“I don’t see why our going through the South Seas should make any difference to them. Why, Sam, the South Pacific has a million little islands in it, none of which amounts to a row of pins. Nux and Bry were natives of one of these dinky islands an’ I guess they had a hard, wild life of it judging from the condition they was in when I found ’em. My pickin’ ’em up was great luck for the pair an’ no mistake. They’re civilized Injuns, now, an’ their life on shipboard is luxury compared to what they used to have. Besides we’ve treated ’em well an’ they’ve grown fond of us; I doubt if we landed plump on their native island they’d ever leave the ship an’ go back to their old life.”
“I should hope not!” I exclaimed. “How old do you think they are, Uncle Naboth? Whenever I ask them they shake their heads and say they do not know.”
“Perhaps they don’t; many of the savage races never keep track of their age; they think it’s bad luck to count the years. But I should judge these fellows are about twenty-five years old. Nux may be a little older, but not much.”
Perhaps it was natural that these native islanders should be a source of much curiosity to Alfonso de Jiminez and Lucia de Alcantara. They were accustomed to seeing dark-skinned races, and in Australia one meets Borneans, Samoans, the East India and native Malay tribes, Philippinos, Japs and Chinese; but such handsome and dignified blacks as Nux and Bryonia were different, indeed, and I have often thought the desert Moors the nearest approach to them of any people I have ever seen.
Our islanders wore neat uniforms of gray and gold, which rendered their appearance the more striking. They would never accept money for their service, saying they owed their lives and happiness to us and could never repay us. Moreover they declared they had no use for money. But they delighted in their uniforms, so we kept them well supplied and they wore them at all times.
The addition of five passengers to our complement did not phase Bry in the least. On the contrary it gave him a chance to cook some of the delicious dishes for which he was famous among ourselves, and so to extend his reputation. Nux had more extra work than his comrade, looking after the cabins and serving the meals; but he had a great capacity for work and made no complaint whatever.
Captain Steele had been a mariner all his life and was no stranger to the South Seas; but this course from Melbourne to the coast of Colombia, while not unknown to the charts, was strange to him and he had to put in a lot of study before he got his lines properly marked and knew exactly where to travel.
“Ye see, Sam,” he said to me one evening as I sat in his cabin watching him figure, “it would be all plain sailin’ if it warn’t fer them measley little islands—hundreds of ’em the chart shows, an’ there’s indycations of hundreds more that ain’t been located. If we get a hair’s breadth off our course we’ll have to do a good bit of dodgin’. The spots on the chart marked islands means a lot of rocks in plain English, an’ rocks won’t do the Seagull any good if we happen to bump agin ’em.”
“Isn’t there a way to avoid most of the islands?” I asked.
“Not that anyone knows of. The South Seas is spotted with ’em most everywheres an’ it’s better to keep in your reg’lar course, where you know your soundin’s, than to try findin’ a clearer track over to Colombia.”