_ CHAPTER FORTY NINE. SAILOR JACK
Harry had gone to his hut after the labours of the day were over,--and was about to lie down and rest when Jacob appeared at the entrance.
"Beg pardon, sir," he said, "may I speak a few words with you."
"Yes," answered Harry, "what are they about?"
"Why, sir, I have been having a talk with Jack, and he has been asking me questions which I can't answer, but which I've a notion you can; and if you'll let him he'd like to see you, sir."
"What is it about, Jacob?" asked Harry.
"Why, sir, he was telling me how he was serving on board a man-of-war, how the boat he belonged to was cut off by the savages and every soul on board killed except himself; and how after he had been for several years made to work like a slave he escaped and got on board a Dutch merchantman. He was working his passage home in her when she was cast away on this island, and only he and two other Englishmen were saved. But that's not what I was coming to. When I happened to be talking of Captain Headland he seemed wonderfully interested. 'Why Jacob,' he said, 'that's my name.' I then told him that he and you, sir, were old shipmates, and that you knew much more about him than I did, sir. Jack asked me if I would come and speak to you, for he is just like a man out of his mind, he is so eager to know who the captain is."
"Tell him I shall be glad to speak to him at once," said Harry, much interested in what he had heard, and Jacob hurried off to call Jack.
Jack soon reached the hut, showing his man-of-war's-man manners by doffing his hat and pulling one of his long locks. His countenance, though burned and bronzed almost to blackness, and somewhat frizzled by age and exposure, wore the same honest, kind expression which Headland had described.
"Sit down, my friend," said Harry, giving him one of a couple of stools he had manufactured. "Halliburt has been telling me that you wish to hear about Captain Headland."
"Ay, that I do, sir, and if you knew how my heart is set on him, for I am sure it must be him, you would not wonder that I make bold to axe you. I never had a son, but if I had, I could not love him better than I did that lad, whom I watched over ever since he was a small child just able to toddle about the decks by himself. I took charge of him when there was no one else to see that he did not come to harm, and I may say, though there is nothing to boast of in it, I saved his life more than once when he would have been drowned or burned to death, or carried away by the savages. It was a proud day when I saw him placed on the quarter-deck with a fair chance of becoming an admiral, as I am very sure he will be, and there was nothing so much went to my heart when I was made a prisoner by the rascally Malays as the thought that I could no longer have an eye on him, and maybe help him a bit with my cutlass in boarding an enemy or in such like work. And then, when I at last got away from the Malays and was coming home to hear about him again, as I hoped, it was just the bitterest thing that could have happened to me to find myself wrecked on this desolate island without the chance that I could see of getting off again. And then, after all, to have some of his ship's company and his greatest friend, as Jacob tells me you are, sir, cast ashore here to tell me about him, almost surpasses my belief and makes my heart jump into my mouth for joy."
"I will not ask if you are Jack Headland of whom my friend has spoken, and for whose faithful care he has expressed the warmest gratitude, for I am very sure you must be," exclaimed Harry. "He has told me all the circumstances you have described and nothing will give him greater satisfaction than to find that you are alive and well. He is more than ever anxious to discover his parents, and you are the only person alive that he knows of who is able to help him to do so."
Harry then gave a brief account of Captain Headland's career from the time since his faithful friend had been parted from him.
"Thank you, sir, for telling me all this," exclaimed Jack. "I have often and often puzzled my head to call to mind the name of the craft aboard which I first saw him, and the place she sailed from; do you see, sir, I had no learning and was a thoughtless lad at the time, and I never asked questions about the place we had come to, and all I remember is that the name of the craft seemed pretty nigh to break the jaws of all who attempted to speak it. Still, where there's a will there's a way, maybe somehow or other it will come back to me."
"At all events I am sure you will do your best if we can manage to get away from this place; and Captain Headland will certainly not leave these seas without looking for us," answered Harry.
The conversation was so interesting that it was not till a late hour that Jack returned to his hut in which Jacob had been invited to take up his quarters. The two warm-hearted sailors had so many qualities in common that they had been especially drawn to each other, though they probably were not aware of the cause. Utter freedom from selfishness was the chief characteristic of them both. No sooner had Jacob Halliburt discovered Harry's love for May than he was ready to sacrifice even his own life if it were necessary for May's sake, to preserve that of his lieutenant, without a thought about the destruction of his own vain hopes, while honest Jack's whole soul was wrapped up in the boy he had preserved from so many dangers.
The invalid gentleman had recognised Jacob as the seaman who had returned on board the wreck, and had assisted in his escape by placing him in the cradle. Jacob had since then been attending to him and looked in every now and then to enquire if he wanted anything: he had besides helped to fit up his hut. He had not from the first associated with the rest of the passengers who professed not even to know his name. Some pronounced him proud and haughty, and others expressed their opinion that he was not right in his mind; although, except that he had kept himself aloof from them, he had done nothing which would warrant such an assertion.
Jacob was attending on him the first day he had occupied his hut.
"Is there anything more I can do for you, sir?" asked Jacob, who had brought him his share of the evening meal cooked at the general fire, for Harry had established a system by which all shared alike.
"Thank you, my man, there is nothing more I require; but as your appetite is probably better than mine, if you will wait a few minutes you can carry off some of my rations," answered the gentleman, looking at the mess with the eye of an invalid, as if it was not especially to his taste, "I fear I have no other means of repaying you for the trouble you are taking on my account." _