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Syd Belton: The Boy who would not go to Sea, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 39 |
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_ CHAPTER THIRTY NINE. The same reply always from the look-out man by the flagstaff; no ship in sight, and the town of Saint Jacques slumbering in the sun. But there was so much to do that Syd and Roylance could spare very little time for thinking. As soon as the patients had been tended there were a score of matters to take Syd's attention; but he was well seconded by Roylance, who, to Terry's disgust, threw himself heart and soul into the work of keeping the fort as if it were a ship. The lieutenant progressed wonderfully now that the feverish stage was over, and one day he said-- "I can't work, Syd, my dear boy, for I am as weak as a baby, and I shall not interfere in any way, so go on and behave like a man." Pan forgot to use his sling to such an extent that there could be no mistake about his wound being in a fair way to heal, and were other proof needed it was shown in the way in which he tormented his helpless father. For though the boatswain pooh-poohed the idea of anything much being the matter with him, it was evident that he suffered a great deal, though he never winced when his injuries were dressed. "Serves me right," he used to say. "Arter all my practice, to think o' me not being able to heave a rope on board a derrylick without chucking myself arter it. There, don't you worrit about me, sir. Give me a hextry fig o' tobacco, and a stick or a rope's-end to stir up that young swab o' mine, and I shall grow fresh bark over all my grazings, and the broken ribs 'll soon get set. How are you getting on with the boat?" "Not at all, Strake," replied Syd. "We can't pump her out because there's a big leak in her somewhere, and I don't like to break her up in case we think of a way of floating her so as to get away from here." "What? Who wants to get away from here, sir? Orders was to occupy this here rock, and of course you hold it till the skipper comes back and takes us off." "Yes; but in case our provisions fail?" "Tchah! ketch more fish, sir. There's plenty, aren't there?" "Yes; as much as we can use." "And any 'mount o' water?" "Yes." "And the only thing you want is wood for cooking?" "Yes." "Then that boat, which seems to ha' been sent o' purpose, has to be got ashore somehow to be broke up. Now, if you'll take my advice you'll just go down to the rocks there and think that job out. I can't help you much, sir, 'cause here I am on my beam-ends. Go and think it out, lad, and then come and tell me." "Strake's right," said the lieutenant, who had been lying in the shade outside the hut. "Captain Belton will either be back himself or send help before long. You must hold the place till he comes." Those words were comfortable to Sydney. They were like definite orders from his superiors, and he could obey them with more satisfaction to himself than any he thought out for himself. So he went down to the pier, meeting Roylance on his way, who had just been his rounds, and had a few words with the men on duty by the upper and lower guns, and at the flagstaff. "My orders are to go and see to getting the wreck ashore for firewood, Roylance." "Orders?" said the midshipman, laughing. "Well, it does seem a pity after the trouble we took." "And risk," interpolated Syd. "To get her moored here to be of no use." "Come, and let's see what can be done." The two youths descended the rope-ladder beneath the lower gun, and spent some time in examining the vessel, but were compelled to give up in despair. She was securely moored so that they could easily get on to the water-washed decks, where there were a couple of fixed pumps, but these had been tried again and again; and, as the men said, it was like trying to pump the Atlantic dry to go on toiling at a task where the water flowed in as fast as it was drawn out. "There's no getting at the leak even if we knew where it was," said Roylance. "I think the same," said Syd, "so we may as well get all the wood out of her we can, and lay it on the rocks to dry." This task was begun, and for two days the men worked well; some cutting, others dragging off planks with crowbars, while the rest bore the wood to the foot of the rocky wall, where it was hauled up and laid to dry in the hottest parts of the natural fort. It was on the third day from the beginning of this task, as the pile of dripping wood they had taken from the wreck began to grow broad and high, while endless numbers of riven pieces were ranged in the full sunshine, and sent forth a quivering transparent vapour into the heated air, that Syd, who was standing ankle-deep in water on a cross-beam directing the men, and warning them not to make a false step on account of the sharks, suddenly uttered a cry-- "Look out!" he shouted, and there was a rush for the rock, where as soon as they were on safely the men began to roar with laughter. "Beg pardon, sir," said Rogers, touching his hat, as he stood axe in hand; "but seeing as how he tried to eat me, oughtn't we to try and eat he?" The "he" pointed to was a long, lean, hungry-looking shark which had been cruising about the side of the vessel, whose bulwarks had all been ripped off and deck torn up, so that she floated now like a huge tub whose centre was crossed by broad beams. So open was the vessel that it had needed very little effort on the part of a shark to make a rush, glide in over the ragged side, and then begin floundering about in the water, and over and under the beams which had supported the deck. "I don't know about eating him, Roy," said Syd; "but as I'm captain I pass sentence of death on the brute." Then to the men--"How can you tackle the wretch?" "Oh, we'll soon tackle him, sir," said Rogers; "eh, messmets?" There was a growl of assent at this, and the men looked at their young leader full of expectancy. "Well," he said, "be careful. What do you mean to do?" "Seems to me, sir," said the man, "as the best thing to do would be to fish for him." "No, no," cried Roylance; "fetch a line with a running knot, and see if you can't get it round him, and have him out." Rogers gave his leg a slap. "That's it, sir. Pity you and me can't be swung over him like we was off the rocks. Easily run it across his nose then." Roylance could not help a shudder, and he glanced at Syd to see if he was observed. "I get dreaming about that thing sometimes," he said. "I wonder whether this is the one." "Hardly likely, but it's sure to be a relation," said Syd, laughing, as they stood watching the movements of the shark, which seemed to be puzzled by its quarters, and was now showing its tail as it dived down under a beam, now raising its head to glide over and disappear in the depths of the ship's hold. The men were not long in getting the line that had been used to tow the vessel to its moorings, and a freely running noose was prepared and tested by Rogers, who suddenly threw it over one of his messmates' heads, gave it a snatch, and drew it taut. Taking it off, he lassoed another in the same way. "That's the tackle," he said, smiling. "Next thing is to get it round the shark." "Yes," said Roylance, "but it's something like the rats putting the bell on the cat's neck. Who's to do it?" "Oh, I'm a-going to do it, sir," said Rogers, shaking out the rope. "Lay hold, messmates, and when I says 'now!' have him out and over the rocks here.--P'r'aps, sir, you'd like to have an axe to give him number one?" "How do you mean?" "One on the tail, sir, to fetch it off; only look out, for he's pretty handy with his tail." "That's what some one said of the man who had his legs shot off," whispered Roylance, laughing, "that he was pretty handy with the wooden ones." "We're ready, sir," said Rogers, "when you likes to give the word." "But about danger, my man?" said Syd, who half-wondered at himself, as he hectored over the crew, and thought that he was a good deal like Terry, who was contemptuously looking on. "Theer's no danger, sir," said Rogers. "I don't know so much about that," said Syd; "suppose you slipped and went down into the hold?" "Well, in that case, sir," said Rogers, grimly, "Master Jack there would have the best of it, and none of his mates to help. Wonder whether a shark like that shovel-nosed beggar could eat a whole man at a meal?" "Ugh!" ejaculated Syd, with a shudder. "It's too risky. Better give it up." But the men looked chapfallen. "But the brute will put a complete stop to our work," said Roylance, who was watching the restless movements of the self-imprisoned shark. "Don't stop them, Belton," he continued, in a low tone, "I want to see that monster killed." "For revenge?" "If you like to call it so. It or one of its fellows made me pass such moments of agony as I shall never forget." "I shall never forget my horror either," said Syd, as he too looked viciously at the savage creature, which just then rose out of the water and glided over one of the beams. "There, go on, Rogers, only take great care." "I just will that, sir," said the man, as his messmates cheered; and taking the noose in his hand he stepped along the plank leading from the rocks to the vessel. "When I say '_now_, lads,' mind you let him feel you directly; and haul him out." "Ay, ay!" cried the men; and then every eye was fixed upon the active young fellow, whose white feet seemed to cling to the wet planking upon which he stood, and from which he stepped cautiously out upon one of the beams that curved over from side to side. Hardly was he well out, and stooping down peering into the water, than Syd uttered a warning cry, and the man bounded back as the shark, attracted by the sight of his white legs, came up from behind, and glided exactly over the spot where he had been standing. "Ah! would yer!" shouted Rogers; and the men roared with laughter. "This here's fishing with your own legs for bait," continued the young sailor. "Well, it's got to be who's sharpest--him or me." "I think you had better not venture," said Syd, hesitating again. "Oh! don't say that, sir. We shall all be horrid disappointed if we don't get him." "But see what a narrow escape you had." "Well, yes, sir; I wasn't quite sharp enough, but there was no harm done." "Go on," said Syd, unwillingly, as he caught Roylance's eye; and hurrying by for fear that the permission should be withdrawn, the man stepped quickly back on to the beam, keeping a sharp look-out to right and left. "I see you, you beggar," he said; "come on." The shark accepted the invitation, and made quite a leap, passing over the beam again, diving down, snowing his white, and swam twenty feet away, to turn with difficulty amongst the submerged timber forward, and returned aiming clumsily at the white legs which tempted him, but missing his goal, for the young sailor nimbly leaped ashore. "I shan't get him that way," he said. "Here, give us something white." There was nothing white handy but blocks of coral, and Rogers solved the difficulty by selecting a hat and taking a handspike. He tried his plan at least a dozen times without result, and lost two good chances; but the man was too clever for the shark at last. Rogers had scanned pretty accurately the course the brute would pursue, and had noted that when once it gave a vigorous sweep with its tail to send itself forward, there was no variation in its course. So waiting his time, standing in the middle of the cross-beams with the noose in his hand, he fixed his eye upon his enemy, threw the hat ashore as a useless bait, and depending once more upon himself, he waited. It was not for long. The brute made at him, and as it glided out of the water to seize its prey, Rogers, by a quick leap, spread his legs wide apart and held the noose so cleverly that the shark glided into it as a dog leaps through a hoop; and it was so ingeniously adjusted that the rope tightened directly, almost before the young sailor could shout "_Now_" while the shark went over and down between two of the cross-beams behind his fisher, as, from a cause upon which he had not counted, Rogers took an involuntary header into the part of the water-logged vessel from which the shark had come. The cause upon which the young sailor had not reckoned was the rope, which, at the shark's plunge as soon as noosed, tightened the line which crossed Rogers' leg, snatched it from under him, and down he went, to the horror of all present. In a moment the water all about where the shark had plunged began to boil, and the next moment there was a quick splashing as Rogers' head appeared. "Hold on to him!" he shouted. "Don't let him go. Where's he ketched?" "Don't talk," yelled Syd, running along the planks to stretch out a hand. "Here, quick, let me help you out." "Oh, I'm all right, sir, so long as the rope holds," cried the young sailor, coolly. "He won't think of me while he's got that bit of line about him." But he climbed out all the same, and stood rubbing his shin. "Never thought of the rope hitching on to me like that," he said. "Whereabouts is he ketched, mates?" "The rope has slipped down pretty close to his tail," cried Roylance, as he watched the creature's frantic plunges in the limited space. "Something like fishing this, Roy," said Syd, excitedly, while the men held on, and they could see amid the flying, foaming water the long, lithe body quivering from end to end like a steel spring. "I'd haul him out, sir, 'fore he shakes that noose right over his tail." "Yes. Look alive, my lads. Now then!" cried Syd, "haul him out. Quick!" The men gave a cheer, and hauling together, they ran the writhing monster right out of the water, and over the edge of the natural pier, fifty feet or so up among the loose rocks, where it leaped and bounded and pranced about for a few minutes in a way which forbade approach. Then there was a loud cheer as Rogers seized his opportunity, and brought down the axe he had snatched up with so vigorous a stroke on the creature's back, about a couple of feet above the great lobe of the tail, that the vertebra was divided, and from that moment the violent efforts to get free lost their power. It was an easy task now to give the savage monster its _coup de grace_, and as it lay now quivering and beyond doing mischief, the men set up another cheer and crowded round. "There," cried Rogers, "that means shark steak for dinner, lads, and--" "Sail ho!" came from above; and the shark was forgotten as the words sent an electric thrill through all. "Come on, Roylance!" cried Syd, climbing up the rope-ladder to run and get his glass. "Ay, ay," cried Roylance, following. "Let's get a better hold with the rope, mates," said Rogers, "and haul the beggar right up on deck. They're artful beggars is sharks, and if we leave him here he'd as like as not to come to life, shove a few stitches in the cut in his tail, and go off to sea again." The men laughed, and the prize was hauled right up to the perpendicular wall below the tackle, willing hands making the quivering mass fast, and hauling it right up into the gap, and beyond all possibility of its again reaching the sea. _ |
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