Captain Sam Part 22

"Does it lie west?"

"Not exactly, but a little north of west. We can sail faster due west, however, and after awhile we'll tack to the north till we see land.

It's about forty miles from the mouth of Pensacola Bay to the mouth of Mobile bay, and we're going, I think, about six or seven miles an hour."

"But, how'll you find the mouth of the bay?"

"I don't know that I can, but I can find land easily enough, as it stretches in a bow all along to the north of us. But I want to strike as near the mouth of the bay as I can, so as to have as little marching to do as possible. If I can get into the bay, I can sail clear up to Mobile."

"But, Sam?"

"Well."

"What if it storms? It looks like it was going to."

"Well, I think we can weather it. This boat can't spring a leak, and if she fills full of water she won't sink, for she's only a log hollowed out."

"That's so, but won't she turn over like a log?"

"I think not. She's heaviest at the bottom, and I made her keel very heavy on purpose."

"Why, did you expect to go to sea in her?"

"No, but I thought I might have to do it, to get away from Pensacola."

"Did you think of that when you planned her, up there in the woods?"

"Yes."

"Yes," said Sid, "of course he did! Don't he always think of every thing before it comes?"

It was rapidly coming on to storm. The rain was falling very slightly now, and the wind was shifting to the east and rapidly rising. Sam directed the boys to shorten sail, and showed them how to do it. The wind grew stronger and stronger, suddenly shifting to the south. The sail was still further shortened. The sea now began coming up, and Sam saw that their chief danger was that of getting washed overboard. He cautioned the boys against this, and changed the boat's course, so as to keep her as nearly as possible where she was. A heavy sea broke over her, and carried away their only water keg, which was a dire calamity. After a little while their store of food went, and they were at sea, in a storm, without food or water!

"I say, Sam," said Tom.

"What is it?"

"Is there land all to the north of us?"

"Yes."

"How far is it?"

"Twenty miles, perhaps,--possibly less."

"Why can't we head the boat about, and run for it?"

"Because the wind is blowing on sh.o.r.e, and there's a heavy surf running."

"What of that?"

"Why, simply this, that if we run ash.o.r.e on a long, flat beach, the boat will be beaten to splinters a mile or more from land."

"How?"

"By the waves; they would lift her up, and receding let her drop suddenly on the sands, splitting her to pieces in no time, and the very next wave would do the same thing for us. We must stay out here till the storm's over. There's nothing else for it."

The storm lasted long enough to make a furious sea, and the boys could do nothing but hold on to the boat's gunwales. As night came on the wind ceased, very suddenly, as it frequently does in Southern seas, but the waves still rolled mountain high.

"When the sea goes down we'll try to make land, won't we, Sam?" asked Tom.

"Yes, but before the surf is safe for us, we can sail several hours toward Mobile, and gain that much. Indeed, I think we can get that far west before it will be tolerably safe to run ash.o.r.e. We're hungry and thirsty, of course, but we must endure it. There's no other way."

The boat was presently headed to the west, and the sail unfurled again, but as the night advanced the wind fell to a mere breeze, and then died altogether. It began to grow hazy. The haze deepened into a dense fog. The sea went down, and the boat rocked idly on a ground swell.

"Now, let's run ash.o.r.e," said Billy Bowlegs.

"What will we run with? There isn't a cap full of wind on the Gulf of Mexico, and there won't be while this fog lasts."

"What shall we do, then?"

"Nothing, for there is literally nothing to be done," answered Sam.

"Mas' Sam," said Joe, "I'll tell you what."

"Well, Joe, what is it?"

"Ef we jist had a couple o' paddles."

"But we just haven't a couple of paddles," answered Sam. "No, what we need now is courage and endurance. We must wait for a wind, and keep our courage up. We are suffering already with hunger and thirst, and will suffer more, but it can't be helped. We must keep our courage up, and endure that which we cannot do anything to cure. It is harder to endure suffering than to encounter danger, but a brave man, or a brave boy, can do both without murmuring."

Sam's words encouraged his companions, and they managed to get some sleep. After awhile day dawned, and the fog was still thick around them, while not a zephyr was astir. Nearly an hour later, a sudden booming startled them. It was a cannon, and was very near.

"What is that?" asked the boys in a breath.

"A sunrise gun, I think," said Sam, "and it's on a ship or a fort. Now then all together with a shout."

They shouted in concert. No answer came. They shouted again and again, and finally their shout was answered. A little later a row boat came out into the fog, and the first man Sam saw in it was Tandy Walker.

It is not necessary to repeat the greetings and the explanations that were given. Sam learned that the gun had been fired from Fort Bowyer, the guardian fortress, which, standing on Mobile Point, commanded the entrance to the bay. The fort had been garrisoned only the day before, and Tandy was one of the garrison. Sam's boat had drifted further west than he had supposed, and he found himself now precisely at the point he had tried to reach.

As Sam was too weak to walk, and there was no wind with which to sail up to the town, a messenger was sent by land from the fort, bearing to General Jackson a detailed account of Sam's wanderings and adventures in the shape of a written report. When the wind served, the little band of weary wanderers sailed up to Mobile, and when Sam reached the hospital to which he had been a.s.signed for the treatment of his wounds, he found there an official despatch from General Jackson, from which the following is an extract:--

"The commanding General begs to express his high sense of the services rendered by Samuel Hardwicke and his band, and his appreciation of the rare courage, discretion and fort.i.tude displayed by the youthful leader of the Pensacola scouting party. A few blank commissions in the volunteer forces having been placed in the commanding General's hands for bestowal upon deserving men, he is greatly pleased to issue the first of them to Mr. Hardwicke, in recognition of his gallant conduct, creating him a captain of volunteers, to date from the day of his departure on his recent mission."

"So, you're really 'Captain Sam' after all," said Sid Russell, when the doc.u.ment was read in his presence, and the formal commission had been inspected reverently by all the boys.