Dick Leslie's Luck Part 4

The mate considered for a moment. Then--

"All right," he said, "I'll take upon myself the responsibility of agreein' to that. The skipper'll be madder than ever when he finds out what we've done; but I don't care for that, I'm not goin' to leave a feller-creature to die on no wreckage, if I can help it. And if the skipper makes a fuss about it, the authorities at home 'll bear me out."

"Of course they will," a.s.sented Leslie. "And now that we have settled that point, the sooner a start is made the better. So please call for four volunteers to go with me in the boat, and I'll be off."

Then, while Purchas went forward to muster a boat's crew, Leslie walked over to where Miss Trevor stood.

"Oh, Mr Leslie," she exclaimed, "what a _dreadful_ man the captain of this ship is! Is he mad; or what is it that makes him behave in so horribly violent a manner?"

"Simply overweening conceit of himself, and an enormously exaggerated opinion of his own importance as master of this ridiculous little brig; together with, perhaps, an unusually violent and ungovernable temper, I imagine," answered Leslie, with a smile. "I am afraid," he continued, "that those mad antics of his with his revolver must have been rather terrifying to you. However, that sort of thing will not occur again-- unless he happens to have another of them--for I have the weapon now, and intend to retain possession of it until we are able to take our leave of him, which I hope will be ere long. Meanwhile, I am going away in a boat, for about half an hour, to take a man--or, it may be, a woman--off that wreckage that we were trying to reach this morning when we sighted this brig. It is still quite close at hand, and I shall not be gone very long. And during my absence Purchas will look after you and see that you come to no harm. He is a good fellow, in his way, and will not allow our mad friend to interfere with you."

"Thank you," she answered, with a shade of the old hauteur in the tones of her voice; "I am not in the least afraid. Mad though the man may be, I do not think he will attempt to molest me."

"No," acknowledged Leslie, who had not failed to observe Potter's undisguised admiration of the girl, "to be perfectly frank with you, I do not think he will. Ah, here come the men who are going with me in the boat. I must say _au revoir_!"

"Good-bye, for the present," answered Miss Trevor; "I hope you will be successful."

"Now then, lads," said Leslie, as the men came aft and began to cast off the gripes, "we have no time to lose. The sun will set in another ten minutes, and then it will very soon be dark. We must look lively, or we shall not reach that wreckage without having a troublesome search for it. Ah, that is all right," as he stood on the rail and looked into the boat, "I see that her gear is all in her, and that you have kept her tight by leaving some water in her. We may as well get rid of that water before we lower her."

And so saying, he stepped into the little craft, and, pulling out the plug, allowed the water to run off.

"We are all ready for lowerin', sir," sang out one of the men, presently.

"Then lower at once," answered Leslie, as he pushed back the plug into its place, "and then jump down into her as quickly as you like."

In another moment the boat squelched gently into the water; the men tumbled over the brig's low side into her and unhooked the tackle blocks; the man who was going to pull the bow oar raised it in his hands and with it bore the boat's bow off the ship's side; the other three men threw out their oars; and Leslie crying, "Give way, men," as he grasped the yoke lines, the little craft started on her errand of mercy, heading straight for the wreckage, the bearings of which in relation to the fast setting sun, Leslie had very carefully taken just before the boat was lowered.

It was at this moment absolutely a flat calm; there was not the faintest breath of air stirring anywhere in the great dome of cloudless sky that overarched the brig; the swell had subsided until it was scarcely perceptible; and the whole surface of the sea gleamed like a polished mirror, faithfully reflecting the rich blue of the sky to the eastward-- against which the commonplace little brig, illumined by the brilliant ruddy orange light of the setting sun, glowed like a gem of exquisite beauty--while away to the westward it repeated with equal fidelity the burning glories of the dying day.

The sun was just vanishing beneath the horizon when Leslie caught his first glimpse of the raft from the stern-sheets of the boat, in which he stood, instead of sitting, in order that he might extend his horizon as much as possible. For the next five minutes he was able to steer by the glow of the sunset in the sky; but by the end of this time the glow had faded to a tender grey, and the night descended upon them almost with the rapidity of a falling curtain. The western sky no longer afforded a beacon to steer by, and Leslie found himself obliged to turn round and steer backwards, as it were, by the brig. But in the fast gathering gloom she soon became too indefinite an object to be reliable, Leslie was therefore obliged to face about once more and select a star for his guidance.

The men had been pulling with a will for a full half-hour when suddenly the man who was wielding the bow oar arrested his movements, holding his dripping blade just clear of the surface of the water, as he cried--

"Hark! did ye hear that, sir?"

"What?" demanded Leslie.

The other three men suspended their efforts as the first man replied--

"Why, I thought I heard somebody singin' out, somewheres. Ay, I was right," he continued, as a faint "Hillo!" came pealing softly across the darkling surface of the water.

"Hillo!" answered Leslie, sending a stentorian shout ahead through his hollow hands.

"Boat ahoy!" came the answering shout.

"Give way briskly, men," cried Leslie; "the sound seems to be coming from straight ahead. We shall get a sight of something now in a few minutes."

The men resumed their pulling with a will, encouraged by the fact that the shouts kept up by the unseen man were rapidly becoming clearer, more audible, and evidently nearer. Suddenly a dark ma.s.s loomed up ahead and another cry told them that they were close aboard the wreckage.

"Oars!" commanded Leslie. The men ceased pulling, and the individual upon the wreckage shouted--

"Boat ahoy! you'll have to pull right round this raffle, and come up on t'other side afore you'll be able to take me off. You can't get alongside of me from where you are; there's too much yard-arm and splintered spar stickin' out in that direction. And I daren't jump overboard and swim to you, for I've been blockaded all day by sharks-- see, there's one of them now, close alongside of ye!"

And looking over the side, the crew of the boat beheld, revealed as a shape of fire in the highly phosph.o.r.escent sea, a monster of fully twenty feet in length or more, swimming rapidly along, a few feet below the surface; while, some half-a-dozen yards away, a second suddenly revealed his presence.

"All right," answered Leslie, "stay where you are; we will pull round to the other side."

So said, so done; and five minutes later they had got the man--the only occupant of the wreckage as it proved--safe aboard the boat, and were pulling back towards the brig, now barely discernible as a small, faint, indistinct dark blot against the blue-black, star-spangled sky, with her anchor light hoisted to the gaff-end as a guide to the returning rescue party.

The rescued man proved to be--as Leslie had already guessed from the fellow's manner of speech--one of the foremast hands of the _Golden Fleece_. Like Leslie, he had been dragged under when the ship went down, but in his downward journey had encountered what proved to be a loose cork fender, to which he had clung desperately. The buoyancy of the fender was sufficient to immediately check his descent into the depths, and ultimately to take him back to the surface, where he found himself close alongside a ma.s.s of top-hamper, consisting of the ship's fore-topmast with all attached, that had torn itself adrift from the wreck when she went down; and to this he had at once swam, and taken refuge upon it. He told a pathetic tale of the despair that had seized him, when, at dawn, he had found himself the sole survivor, as he supposed, of the catastrophe; and of the alternations of hope and despair that had been his throughout the day when the brig appeared in sight, drifted up to within three short miles of him, and there lay becalmed. The most distressing part of his experience, perhaps, consisted in the fact that, although an excellent swimmer, and quite capable of covering the distance between himself and the brig, he had found himself beset by a school of sharks, and therefore dared not forsake the refuge of the wreckage, and take to the water.

Upon the return of the boat to the brig, Leslie learned from the mate that Potter was still in his bunk, and that the dazed feeling resulting from the blow that he had sustained when thrown against the rail still seemed to be as acute as ever. Purchas, indeed, seemed to be growing rather anxious about him; and eagerly inquired of Leslie whether the latter happened to know anything about medicine; as he thought the time had arrived when something ought to be done to help the man back to his senses. Medicine, however, was a branch of science about which Leslie happened to know little or nothing; but he readily acceded to Purchas's suggestion that he should have a look at the patient; and accordingly-- although by this time a substantial meal was set out upon the brig's cabin table, and the ex-lieutenant felt himself quite prepared to do ample justice to it--he forthwith descended to the cabin in which the skipper was lying; and, having knocked at the door without getting a reply, entered.

It was the same cabin in which he himself had enjoyed some hours of sleep after his long spell in the water, and Potter was lying stretched at full length upon the bunk that he had previously occupied. A small oil lamp, screwed to the bulkhead, afforded a fairly good light, by the aid of which Leslie saw that the man was lying with his eyes wide-open, and the eyeb.a.l.l.s turned slightly upward, apparently staring at the deck above him. But the gaze was without intelligence; and the fellow appeared to be quite unconscious of his surroundings, for he took no notice whatever of Leslie's entrance; nor did the eyes waver in the least when the latter spoke to him, Leslie laid his hand upon the forehead of his late antagonist, and found it cool to the touch, although clammy with perspiration. Then he laid his fingers upon the man's wrist, and felt for his pulse, which appeared to be normal.

Beyond the dazed condition which the man exhibited, there did not appear to be much the matter with him; and when at length Leslie left him and entered the main cabin--at the table of which he found Purchas and Miss Trevor seated, discussing the viands before them--he said as much; adding his opinion that the condition in which he found the skipper would probably end in sleep, and that the man would no doubt be all right in the morning. The conversation then turned to other matters, the mate remarking that he supposed the skipper's indisposition meant an all-night job on deck for him (the mate); whereupon Leslie expressed his readiness to take charge of a watch until Potter should be able to resume duty--an offer which Purchas gladly accepted. It was arranged that, as the preceding night had been a very trying one for Leslie, he should take the middle watch; and accordingly, when the meal was over, as Miss Trevor, pleading fatigue, retired to the cabin that Potter had given up to her, Leslie sought the seclusion of his quarters in the longboat, which had been made ready for him, and was soon wrapped in sound and dreamless sleep.

He was called at midnight by Purchas, who reported to him with some uneasiness that there was no change in the skipper's condition. The night was still beautifully fine, and the weather a flat calm; there was therefore nothing calling for Leslie's immediate attention, and he readily a.s.sented to Purchas's urgent solicitation that he should take another look at the patient, and say what he thought of his condition.

Upon descending to the stuffy little cabin he found that, as the mate had reported, there was no marked change in Potter's condition; he still lay, as before, without movement, his unseeing eyes upturned, and apparently quite unconscious of the presence of the two men who bent over him. The only difference noticeable to Leslie was that the man's breathing seemed to be somewhat stertorous.

"Well, what d'ye think of him?" anxiously demanded Purchas, when at length Leslie raised himself from his examination.

"To be quite candid with you, Purchas," answered Leslie, "I scarcely know what to think; but I am afraid the man's condition is somewhat more serious than I thought it to be when I last visited him. I must confess that I do not like this long spell of wakefulness combined with unconsciousness of his surroundings. What is actually wrong I am sorry that I cannot say, but the symptoms appear to me to point to an injury of the brain. You have a medicine-chest on board, I suppose?"

"Oh yes," answered Purchas. "It is in the skipper's cabin."

"Um!" remarked Leslie. "That is awkward. We cannot very well gain access to it just now without disturbing Miss Trevor; and I do not think that the case is urgent enough to demand that we should do that. But to-morrow morning, as soon as the young lady is out of her cabin, we will get that medicine-chest and overhaul the book of directions that I have no doubt we shall find in it; and perhaps we shall discover a description of symptoms somewhat similar to those exhibited by your skipper. And, if so, we will try the remedies recommended. Now I would advise you to turn in; and don't worry about the skipper, for I have no doubt that we shall be able to pull him round all right. And perhaps this will be a lesson to him to keep his temper under somewhat better control."

"Well, I'm sure I hope it will," answered Purchas. "If it does that, I shan't be sorry that this has happened; for I can tell you, Mr Leslie, that when the 'old man' gets his back up, as he did this afternoon, things grow pretty excitin' aboard this hooker. Well, good night; and if anything happens atween this and eight bells, you might give me a call--not but what I expect you're a far better sailor-man than what I am."

"Oh, that's all right," laughed Leslie; "I think you may trust me to take care of this three-decker of yours. But if anything happens, and I find myself at a loss, I will not fail to call you. Good night!"

And, so saying, Leslie left the cabin and, making his way up on deck, took a sailor-like look at the brilliantly star-lit sky that stretched cloudless all round the brig from zenith to horizon, as he thoughtfully filled and lit his pipe.

To tell the truth, he was less easy in his mind touching Potter's condition than he had allowed Purchas to see. That the man was something more than merely stunned was now undeniable; and although the injury might not in itself be serious, the complete ignorance of Purchas and himself in relation to medical and surgical matters might possibly lead to wrong treatment that, in its turn, might result in complications ending, who could say where? Of course the man had only himself to thank for it; his conduct had been provocative to the last degree; yet Leslie had been animated by no vindictive feeling when he had attacked the man, still less had he intended to inflict any serious injury upon him; he had, indeed, acted solely in self-defence in taking the fellow's revolver away from him; and as to the violence that had accompanied the act--well he himself considered it perfectly excusable under the circ.u.mstances; and so, he believed, would any unprejudiced person.

Nevertheless, he regretted the incident; he would much rather that it had not happened; and while dismissing the subject from his mind, for the moment, he resolved that henceforth he would keep himself much better in hand in his dealings with the man.

The calm continued throughout Leslie's watch; and when at eight bells he turned over the charge of the deck to Purchas, the brig, save for an occasional lazy and almost imperceptible heave on the now invisible swell, was as motionless as a house.

When, however, Purchas called him at seven bells--thus allowing him time to wash and dress in readiness for breakfast at eight o'clock, Leslie found, upon turning out, that while the morning was as gloriously fine as the preceding night had been, the brilliant blue of the sky overhead was streaked here and there with light touches of cirrus cloud, the forerunners of a breeze that was already wrinkling the surface of the azure sea and causing it to sparkle as though strewed with diamond dust in the wake of the sun, while it just filled the brig's sails sufficiently to keep them asleep and give the old tub steerage-way. The watch were just finishing off the task of washing decks; the men going over the streaming planks with swabs and squeegees, to remove the superfluous water, while Purchas, sitting on the stern grating, was drying his bare feet with a towel preparatory to drawing on his socks and shoes. Miss Trevor was not visible.

The mate, having bade Leslie good morning, proceeded to inform him that the breeze, which was breathing out from the eastward, had come up with the sun, and that he hoped it would freshen as the day grew older; winding up with an earnest aspiration that it would last long enough to run them into the "Trades." Then, having donned his foot coverings, he drew Leslie aside, out of hearing of the helmsman, to impart the information that, having visited the "old man's" cabin an hour previously, he had found him no better, and that he was beginning to feel "downright anxious" about him.

Hearing this, Leslie proposed that they should both go down together, to investigate Potter's condition; and Purchas eagerly acquiescing, they presently found themselves once more bending over the sick man.

As the mate had said, there was no perceptible change in the skipper's appearance, save that, as Leslie thought, his breathing was a trifle more stertorous. He was lying in precisely the same att.i.tude that he had a.s.sumed when first placed in the bunk; indeed, the two men agreed that, so far as they could see, he had not moved a limb from that moment. While they stood there together, discussing the man's disconcerting condition, faint rustling, as of garments, outside the cabin door, accompanied by light footsteps upon the companion ladder, apprised them of the fact that Miss Trevor was moving, and had gone on deck; whereupon Leslie went out and followed her. He found her standing just to windward of the companion, gazing with visible delight at the brilliant and sparkling scene around her. She had evidently rested well, for she looked as fresh and wholesome as the morning itself; and although her costume was somewhat shrunken, and showed here and there patches of whitish discolouration from its long immersion in the sea, she still presented a picture of grace calculated to charm the most fastidious eye.

Lifting his cap, Leslie stepped forward and greeted her, bidding her good morning, and remarking that he hoped she had slept as well as her appearance seemed to suggest; to which she replied, laughingly, that she had, and that she hoped she could return the compliment.