CHAPTER
X.
WHOSE ARE THEY ?
AND WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?
"LOOK here," said Sumner, sternly, to the Negro,
after his excitement had somewhat subsided, "didn't
you try to steal one of our guns last night?"
"Yes, honey, I's afeared I did," confessed the
black man, humbly. "But I didn't know hit war you,
Marse Summer, an' I did want er gun so powerful
bad."
"I'm glad that mystery is cleared up, at any rate,"
said Worth, with a relieved air. "And I'm glad to find
out that I was right about some one being in the camp,
too. Now I wonder if lie doesn't know something about
our canoes?"
"Do you, Quorum, know anything about the canoes
that we came here in?" asked Sumner.
"No, I don't know nuffin' 'bout no cooner. I's bin
wonderin' what sort of er boat you'll come in, an' er
lookin' fer him, but I don't see him nowhere."
"I suppose you would have stolen it if you had
found it?"
"Maybe so, maybe so. Ole Quorm not 'sponsible fer
what him do when be bein' hunted like er 'possum or er
'coon. Yo' like 'possum when he roasted, Marse
Summer?"
"Indeed I do when you roast him, Quorum. Why ? Have
you got one?"
"Yes sah, cotch him in er trap dis berry mawnin'. I
jist settin' hit agin when yo' come er trompin' troo
de trees an' scare de pore ole niggah 'mos' to def.
Now, if yo' say so, we go roas' him, and hab berry
fine suppah."
"Certainly I say so. You lead the way, and we'll
follow you. I tell you what, Worth, we've struck it
rich in falling in with one of the best cooks on the
reef."
"I don't know how I shall like 'possum," replied
Worth, "for I have never eaten any; but I am sure it
will make fully as good a meal as raw coconut. I do
wish, though, that we had some bread, or at least some
crackers, and a little butter."
And sugar and coffee and bacon, and a cooking
outfit," laughed Sumner. "I wouldn't mind spending a
few days here if we had all those things."
"Wouldn't it be fine?" replied the boy, who had all
his life reveled in luxuries that he hardly cared for,
but would now have appreciated so highly the commonest
of what are generally regarded as necessities.
As they talked in this strain, they followed the
negro through the narrow trail leading back from the
coconut grove to his camp. It was but a short distance
from the place where Sumner had taken his header into
the ty-ti bush. Here Quorum had built himself a snug
palmetto hut in a place capitally concealed from
observation, and had managed to surround himself with
a number of rude comforts. A fire was smoldering in a
rough stone fireplace, and from an adjoining limb hung
the 'possum that they were to have for supper.
"Well," exclaimed Sumner, looking about him, "I
don't see but what you are living like an African
King, Quorum. Have you had plenty to eat since you
came here?"
"Yes, sah. Plenty such as hit is -- 'possum, 'coon,
turtle, fish, oyster, conch, coconut, banana, limes,
lemons, an' paw-paw; but no terbakker. I tell yo',
sah, dat a berry pore place what hab no
terbakker."
"So you want tobacco to make you happy, and Worth
wants bread and butter, and I want coffee. It seems
that we all want something that we haven't got, and
aren't likely to get in this world, doesn't it? But,
Quorum, what on earth are you throwing all that iron
into the fire for? It won't burn." "No, him won't
burn," answered the negro, chuckling at the idea, "but
him good to bile do wattah." As neither of the boys
had the least idea what he meant, they watched him
curiously. The iron that he had thrown into the fire,
which he now heaped with wood, consisted of a number
of old bolts that be had obtained from some wreckage
on the beach. While these were heating, he filled a
small hollow place in the rocks with water, and when
the bolts were red-hot he dropped them into it. In
about two seconds the water was boiling. Throwing a
few handfuls of ashes into the boiling water, he
soused the 'possum in it and held him there several
minutes. After this he scraped the animal with a bit
of iron hoop, and to the surprise of the boys, its
hair came off almost without an effort. In a minute it
was as bare as a suckling pig, which it greatly
resembled. Shortly afterwards it was cleaned, washed,
and ready for roasting. Just here Sumner proposed that
they return to their own camp, and do the roasting
there, as from where they now were they had no chance
of seeing any boats that might pass the island. As
Quorum no longer felt the necessity for hiding, he
readily agreed to this, and carrying with them the few
articles belonging to him that were worth removing,
they started through the woods towards what the boys
already called home. The afternoon was nearly spent
when they entered the clearing and came in sight of
their own little lean-to. Sumner, who was some
distance in the lead, was the first to reach it. The
others saw him suddenly stop, gaze at the hut as
though fascinated by something inside of it, and then,
without a word, start on a run towards the beach. This
curious action excited Worth's wonder; but when he
reached the hut he did exactly the same thing. When
Quorum, who came last, reached it, he gazed in
open-eyed wonder, but did not move from the spot. A
smile gradually overspread his face, and, with a
long-drawn sigh of happy anticipation, he uttered the
single word, "Terbakker." "Do you see it?" asked
Worth, breathlessly, as he joined Sumner on the beach.
"No; but perhaps it is behind the point. Let's go and
take a look." But when they reached the point there
was no sign of the vessel that they fully expected to
find there. More greatly puzzled than they had ever
been before in all their lives, even at the mysterious
disappearance of their canoes, the boys slowly
retraced their steps towards the hut. It was
completely filled with barrels, boxes, and various
packages, most of which evidently contained
provisions.
"There is a sack of coffee," remarked Sumner. "And
a box of crackers. And, yes, here is butter!" cried
Worth, lifting the cover of a tin pail.
"Dat ar am sholy a box oh terbakker," put in
Quorum, pointing to the unmistakable box, from which
his eyes had not wandered since they first lit upon
it.
"It certainly is," replied Sumner, in a voice
expressive of the most unbounded amazement. "And
there, if my eyes do not deceive me, are cases of
milk, canned fruit, baked beans, and brown bread."
"Hams and bacon," added Worth.
"Kittles and pans," said Quorum.
"In fact," concluded Sumner, "there is a bountiful
supply of provisions for several months, and a
complete housekeeping outfit into the bargain There is
no doubt as to what these things are. The only
unanswered questions are, Whom do they belong to, and
how did they get here?"
"Perhaps whoever stole our canoes has left them
here in part payment," suggested Worth.
"You might just as well say that Elijah's ravens
had brought them," laughed Sumner.
"Marse Summer, sah, 'scuse me, but do hit 'pear to
yo' like hit would be stealin' to bang de kiver offen
dat ar box, an' let de ole man hab jes one smell oh
dat terbakker?" asked Quorum, humbly.
"No, Quorum, under the circumstances I don't
believe it would," replied the boy, who forthwith
proceeded to attack the box in question with his
hatchet.
A GREAT DISCOVERY.
CHAPTER XI.
SUMNER DRIFTS AWAY ON A RAFT.
THE display of layer upon layer of black plug
tobacco such as Quorum had been accustomed to using
for longer than he could remember caused the negro's
eyes to glisten as though they saw SO many ingots of
pure gold. For more than two weeks he had longed
unavailingly for a fragment of the precious weed. Now
to have an unlimited quantity of it placed before him
so very mysteriously and unexpectedly seemed to him
the climax of everything most desirable and best worth
living for. He sniffed at it eagerly, inhaling its
fragrance with long, deep breaths. Then, producing a
stubby black pipe from some hidden recess of his
tattered clothing, he asked, pleadingly, for "jes one
lilly smoke."
"After supper," said Sumner. "Get supper ready
first, and then you shall smoke as much as you want
to." At this Quorum's countenance fell, and seating
himself on the ground, he remarked, stubbornly: "No,
sah. Ole Quor'm do no cookin' wifout him hab a smoke
fust. No smoke, no cookin', no cookin', no suppah. Why
yo' no gib one plug ob terbakker fur dat 'possum, eh?
Him monstrous fine 'possum, but I willin' to sell him
fur jes one lilly plug oh terbakker. Yo' can't buy him
so cheap nowliar else, specially on dis yer
oncibilized Niggly Wity Key." "But it is not my
tobacco," laughed Sumner, greatly amused at the old
man's attitude and arguments. "Who he b'long to, den?"
demanded Quorum, quickly. "I'm sure I don't know,"
answered the boy. "Den he yourn. You fin' him. You
keep him. Hit all de same like er wrack. Yo' catch
him, nobody else want him, yo' keep him. Jes one lilly
smoke, Marse Summer -- jes one; den de ole man go to
cookin' de berry bestes yo' ebber seen. Come, Marse
Summer, jes one; dat's a honey bug." There was no
resisting this pleading appeal, and cutting off enough
for a single pipeful from one of the plugs, Sumner
handed it to the negro, saying: "Well, then, if you
must have it, take that, and hurry up with supper the
very minute you have finished your smoke. I never was
so hungry in my life, while Worth begins to look
dangerously like a cannibal. Come, Worth, we must fly
round, and build another palmetto shanty before dark.
At this rate we'll have a town here before long." Two
hours of hard work found a second hut, much more
pretentious than the first, nicely roofed in. By this
time the sun was setting, and what was of infinitely
more importance to the young canoemates, Quorum
announced that supper was ready. And what a feast he
had prepared! Had there ever been one hall so good
before? In the opinions of the boys, there certainly
had not. Quorum had felt no scruples about helping
himself to the provisions so liberally provided, and
if the boys had noticed what he was doing, they had
not possessed the moral courage to interfere. As a
result, he had baked the 'possum stuffed with
cracker-crumbs, bits of pork and onions cut up fine,
and well seasoned with salt and pepper, in a Dutch
oven. The oven had been set on a bed of coals, and a
fire of lightwood knots built on its heavy iron lid.
The 'possum had been surrounded with sweet potatoes,
and both were done to a brown crisp. Then there was
coffee, with sugar and condensed milk, toasted
hardtack with butter, and bananas for dessert, "Talk
about eating!" said Sumner. "Or Delmonico's!" added
Worth.
As Quorum sat and watched them, a broad grin of
happiness overspread his features, while wreaths of
blue smoke curled gently upward above his woolly head.
His pipe was again full, and he now had possession of
an entire plug of tobacco, for which he felt
profoundly grateful to some unknown benefactor.
Among other things in the hut, which the boys now
called the storehouse, they had discovered a bale of
blankets. These they did not hesitate to appropriate
to their own use, and as they lay stretched on them,
under their new roof, blinking sleepily at the fire,
their comfort and happiness seemed almost to have
attained perfection.
"Except for our canoes," said Sumner. "If we only
had them, I, for one, should be perfectly happy; and
tomorrow I am going to make preparations for finding
them."
"How?" asked Worth; and for an hour or so they
talked over their plans for the future. The intervals
between their remarks became longer and longer, until
finally, when Worth asked, "Whom do you suppose all
those provisions belong to, anyway, Sumner?" the
latter answered: "Give it up. I'm too sleepy to guess
any more riddles tonight."
The boys slept almost without moving until sunrise;
but Quorum was frequently aroused to repel the
invasions of certain coons that, but for his
watchfulness, would have made free with the contents
of the storehouse. He also had to protect the fire
against a heavy shower that came on towards morning;
and on each of these occasions he rewarded himself
with a few whiffs of smoke from his black
pipe.
QUORUM IS HAPPY.
The next morning the two boys, leaving Quorum to
devise traps for the capture of the 'coons and prepare
dinner, started out to collect some of the planks they
had seen the day before. With these Sumner proposed to
build a raft on which they could drift over to Indian
Key with that afternoon's ebb tide. Once there, he
anticipated no difficulty in hailing some passing
craft that could be chartered to search for their
canoes, and carry them back to Key West in case the
search proved fruitless.
As the channel from Lignum Vitae, through which the
strongest tide currents flowed, led directly pa,st
Indian Key and close to it, this plan seemed feasible.
By noon the boys had towed around to the cove in front
of their camp two heavy squared timbers and a number
of boards. These they lashed together in the form of a
rude raft. They had no nails, and but a limited supply
of line for lashing, so that the raft was by no means
so strong as they could wish. Neither was it very
buoyant, the material of which it was built being
yellow pine, already somewhat water-soaked and
floating very low. To their dismay, when it was
completed, the boys found that instead of supporting
three persons, as they hoped it would, it was awash
and unsafe with but two of them on board.
"There's only one thing to be done," said Sumner,
when this state of affairs became evident, "and that
is for me to go alone. When I get hold of a craft of
some kind, I can bring her here after you two; and if
I don't find one, it will be an easy matter for me to
come back on a flood tide."
"But, Sumner, it seems awful for you to go 'way off
there alone on such a crazy raft at this. Do you think
it is absolutely necessary?"
"Yes," answered the other, whose mind was now
intent only upon recovering his beautiful canoe, "I do
think it is necessary for one of us to go. We can't
stay here forever, living off of some unknown person's
provisions. Besides, supposing those canoes should be
wrecked and discovered in that condition, and the
report that we were lost should reach Key West, how do
you think our mothers would feel? Yes, indeed, it is
necessary that I should go, and I mean to start the
minute the tide serves."
Neither Worth nor Quorum could move Sumner from
this determination, and it was with heavy hearts that
they watched him, about four o'clock in the afternoon,
step aboard the raft and shove out into the current,
that had just begun to run ebb. He was provided with a
long pole and a small box of pro visions, the latter
being placed in the middle of the raft.
Its movement was at first heavy and sluggish, but
as soon as it felt the influence of the current, it
was borne along with comparative speed. Thus a few
minutes served to take the solitary voyager beyond
earshot of his companions. For some time he could see
them waving their hats, but at length their forms
faded from his sight, and he realized that he was
beyond reach of their assistance in case his
undertaking should fail. Now that he could no longer
note the speed with which he had left the island, his
progress seemed irritatingly slow.
The channel was very crooked, and his clumsy craft
frequently grounded on the projecting sandbars at its
many turns. In each case valuable time was lost in
pushing it off and getting it again started. From this
cause his rate of progress was so slow that Indian Key
was still some distance ahead when the sun sank from
sight in the western waters. Now, for the first time,
Sumner experienced a feeling of uneasiness, and a
doubt as to the success of his venture. He strove to
add to the speed of his raft by poling, but as the
depth of water was generally too great for him to
touch bottom, nothing could be accomplished in that
way.
Now he began to notice the numbers of sea monsters
that were going out with the tide and using his
channel as their pathway to deeper waters. On all
sides were to be seen the triangular fins of huge
sharks rising above the surface so close to him that
he could have touched them with his pole. He also saw
hundreds of sawfish, stingarees, devil-fish with
vampirelike wings, the vast bulks of ungainly
jew-fish, porpoises, and other evil looking creatures
of great size and phenomenal activity. He shuddered to
think what would be his fate if a slip or a misstep
should precipitate him into the water among them. At
length their forms were hidden from him by the
darkness, and only their splashings and the gleaming
trails of their progress through the phosphorescent
water denoted their swarming presence.
Suddenly, while his attention was fixed upon these,
he became aware that he was abreast of Indian Key and
passing it. There was a shoal on the opposite side,
and plunging his pole into it, he made a mighty effort
to direct his raft towards land. All at once, without
the slightest warning, the brittle pole snapped, and
only by a violent effort did he save himself from
plunging into the cruel waters.
..
© 2001 Craig
O'Donnell, editor &
general factotum.
May not be reproduced without my permission. Go scan
your own damn stuff.
