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Chapter VII.
Two Finds.

That noise to which Bob Ellis drew our attention was a sound with which we had now grown so familiar that we paid no heed to it, but at first it had somewhat bewildered, if not alarmed us, until we came to know what caused it.

We heard it first a very few nights after we were cast away upon the island, soon after we had managed to secure our two sails. We had turned in beneath their shelter, to sleep as best we could with the howling wind and the thundering of the sea, when we were aroused by a strange shrieking sort of whistle, a clamour of shrill sounds something like the gulls make, only far louder.

We sat up and stared at each other—at least, I suppose we stared, but as it was as dark as pitch we could not see each other's faces—and I heard Mickey say:

"Phwat's that, anyway, now ? "

"Sounds like birds."

"Birds be shot I What, birds at this time of night?"

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"May be owls."

"May be donkeys. Owls hoot; and, besides the place would want to be crowded with owls for them to make that row."

Then we turned out, but we could not see anything. But presently one of our number gave a cry, and went tumbling over.

"Who hit me like that ?" he demanded. And we all assured him that no one touched him.

"Someone or something knocked me down !" he declared.

And then someone else yelled, and clapped his hands to his eyes.

"Murder ! Something hit me in the eye, and has precious near knocked it out! "

And then a third man got struck; and all the time the air seemed filled with those shrieks and a strange whirring sound.

We got back to the tent and discussed the situation, and the general opinion was that the noise was caused by birds of some sort.

But what birds ? We could not discover a trace of them anywhere. There seemed to be no birds in the place except the mollyhawks, and certainly that row was not caused by them.

The next night we were not disturbed. I remember that it was moonlight that night. But the next it was overclouded and very dark, and we had it all over again—the shrieking, the whirring, and, if any ventured out, the blows from unseen assailants.

But we soon discovered the cause of all this, and then paid little attention to it, save that page 125few of us ventured out after dark for fear of getting our eyes knocked out.

There were other birds besides the molly-hawks on the island—lots of them—though I cannot tell you their proper name. We called them "night birds," for want of anything better.

They were little fellows about the size of a pigeon. They did not build nests, but lived in holes in the earth, where they burrowed precisely as a rabbit would do. They never came out in the daylight; only at night, when there was little or no moon, and they would fly round and round in circles, hundreds and hundreds of them, uttering their shrill cries, and making the most weird noise with their wings. They flew about five feet from the ground, and went so rapidly that they were a very real danger, coming with sufficient force to knock a man right down if he were struck in the face.

You may wonder why we did not use those birds for food. Perhaps we might have done so had we not had the mollyhawks, but, in the first place, they were far more difficult to procure, for it meant searching for their burrows, and, in the next, they were so small that by the time we had skinned them there would have been nothing left. So we kept to the mollyhawks, and let the night birds alone.

Now, what Ellis meant was that if we caught some of these night birds we could make needles from their bones; those of the molly-page 126hawks being far too big and thick for such a purpose.

Well, soon after we turned in and slept until daybreak, when we got up, replenished our fires, and, finishing our seal meat, we set out to visit the cliff and see what we could do.

Those amongst us who had experience instructed us in the best way of killing seals. A good thick stick was far more efficient than a knife—a strong blow with such an instrument just on the root of the nose being in most cases fatal.

So we armed ourselves with rough cudgels and off we set. And when we arrived at the spot we saw that there were several seals down below, and the sight so fired us that we forgot our fears, and started carefully down that awful ledge. One of the fellows was coming along with a line, but we did not stop to wait for his arrival. So eager were we to get to the beach that we scrambled down, taking risks which perhaps in calmer moments we might have shuddered at.

"Go quietly," was the word passed along as we were descending. "If we get making a noise, we shall scare them so that they will not come back again."

Each man as he arrived at the foot of the cliff waited quietly until all those who were going to wage war against the seals had assembled; then, dividing into parties, we made our way quietly and cautiously towards our prey, taking care to alarm them as little as possible. They seemed to have quite forgotten the page 127fright they had received the previous day, and regarded us with curious interest. They have wonderfully intelligent eyes—eyes that seemed to question you, as if they were asking what your business was and whether you were friend or foe.'

But that they soon knew. Hard as it seems, those seals had skins that we wanted, and flesh that we required, and so at last, when we had managed to get close enough for a rush, we darted upon them, and the battle began.

Not that we had it all our own way. Flip-flop a big fellow would come along growling and showing a remarkably business-like set of teeth, and more than one of our number got a nasty bite; whilst others were ignominiously upset, and sent rolling over on the hard shingly beach.

The females who had young ones tried hard to get them away, and the old males were by no means without courage; but the fight was in our favour, although we had not come off scatheless.

However, no one thought much of a cut or bruise; and at last we had the beach to ourselves, and we had three or four fine seals to show for our labours. Had it not been that we wanted their skins, we might not have killed so many at once; but we knew that, cold as the weather was now, the flesh would keep good for some time.

So we gathered up our spoils and hauled the carcases up the cliff, and with the skins page 128and flesh we went back to our camp, more than satisfied with our morning's labours.

We had no means of curing the skins properly; all we could do was to stretch them on rough frames, scrape them as clean as possible, and keep them near by the smoke of our fires, which, after two or three days, dried them sufficiently to answer our purpose.

We were now in the middle of June, and the weather was at its very worst. There was not a day but it poured with rain, whilst the sea was terribly rough—so rough that, although we scanned the horizon for any signs of a ship, we had not the smallest expectation of seeing a sail.

Now that we had some skins to commence with, we captured some of the night birds and made needles out of their bones, which we scraped clean and rubbed down to a point, and then worked eyes through them so that they were almost as serviceable as the needles which are bought at shops. Of course, they were coarser and more clumsy, but that was an advantage, for we had to use threads of sailcloth to sew with, and as our material was thick sealskin an ordinary needle would have been no good for the work.

We made boots and caps and coats, and we sewed together the skins of the slaughtered mollyhawks, of which we had now a large number, and made very warm and comfortable sleeping blankets from them.

We divided our huts into five camps, and each camp had to keep its own fire going.

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Two men in each camp used to take turn about in banking the fire and lighting it next morning, and we used to do our own cooking...

We would go out, catch about ten birds each, and tramp home again. Then we would go and get a couple" of loads of wood, and then come back and-do our own cooking. We had brought as much wood as we could to the camp before the worst of the winter came, so that we could manage for a week or two in the event of our getting snowed up—and that was a thing which might very easily happen.

We were quite busy, and feeling better than we had done yet, and we were decidedly more comfortable, but—ah, we seemed as far as ever from reaching Auckland Island itself, and unless we could do that we might live and die in this dreary spot.

We used to talk of that as we sat working —indeed, we talked of little else now; but for all our talking we were no nearer the accomplishment of our desire.

"There is one thing we have got to ' remember," said Bob Ellis one day as we were discussing the subject." Auckland Island is a big place, and it may be some time before we stumble upon the depot, providing we manage to cross to it. You have got fire and shelter here, but over there you won't have either. It's my belief that we are better off where we are."

"That's all very well, Ellis, but we can't stay here for ever," I answered, and Judge nodded as I turned back to my task. I may page 130here say that I wore a pair of sealskin boots which I made on Disappointment Island, and trousers which I sewed together with one of the bird-bone needles, and which were cut out of a bit of old sailcloth with a knife for a pair of scissors. I only tell you that so that you can understand the sort of things we made. I have a picture, too, of the Dundonald, taken from one which one of the fellows drew—if you could call it drawing —for he got a little scrap of tin and punched out the picture with a nail and hammer; but that was not until we had reached the depot on Auckland Isle, some time after.

"Sure, it's meself that don't want to stay here for ever!" groaned Mickey." It's a blessed island over there, with all sorts of nice things, if we can only get them."

"We shall have to go from here presently," Judge put in, "whether we like it or not— for food will give out !"

"Food ! Why, there are plenty of birds here, Judge !" I cried, and he nodded.

There was plenty, indeed, seeing that we ate on an average seventy-five a day between us—five each man.

"I expect that we shall find them getting scarcer soon," he said. "They are getting older, and will leave the island presently, and not return until the next breeding season."

We looked blank at this. If the mollyhawks went, what were we to do ? It is true there were the seals, but they were uncertain, and page 131we knew that at certain seasons they would go. We had not thought of that before.

"We come back to the old question," said Mr. Maclaghlan: "How can we build either a boat or raft out of the stuff which grows on this wretched island ? "

"We can't. Why, there isn't a bit of wood in the place that will float. It sinks like iron," interposed Mickey, and he was right in that— the wood was so heavy that it would not float.

"That would not matter if we could only fashion a boat. Iron is heavier than water, and yet ships are made of iron."

"That's true, anyway," Mickey confessed. "But there, what's the good of talking—we haven't got the wood, and we haven't got the tools; there is an end of it."

"We hadn't got tools to build our huts, but we built them," I said.

"True for you, Charlie; but it's solid earth we had to deal with then, and not salt water. You can't go scratching the waves up with your fingers, you know."

"What Cockney says is true," said Findlow. "We got over that difficulty, and if we only had the wood we might get over being without tools. There is the best tool of all"—and he nodded towards the fire." We can shape wood with fire, we can make holes for wooden pegs in place of nails with fire, we can hollow out trunks of trees with fire, and——"

"And you can't find the trees to hollow out," interrupted Mickey. "So what's the use of talking, about it ? There's that island, page 132and here are we, and unless we can fly like birds, or swim like fish, that's about as near to it as we are likely to get."

"Hallo, what have I got in my pocket!" exclaimed Herman Queerfelt at this moment. He had been making himself a jacket, and had taken off his old waistcoat, all rags now, and in the lining of it he felt something.

"It isn't a boat, is it now?" queried Judge, and Mickey added:

"Nor the timber to build one, eh?"

No, neither boat nor timber—only a very trivial find—just six little wax vestas, which must have got there through a hole in his waistcoat-pocket. They were all bent and broken, but they had the heads on them, and some of us uttered a cry of delight when we saw them.

"Take care of them ! Are they very wet?"

Of course they were wet, but that was soon got over. By placing them at a judicious distance from the fire they were safely dried, and then carefully stowed away in a little tin box. Six common vestas ! Who would trouble about them here in England ? But away there on Disappointment Island they were of far more value to us than a waggon-load of diamonds would have been.

"That is an answer to the question about fire, if we manage to get across, "remarked Mr. Maclaghlan." These must be carefully kept. They may mean all the difference between success and failure, in the event,, of reaching Auckland Island."

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That is how it always was. No matter what we were doing or discussing, sooner or later we found ourselves back at that point— how could we reach Auckland Island ? And here we found ourselves hopelessly checked.

"Well, the birds will be getting scarce presently," I said. "They are getting older now, and will soon be on the wing. The seals, too, are beginning to know, and directly they catch sight of any of us they make for the water like one John Smith, so we have got to get some somehow, or starve."

"Starve is about the truth of it, unless we can think of some way of getting across to the other island," said someone," and it is by no means certain that things will be any better when we get there."

"They can't be much worse," Judge put in.

"No, I suppose not," I answered, for, in truth, things were pretty black." But what is the use of talking ? How are we to get there ? "

"There is only one thing that I can think of," said Judge thoughtfully." We have still got a good bit of canvas, though it is cut up for clothes. Why not try and make a canvas boat ? If we could only get a dozen pieces of wood shaped as near a triangle as possible we might manage it."

"A canvas boat!" he was answered, and the speaker cast his eyes over that expanse of troubled sea between us and the Island of Dreams. "A canvas boat ! Even if page 134such a thing could be made, who is going to venture across that six miles of sea in such a frail craft ? "

"Nothing venture, nothing have," I replied. "You can see for yourselves that it is death to stay here much longer. Starvation is staring us in the face. It is only death a little sooner, if the worst comes to the worst."

"But where are we to get the wood ?" came the next query; and the answer came readily from Judge's lips.

"Reckon we shall have to look for it. If the thing is worth doing it is worth taking a bit of trouble over."

"It's a great idea, Judge," I declared. "It's the best we had had up to yet. We are agreed that it is hopeless to look for timber to build a raft, but we have got the canvas handy. I reckon that we had better explore the island thoroughly, and see if we can't find some wood suitable for the purpose."

But it was not to be wondered at, that, desperate as our plight was, some of the fellows shrank back from the prospect of taking a journey in a craft of that kind.

All day long great seas were rolling in, seas which did not wait to get near the rocks before they broke, but which broke a long distance out, and came rushing in a mass of seething, hissing breakers.

It would not be easy to launch such a boat, and it would be far harder to beach it the other side, even if the voyage was successfully page 135made, did the shore in any way resemble the beach on Disappointment Island—and we had no reason to expect that we should find it any different.

That afternoon the question was fully discussed round the fire, and while some shook their heads and declared that no such craft could possibly live the passage out, others seemed inclined to view the matter in a more favourable light, and they declared that it was the best idea which had been suggested up to then.

The next day we abandoned our sewing, and started out in parties to explore and see if we could come across anything which would be suitable for the framework of a canvas canoe; but though we wandered all over the place, it was to come back in the evening with the tidings that none of us had seen anything that would in any way be suitable for the purpose. Our canvas boat idea seemed as likely to fall to the ground as all previous suggestions had done.

"If we had only got some planks from the wreck," sighed Walters. "To think of all that good timber having drifted away !"

"No good wishing for what we haven't got, "he was answered," or we might as well wish for the Dundonald herself. We couldn't get the timber. Our try for the spar took two days, and we lost it in the end"

"That sort of wood would not serve us now," added Bob Ellis."We would want the carpenter's chest to do anything with it. page 136The only thing is to keep up our courage, and keep our eyes open for anything likely to serve our purpose."

It must not be wondered at that we were prone to despair—our plight was so desperate, and we were so weary of our imprisonment on this barren, storm-swept island. Looking back at it all now, to my mind the wonder' is not that we gave way to despair, but that we yielded so little to its influence, and were so ready to seize on anything, no matter how trivial, about which to jest. Accidents were laughed at; and, taking it all round, anything in the nature of ill-temper or quarrelling was very rarely seen amongst us.

So June passed away, and never once did our eyes see sign of sail on the vast expanse of stormy sea, and July set in.

July! Glorious, sunny July away in old England, when the holidays are on, and folk are trooping off to the sea, to sail its waves, to bathe, and lounge about on its sands. It seemed impossible that they and we could be in the same world. July ! Bitter cold, with snow and sleet and storms day after day. But we were a little better off. Our sealskin boots comforted our poor, torn feet, and were warm and nice; and our rough-and ready clothing, though it was awful to look at from a tailor's point of view, was serviceable; and, best of all, we were all much stronger in body, so that we did not feel as if we should drop down if we tried to walk a mile or two.

We had paid several visits to our sealing page 137station, and upon each occasion we came back with something to reward our labours; but, that which was now supreme in our minds we, did not succeed in finding—anything in the nature of wood which would be at once pliant enough, and stout enough, to make some sort of a frame for our canvas boat.

But even that came at last. The Chilian was the man who first caught sight of what we wanted.

He had wandered off by himself—we were all of us given to doing that. The fit would come upon a man suddenly, and off he would go from the others, taking a day's supply of food with him, and wandering about aimlessly, though always keeping his eyes open to see if there was anything which would be likely to be of use to us.

Well, the Chilian wandered off—by the way, we had nicknamed him the" Black Prince" on account of his swarthy appearance—and in the course of his wanderings he came to some bushes which were not quite like the stuff we had to use for fuel. It was all twisted this way and that like a lot of writhing serpents, and when he examined a bit, he found it to be both tough and fairly light. Santiago pondered over it for some time, and then he came to the conclusion that it might serve for our purpose. At any rate, it was nearer the mark than anything which we had come across yet. So back he came tramping towards the camp, with a piece of the stuff over his shoulder, and when he drew near he was seen, and the page 138word was passed along that Santiago had found something.

We didn't know what, but we could see that he had got something, and we knew that he would not trouble to bring it back with him unless he had an idea that it would be of service to us.

"What have you got there ?" he was hailed long before he reached us, and he answered by holding up his find, and shouting in his broken English:

"Piece wood !"

Wood! My word, we just crowded round him as eagerly, nay, more eagerly, than if he had said a nugget of gold. I wonder if you can form any idea of it as you sit reading this story ? Only a rough branch of dark, thorny wood. The sort of thing you might pick up any day, if you walked in Epping Forest, and then pitch away as being no good to anyone. It was a piece bent in the middle to very near a right angle, making it look something like a rough sort of boomerang; but the whole crowd of us hung over it, and handled it, and expressed our opinions that if there was enough of it, it was just the very thing which we needed. Only a piece of rough wood, but we would rather have had that, and some more like it, than all the wealth of the Bank of England, though no one here would have given a shilling for a cartload of it. Truly the proverb is right which says" Circumstances alter cases."

"Now," said Judge, as he looked at it," the page 139question is, can we find a dozen pieces, something of the same shape, all bent like this, and about this size ? If we can do that, we are well on the way to getting our boat built."

"Aisy now ! It's straight pieces that we shall be after wanting," put in Mickey, and Judge laughed at him.

"There you are wrong, Mickey. What's the use of straight pieces when we would be at the trouble of bending them ? For, look you, you see how this piece bends round ?"

"I'd not have eyes in my head if I didn't," Mickey confessed.

"Well, my idea is this," Judge went on. "We want to get a dozen pieces like this and clean 'em of all twigs—just give 'em a turn in the fire if need be. Then we must seize the ends of two together, and there you will have one straight piece, turned up at both ends."

"That's all right so far," his listeners agreed. "Go on, Judge."

"Can't you see ? If you have six pieces like that, all you will have to do is to seize straight pieces from one to the other, where they are, fastened, and you will have the ribs and keel of the boat. Get them seized strongly, see that there is no danger of them falling apart, and it won't take much trouble to weave other pieces in and out, so as to form a frame upon which to stretch the canvas. Buck up, lads ! We have got to go and look for pieces like this one. We will get over to the other island yet."

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How his words inspired us. We set out guided by the Chilian, and when we got to the place where he had found the wood, we saw there was a good supply to choose from.

We set to work with good hearts, picking and choosing, and presently we had about twice as many bent pieces as we wanted, and also a good lot of other pieces for the keel.

We got back to camp, and showed the other fellows our treasures, and then, after a good meal of seal flesh and mollyhawk, we turned in, all of one mind to be up as soon as day broke, and to commence the boat which was to carry us to the Island of Dreams.