The Bellmaker Part 18

"To keep miz Rosie quiet-if she starts laffin' we're all done for!"

Rufe was knocked from his feet as Pearl Queen shook 245.

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from stem to stern. He crawled over to Finnbarr. ' 'Is the shark attackin' our s.h.i.+p now?'' he said.

The sea otter watched the maneuvers of the great shark. "No, 'e's only playin' with us, sc.r.a.pin' his hide along the s.h.i.+p's sides, scratchin' hisself, y'might say. Sharks likes to do that now an' agin. Look out, 'ere comes the other sleepin' beauties, all waked up an' fit fer a fright."

The vessel juddered again under the impact of the shark's rubbing. Rosie Woodsorrel was knocked in a heap with the rest. She sat on the deck giggling aloud. "Whoo-hahahooh! I say, bit b.u.mpy t'day, wot? Whooha..." Rufe effectively gagged her by throwing himself bodily across her face.

"Miz Rosie, hush, please hus.h.!.+"

Log-a-Log lifted Rufe off Rosie. "What's the matter, young un?"

Rufe seized hold of Durry and Patch, pulling them to the rail. "It's a shark monster attackin* our s.h.i.+p!"

They grabbed the rail alongside Finnbarr as the vessel quivered under a heavy swipe from the shark's blunt snout. Finnbarr slapped the rail, exhaling loudly. "Well, 'e wasn't attackin' us afore; jus' bein' playful an' nosy. That was 'til you started laffin', marm!"

Rosie leaned over amids.h.i.+ps to view the ma.s.sive bulk of the shark. It could be seen clearly now by all the crew. From tip to tail it was nearly as long as Pearl Queen, a true monster of the deep, with rows of slitted gills on either side of the huge evil head, a white underbelly, and bluish-black back markings. With a powerful flick of its sickle-shaped tail it sped away from the s.h.i.+p.

Rosie waved. "Oh look, he's going. Good show, wot? Whoohahahooh!''

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Finnbarr gritted his teeth as he looked at Joseph. "Will yew stuff a gag down that long-eared foghorn's mouth, mate? That shark ain't goin'. 'E's just takin' a run so 'e kin charge us proper. All crew 'ang on tight!"

The shark came back like a juggernaut, spray flying from its fin as it headed straight at Pearl Queen's bows. Finnbarr leaped to the tiller, shoving it hard over in the same direction as the shark was traveling. It hit for'ard.

Whummmm!

Log-a-Log ran to Finnbarr* s a.s.sistance shouting, "Well done, Finn. You took most of the force out of that blow, goin' the same way the shark did!"

Durry had run for'ard. He shouted from the bowsprit, "The shark's gone under the water now, I can't see him!"

Pearl Queen shuddered fitfully. "It's underneath now, sc.r.a.ping along the keel," said Joseph, pointing down.

Finnbarr made ready with the tiller. "Tell me where 'e comes up agin an* 'ow 'e's comin' at us!"

Durry stayed for'ard, Joseph took the stern, while Rufe and Patch climbed into the lower rigging to port and starboard. Late-afternoon shadows lengthened on deck, sails flapped gently, and rigging creaked, as the four lookouts scanned the sea around them. Suddenly Durry called out, "Here it comes again, dead on for'ard!"

Finnbarr and Log-a-Log were quick this time; they shot the tiller hard aport and were rewarded by Durry's cheer. "Hurray! The shark never touched us that time!"

Silence again ...

Rosie sat with a towel in her mouth, eyes traveling back and forth. Joseph's paws gripped the rail; he shouted, "Look out, it's coming at us from astern ... No wait!... It's gone down again. Rufe! Over by you!"

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Rufe Brush anch.o.r.ed his tail around a spar, screaming, "The shark, the shark! Comin' starboard side amids.h.i.+ps!"

Again the sea otter and the shrew threw the tiller aport, Finnbarr muttering as they did, "Can't git outta the way much if the rogue belts us amids.h.i.+ps!"

Boooommmmf The entire s.h.i.+p shook sickeningly under the impact.

"Hog overboard, Durry's in the water!" somebeast yelled.

The shark was a short distance away. Feeling the agitation caused by Durry's thras.h.i.+ng paws, it homed in on him, heading straight and swift as an arrow. Durry was being swept along level with the mids.h.i.+ps as Joseph yelled out, "Get a line! Somebeast throw him a line!"

Already the Bellmaker was das.h.i.+ng to the rail. He saw it would be too late for Durry in a very short time. Without thinking he grabbed the nearest thing-Foremole. Grasping the mole's footpaws firmly, Joseph shot him out through a gap in the rails, shouting aloud, "Stretch out, Foremole! Durry, get hold of him quick!" The hedgehog practically leaped from the sea to grab Foremole's digging claws, and he held on like a leech.

"Oo urr yurr c.u.mms zurr shark!"

The vicious head lifted clear of the waves, mouth agape as it hurled itself at Durry. Joseph's grip on Foremole was like a vise. The powerful Bellmaker lifted back his head, roaring at the sky as he gave an almighty heave.

"Redwaaaalll!"

Thokk!

Foremole and Durry shot over Joseph's head, so great was the strength he put into his effort. All three collapsed 249.

in a heap on the deck, Joseph wriggling backward calling, "Look out, the shark-stay clear!"

The shark's head was stuck between the mids.h.i.+p rails. Pearl Queen listed heavily as the giant brute thrashed and pulled. Log-a-Log grabbed a boarding pike, Finnbarr unsheathed his swords, and together they charged the shark. Jumping from side to side, avoiding the snapping jaws and slas.h.i.+ng teeth, Finnbarr Galedeep attacked ferociously with both swords, hacking and thrusting at the monstrous head. The s.h.i.+p began heeling perilously as it pushed forward, wriggling its body, thrusting to get at its tormentor.

Log-a-Log saw Finnbarr slip and fall to the water-slicked deck, and with a wild cry he charged the shark.

' 'Logalogalogalogafog!''

The shrew Chieftain drove the pike hard into the fleshy area above the shark's mouth. With a dreadful rattling, hissing noise it recoiled sharply and fell free of the smashed rails into the sea. Pearl Queen bobbed upright, freed of the great weight, water running from her gunwales in torrents. The crew's mighty cheer was overshadowed by Fatch shouting from the rigging, "Finnbarr! Another shark, coming from astern!"

Sure enough, there was the deadly triangular fin of yet another sea monster plowing steadily toward Pearl Queen.

To the amazement of the crew, Finnbarr Galedeep began a little jig around the tiller. "Hahaharr, we're saved! Hohoho, good ole shark!"

Rosie took the towel from her mouth. "The poor chap's gone cuckoo. What's he laughin' at?"

Finnbarr sat on the tiller, swinging to and fro. "Haharr, 250.

you'll see, marm. Mad, am I? Watch that other shark!"

The other shark ignored the s.h.i.+p completely and headed right for the injured monster, scenting its blood in the water. The sea thrashed up red foam as predator attacked predator.

Joseph turned away from the sickening sight. "Now I know what you were laughing at, Finnbarr. The sharks are cannibals; they'll eat each other."

The otter resumed his position at the tiller. "Aye, they're scavengers. They'll attack anythin' that's bleedin' an' injured, Seabeasts don't know about pity. So now, Be 11 maker, ask the fates 'n' fortunes t' be good an' sail us inter land soon."

"Sail into land, what for?" Joseph appeared puzzled by the request.

The sea otter gave a rueful grin. "I knew the tiller wasn't workin' right-it didn't budge the Queen last time yon shark charged us amids.h.i.+ps. Now I knows why. That scurvy seabeast snapped our rudder clean off when it was attackin' us."

Joseph tested the tiller; it swung limply back and forth. "You mean that you can't control the vessel?"

"Aye, that's about the size of it, Joseph. We're at the mercy of the 'igh seas, matey, an' 'tis comin' on night too. I'll post lookouts in the riggin', and if they sights land we might be able to row an' scull, so's we kin 'elp pore ole Pearl Queen inter sh.o.r.e. Then I kin fix 'er up."

Fortunately the night seas lay calm, with little wind or breeze to carry the vessel one way or another. Rosie and Foremole took first watch aft, with two shrews standing for'ard. Foremole turned his gaze up to the star-strewn skies. After a lengthy spell, in which he attempted a star

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count, he turned to his companion.

"You'm be vurry soilent, marm. Be ee thinken?" he asked.

Rosie tossed an apple core overboard; it bobbed on the surface aimlessly. "What, er, oh yes, thinkin'. Hmm, can't help wonderin' how Tarquin is coping with the family back at Redwall. I'm a dreadful creature really, wot? Coin' off harum scarum, sailin* and questin', while poor old Tarkers is prob'ly workin' his paws to the bone lookin' after the family. There must be a lot of b.u.t.terfly in me somewhere."

Foremole scanned the dark horizon, his chin resting on both paws. "You'm b'aint no b.u.t.terflyer, marm. Us'n's are only a doin' our dooty, 'elpin' friends and followin' Martin's request. Zurr Tarquin an' ee liddle uns, hurr, oanly danger they be in is frumm eatin' too much. Yore fam'ly be a gurt lot safer at ee Abbey than us'n's out 'ere on ee gurt sea wi' no rudder to steer us."

The optimistic hare pulled another apple from her tunic and began munching happily. "You're right of course, old thing. I'll bet Tarquin and the family will be so bally tubby I won't recognize 'em when we return. Bunch of gluttons, scoffin' away at all that lovely food, without a thought of their poor mater starvin' out here on the deep. Wot?"

Foremole smiled as another apple core went sailing over the stern rail and plopped into the sea. "Hurr, you'm roight thurr, marm!"

25.

Joseph roused Durry, Rufe, and Patch for the dogwatch in the two hours before dawn. Rufe yawned and stretched mightily saying, "Looks like we've been bobbing up'n down in the same place all night to me."

Patch cast a weighted line over the side, noting its progress. "No, mate, we've been movin' all right, only slow, but steady."

Durry sniffed the still air appreciatively. "Wood b.u.m-in' in the galley, soon be breakfast time. I'm fair starved, an' that's a fact!"

They had not long to wait. Finnbarr appeared with a tray. "Some early vittles fer me gallant watchbeasts. Come on, mates, there's a bowl of 'ot veggible soup apiece an' some fresh baked bread. Tuck in!"

While they ate, Finnbarr's keen eyes spotted the telltale signs to the east in the early dawn light. "There 'tis, land ho, buckoes!"

Durry ran to the rail, bowl in paw. "Land-where? I can't see anything."

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The sea otter chided him merrily. "That's cos yer a cellar 'og from an Abbey, but we'll make a sailor of yer yet, young Quill. Ahoy, Patch, yore a waterbeast, show Durry the landfall."

The Guosim shrew pointed with a fresh bread crust. "East. See that bundle of gray cloud, matey? Well, it ain't cloud; that's land, though it don't look like much."

Finnbarr climbed into the rigging for a better view. "Aye, yer right, all rock an' cliff, but any ole port'll do fer rudderless ducks like us. Rufey, rouse all paws, we'll set sail fer any breeze t'carry us to it."

Under Finnbarr Galedeep's skillful navigation Pearl Queen hove alongside the high, grim rocks in bright morning sunlight. Log-a-Log stared up at the gray forbidding cliffs saying, "No place we can berth her around here, Finn!"

The sea otter took up a boarding pike. "That's a fact. Come on, crew, git pikes 'iT spars. We'll push 'er round these rocks until we finds a landing!"

Striving and sweating under the eye of the hot morning sun, the crew pushed at the rock face with pikes and spars. It was high noon when they found a landfall on the island. A rocky cove opening out into a forest-fringed beach, the high cliffs rearing either side of the entrance, it gave Pearl Queen scant leeway. Finnbarr winced as the vessel sc.r.a.ped through the opening with barely a splinter to spare; he called out orders to guide them through.

' 'Joseph, Durry, Rosie, git rope fenders o'er the sides to protect 'er. You aloft, turn those mast spars sideways or they'll be smashed. Fatch, sound the depth with a lead!"

Rufe had the best view of the incoming sh.o.r.e from his

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perch in the bows, and he could not believe his eyes. "s.h.i.+ps! Look, there's s.h.i.+ps in here, Finnbarr!"

And s.h.i.+ps there were, but none of them in any fit state to sail on the sea. They were all wrecks. Finnbarr cast an experienced eye over the hulks that littered the sh.o.r.eline where beach met cliff on both sides. "Harr, that's a sad sight, messmates! That'n there is a merchant s.h.i.+p, t'other side of it looks like a searat galley, an' lookit that, an' ole otter fis.h.i.+n' smack. 'Tis long seasons since I clapped eyes on one o* those!"

Joseph came up to stand beside Finnbarr. "But they're all wrecked beyond repair. What d'you suppose happened here, Finn?" he asked.

"Happened? Nothin', mate. They've all been thrown up 'ere by the sea, blown toward this island durin' storms an' forced through that gap in the rocks on floodtides. Ah well, mates, one beast's ill wind is another's good fortune. We'll soon find us a spankin' good rudder in this cove!"

Joseph scouted out a good axe, Log-a-Log took a broken and chipped sword to serve as a saw, and Finnbarr found his heavy mallet. Pearl Queen nosed into the soft sands of the shallows, and the trio of rudder finders prepared to wade ash.o.r.e. Rosie pouted a little. "Bit of a bore, wot, all of us cooped up here on board; we could be off into those woods lookin' for fresh water and provisions."

wagged a warning paw at her. "Stay where you are, Rosie Woodsorrel, and pay attention to Finnbarr. We don't want the crew wandering loose about this island, you never know what beasts may be lurking inland."

A rudder was found sticking from the stern of a high- 256.

beached wreck. They got to work immediately, and, using the mallet and the axe, Log-a-Log and Joseph unpinned it from its moorings. Finnbarr stood on the deck of the wreck. "This'n's been a fast Corsair craft in 'er day, single masted an* flat bottomed for coastal raidin'. Aye aye, why don't we use 'er mainmast to replace our broken one?"

Rufe and his two friends attached themselves to a party of shrews who came aboard to remove the mast. It was hard and heavy work under the hot noonday sun. Rosie had given up sulking and appointed herself cook. She and Foremole were in the galley inventing a huge mixed-fruit and honey pudding for the evening meal.

"Where's the candied chestnuts got to? Foremole, you villain, stop nibblin' them an' pa.s.s them here!"

The mole relinquished the nuts with a guilty smile. "Burr, they'm good uns, me an' ee Abbot picked 'em last autumn; they'm been soakin' in ee cask of hunny ever since. Ho urr, oi dearly do luv a good candy chesknutter, hoo aye!"

Rosie stuffed several in her mouth and spoke around them. "So do I. D'you think it's worth savin* any for the crew?''

Pearl Queen's crew worked late into the evening on Finnbarr's urging. "Fix 'er t'day, sail away tomorrer, mates, that's the ticket! Besides, I don't like 'angin' around on this island. I got a funny feelin* in me stum-mick about the place, 'tis too nice."

Joseph wielded the mallet, hammering home the last copper spikes that held the rudder brackets in place. He tested the tiller and found it swung well. ' 'There, a good The Betimaker 257.