Willis the Pilot | Page 8

many to convince Willis, even if yet in time."
"And mother? and the ladies?" inquired Fritz.
"I shall leave Frank and Jack to see to them; a mere obstinate freak, or a

catastrophe, it will be time enough, when over, to inform them of this
new idea of the Pilot's."
"It is something more than an idea this time," remarked Jack.
Just as Becker and his two sons were issuing from the grotto, the report
of a cannon-shot resounded through the air.
Awoke and startled by the explosion, Becker's wife and Mrs. Wolston
came running towards them. As for the girls, their guardian angel had
too closely enveloped them in its wings to admit of their sleep being
disturbed.
"The sloop on the coast!" said Frank; "for the sound is too distinct to
come from a distance."
"Unless Willis has got upon Shark's Island," objected Fritz, running
towards the terrace, armed with a telescope. "Just so; he is there, I see
him distinctly; he is recharging our four-pounder."
"God be praised! you relieve my conscience of a great burden," said
Ernest, placing his hand on his breast.
"He is going to discharge it," cried Fritz--boom. Then a second shot
reverberated in the air.
"If Captain Littlestone be within hearing of that signal, he will be sure
to reply to it." said Becker. "Listen!"
They hushed themselves in silence, each retaining his respiration, as if
their object had been to hear the sound of a fly's wing rather than the
report of a cannon.
"Nothing!" said Becker sadly, at the expiration of a few minutes.
"Nothing!" reiterated successively all the voices.
"How in all the world did Willis contrive to get transported to Shark's
Island?" inquired Mrs. Becker.

"Simply, wife, by watching when asleep, whilst one of our gentlemen
slept when he watched."
"Yes, mother," said Ernest, "and if you would not have me blush before
Mrs. Wolston, you will not insist upon an explanation of the mystery."
"Mrs. Wolston," she replied, "is not so exacting as you seem to think,
Master Ernest--the only difference that her presence here should make
amongst you is that you have two mothers instead of one."
"That is," said Mrs. Wolston smiling, "if Mrs. Becker has no objections
to dividing the office with me."
"Shall I not have compensation in your daughters?" said Mrs. Becker,
taking her by the hand.
"Still," interrupted Fritz, "I cannot yet conceive how Willis managed to
reach Shark's Island in a wretched canoe, without oars, through waves
that ought to have swallowed him up over and over again."
"Bah!" exclaimed Jack; "what use has a pilot for oars?"
"There is a question! You, who modestly call yourself the best
horseman on the island, how would you do, if you had nothing to ride
upon?"
"I could at least fall back upon broomsticks," retorted the imperturbable
Jack. "Besides, in Willis's case, the canoe was the steed, the oars the
saddle--nothing more."
"We shall not stay here to solve the riddle," said Becker; "the storm
seems disposed to abate; and the more that it was unreasonable to face
certain destruction in a vain endeavor to assist a problematical
shipwreck, the more it is incumbent upon us now to go in quest of the
Nelson."
"But the sea will still be very terrible!" quickly added Mrs. Becker.
"If all danger were over, wife, the enterprise would do us little credit. It

is our duty to do the best we can, according to the strength and means
at our command. Fritz, Ernest, and Jack, go and put on your
life-preservers--we shall take up Willis in passing."
"I must not insist," said Mrs. Becker; "the sacrifice would, indeed, be
no sacrifice, if it could be easily borne; and yet--"
"Remember the time, wife, when I was obliged, in order to secure the
precious remains of our ship, to venture with our eldest sons on a float
of tubs, leaving you exposed, alone with a child of seven, to the chance
of eternal isolation!"
"That is very true, husband: I am unjust towards Providence, which has
never ceased blessing us; but I am only a weak woman, and my heart
often gets the better of my head."
"To-day I leave Frank with you; but, instead of your being his protector,
as was the case fifteen years ago, he will be yours. Then there is Mrs.
Wolston, her daughters, and husband, quite a new world of sympathies
and consolations, by which our island has been so miraculously
peopled."
"Go then, husband, and may God bring back in safety both the pinnace
and the Nelson!"
"By the way, Mrs. Wolston, how does our worthy invalid get on? We
live in such a turmoil of events and consternations, that I must beg a
thousand pardons for not having asked after him before."