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.




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