Blow The Man Down Part 78

"And then again, it ain't so darnation comforting. Looks to me as if she's stuck there so solid that you couldn't joggle her off if you hove the moon at her. I reckon my hope has been what yours has been, Mayo--salvage her whole instead of junking her."

"I'm a sailor, not a junkman. I'd almost rather let my money go, Captain Candage, than be a party to smashing up that new steamer into old iron.

She has fooled the guessers by sticking where she is. It has been my hope from the first that she can be floated. She is not a rusted old iron rattletrap. Of course, she's got a hole in her, and we can see now that she's planted mighty solid. But she is sound and tight, I'll wager, in all her parts except where that wound is. I suppose most men who came along here now would guess that she can't be got off whole. I'm going into this thing and try to fool _those_ guessers, too."

"That's the only real gamble," agreed the skipper. "We'd only make days'

wages by carving her into a junk-pile. A sc.r.a.p-heap ain't worth much except as old iron at half a cent a pound; but a new steamer like that is worth two hundred thousand dollars, by gorry! if she's afloat."

"Well, we've got to do something besides lay to here and look at her lines. In the first place, I want to know what's the matter with her--about how much of a hole she has got. Our eyes ought to tell us a little something."

And on that errand Mayo departed the next morning after breakfast.

Only a sailor, young, alert, and bold, could have scaled the side of the steamer in that weather. Her ladder was in place, but nothing much except an exaggerated icicle. But it was on the lee side of her, and his dory was fairly well protected from the rush of the seas. With his hatchet he hacked foothold on the ladder, left his men in the dory, and notched his perilous way to the deck. The fore-hatch was open, just as the hastily departing salvagers had left it. He went below, down the frosted iron ladder. He was fronted with a cheerless aspect. Cargo and water hid what damage she had suffered. The fat man had secured most of the cargo that the water had not ruined.

He climbed back on deck and explored amidships and aft. Her engine-room was partially flooded, for her forepeak was propped on the higher part of the reef, and water had settled aft. Her crew's quarters were above the main-deck, as is the case with most cargo-carriers of the newer type. He found plenty of tinned food in the steward's domains, coal in tie galley bunker, and there was bedding in the officers' staterooms.

Mayo scrambled back to his dory and went aboard the schooner. He reported his findings.

"And here's the only sensible plan for the present, Captain Candage: I'll take two men and a dory and go aboard and guard our property.

Somebody must stay here--and I don't want you to take the chances on that wreck. You've got a daughter. You probably know more of the shipyard crowd in Limeport than I do. That's the nearest city, and I believe that when you report that the _Conomo_ is holding after this storm you can hire some equipment on credit and borrow some money."

"I swear I'll do my best. I know a lot of water-front folks, and I've always paid my bills."

"We need stuff for the whole wrecking game--engine, pumps, and all the rest. You go and scout on sh.o.r.e and capture a few men and bring 'em out here to look our prospect over."

"Offer 'em a lay?"

"No, sir. We'll make this a close corporation. I don't propose to let a lot of land sharks in here to manipulate us out of what's our own. It's our gamble, and we want what's coming out of it. Go ash.o.r.e and see what you can do on prices and terms. Don't close anything till you and I have conferred. I'll have a schedule of needs made up by the time you're back."

Half an hour later he was located on the wreck with the two men he had selected as his companions. They carried tackle with them, with which they hoisted after them their dory--their main bower in case of emergency.

And the sea which Mayo surveyed was more lonely than ever, for the _Ethel and May_ was standing off across the heaving surface toward the main and the hulk was left alone in the expanse of ocean. He felt very much of a pygmy and very helpless as he scrambled about over the icy decks. He remembered that faith can move mountains, but he was as yet unable to determine just what power would be able to move that steamer, into whose vitals the reef of Razee had poked its teeth.

At eight bells, midnight, Mayo turned out of his berth, for he heard something that interested him. It was a soft pattering, a gentle swishing. As a mariner, he knew how sudden can be meteorological changes on the coast in winter. When the north winds have raged and howled and have blown themselves out, spitting sleet and snow, the gentler south winds have their innings and bear balmier moisture from the Gulf Stream.

He poked his head out and felt a soft air and warm rain. He had been hoping and half expecting that a change of weather would bring this condition--known as a January thaw. He went back to his bunk, much comforted.

A bright sun awoke him. Clear skies had succeeded the rain, All was dripping and melting. Chunks of ice were dropping from the steamer's stubby masts, and her scuppers were beginning to discharge water from the softening ma.s.s on her deck.

He and his little crew ate breakfast with great good cheer, then secured axes from the steamer's tool-house and began to chop watercourses in the ice. A benignant sun in a cloudless sky had enlisted himself as a member of the wrecking crew on Razee Reef. That weather would soon clear the _Conomo_ of her sheathing.

This was a cheerful prospect, because rigging and deck equipment of various kinds would be released. The steamer began to look like a less discouraging proposition. She was no longer the icicle that had put a chill into underwriters and bidders. Mayo lost the somberness that had weighed upon him. The sea did not seem so lonely and so threatening. He felt that he could show something tangible and hopeful to the parties whom Captain Can-dage might be able to solicit.

When he saw a tug approaching in the afternoon his optimism suggested that it brought the skipper and his party; his own hopes were so high now that he felt that men with equipment and money would be eager to loan it to parties who possessed such excellent prospects. In this fashion he translated this apparent haste to get to the reef.

But it was not Captain Candage who hailed him when the tug eased herself against the ladder, her screw churning the sea in reverse. A stranger came out of the pilothouse of the _Resolute_, carrying a big leather suit-case. He was plainly the pa.s.senger who had chartered her. A deck-hand tossed a cast-line to the steamer's deck, and Mayo promptly threw it back.

"You can't come aboard."

"Who says so?"

"I say so. I have a bill of sale of her in my pocket."

"I don't recognize it. The law will have something to say about that later."

"I don't care what the law may say later. I'm talking right now. We own this steamer. What are you here for?"

"I left quite a lot of little personal belongings on her. I went away in a hurry. I want to come aboard with this valise and get 'em."

"They must be pretty valuable belongings, seeing that you've chartered a tug to come out here."

"A fellow's own property means more to him than it does to anybody else.

Now that I've gone to all this expense, you ain't mean enough are you, to keep me off? This is between sailors."

"Who are you?"

The man hesitated. "Well, if I've got to be introduced I'll say my name is Simpson--I have been second officer aboard there."

"You're not here with any legal papers--you're not trying any trick to get possession, are you?"

"Take all in hearing to witness that I ain't! I'll pick up my stuff and leave in ten minutes."

"Come aboard, then."

The man set down his suit-case and hitched a heave-line to the handle.

He coiled the line and handed it to a deck-hand. "Throw that to me when I'm on deck," he ordered. Then he came up the ladder.

"Heave, and I'll hoist up the bag," suggested Mayo at the rail.

"Wait till I get there," barked the visitor, still climbing. He caught the line after he had reached the rail and pulled up the case with some effort and great care.

"Look here, that bag isn't empty," said Mayo.

"Who said it was? I'm carrying around in it all I own in the world. I'm starting for New York as soon as this tug sets me ash.o.r.e."

He picked up the case and started for the officers' quarters. Mayo went along, too.

"You afraid I'm going to steal her engine out of her? The few little things of mine I'm after were hidden away, and that's how I forgot 'em.

Now don't insult me by following me around as if I was a thief."

"I don't know just what you are," muttered the young man. "There's something that looks mighty phony about this, but I haven't got you sized up just yet."

"I'll go back--go back right now. I supposed I was asking a favor of a gentleman and a brother officer." He started on his return to the ladder.

"Go get your stuff," commanded Mayo. "If your business here is all your own, I don't want to spy on you."

He went back to question the captain of the tug for information in regard to the _Ethel and May_.

"She's in Limeport," reported the captain, elbows on his window-sill.

"Came past her in the inner harbor this morning. You've bit off quite a chunk here, haven't you? We all thought this storm had sluiced her. Made quite a stir up and down the water-front when old Can-dage blew along and reported that she had lived it out."