Palm Tree Island

by Herbert Strang

What I Owe Billy

Observing that the seamen were very intent on watching these proceedings, I turned to find Billy, to ask him why he had not come out with me when I bade him, for I thought his backwardness was due either to cowardice or to flat disobedience, and I was as much astonished at the one as at the other. I could not find him at first, for the hut was pretty well packed, and indeed the air already began to be foul and oppressive; but I did find him, and when I asked him in some heat what he meant by it, he took me by the arm and whispered in my ear, "Why, you forgot we hadn't covered over the hole into the cellar, and I reckoned we didn't want 'em to know about that, at least not yet a bit." And then I shook him by the hand and thanked him for his thoughtfulness, and when he said in great surprise, "Why, master, that's nothing," I did not dare to tell him the unkind thoughts that had come into my mind, for I was sure he would have been very much hurt by them. Certainly it would have been a terrible calamity if the men had discovered our secret chamber, and I dare say 'tis due only to Billy's presence of mind in that matter of hastily covering over the shaft that I am alive to pen these lines to-day.

CHAPTER THE EIGHTEENTH

OF THE DISCOMFITURE OF THE SAVAGES, AND THE UNMANNERLY BEHAVIOUR OF OUR GUESTS

There we were then, I say, sixteen seamen and our two selves, with Little John, cooped up in a house built for two, with no air nor light but what came through the small loopholes in the walls. It was desperately unpleasant; at least, I found it so; as for the seamen, maybe they felt it less, being accustomed to the closeness of 'tween decks, though to be sure they had lived an open life for so long that they had almost had time to forget the forecastle of the Lovey Susan. There was a great babblement among them, congratulating one another on their lucky escape and on their having found quarters, cursing the savages very heartily, and hoping they would now sheer off. I do not remember that I heard a word of thanks to us for helping them, except from poor Mr. Bodger, who came to me and, in a manner more meek and quiet even than when he was aboard the Lovey Susan, said it was like heaven to find me again, after the terrible life he had led among the seamen. It was from him I learnt what I have already related about the men's doings on the island where they landed, and of what had happened subsequently to their last visit to us, which was as follows. They had gone to one of the islands to the westward which they had seen from the slopes of our island, and made friends with the savages there, which they were able to do because, having firearms, the savages thought to make use of them in warfare against their enemies. For a time the seamen lived right royally among them, having food and quarters on condition of this military service; but becoming insolent and puffed up with their own importance, they presently offended the savages, and crowned their misdeeds with refusing to fight any more for them, which they did because their ammunition was running short. Learning from a savage girl that had a partiality for Pumfrey that the tribe were minded to enslave them, they determined to slip away by night in their boat, and come back to our island, to see whether their notions about it were well founded, I mean as to the scarcity of food on it; and they did this, but their departure was discovered before they had gone very far, and with the morning light they saw that they were pursued by their infuriate employers.

Besieged

Mr. Bodger did not tell me all this, and what I have related before, at one time, because we were too busy watching the proceedings of the savages, and debating about them, to hold long discourse undisturbed. The issue of their deliberations appeared to be that they would make no attempt to carry our defences by main force, which indeed would have been a hopeless undertaking, but to invest us strictly, being no doubt confident in their numbers to overwhelm us when we should issue forth, as we must some time do, when the pressure of hunger compelled us. The whole body of them split up into five little camps of about forty men each, who posted themselves in a half-circle about the front side of the hut, and out of range of the seamen's muskets. One of these camps, however, was placed, very likely out of bravado, a good deal nearer to our hut than the rest, and Hoggett declared with an oath that he would have a shot at them, only he did not care to waste the powder, his stock being all but gone. "Where's Brent?" cries he. "Mister Brent," says Billy at once. "Is that there young scum of a Bobbin a-talking?" cries Hoggett. I caught Billy's arm to keep him from answering, fearing lest Hoggett should deal brutally with him; and Hoggett said with a laugh, "Where's Mister Brent, then?" "What is it?" said I. "Send one of your arrows amongst those reptiles, will you?" says he, in a tone that I did not at all relish, so that I was on the point of taking him up pretty sharply, only I thought better of it, for what was the use of making a bother when there were so many of them? Indeed, I was already not a little disturbed in my mind, foreseeing that if the fellow would put on this insolency of bearing so soon, we should go through rough water presently. However, to come back to my story. I was not at all disposed to shoot an arrow at Hoggett's bidding; yet I thought it were a good thing to show the savages that we had our eyes on them; so I said, "Billy, maybe you will kindly show Hoggett what you can do." "Do you bid me, master?" says the boy: I call him "boy," though he was at this time, I suppose, eighteen or nineteen years old. "I ask you, Billy," said I: whereupon he took his bow and an arrow, and went to one of the loopholes, and there was pretty nearly a fight among the men for places at the others, for there were not enough for all of them. As for myself I could see nothing, but I heard the twang of the bow-string, and immediately afterwards a great shout of laughter from the men, which Billy told me was occasioned by the sudden leaping up of the savages among whom the arrow fell, and their scuttering like rabbits to a safer distance. I do not doubt their amazement, for their own bows were small compared with ours, and had not near so long a range.

"Well shot, Billy!" cries Clums, the cook of the Lovey Susan, and a good-tempered man on the whole, but a perfect child in the hands of Hoggett, who was angered by his praise of Billy, and sharply bade him "hold his jaw." "Why didn't you make a window in this cursed hole?" he cried; "I can't see nothing." "We'll open the door," said I, "for they're out of range now, and we can shut it again before they get near." Accordingly we opened it, and I was very thankful for the fresh air, and the men, spying in one corner the little pile of cocoa-nuts that we usually kept there, seized upon them, and in their haste to drink the juice broke them carelessly, so that a good deal was spilled. "Give me water instead of that muck," cried Hoggett; "maybe Mr. Brent will kindly show us what he can do that way," and having thus mocked me he shouted a great guffaw, which some of the men imitated, though one or two looked ill-pleased. I had much ado, I assure you, to command my temper, but I did command it, and afterwards remembered a saying of my uncle, that to lose your temper is to give a weapon to your enemy. I showed Hoggett our water-pot, and bade him be sparing, for that was all we had, and he answered with an oath that he would drink as much as he pleased; but Chick then spoke up, bidding him not to be a greedy swine, and Hoggett growled out some answer; but I observed that he did not drink much, and so I learnt, what I afterwards confirmed, that Chick had some sway over Hoggett, I suppose from his speaking little, but always to the point.

We thought it prudent to shut the door when night fell, in spite of the closeness of the atmosphere; and I never in all my life spent so horrible a night. Some of the men, I know not who, took our pillows, so that Billy and I were no better off than the most of them, and we lay side by side on the floor, except when we took our turn at watching, for the whole company was divided into watches as on board ship. We knew that the savages kept watch also, for we saw the glow of their camp fires, and Billy said he wished he could have seen how they made the fire, he having never ceased to feel disappointment because he had failed in that particular. There was nothing to disturb us during the night, but I rose in the morning so sick and miserable that I thought I should die if I had to endure the like again. We opened the door as soon as it was light, and quaffed the air as if it was nectar; and the seamen having roused up, clamoured for breakfast, and soon finished all the cocoa-nuts we had in the house; and they took off the lid of our great breadpan, as we called it, and seeing the bread-fruit paste there, cried out to know what it was, and when I told them, nothing would satisfy them but that Billy should take some of it out to our oven, which was near the hut, and the fire still smouldering. There was little danger in Billy's doing this, because the savages were still at too great a distance for their arrows to reach us, and if they came nearer he would have time to run indoors; but I did not like his acting as servant to these men, and said so, whereupon Hoggett asked fiercely whether the boy was not a stowaway, and who was he to put on airs, and he would show him, and so forth; and I thought it was better for the sake of peace and quietness that Billy should cook a little bread for them.