Chapter XXVIII: Could He Be----Dead?

Gone the _Resolute_ most assuredly was. Hardly a timber of the old craft was left together, only a portion of the hull and some dark skeleton ribs pointing skywards through the white chaos of surf that boiled and swirled around them.

And the beach on both sides was strewed with wreckage.

"Frank," said Fred that same morning:

"I had a dream, a happy dream,
I dreamt that I was free;
That in a boat that we had built
We sailed across the sea."

"Bravo!" cried Frank, "I didn't know you were a born poet. Pass the sardines and the pickles, like a good boy. Fancy eating sardines in this world again. But, I say, you know, touching that dream, it is a real jolly one, and as soon as I've time I'll think it out Why shouldn't we, now that we have tools, commence to build a ship?"

"I don't see why we shouldn't really. But mind you it isn't quite such a simple business as you may imagine. She would require to be a biggish boat, you know, and there are two difficulties to be thought out at the very commencement.

"First and foremost, Fred, if we are going to build her close to the beach, we may reckon on getting our work all destroyed in the first gale of wind that blows; secondly, if we build her a safe distance from the sea, how are we to launch her?"

So no more was said about building a ship just then, but, nevertheless, the idea had taken root in the minds of all hands, and even Hurricane Bob pretended to look very wise when Cassia-bud broached the subject to him.

* * * * * *

It took our castaways three whole days to get their stores round to the place where the camp was, as they were mostly all removed by sea. But the planks of the wreck that they thought might one day come in handy were dragged off the beach, and piled in a heap far beyond the reach of the water.

While engaged at this work they suddenly came face to face with those awful brothers in death, the ironed skeletons. They were sitting on the beach, having evidently been floated out of the wreck on a piece of the deck. Sitting there bolt upright, their sightless eye-sockets turned towards the sea, the arm of one of them slightly raised, the fleshless fingers pointing towards the distant horizon.

"Why this is awful!" said Frank.

"Yes," said Fred, "and it seems to me those spectres will haunt us unless we bury them out of sight."

It was determined to do so at once therefore, and Magilvray and Fred set about digging a grave high up on the beach.

"Poor wretches," said Frank. "Suppose, Fred, we read the English burial service over them. They had sinned, but oh, they have suffered! Shall we?"

"You're a right good fellow, Frank. Yes."

Among the books brought on shore was a church service, and Frank, being more English than Fred, in a solemn voice read the service. The bodies were then lowered into the grave and covered up.

Some weeks after this they raised a cross above the spot where they lay, and carved the names of the unfortunate sailors on it.

"Those wretches may have had friends and relations in America, who may be even now waiting and waiting, and hoping and hoping, for their return. Who knows?"

That is what Fred said, as in company with his friend he left the lonesome grave to return to camp.

For two months after the destruction of the derelict the weather continued unsettled and heavy. A deal of rain fell occasionally, and there were at times storms of wind that appeared to shake the island to its very foundations.

One evening, on their return from the woods, where they had been cavy shooting, Frank seemed quieter and duller than usual.

"What's the matter, old man? You don't appear to be your own saucy self to-night at all."

Fred laughed a kind of a ready-made laugh.

"No, strangely enough," he said, "I feel dull in spirits. I don't know if I am looking old, but I really feel to be about ninety-three or ninety-four."

"It's best to be exact, old man," said Fred, "but a good dinner will set you as straight as a plummet."

The good dinner was all ready, but it did not set Frank straight.

He lay down soon after, and Fred really for once felt sorry that his bed was one of green boughs. He sat till nearly morning beside his friend, who was now in a high and raging fever.

From the very first Frank's illness assumed a vigorous type. He was quite delirious. Sometimes, indeed, it took all Quambo's force to keep him still. He raved too, talking constantly of home and of his mother, and even of his dead and gone father. Or at one moment he seemed to be far away among the stormy seas of Antarctic regions, and the next sailing in the little yacht _Water Baby_, with Toddie and Fred, on the wild and beautiful coast around Methlin.

For a whole week he continued thus, being nursed and watched constantly by Fred and the others. Then he became quieter, and his friend feared weaker also. His ravings now were far less wild. It almost broke Fred's heart to hear him talking so constantly about his mother and Toddie. It was always mother now or Toddie.

He grew weaker and weaker, in spite of all they could do for him.

But he knew those around him now, and was very seldom delirious. When he did sink into a moment's raving lethargy, he would keep repeating over and over again the words, "I'm going home; oh, I want so much to go home!"

One evening, while seated beside him, Fred thought he could see the hand of death busy on his face; then he broke down entirely, and sat sobbing and weeping beside Frank's couch of boughs, as if surely his heart would break.

Frank awoke, and seeing Fred crying, stretched out his hand to him.

"Don't cry, poor Fred," he said, "We're brothers yet."

"Ay," said Fred, "brothers ever."

"Brothers till death," Frank muttered.

"Oh, Frank, Frank, do not talk thus! I will not, I cannot let you go!"

It did seem, nevertheless, that poor Frank was going home that night.

The scene in that tent of boughs was a strange but a solemn one; the sick lad--he was not yet twenty years of age--lying on the couch in the corner, with sad-faced Fred holding his hand as he squatted near him, little Cassia-bud sitting dolefully by the door, Quambo towering high above him, and the great dog, as sad as anyone, lying on the floor watching all. The lamp gave but a feeble light, for it was shaded by green branches; and this only added additional gloom to everything around.

"Are you there, Fred?"

It was Frank's voice, though it sounded very weak and very far away.

"I'm by you, dear Frank."

"Isn't it very dark?"

Fred's heart gave an uneasy thud. Had he attempted to speak now the tears would have choked him. Frank was dying, he thought.

"I'm going to sleep, Fred. Good night. Hold my hand."

There was not a hush now in the tent. Fred kept his friend's thin hand in his, his eyes on his face.

Fred was praying; and praying perhaps with greater earnestness than ever he had prayed before. Oh, if his heavenly Father, who had saved them from so many a danger, that loving tender Father, who heareth in secret, and to whom all the ends of the earth are well known, would but deign to hear him now, and spare his friend even at the eleventh hour!

How quietly Frank was breathing! How very still he lay! Could he be--_dead_?

Fred put his ear down to listen. Yes, he could hear his gentle breathing. This was not death, it was sleep--gentle sleep.

Never once did Fred move from his position all that livelong night; and when the sun rose and cast the shadows of the mountains across the placid bay, the lad was still at his post.

At length Frank opened his eyes, and seeing Fred, gently pressed his hand and smiled.

The sleep had done its kindest work.

Just a little cocoanut water, so cool and refreshing, then, like a baby, Frank dropped off again; and Fred went right away into the bush all by himself, and kneeling down beside a pandanus tree, returned thanks to Him who had heard his prayer.

* * * * * *

Slow indeed, but steadfast, was Frank's recovery now from his terrible illness. For weeks he scarce could walk; but now in the matter of cookery Quambo quite excelled even himself. With the aid of herbs he concocted the most delicious cavy stews; he wrapped flying fish in fragrant leaves, and did them over a clear fire, and he even concocted strengthening broths, from birds they shot in the woods.

But Cassia-bud went wandering all by himself round the island one day, and, lo and behold! he found a bed of clams near the shore. The clams proved an unexpected delicacy to all, but more especially to Frank. Turtles' eggs, also discovered by Cassia-bud, completed the cure.

And so Frank grew strong again once more, and happiness and joy reigned again in the little camp by the sea. And now, not knowing how much longer they should have to live on this unknown island, Fred planned the building of a house and laying out of a garden; for though a tent of boughs is all very well in times of health, it is wanting in comfort when sickness comes.

For weeks the four men--note, I have come to call them men at last--the four men laboured hard in effecting a clearing, while the catering and cooking devolved entirely upon little Cassia-bud and Bob. Not that Bob did much, but he often caught a cavy, and besides he was such a companion to Cassia-bud, it is doubtful if the lad could have got on at all without him. For gardening tools our castaways were worst off, but they managed to manufacture spades of a rough sort from the wood of the pandanus tree.

So the work of clearing and digging went merrily on, and the exercise it evolved strengthened every muscle in their bodies, and caused them to feel as happy as the birds that sang in the boughs.

All round the garden they wove a snake fence, and hung gates; but the fence was more for show than utility, as there really was nothing to protect themselves from; all their enemies lived in the water, and, with the exception of robber-crabs, and an occasional octopus, never came on shore.

Trees were now sawn into planks, and exposed to dry, by being piled up so that the warm air could blow over them.

Twenty-four feet long by twelve wide, that was the size they measured out for their cottage; and it would be seven feet high at the eaves, and consist of two rooms. So they proceeded at once to plant or put down the uprights and strong cross-beams to support the roof. For these purposes many of the planks saved from the wreck of the _Resolute_ came in very handy. The uprights were firmly fixed in the ground, and the cross-beams fastened with hard wooden pegs on top of these.

The plan they adopted for boring holes was certainly original and expeditious also. Quambo had proposed to burn holes in the planks.

"No," said Fred, "I know a quicker plan."

"You do, sah!"

"Now make a mark at the very place you want a hole drilled."

Quambo did as he was told. Fred picked up a loaded rifle, and in less than a second the hole was made.

Quambo laughed at this till the woods rang again, and Bob ran off to the woods expecting that there must be game of some kind to retrieve.

The making of doors and shutters for the openings that had to do duty as windows required considerable time, and an expenditure of skill also; but these were finished at last. Instead of being hinged on, they were made to slide backwards and forwards, and this also was Fred's idea.

There were no fire places, but ventilators; for it would be always best to do all the cooking out of doors.

At long last the cottage was finished, and when the slanting roof was thatched with leaves of the pandanus--some of these being six feet in length--very neat and wholly rustic it looked.

Table and seats were next made. These were rough enough in all conscience, but they suited very well indeed.

"I think," said Frank, "the front of the cottage looks rather plain and squatter-like."

"Well," said Fred, "let us build a porch, and plant wild climbing flowers from the forest around it."

So this was done.

The castaways now turned their attention to the garden. Walks were laid out and bordered with old plank, and covered thickly over with silver sand from the beach. Then flowers and flowering shrubs were planted, and when all was finished proud indeed were they of their charming cottage and grounds. Even the snake fence they had run up round the compound sprouted and grew rapidly, so it was partly hedge and partly railing.

There was no occasion to plant vegetables in the garden, for everything they wanted grew wild in the woods, including many kinds of spices and turmeric also, from which Quambo, after they settled down again, concocted many a fragrant and delicious curry.

Well now, on the whole, our castaways were not badly off. They owned a house and grounds, they owned a boat, they had rifles and ammunition, and no lack of food.

All they longed for was the sight of a ship.

But the climate in which they lived is not only healthful and balmy, but calmative as well, so they did not pine so much as might have been expected.

"I say," said Fred one evening, "to-morrow will complete our first year on this island.

"How the time has fled!" said Frank. "I couldn't have believed it."

So they celebrated their advent-day by having quite a banquet in their new-built cottage, and everyone admitted--including Hurricane Bob--that Quambo had never spread before them such a dinner as this, such fragrant curry, nor such delightfully cooked fish.

* * * * * *

It was early summer in the woods now; early summer with the trees, with their gorgeous and glittering foliage, and their wealth of flowers--snow-white, yellow, lemon, and crimson; early summer with the forest birds, whose sweet low songs filled every grove and glen; early summer with the wild bees, the gorgeous beetles, and still more lovely butterflies; early summer with many species of seafaring birds as well, who built on the rocks and cliffs--gulls and noddies, and the swift-winged frigate bird; early summer on land and on sea, which shimmered in the sunshine like polished steel.

It was well that our castaways had saved tinned meats from the wreck; for among the cavies or coneys it was thought advisable now to institute a kind of close season. It was breeding time, and to slay the parents, leaving perhaps the young to starve to death, would have been cruel in the extreme.