Masterman Ready; Or, The Wreck of the Pacific

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

  "Oh! how beautiful!" exclaimed William, at last; "I'm sure mamma wouldlike to live here. I thought the other side of the island very pretty,but it's nothing compared to this."

  "It is very beautiful," replied Ready, thoughtfully.

  A more lovely scene could scarcely be imagined. The cocoa-nut groveterminated about a quarter of a mile from the beach, very abruptly, forthere was a rapid descent for about thirty feet from where they stood tothe land below, on which was a mixture of little grass knolls andbrushwood, to about fifty yards from the water's edge, where it was metwith dazzling white sand, occasionally divided by narrow ridges of rockwhich ran inland. The water was a deep blue, except where it was brokeninto white foam on the reefs, which extended for miles from the beach,and the rocks of which now and then showed themselves above water. Onthe rocks were perched crowds of gannets and men-of-war birds, whileothers wheeled in the air, every now and then darting down into the bluesea, and bringing up in their bills a fish out of the shoals whichrippled the water, or bounded clear of it in their gambols. The form ofthe coast was that of a horse-shoe bay--two points of land covered withshrubs extending far out on each side. The line of the horizon, far outat sea, was clear and unbroken.

  Ready remained for some time without speaking; he scanned the horizonright and left, and then he turned his eyes along the land. At lastWilliam said:

  "What are you thinking of, Ready?"

  "Why, I am thinking that we must look for water as fast as we can."

  "But why are you so anxious?"

  "Because I can see no island to leeward of us as I expected, andtherefore there is less chance of getting off this island; and this bay,although very beautiful, is full of reefs, and I see no inlet, whichmakes it awkward for many reasons. But we cannot judge at first sight.Let us now sit down and take our dinner, and after that we will explorea little."

  Ready cut two wide marks in the stems of the cocoa-nut trees, and thendescended with William to the low ground, where they sat down to eattheir dinner. As soon as their meal was finished they first walked downto the water's edge, and Ready turned his eyes inland to see if he coulddiscover any little ravine or hollow which might be likely to containfresh water. "There are one or two places there," observed Ready,pointing to them with his finger, "where the water has run down in therainy season: we must examine them carefully, but not now. I want tofind out whether there is any means of getting our little boat throughthis reef of rocks, or otherwise we shall have very hard work (if wechange our abode to this spot) to bring all our stores through thatwood; so we will pass the rest of this day in examining the coast, andto-morrow we will try for fresh water."

  "Look at the dogs, Ready, they are drinking the sea-water, poor things!"

  "They won't drink much of that, I expect; you see they don't like italready."

  "How beautiful the corals are--look here, they grow like little treesunder the water,--and look here, here is really a flower in bloomgrowing on that rock just below the water."

  "Put your finger to it, Master William," said Ready.

  William did so, and the flower, as he called it, immediately shut up.

  "Why, it's flesh, and alive!"

  "Yes, it is; I have often seen them before: they call themsea-anemones--they are animals; but I don't know whether they areshell-fish or not. Now, let us walk out to the end of this point ofland, and see if we can discover any opening in the reef. The sun isgoing down, and we shall not have more than an hour's daylight, and thenwe must look out for a place to sleep in."

  "But what is that?" cried William, pointing to the sand--"that rounddark thing?"

  "That's what I'm very glad to see, William: it's a turtle. They come upabout this time in the evening to drop their eggs, and then they burythem in the sand."

  "Can't we catch them?"

  "Yes, we can catch them if we go about it quietly; but you must takecare not to go behind them, or they will throw such a shower of sandupon you, with their hind flappers or fins, that they would blind youand escape at the same time. The way to catch them is to get at theirheads and turn them over on their backs by one of the fore-fins, andthen they cannot turn back again."

  "Let us go and catch that one."

  "I should think it very foolish to do so, as we could not take it away,and it would die to-morrow from the heat of the sun."

  "I did not think of that, Ready; if we come to live here, I suppose weshall catch them whenever we want them."

  "No, we shall not, for they only come on shore in the breeding-season;but we will make a turtle pond somewhere which they cannot get out of,but which the sea flows into; and then when we catch them we will putthem into it, and have them ready for use as we require them."

  "That will be a very good plan," replied William.

  They now continued their walk, and, forcing their way through thebrushwood which grew thick upon the point of land, soon arrived at theend of it.

  "What is that out there?" said William, pointing to the right of wherethey stood.

  "That is another island, which I am very glad to see even in thatdirection, although it will not be so easy to gain it, if we are obligedto leave this for want of water. It is a much larger island than this,at all events," continued Ready, scanning the length of the horizon,along which he could see the tops of the trees.--"Well, we have donevery well for our first day, so we will go and look for a place to liedown and pass the night."

  They returned to the high ground where the cocoa-nut grove ended, andcollecting together several branches and piles of leaves, made a goodsoft bed under the trees.

  "And now we'll go to bed. Look, William, at the long shadow of thetrees the sun has nearly set."

  "Shall I give the dogs some water now, Ready? See, poor Remus islicking the sides of the bottles."

  "No, do not give them any: it appears to be cruel, but I want theintelligence of the poor animals to-morrow, and the want of water willmake them very keen, and we shall turn it to good account. So now,William, we must not forget to return thanks to a merciful God, and tobeg his care over us for this night. We little know what the day maybring forth. Good-night!"