the former before he had quite got up to the party, so as to have the first voice in the matter,—“Do come! There’s an awful long thing just crawled out of the sea, and it is creeping up to the tent as fast as it can!”

“Yes,” chorussed Florry, “and it’s like the seals we saw in the Zoological Gardens; only it’s twice as big and has a long trunk like an elephant!”

“Jeehosophat!” exclaimed Mr Lathrope, feeling for his revolver. “It must be a rum outlandish animile, if it’s like that!”

“Zee-oliphant,” said Karl Ericksen, the Norwegian sailor, in his broken English. “He is not harmful:— he good for man eat.”

“Snakes and alligators! that’s prime anyhow, I reckon,” put in Mr Lathrope. “I guess this air animile’ll save your old stores, mister, hey?”

“I hope so,” answered Mr Meldrum. “Although I’ve never tasted seal beef myself, I have heard it’s very fair when you can’t get the genuine article; the whalers generally use it, at all events, some of them even thinking it a dainty. But, let us go and see this sea-elephant that the children have discovered!”

They did not have to go far; for, the queer-looking amphibious creature had by this time crawled up on to the rocks close outside the tent, and was quite near to where they were standing—the Norwegian sailor having already seen and recognised its species before he spoke.

The animal was a gigantic sort of seal, some twenty-five feet in length and quite five high. If big, it was certainly also most unwieldy, for it appeared to waddle up from the shore with the greatest difficulty. Its body was covered with a short brown fur, with lighter hair of a dun colour under the throat; and, what gave it the singular appearance whence its name of “sea-elephant” was probably more derived than from its size, was the pendulous nostrils, which hung down over its mouth, just like the proboscis or long trunk of the children’s old friend, “Jumbo.”

Karl Ericksen had managed to rummage out a harpoon one day amongst the odds and ends in the forecastle of theNancy Bell, and the sailor having been familiar with its use from long whaling experience, had not forgotten to bring it ashore when they abandoned the wreck—looking upon the weapon with almost as much veneration as Mr Lathrope regarded the rifle he had inherited from the celebrated Colonel Crockett.

This harpoon Karl now brought forth, approaching the seal with the obvious intention of despatching it summarily; when another evidence of its elephantine character was displayed, well justifying its title.

As the sailor came up to it and raised the harpoon to strike, the animal raised itself on its fore-flappers, snarling and emitting a hollow roar which startled everybody near, causing them to jump away, and give it a wide berth; while at the same time it erected its nose so that it stood out quite stiff, more than a foot long, and, opening its mouth, it exposed the bright scarlet palate and gullet, from the bottom of which its hoarse bellow proceeded. Karl, however, was not frightened by the sea-elephant’s rage, but with a single swinging blow from his harpoon on the snout stretched it lifeless on the ground, when all were better able to appreciate its enormous size. Its girth alone exceeded sixteen feet, and the animal appeared all the more imposing when dead than alive.

The Norwegian sailor cut out the tongue, telling Mr Meldrum that this portion of the sea-elephant and the snout were considered great delicacies by the whalers; but none of the party relished either, although Snowball served up both at dinner in his most recherché fashion. The flesh of the body, too, was of a blackish hue, and had an oily taste about it, which made the sailors turn up their noses at it and wish to fling it away; but this Mr Meldrum would not allow.

“We will probably be glad enough to get it bye and bye,” he said; and he then caused the despised seal “beef” to be cut up in pieces and salted down in one of their spare casks in case of future need.

During the time Mr Meldrum had been taking stock of their stores, before the coming of the sea-elephant—“to pay them an afternoon call,” as Florry said—the carpenter, with a number of the hands working under him, had been proceeding with the house-building operations; but he had to stop at last, more from want of the proper timber wherewith to complete the job than through the darkening of the afternoon on account of the approach of night.

“I can’t get along nohow,” Ben explained to Mr Meldrum, who was now regarded as the head of the party, and the one to look to in every difficulty. “I’m at a standstill for planking, sir. I can manage the roof part pretty well, by breaking up those old puncheons we brought under the raft and using the staves for shingles; but the joists and rafters bother me, sir.”

“Well, we must hope to get some more to-morrow from the wreck,” said Mr Meldrum. “The ship cannot last much longer; but, recollect, we can’t get any ashore till she breaks up.”

“Aye, aye, sir, I knows that,” replied Ben. “Still, I hopes it won’t all drift away to sea when she do go to pieces.”

“We’ll try to prevent that, Boltrope,” said the other. “Mind, Mr McCarthy, and have a look-out stationed in the morning to keep an eye on the ship, with a man to relieve him watch and watch, the same as on board! She’s all firm now, for I saw the flag still waving when I looked before the light began to fail; but if the wind and sea get up again, as they very likely will towards midnight, tomorrow will tell a very different tale!”

“I’ll have a look-out, never fear, sorr.”

“And, McCarthy—”

“Yes, sorr!”

“See that the jolly-boat is ready and a crew picked for it to put off the moment any wreckage is observed floating inshore. We must not neglect any chance of securing all the timber we can for fuel, putting the house out of the reckoning entirely!”

“Indade I will, sorr,” answered the mate cheerily; and then, all struck work for the day and retired into the tent, not sorry to have another easy night’s rest. Every one was anxious to turn in, for really there was nothing else to be done.

Chapter Twenty Five.Breaking up of the Vessel.They did not sleep so soundly, however, on this occasion as they had done the first night of their landing on the island; for, soon after dark, the wind rose into a tempestuous gale, making the tent flap about in such a way that it seemed as if it were about to be carried off bodily!As it was, indeed—through the blowing in of the sides, and the jumping up and down of the tarpaulin on the roof every now and then as the boisterous gusts got under it—a lot of snow, which had begun to fall before they retired to rest and was now coming down in a regular storm, as fast and furious as the flakes could succeed each other, managed to find its way inside, not contributing much to their comfort; and this, combined with the roar of the breakers against the base of the cliffs, which seemed louder than ever now that the men were lying down with their ears to the ground, tended to keep the majority of the castaways awake and made them long for the morning to come again.At last, the day broke; and, as the faint light gleamed through the chinks in the tent, telling all that the dreary night was past, they quickly bestirred themselves—Snowball being one of the first to turn out, and at once hastening to kindle up the fire, which he had left carefully banked up the previous evening, besides wisely hedging it in with heavy pieces of stone so that the wind should not scatter it away, as would otherwise probably have been the case.“Soon get drop hot coffee, massa,” said he to Mr Meldrum, who was an early riser too and not far behind the darkey; “Um berry good for de tomack fust thing in mornin’!”But the other was too much concerned about the fate of the ship to think of coffee then; and, long before Snowball had finished his remark, he was actively ascending the highest rock near to get a good view out to seaward. Here he was shortly joined by Mr McCarthy and Ben Boltrope, who were also equally anxious in the matter; although the others, not having been called, did not hurry themselves to leave the warm atmosphere of the tent for the cold and raw air without.The lookers-out, however, could not see much as yet; for the usual surface fog—which in these regions generally creeps up in the evening and hangs over the sea till broad daylight—had not yet completely cleared away; and so, a curtain of haze shut out the offing from their gaze. Still, as far as the eye could reach, the sea was very rough, with heavy rollers rolling in landward. The gale of the night had not abated much, albeit the wind was not so gusty as it had been, while its force seemed to be lessening as the morning drew on.“I’m afraid,” said Mr Meldrum, after vainly trying for a long time to peer through the impenetrable veil of mist which hid the reef from sight, “that this last blow has settled the old ship.”“Faix, and I’m thinking just that very same,” responded the first mate. “It blowed tremenjus towards four bells, sorr, an’ the poor crathur must be clane smashed up by now!”“It’s very unfortunate if that has happened,” replied the other. “The sea is running too high for us to launch the jolly-boat, and so we’ll lose all chance of saving the wreckage.”“True for you, sorr, save and onless it drifts ashore.”“There’s not the slightest hope of that,” replied Mr Meldrum. “Nothing has come up on the beach here yet, that I’ve been able to perceive!”“But, sure an’ the wind’s bin blowing on to the land, sorr, all night. P’r’aps that might make a difference!”“Perhaps it might,” said the other; “but I very much doubt it.”“Well, sorr, we’ll say,” retorted the mate. However, the argument was settled offhand by Ben Boltrope, who had clambered up to a higher ledge of rock from whence he could see further out to seaward over the fog, which hung low on the water and did not extend to the upper regions of the air.“There she is, your honour, bless her old heart!” he exclaimed. “She’s still hard and fast on the reef, and never another plank sprung from the starn, as far as I can see!”This was good news; and Mr Meldrum, with the mate, hastened to join the carpenter on his perch above.Yes, there in the distance, rising out of the mist, could be seen the upper portion of the poop of theNancy Bell, although the wreck was still occasionally obscured by a wave breaking over it; and, presently, on the lifting of the fog, as the clouds cleared off from the face of the sky and a gleam of sunshine stole out, lighting up the sea and landscape around, it could be observed that the remains of the vessel were nearly in the same condition, apparently, as when last noticed on the evening before—save that the poor ship was now surrounded by a line of breakers which dashed over the stern continually, looking as if they meant to pull it in pieces before they had done with it!“She’s shifted more on to her side,” said Mr Meldrum, who had taken out a glass from his pocket and was now inspecting the remains of the old ship more carefully. “I can see the deck clearly. The waves are spurting up through the hole where the skylight was removed, so the cabins must be pretty well washed out by this time.”“Ah! that’s the rayson we couldn’t say the flag, sorr,” observed the mate.“It is there still,” replied Mr Meldrum; “although it is now all to port, instead of right amidships as it was when we left. This is on account of the mizzen-mast stump leaning over into the water, for I couldn’t see it myself till I took the glass. She can’t last much longer, though. Those seas are breaking over her with frightful force, judging by the amount of surf they send up, and they must soon make an end of her!”“I hope it’ll calm down a bit, sir,” said Ben Boltrope. “I’m nervous about them timbers for the roof of the house.”“Be aisy with you, man,” put in Mr McCarthy. “Sure an’ all the anxiety in the worruld won’t dhrive a pig to market! If we’re to have the crathur’s planks we’ll have thim sure enough; and if we aren’t, why we won’t, that’s all about it!”“The sea may run easier at low water, Boltrope,” said Mr Meldrum to console the carpenter; “and if she should be broken up by that time, we’ll send out the jolly-boat and pick up what we can.”“Begorrah, you won’t have to wait long,” cried the mate; and almost as he spoke, a heavy roller was seen to lift up the wreck on the top of its crest and roll it over, after which the dark body they had observed on the reef with the little scrap of a flag fluttering over it was there no longer!TheNancy Bell, or rather the remaining fragments of her hull, had disappeared at last beneath the waves!“I’m afraid we sha’n’t be able to save anything,” said Mr Meldrum, after a moment of silence, in which each of the three witnesses of the vessel’s end had drawn a deep breath, showing how affecting had been the sight. “It is such a long distance out there, and the sea is running so heavily besides, that I wouldn’t like to risk the boat.”“Sure and we could thry, sorr,” pleaded the first mate eagerly.“No, Mr McCarthy, it would be hazardous in the extreme; and we ought not to peril the men’s lives unnecessarily! Still, if you want to do something—”“Bedad I do,” interrupted the other, as if ready at once to dive into the sea if required.“Well,” continued Mr Meldrum, “you can post a man on the watch here and one or two other places along the cliff, to notice if anything floats inshore; and then, of course, we’ll make an effort to bring it to land should the wreckage drift near.”“Aye, aye, sorr, you may dipind upon me that same,” said Mr McCarthy; and, rushing down from the rock, he was soon in front of the men’s compartment of the tent, rousing them out with a cry of, “Ahoy there! All hands on deck to save ship! Tumble up, tumble up there, my hearties, there’s no time to lose!”The men coming out with alacrity, half bewildered by such a hail under the circumstances and surroundings, four were picked out and posted to look out like sentinels—two on the beach and two on the ridge above—and all with strict injunctions to report anything they saw at once, just as if they were put to the same duty on board ship.“Now, mind ye kape a good watch,” said the first mate, as he left them to their own devices, “and out if you say a single hincoop floating in the say foreninst ye—though it’s little enough of them you’ll say, sure, considerin’ they were all washed overboard off the Cape!—I mane if ye say any timbers or spars from the wrack drifting inshore, just you hould your eye on thim, or the divil a mother’s son ye’ll have a roof over his hid or a pace of foire to warm his-self! Faix, ye needn’t snigger, ye spalpeens; it’s the truth I’m afther tellin’ ye!” and Mr McCarthy then went off, shaking his fist good-humouredly at those who laughed at his quaint speech.Four other men he selected as a crew for the jolly-boat, which was hauled down on the beach in readiness to shove off as soon as any of the wreckage was reported in sight; the remainder of the hands being directed to place themselves under the orders of the carpenter until their services should be required to relieve the look-out men at the end of their watch. The duty of these latter, however, was for some time a sinecure, as the breakers were still breaking angrily against the cliffs and keeping up the hoarse diapason in which they expressed their impotent rage; while the wind, though blowing with less force than during the night time, was yet strong enough to sweep off the tops of the billows when it caught them well abeam, carrying the spindrift away to leeward and scattering the surge with its blast as it transformed it into fairy-like foam bubbles and wreaths of gossamer spray.Noon came before there was any change.Then, soon after the end of the ebb and just as the tide began to flow again, the wind died away into a dead calm; and the sea settling down somewhat—the rollers still rolling in, but only breaking when they reached the shore, instead of jostling one another in their tumultuous rushings together and mimic encounters out in the open—every eye was on thequi vive. It was either “now or never” that they might expect anything coming inshore from the wreck!“Sail ho!” at length shouted one of the look-out men on the ridge. The sailor evidently could not help using the nautical term from old habit, although he well knew that there was little chance of his seeing a “sail” that quarter!“Where away?” called out Mr McCarthy, who had the jolly-boat’s crew round her, running her into the water the moment he heard the cry.“Right to leeward of the reef, sir, about a mile out,” answered the look-out, adding quickly afterwards, “it looks a pretty biggish bit of timber, sir, and rides high in the water.”“All right, my man,” said the mate; “mind you kape still on the watch, and fix any other paces of planking you may say in your mind’s eye! You can till me where to look for thim whin I come back agin within hail. Shove off, you beggars!” he then cried out to the boat’s crew, as he jumped in over the side. “Arrah put your backs into it, for we’re bound to save ivery scrap of the ould vessel we can come across, in order sure to tow it ashore!”Watching for an opportunity, the boat’s head was shoved out on top of a return wave, when, the oars being plied with sturdy strokes, the little buoyant craft was soon well out of the broken water and making steady progress in the direction that had been pointed out. No object, however, could be seen as yet by Mr McCarthy; for the rollers were still so high that when the boat was sunk in the hollow between them nothing could be noticed beyond the curving ridge of the next wave and the broken wash of the one just overtopped.“Go it, boys, kape at it with a will,” cried the mate, rising up in the stern-sheets after a while to look round better, steadying himself by holding on to the yoke-lines and leaning forwards. “Ha! I can say it now, right in front! We’ll soon have it—one more stroke, and we’ll be there, sure!”“Aisy, now—avast—row of all!” he cried out in turn; and then, with a sullen, grating sound the boat brought up against a large mass of broken timberwork which the men had no difficulty in recognising as the larger portion of the poop deck. It had the combings of the companion and skylight still attached, as well as a part of one of the ladder-ways, and was in every sense a treasure trove.“Sure we’re in luck, boys, anyhow,” said Mr McCarthy joyfully. “Be jabers, I niver expected to git so much ov it all at once without any trouble!”The first mate proceeded without delay to attach the small hawser which they had used for towing the raft to a ring-bolt, left as if for the purpose on the floating mass; and then the men, backing water on one side, and pulling sharp on the other, soon had the boat on her way back to the land, with the mass of broken timberwork trailing behind her. It was in itself, without picking up another plank, more than sufficient to supply all the carpenter’s needs for the roof of the house, “besoides making the ladies a prisint of a staircase for the front door,” as Mr McCarthy observed!It was fortunate they came across this, for little more of the wreckage was secured, the tide having evidently carried out the lighter portions of the planking too far to sea for it to be brought back again by the returning flood. It was probably only owing to the weight of the poop-deck that they had been able to make certain of that.Still, on making a trip out to the reef later on, to see whether any more of the timbers remained there, a “find” was discovered which greatly rejoiced Snowball’s heart when it was brought on shore.This was nothing less than one of the ship’s coppers, which had become detached from the galley framework and in falling on to the reef had managed to get securely fixed between the rocks, just a little below the surface of the water. A couple of the men were easily able to pull it up into the jolly-boat, where, on being inspected, it was found perfectly sound and as good as ever!“Golly, massa,” exclaimed the darkey, when Mr Meldrum presented him with the recovered copper—which Snowball looked upon almost as the apple of his eye—“me able cook pea-shoop now, sah, and bile de beef in ’spectable style, sah! Dat sospan, massa, no good for ship’s company. Um bile, and bile, and bile, and nebbah bile enuff!”“Ah! mind you don’t go cooking too extravagantly,” said Mr Meldrum. “If I see you wasting anything, I’ll taboo the copper.”“Lor, massa, I’se too careful for dat,” replied the negro cook, with a grin which displayed his ivory-mounted mouth from ear to ear; “when de men sing out for more thoop, why, sah, I just water um grog! Yah, yah! ho, ho!” and he burst into a roar of laughter in which those around could not help joining, the darkey’s hearty merriment was so contagious.

They did not sleep so soundly, however, on this occasion as they had done the first night of their landing on the island; for, soon after dark, the wind rose into a tempestuous gale, making the tent flap about in such a way that it seemed as if it were about to be carried off bodily!

As it was, indeed—through the blowing in of the sides, and the jumping up and down of the tarpaulin on the roof every now and then as the boisterous gusts got under it—a lot of snow, which had begun to fall before they retired to rest and was now coming down in a regular storm, as fast and furious as the flakes could succeed each other, managed to find its way inside, not contributing much to their comfort; and this, combined with the roar of the breakers against the base of the cliffs, which seemed louder than ever now that the men were lying down with their ears to the ground, tended to keep the majority of the castaways awake and made them long for the morning to come again.

At last, the day broke; and, as the faint light gleamed through the chinks in the tent, telling all that the dreary night was past, they quickly bestirred themselves—Snowball being one of the first to turn out, and at once hastening to kindle up the fire, which he had left carefully banked up the previous evening, besides wisely hedging it in with heavy pieces of stone so that the wind should not scatter it away, as would otherwise probably have been the case.

“Soon get drop hot coffee, massa,” said he to Mr Meldrum, who was an early riser too and not far behind the darkey; “Um berry good for de tomack fust thing in mornin’!”

But the other was too much concerned about the fate of the ship to think of coffee then; and, long before Snowball had finished his remark, he was actively ascending the highest rock near to get a good view out to seaward. Here he was shortly joined by Mr McCarthy and Ben Boltrope, who were also equally anxious in the matter; although the others, not having been called, did not hurry themselves to leave the warm atmosphere of the tent for the cold and raw air without.

The lookers-out, however, could not see much as yet; for the usual surface fog—which in these regions generally creeps up in the evening and hangs over the sea till broad daylight—had not yet completely cleared away; and so, a curtain of haze shut out the offing from their gaze. Still, as far as the eye could reach, the sea was very rough, with heavy rollers rolling in landward. The gale of the night had not abated much, albeit the wind was not so gusty as it had been, while its force seemed to be lessening as the morning drew on.

“I’m afraid,” said Mr Meldrum, after vainly trying for a long time to peer through the impenetrable veil of mist which hid the reef from sight, “that this last blow has settled the old ship.”

“Faix, and I’m thinking just that very same,” responded the first mate. “It blowed tremenjus towards four bells, sorr, an’ the poor crathur must be clane smashed up by now!”

“It’s very unfortunate if that has happened,” replied the other. “The sea is running too high for us to launch the jolly-boat, and so we’ll lose all chance of saving the wreckage.”

“True for you, sorr, save and onless it drifts ashore.”

“There’s not the slightest hope of that,” replied Mr Meldrum. “Nothing has come up on the beach here yet, that I’ve been able to perceive!”

“But, sure an’ the wind’s bin blowing on to the land, sorr, all night. P’r’aps that might make a difference!”

“Perhaps it might,” said the other; “but I very much doubt it.”

“Well, sorr, we’ll say,” retorted the mate. However, the argument was settled offhand by Ben Boltrope, who had clambered up to a higher ledge of rock from whence he could see further out to seaward over the fog, which hung low on the water and did not extend to the upper regions of the air.

“There she is, your honour, bless her old heart!” he exclaimed. “She’s still hard and fast on the reef, and never another plank sprung from the starn, as far as I can see!”

This was good news; and Mr Meldrum, with the mate, hastened to join the carpenter on his perch above.

Yes, there in the distance, rising out of the mist, could be seen the upper portion of the poop of theNancy Bell, although the wreck was still occasionally obscured by a wave breaking over it; and, presently, on the lifting of the fog, as the clouds cleared off from the face of the sky and a gleam of sunshine stole out, lighting up the sea and landscape around, it could be observed that the remains of the vessel were nearly in the same condition, apparently, as when last noticed on the evening before—save that the poor ship was now surrounded by a line of breakers which dashed over the stern continually, looking as if they meant to pull it in pieces before they had done with it!

“She’s shifted more on to her side,” said Mr Meldrum, who had taken out a glass from his pocket and was now inspecting the remains of the old ship more carefully. “I can see the deck clearly. The waves are spurting up through the hole where the skylight was removed, so the cabins must be pretty well washed out by this time.”

“Ah! that’s the rayson we couldn’t say the flag, sorr,” observed the mate.

“It is there still,” replied Mr Meldrum; “although it is now all to port, instead of right amidships as it was when we left. This is on account of the mizzen-mast stump leaning over into the water, for I couldn’t see it myself till I took the glass. She can’t last much longer, though. Those seas are breaking over her with frightful force, judging by the amount of surf they send up, and they must soon make an end of her!”

“I hope it’ll calm down a bit, sir,” said Ben Boltrope. “I’m nervous about them timbers for the roof of the house.”

“Be aisy with you, man,” put in Mr McCarthy. “Sure an’ all the anxiety in the worruld won’t dhrive a pig to market! If we’re to have the crathur’s planks we’ll have thim sure enough; and if we aren’t, why we won’t, that’s all about it!”

“The sea may run easier at low water, Boltrope,” said Mr Meldrum to console the carpenter; “and if she should be broken up by that time, we’ll send out the jolly-boat and pick up what we can.”

“Begorrah, you won’t have to wait long,” cried the mate; and almost as he spoke, a heavy roller was seen to lift up the wreck on the top of its crest and roll it over, after which the dark body they had observed on the reef with the little scrap of a flag fluttering over it was there no longer!

TheNancy Bell, or rather the remaining fragments of her hull, had disappeared at last beneath the waves!

“I’m afraid we sha’n’t be able to save anything,” said Mr Meldrum, after a moment of silence, in which each of the three witnesses of the vessel’s end had drawn a deep breath, showing how affecting had been the sight. “It is such a long distance out there, and the sea is running so heavily besides, that I wouldn’t like to risk the boat.”

“Sure and we could thry, sorr,” pleaded the first mate eagerly.

“No, Mr McCarthy, it would be hazardous in the extreme; and we ought not to peril the men’s lives unnecessarily! Still, if you want to do something—”

“Bedad I do,” interrupted the other, as if ready at once to dive into the sea if required.

“Well,” continued Mr Meldrum, “you can post a man on the watch here and one or two other places along the cliff, to notice if anything floats inshore; and then, of course, we’ll make an effort to bring it to land should the wreckage drift near.”

“Aye, aye, sorr, you may dipind upon me that same,” said Mr McCarthy; and, rushing down from the rock, he was soon in front of the men’s compartment of the tent, rousing them out with a cry of, “Ahoy there! All hands on deck to save ship! Tumble up, tumble up there, my hearties, there’s no time to lose!”

The men coming out with alacrity, half bewildered by such a hail under the circumstances and surroundings, four were picked out and posted to look out like sentinels—two on the beach and two on the ridge above—and all with strict injunctions to report anything they saw at once, just as if they were put to the same duty on board ship.

“Now, mind ye kape a good watch,” said the first mate, as he left them to their own devices, “and out if you say a single hincoop floating in the say foreninst ye—though it’s little enough of them you’ll say, sure, considerin’ they were all washed overboard off the Cape!—I mane if ye say any timbers or spars from the wrack drifting inshore, just you hould your eye on thim, or the divil a mother’s son ye’ll have a roof over his hid or a pace of foire to warm his-self! Faix, ye needn’t snigger, ye spalpeens; it’s the truth I’m afther tellin’ ye!” and Mr McCarthy then went off, shaking his fist good-humouredly at those who laughed at his quaint speech.

Four other men he selected as a crew for the jolly-boat, which was hauled down on the beach in readiness to shove off as soon as any of the wreckage was reported in sight; the remainder of the hands being directed to place themselves under the orders of the carpenter until their services should be required to relieve the look-out men at the end of their watch. The duty of these latter, however, was for some time a sinecure, as the breakers were still breaking angrily against the cliffs and keeping up the hoarse diapason in which they expressed their impotent rage; while the wind, though blowing with less force than during the night time, was yet strong enough to sweep off the tops of the billows when it caught them well abeam, carrying the spindrift away to leeward and scattering the surge with its blast as it transformed it into fairy-like foam bubbles and wreaths of gossamer spray.

Noon came before there was any change.

Then, soon after the end of the ebb and just as the tide began to flow again, the wind died away into a dead calm; and the sea settling down somewhat—the rollers still rolling in, but only breaking when they reached the shore, instead of jostling one another in their tumultuous rushings together and mimic encounters out in the open—every eye was on thequi vive. It was either “now or never” that they might expect anything coming inshore from the wreck!

“Sail ho!” at length shouted one of the look-out men on the ridge. The sailor evidently could not help using the nautical term from old habit, although he well knew that there was little chance of his seeing a “sail” that quarter!

“Where away?” called out Mr McCarthy, who had the jolly-boat’s crew round her, running her into the water the moment he heard the cry.

“Right to leeward of the reef, sir, about a mile out,” answered the look-out, adding quickly afterwards, “it looks a pretty biggish bit of timber, sir, and rides high in the water.”

“All right, my man,” said the mate; “mind you kape still on the watch, and fix any other paces of planking you may say in your mind’s eye! You can till me where to look for thim whin I come back agin within hail. Shove off, you beggars!” he then cried out to the boat’s crew, as he jumped in over the side. “Arrah put your backs into it, for we’re bound to save ivery scrap of the ould vessel we can come across, in order sure to tow it ashore!”

Watching for an opportunity, the boat’s head was shoved out on top of a return wave, when, the oars being plied with sturdy strokes, the little buoyant craft was soon well out of the broken water and making steady progress in the direction that had been pointed out. No object, however, could be seen as yet by Mr McCarthy; for the rollers were still so high that when the boat was sunk in the hollow between them nothing could be noticed beyond the curving ridge of the next wave and the broken wash of the one just overtopped.

“Go it, boys, kape at it with a will,” cried the mate, rising up in the stern-sheets after a while to look round better, steadying himself by holding on to the yoke-lines and leaning forwards. “Ha! I can say it now, right in front! We’ll soon have it—one more stroke, and we’ll be there, sure!”

“Aisy, now—avast—row of all!” he cried out in turn; and then, with a sullen, grating sound the boat brought up against a large mass of broken timberwork which the men had no difficulty in recognising as the larger portion of the poop deck. It had the combings of the companion and skylight still attached, as well as a part of one of the ladder-ways, and was in every sense a treasure trove.

“Sure we’re in luck, boys, anyhow,” said Mr McCarthy joyfully. “Be jabers, I niver expected to git so much ov it all at once without any trouble!”

The first mate proceeded without delay to attach the small hawser which they had used for towing the raft to a ring-bolt, left as if for the purpose on the floating mass; and then the men, backing water on one side, and pulling sharp on the other, soon had the boat on her way back to the land, with the mass of broken timberwork trailing behind her. It was in itself, without picking up another plank, more than sufficient to supply all the carpenter’s needs for the roof of the house, “besoides making the ladies a prisint of a staircase for the front door,” as Mr McCarthy observed!

It was fortunate they came across this, for little more of the wreckage was secured, the tide having evidently carried out the lighter portions of the planking too far to sea for it to be brought back again by the returning flood. It was probably only owing to the weight of the poop-deck that they had been able to make certain of that.

Still, on making a trip out to the reef later on, to see whether any more of the timbers remained there, a “find” was discovered which greatly rejoiced Snowball’s heart when it was brought on shore.

This was nothing less than one of the ship’s coppers, which had become detached from the galley framework and in falling on to the reef had managed to get securely fixed between the rocks, just a little below the surface of the water. A couple of the men were easily able to pull it up into the jolly-boat, where, on being inspected, it was found perfectly sound and as good as ever!

“Golly, massa,” exclaimed the darkey, when Mr Meldrum presented him with the recovered copper—which Snowball looked upon almost as the apple of his eye—“me able cook pea-shoop now, sah, and bile de beef in ’spectable style, sah! Dat sospan, massa, no good for ship’s company. Um bile, and bile, and bile, and nebbah bile enuff!”

“Ah! mind you don’t go cooking too extravagantly,” said Mr Meldrum. “If I see you wasting anything, I’ll taboo the copper.”

“Lor, massa, I’se too careful for dat,” replied the negro cook, with a grin which displayed his ivory-mounted mouth from ear to ear; “when de men sing out for more thoop, why, sah, I just water um grog! Yah, yah! ho, ho!” and he burst into a roar of laughter in which those around could not help joining, the darkey’s hearty merriment was so contagious.

Chapter Twenty Six.Kerguelen Cabbage.While Mr McCarthy and the jolly-boat’s crew were thus trying to save all the “flotsam and jetsam” they could from the wreck, Ben Boltrope and those of the crew told off to help him, as “carpenter’s mates,” were as busy as bees house-building, if running up the shanty which Mr Meldrum had designed could be so designated; while the rest of the party were lending all the aid they could in fetching and carrying what the actual workers required.It was only a rough wooden hut, or rather “composite” structure; but as it was more than probable that it would have to be the home of the shipwrecked people for some five months at the least, no trouble or pains were spared in endeavouring to make it as substantial and comfortable under the circumstances as Ben and his active assistants could effect with the limited means at their command.The gable-end of the cliff, under whose lee the hut was erected, so as to gain shelter from the southward and westward winds, which seemed to be the most prevalent on the coast, presented a flat and even face, just like a slab of black slate standing up perpendicularly from the ground. The wall of rock, which was of a hard volcanic material that was evidently not porous, was made to serve for the back of the building, a niche or groove being excavated along it, about ten feet from the bottom, for the insertion of the ridge poles. This was a task of some difficulty, owing to the toughness of the stone; but it was a necessary one in order to prevent the moisture from above trickling down into the interior between the roof and the face of the cliff. The lower ends of the ridge poles, which sloped down from the top at an angle of some fifteen degrees, were then firmly fastened to the posts placed in the holes dug for them and lashed together with stout seizings of rope and sennet, so strongly that it would almost have taken a hurricane to have blown them away.The next proceeding was to fix, at equal distances apart across the rough framework of the roof, a series of slender scantlings cut from the deck planks by splitting them with an axe, which Ben was forced to make use of on account of his having no saw, that and other similar useful instruments having been left in his tool-chest, which had been placed in the long-boat when the first preparations were made for abandoning theNancy Bell.The scantlings were secured to the ridge poles diagonally, not only for greater security but on account of the shortness of some of the pieces of timber they had and the necessity there was for their economising it; and, over the scantlings were laid in due order, the one overlapping the other to prevent any crevices in between, the shingles which the ingenious carpenter had improvised out of the staves of the empty casks—although, as the space to be covered amounted to some seven hundred superficial feet or thereabouts, every one of the casks had to be broken up save the six containing their beef and pork and the salted-down flesh of the sea-elephant, Ben even then hardly having enough shingles for his purpose.However, casks or no casks, the roof of their house was a consideration that stood at the moment before all others; and, being now properly shingled, it was rendered additionally watertight by spreading over it the old tarpaulin and sail that had already temporarily done duty above their tent, and then giving them a good coating of pitch. A supply of this article had been fortunately thrown on to the raft along with the other odds and ends that had came in so usefullys and it was now melted down in Snowball’s recovered copper. The finishing touch was given to the structure by piling several big boulders over the upper row of shingles along the ridge pole, for greater stability and to prevent boisterous Boreas from playing any of his rude tricks to its disadvantage.The roof done, all hands turned their attention to raising the sides of the shanty. This was a much easier job, consisting in nailing rough pieces of planking at intervals across the corner-posts from end to end, both inside the building and without, and then filling up the interstices, or intervening hollows, with the basaltic débris that was scattered around—just as rubble is thrown in between skeleton brickwork by what are termed “jerry-builders” to form party-walls of modern tenements. The side walls were then carried up to within a foot or so of the eaves of the roof, the sail-covering of which after being allowed to lap over was now tucked in at the top, thus closing up the chinks and making all snug.The front of the shanty was afterwards finished off in the same way, although more planking was employed as greater nicety of detail was necessary in order to arrange for the doorway and windows, for which latter the remains of the cabin sky-light Frank thought of bringing ashore supplied the material; but it took a couple of days to complete the building to the satisfaction of Ben and Mr Meldrum, notwithstanding which drawback the whole party took possession of it the night after the wreckage had been landed, the recovered timber enabling the carpenter and his crew to proceed with the work—all declaring that the house was perfect and ever so much better than the discarded tent, in spite of many things being still wanting.In the interior, of course, a flooring had been dispensed with, from the simple fact of their having no wood to spare for such a luxury; but otherwise it was made to look very comfortable.Through the aid of canvas curtains suspended from the roof, it was divided, as Mr Meldrum had originally planned, into three tolerably commodious apartments, the cosiest and most sheltered of which, at the extreme end of the building, was apportioned to the ladies some sailcloth being spread on the bare ground to render it warmer; while the middle and larger room was reserved as a store and place of general assembly for eating and carrying on such avocations as were required when the weather was too rough for out-of-door work.The third apartment, at the beach end of the building, was devoted to the dormitory accommodation of the men folk, who slept on the bare rock below in their blankets—Mr Meldrum, with the American and the officers of the ship swinging above the crew in hammocks.They had a tight fit of it altogether, some one-and-twenty sleeping in a space of not more than twenty feet by eight, according to the dimensions of the floor; but Captain Dinks’ cot was hung for the present in the general compartment, on account of his wounded condition and the necessity of his having free air and ventilation, lest there should be a return of his feverish symptoms, which a confined atmosphere might have brought about.When all these arrangements were completed, and the stores neatly ranged round the central division, which Ben Boltrope had further adorned with a rough deal table and some settles placed in the centre, the place presented quite a homelike appearance to the castaways. The children, indeed, declared that it was like the cuddy of the poor oldNancy Bell—that is, when things went well with the vessel. This resemblance was especially apparent on the second night after taking possession of the new house, when it was “declared open” in state, on which occasion it was lit up by no less than two of the ship’s lanterns as a sort of house warming in honour of the event. Snowball was also allowed by Mr Meldrum to spread the festal board with as luxurious a feast as their scanty supplies permitted, a bottle of wine being subsequently produced for the ladies and grog served out to the men.“I guess, mister,” said Mr Lathrope, who took quite as much pride as Mr Meldrum in the building—indeed had an equal share in planning its construction, although he did not work quite so hard in carrying out the details—“I’d a sight rayther have this air shanty than a brown stone front in Philadelphy—yes, sir!”“Well, we’ve got a roof over our heads at all events!” replied Mr Meldrum, “and I confess I was anxious about that point. We’ve had exceptionally fine weather for the time of year here, however, and there’s no knowing how soon it will turn off; so, now that our house is finished, the next thing to be considered is the state of our provisions.”“Ah!” said the American, “I kalkerlate that’s coming to hum.”“The food question is a vital necessity in most cases, and especially now in ours,”—continued the other—“taking into account the many mouths we have to feed.”“But the Lord filleth the hungry, we’re told,” said MrsMajor Negus, who had developed, since landing on the island, what had evidently been a strong religious trait previously dormant in her character, if quoting Scripture texts were any proof of this disposition.“Ah ma’rm,” responded Mr Lathrope, “don’t you believe it, unless the hungry work for it.”“And much you’ve done to earn your food!” said the lady tartly.“Wa-al, ma’rm, if it warn’t for me, as Mr Meldrum here will tell you, I’ve no doubt yer wouldn’t have a chimbley, nor nary fire to sot by inside haar!”“A fine smoky chimney it is too!” retorted Mrs Major Negus. “It is quite suffocating, I declare.”“That’s better nor bein’ friz,” said the American, with some little heat. He was rather annoyed at having his special contrivance sneered at, for it was only after repeated attempts and failures that the building party had at last managed to rig up a fireplace against the back wall of the shanty—running up through the roof of the “general” room a chimney-shaft of loosely piled stones, enclosed within a framework of planks to which was nailed on the sea-elephant’s skin in order to prevent the wood from catching fire. This served the purpose of warming the whole of the interior, as the other apartments opened into this room, which indeed also provided the only means of communication with the outside of the hut, the principal and solitary door of the establishment being here.“I’d sooner be smoked any time fur chice, myself, than friz!” said Mr Lathrope again, as if to provoke his opponent.“No wonder,” retorted the lady, eager to have the last word, “when you’re at it all day long, smoking your brains out with that vile tobacco!”“What were you going to say about the provisions, papa?” interposed Kate at this juncture, in order to give a turn to the conversation, which seemed to be getting a trifle too personal between Mr Lathrope and “the Major.”“Well, my dear,” said her father, glad of the interruption, “I was about to call a council of war. What we have can’t last us very long, at our present rate of consumption. We shall have to eke it out, as far as it is practicable, by the native products of the island.”“That’s snow and pumice-stone, as fur as I ken see,” put in Mr Lathrope; “and I guess I must be durned peckish fore I tackle those!”“You forget the seals and the penguins,” said Mr Meldrum.“Waal, mister,” rejoined the American, “we’ve only seed one seal, as I reckon. That was that air ‘Sea Olly-fant,’ as the Norwegee called it, and the animile’s meat warn’t ’zackly what this child ken stomach! As for them penguins, I guess they’re kinder fishy.”“My dear sir, we can’t be squeamish,” said the other. “Perhaps we’ll be only too glad to get anything we can presently! Besides the seals and birds, however, there’s something else I shall have to look after to-morrow. It is what I should have thought of before, only we were so busy about the house—some vegetable food to eat with our salt beef. We must use some antiscorbutic; and we haven’t a tin of our preserved stock left, I think.”“And whar’ll you find vegetables haar, mister?”“Why, there’s one specially distinctive of the island and I daresay we’ll not have to hunt far for it. From the accounts I’ve read it ought to grow quite close to the seashore.”“And what’s that, mister?” asked the American.“Kerguelen cabbage,” promptly answered Mr Meldrum.“Snakes and alligators, mister! Do you expect to find sich kitchen stuff haar?”“I do,” replied the other; “and intend to search for it to-morrow morning, as soon as I turn out!”“It was lucky we have poor puss, papa,” said Florry just then. “We would have had all our things eaten up by the mice only for her.”“Dear me!” ejaculated Mrs Major Negus, drawing her skirts closer to her in alarm, “you don’t say so? Mice! gracious goodness that I ever should have come to such a place. Of all the things I hate, those nasty creatures are the worst.”“Ah! ma’rm,” put in Mr Lathrope, seeing his chance of revenge for the lady’s comments on his chimney; “if all Mister Meldrum kalkerlates comes true about the shortness of our provisions, I guess you’ll be glad to eat ’em bye and bye! I’ve seed the Chinee immigrants gobble ’em up in Californy often enough!”“Disgusting!” ejaculated Mrs Major Negus, raising her nose in the air with an expression of intense scorn. “I for one, sir, will never descend to adopt Chinese fashions and live on rats and mice, whatever you may have learnt to do in your travels.”“Pray, do not alarm yourself,” interposed Mr Meldrum, laughing. “Can’t you see that Mr Lathrope is only joking! I do not dread our being reduced to such a sad extremity as he pictures! Are you sure about the mice, Florry?”“Oh yes, papa,” answered that young lady. “Pussy killed four not long ago, and brought them purring, one after another, to Kate and me—as if to show us what she had done! Besides, I’m sure I heard them squeaking behind the boxes last night.”Florry’s statement was true enough, for on hunting amongst the stores it was found that the corners of the bags containing the small supply of biscuits they had left had been nibbled through and their contents scattered on the ground; in addition to which there were other evidences of the presence of the little depredators. The mice must have been originally introduced into the island by some whaling ship; and, they had evidently multiplied considerably since then, for they were now very numerous and puss would have all her work cut out for her in keeping them down.In spite of the mouse diversion, Mr Meldrum did not forget what he had said about the “Kerguelen cabbage.”Instituting a search next day, it was not long before he came across the plant in a little hollow, close to the fresh-water tarn adjoining their hut and just peeping out from a thin covering of half-melted snow that lay on the ground.This peculiar vegetable production, which was first noticed by Captain Cook a century ago and is indigenous to the island, is termed by botanists thePringlea antiscorbutica, and belongs to the order of plants classed as theCruciferae, which embraces the common cabbage of every household garden, the radish, and the horse-radish—to the latter of which the Kerguelen cabbage is the most closely allied, on account of its hot pungent taste when eaten raw as well as from its habit and mode of growth.Mr Meldrum could not have failed to discover and recognise it at first sight from the description he already had, for the leaves of the plant grew thick about the root and put forth an upright stem, some two to three feet high, from which proceeded shoots, like broccoli sprouts on an enlarged scale, the outer petal-like leaves of which were six to eight inches long, and of a dark olive-green hue and fleshy nature, rounded and ciliated at the margin; while the inner leaves were of a paler green that approximated to yellow in the centre, where they were crumpled together, exactly like as in the “heart” of the well-known cabbage, to which the vegetable bore a very close likeness on being first seen.“Begorrah, it’s a cabbage, all the worruld over!” exclaimed the first mate, who had accompanied Mr Meldrum in his quest. “Sure you’d hardly know the hid ov the baste, if it was cut off, from one grown in Connemara!”“Not quite so strong a resemblance, perhaps,” replied Mr Meldrum, smiling. “Still, there’s likeness enough to recognise its membership to the general cabbage family; but, we have yet to try how it tastes!”“Aye, aye, sorr,” said Mr McCarthy. “The proof of the pudden’s in the aiting, sure!”However, the Kerguelen cabbage stood this test well enough.It was tried that very day at dinner; and, although tasting slightly acrid and hot flavoured when raw, on being cooked in the same water in the copper in which some salt pork had been boiled, it seemed not very much dissimilar to the native home-grown article commonly known as “greens.”“I guess, mister, it air downright prime, an’ no mistake,” said Mr Lathrope, passing opinion on its qualities; “and more’n that, it fills a feller up fine!”“Begorrah, it’s jist like bacon and greens!” observed Mr McCarthy.The majority of the men, too, relished it greatly. It was a long time since any of them had tasted fresh meat much less vegetables, by reason of theNancy Bellnot having stopped at any port on her way after leaving England; so, thenceforth, both on account of its antiscorbutic as well as from its “filling up” qualities, the plant invariably formed a leading feature in the dietary scale of the castaways; Snowball never failing to have a plentiful supply of “cabbage” to cook when meal times came round, or else he or somebody else in fault for its absence, would have to “tell the reason why!”

While Mr McCarthy and the jolly-boat’s crew were thus trying to save all the “flotsam and jetsam” they could from the wreck, Ben Boltrope and those of the crew told off to help him, as “carpenter’s mates,” were as busy as bees house-building, if running up the shanty which Mr Meldrum had designed could be so designated; while the rest of the party were lending all the aid they could in fetching and carrying what the actual workers required.

It was only a rough wooden hut, or rather “composite” structure; but as it was more than probable that it would have to be the home of the shipwrecked people for some five months at the least, no trouble or pains were spared in endeavouring to make it as substantial and comfortable under the circumstances as Ben and his active assistants could effect with the limited means at their command.

The gable-end of the cliff, under whose lee the hut was erected, so as to gain shelter from the southward and westward winds, which seemed to be the most prevalent on the coast, presented a flat and even face, just like a slab of black slate standing up perpendicularly from the ground. The wall of rock, which was of a hard volcanic material that was evidently not porous, was made to serve for the back of the building, a niche or groove being excavated along it, about ten feet from the bottom, for the insertion of the ridge poles. This was a task of some difficulty, owing to the toughness of the stone; but it was a necessary one in order to prevent the moisture from above trickling down into the interior between the roof and the face of the cliff. The lower ends of the ridge poles, which sloped down from the top at an angle of some fifteen degrees, were then firmly fastened to the posts placed in the holes dug for them and lashed together with stout seizings of rope and sennet, so strongly that it would almost have taken a hurricane to have blown them away.

The next proceeding was to fix, at equal distances apart across the rough framework of the roof, a series of slender scantlings cut from the deck planks by splitting them with an axe, which Ben was forced to make use of on account of his having no saw, that and other similar useful instruments having been left in his tool-chest, which had been placed in the long-boat when the first preparations were made for abandoning theNancy Bell.

The scantlings were secured to the ridge poles diagonally, not only for greater security but on account of the shortness of some of the pieces of timber they had and the necessity there was for their economising it; and, over the scantlings were laid in due order, the one overlapping the other to prevent any crevices in between, the shingles which the ingenious carpenter had improvised out of the staves of the empty casks—although, as the space to be covered amounted to some seven hundred superficial feet or thereabouts, every one of the casks had to be broken up save the six containing their beef and pork and the salted-down flesh of the sea-elephant, Ben even then hardly having enough shingles for his purpose.

However, casks or no casks, the roof of their house was a consideration that stood at the moment before all others; and, being now properly shingled, it was rendered additionally watertight by spreading over it the old tarpaulin and sail that had already temporarily done duty above their tent, and then giving them a good coating of pitch. A supply of this article had been fortunately thrown on to the raft along with the other odds and ends that had came in so usefullys and it was now melted down in Snowball’s recovered copper. The finishing touch was given to the structure by piling several big boulders over the upper row of shingles along the ridge pole, for greater stability and to prevent boisterous Boreas from playing any of his rude tricks to its disadvantage.

The roof done, all hands turned their attention to raising the sides of the shanty. This was a much easier job, consisting in nailing rough pieces of planking at intervals across the corner-posts from end to end, both inside the building and without, and then filling up the interstices, or intervening hollows, with the basaltic débris that was scattered around—just as rubble is thrown in between skeleton brickwork by what are termed “jerry-builders” to form party-walls of modern tenements. The side walls were then carried up to within a foot or so of the eaves of the roof, the sail-covering of which after being allowed to lap over was now tucked in at the top, thus closing up the chinks and making all snug.

The front of the shanty was afterwards finished off in the same way, although more planking was employed as greater nicety of detail was necessary in order to arrange for the doorway and windows, for which latter the remains of the cabin sky-light Frank thought of bringing ashore supplied the material; but it took a couple of days to complete the building to the satisfaction of Ben and Mr Meldrum, notwithstanding which drawback the whole party took possession of it the night after the wreckage had been landed, the recovered timber enabling the carpenter and his crew to proceed with the work—all declaring that the house was perfect and ever so much better than the discarded tent, in spite of many things being still wanting.

In the interior, of course, a flooring had been dispensed with, from the simple fact of their having no wood to spare for such a luxury; but otherwise it was made to look very comfortable.

Through the aid of canvas curtains suspended from the roof, it was divided, as Mr Meldrum had originally planned, into three tolerably commodious apartments, the cosiest and most sheltered of which, at the extreme end of the building, was apportioned to the ladies some sailcloth being spread on the bare ground to render it warmer; while the middle and larger room was reserved as a store and place of general assembly for eating and carrying on such avocations as were required when the weather was too rough for out-of-door work.

The third apartment, at the beach end of the building, was devoted to the dormitory accommodation of the men folk, who slept on the bare rock below in their blankets—Mr Meldrum, with the American and the officers of the ship swinging above the crew in hammocks.

They had a tight fit of it altogether, some one-and-twenty sleeping in a space of not more than twenty feet by eight, according to the dimensions of the floor; but Captain Dinks’ cot was hung for the present in the general compartment, on account of his wounded condition and the necessity of his having free air and ventilation, lest there should be a return of his feverish symptoms, which a confined atmosphere might have brought about.

When all these arrangements were completed, and the stores neatly ranged round the central division, which Ben Boltrope had further adorned with a rough deal table and some settles placed in the centre, the place presented quite a homelike appearance to the castaways. The children, indeed, declared that it was like the cuddy of the poor oldNancy Bell—that is, when things went well with the vessel. This resemblance was especially apparent on the second night after taking possession of the new house, when it was “declared open” in state, on which occasion it was lit up by no less than two of the ship’s lanterns as a sort of house warming in honour of the event. Snowball was also allowed by Mr Meldrum to spread the festal board with as luxurious a feast as their scanty supplies permitted, a bottle of wine being subsequently produced for the ladies and grog served out to the men.

“I guess, mister,” said Mr Lathrope, who took quite as much pride as Mr Meldrum in the building—indeed had an equal share in planning its construction, although he did not work quite so hard in carrying out the details—“I’d a sight rayther have this air shanty than a brown stone front in Philadelphy—yes, sir!”

“Well, we’ve got a roof over our heads at all events!” replied Mr Meldrum, “and I confess I was anxious about that point. We’ve had exceptionally fine weather for the time of year here, however, and there’s no knowing how soon it will turn off; so, now that our house is finished, the next thing to be considered is the state of our provisions.”

“Ah!” said the American, “I kalkerlate that’s coming to hum.”

“The food question is a vital necessity in most cases, and especially now in ours,”—continued the other—“taking into account the many mouths we have to feed.”

“But the Lord filleth the hungry, we’re told,” said Mrs

Major Negus, who had developed, since landing on the island, what had evidently been a strong religious trait previously dormant in her character, if quoting Scripture texts were any proof of this disposition.

“Ah ma’rm,” responded Mr Lathrope, “don’t you believe it, unless the hungry work for it.”

“And much you’ve done to earn your food!” said the lady tartly.

“Wa-al, ma’rm, if it warn’t for me, as Mr Meldrum here will tell you, I’ve no doubt yer wouldn’t have a chimbley, nor nary fire to sot by inside haar!”

“A fine smoky chimney it is too!” retorted Mrs Major Negus. “It is quite suffocating, I declare.”

“That’s better nor bein’ friz,” said the American, with some little heat. He was rather annoyed at having his special contrivance sneered at, for it was only after repeated attempts and failures that the building party had at last managed to rig up a fireplace against the back wall of the shanty—running up through the roof of the “general” room a chimney-shaft of loosely piled stones, enclosed within a framework of planks to which was nailed on the sea-elephant’s skin in order to prevent the wood from catching fire. This served the purpose of warming the whole of the interior, as the other apartments opened into this room, which indeed also provided the only means of communication with the outside of the hut, the principal and solitary door of the establishment being here.

“I’d sooner be smoked any time fur chice, myself, than friz!” said Mr Lathrope again, as if to provoke his opponent.

“No wonder,” retorted the lady, eager to have the last word, “when you’re at it all day long, smoking your brains out with that vile tobacco!”

“What were you going to say about the provisions, papa?” interposed Kate at this juncture, in order to give a turn to the conversation, which seemed to be getting a trifle too personal between Mr Lathrope and “the Major.”

“Well, my dear,” said her father, glad of the interruption, “I was about to call a council of war. What we have can’t last us very long, at our present rate of consumption. We shall have to eke it out, as far as it is practicable, by the native products of the island.”

“That’s snow and pumice-stone, as fur as I ken see,” put in Mr Lathrope; “and I guess I must be durned peckish fore I tackle those!”

“You forget the seals and the penguins,” said Mr Meldrum.

“Waal, mister,” rejoined the American, “we’ve only seed one seal, as I reckon. That was that air ‘Sea Olly-fant,’ as the Norwegee called it, and the animile’s meat warn’t ’zackly what this child ken stomach! As for them penguins, I guess they’re kinder fishy.”

“My dear sir, we can’t be squeamish,” said the other. “Perhaps we’ll be only too glad to get anything we can presently! Besides the seals and birds, however, there’s something else I shall have to look after to-morrow. It is what I should have thought of before, only we were so busy about the house—some vegetable food to eat with our salt beef. We must use some antiscorbutic; and we haven’t a tin of our preserved stock left, I think.”

“And whar’ll you find vegetables haar, mister?”

“Why, there’s one specially distinctive of the island and I daresay we’ll not have to hunt far for it. From the accounts I’ve read it ought to grow quite close to the seashore.”

“And what’s that, mister?” asked the American.

“Kerguelen cabbage,” promptly answered Mr Meldrum.

“Snakes and alligators, mister! Do you expect to find sich kitchen stuff haar?”

“I do,” replied the other; “and intend to search for it to-morrow morning, as soon as I turn out!”

“It was lucky we have poor puss, papa,” said Florry just then. “We would have had all our things eaten up by the mice only for her.”

“Dear me!” ejaculated Mrs Major Negus, drawing her skirts closer to her in alarm, “you don’t say so? Mice! gracious goodness that I ever should have come to such a place. Of all the things I hate, those nasty creatures are the worst.”

“Ah! ma’rm,” put in Mr Lathrope, seeing his chance of revenge for the lady’s comments on his chimney; “if all Mister Meldrum kalkerlates comes true about the shortness of our provisions, I guess you’ll be glad to eat ’em bye and bye! I’ve seed the Chinee immigrants gobble ’em up in Californy often enough!”

“Disgusting!” ejaculated Mrs Major Negus, raising her nose in the air with an expression of intense scorn. “I for one, sir, will never descend to adopt Chinese fashions and live on rats and mice, whatever you may have learnt to do in your travels.”

“Pray, do not alarm yourself,” interposed Mr Meldrum, laughing. “Can’t you see that Mr Lathrope is only joking! I do not dread our being reduced to such a sad extremity as he pictures! Are you sure about the mice, Florry?”

“Oh yes, papa,” answered that young lady. “Pussy killed four not long ago, and brought them purring, one after another, to Kate and me—as if to show us what she had done! Besides, I’m sure I heard them squeaking behind the boxes last night.”

Florry’s statement was true enough, for on hunting amongst the stores it was found that the corners of the bags containing the small supply of biscuits they had left had been nibbled through and their contents scattered on the ground; in addition to which there were other evidences of the presence of the little depredators. The mice must have been originally introduced into the island by some whaling ship; and, they had evidently multiplied considerably since then, for they were now very numerous and puss would have all her work cut out for her in keeping them down.

In spite of the mouse diversion, Mr Meldrum did not forget what he had said about the “Kerguelen cabbage.”

Instituting a search next day, it was not long before he came across the plant in a little hollow, close to the fresh-water tarn adjoining their hut and just peeping out from a thin covering of half-melted snow that lay on the ground.

This peculiar vegetable production, which was first noticed by Captain Cook a century ago and is indigenous to the island, is termed by botanists thePringlea antiscorbutica, and belongs to the order of plants classed as theCruciferae, which embraces the common cabbage of every household garden, the radish, and the horse-radish—to the latter of which the Kerguelen cabbage is the most closely allied, on account of its hot pungent taste when eaten raw as well as from its habit and mode of growth.

Mr Meldrum could not have failed to discover and recognise it at first sight from the description he already had, for the leaves of the plant grew thick about the root and put forth an upright stem, some two to three feet high, from which proceeded shoots, like broccoli sprouts on an enlarged scale, the outer petal-like leaves of which were six to eight inches long, and of a dark olive-green hue and fleshy nature, rounded and ciliated at the margin; while the inner leaves were of a paler green that approximated to yellow in the centre, where they were crumpled together, exactly like as in the “heart” of the well-known cabbage, to which the vegetable bore a very close likeness on being first seen.

“Begorrah, it’s a cabbage, all the worruld over!” exclaimed the first mate, who had accompanied Mr Meldrum in his quest. “Sure you’d hardly know the hid ov the baste, if it was cut off, from one grown in Connemara!”

“Not quite so strong a resemblance, perhaps,” replied Mr Meldrum, smiling. “Still, there’s likeness enough to recognise its membership to the general cabbage family; but, we have yet to try how it tastes!”

“Aye, aye, sorr,” said Mr McCarthy. “The proof of the pudden’s in the aiting, sure!”

However, the Kerguelen cabbage stood this test well enough.

It was tried that very day at dinner; and, although tasting slightly acrid and hot flavoured when raw, on being cooked in the same water in the copper in which some salt pork had been boiled, it seemed not very much dissimilar to the native home-grown article commonly known as “greens.”

“I guess, mister, it air downright prime, an’ no mistake,” said Mr Lathrope, passing opinion on its qualities; “and more’n that, it fills a feller up fine!”

“Begorrah, it’s jist like bacon and greens!” observed Mr McCarthy.

The majority of the men, too, relished it greatly. It was a long time since any of them had tasted fresh meat much less vegetables, by reason of theNancy Bellnot having stopped at any port on her way after leaving England; so, thenceforth, both on account of its antiscorbutic as well as from its “filling up” qualities, the plant invariably formed a leading feature in the dietary scale of the castaways; Snowball never failing to have a plentiful supply of “cabbage” to cook when meal times came round, or else he or somebody else in fault for its absence, would have to “tell the reason why!”

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