Philosopher Jack. Robert Michael Ballantyne
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alive!” cried the captain, as he lifted his little daughter over the side. “The ship can’t float much longer. Here, Jack, catch hold.”
Edwin sprang to the side of the raft, and, standing up, received Polly in his arms.
“Take care of her! Hold her tight!” cried the anxious father.
“Trust me,” said Philosopher Jack.
The child was placed on the highest part of the raft with the passengers, and partially covered with a shawl. The crew were then ordered to leave the ship. Having seen every one out of it Captain Samson descended and gave the order to shove off. This was quickly done, and the distance was slowly increased by means of two large oars. The huge mass of spars and planks moved gradually away from the doomed vessel, whose deck was by that time little above the level of the sea. They had not got more than a few hundred yards off, when Baldwin Burr, who pulled one of the oars, uttered an exclamation. Edwin Jack and Ben Trench, who knelt close to him fastening a rope, looked up and saw the captain standing on the high part of the raft near Polly and little Wilkins, waving his right hand. He was bidding farewell to the old ship, which suddenly went down with a heavy roll. Another moment, and only a few ripples remained to mark the spot where the Lively Poll had found an ocean tomb.
Chapter Three
Adrift on the Great Ocean
Sunshine gladdens the heart of man and causes him more or less to forget his sorrows. The day on which the Lively Poll went down was bright and warm, as well as calm, so that some of those who were cast away on the raft—after the first shock had passed, and while busily employed in binding the spars and making other needful arrangements—began to feel sensations approaching almost to hilarity.
Polly Samson, in particular, being of a romantic turn of mind, soon dried her eyes, and when called on to assist in the construction of a little place of shelter for herself on the centre of the raft, by means of boxes and sails, she began to think that the life of a castaway might not be so disagreeable after all. When this shelter or hut was completed, and she sat in it with her father taking luncheon, she told him in confidence that she thought rafting was “very nice.”
“Glad you find it so, Polly,” replied the captain with a sad smile.
“Of course, you know,” she continued, with great seriousness of look and tone, “I don’t think it’s nice that our ship is lost. I’m very very sorry—oh, you can’t think how sorry!—for that, but this is such a funny little cabin, you know, and so snug, and the weather is so fine; do you think it will last long, father?”
“I hope it may; God grant that it may, darling, but we can’t be sure. If it does last, I daresay we shall manage to reach one of the islands, of which there are plenty in the Southern Seas, but—”
A roar of laughter from the men arrested and surprised the captain. He raised the flap of sail which served as a door to the hut—Polly’s bower, as the men styled it—and saw one of the passengers dragged from a hole or space between the spars of the raft, into which he had slipped up to the waist. Mr Luke, the passenger referred to, was considered a weak man, mind and body,—a sort of human nonentity, a harmless creature, with long legs and narrow shoulders. He took his cold bath with philosophic coolness, and acknowledged the laughter of the men with a bland smile. Regardless of his drenched condition, he sat down on a small keg and joined the crew at the meal of cold provisions which served that day for dinner.
“Lucky for us,” said one of the sailors, making play with his clasp-knife on a junk of salt pork, “that we’ve got such a fine day to begin with.”
“That’s true, Bob,” said another; “a raft ain’t much of a sea-goin’ craft. If it had blowed hard when we shoved off from the ship we might ha’ bin tore to bits before we was well fixed together, but we’ve had time to make all taut now, and can stand a stiffish breeze. Shove along the breadbasket, mate.”
“You’ve had your allowance, Bob; mind, we’re on short commons now,” said Baldwin Burr, who superintended the distribution of provisions, and served out a measured quantity to every man. “There’s your grog for you.”
Bob Corkey growled a little as he wiped his knife on his leg, and accepted the allowance of “grog,” which, however, was only pure water.
“Are you sure the raft can stand a storm?” inquired Watty Wilkins of Philosopher Jack, who sat eating his poor meal beside him.
“Sure?” responded Jack, “we can be sure of nothing in this life.”
“Except trouble,” growled Corkey.
“Oh yes, you can be sure of more than that,” said Baldwin Burr; “you can always be sure of folly coming out of a fool’s mouth.”
“Come, come, Baldwin, be civil,” said Philosopher Jack; “it’s cowardly, you know, to insult a man when you can’t fight him.”
“Can’t fight him?” repeated Burr with a grin; “who said I couldn’t fight him, eh? Why, I’m ready to fight him now, right off.”
“Nevertheless, you can’t,” persisted the philosopher; “how could two men fight on a raft where there’s not room for a fair stand-up scrimmage between two rats? Come now, don’t argue, Burr, but answer little Wilkins’s question if you can.”
“Stowaways don’t desarve to have their questions answered,” said Corkey; “in fact, they don’t desarve to live. If I had my way, I’d kill little Wilkins and salt him down to be ready for us when the pork and biscuit fail.”
“Well, now, as to the safety of this here raft in a gale, small Wilkins,” said Baldwin, regardless of Corkey’s interruption, “that depends summat on the natur’ o’ the gale. If it was only a half-gale we’d weather it all right, I make no doubt; but, if it should come to blow hard, d’ee see, we have no occasion to kill and eat you, as we’d all be killed together and eaten by the sharks.”
“Sharks!” exclaimed Mr Luke, whose damp garments were steaming under the powerful sun like a boiler on washing-day; “are there sharks here?”
“Ay,” said Corkey, pointing to the sea astern, where the glassy surface was broken and rippled by a sharp angular object, “that’s a shark a-follerin’ of us now, leastwise the back fin of one. If you don’t believe it, jump overboard and you’ll soon be convinced.”
This reference to the shark was overheard by Polly, who came out of her bower to see it. The monster of the deep came close up at that moment, as if to gratify the child, and, turning on its back, according to shark habit when about to seize any object, thrust its nose out of the water. For one moment its double row of teeth were exposed to view, then they closed on a lump of pork that had been accidentally knocked overboard by Corkey.
“Is that the way you take care of our provisions?” said the captain, sternly, to Baldwin.
“We’ve got a big hook, sir,” said Edwin Jack, touching his cap; “shall we try to recover the pork?”
“You may try,” returned the captain.
Little Wilkins uttered something like a war-whoop as he leaped up and assisted Jack to get out the shark-hook. It was soon baited with another piece of pork. Ben Trench, who had a strong leaning to natural history, became very eager; and the men generally, being ever ready for sport, looked on with interest and prepared to lend a hand. The shark, however, was cautious. It did indeed rush at the bait, and seemed about to swallow it, but suddenly changed its mind, swam round it once or twice, then fell slowly astern, and finally disappeared.
Although the fish was not caught, this little incident served to raise the spirits of every one, and as the calm sunny weather lasted the whole day, even the most thoughtful of the party found it difficult to realise their forlorn condition; but when evening drew near, the aspect of things quickly changed. The splendid ocean-mirror, which had reflected the golden crags and slopes, the towers and battlements of cloud-land, was shivered by a sudden breeze and became an opaque grey; the fair blue sky deepened to indigo; black and gathering clouds rose out of the horizon, and cold white crests gleamed on the darkening waves.