White Fire Part 49
Jean had been racking her brains as to how they were to get hold of some of the money waiting to be used in London, for all her papers had disappeared in the deluge. But Blair had thought the whole matter out, and had brought over paper and pens and a bottle of ink. And among them they drew up a number of doc.u.ments which, with Captain Pym's verification of the circ.u.mstances, would, they thought, procure for Captain Cathie all the money he needed as soon as he reached Sydney, and possibly before that.
And a very busy man would Captain Cathie be, if ever he reached Sydney.
For he had to buy a new _Torch_ and a mult.i.tudinous cargo; engage new hands--to a limited extent, however, this time, for henceforth they hoped to utilise largely the services of the brown men; and last, but by no means least, to provide, so far as money could do it, adequate recompense for the families of the men whose lives had been given in the service of the Dark Islands. So far as forethought and hard thinking could do it they had attended to everything, and Captain Cathie's programme might have daunted a less valiant man.
And so, very early one morning, before the sun had topped the hills behind, though the outer sea danced and sparkled merrily, there was a great leave-taking on the white beach at the mouth of the valley where the old village used to stand. The _Kenni-Kenni_ had brought them all up the day before, with all their belongings, in a couple of trips, and they were among their own brown people once more, ready and anxious to be at their work again.
The last hearty handshakes had been given and the last words said. The shallop they had built for use with the larger boat, and which was to be left behind, had just put Captain Pym and Captain Cathie on board.
The sails ran up, and the _Kenni-Kenni's_ nose turned determinedly for the pa.s.sage and the long journey westward.
Kenneth Blair and his wife Jean, and Aunt Jannet Harvey stood in the centre of a line of brown folk and waved the farewells and benedictions their voices could no longer carry, and little Kenni-Kenni waved and shouted because the others did. His namesake bobbed and rose to the swell of the pa.s.sage and was lost to sight behind the spouting jets of the reef.
The line of watchers on the beach climbed the hillside behind them, and watched and waved till the white sails alone were visible, till they became a tiny white speck, till they disappeared.
Then Kenneth Blair kissed his wife very tenderly, for his heart was very full. And he turned to the brown folk, and said--
"We will ask G.o.d's blessing on their journeying, for it means much to us all, and then we will get to our work. Let us pray!" and the brown folk bent their heads.
On the little ship, Captain Cathie had given the helm to Jim Gregor, and stood looking back at the peaks of the little land where he had spent so many full days.
And to him came Captain Pym, and said--
"That is one of the finest men I ever met, Captain Cathie. I count it a privilege to have known him. He will do great things yet."
"Yes, sir," said Cathie quietly, for the parting was still on him.
"The brown men call him White Fire, and so he is, and his wife's another, and so is Mrs. Harvey. Salt of the earth, sir, every one of them. If there were more like them the world would be a sight better to live in than it is."