LAWLESS DAYS

Otago Witness, Issue 3861, 13 March 1928, Page 78

LAWLESS DAYS

A STORY OF OLD NEW ZEALAND AND THE SOUTH SEAS.

By

Mona Tracy.

(Copyright.—For the Otago Witness. ’ CHAPTER XIV.—A SHIP. They slept that night in the cavern, keeping a bright .fire burning in order to frighten away any inquisitive seals. Next morning found them astir at dawn. “To-day,” said Dick as they cooked the mussels and one of the rock cod for their breakfast, “ I think we’ll pull up the cove and explore, Barry. We tl try for a seal, too; and we’ll also keep a look-out for any berries or herbs which may be good to eat.’’ They found that the weather had changed during the night. The higher hills of the island were wrapped in fog, and a thin rain was falling on the lower levels.

Dick took the hatchet with him, Barry the knife. They pushed the boat off and clambered aboard.

They found the cove to be bigger than they had thought. Half a mile from the mouth it opened out into a bay big enough for the mooring of several ships. Here they landed, and, drawing the boat beyond reach of the tide, set off walking briskly along the shore. “ Hist ! ” whispered Dick suddenly. He shrank down behind a bush, while Bariy dropped beside him. A mob of seals lav about thirty yards distant, sprawling in the coarse grass near the water. Among them were several mother seals with their calves. Opposite them in the water -> mother seal was teaching her calf to swim. She had the little one on her back, and was swimming along on top of the water. The one filled the air with its plaintive Heatings. Plainly it was very frightened and very uncomfortable. Every now and again it would fall from its slippery perch. At that the mother seal would give an angry bellow and make a vicious little slap at the calf, who spluttered and beat the water like a little boy beyond his depth. Somehow or other the calf would scramble on his mother’s back again ; and then the performance would begin anew —the little fellow bleating and falling off, and being slapped and bitten until he got back again.

“ Och, the vicious creature! ’’ exclaimed Barry as the mother gave her calf a nip with her long teeth. Ive heard that seals fight very cruelly, ’ said Dick. “We mustn’t try to kill any that are near the water, Barry. They re easier to kill when thev’re some distance inland. Even so, you’ll have to see to it that you keep vour distance from their flippers. And whatever you do. don’t try to kill one of the 'old bulls! 5

Indeed I’ll not! ” answered Barry promptly. “ But how about trying my hand on that little fellow I see cur way? Wouldn’t he be a tasty morsel now?” J

A young seal had separated himself from the mob, and was coming towards the hush behind which the bovs crouched, lap him on the nose, Dick! ’’ whispeted Barry as the seal came abreast of their hiding-place. Dick sprang up and brought the blunt en ” of the hatchet down on the seal’s nose. Quick as a flash Barry’s knife was plmmed in the seal’s throat. “What a pretty thing he is!” said Barrv, looking down on his nrize. “ 'Tis a pity to have killed him ! ” “ We can’t afford to be tender-hearted,” replied Dick. “ For one thing we must ”Ave fresh meat; and for another, with the winter before us. we must have warm clothes. What shall we do with this' fellow. Barrv? ’’ “ Bettor leave him until we come back.” Barry said. Climbing the hill a little, they skirted the mob of seals. “ This ground feels like peat,” said Barry as his feet sank in the ground.

Bending down, Dick picked up a handful of the earth and examined it. “ ’Tis a layer of rotting vegetation,” he said. “There must be a great deal of rain in ttiesi parts. But, of course, I’ve been told there is, and snow and sleet as well. And we can judge what the wind is like from the way the sc~ub on the hills is beaten down. I was right, Barry, we must kill all the seals we can while the

summer lasts. Do you know anything about drying skins? ” “ I’ve seen the skins of hares dried in Ireland,” Barry said. “ But those were rubbed with salt. I doubt if there is anything on this island ■will serve the purpose. Still, we can but try.” They were still walking along the ridge. “ There’s something green growing down there,” said Dick suddenly, pausing to look down into a little bay with a tiny beach of shingle. “ Indeed, it looks to me as if someone had made a cultivation there, at some time.” “ Potatoes I ” yelled Barry suddenly, and launched himself down the hilt. Dick followed him with a beating heart. If, indeed, they had come ou a potato patch—even a patch gone wild—how much might it not mean to them? ” “Are you certain, Barry?” he gasped as they tore downwards. “ It’s a poor Irishman that doesn’t know a potato when he sees one 1 ” laughed Barry; and was filled with hope. They found not only a potato patch, but other vegetables as well —cabbages, sea kale, and turnips—all growing together in wild profusion. Though the potatoes were no bigger than marbles, l ick and Barry could have hugged each other for sheer joy. “This place must be an old sealing camp,” Dick said, looking about rhe bay. “ It has been deserted long since—that’s plain. There’s not even a sign of a hut.”

“ Where sealers have been, sealers will come,” Barry prophesied. “ Maybe we shan’t have to spend the winter here, Dick.”

“ We’ll have to prepare for it, though,” said Dick. “ What do you say to building our hut in this bay, and using the cave for a sleeping place until it is finished? ”

Barry thought it a splendid idea. “ And now,” said Dick. “ What kind of hut arc we going to build? From what I can sec. all the timber hereabouts is so twisted we’re like to have a hard job before us.” “ We'll make a turf house,” said Ba. y quietly. “We can cut the turfs with our hatchet. Give it me, Dick, and I’ll show the. way.”

He cut a couple of _sods, neatly and quickly. “ Now,” he said, “ find me a tree with downward-growing branches. We’ll use .hose for rafters, and pile the turfs against them. I’ll wager, Dick, that long before the winter comes we’ll be snug from every wind that blows.” Before beginning the hut they planned their Gay. First they went back for the seal they Lad killed. This they dragged tc the boat, in which they took it to their new bay. While Barry made a st..rt on the hut Dick set to work to skin the seal. By midday his task was done. Next he built up a roaring fire, and cutting two thick steaks, skewered them with a long stick and held them over the bl-ize.

Never, thought Dick, as he had his first feast of tender young seal meat, had anything tasted so good. Indeed, after the rough salt fare he had grown accustomed to during his voyage aboard the Bee it vas little short of delicious. After lunch he cut up the rest of the seal, dug some potatoes, and picked a cabbage top or two. Then he went to help Barry with the building of the hut. By evening both tvere well pleased with their labours. “ Two more days should finish it,” Barrj declared. “ Shall we eat here, Dick, or take our food back to the c“ ve ? ” “ We’ll go back, I think,” said Dick. “ We’ve no cooking pot here, mid I’m hungry for some vegetable broth.” Arrived back at the cave, Dick cut a steak into small pieces, added the potatoes and, lastly, the cabbage tops. Both boys supped well, and afterwards they lay down on a couch of dry grass which Barry had gathered while Dick acted as cook. Dick’s last memory was of the firelight making dancing shadows on the rock walls of the cave. Eater he awoke with a start. Barry's hand was clutching his arm. ' “ Dick ! ” The Irish boy’s voice was f.iled with fright. “ There's someone in the cave! ” Dick sat up. “ Don’t lie foolish, Barry! ” he whispered. Who else would there be on this lonely island ? ” “ Something is moving on the other side of the stream,” Barry insisted. Dick peered into the gloom; but the fire had died down to a few embers, and

he could see nothing. Quickly he reached out and gathered an armful of dry twigs, which he threw on the embers. At the same time he heard something moving about, and knew that Barry had spoken no more than the truth. Someone—or something—was in the cave. The fire blazed up. Suddenly Dick threw back his head with a merry, ringing laugh. “ There are our visitors, Barry! ” he cried. On the other side of the stream, their necks outstretched and their eyes startled in the sudden glare of the blazing fire, were three big seals. “ Ochone ! ” Barry sprang to his feet. “Be off ye spalpeens!” Seizing a blazing brand, he hurled it with all his might at the intruders. The .seals scattered and fled. Barry went back to his couch grumbling his annoyance. “ The sooner we’re roofed down in our hut,” ho told Dick, “the sooner will Barry Hogan be pleased. I’ve no liking for such company.” Three nights later Barty had his wish, and the two boys took up their residence in the hut. Barry had spoken truly when he said it would keep them snug. The hut was built beneath the gnarled boughs of a fair-sized tree. The sides were built up of turf, which also covered the branches in such a way as to make them do duty for rafters. A hole was left in the roof in order to let out the smoke of their fire. Inside, two banks of earth served as bunks, each being covered with a thick layer of dried grass. “ We’ll use our nails to build a table of sorts,” said Dick. “ I dare say we can obtain sufficient straight wood for the purpose.’’ “We’ll have a door, too!” promised Barry. ’ “ I’ve no fancy to wake suddenly one night and find a seal sitting on my chest! ” A few days more and they had their table, and a door as well, both made of slender branches lashed and nailed tightly together. The two boys made use of every moment. Their first business, of course, was the foraging for food. Fortunately seals were plentiful, and it was not long before Dick and Barry discovered the best places in which to set the fishing lines. “ I wonder,” said Barry one day, “ why Captain Gates did not put a sealing gang ashore here ? ”

“ I’ve a notion that Captain Gates knew of a finer hunting ground,” Dick said. “ ’Tis likely he knows that others have been here before him, and probably he thought the seals were all killed out. We saw none on the bay where the Bee was anchored.”

“Speaking of seals,” Barry said, “I’ve thought of a way of curing the skins. It may fail, but we can at least try.” To Dick’s delight, Barry’s method proved a complete success. First, the Irish boy stretched the skins and scraped them clean. Then, taking the ashes of the fire, ho made a strong lye which he and Dick rubbed into the skins two or three times a daj T until the skins were perfectly dry. After that he scoured them with a sandstone, rolled them up tightly, and beat them with a smooth piece of wood. This left them beautifully soft.

Dick, during this time, contrived a clever lamp from a pannikin which Barry had thoughtfully slipped in amongst their possessions. In it they burned seal-oil, while threads drawn from their clothes provided the wick. In the long evenings Dick used the light of the lamp by which, to fashion garments of sealskin. Having been warned by Watts’s tales of the severity of the winter in these latitudes, lie was determined to be prepared. Even before winter set in, Dick and Barty grew accustomed to the fearful gales which sometimes sprang up. There were days when it was all but impossible to set foot out of doors. In March winter began to arrive with a vengeance. Fierce westerly gales swept the island ; there was hail, sleet, and a fluiry of snow. After this there fell a fog, the like of which lieither Dick nor Barry had ever seen. Not only was it thick, but it was a cold wet fog that sent its chill to their bones. “ I’m thankful we have a supply of firewood,” Dick said peering out. “ This fog seems to have come to stay.” At the end of two days the fog lifted : but on its heels came more wind, more sleet, more snow. Dick and Barrv went about clothed from head to foot in sealskins ; they sat on sealskins and slept beneath them. But even so, both suffered a great deal from the cold. To add to their troubles, the seals became scarcer and scarcer. Sometimes they had to travel miles before they could make a kill ; and often they returned home empty ha.nded. About this time Dick’s discovery of a fine bed of cockles was of the greatest value ; so, too, was the store of potatoes dug up bv Barry from the old vegetable plot of the sealers. “ Such weather! Did you ever see the like. Barry?” asked Dick one night when the wind howled round the hut. However, Dick soon discovered that the worst was yet to come. There was never a day without rain. Wet mists wreathed themselves down from the hills and blotted out bush and sea. Fogs came over so suddenly that neither of the bovs dared stray far from the hut for fear of getting lost and perishing of cold in the Sodden bush. Often Dick and Barrv went hungry; often they crouched in their but wondering niiserablv whether the winter would ever end; and often they went to bed thinking that perhaps after all, it might .have been wiser to have fallen in with Captain Gates’s plans for them and to have gone ashore with the Bee’s sealing gang on some island less terrible. “ Though from what Folsom said, I hardly think our life, would have been anv easier there,” Dick declared. “ We’d have been fed, of course; but we’d have been completely at the mercy of Gates’s

brutal fellows. No, I think we’re happier as we are.” And Barry, though hungry and pinched with cold, agreed with him. Following upon a whole month of drizzling rain there came a sudden lull. The sun shone forth, feebly, it is true, but the mere sight of it was sufficient to put new courage into the-boys. “We’ll hunt seals to-day! ” Dick cried excitedly. “At the mouth of the harbour, Barry. Let us pray we are able to kdl one—’tis monotonous, this living on shell-fish and potatoes > ” ° They set out in the boat, pulling down the inlet. Landing -on the sloping beach near the mouth, they drew up the boat and climbed the hill, intending to search the cave. The cave, however, they soon found to be deserted; nor was there a sign of a seal in the ravine. We’d better go- to the cliff-tops and look about us,” decided Bick. Scrambling up the rough, rock-strewn bank on the other side of the stream, they plunged through the matted setub. Sometimes, indeed, it was necessary to walk on the tops of the bushes, so densely matted together were the branches. ‘‘The mist is coming down again!” pained Bick as they struggled their way along. “ One glance from the top, Barry, and then we must make for the shore again. ’Twould be madness for us -o be caught up here in the fog.” He spoke no more than' the truth. Already the sun was disappearing behind grey mists. Suddenly Dick gave a wild shout. He had come in sight of the sea breakingin clouds of spray on the iagged reefs at the foot of the cliff. Straining his eyes through the curling mist he had seen, too, something else. A ship ! ” he cried. “ Barry, there’s a ship standing in towards the "island! Barry was beside him in an instant. “A ship! ” he yelled, hardly daring to believe his eyes. He started capering madly. As Dick stood staring at the shin a wall of mist descended suddenly, veiling her from sight. Quick. Barry, to the beach ! ” shouted Dick. “ The fog is upon us! ” They started back, scrambling and slipping, towards the ravine. Down they went, across the stream, and up on the other side. “ She’ll never come in in this fog,” panted Barry.

“ No, but perhaps she’ll send a boat ashore,” Dick answered. They waited beside their own boat, torn by hopes and fears. Was their exile about to be ended? An. hour passed, two hours. The log changed to misty rain and then to i thick downpour. We’d better make for the hut,” Dies said at last, in tones of utter disappointment. “ There'll be no boat come ashore this day.” “Hist! ” exclaimed Barry suddenly. Was not that the sound of oars?” Dick listened. “You’re right, Barry! ’ he cried. “ Let us shout together—quickly 1 ” They shouted at the top of their lungs. There came an answering shout from the unseen boat. “Saved!” yelled Dick. “ We’re saved, Barry ’ ” “ Hurra !i ! ” The Irish boy threw up his anus and danced on the shore. Into sight, through the blinding rain that darkened the harbour, there crept a boatload of men. Dick shouted again. A few moments later he stood at the water’s edge to welcome in his rescuers. Then, as he caught sight of the upturned face of a big man who sat at the tiller. Dick’s heart seemed to turn to stone. He knew his rescuers only too well; knew, too, what ship lay without the harbour.’ The Bee had come back. (To be continued.)