Yorke The Adventurer Part 2

"In the hold were half a dozen barrels of empty gin, beer, and whisky bottles. We had put them aside to give to the Admiralty Island people--especially the women and children--who attached some value to them as water holders. I brought up sixty or seventy dozen, and smashed them up in a clean hogshead. Then I turned the whole lot out in a heap on the main hatch, got a shovel, and covered the entire deck fore and aft, first getting all loose ropes, &c, out of the way, as I did not want to get any gla.s.s in my own hands when I next handled the running gear. After that I went below, lit a spirit lamp, and made myself a big bowl of hot soup--real hot soup--a small tin of soup and bouilli, and a half bottle of Worcester sauce with a spoonful of cayenne pepper and a stiff gla.s.s of brandy thrown in.

"It touched me up, I can tell you, but I knew it would do me good as I lay down in my bunk, rolled myself in a heavy blanket, and piled over me every other rug and blanket I could find. In half an hour I was sweating profusely, for not only was the soup remedy working, but the little cabin, having every opening closed, was stiflingly hot. However, I stuck it out for a good two hours, till I felt I could stand it no longer; so I got up, unfastened my cabin door to get some air, and began rubbing myself down with a coa.r.s.e towel. Heavens! it felt delightful; for although my bones still ached, and I was very shaky on my legs, my head was better, and my spirits began to rise. I put on my pyjamas, went on deck, and had a look round. It was nearly dark, the rain had cleared off, a young moon was just lifting over the trees, and the little bay was as quiet as the grave--except for the cries of a colony of flying foxes which lived in a big _vi_ tree just a cable's length away from the cutter.

"I knew that the New Britain and New Ireland natives don't like going out after dark, and that if these people meant mischief to me, they would wait till just before daylight, when they would expect to find everyone on board asleep; so, feeling much better and stronger, I turned in at eight o'clock, and slept till past midnight. I made some coffee, drank it, and laid down again, dozing off every now and then till just before dawn. Then I heard a sudden rush on deck, followed by the most diabolical howls and yells as twenty or thirty n.i.g.g.e.rs jumped overboard with bleeding feet, many of them leaving their clubs lying on the deck.

I put my head out of the cabin, and gave them half a dozen revolver shots, but I'm afraid I didn't hit any of the beggars.

"I got away on the same morning, and made a fine run right across St.

George's Channel, and along the New Britain coast till I made Cape Roebuck. Once the cutter did a steady nine knots for thirty hours. After running on that reef, I did not drop anchor again till I brought up off a rocky beach a few miles from here; and there the n.i.g.g.e.rs made another try to get me, but the broken gla.s.s again proved effectual."

"It's a mighty smart dodge, Captain Yorke," said Guest, as we rose and shook hands with him, for he was going to sleep on board his own vessel.

Chapter III

We lay under the lee of the South Cape or New Britain for nearly a fortnight, during which time we effected all the necessary repairs to our own vessel, and fitted Yorke's cutter with a new rudder. So far he had not told us anything further of his intentions as regarded either the further prosecution of his trading voyage, or its abandonment.

At breakfast one morning, Guest told him that he (Yorke) could have a couple of our native hands to help him work the cutter to Manila, or any other port in the China Seas, if he so desired.

He stroked his big, square jaw meditatively.

"That is very kind of you, Captain Guest," he said; "but to tell you the exact truth, I don't know my own mind at this moment. I've a hazy sort of an idea that I'd like to keep the Fray Bentos company for a bit longer. I can outsail you in light winds--and I really don't care what I do now. And if you can spare me a couple of hands, I could jog along in company with you indefinitely. But, please understand me--I don't want to thrust myself and the _Francesco_ into your company if _you_ don't want_ me_. As a matter of fact, I don't care a straw where I go--but I certainly would like to keep in company with you, if you don't object.

Perhaps you would not mind telling me where you are bound?"

Guest looked at me interrogatively.

"Well, Captain Yorke," I said, "one confidence begets another; your confidence in us is worth a heap of money to Guest and myself, and, to be perfectly frank and straightforward with you, the captain and myself intended to lay a proposition before you whereby we three might possibly go into this New Hanover venture on our own hook. But Guest and myself are bound to our present employers for another seven months."

Yorke nodded. "That will be all right. I'm ready to go in with you, either at the end of seven months or at any other time which may suit you. You can count on me. I'm not a rich man, nor yet am I a poor man; in fact, there's a thousand pounds' worth of stuff under the _Francesco's_ hatches now."

"Well then, Captain Yorke," I said, "as Guest here leaves me to do all the talking, I'll tell you _why_ we are so far up to the northward, out of our usual beat. We heard in Samoa that a big s.h.i.+p, named the _Sarawak_ had run ash.o.r.e and been abandoned at Rook Island, in Dampier Straits, between the west end of New Britain and the east coast of New Guinea, and both Guest and myself know her to be one of the largest s.h.i.+ps out of Liverpool; she left Sydney for Hongkong about six months ago with a general cargo. And 'there be pickings,' for she is almost a new vessel, and her gear and fittings alone, independent of her cargo, ought to be worth a thousand pounds. All we could learn at Samoa was that she had run up on a ledge of reef on Rook Island, and that the skipper, with three boats' crews, had started off for Thursday Island, in Torres Straits. Now, it is quite likely that, if she has not broken up, there may be a lot of money hanging to it."

"For your owners!" said Yorke, with his slow, amused smile.

"Just so, Captain Yorke. 'For our owners,' as you say. But even our owners, who are rather 'sharp' people, are not a bad lot--they'll give Guest and myself a bonus of some sort if we do them good over this wrecked s.h.i.+p."

"And if you don't 'do them good'?" he asked, with the same half-humorous, half-sarcastic smile.

"If we don't, the senior partner in our highly-esteemed, sailor-sweating firm, will tell Guest and myself that we 'made a most reprehensible mistake,' and have put the firm to a considerable loss by doing too much on our own responsibility."

He nodded as I went on--"We heard of this wreck from the officers of a French cruiser which called at Samoa while we were there. They sighted her lying high and dry on the reef, sent a boat ash.o.r.e, and found her abandoned. She was bilged, but not badly, as far as they could see. On the cabin table was nailed a letter, written by the captain, saying that being unable to float the s.h.i.+p again, and fearing that he and his unarmed crew would be attacked by the savages, he was starting off in his boats for Thursday Island, the nearest port. Now, that is a big undertaking, and the chances are that the poor fellows never reached there. However, Guest and I thought so much of the matter that we hustled through our business in Samoa, and sailed the next day direct for Rook Island, instead of doing our usual cruise to the eastward. But we met with fearful weather coming up through the Solomon Group, lost our foretopmast, and strained badly. And here we are now, tied up by the nose off the South Cape of New Britain instead of being at Rook Island at work on that wreck."

Yorke thought a moment. "Well, gentlemen, let me come in with you--just for the fun of the thing. I don't want to get any money out of it, I a.s.sure you, and I'll lend you a hand with the wrecking work."

"Agreed," said Guest, extending his hand, "but only on this condition--whatever our owners give Drake and myself, we three divide equally."

"As you please, as you please," he said. "Now come aboard my little hooker, and have a look at what is in the hold."

We went on board the Francesco with him, and made an examination of her small but valuable cargo, and Guest and I agreed that he had underestimated its worth by quite four hundred or five hundred pounds--in fact, the whole cargo would sell in Sydney or San Francisco for about sixteen hundred pounds.

We sailed together that afternoon, the cutter getting under weigh first.

We had given Yorke three of our men--Napoleon the Tongan, and two other natives--and before ten minutes had pa.s.sed, Guest and everyone else on board the _Fray Bentos_ could see that the _Francesco_ could sail rings round our old brigantine, even in a stiff breeze, for the cutter drew as much water as we did, and had a big spread of canvas. By nightfall we were running before a l.u.s.ty south-east breeze, the cutter keeping about half a mile to windward of us, and taking in her gaff topsail, when it became dark, otherwise she would have run ahead of, and lost us before morning. At daylight, when I went on deck, she was within a cable's length, Yorke was steering--smoking as usual--and no one else was visible on deck.

I hailed him: "Good morning, Captain; where are your men?" "Taking it out in 'bunk, oh,'" he answered with a laugh. "I came on deck about two hours ago, and told them to turn in until four bells."

"You'll ruin them for the _Fray Bentos_, sir," cried our mate with grumbling good-humour. "Why don't you start one of 'em at the galley fire for your coffee!"

"Because I'm coming aboard you for it," was the reply. He hauled in the main-sheet, lashed the tiller, went quietly forward without awakening his native seamen, and put the staysail to windward. Then he came amids.h.i.+ps again to the main hatch, picked up the little dingy which was lying there, and, despite his bad hand, slid her over the cutter's rail into the water as if she were a toy, got in, and sculled over to the brigantine, leaving the cutter to take care of herself!

Charley King, the mate of the _Fray Bentos_ turned to me in astonishment. He was himself one of the finest built and most powerful men I had ever met, not thirty years of age, and had achieved a great reputation as a long-distance swimmer and good all-round athlete.

"Why, Mr. Drake, that dingy must weigh three hundred pounds, if she weighs an ounce, for she's heavy oak built! And yet with one gammy hand he can put her over the side as if she was made of brown paper."

Yorke sculled alongside, made fast to the main chains, clambered over the bulwarks, and stepped aboard in his usual quiet way, as if nothing out of the common had occurred, and asked the mate what he thought of the _Francesca_ as a sailer. King looked at him admiringly for a moment.

"She's a daisy, Captain Yorke.... but you oughtn't to have put your boat over the side by yourself, sir, with that bad hand of yours."

The big man laughed so genuinely, and with such an infectious ring in his voice, that even our Kanaka steward, who was bringing us our coffee, laughed too. The dingy, he said, was very light, and there was no need for him to call one of the men to help him. As we drank our coffee he chatted very freely with us, and drew our attention to the lovely effect caused by the rising sun upon a cl.u.s.ter of three or four small thickly-wooded islets, which lay between the two vessels and the mainland of New Britain, whereupon King, who had no romance in his composition, remarked that for his part he could not see much difference between one sunrise or sunset and another. "One means a lot of wind, and another none at all; one means decent weather and another means rotten weather, or middlin' weather."

"Ah, Mr. King, you look at everything from a sailor's point of view," he said good-naturedly. "Now, there's nothing gives me more pleasure than to watch a sunset and sunrise anywhere in the tropics--particularly if there's land in the foreground or background--I never miss a sunrise in the South Seas if I can help it."

Presently we began to talk of the voyage, and I asked him a question--which only at that moment occurred to me--concerning himself before we met.

"I wonder, Captain Yorke, when your crew were cut off, that it did not occur to you to run down the west coast of New Ireland, between it and New Britain, to Blanche Bay, where there is a German station, and where you could have obtained a.s.sistance. It would have been much easier for you instead of that long buffeting about on the east coast."

He made no answer at first, and I saw that his face had changed colour.

Then he answered slowly:

"Just so. I knew all about the Germans at Blanche Bay, but I did not want to go there--for very good reasons. Will you come aboard and have some breakfast with me? I'll send you back again any time you like; the sea is so smooth, as far as that goes, that I could run the cutter alongside, and let you step off on to your own deck."

Just as we were pus.h.i.+ng off from the brigantine, Guest came on deck, gla.s.s in hand, to have a look at the cl.u.s.ter of islands, at the same time calling out to Yorke and myself to wait a little. After scanning the islands from the deck, he went aloft for a better view, then descended and came aft again to the rail.

"Good morning, Captain Yorke. I've just been taking a look at those islands over there, and an idea has just come to me. But, first of all, are they marked on your chart? They are on mine, but not even named--just dots."

"Neither are they on my big sheet chart--and I have no other of this part of the Western Pacific."

"Well then, here's my idea. I see from aloft that there is a good-sized blue water lagoon there, and as likely as not there may be pearl-sh.e.l.l in it. Anyway, it's worth seeing into, and so if Drake and yourself like to take our boat and half a dozen men, you might have a look in there.

I can't see any houses, but at the same time, be careful. You can run in with the cutter pretty close, and then go ash.o.r.e in the boat. You are bound to find a pa.s.sage into the lagoon somewhere or other. I'll send Tim Rotumah and George" (two of our native crew who were good divers) "with you in the boat; they'll soon let you know if there is any sh.e.l.l in the lagoon. If there is, light a fire, and make a smoke, and I'll anchor the brigantine and come after you."

I was delighted with this, and at once returned on board, while Yorke went off to the cutter to give his crew their instructions. In ten or fifteen minutes the whaleboat was over the side awaiting me, manned by six of our native crew, all of whom were armed with Snider carbines and revolvers. Pus.h.i.+ng off from the _Fray Bentos_, we went alongside the _Francesco_ to pick up Yorke, who was waiting for the boat. As the wind had now fallen very light, he suggested to me to make a start at once, leaving the cutter in charge of Napoleon, with orders to anchor if it fell calm, and he was on easy soundings.

The morning was deliciously bright, clear, and, for those lat.i.tudes at that season of the year, very cool. As the boat skimmed over the placid surface of the ocean, "schools" of bright silvery gar-fish and countless thousands of small flying squid sprang into the air and fell with a simultaneous splash into the water on each side and ahead of us. Then "George," a merry-faced, broad-chested native of Anaa, in the Paumotu Islands, after an inquiring glance at me, broke out into a b.a.s.t.a.r.d Samoan-Tokelauan canoe song, with a swinging chorus, altering and improvising as he sang, showing his white teeth, as every now and then he smiled at Yorke and myself when making some humorous play upon the words of the original song, praising the former for his skill and bravery, and his killing of the man-eating savages of New Hanover, his great strength and stature, and his kindly heart--"a heart which groweth from his loins upwards to his throat."

Long, long years have pa.s.sed since that day, but I shall always remember how Yorke turned to me with a smile when at something George had sung, the rest of our crew burst into approving laughter.

"What is he saying about me?--of course I can recognise that 'Ioka'

means 'Yorke,'" he said.