Masterman Ready; Or, The Wreck of the Pacific

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.

  "Well, Ready," said Mr Seagrave, after breakfast, "which is to be ournext job?"

  "Why, sir, I think we had better all set to, to collect the branches andends of the cocoa-nut trees cut down, and stack them for fuel. Tommyand Juno have already made a good large pile, and I think, by to-night,we shall have made the stack, and so arranged it that the rain will notget into it much. After that, as the weather will not permit us toleave the house for any time, we will cut our salt-pan and make ourfish-pond; they will take a week at least, and then we shall have littlemore to do near home. I think the strength of the rains is overalready, and perhaps in a fortnight we may venture to walk through thewood, and examine what we have saved from the wreck."

  "And we are to explore the island; are we not, Ready?" said William. "Ilong to do that."

  "Yes, William, but that must be almost the last job; for we shall beaway for two or three nights, perhaps, and we must look out for fineweather. We will, however, do that before we bring the stores round inthe boat."

  "But how are we to make the salt-pan, Ready? We must cut it out of thesolid rock."

  "Yes, William; but I have three or four of what they call cold chisels,and with one of them and a hammer, we shall get on faster than youthink; for the coral rock, although hard at the surface, is soft alittle below it."

  The whole of that day was employed in piling up the cocoa-nut branchesand wood. Ready made a square stack, like a haystack, with a gable top,over which he tied the long branches, so that the rain would pour offit.

  "There," said Ready, as he came down the ladder, "that will be ourprovision for next year; we have quite enough left to go on with tillthe rainy season is over, and we shall have no difficulty in collectingit afterwards when the weather is dry."

  Mr Seagrave sighed and looked grave; Ready observed it, and said, "MrSeagrave, it is not that we may want it; but still we must prepare forthe next rainy season, in case we do want it. That Captain Osborn, ifhe lives, will send to look for us, I have no doubt; nay, I believe thatMackintosh will do the same; but still you must not forget that they allmay have perished, although we have been so mercifully preserved. Wemust put our trust in God, sir."

  "We must, Ready; and if it is his will, we must not murmur. I haveschooled myself as much as possible; but thoughts will come in spite ofmy endeavours to restrain them."

  "Of course they will, sir; that's natural: however, sir, you must hopefor the best; fretting is no good, and it is sinful."

  "I feel it is, Ready; and when I see how patient, and even happy, mywife is under such privations, I am angry with myself."

  "A woman, sir, bears adversity better than a man. A woman is all love,and if she has but her husband and children with her, and in goodhealth, she will make herself happy almost anywhere: but men aredifferent: they cannot bear being shut out of the world as you are now."

  "It is our ambition which makes us unhappy, Ready," replied MrSeagrave; "but let us say no more about it: God must dispose of me as hethinks fit."

  After supper, Ready, being requested by William, continued hisnarrative.

  "I left off, if I recollect right, William, just as the Hottentot, withthe cattle under his care, had frightened away the baboons who weretormenting us. Well, we came out of the cave and sat down under therock, so that the Hottentot could not see us, and we had a sort ofcouncil of war. Romer was for going back and giving ourselves up again;for he said it was ridiculous to be wandering about without any arms todefend ourselves against wild beasts, and that we might fall in withsomething worse than the baboons very soon; and he was right. It wouldhave been the wisest thing which we could have done; but Hastings said,that if we went back we should be laughed at, and the idea of beinglaughed at made us all agree that we would not. Bear this in mind,William, and never let the fear of ridicule induce you to do what iswrong; or if you have done wrong, prevent you from returning to what isyour duty."

  "Many thanks for your advice, Ready; I hope William will not forget it,"said Mr Seagrave.

  "Well, sir, such was our reason for not giving up our mad scheme; andhaving so decided, the next point of consultation between us was, how wewere to procure arms and ammunition, which we could not do without. Aswe were talking this over, I peeped from behind the rock to see wherethe Hottentot might be; I perceived that he had laid himself down, andwrapped himself up in his kross, a mantle of sheep-skins which theyalways wear. Now we had observed that he carried his musket in hishand, when we first saw him, as the Hottentots always go out armed, andI pointed out to Hastings and Romer that if he was asleep, we might getpossession of his musket without his perceiving it. This was a goodidea, and Hastings said he would crawl to him on his hands and knees,while we remained behind the rock. He did so very cautiously, and foundthe man's head covered up in his kross and fast asleep; so there was nofear, for the Hottentots are very hard to wake at any time; that we knewwell. Hastings first took the musket and carried it away out of thereach of the Hottentot, and then he returned to him, cut the leatherthong which slung his powder-horn and ammunition, and retreated with allof them without disturbing the man from his sleep. We were quiteoverjoyed at this piece of good luck, and determined to walk verycautiously some distance from where the Hottentot lay, that in case heawoke he should not see us. Keeping our eyes about in every direction,lest we should meet with anybody else, we proceeded nearly a miletowards Table Bay, when we fell in with a stream of water. This wasanother happy discovery, for we were very thirsty; so we concealedourselves near the stream after we had quenched our thirst, and made adinner off the provisions we had brought with us."

  "But, Ready, did you not do wrong to steal the Hottentot's musket?"

  "No, William; in that instance it could not be considered as a theft.We were in an enemy's country, trying to escape; we were therefore justas much at war with the country as we were when they took us prisoners,and we no more stole the musket than they could be said to have stolenour ship. Am I not right, Mr Seagrave?"

  "I believe you are justified in what may seem extreme acts for therecovery of your liberty, after you have been made prisoners. It hasalways been so considered."

  "Well, sir, to go on: we waited till dusk, and then we continued ourmarch towards False Bay as fast as we could. We knew that there werefarmers down in the valley, or rather on the sides of the hills, and wehoped to obtain, by some means or other, two more muskets. It was neartwelve o'clock at night, with a bright moon, when we had a sight of thewater in False Bay, and soon afterwards we heard the baying of a largedog, and not far from us we distinguished two or three farmhouses, withtheir cattle-folds and orchards. We then looked for a hiding-place,where we might remain till the morning; we found one between some largepieces of rock. We agreed that one should watch while the other twoslept; this Hastings undertook to do, as he was not inclined to sleep.At daylight he woke Romer and me, and we made our breakfast. From theplace we were concealed in, we had a bird's-eye view of the farmhouse,and of what was going on.

  "The farmhouse and buildings just below us were much smaller than theother two, which were more distant. We watched the people as they wentabout. In about an hour the Hottentots came out, and we perceived thatthey were yoking the oxen to the waggon; they yoked twelve pair, andthen the Hottentot driver got in and drove off towards Cape Town. Soonafter that, another Hottentot drove the cows up the valley to feed; andthen a Dutch woman came out of the house with two children, and fed thepoultry.

  "We watched for another hour, and then the farmer himself made hisappearance, with a pipe in his mouth, and sat down on a bench. When hispipe was out, he called to the house, and a Hottentot woman came to himwith more tobacco and a light. During the whole of the day we did notsee any other people about the house, so we concluded that there were nomore than the farmer, his wife, the Hottentot woman, and two children.About two hours after noon the farmer went to the stable and led out hishorse, mounted, and rode away; we saw him speak
to the Hottentot womanwhen he rode off, and she soon after went down the valley with a basketon her head, and a long knife in her hand. Then Hastings said it wastime that we moved, for there was but one woman in the house, and wecould easily overpower her and get what we wanted; still there was agreat risk, as she might give the alarm, and we should have to escape inthe day-time, and might be seen and taken prisoners again. However, asit was our only chance, we resolved to go down to the farmhouse verycautiously, and be all ready to seize any opportunity. We crept downthe hill, and gained the fence, which was at the back of the farmhouse,without being discovered: we remained there for about a quarter of anhour, when, to our great joy, we observed the farmer's wife go out ofthe house, leading a child in each hand; apparently she was going tovisit one of her neighbours, for she went in the direction of one of theother farms. As soon as she was a hundred yards off, Hastings creptsoftly through the fence, and entered the farmhouse by the back-door; hecame out again, and made a sign for us to come in. We found him alreadyin possession of a rifle and a musket, which had been hanging over thefire-place, and we soon handed down the powder-horns and ammunitionpouches, which were hung up at a different part of the room, away fromthe fire-place.

  "Having gained these, Hastings set me to watch at the front door, lestanybody should return, while Romer and he looked out for something elsein the way of provisions. We got possession of three hams, and a largeloaf of bread as big as a small washing-tub. With these articles wemade our way safe back to our retreat. We then looked round, and couldsee nobody in any direction, so we presumed that we were not discovered.As there was a sort of ravine full of rocks dividing the hill, which wewere obliged to pass before we could get into the valley, unless we wentdown close to the farmhouse, we agreed that it would be better at onceto cross it during the day-time, so that we should get that difficultyover, and, at the same time, be further from the farmhouse. We did so;and found a very secure hiding-place, where we lay down, waiting for thesun to set before we started on our journey into the interior. I thinkI had better leave off now, William, as it is getting late."