Jethou | Page 2

the paper 181

CHAPTER XVI.
Yarns: The cabbages which hung their heads--The raft of
spruce--Voyage of the "Dewdrop"--A lucky family--A deep, deep
draught--The maire's cat 193
CHAPTER XVII.
The Will again--Searching for a clue to the paper--Barbe Rouge's
Will--A probable clue--Hopes and doubts--Perplexed--A memorable
trawl by moonlight--A real clue at last--The place of the skull found
207
CHAPTER XVIII.
Digging for the treasure--A noonday rest--The ghastly tenant of the
treasure house--We find the treasure--An account of what we
discovered 217
CHAPTER XIX.
Preparing to leave--A letter home--We lengthen and enlarge the
"Anglo-Franc"--Re-christen her "Happy Return"--Love at first
sight--Victualling and stowing cargo--Pretty Jeannette--The long
voyage--Incidents en route--Vegetarians, and their diet--Yarmouth
reached--Fresh-water navigation--My native heath 231
CHAPTER XX.
I surprise the old folks at home--All well--Is Priscilla false--We
meet--The missing letters--A snake in the grass--Dreams of vengeance
250
CHAPTER XXI.
The "Happy Return" inspected--More of my father's ghost--Unpacking
the treasure--Seek an interview with Walter Johnson--Two letters 257

CHAPTER XXII.
M. Oudin arrives--The Wedding Day--Division of the spoil--Alec
returns to Jethou--Wedding gifts--The end 265
APPENDIX.
A few words about the Channel Isles 271

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
THE ISLAND OF JETHOU Frontispiece 1
THE OLD HOME AT BARTON 10
MAP OF THE ISLAND OF JETHOU 35
PLAN OF HOMESTEAD 43
MY PLOUGH 47
AN ANTEDILUVIAN CHARIOT 48
"I WAS SWAMPED IN A MOMENT" 61
THE "YELLOW BOY," PLANS, ETC. 81
A PORCINE MURDER 99
ROCKS AT SOUTH END OF SARK 101
THE MAIN PATH OF THE ISLAND 113
LA CREUX DERRIBLE 119
TOO LATE! 131
A GHOSTLY VISITANT 141

"ALONG THE RUGGED CLIFF PATH" 161
RESCUE OF ALEC DUCAS 167
THE PUZZLING DOCUMENT 186, 209
A TERRIBLE FALL 187
THE TENANT OF THE TREASURE HOUSE 223
LENGTHENING THE "ANGLO-FRANC" 235
[Illustration: Frontispiece--THE ISLAND OF JETHOU]
[Illustration: Decorative chapter heading]

JETHOU;
OR,
Crusoe Life in the Channel Isles.
CHAPTER I.
MY BIRTH AND HOME--MY PRETTY COUSIN--ACCIDENT TO
THE "KITTYWICH"--JOURNEY TO GUERNSEY--PLEADING TO
BECOME A CRUSOE--MY WISH GRANTED--OUTFIT
SECURED--SAIL TO JETHOU.
That Crusoe of Crusoes, Alexander Selkirk, as I am aware, commences
his entertaining history with his birth and parentage, and as I am also a
Crusoe, although a very minor adventurer, I may as well follow the
precedent and declare my nativity.
I was born at the little village of Barton in Norfolk, at the time the guns
at Balaclava were mowing down our red coats and tars, where my
father had a small house facing the Broad. It was a comfortable old

two-storied building, with a thatched roof, through which a couple of
dormer windows peered out, like two eyes, over the beautiful green
lawn which sloped to the reed-fringed water. My father was in very
comfortable circumstances, as he was owner of six large fishing vessels
hailing from the port of Great Yarmouth, some ten or twelve miles
distant as the crow flies.
[Illustration: THE OLD HOME AT BARTON.]
Being born, as it were, on the water (for a distance of a hundred yards
matters but little), I was naturally from my birth a young water dog,
although they tell me that for some months after I made my bow to the
world, milk also played a prominent part in my career.
As I grew into boyhood, of course I had my rowing punt and my rod,
and thus gained my first taste for a solitary life, as it frequently
happened that I would be away from sunrise to sunset on some little
expedition to one or other of the neighbouring Broads. By and bye
came the time when I arrived at that rare age for enjoyment, fourteen
years. This birthday, the fourteenth, was a red-letter day in my life, as I
received two presents, which were in my eyes very valuable ones; my
uncle presented me with a beautiful little light gun, and my father
handed me over his small sailing boat. Now I was a man! I felt it, and I
knew it, and so did my schoolmates, for there was not one of them,
who at some time or other, had not felt the effects of my prowess in a
striking manner. Still, the drubbings I gave were not always to my
credit, for I was a very big and strong lad for my age, and my
self-imposed tasks of long rowing trips and other athletic exercises,
naturally made me powerful in the arms and chest. Of my brain power I
shall say little, as my mind was ever bent on sporting topics when it
should have been diving into English history or vulgar fractions. Some
new device in fishing gear was always of more consequence to me than
any inquiry as to the name of the executioner who gave Charles the I.
"chops for breakfast," as we youngsters used to say, when we
irreverently spoke of the decollation of his Majesty.