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

long-legged bird like thistasted like.

  Every fine day the crane now indulged himself in the pleasure of flight,but he never evinced the slightest inclination to perch again on theback of a basking shark. It wasn't good enough, he would have told you,had you asked him. "As regards the backs of basking sharks," he mighthave said, "I'm going to be a total abstainer."

  Up the east coast of Africa went the bonnie barque _Sea Flower_.

  Tandy knew almost every yard of the ground he was now covering, andcould pilot the vessel into creeks and over sand-banks or bars with verylittle danger indeed.

  But still the coast here is so treacherous, and the sands and bottomchange so frequently, that, night and day, men had to be in the chainsheaving the lead.

  The natives, also, across the line in Somaliland, are as treacherous asthe coral rocks that guard their clay-built towns, and more treacherousthan either are the semi-white, slave-dealing Arabs.

  Book 2--CHAPTER TEN.

  A BRUSH WITH THE SOMALIS--THE DERELICT.

  All along the Somali coast was Tandy's "chief market ground," as hecalled it. Here he knew he could drive precisely the kind of bargainshe wished to make; and as for the Somalis, with their shields, spears,ugly broad knives, and grinning sinister faces, this bold seaman did notcare anything. Nor for the Arabs either. He soon gave both tounderstand that he was a man of the wide, wide world, and was not afraidof any one.

  He had come to trade and barter, he told the Arabs, and not to studytheir slave-hunting habits; so if they would deal, they had only to trotout their wares--_he_ was ready. And if they didn't want to deal, therewas no harm done. He even took Ransey with him sometimes, and once hetook Nelda as well.

  The savages just here were a bad, bloodthirsty lot, and he knew it, buthe had with him five trusty men. Not armed--that is, not visibly so.

  But on this particular day there was blood in those natives' eyes.Tall, lithe, and black-brown were they, their skins oiled and shining inthe sun. But smiling. Oh, yes, these fiends will smile while they cuta white man's throat.

  Every eye was fixed hungrily on the beautiful child. What a present shewould be for a great chief who dwelt far away in the interior and highamong the mountains!

  The bartering went on as usual, but Tandy kept his weather eye lifting.

  Leopards' skins, lions' skins and heads, ostrich feathers, gum-copal,ivory tusks, and gold-dust. The boat was already well filled, Nelda wason board, so was Tandy himself, and his crew, all save one man, who wasjust shoving her off when the rush was made. The prow of the boat wasinstantly seized, and the man thrown down.

  Pop--pop--pop--pop--rang Tandy's revolver, and the yelling crowd grewthinner, and finally fled.

  A spear or two was thrown, but these went wide of the mark.

  Human blood looks ghastly on white coral sands, but was Tandy to blame?

  Nelda was safe, and in his arms.

  "O daddy," she cried, kissing his weather-beaten face, "are we safe?"

  "Yes, darling; but I mustn't land here again."

  Salook was the village king here, a big, burly brute of an Arab, with awhite, gilded turban and a yellow, greasy face beneath it. Tandy hadknown some of his tricks and manners in days gone by.

  At sunset that very same evening Salook was surrounded by his warriors.

  "Everything yonder," he said in Swahili, as he pointed to the _SeaFlower_, "is yours. The little maiden shall be my slave. Get readyyour boats, and sharpen your spears. Even were the ship a Britishman-of-war I'd board her."

  At sunset that evening Tandy was surrounded by _his_ men, and pistolsand cutlasses were served out to all.

  "We'll have trouble to-night, men," he said, "as soon as the moon rises.If there was a breath of wind off-shore I'd slip. We can't slip--butwe'll fight."

  A cheer rose from the seamen, which Tandy quickly suppressed.

  "Hush! Let us make them believe we suspect no treachery. But get upsteam in the donkey engine, and connect the pipes."

  This is a plan of defence that acts splendidly and effectively againstall kinds and conditions of savages.

  Boiling water on bare skins causes squirming, so Tandy felt safe.

  The ship carried but one big gun, and this was now loaded with grape.

  There wasn't a sound of life to be heard on board the barque, when aboutseven bells that night a flood of moonlight, shining softly o'er thesea, revealed the dark boats of the Somalis speeding out to the attack.

  But every man on board was at his station.

  This was to be a fight to the very death, and all hands knew it.

  Nearer and nearer they come--those demon boats. The biggest boat of allis leading, and, sword in hand, Salook stands in the prow. It iscrowded with savages, their spear-heads glittering in the moonbeams. Onthis boat the gun is trained.

  The rocks re-echo the crash five seconds after, but the echo is mingledwith the yelling of the wounded and the drowning.

  Ah! a right merry feast for the sharks, and Salook goes down with thebottomless boat.

  The fight does not end with this advantage. Those Somalis are likefiends incarnate. Not even the rifles and revolvers can repel theirattack. See, they swarm on the bulwarks round the bows, for the shiphas swung head on to the shore with the out-flowing tide.

  "Give it to them. The water now, boys. Warm them well!"

  Oh, horror! The shrieking is too terrible to be described.

  In their boats the unwounded try to reach the shore; but the rifles playon these, and they are quickly abandoned, for the Somalis can swim likeeels.

  "Now for loot, lads," cries Tandy. "They began the row. Man and armthe boats."

  When the _Sea Flower's_ men landed on the white sands, led on by Tandyand Ransey, the conquest was easy. A few volleys secured victory, andthe savages were driven to their crags and hills.

  "Let us spoil the Egyptians," said Tandy, "then we shall return andsplice the main-brace."

  The loot obtained was far more valuable than the cargoes they hadobtained by barter, and I need hardly say that the main-brace _was_spliced.

  Towards morning the wind came puffing off the land. It ought to havedied away at sunrise, but did not. So the _Sea Flower_ soon made goodher offing, and before long the land lay like a long blue cloud far awayon the weather-beam.

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  The ship was reprovisioned at Zanzibar, and one or two sick hands wereallowed to land to be attended to at the French hospital.

  In less than a fortnight she once more set sail, and in two months'time, everything having gone well and cheerily, despite a storm or two,the _Sea Flower_ was very far at sea indeed, steering south-west, andaway towards the wild and stormy Cape Horn.

  On going on deck one morning, Halcott found Tandy forward, glass inhand, steadying himself against the foremast, while he swept the seaahead.

  "Hallo! Tandy. Land, eh?"

  "No, it isn't land, Halcott. A precious small island it would be. Butwe're a long way to the west'ard of the Tristan da Cunha, and won't seeland again till we hail the Falklands. Have a squint, sir."

  "What do you make of her, sir?" asked Tandy.

  "Why, a ship; but she's a hulk, Tandy, a mere hulk or derelict."

  "There might be some poor soul alive there notwithstanding."

  "I agree with you. Suppose we overhaul her," said Halcott, "and set heron fire. She's a danger to commerce, anyhow, and I'll go myself, Ithink."

  So the whaler was called away, and in a few minutes the boat wasspeeding over the water towards the dismantled ship, while the _SeaFlower_, with her foreyard aback, lay floating idly on the heaving sea.

  It was early summer just than, in these regions--that is, December waswell advanced, and the crew were looking forward to having a real goodtime of it when Christmas came.

  Alas! little did they know what was before them, or how sad and terribletheir Christmas would be.

  "Pull e
asy for a bit, men," cried Halcott; "she is a floating horror!Easy, starboard! give way, port! We'll get the weather gauge on her,for she doesn't smell sweet."

  Not a living creature was there to answer the hail given by Halcott.Abandoned she evidently had been by the survivors of her crew, for thestarboard boats still hung from her davits, while the ports were gone,and at this side a rope ladder depended.

  The boat-hook caught on; with strange misgivings Halcott scrambled onboard followed by two men.

  He staggered and almost fell against the bulwark, and no wonder, for thesight that met his eyes was indeed a fearful one.

  On the lower deck was a great pile of wood, and near it stood a big canof petroleum. It was evident that the crew had intended firing the shipbefore leaving her, but had for some reason or other abandoned the idea.

  Halcott, however, felt that he had a duty to perform,