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Updated: May 31, 2025
This, with the three pound fourteen already in the heel, made a total of seven pounds one shilling. "I'll tell you," said Wicks. "Let Carthew and Tommy and me take one pound apiece, and Hemstead and Amalu split the other four, and toss up for the odd bob." "O, rot!" said Carthew. "Tommy and I are bursting already. We can take half a sov' each, and let the other three have forty shillings."
Here the camp was pitched and a tent run up with the oars, sails, and mast. And here Amalu, at no man's bidding, from the mere instinct of habitual service, built a fire and cooked a meal. Night was come, and the stars and the silver sickle of new moon beamed overhead, before the meal was ready. The cold sea shone about them, and the fire glowed in their faces, as they ate.
To wash decks, relieve the wheel, do the day's work after dinner on the smoking-room table, and take in kites at night such was the easy routine of their life. In the evening above all, if Tommy had produced some of his civilisation yarns and music were the rule. Amalu had a sweet Hawaiian voice; and Hemstead, a great hand upon the banjo, accompanied his own quavering tenor with effect.
The owner, Norris Carthew, was on board in the somewhat unusual position of mate; the master's name purported to be William Kirkup; the cook was a Hawaiian boy, Joseph Amalu; and there were two hands before the mast, Thomas Hadden and Richard Hemstead, the latter chosen partly because of his humble character, partly because he had an odd-job-man's handiness with tools.
Tommy's £500 had grown to be £1,213 12s. 9-3/4d.; and Amalu and Hemstead, ranking for wages only, had £22 16s. 0-1/2d. each. From talking and brooding on these figures it was but a step to opening the chest, and once the chest open the glamour of the cash was irresistible.
There's a Kirkup in the Chilean navy to this day, I saw the name in the papers about the Balmaceda war. Hadden soon wearied of the mines, and I met him the other day in Sydney. The last news he had from Venezuela, Mac had been knocked over in an attack on the gold train. So there's only the three of them left, for Amalu scarcely counts.
Carthew shattered it with a second shot, for he was a marksman. "Pistols!" he cried, and charged at the companion, Wicks at his heels, Tommy and Amalu following. They trod the body of Holdorsen underfoot, and flew up-stairs and forth into the dusky blaze of a sunset red as blood.
Here are the names on the register; perhaps you would care to look at them while I go and see about the baggage?" Amalu. "Pinkerton," said I suddenly, "have you that Occidental in your pocket?" "Never left me," said Pinkerton, producing the paper. I turned to the account of the wreck. "Here," said I, "here's the name. 'Elias Goddedaal, mate. Why do we never come across Elias Goddedaal?"
"She's fully big for us three; it would be all the better if we had another hand, though it's a pity too, when you can pick up natives for half nothing. Then we must have a cook. I can fix raw sailor-men, but there's no going to sea with a new-chum cook. I can lay hands on the man we want for that: a Highway boy, an old shipmate of mine, of the name of Amalu.
All this time they had been drinking undiluted gin like water; three bottles stood broached in different quarters; and none passed without a gulp. Tommy collapsed against the mainmast; Wicks fell on his face on the poop ladder and moved no more; Amalu had vanished unobserved.
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