Across the Spanish Main: A Tale of the Sea in the Days of Queen BessCollingwood, Harry
General
Across the Spanish Main: A Tale of the Sea in the Days of Queen Bess
Collingwood, Harry
Adventure stories; Boys -- Juvenile fiction; Sea stories
the operations, and lay in his shelter almost unable to move. When the
new hut was finished, the builders found the man too far gone to walk,
so they brought some planks and put him on them, carrying him up in that
way. He was laid gently down and made as comfortable as possible under
the circumstances. A pannikin of water was left with him, and some cold
provisions placed near him in case he should feel hungry. The others
then went away to seek further wreckage and casks, but they found no
more. Then they decided to make another shelter wherein to protect
their provisions. It was thought advisable to construct this place near
the new hut; so the old shelter--such as it was--was taken down and
replaced close behind their new structure, and the casks, barrels, and
other perishable matters were placed therein as being safer, as well as
easier to get at at all times. They were now fairly settled down in
their new domain; they had shelter, and plenty of food to last for some
months, even on full rations. There was water in abundance to be had
from the spring, and altogether their lot was far and away more
satisfactory and endurable than that of the poor marooned pirate had
been. Besides, there were now four of them, and they had the advantage
and comfort of each other's company, while Evans had been entirely alone
with only his own miserable thoughts for companions until Roger and his
two seamen made their welcome appearance on the sand-bank. It occurred
to Roger that it would be a very good thing to have a flag and
flag-staff, because their fuel would not last for ever, and with it
would go their only means of signalling to passing ships; so several
narrow pieces of wood were nailed together, and the two seamen, both of
whom were wearing red shirts, sacrificed those garments in the interests
of the community. The lad then split them both down one side, to
increase the area of his improvised ensign, and tied the arms together
to increase the length. This "flag" was then nailed to the makeshift
flag-staff, and Roger and Jake Irwin swarmed up a palm-tree--one of the
three composing the posts for the support of the walls of their hut,
while Walter Bevan passed up the flag and staff to them from below.
Then Roger, with his sword, which he had carried up naked between his
teeth, cut away part of the foliage, and the staff was pushed up through
the hole thus made, the lower portion being secured to the top of the
trunk of the palm-tree. Both men then scrambled down to the ground
again and looked up at their handiwork. There it fluttered, far above
the tufted crowns of the palm-grove, a large red flag at the top of its
lengthy staff, some eighty feet above the ground, and visible, as they
judged, at a distance of at least ten miles out at sea on a clear day.
This, as Roger remarked, gave them an extra chance of being recovered by
the fleet, as the flag would be seen at almost as great a distance as
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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