The Pirate’s Island—Continued.  
Next morning Sam Shipton awoke from a sound and dreamless slumber. Raising himself on the soft ottoman, or Eastern couch, on which he had spent the night, he looked round in a state of sleepy wonder, unable at first to remember where he was. Gradually he recalled the circumstances and events of the preceding day.
 
The forms of his companions lay on couches similar to his own in attitudes of repose, and the seaman still slept profoundly in the position in which he had been laid down when brought in.
 
Through the mouth of the cavern Sam could see the little garden, glowing like an emerald in the beams of the rising sun, and amongst the bushes he observed the old couple stooping quietly over their labour of gathering weeds. The warm air, the bright sunshine, and the soft cries of distant sea-birds, induced Sam to slip into such of his garments as he had put off, and go out quietly without rousing his companions.
 
In a few minutes he stood on the summit of the islet and saw the wide ocean surrounding him, like a vast sparkling plain, its myriad wavelets reflecting now the dazzling sun, now the azure vault, the commingling yellow and blue of which resulted in a lovely transparent green, save where a few puffs of wind swept over the great expanse and streaked it with lines of darkest blue.
 
“Truly,” murmured Sam, as he gazed in admiration at the glorious expanse of sea and sky, “Robin is right when he says that we are not half sufficiently impressed with the goodness of the Almighty in placing us in the midst of such a splendid world, with capacity to appreciate and enjoy it to the full. I begin to fear that I am a more ungrateful fellow than I’ve been used to think.”
 
For some time he continued to gaze in silence as if that thought were working.
 
From his elevated position he could now see that the islet was not quite so barren as at first he had been led to suppose. Several little valleys and cup-like hollows lay nestling among the otherwise barren hills, like lovely gems in a rough setting. Those, he now perceived, must have been invisible from the sea, and the rugged, almost perpendicular, cliffs in their neighbourhood had apparently prevented men from landing and discovering their existence. One of the valleys, in particular, was not only larger than the others, but exceptionally rich in vegetation, besides having a miniature lake, like a diamond, in its bosom.
 
Descending the hill and returning to the cave, Sam found his comrades still asleep. Letta was assisting old Meerta in the preparation of a substantial breakfast that would not have done discredit to a first-class hotel.
 
“Oh, I’m so glad you’ve come!” said Letta, running up, to him and giving him both hands to shake, and a ready little mouth to kiss, “for I didn’t like to awaken your friends, and the sailor one looks so still that I fear he may be dying. I saw one of the naughty men die here, and he looked just like that.”
 
Somewhat alarmed by this, Sam went at once to the sailor and looked earnestly at him.
 
“No fear, Letta,” he said, “the poor fellow is not dying; he is only in a very profound sleep, having been much exhausted and nearly killed yesterday. Hallo, Robin! awake at last?”
 
Robin, who had been roused by the voices, rubbed his eyes, yawned vociferously, and looked vacantly round.
 
“Well, now, that’s most extraordinary; it isn’t a dream after all!”
 
“It’s an uncommon pleasant dream, if it is one,” remarked Jim Slagg, with a grave stare at Robin, as he sat up on his couch. “I never in all my born days dreamt such a sweet smell of coffee and fried sausages. Why, the old ’ooman’s a-bringin’ of ’em in, I do declare. Pinch me, Stumps, to see if I’m awake!”
 
As Stumps was still asleep, Slagg himself resorted to the method referred to, and roused his comrade. In a few minutes they were all seated at breakfast with the exception of the sailor, whom it was thought best to leave to his repose until nature should whisper in his ear.
 
“Well now,” said Slagg, pausing to rest for a few seconds, “if we had a submarine cable ’tween this and England, and we was to give ’em an account of all we’ve seen an’ bin doin’, they’d never believe it.”
 
“Cer’nly not. They’d say it wos all a passel o’ lies,” remarked Stumps; “but I say, Mr Sam—”
 
“Come now, Stumps, don’t ‘Mister’ me any more.”
 
“Well, I won’t do it any more, though ’tain’t easy to change one’s ’abits. But how is it, sir, that that there electricity works? That’s what I wants to know. Does the words run along the cable,—or ’ow?”
 
“Of course they do, Stumpy,” interrupted Slagg, “they run along the cable like a lot o’ little tightrope dancers, an’ when they come to the end o’t they jumps off an’ ranges ’temselves in a row. Sometimes, in coorse, they spells wrong, like bad schoolboys, and then they’ve to be walloped an’ set right.”
 
“Hold your noise, Slagg, an’ let your betters speak,” returned Stumps.
 
“Well, if they don’t exactly do that,” said Sam Shipton, “there are people who think they can do things even more difficult. I remember once, when I was clerk at a country railroad station and had to work the telegraph, an old woman came into the ticket office in a state of wild despair. She was about the size and shape of Meerta there, but with about an inch and a half more nose, and two or three ounces less brain.
 
“‘What’s wrong, madam?’ I asked, feeling quite sorry for the poor old thing.
 
“‘Oh! sir,’ said she, clasping her hands, ‘I’ve bin an’ left my passel,—a brown paper one it was,—on the seat at the last station, an’ there was a babby’s muffler in it—the sweetest thing as ever was—an’ f–fi’ pun t–ten, on’y one sh–shillin’ was b–bad—boo-hoo!’
 
“She broke down entirely at this point, so, said I, ‘Madam, make your mind quite easy, sit down, and I’ll telegraph at once,’ so I telegraphed, and got a reply back immediately that the parcel had been found all right, and would be sent on as soon as possible. I told this to the old lady, who seemed quite pleased, and went on to the platform to wait.
 
“I was pretty busy for the next quarter of an hour, for it was market day at the next town, but I noticed through the window that the old lady was standing on the platform, gazing steadily up at the sky.
 
“‘Broxley—third class,’ said a big farmer at that moment, with a head like one of his own turnips.
 
“I gave him his ticket, and for five minutes more I was kept pretty busy, when up came the train; in got the struggling crowd; whew! went the whistle, and away went the whole affair, leaving no one on the platform but the porter, and the old woman still staring up at the sky.
 
“‘What’s the matter, madam?’ I asked.
 
“‘Matter!’ she exclaimed, ‘a pretty telegraph yours is to be sure! wuss than the old carrier by a long way. Here ’ave I bin standin’ for full ’alf-an-hour with my neck nigh broke, and there’s no sign of it yet.’
 
“‘No sign of what, madam?’
 
“‘Of my brown paper passel, to be sure. Didn’t you tell me, young man, that they said they’d send it by telegraph as soon as possible?’
 
“‘No, madam,’ I replied, ‘I told you they had telegraphed to say they would send it on as soon as possible—meaning, of course, by rail, for we have not yet discovered the method of sending parcels by telegraph—though, no doubt, we shall in course of time. If you’ll give me your address I’ll send the parcel to you.’
 
“‘Thank you, young man. Do,’ she said, giving me an old envelope with her name on it. ‘Be sure you do. I don’t mind the money much, but I couldn’t a-bear to lose that muffler. It was such a sweet thing, turned up with yaller, and a present too, which it isn’t many of ’em comes my way.’
 
“So you see, Stumps, some people have queer notions about the powers of the telegraph.”
 
“But did the old lady get the parcel all right?” asked Stumps, who was a sympathetic soul.
 
“Of course she did, and came over to the station next day to thank me, and offer me the bad shilling by way of reward. Of course I declined it with many expressions of gratitude.”
 
While they were thus adding intellectual sauce to the material feast of breakfast, the rescued sailor awoke from his prolonged sleep, and stretched himself.
 
He was a huge, thick-set man, with a benign expression of countenance, but that phase of his character was somewhat concealed at the time by two black eyes, a swollen nose, a cut lip, and a torn cheek. Poor fellow, he had suffered severely at the hands of the pirates, and suddenly checked the stretch in which he was indulging with a sharp groan, or growl, as he sat up and pressed his hand to his side.
 
“Why, what’s the matter with me, an’ where am I?” he exclaimed, gazing round the cave, while a look of wonder gradually displaced the expression of pain.
 
“You’re all right—rescued from the pirates at all events,” answered Sam Shipton, rising from table and sitting down beside the seaman’s couch.
 
“Thank God for that!” said the man earnestly, though with a troubled look; “but how did I escape—where are the rascals?—what—”
 
“There, now, don’t excite yourself, my man; you’re not quite yourself in body. Come, let me feel your pulse. Ah, slightly feverish—no wonder—I’ll tell you all about it soon, but at present you must be content merely to know that you are safe in the hands of friends, that you are in the pirates’ cave, and that the pirates and their vessel are now at the bottom of the sea.”
 
“That’s hardly c’rect, Mr Shipton,” murmured Slagg; “I would have said they was blow’d to hatoms.”
 
The seaman turned and looked at the speaker with what would have been a twinkle if his swelled visage would have permitted, but the effort produced another spasm of pain.
 
“I must examine you, friend,” said Sam; “you have been severely handled. Help me to strip him, Robin.”
 
The poor man at once submitted.
 
“You’re a doctor, sir, I suppose?” he asked.
 
“No,” said Sam, “only an amateur; nevertheless I know what I’m about. You see, I think that every man in the world, whatever his station or profession, should be at least slightly acquainted with every subject under the sun in connection with which he may be called on to act. In other words, he should know at least a little about surgery, and physic, and law, and carpentering, blacksmithing, building, cooking, riding, swimming, and—hallo! why, two of your ribs are broken, my man!”
 
“Sorry to hear it, sir, but not surprised, for I feels as if two or three o’ my spines was broken also, and five or six o’ my lungs bu’sted. You won’t be able to mend ’em, I fear.”
 
“Oh, yes, I shall,” said Sam cheerily.
 
“Ah! that’s well. I’d thowt that p’r’aps you wouldn’t have the tools ’andy in these parts for splicin’ of ’em.”
 
“Fortunately no tools are required,” returned Sam. “I’ll soon put you right, but you’ll have to lie still for some time. Here, Robin, go into the store-cave and fetch me a few yards of that white cotton, you remember, near the door. And, I say, mind you keep well clear of the powder.”
 
When the cotton was brought, Sam tore it up into long strips, which he wound somewhat tightly round the sailor’s huge chest.
 
“You see,” he observed, as he applied the bandages, “broken ribs are not necessarily displaced, but the action of breathing separates the ends of them continually, so that they can’t get a chance of re-uniting. All we have to do, therefore, is to prevent your taking a full breath, and this is accomplished by tying you up tight—so. Now, you can’t breathe fully even if you would, and I’d recommend you not to try. By the way—what&rsq............