Isle o' Dreams Part 21

"Wouldn't do no good if they did. We can keep 'em off, now that you and Mr. Locke have guns. They can't live on air. You ought to try to git some sleep."

"I'll stick it out with you."

"Ain't no use of us two standin' watch all night. You'll be all beat out to-morrow night, and with things like they are, you won't git no chance to sleep to-morrow. If they come back, I'll call you in time to have the weather on 'em."

Jarrow's advice sounded sensible enough. With the crew out in a boat there was little imminent danger, and Trask felt that it would be wise to remain aft, for if the crew suspected their game was known they might attempt to board the schooner from the stern. They would probably interpret the disappearance of the riding light as discovery aboard the schooner that they were missed and their treachery revealed to the heads of the expedition.

So Trask decided to go back to his room, even if he did not sleep, and being a.s.sured by Jarrow that immediately there was any sign of the boat he would be called, he made his way aft and went to bed fully dressed except for his shoes.

He had scarcely rolled into his bunk before he heard cautious footsteps in the cabin, and Doc Bird came scratching at his door.

"I reckon somethin's powerful wrong, Mr. Trask," he whispered.

"You get out of here and go to bed," said Trask. "And don't show a light for any reason until you have orders to."

"I got to be up early to make flapjack batter fo' yo' all," was Doc's reply. "I reckon I'll have to have a light in the galley and the fire goin' right smart long befo' the chickens is crowin' fo'

day."

Trask knew it would do no good to get out of patience with Doc, for he was incorrigibly persistent and friendly in the face of any rebuff.

"Don't make any fire or light any lamps until you're told to,"

Trask reiterated. "And for heaven's sake, let me and everybody else get some sleep. Get some for yourself. Run along."

"Oh, don't yo' fret none fo' me, Mr. Trask. I'm a regular squinch owl," and he chuckled audibly, as if his ability to do without sleep were a rare joke.

"I'm not," retorted Trask, and rolled over significantly.

"You don't reckon Mr. Peth he's actin' up none, do ye? The skipper he goes walkin' 'round like he had somethin' wearin' down on his mind."

"You better ask him, Doc," said Trask.

"Huh! Ketch me goin' out and confabbin' around with the ol' man!

He'd sh.o.r.e hang somethin' on mah haid. Mr. Trask, 'fo' G.o.d, I can't git no sleep when I'm a-worried. It all kind o' makes my skin go all crawly when there's somethin' projectin' around and I don't know of it. Yo' sh.o.r.e there ain't nothin' bad nohow?"

"There will be, if you don't get out of that door! Go bring some water."

Doc gurgled with a suppressed chuckle, and went to the galley, where he could be heard pulling a cork in the dark. He was back in a minute, and handed a gla.s.s in to Trask, who sat up to take it and drink.

"If somebody hadn't a-swiped that gun o' yourn, I would take no bother of it if Mr. Peth gits contrary with----"

"I've got another gun," said Trask. "And Mr. Locke has two."

Doc was silent for a time, as if he were pondering the matter.

"Yo' all sh.o.r.e come a-lookin' for b'ar," he opined, taking the gla.s.s which Trask thrust out at him. "But yo' all don't need to be squirmish about Mr. Peth. If he goes to act up, I'll settle his hash."

"How's that?"

Doc chuckled again.

"I know how to handle that low-down trash," he whispered, tragically. "I'd drap somethin' in his tea. Good-night, Mr. Trask."

"Good-night, Doc. Don't make a light."

"No, sah," and the steward crept away to his bunk, leaving Trask staring up into the dark, turning over the situation in his mind, and waiting for the dawn.

CHAPTER XI

MR. PETH DOES MOST AMAZING THINGS

Trask was up at dawn, and slipping out on deck, saw Jarrow sitting on the forecastle head, drinking coffee, a plate of biscuits beside him, while he kept watch on the island.

Doc stuck his head out of the galley. "Coffee, Mr. Trask?" he called, cautiously.

Trask went back and stood in the door while he scanned the sh.o.r.e of the island. The sun had come out of the sea, red and bleary, and from the jungle came the calls of birds and the shrill cry of a parrot evidently in distress about something in the brush.

There was not a sign of the dinghy. The schooner lay still in a pool of colourful water, the coral and weeds on the bottom in plain view, some of the swaying plants magnified by refraction. There was no air stirring, and from the far end of the island a morning haze was rising like smoke from flats which appeared to be salt marshes.

Trask filled the basin at the water b.u.t.t and washed his sticky face. Doc, who evidently was astir before the cook, became emboldened by the fact that Trask was up, and rattled the dishes in the galley with recklessness. Trask cautioned him when he came out with the cup and proffered the impromptu breakfast.

"Have you heard anything?" he asked, as the steward stood beside him, loath to go back to his duties.

"Me? Lordy, no, Mr. Trask! We been just lak' a buryin' ground! It gives me the creeps to have things so daid."

"Seen anything of the boat?"

"Boat?" Doc rolled his eyes, puzzled.

"Go in and get breakfast," said Trask, pa.s.sing the cup back, and went along forward to learn what Jarrow had to report.

"Not a sight of 'em," said the captain, who appeared to be as fresh as if he had slept all night.

"That's queer," said Trask. "I thought they'd try to sneak back during the night. What can they be up to? You don't think they've abandoned us entirely?"

"Now ye got me," said Jarrow. "I guess Peth's crazy in his head.

He's got 'em all buggy on this gold business, far's I can see. All right, let 'em stick to Peth."

"But they'll starve," said Trask. "Suppose they did find gold in piles? What good would it do them? They'd have to beg to be taken back aboard here, wouldn't they?"

Jarrow blew into his coffee, gulped some of it, and raised his eyes in utter dejection to look over at the island. The schooner lay with her head to the northeast in response to a current that came around the northern end of the island and almost parallel with it.

"When people are out of their heads, no knowin' what they'll do,"

declared Jarrow. "Peth, he's always for makin' money in heaps. He can't see beyond his nose. Now I'm for goin' safe and sure. You ain't got no idea how he's bothered me off and on for the last couple years. But I had to humour him--he owns an eighth of the _Nuestra_."

"He can't have much sense if he thinks gold's to be sacked up and carted away," said Trask. "Here's Mr. Locke."