The Island of Gold: A Sailor's Yarn Read online

time we were staggering southwards, and away acrossBiscay's blue bay, with every inch of canvas set. And a pretty sight wewere--our white sails flowing in the sunshine--the sea as blue as thesky, and the waves sparkling around us as if every drop of watercontained a diamond.

  "All the way to the Cape, and farther, James treated me as tenderly andcompassionately as if I had been an invalid brother. He nevercontradicted me even once. He used to keep me talking and yarning onthe quarterdeck, when he wasn't on watch, for whole hours at a stretch;and in the evenings, when tired spinning me yarns, he would take hisbanjo and sing to me old sea-songs in his bold and thrilling voice. AndJames could sing too; there were the brine, and the breeze, and thebillows' roll in every bar of the grand old songs he sang, and indeed Iwas never tired of listening to them. Sometimes I closed my eyes as Isat in my easy-chair; then James's banjo notes grew softer and softer,and ever so much farther away like, till at last it was ghostly music,and I was in the land of dreams.

  "When I awoke, perhaps it would be four bells or even six, and therewould be James, with his specs athwart his great jibboom of a nose,poring earnestly over his mother's Bible.

  "`You've had a nice little nap,' he would say cheerfully. `Now you'lltoddle off to your bunk, and when you're safe between the sheets I'llbring you a tiny little drop of rum and treacle.'

  "Poor James! Rum and treacle was his panacea for every ill; and yet Idon't believe any one in the wide world ever saw James the worse of evenrum and treacle.

  "When we got as far as to Madeira, he proposed we should anchor here fora few days and dispose of some of our notions. Notions formed ourcargo; and notions must be understood to mean, Captain Weathereye, allkinds of jewellery and knick-knacks, including table-knives and forks,watches, strings of bright beads, cotton cloths, parasols, and guns.Now I knew very well that we could easily dispose of all our cargo atthe Cape and other parts; but I also knew very well that James's mainobject in stopping at Madeira was to give me a few delightful days onshore.

  "This was part of the cure, and I had to submit with the best grace Icould.

  "We had, at that time, as handy and good a second mate as any one couldwish on the weather side of a quarterdeck. So it was easy enough formyself and James to leave the ship both at the same time, though thishad very seldom been our custom, except when in dock or in harbour.

  "To put it in plain language, James did not seem to know how good to beto me, nor how much to amuse me. The honest, simple soul kept talkingand yarning to me all the while, and pointing out this, that, and theother strange thing to me, until I was obliged to laugh in his face.But James was not offended; not he. He was working according to someplan he had formulated in his own mind, and nothing was going to turnhim aside from his purpose.

  "About midday we entered the veranda of a cool and delightful hotel, andseating ourselves at a little marble table, James called for cigars andiced drinks. Then he proposed we should luncheon. No, he would pay, hesaid; it was not often he had the honour or pleasure of lunching withhis captain, in a marble palace like this. So he pulled out an old socktied round with a morsel of blue ribbon, and thrusting his big brown pawinto it, brought forth money in abundance.

  "`Never been here before?' he asked me quietly.

  "`No,' I said; `strange to say I've touched at nearly every port in theworld except this place.'

  "`Well, I have,' said James, `and I'm going to put you up to the ropes.'

  "`Now,' he continued, when we stood once more under the greenery of thetrees that bordered the broad pavement, `will you have a hammock or ahorse?'

  "Not knowing quite what he meant, I replied that I would leave it tohim.

  "`Well,' he said, `this must be considered a kind of picnic, them's mynotions, and as you're far from well yet, I'll have a horse and you ahammock.'

  "Both horse and hammock were soon brought round to the door. Thehammock was borne by two perspiring half-caste Portuguese, and wasattached to a pole, and on board I swung, while James got on board thehorse. The saddle was a hard and horrid contrivance of leather andwood, the stirrups a pair of old slippers, and the horse himself--well,he was a beautiful study in equine osteology, and I really did not knowwhich to pity most, James or his Rosinante. But in my hammock I feltcomfortably, dreamily happy.

  "We passed through the quaint old town of Funchal, then upwards, andaway towards the mountains. The day was warm and delightful--hot indeedJames must have found it, for he soon divested himself of coat andwaistcoat, and even then he had to pause at times to wipe his streamingbrow. The peeps at the beautiful gardens I caught while being carriedalong were charming in the extreme; the verandaed and trellised villas,canopied with flowers of every hue and shape, the bright green lawnswhere fairy-like children played, and the flowering trees--the wholeforming ever-changing scenes of enchantment--I shall never forget. Thenthe soft and balmy air was laden with perfume.

  "`How nice,' I thought, `to be an invalid! How kind of James to treatme as one! And he jogging along there on that bony horse's back, withthe boy holding fast by the tail! Dear, unselfish, but somewhat sillyfellow!'

  "Upwards still, steeper and steeper the hill. And now we seemed to havemounted into the very sky itself, and were far away from the tropics andtropical flora.

  "We came at last to a table-land. For the life of me I could not helpthinking of the story of `Jack and the Bean-stalk.' Here gorgeousheaths and heather bloomed and grew; here birds of sweet song flittedhither and thither among the scented and the yellow-tasselled broom; andhere solemn weird-like pine-trees waved dark against the far-off ocean'sblue.

  "Under some of these trees, and close to the cliff, we disembarked torest. We were fully half a mile above the level of the sea. Yet not astone's throw from where we sat was the edge of the awful cliff that leddownwards without a break to that white line far beneath where the wavesfrothed and fumed against the rocks.

  "But far as the eye could reach, till lost in distance and merged intothe blue of the sky, lay the azure sea, with here and there a sail, thelargest of which looked no bigger than a white butterfly with foldedwings.

  "A delicious sense of happiness stole over me, and for the first time,perhaps, since leaving England I forgot the sweet young face that had socompletely bewitched me.

  "I think I must have fallen asleep, for the next thing I was sensible ofwas James tuning a broad guitar.

  "Then his voice was raised in song, and I closed my eyes again, thebetter to listen.

  "Poor James, he played and sang for over an hour; no wild, wailingsea-songs this time, however, but verses sweet and plaintive, and farmore in harmony with the notes of the sad guitar. The romance of oursituation, the stillness of our surroundings, unbroken save in theintervals of song by the flitting of a wild bird among the broom, andthe low whisper of the wind through the pine-trees overhead, with thebalmy ozonic air from the blue ocean, continued to instil into my soul afeeling of calm and perfect joy to which I had hitherto been a stranger.

  "Just as the sun was sinking like a great blood orange through a purplehaze that lay along the western horizon, James laughingly handed theguitar to the boy who had carried it. Then laughing still--he was sostrange and good this James of mine--he pulled out a silver-mountedflask and poured me out a portion of its contents.

  "It was a little rum and treacle.

  "`The dews of night isn't going to harm you after that,' said James.

  "Lights were glimmering here and there on the hills like glow-worms, andfar beneath us in the town, long before we reached the streets ofFunchal.

  "We went straight to the hotel and discharged both horse and hammock.

  "Then we dined.

  "I thought I should be allowed to go on board after this. Not thatthere was the slightest hurry.

  "However, I was mistaken for once. James had not yet done with me forthe night. I had still another prescription of his to use; and as Iknew it was part and parcel of James's love cure, I could not demur. Hehad given m
e so much pleasure on that day already, that when he asked meto get up and follow him I did so as obediently as the little lambfollowed Mary.

  "But that he, James Malone, who feared womankind, if he did notpositively hate them, should lead me to a Portuguese ballroom of allplaces in the world, surprised me more than anything.

  "I could hear the tinkling of guitars, the shuffling of feet, and themusic of merry, laughing voices, long before we came near the door.

  "I stopped short.

  "`James,' I said, `haven't you made some mistake?'

  "His only answer was a roguish laugh.

  "I repeated the question.

  "`Not a bit of it,' he answered gaily.

  "`Charlie Halcott,' he added, `if you were simply