Stick With Me Kid

"What are you going to do with us?" The Skipper's voice was once more contained.

"We's puttin' you off in a boat, and youse takes your chances with them critters what live on Skull Island!" Red continued to flap his gums.

I stopped listening to him. One of the lifeboat davits was empty, and I knew that must be the one the mutineers intended the Skipper, Mr. Denham, and Jimmy to use. I peered over the rail. The lifeboat was riding gently on the waves that slapped against the hull of the Venture. I swung a leg over the side, caught a rope, and shimmied down.

I sat down hard when I saw that, sitting huddled in the bow, were Charley and the little girl. He put his finger to his lips to forestall my questions and raised a tarpaulin. Beneath it were three rifles, and five knapsacks and canteens; he'd never doubted that I would be one of their party. Later I learned that the knapsacks contained what food and other supplies he and Hildy could gather on the spur of the moment.

"Stay out of light, Johnny. This way they no know we here."

I nodded and crawled to the stern. The three of us waited in the darkness.

"G'wan, get over the side before we t'row you over!"

"Where's Johnny?" There was panic in my lover's voice.

"We's keepin' your Nancy-boy, Denham. Mebbe we'll let ya have 'im back. If ya still wants 'im when we's done with 'im." There was coarse laughter.

"You..."

"Carl, no!" There was a sodden thud. "Jimmy!"

"Aye, aye, Skipper! I got him!"

I surged to my feet, grabbing the rope and about to climb back up to see what had been done to my lover.

"No!" Charley warned in a harsh whisper, diving toward the back of the boat and seizing my wrist in a bruising grip. "You stay! Skipper and Jimmy get your man down safe! You go up, they take you, we all die!"

"Why?" I asked sullenly. "I'd be the one going back."

"Mr. Denham no leave without you. Skipper stay for his friend, I stay for Skipper." He hefted his cleaver, which I hadn't seen before. "We all die."

"Me, too," piped up Hildy. "I don't like those men."

"All right." I gave in to their request, although that was the last thing I wanted to do. My fingers itched to grab a rifle and start firing, but I'd never used a gun before, and I knew I'd do no one any good with such a headstrong action.

Hildy scurried to me and burrowed against my side. "Thanks, Johnny. Those men scare me. They're like the ones in Dakang that Daddy wouldn't let come near me."

I was relieved to hear her father at least had some sense.

"Oww! Hey!" Red cried out as someone must have struck him.

Dutch snarled, "Let that be a lesson to you, Red! I dole out the punishments on this tub! All right, Skipper, you'd best be on your way!"

The lifeboat pitched as Jimmy dropped into it and struggled not to go over the side. Then the Skipper lowered Mr. Denham down. "I'll take him," I said in the wireless operator's ear, and he started, not realizing the lifeboat was already occupied.

"You? You're here?"

"You think I'd stay on board without him?"

"I thought they'd got you." He squeezed my arm. "I'm glad they didn't."

"Thanks, Jimmy," I said gruffly. It never failed to amaze me, that he accepted me because Captain Englehorn and Mr. Denham did. "You're still bleeding."

"It's nothin'. Head wounds bleed like a bastard." He rubbed his sleeve across his forehead to mop up the blood. "It'll stop soon."

Just then, my lover groaned, and I sank down onto my seat with him in my arms.

"It's all right, Mr. Denham. I've got you," I whispered, pressing my lips to his ear.

"Johnny!" There was something in his voice... He turned in my embrace. "I thought I'd lost you!"

"Not likely. You know me, Mr. Denham. I'll always turn up like a bad penny."

His arms slid around me and tightened. "Johnny." The way he said my name was like a caress.

The boat rocked as the Skipper slid down the rope. "What about food? Weapons?" he barked at the men above him.

"We let you have your lives. Now, row for 'em!" Dutch turned away from the rail.

Someone laughed harshly and fired a pistol at us. The shot went wide. It was followed by the sound of blows. "You're a rotten shot, Red, and you're wastin' ammunition!"

"Oww! I'm sorry, Dutch! I was just tryin' to scare 'em, I tell ya. I'm sorry!"

"Yeah, yeah, tell it to the Marines! G'wan, beat it! I'm sick of the sight of you!"

"We better get while the gettin's good, Skipper!" Jimmy whispered.

"Excellent idea. You take the aft oars. I'll take the fore. What the... Charley?" Captain Englehorn had almost sat on his cook. "Oh, my friend, were they insane to maroon you?"

"They no maroon Charley. Charley no stay with those bad men. I go with my..." He said a word in Chinese. "Let them eat their own cooking; they starve for sure, I tell you!"

"Thank you, Charley. But I think we're likely to starve also."

The cook raised the tarp to display our provisions, and the Skipper gripped his shoulder.

"Good man! Johnny! Hildy! My, my. We have our own crew. Thank god." He cleared his throat and said briskly, "All right, Jimmy. Let's shove off."

With long, smooth strokes, the lifeboat pulled away from the ship.

There was the sound of material ripping, and then Hildy leaned forward. "Here, Jimmy. You can use this piece of my nightie to make a bandage for the cut on your forehead."

The wireless operator reached for it, flustered. "Thanks... uh... little girl." He tied it around his head; it would keep the blood that was still oozing from his wound from dripping into his eyes.

"My name is Hildy," she said shyly.

"Thanks, Hildy." He smiled, then picked up the oars and slid back into the steady rhythm of Captain Englehorn's strokes.

"Here, Johnny. You're going to need a strip too, to keep your hair out of your eyes." Hildy had torn off another piece of material and gave it to me.

"Thanks, honey." I gave her a light squeeze, pulled my hair into a short tail, and tied it back.

"No need to worry about starving, Skipper," Mr. Denham said, although he hadn't seen the knapsacks. "We'll get a warm welcome from the natives."

"Do you really think so, Carl? I hope you're right."

"What are you talking about? I freed them from the threat of Kong. They'll treat us like gods!"

"I hope you're right," he repeated. "But that village was decimated that night. They might not look on us too fondly." He stared bleakly at the Venture as if trying to commit her lines to memory.

Suddenly there appeared to be a scuffle on board. There were shouts, a scream, and then a splash as the men threw someone overboard.

"Help me! I can't swim!"

"Come about, Jimmy."

"Skipper, d' you think that's a good idea? All right, all right, comin' about, sir."

We rowed back to pick up the hapless seaman.

"I'm gonna drown! Save me! Save..." His cries were becoming waterlogged.

There was raucous laughter from the Venture. "We got rid of a good captain, Helstrom. We ain't gonna replace 'im with the likes of you!"

"Oh, damn. It's Helstrom!" Mr. Denham straightened and rubbed the side of his head above his ear.

"Do we have to save him?" Hildy shivered against my other side. "He's a bad man, Johnny."

"I'm sorry, Miss Hildy, but in good conscience, I can't let him drown," the Skipper sighed.

"He might poison the fishes!" I muttered. Hildy laughed, but I could still feel the tension in her small body. She nestled closer to me. "It's oke, honey. I won't let him hurt you." My lover gave me a strange look. "Mr. Denham?" But he just shook his head.

Flailing hands found the lifeboat and clutched desperately. Jimmy grabbed the Norwegian by the seat of his pants and yanked him into the boat.

"Thanks. Oh, god, thank..." Helstrom coughed, spewing sea water all over our feet, and met our cold gazes with a weak smile. He sank down to the bottom of the boat.

"You better watch it, Helstrom," Jimmy snarled. "This is all your fault, y' know! If you hadn't got the men all riled up with those stinkin' lies about the Skipper and Mr. Denham really lookin' for a baby Kong on that island, and bein' willin' to sacrifice them to get it, none of this would've happened. I'd've told you, Skipper, but I didn't find out about it till just before all hell broke loose. And then Dutch slugged me, and I hit my head, and who'd've thought the men would be stupid enough to fall for his line of bull?"

"What I'd like to know is how the Venture wound up in these waters." The Skipper stared intently at Helstrom, who cowered before his gimlet eye.

Whatever the Norwegian might have said was cut off as the breakers lifted the small lifeboat high and hurled it toward the shore. Jimmy shipped his oars, jumped out into waist deep water and dragged it forward.

"Looks like we have a reception committee."

Lined up on the shore were at least a dozen native men. Some looked as if an arm or leg had been ripped from the socket, a couple had lost an eye, one had an ear shorn off, but they were all armed with spears and knives. The women, with children hanging onto their tattered grass skirts, looked only marginally more healthy.

"Skipper? Tell them who we are."

Captain Englehorn rose carefully and raised his hand in greeting, and began to speak. He was the only one on the original expedition who had known a dialect similar to their language, and he was able to communicate with them. "Bala. Bala! Friend!"

Jimmy tried to keep the lifeboat from drifting closer to shore until we knew what kind of welcome we'd be getting, but it was tough.

"Are you oke, Mr. Denham?"

"Yeah, kid."

"Hildy, move over a bit, honey." I swung around on the seat and went over the other side to give Jimmy a hand.

The natives faced Captain Englehorn, their expressions stoic and cold, and they parted as their chieftain came forward. The once-proud feathers of his headdress were limp and bedraggled. His eyes narrowed, and his response was harsh and guttural. He made a slashing motion with his hand, and his men began to heft their weapons restlessly.

"No need to translate that, Skipper!"

"Jimmy, we're getting out of here."

"Aye, aye, Skipper." The boat listed as we scrambled to get back into it, and it took on a couple of inches of water. "What'd he say, though?"

Captain Englehorn waited until we were safely out of range of the spears. His face was haggard.

"Jimmy," I poked his back, "take the Skipper's oars. I'll take your place."

"Thank you, Mr. Smith. They do remember us, only too well, I'm afraid. The chief said when we came to their island, many of his people died. We took their god, and those remaining have nothing to believe in. We took their god, and they have nothing to live for. We took their god, and..."

"I get it, Skipper," Mr. Denham said with a short, unhappy laugh. "I took away Kong, and their civilization fell apart. They have nothing to live for except, maybe, killing us. Oh, hell. We're in trouble. You're going to be sorry you came along, Charley."

"Not so, Mr. Denham."

"Even when I tell you that the beach we just left was the only way to come ashore on this misbegotten island? According to the map I had from Helstrom, the rest of it is sheer cliffs. We're doomed to row until we drop."

"No! There is a small place on the other side..."

"What are you talking about, Helstrom?"

In the early light of dawn, we could see the flush color his cheeks. "I... er... I didn't give you that information."

"Just like you didn't tell me there was a king's ransom in jewels on the other side of that wall, either?"

"You cheated me..."

I dropped the oars and lunged for him.

The boat rocked, and he tumbled backwards off his seat in an effort to avoid my attack. "All right, all right. He didn't cheat; it was an honest game!" Helstrom kept a wary eye on me, waiting to see if I'd jump him again. He relaxed marginally when I didn't. "I was gonna sell the information to you, Denham, I swear it, but then you was gone, an' I..."

"Yeah, you lost your ship." Mr. Denham grabbed his collar and hoisted him up, nearly strangling him. "I believe you about another place to land as much as I believe you about the treasure. Find the spot for us. And it'd better be damned soon, or I'll have no qualms about pitching you over the side!"

"I told you I'd tell you, didn't I?" he asked sullenly. "We just have to be on the look out for it. It juts out into the sea, an' when you're past it, if you look behind you, you see there's a narrow passage that leads into a small bay."

"Do we have anything to bail with?" The Skipper was looking his age. Hildy pulled a collapsible canvas cup from a knapsack and held it up. "That will have to do, I'm afraid."

We settled down to rowing again.

There were a lot of points that jutted out into the sea, but none of them concealed a channel that opened into a bay.

The sun rose higher and hotter, and still there was nothing.

Hildy tugged on my sleeve again.

"What is it, honey?"

She leaned close to my ear. "I think something is following us, Johnny."

"What...?" I looked behind us. "Oh, no. Oh, no!" I swallowed. "Mr. Denham, we've got company!" A dorsal fin was cutting neatly through the water to our port side. Dozens of yards back, a graceful tail swished side to side, propelling it forward.

The sound that came from Helstrom's mouth was indescribable, a bastard cross between a frenzied gasp and a shriek. "Sh-sh-sh- shark!" His eyes seemed to be swallowed up by the whites, and his face turned a sickly shade of yellow. I thought he'd piss himself. "Get it away from me! Get it away!"

"Shut up, Helstrom!" Jimmy snapped, and we put our backs into the oars and rowed, but the shark kept leisurely pace with us.

"Holy smokes!" Mr. Denham exclaimed, unable to tear his eyes from the shark. "It's as big as this boat!"

"Bigger, Carl. It must be forty-five, maybe fifty feet!"

"I ain't never seen a shark that big before," Jimmy muttered to himself.

"Neither have I." The Skipper's teeth were tight around the stem of his pipe.

"Of course! This close to Skull Island... It must be the remnant of some prehistoric species! If only I had a camera to film this thing!" my lover mourned, the showman in him coming to the fore.

"Steady on, men." Captain Englehorn spoke calmly, although he knew, better than any of us, probably, that if that shark chose to ram the tiny lifeboat, we were done for. "Keep your strokes smooth and even."

The shark seemed to study us with its flat, expressionless eyes, and then it submerged. For long minutes we sat tensely waiting for it to return. When it did, it was on the far side of the lifeboat, and it seemed content for the moment to just watch us.

Helstrom scrambled from one end of the lifeboat to the other, climbing over us, desperate to put some distance between himself and the monster shark. A couple of times he nearly caused us to founder. A nod from the Skipper, and Charley took action. With the side of his hand gave Helstrom a chop to the back of the head, and the Norwegian dropped like a stoned crow.

"I just stun him," the Chinaman announced. "We get some peace for little bit now."

The Skipper dropped his hand on Charley's shoulder. "Good work, Charley. Someone keep Helstrom's nose out of the water at the bottom of the boat. We wouldn't want him to drown."

"We wouldn't?"

"This is a dangerous situation we find ourselves in, Mr. Smith. I won't lie to you. We're going to need every hand we can muster."

"If you say so, Captain. I just hope we don't regret it."

Jimmy growled something under his breath that sounded like agreement and bent his back to his oars.

"Look! Look!" Hildy pointed excitedly toward the island. She gave a single bounce, and then subsided, casting an apologetic glance at me. "Look! There's the passage!"

"Thank god!" I said fervently. "Good girl, Hildy."

We angled the boat toward the spot Hildy was pointing to, and within a matter of minutes we were pulling away from the shark and entering the channel that would lead us into the bay, and to safety.

There was no spot where we could beach the lifeboat. The horseshoe-shaped bay was surrounded by ferns, vines and brush which grew in profusion to the lichen-covered stone that formed what looked like a natural pier at the water's edge. Something that didn't seem as densely covered, that looked almost like a ghost of a path, led inland, and that's what we rowed toward.

Helstrom had come to his senses a short time before, and he didn't wait. As soon as the lifeboat was close enough to land, he jumped out, a leap that would have rivaled Nijinsky. His foot skidded in the slippery moss, and he fell face forward. Scrabbling on his hands and knees, gibbering in panic, he finally got his feet under him and bolted into the undergrowth.

"He won't go far," Mr. Denham said sourly. "He doesn't have a gun."

"And I don't intend for him to have one!" Captain Englehorn's tone was stern. "After what he pulled on the Venture..."

My lover clambered out and staggered a bit, and I was out right behind him, catching him before he could keel over, keeping him steady. "Mr. Denham!"

"Thanks, kid. I'm oke. For such a little guy, Red really packed a wallop. That blow to the head has made me a little woozy, that's all."

Once I was sure he was firm on his feet, I let him go. "I should have shivved him when I had the chance."

"Johnny." I could see he remembered the time I'd volunteered to make Ann Darrow a widow, and he realized I was deadly serious.

Suddenly, there was a low rumbling, and the ground felt as if it was shimmying for a brief instant. Through the canopy of fronds and leaves, we could see a thin curl of off-white smoke.

"Didn't Driscoll say Kong's mountain appeared to be an ancient volcano?" Captain Englehorn asked.

Mr. Denham looked thoughtful, then nodded. "That's right, Skipper. He talked about the vents that provided enough steam so he could follow Kong without being seen."

"The islands in this part of the South Seas belong to a volcanic chain. Most of them have been inactive for centuries."

"Skipper, are these the coordinates of that chain that had become unstable?"

Captain Englehorn hesitated a moment, then nodded reluctantly. Had we gone from the frying pan into the fire? I remembered Jimmy giving him that piece of paper, and his palpable relief that we wouldn't be sailing into these waters.

"Do you think it's getting ready to erupt, Mr. Denham?"

"Nah, kid. Skull Island has been here a million years. It'll be here another million." My lover spoke with the utmost confidence. Suddenly he stumbled. "What the ...?" He bent down and brushed the lichen away. "What the he..." He caught himself just in time and shot a glance at the little girl. "... heck is this?"

Captain Englehorn stepped carefully onto the slick stone. He crouched down to examine it. "That's the kind of cleat used to secure boats to a pier. Strange metal. However old it is, it certainly isn't showing its age. No rust or wear!"

"How do you explain it, Skipper? This isn't the inhabited part of the island!"

The Skipper shrugged and rose to his feet, dusting off his hands. "An earlier civilization, no doubt." He turned to give Charley a hand out of the lifeboat.

"The one that built the wall?" Mr. Denham looked intrigued. "Maybe there is something to Helstrom's story of a treasure here somewhere." He winked at me. "Stick with me kid; we'll be rich as Rockefeller!"

"Sure thing, Mr. Denham." It didn't matter much to me, as long as I was with him. I tied the boat to the ring, then reached down and swung Hildy across to stand beside the three men.

"Jimmy, pass those rifles here."

"I don't know how to shoot a gun, Skipper," I reminded him.

He nodded. "Jimmy, you'll take the last rifle and follow up the rear."

"Got it, Skipper." He retrieved the rifles from the bottom of the lifeboat and handed them to Captain Englehorn.

The Skipper took them and gave one to Mr. Denham. They wiped the moisture from the weapons with the tails of their shirts. "We don't want to waste what daylight we have."

"Gimme a hand with these, Smitty." Jimmy picked up the knapsacks and tossed them to me one at a time, followed by the canteens. I grabbed them out of the air and placed them at my feet. "Skipper..." Jimmy started to say. "Oh, fuck!" He scrambled out of the boat, knocking me back on my ass, and I stared in shock at the long, sinuous neck that rose ten feet above the placid waters of the bay.

A frond of some sea plant dangled from its mouth, which worked rhythmically chewing it. Its eyes were large and liquid, almost bovine, and it blinked as if in surprise to see us. As gracefully as it rose, it sank back into the water.

"What... what was that?"

"That was some kind of dinosaur, gentlemen," my lover said calmly. Of course, he'd seen animals like that, and worse, the last time he'd been to Skull Island.

Jimmy was pale. He glanced toward Hildy, who was staring in awe at the spot where the creature had been. "Sorry for the bad language, little girl."

"Hildy," she reminded him and smiled. "That's oke, Jimmy. I've heard worse in twelve different languages."

"Say, do you think one of us should warn Helstrom about the critters that live on this island?"

"Why would we want to do that, Jimmy?" I demanded. "You saw his reaction to the shark. And you'll notice he didn't hang around to help."

The Skipper ran his hand through his grizzled hair, and then settled his cap back on his head. "All right, let's get a move on. Carl and I will take the lead. Mr. Smith, would you mind keeping young Hildy with you?"

"Not at all, Captain. Let me help you with your pack, Hildy." It was a child-size version that Charlie had somehow rigged together. "Mr. Denham, I'll take your knapsack."

"Thanks, kid."

"Charley has our packs and his cleaver. Are you armed?" I showed Captain Englehorn my shiv, and he nodded. None of the men who bore a rifle was encumbered with a pack; they needed to have freedom of movement.

We kept a cautious eye on the surface of the water, but no other dinosaur came to inspect us, and we started out, following the path Helstrom had taken. It would have been hard to miss that trail; he'd left crushed undergrowth and broken branches behind him.

Massive ferns, banyan trees, palms and, surprisingly, evergreens towered over us, meeting above our heads to form a canopy. It was claustrophobic. The plant life grew almost to the edge of the path, thick and dense.

The air was so humid we could have wrung buckets of water out of it, and so oppressive it felt like a foretaste of hell.

Before too long, our clothes were drenched with sweat. I blotted the stinging moisture from my eyes with a shirt sleeve. The knapsacks and canteens I had shouldered kept thumping uncomfortably against my sides.

Mr. Denham dropped back to see how we were holding up.

"The birds are really strange," Hildy told him, pointing out the flying creatures. "What are they?"

"They're not pterodactyls. Jack Driscoll told me he saw a pair near Kong's mountain." Mr. Denham didn't notice how tense I became at the mention of his one-time lover. "One tried to take Ann, and Kong mopped the floor with it, twisted its skinny neck and broke its back!" His expression became thoughtful. "He was a possessive Beast. Can't say I blame him." My lover's eyes were warm on me, and I relaxed. I was the one here with him, not Jack Driscoll. For the first time since I'd left our bunk in the small hours of the morning, I felt myself grow hard. He glanced back at the little girl. "I think those are the ones that are called archae... um... " His brow furrowed in concentration.

"Lizards with feathers," I murmured, and my lover laughed aloud and ruffled my hair.

Hildy laughed as well, lightening the tension of the situation we found ourselves in. "Pretty."

He smiled at her enthusiasm, then turned to me. "How are you doing, kid?"

"I'm doing oke, Mr. Denham. It'd be nice to have a bath, though." I rolled my shoulders, trying to get the knots out of them.

"You can say that again!" He lowered his voice. "I'd put my arm around you, but I'm sweating like a stuck pig!"

"I don't mind." But he didn't appear to hear me.

"Mr. Denham!" Jimmy had been disturbed by some noise in the brush behind us, and had called softly to him. "I think we've got some company!"

My lover tightened his grip on his rifle and started to double back on our trail. "Stay put, Johnny."

I grabbed his sleeve. "Be careful."

"Always am, kid." He rubbed his knuckles against my cheek. "Always am."

tbc