"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 the _Nancy Bell_ not 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!"
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
COLONEL CROCKETT'S RIFLE.
Captain Dinks was gradually getting better; but his recovery was so very slow that it would be weeks before he would be able to quit his cot.
His wound had been a severe one, and had narrowly missed his heart.
Under these circumstances, therefore, Mr Meldrum still retained the position of chief of the party--not only the first mate and Mr Adams acquiescing in the arrangement, which the poor captain desired; but the general bulk of the men themselves, who were prejudiced in his favour from Ben Boltrope's frequent yarns of his ability when an officer in the navy, requested his continuing to be their leader by acclamation, when he expressed a wish of surrendering the command as soon as they had landed safely from the wreck and things had been made comfortable for them on the island. This was only a repetition of what they had done when they were in peril of their lives on board the _Nancy Bell_, at which momentous time, it may be remembered, Mr McCarthy, speaking on behalf of all, had asked him to assume the direction of things and endeavour to extricate them from danger, looking upon him as the most competent person to guide them in the emergency.
Just so, now, on his speaking of relinquishing the leadership, he was requested to retain it for the common benefit, at least until Captain Dinks should be able to get about. This was the more desired from the fact of Mr Meldrum having managed matters so well for them already that they expected him to "see them through" all present difficulties.
As on the previous occasion, Mr Meldrum did not hesitate to retain the post, believing from his training and experience in commanding bodies of men that he really would be the best leader they could have, in default of the captain; but, before consenting to the general wish, he addressed all hands, impressing on them the necessity of implicit obedience to his orders and a rigid attention to whatever duties he might set them-- adding that they might be certain he would not tell them to do anything which was not, to the best of his impression, for their own good.
To this the men assented with a cheer of acquiescence, and he then dismissed them with the assurance that he would endeavour to deserve the confidence they had displayed in him. But, prior to separating from Mr McCarthy and Adams, Mr Meldrum drew up a code of rules for their guidance, premising that where a large party of seamen such as they had under them were thus thrown ashore with no regular duties to perform, such as they had on board ship, it was most urgently necessary that employment of some sort should be made for them; not only to keep them out of that mischief which the evil one is proverbially said to find "for idle hands to do," but also to prevent them from dwelling on the misery of their situation.
"We must keep watches, turn and turn about," Mr Meldrum explained, "just the same as we did on board the ship; for, although there'll be no sails to attend to, in the cold nights which we will shortly have the fire will need careful looking after to prevent it from going out and leaving us all perhaps to freeze to death, while, in the daytime, there will be seal-hunting and water fetching to employ the hands, besides seeing to keeping the rooms clean. These and such similar duties must be performed regularly, so that through their aid the long hours will pass the more rapidly, until we are able--as I trust we shall about November, when the snow melts here, I believe, and we can travel--to start towards the other side of the island, where I hope we'll fetch some harbour where the whalers touch, and get taken on board and landed at the Cape or some other civilised spot. But, mind, in order to do this," he added in conclusion, "we must all work together in harmony; and, to prevent discord, and all sorts of unpleasantness, we must keep the men constantly employed--not too onerously, but so that they shall always have something to do--in order that the weary time of waiting shall not hang heavy upon them. However, my friends, to encourage them, you must likewise find something to be busy at for yourselves, as I shall find for myself! Excuse this little bit of a sermon, gentlemen,"
said Mr Meldrum at the end of his discourse; "but I thought it necessary to say it, as I've seen the evil of having a lot of men about me with nothing for them to do on a foreign station before now, and I've learnt wisdom by experience!"
"True for you, sorr," replied Mr McCarthy, stretching out his brawny fist; "and there's my hand on it to say I'll attind to your orders, if it's to holystone the face of that ould cliff there."
"All right, my friend!" said Mr Meldrum, shaking the hand outstretched cordially. "I see we understand each other; and, believe me, I'll not be a hard taskmaster."
"I'm certain of that, sir," responded Mr Adams; and the trio then parted company to carry these arrangements into effect, the first result of which was that everybody looked more cheerful than they had been since the completion of the house, after finishing which some dulness and lassitude had been observable in the men, coupled with a tendency to idle about and mope.
This soon disappeared now when the first mate and Mr Adams, in pursuance of Mr Meldrum's directions, made them bustle about here and there.
They did all sorts of jobs. They scraped the jolly-boat's planking, and pitched her inside and out; after which they collected all the stray blocks of basalt they could find and built a "shebeen," as Mr McCarthy called it, to contain her, and then housed it and her over with all the spare planks they could get hold of--marching miles along the black sandy beach for the purpose of seeing what stray timber might be stranded. In addition to this work achieved, they rigged up a flagstaff on the head of the cliff and used to signal from thence at stated hours of the day. In fact, they were employed in doing everything that could be thought of to give employment to their minds and bodies, McCarthy and Adams finding them fresh jobs continually.
Amongst all these various tasks, however, the very needful one of replenishing their gradually diminishing larder was not forgotten.
"We've got some green-stuff," said Mr Lathrope--whom the question of eating, or rather what to get to eat, seemed more materially to affect than anyone else--"and I ain't a-going to gainsay but what it's fust- rate green-stuff of the sort, and right down prime filling stuff too; but, mister, we ain't all ben brought up to live on sauerkraut, like them German immigrants as I've seed land at Castle Garden, New York. I, fur one, likes a bit o' somethin' more substantial, that a feller can chew. 'Spose we goes a-huntin', hey?"
"Very good," replied Mr Meldrum to this exordium; "but what shall we hunt!"
"Anything you durned please, siree," said the other. "There's seals and them penguins besides lots of cormorants and sichlike."
"Well, I don't think the seals will want much hunting or shooting," said Mr Meldrum; "for, if we come across any, a stroke over the nose with a stick will settle them, and the same can be said of the penguins-- although I don't want them to be disturbed yet, as it will soon be their breeding season and I hope to get a lot of eggs from the little colony adjacent to us. As for the cormorants, if you complained about the former birds having a fishy taste, you'll find these fishier still.
However, to relieve your mind, I believe that there are a number of wild rabbits on the island, so we'll try to shoot some of those."
"Bully for you!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope. "We'll go rabbit-hunting, mister, as soon as you please. If there wer one thing I liked in the old country it wer rabbit-pie, and it kinder made me lonesome to think I'd never fix my grinders through another 'fore I got played out!"
"I've heard, too," continued Mr Meldrum, "that there's a very fine sort of tern or duck here that is good eating; and I fancy I saw a brace fly across the creek the other day. We might come across some!"
"If we dew," said the American complacently, tapping the barrel of the old rifle he had brought ashore as his most valued possession, and spoken of as the gift of his deceased grandfather, "I guess Colonel Crockett haar ken give a sorter good account of 'em. When I draws a bead with that thaar rifle, mister, what I shoot at's as good as a gone coon!"
"I hope you'll have plenty of practice with it then, to the advantage of our dinner-table," replied Mr Meldrum pleasantly, preparing for the expedition by loading carefully a double-barrelled gun which he too had saved from amongst the various goods and chattels he had left on board the wreck. "You can have all the rabbits I kill if you let me have the ducks."
"That's a bargain, mister," said Mr Lathrope; "though I guess you'll gain by the swop."
"Sure and it sames to me you're both countin' your chickens afore they're hatched," observed the first-mate with a huge grin at his own joke.
"You're not far wrong, Mr McCarthy," said Mr Meldrum. "I, for one, don't expect to come back overladen with game; but of course I can't answer for my friend here, who may be another American 'Deerslayer,' for all I can tell, though he'll find rabbits his biggest quarry on this island."
"Sir," retorted Mr Lathrope, "I ain't goin' to let out all I ken dew, fur a leaky sieve's gen'rally bad for holdin' water, I guess; but, you jest wait and see what you jest see!"
"Arrah sure and we will, sorr," said Mr McCarthy, bursting into a regular roar of laughter, in which Mr Meldrum and the others joined-- Mrs Major Negus being especially prominent in her merriment, as she always was when anything was said to the American's disadvantage, he being apparently her direct antipathy. "But I hope, sorr, though it goes agin my own counthry to say it, what you bring back won't be as much as Paddy shot at."
"You slide along with your durned brogue," was all the retort that Mr Lathrope condescended to make to this hit. It touched him, however, on his tenderest point, for he certainly prided himself on his proficiency in the use of "the lethal weapon;" so, when he turned round and observed that Master Snowball had heard the remark and was indulging in a quiet guffaw at his expense, he rounded on him a little more sharply. "I guess you'd better stow that, you ugly cuss!" said he menacingly; "or else I'll soon make you rattle your ivories to another toon!" Whereupon the darkey reduced his grin to a proper focus and endeavoured to look as grave as he could.
This appeased Mr Lathrope at once.
"Oh! durn it all, nigger, laugh away," he said, his wrath passing away as quickly as it had risen. "I guess those ken laugh who win;" and he handed Snowball a chaw of tobacco to show that he did not harbour any ill-will.
Leaving their house on the creek--which, by the way, Florry had christened "Penguin Castle," in consequence of its propinquity to the colony of queer sea-fowl--Mr Meldrum and Mr Lathrope, with Frank Harness, who was also of the shooting party as well as two men to help in carrying back home the fruits of the sport, all pursued their way in company up the valley in a north-easterly direction to the right of the cliff against which the house was built.
The ground here rose gradually as they went along, and the walking became rather heavy after a time, in consequence of the snow having partly thawed and the soil beneath it being of some sort of peaty substance, into which their feet sank deeply at each step.
Presently, Frank, to whom Mr Meldrum had lent a second gun he had brought ashore, saw a bird just like a little bantam cock, which he at once shot.
This bird was pure white, with strong yellowish feet, that were not webbed like those of aquatic habits, rather short wings like those of a game bird, a strong black bill, stout spurs, and a bold black eye, which latter seemed to reproach Frank when he went to pick it up. Mr Meldrum said it was what was called a sheathbill, and not good for eating, which made Frank regret all the more having killed it, especially when its mate hopped up to him presently--as if asking him why he had shot her husband!
It was next Mr Lathrope's turn, a wild duck flying right over his head; but, somehow or other, "Colonel Crockett's rifle" didn't happen to be just ready in time, and the duck would have escaped but for Mr Meldrum's bringing it down with his right barrel. It was really very curious.
The same thing resulted when a second teal, or widgeon--the wild duck appearing to partake of the characteristics of both varieties--came by.
Strange to say, the American's weapon again missed fire, and Mr Meldrum had to kill the bird with his left barrel. These repeated failures to bring down anything made Mr Lathrope use rather strong language anent the rifle.
"Burn the old thing!" said he; "I can't make out what's come over it.
My old grandfather's shot scores of deer with the tarnation weppin, and I guess it's jest cranky, that's all. I bet I'll shoot the next fowl that comes across haar, or I'll bust it."
Unfortunately, however, no more ducks were to be seen; but as they ascended a rather steep and bare hill at the back of their own cliff, and somewhat sheltered, like that, from the ocean winds, they noticed one or two little objects, jumping up and down out of holes in the ground and then scuttling back again--not from any alarm at their appearance, but as if only in play, for they did not interrupt their pastime for a moment as the shooting party approached.
"By Jove! there are the rabbits," said Frank, levelling his gun.
"Jeerusalem! so they air," exclaimed Mr Lathrope. "Dew let me hev the first shot!"
"All right; fire away!" replied Mr Meldrum, who was ready to aim at a couple of the little creatures that were sitting up on a fragment of rock right opposite the three sportsmen, apparently combing their whiskers and eyeing them curiously the while. So near were they, indeed, that the most unskilful marksman in the world could hardly have missed them.
"Here goes, mister!" ejaculated Mr Lathrope, pulling the trigger of his piece with as strong an effort as if he were wrenching back a gate-post.
"I guess you'll soon see the fur fly."
Instead of this, however, the phenomenon was witnessed of the fragments of the rifle dispersing in all directions the moment it was discharged, the American being at the same time knocked backward to the ground by the kick of the weapon, which went off with a loud report.
"You're not hurt, I hope?" asked Mr Meldrum, who with Frank had at once hurried to the American's side and taken hold of his hand to raise him up.