The Divers. A romance of Oceania

Preface

Dear boys, who like racy stories, and short Prefaces, I am introducing you in the following pages to some of those islands where the cocoa palm Avaves, and the banana droops its tattered fringes, while over by the coral reefs, which the industrious insects have raised tier above tier in spite of cyclones and angry waves, the snowy foam dashes up against blue skies. I should have liked to have given you the exact latitude and longitude of each of the islands Avhich I describe, because I know that you are all so fond of geographical exercises ; but it wouldn't do, because my old friends, the genial savages, have trusted me with their secrets, and although I know that you would not disturb their felicity even if you did visit them, there are wicked men Avho might, if they kneAV where the gold and jewels were to be found so easily, rush off and destroy all the picturesqueness as well as domestic order,

PREFACE.

and thus leave me nothing to Avrite about again, which I hope you will admit, after you have read Eric Stan field's story, would be a great pity. There is no moral in this romance, unless it may be dragged in by some from the fact that man must make slaves when he can, be he savage or civilised. Even I Avould like to make slaves of my readers if I could. Trusting, therefore, that you may enjoy Uncle Tom the Diver, and Queen Mane, also Minnie and little Dido, not forgetting Ah Sin and his demon cat, — I beg to remain, Yours always, The Author. Hogarth Club, 36 Dover Street, Piccadilly, AV., 1892. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. UNCLE RICHARD AND UNCLE TOM, . .11 II. I LEAVE UNCLE RICHARD, . . .21 III. THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF AH SIX, . . 32 IV. WE BOARD THE 'FIREFLY',' . . .45 V. A DIVING EXPERIMENT, . . . .56 VI.

THE OCTOPUS, . . . . .68 VII. SOME NEW ASSOCIATES, . . . .78 VIII. THE SUBMERGED WRECK, . . . .89 IX. I MEET MY' FATE, ..... 102 X. TOWARDS THE BUNGALOW, . . .114 XI. THE FEAST, ..... 125 XII. ANOTHER FOEMAN GAINED, . . . 136 XIII. A STORM AT SEA, ..... 150 XIV. A SEA FIGHT, . . . . .163 XV. THE 'ANNE LYLE,' .... 176 XVI. A SCENE OF DESTRUCTION, . . . 188 XVII. THE NATIVES JOIN US, .... 198 XVIII. WE EFFECT A LANDING, .... 210 XIX. THE OUTPOSTS ARE SILENCED, . . . 221 XX. OUR MARCH TOWARDS THE VILLAGE, . . 232 XXI. THE BATTLE, ..... 224 CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE XXII. AFTER THE BATTLE, .... 255 XXIII. THE STORY OF TRADER TURK, . . . 267 XXIV. CAPTURED, ...... 279 XXV. UNCLE TOM IS MAROONED, . . • 292 XXVI. A SINGULAR DELUSION, .... 304 XXVII. THE RESCUE OF UNCLE TOM, . . . 316 XXVIII. A PRIMITIVE STRONGHOLD, . . • 327 XXIX.

A TRECIOUS FIND, ..... 339 XXX. REMOVING THE TABOO, .... 350 XXXI. TOWARDS THE BURNING MOUNTAIN, . . 362 XXXII. WE CROSS THE RIDGE, .... 373 XXXIII. SO LONG, ......

Chapter I Uncle Richard And Uncle Tom

When a boy has for an uncle a real deep-water diver, he is right not to think small things of himself, for he belongs to a very distinguished family. Now I have two uncles, both great men in their different lines of life ; one, Uncle Richard, who is father's brother, and a very rich Australian squatter ; and the other one, Uncle Tom, who is mother's brother, and whose former business was to dive after sunken treasures. No one ever attempted to shorten Uncle Richard's name, because he was so rich and respectable ; Avhile no one ever thought of calling the other one anything longer than Tom the Diver he was so free and easy in his ways, and so generous with his wages, while he had any left to spend. Uncle Richard kept me, for my OAvn father had died poor, but I spent most of my time with Uncle Tom, when he was at home, and I Avas much more comfortable with him aud his family in their little cottage, even although they were not too Avell off, than I was up at the grand house on the top of the hill, where Uncle Richard lived ; and the reasons for this I am going to tell you now.

My Uncle Richard was, as I have said, a remarkably wealthy and prosperous gentleman ; he OAvned miles on miles of land, and had more thousands of sheep than could be counted easily on a slate ; it would require a large blackboard to do it properly, and a boy, from a much higher standard in school than I ever reached before I left it, to Avork it all out. He Avas lucky in every speculation he took in hand, and, like King Midas, changed all that he touched into gold, Avhich afterwards he either banked or else planted out to grow into more. He had also a large family of his own in sons and daughters, and a family tree, that the heralds nursed up for him, the roots of Avhich stretched back far beyond William the Conqueror's days. Most noblemen are satisfied if they can trace their ancestors so far back in history, but, Uncle Richard being much more wealthy than most noblemen, the UNCLE RICHARD AND UNCLE TOM 13 heralds discovered that his family Avas as much more ancient.

Heralds can ahvays manage those matters when well paid for the trouble, and even in the best regulated families there are gaps here and there, as they stretch back to remote antiquity, which are very convenient. His mansion on the hill was most magnificent, and overlooked the little Australian township, which spread along the bay, like an old baronial castle. It was the only house built from stone in that locality, and had been quarried and brought from a vast distance, as the stones were which made up the pyramids of Egypt ; with ramparts and turrets wherever they could be crammed on, so that to an imaginative boy like myself, in spite of the blue Australian sky above it, I was for ever on the outlook for a steel-clad sentinel with his casque glittering in the blazing sunbeams. Perhaps, hoAvever, the sun was too fierce for steel casques to be worn, as the brains might have broiled inside them ; or most likely no man in Australia could be found to don such ancient livery, or else I think Uncle Richard would have had this also, he had such a weakness for things of that sort.

As it was, however, I had to rest satisfied with the embrasured battlements, and fancy the servitors and men-at arms for myself. It was a glorious vieAv from these walls that the visitors had, and uncle had plenty of them ahvays Avith him : a turquoise-tinted bay with misty headlands stretching in a half-circle round, and the deep blue line of ocean to be seen beyond the heads ; an ocean and bay seldom shaded by stormy clouds, but for ever laughing lazily under the sun-filled atmosphere, with the sand fringes Avhite as snow, and a foreground of all descriptions of fruit and ornamental trees cutting sharply that gem-like blue Avater ; ' a paradise of a place,' as his visitors used to remark, ' where any one might be happy.' But I was not at all happy in that paradise, because, Avith the exception of the governess, I was the only poor person who was tolerated Avithin its gates, and every hour of my life I Avas made sensible of the sad fact that there is no crime so worthy of contempt as poverty.

The other servants I do not include, for there are no poor servants in Australia. Uncle Richard allowed me to appear at the table sometimes when there was no one very important staying Avith him ; but as my father had died in his debt, he never permitted me to forget that dis graceful stain, nor that I was an object of charity, a nobody, a pauper ; and his sons and daughters, my cousins, were quite as ready to follow his example, Avhile the visitors as a rule took their cue UNCLE RICHARD AND UNCLE TOM 15 from the marked and general tone, and either ignored me, or else treated me with open contempt, so that I was glad enough when they granted me the favour of keeping to my own attic, or else allowed me to hunt up Uncle Tom. I need not waste time describing my wealthy cousins, as I never got near enough to them to be on familiar terms.

They were very accomplished and supercilious as far as I was concerned, so that, although I saw them often enough smile and talk pleasantly to the visitors, these phases were too obliquely cast from me for me to be able to record them ; I only saw the sneers, or heard the revilings. Their mother's place was filled up by my father's and uncle's sister, Aunt Eliza, who, being the Avidow of a wealthy man, was honoured, according to her deserts, in that golden household; she was a thin, upright lady, with a wooden manner and precise form of speech, who spent her days looking strictly after the servants, locking up cupboards, and pre venting extravagance. She honoured her living brother very greatly, in fact, when she uttered his name, it was in a hushed tone, as if it had been something sacred she was extolling.

She also indulged her nephews and nieces blindly, and only kept her reproaches for me, and her reflections for my dead father and mother, who had been so criminal as to die without providing for me. She was also very piously inclined, and spent some of her accumulating fortune in tracts to distribute to the cottagers; but the cottagers did not enjoy her visits, and the secants changed often under her strict rule. The governess alone seemed to be contented Avith her lot. That governess, Miss Pringle, Avas my special abhorrence, as I was hers. She was a long-faced, long-waisted, squat Avonian of about thirty-five, who took every opportunity of ingratiating herself Avith her patrons by spying upon me and making the most of my faults, and as I Avas a high-spirited boy, or would have been had I not been so con stantly snubbed, I generally gave her plenty to do, therefore most of my punishments were due to Miss Pringle.

At Uncle Tom's it was all different. His family consisted of his daughter Minnie, a girl of about the same age as myself — fifteen (she was twelve months younger than I Avas, but looked as old), four or five goats with their kids, Avhich were never taken from them, a couple of dogs, some cats, and a yard Avell filled with poultry, completed the lh'e stock. The cottage itself was only a three-roomed slab-shanty, built close to the water's edge, Avhere at a little jetty my uncle kept his schooner with which he used to go on his diving expeditions if the distance was not too great, and which he also UNCLE RICHARD AND UNCLE TOM ■7 used for fishing purposes when he was not other wise engaged. Uncle Richard had a splendidly fitted-up yacht at his own private wharf, about a mile distant from where the old schooner lay, while his house overlooked the shanty over Avhich the motherless Minnie officiated ; but the rich uncle held no communications with the poor one, and would not purchase a fish if he knew it had been caught by Uncle Tom, so great an aversion he had to any thing approaching poverty ; indeed, that I would go to the shanty was one of the faults Avhich so often got me into trouble, and Avhich provided my spy Miss Pringle with so much employment.

She reported my delinquency, and Aunt Eliza rated and punished me, each time I visited the shanty or the schooner, for my want of common decency and gratitude, yet as often as I could get free, I went astray, and gloried in it. And Minnie was worth all the lectures and thrashings Avhich I got, as you will have to OAvn when you know her better ; — a thin girl, with a neck like a swan and hair a tumble of red gold. Her face was freckled with the sun, for she never carried a sunshade as did my other cousins, but used to run about in all Aveathers, dressed anyhow, with an old straw hat on her head, when she had a hat at all, not at all particular how she looked, and more like a boy than a girl. She was my only chum in all my games, and it wasn't likely that I was going to give up my chum for all the rich uncles, time-serving aunts, or supercilious cousins Avhich Australia ever hatched ; some boys might, but I Avasn't that kind of a boy, and neither was Minnie the kind of a girl to let me be so mean.

She had been brought up with her father since ever she had been six years old, for her mother had died then ; and whenever he had a job of diving to do, he just left his live stock in charge of a neighbour, and took his daughter along with him, so that she had seen a good deal of the Colonies in her time, and was known nearly as well as her father at all the ports. When they had a spell at home, and she grew strong enough, she went out fishing with him, and could manage the ropes and nets, as well as the Avheel in quiet weather, as any sailor, — in fact, her father used to declare that she was of more use to him than any two ordinary hands. Her education as a young lady had, however, been sadly neglected. She mocked at the piano as an article too foolish for any girl of spirit to sit doAvn to, as she jeered at fine clothes and other ladylike signs.

She did consent to allow me to teach her reading and writing, accomplishments which her father was totally ignorant about, and UNCLE RLCHARD AND UNCLE TOM 19 never saw the necessity of acquiring for his pro fession, and she even went the length of attending the Board School pretty regularly for a few months, until she had turned fourteen, after which she gave it np as a waste of time and mental energy, and would have no more of it. You will be able, from Avhat I am telling you, to gather that I had not known Minnie intimately for very long. The fact was, that at the time I begin my story, I had only lost my father a twelve month before this date ; it was on the A'oyage out to Australia that he died, and left me to the tender protection of his brother Richard. But it does not take long for boys to fix on friends and enemies, as I did on mine, and after I had tried, in vain, to win some sympathy from my Uncle Richard and Aunt Eliza (I never tried my cousins, for they froze me up at once), I very quickly found my way into the affections of Uncle Tom and Cousin Minnie, and there I rested without wishing a change, for they were all that a boy like me could want to make him happy ; all that the other relations were not, and never could be.

Minnie taught me the little that I knew about boats and ships, as I taught her the little she ever knew about book-learning; she also showed me all the wonders of the Bush, while her father enthralled me with his accounts of the wonders of the ocean. While I was in that shanty listening to the Diver's adventures, or exploring the Bush with my freckled-faced cousin, I was as happy as a sand-boy ; it was only Avhen I went up to that prim paradise of gold, the castle, that I kneAV Iioav Avretchedly mean and contemptible a dependent can be made, and how the hours may seem like moments at one place, and like months at another. Fortunately, however, kind fate was coming along rapidly to pluck me out of my gilded cage, and give me the life of liberty and adventure which was most suited to me.

Chapter II

I LEAVE UNCLE RICHARD I don't think that any old lady Avas ever so sure in her own mind of this world, and the next as well, as was my Aunt Eliza, or one that did less to deserve such a steady continuation of comfort and bliss. As I have already said, she never did a charitable action in her life, beyond distributing a few tracts. I had seen her do many spiteful actions, and betray an icy malignancy which made my young blood sometimes curdle with affright. Her smiles and soft words were all devoted to the wealthy, and I had proved to my cost that she was not at all particular to the telling of a de liberate lie or two, if these served her purposes ; yet the most frequent remark which she made was that ' she was safe in that blessed future,' whoever else might be left in the cold, and that was her comfort and consolation ; a conviction Avith which I have since seen many like her cover themselves and their sins as Avith a long water proof cloak, under the firm belief that they are ready dressed for the feast, while the devil laughs soberly as he walks demurely in front of them and leads them along his own way.

When any thing went wrong, — that is, when Miss Pringle had hatched up some fresh fault for me to bear the burden of, — Aunt Eliza would reply to my request for a fair hearing, ' God forgive the pride and obstinacy of your wicked heart, Eric Stanfield ; ' and then my punishment would take place Avithout further trial, so that the phrase ' God forgive ' always presaged an extra punishment. This I did not mind if I chanced to be guilty, but Avhen I had to take punishment for any of my rich, pampered cousins, or through some fiction of Miss Pringle, then I became sullen aud revengeful, and inclined to be all that she accused me of being. o* One day, having been locked in my room, after a severe thrashing for a fault committed by one of my cousins, I was sitting brooding at the open Avindow, and wondering how long it would be before I could gain my own bread, and so be rid of this Avretched grandeur and causeless badgering The sun Avas pouring over the landscape out side gloriously, Avhile from my height I could see into the gardens and walls of Uncle Richard's / LEA VE UNCLE RICHARD 23 domains, and beyond that again, the little township which fringed the sparkling blue bay, with the cottage where Uncle Tom and his daughter Minnie lived and enjoyed themselves without ceremony or rigid, cold propriety.

I saw from my post of ob servation my cousins go out for a walk along the snow-white sands ; they were going in the direc tion of some caves, which I had come almost to regard as my own property and Minnie's ; and that they should be able to enjoy this also, as well as all the other advantages of life, made me extra bitter on this special morning, particularly that George, the little sneak of a cousin for Avhose sake I was then being confined, should be able to fossick about my caves as he liked, while I could only look out of the window, was becoming too much for me to bear patiently. Miss Pringle was in the garden, pulling some white roses before joining her charges, and looking up to me with malicious eyes, Avhile Aunt Eliza was down in the kitchen regions making things pleasant for the cook.

I had an appointment that morning with Minnie, and the time was almost up for me to join her. Down in the flat below me, I could hear one of the housemaids singing as she tidied the bed room. I knew the singer as a friend, for she had often screened me before Avhen I had been out at nights ; would I ask her help noAv, and make my escape from prison ? No parole held me, for Aunt Eliza believed more in a locked door than word promises. Miss Pringle had gathered her nosegay, and, after a grimace in my direction, passed out of the gates, therefore the coast was clear. ' Nancy,' I whispered loudly, leaning over my window, ' will you come up to me for a moment ? ' ' What do you Avant, Eric ? and Avhy are you indoors this morning when all the others have gone out ? ' asked the housemaid from her side of the open window. ' Because I am locked in, and I Avant you to let me out.

Will you ? ' ' Of course I shall, Eric, if only to spite that she-dragon of an aunt of yours. Just wait a moment.' In tAvo minutes more I Avas at liberty, while Nancy, the Colonial servant, eyed me over with a little contempt. ' How much longer are you going to stand this kind of treatment ? A big strong boy like you, to be locked in by a Avooden figurehead of an aunt for nothing ! I don't believe there's an ounce of pluck in an English-bred boy. Why, if you had been a Colonial, you'd have bolted long I LEAVE UNCLE RICHARD 25 ago, and be making your two pound a week by this time.' ' Do you think I could earn that money, Nancy ? ' ' Of course you could — a great deal easier than the life you lead here amongst them snobs.' ' What at, Nancy ? ' ' Oh, there are heaps of work to be had. You just take my square tip, and walk out of this for good, hoav you have the chance.

Go to your other uncle, Tom the Diver, and tell him you have chucked up the swell Avhipping-boy business, and mean to be a man for the rest of your life, and then the girls will have some respect for you. By jingo ! if my father and mother had been reviled by any of my blessed relations as I have heard yours spoken of by that aunt of yours, I'd have smashed things generally and hooked it long ago. There, be off with you, and let me manage your jailor when she comes up-stairs.' Nancy gave me a good-natured but half-con temptuous shove doAvnstairs, and then Avith a parting bit of advice Avent on with her work. ' Don't let me see your face inside this yer house again, or I'll never speak to you no more. There, so long ! ' It was the first time that I had openly defied Aunt Eliza, for although, when out, I had often disobeyed her desires in small matters, yet I had always taken my punishment patiently, if not with meekness.

Of course I knew many Colonial boys of my own age who would never have endured what I had borne so slavishly, and Avho would have thought no more of walking out of that house of bondage than taking their breakfast, but the yoke had been too long upon me for me to be able to lay it doAvn without a tremor; the world Avas all strange to me, and filled me with unknown horror. Yet I kneAV as I went doAvn those car peted steps that it was for the last time, that there Avould be no return, for I had experienced the implacable natures of both Aunt Eliza and Uncle Richard, and that in their eyes I was now committing the unpardonable sin. As I went down the first flight of stairs, my knees trembled and my heart sank ; then, as I reached the second flight, the load seemed to fall from me, and I began to wonder Iioav I had ever felt afraid of these gold-Avorshippers ; the third flight was reached by a long corridor lined with bedroom doors like a big hotel ; then I got into the drawing-room and parlour flat; the last broad stairway led me down to the hall and freedom.

I was pursuing my way noAv as defiantly as Nancy or Minnie could have desired, to the hat- / LEA VE UNCLE RICHARD 27 rack where hung my hat, when an exclamation of pious horror caused me to look round, and to see my Aunt Eliza emerging from the servants' stair case, with uplifted hands and a wrathful glitter darting from her beady black eyes through her spectacles. ' Preserve us all ! but what is this ? Eric ! and in the hall when I locked you iu your room for the day ? ' ' Yes, aunt ; I did not deserve my punishment, therefore I am not going to take it.' ' God forgive the pride of your wicked heart ! Who let you out ? ' ' Never mind. I am out, and I intend to stay out,' I replied recklessly. ' Very well ; I'll take care to lay this matter before your Uncle Richard, and hear what he says about it.' Her dry threads of lips shut up like a mouse trap, as she folded her hands and stood Avatching me depart in her most wooden posture.

I kneAV well the symptom of that pose and the expression of that mouth ; pitiless, frozen hatred that would never be melted while she had* breath left in that well-preserved, time-dried body. Some hatreds are easy to bring into existence, but impossible to kill, and the cold, silent hatreds are the most prolific, snake-like, and enduring of all. Simple as was the cause, I had made Aunt Eliza my ruthless enemy for life. But what signifies hatred to youth which can only comprehend and appreciate love ? It is only after we have Avorn out the nobler emotions that we begin to understand the importance of making friends and appeasing enemies. With the first grey hair Cupid flies, and the sleek-faced goddess Diplomacy takes the urchin's vacant post. There Avas just one year of difference between the ages of Minnie and me ; she was fifteen past, and I Avas over sixteen, a strong boy of the Saxon type, ruddy-faced and fair, rather short for my years, but broad-chested and steady on my pins, pretty long-suffering and sIoav at seeing offence, while ideas generally had to be forced in upon me from the outside, but when once the idea was fixed, it had to be carried to completion before I let it go — it grew slowly but steadily to a stalwart plant.

It would never have come to me of its own accord, this rebellion against authority, nor the thought that I might do better for myself out of that great house, Avhere I Avas hourly insulted, but for Minnie first, and Nancy the chambermaid afterwards. My father had bequeathed me to Uncle Richard, and to that important personage I had left the shaping out of my future. But noAv / LEA VE UNCLE RICHARD 29 all this was changed, and I must either think out my own destiny, or else shift it over to Uncle Tom, if he Avould take the trouble off my shoulders. As I passed out of the chill of that vast hall, where stood that bony relic, my dead father's sister, into the warmth of the genial Australian morning sun, I pitched from me the unaccustomed burden of responsibility, and went to keep my appointment with Minnie, my heart much lighter than it had been for many a day.

Uncle Tom was out when I reached the shanty, painting his ship, my cousin informed me ; a sure sign that another diving expedition Avas expected before long. A large liner had been wrecked up north in the Torres Straits, and the information had just reached Tom that morning unofficially ; in a few days further news Avould come to hand, and most likely also orders for him to go to it. ' You're in luck, Eric ! ' cried Minnie, when I told her that I had cut the cables. ' We'll all go on this job ; help me to feed the animals, and then we'll go and talk to father.' After we had done our duty in the back yard, we went in company and interviewed Uncle Tom, whom Ave found deep in the mysteries of oakum, tar, and white lead. He laughed in his easy Avay when I told him my story, and said, — ' All right, Eric, my lad ! we'll find room for you aboard.

Go and amuse yourselves to-day, and we'll talk the matter over to-night.' He was a big man was Uncle Tom, big, bluff, and, like my mother, golden-haired, with a great yellow tangled beard that reached half-way down his chest, and bold piercing eyes as blue as forget me-nots. He used terribly strong language when he spoke, and took immense draughts of equally strong liquor Avhen he drank, while the large and tenderly-cherished, carefully-browned meerschaum pipe was seldom out of his mouth ; only when it required to be cooled did he lay it aside in a shady place, and then he chewed tobacco by the mouth ful until he could refill and relight his favourite. The schooner I can hardly describe, for Uncle Tom had almost rebuilt her himself. Sharp and low-lying, he had chosen her for her speed as a sailer, yet, as Avinds could not always be depended upon in the latitudes through Avhich he worked, he had fitted her up with machinery, propeller and screw, so that he could use her either way, as a steamer or a sailer, according to chance or emergency.