Chapter Thirty Two.
Preparations for Departure.
It was a fortunate circumstance, not only for the surviving mutineers who had turned up so strangely, but for the little community at Penguin Castle as well, that they did not make their appearance on the scene earlier; for, had they came at the trying period, when famine, so to speak, reigned in the land, they certainly would not have been “welcome guests!” Of course, even then, Mr Meldrum and the others would have felt bound to do as much for them as they could; but as at that time the castaways were almost near upon starvation, they could ill have afforded to help others in the same predicament, however much charity might have constrained them.
But, now, things were very different in regard to their larder, wild ducks being plentiful enough and another heavy “bag” of rabbits having been secured as soon as the road to the warren had become passable through the partial subsidence of the flood in the valley; while, in addition to those stores of substantial food, there was Kerguelen cabbage ad libitum at their disposal—all the fresher and more juicy through being covered up by the snow and watered by the spring rains—besides an abundance of the haddock-like, spike-headed fish to be had for the catching in the bay, not to speak of the dried penguins as a last resource, should the other articles of diet fail to suit or pall on the palate after a time. Indeed, as Mr Lathrope observed frequently when seated at the central table of their general room and disposing of the savoury residue of some gipsy stew of Snowball’s concoction, during this period of plenty, which came in such pleasing contrast to their recent scarcity of provender, they were “living like fighting cocks, and no mistake!”
Such being the state of things at “Penguin Castle,” it was not long before the emaciated men, who arrived in the longboat almost at death’s door through want, were restored to health. Mr Meldrum, however, took the precaution of binding them down by the most stringent conditions as to their obedience and orderly conduct before admitting them on the same terms as the rest to the common membership of the community—it being clearly put before them that the least lâche or inattention to orders would subject them to expulsion, when they would have to shift for themselves and give a wide berth to those of the settlement.
Captain Dinks had recovered so far now that he was able to sit up for a short time each day; but the length of his illness and the amount of blood he had lost had so aged and pulled him down that he was transformed, from the smart energetic sailor he had been, into a feeble old man, utterly incapable of ever resuming his former position should events ever place it in his power to take command of a ship again—at least so it seemed from his general state of prostration.
Under these circumstances, therefore, Mr Meldrum was unquestionably still looked upon as the head of the party, quite apart from any appointment as such, from the simple reason that everybody recognised that it would be only through his advice and forethought that they could ever hope to escape from the island and see home once more.
Although he had as yet never spoken directly to the point on the subject, all could gather, from stray hints and observations which occasionally dropped from his lips, that this thought was ever before him; and that, when he considered that the proper time for action had arrived, he would lay his plans before them.
They were not mistaken.
One evening, about the third week in October and the third month of their residence on Desolation Island, when all were assembled in the general room after the principal meal of the day—gathered together for a social chat over the little petty details of their life since the morning and cogitating as to what was best to be done on the morrow, as was their invariable custom each night before separating at bedtime—Mr Meldrum unbosomed himself, just when they least expected it.
Mr Lathrope was having a spirited contest with the first-mate over the chequer-board that he had assisted in making; Kate was reading out of a little pocket Bible to the poor captain as he lay back in his cot; while the others, grouped around, were talking and otherwise amusing themselves—some of the men knitting a net, which it was intended to use as a seine for catching fish some day when finished, and the steward assisting Snowball in cutting up some cabbage which they were going to pickle and lay by for emergencies—when Mr Meldrum, after a preliminary “hem,” to attract their attention, addressed the little gathering.
“Friends,” said he, “it was my intention to speak to you some little time back about our future prospects here, but I waited for the weather to become more settled. Now that the spring has fairly set in, however, it is better not to delay our preparations any longer, for time is precious and we shall have to accomplish a great deal in the short period which will be at our disposal.”
“I ’spose,” put in Mr Lathrope, “you mean about shifting our diggings, mister, hey?”
“Precisely,” replied the other. “The season was not sufficiently advanced before; but now that it is, the rain having stopped falling persistently and the weather showing signs of clearing up, why, the sooner we are up and stirring, the greater chance we shall have of getting rescued!”
“Waal,” drawled the other in his usual nasal way, “you’ve only got to say the word, boss, and I guess we’re on the move!”
“All right! I’m coming to that, but I want you to understand the situation. Here is a map of Kerguelen Land,” and Mr Meldrum unrolled the old admiralty chart which has been alluded to before, as he spoke. “You will see, from the rough outline given of the island, that it is formed of two peninsulas, running nearly north and south respectively and both of nearly equal size, but divided by a comparatively narrow neck of land. The whole island is, taking its outside limits, about ninety miles long by sixty broad in its widest part, although at the narrow point or neck which I have mentioned—see, just here where I place my finger—the distance from sea to sea between the eastern and western sides does not exceed fifteen miles.”
“I say it clearly, sorr,” said Mr McCarthy, all attention when his especial element was mentioned.
“Well, it so happens,” continued Mr Meldrum, “that our position here, the correctness of which I have carefully ascertained from observations that I have taken and worked out, is, very fortunately for us, on the western side of this isthmus, and not at the extremity of the broader portion of the island. Consequently, we shall only have to traverse the short width of this neck of land in our endeavours to get across to the eastern side, whither we must go if we hope for any vessel to pick us up and take us to a civilised port—none ever touching here on account of the dangerous character of the coast, which we already know to our cost!”
“Bedad, I can’t say how ye are going to get the boats over fifteen miles ov solid ground, more or less,” said the first-mate, scratching his head vigorously, as he always did when puzzled by anything.
“I’ll tell you,” answered Mr Meldrum. “You may have noticed since the snow melted and the rains came, how the waters of that originally small lake at the bottom of the creek have become extended so that they now reach up the base of the furthest hills in the valley?”
“Yis, sorr,” said Mr McCarthy, stopping from disturbing his auburn locks any further with his fingers and now all eagerness again, as if only just then beginning to comprehend what the other was driving at.
“All right, then,” continued Mr Meldrum, “so far, so good! Now, to-day, I went prospecting up to the top of the cliff here, and I see that the waters of the swollen tarn are united in the extreme distance—to the left there on the map—with a river, or some other lake, which comes round that further hill. Hence, this very width of fifteen miles which we have to cross may be but half of it land and half water, so that, really, in that case, we should have only to haul the boat, or boats, over the intervening bits of terra firma in passing from sea to sea.”
“I guess, mister,” said Mr Lathrope, “you mean what the lumber men on the Susquehanna and Red River call ‘making a portage,’ hey?”
“I don’t quite follow you,” observed Mr Meldrum.
“Why, when they come across a rapid in the river, they jest tote up their canoes and carry ’em along the bank, or through the forest sometimes, till they gits to whar the stream runs free agin, when they floats ’em and sails along as slick as you please!”
“Exactly,” said Mr Meldrum, “you have just hit what I wished to describe. Well, friends, whether we have to carry the boat a short distance or a long one, we shall have to cross this isthmus; and, the sooner we commence making our preparations, the better.”
“You sid only a boat, sorr; aren’t ye going to take the pair ov ’em?” asked Mr McCarthy.
“No,” replied the other, “one will be about as much as we shall be able to manage, and the smaller of the two at that.”
“Be jabers!” exclaimed the first-mate in surprise; “and how, thin, will you carry the lot ov us?”
“When we have to cross land,” said Mr Meldrum, “of course we’ll have to walk, and can go in a body or not, just as we please; but when we have to take to the water again, why the boat will have to do it in so many trips—taking over a certain number first and returning for a fresh load, until all shall be taken over; and repeating the process from stage to stage.”
“It kinder strikes me, mister,” said Mr Lathrope, reflectively, “that you’ll find that thar jolly-boat a heap bigger and a pile heavier than them birch-bark canoes of the lumber men and Injuns I was a talkin’ about; and yet, they’re heavy enough to cart along fur any raal sort o’ distance, you bet, fur I’ve tried ’em!”
“I’ve already thought of that,” said Mr Meldrum, “and to-morrow the carpenter and I will have a talk about a little job which will, perhaps, relieve your mind in the matter; but, take the boat we must, by hook or by crook! Do you know that, after crossing the isthmus and getting into the open sea on the other side, we shall have to coast along for another fifty or sixty miles before we can expect to reach Betsy Cove, the little harbour out of Hillsborough Bay or sound, which—you can see it here on the chart—is the rendezvous of the whalers. Thither, I tell you, we must go if we hope to meet any of these in order to be taken off the island. Now, if we can’t get there by water we should have to go by land; and the distance, by the circuitous route we should have to adopt, would exceed two hundred miles, the way, too, taking us across mountains which the ladies at least would find impassable!”
“And when are you thinking of starting?” asked Captain Dinks, speaking for the first time.
“As soon as possible. The whalers are said generally to arrive at Betsy Cove about the beginning of the summer, that is in November; and, what with the difficulties we may meet in traversing the isthmus here, and the subsequent long distance we should have to go by water—for we may have to make repeated trips in order to transport all the members of our party to the point I am aiming at—it will take us all our time to reach there in a month.”
“All right!” responded the captain, who looked for the moment more cheerful at the idea of moving away, “make all the arrangements you like, Mr Meldrum; I’m only a useless old hulk now, and can do nothing to help you.”
“Bedad you’ll be all right agin, cap’en,” said Mr McCarthy. “That is, faix, when you say the say on t’other side, sure. Cheer up, my hearty, and niver say die!”
“Thank you, Tim,” said Captain Dinks, actually smiling, which was the best sign he had shown for weeks; “your face is as good as a tonic any day, old friend, and you make me feel better already!”
The very next day all began to prepare for the contemplated shifting of their quarters, Mr Meldrum so contriving that each had his quota of work to perform in making ready for the start.
Ben Boltrope was commissioned to manufacture as speedily as he could, out of what spare timber he could get hold of—and, if necessary, he was empowered to break up the longboat in default of finding any elsewhere, for they would not want to use it again—a small light carriage with large broad wheels similar to those commonly used in transporting life-boats from place to place along the coast, when their services are suddenly required at some spot remote from their station and it would take too long to send them round by sea.
This carriage, of course, was for the accommodation of the jolly-boat, whenever it should be found necessary for it to abandon its more congenial element the water, for the land; and as the wheels required some delicacy of manipulation, it was a lucky thing that the mutineers had forgotten to take Ben’s tool-chest out of the longboat, and that it had been restored to his possession. Otherwise, the old man-o’-war’s man would have been unable to have completed satisfactorily the difficult task set him with only an old axe and a hammer for his available tools, as had been the case when the house was being built.
Such of the party as were not assisting the carpenter were set to work collecting and curing everything in the shape of food, or provisions of any sort that came to hand—the rabbit warren being depopulated and wild ducks slaughtered to such an extent that the latter abandoned the valley; while, the last remaining birds in the penguin colony, old and young alike, were sacrificed to appease the craving gods of the common larder.
Neither were the ladies idle; for, Kate Meldrum and Mrs Major Negus were employed making canvas bags for the stowage of all these good things in proper ship-shape fashion. Even Master Maurice—the whilom “Imp,” who had almost been reformed by his experience amongst the penguins—and Miss Florry, had their services requisitioned in one way or other.
One and all, without exception, had each something to do!
“I guess, mister,” said Mr Lathrope a week later on, when he and Mr Meldrum were returning from an unsuccessful foray on the adjacent marshes that had been the haunt of the wild fowl—without once getting a shot, much less bagging a duck to reward their trouble,—“this’ll be a tall moving; and the sooner we make tracks the better now, since all the game’s skeart. I don’t see nary a grasshopper to aim at!”
“The arrangements are all completed,” replied the other, “and I have determined to start to-morrow. As you say, there’s nothing to be gained by our waiting any longer; so, as we’ve now as much provision collected as we shall either want or can carry, and as Ben has finished the boat-carriage, I don’t see any reason for delaying our departure a single day!”
Mr Meldrum was as good as his word. He gave out an intimation of the projected start on the morrow to the household the same evening, as soon as the two reached the little dwelling by the creek which they were about to abandon so remorselessly after the long shelter it had given them in their adversity!