“Ay, I see; I see,” murmured the “Old Man”. “It seems a most tarnation pity,” he continued regretfully, “but I guess we’ll have to do it—or lose most o’ them pearls.”
“It will be an endless job, too—to say nothing of the pity of it—to kill off all those thousands of birds,” remarked Cunningham. “But perhaps, after all, it may not be necessary to resort to such extreme measures as that. Have you any firearms on board, Captain?”
“You bet I have, and ammunition too,” answered the skipper, with a grin. “You don’t catch old Eph Brown venturin’ his property on an expedition like this here—among savages, too, when we gets away down among the islands a’ter that there sandalwood—without bringin’ along the means to defend it. I got a dozen muskets and six shot guns down below; and I reckon I can get the lot out in ten minutes.”
“Then,” said Cunningham, “I’ll tell you what we will do, Captain, if you are agreeable. Let Temple and me have a couple of those shot guns, with a moderate quantity of ammunition, and we will go ashore and shoot a sufficient number of those birds to make them thoroughly afraid of anything resembling the human figure. Then, when we have done that, we will rig up a scarecrow on the leeward extremity of the island, where I suppose you will deposit your oysters to undergo the process of decay, and see how that acts before we attempt anything in the nature of actual wholesale slaughter.”
“Yes,” assented the skipper eagerly, “I guess that plan’s well worth tryin’, and I’m much obliged to ye for thinkin’ of it. I don’t want the death of any more o’ them birds laid to my door than what there’s actooal need for, for they’re purty creeturs, and, when all’s said and done, God made ’em, same’s He made you and me. But I’m afeard that a few of ’em’ll have to die, so the job might as well be done at once. I’ll go down below and get them shot guns, and you and Mr Temple might as well go ashore directly after dinner.”
Accordingly, as soon as our midday dinner was over, the gig—our gig—was hoisted out, and Cunningham and I, with two hands for a crew, and with a shot gun each, together with a double pocketful of cartridges, went ashore to perform the exceedingly unpleasant but necessary task of frightening the birds so effectually that they would not be likely to interfere to any very great extent with our pearling operations. At the last moment, just before shoving off from the schooner’s side, Cunningham shouted to the cook to pass down into the boat the biggest basket that he could find, and this the “Doctor” did, with the result that when we landed on the island we carried with us a basket capable of holding quite one hundred gulls’ eggs.
We had already decided that the southern extremity of the island was the proper place upon which to deposit our oysters, when obtained, because by placing them there the exceedingly offensive odour which would be generated by the process of decay would be carried away by the wind over the open sea, while by anchoring the schooner as far to windward as possible we might hope to escape in a very great measure, if not altogether, the annoyance of the smell; therefore, upon landing, we started operations at the south end of the island by driving the birds away from there.
But our task was by no means so easy as we had anticipated; for so extraordinarily tame were the birds that they positively refused to rise at our approach, actually permitting themselves to be caught and their necks to be wrung rather than take the trouble to get out of our way. Certainly they resisted actual capture most vigorously, fighting us with beak and wing, and many a sharp peck and severe blow did we receive within the first ten minutes of our operations; but they would not take to flight, or make the slightest attempt of any kind to avoid us. Consequently at length, and very much against our will, we were obliged to open fire upon them, and it was not until the creatures saw the struggles and heard the piteous cries of the wounded among them that they at length began to grasp the fact
that we were enemies, and dangerous. And even then it was not until we had killed some three hundred of them that they seemed to have fully learned their lesson, and took to flight at our approach. While this wretched work of slaughter was proceeding the two men with the basket followed in our footsteps and collected the eggs from the abandoned nests, choosing the cleanest as being most likely to be fresh; so that, upon our return to the schooner that night, the cook got to work, and all hands supped sumptuously upon boiled and fried gulls’ eggs, while we in the cabin regaled ourselves upon savoury omelette, followed by pancakes.