第56章

Miss Rogers begins her story--An interview on the high seas--Drifting to destruction--The ship disappears--Tortured by thirst--Afearful sight--Cannibals on the watch--The blacks quarrel over the girls--Courting starvation--Yamba goes for help--A startling announcement--Preparations for the fight--Anxious moments--A weird situation--"Victory, victory"--A melodramatic attitude--The girls get sore feet.

At our next interview, thanks to Yamba's good offices, both girls were looking very much better than when I first saw them; and then, consumed with natural curiosity and a great desire to learn something of the outside world, I begged them to tell me their story.

The first thing I learnt was that they were two sisters, named Blanche and Gladys Rogers, their respective ages being nineteen and seventeen years.Both girls were extremely pretty, the particular attraction about Gladys being her lovely violet eyes.It was Blanche who, with much hysterical emotion, told me the story of their painful experience, Gladys occasionally prompting her sister with a few interpolated words.

Here, then, is Blanche Rogers's story, told as nearly as possible in her own words.Of course it is absurd to suppose that I can reproduce verbatim the fearful story told by the unfortunate girl.

"My sister and I are the daughters of Captain Rogers, who commanded a 700-ton barque owned by our uncle." [I am not absolutely certain whether the girls were the daughters of the captain or the owner.--L.de R.] "We were always very anxious, even as children, to accompany our dear father on one of his long trips, and at length we induced him to take us with him when he set sail from Sunderland [not certain, this] in the year 1868 [or 1869], with a miscellaneous cargo bound for Batavia [or Singapore].The voyage out was a very pleasant one, but practically without incident--although, of course, full of interest to us.The ship delivered her freight in due course, but our father failed to obtain a return cargo to take back with him to England.Now, as a cargo of some kind was necessary to clear the expenses of the voyage, father decided to make for Port Louis, in Mauritius, to see what he could do among the sugar-exporters there.

"On the way to Port Louis, we suddenly sighted a ship flying signals of distress.We at once hove to and asked what assistance we could render.A boat presently put off from the distressed vessel, and the captain, who came aboard, explained that he had run short of provisions and wanted a fresh supply--no matter how small--to tide him over his difficulty.He further stated that his vessel was laden with guano, and was also en route for Port Louis.

The two captains had a long conversation together, in the course of which an arrangement was arrived at between them.

"We said we were in ballast, searching for freight, whereupon our visitor said: 'Why don't you make for the Lacepede Islands, off the north-west Australian coast, and load guano, which you can get there for nothing?' We said we did not possess the necessary requisites in the shape of shovels, sacks, punts, wheel-barrows, and the like.These were promptly supplied by the other captain in part payment for the provisions we let him have.Thus things were eventually arranged to the entire satisfaction of both parties, and then the Alexandria (I think that was the name of the ship)proceeded on her way to Port Louis, whilst we directed our course to the Lacepede Islands.

"In due time we reached a guano islet, and the crew quickly got to work, with the result that in a very short time we had a substantial cargo on board.A day or two before we were due to leave, we went to father and told him we wanted very much to spend an evening on the island to visit the turtle-breeding ground.Poor father, indulgent always, allowed us to go ashore in a boat, under the care of eight men, who were to do a little clearing-up whilst they were waiting for us.We found, as you may suppose, a great deal to interest us on the island, and the time passed all too quickly.The big turtles came up with the full tide, and at once made nests for themselves on the beach by scraping out with their hind-flippers a hole about ten inches deep and five inches in diameter.The creatures then simply lay over these holes and dropped their eggs into them.We learned that the number of eggs laid at one sitting varies from twelve up to forty.We had great fun in collecting the eggs and generally playing with the turtles.

I am afraid we got out of sight of the men, and did not notice that the weather showed decided signs of a sudden change.When at length the crew found us it was past midnight--though not very dark; and though we ought to have been making preparations for returning to the ship, it was blowing hard.On account of this, the crew said they did not consider it advisable to launch the boat; and as we had our big cloaks with us, it was decided to remain on the island all night to see if the weather improved by the morning.Our ship was anchored fully three miles away, outside the reefs, and it would have been impossible, in the sea that was running, to pull out to her.There was only one white man among our protectors, and he was a Scotchman.The men made a fire in a more or less sheltered spot, and round this we squatted, the men outside us, so as to afford us greater protection from the storm.