Christmas Day arrived, and maintained its kindly repute by finding
affairs on board the Kansas changed for the better. Mr. Boyle was so
far recovered that he could walk; he even took command of two watches
in the twenty-four hours, but was forbidden to exert himself, lest the
wound in his back should reopen. Several injured sailors and firemen
were convalescent; the two most serious cases were out of danger;
Frascuelo, hardy as a weed, dared the risk of using his damaged leg,
and survived, though his progress along the deck was painful.
Nevertheless, on Christmas morning he presented himself before the
captain, and asked leave to abandon his present quarters. He felt
lonely in the forecastle, and wished to berth with the other Chileans
in the neighborhood of the saloon. Although his luck was bad in some
respects, the coal-trimmer was endowed with the nine lives of a cat,
for there could be no manner of doubt that he dragged himself aft just
in time to avoid being killed.
Yet, never was day less ominous in appearance. The breezy, sunlit
morning brought no hint of coming tragedy. The fine weather which had
prevailed since the Kansas drifted into the estuary seemed to become
more settled as the month wore. Suarez said it was unprecedented. Not
only had he not witnessed in five years three consecutive days without
rain, snow, or hail, but the Indians had a proverb: "Who so-ever sees
fire-in-the-sky (the sun) for seven days shall see the leaf red a
hundred times." In effect, centenarians were needed to bear testimony
to a week's fine weather; whereas no man--most certainly no
woman--among the Alaculofs ever succeeded in reaching the threescore
years and ten regarded by the psalmist as the span of life.
But the miner from Argentina never wavered in his belief that the
Indians would soon muster every adult for an assault on the ship. The
elements might waver, but not the hate of the savage. From the rising
of the sun to the going down thereof Suarez was ever on the alert. He
ate his meals with his eyes fixed on the low point of land which hid
Otter Creek. He saw thin columns of smoke rising when no other eye on
board could discern them. Once he made out the forms of a number of
women searching for shellfish on some distant rocks at low water, and
on Christmas morning he reported the presence of three canoes among the
trees near Otter Creek, when Courtenay could scarce be sure of their
character after scrutinizing them through his glasses.
Every other person on the ship held the opinion that the Alaculofs
would attack by night, if they were not afraid to attempt the
enterprise at all. So Suarez slept soundly, while his companions were
on the qui vive for a call to repel boarders. Were it not for the
strain induced by the silent menace of their savage neighbors, the
small company suffered no ill from their prolonged stay in this
peaceful anchorage. There was work in plenty for all hands. Walker
was re-enforced by a trio of firemen, whose technical knowledge, slight
as it was, proved useful when he began to fit and connect the disabled
machinery. For the rest, the promenade deck was walled with strong
canvas, while Courtenay and Tollemache gave undivided attention to the
fashioning of several other floating bombs which could be exploded from
the ship. They also provided flexible steam-pipes in places where a
rush might be made if the Indians once secured a footing on the deck,
fore or aft. Steam was kept up constantly in the donkey-boiler, not
alone for the electric light and the daily working of the pumps--as the
Kansas had not blundered over the shoal without straining some of her
plates--but for use against the naked bodies of their possible
assailants.