The Secret of the Sands Part 31

As the _Water Lily_ drew in closer with the land, I made out that it was a small coral island, with the usual encircling reef and lagoon. It seemed to be about two miles long, but, from the direction in which the cutter was approaching it, I was unable to judge of its width.

I was soon near enough to distinguish the line of surf which betrayed the presence of the surrounding coral-reef, and I then called Bob to come on deck and take the helm, whilst I went aloft, as usual, to look out for a channel.

When he came on deck--

"Why, Harry, how's this?" he exclaimed. "I thought you said there wasn't no land within a hundred and fifty mile of us last night, and here's as pretty a little spot, close aboard of us, as a man need wish to set his eyes upon."

"I went by the chart," I answered, "and that showed a clear sea all about here. But you can never rely upon a chart here, in the Pacific; what is clear sea at the time that a survey is being made, may very possibly be dotted with a score of such small islands as the one ahead in a very few years. I have read that coral islands form very rapidly.

This one, however, cannot be of such very recent growth, for there are full-grown cocoa-nuts upon it, as well as other trees; I am surprised that it is not shown on the chart."

I said this as I was standing at the foot of the mast, and on the point of going aloft. In a few seconds more I was standing on the crosstrees and examining the line of surf ahead for the narrow strip of unbroken water which would indicate the existence of a pa.s.sage through the reef.

As I stood thus, my gaze was arrested by the appearance of a small object in rapid motion across the bosom of the lagoon inside the reef, and a scrutiny of a few seconds was sufficient to satisfy me that it was a canoe. Seating myself upon the crosstrees, that I might more conveniently use the gla.s.s which I had taken aloft with me, I quickly focussed the instrument and brought it to bear. With its a.s.sistance, I was now enabled to discern that the canoe was a craft of about the same size as the one which we had towing astern, and it held three persons.

The two who wielded the paddles were black, but, unless my eyes strangely deceived me, the third was a _white man_.

I cannot attempt to describe the extraordinary feeling which came upon me at this discovery.

"Can it be possible," thought I, "that this is the island upon which the _Amazon_ was cast away, and am I about to have the inexpressible joy of seeing my beloved father once more, and so unexpectedly as this?" I again had recourse to the gla.s.s, and being now somewhat nearer, I no longer had any room for doubt; the individual who sat in the stern of the canoe, and who, I now saw, was steering the craft with a paddle, _was_ undoubtedly white. I now observed, too, that the canoe was pa.s.sing through an opening in the south-western edge of the reef. The pa.s.sage would have escaped my notice in the then position of the cutter, had it not been for seeing the canoe pa.s.sing through it, for it was broadside-on to us, as it were, and the unbroken water was therefore not easily detected. I turned my telescope upon the island, and now saw a thin film of light blue smoke, as from a wood fire, rising from among the trees; but there was no sign of a wreck of any description within view, and if anything of the kind existed, it must be on the other side of the island.

The canoe was by this time in open water, and I saw that she was paddling along the edge of the reef towards us. Bob now made her out from the deck, and hailed me, asking if I saw her. I answered that I did, and, in an uncontrollable tumult of excitement, descended to the deck. I directed Bob to keep the cutter away for the canoe, for, strangely enough, the thought never entered my head that her occupants might be enemies. I ran down below and got up our club-ensign, which I hoisted at the peak, and as it blew out in the fresh morning breeze, we saw the figure in the stern of the canoe rise to his feet and wave his hat. I took up my gla.s.s once more, and was now able to make out that this figure was tall, deeply bronzed by the sun, and had grey hair and a thick bushy grey beard.

"That is a white man, Bob, in that canoe," said I excitedly.

"A white man!" exclaimed Bob; "then it's the skipper, Harry, for a thousand pounds."

"No such luck, Bob, I am afraid," replied I; "this man is grey-haired, and my poor father's hair was dark brown, if you recollect."

"True," answered Bob; "but if not the skipper hisself, it may be somebody belonging to him."

"That cannot be, either," I returned; "for according to the account we received from the seaman, there was no one left with him but the chief mate, who, I presume, was Winter--who, you will recollect, was put into your berth when you met with your accident; and Winter was quite a young man--scarcely thirty, I believe."

"Well, whoever it may be, we shall soon find out all about him now, for we shall be alongside the little hooker in another five minutes,"

remarked Bob philosophically, but with evident disappointment in the tone of his voice.

This was true, for we were nearing the canoe fast. I again had recourse to my telescope, and with its a.s.sistance, was now able to see with perfect distinctness the occupants of the canoe. I scanned with the greatest intentness the features of him who was steering, and who was facing directly towards us; and as I did so, in a tumult of the most painful agitation and suspense, feature after feature once more became familiar, and notwithstanding the grey hair and beard, I at length recognised, with unspeakable joy, my father.

"Hurrah!" I shouted; "hurrah! it is he--it _is_ my father, Bob; and we have found him after all, and that when we little expected to do so.

Thank G.o.d; oh! thank G.o.d!"

"Amen," answered Bob, taking off his tarpaulin reverently for a moment, while the tears rolled down his weather-beaten cheeks.

We took room, and rounded the cutter to, and as she came up into the wind, with all her canvas shaking, the natives vigorously plied their paddles, and with a few l.u.s.ty strokes shot their light craft alongside.

I went to the gangway, and held out my hand to a.s.sist my father in over our low bulwarks, whilst Bob hove the end of a coil of line into the canoe, shouting to the blacks, "Now then, darkies, look out, and catch a turn with this here rope's-end, will ye? for if you goes astarn, you'll have all your work afore ye to overhaul us and get alongside again."

"Good Heaven! that voice--surely I should know it," murmured my father.

"Thank you, sir. Yours is the first sail I have seen for--Why, how is this?"

I had been unable to control myself any longer; and, to my father's infinite surprise, he suddenly found himself in my embrace, and, as suddenly, recognised the tones of the voice which called him "father."

I thought the dear old man would have fainted, but he rallied himself with a powerful effort, though it was some little time before he could speak. At length--

"My son! my n.o.ble boy Harry," exclaimed he. "Great G.o.d! Merciful Father! I thank Thee for this great and unexpected mercy. Little did I think, my dear boy, when I saw your white sails standing in for the island, what unexpected happiness awaited me. And, if I mistake not,"

added he, "this is my old friend and staunch s.h.i.+pmate, Robert Trunnion.

This is indeed a happy day for me," grasping Bob's hand heartily, "a day I have despaired of ever seeing again. But, tell me, what has happened, and how come you to be here in this small c.o.c.kle-sh.e.l.l of a craft? You surely cannot have been cast away, and have built her yourselves. If you have, you are wonderfully good s.h.i.+pwrights. And how came you to find out that I was here? or is this happy meeting the result of accident? Everything is so surprising that I feel perfectly bewildered."

"You shall know all, dear sir, in good time," I answered. "The story is too long to be told in a breath. Let us get inside, and come to an anchor; and as soon as we are sufficiently recovered from our present excitement to tell an intelligible tale, you shall know everything."

"Well, well, so be it," answered my father; "and I suppose I had better play pilot in navigating this 'seventy-four' of yours through the channel. What water do you draw?"

"Seven feet aft," I answered, "and she works to perfection; so you will have no difficulty with her."

"So much the better," answered my father, "as it will be rather ticklish work. Keep her well to windward, Robert; do not go closer than forty fathoms to the southern extremity of the surf. And now, my dear boy, one word more. How is your sister?"

"Well; quite well, I am happy to say. At least, she was so when we left England, little more than four months ago," I answered; "and so was everybody else in whom we are interested."

"I am delighted beyond measure to hear it," returned my father; "this is _good_ news, better than I could have dared to hope. Now keep her away, Robert. Starboard your helm--hard a-starboard; so, steady now as you go. Do you see the opening of the channel? Steer as straight as you like for it. This _will_ be a surprise for Winter, indeed."

"He is still with you, then, dear sir?" said I. "I trust he is in good health."

"Yes, I am happy to say he is quite well," returned my father. "Indeed we have neither of us had a day's illness since we have been on the island. I was quite an invalid at the time that the s.h.i.+p was lost, certainly but I soon recovered, thanks to Winter's care and good nursing. But how did you know of his being with me?"

"We learned your whole story, from the time of your sailing for home up to the day of your being so shamefully abandoned," I replied, "and that by the merest accident. We happened to fall in with one of the men whom you s.h.i.+pped at Canton, on board a vessel which we boarded on the line, on our pa.s.sage out. But here is some one with whom I must make you acquainted, dear sir," I continued, as Ella's fair head appeared at the companion.

I then introduced her to my father, briefly narrating the circ.u.mstances under which she became a member of our little crew, and frankly explaining the relation in which we now stood towards each other. When I had finished my explanation, my father took the dear little girl by the hand, kissed her on the forehead, and said a few kind words to relieve the embarra.s.sment and agitation under which it was evident she was suffering; and I had the very great satisfaction of seeing that these two beings, in whom I was so warmly interested, were mutually impressed very favourably towards each other.

We soon worked through the short pa.s.sage in the reef, and then stood away to the westward, rounding the southern extremity of the island very shortly afterwards. The moment that we cleared this point, and opened the western side of the island, Bob shouted, "Ah! there lies the dear old barkie, sure enough. Look at her, Harry, lad. She's sorely mauled about, poor old beauty, but I should still ha' knowed her anywheres, as far as these old eyes could see her."

There, indeed, lay the wreck of the _Amazon_, close to the beach, about two miles off, and sorely mauled about she was; so much so, that I greatly doubted whether Bob would ever have identified her as our old s.h.i.+p, had not my father's presence, and the story we had already heard of her loss, a.s.sisted him. Her three lower masts were still standing, but the whole of her upper works were gone, and I at first supposed that they had been used for fire-wood, until we opened up a tiny bay somewhat nearer us to the southward, and saw a small vessel in process of being built on the beach.

"You have established a s.h.i.+pyard here, I see, sir," I remarked, as this object came in view.

"Yes," answered my father; "but we have made but poor progress, so far.

You will be of the greatest a.s.sistance to us, my dear boy--you and Robert here. Since you have managed to turn out such a sweet little craft as this cutter, I shall be strongly inclined to pull our work to pieces and begin all over again afresh."

"How do you mean, sir?" I inquired. "You surely do not imagine that Bob and I built this cutter?"

"Did you not?" returned my father. "Then where did you pick her up?"

"She was built on the Thames," I replied; "and Bob and I have managed to bring her out here between us."

My father was greatly surprised at hearing this, but as we were now approaching the anchorage, it was decided to defer all explanations until we could have an opportunity of proceeding with them in a straightforward fas.h.i.+on. Sail was shortened, and in about ten minutes afterwards we dropped our anchor in a pretty little well-sheltered bay, within a couple of cables' length of the beach, and in full view of a neat little cottage constructed of bamboo, which stood on a lawn of about an acre in extent, environed with beautiful tropical trees and plants.

Winter was down on the beach full of curiosity respecting the new-comers, and I will leave to the reader's imagination the surprise and delight with which he recognised in them two of his old s.h.i.+pmates.

The two canoes conveyed all hands of us ash.o.r.e, and my father, after welcoming us heartily to "his dominions" as we stepped from the canoes to the beach, gave his arm to Ella, and with me on his other side, and Bob and Winter following arm-in-arm astern, and the two natives bringing up the rear, we at once wended our way to the cottage, where we found that Winter had prepared a sumptuous breakfast in antic.i.p.ation of our arrival.

Whilst discussing this meal, I related, at my father's earnest solicitation, our whole story, commencing with an account of the wreck on Portland beach, and of the tale of the treasure-island told by the dying Spaniard, and then going on to relate how we had been induced, by a belief in this story, to build and fit out the _Water Lily_ and sail in her in search of the treasure, mentioning, in due course, our meeting with the seaman who had given us a clue to the _Amazon's_ fate, and of our resolve, therefore, to search the whole Archipelago, if need be, for the abandoned ones; and winding up with an account of our late achievement of the destruction of the _Albatross_, and of the consequent imprisonment of her crew upon the island we had so recently sailed from.

Great was the surprise of my father and his companion as I proceeded, and frequent their comments and interruptions; but at last I got through with it, and then, of course, I became anxious, in my turn, to hear how matters had gone with my father and Winter during their long stay where they now were.