On Board the Esmeralda Part 28

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

AN AUSTRAL AURORA.

A wild cry went up to Heaven as we struggled for dear life in the water, battling with the under-tow of the in-rolling waves, which tried to drag us down in their angry clutches; but first one and then another emerged dripping on the sands, even Mr Ohlsen having saved himself without help, although he had been snugly tucked up in his hammock a moment before, and was lying down in the stern-sheets when the boat capsized.

Poor Harmer, however, whose broken leg was only fresh set, and the bones not united, was unable to put out a hand on his own behalf, and seeing he had not gained the beach with the others, I looked eagerly about for him, knowing that in his crippled state it was almost impossible for him to have got ash.o.r.e.

Just then, his head appeared some twenty feet out from the land, in the midst of the boiling surf, with his hands stretched out in mute entreaty to us, appealing for succour as he was being carried out rapidly to sea.

Who could refrain from venturing in again to rescue him?

Certainly not I; and, as I dashed in, Pat Doolan followed my example, the cook uttering a wild Irish yell that had the effect of animating several of the rest of the sailors to lend us a helping hand, although they had not the pluck to dash in too.

"Hooroo, boys!" he shouted. "Follow me leader, ye spalpeens, and let us say who'll raich the poor drowning chap first! Ould Oireland for iver!"

He reached Harmer almost as soon as I, and the two of us took hold of him together--the poor fellow, however, being already insensible, made no effort whatever to keep up and help himself, and was absolutely limp in our grasp.

We managed to swim back in with our burden on the top of a roller, well enough; but when we tried to secure our footing on the sh.o.r.e, the under- tow took us out again, although Pat Doolan flung himself face downwards on the sand, clutching it with one of his hands while he held the half- drowned man with the other in the same way as I did. Once, twice, we made the attempt; and yet, in spite of our desperate struggles, both of us putting forth all our strength, the backwash of the waves laughed at our resistance, floating us back again out into deep water. At our third try, however, and it would have been the last, for we were both exhausted by this time, the men on the beach--who had formed a line holding on to one another, Jorrocks being foremost and Captain Billings next, wading in up to their necks in the sea--managed to catch hold of us, when we were dragged out by sheer force; Pat and I, with Harmer between us, all lumped together in a confused ma.s.s, and the hands hauling us in with a "Yo, heave ho!" as if they were pulling at the topsail halliards or getting the main tack aboard!

My swim after Mr Macdougall was nothing to this, although I had then battled with the sea for over an hour, while now the Irishman and I had not been ten minutes over our fight with the remorseless waves; but it was a terrific contest whilst it lasted, and albeit we had both come off victorious, thanks to the timely a.s.sistance of our comrades, we were nearly worsted, and so utterly pumped out that another five minutes of it would have ended the matter very differently. As it was, I had to lie on the sands, whither Jorrocks had lifted me beyond the reach of the tide, for a considerable period before I could either move or speak, while Pat Doolan was in an equally sorry plight.

When I at last gained my voice, I stammered out a question--

"How's Harmer?" I asked, anxiously.

But Captain Billings, who was beside me, lifting up my head tenderly with his arm placed round me, shook his head sadly.

"Poor fellow," he said; "you did your best, but he must have been gone before you reached him. He's quite dead--you were too late to save him!"

I declare this news affected me more than all I had gone through; and, whether from weakness, or from the reaction after such violent exertion producing a feeling of hysteria, I cannot tell; all I know is, that I turned my face away from the kind-hearted skipper who was supporting me, and cried like a child--I, who thought myself then a man!

Meanwhile, as I found out when I had recovered from my emotion and was able to stand up and look about me, my shipmates had not been idle in trying to retrieve the effects of our unfortunate landing; for which the skipper upbraided his own carelessness, laying the blame on himself, and saying that he ought to have known better than to have tried to rush the boat in with such a ground swell on!

The tow-rope of the jolly-boat had been cast-off shortly before we approached the sh.o.r.e, Captain Billings hailing Mr Macdougall and telling him to bring her head to the sea, and lay off until we got ash.o.r.e; so, there she was, riding in safety, about half a cable's length out, beyond reach of the surf, while we were tumbling about in it after the long-boat had upset us so unexpectedly without ceremony.

Mr Macdougall was about to pull in at once, on seeing the _contretemps_, but the skipper, the moment he fetched the sh.o.r.e, and before I had gone in after Harmer, had directed him still to keep off and get a line ready to heave in, as by that means those in the jolly- boat would not only be able to land in a better way than ourselves, but, also, some portion of the stores of our boat might be recovered, as well as the craft itself--the long-boat having only turned over, and still floating in the midst of the breakers, bobbing up and down bottom upwards.

This task was now being proceeded with by all hands.

Forming again a line, as when they had dragged Pat Doolan and myself out--the men holding each other's hands, for they had no rope as yet to tackle on to--several articles near in sh.o.r.e had been already picked up; and, now that I was all right again, the skipper at once set about getting the jolly-boat in, besides trying to secure the long-boat.

Each, amongst other necessary parts of his equipment, had been provided with a coil of strong half-inch line, in addition to their proper painters, and on Captain Billings singing out to the first mate, and telling him what to do, the jolly-boat with her six oars manned was backed in just beyond reach of the surf. The end of the line, which Mr Macdougall held ready with a sounding-lead attached to it to make it swing further, was then hove ash.o.r.e.

It fell short, some ten feet out in the midst of the eddy caused by the backwash, but the leading hand of the long-boat's crew, after one or two dives in the surf, in which he got knocked down and rolled over, succeeded finally in grasping the sounding-lead.

Then, with a loud hurrah, the end of the line was hauled in towards us, communication being thus established with those in the jolly-boat. The stay the rope afforded steadied her in the water, so that she rode more easily, which made the next operation, that of getting hold of the overturned long-boat, more practicable, and not as likely to jeopardise her safety as would otherwise have been the case.

The coil of rope was fully a hundred feet long, and of sufficient length to pa.s.s twice between the jolly-boat ash.o.r.e and back again, leaving a few spare yards over; so, first throwing over a grapnel to anchor her head out to the sea, the water being only some three fathoms deep where she was riding, and the men in her being now wanted for something else besides rowing to keep her from drifting in, the other end of the line was belayed, and the boat easied in with the utmost care, two of the hands still keeping to their oars, until she reached the wrecked boat.

Then Haxell, the carpenter, pluckily volunteered to jump over the side, and try, by diving underneath, to catch hold of the long-boat's painter or some of her headgear, all attempts to reach such by the aid of a boat-hook being impossible from the motion of the two boats in the restless water. After a bit, the taciturn but useful man obtained the object in view, dragging out from below the long-boat's stern the very tow-rope with which we had been previously pulling the jolly-boat along while sailing towards the land, before casting her off, and our subsequent upset.

This rope was now fastened to the sh.o.r.e-line with a double hitch, and our lot on the beach hauling in, we presently had the satisfaction of seeing the stern of our own craft working in towards us, the jolly-boat still remaining out beyond reach of the rollers, until the long-boat had grounded; when, seeing a proper opportunity, she too was got in safely-- without, however, any previous upset, like ours, and indeed without her taking in any perceptible quant.i.ty of water so as to damage her cargo or give her crew a ducking, all of whom, with the exception of Haxell, who of course had sought a bath of his own accord, getting to land dry-shod, unlike us, who had been drenched from head to foot, and were now shivering with cold, the temperature of the air being below freezing point.

It was now high-water, as Captain Billings observed from the marks on the sh.o.r.e; so, as nothing more could then be done towards getting the long-boat further in and righting her, and the hands were pretty well tired out with their exertions, he called a rest as soon as the jolly- boat was hauled up well beyond reach of the waves, which still broke threateningly on the beach--impelled by the force of the wind, now blowing a stiff gale from the south-west, and covering the beach with breakers that sent showers of foam over us, even when we had moved many yards away.

"Spell O!" sang out the skipper. "Boatswain, pipe down the men to dinner."

We had to encroach on the jolly-boat's stores, the provisions being divided between the two boats although our craft, being the larger of the two, had of course carried the major portion. This could, however, only now be looked upon as lost; for the seawater must have spoilt everything eatable.

However, as the crew had gone through a good deal of hardship, the skipper did not attempt to ration them down to any smaller allowance on this our first evening on Herschel Island; and so, when a fire was built up, and some hot coffee brewed by Jorrocks, who usurped Pat Doolan's functions on this occasion, the Irishman being still too weak from his efforts to rescue poor Harmer to be of much use yet, we all had a hearty meal, feeling much the better thereby.

After this, the skipper told the men to lie down round the fire, which we found very grateful when the sun had set, besides its enabling us to dry our wet clothes; but the crew were warned that they would have to rouse up about midnight, when Captain Billings expected the tide would have gone down sufficiently to enable us to get the long-boat out of danger, and turn her over on the beach beyond high-water mark.

I confess that I went off to sleep at once; and neither the shaking of Jorrocks, nor the noise the men made in righting the long-boat, served to wake me up till it was broad daylight next morning, when I opened my eyes to find the sun shining down on a calm sea that hardly made a ripple on the beach, with the long-boat upright in her proper position, alongside the jolly-boat, and high and dry ash.o.r.e.

There was a delicious smell of something cooking in one of Pat Doolan's galley pots, hung gipsy fashion over a roaring fire, and superintended by the Irishman, now himself again. A large tent had also been rigged up by the aid of the boat sails and tarpaulins, making the place have the appearance of a cosy encampment, and offering a pleasant change to the desolate look it had worn the previous afternoon--when the sea was roaring in, hurling a deluge of foam on the beach, and we, wet and forlorn, were endeavouring to save the flotsam and jetsam of the long- boat's cargo.

"Sure an' you're a foine gintleman, taking it aisy," said Pat Doolan, when I went up to him. "An' is it a pannikin o' coffee you'll be afther wanting, this watch?"

"I shouldn't refuse it if you offered it," said I, with a laugh.

"Be jabers, you're the bhoy for the coffee!" he replied cheerily. "An'

its meeself that's moighty proud to sarve you. Sure an' I don't forgit how you thried, like a brave gossoon, to save that poor chap last night!"

"Ah!" I e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, feeling melancholy when he thus brought up Harmer's fate, which had pa.s.sed out of my mind for the moment. "But you did your best, too, Pat."

"Bad was the bist then, alannah, bad cess to it!" said he. "There, now, Mister Leigh, dhrink your coffee an' ha' done with it. The poor chap's gone, and we can't call him back; but have you heard tell of the news?

Misther 'Old-son-of-a-gun' is moighty bad this morning, too, and the skipper think's he's a going too, by the same token!"

"Indeed!" I cried, turning towards the tent, seeing Captain Billings standing close by it. The news was too true. The wetting and shock to the system had completed what a low fever had begun, and Mr Ohlsen's days--nay, hours--were numbered. Ere the sun had again set, we had to mourn the loss of the second of our shipmates!

Towards evening of this day, the wind got up again even more fiercely than it had done the night before--the heavy southern billows rolling in again upon the beach with a terrible din, although they could do no harm now to either of our boats, both being snugly sheltered beyond their reach.

But when it grew dark, we witnessed a wonderful phenomenon.

It made many of the seamen believe that they were dreaming over again the scene connected with the burning of the _Esmeralda_; while others went almost wild with terror, fancying that the end of the world was come--or that, at all events, the natural display we saw of the greatest wonder of the arctic and antarctic worlds, was a portent of fresh disasters to us, greater than all we had already pa.s.sed through!

The heavens were as black as death all around, with no moon. Not a star to be seen; when, all at once, the whole horizon glowed with a living fire, lighting up the ocean in front of us, and reflecting upwards and outwards from the snow-covered peaks on the background of water beyond the beach. The wave-tossed surface of the sea changed to a bright vermilion tint, making it look like a lake of raging flames. Through the crimson sky, streaks of brighter light shot across at intervals from right to left, and back again from left to right, in coruscations of darting sparks that would ever and anon form themselves into crosses and diamonds of different shapes; while, in the middle of this wonderful transformation scene, the wind blew with immense force, howling over sea and land with a wild shriek and deep diapason, accompanied by blinding showers of hail and sleet and snow, that made us all creep under the folds of the canvas of our tent for shelter.

"What is this? What does it mean?" I asked Captain Billings, who seemed the only one of us unmoved by the unwonted sight, that had as much terror as grandeur about it.

"It is what is called an Austral aurora--the _aurora Australis_, as scientific men term it; though, how it is caused and what it is occasioned by, I'm sure I can't explain to you, my lad. All I know is this, that it is never seen in the vicinity of Cape Horn without a stiff gale and rough weather following in its track; so we had better all of us look out for squalls!"

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.