The Crew of the Water Wagtail by Robert Michael Ballantyne (first ebook reader .txt) 📕

the best part of it, and to reduce that portion from a massive trunk to suitably slender proportions. It was much the same with the arrows and cross-bow bolts. However, there was resolution and perseverance in each member of the party far more than sufficient to overcome such little difficulties; only, as we have said, they were slower about it than had been expected, and the work was far from completed when the descent of night obliged them to seek repose.

"Not a bad little bower," remarked Paul, as they sat down to supper in the primitive edifice which Oliver had erected.

The said bower was about four feet high, eight wide, and five deep, of irregular form, with three sides and a roof; walls and roof being of the same material--branchy, leafy, and turfy. The fourth side was an open space in which the inhabitants sat, facing the fire. The latter, being large enough to roast a sheep whole, was built outside.

"Why, Olly, you're a selfish fellow," said the captain, during a pause in the meal; "you've thought only of yourself in building this bower. Just look at Paul's feet. They are sticking out ten or twelve inches beyond our shelter!"

"That comes of his being so tall, daddy. But it does not matter much. If it should come on to rain he can draw his feet inside; there's room enough to double up. Don't you think so, Paul?"

But Paul replied not, save by a gentle snore, for he was a healthy man, and child-like in many respects, especially in the matter of going off to the land of Nod the moment his head touched his pillow. Possibly the fresh air, the excitement, the energy with which he had wrought, and the relish with which he had supped, intensified this tendency on the present occasion. Oliver very soon followed his friend's example, and so Captain Trench was left to meditate beside the fire. He gazed into its glowing embers, or sometimes glanced beyond it towards an open space where a tiny rivulet glittered in the moonlight, and a little cascade sent its purling music into the still air.

Ere long he passed from the meditative to the blinking stage. Then he turned his eyes on the sleepers, smiled meekly once or twice and nodded to them--quite inadvertently! After that he stretched his bulky frame beside them, and resigned himself to repose.

Now, it is probable that we should have had nothing more to record in reference to that first night in Newfoundland if Captain Trench had been in the habit of taking his rest like ordinary mortals, but such was not his habit. He bounced in his sleep! Why he did so no one could ever find out. He himself denied the "soft impeachment," and, in his waking moments, was wont to express disbelief as well as profound ignorance in regard to the subject. Several broken beds, however, had, in the course of his career, testified against him; but, like the man who blamed "the salmon," not "the whisky," for his headaches, Trench blamed "the beds," not "the bouncing," for his misfortunes.

One might have counted him safe with the solid earth of Newfoundland for his bed, but danger often lurks where least expected. Oliver Trench was not an architect either by nature or training. His bower had been erected on several false principles. The bouncing of a big man inside was too much for its infirm constitution. Its weak points were discovered by the captain. A bounce into one of its salient supports proved fatal, and the structure finally collapsed, burying its family in a compost of earth and herbage.

With a roar that would have done credit to a native walrus, the captain struggled to free himself, under the impression that a band of savages had attacked them. All three quickly threw off the comparatively light material that covered them, and stood in warlike attitudes for a few seconds, glancing around for foes who did not exist! Then the roar of alarm was transformed into shouts of laughter, but these were quickly checked by a real foe who crept up insidiously and leaped on them unexpectedly. The half-extinguished fire, having been replenished by the falling structure--much of which was dry and inflammable--caught on the roof and flashed down into the interior.

"Save the pork, lad!" shouted the captain, as he sprang out of the kindling mass.

"Ay, ay, father," replied the son.

Paul meanwhile grasped the half-finished bows and arrows in his arms, and thus their little all was rescued from the flames. Of course, the bower was utterly consumed, but that caused them little grief. Having extinguished the flames, they all lay down to finish off the night under a neighbouring tree, and even its architect became so oblivious of what had occurred that he employed the remainder of his slumbering hours in dreaming of the home in old England, and of that dear mother whose last letter was still carefully guarded in the pocket of the coat that covered his ardent little bosom.


CHAPTER SEVEN.


THEY BEGIN THEIR TRAVELS IN EARNEST.

When their weapons were complete our three travellers started on their journey of exploration in the new-found land.

Captain Trench armed himself with a strong, heavily-made cross-bow, and a birch-bark quiver full of bolts. Paul Burns carried a bow as long as himself, with a quiver full of the orthodox "cloth-yard shafts." Oliver provided himself with a bow and arrows more suited to his size, and, being naturally sanguine, he had also made for himself a sling with the cord he chanced to possess and the leathern tongue of one of his shoes. He likewise carried a heavy bludgeon, somewhat like a policeman's baton, which was slung at his side. Not content with this, he sought and obtained permission to carry the axe in his belt. Of course, none of the bolts or arrows had metal points; but that mattered little, as the wood of which they were made was very hard, and could be sharpened to a fine point; and, being feathered, the missiles flew straight to the mark when pointed in the right direction.

"Now, captain," said Paul, on the morning they set out, "let's see what you can do with your cross-bow at the first bird you meet. I mean the first eatable bird; for I have no heart to kill the little twitterers around us for the mere sake of practice."

"That will I right gladly," said Trench, fixing his bow and string, and inserting a bolt with a confident air.

"And there's a chance, daddy! See! a bird that seems to wish to be shot, it sits so quietly on the tree."

The seaman raised his weapon slowly to his shoulder, shut the wrong eye, glared at the bird with the other, took a long unsteady aim, and sent his bolt high over the creature's head, as well as very much to one side.

"Might have been worse!" said the captain.

"Might have been better," returned Paul, with equal truth. "Now it's my turn."

The bird, all ignorant of the fate intended for it, sat still, apparently in surprise.

Paul drew his cloth-yard shaft to his ear and let fly. It went apparently in search of the captain's bolt.

"Now me!" cried the impatient Olly, in a hoarse whisper, as he placed a stone in the sling and whirled it round his head. His companions drew off! There was a "burring" noise as the stone sped on its mission and struck the tree-stem with a sounding crack, three yards from the bird, which, learning wisdom from experience, at last took wing.

In anticipation of their chance coming round again, both Paul and the captain had got ready their artillery, and Oliver hastily put another stone in his sling. A look and exclamation of disappointment were given by each as the bird vanished, but just at that moment a large rabbit darted across their path. Whiz! twang! burr! went bolt and bow and stone, and that rabbit, pierced in head and heart, and smitten on flank, fell to rise no more.

"Strange!" said Trench, in open-mouthed surprise, "I've often heard of coincidences, but I never did see or hear of the like of that."

"All three to hit it at once!" exclaimed Paul.

"Ay, and all three of us doin' our best to hit it, too," exclaimed Oliver.

"Just so--that's the puzzle, lad," rejoined the captain. "If we had been tryin' to hit something else now, there would have been nothing strange about it! But to hit what we all aimed at--"

Apparently the captain failed to find words adequately to express his ideas, for he did not finish the sentence; meanwhile Paul picked up the rabbit and attached it to his belt. After this, advancing through the woods in a north-westerly direction, they made for a somewhat elevated ridge, hoping to obtain from that point a more extended view of the land.

Towards noon, feeling hungry, they began to look out for a suitable spot whereon to lunch, or rather to dine; for while travelling on foot in wild countries men usually find it convenient to take a very substantial meal about, or soon after, noon.

"To have water handy," remarked Paul, as they stopped to look round, "is essential to comfort as well as cookery."

"Look there, away to the nor'-west o' that bunch o' trees," said the captain, pointing to a distant spot, "there's a depression in the ground there; and from the lie o' the land all round I should say we shall find a stream o' some sort near it."

"I hope so," said Oliver; "for I shall want water to wash the rabbit with, and I have a strong hope that we may find fish in the rivers of this land, and although my hooks are big, I think the fish may not be particular, seein' that they have never before been tempted in that way."

"That's true, Olly; I hope you won't be disappointed. But what makes you want to wash the rabbit, my boy?" asked the captain; "it is not dirty?"

"Perhaps not; but I don't quite relish the dirty work of cleaning out a rabbit before cooking it, so I want to try the plan of cutting it open, holding it under water, and scraping out the inside while in that position."

"My son, you won't be so particular when you've been a few weeks huntin' in the wild woods. But what about the hair?"

"Oh, we can singe that off, daddy."

"What! singe off wet hair? And the skin--I doubt we might find that tough?"

The young cook--for such he became to the exploring expedition--looked puzzled.

"I never skinned a rabbit," he said, "but no doubt it is easy enough. I'll just cut it open at the head--or tail--and pull it off like a glove."

"Not quite so easily done as that" remarked Paul, with a laugh; "but I happen to know something about skinning birds and beasts, Olly, so make your mind easy. I will show you how to do it."

"You happen to know something about almost everything, I think," said the captain. "Tell me now, d'ye happen to know what sort o' beast it is that I see starin' at us over the bushes yonder?"

"No, Master Trench, I do not;