A Jolly Fellowship

F >> Frank R. Stockton >> A Jolly Fellowship

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"Isn't it nice," said Corny, "that he isn't a queen, to be taken care
of, and we can just pay him and come away, and not have to think of him
any more?"

We agreed to that, but I said I thought we ought to go and take one more
look at our old queen before we left. Mrs. Chipperton, who was a really
sensible woman when she had a chance, objected to this, because, she
said, it would be better to let the old woman alone now. We couldn't do
anything for her after we left, and it would be better to let her depend
on her own exertions, now that she had got started again on that track.
I didn't think that the word exertion was a very good one in
Poqua-dilla's case, but I didn't argue the matter. I thought that if
some of us dropped around there before we left, and gave her a couple of
shillings, it would not interfere much with her mercantile success in
the future.

I thought this, but Corny spoke it right out--at least, what she said
amounted to pretty much the same thing.

"Well," said her mother, "we might go around there once more, especially
as your father has never seen the queen at all. Mr. Chipperton, would
you like to see the African queen?"

Mr. Chipperton did not answer, and his wife turned around quickly. She
had been walking ahead with the Chicago lady.

"Why, where is he?" she exclaimed. We all stopped and looked about, but
couldn't see him. He wasn't there. We were part way down the hill, but
not far from the fort, and we stopped and looked back, and then Corny
called him. I said that I would run back for him, as he had probably
stopped to talk with the shoemaker. Rectus and I both ran back, and
Corny came with us. The shoemaker had put his bench in its place over
the trap-door, and was again at work. But Mr. Chipperton was not talking
to him.

"I'll tell you what I believe,"--said Corny, gasping.

But it was of no use to wait to hear what she believed. I believed it
myself.

"Hello!" I cried to the shoemaker before I reached him. "Did a gentleman
stay behind here?"

"I didn't see none," said the man, looking up in surprise, as we charged
on him.

"Then," I cried, "he's shut down in that well! Jump up and open the
door!"

The shoemaker did jump up, and we helped him move the bench, and had the
trap-door open in no time. By this, the rest of the party had come back,
and when Mrs. Chipperton saw the well open and no Mr. Chipperton about,
she turned as white as a sheet. We could hardly wait for the man to
light his lamp, and as soon as he started down the winding stairs,
Rectus and I followed him. I called back to Mrs. Chipperton and the
others that they need not come; we would be back in a minute and let
them know. But it was of no use; they all came. We hurried on after the
man with the light, and passed straight ahead through the narrow passage
to the very end of it.

There stood Mr. Chipperton, holding a lighted match, which he had just
struck. He was looking at something on the wall. As we ran in, he
turned and smiled, and was just going to say something, when Corny threw
herself into his arms, and his wife, squeezing by, took him around his
neck so suddenly that his hat flew off and bumped on the floor, like an
empty tin can. He always wore a high silk hat. He made a grab for his
hat, and the match burned his fingers.

"Aouch!" he exclaimed, as he dropped the match. "What's the matter?"

"Oh, my dear!" exclaimed his wife. "How dreadful to leave you here! Shut
up alone in this awful place! But to think we have found you!"

"No trouble about that, I should say," remarked Mr. Chipperton, going
over to the other side of the den after his hat. "You haven't been gone
ten minutes, and it's a pretty straight road back here."

"But how did it happen?" "Why did you stay?" "Weren't you frightened?"
"Did you stay on purpose?" we all asked him at pretty much one and the
same time.

"I did stay on purpose," said he; "but I did not expect to stay but a
minute, and had no idea you would go and leave me. I stopped to see what
in the name of common sense this place was made for. I tried my best to
make some sort of an observation out of this long, narrow loop-hole, but
found I could see nothing of importance whatever, and so I made up my
mind it was money thrown away to cut out such a place as this to so
little purpose. When I had entirely made up my mind, I found, on turning
around, that you had gone, and although I called I received no answer.

"Then I knew I was alone in this place. But I was perfectly composed. No
agitation, no tremor of the nerves. Absolute self-control. The moment I
found myself deserted, I knew exactly what to do. I did precisely the
same thing that I would have done had I been left alone in the Mammoth
Cave, or the Cave of Fingal, or any place of the kind.

"I stood perfectly still!

"If you will always remember to do that," and he looked as well as he
could from one to another of us, "you need never be frightened, no
matter how dark and lonely a cavern you may be left in. Strive to
reflect that you will soon be missed, and that your friends will
naturally come back to the place where they saw you last. Stay there!
Keep that important duty in your mind. Stay just where you are! If you
run about to try and find your way out, you will be lost. You will lose
yourself, and no one can find you.

"Instances are not uncommon where persons have been left behind in the
Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, and who were not found by searching parties
for a day or two, and they were almost invariably discovered in an
insane condition. They rushed wildly about in the dark; got away from
the ordinary paths of tourists; couldn't be found, and went crazy,--a
very natural consequence. Now, nothing of the kind happened to me. I
remained where I was, and here, you see, in less than ten minutes, I am
rescued!"

And he looked around with a smile as pleasant as if he had just invented
a new sewing-machine.

"But were you not frightened,--awe-struck in this dark and horrible
place, alone?" inquired Mrs. Chipperton, holding on to his arm.

"No," said he. "It was not very dark just here. That slit let in a
little light. That is all it is good for, though why light should be
needed here, I cannot tell. And then I lighted matches and examined the
wall. I might find some trace of some sensible intention on the part of
the people who quarried this passage. But I could find nothing. What I
might have found, had I moved about, I cannot say. I had a whole box of
matches in my pocket. But I did not move."

"Well," said Mr. Burgan, "I think you'd better move now. I, for one, am
convinced that this place is of no use to me, and I don't like it."

I think Mr. Burgan was a little out of temper.

We now started on our way out of the passage, Mrs. Chipperton holding
tight to her husband, for fear, I suppose, that he might be inclined to
stop again.

"I didn't think," said she, as she clambered up the dark and twisting
steps, "that I should have this thing to do, so soon again. But no one
can ever tell what strange things may happen to them, at any time."

"When father's along," added Corny.

This was all nuts to the shoemaker, for we gave him more money for his
second trip down the well. I hope this didn't put the idea into his head
of shutting people down below, and making their friends come after them,
and pay extra.

"There are some things about Mr. Chipperton that I like," said Rectus,
as we walked home together.

"Yes," said I, "some things."

"I like the cool way in which he takes bad fixes," continued Rectus, who
had a fancy for doing things that way himself. "Don't you remember that
time he struck on the sand-bank. He just sat there in the rain, waiting
for the tide to rise, and made no fuss at all. And here, he kept just as
cool and comfortable, down in that dungeon. He must have educated his
mind a good deal to be able to do that."

"It may be very well to educate the mind to take things coolly," said I,
"but I'd a great deal rather educate my mind not to get me into such
fixes."

"I suppose that would be better," said Rectus, after thinking a minute.

And now we had but little time to see anything more in Nassau. In two
days the "Tigris" would be due, and we were going away in her. So we
found we should have to bounce around in a pretty lively way, if we
wanted to be able to go home and say we had seen the place.

CHAPTER XVII.

WHAT BOY HAS DONE, BOY MAY DO.

There was one place that I wished, particularly, to visit before I left,
and that was what the people in Nassau called the Coral-reef. There were
lots of coral-reefs all about the islands, but this one was easily
visited, and for this reason, I suppose, was chosen as a representative
of its class. I had been there before, and had seen all the wonders of
the reef through a water-glass,--which is a wooden box, with a pane of
glass at one end and open at the other. You hold the glass end of this
box just under the water, and put your face to the open end, and then
you can see down under the water, exactly as if you were looking through
the air. And on this coral-reef, where the water was not more than
twelve or fourteen feet deep, there were lots of beautiful things to
see. It was like a submarine garden. There was coral in every form and
shape, and of different colors; there were sea-feathers, which stood up
like waving purple trees, most of them a foot or two high, but some a
good deal higher; there were sea-fans, purple and yellow, that spread
themselves up from the curious bits of coral-rock on the bottom, and
there were ever so many other things that grew like bushes and vines,
and of all sorts of colors. Among all these you could see the fishes
swimming about, as if they were in a great aquarium. Some of these
fishes were very large, with handsome black bands across their backs,
but the prettiest were some little fellows, no bigger than sardines,
that swam in among the branches of the sea-feathers and fans. They were
colored bright blue, and yellow and red; some of them with two or three
colors apiece. Rectus called them "humming-fishes." They did remind me
of humming-birds, although they didn't hum.

When I came here before, I was with a party of ladies and gentlemen. We
went in a large sail-boat, and took several divers with us, to go down
and bring up to us the curious things that we would select, as we looked
through the water-glass. There wasn't anything peculiar about these
divers. They wore linen breeches for diving dresses, and were the same
kind of fellows as those who dived for pennies at the town.

Now, what I wanted to do, was to go to the coral-reef and dive down and
get something for myself. It would be worth while to take home a sea-fan
or something of that kind, and say you brought it up from the bottom of
the sea yourself. Any one could get things that the divers had brought
up. To be sure, the sea wasn't very deep here, but it had a bottom, all
the same. I was not so good a swimmer as these darkeys, who ducked and
dived as if they had been born in the water, but I could swim better
than most fellows, and was particularly good at diving. So I determined,
if I could get a chance, to go down after some of those things on the
coral-reef.

I couldn't try this, before, because there were too many people along,
but Rectus, who thought the idea was splendid, although he didn't intend
to dive himself, agreed to hire a sail-boat with me, and go off to the
reef, with only the darkey captain.

We started as early as we could get off, on the morning after we had
been at Fort Charlotte. The captain of the yacht--they give themselves
and their sail-boats big titles here--was a tall colored man, named
Chris, and he took two big darkey boys with him, although we told him we
didn't want any divers. But I suppose he thought we might change our
minds. I didn't tell him _I_ was going to dive. He might not have been
willing to go in that case.

We had a nice sail up the harbor, between the large island upon which
the town stands, and the smaller ones that separate the harbor from the
ocean. After sailing about five miles, we turned out to sea between two
islands, and pretty soon were anchored over the reef.

"Now, then, boss," said Captain Chris, "don't ye want these here boys to
do some divin' for ye?"

"I told you I wouldn't want them," said I. "I'm going to dive, myself."

"_You_ dive, boss!" cried all three of the darkeys at once, and the two
boys began to laugh.

"Ye can't do that, boss," said the captain. "Ef ye aint used to this
here kind o' divin', ye can't do nothin' at all, under this water. Ye
better let the boys go for ye."

"No," said I, "I'm going myself," and I began to take off my clothes.

The colored fellows didn't like it much, for it seemed like taking their
business away from them; but they couldn't help it, and so they just sat
and waited to see how things would turn out.

"You'd better take a look through the glass, before you dive," said
Rectus, "and choose what you're going to get."

"I'm not going to be particular," I replied. "I shall get whatever I
can."

"The tide's pretty strong," said the captain. "You've got to calkelate
fur that."

I was obliged for this information, which was generous on his part,
considering the circumstances, and I dived from the bow, as far out as I
could jump. Down I went, but I didn't reach the bottom, at all. My legs
grazed against some branches and things, but the tide had me back to the
boat in no time, and I came up near the stern, which I seized, and got
on board.

Both the colored boys were grinning, and the captain said:

"Ye can't dive that-a-way, boss. You'll never git to the bottom, at all,
that-a-way. You must go right down, ef you go at all."

I knew that, but I must admit I didn't care much to go all the way down
when I made the first dive. Just as I jumped, I thought of the hard
sharp things at the bottom, and I guess I was a little too careful not
to dive into them.

But now I made a second dive, and I went down beautifully. I made a grab
at the first thing my hand touched. It was a purple knob of coral. But
it stuck tight to its mother-rock, and I was ready to go up before it
was ready to come loose, and so I went up without it.

"'T aint easy to git them things," said the captain, and the two boys
said:

"No indeed, boss, ye cahn't git them things dat-a-way."

I didn't say anything, but in a few minutes I made another dive. I
determined to look around a little, this time, and seize something that
I could break off or pull up. I found that I couldn't stay under water,
like the darkeys could. That required practice, and perhaps more fishy
lungs.

Down I went, and I came right down on a small sea-fan, which I grabbed
instantly. That ought to give way easily. But as I seized it, I brought
down my right foot into the middle of a big round sponge. I started, as
if I had had an electric shock. The thing seemed colder and wetter than
the water; it was slimy and sticky and horrid. I did not see what it
was, and it felt as if some great sucker-fish, with a cold woolly mouth,
was trying to swallow my foot. I let go of everything, and came right
up, and drew myself, puffing and blowing, on board the boat.

How Captain Chris laughed! He had been watching me through the
water-glass, and saw what had scared me.

"Why, boss!" said he, "sponges don't eat people! That was nice and sof'
to tread on. A sight better than cuttin' yer foot on a piece o' coral."

That was all very well, but I'm sure Captain Chris jumped the first time
he ever put his bare foot into a sponge under water.

"I s'pose ye're goin' to gib it up now, boss," said the captain.

"No, I'm not," I answered. "I haven't brought up anything yet. I'm going
down again."

"You'd better not," said Rectus. "Three times is all that anybody ever
tries to do anything. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
One, two, three. You're not expected to try four times. And, besides,
you're tired."

"I'll be rested in a minute," said I, "and then I'll try once more. I'm
all right. You needn't worry."

But Rectus did worry. I must have looked frightened when I came up, and
I believe he had caught the scare. Boys will do that. The captain tried
to keep me from going in again, but I knew it was all nonsense to be
frightened. I was going to bring up something from the bottom, if it was
only a pebble.

So, after resting a little while, and getting my breath again, down I
went. I was in for anything now, and the moment I reached the bottom, I
swept my arm around and seized the first thing I touched. It was a
pretty big thing, for it was a sea-feather over five feet high,--a
regular tree. I gave a jerk at it, but it held fast. I wished, most
earnestly, that I had taken hold of something smaller, but I didn't like
to let go. I might get nothing else. I gave another jerk, but it was of
no use. I felt that I couldn't hold my breath much longer, and must go
up. I clutched the stem of the thing with both hands; I braced my feet
against the bottom; I gave a tremendous tug and push, and up I came to
the top, sea-feather and all!

With both my hands full I couldn't do much swimming, and the tide
carried me astern of the boat before I knew it.

Rectus was the first to shout to me.

"Drop it, and strike out!" he yelled; but I didn't drop it. I took it in
one hand and swam with the other. But the tide was strong, and I didn't
make any headway. Indeed, I floated further away from the boat.

Directly, I heard a splash, and in a moment afterward, it seemed, the
two darkey divers were swimming up to me.

"Drop dat," said one of them, "an' we'll take ye in."

"No, I wont," I spluttered, still striking out with my legs and one arm.
"Take hold of this, and we can all go in together."

I thought that if one of them would help me with the sea-feather, which
seemed awfully heavy, two of us could certainly swim to the boat with
four legs and two arms between us.

But neither of them would do it. They wanted me to drop my prize, and
then they'd take hold of me and take me in. We were disputing and
puffing, and floating further and further away, when up came Captain
Chris, swimming like a shark. He had jerked off his clothes and jumped
in, when he saw what was going on. He just put one hand under my right
arm, in which I held the sea-feather, and then we struck out together
for the boat. It was like getting a tow from a tug-boat. We were
alongside in no time. Captain Chris was the strongest and best swimmer I
ever saw.

[Illustration: "WE STRUCK OUT TOGETHER FOR THE BOAT."]

Rectus was leaning over, ready to help, and he caught me by the arm as I
reached up for the side of the boat.

"No," said I, "take this," and he seized the sea-feather and pulled it
in. Then the captain gave me a hoist, and I clambered on board.

The captain had some towels under the little forward deck, and I gave
myself a good rub down and dressed. Then I went to look at my prize. No
wonder it was heavy. It had a young rock, a foot long, fast to its root.

"You sp'iled one o' de puttiest things in that garden down there," said
the captain. "I allus anchored near that tall feather, and all de
vis'tors used to talk about it. I didn't think you'd bring it up when I
seed you grab it. But you must 'a' give a powerful heave to come up with
all that stone."

"I don't think you ought to have tried to do that," said Rectus, who
looked as if he hadn't enjoyed himself. "I didn't know you were so
obstinate."

"Well," said I, "the truth of the matter is that I am a fool, sometimes,
and I might as well admit it. But now let's see what we've got on this
stone."

There was a lot of curious things on the piece of rock which had come up
with the sea-feather. There were small shells, of different shapes and
colors, with the living creatures inside of them, and there were mosses,
and sea-weed, and little sponges, and small sea-plants, tipped with red
and yellow, and more things of the kind than I can remember. It was the
handsomest and most interesting piece of coral-rock that I had seen yet.

As for the big purple sea-feather, it was a whopper, but too big for me
to do anything with it. When we got home, Rectus showed it around to
the Chippertons, and some of the people at the hotel, and told them that
I dived down and brought it up, myself, but I couldn't take it away with
me, for it was much too long to go in my trunk. So I gave it next day to
Captain Chris, to sell, if he chose, but I believe he took it back and
planted it again in the submarine garden, so that his passengers could
see how tall a sea-feather could grow, when it tried. I chipped off a
piece of the rock, however, to carry home as a memento. I was told that
the things growing on it--I picked off all the shells--would make the
clothes in my trunk smell badly, but I thought I'd risk it.

"After all," said Rectus, that night, "what was the good of it? That
little piece of stone don't amount to anything, and you might have been
drowned."

"I don't think I could have been drowned," said I, "for I should have
dropped the old thing, and floated, if I had felt myself giving out. But
the good of it was this: It showed me what a disagreeable sort of place
a sea-garden is, when you go down into it to pick things."

"Which you wont do again, in a hurry, I reckon," said Rectus.

"You're right there, my boy," I answered.

The next day, the Chippertons and ourselves took a two-horse barouche,
and rode to the "caves," some six or seven miles from the town. We had a
long walk through the pineapple fields before we came to the biggest
cave, and found it wasn't very much of a cave, after all, though there
was a sort of a room, on one side, which looked like a church, with
altar, pillars and arches. There was a little hole, on one side of this
room, about three feet wide, which led, our negro guide said, to a great
cave, which ran along about a mile, until it reached the sea. There was
no knowing what skeletons, and treasures, and old half-decayed boxes of
coins, hidden by pirates, and swords with jewels in the handles, and
loose jewels, and silver plate, and other things we might have found in
that cave, if we had only had a lantern or some candles to light us
while we were wandering about in it. But we had no candles or lantern,
and so did not become a pirate's heirs. It was Corny who was most
anxious to go in. She had read about Blackbeard, and the other pirates
who used to live on this island, and she felt sure that some of their
treasures were to be found in that cave. If she had thought of it, she
would have brought a candle.

The only treasures we got were some long things, like thin ropes, which
hung from the roof to the floor of the cave we were in. This cave wasn't
dark, because nearly all of one side of it was open. These ropes were
roots or young trunks from banyan-trees, growing on the ground above,
and which came through the cracks in the rocks, and stretched themselves
down so as to root in the floor of the cave, and make a lot of
underground trunks for the tree above. The banyan-tree is the most
enterprising trunk-maker I ever heard of.

We pulled down a lot of these banyan ropes, some of them more than
twenty feet long, to take away as curiosities. Corny thought it would
be splendid to have a jumping-rope made of a banyan root, or rather
trunklet. The banyans here are called wild fig-trees, which they really
are, wherever they grow. There is a big one, not far from the town,
which stands by itself, and has a lot of trunks coming down from the
branches. It would take the conceit out of a hurricane, I think, if it
tried to blow down a banyan-tree.

The next day was Sunday, and our party went to a negro church to hear a
preacher who was quite celebrated as a colored orator. He preached a
good sensible sermon, although he didn't meddle much with grammar. The
people were poorly dressed, and some of the deacons were barefooted, but
they were all very clean and neat, and they appeared to be just as
religious as if they had all ridden in carriages to some Fifth Avenue
church in New York.

CHAPTER XVIII.

I WAKE UP MR. CHIPPERTON.

About nine o'clock, on Monday morning, the "Tigris" came in. When we
boarded her, which we did almost as soon as the stairs had been put down
her side, we found that she would make a shorter stay than usual, and
would go out that evening, at high tide. So there was no time to lose.
After the letters had been delivered at the hotel, and we had read ours,
we sent our trunks on board, and went around to finish up Nassau. We
rowed over to Hog Island, opposite the town, to see, once more, the surf
roll up against the high, jagged rocks; we ran down among the negro
cottages and the negro cabins to get some fruit for the trip; and we
rushed about to bid good-bye to some of our old friends--Poqua-dilla
among them. Corny went with us, this time. Every darkey knew we were
going away, and it was amazing to see how many of them came to bid us
good-bye, and ask for some coppers.

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