I sprang up with a yell, and called to Tom and Bill that our hour was come, and that I was being killed. However, I was relieved by the painted face which had so frightened me relaxing into a broad grin, and hearing Calla say, for it was he,—
“What for you make big bobbery all same man die? Me Calla.”
I sat up, rubbed my eyes, and looked round. Tom was sitting by Bristol Bob’s side, who was tossing restlessly on his bed and groaning2, and Bill was at the door of the hut washing himself.
Calla had come over from the mainland of Aneitou to inquire after us, and to say that his father, Wanga, wished us to come over to his village in the course of the day.
I got up and went over to where Bristol Bob was lying, followed by Calla, who, looking at him, said,—
“What make him sick? Plenty time him drink no be like this.”
Tom explained as well as he was able how we had found that the patient was wounded, and the subsequent treatment, and how he had drunk a whole bottle of spirits.
“Make see what thing make hole,” said Calla.
Tom, after some little hunting about, found the splinter of bone which he had cut out in the corner of one of his pockets, and gave it to Calla, who examined it eagerly.
After some minutes he said, pointing to the wounded man,—
“Him lib for die. Piece along of him inside.”
“What!” said Tom; “is there a bit inside him yet?”
“You watch,” said Calla; and giving a whistle, a man who had come over to the little islet with him came into the hut.
To him Calla said something, and he went away, but presently returned, bringing with him a quiver made of basket-work ornamented3 with shells and sharks’ teeth, which he gave to Calla, who opened it and carefully drew an arrow tipped with a splinter of bone, and putting the piece that had been cut out of Bristol Bob by it, said,—
“You see make same here,” pointing to the middle of the head of the arrow.
Looking carefully, we saw that the bone tip in its entirety was about four inches long, and beautifully worked up, so that the end of it, for more than an inch, was scarcely thicker than a pin, and that then it was cut nearly through.
“You see him piece?” pointing to this long thin part. “Live along Bob. Him die for sure. Plenty bad.”
“Can’t we cut it out as we did the other?” asked Bill.
“No pican white man,” said Calla. “Him along a bone. No can see or catch.”
This sentence of death passed upon the poor fellow affected4 us very much, and we were intensely disgusted when Calla quite coolly proposed to knock him on the head at once, as he would suffer great pain, and would not again recover consciousness, or, as Calla put it, “Peak along man sabey it.”
To this, of course, we would not consent, and also told Calla that we could not leave the wounded man to go and see his father.
Calla seemed very much displeased5 about this, and said,—
“Make plenty bobbery along man no lib. He no fit for kiki. What you want?” But seeing that we were determined6 to remain, he went away and left us to ourselves.
“Not much civilization about that fellow,” I said. “Although he makes out he ‘live along of white man plenty time,’ I believe he’s just as big a cannibal as the rest of them.”
“Yes,” said Tom. “And though he may think for a time of our having saved his life, if it runs with his interests to kill us after a time, he will do so.”
In this we afterwards found we wronged poor Calla.
“Well, mate,” I said, “what are we to do?”
“Why, first and foremost, we must look after this poor fellow, and when he’s dead, bury him decent like; and after that we must see about getting away. I daresay somewhere down these islands we may find a missionary7 settlement or a decent trader; anyways, we mustn’t let these people think we’re going, or they’ll find means to stop us. Now, one of you go and find the old woman that gave us supper last night, and make her understand we should like some breakfast.”
I went out to look for the woman, and found that now several men had come to the island, who were the husbands of the women we had seen the day before; and one of them, who possessed8 a very scanty9 stock of English, informed me he was “Massa’s bos’n,” and that the others were his “sailor men.”
Bos’n, as he was always called, when I said we wanted “kiki,” called to some women, and I soon had the satisfaction of seeing the cooking operations in full progress, and then followed Bos’n to a place where he was evidently very anxious that I should come.
Judge of my surprise, on reaching the spot, which was on the shore of the islet, to find, under a thatched roof which covered her, and in a dock cut out of the coral rock, a cutter of about seven tons, with a mast fitted to lower and raise like that of a Thames barge10, and with all her sails, spars, and rigging carefully stowed and in good order.
In such a craft I knew that one could easily make a voyage of almost any distance; and lifting up a hatch that covered a sort of well, I found that her below-deck arrangements were as good as those above, and that she had a couple of eighteen-gallon casks for storing water, while on her deck were ring-bolts and fittings for a small gun—doubtless the one which Bristol Bob had taken with him in the war-canoe in the fight against the people of Paraka.
Full of this discovery, I hastened back to the hut, and told my companions of it. They were both delighted, and said that we should, if necessary, be able to make our escape in her more comfortably and easily than in our old craft, which was but a clumsy contrivance after all.
While we were talking, Bristol Bob raised himself up in his bed, and said,—
“Hallo! Who are you, and what d’ye want? What ship d’ye come from?”
Tom at once asked him if he did not remember the fight of the day before, and his being wounded. After some time he said he did, and then Tom told him of what Calla said about his wound.
“Well, just have a look, will you? But I expects I has my walking ticket anyways.”
Tom took the dressings11 off the wound; but it was now so painful that Bristol Bob refused to allow him to probe it properly or handle it, so he put fresh dressings on.
Bristol Bob now said,—
“I don’t suppose I have long to live, and I had best spin my yarn12 to you afore I go. You have come from an island away to windward, where you landed after being left adrift in your boat. Isn’t that so?”
“Yes,” said Tom; “and people had been there before, and one man’s skeleton we buried. Some of the others had been buried, and the rest had evidently gone away long before.”
“Well,” said Bristol Bob, “I’ve been here at Aneitou now a matter of seven year, and have traded a bit. But those people who were on that island ran their boat ashore13 on Paraka before ever I came here, and all of them were eaten up; and only because I have been useful to these people by making trade for them have I escaped being eaten. Now, listen. There’s a tidy boat of mine on the island here, and aboard of her you may go ’most anywheres; and if you leaves here and steers14 WSW. by compass—there’s a compass in my sea-chest—you will, after about ten days, get to an island called Leviji, where there are missionaries15. You must mind and not land anywhere before, unless you make out white men ashore; and even then it’s best not, for many a beach-comber is as bad as any savage16 among them. You will know the missionaries’ island by its having a mountain with two separate peaks rising up to the same height in the middle.”
“Well, well,” said Tom, “don’t you trouble about that now. We shall manage for ourselves. But what can we do for you now?”
“Nothing, lad, except give me a drink of water. My mouth and throat is that parched17 I can scarce speak.”
“Thanks, lad. I was even once like you; but my life has been a sad and bitter one, and now it’s ending, there’s no hope for me.”
“Don’t say that,” answered Tom. “I ain’t learned to say much, but one thing I’m certain of, that in the Bible forgiveness is promised to all.”
“How, now? Forgiveness for me? No, lad, I’m too bad for that.”
“Listen,” said Tom, and getting the tattered19 Bible we had found in the dead man’s hut on Ring Island, he read to Bristol Bob the glorious promises of the Christian20 religion, and also prayed with him, Bill and I kneeling down with him and joining in the prayers.
After we had finished, Bristol Bob said he felt happier, and trusted that he indeed had found mercy, and asked again for water to drink. But when Tom held a pannikin to his mouth, he was seized with a convulsive shuddering21, and dashed it away.
We tried to pour some into his mouth, but all our efforts were fruitless, and we had, after some time, to give up the attempt.
“I know what it is, boys,” said poor Bob. “I’ve seen a many die from these arrow wounds. I don’t know what it is, whether it’s the poison of the bone arrow or what, but it’s an awful death. I may have a short time during which I can speak, and I will tell you all I can how to get away.”
The poor fellow now told us of his magazine, of his visit to which during the night he had neither remembrance nor idea, and said that, besides the powder in the two boxes, we should find some beads22 and corals of considerable value, a small bag of pearls, and about seventy pounds in money. This, he told us, we could keep for ourselves; and then, as soon as he was dead, he begged us to bury him out at sea, so that he could not be dug up and eaten; and that done, he advised us to get away to Leviji as quick as we could. He also said that we were to trust none of the natives, not even Calla, with our plans; but if we had to employ any one, that it should be Bos’n, who he said he thought was the best man on the islands.
While he was speaking, he was often interrupted by convulsive attacks, which at last became so continuous and so bad that he could no longer talk. Of the scene of horror that ensued while he was wrestling with the frightful23 disease of tetanus, or lockjaw, I will say nothing—the remembrance of it is even now too dreadful to me; but when, an hour before sunset, he died, we all felt that it was a happy release.
In his storeroom we found some canvas and needles, and as soon as his body was cold, Tom set to work and sewed him up in a seaman’s shroud24, and lashed25 some heavy rocks to his feet to sink his body to the bottom of the sea.
Before all was ready, the night had nearly passed, and we lay down to rest for a while, intending, as soon as we woke, to carry the dead body down to the Escape, and, paddling her out into the bay, commit it to the deep, in accordance with the wishes Bristol Bob had expressed while still able to speak.
We had not slept long before we were awaked by Calla, who, as soon as the sun had risen, had come over to the little island with a party of armed men to insist upon our going over to the mainland to see his father, Wanga.
We all said that we would go as soon as we had buried the dead man, but not before; but Calla said that we were to come at once, and that the dead body should be brought along with us.
To this we strongly objected, and when Calla told some men to take up the body and carry it away, Tom knocked the foremost of them down. The others, seeing how their comrade had been treated, were about to strike at Tom with their tomahawks; but Bill and I, seizing our muskets27, presented them at Calla, and said that if a single blow were struck we would shoot him.
Tom, too, got his musket26, and said that what the dead man had wished should be carried out, and that he would die before he was prevented.
Calla, who seemed to have not overmuch heart in the business, and was, as was afterwards proved, less of a savage than his countrymen, said something to them in his own language, on which they sulkily withdrew, while he tried to prevent our being angry at what had occurred. He said,—
“You sabe Bristol Bob him live along o’ we plenty long time—seven yam time. Him be all one same chief, same my fader Wanga. Make plenty one big bobbery for him die. No kiki he.”
“Never mind, Calla,” Bob said. “We have to do as he told us, and we are going to bury him in the sea.”
“Plenty much queer white man. No care for man kiki he. Fish kiki he say plenty good.”
“Never mind, Calla. We shall do what he said; and afterwards, if your father wants to see us, we will come over to him.”
Calla left us and went away with his men, and we could see that he had plenty of trouble in controlling them; and indeed, if he had not been the son of the great chief of the island, I doubt not that he would have been unable to do so.
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1
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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groaning
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| adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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3
ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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4
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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7
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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8
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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10
barge
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| n.平底载货船，驳船 | |
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11
dressings
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| n.敷料剂；穿衣( dressing的名词复数 )；穿戴；（拌制色拉的）调料；（保护伤口的）敷料 | |
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12
yarn
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| n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事 | |
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13
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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14
steers
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| n.阉公牛，肉用公牛( steer的名词复数 )v.驾驶( steer的第三人称单数 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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15
missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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16
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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parched
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| adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干 | |
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18
gourd
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| n.葫芦 | |
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tattered
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| adj.破旧的，衣衫破的 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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21
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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shroud
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| n.裹尸布，寿衣；罩，幕；vt.覆盖，隐藏 | |
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lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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26
musket
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| n.滑膛枪 | |
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muskets
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| n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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