"Good to eat?" asked the sailmaker.
"Shouldn't have brought them otherwise," answered Rough-and-Ready, in unconscious imitation of the sailmaker's manner of speaking.
The sailmaker took some of the fruit and ate it, and would have taken more, but that Rough-and-Ready's hand restrained him.
"That's not the way for a man to eat who has been nearly starved for six weeks," he said, "unless he wants to kill himself right out. Here, make yourself useful; but take a little water to drink first."
Rough-and-Ready measured a small quantity of water, and gave the sailmaker and Joshua to drink. He had thrown down a couple of pieces of wood when he said "Make yourself useful," and the sailmaker, after drinking, asked him what the wood was for.
"A good job for you two that you have me for your mate," said Rough-and-Ready good-humoredly; "you might stand a chance of starving else. The enemy"--with a nod of his head in the direction of Scadbolt and the Lascar--"won't be half as well off as we shall be. Just watch me." He took his knife and cut from the wood two pieces, in one of which he made a kind of groove, which he placed upon the ground. "This is off the black fig-tree, and is the best wood there is for making fire. Now rub away into the groove, steadily, like this, and keep rubbing. It's hard work; but never mind; it's worth the labor."
He disappeared again, leaving the sailmaker at work, and returned with an armful of dry sticks and leaves. Soon fire came into the wood, the sparks dropped on to the dry leaves, and a blaze was kindled, that brought astonishment into the eyes of Scadbolt and the Lascar. Before the fire was made, the indefatigable bushman had gone down the rocks this time, and had returned with a hat full of mussels. These he put on the fire to cook; and then sat down and rubbed his hands in a high state of satisfaction. Joshua had not been idle; he had attended to the women and child, and had given them a little water, which was like nectar to them. They were too weak to exert themselves; so the men sat by them and ate supper, and gave them to eat, sparingly, under the direction of Rough-and-Ready, who was regarded by the others with unbounded admiration. The warmth of the fire was very comforting to them, for although summer was coming, their long sojourn on the raft had chilled their blood.
"Well now," said Rough-and-Ready, when supper was over, "I think we ought to be very grateful for our escape. It was touch-and-go with us. We sha'n't be very strong for a few days; and that's what we've got to do first: to get strong. Then we can look about us."
"Where are we?" whispered Minnie.
"As well as I can make out, my dear, we are somewhere on the north-east coast of the continent of Australia; where I don't believe a white man ever trod foot before. That's something, isn't it? We're the first bits of civilization that these rocks have ever seen."