The Cruise of the Dainty | Page 5

obtain a necklace, which he hid in his pocket. The very evening before the natives were to have been seized a heavy gale sprang up, and the schooner was driven out to sea. Before many days had gone by she was cast away on an uninhabited island, when all hands, with the exception of Tom Platt, were lost. He supported existence on shell-fish and a few birds he knocked down, while a small cask of water washed ashore saved him from dying of thirst. Just as it was exhausted, he was taken off by a vessel bound for this place. I met him, looking very ill and wretched, wandering about the street the very day he landed. We recognised each other, and I took him to my house, where he became so much worse that, had it not been for the careful way he was nursed, I believe he would have died. He seemed to think so himself, and was very grateful. While I was sitting with him one day, having a yarn of old times, he gave me an account of the pearl islands, and assured me that he could find them again, having carefully noted the distance the schooner had run to the reef on which she was wrecked, as also its position on the chart. He then showed me the necklace, of which he had not spoken to any one. His narrative first put our proposed venture into my head. When I told him of my idea he at once agreed to accompanying me, saying that he should be content with any wages I could afford to give him. Though a first-rate seaman, he cannot be much of a navigator, so that had you, Ned, not come out I should have been obliged to get another mate; and now that you have come, we will forthwith commence our preparations."
"The first thing to be done is to find a suitable craft," I said.
"I have had my eye on one--a schooner, the Dainty, of a hundred and twenty tons, built for a fruit-trader, which was brought out here from England by a settler only a month ago," he answered.
"Then let us go at once and have a look at her, and, if she is in good condition, secure her," I exclaimed; for, after the account Harry had given me, I had become very eager to undertake the expedition.
We started forthwith. The Dainty was even more suited for our object than we had expected. She had well fitted up cabins, like those of a yacht, with a hold large enough for all the cargo and stores we might wish to stow--was well-found and in capital condition; so Harry at once made an offer for her, which being accepted, the Dainty became his.
In the evening Harry said what he had done.
"You do not intend to leave me behind, I hope," exclaimed Mary.
"Or me either," cried Miss Fanny Amiel. "What should we poor girls do all alone by ourselves in this little bakehouse?"
"You must let me go as cabin-boy," said Nat. "I'll make myself tremendously useful."
"I'll talk it over with Mary," answered Harry, who looked not at all ill pleased at the thoughts of having his wife to accompany him of her own free will. The result of the talk was that the next morning it was settled that we were all to go, the house and business being left in charge of a trustworthy old clerk, Mr Simon Humby, who had accompanied Harry when he came out the first time from England. We were very busy for the next few days in making preparations for the voyage--the ladies in the house assisted by Nat, and Harry, and I in refitting the schooner--purchasing provisions, stores, and articles for bartering with the natives. We procured also four small brass guns, with some muskets, pistols, boarding-pikes, and cutlasses.
"We shall not, I hope, have to use them," said Harry. "But, now especially that we are to have ladies on board, we must be well prepared for defence should we be attacked."
It was easy enough to prepare the vessel for sea, but Harry expected to find some difficulty in securing an efficient crew. He of course at once applied to Tom Platt.
"I'll see about that, sir," he answered. "You mustn't be too particular as to what sort of chaps they may be, provided they are good seamen--for as to their characters, I'm not likely to be able to say much."
"Pick up the best you can find," said Harry. "They'll probably behave well enough, if kept under strict discipline."
Tom was as good as his word. In the course of a few days he had engaged ten hands--a strong crew for a vessel of the Dainty's size--six Englishmen, a New Zealander, a Sandwich Islander, and two blacks, natives