Charley Laurel Part 2

"Oh, look dere, dere! what dat rum fis?" he suddenly exclaimed, pointing to a short distance from the raft.

d.i.c.k looked, and saw what a sailor dreads more than any human foe--the black triangular fin of a huge shark which was noiselessly gliding by, just beneath the surface, and turning its wicked eye towards Charley and himself. A blow from the monster's tail or nose might easily upset the raft, when they to a certainty would become its prey. d.i.c.k grasped his pole to do battle, should the creature come nearer, and he at once began beating the water on every side and shouting at the top of his voice.

The shark, an arrant coward by nature, kept at a distance, but his dark fin could still be seen as he circled round and round the raft, waiting, d.i.c.k feared, for an opportunity to rush in and make an attack.

"He shall pay for it with one of his eyes, if he does," said d.i.c.k to himself.

"What for make all that noise?" asked Charley.

"Why do you sing out 'youngster' sometimes?" inquired d.i.c.k. "Because you have a fancy for it, I've a notion, and so I have a fancy just now to shout away. I mus'n't frighten the little chap," he muttered to himself. "It won't do to tell him what Jack Shark is looking after."

Thus d.i.c.k sat on till he thought by the position of the sun that it must be noon, when he gave Charley his dinner and cup of water--he himself eating but sparingly, for fear of diminis.h.i.+ng his scanty store and depriving the child of food.

"I can hold out much longer than he can," he said to himself, "and I must not let him get into bad case."

Every now and then d.i.c.k stood up and gazed around the horizon, anxiously looking out for the signs of a breeze which might bring up some s.h.i.+p.

The sun was again sinking beneath the ocean, which continued gla.s.s-like as before. At length night crept over the world of waters, and the brilliant stars shone down from the dark sky, each one reflected clearly in the mirror-like deep.

"What all those pretty things up dere?" asked Charley, waking suddenly from his first sleep; "get me some to play wid, d.i.c.k."

"Just what I can't do, boy," answered d.i.c.k. "All those are stars far away in the sky, and I have heard say they are worlds; but how they stop up is more than I can tell, except G.o.d keeps them there."

"G.o.d do many things we can't," said Charley. "But if I ask Him, would He give me some to play wid?"

"No, Charley, He gives us what we want and what is good for us, but He chooses to keep those stars where they are, for He knows that if He sent one of them down they would only do us harm. Now, Charley, don't be asking more questions; just lie down and go to sleep again," and d.i.c.k shut down the lid of the basket.

Charley's questions, however, had set his mind at work, and as he gazed up in the sky he thought more than he had ever done before of those wondrous lights which he had always seen there, and yet had troubled himself so little about. And then he was led to think of the G.o.d who made them and governs their courses, and many things he had heard in his boyhood came back to his mind.

"Mother used to say He is a kind and loving G.o.d, and go I am sure He will take care of this little chap, and me, too, for his sake."

d.i.c.k at length felt very sleepy. He had been afraid to shut his eyes, for fear of the shark, but he could no longer prevent the drowsiness creeping over him: he lashed himself therefore to the raft, to escape the risk of falling off it, and placing his head on the basket, closed his weary eyelids.

The bright beams of the great red sun rising above the horizon as they fell on his eyes awoke him, and on looking round he caught sight of the fin of the shark gliding by a few feet off. The monster's eye was turned up towards him with a wicked leer, and he believed that in another instant the savage creature would have made a grab at the raft.

His pole was brought into requisition, and the rapid blows he gave with it on the water soon made the monster keep at a respectful distance. He would not shout out, for fear of waking Charley.

The boy slept on for a couple of hours longer, and when he at length awoke, seemed none the worse for what he had gone through. d.i.c.k had cut up some little bits of meat and biscuit, that he might not have to wait for breakfast after he awoke. He had on the previous day carefully dried his clothes and bedding, and given him such food as he required-- the child, indeed, could not have had a better nurse.

d.i.c.k calculated that the store of provisions he had stowed away in the basket and his own pockets would last a week, and he hoped before the termination of that time to be picked up. He, in reality, in consequence of anxiety, suffered more than the child: had he been alone, he probably would not have felt so much.

The day pa.s.sed away as before. Occasionally sea-birds flew overhead, and huge fish were seen swimming by, or breaking the calm surface as they poked up their noses or leaped into the air.

"Oh, d.i.c.k, d.i.c.k, what dat?" suddenly exclaimed Charley. As he spoke, a dozen flying-fish, their wings glittering in the bright sun, leaped on to the raft, some tumbling into the child's basket.

d.i.c.k quickly secured them, for though unwilling to feed the little boy with raw fish, they would, he knew, afford him an ample meal or two.

Charley, however, begged to have some to play with, and was much surprised to find their beautiful wings quickly become dry, and that in a few seconds they were dead.

d.i.c.k enjoyed a better supper than he had had since the hurricane began, and he always afterwards declared that those fish had kept his body and soul, when he would otherwise have been starved--although those he reserved for a meal on the following day required a keen appet.i.te to munch up.

Day after day d.i.c.k and his charge floated on the calm ocean. He was becoming weaker than he had ever before been in his life, and yet he would take but a few drops of water from the beaker, and would not eat a particle of the food more than was necessary to keep the life in him, so fearful was he of not having enough for Charley. Yet d.i.c.k had not been distinguished among his s.h.i.+pmates for any especial good qualities, except that he was looked upon as a good-natured, kind-hearted, jovial fellow, and brave as the bravest; yet so were many of the _Laurel's_ gallant crew, now sleeping their last sleep beneath the ocean.

The faithful fellow now often found himself dropping off to sleep when he wished to be awake--and afraid that on one of these occasions Charley might get out of his basket and tumble overboard, to make such an accident impossible, he tied him down by the legs in such a way as to allow the child to sit up when inclined, and look about him.

Poor d.i.c.k, who was getting very weak, was lying down asleep with his head on the edge of the basket, when he heard Charley's voice sing out--

"See, see--what dat?"

d.i.c.k opened his eyes, and casting them in the direction the child pointed, caught sight of a large vessel under all sail running down before the wind, which she brought up with her.

"A s.h.i.+p, Charley, a s.h.i.+p!" cried d.i.c.k. "And we must do what we can to make her see us, or she may be pa.s.sing by, and we shall be no better off than we are now."

He instantly took off his s.h.i.+rt, which he fastened by its sleeves to the pole. Holding it aloft as the s.h.i.+p drew near, with all his strength he waved it to and fro, shouting out in his anxiety, and not aware how low and hollow his voice sounded. Charley shouted too, with his childish treble, though their united voices could not have reached by a long way as far as the s.h.i.+p was from them. It seemed to d.i.c.k that she would pa.s.s at some distance: his heart sank. Presently his eye brightened.

"She has altered her course; she is standing this way," he cried out.

"Charley, we shall be picked up!"

"Then I thank G.o.d--He hear my prayer. I ask s.h.i.+p come--s.h.i.+p do come,"

said Charley.

"You are right, boy--you are right!" cried d.i.c.k. "And I was forgetting all about that prayer of yours."

The tall s.h.i.+p glided rapidly over the ocean, the surface of which was now rippled with miniature wavelets as the freshening breeze swept across it.

"To my eye, she is a foreign s.h.i.+p of war," observed d.i.c.k. "But a friend in need is a friend indeed, and we may be thankful to be taken on board by her or any other craft. Even if a 'Mounseer' had offered to pick us up, I would not have refused."

The s.h.i.+p approaching was hove-to, a boat being lowered from her, which, with rapid strokes, pulled towards the raft.

CHAPTER FOUR.

THE PIRATE s.h.i.+P.

d.i.c.k and the little boy were lifted off the raft, with the basket and cask, and placed in the stern of the boat. The crew were swarthy fellows with red caps, and d.i.c.k at once saw that the uniform worn by the officers in command was neither English nor French. They appeared to be talking gibberish, but such indeed were all foreign languages to him.

He asked Charley if it was the French lingo.

"Not know what they say," answered Charley.

"I suppose, however, that they will give us something to eat and drink,"

observed d.i.c.k. "And so, whoever they may be, we shall be better off than on the raft."

On getting alongside, d.i.c.k was hoisted on board, and one of the men carried Charley up in his arms.

Numerous questions were at once put to d.i.c.k, every one seeming anxious to know how he and the boy came to be on the raft. He replied by pointing to his lips, and showing by other signs that he was hungry and thirsty. When it was discovered that he was either too weak to speak, or that he did not understand their language, he was carried below and placed in a hammock, while the officers took charge of little Charley, who was soon at home among them. A rough-looking fellow brought d.i.c.k a mess of some sort in basin, and a horn cup filled with stiff grog. A sailor seldom refuses a gla.s.s of grog, and although water was what he then wanted, he drank the spirit off, and ate some of the food. The effect of the grog was to send him into a sound sleep, from which he did not awake till the next day. He felt by that time pretty strong, and, turning out, went on deck. He found that he was on board a flush-decked s.h.i.+p-rigged vessel, heavily armed, with a numerous crew of dark-skinned savage-looking fellows, most of them wearing long knives or daggers in their belts. He thought that perhaps they might be Spaniards or Portuguese, then the idea occurred to him that they were Algerines or Salee rovers, of whom he had heard. However, seeing some of them with leaden crucifixes round their necks, he came to the conclusion that they were Spaniards. Not one of them could speak a word of English, and d.i.c.k was ignorant of every language except his own.

The s.h.i.+p lying becalmed, the crew seemed to take it very easily, some sitting down between the guns, amusing themselves with cards or dice, while others were asleep on the deck. Going aft, and looking down the skylight, which was open, d.i.c.k saw that the officers were employed much as their men, only they were gambling with large gold pieces as stakes.

"These may be honest gentlemen, or may be not," he thought to himself.

"However, if they are kind to Charley, I don't mind what they are, and I suppose for his sake they won't make me walk the plank. I wonder where the little chap can be," and he looked down the companion-hatch, though he did not venture to descend.

The officer of the watch seemed to understand what he wanted, and going to the head of the companion-ladder, shouted out, "Pedro!" and some other words, and presently a black man appeared with Charley in his arms, and handed him over to d.i.c.k.