"No, father: he came and proposed it."
"Tree's getting gradually thinner," said the doctor. "Easier to climb."
"I hope he will be successful," said Sir John. "The men will banter him so if he fails."
"How the tree begins to bend!" said Jack anxiously. "Why don't you shake it?" he cried, without considering that his words could not be heard. But, oddly enough, just at that moment the idea seemed to have occurred to Ned, who held on with his legs and shook the tree violently.
"You will not do it like that, my fine fellow," said the captain, coming up; "and lucky for you that you can't. A crack from one of those nuts would be no joke."
"Yes, they must be pretty heavy," said Sir John.
"Heavy enough to kill any one if they fell upon his bare head."
"Oh, look how the tree's bending over!" cried Jack.
"Yes, he had no business to choose such a slight one," said the captain, as the tree swayed beneath the man's weight.
"Had I better stop him?" said Sir John.
"I think perhaps you had better not startle him and make him nervous, father. We don't want any accidents."
"Indeed we don't," said the doctor; "better let him be. Why, if he goes on like this the tree will bend over like a fishing-rod, and he can drop from the top to the ground."
Then silence fell upon the group, and the sailors ceased to cheer, as, with the elastic rod-like tree bending more and more over, and swaying up and down, Ned climbed on, till the last part of his progress was after the fashion of a sloth, hanging back downward, and at every movement coming nearer, till the great crown of leaves and nuts, which had stood forty feet in the air, was not more than twenty.
"Another two or three feet will do it," said the doctor; "but I'm afraid he will not be able to get the nuts off."
"Oh yes; he can screw them off," said the captain.
"What I'm afraid of is--"
_Crack_!
A sharp loud snap, and the top of the tree came down, the big leafage hiding Ned; but he was standing up close to the broken-off tree, which was now like a thick pole, and rubbing himself hard, with the sailors about him, when the lookers-on reached the spot.
"Oh, Ned!" cried Jack, who was first up.
"Yes, sir, it is 'Oh, Ned!'" replied the man angrily.
"Hurt?" cried the others in a breath.
"Don't know yet, Sir John," said the man, "I think my right leg's broke, though."
"Here, let me see," cried the doctor eagerly.
"No, it ain't, sir," said Ned, giving a kick. "It's the left one."
"Bah!" roared the doctor; "how could you stand upon it and kick out like that if it were broken?"
"Right you are, sir; of course I couldn't. But something's broke, for I heard it go. Maybe it's my arms."
"Maybe it's your head," said the doctor sarcastically, "for you are talking in a very crack-brained fashion. Let me buckle your belt round it tightly to hold it together."
The man stared wonderingly at the doctor, feeling his head all over the while, and his eyes having a puzzled look in them, as if he couldn't quite make out whether the doctor was speaking seriously. But the next moment he took it as a piece of chaff and grinned.
"It's all right, sir, but it did come an awful whack against one of these nuts."
"Better see if you've damaged the nut," said the doctor sarcastically.
"No, never mind. Head's too soft."
Ned grinned again, and gave himself a rub as he looked down at the crown of the tree and then at the broken stump, snapped off a good five-and-twenty feet from the ground.
"Here," he said, turning to the group of sailors, "you were precious full of your brag about climbing, and saying I couldn't. But I did, and now let's see one of you do that."
There was a roar of laughter, and Sir John turned away, but the captain spoke rather seriously.
"I wouldn't advise you to do this sort of thing again, young fellow.
Now then, how do you feel? Can you go on with us, or will you wait here till we come back?"
"Me wait here, sir?" cried Ned. "What, all alone? No, thank you, I'm all right, sir. Walk as well as any of them."
"Then whoever wants a cocoa-nut had better have it, for we go on in five minutes."
"Will you give me your knife, sir?" said Ned, turning to his young master. "Thankye, sir; I know how it's done;" and chopping off the husk and the top of the soft shell of one of the great nuts, he handed it to Jack, the sailors quickly getting the rest of the others and serving them the same, to hand to Sir John, the doctor, and captain, who all partook of the deliriously cool, sub-acid pulp. Then the word was given and the march commenced once more.
Whether Ned suffered or not he kept to himself, for he resumed his jacket, boots, and belts, clapped on his pith hat, and stalked off with the rest, the way seeming to grow more and more beautiful, and the natural history specimens more attractive at every hundred yards they left behind.
But there was no shooting, the object of the exploration being rigorously kept in mind, and they were just rounding what seemed to be the end of a great artificial dike that ran down from the slope on their right, when one of the men cried--"Look out! They must be close here."
Every one stopped short, and guns and rifles were brought to the ready.
"What is it?" said the captain in a low voice. "What did you see?"
"Didn't see nothing, sir," replied the man. "I smelt 'em."
"What do you mean?"
"Must be some huts or cottages close here, where the people keeps pigs."
"Yes, look, sir," cried another man, pointing; "they've been down here to the sea."
He pointed to where, about a dozen yards away, there were abundant traces of a drove of pigs, and as the captain advanced, the odour which the sailor had noticed now became plain to all.
Sir John looked inquiringly at the captain. "A good find," said the latter, smiling. "We shall be able to shoot some fresh young porkers.
Wild pig is not bad."
"Wild?" cried the doctor.
"Yes, there is evidently a herd of wild pigs in the island, if not several. They have been down here lately."