Page:Dumas - Tales of Strange adventure (Methuen, 1907).djvu/96

84 "By this time the boat was launched and was pulling for the buoy.

"'Boat ahoy!' hailed the boatswain's mate.

"'Can you see anybody on the buoy?'

"'Nobody.'

"'Look here, I have got a notion in my bead,' said the boatswain's mate, turning to the hands.

"'What's that.'

" Why, that it was Olifus who shouted man overboard!'

"'Good Lord! what next?'

"'Hang it! nobody is missing, nobody can see a soul on the buoy; there is only Olifus says someone is overboard, only Olifus can see someone sticking to the buoy; he must have his reasons for it all.'

"'I don't say someone is missing, I say there is someone on the buoy,'

"'Well, we shall see; here comes the boat, bringing it back.'

"Indeed by this time the boat had reached the buoy, made it fast astern, and was towing it along in the wake.

"I could distinctly see a figure seated on that confounded buoy, and the nearer the boat came the more plainly could I make it out.

"'Boat ahoy!' hailed the boatswain's mate. 'What have you got there?'

"'Nothing.'

"'What, nothing!' I cried, 'can't you see?'

'"Well, well! but what is the matter with the man? you would think his eyes were going to jump out of his head.'

"The fact is, you see, I had just seen how things stood, and I was saying to myself, well, I am damned. Would you believe it, sir, the figure on the buoy was the Buchold, whom I thought I had thrown into the sea in a tin box.

"'Don't bring her aboard,' I screamed, 'pitch her into the sea . . . Don't you see it's a siren? Don't you see it's a mermaid? Don't you see it's the foul fiend!'

"'Come, come, the man is stark, staring mad; lash the fellow down and tell the surgeon.' In two twos I was lashed tight and carried to a cot in the sick bay; then the surgeon appeared, lancet in hand.

"'Oh, no!' said he, 'it is nothing; a bit of brain fever, that's all. I am going to bleed him heavily, and if he is not dead in three days, why, there is a good chance he will get over it.'

"I remember nothing more except that I felt a prick in my arm, that I saw the blood running, and fainted away.

"However, I did not faint so quick but I heard the Captain say in a big voice—"'Nobody, eh?' and all hands answer 'Nobody.'

"'Ah! that scoundrel Olifus, I can promise him one thing, and that is to put him ashore on the first land we touch at.'

"This was the pleasant bit of news I heard before I lost consciousness.

CHAPTER IX

THE PEARL FISHERY

HE Captain was as good as his word; when I came to myself I was indeed on shore. I inquired in what part of the world I might be, and learnt that the three-master, the Jean de Witte—that was the name of my ship—had put in at Madagascar and landed me there.

"As I had served three months and a half aboard the Jean de Witte, I found under my pillow a sum of a hundred and forty francs, which was full pay for my three months and a half. You see the Captain had behaved well after all. He might have kept back a month's pay, seeing I had been lying disabled for the last month. During that month, though I knew nothing about it, we had touched at St. Helena, doubled the Cape, and cast anchor at Tamatave, where they had put me ashore.

"As it was not at Tamatave that I wanted to start an enterprise of any sort, but rather in the Indies, I made inquiries of my landlord about means of getting there. A ship sailing for the Indies was a rare event at Tamatave, so my landlord advised me to make for Sainte-Marie, where I should have a better chance. A vessel was to sail in a week's time for Pointe-Larree; I made up my mind to take passage in her, if I felt better within the next seven days. There was only one thing I dreaded, sir, only one thing that could throw me back, that was if by any chance they had landed my wife along with me.

"The first night, look you, I passed in