ERAWITH STUMPY

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, 1 December 1904, Page 201

ERAWITH STUMPY

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18 HERMAN Davis and his mate, Louie, the Frenchman, caught the funny little chap one scorching hot day in early summer in the big- cave at the cape. They had left Wharehou, that quaint, little, settlement of French and Italian fishermen, in the '' Pet/ the finest smack on the coast, at daybreak, so that when old mother Bartolli went out to the village spring for water for the day, the big brown mainsail was just creeping round the point. The Old Italian fishwife set down her buckets, and shielding her eyes from the first rays of the rising sun with one hand, gazed wonderingly out at the disappearing boat. " By the saints," she mumbled to herself, " what takes this Englishman out so early this morning, the tides do not suit for the fishinegrounds for three hours at the least. They are mad, these English, to go sailing- off before the day has begun for no purpose what-

ever, still ] must tell Antonio and the boys, for the Wharehou shoals may have reached the coast to the knowledge of these other ruflianos." So, still muttering to herself, she filled her buckets with the limpid spring water, and hastened oft" back to the little canvas-covered cottage standing- O n the shingle bank just out of reach of the spring tides. Meanwhile, the big smack, clearinothe point, caught the first breath of the freshening sea breeze, and leaning before it, curtsied gracefully to the long blue Pacific rollers that swelled and sank slumbering! y under her, like the slow breathing of some mighty storm whose rage has spent itself upon the coast. Fisherman Davis, in half seaboots, patched guernsey, and faded blue dungaree pants, sat on the hatch combing of the half-deck with one hand on the tiller, and smoked contentedly. His mate, Louie, the Frenchman, sat on the great heap of brown tanned nets amidships, baiting the bristling hooks of the deep-sea lines. In the east the sun. just risen clear of the ranges, was sending long shafts of 'brilliant sunlight through .the gaps in the clouds, silvering the tops of the rollers, and making dazzling play upon the leaping breakers of the outer reefs. .In the wake of the smack three bio-black-backed gulls were flapping heavily along, and a little further

out to sea a whole colony of glossypi umaged black and white shags were fishing diligently. From the long surf-fringed curve of the Terawhiti coast line on the one hand, to the dim blue ranges of the South Island looming low on the western horizon, the scene was enchanting enough to stir the admiration of the most unimaginative mind, and Fisherman Davis, peering dreamily out from under the brim of his old felt hat, presently caught some of the glamour of the surroundings, and harking back to old seafaring days, struck up the opening bars ofi " Blow the man down,'"' in a voice that sent the solemn black-backed gulls sheering off to either side in consternation. Heading against the full sweep of the flowing tide, the smack made slow work of her eight-mile run to the fishing-ground at the cape, an occurrence which did not seem to worry her navigators in the least. Indeed, just before fetching abreast of Ohau Bay, the " Pet " was put about and headed in towards the coast, a complete divergence from the usual course laid by Cape-bound smacks. Louie also, as if to complete the unusual appearance of things, cast the lashings off the little flat-bottomed dinghy that Ava> carried amidships, and made all ready for launching it over the side. As the smack ran on towards the cliffs, at the feet of which the breakers lashed themselves in a fury of leaping spray, a long, brown kelp-matted reef appeared to detach itself from the rest of the coast, and reach out its gleaming fangs towards her. Round close under the lee of this Davis steered his craft skilfully, while Louie hauled down the jib and lowered the peak ofi the great brown mainsail, then, as the helm was put hard over, the snj.ack shot round the smooth sea-washed end of a towering rock pedestal, and ran into the placid water of a sheltered corner amons>- the reefs. Here the anchor was dropped, and next moment the two fishermen

were pulling shorewards along- one of the narrow intricate lanes of water that marked the only passage in that direction. Under the shadow of the cliff they landed safely on the high shingle bank, and hauling the dinghy above the sweep of the 'breakers, made their way across the water-worn stones to where a narrow rift appeared in the smooth rocky face. " Here we are, Louie/ said Davis, pausing before it. "By George, the shingle has piled up with this last blow, there's only just room to crawl in now !" He went down on hands and knees as he spoke, and crept in through the aperture. Louie followed close at his heels, and the next moment the two found themselves in a sort of deep twilight on the sandy floor of a lofty cave. A faint glimmer of light penetrated through the rift by which they had entered, and ahead of them a round-shaped aperture at the further end of the cave admitted a second pale illumination which lit up the wash and play of heaving water. As they paused a moment so that their eyes might become used to the darkness, the two were startled by a curious croaking noise coming from somewhere in front of them. " How ees that'?" whispered Louie in an awed voice. " Dashed if T know," answered his companion in a melodramatic undertone. " Looks as if someone has sprung our plant, don't it, mate ?" " Sacrrre !" muttered the Frenchman. "If eet ees that Italian crew, we have heem safe \" Davis' s only reply to this comment was a sudden rush into the Lrloom ahead, and the next instant there rose the sounds of a great scuffling and wild outbursts of lurid language. Louie ran forward hastily, and, striking a match, discovered his mate struggling on the sand with some curious looking monster that fought desperately against him, giving vent at the same time to strange guttural cries.

'* Quick, Louie/ panted Davis, " bear a hand, mate ; I've caught the devil himself this trip !" The Frenchman reached out a hand which was instantly seized as though in a vice by some invisible grip. " Norn de Dieu !'" he howled, "he haf me. this devil ! Yah ! leggo — keel him, you Davis !" '' Hang on, man," grunted his mate in answer. " Ah-h-h, got him, now, Louie, quick — strike another match." Cursing heartily in his native tongue, the Frenchman at last managed to strike a light with his disengaged hand, and by its feeble illumination the two discovered the

author of ali this disturbance to he a fine, full-plumaged penguin. AVith its formidable beak firmly closed upon the fingers of Louie's left hand, the game old bird lay spreadeagled upon the sand under Davis's hands and knees. It blinked fiercely as the light fell upon it, and then suddenly released its hold of the Frenchman's hand, and furiously pecked at its first antagonist. Again the match flickered out and the struggle commenced anew. The bird croaked harshly and made lively play with its formidable bill. Davis cursed long and heartily, with a yell of pain whenever the penguin got in a good drive. Finally, however, he got a firm grip of the bird's

neck, and quickly throttled it into a state of submission. By the aid of another match the penguin was securely bound, feet and Mappers ; Davis' s brilliantly coloured neckerchief was wound round its head regardless of the risk of suffocation, and the prisoner was carried out to the daylight for inspection. Out on the shingle bank the two gazed curiously at the bird now lyinghelpless between them. " By Jingo, be did light !" muttered Davis, nursing an arm that bore ample and bloodstained testimony to the fray. " If .1. could only ha' managed to reach my sheathknife, I'd ha' goosed him, as sure as eggs !" " Look at thees," said his companion ; " my hand ees just to drop off in a minute ! Oh, ze diable ! he ees prisonair of war, we shall sell him, eh, Davis, to ze storekeeper for a bag of flour." "" Aye, that we shall, mate, or a pound or two of baccy," answered Davis. " But hold on, there might be some more of his breed in there yet." '"So, and how of ze cache ?" "Of course, I'd clean forgot all about that part of the trip, come on then !" Leading the way, Davis once more re-entered the cave. A careful search resulted in the discovery and subsequent capture of a second and smaller penguin, hardly more than a chick. Then at one side of the cave the two, climbing half-way up its rugged wall, reached a long, deep shelf in the solid rock, 'upon which lay an irregular - looking heap securely covered with a tarpaulin. " That's all right," said Davis in a tone of deep satisfaction. " It's all here, every stick of it, and now, mate, it's time we up mudhook and cleared out of this corner, or we'll have the whole dago fleet putting in here to see what we're doing." Thus it w 7 as that Terawhiti Stumpy and his mother were captured and carried round after the day's fishing to the little village at

Wharehou Bay. Here they were confined in a large upturned packing case, and before a week had elapsed, had become recognised members of the motley community of the place. From the very first, the young bird which Davis christened " Terawhiti Stumpy " on account of his short, fat body, throve wonderfully, and swallowed herring by the handful. On the other hand, the old bird did not take at all kindly to captivity, and moped so much that at last she was handed over to the storekeeper of the township some miles inland, in exchange for a pair of boots and a packet of candles. Meanwhile, Stumpy flourished exceedingly, and started making a name for himself by seizing little Antonio Valdez by the nose one morning when that young hopeful attempted to pull a feather out of his tail. Loud and terrible was. the outcry that arose from within the packing-case upon this memorable occasion, and old mother Bartolli, who was sitting in her doorway, busy making a butterfish net, nearly took an apoplectic fit in her endeavour to hasten to the erring one's rescue. Vov the rest of that day the youthful Antonio wore a large bread poultice mxm his injured nose, and carefully avoided the vicinity of the packing-case. Upon the following morning, Louie, who had been busily engaged stuffing Stumpy with stale herring, an apparently endless performance, rushed into Davis's cottage in a great state of excitement. " Zat Stumpee/' he cried, throwing up his arms, " he is eeat thirtee four bee»' herring, every one right down !" " The deuce he has," replied Davis, " then he's swallowed all our bait, 1 guess it's time we started him working for his tucker. Here, Louie/ he continued, " fetch me that new five-fathom line from the stern of the dinghy, and we'll set younu' Stumpy to work/ A few minutes later the- bloated Stumpy was ignominiously made

captive by having a sugar bag dropped over his head. He was then carried down to the end of the reef inside of which the little fleet of dinghy s bobbed at anchor, here under the curious eyes of the inhabitants of the village he was let loose, not a little to his own astonishment, and giving vent to a loud croak of delight, he dived neatly into the creaming water and dis-

appeared. Securely tied to one leg, however, he carried the end of Dayis's new five-fathom line, and for exactly two minutes after his disappearance the white cord whisked through its owner's hands steadily. Then it slackened suddenly, and far out on the blue-green heave of a shore-coming roller a white patch flashed out. A faint cheer arose from the onlookers as Stumpy, for it was he, stood upright on the

crest of the wave and flapped his paddles in ecstasy. " Yoila, bravo, mon enfant Stumpee !" shouted Louie, waving his hat excitedly. " Viva, Stumpee \" cried the Italians in chorus, and next instant Stumpy' s tail was tipped skywards, and again the line slid seaward, "By the mark five !" shouted Davis suddenly as the last lap of

the line slid out, " and there she spouts, too I" Following the direction of his outstretched arm the spectators were just in time to see Stumpy once more bob up serenely out of the blue water. This time he held his head well up, and securely gripped in his beak was something that flashed like silver. " A fish, a fish," cried Louie, hopping' about in his excitement : " ze

little diable ; see, he has himself caught a fish !" For close on an hour Stumpy was allowed to revel in the deep blue waters of the bay, and twenty-two more herring, by careful calculation, were slipped into his capacious maw. Then as the freshening land breeze commenced tipping smoke plumes from the breaking rollers, Stumpy was slowly wound in, and again carried amid acclamations to the imprisoning walls of his pack-ing-case. Within a fortnight Stumpy had become quite famous, and the inhabitants of the village vied with one another in their attentions to his welfare, so that at last he was in imminent danger of death through overfeeding. From the first his appearance at the bay had been resented by D avis' s old cat, Dinah, partly no doubt on account of his getting the pick of the fish scraps, which she regarded as her special perquisite. Dinah was old and staid, and her black and white fur shewed signs of thinning in patches here and there. She would sit at a distance as stiff and prim as any old maid, blinking solemnly whilst the whole village lavished attentions on the new arrival. Then, as soon as opportunity offered, she would steal shamefacedly up to the packing-case, hoping a stray herring might have been dropped unawares. At times she relieved her feelings by jumping on to the corner of the case, and displayed her disfavour by bristling her fur and spitting angrily at the solemn-faced Stumpy, whose gravity, however, was in no way disturbed. " The beggar can't smile/ said Davis one day in explanation of his pet's set countenance. " You see it's natural for these fellers to be down in the jaw, cos they're always hungry." One day Dinah watched her chance, and becoming over-venture-some, reached down into the pack-ing-case for a scrap of herring that Stumpy had somehow missed. He

was busy at the other end of the case on a schnapper's head, and the chances are he would never have seen the old cat at all, had she not unfortunately overbalanced herself and fallen with a clatter, all bristles and claws into the box. \n a flash Stumpy drew his little barrel of a body erect, heels tog-ether, flappers straight at his side, just for all the world like a soldier on parade. Then, right about turn — snap— grab —and in the twinkling of an eye he had Dinah's tail in an iron urip. What an uproar there was ! Not that Stumpy said anything, for his mouth was too full for words ; but Dinah used the most shocking language, and her wild cries for help soon brought every man, woman and child in the "village rushing- to the rescue. Try as they would, however, they could not induce Stumpy to slacken his hold, he simply set his sturdy little legs with their broad webbed feet, squarely against the side of the case and huno- en with a determination that was indexible. As a last resort the old and effective device of throttling was tried, and to this only Stumpy finally succumbed with a half-defiant croak. As for the injured Dinah, she fled up the village street, spitting- and squalling blue murder, and never stopped until she had scaled the topmost branches of a tall Ngaio tree that grew halfway up the cliff. Here she spent the rest of the day nursing her offended dignity and sore tail. One day as Davis and Louie were busily engaged patching their nets on the shingle bank in front of the village, their attention was called by old mother Bartolli to a small erect figure lurching along towards them down the dusty inland road. " Sacrrre Bleu \" cried Louie in astonishment, "' eet ees ze mothere of that infamous Stumpee !" He was right, for as they hastened to the spot there she was, sure enough. At their approach she set her back against a rock and bravely showed fight. Poor, dust-grimed

bird, she was in. no condition to resist any attack, her body had lost its former plumpness, and was thin and gaunt-looking, and one of her flappers hung limply at her side. The hearts of the rough fishermen were touched by the pathetic appearance of the waif, so they enveloped her in an old guernsey, for she pecked and struggled furiously at being captured, and bore her oft' tenderly to the village. ■' .Fourteen long, blessed miles," said Davis impressively to his companions, " this name little bird has come all on her own for a breath of old ocean, and if I know anything about it, she ain't going back to that storekeeper. So Stumpy found his mother attain, and under the kindly atmosphere of the wind-swept straits the old bird soon recovered some of her former condition and activity. In the morning swims, however, she was never a match for her more venturesome offspring, for her right hand flapper, injured doubtless in some fight during her long pilgrimage to the bay, healed badly, and left her partly crippled. All through the long summer months when the straits gleamed sapphire blue under cloudless skies, and the brown-sail-ed smacVs leaned gently before the soft warm breezes that strayed across the ocean, Stumpy and his mother fared happily enough.

Whilst the smacks were away at the cape, little Antonio Valtlez and his dark-eyed sister looked to the feeding- cf the village pets, and every morning as the sun rose bright and clear over the distant, ranges in the east, Fisherman Davis and his partner took Stumpy and his mother to the reef end for their usual swim. Then one morning during a furious gale in early winter, in which two fine smacks were cast away on the rocks of the bay, and the great grey smoking seas ran far up above the usual highwater mark, Stumpy and his mother disappeared. At daybreak, when Davis and Louie were awakened by the dash of the spent seas against the windward side of their cottage, they hastened out to save their pets from being- washed away. They were too late, however, for in the backwash of the angry surf a few scattered planks and the limp body of Stumpy' s mother, crushed and broken on the reef, were the only remaining evidences of what had happened. As for Stumpy himself, nothing definite was ever known concerning his fate, and at the bay it was considered highly probable that he weathered the gale all right, and may even now be once more fishing from the old cave at the Cape.