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Las diagrammes suivants illustrent la mithode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ..... b,i|^rt^^-.,t ii i.tf i ;itj ti M , M; , .- , i{"pB| , i , T-~;i»' , ; iijJ f" ^f :i!i':'iii). §HH-'mi$': i •I DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES ON SABLE ISLAND mim^mmmtmmm •*><«MMMqMiii|HiHrHkMaMp l> ■] mmffmnmif»mmi liHiUJiti' '.■ i i j , ,:« ' -S ■* -a ?."■ &d L il iji^iirni_ iiiiMi p | [ )B ■£■ ' • " • ' *. i I ' »^ rrr'TW" r-rrrnrii DICK AND JACK'S ON SABLE ISLAND BV B. FREEMAN ASHLEY ^ Author of " Tan Pile Jim," Etc. ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO LAIRD & LEE, PUBLISHERS ^^MMil ^i^^^H^ftl^fehJ^^^Irl^^ / ^mmnmrnmi mmm ^>i this book is dedicated to my two boys, Frederick Bennit Ashley AND Archibald Tremaine Ashley, AND TO all BOYS, girls, fathers, MOTHERS, SISTERS BROTHERS AND COUSINS WHO BECOME THE READERS OF Dick and Jack's Adventures ON Sable Island ■.J^»;!ilt«V': ssmiBiMiiiiiiiiiiim 'k,^immi^ (1 ■ ' . 't m tf t m tmfttt H mm^ INSTEAD OF A PREFACE (1 1^ "Tan Pile Jim" was so kindly received by the press, by the critics, and by a large number of boys and girls, ranging in age from seven to seventy, and so many have said. " come again," that we now venture upon another tale of youthful adventure. n the former book we were a good deal in the woods ; in the p.esent volume we take to the sea, and to one of the most remark- able islands of the Atlantic ocean — an island of which the alert publishers furnish a map taken from the Dominion Hydrographic Survey. It is hoped that Black Point Dick and Jack, and the three " womenettes " they discovered on Sable Island, may prove more interesting even than " Tan Pile Jim " and his friends. The artist whr illustrated the former work with such inimitable humor and fidelity, has again tried his hand — thanks to our publishers — upon the characters and scenes described in the following pages. If this story succeeds as well as its predecessor, it is more than likely that another may follow in the same series — a tale dealing with life in a queer corner of — but the title must not be given away at this early date, and so we remain. B. FREEMAN ASHLEY. ■OMB •"" •" T-....~.^...^f^ i i i' i i i' r 't imT i Mu < n ' nni <>i nM ii i

ii ftrpnrnmxs,- INDEX TO CONTENTS CRAPTKR PAOl I. On Darling Rock 13 II. A Stubborn Question 23 III. An Unwelcome Visitor 33 IV. Blood V/ill Tell ... - - - - 43 V. Last Trip of the Season ----- 55 VI. Old Gray Blanket 65 VII. Almost Unknown 75 VIII. Diamonds in the Rough 89 IX. The Great Undercurrent 101 X. Taking Private Rooms Ill XI. Going to Court 125 XII. Three Womenettes - - - - - - 139 XIII. Among the Dunes 153 XIV. Returning to Quarters - - - - - - 1 7 1 XV. A Perilous Proposal 181 XVI. The Carolina Reappears - - - - - 191 XVII. The Winter of Their Discontent - - - 205 XVIII. A Sable Island Spring Fever - - - - 219 XIX. The Revelations of a Wreck - - 231 XX. Dune Dale, The House That Dick and Jack Built - 249 XXI. Nuts! Nuts! Here's Nuts! - - - .. 261 XXII. Keeping a Secret - - - - -. - 273 XXIII. Some Fresh Surprises 283 XXIV. The End That Is Only a Beginning - - - 301 Himsisiiamami SABLE ISLAND— WHERE AND WHAT IT IS The sketch on the opposite page, accurately made from the Dominion Hydrographic Survey, gives the reader of this book a good idea of the peculiar shape of what is known as the " Graveyard of the Atlantic," and which, by many old salts, is called the " Grand- mother of Sea Serpents." It lies east and west in longitude west 60 from Greenwich, and a few miles south of latitude 44, and is about ninety-five miles distant from Cape Canso, Nova Scotia. The survey gives the position of over one hundred and fifty wrecks, a few of which are represented on this sketch, together with the sheltering houses, lite stations, lighthouses and signal stations. Dick and Jack landed on the southeastern part of the island, and became resident on the north side. The dotted part at the west end shows the por- tion of the island which has been washed away, while that at the east end shows the formation of the new land which a^eady appears above water in the small island represented by the white spot. Ill I iMMfl III' im< i w >»y*»»y» iHtrmrnutMi li^^t^.i.i::x;;I :•:;:::: r:^...-Y;:::^.:;i:t^: / PMm*ni««««ta«i^ "".' ' . I . ! . 1 1 ■)»« MMffnfW.Wu J , :, ,JM J jr. (Iia^tcr • I'i ^'•^ J ft.l 7 J<>3k'rJ ■*iW\\ SS !i\ ' ^ '^^ \ ON DARLING ROCK rs awful funny!" " What's running through your head now, Jack? Out with it! Funny things aiC as scarce here as and they should be passed around as soon as they heave in sight." " The name of this rock — never thought of it before. The idea of calling such a rock as this a darling! Somebody must have been plaguy hard up for a pet." " 'Tisn't safe to laugh till you know what you are laughing at. There's nothing funny about the name of this rock. A good number of years ago, before a soul 13 :n::.;*ti::,:;-;i:f^«fl 14 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES i^;. lived within ten miles of this place, a brig came ashore here in the dead of winter and broke in two on the point of this rock. Before word could be got to Port Mouton for help seven men froze to death. Only five of the crew were saved. The brig was called the Darling, and that's how the rock got its name." " Well, I knew nothing about it. Catch me coming down here again in the night time to see the waves turn to fire. I wonder the ghosts haven't picked me up long before this and carried me off to sea with them." "You needn't be afraid of seeing ghosts anywhere about here." -Why not?" " The country is such a scare-crow ghosts are afraid to come here." "Why, Dick! I have heard you say, ever so many times, that this was a grand place to live in." " H'm! So it is, if you are only hunting for something to eat, and have a hankering for the everlasting racket that the sea makes upon the beach and among the rocks. But I shouldn't like to die here, for those who are buried here will have a hard tussle to get from under the rocks when the resurrection comes." " You are such a prime fellow for getting out of scrapes and tight places, I'm thinking your chances would be as good here as any- where." " Look here. Jack! If we don't qui. this sort of talk, and begin to pull something out of the sea for dinner, we'll get into a scrape with mother, and one that won't be very easy to get out of, either." And suiting his action to his word, Dick put a clam upon his strong hand-line, and, with a graceful circling throw, sent it fifty feet from the side of the rock on which they were standing. The bait had no sooner reached the bottom than it was seized by a hungry cunner — a sort of sea-bass — which was speedily landed upon ♦he rock and thrown into a bath-like water-filled cavity in the sur- face. Nor was this the only capture ; in swift succession another cunner, a good-«;ized mackerel, a young codfish, a big speckled crab and a crusty old lobster were hauled up. And there were sculplns. f^^mf^ / ire in the Before to death. e Darling. lown here /onder the me off to Dut here." I to come times, that ling to eat. sea makes like to die issle to get iS and tight re as any- :. and begin ito a scrape of, either." m upon his sent it fifty nding. The seized by a landed upon / in the sur- sion another peckled crab re re sculplns, ON SABLE ISLAND 15 too, which, like some people we wot of. were mostly mouth, spots and prickly spines, fins and tail. The sculpins were thrown upon the surface of the rock long enough to permit them to bloat up witfr wind to their hearts' content, and then they were thrown back into the sea. where, floating, like the natural bladders that they were, they made frantic but unavailing attempts to get under water again. Jack Melville, the first speaker, was in his fourteenth year, and Dick, to whom he was speaking, was his sixteen-y^ar-old brother. The boys were not only brothers, but chums in every sense of the word. Both were tall, and straight as ram-rods. Neither of them carried an ounce of surplus flesh. Their mother said that she would as soon think of trying to fatten a pair of beanpoles as to think of trying to cover their bones with flesh. No fault could be found with their appetites ; they ate what was set before them with so much dili- gence that they never had time to ask questions or to maKe remarks about their food. Although they were so lean, their muscles were like bundles of steel springs, and all their movements were as quick and full of life as the movements of a squirrel. It is a mystery how such plain names as Richard and John get twisted into .such mis-names as Dick and Jack ; it is as great as the mystery of Cain's wife. The boys, from their earliest recollection, knew themselves as Dick and Jack, and they never said Richard and John unless they were meditating mischief, and when anybody else addressed them by their written names, it was immediately taken for granted that something solemn or ominous was putting on its boots for a kick. Let us call them Dick and Jack, for. after all. these names are not so objectionable as the lolly-pop ones, which, like " Tommie " or " Tildie." taper to sweet nothingness, Dick's features, slightly freckled and much browned, were regular. His eyes were black as coals, and his dark hair was a declaration of independence ; no comb could reduce it to smoothness. Jack's face was as freckled as a foliage plant, and some of the spots — many of them in fact— were larger than a dime and far more ragged around the edges. His eyes, brown and velvety, were of nearly the same shade as his 'ong, curly, dark-brown hair. The iimimui.^TO ni iifliti iiiiiiii i> iiii!i i mJi»attteiftffi / 16 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES features were somewhat girlish and poetic ; yet it was no; safe to presume too much upon this, for his dreamy eyes were capable of ominous flashes, and when he was aroused he was both obstinate and fearless. As he stood there on the rock, he was dressed In a red flannel shirt, blue knickerbockers and brown stockings. His lower and upper garments were kept together by a pair of home-knit " gallusses," which, being made of lamb's wool, were sufficiently elastic to meet all the requirements of the most unexpected capers. He wore a Tam O'Shanter, knit by ten angels who lived on his mother's hands — angels of industry and watchfulness, whose incessant activity must have made the recording angel look upon her daily tasks as ;..arvels of womanly capability. Knowing the boys partiality for bright colors, Mrs. Melville, mother of seven children, all living, and all. at home save two of the eldest boys, had run a glowing band of red through the head-band of the Tam O'Shanter. and. besides, had crowned the predominating gray with a flowing tassel of the same color, Dick was, in blue from top to bottom, both shirt and trousers hav- ing been shaped from a bale of blue serge that had come on shore from some unknown wreck. Disdaining all such things as " gallusses," his waist was girded with a leathern belt made by him- self after the dictates of his own fancy. Neither of them wore anything in the shape of under or over clothing; the lives they led during the milder part of the year were altogether too free to permit of any such incumbrances. Both wore heavy cowhide brogans, made for service rather than for show. These knew nothing of blacking, although they were well acquainted with mutton tallow, to which, if they were treated on Sunday morning, they owed their freedom from all complaining squeaks. Two boys of such a make-up could not move around without con- siderable wear and tear, and hence, it happened that their garments were spotted with darns and patches almost without number. Nor did the colors of the additions always conform to the original hues of « M tm wt H \u nw t mnH » mmtmuummm t mm m nwmi f'^i ^temm ON SABLE ISLAND 17 the material of which they had become a part. Wear and weather, however, soon reduced the whole to a sort of subdued harmony. Dick wore a blue navy cap which he found on the beach. It had a band of real gold lace around it, and when first taken possession of " R. N." in gold were over the vizor. These letters were carefully removed. " They might mean Royal Navy," said the finder ; •' and if I were to leave them on I might be taken up for pretending to be a British navy officer." " They might mean Regular Noodle," suggested Jack, a little enviously; "and in that case they would be equally dangerous to wear." As it was, the cap made Dick look like a midshipman, and cer- tainly put into his head a good many quarterdeck Ideas with which he had not been troubled before its arrival. Possibly the former owner may have been a little top-lofty, and some of his feelings might have stuck to the cap in spite of the washings of the waves, and so, some of them might have leaked down into Dick's brain. At any rate a bit of shining gaud occasionally plays the mischief with otherwise very sensible people. After the boys had tended their lines awhile, Jack, seeing that the next meal was safely provided for, stopped his jerking invitations to the fish, and, in his dreaming way. amused himself by observing things about him. And there are many things to amuse one if the weather eye is kept open. Far out at sea a ship under full head of canvas was moving along the horizon like a small .white cloud. A big black ocean-liner steamed along in an opposite direction throwing out densely black smoke that trailed against the blue sky for miles and miles. Smaller craft could be seen here and there, but they were so distant they looked like gulls skimming the surface of the sea. Tiring of the distant view, Jack condescended tolook at what was nearer. Two ducks, seeming to know that the boys hgd no guns with them, alighted impudently near the rock, and three seals, within a stone's throw, pushed their heads above water and looked BaHfttiHro (i| l M i liiMl>*ttfmf > tf jfm i fnmr 16 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES covetously in the direction of the sculpins that were still floating upon the surface, for seals must eat as well as human beings. Presently one of them sank oui of sight, and a moment after one of the sculpins disappeared also. This was the signal for the other seals to go to the bottom, where, doubtless, they shared in the fruits of the first one's enterprise. Down in the clear depths, near the rock, enormous crabs were playing a sort of hop-scotch game, which, however, was brought to a speedy close by a big lobster, which darted among them, tail fore- most, as rapidly as a rocket. In an instant the crabs buried them- selves in the sand, and Mr. Lobster returned to his hole under the edge of the rock. Several starfish crept slowly about, although, so far as Jack could see, they hadn't a single convenience for travelling. A lot of sea- urchins, looking like big, bad, green apples, crawled up and down the face of the rock with as much ease as if they had furnished them- selves with a supply of housefly boots. It was as if a score or two of base balls were climbing up a wall. White-bellied, silver-scaled, blue-backed, black-spotted fish swam abtfOt in mid-water with as much fearlessness as if there were not a hook within a hundred miles. Feeling a peculiar touch upon his line. Jack glanced down to where it trailed over the side of a rock, and saw two long slimy arms pro- jecting from a crevice and meddling v.'ith his business. He let them fumble about for a moment, and then began to pull in. At this six more arms of the same kind came to the aid of the two already at work, and a hideous head, with two great blueish-gray eyes, looked upward with a stare that would have terrified the fisherboy if he had never seen the like before. "So it's you, Mr. Devilfish!" exclaimed Jack, wrathily. "I'd like to run hot irons into your goggles, and chop you to pieces with an axe. Just let my line alone and go about your business." To emphasize his advice, he jerked his line with all the force it would bear, and the intruder, dropping to the bottom, used his eight arms f Wfl'Hi'J^J,. ON SABLE ISLAND 19 for legs and ran away, looking for all the world like a six-foot gray spider. " Now. just for the chance of the thing, I'll put a fresh bait on and make another throw into the big pocket of old ocean," But, chancing on nothing, Jack lost ail interest in fishing, and watched the waves chasing one another till they noisily splashed among the cobble or thinned themselves to nothing running up the beach. He took as much pleasure in this as a turfman would in seeing horses racing on a track, and wondered why one wave never got ahead of another that had once gotten the start of it. Suddenly he called out : " Hello. Dick ! There's a whole host of old girls coming around the corner of the rock!" "Well, let 'cm come," said Dick, recognizing one of Jack's old jokes. " There's plenty of room for them to dance if they don't come too near the rock." Thousands of jelly-fish, with their great parasol-heads and skirt- like stringers, were coming around the rock in the slow tide-current in a long crooked procession of members that varied in size from two inchea to six feet in length. As they bobbed up and down, and turned round and round, it required no great «tretch of imagination to think of them as a lot of sea-girls out for a gentle frolic ; but, being transparent, they looked ghost-like and uncanny. Withal, they were as circumspect as if the head of the procession were led by a clergyman, and the tail of it were finished off with a godly grandmother. Vexed at the failure of his joke. Jack gave a vicious pull at his line, with the result of becoming convinced that he had struck some- thing more disappointing than a dead joke. Pulling in his line, he found that he had hooked a stingaree or skate, s creature which has a tail ending with a poisonous horn for a weapon of offense and defense. " Here's a pretty kettle of fish ! What shall I do with this con- founded salt-water bumblebee, Dick?" " Keep clear of his tail, whatever else you do. Let him have ten XHi^Jffj.. >WWiUlU^* ; M Wi miHW>Wtftii .ti »mt (i W t?:»lrtf>i<^^ 20 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES feet of the line, and then run him up the rock. While he is think- ing about things I'll mash his head with a stone." Jack did as directed, and when the unwelcome and dangerous visitor was killed, he was flung back into the sea, with an invitation to go and examine the teeth of the seals. " His blood will draw a school of mackerel." said Dick, " and I'll fish a little longer to help them along with their education. There's nothing like the wisdom that comes by experience." Jack was urged to join in the teaching, but his reply was : " No, sir! I know when I've got enough. I'm beginning to smell like a fish myself, and when a fellow gets that far along he'll spoil the taste ot his grub if he doesn't stop. I'll take a walk while you are finish- ing your pull." It is not every boy that can take a walk like that which jack took, aiid that, too, without leaving Darling Rock. The rock was over 300 feet long by about 100 in width. Through the middle, em- bedded in the tough gray granite, and running cross-wise the entire width, there was a broad seam of glistening milk-white quartz flash- ing with great lumps of flaky mica, from which the boys slivered off all the mica they wan4ed for lanterns and for window lights, when by any mischance the house windows got broken. The rock was shaped like a great wharf, and when the weather permitted, fishing vessels sometimes ran alongside for the purpose of refilling their casks with fresh water drawn from a spring that purled from among the rocks of the upland. This, however, was a risky thing to do, the shore being naked to the full sweep of both wind and wave. One side of the rock formed a part of a crescent shaped cove around the shores of which there was a steep beach of many-colored cobble stones broken into numberless sizes and rounded into an In- finite variety of shapes by the ceaseless play of the sea. At all times these cobbles could be heard rattling beneath the waves as ii protesting against being ground into the nothingness ot mere sand. Similar coves stretched beyond, so that the coast looked as though the great sea-serpent were in the habit of making his meals from 'i^ mmf^mmmmmmtmmmm id 1- ill V ON SABLE ISLAND 21 the edge of the land by biting Into it as a boy sometimes bites into the edges of his slice of bread and butter. That side of the rock on >vhich the boys had been fishing gave a view of a long sand-beach, whose glistening sands were almost as white as snow. Jack knew that the cobbles that were ground up on one side of the rock made the sands that were spread out on the other side, but he couldn't understand how it was that only the white particles were thrown on shore together ; and more than once he had tried to guess what became of all the darker parts of the pulverized cobbles. There was a picking process carried on somewhere, and very effectual it was, too. in its selections ; so effectual, indeed, that it made hira thi..k of the separation made between the good and the bad. The, land-end of Darling Rock rose till It was lost in a plat of highland sod, covered with the reddest of clover and with the whitest of field-daisies, in contrast with which, belated dandelions here and there flung out their brilliant yellow. Above this patch of wild beauty rose a small hill topped by a flat ridge of granite on which was perched a gigantic boulder 16 feet high, round as an apple and more than 100 tons In weight, and so delicately poised in its shallow socket in the rock that a single person, with the aid of a crowbar, could make It sway to and fro. Other boulders, but of a much smaller size, were scattered all about, reminders of the time when the great ice-floods played marbles with them — the time before boys were in- vented. The big boulder was called the Witch of Endor There had been a shipwreck on the beach, and while saving her cargo the crew camped near the boulder. Among the men was a pranky painter, who, using the ship's paints, spent a whole Sunday morning in paint- ing the sea-side part of the bouldef with what he called a likeness of the Witch of Endcr. The face was ugly enough to be called any- thing that was bad, and could be plainly seen a mile at sea. Its ugly, glaring eyes stared directly down upon Darling ;ck, as though de- termined to frighten anyone from landing there. The sea-end of Darling Rock tapered down till it was lost in a tp fimtmmm 22 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES broken ledge which was bared only at low tide, or when the trough of the waves passed over it. It was covered with a tangle of long kelp or seaweed that swayed and squirmed in the water like an enor- mous bunch of dark-green serpents. Stopping his walk for a moment Jack looked up to the Witch of Endor, and shaking his fist at her, exclaimed : " You miserable old hag ! you must be the mother of the sculpins, stingarees, devil-fish and sea-serpents, and every other nasty thing that hides in the sea ! If I could only crowbar you out of that hollow I'd roll you down hill into the sea where you belong. Or if I had wood enough I'd kindle a lire under you that would crack your ugly cocoanut into smithereens!" . x 1 mimmmr m^ fioKer- 1 i.ii A STUnnORN QUESTION ACK'S fling at the Witch of Endor increased his desire to throw stones at all the region round about. Returning to Dick, he sat down by Him, and in a very determined way, asked : " Dick, how did we ever get here?" " Why — er — don't you re- member how we got here three ^ ars ago?" Dick re- plied, stumblingly, not under standing what his brother was driving at. " Oh, I remember what a time we had after leaving the last settlement getting through the woods, bogs and sands, where there wasn't a sign '^^\- of a road to be seen ; it makes me ache to think of it even now, but that isn't what 1 am thinking of now." as »J/M»*»^ |l!".!'l.W«l«»»>-«"f MilMMi T'l.i-i. {•■•'' J*fJI{lJ..i!tl tiff fWrrirr a^ri^iiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiftllitlfiiiiiii 24 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES " Well, what do you mean, anyway?" " Wasn't father born in North Carolina and mot'ncr in Massachu- setts, and didn't they both live in Maine a good many years?" "Of course, of course!" Dick was prompt enough to answer now, for, although he was born in Nova Scotia, he was jealous of his United States pedigree, and swore by the stars and stripes as loyally as if he had been born an American a dozen times over. " Then how did we ever get here ?" persisted Jack, stubbornly. Dick found himself up to the neck in a difficulty, but he wasn't going to confess it, and so, at a venture, he said : " Well, you see, father was a minister, and ministers have to go where the Lord sends them." The answer was so lame and halting that Jack saw how it hobbled along, and he interrupted him with: "That won't go, Dick! There's no church here, and nothing to make one of; nobody but Wallace, that old Scotchman on the hill, and old Wagner, the Dutchman on Port Mouton Head, and Mingo, the Frenchman that lives on the other side of Catherine's river. Who'd want to preach to them and their wives ? they'd frighten Paul and Peter out of the very idea. Father never preaches here, but tramps miles and miles away when he has anything of that kind to do. Don't fool with me 1 How did we get here ?" " Do you remember Yarmouth ?" asked Dick, cautiously. " There are lots of people there, and good people, too. and father preached in a big church there, and the folks that went to his church wore good clothes and all that sort of thing." " I remember that well enough. Maybe the Lord did send him there, but if I'd been ti»e Lord I'd have kept him in the States, where he belonged. At any rate, he might have kept him in Yar- mouth, where a fellow had a chance to see some boys and girls once in a while, and to go to school if he wanted to." Dick was inclined to laugh at his brother's outburst, but seeing that his eyes were beginning to burn, he gathered his scattered wits and plunged into the mystery as well as he knew how. " You know father had some rich members in his church in Yar- ■.rip ninr i T Kii Mt i 'r'"-*"'"' 1' — i um n u M tmmninm tti i i * »tft*ttimttly ON SABLE ISLAND 25 ;! mouth, and one of them used to own this place, which he kept for hunting purposes. One summer he invited father to come down here and spend his vacation with him. Father fell in love with the place, and the man sold it to him — nineteen hundred acres for twenty-five cents an acre." " Fell in love with it ! Goodness, Dick ! And did he fall in love with the Witch of Endor?" " Well, she was here with the rest of the country." " I knew the Lord had nothing to do with his coming here. Now, pony up, and tell me straight : What did he come here for ? It's worse than * Pilgrim's Progress,' or • Robinson Crusoe,' or any of ' Peter Parley's Tales,' and worse than the wilderness in which the Israelites got lost for forty years !" . .. "Well, Americans like to make money, and father thought he saw a chance to make some here, so he dropped his church and came here to try it. But you know he hasn't given up preaching altogether." " Make money here!" exclaimed Jack, ripping into Dick's apolo- getic explanations without mercy. •' How can he make money here when there is nothing to make it out of ?" " Why, you know he has twenty men at work for him." " Yes, but they cost money, and we have to keep fishing and shooting for their camp more than half the time to keep them in victuals." " They cost money now, but by and by, when their work is done and father's plans are completed, the money will come back, and lots more with it." Dick spoke stoutly enough, yet his confidence was by no means up to the level of his words. " ♦ " What are the men doing?" asked Jack, for the thought of there being anything like a plan in affairs around him had not occurred to him before. *' The gang at Catherine's river is dyking the river and sluicing it with sluices that the flow of the tide will shut and the flow of *•■ river will open. That will shut the tide out from the salt meado and drain them from the water of the streams. The other gang is ««*«M«j.. 4HtHHIHU!ii»inW»U I I I IW* l ltl i l» i rmm i|m^W<>||^^ / 26 Dick and JACK'S ADVENTURES cutting a canal at this end of the meadows to let the water out that way also. And the brush that has been piled upon Port Jolli beach will collect the sand when it blows about, and by piling on brush as fast as the sand rises, there will soon be a high sand wall against the sea between '^■atherine's river and Black Point. When it's all done, there'll be ^reds of acres of fresh meadows instead of salt meadows, an j shall have clover and timothy enough to supply all southern Nova Scotia. Good hay is scarce here, you know. There's big money in it, sure," and Dick's confidence arose again as soon as he began to assert it. " Besides," he went on to say, " we shall be able to keep hundreds of cattle and thousands of sheep to supply these Nova Scotians with. Oh, I tell you father's up to snuff, never you fear!" " How long will it take?" •• - /' *' Maybe four or five years." " That's an awful long time to wait for money." "We won't have to wait that long; we can do as Peter did, get money from the fish. There are oceans of mackerel and codfish off shore, and no end of halibut. Why, since you and 1 have taken to halibut hunting we have put up over forty kegs of fins and smoked more than two tons of halibut meat, and have made over $175.00 in clean cash, besides getting a good many things in exchange for the meat. Then we have made ten barrels of sour kraut from the cabbages we raised; and just think of the potatoes and the turnips! Oh, we shan't starve here ; and when we have made money enough we are going over to the States, where we'll cut as big a swell as anybody, and have all the books we can read." Now that Dick had fairly started the current in another direction, Jack was caught in it and went with it. "And just think of the shoot- ing there is round here!" he exclaimed with enthusiasm. " Foxes, wildcats and bears, and wolves, too. when we want to make up a variety of skins; and the muskrat, mink and weasel skins sell as well as the others. Then there are the ducks and the wild geese that fill the salt ponds back of the salt meadows in the fall, and the plovers, curlews, snipe and beach-birds that crowd about in the spring, wm MiM?^'^/■H»w•^, mt^*^ ON SABLE ISLAND 27 not to say anything about the partridges, and the bushels of gulls' eggs we can get when we want them, if we only had some real live boys and girls to keep us company I'd be almost willing to believe that the Lord sent father here after all." "You forget the Wallace, Wagner and Mingo boys and girls." said Dick, glad to see that Jack was veering round to a more cheer- ful view of things. • . " Ugh ! they are only trash ! Can't one of them read or write ; and they speak so crookedly it's enough to breaK one's back to listen to them. Scotch, Dutch and French ! it hurts my ears every time one of them speaks to me. I tried to teach one of those Mingo girls a verse of Scripture last Sunday, when I was over there, and she made such work of it I almost felt as if the Lord would kill her for making the Bible appear so ridiculous. If we had another American family here to keep us company, so that we could celebrate Fourth of July together, we'd let the other folks go to the the Witch of Endor for company, for they smell like codfish oil every time they come here, and look as dirty as if they had just crawled out of a gurry barrel." ■ "Well, we've got one good, sweet, pretty sister, anyway, and we shall have to make the most of her," remarked Dick, proudly. " Mary! That's so!" consented Jack, with emphasis. " and if our big brothers were not off getting their livings for themselves we could have pretty good times. The little shavers are not fit for anything, only to kitten around among the rocks after shells or among the grass and the thickets for birds' eggs." " But we have father and mother ; he's always full of fun and stories about his campaign among the Seminoles of Florida, and she is as lively as a cricket when she has any time of her own. What could we do without them !" " Without them !" exclaimed Jack, drawing a deep sigh. " With- out them! Why, Dick, it's too awful to thin'' of!" There were tears in Jack's eyes now. " Think of the swell folks that come here in the fall to hunt," said Dick, to divert his brother's thoughts. " Let me see ; last fall aMwiHMfea> i!i w ii imimi i iiii>>iitrt«iti u» iTfftmtm^ 28 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES we had a judge, an attorney general, an editor, who cracked us up in his paper; an author, the captain of an English frigate, and a real live lord all the way from England. They made lively times here, the two weeks they staid, with their guns, dogs and traps." •'Yes, lively times for us to wait on them, and for mother and father, too. It tires me to think of it ; I was glad when they went. I couldn't keep track of my manners half the time, and every one of us, from father down had to sleep in the barn at night to make room for them." " But what fun there was that night, when the wildcat, getting a smell of that mutton in the cellar, fell down the window and right under the whole crowd, and set up a caterwauling that made them think that the Goliah of cats had got into their rooms," Dick replied, "Yes!" said Jack, promptly, and grinning broadly, *' and what a frolic we had when we came out of the barn and saw that all of them had run out doors in their night clothes and stood there in the moon- light looking like ghosts. And what a touse they made over you when you went down into the cellar and shot the wildcat." " Well, I didn't feel funny a bit after I got into the cellar and saw the glare of those two eyes. I knew that if the shot missed, the creature would be after me like a streak of lightning. You know I'm not fond of fighting wildcats, only when I can bait a cod-hook with mutton and hang it to the limb of a tree, and go in the morning and find the wildcat hanging there like a fish on a pole. It's easy shooting them after they are hanged." ' How like boys those fellows acted the next day. when they put the skin of your cat up at auction and knocked it down to Lord Lendholm for two pounds, ten. I suppose that that skin is in Eng- land now, and that they tell about you every time the skin is shown." " Oh, take a new tack. Jack ; you make me feel like a fool, just as they did when they made me take the money. But they were all jolly good fellows, and made themselves as mi...ii at home in our close quarters as if they had lived in our style all their days. But they didn't know what to make of it when father and mother refused n ttmut mmtm t umtu UMt tu mmmm r*tn:-7«!r'.*r!igm imui ft^ n^^i^^ k^ittiUtttnuUttmuu^tr. 34 DICK AND JACKS ADVENTURES broad and deep in the middle, and fitted to ride almost any sea and to go any distance they might want to go on their halibut trips among the ledges and the shoals of the coast. This boat they called the Carolina, in honor of their father's native State. There were now a hundred and ten sheep on the Point, seven cows, four calves and five yoke of oxen. The summer catch of halibut had been sold to good advantage in the early fall to a trading schooner, which made periodical visits to accessible coves along shore, that it might exchange its miscellaneous stores for the fish the fishermen caught during the fishing season. ^ The cellar, being well stocked with provisions, and the woodhouse filled with wood, everything was ship-shape for the coming of the long and tedious winter months. The boys had nothing to do now but take their guns and make havoc with the ducks and wild geese that flocked into the coves and the back ponds by thousands. Occasionally, they went fox hunting, for Reynard's fur was getting into good shape, and fox skins, as well as wildcat pelts, were as good as ready noney. On these excursions, which sometimes extended to the haunts of the bear, they were accompanied by Bony, who, though he was of a very mongrel breed — a dog with no aristocratic pretensic ns whatever — was as good at hunting as he was at round- ing up the cattle and sheep, and guarding them through the night against the too near approach of the vagrant animals of the woods. Mr. Melville, not content to remain at home during the winter, had planned a lecturing and revival tour, which was to extend from Yarmouth to Halifax, and continue till the spring returned. As this would involve more than two hundred miles of travel, as he would make it, he purchased a great black horse named Black Prince, whose mettle was as good as his name. With saddle, saddlebags and a big sealskin coat, extending from head to heels, the American was fully equipped for the journey that was to enable him to return with his saddlebags well weighted with the coin gathered along the way. The fish along shore had already left the rocks for winter quarters In the deeper waters of the sea, and even the clams were pulling in ON SABLE ISLAND 35 their heads and burrowing in the flats, pre jarator/ to keeping them- selves from catching cold during the rigors of winter. The ravens and the gulls croaked and shrieked their discontent at these ar- rangements, for the clam: and the small fish were their mainstay for food. Th3y flew around the sheep and cattle, and doubtless wished that they were dead, so that the chances for pickings might be multiplied. There were few indications of life about Darling Rock now, but Dick and Jack were down there one mellow October afternoon watching the ships go by, and counting the number of sail they could see. High up in the sky, there were a few thin sheep-clouds scamp- ering about the field of blue, while below there was so little wind the whitecaps were hidden away, and the lazy waves scarcely broke as they crept among the rocks or rolled up the beach among the seals that were basking in the sun. " It's all very fine !" said Dick, :fter taking a professional look at sky and sea, " but when the gulls go up to play with the sheep-clouds there's mischief afloat, and the best thing we can do is to go the rounds and make everything snug and tight." "Yes," Jack responded, "for the rocks are moaning, the sand- pipers are whistling warnings to one another, and the ducks and wild geese are leaving the sea and flying inland." He was quite as weatherwise as his brother, thanks to the tuition of the canny old Scotchman, who was a whole weather bureau in himself. At the fishing cove they met their father, who, sniffing a storm, was going the rounds for himself. The three put the two fish-houses in order, and then, with the aid of block and pully, ran their three boats up the skids to the top of the cobble-beach where they would be safe from the highest tide and the farthest-reaching waves. An hour later the wind suddenly shifted to the southeast, bringing with it gray clouds that soon shut out every vestige of blue sky. By early evening the wind had increased to a gale ; the flying spray dashed against the cottage windows in sheets, and the loose rocks along the shore were being tossed about as if they were chips, and with a noise that sounded like a fusillade of musketry. But as there : .'i. i.-vpis-i 'iittttiiiiiiti^ 36 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES was nothing alarming in the strength of the gale, the family retired to rest at the usual time, thankful that they were not tossing upon the sea on board some belated vessel. Just as they had gotten fairly asleep there was a thunderous knock at the front door, followed immediately after by th*^ shout of the Scotchman, saying: " Dominie ! dominie ! the de'il's to pay. an' ye maun come out an' put Mm to flight!" - "What do you mean, Wallace?" asked Mr. Melville, as soon as he could open the door and let the drenched Scotchman into the presence of the alarmed family. " Look yon!" said Wallace, opening the door again, and pointing to a brilliant light shining on Port Mouton Head, where no earthly light had any business to be at that hour of the night, "What do you make of that?" asked Melville, more than half inclined 4o think that it was something supernatural, or at least phe- nominally electrical. " Gin ye'll come wi' me I'll show ye anither," said Wallace, not that he had seen another, but because, like all other Scotchmen, he was quick to reason from one thing to another, and he argued in his own mind that the light war. put there for a decoy, and that there would be another on Port Jolli Head to complete the snare. " I see what you are driving at/' said Melville, gritting his teeth with wrath, "and yet it can hardly be possible. Boys," he added, speaking to Dick and Jack, " dress yourselves for work, and get your guns and go with us." And he immediately put on storm clothes himself, and tucked a brace of pistols under his heavy overcoat, after satisfying himself that the Scotchman was armed for any emergency. Leaving the trembling family behind, they went down to the ex- treme end of Black Point, from which position they could see an- other clear light blazing on Little Port Jolli Head. " The devils!" exclaimed Melville, for it was now clearly evident that the two lights had been set to make it appear that the open space Uetween them was the entrance to a harbor, so that if there was any vessel near seeking refuge she would enter the gap and en- counter sure destruction on Devil's Ledge or on Black Point itself. ii " ON SABLE ISLAND 37 " Dinna stay to swear, dominie." said Wallace, but let us gang twa an' twa, in Screepture fashion, an' quench the bleeze." Melville saw at once what the man's plan was, and he said, anxiously: " But there may be a half dozen aYmed desperadoes around each fire, and what could two do with such scoundrels?" "Na, na! dinna tear; they'll no stay there, but will be in bed makin' believe that they are sleepin' thae sleep o' thae just. 'We' 11 gae like foxes, an' whin we've put the fires out we'll back to hame and bed again, an' sleep a' thae better for our walk." "Then what's the use of taking our guns?" asked Dick, ^hose blood being up, was not so readily cooled. '• Dinna tajh versel' aboot that ! ye ken the guns will Keep thae coorage in our banes ; sae let's away. Ye' 11 gang wi' your father to thae Mingo side, an' Jack will gae wi' me to thae Wagner side ; it's time thae lights were quenched." When Dick and his father reached the Catherine's river end of Port lolli beach, the little skiff they kept there for ferry purposes was gone ; the men who kindled the lights had taken good care to guard themselves against intrusion from the Melville side of the beach. The dyke was some distance up the river ; Dick and his father moved in that direction, intending to cross that way, but the marshes were so dieply flooded all progress was barred. If the tide had been out, there might have been a chance to ford the stream by way of the sand shallows, but the tide, being at two-thirds flood, nothing remained but to return as they came. On reaching home, they found Jack and Wallace sitting by the ''reside. Their report was identical with that made by Dick and his father; they had crossed Kempton's beach, which was divided from Port Mouton Head by a small stream, and when they reached the crossing, the skiff kept there was also missing, and the waves were rolling up the shallows of the river with such force, it was impossible to find a fording among the quicksands. So here they were again, with nothing to do but to nurse their wrath. Both lights were still brightly burning, which showed that from the first they were started with solid barrels of rosin. Dick proposed that hey light the lant- ■TT?SlWWWfWW»PW—Wfim|| ill 38 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES erns and go to Darling Rock and wave them by way of warning ; to this Wallace validly objected that the lanterns would be taken for vessel lights, and so would increase the danger to any vessel that might be in the offing. Being uneasy, Dick went out and watched the sea from the front of the house. He had been out but a few moments, when he rushed in. saying: "Rockets are going up from Devil's Ledge !" Nor was the alarm a false one. When the others reached the door they saw the rockets that were being sent up from the direction of the ledge. The false lights had wrought their mission, and a crew of men were in the jaws of a danger which made escape seem almost impcssible. Nevertheless, Melville promptly said : " We must launch the Carolina and try to reach them from the cove. Mother, you must take a lantern and stand at the south arm of the cove to keep our bearings for us." " Yes," she said quietly, and at once began her preparations. There were no life-saving stations along the shore then, but Mel- ville and Wallace, and Dick and Jack were all sturdy rowers, and terrible as was the task before them, there was no shrinking. The dinky was soon afloat, and then began the struggle. Once out of the shelter of the cove, the wind being dead on shore, they had to go into the very tdeth of the storm. But they made headway, and were slowly forging beyond the foam-line of the shore, when Mel- ville shouted to Jack : " Rest your oar while we hold ahead, and see if you can make the vessel out." Promptly obeying, Jack, after a swift survey, said : " It's a bark ; foremast gone ; and, by Jove ! she's gone over the ledge and is drifting straight for the beach, which she will strike not far from Darling Rock." " Very gude !" shouted Wallace ; " she'll gae on at the top of the tide, an' if thae men hae kep' thae decks thus far they'll hae Ian' aneath their feet in less than an hour. But it's death for us to try to follow her in the surf o' the beach. Nor can we turn aboot In this sea. Back now, stern-foremost, for thae cove again. Catch no ^ ON SABLE ISLAND 39 crabs wi' thae oars ; if we swing broadside to this sea, we'll be thae shipwracked anas." And, so holding their head steadily to the in-sweeping sea, and keeping a sharp eye upon the lantern glimmering upon the rocks astern, they backed to the cove in safety. Mrs. Melville was drip- ping with the spray that had dashed over her during the watch. After seeing her back to the cottage, the others took her lantern and another one with it and hurried to the beach. The bark had already struck, and, lying broadside-on, the surf made a clean sweep over her. Seeing the lanterns on shore, and gathering courage there- from, those on board fastened a strong rope to an empty water-cask, to which was joined a lighter endless line by a sliding loop. When the cask reached the beach, the stronger line was staked strongly in the sand, while the lighter one was pulled ashore, and the action of it, between the vessel and the beach, was such that in less than half an hour the whole crew —fourteen men — stood on the beach unin- jured, though chilled to the bone with the drenching they had received. " What place is this?" asked the captain, the moment he landed, he being the last to arrive. •' Black Point," said Melville, knowing the rest that was coming. "And those lights -what's the meaning of them?" this, angrily. " It means that the devil and his minions have been at work." " May hell's curse blight them in mind and body." "Amen!" responded Melville, solemnly, yet heartily. "What vessel is that ?" he added. " The bark America, bound from Boston to St. Johns, Newfound- land, with an assorted cargo of notions and general merchandise. Thank heaven ! we've come ashore in such shape that not a scrap of cargo will reach the devils who lured us here. And if any attempt is made to pillage us. we'll bury the thieves and would-be murderers alive.'" " Amen! to that, too," exclaimed Melville. promptly. " I am an American, and a clergyman ; my name is Melville. We started in »tt«i»mtr<* f 46 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURE. / our boat for the ledge, but seeing that Providence was ahead of us, put back to shore and hastened to meet you here." " And my name is John Doane, of Salem, at your service ; I'm deuced glad to know that there are saints here as well as devils. But for a high wave, that carried us off the ledge before we cracked our keel, we should now be at the bottom of the ocean, and you, too, I fear, for your boat could not have lived through such a sea as was running shoreward. It was a brave thing for four men to attempt." As yet he had not discovered that two of the crew were mere boys, "We'll not speak of that now," said Mr. Melville, uncomfortably. " My sons will take you to my house, where you can dry yourselves, while we watch here till daybreak. The bark lies easy, and with the going out of the tide, she'll be so high and dry you can board her without wetting your feet." " Ye'll no tek a' the men to brek your leddy's back," said Wal- lace, bluntly. " Gie me half o' the men." " Are there only two houses here ?" asked the captain. "That's all, but we can make you very comfortable," Melville replied. " You are very good, and we'll avail ourselves of your offer ; but our bark is In such good shape, though she'll never float again, that we can go on board of her as soon as this surf is lower, and live there as if nothing had happened." The wreckers were foiled; their itching fingers couldn't touch so much as a scrap of the wrecked vessel's cargo ; and the captain swore that if there was any justice in Nova Scotia they'd be hunted down and shut up for life. The storm was not only an unwelcome visitor to the men of the bark, but It brought disaster to Mr. Melville. On the next tide the gale increased in fury. The stone wall in front of the cottage was swept away, and rocks as big as barrels rolled in and destroyed the Culpepper meadow. Both fish-houses were blown over and the con- tents washed along the shore. The boats were blown into a swamp. Later, the barn blew down, killing many of the sheep and most of -Si ON SABLE ISLAND 41 the cattle. Hay that was stacked near the Witch of Endor was scattered like feathers. When the wind had spent itself, Dick and Jack were sent out to report the condition of the canal and the dyke, and came back say- ing that the canal was filled from one end to the other, the sea-wall of sand and bush was blown down to a dead level, and new entrances inade by the waves had carried the sand in ruinous quantities over the marshes; the costly dyke, with its splendid sluices, was a wreck, and there was an end of all the great expectations cherished for the redemption of Black Point from the empire of the sea. There were but seventeen sheep left, one yoke of oxen, and one cow and calf. Mr. Melville drew a deep sigh, when the boys ended the cata- logue of disasters, but made no complaint. "And where is Black Prince," he finally asked, expecting that the horse also had gone in the general wreck. " Oh, he's up by the Witch of Endor, stern to the wind, and crop- ping grass as cool as a cucumber," said jack, gladly, " and when I went up to him, he rubbed his nose against my shoulder long enough to say ' how d" ye do ?' and then went on eating." " Well, with him left, I can still carry out my plans about my winter work," said Melville, quite cheerfully. 'And though the fish-houses are upset, we can end them up again, and when we examined the boats, we found them safe and sound, for all they were dumped in the swamp like so many feathers. We can skid them out again as easy as dirt, and when halibut fish- ing comes again. Jack and 1 will pitch in harder than ever." Seeing that his father was not broken down by his misfortunes, Dick was so immensely relieved, he hastened to pick up what few crumbs of comfort there were lying around. "Yes, 1 think we'll have to go into the fishing business harder than ever," said his father, smiling. " it's a good thing the sea can- not blow itself out of its own jacket," he added. " And that no storm can prevent the game from coming back again," said Jack. " There's no danger of our starving yet awhile." " ^'^w, that Black Prince is safe. Dick will have to ride him to r ■■ . ■ !i." i JJj ii )i i" WJm. L.^ i JL ■mrtTT 42 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES Port Jolli, as soon as the storm goes down, and carry letters for the mail," said Mr. Melville, who, with the captain, had been busy writ- ing during the boys' absence. '• Captain Doane is anxious to get the agents of his owners and underwriters here as soon as possible and 1 am just as anxious to summon the government officers for an investigation into the cause of the wreck." " If the letters are ready," replied Dick, eagerly, •• I can get off at once, and reach the highway in time to meet the Yarmouth mail- coach up, and then have plenty of time to get back again before night sets in." After consultation, it was decided to let him go, and Dick, mounted on the great, gaunt, black steed, disappeared into the gray mists, and accomplished his important errand without a mishap. When the agents came, it was seen that it was too late in the season to think of transferring cargo to other vessels. The sailors were returned to their homes, while Captain Doane and his first officer made arrangements to winter on board as keepers of the bark, and as witnesses, in case the law found anyone to indict for causing the wreck. The Frenchman and the Hollander were arrested for the crime, but as no direct evidence could be obtained against them, they were discharged, after being in prison six months. After their liberation, they and their families disappeared from their old haunts, and by the Melvllles, were never heard of afterward. 'M NSTEAD of desponding over his losses, Mr. Melville departed on his lecturing and preaching tour in the best of spirits. When he returned in the spring he re- versed his saddlebags over the table and poured out $367.00 in sliver and gold. "There, mother," said he, " you see that the gift of gab isn't a bad thing to have, providing you don't make folk so sick of it that they become perfectly willing 43 r 44 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES n that you should have that— and that alone. I have had one of the most pleasant tours I ever made. Most of the people had read of our misfortunes in the papers, and ! am more indebted to their sym- pathy for this money than I am to my own ability in lecturing and preaching. Their kindness was extended to Black Prince, who v/as so constantly fed on oats by my entertainers, that I was afraid his coltish antics would destroy what little ministerial reputation I had left. In Halifax he carried himself so high the officers of the garri- son made the most tempting offers for him, and Mr. Uniacke, one of the gentlemen hunting here at the time Dick shot the wildcat in the cellar, offered me my own price for him." " ! would rather have had you come home without the money than without Black Prince," Dick confessed, candidly. '* Why, you wouldn't sell him any more than you would sell sister Mary, would you ?" said Jack, earnestly. " He's the only hand- some thing we've got on Black Point. If oats will make such an improvement in me I'll go to eating them right away." Jack wasn't naturally partial to porridge. " We need the horse to go for the mail," Mrs. Melville said, in her practical way. " Every time the boys make that dismal journey I am on nettles till they get back. Fourteen miles on foot, counting both ways, is too dear a price to pay for any papers or letters we happen to get." " Oh, no, mother!" Dick exclaimed. " How could we have got- ten along through the long winter without hearing from father, and getting news from the world besides ?" " Black Prince seems to be of almost as much account as I am." laughed Mr. Melville, " but let me say that I have as good opinions of him as the rest of you, and there is little danger of him leaving uo unless he takes a notion to run away of his own accord. And now, to change the subject, how are Captain Doane and his mate ? They must have had a very tedious winter." •• They are both well, but they thought It tedious enough, when they had to go to court as witnesses, though they said they'd be will- ing to walk a hundred miles if their evidence would convict the It.:i» ON SABLE ISLAND 45 wreckers. When they got back they said you must be awfully stucK on Black Point and Nova Scotia, to be willing to live here with such winters as we have. The mate says he would rather live in prison in the States than to live out of jail here." Dick took great satis- faction in making this dig at Black Point. " The boys spent a good many of their evenings with the officers in their cabin," Mrs. Melville said, "and the captain and his mate told them a good many things about their voyages and the United States." "Yes, they are as full of the States as you are, father," said Dick. " I dare say," responded Mr. Melville, rubbing his black, up-stand- ing hair, while mischievous twinkles chased one another through his sharp, dark eyes. " I hope they didn't make rebels of you; being born in Nova Scotia makes you English subjects, you know." " But haven't you told us," Dick exclaimed, " that, being born of American parents, who never took the oath of allegiance here, we have the right to say that we are American subjects?" " That is correct, too, and you can claim the protection of either flag; it isn't everyone who can claim that privilege." " I'd rather be one thing, and let it go at that; I claim the stars and stripes," said Jack, loftily. "We've been taking lessons while you were away," Dick said, looking at his father mischievously. " Captain Doane says that his bark is still under American protection, and, though he didn't believe in playing the smarty, he had the right to raise the flag over his vessel, for all she is perched high and dry on English land. She isn't condemned yet, and he was so lonesome, every pleasant Sun- day Jack and I would go down there, and then the bunting went up to the mizzen-peak, and we four would stand on the quarter-deck and sing ' America.' " I respect the English flag, for it is the flag of the mother of America, but it doesn't thrill me like the stars and stripes. Every time we ran that flag up, it made me feel as if I wanted to breathe clear down to my toes, and to lift my head two or three Inches 't^mtmum 46 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES higher. It doesn't make me feel like bragging, but it does make me feel as if I wanted to do something that was worth bragging about." " The captain laughed to see how much we enjoyed hoisting the flag," said Jack, " but he wasn't making fun of us ; for even when he was laughing at us one Sunday, I saw him wipe his eyes, and blow his nose, and turn his head, as if he didn't want us to see him." " But I watched him," interrupted Dick, " and seeing him shak- ing about the giils, I began to get kind of queer myself." " You see, mother, that blood will tell," Mr. Melville remarked, in a musing sort of way. " So it seems," was the reply. During the weeks that followed, the bark was emptied of her cargo, stripped of her rigging and abandoned to her fate. While the work was going on, Dick and Jack were well paid for assisting, for their acquaintance with the surf, with the effects of the wind and tide, and with all the shoals near, made their services very valuable to the agents. When the captain left, he said to the boys more in earnest than in jest : " The bark is yours boys as long as she lasts, or at least as long as you live in this wretched place. She doesn't look very oretty as she is, but she looks much better than the Witch of Endor. And. by the way, you'll find a keg of white paint in the galley, and if I were in your place I'd take it and paint the old witch out of sight, and then saw off the eagle figure-head of the bark and hoist it to the top of that big boulder. And if you'll drill a couple of holes in the top of the rock and bolt the eagle's feet to the rock, so that he'll face the sea, he'll stand there in spite of all the storms that blow upon this coast. Then, too. the gilding on it is thick, and will last a long time" * . The boys did as was suggested, and often while they were fishing in the offing they could plainly see the eagle looking toward them and glistening resplendently in the rays of the sun. Those who live only in the city or in the thick of society are apt to look upon their fellow- creatures as so many stocks and stones, or 50 many machines put in motion by the forces around them. On ON SABLE ISLAND 47 the other hand, those who live in solitude come to look upon even inanimate things as living friends or enemies. Dick and Jack had fallen into this last way of thinking and feeling, and doubtless the reader will think it a better way than the one first mentioned. They called the eagle on the rock Uncle Sam, and it is certain that no uncle they had ever known or heard of had such a powerful and wholesome influence over them. In all their disputes or doubts they would say : " What would Uncle Sam think about it ? What would he do?" The answer usually reached by this sort of appeal was generally the end of all controversy, so that, whether on land or sea, they came to regard Uncle Sam as superior to any genii they had ever read of in the "Arabian Nights." He gave them all the advice they needed, and then made them work out their own salvation ; they trusted to him for wisdom and to themselves for works. And if any of us ever come to anything it will be because we have run our affairs on the same kind of road. Not long after the recognition of Uncle Sam, Dick and Jack were hunting halibut near the Little Hope, a tall beacon, erected on an ugly ledge, which was a long distance from the shore, to warn ves- sels against venturing inside, where shoals and rocks abounded. They had scarcely dropped there skillit — a small stone anchor en- cased in tough birch cross-pieces- -when a pert, rakish-looking schooner, of about sixty tons burden, luffed into the wind to the windward of them, and. setting the stars and stripes in the main rig- ging, signaled to them to come on board. " That's a beauty of a craft ! I wonder what she wants of us." said Dick. " Pull up the skillit, Jack, and we'll go on board and find out. She looks like a regular Uncle Sammer." As they ran under the stern of the stranger, they laughed when they read the name, " You Bet, of Eastport, Maine." They were no sooner on deck, than a lean, lank man. of about thirty-five, asked: " Is there any place inside there where a fellow of my size can run in and spend a few days without being eaten up by the fi$h? I draw about seven feet when I'm down as deep as I T"fK!S! ^S555S^S3SH msamsaaem wm M 48 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES can load. I'm buying halibut and cod. and if the You Bet's nose can get in there, we'll run in for a few days." " On this side of Black Point there is, but not on the other," Dick answered. " I can run you into Mingo cove, where you will be as safe as a clam in its shell ; it's so land-locked that a hurricane couldn't drag you from your anchors." ^ " Then you know all the bottom about here ? Don't you know most too much for so young a chap?" " If you had fished over this bottom as much I have, you'd know something, too," replied Dick, nettled by the skipper's incredulous manner. " Oh, don't get roily! I reckon you're just the chap I'm hunting for. Sling your boat astern, and take the wheel, and slap the You Bet into that cove as soon as you can." While Jack was fastening the Carolina astern, Dick, after going to the wheel, said to the skipper : " Take in your foresail and fly- ing-jib. We'll go in easy, so that if we happen to bump against a rock, it won't knock your cutwater off or scrape the keel away." The five sailors, who formed the crew, while grinning from ear to ear at his handling of the skipper, skurried away to quarters to obey the young pilot's orders. Turning the You Bet completely round, stem for stern. Dick steered into a network of shoals and ledges that might have appalled a much older head ; but he ran with such evi- dent knowledge of what he was about, that the skipper and his mate watched his movements in silent admiration. Presently, while running along a rocKy shore, that seemed to be without a break, Dick suddenly down helm, and the schooner sheered into a narrow opening that let her into a sandy-bottomed basin per- fectly sheltered on every side. "Well, does this suit you?" he asked, after he ordered the anchor down and had left the wheel. •* To a dot !" acknowledged the skipper. " It's as cozy as a cuddy hole, and a^ safe as the inside of a jug! Now, what are the damages?" ON SABLE ISLAND 49 the anchor " F'ive dolhrs for bringing you in, but it will cost you $10.00 to get out." " Gosh ! You're sharp enough to be a Yankee !" and the skipper, in his surprise, squirted a flood of tobacco juice over the rail, which stood six feet away " Well, I'm agreed," he continued, seeing that Dick meant business, " but I s'pose you'll be willing to take it out in trade ?" " Out— in— trade ? You said you came to buy. not to sell." Here was cause for suspicion. # " Of course ! of course ! That's all right, young man ! If you've got any cod or halibut, fetch 'em along, 1 reckon I've change enough on board to pay you for all you bring." But the skipper's face was as red under his swarthy skin as If it had been suddenly smeared with paint. " All right ; but I'll take my $5.00 now, and the $10.00 when I board you to take you out." The skipper knew all the while that Dick's charge was low ; he knew also that he himself had made a blunder which had aroused Dick's suspicions, and to cover things over, he said : " There's $10.00 for you now, $5.00 for the come-in, and half down be- sides to bind the bargain for the go -out. Does that make it all right?" ' " Yes, all right. I'll be on hand, but we must pick a wind off shore to get out. We can't go beating and tackli'^' about inside the Little Hope ; there are too many shoals and sunken rocks to look after." " " You understand your business as well as an old salt," said the skipper, but he didn't look Dick in the eyes as confidently as he did as first, for there were too many interrogation points in them. The You Bet laid in the cove several days buying all the dried fish [she could get, which was all legitimate enough ; but in addition to this, and with an impudence characteristic of some of the Yankee fishermen, who make no bones of breaking the coast laws of Nova Scotia, she sent her boats among the shoals and fished for mackerel ! 50 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES J 1 and cod in violation of tiie three-mile limit. And, worse than this, she sold smuggled goods, of which she carried quite a stock — traded them for cured fish, which the Port Jolli fishermen brought in in large quantities as soon as they heard of the opportunity. That both parties were willing to break the laws didn't make the transaction right. Dick and jack knew this well enough, and when they carried their halibut and cod to the vessel they insisted upon receiving hard cash for them, although the family stood much in need of some of the thffigs the Yankee was peddling along shore. But it was not their place to play the part of informers, and they left the revenue officers to look after their own business. A day came, however, when they found themselves in a very tight place. They had walked over the beach to make You Bet a visit, and while they were in the cabin talking with the skipper, the mate entered and said that a revenue cutter had made her appearance outside of the Little Hope, and she was lowering a boat with the evident intention of making the vessel a visit of inspection. The skipper immediately ordered the vessel to make ready for sea. Addressing Dick, he said : " Pilot, you are just in time. Get us us out of this scrape and I'll give you $50.00." " I'll take the other five according to contract, but not a cent more," said Dick, not stopping to consider all the bearings of case. " You'd better hurry about setting vil ; put on every stitch you've got ; the wind is abeam, and I can run you a course that'll take you clear of the cutter without fail. She can't come inside of IJttl', Hope, because she draws too much water, but knowing everything; about here I can run the inside course and slip out of her siglit while she is taking the long course outside. Are you a fast sailor?" '• Fast as a witch ! Can show my neeis to almost anything." " But what will Uncle Sam say ?" asked Jack of Dick, while the crew were making thirds hum about the decks. • " He'd say: ' Get her clear if you can. and we'll settle the rights and wrongs of it after the mare has left the stable.' " Jack wasn't exactly satisfied with the answer, yet he went to the ON SABLE ISLAND 51 ! than this, ick— traded DUght in in That both transaction they carried :eiving hard i of some of [ it was not the revenue \ a very tight I Bet a visit, )er. the mate ;r appearance boat with the lection. The for sea. me. Get us ut not a cent irings of case, stitch you've lat'll take you iside of Littl'- ing everything; t of her sight e you a fast anything." Dick, while the ettle the rights he went to the ropes with the crew of the vessel, saying to himself: " I'll think it out when we are out of the scrape." Dick was now at the wheel, and the You Bet, with bow to the open sea, was keeling her lee-scuppers to the water-line and bowling along like a racer. The cutter's boat returned in a hurry, and the cutter, crowd- ing on all sail bore away in chase on the outer or long line of the course, hoping to outsail the You Bet and to overtake hei where the deep sea met Port Mouton Head. Discovering that the Yankee was by far the faster sailor, the cutter sent a blank shot across the fleeing schooner's bow. " You can blank as much as you please !" exclaimed the skipper, " and send solid shot, too. if you want to ; I'm the cat that jumped the bag." Jack had joined Dick at the spokes of the wheel, and the skipper, standing by to receive Dick's orders about trimming sails to the occasionally changing course, as he luffed or bore away according to the necessities of the case, experienced an admiration which almost neutralized his anxiety. "Well, 1 swan! You fellers beat Maine punkins!" he exclaimed, when the schooner sailed by the edge of Black Point and struck an arrow course for Port Mouton Head. He ducked his head h.nstily, when a solid shot from the cutter went through the mainsail, and, ricochetting, skimmed the waves till it buried itself in the sands of Kempton's beach, within plain sight of the Melville home. Another, and another shot was fired, one of which, striking the rail, made the splinters fly, but beyond this did no harm. The schooner soon bounded into the deep swell beyond Port Mouton Head, and the chase was at an end. " The rascals!" exclaimed Mr. Melville, who, with glass in hand, watched the whole race, knowing that only his own boys could have j carried the schooner through the network of hidden dangers into the ' outer sea. "The confounded scamps!" wiping the beads of perspiration from his brow. " Here's another cucumber to my pot of pickles. i iijlj " I^ I P I 52 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES Some are shaking their heads at my fast horse ; others are saying that my misfortunes here were sent upon me to pun- ish me for leaving the pastorate. When they hear that the boys have run a smuggler away from the revenue cutter, they'll say that the minister's sens are going to the dogs with him as fast as they can go." Yet there was a broad smile on his face, and it was plain enough that he wasn't feeling very badly, though he was so peppery in his exclamations. He again levelled his glass upon the fleeing vessel, and seeing a wad of bunting rising from the deck, he watched it till it reached the maintop where, now fully unfolded, it disclosed the stars and stripes, flaming in all their glory. "The impudent scoCindrels !" was what he said, but "Hurrah, hurrah!" was in his heart, and in spite of everything, mouth and heart will sometimes pull as widely apart as a contrary pair of oxen. Mrs. Melville, with a fine glass that had been given to her by Captain Doane, was also an interested spectator of the flight. Standing in the doorway of the cottage, she saw Dick and Jack standing at the wheel, while the You Bet flung the spray from her bow, and although the booming of the cutter's gun aroused her fears, the distance so rapidly widening between the two vessels thrilled her with joy. When the down-easter disappeared behind the Point in safety, Mrs. Melville's conscience began to smite her for sympathizing with a smuggler and a fish thief, but her conscience was somewhat relieved, when, on comparing notes with her husband, she discovered that he was as great a sinner as herself. " But how will the boys get back?" she asked, beginning to worry about them. " Let me see," he replied. " The Yankee will drop them on Port Mouton beach, and that will give them a five mile walk before they reach home. They will be in a hurry to get here, and will arrive about nine o'clock. They will be as hungry as lobsters, and we must have a good supper waiting for them." . , 1 ' ' ON SABLE ISLAND 53 At twenty minutes past nine the boys came in looking worn and rather sheepish, and their father greeted them by saying: " You are a pretty pair of dogs,, and ought to have a round dose of cat"0'-nlne-tails for this day's work !" But. as the medicine that was in his eyes and face took away the sting that was in his words, and as there was the nice, hot supper awaiting their voracious appe- tites, the boys began to laugh, Dick saying: •' Blood will tell, father, so what's the use of making believe that you would be willing to see us hung for this day's work ?" •iTMMMi I ■ ! /iiii 'x 1 LAST TRIP OF THE SEASON ACK ! Wake up, there, and stir your stumps!" "Ye — s, r — m coming," Jack sleepily answered to Dick's impatient call. Dick dressed himself .and on turning to see how Jack was getting along, he found him sleeping as soundly as if sleep should no more be broken than window lights or china dishes. "You log!'" and Dick Ifted Jack out of bed bodily and steadied him on his feet until his [yes were fairly open. • . - . -. 66 -iVW ",'V.'- 56 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES < !l - "Oh, I forgot! this is halibut day, isn't it? — and the last of the season ; wish yesterday had been the last." " Yes, and just look out of the window and see what a day it's going to be." The boys' room, which was simply boarded off from the rest of the rough, unfinished attic, had a single window, but it was a window with a liberal outlook. From it could be seen Darling Rock, Uncle Sam, the whole length of Kempton's beach, and the ugly looking profile of Port Mouton Head, all glowing in the red rays of the rising sun. There, too, was the lazy surf rolling on the beach and the wide-awake gulls skimming over it in search of their break- fasts. JacK looked out, and now fully on the alert, said : " Yes, splen- did, and so calm that even the waves have forgotten to show their teeth among the rocks." While they were eating smoked halibut for breakfast. Dick said : " There'll be fresh halibut for supper, mother — a good fat slice out of the very fin itself, and the halibut we get to-day will not be put up for sale, but kept for home use, and we are going to pickle its fins and smoke its cuts to suit ourselves." " Don't count your chickens before they are hatched," cautioned Mr. Melville. " I never do when handling such flimsy things as eggs, but the halibut is a bird of another feather, as you'll admit, and you never knew us to go after them without having at least one with us when we came back." , >• - " Now, that 1 think of it, you are rarely astray in the halibut busi- ness." acknowledged Mr. Melville, "so it is safe enough to depend upon fresh halibut for supper. This is the third day of Septem- ber, and it is time that our winter supply of fins and strips was safe in hand." After breakfast, Dick said : " Now, for the clams; take the clam bucket, Jack, I'll take the shovel. We must hurry, for we ought to be off there by the ledge at low tide." Once on the flats back of Kempton's beach, it did not take them long to get all the bait they ;i^i, ON SABLE ISLAND 57 [wanted. Dick relished clams from their native dish, and, having secured what was necessary for business, he felt like trying one of [them for pleasure. Deftly opening the shells, which enclosed a jgood-sized clam, he next opened his mouth, threw his head back, land gulped the pulpy creature down with as much relish as if it were fa chocolate drop or a candied plum. ■ , .. ■ " Take one, Jack," he said, " it will make a capital finish to your [breakfast." '. " No, sir ! No clams for me till mother has put a coat of egg- [batter around them and fried them, or has made them up into one [of her clam chowders. I'd as soon think of eating raw fish as to [think of downing a raw clam. Mother can make a frog jump down iTour throat when she has given it a turn or two in the frying pan." " Yes," Dick replied, proudly, " when it comes to pots and kettles, ;He makes them beat Aladdin's lamp and the four and twenty black- Ibirds, besides."' " You are getting off fire-crackers, now." Mr. Melville cautioned jhis boys against exaggerations, calling them fire crackers to be sparingly used. This was what Jack alluded to. They had to pass the cottage on their way to their boat, and there Ihey found their mother waiting for them. " You must get back in time for dinner, boys, she said, " we are p have roast duck, and I want you to get your share while it is hot md fresh from the oven." < ' Never fear about that, mother. If there is anything good iround in the eating line, you know we always get our share," said jack, quickly. " It is so early, you will have a long forenoon of It, and if you'll /ait a moment, I'll give you a jug of buttermilk, some bread and jutter and the rest of the rabbit stew that was left over from last light. I don't want you to come hohie with too big appetites, for |here are only two ducks, and seven of us to feed," and the mother lughed at herself for trying to be funny. " You are a brick, mother, and know what Is Inside of a boy to a Jot. What Is better to have at sea than a jug of fresh buttermilk HHHPai II HI I E 1 :!l i M 58 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES and a good slice or two of your bread?"' and Jack went into the pantry with her to get the lunch she had so thoughtfully provided. Mr. Melville was grooming Black Prince, of whose glossy coat he was quite proud, and so did not go down to the cove with them, as he usually did when the boys went out to sea, • The Carolina was their favorite boat, and was always selected for open sea work. Having used her so much, in both fair and foul weather, they felt almost as safe in her as if they were at home in the cottage. They had performed perilous experiments with her in the surf of the beach when they wanted a bit of rough sport, and hence, knew that it was almost impossible to upset her. Although there was no wind, they put both sprit-sails on board, and with two oars apiece, and rowing wide-handed, as it is called, they went skimming over the glassy ground-swell with hearts that were as buoyant as their boat. " She's looking at us," said Jack, catching a glimpse of his mother standing on the upland at the corner of the house watching the re- ceding boat. Resting their oars upon the gunwales, both boys stood upon the thwarts and swung their tarpaulin hats in salute. They knew that she saw them, for she removed the kerchief from her neck, and, saluting back again, disappeared in the house. Swinging silently now to their oars, they gave themselves up to thoughts that neither boy nor man is ever ashamed of unless he is worse than dead. Reaching the Devil's Ledge, that being the place where they gen- erally found the largest fish, they made immediate preparations for business. Jack retained his oars, and backed as near to the ledge as the sweep of the swell would admit, while Dick made ready his fifty fathoms of strong cod-line, by attaching one end securely to a thwart, and tying several clams with small twine to the big hook at the other end, which was weighted with heavy sinkers. " There she goes," he said, as he flung the line astern, with a throw that carried out four or five fathoms. Presently, he spoke again, saying : " There's something fooling with that bait, but it doesn't take hold hard enough for a halibut. It's some sea-sneak ON SABLE ISLAND 59 that means to get away with those clams piecemeal ; guess I'll pull up to see what is going on. Oh. it's a lobster; 1 know him by the way he is backing with that paddle-tail of his. He is a big chap, too, judging from the weight he shows up." .. When the intruder was landed, it proved to be an enormous deep- sea lobster, green as jealousy, and so hideously ugly that his photo- graph might have been taken and exhibited as a picture of that most unlovely of all the passions. " My gracious!" Jack exclaimed, "take care where you put that fellow, Dick! I wouldn't care to have him stand up and give me a hug. He's almost as big as a good-sized bear cub." •' I wish he had staid at home. When I'm sending out invita- tions to halibut, I'd thank the lobsters to keep their places till they are invited to leave them. His ugly claws have mashed my bait into a jelly." " But I'm glad you pulled him in, he's such an astonisher. If our dog gets his tail into one of those claws, the lobster will wag the dog instead of the dog wagging the lobster." • ^ The lobster raised himself on his roughly booted and fearfully spurred legs, and made such a decided move in Jack's direction that the boy jumped upon the thwart, exclaiming : " Oh, cracky I Dick ! he's coming this way. For mercy's sake throw a rope around him and belay him in your own part of the boat. I'd as soon shake hands with a blacksmith's vice as to have him shake hands with me with that right claw of his." Dick laughed, but knowing that a nip from such a visitor was not to be courted, he threw -:■ rope abaft the lobster's claws and made him fast to one of the tholpins. After struggling with his fetters awhile the armored Goliah grew quiet, yet the restlessness of his long protruding eyes showed that he was doing a heap of thinking. Doubt- less he was wondering what sort of a world his sins had gotten him into ; and doubtless, too, the boys looked more hideous to him than he did to them, for the looks of things depend a good deal upon where and how one has been brought up. Jack seized his oars again, and looking down at the lobster's )»!r! !P" ^m^immimmm m ' mV I - 60 DICK AND JACK S ADVENTURES « I H'' ' i il!!l m I crusty feet, said: " I'm glad I'm nort In those shoes of his, and that I don't have to wear such mittens as he has on his hands. Wonder how we should feel if instead of having our bones where no- body can see them we had them plastered all over our outsides as his are !" " If you are going to wonder at everything you see in this world you'll have a busy time of it," Dick said, while putting on another batch of bait. '• If lobster eyes are made to squirm around like that isn't it a hint for '>s to stir our minds a bit," Jack retorted, sharply. " Your mind ought to be satisfied with your doings, for you are al- ways turning stones over to see what's under them ; for my part I'm content to let the bugs and worms keep themselves out of sight. Row ahead a little, and we'll see what we can turn up next, if you are so anxious to know what's going on below." t Now, your halibut is a retiring sort of body, and that is probably the reason why so many of them resorted to such an out of the way place as Black Point. He does not make himself conspicuous by swimming about in the middle and upper waters like most other fish, but sticks to the bottom, where he can the more easily gratify his retir- ing disposition by flapping the sand or mud over his broad yet thin body by a few convenient movements of his big fins. His modesty is further shown by the way he dresses. His upper suit is composed entirely of a dull, neutral gray, with just the faintest suggestion of spots here and there ; his under clothing is of the most spotless white, which he modestly conceals by keeping it constantly turned toward the sand beneath him. You might think that this would soil his linen, yet, water being plenty, he has a way of doing his own laundrying that keeps his underwear as white as in- nocence itself. His head is so small, compared with the rest of his body, it would; seem as if his capacity could not be very great, yet you can see from the way he carries his eyes that he is no fool of a fish ; one eye is turned downward, so as to see everything going on below, and the other upward, to observe what takes place there. There is so ■i ON SABLE ISLAND 61 (much more going on above than below, and the upper eye has so luch more work to do than the lower, that it is by far the Jarger of the two, and this detracts somewhat from the hali- Dut's beauty. - Big, as he generally is, he hasn't much mouth to speak of, yet It |s so well armed with long, needle-like teeth, and is placed so nearly lidway between the eyes, that he can manage to get a living with- )ut placing too great a strain upon the rest of his body. Take an elm leaf and lay it flat upon its belly, and its shape will rive you a very good idea of the shape of the halibut, as well as of is natural position. To complete the resemblance, however, you ihould add a tan for the fin of the tail ; for the rest, the saw-like fdges of the leaf will answer very well for the fin that runs along ^oth sides of the halibut, all the way from his tail to where the head, nthout the aid of any neck, joins the body. To be sure, a dead halibut is rather coarse eating, but he is not to ^lame for that. Upon the whole, he is a quiet, unobtrusive gentle- lan, making no fuss unless compelled to fight for his life. Young ilibut are very rarely caught, being too shrewd to be taken for jdgeons, while the old ones are so eager to bite they are easily ^ken in and done for. In the halibut world the old saw which was often quoted at us when we were young is entirely reversed, and ^ads: " Old folks think young folks to be fools, but young folks low old folks to be fools." j" Give way there. Jack; you are not pulling fast enough," cried Ick, seeing that Jack had fallen into one of his fits of thinking and IS not paying much attention to present business, which, by the way, [a bad habit for anybody to get into. Give way, you have it!" repeated Jack, and the boat made a iden spurt ahead. The movement took up the slack of the and made Dick aware that he now had something stronger |in a lobster to contend with. Indeed, the boat was pulled so much jthe stern that she began to back directly toward the ledge. The was as stiff as a ramrod, and Jack, rising to the emergency ^i. — . ^j:. „ ,j r -.' f^S^BBSSm 62 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES ;| without further orders, pulled till he regained a part of his head- way. " It's our halibut this time," said Dick, exultingly, as he braced his feet against the stern-cuddy and made ready for a fight with his victim. " Pull away there. Jack!" he shouted, with increasing excitement, " the fellow is very big or very ugly, and he is trying to get to his home under the edge of the rocks before his mother knows he's out." But the boat was now slowing so steadily, Dick took a turn around a cleat with his line, and seating himself on the after-thwart, with his free hand, took an oar to help Jack hold tjie boat to her own. The movement didn't work, and now the boat was spinning round upon her keel like a top. All at once there was a pause, and the line slacked. " There, Jack, we've lost him ! He's gone to the doctor to have his mouth mended. If his relatives see him scudding away from this place, they'll avoid it, and we'll have to try some other shoal." But Dick was premature in his conclusions, as he informally con- fessed, when he cried out: "Hello! If he isn't hanging there, yet!" The halibut was very much in evidence of the truth of the assertion, for he had taKen the bit in his teeth, so to speak, and was dragging the boat seaward in spite of the resisting efforts of both boys. The halibut is capable of sudden movements of great violence, but incapable of a prolonged fight for his life. The struggle of this one ended in his coming to the surface in a few moments after the be- ginning of the sudden run, and now his brilliantly white underside flashed in the sun like a sheet of frosted silver, With the exception of an occasional spasmodic flurry, while the forty fathoms of line were being drawn in, he gave his captors no further trouble. Being seven feet In length, it required careful work to get him safely aboard the Carolina. "There," said Dick, triumphantly, when the halibut was stowed amldship, " you have almost skinned my fingers to the bone, but ON SABLE ISLAND 63 there is enough meat on you to pay for It. Why, Jack, he's good for two kegs of pickled fins and at least one hundred pounds of strips for the smokehouse, and a week's supply of baking pieces from his backbone after he Is stripped. That's what I call a pretty good chicken, in spite of our calculating about him before he was hatched, and father will be the first to admit It as soon as we get ashore. And now for a lunch, and a good swig at that jug of buttermilk ; I'm as hungry as a pig." " But look there, Dick!" Jack exclaimed, with visible uneasiness. Dick glanced seaward, and what he saw instantly banished all thought of eating. ^ ' \ OLD CRAY MLANKET MONO former visitors at Black Point was an old nnan named Jeremiah Gray, who wore a curious coat made from a ^;gray blanket, fashioned after the style of the old Cana- dian pioneers. Although he was as full of Scripture as a boy is of pranks, he was as far astray from its spirit as a drunkard is from a straight line. He stayed a week trying to convince Mr. Mel- ville that the world was to be burned up in less than six months, and he dripped and dripped his warnings upon the boys from morning to night. They disliked him so much that whenever he led the morning prayers they signaled each other 96 / "''^tSlw>HHiitH;i^ap»,,yy, y ^CT^ ; ,,^,„^ #'■ 66 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES I- ffl .! ! W 'i ■im through the backs of their chairs with faces that couldn't have been worse if they had swallowed a dose of red peppers and vinegar. The man was so full of complaints they leaked through his prayers like water from a poor bucket, and he was so used to fault-finding that he didn't spare the Lord himself. When he took himself and his blankety coat off over the hill, back of the cottage, Dick and Jack, who had kept out of sight to escape his farewell admonitions, chuckled with delight, and Dick said : " Good-by, Old Gray Blanket, and may the Lord have mercy on the next place where you dump your old fog-bank 1" This was bad language for decent boys to use toward an old man, but there is no denying the greatness of the provocation. Like everybody else, Dick and Jack hated fog, and after Jeremiah Gray's visit, whenever they saw the fog creeping toward the land, blot- ting out everything bright and pleasant, one or other of them would say : . " There comes Old Gray Blanket again, and we'll have to get our oil-suits out and make ready for another dripping time." What took Dick's appetite so quickly away after securing the hali- but was the sight of a thick fog-bank scudding in from the ocean with a celerity and thickness that would soon make the shore and everything else invisible. Boys, in excuse for thoughtlessness, often say, " I forgot," but the easy and worn expression is never broad enough to mend the hole that comes from forgetfulness. " I forgot to put the coir^pacs in the cuddy!" exclaimed Dick ; "but if you'll bear a hand there. Jack, we can get within hearing of the surf on the nearest shore, and then we can thumb our noses at Old Gray Blanket, and pick our way back to the cove in spite of him. If there was wind enough to help us use our sails, we'd be all right." There was reason for uneasiness, and for all they could do. To be caught in a fog on the sea without a compass is almost like being smitten with a sudden blindness in a howling wilderness. The boys, pulling bravely at their oars, made directly for Port Mou- I ON SABLE ISLAND 67 ton Head as the nearest land, the Iiome-cove being three miles dis- tant. But in five minutes the fog was upon Ihem, shutting out every- thing with a pall, and breathing such a drizzle upon them that the water dripped from their tarpaulin hats and dropped upon their oar- handles with a ceaseless patter. With the coming of the foe the wind sprang up. and the little masts were stepped and sail spread, and Dick, arguing in his own mind that as the fog rolled in from the sea the wind must be blow- ing in shore, he steered before it, confident that they would soon regain their bearings. The wind stiffened into a steady breeze, so that the waves began to put on their whitecaps. "Jack," said Dick, "that halibut must be fastened in place, and then it will serve for ballast instead of slipping around like a greased pig. Tie his tail to the after-thwart and his head to the forward one ; that'll keep him fore and aft ; then cross-line him to the larboard and starboard tholpln holes ; that will steady him amidships, and then the Carolina will be trimmed like a duck and will keep as dry as the inside of a frying pan." The effect of these precautions was so good, and the boat now labored so easily, that Dick, more anxious for his brother than for himself, said : " Now, Jack, is a good time for you to take your grub ; you must be hungry. When you get through, you may take the tiller, and I'll take a turn at the jug and the bread and butter." But when his turn came, he only nibbled and swallowed for the sake of appearances, and quickly resumed control of the Carolina. The fog had condensed into a fine rain and the wind was steadily in- creasing in force, and Dick was becoming more and more uneasy. " Get out the oil clothes," he said, " there's no need of our get- ting wet. And while you are about it. see if the bailing bucket Is in the well-hole ; the Carolina is acting splendidly, but in spite of her, the spray comes in over the bow occasionally." When these things were attended to, the situation required that the mainsail should be taken in and the foresail reefed to but a third of its spread. ij.-;;; «tiittK^tiim|»MN»f-^f«f««»« 68 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES iv I To his dismay, Dick now realized that he was entirely wrong in his conjecture about the direction of the wind ; the deep swell of the sea convinced him that he had been running directly off shore in- stead of toward it, and that the boat was now off soundings. The wind was so strong, that the only alternative left was to keep before it. To add to his trouble, the increasing gloom showed that the night was settling down. He had one hope to cheer him, however ; if the clouds should break, and give him a clear sky, he knew enough about the stars to find his way back to land. But this hope dimin- ished rapidly, when he reflected that, clear or foul, so long as the wind continued in its present quarter, it would be impossible for him to shift his course He knew that Jack was as quick as himself to take in things, and. seeing that he was doing a good deal of thinking, notwithstanding he was so quiet, he said : " Jack, we are in a bad fix, and what is to come of it, is more than I can tell ; but I think we shall be able to keep on top of the water till we are picked up by some vessel." "Yes, I know we're in a bad fix. Old Gray Blanket has got us this time; but we're in a good boat, and if you think I'm going to sniffle, you're mightily mistaken," Jack replied, sturdily, snipping all his pronouns in his haste to express the result of his own reflections. " You are captain," he continued, " and I am your mate, and a mate must stick by his captain and his ship the best he knows how. But I am awful hungry, and you must be, too, and the best thing for us to do before the night sets in, is to take a bite ; we haven't had any- thing of any account since breakfast." " Why, Jack! I didn't know that you carried pluck by the barrel ! You have taken loads from my shoulders. I have been saying to myself : * If I can only get Jack safely back. I don't care what be- comes of me,' and now you show up as the kind of fellow who is going to make it safer for both of us. Get out the grub as soon as you can ; you can't be any hungrier than I am." " But we are on short allowance now, and must be sa .ng of our supplies, though if we get too hard up we have the halibut for a stand-off," and Jack brought out the food, and each one tried to see ON SABLE ISLAND 69 how sparingly he could eat of it, the while thinking of those at home and what they were now going through on account of the failure of the Carolina to return. "Now," said Dick, when the remainder of the food was carefully stowed in the cuddy-hole again, " you must strip the mainsail from the heel of the mast and bring it aft ; we can pull it over our feet and up to our waists, and that will keep us quite comfortable in spite of the chilly air." When this arrangement was completed, Dick said : " It will have to be watch and watch with us. Jack. You cuddle down now and go to sleep, and when I can't stand it any longer, I'll wake you and take a nap myself." It was a weary watch for Dick, however, and was made doubly trying because Jack, affected by the uneasy movements of the boat, would every once in a while murmur something about home and the incidents of the early morning. The vague, melancholy roar of the sea, the thick blackness of the night, and the thought of the uncer- tainties by which the boat was beset, at times almost overpowered him. How long he had watched he had no means of knowing, he only knew that he was getting very drowsy, and that Jack was still sleeping, when he thought he heard a sound that was different from the monotonous swash of the waves around him. Hearing it more distinctly, and confident that he was not deceived, yet wishing to have Jack's ears to confirm his own, he said: "Jack— Jack, wake up, wake up! I hear something." " It sounds like a steamer," Jack exclaimed, excitedly, the mo- ment he was fully awake. Yes ! There she was, looming before them with her high forward lights gleaming through the darkness, and her engines throbbing loudly above the sound of the sea, and so close that the boys stood up in their boat and united their voices in a desperate cry for succor. But she thundered by, little dreaming of the despair she left behind. " Oh, Dick! It's awful to be left in this way," Jack cried, in the bitterness of his disappointment. >lP1l|l|lll(IIIU1iM|||i;^llllU|j|liU,UU««.r >'*{»»fmftti.- 70 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES "It might have been worse ; we have had a narrow escape from being run over. I'm thankful that she came no nearer. Don't give up, old fellow; wait till daylight comes; then if this confounded fog will clear away, we'll have a chance to sight and signal isome vessel that will pick us up." But the morning brought no improvement in the weather. The fog was thick and the sea rough, and under their little patch of sail they were still scudding before a strong wind. Overcome with fatigue toward noon, Dick fell asleep, and Jack handled the boat as if his brother's life depended upon his care. The second night was much like the first, but on the third morning the wind fell and the sea was so calm it seemed as though the little craft floated through thick clouds. The scanty supply of food was exhausted, and the jug of butter- milk, from which they had drawn ve#y sparingly, was getting low. But, while the'boat drifted idly upon the foggy sea, the boys exam- ined her from stem to stern, re-stepped their mainmast, and made ready, so far as they could, for any fresh emergency. Having finished this work, Jack looked at the halibut, and, as if inspired, suddenly exclaimed : " Say. Dick, if we had matches we might get our meals from the halibut and lobster." " My match-safe is full of matches ; much good will they do us here." "We'll see," said Jack, going forward and pulling from the cuddy there four or five short pieces of dry pine board he noticed there the morning they started on their trip. As they were short and thin, he found no difficulty in splitting them into small pieces. "What are you about. Jack? You can't kindle a fire here." " Don't be in too much of a hurry to flop a fellow over ; wait and see what he is about before you fire at him," and Jack began pro- ceedings, which, as they developed, excited Dick's admiration to the highest pitch. The halibut laid with its gray side up. In the middle of the back, Jack slashed a square about fourteen inches in size, and then sinking his knife deeply into the flesh, he removed long thin slices of hali- ON SABLE ISLAND 71 but, which he placed neatly upon the thwart beside him. When his operation was completed, he had a square cavity, which, at a depth of four inches, ended against the backbone. The boat's painter, or cable, consisted of a long small chain ; taking this and washing it in the sea. he strung it in four lengths, from thwart to thwart, each length being separated from its fellow by the space of an inch and a half, and the whole sagging downward directly over the hole cut into the halibut. Kindling a small fire in the hole cut in the halibut, Jack laid the pieces he had cut out upon the chain over the fire, and then broke off the legs and claws of the lobster and laid them on the chain also. "That beats Columbus' egg business out of sight!" Dick ex- claimed, at the same time clapping his hands with such force that they sounded like fire-crackers. " You could have done it yourself, if you had only thought of it," Jack replied, with a sickly attempt at fun. " It is poor cooking, yet it is ever so much better than being obliged to eat raw lobster and halibut. If we only had salt and pepper, we would make quite a feast. After the fire goes out, there'll be lots of roast meat where it's been burning, and we can cut that out and put it in the basket, so that if it comes on to rain when next eating time comes we'll be independent of a cooking stove." " I am proud of you, jack, and wouldn't swap you for a kingdom. Now let's try your cooking." And Dick took one of the lobster legs and a slip of crisply browned halibut, and relished both so keenly, he served himself a second time. Jack, the while, doing the same with equal satisfaction. Each one of the claws was sufficient for a meal in itself, but, as neither was needed for present wants, though both were thoroughly cooked, they were laid by for future use. " Those tough shells make first class canned meats of them." Jack obseived, "and they'll keep till we want them. At any rate, we've twc days' grub provided for, and that will save our wood." But, while the boy was trying to make the best of the situation, his heart protested against the idea of being obliged to spend two days more in the little craft upon the open sea. 'I H n DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES There was not a breath of wind c'uring the forenoon, and the fog clung to the water more closely and thickly than ever, and the long, gentle swell of the waves had such a stupefying effect, both boys fell asleep. It was sometime before they awoke, and when they did, the rain was pattering in their faces. The return to consciousness was accompanied with such a sinking of heart, that Jack proposed that they should repeat the Lord's prayer together, and the words had such a quickening effect upon them that the stronger side of their nature began to assert itself immediately. They unstepped the mainmast again and used the mainsail as they had done before to economize their heat by pulling it up about their legs and waists. " Say, Dick do you see those little brooks running down the folds of the canv ' Jack asked, after watching the little streams chase one another for some time. " Yes," Dick said quickly, " and I know what your quick wits are running after now. Let's get about it right away." The bailing bucket was carefully rinsed in the sea and held bottom upward till the last drop of saU water had run out of it, after which it was placed in the bailing well of the boat, where, by carefully ar- ranging the canvas sail, the tiny streams of fresh water all found their way into it until they had nearly enough rainwater to fill their jug. " it is a little brackish because it has passed over the canvas." Dick said, after tasting it, " but it is a god-send to us nevertheless, and it won't hurt you. Jack, if you take a big swig at it." The dismally still day gave way to another night that began with a rising sea and a driving wind, before which the Carolina sped like a frightened spirit. The darkness seemed like infinite space, and the hours like eternity. The strain became too great for Jack, and he suddenly wailed : " Oh Dick I do say something, or I shall go crazy and jump overboard." Dick was startled out of his desponding silence by the poignancy of his brother's cry, and putting his arm around him, he said: "Steady Jack! Think how well we are doing! The Carolina is ON SABLE ISLAND 73 doing all she can to keep us above water ; you have settled the food and water business for us, and neither of us have really suffered yet. This kind of weather can't hold out much longer. If Old Gray Blanket will only take himself off and let us out of his embrace, in the morning we may catch sight of a sail near enough to signal. We must be in the track of sea-going vessels." " I know I am a baby, Dick, but I couldn't help it. when I thought of father and mother, and the rest of them. You have put me on deck again, and there I'll stay whatever comes. Let me take a trick at the tiller ; you must be tired. You know that I can handle the Carolina almost as well as you do." "Certainly, Jack, steer all you want to; it will take up your thoughts. I only kept at it myself because I didn't want you to get tired." The work of steering relieved Jack's tension far more than Dick had hoped for, and presently the two were chatting quite cheerfully about their hopes and prospects. Suddenly, Dick threw the sail from his feet, and, giving vent to a suppressed exclamation, hurried to the forward part of the boat. " What is it ?" Jack asked, his heart almost bursting with mingled fear and hope. f' ! 1 i *-^ ALMOST UNKNOWN LIGHT!— a light- house, and dead ahead," Dick shouted. "Surely, Dick?" Jack asked, tremblingly, thinking of the bit- ter disappointment they experi- enced when the steamer went by them and vanished in the night. Dick hurried astern again, and taking the tiller from Jack, said : •' Yes, surely enough. No vessel light hangs so steadily as that, nor would any mere house light show up so big. It's all right with us now, old fellow ; we've a fair wind that will take us straight toward it. Go forward and watch, and see that I keep the Carolina's bow glued to that light." 75 76 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES Jack now saw the light for himself, and if the boat sheered either ^ one way or the other from the requisite course, Dick got his direc- tions quickly and sharply from the bow, and answered them, first by word, to show that he understood his orders, and then by tiller, to ' prove that they were obeyed. And when his brother's—" Steady there, as she goes," came back, Dick's sensitive hand counter- . checked every wave that tended to make the boat yaw either one way or the other. They were out of the fog now. though heavy clouds covered the upper sky. In half an hour they were in sight of land, and shortly after they heard the surf beating upon a sandy beach as plainly as they ever heard the surf beat upon Kempton's beach at Black Point. When they came in sight of the shore-line they skirted the coast in the hope of finding a break or inlet that would admit of a safe en- trance. Meanwhile, the light disappeared, hidden by the low hills, ' which proved to Dick that there was another shore-line opposite to that along which they were making their way, a fact which puzzled him not a little. " That's the longest beach I ever saw or heard of," Jack called from the lookout. " I'll come and take the tiller and let you come here and take a look ahead." When Dick had made his observations, he returned to the tiller, saying, with some misgivings : " Unstep the masts, Jack, and make everything snug and tight, while I hold the boat with the oars. We can't afford to run this way any longer, but must head through that surf and take our chances ; at the worst we can only get a sous- ing. We have tried this surf business again and again in fun, and never met with an accident ; now we will try it in earnest. Are you ready?" ■■ ' - ' . Yes, Jack was already on his thwart, ready to keep time with Dick's stroke, and the Carolina started boldly toward the beach. The boys had long before learned a very curious fact about the mo- tion of the waves, and their knowledge now stood them in good stead. In making the shore, the waves go by groups of seven ; number one is the smallest in size, and the seventh wave is the highest, after ON SABLE ISLAND 77 ith which comes number one again, and so on. in endless repetition of the same series. The seventh wave, of course, goes the farthe.st up any beach that may be in the way. " Now, look out for the Old Seventh," Dick said, repeating the knowledge that both were familiar with, in order to secure perfect concert of action. •' And don't let any seventh take us by the keel unless she has her curls out," alluding to the moment when the wave begins to break and shows the curve, which is one of the most beautiful things in the whole world of nature. " I don't think we shall be in any danger of being pit6h-poled end for end In this craft ; she's never turned a somersault under us yet in all our foolings at Black Point. But if she should, look out for her gunwales when you leap Into the water, and keep your head to land, and when you think you are about to be flung upon the shore, spread yourself like a frog, and you will come down upon the sand as easy as a bird striking its roost." They hung to their oars a moment, steadying their spirits and knotting their muscles for the crisis. " Ready, Jack, there she comes I" The seventh's fore-curl caught the Carolina just under the bow. No need of oars now, to drive ahead ! The boat sped like an arrow toward the beach. "Jump!" shouted Dick, whose anxiety had concentrated itself upon his brother. Both landed at the same instant, in three feet of water, and, not- withstanding the strength of the undertow, safely gained the dry beach, while the Carolina went out with the reflux, but only to be caught again with the surf and flung by the nexl seventh up the beach w'th such force that she lay a hopeless mas of kindling wood. "Good-by, you old darling!" sighed Jack, viewing the crushed gunwales, " but you've saved our lives, anyway." " Yes, she has," Dick responded, feelingly, " under God she has, indeed!" Now, that the tension of the excitement was over, Jack trembled 78 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES as if he had the palsy. " I'm cold as ice," he complained, " can't you find somt driftwood and kindle a fire ?" " Steady, Jack! You musn't wilt, now that you've won. I'll have a fire before long. The stuff of the Carolina is wet on the outsid-T, but I can soon whittle down to the dry of some of the pieces, and get a flame that will make you as warm as toast." " No, no ! Not a stick of the boat !"' Jack protested, vehemently, though his teeth were knocking together like castanets. " How can you think of it? Let her bleacn on the sands, if she must, but we won't destroy a splinter of her. There must be stuff enough on the vpper beach for a fire ; there was always enough of it on the beaches at home. ' They did not search long before they came to a great heap of wreckage, tangled around a mast, a yard-arm and the splintered fragments of a ship's cabin. With little trouble, they discovered plenty of dry wood under the upper layer of planking and boards, and "ioon had a generous fire, which quickly restored Jack's warmth and spirits. " Now, for a nap," said Dick, " there's neavy enough stuff in that tire to make it last two hours, at the least." Lying upon the sand, folded in each other's embrace, and effect- ually protected from the sand by their oil-clothes, they fell asleep When they awoke, the sun was shining, and thousands of gulls were whirling and shrieking around them in a vast circle, drawn, doubtless, by the scent of the halibut wi " was thrown high upon the beach, yet made angry and uneasy by the two prostrate human forms and the still smoking embers of the fire. "Well, how are we?" were Dick's first words, as he peered over into Jack's eyes, and found them looking at the gulls in a dazed sort of way, he not being fully awake yet. "Tip-top," said Jack, heartily, again coming to a full sense of his surroundings, and spring^g to his feet with his wonted nim- bleness. " You had such a fit of the ague last night, ! was sure you'd have a fever this morning." ON SABLE ISLAND 79 •• Oh, there was no ague about it; I was just plum frightened, that was all. '^hen everything was going on against us, my dander kept up, but as soon as the danger was over. 1 turned cirward all in a heap." The sun was so warm, both boys threw off the yellow oil-clothes, which had kept them so nice and dry, and began to shake the wrinkles out of their other garments and to make themselves straight generally. Jack, who never ventured out without a comb in his pocket, and who had often been laughed at by Dick for being so anxious about his long locks, produced that useful article and trimmed his hair with his usual care. " it has made such an improvement in your appearance, old fellow, I'd like to apply it to my own pumpkin, and if you'll pass it over this way, V\\ never make fun of your comb-carrying again." Dick was standing some distance away, and Jack threw the comb to him, and as it was going high, it required an upward leap to reach it to prevent it from going into the sand beyond. The movements of the boys created a great excitement among the gulls, and when the comb was thrown, it was evidently taken as the gage of battle, for they v/hisked at them with their wings and screamed at them with a ferocity that was positively startling; nor were they frightened away until Dick and Jack seized the oil-clothes and waved them in the air by way of defense. " They are hungry for that halibut," said Dick. " but I guess we shall have to have another Hig at it before we resign it to them." "Mercy, no!" exclaimed Jack. "I'm hungry, but not hungry enough to touch a fish that's been out of water and without salt as long as that halibut has. If our canned lobster (referring to the roasted lobster claws) was on hand we'd talk about breakfasting here, for the shells would ':eep them in good shape." " Don't be so sure, old boy, about not touching that halibut again. It has been so chilly and cloudy since we made his acquaintance, that you may depend upon it, the meat has lost none of its sweetness. At any rate, h.-wing so many live coals handy, I'm V: t'r W' f fi'j i lli .. iit'-i : I !■'; l:fi;i| M V, 1; 80 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES going to try for a fresh steak and a fresh bite before we begin to travel inland." Dick proved to be right, for on removing the skin from the back and cutting near to the backbone, the meat was found to be per- fectly fresh. When the steaks were cooked over the coals, Jack ate of them without squeamishness, so that the two were not as hollow as they were when they awoke. Seeing that the sails, masts and oars and other equipments of the Carolina were scattered about on the beach, the boys picked them up and carefully deposited them on the upper beach in a pile together, impelled more by sentiment than they were by any con- viction of any possible use to which the things could be put in the future. Among the other cast ups, they found the remains of the giant lobster, which, out of mere sport. Jack, who had recovered all his natural spirits, fetched and placed by the side of the halibut. " There," he said, " as soon as we are gone from here, the gulls will get in their work, and Old Hal will have nothing but his skeleton left to keep him company, but as Old Lob carries his skeleton out- side, they will not find him so easy to manage, unless their bills are strong enough to act as a can-opener." " it's time we began V find out where we are," said Dick. " I have almost cracked my head guessing. It can't be possible that we have crossed the Bay of Fundy and landed in the United States ; and yet that's about the only thing I can make of it." Ta'.cing their oil-suits on their arms, they started to explore, but they had no sooner gone inland a short distance than they were bewildered by the innumerable conical sand-dunes that beset them on every side. " I'd as soon get lost in the woods as to get lost among these confounded sugar-loaves !" jack exclaimed. " Let's climb one of them ; that lighthouse must be somewhere around here, and if we can get a sight of It, it will be a sort of a guide to us, even in the daylight." They selected one of the highest dunes, or sand-hills, they could ON SABLE ISLAND 81 find, and with some difficulty made their way through the yielding sand up to the top, which had an elevation of about fifty feet from the level below. " United States !" Jack cried ; " if this is the United States, I say let's us get out of it as soon as possible. It's worse than Black Poini. Sand, sand, everywhere, and trees nowhere. Why, it's an island, Dick ! There's no United States about this place ! We left the sea behind us ; there's the sea down at that ugly flat point we can see ; and the sea on the other side not more than a mile away ; and sea, sea as far as we can sight up the coast on each sid^-. And one, two, three, four, five — five wrecks in sight from where V2 stand ; and black specks further up that must be wrecks also. Well, this is the funniest country I ever saw- hummocked all over with sand-hills as thick as potato hills, narrow as the edge of a clam, and stretching out like a sailor's yarn." Jack went on until forced to stop to get his breath. " Well, there is the lighthouse, anyway, and several other houses near it," Dick began. " And they ate not so very far away, either. If we want to keep from splitting our heads open with mere guess- work, we'd better hurry over there and find out something that we can settle down to." When they approached the little cluster of red buildings, which seemed to have been accidentally dropped upon the sands, they saw that only one of them was arranged for occupation, and around that one no sign of life appeared, save a thin spiral of smoke ascending from one of the two chimneys. But on turning the bow of an over- turr ed boat, that was certainlv on its last legs, it was so shattered and weather-worn, an immense St. Bernard dog, with white breast, toes and tip of tail, contrasting with a body of greyish brown, came from under the boat and sprang toward them. The boys understood dogs well enough to know that his intentions were pacific. In addition to the wagging of his great bushy tail, and barking with a voice big enough for an elephant, he rolled on the sand at their feet, licked their hands, placed his great paws on their shoulders, and otherwise appeared as if he were in imminent danger of getting up a quarrel 82 DICK AND JACKS ADVENTURES I ♦ . ■ with himself for not having studied the English language sufficiently to enable him to set his welcome to words. Aroused by his barking, two men came out of the house, and one of them immediately shouted : " Down, Bingo! down, you lubber!" Bingo went down like a log ; yet, though his huge body was so still, his big intelligent eyes continued to show the kind of stuff he was made of. The men, who were roughly clad, shaggily bearded, and deeply bronzed, came up to the boys and stared at them as though they had just descended from the skies. The one who ordered the dog down, shaking with excitement, and stum.bling in his speech, asked : " Who the deuce be you ? where the blazes did yer come frum > 'nd how 'n the divil d'ye git here ?" During this volley his companion, a giant of a fellow for height and expanse of chest and stomach, stood looking on with amazed blue eyes, and a mouth so widely opened that the whole interior could have been photographed if there had been a snap-shot kodak turned on him. The boys were astonished to find themselves objects of wonder, but Dick promptly answered : '• We are the Melville boys from Black Point, and we came ashore last night on the beach over yonder in a small whaleboat in which we were blown to sea during a thick fog." " Look here, youngster, you don't mean to spin that yarn to us for a fact, do you ?" " What else should i spin it for." " But it's unpossible, lads — downright unpossible ! No youngsters under the sun could get through the surf over there alive onless they was born'd fish or had grow'd up in jist such diggin's as these. Beg- gin' your pardon — if you please- 1 say it's monstrously unpossible." Yet the man was actually perspiring between the incredibility of the circumstance and the evidence of his eyes. " Dot must pe some faxs," the giant began ; " dem poys vas here vor a fax. und if ve don t fetch it she hafe fetched hisseluf, don't it?" ** WHO THE DEUCE BE YOU t 83 1 1: 1 i |[ 5 • J 1 i ''-'§ ii ON SABLE ISLAND 85 The broken language, the confusion of genders and the comical attempt to harmonize apparent contradictions, together with the per- plexed face of the speaker, threw Dick and Jack into convulsions of mirth in spite of their efforts to restrain themselves. This, instead of displeasing the giant, seemed to draw him to them, for, as if recollecting his manners, he went up to the boys, and shaking hands with them, said : " If you vas trop vrom dose skies vou pe vel- come." " You're here for a fact," said the first speaker, now smiling at his own Incredulity, " but do you know where you are ?" " No; that's what we came over here to find out," said Dick. Our people at home will be worrying themselves almost to death over our absence, and we want to get back to them in the shortest possible time." " Bless my soul, lads I you are on Sable Island, more than a hun- dred and fifty miles from land." "Sable Island!" Dick repeated. 'I don't know much about Sable Island, but I thank God it was h'ire to pick us up !" "You're about the fust one what ever thanked anybody for this place." the man replied, with some bitterness. " Most people won- der what In time the place was put here for. It's the awfullest deathtrap for sailors that was ever set anywhere in creation. That's why I couldn't make out how you ever got ashore alive." " We have been in the surf before," said Jack, 'Black Point surf, and in it for fun." " Fun !" the man almost shouted, " land alive ! what kind of chaps be ye?" " Yes, for fun," Dick joined in, thoughtfully, " and but for the valuable hints we got from our fun, we couldn't have come ashore as we did last night, for I'll confess that your surf is rather ugly. I see now, that even one's fun may be the means of giving a fellow some useful knowledge and practice." But let us introduce the men. The smaller man's name was Brown, and he was the keeper of the light. The gi-^nt was, as has I ! 86 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES i -*f I"! V i ^ 'i I been seen, a German, His name was written Schomphs, but to save the labor of pronouncing it, his companions called him jumps. Besides these two, there was a life-saving crew of fourteen men, who, at the time, were out on their usual patrol duty. Jumps was the cook of the whole establishment. Jumps respected the English language enough to try to capture it for his use, but only to find that it was a perfect Gibraltar of rock and guns. A Frenchman, in the crew, had tried to correct his mis- use of genders, and what, with his own tendency to an excessive use of the masculine gender, and the Frenchman's tendency to an excess of the feminine gender, he was constantly getMng between the devil and the deep sea. The men of the life station had become so ac- customed to his double-barrelled use of the genders that they didn't even laugh at his mistakes, and Jumps became convinced that there was no need of worrying about his blunders. While Brown and the boys were talking together, it suddenly oc- curred to the giant that the lads needed something to eat, and he accordingly asked, with scant ceremony, and breaking in upon the conversation: " Mein poys, vas she hafe no grub in dem boat? Und how long vash you ven you don't eat noddins?" Dick explained that they had not suffered much for want of food, and gave a detailed account of Jack's cooking arrangements, which so excited the giant, he spluttered out : " Dot Jack vas hafe some prains mit his het. Ach I how vas he dinks uv a stove mit der holi- but's pack? Ven he vas here, he vill make plum poodin' mit sand und clams. Put she vas hongry now, you pet !" Brown began to reproach himself for not thinking of food before, and, by way of excuse, said : " You laughed so easy, and looked so fresh and merry, 1 forgot all about offering grub. The fact is. we are so shut out of the world, and see so few people, that our think- ing traps have got so rusty, we can hardly put two and two together, 'cepting when a ship comes ashore, and we have to stir ourselves to save lives. Why, confound my liver, we haven't in- vited you into the station yet ! Jumps, you great lubber, where's ON SABLE IL":-AND 87 your wits, that you doni kick me ana yourself, too, for bein' so in- fernally hoggish ? "Ach I Mein poys, come mit me und vill yourseliuf up to der top uve dem hats," and the surprised giant, taking Dick and Jack by the hand, almost dragged them to the station. The building was as homely as a pile of timber, but when the boys got inside, they saw that it was put up for strength and not for beauty. The room, in which they were, was large and comfortable. The moment they were seated. Brown and the giant bestirred them- selves in a manner that showed they were not as slow as they repre- sented themselves to be. The great table, to one end of which the boys were invited, was soon garnished with a supply of good food which did credit to the giant's cookery. His coffee, though boiled in a hurry, and served vithout milk, was as highly appreciated by them as nectar is iabhd to have been relished by the gods. Now, that they had eaten, their thoughts turned homeward again, and they began to make inquiries about the means of communicat- ing with the mainland, not dreaming but they could soon return and relieve the anxieties which they knew must be distracting those at home. Their spirits fell, when informed that their stay must, in the nature of the case, be a prolonged one. Few visited the island vol- untarily, and they were the adventurous fishermen, who came in August. The government tender had just made her last visit for the season. She might possibly visit the island again in the spring, but it was more than probable that she would not succeed in touch- ing the place before the following July or August. Sable Island was described to the boys as the center of a perfect network of sand- spits and shoals ; a place to be avoided, rather than courted ; a vast danger station, without a single sheltering inlet ; an island, twenty- five miles in length, surrounded by a surf-line that warned all comers to keep their distance. So uncertain were the government visits, that a whole year had been known to pass before boats could find a chance to land. This was depressing news to the boys, but when they were told of I 88 DICK AND I: k !! ;'S ADVENTURES the shipwrecks and loss of life so frequent in the vicinity, they were thankful they had come on shore with their lives, and made up their minds to wait in patience for the day of deliverance. Seeing that the boys were showing sings of fatigue, Jumps took them up into the long loft of the station, where the cots were, and insisted that they should undress and go to bed. " You vas needs sleep pefore der captin und dose men vas here," he said, " ven she comes, dey von't perlieve it yoost like Meester Prown, und den she vill hafe to tell dem so vonce more." And while his big voice and broken-worded kindness was droning in their ears, they fell into a deep sleep. ;^ re ■' PI A V~\\— l.Ji -1' /- f /• iilii* DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH HEN Jack opened his eyes he was so drowsy he was strongly disposed to shut them again, but several things ar- rested his attention, so that he became widely awake. It was neither daylight nor dark, and rising to his elbows he saw that nearly all the beds were occupied by men apparently soundly asleep. This struck him as strange, but he ex- plained it to himself by saying the men were in the habit of going to bed at sundown. The profile of a nose on the bed next to him. was thrown in such bold relief against the lights of the window in the far end of the room that Jack recognized it as belonging to the giant. As with his returning con- 89 IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) V // {/ w &- ^ C^< l^. y. Vi ^n ^ 1.0 I.I 1.25 '"MIIIIM IIIII2.5 illU |||||Z2 ,.i£ 12.0 U IIIIII.6 6' Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 1 4580 (7)6) 873-4i03 iV V ^^ \ -^ ri7 &$> %= ^< &- Q>^ ■^'^■W"iWfP'o^ my compass, and I was a good deal older than your boys, too ; in fact I was a married man, and so should have had more sense, you see. I started out one morning in a hurry after a mackerel school. Got a boat-load, but while 1 was at it, and not noticing anything but mackerel, down came the fog, and when I went to lay my course for shore, the compass wasn't in the boat. Well, sir. if you had taken my head off I couldn't have been in a worse box, especially when the wind began to blow, and I had to make ready for scudding before it by throwing nearly all my mackerel overboard again. I was four days pounding about on that sea. living on raw mackerel and drinking rain water, and where do you suppose I fetched up?" " I'm sure I couldn't conjecture," said Mr. Melville, following the man's words ve.y closely. " Not in Davy Jones' locker, seeing as how I'm here this minnit. and as well and comfortable as a robin in a cherry tree. Well, sir, I fetched up plum against Sable Island." " You did ! That was wonderful !" '• Yes, I did. But how I ever got through that infernal surf — begging your pardon for the word — the good Lord only knows. All I know is that I put on every inch of canvas I had. Says I to my- self, I've only been married six months, and I'm not going to give up the rest of it if I can help it, so I just squared away and ripped it before the wind till I banged the boat smash upon the beach ; and she came down with such a thud it knocked the bottom out of her from stem to starn. I knew something about Sable Island — it isn't like Eden, you know — yet I just down on my knees and thanked the Lord for all I was worth. " But when I'd been there a whole year I didn't feel quite so thankful. Fact is, I began to grumble like a thunderstorm. Cos why? There was Polly, you see — the same that sets 'tother 108 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES siae of the fireplace now trying to give me a wink not to go on so before the minister. Well, sir, I thought she'd begin to think I'd gone to the bottom, and then the next thing, she'd begin to think about getting another husband, and the idee, seeing as how we'd been married so short a time, almost drove me crazy. But I got back here as sound as a cobble stone, and Polly says she never so much as dreamed of getting married again, and she sticks to it yet, though we have lived twenty years together, and she's fifty-two years old." "John Blewitt — you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" Mrs. Blewitt exclaimed, warningly. "Well, sir, what I'm driving at is this: I says to myself all along, them boys had just as good a chance to fetch up on Sable Island as I did. And from what you have told me about their pranks with the surf, and ali that sort of thing, they'd stand a better chance of getting ashore than I did. If they are there, they'll have to stay till next summer. And if I was you. I'd just drop my anchor to that bottom and not lift it to the cathead again till you have had time to hear from Sable Island. That's why I've let my tongue wobble like a rudder without a tiller. When I heard you preaching this evening about patience and resignation In suffering, and aU that sort of thing, says I to myself, • he's thinking about his boys, and V\\ take him home to stay the night with me, and I'll tell him my experience, and then exhort him to belay his hopes to Sable Island, as well as to God.' " " You have done me a good turn. Mr. Blewitt, far better than you know; but why didn't you come over to Black Point and let me know about this before ?" "Well, sir, fact Is, I'd as soon think of steering alongside of a battleship what has all her guns going as to think of steering for a minister; It's because I'm such a born sinner that I'm so scared of preachers. But when you went on to-night as you did, not In the If-you-don't-youMl-be-damnea style that we've got so used to that we don't care a fig for It, but as if you had a heart under your ■■MWl»r '' * a a ed in to ■>ur ON SABLE ISLAND 109 blacK coat, I just swiped my eyes, and says to myself, while the tears were leaking out of me, ' he's the man to set folks on their pins, and if I can get him into my house, I'll do my best to set him on his again.' " And now, Polly, both me and the minister have done so much talking to-day, we are hungry enough for a second supper ; so just fetch us something to eat, and I'll acknowledge that ycu'd have waited more than a year before you married again." The next morning, Mr. Melville faced a driving snowstorm, and put Black Prince to his best gait, for he was in a hurry to get home, as the bearer of another " sign." TAKINi; PRIVATE ROOMS. OT far from the station was the hulk of the Maskomet. whose name could still be read upon the stern and along the starboard and port rail of the quarter-deck. The figure- head, a full-length carving in wood of an over-sized young Indian squaw, with a broad expanse of naked bust and a liberal length of naked legs, with girth sufficient for any ordinary waist, was still in a healthy condition, though the complexion, originally of gilt, was somewhat the worse from the wear and tear of wind and weather. Both the name and the figure-head indicated the na- tionality of the ship, and the Lo-the-poor- Indian partialities of the builders, as well. Mas- komet was doubtless the name of the poor Indian maiden on the bow, an(J her plaintive presence there, In all probability, commemo- ui CP c^ •;i^ 112 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES I I i rated some thrilling story describing the conflicts between the savage tomahawks of Indians and the gentle shotted gun of the white man. Dick and Jack had often viewed the maiden Maskomet, and in- dulged in blunt criticisms upon the art displayed in her structure, as well as in wild guesses as to her history, but they had never boarded the Maskomet herself. They were so used to wrecks, and wrecks at best were melancholy things, and first and last, there were so many of them scattered up and down Sable Island, the boys preferred to stay on the outside of the dismal hulks. The Maskomet lay on an even keel, broadside up the beach, and half buried in the sand. Stumps of her three masts, running up to the first cross-trees, still remained supported by shrouds that were almost as good as when the ship sailed the sea. The main-top was utilized by Captain Moline for a crow's nest — or observation station. A snug box was built at the top of the mast, and here were water- proof lockers containing spyglass, signal flags and signal rockets, for use when occasion called. No one was permitted to ascend the rat- lines leading to this lookout except on duty. One morning, after Dick and Jack had tired themselves racing up and down the beach with each other, and chasing the surf, as it re- ceded, for the sake of h^ing chased by it in turn, as it rolled up the sands, they threw themselves down in the dry sand under the very nose of Maskomet, who, indifferent to their presence, kept her faded eyes fixed vacantly upon the west, as if dreaming of the wilderness that was once the undisturbed heritage of her forefathers. Dick sat in a position where his eyes could rake the proportions of the ship fore and aft, and it was now he noticed her graceful lines, felt a sympathy for her, and a desire to board her. ' Jack," he said, " let's board the Maskomet, and see what there is inside of her." There was a big hole stove in the hull, which answered for en- trance to those who had occasion to go up to the crow's nest ; when the boys reached this, Jack halted outside, seeing how dark it was within. ON SABLE ISLAND 113 But Dick went far enough in to look around, and said to Jack : " It does look boogharish in here, for a fact, but if any spirits ever got into this place, they must have been washed out long ago, or got tired of waiting for a chance to frighten somebody. Come on, Jack, what's the matter with you ?" "Well, she did have spirits aboard of her once," Jack replied, still holding back. "What's that!" And Dick, with one spring, jumped out into daylight again. " And they were mighty bad spirits, too. Captain Moline told me all about them one day when you went out with the patrol." " What did he tell you ? I thought he never told sailor yarns." " It wasn't a yarn, but naked truth. If it hadn't been for them, the Maskomet wouldn't have come ashore here. She had casks of spirits among her cargo, and the captain and the mate got so drunk on them that the men, seeing the condition of their officers, broke into the casks and got drunk also, and that's how the Maskomet happens to be here. That's the kind of spirits I mean, and they are bad enough, goodness knows — worse than any other kind I ever heard of excepting the kind that's lost." " Yes, bad enough in all conscience, for they have made millions of worse wrecks than this. But I didn't know that this was what you were driving at. Did he tell you what became of the crew ?' ' "Yes; the lifemen got them ashore, though they were so drunk they had to be thrown into the bottom of ihe boat like so many fish. And when they sobered up. and the ship was driven in by a high tide and a high sea, they thought they were going to have a high time by having all the liquor they wanted. They made a regular fight to get on board, but the lifemen fought them back till Captain Moline and another man knocked the casks and kegs in the he:^d and spilled all the liquor In the hold. And when the lifemen got on to the beach again, the sailors were so mad, there was another pitched battle. The captain said if it hadn't been for Jumps, the sailors would have had everything their own way. The giant knocked the men down as fast as they could get up, and pounded them right and 114 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES left, till they were glad to give up. After that, there was no trouble, for half of the men were sent to the other end of the island. The men were on the island nine months and twenty days before they got a chance to get away." " Guess they were sober enough when they went away, then." " Yes, but five ot them didn't get away ; two died, and the other three are members of the crew that's here now. They said they'd ramer stay here, where they could keep sober and save their wages, and be of use. than to spend their money and ruin themselves fool- ing among the bar-rooms of the cities and towns." " Who are the men?" • Billings is one — the one they call judge." • Why. Billings is a tip-top fellow. He's as clean-lipped as a baby, and a good, square chap every way. And the other two?" "Tompkins and McTavish." •' Tompkins and McTavish ! Who would suppose that either of them had ever been soaked in rum. They are the ones who got gold medals from the English and United States governments for bravery when the Glasgow came on shore. The gun couldn't get a line to her. and the surf-boat upset twice in trying to get out. and then these two men took a dory and fought the surf till they reached the ship and made fast a line, and stayed on board till every man of the crew was landed. When they got ashore themselves they were half frozen. That's how McTavish lost the greater part of his ears. The giant is always bragging about those two men- and no wonder.'' Jack laughed, as he said : " Yet the giant nearly killed them in the row over the Maskomet's spirits. Captain Moline told me that the big scar on Tompkins' forehead is where the giant's fist hit him and laid the flesh open to the skull." " Well, some sinners can't be converted in any other way. 1 shouldn't want to take my medicine in that style. One solid blow from Jumps' big fist would almost land me on the mainland. But come on, let's get into the Maskomet." This time Jack made no objections, and both were soon on deck. ON SABLE ISLAND 115 Nearly all the upper works of the ship were in quite good order, save where a piece of the port bulwark had been carried away. Jack being a good climber, proposed that they should go up to the crow's nest. " The captain is so good-natured he won't mind our going up," he said. "Everyman is good-natured till he gets mad," replied Dick; " and if we were to break the rules and go to climbing into that Blue Beard chamber, we'd get thunder from him in no time. If it is proper for us to go up, he'll invite us to do it if we stick to his heels close enough some day \vhen he is going up. But here's the cabin, there's no law against poking about that all we want to." The ship had a high quarter-deck, so that two steps gave easy ac- cess to the cabin, which consisted of three good-sized rooms. One of these was handsomely decorated with carved medallions set in gilded panels. The heavy, fixed furniture of the cabin still re- mained, and the thick glass of the lights was as good as when first put in. Dick sat down upon one of the lockers, while Jack searched from cranny to cranny with an eagerness that made him oblivious of the uncanny creatures he had professed to fear. When he had com- pleted his search, he called : " Look here, Dick, I've got an idea!" " And I have more than I know what to do with." was Dick's an- swer. " Fact is, I'm thinking of moving in here." " By cracky! You're the looking glass of my thoughts, old chap." Then Dick went on to mention some things that had caused him much discomfort, and not a few scruples. " It isn't decent for us to have to go to bed and get up in public, as we have to do over in the men's loft. Besides, though most of the men are clean enough in their talk, some of them get so smutty at times that it makes me sick at my stomach. I could stand it, perhaps, but for you ; a boy's ears ought to be kept as clean as a girl's ears. I wo. :r why it is that some men talk as if they thought they couldn't be funny with- out getting nasty." ' Look here, Dick! We don't want to set up for a pair of boy 116 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES prigs, do we? The men treat us splendidly, and we don't want to hurt their feelings ; yet it's just as you say— some of their yarns smell worse than a pig pen. And this getting up and going to bed before them makes me feel like a savage." "Then we'll come here, if the captain will let us, though he'll think we are after the novelty more thart we are after the morality of the thing." • But the captain had been thinking of the very things that troubled the boys, and, besides, he was ready to fall in with anything that would occupy their minds and time. And when they consulted with him about taking possession of the Maskomet, he said : " Why, to be sure I How stupid we have been that we didn't think of this before. Almost the entire cabin outfit of the Masko- met is stowed away there in the wreckhouse, and s\\ you'll have to do is to carry it bacK again and make yourselves as snug as the Maskomet captain was himself. Of course, some of the things will be a little musty, from having been wet with salt water and from being so long stowed away. A good airing on deck will soon remedy that, however. We have even got an old stove that you can put in there to cook with, and another small one that will do for a heater, when the cold weather comes on. I'll order Jumps to give you ra- tions of pork, salt junk, ship biscuit, oatmeal, brown sugar, and any- thing else we have, once a week, and fresh stuff you can help your- selves to with your guns and your own wits, for there is no end of ^ame up at the lake. .' : "And, furthermore, when you have settled yourselves down, I'll take you up into the crow's nest, and if you will learn all about the signal flags and rockets, so as to pass an examination on them before ♦he crew, I'll make Dick captain of the main-top with Jack for his mate. But a time may come when we'll use you in dead earnest, so, you see, that there must be no fooling with this part of the business. " Then, there's the hold of the Maskomet, which you can use as a stable for Topsy and Turvy. The sand floor will make them feel at home there, though you may, at the first, have to coax them a little i : I V^ ON SABLE ISLAND 117 1 a it before you can make them believe that the hole in the side of the hulk is a barn door. " There is a little place back of the cabin that was used for the ship's armory — you can keep your guns and ammunition there ; and, if you want sword exercise, there's a lot of old cutlasses among the other fighting truck in the wreckhouse from which you can help yourselves. - ' " it will be a nice thing for us to have a pair of neighbors that we can call upon once in a while, and we'll polish up our manners so as to make our calls in style." The captain ran on like a child with a new plaything, and the giant and the men, whose monotonous lives made them thirsty for anything new, entered into the spirit of the plan as heartily as though it were a question of filling a big Christmas stocking for an only child. In two days Dick end Jack were " at home " to company on the Maskomet, with a plum-duff supper served by the giant in his best Sable Island style, with a showing of china and silver that would have made some of the gentler sex grow green with envy. Big Bingo climbed the plank gangway, built from the hold up to the main deck, and took his shpie of plum-duff with as much zeal as the best of them. ♦ In a week's time Dick and Jack had so mastered he simple code of the signal flags and the duties of the main-top, as to be able to answer any question the lifemen saw fit to put to them, though Boggs, who thought he knew more than all the reJ of the men put together, tried to entangle them in posers that had nothing to do with main-top possibilities. The boys became so elated over the success of their examination, and so exalted by their silver and china, and so excited by the old cutlasses, pistols and guns they brought from the wreckhouse and hung in various v/ays upon their cabin walls, that their imaginations cut up all sorts of didos with them. Their favorite amusement in the evening, when they were alone, was to suppose that the Masko- met was an American battleship voyaging around the world and striking terror and wonder into pirates of every clime and into nations 118 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES I- ■ 'I f of every name that were not ready to do homage to the Stars and Stripes. Recalling their race with the revenue cutter on the You Bet, they loaded their guns with shot as big as barrels and blew the revenue cutter out of water with a frequency that made it seem as if that insignificant craft had more lives than a cat. They even sailed into the Straits of Gibraltar, and attacking Gibraltar itself, wrested that fortification from the English, and, with hats off in courtly politeness and generosity, restored it to Spain with a promise to keep the blasted Britishers from ever touching it again. Occs'jionally Jack would yawn from the excess of Dick's imagina- tion, and once he said, point blank: "Oh, belay there, Dick! What's the use of going on in that style, when you know you are hatching it all out of your own brain." Dick had the breath taken out of him for a minute, but after lean- ing back on the locker-lounge he recovered himself enough to point his long, lean, brown forefinger at jack, and say : •' What's the use ? What's the use of anything that's bigger than the little things around us ? What's the use of any of those story-telling books of father's library we have almost worn the covers off of ? What's the use of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and Homer's Poems, and " Gulli- ver's Travels," and " The Ancient Mariner," .-^nd " Paradise Lost," and " The Arabian Nights," and "The Pilgrim's Progress," and " The Flying Dutchman," and all that sort of thing ? Why, I should think that Old Gray Blanket had been making you a visit, and telling the Lord in his prayers what awful books you were reading, and ask- ing Him to hurry up the end of the world, so that father's books, and all others like them, might be turned into ashes." , Dick rattled all this off so glibly, beginning in tones of well-feigned indignation and ending with such a comical imitation of Old Gray Blanket's sing-song prayer swing, that Jack interrupted him with the violence of his laughter. " Well, rather than have another such a rope as that flung around my neck," said Jack, "you may go ahead with the old Maskomet ; but as we have knocked nearly everything on earth into splinters with her guns, let us make a trip to the moon and tackle the Man in the "» I. ON SABLE ISLAND 119 ■ 'i; 11 ,i'-rf?' d^i s^ Moon, or go to Saturn and steal his rings, or to Jupiter and make ninepins of his satellites." " That's more like it," said Dick, " and shows that my mate has found his sea-legs again." One night, after Dick had turned the Maskomet into the Flying Dutchman, and had manned her with a crew of ancient mariners, and had taken a roving commission to scare everything that was on the ocean or under it. Jack, by way of changing the subject, gave a yell that made him think that the squaw figure-head of the Masko- met had suddenly come into the cabin to make them a present of a real Indian war whoop. " Gracious, Jack ! Hov; you frightened me!" Dick exclaimed, with some show of irritation. " Well, it's time you cam.e to your senses — I thought that a good yell would bring you back to them. 1 want a chance to say that I am getting tired of salt junk and soaked and scoused hard tack. Suppose we bundle out in the morning and go duck hunting — a fresh mess will be worth more than tons of this stuff you've been turning on to a fellow by the ship load. I move that we oil our guns to- night, so that, if the weather is right, we can get off bright and early." " Very good," Dick replied, the chills, caused by Jack's shriek, having had time to leave his veins. " I'd like a fresh mess myself. But I wish we had our Black Point guns along with us. That old double-barreled |;un I shoot with here kicks like a mule, and hurts me almost as much as she hurts the game, and that long-nosed single-barrel of yours scatters shot worse than our pepper-box scat- ters pepper." " There's so much the more reason, then," said jack, " why you should give your gun a good cleaning and oiling. It's been a week or more since you swabbed her, and there is so much salt air about here, rust comes as easy as sin. I am well enough pleased with old long bore, she scatters so that she's almost sure to hit something, whether I. aim or not. I fired her off the other day, when you were 120 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES ■ i away — fired just to get rid of her charge — and she brought down an old gray gull that couldn't have been more surprised than I was."' " Well, don't you fire that thing off unless I'm dead behind you. I mean-a-not, unles "ti astern of you. for, in addition to scattering like a hailstorm, shi pt to go off on a half-cock like Old Gray Blanket's sudden exhortations." When the boys, mounted on their ponies, rode out of the hole in the Maskomet's side the next morning, fully equipped for a forenoon of sport, the two giants, the great Dutchman and the great Bernard dog. saluted them each in his own way. Jumps had heard Dick and Jack wish for a chew of the spruce gum they kept themselves supplied with from native sources at Black Point, and he greeted them with : " Here vas dose gum dot her vants," and he handed each a lum.p the size of a small egg. In chopping a hemlock plank into firewood, he had found a large sack of solidified resin in a cavity of the plank, such as is quite frequently found in that kind of wood. This resin, he boiled and tempered till it reached the required consistency, and, having been ^ gum hunter in his own boyhood, he formed it as nearly into the shape of a good fat nodule of spruce gum as he could make it. " By gum !" exclaimed Jack, after having broken off enough of his lump to test its quality, " this is gum. sure enough. Where did you raise it ?" " It's the genuine article, Jumps," said Dick, chewing at it like a graduated gum-fiend : " and I'll bring you back six ducks for it." " And I'll fetch you six more," joined Jack. . •' Yas, dot vas gum ; und ven she vas goot enough, he vas not hafe to say vare it comes, und you don't hafe to pring dem ducks vot you say." And, shaking his great sides in self-congratulation over his success, he walked away. Bingo went among the dunes with them. Yet he was in the habit of either barking or growling his displeasure at every shot fired in his majestic presence. As a hunter of game, he wasn't worth a pin. All his instincts ran to saving life, and not to destroying it. He would make friendly overtures to a rat, if he saw one around. But :'i ' ON SABLE ISLAND 121 •'>i when human beings were struggling single-handed with the surf, or when they were cast, unnoticed, upon the beach, or when lifemen, as was sometimes the case, got injured among the dunes in th*? storms of winter, he was a great hero, in spite of his skin and shape. And more than one human being owed his escape from a lingering or sudden death to Bingo's sagacity and fidelity. If even a wild pony was found in distress among the dunes, Bingo would give the men no rest-till relief of death was inflicted in mercy upon the help- less, or the aid of remedies was applied to such as still had a fight- ing chance for life. He trotted ahead of the boys, as they went among the dunes, more by way of seeing that they met with no disaster than by way of abetting their sanguinary purposes. As the boys advanced, innumerable plover and curlew fluttered upward from the minature marsh meadows abounding among the dunes, and piped such shrill warning cries, that the gulls began to flock iround the boys by thousands. The naturalists say that there are over ninety different species of gulls, and it seemed as if every specie was represented in the cloud of wings that darkened the air while Dick and Jack went on their way. And so belligerent did they become, that boys, ponies and dog were compelled to adroit dodging in order to preserve their eyes, ears and noses from the vicious beak strokes of their swift and agile enemies. Every gull had a musquito soul, which said as plainly as actions could say, " I'm out for blood." Suddenly, the boys, on turning a dune, came upon a herd of thirty wild ponies, which, after defiantly standing at bay for a moment, scurried away in such a compact body, that they looked as though a small tornado had been out gathering horse hair and was now trying to roll it into a compact ball for transportation to the main. The gulls condensed themselves into a mixed cloud above the fleeing herd, and, eddying over them in circles, yet keeping pace with their flight, sped away, giving the boys a chance to sit erect once more. Just before reaching the lake, Dick and Jack dismounted, and bid- ding Bingo, who was useless for retrieving, to watch the ponies, they made their way, under shelter of the gradually diminishing dunes, to 122 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES m III i!f' a point where they could command a full view of the lake, a shallow body of water fourteen miles long and of an average width of half a mile. Nothing in the shape of a tree flourishes there, and as a proof that all attempts to colonize Sable Island must fail in the future, as they have failed in the past, and that Nature has put a veto upon all idea of having children born there, she steadfastly refuses to grow so much as a single switch for the convenience of either parents or schoolmasters. But, Shade of Fatherland I What a camp-meeting, or rather a Chicago World's Fair, of ducks ! Ducks by the millions ! Ducks of every duck kindred, tribe and nation under the heavens, and In such a variety of hues that even the eyes of a Parisian would have been confounded by them, and such a diversity of duck tongues that Babel was as plain English in comparison. They were swimming in the water and flying in the air with so many different movements that Dick and Jack grew dizzy watching them. They played to- gether by families and fought one another by tribes for position, and. altogether, acted so much like human beings, that one could almost believe with the Hindoos that many spirits of the dead having failed to get their angel wings had put on ducks' feathers and come back to earth to see if they couldn't in the next ending of their earthly struggles come out in better shape. Jack, almost frightened by the amazing hosts, said : " Look here, Dick ! What if those fellows should take a notion to flop down here and pile themselves upon us. We'd be in a worse fix than that Roman girl father tells about, who, as the price of her treachery, de- manded jewels, and had the ornaments of the soldiers piled upon her so thick that there wasn't enough breath left in her body to enable her to wear them." For answer, Dick said: "Here goes!" and bang, bang went both barrels of his old kick-back. Jack blazed away, also ; and so they kept it up as fast as they could load and fire, scc..v.ely taking the trouble to aim, but bringing down ducks at every discharge. "There, Jack, Vm fired out. not a charge left," said Dick, after he had exhausted his ammunition. ON SABLE ISLAND 123 " And I'm tired out," Jack responded, stretching himself at full [ length in the beach grass. But how are we to get our game? Bingo won't touch a dead bird." " We need not worry about that." replied Dick. " Jumps said there was a punt down in the sedge — placed there for picking up ducks." And on hunting for it they found it without any trouble, and picked up thirty-one dead and wounded, which they put in two ganny bags for convenient slinging over the back of one of the ponies. '* And now for the cranberries to fill the other two bags for my load," exclaimed Jack. " We must have a whole barrel for our own use during the winter." Sable Island's odd lake — the oddest lake we ever heard or read of — is surrounded on all sides by a deep, black, tough bog, knitted together by the roots of the cranberry vine, which also abounds among the small bogs scattered among the dunes over the whole Island. Around that lake, in the season of the berry, thousands of barrels of cranberries grow scarlet in the face, because there is no one to pick or market them They waste their sourness upon the desert air be- cause in the nature ot things there is no possible way of bringing them and the mouths of mainland humanity together. Dick and Jack picked two bushels in less than an hour ; and such berries I New Jerseymen, Cape Codders and Michiganders, if you were only able to get at those Sable Island cranberries, their size, color and abundance would make your fortunes. When Jack had slung the two bags of berries over Topsy's back, they started on their gull-besieged way for the Maskomet. The giant received his twelve ducks for two pieces of gum ; nor was the price high, seeing that gum was so scarce and ducks so plentiful on Sable Island. "I vas pusted dose men vat ead dem ducks, said Jumps, with satisfaction ; " und you vas pusted dem poys ven herselluf vas get his stummic stuffed mit dem." ....^...^Jk ..--- "* ^«#«^ GOING TO COURT ERE boys," said Captain Moline, bustling into the cabin of the Maskomet with an air of great import- ance, *• I have received a message from the king, and you are summoned to ap- pear at court forthwith." And from a rather shabby looking bit of writing paper, he read as follows : West End Falace, Sable Island. Captain Moline: Send the Melville boys under escort of patrol to the palace the first fair day. (Signed) Dabby, Rex. '• We will start to-mor- row morning bright and ear- ly if there is a prospect of a fair day," Moline continued. " I have already passed the word by 126 126 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES 1, patrol up to the midway house, and as you will get dinner there you needn't take any grub with you." " What are you going to wear, Dick ?" Jack asked when the cap- tain left the cabin, after having delivered his important message. The question was a perplexing one. Their wardrobe had not kept pace with their other conveniences, and Jack was in grim humor when he sprung his problem. By dint of much stitching and patch- ing they had managed to keep their garments hanging together, but their breeches and upper wear had become composite affairs, the additions having been so numerous and varied. " There's my hair, to begin with," Dick replied, entering into the spirit of Jack's question, " it's almost long enough to serve for a mantle. Come to think of it, I shall not put on anything extra except a little of Jumps' hair oil. for there is so much salt in a fellow's head it makes one feel as if he had been soaking his head in the salt-junk barrel." " Hair oil," Jack broke in, " have you got any hair oil ?" • "Of course—it's in that black junk-bottle on the companionway shelf. Jumps brought it over two or three days ago." " Well— it that's it, 1 have been using it this morning to grease my shoes." '• That's ail right, Jack — it won't hurt your shoes; it is seal oil, scented with a little oil of pennyroyal that Jumps has been using to keep the fleas away." " Scented! — I guess not I It smells like an old cod liver that has been baking in the sun for a week. You didn't put any of it on your hair ?" " No, but I guess I'll use it to-night, the smell will be gone by morning. Must have something, for my head feels like a wire brush, my hair is so stiff." Dick's laugh, however, disproved his words, for he was only guying his brother. Jumps' hair oil might do for the giant, but it was altogether too strong for boys, and Dick, after 3mell- ing it, had, as he thought, put it out of sight, where it would continue to ripen without hurting the giant's feelings. " Say, Dick— we must get ourselves Into some shape for the palace, ^vr^ ON SABLE ISLAND 127 there are girls up there, you know ; and. as we are, we are enough to frighten a crow. In the wreckhouse there are lots of old duds ; let's go over there and see if we can't find something that will fit us and make us look more respectable." . ' " Oh, horrors. Jack! Those are dead men's garments — clothes taken from the sailor-bags and sea-chests of men who never got to shore alive. I should feel as if I had been robbing a graveyard were I to wear any of those clothes." " Ugh ! I didn't know that. But what shall we do ? — the life- men haven't got anything that they can lend us. The giant is the only one that seems to have an extra pea-jacket, and if either one of us were to borrow that we'd look worse than we do in our patches." " Look here. Jack. I've got a scheme. Let's go just as we are." "H'm! I don't see anything that's very sche my about that," Jack interrupted, with some disappointment. " Wait till I finish, will you? We'll go just as we are. They say that the king has lots of stuff at the palace end of the island— stuff sent on by the government for fitting out persons who have been cast upon the island with little or nothing to cover them. If we go looking as horrid as we can, perhaps he will have compassion on us. and give us a fit that will carry us through the whole winter." " Yes, 1 see ; that's a first class scheme. Old Gray Blanket him- self wouldn't mind trying that on if he had the chance." " That blanket coat of his made a fright of him almost as much as his solemn old face did, but he wouldn't want to get rid of it any more than he would of his face. He was as proud of that ridiculous thing as old Diogenes was of his old tub. And that's generally the way with your dreadfully good people — they're prouder of their cranky notions than sinners are of their fashions." " Are we to take our guns along?" "Oh. goodness, no ! It would be as foolish as lugging a stick of timber over there." " Of course. Bingo will go with us?" •' Of course not ! If he were to go from this end of the island for a few days, the men would feel as though they had been forsaken of 128 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES God. And I don't wonder at it, either, for instead of going about like the devil, seeking what he may devour, Bingo goes about, day in and day out, hunting for a chance to save something or somebody. Our Bony is a pretty good fellow, yet he has to be watched to make him do just right all the time. There's a big difference in dogs as well as people — Bingo does right all the time without watching — the less he's watched, the better he does. I'd a kingdom rather be like Bingo than like Bony." " Say, old fellow, if you can get any good clothes at the palace, you can come back here and preach to the men on Sundays, it comes out of you as easy as it does from father himself." "You are making fun of me, now, though you know I've said the truth," and Dick lowered at Jack quite savagely, for it often happens that when preachers are at their best in speech, they are nearest their worst in temper ; the finer the china, the more easily is it broken. ' . Jack's reply was: ' Yes, I know I'm in fun, but when I'm most in fun, you know, I'm sometimes most in earnest. So don't spoil your fine feathers by ruffling them too much." Before the men wen into the station foY supper, they boarded the Maskomet, and, in the biggest words and with the politest manner they could muster, congratulated the boys on being summoned to court. Then they filed out of the cabin, as they had entered, caps in hand, and without the trace of a smile upon their bronzed and bearded faces. Dick and Jack knew that Darby was the governor of the island, and that his authority was absolute. They knew, also, that the men, while respecting his authority, sportively revenged themselves under his rule by speaking of him, his family and his surroundings in the loftiest terms they could invent. And, furthermore, the boys had learned that the governor, falling in with the humor of the men. con- tributed to their jollity whenever he could by sustaining the mimicry of royalty to the best of his ability ; they knew that the summons, so formally presented by the captain, and so augustly signed by Darby, Rex, was a part of the Sable Island comedy. But how to act — P ON SABLE ISLAND 129 : whether In jest or in earnest — when they should meet the chief, was what they did not know. After supper was cleared at the station, Jumps lumbered 'into the cabin of the Maskomet with the dignity of an elephant. The inside of his Immense pea-jacket, being the best part of the garment, was worn outward. To make himself more courtly still, to the rising stars ot the Maskomet. he had wound the voluminous folds of a clean pillow case around his neck, and formed an enormous bow-knot, which spread its wings under his chin like the wings of an albatross. Al- though Dick and Jack almost exploded with glee, when they saw how he had gotten himself up, Jumps, whose face usually dimpled as easily as a child's, maintained the solemnity of an undertaker who has fat funeral fees in prospect. " Now, look here, you old impostor," said Dick, " quit your non- sense, and tell us what we must do when ve reach the palace of the king. Shall we keep up this tom-foolery, and call the governor king, or shall we drop it, and call the king governor?" "Achi dot vas nein dom-foolery, put dose same vat she do ven he vas mlt dot emperor In mein vaderland. Ven she sees dot Darby, mein poys, vas do dis," and Jumps got down upon his pon- derous knees, and bent his upper works forward till they almost reached the floor. Taking advantage of his lowly position. Dick and Jack pounced upon him, tipped him over, sat down upon his ungainly carcass, and vowed that they would not let him rise until he was ready to act like a sensible giant. Jumps spread himself out as comfortably as he could, and continued to lie there, as though he were a log of wood. The boys got up and looked down at him in helplessness. The giant rose to his knees, and again went through his pantomime of saluting royalty, after which, he got upon his feet, gravely gave the boys a military salute, and departed, as he came, without the faintest shadow of a smile. " I wish Old Gray Blanket were here," said Jack, "with all of his end-of-the-world horrors ; he'd frighten some of this nonsense out of the men." " Guess not," Dick replied, emphatically. " Instead of frightening i!; »-• 130 DICK AND JACK S ADVENTURES them, he'd make them worse than they are now; they'd hoist Gray upon the head of a hogshead, and make him believe that he carried the twelve apostles in the pockets of his old blankety coat." At sunrise the next morning, the day being still and clear, Captain Moline rode alongside the Maskomet on his black stallion, and shouted : " Ship ahoy, there ! Its time we were under way for the palace." Whilst he was waiting for a response, the boys havirg seen him coming, had mounted their ponies in the hold, and drove out of the side of the Maskomet, and were upon him before he had any suspicion of their presence. " Hello, captain ! How did you get here ?" said Jack. " Get here ! Why, what do you mean ?" " We were off Japan when I went to sleep last night, and didn't expect to see your gig rowing along our quarter in such distant waters. 1 told Dick that if he headed the Maskomet Japan-way we couldn't get back in time for the trip to the palace. But instead of worrying about that, he not only put on all sail, but clapped on a double pair of side-wheels, and a propeller under the stern besides, and headed plum for Kamchatka, saying it didn't mtUter where we went, we could't get rid of your hail in the morning." " Oh, I understand ; you were playing Flying Dutchman again last night. But you had better get down to business now, for there is a long, tedious ride before you." As they started off on a gallop, the boys saw that the giant and the lifemen were marshalled in line upon the upper beach, and that every man had his gun with him. There was a swinging of caps, a boister- ous cheer, and at last, a detonating volley of firearms, which so startled Topsy and Turvy and the captain's pony, that they downed heads and plunged away with a speed that made their riders pay more attention to what was before them than to what was behind. The hard, wet beach-line was taken for the journey, and the cap- tain, having business at the half-way house, was to be their compan- ion for that twelve-mile distance. Every now and then they sighted dark patches on the beach, which, on being approached, resolved themselves into thousands of seals sunning and disporting themselves ^ P^p?^w;55«w5r- ON SABLE ISLAND 131 y upon the sands. When the sentinel bulls raised the warning cry, the whole herd broke into a floundering, grunting stampede for the surf, upon the top of which they floated and watched till the intruders were out of the way. Nature herself was in a jesting mood that morning. Up the island the dunes drifted into the air and wavered about liKe plumes of the purest white. The western end of the lake floated reversed in mid- heaven, yet did not spill a drop of water. The buildings of the West End were transformed into castles in the air. Herds of ponies scampered abo it upon the heavenly ceiling, feet upward, with all the agility of household flies. Over the sea a full-rigged ship sailed bottom upwards, and a great ocean steamer, trailing a long black banner of smoke, recklessly imitated her example ; and, as if this were not bad enough, a whale appeared between them, bobbing up and down upon aerial waves as if he were a big lone flea dancing an accompaniment to his solitary thoughts. But what astonished Dick and Jack more than anything else, was a gigantic horseman making galloping leaps through space with the same disregard of all the laws of gravitation. " Well, I vum !" Jack exclaimed, with an outburst of soft-drink profanity, " this beats the very deuce. Is this the way the king man- ages things at this end of the island ? 1 have read about haunted castles and enchanted islands, but this takes the cake from all of them. If Darby, Rex, turns us bottom-upward in this style the angels will see more patches than they ever saw before." " Or behind, either," Dick suggested, " if they are magnified as those ihings are magnified. How often do you have that kind of a panorama, captain ?" " Sometimes two or three times a year, and then again there'll be a year pass before they show again. It all depends upon the humor the king happens to be In." . " We have seen something like this at Black Point, but not on so large a scale, and 1 guess your king didn't have much to do with it there," said Dick. " Father says that in certain conditions of the atmosphere the air becomes like a still pond. In which the trees on ^^p^"^" 132 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES 11 li the shore show bottom-upward, and he says that the enlargement of objects is due to the hazy condition of the air." *• Well, you had better not make any such explanation to the king ; it might make him jealous." said the captain, gravely. At the half-way house, a small frame structure, occupied by six men, who were included m Captain Moline's staff, they stopped for rest and dinner. The men. who were of the same rough and ready character as those belonging to the East End. immediately on the arrival of the boys, crowded around them and beset them with ques- tions about their involuntary voyage to the island. Their cook, a colored man, who was formerly a slave in South Carolina, and whose -face was an ivory black, out of which the whites of his eyes and teeth flashed with painful brightness, said to the boys: " Yo* mos' done popped inter Paradise, when yo' run ashore on Sable Islan'." " Paradise!" Dick exclaimed. " If you had said Purgatory, you would have hit next door to the mark." " I haint nebber knowd nuffin about Puggertory, cos dere haint no sech place ; but I done knowd about dis yere place, cos I'm right in it. an' dat's sutt'nly so." And, with great earnestness, he went on to speak of the abundance of ducks and cranberries, and other re- sources and peculiarities of the island. And he declared, that so long as the government gave him his clothes and other necessaries, and a little money besides — money that he couldn't spend — and didn't bother him with questions about his business, he would a " heap sight " rather live on Sable Island, than to live among the barbarians of the mainland, where he'd be called nothing but a " nigger," and be treated as if he had no more soul than a lobster or a clam. He had never been called a "nigger" on Sable Island but once, and then the offender's face, having come in contact with his black hands, became so nearly the color of his own face, that ever since then such words as " darky " and " nigger " had been left out of the Sable Island dictionary. He didn't object to being called a negro any more than an Irishman should object to being called an Irish- man, for negro simply meant that when God made up his bundles of Jj ^ ON SABLE ISLAND 133 o humanity, He, for variety's sake, wrapped some of them In black paper. In fine, Crapo, the colored cook of the half-way house of Sable Island, came perilously near saying that he was " God's Image cut in ebony." To Dick and Jack's astonishment, the men listened to him without dissent or ridicule. Had the men become Insensible to the ridiculous, or had they unconsciously absorbed the sublimity of Burns' sentiment ? . . For a' that, and a' that Our toil's obscure, and a' that. The rank is but the guinea's stamp, The man's the gowd for a' that. Crapo presently turned from himself and his race, and began to talk about the boys' visit to the palace. "The king's darters," he said, without a smile," am the beauties of Sable Islan'; their cheeks am like garding pinks, their teef like lilies of the valley, their eyes like blue-bells, an" they wear gownds dat will hurt yo* eyes. Yo'll have a dreff'l pow'ful time to not look at 'em, seein' as how they am gals an' yo' is boys, yet ef yo' looks at 'em, the king' 11 cut yo' heads smack off'n yo' shoulders." " I've been in the Cannibal Islands," remarked an English sailor, " han' hits my hopinyun that them king's darters '11 eat them boys for supper, seein' as 'ow boy's meat is so scurse hon Sable Island. But their trowsers an' shirts won't be wasted; the queen '11 save them rigs to send fur to give to the heathen on the mainland, fur she keeps her pockets full o' mission sercieties." " Yes." said the youngest man of the crew, " she's a regular mis- sionary herself, and comes down here two or three times a year a-huntlng for our sins, and when she can't find any among us, she turns around and tells us how many she keeps at the palace for her own private use. It's my opinion, from what she tells about herself, that she isn't above eating boy's meat her- self, providing it's baked with onions and served with cranberry sauce. M -fp-* 134 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES In " But the king won't allow of any such goings on onless he knows it, and has a chance at it hisself, ' said a third lifeman. " Ye' 11 be the de'il's ain bairns, gin ye keep this gait ony longer !" exclaimed a Scot, whose protesting face betokened the sincerity of his reproof. " Are ye no afraid o' the lake that burneth wi' fire an' breemstone, where leears have their portion forever an' ever?" The Caledonian not only objected to the playing of mice, but he was equally averse to the capers of kittens in his severely grave catty .presence. Only two big words can express the truth about him — he was constitutionally and conscientiously grave — as grave as the man who preached from his coffin. The whole king business, to which the men clung with an obstinate love of mirth, was such a thorn in his side, that he once went to the governor and solemnly protested against the men being countenanced in their merry-making by the example of their chief. He said it was rank disrespect for real royalty, and bordered on high treason against the English govern- ment. Right in the face of the Scot's lurid rebuke of the chaffing men, Captain Moline said: " Well, boys, it's time for you to be on the move again, and as I don't dare to go any nearer to royalty than the half-way house, I'll put you in charge of Sangster, who will escort you to the next patrol, three miles ahead." "» * .^ " Yes," observed Sangster, who was the English sailor, " I'll see that the gull-savages don't get a chance to pick the meat from their bones while they're hin my charge." As a cold north wind had sprung up, the boys put on their oil- suits, which they had brought along with them for emergencies. The next relay was a Nova Scotian Frenchman, who had no sooner been introduced, than, at a wink from the Englishman, he informed the boys that the king and his family were in the tower of the palace watching for their approach through a spyglass. They had some dangers to pass yet, but he would prevent the seals from carrying them out to sea, and guard them against being carried am.ong the dunes by the wild ponies, or to the lake by any of the flocks of ducks that were constantly coming and going. ■ \:--f'-^p ON SABLE ISLAND 135 At the last relay, a stocky man, bearded like a Russian, and wearing an old navy cap, a red shirt, and blue trowsers. with stripes down the side, tucked into heavy top-boots, drove toward them on a shaggy black and gray pony, which was hardly high enough to keep his rider's feet from dragging in the sand. " It ees the king," said the Frenchman, while the rider was yet at a distance. •'What tongue does he speak ?" Dick asked, wondering what lingo would turn up next, for as yet he had not been informed that the life-crews were furnished from as many different nationalities as possible, in order that they might have the means of communicating with the numerous nationalities represented in the wrecks of the island. " Inglese, Spanish, Portuguese and Danish," the Frenchman re- plied, grinning with satisfaction at the perplexity shown by the boys as he enumerated the list. By this time the king was upon them, and having rolled from his pony like a bag of potatoes, he greeted the boys with extended hand and smiling face, saying with a bluff, sonorous voice : "My name is Darby, at your service, and I suppose that the lads down yonder, and along the beach, have by this time told you all about the king of Sable Island. I am very glad to see you. But why haven't you re- ported yourselves before ? We have looked for you every pleasant day since we heard of your arrival. I got out of patience with you. and finally concluded that a summons from Rex would fetch you, if nothing else would. Dick and Jack were immediately at home with the bluff chief of the service, and by way of excuse for not venturing on the journey before, Dick said : "We'll pull off our oil-suits and then you can judge for yourself why we haven't ventured into the presence of royalty and girls until summoned." The boys turned round and round before Darby, displaying all the patches they carried upon their bodies. And Dick added: " But if 136 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES we had known that you wore five patches on your own clothes we might have come earlier." " Five," repeated Darby, laughing heartily. " just count again and see how much you are out of the way," and he turned himself about to enable the boys to scan him thoroughly, " Nine, as I live I" exclaimed Dick, " and that's enough to make a ragamuffin feel at home with you, though going into your family might put him on pins." " Oh, all are friends of patches, though we keep a few unpatched clothes that we hang out in the sun and the wind once in a while, just for the fun of the thing, you know." The palace was a long, low. red building, which the wind was try- ing to turn into a dune by piling the sand against one end of it after the fashion of a snowdrift. The life station was close by, together with the usual small outbuildings. " Now turn your ponies loose," said Darby, as soon as they had dismounted, " and let them shift for themselves." " But won't they start for home ?" asked Jack. " No ; they're like dogs, they stay where their masters stay." The queen and her three daughters came down the slope to greet the visitors, and all were bare-headed. Mrs. Darby, a light-haired woman, with a refined face and a very thin frame, wore a straight- up-and-down blue calico dress, which hung about her as it would have hung on a broomstick. The girls ranged in age from eight to fourteen. Their thick hair was lighter than their mother's, and showed that it kept up an intimate acquaintance with all kinds of weather. Their eyes were as blue as the sky, their faces as freckled as gulls' eggs, their forms as round as dumplings, they looked as healthy as potatoes, and they seemed to be as full of good spirits as the untamed ponies. Their short, gray woolen dresses were cut as straight as their mother's calico, and their plump legs, encased in stout, white woolen stockings, ended in unmistakable cowhide brogans. All three were as free from constraint as the wind itself, and they m^ ON SABLE ISLAND 137 welcomed Dick and Jack with an ease that was not to be wondered at, seeing that they were accustomed to meeting and ministering to people from all parts of the world. ;. - . ■ As soon as the greetings were over, Darby said: "There, now, count their patches for yourself." Patches abounded on mother and daughters, but the boys were not bold enough to count them. KMiaWMi mmwii i 1 III .^■^, m\ ■^^ :■'* '■■ THREE WOMENETTES HEN vessels ran ashore on Sable Island it mattered little how valuable their cargoes were, for it was seldom, indeed, that any- thing could be saved for either owners or under- writers. The saving of lives was of such supreme importance that prop- erty sank into absolute insignificance in com- parison. When the government tender made its annual at- tempt to effect a land- ing on the island for the purpose of landing necessary supplies or removing to the main- •. _; land such as had been ;-■■■■■_- — ^— -:::::~ saved from the waves. it never troubled itself about cargoes, or what was left of them, but got the wrecked on board as soon as possible and hastened away at 139 140 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES the earliest moment from the perils of the deadly coast. Those, therefore, who lived upon the island were at perfect liberty to use whatever they saw fit of the material that came on shore. But so indifferent had they become to their opportunities, that they saw thousands of dollars worth of property beaten to fragments by the surf, or buried in the sands of the beaches, without giving it so much as a second thought. Yet, first and last, the storms had furnished them with the chief conveniences and comforts of their surf-bound lives. The governor's house was built almost entirely of the remains of wrecked vessels, and nearly all of its furniture and fixings came from the jetsam of sea-washed cargoes. Having his wife and his daugh- ters — the three womenettes, as he fondly called them — with him, Darby was in the habit of picking up whatever he thought would minister to their comfort or please their fancy, and hence the super- intendent's cottage was not only unique as a building, but was a sort of museum as well, and the girls were proprietors of many things that would have excited envy on the mainland. As yet we have not given the names of these girls. They v ere called Alice, Belva and Clarinda, in the order of their birth, their mother having begun the naming at the head of the alphabet, though she could not have thought of kieeping on until she had ex- hausted all the letters. If a boy had been born to the house, she, doubtless, would have ended the series at once by naming him Zenophon, for four is a healthy number with which to close up a family line. Dick and Jack had been in the palace but a short time, when Darby said: "Now, lads, while the womenettes are getting supper, we'll make a business visit to the house of refuge." On the way to this place, of which the boys had heard much, Jack, said. In an aside to Dick: •* I guess your scheme is beginning to work." Darby overheard him, and abruptly asked : " What scheme ?" Dick laughingly and frankly told him what had been said on the ■< ^ ON SABLE ISLAND 141 icn a •^ 1 Maskomet about making a virtue of necessity, and using their patches to secure the sympathy and favor of the king. " Conspiracies of that kind don't amount to high treason in such a kingdom as this," said Darby, greatly tickled at Dick's ingenuous confession. When they entered the refuge, he said : " Now, tall me what you think of this for a Sable Island establishment." The refuge was constructed for the use of the shipwrecked ; it had bunks along the walls, and was furnished with two large stoves. Here, also, were kept such stores as the government tender suc- ceeded in landing, and, besides, there was a miscellaneous collection of wrecked material, some of which had been stored so long that it was ready to drop in pieces. After glancing around the premises with wonder, Dick, in reply to Darby's question, said : " It looks as if somebody had started in business here with such poor success that he fled the place to save himself from the general ruin. But it would be hard to tell what kind of business was uppermost in his mind, whether it was a hotel or a shop, or a second-hand store or a museum." " You have about hit it," laughed the king, " but I think that there is some stuff here that you and your brother will be glad to get." and he began to pull from a shelf a varied assortment of new cloth- ing, which the tender had brought for the benefit of destitute wrecked people, and for the lifemen, as well. " These things may not be just a fit for you," he went on, " but they are just the thing for comfort, and that's what we care most about in making up our rigs for this place, you know. You'll be on the island all winter, and, while you are about it, you'd better lay in all you will need to keep you going till you are ready to leave us." " But," said Jack, forgetting that these were government supplies, " we haven't any money to pay for these things." "Money," laughed the governor, boisterously, " what's the good of money on Sable Island? If you had a million pounds here, what could you do with it ? And I'm glad there's one place in the world wmm 142 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES where you don't have to keep grabbing for the infernal stuff, or cut- ting your fellow beings' throats, in one shape or another, for the sake of being counted rich, and making a show that's bigger than some- body else's show. You can cram your hand down Into your pockets as deeply as you please here, and not feel a bit ashamed because there is nothing at the bottom. "The king knew that you didn't come ashore with a furnishing store in tow, and he ordered you up here, not only for the sake of getting a sight of boys once more, but also for the sake of seeing that no Sable Island boys suffer for the want of the things that should stand between their skins and the weather." ^ And, seeing that they were still diffident about making selections, he went to work himself and laid out two sets of caps for each, one for ordinary weather wear and one for the winter, when the ears had to be covered ; there were also mufflers to match the winter caps. He also furnished them with cardigans and flannels, trousers and underwear, a dozen pairs of socks each and two pairs of boots each, and mittens and handkerchiefs besides. The boys looked on the heap selected for them with such comical perplexity, the governor said : " You see, it's this way ; when winter comes, you might as well be in Jericho as to be at the other end of the island so far as communication is concerned, so I am only mak- ing sure that you get your supplies now, when you can carry them back on your ponies. The clothes I have chosen for Jack, though designed for a boy, will be found a bit large for him, but the women- ettes will be able to reef them down, so that they will manage to keep in touch with him. As for the boots, as soon as the weather becomes cold, he will need two or three pairs of stockings on at the same time, so 't's well they are as large as they are, and your own have plenty of room in them for the same reason. But even all this will not keep you warm enough for outdoor venture unless you have overcoats to stand in when the northers are cutting up their capers about the island. Now. I'll let you into a secret— the secret of a conspiracy that's plotted down there at the midway station- they have a lot of sealskins down there, and an Irishman, who is the ON SABLE ISLAND 143 coatmaker of the ioiand. has been making a coat for each of you, and will have them ready for you on your return. With those coats on, you can stand anything in the shape of cold weather. How did he get your measures? Oh, he got them by sending word to Jumps, who managed to get somewhere near your size without let- ting you know anything about it. I give the secret away, because they were not going to let the king know anything about it till you were in possession of the coats, and I want them to know that they can't keep their conspiracies from Darby, Rex. •' And. by the way, as we shall be in full evening dress for supper, suppose you try some of those clothes on here now. and see how near they fit. You'll find short sailor jackets on that lower shelf, with black neck-handkerchiefs to match, and while you are dressing, I'll go down to the station to leave some orders, and will call for you when I come back." Being so tall, the boys found little difficulty in making themselves quite contented with the fit of their garments ; there was not as much waste space In them as Darby feared. They put on their boots with their trousers outside, "gentleman fashion," as Jack said, and, when, for want of a looking glass, they scanned each other, their judgment was — though they didn't just know what was meant by ' evening dress " — that their evening dress would be good enough for the king's supper table. And this was the judgment of Darby himself, when, a few moments later, he dropped in to see how the boys fared In their new rigs. . " "Capital!" he exclaimed; "our court party will be a brilliant success. We'll make proclamation that you have Imported the latest fashions, and that will make the thing go whatever else may be wanting. We couldn't cut much of a figure without clothes, could we ? It's a good thing that Adam and Eve were not created on Sable Island ; there Isn't so much as a bush they could have skulked into, much less leaves big enough to answer for petticoats and breeches. If Cain had been born here, his vegetables would have made a poorer showing than they did on the land he had. and with only seals, ponies, and such wil fowl as we have here. Abel himself i i 144 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES might have been at a loss for sacrifices. But come to think of it. these mutual disadvantages might have been to their mutual advan- tage ; there would have been less cause for jealousy, that's clear, and Abel might have lived, and then Cain wouldn't have been obliged to go to the land of Nod and set so many people to asking where he got his wife." At this moment a long, shrill whistle was heard, and the king sud- denly changed the subject, by saying : "There's the womenettes whistling for the king to go with them to the milking." " Miking!" exclaimed Dick; "why. I have been told that cows couldn't live on Sable Island." " Well, you can come with me to the milking and see for your- selves." It was Alice who was whistling for her father, and with as much success as if she had a pair of boy's lips. By her side stood Bell and Clari. Dick and Jack walked up the slope toward them a little sheepishly, for their new garments made them just a bit self-consci- cus, and self-consciousness is the millstone to the neck of ease. " There 1" exclaimed Clari. in her blurting innocence, speaking to her sisters. " didn't I tell you that they'd look like young gentlemen as soon as they got into better clothes." " Clarinda Darby." cried Bell, blushing very red through her freckles; I didn't say that they didn't look like your~ g-^ntlemen in their patches ; I said it was a pity that such good-looking boys ever had to wear patches." And then, suddenly discovering that she had made an unnecessary confession, she blushed worse than ever, but recovered quickly when she found what a merry time they were hav- ing together. " So the patch question has been up among the girls, too. has it ?^ There, boys, just look at them. It will take considerable addition, and multiplication, too. to sum up their patches, won't it?" And Rex whirled Clari round like a top so as to display her patches to the best advantage. Escaping from him, she ran like a deer In the direction of the dunes, whither the rest of the party followed at a more leisurely pace. ON SABLE ISLAND 145 her ;n in ever ; had . but : hav- LS it ?' "ition. And \es to In the at a Presently she was heard whistling in a peculiarly cooing way, and a moment after, five mares, accompanied by Topsy and Turvy, were found around her, pressing quite close upon her in order to share her caresses. As soon as the boys' ponies discovered their masters. they came up to them and began to smell them from head to feet, as if the new clothes made them doubtful of their identity. Meanwhile Darby and his daughters, bending low to the sand, began to milk the mares which had answered to Clari's accustomed call. Dick and and Jack were breathless with astonishment, and both Topsy and Turvy left them, and went up to where their relatives stood so contentedly, and, after surveying the milking process for a few seconds, snorted their contempt and galloped away among the dunes as if afraid they. too. might be subjected to the indignity of the operation. "Heavens and earth, governor ! What are you doing?" Dick exclaimed, blankly, as soon as he recovered his voice. " Milking our cows. Can't you see what we are doing ?" the king replied, chuckling deeply. " But you don't drink that stuff!"' and Jack fairly spat the words out of his mouth with the disgust he experienced. The girls began to giggle, and the mares they were milking turned their heads and looked a mild protest against their un- timely levity. '• Why not, pray ?" asked the king. "Isn't it as white as any milk you ever saw? Don't the Swiss milk their goats? And don't the Tartars almost live on the milk of their mares, and make kou- miss of it for their invalids? And do you suppose that we are less civilized than they, because we happen to live on Sable Island? Look at these mares ? Are they not as civilized as any cows you ever saw ?" And then he went on to tell them that, having read of the Tartar mares and their milk, he began to make experiments with the Sable Island mares, and with such success, that his family had come to the conviction that they had a mare's nest worth having. But do !~r- i! •i! ¥ 1 i: ;| il I i1 1 H 146 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES his best, he couldn't persuade the lifemen to go into the business of utilizing the herds for milk and cream, nor would they touch a drop of the milk when any of them took a meal at the palace, all of which he regarded as a flat fling at the face of Providence. They didn't hesitate to use pony flesh for fresh beef, and he thought that In eating their meat and refusing their milk, the men were making very fine distinctions between tweedle-de-dee and tweedle-de-dum. " You eat horse meat, too !" Jack exclaimed, with horror. " Why. of course," said Clarl, "if it's properly cooked. If we lived on ducks all the time, we'd soon begin to quack and grow feathers." " By gum! I'd as soon think of turning cannibal, as to think of esting any of these ponies," protested Jack, vehemently. " Circumstances alter cases," said the king, laughing at Jack's earnestness, " but it doesn't take very much alteration to enable one to get reconciled to mare's milk and pony meat, especially when one has a good appetite and good common sense." When the milking was done, the mares went to feeding on the coarse, tough beach grass with as much zeal and relish as though they were up to their knees in clover or timothy. " I hear that Captain Moline has made you captain and mate of the Maskomet main-top," said Darby, as they turned to go back to the palace; " perhaps you would like to go up into my tower and take a look at the great sea-serpent. You'll find a better glass up there than they keep at the other end of the island." By '• the tower." Darby meant a lofty spar set into a sand knoll for observation purposes. Cross pieces of thick planking furnished the means of ascent to the crow's nest, which was made of an im- mense brewer's cask, securely fastened at the top of the spar. The entrance was by a manhole in the bottom of the cask. Dick ana Jack were eager for the ascent, but both stopped to ask Darby what he meant by the sea-serpent. First and last they had heard a great deal about this monster of the ocean, and the tales to which they had listened were so improbable and contradictory that mtm ON SABLE ISLAND 147 to ask ^ey had tales to )ry that their doubt as to his existence was much stronger than their faith. Now, that the king had spoken in such a serious way. they began to think that one had got stranded on the island, and that it was visible from the crow's nest. " Oh, you'll see him fast enough when you get up there," said Darby, and the boys started off in a hurry, and when in the brewer's cask, immediately untelescoped the glass and began to hunt for the monster along the beaches, but in vain. "Pshaw!" Dick exclaimed, at last, a light dawning upon him ; " the king means that the island itself is the great sea-serpent — and a good name it is, too, for such a ship-devouring monster as the island is. Besides, it does look like a serpent when you have the whole before you as the glass presents it. It's long, narrow, crooked and tapering at both ends, and the black bogs, green beach grass, white sand and hummocky dunes, spot it just right for a big snake, while that fourteen-mile lake gives a glitter-line along the greater py.rt of the back. The white lines of surf on both sides make it look as if the whole pesky thing were forging along through the waves at tremendous rate. Look for yourself, Jack — and the more you think of it the moie the island will look like the old father-snake of all the serpent tribes. If the snake that tempted Eve was born in such a place as this, I don't wonder at his being such a devil of a fellow." "Oh, don't go to getting wicked!" exclaimed jack, more than half alarmed at Dick's recklessness. But when he took the glass, and allowed his own quick imagination to take up and enlarge upon the simil Titles suggested by the king's description of the general features of the island, as presented to the observer from the king's tower, a creeping sensation took possession of him., and he said : "Well, I'll be darned, if it doesn't make a fellow feel as though he were making a trip to sea on the back of that old serpent, the devil." " Oh, don't go to getting wicked," Dick remonstrated, repeating Jack's rebuke, and imitating his half-scared manner to perfection. Whilst Jack was trying to defend himself against the Imputations of his brother, a voice from below hailed : " Masthead, ahoy ! Sup- nr iiiTVHiii liiig^B^ii i^jl ■' '-ii M, t'' i )■ i.« "i ■.;! I 148 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES per is waiting, and if we are not there in time to hear the king's grace, we'll lose our heads, as well as the grace." " Why, that's a new voice." said Dick, and then answered : " We are coming." Meanwhile, Jack had taken a peep through the manhole at his feet, and as he went down on his first step for the descent, he said: " Why, Dick, there's a fellow down there who looks as though he had just jumped out of a band-box !" " My name is Donald McDonald, I am from Aberdeen, Scotland, and I hold the Queen's commission as naval surgeon to Sable Island," the stranger ran on, as soon as the boys reached the bot- tom of the staff, at the same time giving them a grip which almost made them groan. " Was out when you arrived, or I should have paid my respects before. If you are the sons of the American preacher and lecturer, Melville, whom I heard lecture in Halifax some years ago, it may give you some satisfaction to know that I once passed a very pleasant evening with him in that city at the house of our mutual friend, the Hon. Joseph Howe." "We are his sons, fast enough," said Dick, not a little awed by seeing such a spic-span specimen of a man on Sable Island, and a Scot at that, whose words came from his lips with as mach precision as if they were shot directly from the muzzle of a big dictionary. Dr. McDonald was about forty, six feet in height, and almost as thin as a lath. His face was cleanly shaven, but his gray eyes and high forhead loomed forward from under a heavy shock of crisply curly sandy hair. For a wonder, he was very neatly dressed in dark tweeds, and wore a dark navy cap to match. Jack was so taKen up with the surgeon's clothes, that the Scot laughingly said: " You see, lad, that I am the only man on Sable Island who goes decently clothed seven days in the week, and the reason is, just as people refuse to be converted by ministers who do not wear pulpit c'othes. so my patients refuse to be cured unless I put on clothes that will back up my profession. If I went about in patches, the men would lose their confidence In my practice, and that would be losing half the battle before it was begun. You think ipip ON SABLE ISLAND 149 it as and risply dark Scot Jable the 10 do less 1 )Ut in and think I am joking ? Well, a joke is the frame to which the door of truth is hinged. But, as I said, when I called you, tea is waiting, and if we are not at the table when the time comes for serving, we'll be ordered out for execution. I suppose that you will think that this is a joke also, yet you are sharp enough to see that promptness is the door that is hinged to it. If you want to keep on the good side of the king, keep a sharp eye on time and its appointments. " Hurry, boys!" said the doctor, as they entered the house, " I hear them putting the chairs around the table," And he almost forced them to run across the kitchen, and, opening the door to the next room, literally pushed them in advance of himself into the room that served for sitting-room and dining-room. " I have just saved them by the skin of their teeth, may it please your majesty," said he, without the shadow of a smile. " Yes. by the bare skin of their teeth," responded Darby. Rex. grimly. Dick and Jack looked around in amazement. Darby sat at the nead of the table in a close-fitting uniform of dark blue, and he had on shirt, collar and cuffs of blameless whiteness and polish. Mrs. Darby, seated opposite, at the other end of the table, was gowned in a neatly cut black silk with fine lace about her neck and fastened at her throat by a brooch, from the center of which gleamed an unmis- takable diamond of no small value. The girls were also dressed in silks — for silks on Sable Island were not scarce — silks of bright and tasty colors, and their hair, neatly dressed and kept back by bright silken bands, together with the spotless linen collars they had on. so framed their healthy faces as to make them look quite comely. While the boys were trying to get their breath, Darby motioned Dick to the empty chair at his right, and Jack to the one at his left, which gave Dick Alice for his left hand companion, and Bell to Jack for his mate, while the doctor took his seat at the right of Mrs. Darby, and Clari at the left of her mother. When all were seated, Darby bowed his head and said a long grace that was as well chosen in its words, as it was devout in its spirit. 150 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES i! And then, the table was as much of a surprise as the garb of the family. A spotless tablecloth, with an ample supply of fine linen napery, and china and silver to match, and everything arranged with the order and precision of a clock ready to begin operations. " Look here, boys." said the king, quite gruffly, when they began the meal, " if this dress party is going to make you feel awkward- - for the lads were both embarrassed and silent— we'll turn the whole thing back into patch-land again. The womenettes were determined to have their own way about this meal, and insisted upon making this show in your honor. It isn't often they get a chance to celebrate anything, and wher. they do, I let them do it, for it keeps us all from relapsing into barbarism, you know. Even the doctor, there, always likes to have us return once in awhile to mainland style. So just go ahead as if we had our patches on and were eating out of tin plates and drinking from tin cups." Jack quickly responded to this forcible breaking of the ice, and created much merriment by saying to Dick across the table : " Didn't I tell you that the girls would look quite handsome if they were only decently diessed ?" " Yes," Dick replied; and after a pause and a look at Alice, he added, mischievously, imitating her own words and tones : " It's a pity that such good-looking girls should ever wear patches." Darby had been promoted from the captaincy of a revenue cutter to the superintendence of the island, and after supper was cleared away he began to relate experiences about chasing Yankee smugglers from the Nova Scotian coast. This was more than Jack could stand, and he suddenly broke in with a graphic and amusing account of the escape of the You Bet and the part that Dick and he took in piloting her out of the clutches of the revenue officers. , " You young rascals ! And you dare tell this in the presence of two of Her Majesty's subjects and officers !" Darby exclaimed, with well- simulated wrath, while at the same time he was laughing up his sleeve, and the surgeon was shaking with undisguised mirth. When, after an exceedingly pleasant evening, the boys were snugly ON SABLE ISLAND 151 in bed. Jack suddenly exclaimed : " By cracky, Dick ! What do you think ? Each of us drank two glasses of milk and ate a steak apiece at that confounded supper!" " Yes — well —what is there'that's so surprising about that." Dick drawled out, sleepily. " But can't you see ?" "No; it's too dark to see anything." " Thunder and lightning, Dick! That milk was mare's milk, and that steak was pony steak !" " By jiminy. no !" and Dick sat bolt upright to think it over, and being quick to draw conclusions, he added : " Yes, we have been drinking mare's milk and eating pony steak for a certainty, but it's too late to throw them up now." And he laid down and fell asleep. !, he 's a I I jnugly -■ V meat made AMONG THE DUNES F THEY can stand it, we can." •• What are you driving at now, Jack?" asked Dick, seeking for a clew to his brother's first waking words. " That milk and meat business ; I see it all now ; they just kept us talking so that we wouldn't think any- thing about what we were eating and drinking. Let's not say a word about it, but pitch right in as if, we had been brought up on mare's milk and n horse meat." And that is what they did at b r e akfast when milk and fresh were passed as a matter of course, and as no comments were upon the trial of their appetite, the boys felt as if they were the 153 I 154 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES fit I III ill "I victors. They were all the more at home because the patches of the family had resumed their reign and the surgeon and themselves were again conspicuous for their unbroken garments. Heretofore, in addressing one another, the girls had said Master Dick and Master Jack, and the boys had said Miss Alice, Miss Bell, and Miss Clari, with most exacting formality. But during a conver- sation, in which the girls laid plans for an outing among the dunes, Clari, forgetting herself, addressed Jack without putting any handle to his name, and this produced such a gale of laughter among them all that the last vestige of formality was blown away, and thenceforth they spoke to one another with all the freedom of brothers and sisters. " Before you take the boys among the dunes you must let them take a peep into my room," said the surgeon, as they rose from the table, the girls, with their heads full of their plans, and the boys with theirs over-running with anticipations of enjoyment. " But don't let him dose you with any of his pills and potions," cautioned the king ; " we have so little sickness here he is constantly on the watch for a.chance to doctor somebody. He may attempt to make you believe that you are out of sorts in some way, and get a dose into you before you are aware of it. Doctors need watching, you know. They wear microscopes in their eyes and see things that nobody else would dream of seeing unless they were asleep." " If he gets any medicine down our throats, he'll be smarter than anyone we have ever met yet," said Jack, who had never taken a dose of medicine in his life, and who, like his brother Dick, had never known what it was to be sick. " Don't mind anything his majesty says, for his imagination is so vivid, his head often floats him from the ground, and if he were not so stout and heavy, he would be blown away with the clouds," said the surgeon, as he led the boys away The surgeon had an end room on the ground floor, which he called his dispensary, and when the boys reached it, they saw that it was a formidable looking affair, with its numerous bottles, boxes and com- plete supply of surgical instruments, ranging from a dental outfit up ON SABLE ISLAND 155 to an elaborate set of amputating tools. And there were enough medical books to frighten anyone into believing that he had all the ills that flesh is heir to, that is, if he ever had the leisure to meddle with their grim pages or to explore their blood-curdling plates and illustrations. At the threshold, they were greeted by an animated ball of gray hair, which the surgeon addre^ed as Muff, and which, from the barks that came from the tangle of fur, gave evidence that it was a dog of some kind. The surgeon explained that it was a Scotch terrier, all the way from Scotland, and he further declared that Muff was the best educated dog on Sable Island. In proof, he put him through a succession of tricks that went far to prove his assertions. Besides this hairy bundle of life, there was a parrot perched upon a cross- piece in the corner, who' saluted the boys with, " Does your mother know you are out?" and then immediately began to sing, in a hoppity-skip manner : ' ; There is na luck about the house, TLere isna luck at a' There is na luck about the house When my auld man's awa'. The surgeon accounted for his Scotch tendencies, by saying that he was rescued from the cabin of a wrecked Aberdeen clipper ship, and that he was as much at home upon Sable Island, as if he were upon his native heath. A crow — black as the inside of an ink bottle — made his appear- ance from under a chair, and, sidling up to the boys, astonished them by saying, with a cracked voice, that sent the parrot off into hysterics of laughter : " Here's nuts ! Here's nuts I" *' That fellow came from the forecastle of the same ship from which the parrot came." explained the surgeon, "but his learning came from the parrot, to which he has listened so long and so atten- tively, that he has become quite an accomplished speaker." " Here's nuts!" exclaimed the parrot, in confirmation. " But he has some bad language of his own." the surgeon contin- i ; I !i; nil in ! I* I ! ii iii.i i'iii 156 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES ued, " which he must have contracted from his surroundings in the forecastle. Someone split his tongue to facilitate his speech, an operation which, happily, it is not necessary for humankind to undergo." While he was speaking, a squirrel crept up Dick's leg and dove into one of his sailor jacket pockets on an exploring expedition. "I brought him from Halifax with me," the surgeon explained, "and when he wants something in the shape of climbing exercise, I let him climb the crow's nest spar, or up the roof of the palace. Though there are no nut trees here, he quite frequently finds nuts in my , ockets, and that is what he is after now." And the surgeon opened a drawer, and taking an English walnut from the many he had there, he dropped it into Dick's pocket, from which the squirrel Immediately came with the prize in his mouth, and scampered away, while both parrot and crow screamed: "Here's nuts! Here's nuts!" Nor did they become quiet until they, too, were served with a nut each. A great tiger-colored cat dozed through all the tumult in a leather- bottomed chair, and when Jack went up to stroke it, he suddenly drew back in alarm, for, nestled ud close to the cat, like a favorite kitten, was a venerable gray rat, minus his tail. A rat, and a cat, and a rat terrier, in the same room., and in such amicable Intimacy, was explained by the surgeon, who said : " I picked the rat up from the beach one morning, when he was more dead than alive, for he had just been tossed up by the surf, and, thinking that he had endured misfortunes enough for one lifetime, I brought him in here and am- putated his broken tall. And then, by way of making the lion lie down with the lamb, I disciplined Tab, Muff and Bobtail, till their natural dispositions yielded to my Christian instructions. Bobtail usually passes his nights curled up in Muff's long hair, and if you were to make hostile demonstrations toward Bobtail, figuratively speaking, you would soon have Muff into your hair." While thus speaking, the surgeon had taken his violin and tuned it up. Pausing In the flow of his words, he took a small wooden wand and gave it to the squirrel, which he had named Tommy Tucker, ON SABLE ISLAND 157 and, the squirrel having hid his nut, received it without demur and perched himself on his haunches with a knowing look of expectation. Presently the surgeon began to piay the " Grand March in Norma." Muff fell in behind the squirrel; Tab followed; then came Bobtail, alter whom came Polly, and the crow, whom the surgeon had named Nelson. All being in Ifne, and the squirrel erect on his hind feet, with his wand held directly before him, the surgeon by a sudden, sharp transition, which served as a signal to his performers, struck up : " The Campbells are coming, oho. oho !" Tommy Tucker, beating time with his wand, gave the step, and the whole procession marched around the room to the music of the violin as circumspectly as it they were being reviewed by a major- general of the regular army. It was an astonishing performance, and when it was over, the surgeon said : " I have been at the pains to train these creatures for a purpose.* There are times when our men get so restless, irri- table and almost rebellious, it becomes necessary to distract their attention from themselves to something else. When they are at their worst, which Is generally in winter, I have them come in here, where I amuse them with one of my classical performances with these animals ; and the show generally has the effect of restoring them to good nature. I am thinking of adding to my attractions in the com- ing spring by capturing the young. of some of the sand-birds and see- ing what I can do with them by training them from the egg up to the civilization the rest of my pets have attained. You see that I manage to keep myself busy, whatever others may do, for, in addition to these things, and my regular doctor's work. I have to keep a record of the weather and atmospherical changes the year round for the use of the government." " And besides all this, you have gone into the egg business," said Dick, looking around the room, which was festooned with long strings of egg shells, making a collection of every variety to be found on the island in the breeding season. There were eggs not much larger than a pea, and others larger than a goose-egg ; some were as white SMBH ■■Hi i ,f I. . I m § 158 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES as snow, but the vast majority of them were speckled as if they had been lying out of doors during a rainstorm of mixed colors. " Oh. the egg business has afforded me a great deal of amusement and instruction as well." said the surgeon ; " and so has the collect- ing of the stuffed specimens of the parent birds I have managed to gather." He was interrupted by a vigorous knocking at the door. " How much longer are you going to keep Dick and Jack in that menagerie of yours?" asked Clari. as soon as the door was opened. "We are waiting for them." "Oh, I beg your pardon, my lady!" replied the surgeon, with a great show of humility. " 1 forgot all about their engagement with the princesses." Then turning to boys, he added : " Come in this evening and bring their ladyships with you. and I'll put my animal friends through all their accomplishments, if for no other purpose than to show you how much we can get out of animals when they are rightly treated." The girls had already secured Topsy and Turvy, and had them in waiting with three other ponies that were to serve as their own mount. • The girls' ponies were provided with saddles, and, on seeing them. Dick said: " I tho.ght that it was against the law of the island for anyone to put a saddle on a Sable Island pony. Where did you get them ?" "The king and the surgeon made them," replied Alice. " made them for our use, for, of course, anybody else would oe scouted if they bothered themselver with such things." The saddles were made of sealksin and canvas, and, during the long winter evenings, the king and the surgeon had expended so much ingenuity upon them, that they were not to be laughed at by even a professional saddler. * The pony Alice rode was called Burns, though he was as black as a crow. Not to be outdone. Bell called hers Scott, and Sir Walter, though of a questionable brown hue. as if he had been baked in an oven like a loaf of bread, had the reputation of being the fastest trot- had nent lect- id to I that ened. , with t with n this inimal ,e than ey are lem in ;ir own them. ind for id you made )Uted if ing the nded so d at by black as Walter, ;d in an test trot- IM I ' ;! I IIM ON SABLE ISLAND 161 ter on the island. The spotted mare, ridden by Clari, was called Patsy, and on being questioned why such a descent was made in the naming, Clari explained by saying : " I was going to call her McPherson, but the other girls laughed at me so much for calling a mare by a man's name, that I got up- pish at them, and called her by the first Irish name I could think of, and, though they wanted to call her Effie Dean, I just stuck to Patsy till they had to come round to my taste. I think that such names as Topsy, Turvy and Patsy are much better names for such creatures as these than such toplofty names as Burns and Scott." And, ap- pealing directly to Jack, she asked : " Don't you?" Jack gallantly assented, and the union of opinion made them com- panions for the most of the time they were out among the dunes. " Yes" is the master hyphen in the English language, and if a cat could only say it to a dog — say it with some show of sincerity - the cat and the dog could walk arm in arm for the rest of their natural lives The girls wore indescribable jockey caps, vizored with sealskin. Their waists were of red flannel, with skirts of blue serge. Topsy didn't like Patsy, for females are rather jealous of one another, and, regardless of Jack's remonstrances, she whisked her own way. The spirit of the wind seemed to take possession of the little beast, and she scurried along at a speed that soon put her out of sight of the others, notwithstanding their strenuous efforts to keep up with her. While going at her most headlong rate, she gave a snort and sud- denly threw herself back on her haunches, while Jack went over her head so snugly that he found himself sitting comfortably in the sand, still attached to the pony by the bridle, which he held between his legs. He was, however, almost as much disturbed as Topsy her- self, for a turn at the foot of a dune had brought him face to face with a specter which made his blood run so cold that, for a moment, he was as much of a fixity as Topsy herself. It was in this plight that the others found them, and then there was a merry time of it all the way round. " That's our Sable Island ghost." said Clari, as soon as she could M I' I ii II'' ill i i ■ in It I l}l!i 162 DICK AND JACKS ADVENTURES command her laughter ; " and I am glad it was there to bring you to your senses." " But I couldn't help running away," Jack protested; "the Old Harry himself couldn't have stopped Topsy, she was so full of mis- chief." " Well. Old Neptune did stop her," suggested Bell, " fori suppose she got frightened at that figure-head, and that is the reason why you sat down there to think about things." That's what it was, a big figure of Neptune, which once belonged to an English ship of that name. The surgeon happened to discover it one day after a strong wind had blown the sand from its prostrate form, and by dint of much labor he had dug a hole for its feet and raised it to an upright position. Sand and weather had bleached the figure, that still retained a part of its trident, to a spectral whiteness, which in the night would have tried the nerves of the stoutest-hearted stranger. No wonder that Topsy, com.ing so unexpectedly upon it, considered discretion the better part of valor and surrendered with- out taking another step. " Why, jack, we ought to haul that old fellow down to our end of the island, and get the king and the surgeon, and all the rest of them to come down and marry Maskomet to him. They'd make a good match." And then Dick began to laugh again at the posture in which Jack and Topsy were found. " Well, if I couldn't look more like a god than that, I'd go to sea again and find a hiding hole somewhere at the bottom, and not come here and scare decent folks almost out of their wits," said Jack, beginning to laugh at himself. " If," he continued, " he would only take root and grow into some sort of a tree, there' d be some sense in his standing up in the sand there In that ridiculous shape." Neptune had lost one ear ; half of the nose was snu.oed off ; the right eyebrow had disappeared altogether ; both cheeks were fright- fully cracked ; a part of the lower lip had been split away, giving an expression to that part of the face that was decidedly dissipated, so that his godship looked as though he had been on a prolonged spree ON SABLE ISLAND 163 fO\X Old nis- pose 'you nged :over strate it and edthe eness, learted ipon it. d witb- end oi of them a good sture in to sea and not ts." said led. "he lere'd be jldiculous off ; the Ue fright- I giving an ipated, so Iged spree with some disreputable gods. True, the muscles of the halt nude body bulged with a great show of strength, and the one arm that re- mained, holding the broken trident with the single prong left, gave a semblance of majestic mastery ; but upon the whole, this Neptune was not a very suitable god to represent the empire of the ocean. " He did hide himself once, and we thought he had gone for good," Clari began, referring to Jack's words; " but he came back again, and we were glad of it, too. We should miss him very much if we couldn't pass the compliments with him when we take our rides among the dunes." "What does the girl mean ?" asked Dick, turning to Alice. " There had been a great storm," said Alice in reply, " and the first time we rode out after its occurrence Neptune had disappeared. The next time we came in this direction — three days afterward, there he was again as big as ever, only he was facing in an entirely differ- ent direction. We galloped home as fast as we could go and told everybody that we had seen old Neptune's ghost, and then the sur- geon laughed at us. " He said that the men at the station were making a mystery of the disappearance, and he wasn't going to have any more mysteries about Sable Island than he could help. So he took a shovel, and believing that the figure-head had got buried in the sand by the wind, he went to work and dug until he found him, and then he set him up again with his face turned another way, so that he might have another view of the sandscape. He didn't say anything about it to any of us. because he didn't think that any of us were foolish enough to make any fuss over his reappearance. " Since then the old fellow has tried to crawl underground several times, and, having taken a hint from the surgeon, we always dig him out again. We should be lonesome without him, and so would the small snipe that are in the habit of alighting on him." " I should think that even a graveyard would be company In such a dismal place as this," said Dick, very pointedly. The scene about him was rather depressing. The dunes, with their conical shapes, night-cap tops and ragged skirts, patched here and there with spots m mil j I i I' < JWh I llUiii iil i I il !| i m ■JE lLlJlUi!L'..r-^|.'iJ'. ^ssm 164 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES of vivid vegetation, made them look like a lot of gigantic old women from some unknown world gathered on the island for the purpose of holding a convention about things in heaven, things on earth and things under the earth. " Would you like to see the Sable island cemetery?" asked Alice, rather plaintively, for she didn't more than half fancy the levity with which Dick spoke of the abode of the dead, and, furthermore, she thought he would be sobered if he could see, what, to her, was the saddest spot she had ever seen or heard of. " Yes, of course ; I have heard of the place, and am quite curious about it," Dick replied, glancing at her face to get some clew to the plaintiveness of her tone. Taking the lead, Alice led them up a sort of ridge, upon the top of which the boys noticed bits of broken plank, which, they were in- formed, stood for headstones to faint mounds, under which were the remains of wrecked men and the island dead. This spot had been used for a burial place as far back as the history of the island could be traced. On the outer edge of the ridge, the sand had been blown away, exposing several skulls and many human bones, which, from having been polished by the action of the shifting sands, glistened in the sun with a ghastly glare. "Don't they use coffins when they bury people here?" Dick asked. " A few of the dead have been buried in plank boxes — and they were people who belonged to the island — but all that have been thrown ashore by the surf, were simply wrapped in canvas or buried in their clothes, if any were left upon their bodies." She pointed out a number of low mounds, and said that they con- tained the remains of women and children thrown upon the island by the wreck of an emigrant steamship that went to pieces on one of the outer sandspits of the Island. When she was asked how it hap- pened that they were so thickly covered with the deep green of the wild-pea vines, she replied that she and her sisters transplanted the vines and Kept the graves as green as they could. The vines had kept the winds from blowing the mounds away. ON SABLE ISLAND 165 Dick The thought of being buried in such a place filled the boys with horror, and Jack thoughtlessly exclaimed : " I should think that the very idea of being buried here would make you girls wish to get away from the island as soon as possible." Alice was a brave little body, but she shuddered visibly, and glanced quickly in the direction of her siste-s, and seeing that they, too, were quivering with sudden dread, she comfortingly said : " If our spirits lie in the arms of God, it matters little where our bodies lie." " Let us get away from here !" exclaimed Bell, impulsively, and, turning the head of her pony, she started on a gallop, the rest follow- ing after her. She did not slacken her speed until, after having taken a winding course among the dunes and around several crystal-clear ponds, that lay like ' jewels amid the surrounding desolation, she led them up a slight eminence, which gave them a full view of a beautiful lakelet. Here she dismounted, saying : "We will take our luncheon here.'' " But what about the ponies?" Dick asked,. " Let them go. of course ; they will go down to the pond, and after they have slaked their thirst, they will have a pic-nic of their own cropping the grass about the pond. When we want them, our ponies will come at our call, and yours will follow." While they were lunching. Dick and Jack, discovering that the girls knew a good deal about the island, began to push inquiries, for they themselves were becoming more and more interested in their surroundings. By way of preface to one of Dick's questions, Alice said : " Mother has been quite a student in her way, and for a number of years was a teacher in the public schools of Halifax. She keeps studying even now, and for eight months in the year drills us as if we were in a regular school. And if any of the men want to learn anything, she helps them along all she can, and so does Dr. McDonald, who knows a good deal more than mother does, at least that is what mother says. Mother believes that children should know all that there is to be 166 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES ih learned about the places they live in first of all. She has collected all that she could get hold of that would shed light on the history of Sable Island. . " She has taught us that the Navigator Cabot was the first to sight Sable Island — or, at least, the first of whom there is any account. He discovered the place a hundred years before the Pilgrim Fathers of the States landed upon Plymouth Rock." " There goes old Plymouth Rock, and the Pilgrim Fathers with it. that father has told us so much about," said Jack, interrupting Alice. " I have been taught to believe that they were first in everything." " Not the ' i to discover the New World." Dick corrected. " But go on, Alice." " Well, as 1 was about to say." Alice continued, smiling at Jack's zeal for the reputation of the Pilgrims, " Cabot didn't like the look of this place well enough to attempt to land here, but went on till he struck Newfoundland. Mother has taught us that the great French- man, Baron St, Just, was the first to land on the island, and that he came here three hundred years ago and tried to make a settlement where we are eating now. That is why this part of the island is called the French Gardens ; and the ponies we are using, and those that are wild, are the descendents of the ponies St. Just left on the island." " Well, I am glad that he got here before we did 1 What could we do without the ponies ? If this place was ever a garden, it doesn't look much like one now. It has gone to grass long ago." Dick resented Jack's inteiruption, and asked him to save his com- ments till Alice was through with her account. " There was another French naval commander, the Marquis de la Roche, who came here ninety years after St. Just," Alice resumed ; " he was sent out by Henry IV. of France, with two hundred convict prisoners they wanted to get rid of in some way. Eighty of the pris- oners were left here. These built huts out of wrecks, clothed them- selves mainly in sealskins, and had such an awful time of it that ON SABLE ISLAND 167 com- dela umed ; convict \e pris- them- it that when another vessel was sent to se^ what had become of them there were only twelve of them left, and they had so changed that they looked and acted more like beasts than human beings. They were taken back to France and pardoned, and given a sum of money to help them during the remainder of their days." " Guess they didn't have very many days left after going through all that," said the incorrigible Jack, making them all laugh, in spite of Dick's polite frowns. " Then there are the accounts of the wrecking of a Spanish fleet off yonder, that was on its way to conquer Cape Breton. And besides, a French fleet, under the command of d'Anville, who had orders to drive all English-speaking people out of the colonies and to destroy all their homes, lost several ships in the same place." " The bloody old pirate ! served him right I" exclaimed Jack. " Then there is the story of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who, on re- turning from Newfoundland, which he had taken possession of in the name of the English crown, lost a part of his fleet in these waters, and his own life also, before he got back to England." " Well, what right had the English to be prowling around in this part of the world? Why didn't they keep their noses at home and tend to their own affairs ?" asked Jack, again. " Oh, get out. Jack," said Dick, contemptuously; " if it had not been for those tough old Englishmen, there would have been no Canada, and jjo United States, either. Besides, England is so small, the big boys of the family had to go somewhere to make room for themselves. You can't keep children and grandchildren under one roof forever." ' -^ Ja : was silent, and Alice went on to point out where the ocean steamer Georgia was wrecked, and where the French frigate L'Africaine went down with all on board, and also where the Delight was lost, with one hundred men. " What was this place stuck down here for, so as to be in the way of everybody ? The Lord must have made some mistake in his plans," commented Jack. 168 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES •fl:. "If it had not been here, where would we have been now>" asked Dick. "Gracious! sure enough." And Jack rubbed his chin in deep thought over the problem. " Father says it is a horrid place," said Alice, " but he also says that the island lies right across the gulf stream and splits it into two currents, and that the division makes a great difference with the temperature of different countries. And so, perhaps, the Lord knew what he was about after all. And now, as we have stayed here long enough, we will go down to the south beach. Father said he was going down there, and we may meet him and accompany him home. I'll ride to the top of that dune and see if he is anywhere in sight." Having discovered a man riding along the south beach, she headed the party in that direction, and found the king engaged in a ghastly piece of business. He was trying to recover a body from the surf with a long body-line which had a heavy lead loading at the end. By throwing this loaded end over the body he finally succeeded in drawing it to the beach. The man was about thirty-five years of age. The garments were rich and fashionable. A valuable diamond cluster flashed from the scarf, and another diamond — a solitaire — gleamed on the left hand ; besides these, there were two heavy gold signet rings, one on the left forefinger and one on the right. A few links of a heavy gold watch chain hung from the vest. A large roll of American and English bank bills were found in the trousers ; in an tnner pocket of the vest there was a flat pocketbook containing a draft on London for seven hundred pounds, drawn in favor of Edward Pullman, which was the name found written on the inside of the pocketbook. In an- other pocket about a dozen gambling chips were discovered. His throat was cut almost from ear to ear. He had been murdered, but not robbed. Darby's explanation or conjecture may have been the only one that could explain the mystery. He said : " Probably the man was a professional gambler on one of the ocean steamers. One of his victims may have caught him promenading in an obscure part of the upper deck, ON SABLE ISLAND 169 anation explain sssional ms may r deck, where he could do the deed of revenge and push him overboard without being observed. All the effects were removed and sealed up to be sent to Halifax for identification. After maki.ig a minute record of the personal appearance of the man, the remains were drawn to the cemetery on a flat drag and buried in the sand. This repulsive incident made a shocking ending to the merry- making of the boys and girls, and made such an impression upon the boys that it was difficult tor them to banish it from their minds. mm RETURNING TO QUARTERS EN days had passed since the ar- rival at the palace, yet there had been no lack of employment and amusement. Although it was the girls' season for studying under the instruction of their mother, they were allowed to devote themselves exclusively to the entertainment of their visitors. Alice and Bell knew how to use a gun, so thut. besides pony races on the beach, rambles among the dunes and ponds, hunts for shells and sea-moss along the shore, there were excursions to the lake fo: ducks, and for the wild geese and brant that now began to flock to the island. For evening amusements they had " Blind Man's Buff." " The Happy Family of the Dispensary," and vocal and instrumental concerts, with Bell and Clari as prima donnas, the king as soloist, Alice and the surgeon as guitar-player and violinist, and the queen 171 ! ! m t li f < i. ■ J V. ^ 'If I ; • J f III : >■!, i II ' 1 I '7 \ : ! if! ' 1 1 I ;si!l 172 DICK AND JACiC'S ADVENTURES and the visitors to act the triple role of chorus, auditors and encorists. Pleasant hours were also spent at the station with the men. who, being mostly sailors that had sailed the seas in many climes, had tales to tell that were entertaining if the listener was not too great a stickler for the literal truth. The sea is such a roomy thing a naked fact would make but a small showing in thevastness, and hence, the sailors, with a due regard for proportions, loyally dress their stories in the style that becomes the magnitude of their setting. Finding that the boys vere bent on returning to the Maskomet, the men of the station, on the evening preceding their departure, gave a supper in their honor, and invited the surgeon and the king to be present with them. They excluded the other sex on the ground that the station mess table could not afford to be exposed to the light of female royalty. At the close of the feast, which consisted mainly of black coffee, roast duck, and plum-duff — by which v; meant boiled ship-bread, stuffed with an abundance of raisins, and served with molasses for sauce, the king asked Tom Bagley to tell ^he boys how his nose was put out of joint, for that important member of the man's face was so sadly awry that it was a wonder how the owner managed to sieer straight ahead when his cutwater was curled in an almost opposite direction. " Well, if you'll believe it, it wor this ^•"^^', you see," Tom began, nothing loth. " I wos mate o' the fore-a.i -after Three Brothers, which the same was named that waybecos three brothers owned her. We wos a-layin' our course for Cuby with a carger o' lumber, when I says to the skipper : * There's a hurricane a-sneakin' behind that black cloud over yonder.' " ' Don't I know it ?' says he. kinder snappy-like. ' Take in every stitch o' canvas an' make everything snug an' tight.' which the same I did in the turn of a heel. Hows' mever, that didn't keep no hurricane from strikin' uv us. r.n' it hit us so hard an' suddenly, that erfore 1 could turn my head to leeward, it slewed my nose to port an' laid It flat as a pancake to my che'^k. We saved the schooner by the skin of our teeth, but, though I've workod an' worked at that Ml ON SABLE ISLAND 17J every :h the eep no y, that to port hooner at that nose to get it back into plum' agin, it stays as crooked as a ram's horn, an' that's all there is uv it." " If you had turned your head the other way after being struck." said the surgeon, " the hurricane would have blown it straight again." " No, sir," Tom replied, with a great show of anger, "it 'ud a-snaked it clean clear o' my bow altergether, like a stick wot is worked back an' forth till its back is broken." " Show the boys your watch, Hal, and tell them how you came by it," said the king, to a man by the name of Harry Trunyon. " There's the ticker," said the man. glibly, handing to the boys an old, battered, silver time piece, " but the story connected with it is almost worn out, I have been obliged to tell it so often. I was on board the ship Manlius. sailing up the Mediterranean, when we was beclamed as dead as a last ye?.; s egg I fixes a shark line and chunks over a big hunk of pork for the sharks to look at. Pretty soon one on 'em swallers it as tho' it was chockerlic drops an' he was a seminary gall a-huntin' fer sun'thin' sweet. The next thing he know'd he was on deck an' I was a-rippin' into him to see what he had for a cargo in the hold. The fust thing I run against was that watch, which I slipped into my pocket, sayin'. * it's mine, be- cause I killed the shark.' The next thing I know'd, I cut out a bottle- -a reg'lar champagne bottle — stopple in, and sealed as tight as a drum, with the champagne a-peeplng out with all the eyes it had in its head. " Says the captain, in a hurry, * that's mine, because I run this ship,' and I'll be blamed to shivereens, if he didn't take the stuff and carry it to the caHin, where he and his mate sucked down every drop of it, and he's got the bottle yet. But, seeing as how there is no champagne in it. and as how I've got the watch yet, I've got the best of the bargain after all." " But why didn't the champagne ferment in the stomach of the shark and burst the bottle?" asked the surgeon, who, being a can*- Scot of the genuine kind, wanted to know, you know. "Why, sir!" exclaimed Hal, with a snltf of contempt, "the water mm^ \ '.'I 'III I 174 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES outside of that sha'"k kept him from getting too warm, and the champagne was as comfortable as if it was asleep on ice in a wine- cooler." "You see. boys." said the surgeon, " there are some things that are past curing; what is born in the flesh and bred in the bone can- not be helped. You might know that those men were not born in Scotland, where no man ever tells a lie." " Then, where were you born ?" asked Hal, abruptly. " It sorter strikes me that that last remark of yours is as big a whopper as the tale that Tom Bagley tells about his nose." "Which the same I'd make my affidavy to in Scotlan' or any- where else," exclaimed Bagley, indignantly. The next morning, the boys started on the return journey, carry- ing their bundles of clothes, and a lot of magazines and papers which, although they were more than a year old, had been pressed upon them by the queen, who had received them from the good people of Halifax for the benefit of Sable Island. Dick and Jack halted at the midway house for dinner, as they did on their way up to the p^.'ice, wondering the while whether the ' ng's story about the sealskin coats would prove true or false. But as they might have known, they were not to be disappointed in the expectations he had raised. One of the men, Matthew Hal- loriri, an Irishman, was an old seal-hunter, who had spent several seasons hunting seal in the Gulf of St. Lawence and along the coast of Labrador. Besides, after a fashion of his own, he had become expert in making sealskin coats, and not only caught seals on Sable Island, but also made their skins up Into winter coats for the men of the island. When the boys were about to resume their journey after dinner, Matt brought out the promised coats and presented them to Dick and Jack, with the request for them to try the tit before they left the house. The garments reached nearly to the ground, and were furnished with hoods that could be drawn up for the protection of the head. " They are just splendid !" Dick exclaimed, admiringly and grate^ mill ■■!' I r i ON SABLE ISLAND 175 the ine- that can- n in lOrter 5 the any- carry- which, [ upon ople of ley did ng's pointed w Hal- several le coast become Sable men of m dinner, to Dick hey left nd were 3Ciion of fully. " But how are you to get your pay for being at so much trouble on our account ?" " An' is it pay ye'U be thinkin' uv !" said Matt, with a series of in- describable grimaces and motions. " Oi've tuk me pay for iv'ry stitch by thinkin' uv the cowld they'd kape from ye whin ould winter comes tearin' down the dunes lolke a roarin' lion. Phat would Oi be a-doin' with pay on this haythin islan'", where there's no more whisky than ye'll be afther findin' in a well o' wather? Whin ye've nothin' to pay, kape it in yer pockits till somebuddy axes yez for it. Oi'm jist splittin' to think how thim skins'll make yer own skins laugh whin the frost tries to get a nip at ye." " But there is a lot of work in them," exclaimed Jack, " Ye need niver think o' that, lad ; Oi'd make a dozen coats for ye, if only for the sake o' seein' yer white tathe peepin' from the winder under yer nose, an' a-smilin' at a sinner as tho' he wor wan o' the saints o' mother church." '• Well, you have got a saint hidden in you somewhere," Jack re- plied, earnestly. " An' it's mysilf 'udloike to look at him if there's enough o' him to Stan' opon the tip o' a blade o' grass. Oi've been lookin' for that same for forty years ; an' divil uv a wink have I had from him yit. Matt Hallorin is a sinner from the crown o' his fate to the sole o' his head — Oi mane from the fate o' his head to the head o' his sole. It's sinners we are, intirely; there's no denyin' it, seein' the praste tells us that same. But Oi'm afther thinkin' there's a bigdiff'rence betwane ye an' mysilf; your sin is like the dirt upon the skin, an' moine's like maggots in the bones." " But ye are ane o' our best men," said the man. who at the last visit of the boys, had reproved the men for making light of royalty by calling Darby king. " Ouch ; away wid yer, man ! Would ye be afther knockin' down the doctrin's o' the church wid the blarney o' yer tongue ? It's mysilf what knows that St. Pathrlck couldn't drive the snakes an' the toads out o' me ; an' if there was a poteen o' whisky in sight o' Ill I! ; 176 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES i i ilH*'! these eyes Father Matthew would have to put a yoke o' oxen to me to kape me from drinkin' it." The boys had twelve miles before them yet, and as the wind was rising and a scurry of clouds was thickening across the sky, Hallorin, well acquainted with the tricks of Sable Island weather, said : " Its sorry Oi am to spake the word, but if ye'll not be stayin' wid us,ye'd better be lavin', for if the win' begins to tear alang the beach, it'll raise the sand an' scrape yer faces that hard ye'll be afther thinkin' that a grin'stane is kissin' ye." " Kape yer coats on," he continued, as they prepared to go, •' but if ye mate ony seals on the way, don't mistake them for cousins an' go to caperin' in the surf wid 'em. Thim coats wasn't made to kape the wather from getting in around the bottom, ye know." "We will try to keep out of bad company, Mr. Hallorin," Dick responded ; " but if we could swim as well as the seals we would take the water for home without stopping to say good-by." " God bless ye, an' Kape ye safe for the mother that's wapin' for the lost," said Hallorin, with so much feeling that the boys, finding themselves choking up with their own emotions, rode away in silence, and it was some time before they ventured to speak to each other. " The mother that is weeping for the lost." It was a word picture of such vivid force that their eyes were blinded with the tears they vainly strove to repress. After they had gone on some distance, saying nothing. Jack, whose feelings against Sable Island were becoming more and more hostile, broke out petulantly with : " Dick, if I were here without you, I should be tempted to fling myself into the surf and put an end to my stay in this awful place. I am tired of the piping of the sand birds, the squawking of the gulls, the quacking of the ducks, the crunching of the sand, the rasping of the wind among the dunes and the everlasting roar of the surf. They set my teeth on edge, and make me feel gritty and shrill inside and out. I don't wonder that the governor's voice is so hoarse, and that all the men speak as if they had been trying to imitate the wind and surf. Even the ponies neigh and whinny as though they had been brought up on a north- ON SABLE ISLAND 177 ;o me ,d was Uorin, " It's s.ye'd :h. it'll hinkin' ). •' but iins an' to kape ," Dick -e would apin' for j, finding silence, other. /es were ng, Jack, ind more 3 without ut an end the sand .ucks, the lunes and edge, and inder that 36 ak as if :he ponies in a north- easter. Do you think that we can stand it here till next summer ?" " Don't begin to ask such questions as that, Jack," said Dick, resolutely, and rising more erectly on his pony, on which he had been slouching down more and more as his spirits sank. " We have given Captain Moline our word that we would fight against homesickness with all our might ; if we begin to fail now, what shall we do when the winter is here ?" " Sure enough," Jack responded, readily, straightening himself up, without noticing that Dick had just gone through that operation. " I remember our promise to the captain, and our word shall be our bond. But that soft-hearted Irishman almost knocked the stuffing out of me." " And out of me, too," Dick acknowledged. " There is one thing that we ought to remember with gratitude," he continued. " these island people are as warm-hearted as the day is long, if their voices and manners are a bit rough. They couldn't treat us better if we were their own children. I am glad that the people who are wrecked here fall into such good hands." "So am I," Jack responded, heartily, " but I can't understand what makes them so good when they have neither a meeting-house nor a preacher to ding things into them." " But haven't you noticed that every one of them has his Bible, and that he isn't ashamed to be seen reading it, either? And Dr. McDonald says that this habit is worth more to them than all his medicines and his books put together." '• Perhaps it's because they have so few things in the shape of meetings and societies that they get more of a chance to know what is in the Bible and take more time to act out its spirit." " V/hy, Jack," Dick answered, quickly, " if you swing along in that style, you'll knock the steeple off of every meeting-house in the land, and turn every pulpit bottom upward, so that every preacher will be turned out to grass whether he likes it or not." " Oh, I rather guess not. If the Lord wants preachers and churches, he'll have them in spite of anything I or anybody else can say. Anyway, we know enough about Black Point and Sable Island to know that, after all, it's kind of lonesome and queer to be out of 178 DICK AND JACKS ADVENTURES ^fliili ' ii! :i«!! sight of a church steeple and all that sort of thing. But if 1 ever get rich, I shall try to make things that I have anything to do with keep near enough to preaching to sight it with a telescope." " And I'll be your oartner, if that's the sort of business you hanker after," said Dick, looking over at Jack with a flush of honest pride. "Just look at that flock of gulls whirling around in a circle ahead of us!" exclaimed Jack, suddenly. " They have probably found a floater of some kind, and are get- ting ready for a good square meal. Let's pull our hoods over our heads and drive right into them," said Dick, putting Turvy into a gallop, which Topsy was quick to copy. The feast over which the gulls were whetting their bills and flash- ing their eager wings and making such a concourse of most discord- ant sounds was a dead devil-fish in an advanced state of decomposi- tion. It was probably one of the monsters of the Newfoundland coast which, having met its fate in some unknown way, had floated about in the currents of the sea until thrown upon Sable Island. Its body was nearly as big as a barrel ; its eyes were literally as large as saucers, and some of its eight arms were not less than thirty feet in length. "Crackee!" exclaimed Jack. "I didn't know that those horrid things ever grew as big as that. Why, the ones we've seen at Black Point are bits of babies by the side of that fellow. How do we know but there are some just as big as this chap around the rocks of Black Point ? What should we do if a fellow like that were to take a notion to put his arms around us ? I declare I don't believe I shall ever dare to leap into the sea from the roc!:s again. We shall have to stick to the back ponds. Just think of a green, gray and blue spider of that size stepping up to us and bagging us as if we were merely flies." " Gracious, Jack! you make my skin crawl worse than that little fellow made it smart — the one, you know, that fastened his suckers on me that time I jumped into the sea from the end of Darling Rock. Of course there are no such giants as this, there ; still we'll take care where we go in swimming after seeing this fellow." " He looks as ugly as sin — 1 don't wonder the coast people and iP ON SABLE ISLAND 179 get :eep .nker )ride. ihead e get- jr our into a I flash- [iscord- Dmposi- undland I floated ,nd. Us large as y feet in sailors call them devil-fish. What do you suppose that the Lord ever made such a looking thing as that for — but I don't believe the Lord makes such things ; they must have crept in through the back-door somehow." The gulls, disturbed by the boys' presence, were becoming more and more angry, and aggressive as well, and though the sealskin coats protected Dick and Jack from their blows, they attacked Topsy and Turvy with such ferocity that, without waiting for any hints from their riders, they started down the beach with all the speed they could muster. A great gray gull, almost as large as an eagle, with seem- ingly motionless wings, poised himself upon the wind in such a won- drous way that he kept the advance, notwithstanding the galloping of the ponies. This gull was followed by a solitary companion, with a white body, dark head, barred wings, blue tail and of a size that made him seem a mere swallow in comparison with the gray gull. The small follower flapped the air in the most frantic manner, and, zig-zagging up and down and hither and thither on angular lines of flight, kept up a shrill screaming that was as penetrating as the point ot a lance. " That little chap is the steam whistle of the big fellow," said Jack, who noticed that the gray gull was as silent as a cloud. " And. by the way, Dick," he continued, "why is it that we haven't seen such a thing as a singing bird since we came here ?" " How can there be any singing birds where there isn't a tree nor a bush, nor so much as a fence or a stone for them to put their feet on." " Sure enough, I didn't think of that ; but I'd give more for one of our little Black Point singing birds than I would for all the gulls on Sable Island." " So would I. Still, the gulls have furnished us, first and last, with lots of good eggs." " Yes, I know. But why ar'n't gulls good to eat ?" " The gray gulls are as good as ducks, and if I had my gun with me, I'd bag that fellow ahead for our breakfast to-morrow morning." " Faugh ! Dick. Hasn't he just been feeding on that rotten devil- fish ?" • .ijjjidi^iwim'iiii 't I { r ! s ■^: i ill! illijill llljllIM I 'i 180 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES " It's not what they eat, but how they taste, that does the business. The very potatoes we eat are fed on rottenness." Jack did not have time to digest this bit of old news, for it was knocked out of his mind by the giant, who was galloping toward them, with* his feet touching the sand at every lope of his sturdy pony. " There he is !" Jack exclaimed, joyfully, and both Topsy and Turvy, in sympathy with his cry, started off at a good swinging gait that soon brought their riders and the advancing giant together. " Hurrah !" shouted Jack, in the excess of his spirits. " I vas hurrah dot vay mit myselluf wen I vas see her comin'. re- sponded the giant, his broad face beaming like a full moon. " But how did you know us so far off ?" Dick asked, curiously. " I vas eggspected him vor days, und she don't coom yoost as I eggspected, Und den I vas get dose glass und look, und look, und right ervay it fetch 'em. But mein poysvere vas you get dem gotes vat makes her look like bull seals yoost vrom dot sea?" And Jumps asked this question with as much apparent innocence as if he had not the slightest knowledge or suspicion of the coat conspiracy. "Oh, you old rogue !" said Dick, " you knew all about it, and got our measures and sent them to that grand old Irishman up to the mid- way house." " Vas dot so ? Veil he vas send me vord to dell him how pig she vas, und I yoost dook your sizes vrom dot figure vat she makes in dot sand ven her vas lay upon his pack and spreads her arms und leafes dot mark." The boys remembered their measuring themselves in the sand, and laughed heartily at the use the giant had made of their frolic. Bingo was away with some of the lifemen, but while the boys were eating supper on the Maskomet he came bouncing up the gangway with the heftiness of a lion, and finding the cabin door open, rushed in with demonstrations of joy that came near upsetting every movable thing in the room, not ev«^n excepting the boys themselves. re- PERILOUS PROPOSAL OGGS, the man who, on the first appearance of Dick and Jack, dis- sented from the idea that anyone could be a gentleman without the aid of good clothes, was not in favor with the station men. He came to the island as a castaway from a ship wrecked during the preceding winter. In saving the lives of that crew one of the lifemen sacrificed his own. Boggs begged to be taken into the sta- tion crew in the place of the lost man. His request was granted, with the understanding that when the tender visited the island to remove the shipwrecked men he might go with them if he so desired. I When his companions left he remained. 181 14:.' Ii !l 182 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES For some reason or other he was unpopular with his former ship- mates, and became no less so with the men of the station crew. He was fearless in exposing himself to the dangers of surf drill, but his constant sleep-talking, moroseness, shaking of his head when he thought that he was not observed, and violent talking to himself in his waking hours, gave the lifemen the impression that he was not on the best of terms with his own conscience, and, hence, as a gen- eral thing, they had as little to do with him as possible. That his education was far superior to theirs became more and more evident as time went on, and multiplying indications convinced the men that he had been brought up in a family of considerable means, and had moved in a wide circle of acquaintances. His natural distaste for the life he was obliged to live on the island was so manifest that the men wondered why he had elected to remain among them when he might have gone away. Brown, who was known as the " tailor" of the station, was the only man who maintained anything like intimacy with him. But Brown himself looked upon Boggs as a puzzle. " Boggs," said Brown, one day when the two men were out to- gether, " you are the queerest chap I ever saw. What makes you talk so much in your sleep and to yourself in the daytime when you are alone ? Did you ever rob a bank or kill anybody ?" Livid with rage, Boggs turned upon his innocent and good-natured questioner with a volley of oaths in the midst of which he said, with a malignant glance : "If you ask me any more questions of that kind, or talk of such things to the rest of the men, I'll kill you as sure as there is a God in heaven." Brown was surprised at the outbreak of his companion, but he was not a man to be cowed by either threats or violence, and he simply said : "Well, Boggs, I meant no offense; but I will say now and here, without fear or favor, if you are as sore as all that, I'll keep as far from you as the rest of the men are doing," and he had little to do with him from that hour. The rest of the crew quickly observed the breach between the men and became more suspicious of Boggs than ever. ON SABLE ISLAND 183 ihip- ;rew. .but in he jlf in lS not . gen- at his /ident n that id had ;te for lat the len he /as the ,. But out to- ces you en you natured .id, with of that you as he was simply now and keep as little to the men In the presence of the boys, Boggs was never profane or obscene ; he seemed to covet their intimacy, and from the stores of his wide information, and in well chosen language, he gave them much that served to interest and benefit them. They knew that he was dis- trusted by the men, but, unsuspicious themselves, they attributed his reputation for moroseness to dissatisfaction with his island life, and, more charitably still, believed that he was suffering the torments of homesickness. They had asked the giant about him, but that prudent soul re- plied ; " Some vas porn dot vay ven she couldn't help hisselluf, und ve vas hafe to let dem stay dot vay ; und some vas get dot vay so bad she don't never get no bedder. Mein poys von't podder mit him. Dere vas hot vater in dot keddle, und you vas keep her vin- gers ervay vrom it." But Dick and Jack sympathized with the loneliness of the friendless man, and did all they could to cultivate his acquaint- ance. Boggs seemed to appreciate their approaches, and the more the men avoided him, the more he sought the boys' society. After their return to the Maskomet, he hovered around them at every opportunity as if he had something that he -was ever on the point of saying without having the courage to bring it to his lips. One day, the boys were on their way to the lake after a fresh supply of game ; they had not gone far, when Boggs drove around a dune and joined them, saying that he was going over to the south beach and would be glad to accom- pany them as far as he went. They were not sorry to see him, though he at first appeared to be much more burdened and reticent than usual. Suddenly, while they were listening to the peculiar sound the sand, owing to some special conditions of the atmosphere, was mak- ing beneath their ponies' feet, he said : " Say, lads, would you like to go home ?" " Oh, don't mention that subject," said Dick, pained at the ques- tion, because he and Jack had been fighting against their homesick- IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) / // {/ >■ C'Px Vo <° * t^/ Cp- :/. i/i u^ % 1.0 I.I 1.25 IIIM IM Ii2 IM 12.0 U IIIIII.6 P> (^ .^ o^ '^\^ ' V, L-P- I. 184 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES I ! ness all the morning. " The very thought of home is so tantalizing, that to keep from getting blue, we have agreed to say as little about it as possible." " But you can get there, if you really have a mind to try, and that, too, in less than forty-eight hours." Astonished by his manner, as well as by his words, both Dick and Jack Instinctively halted their ponies, and Dick, voicing Jack's sur- prise, as well as his own, said : •• What can you mean, Mr. Boggs, when surely you must know that there is no posstble hope for our escaping from this place until the arrival of the tender next summer?" " I'll tell you exactly what I mean ; I got out one of those old charts the other Sunday and made a complete study of the lay of this island and of the whole Nova Scotian coast even down to your home at Black Point. And this is what I have to say : I can fix matters so that we can get there within the time I have already mentioned." " But you are making sport of us," Jack exclaimed, impulsively, alternating between wistfulness and indignation. " That Is the last thing I would do. my lad ; I am dead In earnest. The prevailing winds at this time of the year are directly toward the southern coast. With the big doiy, a compass, the chart, tar- paulins, provisions and water, we could, with her sails and rig and a favoring wind, make It In from twenty-four to thirty hours. Our sealskin coats would keep us from getting cold, and there would be little discomfort or danger to fear" And he continued so plausibly and so earnestly that the boys really began to think that their imprisonment on the island would soon be over. " But would Captain Moline consent?" asked Dick. " Have you talked with him about the plan ?" Boggs laughed defiantly, and curtly replied : " Look here, you fellows, I am not so green as you and the llfemen take me to be. Of course the whole plan must be kept secret ; and. furthermore, we must make up our minds to help ourselves to the things we shall ON SABLE ISLAND 185 need, which we can very easily do any night the wind serves our purpose. The chief difficulty will be to get through the first lines of surf ; but, from what 1 have heard you say about your deal- ings with the surf at home, and from what you accomplished in landing here in safety, I am not afraid to trust to your help for getting to the opeiT sea, where we can immediately lay our course and bowl away. Think what a grand surprise it would be to your parents to see you back again after giving you up for lost. Now, what do you say ?" The devil is not as dead as some people would have us think, nor are some of the old experiences of human nature as impos- sible to modern life as may be sometimes supposed. To everyone there comes a wilderness time of supreme temptation when the stuff that is in us breaks into brittle pieces like glass, or maintains its strength like elastic steel. The boys were face to face with their temptation. " Say 1" Dick indignantly exclaimed ; " 1 say — if you are really In earnest — that you are pls.nning mutiny " " And that you are a thief — and want us to become thieves with you," Jack Interrupted, without measuring his words. " You young cur ! Call me a thief — will you ? Take that for your impudence !" and Boggs drew his short, stubby whip and gave Jack a blow which cut his right cheek to the bone. The Carolinian spirit, which had so long slumbered in the veins of the preachei-sire, suddenly awoke in the blood of the sons, and before the brutal Boggs could deliver the second blow he had raised his whip to give, Dick, covering him with his gun, quietly said: " It you strike him again, you cowardly scoundrel, you are a dead man." At the same instant the muzzle of Jack's gun wss levelled directly at Boggs' face, and the man seeing his danger stooped toward the back of his pony, but only to find that the aim of the boys followed his level. "For God's sake, don't fire, lads!" Boggs cried, thoroughly cowed. ^J^,•iiAi■*:; .4\-l^^,ir 186 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES " Turn and go back to the station — you are our prisoner," Dick ordered, while both he and Jack still covered him with their aim. The boys were so blindly angry that the slightest resistance on the man's part would have insured his death, and another calamity would have been added to the world's sorrows. Moline, Brown and the giant were the only men at the station when the boys and their prisoner drove up to the door and called for the captain to come out. The giant seeing that Jack was covered with blood, and surmising from the whole posture of affairs that Boggs had wounded him, dragged the man from his horse with a single pull of his stalwart hand, and, holding him as if in a vice, hissed into his face the ques- tion ; " Vas you do dot mit dot poy ?" Jumps had a temper of his own, and once aroused was not easily quieted nor prevented from doing mischief ; and, fearing for Boggs, now that he was in Jumps' grasp, both the captain and Brown went to his side, and Moline adroitly changed the drift of his feeling by directing him to take Jack into the station house and look after his wound. •• Oh, the cut is nothing," said Jack. " but I have had a narrow escape from being a murderer." •• Yes," added Dick, •• It was a close shave f'^r both of us. I thank God that neither of us fired." •'What do you mean?" asked the captain, dazed by the boys' words. " Come Into the station and explain yourselves, while Jumps attends to Jack's cheek." Both boys despised tale-telling, and when the captain pressed them for an explanation, the most that they would say was that Boggs had made them angry, and that it was by the merest chance in the world that they had been prevented from killing him. " Killing him tor what ?" the captain persisted. Boggs, thankful for his escape, and humiliated by his position, and, more than all. overcome by the magnanimity of the boys, volunteered an explanation, and told the whole story, from beginning to end, with ^I! o > 70 O r .-V;-S>-?1-- ii! -' 4! i ON SABLE ISLAND 197 In the open air, vented his dissatisfaction by waging war against his own troubles, which, in the shape of fleas, had been aroused into sudden activity by the warmth of skin produced by the physical vigor of his protests against innovations. "Cinderella Carolina!" exclainned jumps, with pride, " dot vas sound as nice as pretzels und limberger, don't she ? Und ven mein pony Luther don't hold me up, I gits me into Cinderella Carolina und trives up dot peach like mein Emperor in Sharmany." Brown, '• the tailor," fitted Cinderella Carolina with a canvas bon- net, or top. with side flaps that left nothing to be desired as to the fashion of her make up, and the boys, who, by means of the patrol mail, kept up a lively correspondence with the womenettes at the palace, gave a minute and glowing account of the new vehicle, and promised that if the little women would visit the Maskomet, they should be treated to rides befitting their royal blood. The restoration of the Carolina to usefulness opened up a new field of employment and amusement to the boys. They made almost daily excursions after drift. Bingo, having overcome his prejudice against the new-fangled invention that went about on a single wheel and carried the half of a boat for a body, and, having discovered that the boys' mission was that of saving things, became their inseparable companion. It was not until they began this work of picking up stuff for their winter fuel, that they noticed the amount and variety of material that was cast up by the sea, especially on the south side of the island, which was nearest the gulf stream. The employment came to have almost as much fascination for them as a game of chance. There were boards and shingles, broken slabs and timbers, wrested fragments of wrecks and tangled bits of rigging. Some of the ma- terial was comparatively fresh and recent, but most of It was covered with barnacles that certified how long it had been floating about the pathless ocean. Everything that was portable they piled into the Cinderella Carolina, and transported it to the Maskomet for fuel. Now and then they came across a bit of bru'?hwood, a branch or tree, and these they took to the statlDn and stuck into the sand as kt 198 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES reminders of the mainland woods. True, they were sorry reminders, seeing that none of them retained a vestige of their original foliage, but when one is far from home the mewing of a cat will, from the effects of association, sometimes sound as sweet as the music of a prima donna. Occasionally they picked up an apple or an orange that proved to be nearly as fresh as if it had just fallen from the native branch. One day. to his great delight, Jack picked up a hen's egg, which, notwithstanding the tossings of the waves and the violence of the surf, had made a safe landing upon the beach. "Throw it down, Jack!" Dick cried in alarm ; " it's a bad egg that floats, and it will be a busted one, too, as soon as it begins to feel the warmth of your hands." Jack flung it down in such a hurry that it went off with the report of a pistol, and the perfume of a — of — of — a bad egg. " My graci- ous, goodness !" Jack growled, as he and Dick ran to save their noses, " I didn't know that it was loaded.'" That same afternoon Bingo, foraging along the upper beach, some distance in advance of the boys, came proudly back, holding a pump- kin by the stem ; and that nignt, having no milk with which to attempt a pumpkin pie, they did tKe next best thing, made a demon's head of it, and illuminating it with a candle in the most approved boy-fashion, they placed it on Marm Maskomet's weather-beaten head and retired to the cabin to await results. When Jumps made his usual evening visit to the •)oys the fear- some thing glared at him so satanically, that, terrified and trembling, he rushed into the boys' room, crying: "You vas git out uv dis pooty qvick; der tuyfel is mit der ship's nose, und she vas go inter dot sea and make anudder Flyin' Tutchman. und you vas never git home no more." When the boys, seeing that he was really frightened, explained that the visitor was only a pumpkin picked up from the beach, the giant collapsed into a long, hollow sigh ; but while they were apolo- gizing he filled himself with a fresh breath and burst into a thunder- ous roll of yo, ho, hos, which continued so long and violently that .;irL>A^£ 4 -li: m\ I 202 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES great thinkers and talkers, and the bottle will give them something that's worth thinking of and talking about." " And get us into the papers, like enough," suggested Jack, am- bitiously. " Oh. if that is what you are thinking of, I guess our names have been in the papers often enough since we have turned up among the missing. And now, that we are where we can't get ourselves into any more scrapes, tor awhile, at least, some of the papers have prob- ably spoken of us as the best pair of boys that ever went under the sod or the sea. You know you never can tell how good some boys are until you read it on their tombstones." " Mercy, Dick ! such talk as that is worse than swearing ; if I felt as sarcastic as you seem to feel, I'd say damn or devil right out and done with it." " Sh — belay there. Jack ! or you'll be swearing before you know it. And that is the way things go sometimes — the way bad things are clubbed is worse than the bad things themselves. But look here, old fellow, I've got another trip underway for the Cinderella Carolina." " Trip her out, then, for I'd a good deal rather play than preach any time." " You have heard the men speak about that whale that came ashore twelve miles up the south beach. We'll drive up there to- morrow and take a look at it ; they say it's a whopper. We'll take the axe with us, and perhaps we can chop out some whalebone." " But we don't want any whalebone : we don't wear corsets." " Well, the wooden squaw at the bow of the Maskomet needs to have her figure reefed in a bit, and we might make a pair of corsets for her, you know. There is lots of old canvas in the wreckhouse that we might use — in fact, while we are about it, we might make her a petticoat long enough to cover her legs^nd keep them out of the cold when winter comes on. But, seriously, if we could get some whalebone, we might spend the winter evenings making a cane for father and some pretty trinkets for the children. The men have already been chopping into it, so they tell me." •'What for?" ON SABLE ISLAND 203 ethlng <, am- s have )ng the 5S into e prob- ier the ne boys if 1 felt out and * know it. ings are lere, old arolina." \ preach at came here to- ;'ll take one." ts." needs to )f corsets jckhouse ht make m out of :ou1q get r»g a cane nen have " Hunting for ambergris." " I should think that they'd get enough of that without going to a whale for it, when everything in the shape of brass and copper is covered with the nasty smelling stuff." " You are talking about verdigris, and I am talking about amber- gris, The one is a nasty, poisonous, worthless nuisance ; the other makes one of the best perfumes in the world, and Dr. McDonald told me one day at the palace, while speaking of the search of the men. which he superintended, that it was also good for fits of all kinds, and worth more than five hundred dollars a pound." " Gracious ! Crackee ! Did they get any?" " No ; it isn't found in every whale, you know ; it is found only in sick whales, but not in every sick whale ; the one up yonder was killed by sickness, the doctor said, but there was no ambergris in it." "Well, I'd be willing to be sick for a day or two for the sake of making forty or fifty pounds of ambergris — wouldn't you ?" " No, sir ! Ambergris is made on the inside of the whale — it is a disease of the liver — no, I mean the intestines — as the doctor said — and it plays such mischief with the inside that I'd rather not have myself turned into an ambergris factory. He says it's nothing but a sort of grayish fat, for all it makes such a fat haul for any one who is lucky enough to find it." " Perhaps the men didn't look in the right place for it, and there may be some there, and if we should find it we might get enough to induce father to move away from that horrid old Black Point." " If we get away from here with our lives I shall be thankful enough without bothering myself with baggage of any kind. Besides, if Dr. McDonald could not find anything, you may depend upon it we can't ; that is, nothing of value." They made the trip to the whale, which they found in such an ad- vanced state of decomposition that Jack held to his nose and wished that he had a pair of corks to stop it up altogether. " Thunder, Dick !" he exclaimed, " I'd as soon think of bathing in codllver oil for a good scent as to think of digging into that whale for anythinj? that smells good. But it's a ripper of a fish.' • • •yMrsmH^Jam 204 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTUREri y ! ii 'fHi " Sixty-nine feet long, the surgeon said ; and he measured it with a tape line. It's a spermaceti whale, you know. They said there was a pile of blubber on it when it came ashore ; if the guUs keep on picking at it there'll soon be a skeleton there that I shouldn't like to hang in any closet I owned." •• Tell you what, Dick, if the thing were clean enough inside we would move into it for a few days just for the sake of proving that one can live in a whale." " One ! Why, there is room enough in that fellow for Jonah and all the prophets and their grandchildren and a prayer-meeting be- sides. If Noah had be ^ sharp enough, he might have saved him- self the trouble of building an ark, by scooping out the insides of one of these fellows and making room for the other creatures that were to be saved from the flood." " A fish of that size must have an awful time when it gets sick — there is so much of it for the pains to go through. If the surgeon undertook to doctor a patient of that kind, he'd have to give about one hundred gallons to the dose, and his pills would have to be ten or twelve feet in diameter ; and if he wanted to apply a plaster to the back, he would have to buy sticking plaster by the acre. But let's get out of this, Dick, It's making me sick — sick at my stomach — and will lay me out completely If we stay here much longer. I don't want the lifemen to come here and go to hunting for amber- gris in me " " But, the whalebone ; let's get some of that before we go." They went to the cavernous jaws, which were about half opened, but, after taking a peep within, and taking one sniff of the powerful odor that prevailed, they abandoned their purpose and turned their ponies' heads in the direction of the station again, loading up with small driftwood as they went. It with i there 5 keep louldn't iide we ng that nah and ting be- ed him- js of one hat were ts sick— i surgeon [ve about to be ten ter to the But let's :omach — onger. I )r aniber- go- f opened, powerful rned their g up with ^C>i THE WINTER OP THEIR DISCONTENT HE boys had just made a breakfast of ship biscuit, salt junk and black cof- fee. Jack was in a growl- ing mood, because the flesh pots were growing more and more limited in their supplies. Novem- ber had come, and with it came many changes in the sources of their sup- plies. "What," he asked of Dick, " are we going to do for broiled pipers, stewed plovers and pied curlews now ? A few days ago the sand-birds whistled 205 206 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES among the dunes all the day long, and now there isn't so much as a feather of them to be seen. What has become ot them ?" " Why; don't you remember how suddenly they used to leave us at Black Point?" Dick replied, somewhat at sea himself as to the future of their table. " It is a mysterious piece of business. Now you see them and now you don't. How do they know when to go. and how Is it that they all go together, as if the whole thing were settled in a public meeting, and they had received orders to go with- out stopping to bid anybody good-by ? By this time some of them have taken up new quarters in the Southern States, some in the West Indies, some in other islands of the sea, and more than likely some of them are now courting and piping along the shores of Africa." " But winter is just the time that we shall need them most, and I think it's real mean for them to leave us at this time of the year." Like some other people of larger growth. Jack was inclined to judge of the arrangements of Nature by the cravings of his appetite — and it is fortunate for the world in general that the stomachs of one place can't, by their selfishness, rob the stomachs of other places of their share of the good things that Nature, with an impartial hand, dis- tributes over the face of creation. " I guess that it is all right as it is," said Dick, with a kind of dis- contented submission to tne inevitable, " but we shall miss them awfully — they made such splendid eating." The ducks and wild geese lingered a little later, and the gulls, the only useless ones among them all. were the very last to go. When they went, the precise moment of their departure was unobserved and unknown. Keen eyes, however, if they had watched closely, could have discovered signs days in advance of the pending flight and migration of the winged multitudes. The fowl were as noisy and talkative as members of congress just before the close of a ses- sion. There were gatherings and marshallings by tribes and princi- palities and powers in heavenly places — marshallings by families from parents and children back and up to all the great-great great- great-grandfathers and grandmothers and first-second third — thirtieth ON SABLE ISLAND 207 h as a ave us to the Now to go. g were with- f them J in the n likely ores of ,t. and 1 J year." to judge Xe — and ne place of their ind, dis- |d of dis- ss them cousin of the generation, and the short flights they made, and the violent noises they emitted, while poised in the sky, were doubtless all preliminary to the sudden final flight which, to the boys, seemed to be so unmannerly and mysterious. The absence of the winged hosts made Sable Island appear more lonely than ever, and the surf came all the more dismally in because there was not so much as a tiny peeper to nod his head, shake his straw-like legs and open his nipper-like beak for the sharp notes which, sdl along, had bid defiance to the sullen roar of the surf. The guns were of no further use ; their detonations ceased to echo among the dunes, and the boys hung them in their cabin and abandoned them to the silence of their thoughts And it is well they did, for Heaven knows that during the time they had been used they had made noise enough to satisfy even the cracker-loving ear of a genuine Chinaman. True, the seals remained, and in great numbers held their daily assemblages and pow-wows up and down the beaches, but, although the boys were willing to wear the sealskin coats, which were now so comfortable, nothing could induce them to point a gun at a seal ; they had watched them so much and so closely, and had discovered that some of their antics were so grotesquely human, that shooting at them would have seemed like shooting into a band of unsuspect- ing children. The seals were company, and they were treated ac- cordingly. Even Bingo watched them with paternal interest, and the giant had so many tales to tell about their peculiar ways that Dick and Jack began to think that seals were distant relatives of Adam and Eve, and that they had made such a constant use of skins for garments that they became a part of themselves, thus saving theni the necessity of making their toilets by robbing other creatures of their clothes. Their partiality for seals was one day much increased by an exhi- bition that the giant gave. Finding that the boys were getting rather low-spirited, Jumps, who could play the clarinet with more than ordinary skill, after playing for them one afternoon, when they had ^™^ 208 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES i been moping In the cabin, said: " If you vas follow me, she vas show you vat her don't never see pefore." Taking his instrument with him, he led them slowly along the upper beach in the direction of an army of seals that laid just far enough up the beach to allow the spent surf to play among their tails. "Now, you vas stay pehint me, und den she vas see vat dem mer- maids do?" Playing plaintively on his clarinet, while they stood perfectly still, the music immediately caused the seals to scramble over one another in their haste to get nearer to the source of the sounds with which they seemed to be fascinated. As. the giant stood there facing the seals, puffing his cheeks and keeping his eyes steadily upon his listeners, he might have been taken for the god Pan playing snatches from the music of the spheres for the benefit of both animate and inanimate creation. The boys looked upon him with a feeling amounting to awe, and, remembering some of the stories they had read about the wizards of the Black Forest of Ger- many, they began to think that one of them had come to Sable Island to practice his pranks amid the sandy solitudes of that forbid- ding place. And their impressions were deepened when they noticed that a herd of wild ponies had mounted a dune not far away, where they, too, intently listened to the pipings of the giant. When Jumps ceased playing, there were so many signs of protest among the seals that their gruntings and movement of flippers amounted to a positive encore, and the giant resumed his music and puffed his cheeks till both his wind and patience were ex- hausted. The giant stopped, and, addressing the seals in his big voice, said : "She don't hafe no more music right ervay dis time; nodi till I cooms anudder tay mit some more vind in dot chest." Thereupon the seals broke for the surf, and the ponies for the dunes, and disappeared as if by magic. This part of the perform- ance was so indescribably ludicrous, that Jack, after laughing at them heartily, said : " Why, jumps, what made them go off In such a hurry?" ON SABLE ISLAND 209 he vas )ng the lid just among m mer- y stood sramble i of the [le giant his eyes the god e benefit upon him e of the t of Ger- to Sable at forbid- jy noticed ^y, where jice.said: ^odi till I ts for the perform- Ig at them pn such a " Yo, ho, ho!" laughed the giant. " She vas dinks dot you vas gonter dake up a gollection vor mein bay. Dot music vas dickle her ears, put nodt her bocketpook, don't it?" " How did you find out that the seals loved music ?" Dick asked. " Veil, dot vas dis vay : Pooty soon ven I vas get in dis place I veels like dot chiggens vat don't hafe no hen vor a mudder. Und 1 dakes mein bipe und mein glarinet und goes down mit der peach, und I smokes und smokes dill I don't vant to smoke some more. Und I looks over dot sea dill mein eyes vas vet as dot surf, cos I vas hafe nobuddy und noddins to lofe him. Und po-Zy soon I pegins to blay dot music yoost as I vgs veeling, und, py Moses ! vat you dinks?" " I'm sure I couldn't guess for an age," said Jack, whose eyelids were trying their best to keep decently dry. "Veil, vile I vas blayin', dose gray hets mit dose plack eyes bob up in dot surf und look so soft I vas sure she vas mein frents ; und 1 vas blayed some more right ervay, und dem seal coom gloser — und gloser — und gloser some more, und I blayed — und blayed — und blayed some more dill I vas hafe no bret left in mein pody. Und dey vas vait so long vor me, I vas blayed und blayed some more, und den dey vas coom so glose I vas dink dot dey vas dake me unter dot sea mit dem, und I runs as if der tuyfel vas git me. Und ven I tells dot captin und dose men, vat you dink ? He say dot dem seals vas all Tutchmen, und dot vas vy her vants me to go lif mit dem. Und den I vas madt, und dey don't never know ven I vas blay some more vor dem seals und ponies."' Dear old Jumps! His spirit was so kindly he would caress a fly if it were big enough to bear his touch, and allow a mosquito to feast upon his hand undisturbed if he happened to be taken with the fancy that the bill -swinger was enjoying himself while puncturing the giant. When his lumbering step was heard approaching the cabin door the boys opened to him with a welcome that was as demonstrative as if he had jut just returned from a long visit to his native Ger- many ? The cabin stove was a great warmer as it stood to its duties and did its best to keep the boys from the intrusion of the cold, bat 210 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES 1:1 :? it was not to be compared to the giant, for the caloric of his ample heart banished chills which are far harder to endure than any that come from the north pole. Fortunate, indeed, was it for them that they had such a companion, for now that the Cinderella Carolina was in her dock— or rather coach house — and now that Topsy and Turvy were no longer made use of for distant expeditions, and now that the great Bernard was absent the greater part of the time hunting for opportunities to save any living thing that stood in need of aid, the tide of amusement — outdoor amusement — was at low-water mark. Boggs had gone back to the station. The emergency season was on. The high winds, drifting snowstorms and incessant watchings made it necessary for all the men to keep in close and immediate touch with one another, and with the duties that multiplied upon their hands. Besides, with the coming of the winter, the unfortunate man became almost intolerably morose and irritable, so that, as he him- self pathetically said, it was better for the boys that he should return to his usual quarters, where the winter discipline enforced by the captain's authority, and made all-powerful by the ready and habitual conformity of the men, would ser\'e to keep his own growing ugliness in wholesome check. During the earlier part of the season, when time hung heavily upon the men, Brown, " the tailor," who was fertile in expedients for amusement, had rigged a rough turning lathe and had taught tne boys how to use it. Jumps, always on the alert for the boys' amusement, proposed that they should use the turning lathe and turn out a set of nine-pins and balls, and fix up a bowling alley in the hold of the Maskomet. There were pieces of yardarms and spars that could be turned into balls and pins, and plenty of loose plank lying round that could be utilized for a starting place, runway and homing end. The sand in the hold was as level as a floor, and all they had to do was to put the plank upon the sand. The necessary light could be obtained by cutting a few openings in the deck overhead. The giant knew all about the game, and promised to teach the boys all he knew. They ON SABLE ISLAND 211 iple that that Dlina and and time 3d in 'as at n was :hings ediate n their teman e him- i return by the labitual igUness took up the project with enthusiasm, and were soon ready ''or the game. Topsy and Turvy were at first restive at the idea of having such a stir in their quarters, and when the pins were set up for the first time, and the ball went thundering on toward the battle field, they turned the hold into a circus ring and galloped around the sand at the top of their speed, yet disdained to flee through the openings to the outside beach. In a few minutes they began to watch the game, and in a short time the motion of the balls, together with the good spirits of the boys, made them as playful as a pair of puppy dogs or kittens, and it was with difficulty their intrusive noses could be kept from toppling over the nine-pins without the aid of balls. Jack enjoyed the game so much, and saw so many pleasant hours standing up there i/ the nine-pins and rolled up in the balls, that he had an acute attack of conscience, as persons sometimes will when they enjoy things keenly, and he said to Dick : " What would father say if he knew that we were playing nine-pins and had a bowling alley of our own ?" "Say!" Dick exclaimed, in amazement, "what in the name ot common sense do you suppose he would say ?" " Well, he's a preacher, you know, and preachers are generally down on this sort of thing." " To be sure he's a preacher, but he's no fool-preacher, and that you may depend upon. Hasn't he played sledge-hammer games with us, and quoits by the hour together ? Why, when we tell him about Jumps setting us on to this thing, he'll bless him with all his heart, and pray for him more earnestly than he could ever pray for that old nose-whining Gray Blanket, who made such a fuss about our wickedness when he saw us playing checkers the last evening he was at our house. Didn't father just laugh at him, and tell him that he was altogether too good to have anything to do with boys, and that the sooner he went to some place where the boys cease from troubling and the girls never laugh, the better it would be for him ?" " And he said, besides, that he wouldn't want to go with him, however," and Jack recalled the remark with so much satisfaction f^ir >1^. . ^^tcIM^^^ 212 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES that his conscience laid back in its easy chair and chuckled itself into a good long snooze. At least, it didn't trouble jack any more about nine-pins. The bowling alley was resorted to by the men whenever they got a chance to play, and it was a source of great amusement to them. It was a rather cold place for a game, yet, by kindling a small fire on the sand, they kept their hands thawed out, while the general ex- ercise of the rest of the body gave them such a healthful glow that they became entirely indifferent to the frosty air. The long, dismal evenings had their backs broken by the abundant heat of the stove, which was kept well fed by the drift that the Cinder- ella Carolina had providently brought into the hold for just such oc- casions. Then there was the giant's clarinet, which the boys never got tired of listening to, though they often wondered how it managed to pour out such a stream of music without getting dry or weary. Besides, they had a copy of ••'The Heart of Midlothian," which jumps insisted they should read to him from beginning to end, but, what was stranger still, there was a copy of Thorwson's " Seasons" and " The Castle of Indolence," which they had brought from the palace with them, and, happening to dip into it one night when the giant was present, he became so excited over it and so infatuated with it, that he demanded more of '• dot boetry " every time he en- tered the cabin. The vivid descriptions of the seasons and the kingdom of Nature, and of the experiences of birds, animals and human beings, opened so many new worlds to the giant's simple but appreciative mind, that he would listen by the hour as Jack and Dick took turns in reading to him. " If 1 vas blay all dot on her glarinet, her vas pe so happy as Mr. Domson herselluf. Ach ! Mr. Domson vas a pigger glarinet dan I vas ever see dill I gits to Himmel." And then he threw back his head, closed his eyes and framed 'luge pictures of the scenes and things the boys had been reading about, for as the smallest pool in the muddy roadway can reflect the grandest things of cloudland and the sky, so his mind reflected what he had listened to. And that is what our minds are for, not for the stirring up of the muddy things ON SABLE ISLAND 213 that are v/lthin us, but for the reflection of the great things that are above us. . • , Although communication with the other end of the island was be- coming more and more difficult, occasional letters continued to come from the princesses, and answers to them were such important af- fairs, that the compositions, spread upon and folded up in the long, yel- low government sheets, and written with gull quills dipped in cranberry ink, and sealed with pitch taken from the seams of the Maskomet, afforded them many hours of pleasant employment during the other- wise unoccupied hours of the day and evening. Late one afternoon, the boys were taking a gallop up the beach in the face of a cutting blast that almost scoured their noses off, it was so heavily loaded with the flying sand, and that, too, notwithstanding the hoods of their coats, which they had drawn as closely over their faces as possible. Away in the distance, they saw a figure approach- ing, which immediately set them to wondering who it could be. When they met him, it was impossible to identify him, he was so completely concealed by his immense wrappings, but the moment he spoke, they recognized the voice of Surgeon McDonald. " Here's nuts !" exclaimed Jack, joyfully, imitating the surgeon's parrot. " But how in the name of Tommy Tucker, and all the rest of the happy family, did you manage to get down here with enough of you left to speak with ?" asked Dick, no less joyfully ; " this sandstorm is enough to scour the skin and flesh from the bones of the toughest pony on the island, not to say anything about a human being." "You forget that the wind is in my back, boys, and that I'm wrapped up so tightly that the wind had as hard work to identify me as you did. I judge that you are both in good health, or you would not venture to face such a blast as this. Those hoods throw your faces into such deep shadows that I am not exactly prepared to pronounce upon your color, but from the ring of your voices I think it Is safe to say that you are in no need of any of my medicines." " We are so glad to see you, doctor, that we are willing to take 214 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES 1 ,:i Mi : all the medicine you have got, though we are no more in need of it than the old Maskomet herself," said Dick, as both ponies wheeled about to follow him to the station, "You must be our company," Jack eagerly insisted, when they began to sail before the wind. '* Oh, of course," the surgeon rep " it is a part of my duty to look after the shipwrecked, you know, and as you are the only ship- wrecked ones on the island, and as the king and all his household were so anxious to know all about you, I came down to take a look at you myself ; and the best way to do that is to stay by you as long as I am here, which will be for a week or more." •• Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!" shouted Jack, wildly, wishing that he could fling the hood of his coat into the air in further demonstra- tion of his satisfaction — satisfaction that was increased by the fact that beneath the wrappings of the bundle the surgeon had strapped to his shoulders he could make out the outlines of the violin case." " And how are they all, at the palace ?" Dick asked. *• Oh, they are all so well up there, that neither pills nor potions have the slightest chance to get out of their boxes and bottles. Nevertheless, I expect to be obliged to perform a serious surgical operation before long." "Surgical operation! upon whom?" asked Dick, with consider- able anxiety. " Upon the womenettes." " Goodness ! What's the matter with them ?" exclaimed Jack, full of sympathy. " The queen is stuffing them with studies from morning till night, and the king packs it all down as scrupulously as though he were packing barrels of sour kraut, and the result is that their minds are growing so much faster than their bodies that 1 shall either have to amputate their minds to keep them within bounds of their bodies, or piece out their bodies to keep up with their minds. They are getting so wise it cannot be otherwise." " Is that some of the good, old Scotch truth that you are so fond of talking about?" asked Dick, laughingly. ON SABLE ISLAND 215 of it leeled 1 they duty to ly ship- asehold a look as long that he monstra- the fact rapped to ase." pr potions ,d bottles. IS surgical 1 consider- imed Jack. lare so "No; it Is Yankee truth," the surgeon replied, with a responding laugh. " We have quoted you youngsters so often since you left us that we have got into the way of keeping off of the ground by putting wings to our words ; in other words, we have become a bit flighty or imaginative, if you please," And the Scotchman enjoyed his own wit so much that he churk:c;:^«loudly enough to be heard by the boys in spite of the mufflers covering mouth and ears, and in spite of the racket the surf made upon the beach. In fact, the surgeon was so glad to see Dick and Jack that his spirits ran away with his sense. And all the time he stayed with them on the Maskomet he bubbled like a spring that is charged with gas, and when he and Jumps got together with violin and clarinet in the evenings, and as an accom- paniment to their dissipation brewed a drink out of cranberry juice, water and brown sugar, and ate ship biscuit for pretzels, enjoyment ran so high that the boys began to feel as though the Maskomet had spurned the sand from her keel, and was sailing among clouds that were rosy with sunset hues, warm with summery breaths, and frag- rant with fields of flowers. The surgeon, as in duty bound — and this was one object of his visit, which was partly a visit of inspection — mingled with the men and asked them all sorts of questions about their stomachs, livers, and all their other what-nots, so to speak, and satisfied himself that they were able-bodied and fully competent to meet the emergencies that might at any moment be thrust upon them by the appearance of a wreck. Boggs was the only one who gave him any uneasiness. From the first moment of meeting him he became convinced that he was not only out of place as to his preferences and surroundings, but out of mental balance as well. To Captain Moline, he said: "There is something desperate on that man's mind. He acts as though he were afraid of everybody, and, most of all, afraid of himself ; he presents all the symptoms of a man about to go out of his mind. Unless there is a great change in him, he must be gotten rid of at the first visitation of the tender. jjM-.£2v I i :tij m 216 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES Have you ever had any trouble with him, or any confidences from him?" As Moline had no alternative, he informed the surgeon of all that had taken place between Boggs and the boys, and between himself and Boggs. " It is a far more serious case than I had supposed," said the surgeon, anxiously, after he had gained all the details he could. " It is evident that he is the prey of remorse and fear; he has commit- ted some crime from which he is hiding — some crime great enough to make him fear that he is not secure from its consequences even here. And yet, that he is not an habitual criminal, is evident from the deep melancholy that broods over him with its all possessing and all pervading power. What to do with him, is more than I can tell. To attempt to take him to the other end of the island, where I could keep him under my own eye, would only alarm him still more, and, possibly, precipitate the ruin of his mind. There is only one thing that can do him any good ; if he were to become repentant toward God. and, believing toward our Lord, he might secure the peace that would save him from becoming a mental wreck. But, who of us on this island is able to minister to a mind diseased — who, sufficient for these things? If the boys' father were here, he might minister to him, for when I saw Mr. Melville, he impressed me as a man so devoid of veneered shams and sickly sanctities as to be the very kind of friend to reach such as stand in the sorest need of a compe- tent counsellor." " The boys must possess some of their father's characteristics," said Moline, " for they have more influence over Boggs than all the rest of us put together," " That goes to show that the man has good stuff in him. It is more than likely that he is more the victim of some fatal impulse than he is of premeditated wickedness, and that is the reason why he remains so hopelessly disturbed. I sympathize with him deeply, and wish I were able to secure his confidence, but his distrust of him- self makes him suspicious of others. I am face to face with a case for which mere medical training makes no provision." ON SABLE ISLAND 217 from that Tiself d the . "It Timit- nough J even : from ng and an tell. 1 could e, and, e thing toward ice that )f us on ifficient Tiinister man so the very compe- The surgeon made most tactful overtures of friendship toward the unfortunate man, but was repulsed in every instance, for when one becomes one's own worst enemy, all others seem to wear a hostile face. The surgeon's final word concerning him, was : " Above all things, be kind to him, and do not give him any occasion to think that you are watching him, as if he had shipped the devil on board for good, for that is enough to make any man mad with himself and all the world besides." McDonald remained on the Maskomet for ten days. The Cin- derella Carolina was such a marvel to him, that he insisted upon taking experimental rides in her, and when he went away, he de- clared that the very moment he could find an available cask he would transform it into a doctor's gig, and make his rounds in a style more befitting his official position. \ ristics." all the 1 r. It is Impulse ison why deeply, t of hlm- th a case 'iil^-iiiUHt iiSillHill : A SABLE ISLAND SPRING FEVER N THE twentieth day of March an important event occurred. Dick was at the stove clearing out the ashes, Jack was on the deck sweeping away the sand, which the uncivil winds had blown aboard. Suddenly Jack raised his broom- handle and rained a shower of blows upon the cabin- housing with all the vigor he could muster, thereby making such a resounding tumult over Dick's head that, in his hurry to reach the deck, he upset his ash-pail upon the cabin floor. " What the dickens are you making such a row about ?" Dick asked, when he had reached the deck and looked around in vain for something to explain Jack's racket. " Row! I'm not making any row," Jack protested, half indig- SI19 220 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES i I nantly : " I only pounded you out to see what I have seen. Look there, will you. and let that sight drive some of the crossness out of your face." Looking in the direction indicated by Jack's finger, Dick saw a small white gull skimming the edge of the sea and making seem- ingly playful dashes at the crest of the surf. It was the first wing of the season, and Dick, realizing what it meant, experienced such a sudden attack of spring fever, that he began to hurrah as vig- orously as though he were applauding the spread-eagleism of a Fourth of July orator, who had soared, and soared, and soared until finally landed on daddy's woodpile for a rest from his high orator- ical flight. " What the dickens are you making such a row about?" asked Jack, imitating Dick's recent frown, and cracking his voice into a splintery growl that was as like Dick's as one mouse is like another. - - - For answer, Dick hurrahed again with more violence than before, and this time Jack joined him with a vehemence that outnoised his brother. Well, there was good reason for their joy. The winter had been a great tax upon their spirits. Having no skates, they were cut off from skating, and if they had had ever so many they would still have been cut off, for, though the lake was frozen almost to the bottom, yet the changes of the weather were so sudden, and the dangers among the dunes so great in the winter time, that Cap- tain Moline had forbidden them from venturing out of sight of the station. They rigged up a toboggan, but found It useless, because the sand was mixed up with the snow in such equal proportions, that when they tried the snow-covered dune that laid nearest to the sta- tion, they found that the bottom of the toboggan stuck to the snow as closely as if it were on sandpaper. The confinement of their cabin fermented their uneasy spirits to such an extent that again and again they were in danger of blowing the cork out of their bottled life, and seizing upon the small life-dory and having an old-time frolic with the surf. They hurrahed every time that little patch of gull-white cut a i-i i ON SABLE ISLAND 221 Look )Ut of saw a seem- ,t wing id such as vig- n of a 3d until orator- " asked e into a ; is like ,n before, loised his he winter ates. they \any they en almost dden, and hat Cap- rht of the s, because tions, that :o the sta- the snow nt of their . again and eir bottled n old-time fantastic caper against the green water and the blue sky, and encouraged it with all the demonstrations of joy that lay within their power. " Vat vas dose matter mit dem poys vat mgke some noise ?" asked Jumps, who, attracted by the cheering, had, unobserved by the boys, made his way to the deck with his own morning broom in hand. "Matter!" exclaimed Jack. "Why, don't you hear the music. Jumps?" " I don't hears some music, not a pit — only dot surf, vich vas no more music dan dot Irish vas English." " There — there ! Don't you heart that ?" exclaimed Jack, as the gull, floating on still wings, allowed the wind to blow it over the crow's nest, where, in passing, it uttered a cry shrill enough to pierce a penny. Jumps slowly lowered the handle of his broom to the deck, and. giving the planking a ponderous thump, said, with a frowning face : " Ach ! donner und blitzen ! You vas dinks dot gull vas a nighdin- gale vrom Sharmany, don't she?" "Anything in the shape of feathers is a nightingale, now, Jumps, for it tells us that the spring is coming." And, knowing how to charm Jumps' seemingly refractory soul, Dick struck an attitude, and from a fragment which he had laboriously committed to memory from Thomson's " Seasons" not long before, he loudly recited : Lend me your song, ye nightingales! Oh, pour The mazy-running soul of melody Into my varied verse! while I deduce 'From the first note the hollow cuckoo sings, The symphony of Spring, and touch the theme Unknown to fame — the Passion of the Groves, When the first soul of love is sent abroad. Warm through the vital air, and on the heart Harmonious seizes, the gay troops begin In gallant thought, to plume the painted wing And try again the long forgotten strain, At first warbled. 222 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES in Whilst Dick was reciting tliis ecstatic piece, Jumps' jaws fol- lowed the motions of the reciter's lips, and his head bobbed up and down as though it were afloat on the waves, and Jack became so much interested in watching him that he didn't hear a word of the"boetry." The words were mostly Greek to the giant, but the mention of nightingales and cuckoos, and groves and spring, sent the poor fel- low's memory to the scenes of his childhood, and when Dick finished, the boys were surprised to see great bubble-sized tears lumbering down the big honest face. "I didn't intend to make you feel bad," Dick hastened to say, with considerable remorse. " Ach ! Ven her vas veels padt den she vas veels pooty goot, und vants some more of dose boetry mit dose nighdingales und dot hollow cuckoo vat she vas lofes ven she vas a poy hisselluf. You vas coom mit me und dry dot boetry on dem seals like mein glari- net, und you vas see dem stan' on dose tails, they vas be so gladt to hear you." Meanwhile, another white gull had made its appearance, and there were two, now, playing hide-and-go-seek among the hollows of the waves and the curves and scrolls of the surf. Presently they alighted on the boiling waters, and, while tossing up and down, managed to keep so closely together, that it was evident that they were holding a tete-a-tete about their recent travels, and the pro- priety of settling down together for housekeeping arrangements dur- ing the summer. A few days after sighting the first gull, there was an Innumerable host hovering over the old haunts. After the small white gulls came the blue-tails, then the black-heads followed, and last of all came the great lumbering buzzard-like gray gull, whose stately, solemn movements were doubtlessly intended to show that all gulls were not of flippant wing and crazy motion. Their shriek, even, was modified by their size, and was far less discordant than the little snippers, which seemed to measure their importance by the frequency and shrillness of the sounds they made. Jack ON SABLE ISLAND 223 judged that the big gray fellows were the prophets ana apostles of their race. There was a feast in waiting to welcome the gulls back to the island, for during the winter all manner of dead fish had been thrown upon the shore, and the carcasses of three drift cattle lay upon the southern beach. All these, though frozen to the bone during the winter, were now mellowed to just the requisite degree ot ripeness to suit the guUine appetite, and were sought after with an eagerness that showed that the gulls knew a good thing when they s?iw it. After the gulls, came the different kinds of ducks, ranging from the little dumpy coot, with his sooty suit and stumpy tail and imperti- nent antics, up to the shelldrake, with his bewildering variety of colors dominated over by an immaculately white necktie and a glossy green tail curled and waxed upward like the moustache of a Frenchman. And, by the way, this duck puts on so much style, his forefathers must have lived in Paris. Following upon the heels, or rather the tails, of the ducks, came the lordly brant and wild geese, whose imperious manners admitted of no familiarities from their inferiors. They were the patricians of the feathered host, and. in fact, the monarchs of all they surveyed. About the midd'e of April the small fry began to make their ap- pearance ; plover, curlew, snipe and sand-piper, and the drumming they kept up among the dunes, and the whistling along the shores, made it seem as if the sands themselves were in the highest stages of an all-pervading spring fever. A little later there was a rain, or reign, of eggs; big drops and little drops showered down by the nestfull in all sorts of colors and in all sorts of places, so that if the shells had all been emptied at once, the whole island would have been turned into one vast omelet. As it was, a pony couldn't put his foot down at a venture among the beach grass without spoiling a prospective family. Besides all this, the surfaces of the wet, marshy meadows revealed millions of little mounds, with round holes close by them,_ I I L 1 !'i a ' is I! Ill 224 ■aaiiHHPP DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES . from which emerged myriads of spider crabs in sidling ways, with freckled shells and sharp, protuberant eyes, and all scurrying about in such comical haste it was evident that they, too, were making ready to participate in the general ceremonies of the spring opening. Among this host of small crustaceans there were grave crabs of more sober colors, and consequently with a broader breadth of beam, as one might expect from inhabitants who were not swallowed up in questions of dress ; and as one might naturally anticipate, also, these were good for something— good to eat — tor they were sweet with a sweetness that did not depend upon the fash- ions they wore. The pots and kettles, pans and plates of the Maskomet bade a long good-by to the teeth-wearing salt junk and measly flips of side bacon ; a long, long good-by to dried codfish and pickled and smoked herring, and all the other scurvy-provoking products of the salt barrel, for the winter was past and gone, and the voices of the boys and the sound of their guns were again heard in the land. The Cinderella Carolina was altogether too slow to suit the fast pace of the opening season, and she was allowed to suck her thumbs in the shadows of the Maskomet while the boys, now a combination of the Centaur and the Nimrod, trotted and galloped hither and yon upon the rejuvenated backs of Topsy and Turvy, and brought in spoils of eggs, crabs and flesh that would have tempted the children of Israel worse than they were ever tempted in the wilder- ness. ^ All winter long Bingo's tail drooped like a tale of woe, but now it was curled over his back like a rainbow of promise, and every hair on his vast hide stood up and proclaimed that the days of jubilee had come. The very fleas made him all the more consci- ous of spring, for the alert Little Corporals or Napoleons renewed their campaigns in his hide with a vigor that once more forced him to resort to his sovereign cure for all the ills that dog-flesh is heir to — a plunge into the stlrf, to be followed by unlimited rolls in the nearest dry sands. When this remedy was taken according to directions — the directions of his own unerring instincts — the fleas pp .ON SABLE ISLAND 225 . with about naking spring s grave )readtii ;re not aturally jat— tor le fash- t bade a s of side :led and ,ts of the 3s of the nd. t the fast ir thumbs nbination r and yon brought ipted the ,e wilder- met their Waterloo, and the Bernard resumed his spring complac- ency and stalked about, looking as invincible as Wellington and Blucher combined. One morning after he had thus taken his heroic measures and turned to flight the armies of the aliens, he started off on one of his solitary excursions among the dunes. The night had been windy and the air heavy with a thick fog. He had not been long gone when he bounded into the cabin of the Maskomet and laid a robin at Dick's feet — a robin that had still enough of life left in it to make a feeble attempt to get upon its feet when released from the Ber- nard's cavernous jaws. Not until Dick had picked the robin up and examined it tenderly, could he credit his own senses. " Why, it h a robin !" he exclaimed, while Jack was too much delighted to say anything. " Where in the world did you get this, Bingo ?" The Bernard barked and wagged his tail as expressively as he could, but without making the boys any the wiser, for they, as yet, were destitute of a dictionary to his language. . . " The poor fellow hasn't a scratch upon him," said Dick, joyfully. " It has been blown from the mainland, and tumbled down here in the fog in distress." Redbreast uttered a feeble peep, as if in confirmation of this wise guess at his adventures, and, after warming and drying him in his hands, and finding that the little stranger was inclined to assert his ability to stand on his own legs, Dick placed him on the floor and put before him cracker crumbs and water, which the robin resorted to with a vigor that showed how hungry and thirsty he was. Having eaten and drunken h's fill, he shook his plumage, and, fly- ing upon a projecting cornice, made his toilet with great care, and then put his head under his wing and went as soundly asleep as if boys and dogs were a hundred miles away. Meanwhile, Dick and Jack, the Bernard assisting them all he could with his great interested eyes, improvised a cage out of a big cheese-box they had picked up among the drift. They had only to saw off a section, put in a roost, turn the box on edge upon a little ■^^^^ mm Wm'i < mm Bll!ll|! ' I 226 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES floor made for It, and nail on a few perpendicular slats, and there they were — with a cage that the robin, nothing loth, took possession of with as much contentment as if he had been born with the whole establishment over his head. When the giant came in and discovered the new-comer, he ex- claimed: •' Py Jubitor, mein poys 1 Vas you vly home last night und coom pack mit dot ropin right ervay ? If you vas pring Jumps a cuckoo und some nighdingale mit dot ropin, I vas go grazy right, ervay pooty soon, I vas veels so goot mit myselluf." When the boys told the giant that the Bernard found the prize, and had delivered it safely into their keeping. Jumps said, patting the great fellow upon the head tenderly : '* Ach, Pingo 1 She vas dinks more of dose poys dan she vas of Jumps ven she prings dot ropin here und nodt to dot Jumps. Und vat you dinks I vas do to bunish her mit?" The Bernard did not seem to know, nor did he learn until the giant solemnly marched out of the cabin, and then, after a short ab- sence, just as solemnly marched in again, with a small china sauce- dish filled with wild strawberries, which he had preserved from the last season's crop — for wild strawberries abounded on Sable Island. These he carefully put through the little door of the cage, and the robin no sooner saw them than he pounced down upon them with as much vigor and recklessness as if, in spite of swinging tin cans, flashing mirrors, and scare-crows clad in the dis- carded old clothes of respectable people, he were ravaging a straw- berry bed that had just hung out its ripening fruit in its usual come- pick-me style. " Her vas dinks dot vas all right, don't it ?" said the giant, his face blossoming into a broad sunflower smile and his eyes sparkling with a clear springwater brightness, and his great white teeth all the while peeping through his heavy beard as if very anxious to know what had made their master so happy. Having sated himself the robin flew to his perch, and, after clean- ing his bill with great care, swelled his throat with a few experi- mental notes of satisfaction. "lilJJ.-l_Jl,»J,_ ON SABLE ISLAND 227 int, his |)arkling all the know clean- experl- "Ach!" Jumps exclaimed, " dot vas sounds pooty mucli petter dan dot gulls vat say noddins put sheep-shee-eep-sheep all dose dimes she vas vlyin' novheres. Put dot ropins don't vind no vorms mit dot sand if she vas mit dose hills, und no cherries if she vas vly erpout." " We can catch sandhoppers for him," said Jack. "Ach !" replied the giant, with a look of disgust ; " no landt pird vas pe so voolish vor dot ; ve vas hafe to gif her vresh meat vrom dose skippers und vorms vat ve vinds mit dose cracggers vat ve eats. If you prings me von, I vas show her pooty qvick how she eat." Jack brought one of the most venerable ship biscuit he could find in the locker, and the giant opening it brought out several well- matured skippers, which on being offered to the robin, were gobbled down with an avidity that showed a good healthy appetite ; and when the robin cocked his head and uttered a plaintive cry for more, the giant was delighted. " She vas nodt kick dose pucket on Sable Island any more dan dose poys vat vas coom here to live," he said, with- placid satisfac- tion. " Why, Jumps, you know almost everything," exclaimed Dick. " Nein ; it vas dot ropin vat knows more dan dose men vat maks so mooch vuss erpout dot vorm in dot pred ven she don't vant to eats dem. Dey say it vasn't vit to eat, und dot ropin vas say dot dot vorm vas der pest bart." "Ugh!" Jack exclaimed, with disgust, "you wouldn't have the men eat the skippers, would you? I don't wonder at their making such a fuss over skippery ship biscuit." " Und subbose dot ropin vas gombelled to chaw some terbagger und soom smoke pesides, vat vas she do mit his belly, den?" " Double up on it, I suppose. Jack replied, laughing. " She vas dinks dot ter tuyfel vas git in him und vants to git oudt agin pooty qvick. Dot ropin vas all right ven she hafe eat dot nice vorms vat hafe boarded inside dose nice pret all dose lives, don't she?" TT^r^^^^^ 228 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES [•^ The robin was named Linden, in honor of the tree Jumps talked so much about, and that evening every man in the station came over to the l\4askomet to give the robin a welcome. And as each man had been duly informed by jumps of the bird's partiality for bis- cuit worms, each man saved what had skipped out of his portion during the supper and brought them over as an offering to Linden's less squeamish tastes. And, afterward, if they found a spider, or ' anything that they thought would be acceptable to the robin, they hastened to board the- Maskomet with it. Linden was partial enough to spiders, but most of the other insects brought in were rejected by him, thus showing that, while the sand birds might have no difficulty . in picking up a living on the island, there were few things there that ' would tempt the appetite of field and bower birds. The robin became very fond of the Bernard, and when given the freedom of the cabin, would light on the dog and nestle down in his voluminous curls with the greatest satisfaction. He soon dis- covered that Bingo was a world in himself to a population that was • all his own, and he kept such a sharp lookout for fleas, that when • any of them went tree-climbing far enough up Bingo's hair to heave in sight, they were immediately pounced upon as a morsel that was not to be despised. He must have been a bit of a logician, arguing that fleas looked like ants, and that things that looked anyway alike must taste considerably alike. If there were differences between flea meat and ant meat they were not sufficient to cause the robin any wry faces. Bingo appreciated the practical value of his new friend, and when Linden lit on him, immediately threw himself into the positions that were best adapted to facilitate the robin's hunts ; and so it hap- pened that what Sable Island was to the boys as a hunting field, the body of the dog became to the robin. April was also made memorable by a spring visit that Dick and Jack received from the womenettes, for which, having been fore- warned by message, they prepared the cabin and also the Cinderella Carolina, When the king, pudey in body and ponderous In voice as ever, escorted his daughters, for he had accompanied them on the trip, Into the cabin of the Maskomet, and saw how neatly and com- m ■1 i. ' ON SABLE ISLAND 229 fortably it had been fitted up and kept, he said, with a great show of formality and apparently with some feeling of jealousy and dis- pleasure : . . _ " Well, my lords, it strikes me that your lordships are trying to surpass the splendors and conveniences of the royal palace ; I hope it does not mean that you Intend to compete with my prerogatives or to usurp royal authority. But 1 forget ; being Americans, you are too loyal to the democracy of your own national institutions to think of putting on monarchial airs on Sable Island. Still, I think that I must investigate during my stay the precise meaning of the Cinderella Carolina chariot, of which I have heard so much from. th« surgeon. I fear that there is more high treason connected with that than with anything I see around me." - : The boys protested that they were only putting things in shape so that when they themselves left the island His Majesty might find, at least, one place that would be suitable for the accommodation of royalty when it condescended to visit the East End. Two of the little women brought their guns with them, and the week they spent on the Maskomet and among the dunes, and at the lake, was one to be remembered. The womenettes became infatu- ated with the Cinderella Carolina, and every evening they insisted upon taking their airing upon the-beach, their royal esplanade for the time being. The boys were so much pleased with the honor showed to their invention that tfiey bestowed It, harnesses and all, upon the prin- cesses, and trained the royal horses to behave themselves within the traces in a manner befitting the Cinderella Carolina's utility and splendor. ■ • During the time of the royal visitors' stay, there was a continual round of fun. sport, feasting and fellowship. Jumps became an im- portant personage with the king and his daughters three, and they declared that his appeals to their palates were never more success- ful than during this visit, and that the tickling of the tongue was a good two-thirds of the way to the touching of the heart. Food and favor are seldom out of sight of each otner, and they who would en- 230 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES joy the sweets of friendship must maintain a close alliance with the meats of the table. Nevertheless, it is somewhat humiliating to think that the higher sentiments of the mind are so dependent upon the inferior appetites of the body, for it is like yoking asses to draw elephants. - • When the royal equipage, with its canvas-top, and all, drove away, and the cask wheel creaked and rumbled beneath its precious load, the boys, playing the part of knightly cavaliers, accompanied it for several miles, and when the parting came, the smiling, freckled faces of the princesses beamed their gratitude anew for the munificent generosity which had conferred a chariot that enabled the highborn dames to return to their mother in a manner becoming to their rank and state. Let not tne reader smile at the high language here used to de- scribe common things, for are not our girls and boys the genuine ladies and knights, nay, more, the real queens and kings, that rule our hearts and the destinies of nations ? THE REVELATIONS OF A WRECK HE usual spring gale had proved a laggard ; the first fogs of the season canne in advance ot the equinoctial storm, which was a rather unusual reversal of weather succession. But Captain Moline, being a weather-wise old sailor, kept his life-saving apparatus in such good shape that it was ready for work at any moment. It was well he did, for there came a day when the baro- meter went down like lead the clouds piled up like moun- tains, the wind blew with the force of great guns, and the surf rose like a lion from its lair. ■ The Maskomet quivered through all her stout timbers, and the station and its outbuildings seemed in danger of being flattened to the ground. The waves S31 ,.i"^v ....... T^ 232 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES rolled so far up the beach they poured in upon the sands of the Mas- komet's hold, and the boys took refuge at the station. They had witnessed great stornns at Black 5^oint, but none so severe as this. The caps of the dunes were blown away in showers of sand that so filled the air, it was dangerous to expose one's face to the rasping grit. Both the tame and wild ponies huddled, as best they might, under the lee of the dunes, but their shaggy coat became so loaded with sand, it was only by constant shaking of themselves that they were enabled to keep their feet. Most of the feathered inhabitants of the island also huddled close to anything that would afford a shel- ter from the force of the blast. The gulls, fearless wingsters of the storm, were the exception; when the storm was at its highest they were at their merriest, and rode the gale in flocks which defied the very armies of Heaven, all the while uttering their piercing cries as if enjoying the combined tumult of earth, air and sea. The carcass of the great whale was rent in pieces, and the mam- moth bones were tossed about the beach as though they were tooth- picks. Wrecks that had lain upon the shores for years were either shifted about like cockle-shells or dismembered altogether. The temperature was lowered so suddenly that the thick gray mists turned into great flakes of snow that made it almost impossible to discern where the surf ended and the snow began, the white of the one blended so perfectly with the white of the other. The men were scattered as widely as possible on the north beach, for the gale blew from the northeast, and if any vessel should happen to be caught in the toils of the island, it would be most likely to be caught on the north side. The Bernard was in his element, and raced up and down the beach fully on the alert to the possibility of disaster to human beings. Captain Moline allowed Dick and Jack to accompany him on his own beat, which extended along the beach 'for a distance of three miles from the station, where Jumps was left in charge. During one of their halts, the captain, peering through the snow- flurry, said : " Boys, I think there is a topmast lifting itself through the snow cloud yonder, but, possibly, my anxiety is making me see ON SABLE. ISLAND 233 Mas- r had this, lat so isping Tiight, oaded t they bitants a shel- of the 5t they ed the :ries as ; mam- J tooth- 5 either The ; turned discern he one beach, happen |y to be int, and Ibility of on his d{ three ie snow- through me see things that do not exist. Your eyes are sharper than mine ; get baclc of my right shoulder and look along my arm and finger and see if thf^re is anything there." . ^ But, before the boys could comply, a rift in the flurry enabled all three to trace the outline of a large ship grounded broadside on with the waves breaking over her in great sheets of black and white. Instinctively, all three began to gallop toward the station. It took but a few moments for the captain, with the assistance of the boys and the giant, to run out the signal gun and to discharge it several times, as a signal to the wreck that she was seen, and to the men to hasten them to the station. The men were so widely scattered, that it seemed an age before they got together and were ready to start for the relief of the crew of the doomed ship. When they got abreast of the wreck, which was now plainly in view, the snow squall was over. The scant canvas was blowing in ribbons, and the crew were scat- tered about in the rigging, a position offering but little security, be- cause the ship was rocking so violently, the masts were likely to go by the board at any moment. " Bear a hand there, men!" Captain Moline shouted, as he low- ered the glass with which he had been trying to measure the situa- tion, " there is a woman lashed in the main rigging, and, as near as I can make out, there is also a small child lashed there with her." The ship was too distant to be reached by the gun-line, and if any succor was to be given, it must be given by the life-boat. The men did not flinch, although it seemed almost certain death for them to face that surf. Out through the boiling flood, inch by inch, they fought their way. In the darker water, their position was not so perilous' and, fortunately for them, the position of the ship — broad- side on — gave them a bit of lee-water under the rail in which they could work to advantage, though the masts might go at any time and engulf their boat in the common ruin. The woman and child were rescued from the rigging, and the boat soon had all it was safe for her to undertake to land in one trip, and, by a miracle of courage apd skill, was brought safe to the beach. 234 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES Encouraged by their success, the heroic' men, under their heroic captain, started on their second trip. Meanwhile, the upper masts, with yard-arms and hamper, had been shal!! ] I EnHC; ' Will i 'ti>.' 248 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES the year preceding, they found a small bundle of letters carefully wrapped in oil-silk. These letters, bearing dates preceding the commission of his crime, bore the address, Jared Clancy. Six were from his mother, and four from the young lady to whom he was engaged to be married, and all breathed sentiments of the liighest love. Captain Lanier became so feverish and unmanned from the effect of the excitement, that the surgeon did not leave him until more than a week had passed. DUNE DALE, THE HOUSE THAT DICK AND JACK IJUILT HE Lanier-Clancy reve- lation had such a dis- astrous effect upon Dick and Jack's spirits that they lost all interest in their usual amusements and employments, and roamed about in such a disconsolate way, that both Moline and the giant felt quite uneasy about them. On one occasion when the boys were riding up the beach in a listless way a conversation oc- '/ •*" • - curred which showed [into what kind of channels their thoughts were persistently running, jack abruptly asked : " Dick, do you think that preaching does anybody any good ?" !i I i l| il ! Jlll I liii 250 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES Dick was startled, for that was almost the very question that was puzzling his own mind. Being loth to have it known, however, that such was the case, he chose, tor the time being, at least, to receive the idea as a novelty, and he returned it to Jack with another ques- tion, saying : " What in the world put that into your head ?" " Well, it's just this way: We have lived in a minister's family all our days, and have listened to preaching all our lives. Father has told us, again and again, to be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. He said that we were such peppery fellows, that if we didn't keep our Carolina tempers bridled, they'd get us into lots of trouble before we got through. Why, the very last time we sat with him, under the shadow of the Witch of Endor, and you and I were spatting about the marbles we were playing with beach pebbles, don't you remember what he said to us?" ' "Yes, I remember his very words, but I am sure that he got them out of the Bible ; this is what he said : • He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.' " " Exactly! and that's the kind of thing that has been ding-danged into us by sledge-hammer ever since we were born ; yet, when Boggs — I mean Clancy, poor fellow — laid the whip upon my cheek, I was within a hair of blazing the life out of him." "So was I, Jack, and, to tell the truth, that was one of the things I was thinking of when you blurted that question at me just now." "Well, then, if all father's preaching has done us no more good than that, what's the use of preaching, anyway, I'd like to know? Clancy killed Captain Lanier's brother in a fit of anger, and that is the very thing we came so near doing to Clancy when we got so mad at him." . : ,; " ■ . " But we didn't do it I" Dick exclaimed, with a choking gasp, pro- duced by the acuteness of the remembrance. " Yet, when my gun flew to my shoulder, I meant to fire without giving further warning ; the sight of the blood spurting from your cheek knocked the sense] clean out of me." ..«f.f»»» .T-tt'tilS ON SABLE ISLAND 251 " What prevented you from firing, Dick?" " I saw father's face between me and Clancy as distinctly as 1 over saw It in my life ; that is why 1 didn't fire." " What if Clancy had struck again ?" " But he didn't — and that ended it." " When you say that you saw father's face, you mean that you re- membered it, don't you ?" "Yes, I suppose I do." " Well, that is just what kept me from firing; his face and his way of reproving, 1 remembered like a flash, and that is what held me back. But what are you smiling at? I don't see anything to laugh at. We were i.oth just mad enough for anything " '* I guess all this bang-whanging and preaching is good for some- thing, after all, Jack, and it makes me smile to think how we have tumbled upon the fact. We were mad — dangerously mad, and it was father's teaching and example that kept us from the thing that would have ruined us for life, and darkened home for all time." "Why, that's so, isn't it?" and now Jack was also smiling with satisfaction, as he added : " I guess that, after all. preaching is good for something, and I'm glad I can think so." They had now reached .that pgrt of the beach where the larger part of the wreckage of the Aberdeen had come ashore, and, much relieved by their escape from a very troublesome question, they dis- mounted and began to rove among the heaps of stuff scattered around them. When one thing goes out of the mind something else is sure to come in to take its place, and Jack said: " Look here, Dick, it is getting to be so warm and comfortable about here now, we might go to work and build a sort of a summer cottage out of that cabin stuff, and then come up here and camp out. It will give us some- thing to do, and the Laniers can have the Maskomet to themselves, which will be better for them and better for us. Furniture would not cost us anything, seeing there is so much of it lying about waiting for anybody to pick it up." in 1 1ll I ' ■11 hi llili P !li:' illljl'i i' i »,, „: tipllili utirili m^f 252 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES Dick caught at the idea so quickly, and with such enthusiasm, that they drove back to the station to lay the plan before Captain Moline, Moline encouraged them, and assured them that the whole station kit of tools should be at their disposal, anc that they might build either a castle or a cottage, just as they pleased, " And may we boss the whole of it ourselves ?" Jack asked. " Most certainly. And if anybody presumes to offer you so much as a single suggestion, we'll fine him a penny and dock him on his tea or coffee for a whole day." Jumps was standing by, and, overjoyed to think that his boy-friends were ready for something new, he said : " Ven dot house vas pe vixed, she vas hafe dose chairs mit dem dables und zofas,und efery udder thing vat she don't hafe pefore ; und dot gottage vas pe so full of vurnichure dot she vill hafe to pust geepin' it mltin herselluf vor dose poys." " You can lay out a twenty-four by sixteen floor," said Moline, for- getting all about fines and penalties, " and with a few stout uprights for posts, can support a low, rain-shedding roof made of the light wrack- age of the Aberdeen's cabin, and then use some of that canvas that has come on shore for your cottage walls. As Jumps says, there will be no lack of furniture for you ; there is enough of it lying around up there to furnish half a dozen castles throughout ; you can have a sofa for every wall inside and out." By this time the giant was grinning at the captain and winking] at the boys as impishly as if he were but a midget of a creature. " What is the matter with you ?" Moline asked, innocently. " Ach, gaptin ! you vas succhest, und succhest, und succhest dill I your vine vas pe terventy pennies, und all dot dea und covvc vat shej don't gits vor a veek, don't it ?" Moline was a man who could laugh at his own blunders as heartilyl as most people laugh at the blunders of others, and seeing how he had broken his own rule before it was cold from his lips, he franklyj owned up and said r " You see, boys, I'm shutting off others froirl giving you advice so that 1 can do all the giving myself. But, really ON SABLE ISLAND 253 enthusiasm, jre Captain 'hole station might build asked. ^ou so much k him on his ,s boy-friends house vas pe fas.und efery IS pe so full of herselluf vor id Moline, for- ut uprights for e light wrack- .t canvas that IS says, there [it lying around DU can have a and winking I creature. locently. succhest dill I Icovvc vat she lers as heartily! leeing how he lips, he franklyl Iff others froirl But, really I was so mucn in earnest about steering you, that I forgot all about the compass I had stowed in the binnacle for myself. Jumps has my authority for enforcing the fine, which he can use for the purchase of a peanut treat, you know." " Dot beanudt dreat vas git here ven ve vas stop dot sucches- tion right ervay, gaptin." remarked the giant, with another succes- sion of grins. But the boys acted upon the captain's hints, and went to work with such a will that in three days the cottage, built between two small dunes, on a little point that commanded a wide view, was ready for the bush which Jack brought from the station and nailed upon the gable fronting the sea. Jumps was on hand to witness the nailing of the bush, and the boys said to him : " We have named the cottage Dune Dale." " Tune Tale vas as goot as Dick Jack vor dot name, und right ervay she vas pe so habby ven dose poys vas mitin her dot she vas say, ' come mitin,' to eferypody vat she looks at." And the giant came near walking his big legs off, so anxious was he to inspect the premises from every possible point of view. The boys tacked one of the royalsails of the Aberdeen on the floor, thus covering all tffe cracks between the planking, and forming a carpet that was thick and neat. They brought in from one of the heaps of furniture stacked upon the upper beach a heavily car^/ed walnut bedstead that was big enough to accommodate the entire family of the " Old Woman That Lived in a Shoe." By search- ing for its companion pieces, they discovered a spring mattress sufficiently large to fill the space that yawned between the sides. With this foundation laid, there was no difficulty in getting to- gether enough of other fittings to furnish a bed that, though some of the coverings were scarcely in keeping with the sur- rounding framework, was yet decent enough to prevent the boys from lying awake. In another corner they placed a what-not. surmounted with a statuette of Shakespeare, whose nose had been knocked off before he was allov ^d to land on the Island. A big oaken buffet, with fat, I !i II W 'I "111 m fm ill! iiiiilliU iiiii|Hi;i mm '■ . 254 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES round-swelling front ornamented with carvings, was put in the third corner. They thought of putting a heavy walnut secretary in the re- maining corner, but it proved to be so unwieldly, and, withal, so badly scarred by the surf and blistered by the sun, they reserved it for firewood. There was such a profusion of other furniture at their disposal, they were as much embarrassed as a newly-wedded couple turned loose into a furniture warehouse. But they put a big, eliptical ma- hogany table in the center of the room, and, for the rest, brought in six plush parlor chairs, two great mahogany rockers and an enormous tete-a-tete, which last they installed on the side opposite the bed. All these pieces were rather the worse for surf and weather, but, as Dick said, this saved them from appearing green at the business, and gave the respectability that comes from age Back of this " sumptuously" furnished room the boys constructed a lean-to for kitchen uses. When all was done. Jack could not sup- press the satisfaction he experienced, and he exclaimed, jubilantly : " If Job could have gotten as good a place as this after his house was blown down, he would have thanked the Lord and taken courage." Dick laughed, as he said : " Why, jack, you talk almost as piously as Deacon Snowden, of Yarmouth." " Well, it's good enough to make one feel as good as a whole prayer meeting. If the Lord would only give us a tree or two, we could get along without much grumbling. Well, the wild peas are beginning to sprout, and we can put some of ihem in front of the veranda and train them up the posts. Only think of it — then we shall have blue blossoms without number. And we can transplant a lot of the wild strawberry vines and raise all the strawberries we want, and, if we knew that we had to stay here till fall, we would get some of those huckleberry bushes and go into the huckleberry busi- ness. As for hens, we'll let the gulls furnish all the eggs we want." And Jack saw so many possibilities before them, that he began a series of steps not laid down in any dancing book of which we have any knowledge up to this date. i^fip^pp^^^^ww_JJ|.., • ■;--■' ;^- ON SABLE ISLAND 255 "Speaking of trees, Jack," said Dick, " if the Lord hasn't any real objection to them In this place, there is that stubby old fir tree that came ashore in the drift, and that we stuck into the sand down at the station ; we can bring it up here and put it in front of our ver- anda, you know." ■: v " You are chaffing, now; but we'll have it up here, anyhow, for it is handsome even in the skeleton, and so round, thick and beauti- fully shaped every way, that it will do our eyes good to have it in sight." When Jumps looked in upon them for the first time after they had everything in order, he stood in the middle of the room and, pivoting himself upon his feet, made a complete revolution, and surveyed every object in sight. " Mein grr — rra-shuss!" he exclaimed, " I vas nodt git on dot zofa pefore mein drouzers vas bulled down mit dose poots. If mein kirl vas here, I vas set so glose mit her dot I vas giss her und den her vas giss me some more pesides." " Why, Jumps, did you ever do any courting — did you ever really kiss a girl ?" Jack asked. " Nein! Only vonce ven 1 vas gissed dot, vat you call guzzen, und pooty qvick I don't do it any more. Her vas slapped me so hart mein hetvasveels like dot pell vat rings so loudt in der sdeeple. Nein! She vas nodt giss no guzzens some more." The two dunes nearest the cottage looked so bare. Jack com- plained of them to Jumps, who said ; " Veil, you vas soon vix dot py vaitin' dill dose bettikotes vas git here." " What do you mean ?" " Der bea vines vas pe here pefore longs, und den she hafe dem bettikotes mit green und blue, vat look like she vas made in Himmel." Topsy and Turvy at first protested against being removed from the comfortable shade of the Maskomet's hold, but when a wooden awning was erected for their benefit at Dune Dale, they adopted their new quarters without complaint, and were all the more i 256 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES contented because the Bernard visited them and the boys more or less every day. - When one thing more was done, the cottage outfit would be com- plete ; a plank floor to their kitchen was what the boys now resolved upon laying without delay. Picking up enough of drift planking to answer their purpose, they immediately began to prepare a founda- tion of level sand upon which the planks could be evenly laid. This required the removal of about eighteen inches of beach grass hum- mocks, a no slight task, because the roots went down so deeply. In one place where they had to cut down about two feet, they struck an obstacle that appeared to be a fragment of old decking, which had come ashore from some old wreck. But, great was their surprise. when, on striking it with the axe, they discovered that there was a hollow space below. '■ * " Good conscience!" exclaimed Dick. " 1 hope that we have not run afoul of a coffin ; anyway, we'll see all there is to be seen, even If it's a dune ghost." Cutting a hole through the obstruction, they were still more aston- ished to find that the cavity below extended farther than they had dreamed of. " Fetch me a candle." said Dick, excitedly. When this was brought, he stuck it into a split of a stick and thrust it down into the darkness, and. by this means, discovered that the cavity was an unmistakable room of some kind. " There is our cellar.' ' said Jack, triumphantly, " already walled up, and waiting for our apples, potatoes, turnips, cabbages, pumpkins and provisions and goodies of every sort and description. If a donation party would only come along and shovel things in there as they used to shovel them Into father's cellar in Yarmouth, we'd get Jumps to come up here and play ' Yankee Doodle ' for us ' right ervay, pooty qvick.' as he is so fond of saying." But Dick was thinking of other things. He knew that Sable Island, from the very first dawn ot ocean navigation, had been the graveyard of vessels. This much he had learned from the surgeon, who was well acquainted with the history of the island, and with the 1' ON SABLE ISLAND 257 s more or d be com- J7 resolved lanking to a founda- laid. This [rass hum- ieeply. In / struck an which had ir surprise, lere was a ^e have not seen, even more aston- an they had ,k and thrust led that the By walled up. impkins and a donation IS they used ;t Jumps to lervay. pooty that Sable id been the |the surgeon, ind with the Sfurveys and reports sent out from the marine department of the Provinces, There was no telling how many boats, schooners and larger vessels were buried up in the sands. Almost every gale of wind unearthed some buried relic of the past — anchors, chains, masts, ribs of vessels, sharks, whales and other sea monsters. The surgeon had told him that the island was slowly shifting its position — moving northward, as it were. The south of the island was cut into by the cur- rents of the sea, and every now and then some forgotten wreck was disentombed and washed away ; while many vessels that had gone down on the north side of the island were being covered up by the accumulating sand. The process was visibly going on in the case of hulks still in sight. The Maskomet was gathering the sand about her like a white shroud, and it was only a question of time when she should disappear from sight altogether. Dick had thought of her more than once as finally having a dune gathered over her for a grave mound. He w^ naturally curious about such things, and while Jack, in the exuberance of his spirits, was rattling on about cellars, thinking of the hurly-burly of parsonage donations — those sacred dis- sipations, consecrated makeshifts and holy abominations in which so many milk-and-water professors, and so many manikin ministers take such infantile jack-in-the-box, nickle-in-the-slot and penny- halleluia delight — Dick was thinking of the vast changes wrought by the irresistible forces of Nature. He had, in fact, just lifted his head above the fogs of mere boyish dreams, and gotten his first and some- what startling view of the real world. "This is a very strange thing," he said; "we have built Dune Dale over the deck of a sand-covered wreck. We will keep our dis- covery to ourselves, at least, for a while, and see what we can find below us. Go and keep a good lookout while I enlarge the hole and make it big enough for us to descend ; and while you are keep- ing watch, when I have made the cutting, I will arrange the planks ve have pulled in here so that they can be laid over the opening at a moment's warning. 1 will also put one down into the cavity so that we can descend by it, and will get candles and matches, and si i I' liii ■■■:.J-J-};V^;] 258 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES iih ! hatchet and hammer, so that when I whistle for you we can go down and explore." There was no interruption, and, when all the arrangements were completed, the boys lighted a candle, and Dick, golne: down first on the slanting plank, directed Jack, before he left the opening, to pull one of the loose pieces over it so that it would be concealed should anybody come in while they were below. They landed on a floor of sand, and wishing to know how deep it was, for there was six feet of space over their heads, Dick hurried up again and got a sand shovel, with which, when he got belcw again, he dug through about two feet of sand to a level floor of wood. On making a search they found themselves in a room nine feet wide by sixteen in length ; it was a cabin, finished in a style unlike any- thing the boys had ever seen in the vessel line. The wood was time-stained and damp ; but, with the exception of a few cracks and a bulging line here and there, was in a good state of preservation. While they were lifting their candle to look at the ceiling they heard footsteps on the planking over the entrance, and they blew out their light and kept silent. Presently they heard Jumps' voice saying, m.uch to their amuse- ment : " Dose poys vas nodt anyvheres. I pet she vas gone mlt dose kuns down mlt dot. lake vor more tucks. Dis blum-tuff vat I prlngs vas hafe to vait dill she vas git pack some more. Ach ! put dls gitchen she makes vas petter nor dot vun at dot station. Ven she hafe dot stove up mlt dot blpe, she vas make his own blum-tuff ever so goot as mein, und I vas daste It vor him und say It vas goot as vat Jumps makes." A snuffing noise at the cracks between the planks indicated that the Bernard was on the track of things below, and that the boys were in danger of being discovered. Jumps suspected nothing, how- ever, and they heard him call the dog and depart. Plum-duff was not made every day, but Jumps had just achieved an especially good one, which he was anxious for the boys to test, so he had brought a big bowl of It over for their benefit. Not find- ing them, he put it in the center of the mahogany table, where it go down nts were 1 first on g. to pull ;d should w deep it ;k hurried got belcw r of wood. J feet wide inlike any- wood was cracks and srvation. :eiling they 2y blew out ON SABLE ISLAND 259 would be sure to attract their attention when they returned. He went away whistling in great content over the generosity of his good-will. . • ■ • But the Bernard remained behind to satisfy himself about the mystery under those two planks. In a trice he pulled the planks aside, and, hearing the breathing of the boys below, threw himself down the opening with such headlong precipitation that he landed squarely on Jack, and almost flattened him into a pancake as he and his victim rolled over in the sand. Idicated that lat the boys )thing, how- ist achieved |boys to test. Not find- Die, where it rnmsBomtrnm m yg^ NUTS! NUTS I HERK'S NUTS! AS the roof of the old hole tumbled in?" Jack asked, as soon as he could disgorge some of the sand he had ship- ped into his mouth in the tumble. Bingo, taking the words for an encouragement, reared his ponderous form, and putting his forefeet against Jack's shoulders, knocked him down for the second time. " Good gracious, Dick ! Have we fallen into the lion's den, or has the lion's den fallen into us ?" " If you will light your candle, you will find out for yourself," Dick replied, grinning in the darkness with as much liberality of face as though he were saluting an audience before the footlights. " Candle ? Why, that has gone to Jericho to see if it can find another Good Samaritan. Light yours and you may find mine before it gets too far on the way." 2G1 262 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES Hill' i :■'■■» When Dick struck his light he found that Bingo was making a mouthful of the lost candle, which he had picked up from the sand. " Drop that, you scoundrel," said he, " do you think you are in a butcher's shop because you have found a tallow dip ? You didn't fall far enough to reach any fresh beef." •' The dog sheepishly dropped the sweet morsel, and, by way of apology, also dropped himself into the sand. ■, " Now, hold this light while I use the shovel," Dick said, as he passed the candle to Jack. At the first stroke of the shovel he struck something metallic, which, on being brought to the surface, proved to be a handsomely hilted dagger firmly rusted into what had once been an elaborately ornamented sheath. " What sort of a beginning do you call that — is it good or bad ?" Jack asked. " We can tell better when we h^ve reached the end ; but at any rate it is a sign that we should go over this floor carefully. I will begin there at the other end and shovel crosswise the whole width of the cabin, and then we can go over the whole floor strip by strip, so that if there's anything else in the sand we shall be sure to find it. It will take time, but everybody has plenty of time on Sable Island, and we might as well be doing this as anything else. It is rather funny, though, that we should find a dagger in such a place as this, and such an old one as that is." ^ v^^ They discovered nothing more in the first strip they dug, save two small, white bones, which they were not bonologists enough to class- ify. But, in the next strip, they turned up a big, old-fashioned, flint- lock horse pistol and two equally ancient flintlock guns. After examining and hefting them, Jack exclaimed : " What blundering big things they are ! Must belong to the blunderbuss family of arms. Say, Dick, I'd like to know what sort of a ship we have shipped aboard of now. Strikes me that she beats the Masko- met out of sight." " Put those things, bones and all, by themselves," was Dick's re- ply, " and remember, that if you ask too many questions, you'll not be likely to get an answer to any of them." ON SABLE ISLAND 263 making a the sand, u are in a 'ou didn't by way of aid, as he 1 he struck Lce. proved ; had once i or bad?" ; but at any ally. 1 will whole width rip by strip, sure to find e on Sable else. It is h a place as ug, save two gh to class- [lioned, flint- •• What blunderbuss of a ship we the Masko- is Dick's re- \s, you'll not The words were scarcely out of his mouth, when he turned up the head of a boarding pike, and, immediately after this, a stubby side- sword with a fragment of a sword belt attached, and two vessels, which, at first, they took to be half-gallon measures. The'.e last were of such a peculiar, and, withai, of such a really handsome shape, that Dick, with an exclamation of surprise, threw down his shovel that he might examine them to better advantage. Answering his own first impressions, Dick said, after noticing the lids, the handles and the raised ornaments on the sides, and also the weight: "These are not half-gallon measures, but genuine old drinking cups— tankards — that we have read about." " Regular tanks, and no mistake," said Jack, who was bubbling over with miischief. If that's the size of the drinking cups their owners used to drink out of, I'd like to know how big their hog- troughs were." As the metal was smooth, though much darkened with age, Dick, tingling with expectation, tapped the cups with a smart blow of the hasp of his knife, and elicited a sound so clear and tinkling, a strong imagination might have taken it for the echo of the music of ancient revelry. " By Jove, Jack! these tankards are as surely silver as those two bones are bones." Handing the vessels to Jack, he added : " The fellows who had such things as those would be likely to have other things in the same line." He was interrupted by the appearance of a third drinking cup, a little smaller than the other two, and the frag- ments of what appeared to be a small table. Then followed other fragments of the former furniture of the cabin. After removing these, he came upon a pile of bones, of whose nature he had his suspicions, as did Jack also. Dick intended to keep his thoughts to himself, and pushed on in his work, removing the sand carefully, so as to leave the relics as nearly in their original position as pos- sible. When he had laid bare a skull. Jack, terrified by the sight, exclaimed : " For Heaven's sake, Dick, let's get out of this as soon as we can!" • - ^\- Hi I 264 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES " Don't be foolish, Jack," said Dick, explosively, " there Is noth- ing about those bones that you need be afraid of. Why can't you be consistent ? After the great storm we had here, in which the old whale was torn to pieces, you went through the jaws of the old fellow and skipped about among his ribs and other bones as frisky as if you were a kitten playing with balls of yarn. If you were not afraid of the bones of such a big thing as a whale, why should you be afraid of the bones of such a small thing as a human being?" " A fellow had the whole sun to back him up there," Jack retorted, " but here there is only a candle. Go ahead, if you are so set about it ; I can stand it if you can." Ridicule always had the effect of put- ting Jack on his mettle, especially when it came from Dick as an aspersion on his courage. Let us condense the account of the succeeding discoveries among the bones. There were three skeletons, which fell apart the moment the supporting sand was removed, and many of the fragments were so much decayed that they crumbled at a touch. One skeleton had a hole in the skull ; this one laid by itself. The other two appeared to be locked together ; the skull of one of these was crushed in as if by a blow from some blunt instrument. The bones of one hand were locked around the handle of an old-fashioned, unwieldy pistol, such ' as has already been described, while close to the hand of the under- lying skeleton, lay a murderous, unsheathed instrument, which looked like a cross between a dagger and a short sword. The positions and accompaniments were such that the tragedy was self-evident, Dick had his thoughts, but kept them under lock ; Jack had his, as well, but turned the key and let them out. • ; " Why, Dick, there has be^n murder here 1" .. *' Yes ; a fight of some kind," And while the chills were running down his back, and to offset Jack's renewed fears, Dick grimly added: "But it happened so long ago, we'll not be suspected of having, had any hand in it." " If you are going to be such a cucumber of a fellow as all that." said Jack, considerably nettled, " I think that I can be as cool as you ; so you needn't bring along any more of your ice." ON SABLE ISLAND 265 " Stick to that, then, and don't be thinking of bogies all the time. Those fellows have been dead so long they can't trouble ui;. Here, hold this shovel, while I throw these bones into a heap bv themselves, and see what there is below them. Hold the candle nearer, so that 1 can see." While removing the ghastly relics, Dick picked up two large, plain rings, and three jewelled rings, which glistened in the light quite brilliantly ; there was also a large oval, closed locket with small chain attached. It v as easy to understand that all these trinkets had be- longed to the ornaments of the persons v/hose bones had come to light. Putting these in his pocket, Dick next disclosed a small casket clasped in a skeleton hand, and close by there was the edge of a large iron box. " Here, Jack, hold on to this casket while I dig out that box," said Dick, in a voice so changed by his excitement, that it seemed the voice of another person. Jack, himself, being under a similar tension of feeling, received the box in silence, and held it under one arm, while he bent over so as to throw the candle-rays more directly upon Dick's work. When the second box was uncovered it was found to be resting against a third, which was somewhat smaller, and stacked around this were many pieces of plate, which had to be removed before the other boxes could be fully cleared of the sand around them. When the plate, two hundred and eleven pieces in number, was put in a heap by itself, Dick, perspiring hotly, and almost overcome with work and excitement, said, huskily : " Here, Jack, let's sit down and rest awhile, this job is getting altogether too big tor both mind and body. We must think things over a little. But, first, stick your candle into the sand there, and put that small box down by it and let us see whether these boxes are empty or full." They were barely able to turn the boxes over on their sides, they were so heavy. In the turning they detected a metallic click inside, which started their imaginations off on the wildest of flights, though neither of them was at first inclined to say much. Before sitting down, Dick reached for the casket Jack held, and ^ssmmmsmmm I- iiii i i ! 266 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES began to examine it by the light of the candle, while Jack looked eagerly on. Small as it was, i. vas quite heavy, and on shaking it, though it was evidently quite full, a slight tinkling sound was heard. It was so verdigrised, it was plain that the metal was either copper or brass. There was a small key-hole, full of rust, and the connec- tion between the cover and box was nearly obliterated by verdigris. While they were turning the box over and over, the Bernard sat on his haunches by their side and watched their operations with so much intelligence and interest, that Jack, forgetting himself, said : " Look here Dick, ought Bingo to be here while we are making these discoveries?" Dick was so struck with the absurdity of the question, that he laughed outright, and this encouraged Bingo to give a low, responsive bark, which, however, he immediately cut short, as if conscious that his silence would be more acceptable than his noise. " You are so excited. Jack, you don't know what you are saying. ! don't know how much thinking Bingo is doing, but I rather think that he doesn't know enough of the English language to blow on us, however much disposed he might be to do it. But even if he could speak he'd keep mum if we ordered him to. Now, I am going to try to get into this box with my jack-knife." " Better take mine, Dick." -Why?" " Because mine is a jack-kni^e and no mistake," and, laughing at his own punning. Jack handed his knife to Dick, who had ^ knife at work some seconds before the point of the joke penetrated his head. His laugh was so far behind its cause, that Jack, supposing that it was connected with something else, asked : " What are you laughing at ?" " At you. of course ; that was pretty good for a fellow who has been scared nearly out of his wits ever since we begai to turn things over, here." " If you had waited a little longer, you would have forgotten what there was to laugh about." Jack was prevented from further comment by Dick's rapid prog- ii:.ii|.;|: ON SABLE ISLAND 267 . looked aking it, ,s heard, r copper connec- rerdigris. nard sat 5 with so elf, said : ;ing these 1, that he esponsive sious that .re saying. ther think low on us, he could going to mghing at " knife itrated his supposing |at are you who has Iturn things )tten what rapid prog- ress toward the discovery of the conte*'*s of the box. Finding the lines of the cover, and, inserting his knife, the metal, eaten nearly through by the verdigris, yielded quickly to Dick's efforts, and the cover was removed entire, revealing an inner envelop of some ma- terial that had long since become but a covering of black, dusty mold. When Dick had carefully skinned this away, there was such a gleam of reflected lights from the contents that he came near dropping the box into the sand at his feet. Quick to recover him- self, however, and now fully understanding the purport of the reflec- tions, he breathed so gaspingly that Jack, in alarm, asked: " What is the matter with you, Dick ? Do you feel sick ?" " Matter, Jack ! Do you know what's in that box ?" It was now Jack's turn to breathe quickly, as the fact began to dawn upon him, "You — you- don't mean — no — it can't be pos- sible — to say that that is a box of jewels !" " I don't know very much about gems, but I know enougn to know that there is a big fortune in that box. And, furthermore, I know that this hulk is so old that there is no living soul in all this world who has a better right to this than you and 1." The truth was so self-evident and so stupendous, withal, that Jack, overwhelmed, founc his very exclamations sticking in his throat like fishbones, and so th>5re was nothing for him to do but to relieve him- self with a good, wet cry. And Dick himself was so sympathetically affected that it was sometime before he could trust himself to speak. Bingo, disturbed by these signs, and failing to understand that boys could cry for joy, as well as for grief, flattened himself at Dick's feet and vented a long, deep sigh, which ended in just the faintest inti- mation of a sympathetic whine. Dick was of a very executive turn of mind, and immediately real- izing that it was not a time for tears, he sharply interrupted the senti- mental aspects of the situation, and said : " Just hold that box for a moment — hold it very carefully, you know, for I have a suspicion that these o*her boxes are full of money, and that that plateware and stuff is, at the least, silver. The boxes, we cannot attend to just now, but we can settle about the plate." I ■»■ 268 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES Getting together several of the pieces and examining them closely. by striking them with the knife handle and scraping their edges with the blade, he said: "Jack, those pieces are not only handsome in shape, but they are valuable in material — silvei and gold, as sure as my name is Dick. They would have corroded and rusted into noth- ing long before this if they were not. If I am correct in this, there is a fortune in that plate alone, and the next serious puzzle is, what are we to do with all this stuff ?" " Do with it? Why, we are going to take it home with us, and just shovel it upon father and mother, and have them make tracks from Black Point as fast as they can go. And they shall have a house with twenty rooms in it, and mother shall have servants and have nothing to do but to tell them what to do. And father shall preach, or not, just as he pleases; and if he does preach, he can preach without having to take up any more penny collections for himself; and for the rest of us, we'll get all the freckles off of our faces, and put on decent clothes, and stuff ourselves with books, and " " Hold on therewith your and — ands, Jack, or you'll get swamped worse than any of the wrecks that have been swamped in the waters about this island. Remember that it's easier talking than doing about this stuff we have got on our hands. The trouble will be to get it away from the island, not to say anything about holding on to it while we are here. But, before we borrow trouble, let us finish our examination ; we will decide what is the first best thing to do after we have turned over the rest of that sand and uncovered the rest of the secrets of this old craft. There is a little shelf there on that side of the cabin, and I will put this box of gems up there till we get through." The skeleton group found upon the floor, proved to be the center of interest ; beyond this, nothing of any great consequence was found. There were many old guns and other implements of death, most of which had fallen from racks, traces of which could still be seen on the side walls, The Igpkers and bijrths were all searched, but, be- mmm ON SABLE ISLAND 269 jm closely, edges with .ndsome in as sure as I into noth- this, there zle is, what j/ith us. and aake tracks hall have a .ervants and father shall ach, he can )llections for ;s off of our , with books, sides the mold of decayed clothing and bedding, and instruments connected with navigation, there was nothing else. When the search was completed, Jack, whose active mind had all the while been busy with the whys and hows of things, asked : ' What do you make of it, Dick? What sort of a craft was this? How came these things to be piled up under those skeletons ? And how did the vessel come to be where she is?" " Belay there, Jack, or you'll have a catechism longer than any of those father has got among his books. But I'll tell you what I think about this craft. She was wrecked here probably a hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago ; everything here tells of old times. Since she came here the beach has crept up to her, and the very dunes have risen around her. It is plain that she wasn't a merchant vessel ; she carried too many arm.s for that. She couldn't have been a man of war, for a regular man of war wouldn't be carrying such plunder as we have discovered. I don't believe that she was a privateer, either, for a privateer wouldn't be likely to pick up such things — not unless she cruised all over the world. I believe that this craft was a buccaneer or pirate, such as used to rove the seas and rob everything they could overtake. That book of father's — ' Stories of the Seas ' — that we used to read so much, told all about the high- waymen of the ocean, and how they thought nothing of trips to Cen- tral and South America, and to the East as well as to the West Indies. The arms we have found here are just like some of those described in that book." " But that doesn't explain tb'ngs as we have found them In this cabin," said jack. "They explain themseWes, I think, at least, in part. When the vessel struck here, the first thing the officers would think of would be to save their plunder, and that is why it was placed together on the cabin floor. The three skeletons may be the bones of the three principal officers of the vessel. Something led to a quarrel. One of them was shot, that is plain, and it is just as plain that another was killed by a blow on the head, and 1 believe that that b'ow was given with the butt-end of that big pistol after it had killed the first man-. = ( ! 270 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES ijiipii* m ! !l :\ : !■ That pistol was near the right hand of the man who held the casket in his left hand, who, because of some new and sudden danger to the vessel, was going to look out for number one, just as the others were trying to do. He probably was stabbed to death by that short sword, and so all three lost their lives in the quarrel. It is very singular that they should all be in a heap together, with the plunder so near them. Something must have happened suddenly, or they would not have been where we found them, nor would the valuables have been left here if the other men on board had had a chance to get away with them. I believe that not a man of the crew outlived the wreck." Jack listened to every word of this long explanation as receptively as if it were law and gospel combined, and when Dick stopped, he said : " That seems as straight and plain as father's explanations of Revelation — and is almost as scary. It is awful to think that we have pitched Dune Dale right over a pirate vessel, with skeletons and all that sort of thing on board. We'll have to tear the whole thing down again and build it somewhere else." Dick laughed " If we had not come here," he said, " and put up our cottage, we should not have found these things ; and if we don't stay here now, how are we going to conceal them till we decide what we are to do ? I am a good deal more afraid of the folks who are alive than I am of those who are dead. That last wreck has brought strangers to the island that we don't know anything about. Treas- ures are not picked up every day, and if they knew what was here there might be trouble." " We have got a big rock on our shoulders," said Jack, beginning to see some of the difficulties surrounding their position, " Yes ; a mighty big one, and we have got to keep our heads level. This is what we have got to do : Make a canvas belt for each one of us and sew the stones in, and not let a living soul know anything about them till we ?-e safe back to Black Point again. Do you understand ?" " Just count on me, Dick." " When we have done that, before we open the other boxes, we'll call in Darby and McDonald and see what's in them, and have P. ON SABLE ISLAND 271 he casket iger to the ;hers were lort sword, ry singular sr so near would not have been get away ;he wreck." receptively stopped, he )lahations of link that we th skeletons ir the whole and put up 1 if we don't decide what ks who are has brought lut. Treas- lat was here [k, beginning [p our heads Invas belt for ig soul know It again. Do council as to the next thing that's to be done. I am sure that there is money in those chests, and that everything we have found belongs to us, slick and clear. We can trust those men, and Moline, too. for that matter, but we will leave it to the other two to decide about calling him in. Now, mum's the word about the jewels. It will be time enough to talk about the ownership when we have seen what is done with the other things, the plate ana the chests, which, I believe, will be decided io be ours without a doubt. Not even Darby or McDon- ald are to know anything about the casket. There'll be no questions asked, and so we'll not have to say anything." " I see through your ladder, Dick. I'll not say a word above ground till we get plum home again." " Stick to that, and we'll get home with flying colors. We will leave things here, now, and come down again between nine and ten o'clock and make our belts here, and put the jewels in them and then button the ends of the belts around our bodies tight and fast." " Horrors, Dick! What are you thinking of? You don't want to come among these bones at night, do you?" "Why not? Will it be any darker here at night than it has been during the time that we have been down here ? Get those bones out of your head as quick as you can. If they had done as^ little mis- chief while they were carrying their owners' flesh as they have done since they have been lying here, the spirits that went from them probably wouldn't be having suuh an uneasy time as they are having now. The whole island is a bone yard, so what's the use of being afraid of these, when we are running among skeletons almost everytime we go among the dunes or along the beaches?" " You are getting to be as hardened as an old sinner, Dick." "Vvell, one must have some iron in him in order to get through this world, and we need it now as much as we shall ever need it." boxes, we'll I. and have p. I'll t I IS (j \'A m 1 '>K I KEEPING A SECRET T WAS easy for the Bernard to get into a hole, but getting out was another story. The plank was narrow and steep, while the dog was broad and heavy. Dick reduced the in- cline of the pathway as much as possible, and then com- manded the big intruder to make tracks up the still steep ascent. But Bingo sat down on his haunches at the foot of the plank, and, while wagging his tail quite willingly, looked at the boys appealingly. as if he were saying : " Look here, my young masters, you say that this was a pirate craft ; if that was so, nobody ever walked a plank from her except to his death ; therefore, I pray you have me excused." Failing in their commanding " go," the boys experimented with a persuasive " come," by going up in advance and standing at the head i! 1 i 274 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES of the plank and inviting iiim to follow their example ; yet, so far as he was concerned, the example spoke no louder than the precept — it was a conspicuous failure. Bingo laid down at the foot of the plank, choosing the darkness of the hole rather than the light of the open air. His looks said as plainly as looks could speak : " That is very fine, young gentlemen ! but you are a pair of up-to-snuff lads, while 1 am an old dog, and it is hard to teach old dogs new tricks. I came down without my will, which, as yet, seems to be above ground ; if you can find it, and throw it down, I may be able to get myself out of this box." The boys pushed down another plank, and Dick, going below, fixed it so as to give a wider footing for Bingo's convenience. At the bot- tom Dick said, " go, you scoundrel "; at the top Jack called, " come along. Bingo." Before, the road was narrow and hard to travel ; now, it was broad and easy to go. Bingo thought it just the way to get along with dogs, or rather, for dogs to get along with boys, and, without further demur, dashed up and out. Glad to be relieved from the dampness, darkness and mystery which had so long surrounded him, he bounded away for the fleshpots of the station without so much as even wagging the tip-end of his tail by way of a parting salute. When the boys, having concealed the entrance to the cabin, re- turned to their room, their appetites were clamorously in evidence. The giant's plum-duff, which they found waiting them in the big bowl upon the mahogany center table, was like the manna in the wilder- ness; they ate. and were filled. Without making any more ado by way of elaborating their dinner, they mounted their ponies and gal- loped up the beach for the airing they so much needed. Though their minds were full to the brim with their adventures underground, and though time and again the subject was on their tongues, they, in accordance with their rule, restrained themselves, and succeeded in saying — not a word about it. It was a wholesome lesson, which they often recalled in later life. The hole in the dyke is prevented from becoming larger by keeping it persistently plugged. Many a lad mars his future by not bridling his lips, as many a man spoils his business by neglecting the same ON SABLE ISLAND 275 far as ecept — )t of the it of the •• That [luff lads, w tricks. 56 above 3le to get ■low, fixed ^t the bot- d, '• come to travel ; the way to boys, and, ieved from surrounded ut so much salute, cabin, re- evidence, le big bowl the wilder- lore ado by ;s and gal- Though nderground. les. they, in icceeded in I in later life, by keeping I not bridling ig the same precaution. The open mouth Is the national pitfall. The leaky res- ervoir never gets full. Gab and gush make a hasty mush. A reef in the lip makes a safe trip. When tiie boys went down into the cabin again, they went supplied with pliable canvas with which to make their belts, and carried sail- maker's needles and thread with which to do their sewing. Having been accustomed to making and mending the sails of their Black Point boats, they were at no loss to know how to shape and accom- plish their task. The belts were subdivided into numerous small pockets to prevent the contents from lumping together, and thus be- coming uncomfortable. When dividing the gems, the boys noticed that some were large and others small ; some cut and others uncut ; some set, but most unset; besides, they varied greatly in color and degrees of brilliancy. When done, the belts were buttoned around their waists and they returned to their room, where, finding them- selves fatigued and worn, they threw themselves upon their bed with- out removing their clothes, and, exhausted by the excitement and labors of the day, fell asleep. But Dick was uneasy, even in his sleep; Bingo troubled him, and he suddenly awoke to ask himself : " What if that dog should come here before we are up and scratch that hole open again ? It would be just like him. I'll fix him." And he got out, without waking Jack, and scattered the contents of the pepper box upon the sand covering the boards that concealed the entrance. The precaution was wise. Bingo, curious to know more about that hole in the ground, was on hand early in the morning. He was as- tonished at what he deemed the treachery of his own senses, tor there was not a sign of a hole to be found. Not trusting to his eyes, +ie applied his nose to the ground, and was still more surprised, for he had reason to believe that the sand had turned to pepper. All thought of the previous day's experience was knocked out of his head by the quantity of pepper he had taken into it through the open- ings of his nostrils. The violence of his sneezings prevented his meditations from assuming an intrusive shape, and also awoke the boys to the rescue. 276 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES I ff li ' 111 ■w'l I '■^■' Mr ■t; ■ ■i«ii^!i;!'ii''j.-i When Dick and Jack went out to him. he was pawing his nose with such energy that they could not help laughing, though the tears were running from Bingo's eyes in streams. Yet, true to their rule of reticence, they said not a word as to the cause of his early visit, and immediately set themselves to the work of getting breakfast. Their lack of sympathy was, to Bingo, the unkindest cut of all. Could he have done it, he would have called them two brute boys, and would have eaten them up, and, in his own language, written over their grave the record of his deed, " Et tu brute." Owing to Lanier's weakness, Darby and the surgeon were to visit him to take his depositions on the Aberdeen and Clancy cases, thus saving him the fatigue of the journey to the other end of the island. The boys did not know, however, that Mrs. Darby and Clari were also expected. In the middle of the afternoon, while Dick was taking a nap, Jack was on the beach shooting sand pipers for a supper stew. Dick's sleep ended in a dream that threw him upon the crest of a seventh wave, by which he was transformed into a life-boat, and then pitch-poled end over end toward certain doom. But the seventh wave turned into a reality, for Jack had run into the room and was now shaking him with all his might, and crying into his very ears : "Wake up I Wake up! The Cinderella Carolina is coming down the beach under her top-sails, with two women in her and two men beside her." By the time the boys had put their room in shape for the recep- tion of company, the famous coach was at the front of the veranda, and Mrs, Darby and Clari, and the king and the surgeon were in- specting the architecture of Dune Dale with as much curiosity as if it were the Cathedral of Cologne. The big sofa and chairs upbn the veranda made too great a strain upon the civility of the visiton,, and while the ladies smiled, the men laughed loudly. The boys, having welcomed them, Dick said, while he was help- ing the ladies from their carriage : " If our veranda is such a tickler to you. I am afraid that our parlor will kill you outright." '"'r- The visitors had heard of the furniture lying in stacks upon the T ON SABLE ISLAND 277 beach, but were not prepared for the display in the boys' room. Even the surgeon, who, true to his national traits, seldom laughed till he had first proved to himself that his mirth was justified by the object, waxed so merry over the sight that his boisterousness over- came his gentility and carried the others with it through the sheer force of sympathetic imitation. Since the first selection from the wilderness of furniture on the beach, the boys had added other pieces as the fancy took them, so that there was scarcely room to move about without stubbing the toe against some protruding foot of shipwrecked elegance. What most took the queen's fancy, were two small baby chairs nailed one above the other to one of the uprights of the wall. From the room, they went to the beach, where selections were made for additions to the palace furniture. And, as the visitors were engaged to take tea on the Maskomet, and were going directly on, Dick, leaving the queen and the princess to Jack's civilities, called the king and the surgeon aside, and said : " It will be necessary for you two to spend the night here at Dune Dale. We are in the possession of an important secret which we must share with you. If you think it best, you may bring Captain Moline with you. Don't forget that it will be necessary for you to stay all night." The two men were puzzled by Dick's manner, as well as by the nature of his request, but, thinking that, perhaps, he and Jack had some new light to shed upon the Clancy tragedy, they said they would come and bring Moline with them. " You must manage to come," Dick added, " without letting any- one at the station or on board the Maskomet — not even Mrs. Darby herself — know anything about being called here to consider a secret affair. We don't want any outside talk about it." " Why, lads," said Darby, laughing, " this looks as if you two boys were plotting to annex Sable Island to the United States ; but we'll be on hand, and will get away by saying that we are going to have a night's frolic with you boys." The three men arrived at the cottage a little after nine o'clock, IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) V // // % W.r :/ 1.0 I.I 1.25 '^MIIIIM IIIII2.5 IIIIM iiiiij^ I* III 2.0 |||||m U III 1.6 V] ^ /} /a e". ^1 #3 A ^'V .^ -^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (7)6) 872-4503 V ^^ O o"^ % ^ #^ &>• a v\ A il! I I r 278 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES and were immediately conducted to the annex* where the covering was removed from the entrance to the buried wreck. Lighting candles, the boys disappeared below, and directed their visitors to follow as quickly as they could and to close the entrance with the planks before they left the surface. The men, thoroughly astonished, and withal somewhat overawed by the pit below, at first hesitated to descend. " There is nothing to hurt you," said Jack, patronizingly. When they reached the bottom they were almost speechless. The old woodwork, the stack of ancient arms, the pile of bones, the heap of plate, the iron chests, the disturbed sand, the peculiar manner of the boys, the musty atmosphere and the gloomy dimness formed a scene that was so strikingly mysterious it would have been oppres- sive but for another arrival that served to divert their attention. Unknown to them, the Bernard had followed them at a distance, and when they had gotten fairly into the cavity, he pulled the cover- ing aside and began to work his way slowly down the plank after them, exercising the wisdom gained by his former experience. The surgeon, whose nerves were already at their highest tension, seeing the glare of the brute's eyes, without being able to distinguish his form, uttered a cry of alarm, and this, too, in spite of the contempt he was so constantly pouring upon superstition. " My goodness!" exclaimed Jack, irritably, on seeing what Bingo was doing, " there Is that confounded dog ! he tumbled down here yesterday, but Is coming down now as if he were one of us." Giv- ing Bingo a violent push, which rolled him from the plank to the bottom, Jack went up and closed the opening, and on returning, said to the surgeon, with a laugh : " You thought he was a real ghost, didn't you?" But the surgeon's momentary terror having abated, his Intelligence again asserted Itself, and he said : " There Is an old tradition, backed up by a French account of the buccaneers, that about one hundred and forty years ago, before there was anybody on this Island to look after wrecked people, a buccaneer rover was wrecked on Sable Island with considerable treasure on board. It Is said tl. at only two of the ON SABLE ISLAND 279 loverlng -ighting litors to with the iverawed ss. The the heap (lanner of formed a n oppres- sion. distance, the cover- lank after ice. The on, seeing nguish his contempt rhat Bingo down here IS." Glv- anic to the rning, said real ghost. crew reached the shore alive, and that by accident they ware dis- covered in a half-dead condition and taken to the mainland by the fisherman who found them. It is more than likely that we are now in the cabin of that buccaneer." Dick then gave his account of the discovery of the vessel, and of their own conjectures, formed after making a thorough examination of everything they could find, dwelling especially upon the position of the bones, weapons, plate and chests. " We," he continued. " claim all the valuables we have found as our own by right of our discovery, and ask you to assist us by testify- ing to our discovery and by arranging for the transportation of them to the mainland when an opportunity comes for so doing. " I think that those chests are full of money, and that the plate we have piled up there will be found to be of both silver and gold." Having, in these days, every instance of dishonesty paraded before our eyes in the most glaring colors, we are apt to think that honesty is forgotten the moment opportunity appears. We say that Roe is honest just so long as Doe compels him to be, but the moment Roe gets a good chance to rob Doe without being discovered, his honesty takes wings" and flies away. Yet, there are hundreds of thousands of men, some of whom we meet every day. who would die before they would sacrifice their integrity, or knowingly retain a dollar that didn't belong to them. Happily, for Dick and Jack, the men with whom they were now dealing possessed that kind of honesty which is above suspicion — the kind of honesty that shines the brightest in the highest furnace blasts of temptation. In a matter of fact way, Darby said: " Look here, lads: if we had found this stuff it would have been ours — whatever the value may be. You have found it and it is yours, and we are bound to^ help you all we can to secure it to you and to help you to get it from the island. " We will pay you for all your trouble, and more besides " but Dick was abruptly interrupted by Darby. "Tut, tut! lad," he exclaimea, "that sounds as if you were at- / 280 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES fe- tempting to bribe the king and his advisors. Have a care, or you'll get strung up for high treason." And. while Dick was turning red in the face at the jocular, yet earnest rebuke, Darby, continuing, said : •• Let us see what there is here, and whether or no it is worth talking about one way or the other. *' These chests are full, and, doubtless, with money, or valuables of some other kind," he said, when he and Moline and the surgeon had tested their weight. " There is no sand inside, the chests are too tight and solid for that." " They should be boxed up just as they stand," said the surgeon. And Darby and Moline agreed that this was the best course that could be followed. " * Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise' — till you get safely on the mainland," quoted the surgeon, suggestively. The examination of the plat<;, confirmed Dick's estimate of its value — more than confirmed it, for the surgeon said : " So far as I can make out, this plate is very old, massive, South American Spanish plate, and, to all appearance, there is more gold than silver among it. Those buccaneers were great haters of the Spaniards, you know, and were never happier than when robbing Central and South American Spaniards. From their haunts in Jamaica and Trinidad, they went south oftener than they came north ; this fellow must have been on the track of some treasure ship, or he never would have gotten here. Pos- sibly he Intended to bury his treasures here, though that is not likely." " Let me see," said Moline ; " that plate will make a heavy box by Itself, and the sooner we box it up the better. The boys have most of the station tools here — had them to build their cottage." " And plenty of nails and spikes left over," interrupted Jack. " Then let's get to work and do the boxing before we leave the place," said Darby. The boys pushed down planks from above , produced all the neces- sary tools, nails and spikes, so that in less than three hours the chests and plate were in stout boxes, mdde from plank, securely spiked in every direction. Not content with this, the surgeon suggested that some of the old arms and implements should be boxed by themselves. M -6. 3('=j2:^i79#''T-T?:'."''^"^ ON SABLE ISLAND 2di , or you'U irning red :ontlnulng, It is worth ,r valuables :he surgeon i chests are he surgeon, course that -till you get sly- timate of Us 30 far as I can rlcan Spanish ver among it. /ou know, and uth American lad, they went ve been on the en here. Pos- is not likely." e a heavy box ,oys have most tage." ed Jack, v/e leave the all the neces- lours the chests curely spiked in suggested that by themselves. as specimens of ancient fighting implements, that would not only help to settle the character of the vessel, but be valuable as relics. " But let us settle how this secret is to be kept from the knowl- edge of anybody else on the island till the time comes for the open handling of it," said the practical Darby. "There are strange men here, you know — the crew of the Aberdeen — and we don't want any of them to know anything about this ; indeed, not a living soul should know it but ourselves." " Agree that nothing shall be said about it except when we are all together in this room," said Dick; " that is what Jack and I settled upon as our rule." "That covers the whole case," assented Darby, " and with the entrance covered with sand, as at the first, the whole thing will be as good as blotted out until it becomes necessary to take action for the removal to the tender. " And now let us see if any of these old weapons are worth boxing, as the surgeon suggests," Darby continued. " Better examine the side walls and doors of the room first," the surgeon remarked, and his hint was immediately a:ted upon. There were two doors, one aft and one at the side. On cutting into the end door with the axe, it gave way so suddenly and let in such a mass of sand it was deemed prudent not to make any more experiments in that line. There was a small locker-like door which had escaped the boys* notice, and as it was easily opened with the edge of the axe a candle was held up to expose Its contents. It proved to be a small wine closet, containing two or three dozen bottles set in sockets to prevent them from being rolled about by the action of the waves upon the vessel while at sea. Most of them were full, and the surgeon said that, from long keeping, they were doubtless very valuable, and he also suggested that they should be boxed up to go with the rest. But the boys said they did not wish to have anything to do with wine, new or old ; the best thing that could be done with It was to break the bottles and spill their contents in the sand. " Then we will let them stand there, and when the other things 282 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES are removed, we will turn them over to the medicine chest of the island," said the surgeon. About a score of the old weapons, including the dagger, pistols and short swords, were gathered and boxed by themselves, and with this the work was completed, so far as things below were concerned. When about to ascend, Jack said : " We must have another plank up before we can induce Bingo to go up." *' Oh, he'll follow our example fast enough," Moline answered. " He didn't follow ours," laughed Dick. " That was because you didn't have the authority to back it up ; that's the way with some people, you know ; the crack of a whip makes them as dutiful as saints. Here. Bingo, get out of this." And the Bernard took the plank and went up with the steadiness of a rope-walker, and with as much ease as though he had only two legs to be responsible for, instead of four. The gray of the morning was beginning to show in the east when the work of concealing the entrance was completed. Jack, drawing a long sigh, said : " Well, Dick, when we started from home on that halibut hunt, we didn't expect to catch such a big " Dick suddenly interrupted him with the question : " Did you ever see a grasshopper make a handspring ?" •* What has that to do with this ?" *' No more than we have, now that we are above ground. Grass- hopper is to be the word when we begin to get loose about the mouth." The men laughed, and the surgeon said : " We men will copy your example and ' grasshopper ' one another if we find oursel/es talking when we should keep our secret." " Grasshopper '."exclaimed the king, warningly. '■' Sesame opened the cave for Ali Baba. but Grasshopper beats it out of sight for shutting a secret in," said the surgeon. Let the reader try it a few times when his mouth is in danger of getting the better of his discretion. SOME FRESH SURPRISES HE giant, thinking that the boys' supplies might not be adequate for their guests' appetites, filled a large basket with the best he could produce from his own larder and advanced upon Dune Dale with the intention of being in time to serve as butler while Dick and Jack were eating with the king and his cabinet ministers. When he entered the cottage, the king and the surgeon, with their clothes on, were sound asleep upon the outside of the big bed, while stretched about in various positions on quilts laid upon the floor, lay Moline and the boys, slumbrously dead to all con- 283 ^?ir*^'J. •n like a mother than like anything else," Dick continued ; " and all the rest have done everything they could to make our stay as pleas- ant as possible. Next week we must make one more visit to the palace to see the king and the surgeon, and Mrs. Darby — and the girls, for If they are freckle-faced and dumpy, they are as bright and as sweet as violets." " What will the girls do if we don't marry them ?" said Jack, -blindly, and with a swelling heart, that just at that moment was ready to promise and to undertake anything. "There'd be one of them left in spite of everything." Dick re- plied, beginning to smile ; " and, upon the whole, I think that the others would better be left to keep her and het mother company." "Yes; I guess that's so," assented Jack, dropping anchor again upon the bottom of Dick's older thoughts and judgment. Almost the first thing said to the boys, when they made their last visit to the palace, was : •' Well, lads, have you had many grasshop- pers down your way?" •• Lots and lots of them," Dick answered, "and they have done so well by us that we are going to take some of the breed away with "us to the mainland when we go. They will be a good thing to have around occasionally. Have you had many up here ?" " A few dozen," said the surgeon, " and they have attended so strictly to business that we are beginning to think well of the whole tribe." Darby was a magistrate, and the surgeon was a notary, and in their official capacities they had made out papers certifying to the circumstances attending the discovery made by the boys, but so dis- creetly had they managed it. that, although they had sent a private messenger to Mollne for his signature, the messenger knew nothing of what was going on. And so well had Moline kept his part of the secret compact that the boys themselves were not aware of his signature until the documents were placed in their hands complete in every requirement. " Over this part of the business," said the king, as he placed the papt?rs in Dick's hands, " the grasshopper has no jurisdiction ; the ■HHHi m ON SABLE ISLAND 289 laced the uon ; the king alone is supreme. When it is time for the tender to appear, the surgeon will take up his quarters with you as my representative, and will stay by you till affairs are finished off, you know. My busi- ness will keep me at this end of the island, or I should be on hand also. And, now, having put you in shape as regards these necessary things, we will again abdicate in favor of the grasshopper, lest my wife and the girls should be troubled unnecessarily." Ridiculous as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, that while the boys were making their farewell visit at the palace and roaming among the dunes with the girls, Jack had a return of the matrimonial quandary, but after a most critical re-examination of girl-possibilities, he sagely concluded that the king's daughters were not up to the stands icquired by the circumstances To appease his conscience, however, he patronized them with a very generous respect, and other- wise acted, as Paul says, •• after the manner of men." What the girls thought all the while did not appear, but, judging from their conduct, one might safely say. that they had no more thoughts about matrimony than a chicken has about laying eggs. Nevertheless, they were free to say, that, seeing that Dick and Jack were the c nly boys en the island, they should be very lonely when they were gone. When August, the long looked-tor month, came, the boys were wrought up to a painful state of watchfulness and anxiety. Every hour of daylight was spent in observing the signs of the weather, the force of the surf, the direction of the wind, the state of the sky, and in^ watching for the first appearance of smoke on the horizon. The finer the weather, the more extreme was their anxiety. " Bang — bourn — boum — oum — om — m — I" It was the sound of the signal gun announcing the sighting of the steam-tender in the offing. •* Thank God !" exclaimed Dick, and each hugged the other as if both were turned to bears. The preceding two days had bean so windless, that the sea was al- most as flat as a table, and only the faintest ripples rolled alon^ thQ (1 'Hi 290 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES beach. When the boys went to bed, they said to each other : " She will surely be here to-morrow!" They were not yet out of bed, when the signal gun, announcing the coming of the steamer, was fired at the station, and the entranc- ing reverberations prolonged themselves among the dunes. Everybody was now in a turmoil of haste and preparation. The surgeon came running from the Maskomet, closely followed by Cap- tain Moline from the station. " Your deliverance has come !" shouted the surgeon, as soon as he got in sight. " Look alive, there, boys," said Moline. " The grasshopper has skipped, and my men will be here at the beach with the big life-boat and tackle for the raising of the stuff you've got in your cellar. They thought I had gone out of my mind when I told them that you had some big, heavy packages there that must go on board the steamer at the first outgo of the boats. Lively is the word now, for a few hours may upset the sea again and make it as fretful and as unrea- sonable as ever." When the men went down into the cabin of the old wreck, they were dumbfounded, but as authority was paramount to curiosity now, they had little time to ask questions or to form opinions. Moline kept them on the jump till the boxes were safely in the life-boat. " All aboard, there !" and " Pull away, there !" came in swift suc- cession from the alert Moline. The boys, with the surgeon, were in the stern sheets as the bow of the boat headed for the tender, now in the offing signalling orders to the island people. Dick and Jack were sobbing uncontrollably, with their dimmed eyes turned to a solitary figure on the beach. Poor Jumps! His giant form loomed more largely than ever as it stood in solitary relief against the white of the upper beach. Every stroke of the oars that pulled the boys away pulled at his great heart and wrenched it with agony. The Bernard, at the water's edge, looked toward the receding boat, and alternately whined and barked his farewell. Topsy and Turvy, on the upper beach, stood together, mmma mm ON SABLE ISLAND 291 but, less aware of what was taking place, simply gazed seaward with blunt curiosity. The giant, as if turned to stone, stood watching, watching watch- ing. His eyes were too hot for tears, though his great bosom heaved with short, quick gasps. Only once did he move. Rising in the stern sheets, the boys waved their caps in farewell ; then his great right arm went slowly up toward heaven, and for a moment it was as fixed as iron. And the boys knew that the great palm turned toward them was sending benedictions after them. As the boat drew near the steamer, Dick, who had turned to see if he could get another glance at the giant's diminishing form upon the beach, was startled to hear Jack exclaim : " My God, Dick ! Who are those two men standing by the rail and waving their hats toward us ?" jack could not trust his own eyes, and for a moment Dick was equally doubtful of the evidence of his own sight, but standing up and waiting for the boat to get still closer to make assurance doubly sure, he joyfully exclaimed : " Father and Mr. Uniacke !" " Oh, my boys ! Thank God ! You are safe !" And Mr. Mel- ville, the moment the boys v/ere on the deck of the tender, embraced and kissed them again and again, while Uniacke, whom the reader may remember, was the attorney who was one of the hunting party intro-- duced In the earlier pages of this story, shook them by the hand, and devoted the rest of his energies to fighting back the emotions that threatened to play havoc with his facial property and his voice, as well. '• And mother — mother ! How is she ?" Jack asked, anxiously, as soon as he regained command of himself. ' Rather poorly, boys, and no wonder, considering what she has been suffering on your account ; yet not so poorly as to prevent her from becoming herself again, when she finds that you are safe. She and all the rest of the family are in Halifax." " Glory, glory !" e.vclaimed Dick, who had already begun to think of the lorg distance between Halifax and Black Point, and of the days that must pass before home could be reached. " I have sold Black Point," Mr. Melville went on, " to the hunting ■' 292 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES club of which our friend, Mr. Uniacke, is the president, and have gotten more for it than I ever expected to realize, since that storm that upset us." " Good-by, old Black Point — you hateful old hag of a place !" ex- claimed Dick, in the boundlessness of his ^satisfaction. " But do you mean to say that you have already moved away from there ?'* " Yes, we have moved to Halifax, into a nice little house on Tower Road not far from the public park and gardens. Black Point be- came so hateful to us all, and it was such a torture to be there, that we removed as soon as the sale was completed. The Black Point cottage is now turned into a hunting lodge, and is in charge of a French lodge-keeper." " He can keep it, for all we care," said Jack, who was beginning to feel that he needed something to tie him down to the tender, he was getting so airy and light-hearted. " But, I don't understand how it happens thai you are here," said Dick, somewhat confused by the glare of the light that was so rapidly conce itrating itself upon the family destiny. "Well, that is easily explained, my boys. I believed that you had fetched up on Sable Island, and so did every old seaman with whom I conversed about the matter. The hunting club believed the same thing, and Mr. Uniacke got permission from the government for me to accompany the tender on her annual trip, and he had become so much interested in your fate, that, when it came time for the steamer to leave, he came aboard and stayed by me. I was in such an agony of anxiety on the way here. I do not know what I should have done if he had not been with me He, it was, who first discovered you standing on the beach, as he looked through the steamer's glass. Then the load I had been carrying so long dropped into the sea." "God bless you, for your kindness to my father!" said Dick, gratefully, taking the friendly attorney by the hand and shaking it with a vigor that made him wince, while Jack, taking his other hand, caressed it as softly as though it were his mother's cheek. •• Yes," said the attorney, affecting to ignore their action, and re- ferring directly to what Mr. Melville had said. " when I saw you ■MMH THANK god! you ARE SAFE!'* 803 •■• »";»-• JTHa04*W/»l»«».-.i„».-,_„(„,vi, J, j|<4,», ffiBE8 ON SABLE ISLAND 295 through the glass, I was immensely relieved, I can assure you. But, I saw an enormously big fellow there with you — so enormous, that, when I saw him kissing you I was afraid you might tumble into his mouth, and so get lost in spite of our coming all the way here after you." " That was the giant. Jumps," said Jack, laughing at the pleasant bit of fiction the lawyer had thrown out to relieve the tension which had become so straining to his professional serenity. " Jumps — the best old giant you ever heard of, and I wish he was with us this very minute!" exclaimed Dick, feeling as though the giant had a rope around his heart and was trying to pull him back to the shore. All the boats of the station were now at the tender's sides, and, with the arrival of Darby and the crew of the wrecked Aberdeen, and the hurly-burly of unloading the annual supplies for the island into the life-boats, further chance for conversation was. in a measure, cut off. The has*e of everything was increased by the appearance of gray weather in the north, and the steady rising of the wind. Captain Fortescue's orders were flying about thick and sharp as driving hail, and it was not long before the boats headed for shore and the steamer turned for the open sea, and made haste to get out of the dangerous network of shoals before the mists shut down upon her. The boys found themselves freshly tried, when Darby, the sur- geon, and Moline and others among the Sable Island people bade them good-by. As the tender was sometimes obliged to hover around Sable Island days before she could effect a landing, no one could tell when she would arrive at Halifax. From the time of the departue of Mr. Mel- ville and his steadfast friend, Mr. Uniacke, Mrs. Melville's suspense increased hourly. Sable Island was her only hope, if that failed her, the fate of her boys was sealed. At the end of the fifth day after the departure of her husband, the door opened without ceremony, and Dick and Jack were in her arms before the family had time to get into the hallway, and the long year of susi)ense and sorrow was at an end. ■■«■ 296 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES It was some time before Mrs. Melville could collect herself enough to notice that her husband had not yet come in, but, when she did, there was a shade of anxiety on her face, when she asked : " Where is your father? Why is he not with you?" *'0h, we left him and Mr. Uniacke to look after our baggage," said Dick, so cheerfully, that her uneasiness was immediately quieted. But the idea of baggage appeared so ludicrous, that she said : " You went from home with so little baggage, I do not see what you could have to bring bad: with you." "Wait till you see !" cried Jack, with so much impulsiveness, and with so much meaning sticking out of his eyes and hanging down over the whole of his face, that he was in danger of letting his lips run away with him prematurely. " Grasshopper!" shouted Dick, with a frown. jack shut himself up as tightly as a clam, whose mud-hole has been suddenly invaded. But little Mary, who had a way of taking words at their straight meaning, after looking around for some trace of the insect, which was very obnoxious to her, innocently asked : " Where is it ?" The boys laughed, but before they could be pressed for an ex- planation, a dray drove up to the door, followed by Mr. Melville, Mr. Uniacke, and three laboring men. With the assistance of these aids the four boxes addressed to Richard and John Melville, were con- veyed to the sitting-room, to the great wonder of the family. •* That's the blam'dest heavy baggage I ever handled," growled the drayman, wiping the sweat from his forehead. " Of course it's heavy," said Uniacke ; " it a specimen of Sable island sand. Here is your pay," and he pulled out a handful of silver and distributed it among the m.en, adding, " don't get drunk because you have got more than your due." •• I'm a reg'lar teetotaller," said one of the men, with a significant leer, •• but thankee all the same, very much indeed.' " I thought that the sand was the best grasshopper that I could use with them," said the attorney to Dick and Jack, as the men departed, »'; .'iJi/,?;.i«i, ^/t/5 •».}#?• .n'iliiit: f-f'V ON SABLE ISLAND 297 for he, as well as Mr. Melville, had been told the story of the con- tents of the boxes. Mrs. Melville looked her inquiries from one to another, puzzled at this recurrence of the long-legged intruder's name, but her attention was immediately diverted by the necessity of preparing tea for the so happily increased household. The reunion at the family table, after so long a separation, was something to be "remembered. Nor was its joy in any way embar- rassed by the presence of the genial lawyer, whose pleased sympathy bubbled over in the way of questions and cross-examination, which elicited from Dick and Jack a minute account of their voyage to, landing upon, and experiences among the dunes and people of the " Cemetery of the Sea." At the table nothing was said about the discovery of the buccan- eer rover ; the grasshopper lingered among those boxes as if unwill- ing to depart, yet his legs were drawn up under him for a big leap. After tea, tools were brought in. The box of old arms was first opened, and while they excited the wonder of the family, the attor- ney, an ardent antiquarian, was delighted with their antiquity. Then came the uncovering of the plate and the story of the old vessel, fol- lowed quickly by the unboxing of the' chests in the presence of the amazed Mrs. Melville and the children. Expectation became pain- fully acute, as Mr. Melville, and the attorney, and the boys, with the aid of cold chisels and hammers, broke open the chests, the smaller one of which was filled to the brim with gold pieces, and the larger, with silver and occasional pieces of gold. "To whom does all this belong?" asked Mrs. Melville, now paler than usual, under the extreme excitement of the moment. " To Richard and John Melville," said the attorney, with the dog- matic air of one who was delivering the decision of the law, •* and to those with whom they see fit to share it. True, it is treasure trove, but is of such a nature that there can be no other claimants for it. The papers furnished by the authorities of the island are in my hands, and the affidavits are good against the world, as I am most happy to say. Mr. Melville must immediately qualify as the guardian of the 298 D!Cn AI4D JACK'S ADVENTURES boys. The treasure should be deposited in the Provincial Bank at the earliest moment — say. to-morrow at farthest. I should say, from a rough guess at the value- including the gold and silver plate — that there is not less than a quarter of a million dollars under your eyes. The r.ews of the safety of the boys is already bruited abroad in the city, and 1, with the permission of Mr. Melville, who has asked me to serve as his lawyer in this whole business, shall make out a state- ment for the press in a general way, but, of course, we must apply the grasshopper to every matter of detail, and then await results, of which, however, there need not be the slightest fear. As a matter of caution, Mr. Melville and the boys should stay in this room to- night, though there is not the slightest reason to fear intrusion from any unwelcome visitors. Now, I will go and attend to the newspapers, while you look after things here. So, grasshopper, and good night." And the attorney departed. •* Father, where is your hat?" asked Dick, in the silence which followed. " My hat? There it is on the table." said Mr. Melville, arousing himself from the stupor of his astonishment. " Well, just take it and hold it In your hand for a moment till we come back." Mr. Melville held the hat, looking at it as if it were an elephant. The boys went into another room, but soon returned bearing their canvas belts with them. "Pass the hat for the last collection you'll ever take up, as a preacher, for yourself," said Dick. " Don't be afraid 1 Hold it out." Almost involuntarily, Mr. Melville held the hat out, while the boys dropped the belts into It, Dick saying, as they fell Into the crown : "There, count that collection, and tell me, if you can, how many pennies you have hauled in for your last preaching collection," The father held the belts up, after he had taken them out of the hat, and, in a dazed way. looked to the boys for an explanation. " Here, take this jack-knife and walk into them," said Jack, hand- ing the knife to his father, and then striking his favorite Napoleonic attitude, to Dick's great amusement. ON SABLE ISLAND 299 " But be csi-eful. father, that you do not drop anything." Jack cau- tioned, with an authority in keeping with his attitude. " Here, open the belts over this bowl," said Dick handing his father a bowl from the buffet. Mr. Melville turned the belts upon the table, and after fingering them slightl/, smiled, saying: " You have brought us specimens of Sable Island pebbles, I suppose ; you were always famous for picking up pretty pebbles at Black Point." "Pebbles!" exclaimed Dick, "it is a good deal easier to find diamonds on Sable Island than it is to find anything In the shape of a pebble." " If you had said specimens of Sable Island diet in the shape of peas and beans, you would have been, nearer the mark," Jack added. At the first rip in the first belt he cut into, a small rain of patter- ing brilliants fell upon the table, where they flashed in the lamplight as though enjoying a luxury they had long been denied. With a set face he opened each division of each belt into the bowl, and after turning each belt inside out and satisfying himself that they were empty at last, he ran his fingers into the bowl, and after examining several jewels, singly, said : " Boys, where did you get those stones?" ".They were in a small box by themselves," said Dick. " Do you know what they are ?" " If we had not suspected, we should not have taken so much pains to conceal them. Not a soul knows about them, and it was to keep our knowledge of them to ourselves that we said grasshopper when- ever we found that we were in danger of speaking about them to each other ; that always made us shut our mouths as if we were in danger of letting one of those long-legged fellows leap down our throats." " This is an amazing piece of business all the way through, but this hat collection, as you call it. is the most amazing part of all." • J r-«i'' ■• •i.^J'.'«:t-.-;>iB jijL'lf :;i%ririt's;.^'>f:ii'tit; ■MMM ^■ THE END THAT IS ONLY A BEGINNING HE Melvllles passed a rest- lessly happy night. In their most wakeful hours it seem- ed as though they were asleep and dreaming, it was so difficult for them to realize their changed cir- cumstances. When day- light came things became more palpable and real. The roomy, handsome cot- tage, the beautiful surround- ings, the quaint old capitol of the Province, the loom- ing fortifications of the cita- del above them, the big public buildings, the open park and gardsns, the ab- sence of the sea's mono- tonous roar, and above all, the fact that they were no longer to be exiles at Black Point, filled the boys with exuberant delight. They kissed their mother, swung the children around them in dizzy whirls, and cracked jokes with their father, with the most reckless temerity. 301 / ■••i»».'.tttfui'uii-xitir'ii"*'-'* 302 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES " If old Gray Blanket were here," said Jack, at breakfast, " he would feel sourer than ever, for all his terrible croakings about us wicked boys have run ashore, bottom up. I wonder where he is, I'd like to see him just once more." '* Mr. Gray is here in Halifax," Mr. Melville said, soberly. " Gracious 1" Dick exclaimed ; " I hope that we shall not have him preaching around and into us for another whole week — he's an awtully sticky oid fog-bank." " There is not much danger of that now, for he is in the insane asylum. He was so disappointed and angry because the world did not come to an end at the time he predicted, that he became rav- ingly crazy, and now he spends his time cursing the churches, the Bible, and everything connected with them." " Well, he'd better be doing that than to be using the Bible and the churches as scarecrows to everything that's hopeful and cheery." And there was so much rugged force in Dick's unex- pectedly mature observation that Mr. Melville let it pass without at- tempting to qualify it. Mr. Uniacke came in after breakfast with a copy of the Halifax Herald containing a sample of the item furnished by him to the city press. After reciting the main facts concerning the disappearance and the recovery of the boys, it briefly and indefinitely alluded to the finding of the buccaneer vessel and articles of considerable value to the amateur antiquarian. " There." said he, " that will be a nine-days' wonder, and then it will be eclipsed by some other sensation, which will last for another nine days — or less. Meanwhile we must get the money into the bank to Mr. Melville's credit as guardian to the boys. The confessional uses the grasshopper to cover its penitents, the medical profession uses it to cover its patients, and the banks use it to cover their depositors, and we must continue to use it to prevent ourselves from becoming too conspicuously pror. '- nent, you know, for where the carcass is, there the eagles are gathered together. If anybody can get a chance to put you into chancery they'll do it as a matter of course, for the lawyers ON SABLE ISLAND 303 fast. " he about us he is, I'd ly. I not have —he's an the insane world did came rav- rches, the t Bible and jpeful and Ick's unex- without at- the Halifax to the city appearance iided to the e value to and then it ill last for the money the boys, penitents, the banks lue to use sly proT. '- [eagles are It you into le lawyers are master hands at laying out pickings for themselves. But if they undertake to get into this business they'll run themselves so hard against the wall that they'll get only skinned noses for their pains." Mr. Melville brought out the bowl of jewels and told their story. The fertile attorney was overwhelmed with fresh surprise. " Why, Melville, there is a fortune in that collection alone ! Your boys are the luckiest dogs alive ! Here is more business for that grasshop- per — the heaviest he ha' liad on hand yet." Mr. Melville thought that, having managed the business so far. the grasshopper was good enough for future trust, and he described the scene of the previous evening. The lawyer laughed vociferously, saying : "If every preacher could take up a hat collection like that, it would do one of two things: it would either empty the pulpits and leave us without preaching, be- cause the preachers wouldn't want to preach any more, or it would fill up the churches, because the preachers wouldn't have to take up any more collections, which would be the most drawing card they could play, there are so many people in this world that are hunting for churches which have no collection-traps connected with the pulpit to be sprung upon them when they are trying to settle down for their usual portion of Sunday medicine." And the lawye. nudged the minister, as if expecting a disclaimer. But Melville only laughed, for he understood his friend well enough to knov/ that this was but the foam of a stream that at bottom was both clear and strong. Speaking more seriously. Uniacke went on to say ; " There is no adequate market for such jewels as these in Halifax ; you will have to go to New York, or to London or Paris to dispose of them to advantage, and, upon the whole, I think Par'" is the place. And, look here, Melville, you ministers have so much con- science and we lawyers have so little, you will have to take me to Paris with you to keep the continental sharks from making mince- meat of you." 304 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES Ul -: " If I must go into the world-market with those stones, you will certainly have to accompany me," Mr. Melville replied. Uniacke was an invaluable counsellor. Some legal busybodies, remotely connected with the government, tried to make a treasure trove case out of the boys' discoveries, but failed so signally that all fear of disturbance from that quarter or on that ground vanished forever. The wealthy club, to which the lawyer belonged, purchased most of the plate for their clubhouse at a bullion valuation, and the old arms also passed into the possession of the club. One of the rings picked up among the bones in the buccaneer cabin contained a diamond solitaire of great value, and this was de- posited with the other stones. The remaining rings were kept as souvenirs, while the locket- a plain gold one, containing the likeness of a beautiful yourtg girl — was given to Mrs. Melville. Mr. Melville and the lawyer went to Paris and sold the stones to such good advantage that the Melville assets were almost doubled. During the boys' minority, Mr. Melville, having no settled charge — excepting the interests of his sons — was somewhat inclined to overdose them with frequent sermons on the responsibilities of wealth. After one of these moral deluges, Dick said : " The best way for us to practice what you preach is to remember the poor, isn't it?" "Yes, that is the best possible way," Mr. Melville promptly assented. " Well, that dear, old. Sable Island giant is a poor man, and the first thing Jack and I want to do is to deposit one thousand dollars to his credit in the bank, and send him the certificate the very first chance we get." Mr. Melville was inclined to demur to such a beginning as this, but the boys were so persistent, he was compelled to execute their wishes. Little by little, however, Sable Island receded from their view, but ON SABLE ISLAND 305 , you will isybodies, L treasure ly that all vanished ised most id the old buccaneer lis was de- •e kept as ie likeness sold the ere almost no settled lat inclined onsibilities best way the poor, ! promptly n, and the dollars to very first ng as this, jcute their r view, but not without being first substantially remembered in the way of a large library sent for +he benefit of the lifemen, and the founding of a fund for the relief of such as might be injured or disabled in the island service. The boys often laughed at their precocious discussion of the mat- rimonial question while on the island, and whenever they recalled the images of the king's daughters, the " freckles, pudginess and patches " came back to them with vivid distinctness. They were getting ac- customed to the clothes, manners and usages of the young people of Halifax society, but whether for better or worse, it would be difficult to decide, although it is safe to say that the society point of view, depending, as it does, so much upon the kind of clothes one wears, is far from being an elevated point of view. The butterfly, notwith- standing its wings and colors, carries the body of a grub, and the snob is only a grub with wings. The Melvilles lived seven happy years in Halifax, and then, in pur- suit of larger business advantages and facilities, removed to Boston, where, after a few years of apprenticeship in an extensive ship sailing firm, the sign, " Melville Brothers," indicated the headquar- ters of a firm whose ships and steamers did a \wide ocean carrying business, and whose reputations stood promine.it among the rising men of the •' Puritan City." The brothers, entirely content with the comforts of the house which they had bought on Commonwealth avenue for the use of the united family, and much absorbed by their growing and very lucrative business, were quite indifferent to female society,, and were rapidly acquiring bachelor habits and tastes, which bade fair to keep them single for life. Indeed, they had gone so far as to agree to remain single until each had made a choice which should not only suit himself, but his brother also. The folly in the hide of the boy often sticks till it becomes a part of the soul of the man ; and as on Sable Island the boys built their matri- monial castles on improbabilities, so now we find them doing the same thing, although so mature and worldly-wise. They had also "n^tvnti,t*^'l»iittiiHititmiMti1t»': , .:»<*i|* r(*v*i ON SABLE ISLAND 307 J mar- ! about ley be- hought emont- Dple of young . The ess and he cos- le grace de Dick ack just 3 aston- ^hile the father who, we here in at while freckle- esent of jo much e wagon liveness, )eg your nderella other by I came / excuse and my companion is Dick, my brother. We read of the arrival this morning of the steamer commanded by our old friend. Captain Darby, and intended to board her this afternoon in the hope of renewing our acquaintance with him ; if we had known that his daughters were with him, we should have paid our respects at once." The Darbys blushed crimson when they recalled what had been said about the physicial and mental peculiaiities of the Melville brothers. But Alice, who retained her natural merry frankness, said : " Of course you overheard Belva's flattering allusion to you ?" " Yes," said Dick, laughing, " and if you will pardon me for say- ing it, we will acknowledge that you did but pay us off in our own coin, for we have often spoken of you as the freckle-faced, awkward Darby girls. But we cannot revenge ourselves upon one another in this public place ; if you will step into our carriage, which is at the door, we will drive down to the wharf, take in the king and drive you to our home, where you must stay while you are in the city. There we can revenge ourselves at our leisure. Your purchases can be put with ours and sent to our home. The old footing was so quickly and naturally restored, that the ladies consented to drive down to their father's steamer, and condi- tioned further proceedings upon his opinions, saying that he still ruled as of yore. This was Darby's first voyage to Boston as master of the passen- ger steamer Joe Howe, of which he was the principal owner. He stood on the wharf attending to some details of unloading, when a handsome carriage, with a liveried driver, drove up quite near to him, and a voice from within, said ; " Ho there, your majesty. Darby, Rex I will you have the kindness to step here a minute, and excuse me for not getting out till a little later ?" Dazed by a salutation that savored so strongly of old-time asso- ciations, yet unable to recognize the voice. Captain Darby drew near the carriage, where he was still more surprised to find his two daughters in the company of two strange gentlemen. " Well, sir, you have the advantage of me," he said to Dick, who was smiling In spite of his effort to keep a sober face, " yet you use '<^>,ntitii':fmi;iiiiiitiiimkHi>imu:itiiimuHHHiit!Hr 308 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES terms that must have been furnished you by someone who has known something ? ♦ my former life on Sable Island," "Why, C .n Darby, don't you recognize us?" asked Jack, as the captain looked around for an explanation. •• I know those girls pretty well, but the others of you I don't know from Adam," said Darby, bluntly. " We are the Dick and Jack whom you once summoned to the palace over the signature of Darby, Rex," Dick explained; " we'll get out of the carriage and then, perhaps, you'll know us." " By Jove, gentlemen ! I can detect just a little of the old boys in you — just enough to make it safe for me to give you a real hearty shake of the hand ; but the clothes, and the moustaches, you know, and all the rest are confoundedly confounding." And he shook hands with a warmth that showed he was in no real doubt as to their identity. " I heard this morning," he continued, " that you were here in Boston, and that you had become real upper-crust sort of chaps." " We belong to the under-crust," said Jack, laughing. " So much the better, for it is the under-crust that holds the pie, after all, Mr. Melville." "Oh, don't 'mister' us, captain," said Jack, "we have been 'missing' and 'mistering' one another in the carriage at a great rate, but we two, at least, are plain Dick and Jack, still." " But where did you pick up the girls ?" The daughters explained, before the Melvilles had time to answer, and, in the end, the bluff old captain joined them in the visit to the Melvilles, and the acquaintance, thus renewed, was as delightful as it was unexpected. While they were recounting Sable Island experiences, the Mel- villes were particular to inquire about the German giant. A German emigrant ship was castaway on the island and the giant was married to one of the young German women by the king, by virtue of his office as a magistrate, " When I left the island and removed to Yarmouth to take charge of my vessel," said Darby, " which was four years ago, he left In the tender with me. He drew from the bank the money you left si'tit:.>:.^iiuzi^dtmiiimUi$i{i4iiAe*i^Himirift?rjr'-r:i{it!iiUli t^^^ ON SABLE ISLAND 309 known ick, as t know to the " we'll boys in hearty u know, ; shook to their ere here chaps." the pie, ^e been a great I answer, it to the htful as he Mel- German married le of his le charge je left in r you left there for him and came over to the States. Since that time I have heard nothing of him." *^nd, speaking of marriage, not long after the reunion of the Mel- villes and the Darbys, there was a double marriage in Yarmouth performed by the Rev. William Melville. Dick and Alice made one pair, and Jack and Belva the other, and this, too, in spite of the fact that Dick had said that the Darby girls were freckle-faced and pudgy, and Belva had said that the Melville boys were lean, freckle-faced, awkward lads, remembered only for the Cinderella Carolina cask- boat carriage. When Father Time revenges himself in such pacific ways as this, we can well afford to let him have his will. There were now two domestic establishments in Boston, instead of one, and two summer Melville residences at Nahant, as well. Dick called his Nahant villa Maskomet, and lack named his Dune Dale. Fortunes so seldom come by accident, it were folly for anyone to expect to stumble upon them unawares. Dick and Jack never for- got that the foundation of their fortune was laid upon the spoils of buccaneers, and hence, they always felt that they were in duty bound to act as the administrators of that Providence which had made them the discoverers of the long-hidden wealth. Whether we have much or little, duty abates not jot nor tittle. Acquisition in any way involves inquisition in the final say. "Look here. Jack!" exclaimed Dick, one morning, as he was glancing over a local morning paper, and then he read the following paragraph : " The German giant, who keeps a grocery store on Central Square, East Boston, lost the most of his stock in the fire which occurred over there last night. He and his wife and child liv ^ over the store, and it was with difficulty that his three-year-old daughter was saved from the flames. Mr. Schomps had no insurc^nce, and his loss is, ^ therefore, very heavy." "Can it be possible," Dick continued, "that this Is our Jumps? 1 know that people, who have been well acquainted in the past, may, In these city populations, get close together and yet remain as ~^.trt»f%tt!.mii..uititiaiiti*ttiftnmiSiiiUHititi9i4itH;tiitH mm 310 DICK AND JACK'S ADVENTURES Ignorant of one another as If they were at the opposite ends of the earth." "That must be the dear old fellow," said Jack, energetically. " The name, nationality and description cannot be mere coin- cidences." '* It will be easy enough to find out, and I will take the ferry and go over and see for myself," Dick responded, reaching for his hat. Behind the blackened counter Jumps, for It was he, stood taking a sort of inventory of what the fire had left, and he was looking as disconsolate as though he had not a friend in the world. His face, being turned toward the shelves, he did not observe Dick when he came In at a brisk pace and walked directly up to where he stood. So many persons had come in and gone out, from mere curiosity, that jumps had ceased to notice them. " Grasshopper, Jumps!" said Dick, who recognized the giant the moment he entered the store. The giant turned as quickly as If he had been slewed by a whirl- wind. The English language was still the incurable sore of his life, as was immediately evinced, when, after gazing at his visitor, he said, in the broken patois, which was such music to Dick's ears : *' Who vas dot ? She vas nefer say dot grasshobber — Jumps, mitout she vas see dot Saple Island ven I vas mit it myselluf. Ach I you vas say dot so like mein poys, Dick und Jack, dot mein heart veels badt." The levity ran out of Dick as water runs from a barrel when the bottom is knocked out, and his voice quivered, when he said : " 1 am Dick Melville, and I am here to take possession of you again for myself, and for Jack, who lives in Boston with me." " Mein gracious ! Gott in HImmel! • her vas say dot some more right ervay, pooty qvick, dot vire may purn me some more, und 1 don't mind her nodt a pit." And, greatly agitated, the giant came from behind the counter and laid his great hands upon Dick's shoulders, and, after looking down into his eyes for a moment, said : " Ach I I vas see dot Dick pehint dose eyes, und her vas look at ON SABLE ISLAND 311 5 of the getically. re coin- ferry and lis hat. od taking )oking as His face, : when he he stood. ! curiosity, ! giant the by a whlrl- of his life, visitor, he ick's ears: Tips, mitout Ach! you mein heart el when the said: "I you again ly dot some some more, 3d, the giant upon Dick's oment, said : vas look at me und say grasshobber, Jumps, some more, und I vas say grass- hobber, jumps, some more right ervay myselluf efery tay." h\ the back of the store, among the ruins, sat a woman holding a flaxen-haired child to her bosom. The mother's tace was an epitome of the ten commandments, and the child's, a picture of the inno- cence that is above all law. *' Bauline ! " Bau — line 1 Her vas coom here right ervay, pooty qvick, as efer she vas 1" When Pauline and the child stood by the side of the giant, he said: "You vas see dot vine shentleman, don't it; und vat you dinks ? Dot yas mein Dick, und dot Jack vas ofer in Poston all dose dimes mit him efer so long dime ; und you vas see dem, und 1 vas see dem some more myselluf : und her vas see dot papy und mein vrow. Ach, Bauline I I vas so habby as her nefer vas pevore." And the giant got so inextricably mixed up In his speech that he paused to disentangle himself. Presently he broke out again with : " Und vat you dinks, mein poy ? Dot vas dot Bauline vat hear me say Dick und Jack vive tousan dimes und more pesides. Her vas vrecked on dot island, und I vas lofe her. und she vas lofe me ; und ven she vas hafe dot papy ve vas lofe some more petter dan dot udder dimes. Ach. I vas so habby!" His troubles were at an end. The Melvilles built for him a hand- some lodge on their Nahant estate, and made him the keeper of Dune Dale and Maskomet. Here, with his little family, living among the arbors, and the flowers, and the trees, and serving the men who loved him so well, he knew neither want nor worry. Of all the investments the Melville brothers made, none was more successful than the one made in the great-hearted, child-like, honest German giant. Jumps, otherwise known as Nicholas Schomps, the keeper of the Melville lodge at Nahant. He was a perennial bless- ing, done up in one of the Almighty's original packages. The Melvilles were not the men to glut themselves with wealth against a day when death should force them to vomit It forth In un- willing throes ; nor were they the men to hold their gains for loud-sound- ^>^»i$imK.ut.ii,ititit-ititUit*im»UiiiitHiitUtlilHi*il'i. "A clean, healthy, lively book" — Boston Times. PROEUSEI.Y Ili^ustrated by our own artist — An admirable story. Silk cloth — stamped in ink and gold — 50 cents. Buckram — gilt top — embossed in gold — 76 cents. Large 8vo. edition — gilt top — gold stamped — ^$1.00. Laird & Lee, Chicago. ^^r,im'nmtkii^mmm^Bmi^^,mntiimv3x;i. YEI.LOW BEAUTY— A story about cats— by Marion Martin. Illustrations by Henriette Ronner — the g^',atest living painter of cats — Medallist Royal Belgian Academy. "A gem among gems" — A penectly lovely book. Stiff boards — with exquisite cover in five colors — 60 cents. Laird & I^ee, Chicago. ffMi^u»Munmmmn,miimLiuuw!uiiiiniitu4n nuM :iU