Peter Trawl Part 20

Jim did not say this all at once, for he stopped sometimes to take a look at the stranger, and every now and then a sea washed up and made us close our mouths. Still the seas were every instant growing less and less, and we at last unlashed ourselves that we might move about a little and stretch our limbs.

We were on the top, it must be remembered, so that we did not run the same risk of falling off as we should have done if we had had only the mast to support us.

With straining eyes we watched the ship. Still she held the same course on which she had been steering when we first saw her, and which was bringing her nearer and nearer to us.

"Hurrah, Jim! We shall soon be seen, depend on that," I exclaimed, at last, "and perhaps before to-night we shall be safe on sh.o.r.e. Who can say that we shan't be landed at Portsmouth itself?"

"I wish I could say I was as sure as you are, Peter," observed Jim, in a doleful voice. "If she had seen us it would have been all right; she would pick us up, but she may alter her course. Even now the wind is shifting, and she may have to keep away."

I could not contradict this; still I kept on hoping that we should ere long be seen. I had a white handkerchief in my pocket, although it was rolled into a ball by the wet. I pulled it out, and waved it above my head as high as I could reach. Even now we might have attracted the attention of those on board the stranger, although we could distinguish no signal made to us in return.

"She's a thumping big ship, whatever she is," I remarked.

"She's high out of the water, and that makes her look bigger," observed Jim. "I have seen some like her brought up at Spithead, and to my mind she's a South Sea whaler, outward bound. That's the reason she looks so high. Yes, I am right, for I can make out her boats hoisted up at the davits."

"I think you are right," I said; "but even if she is an outward bound ship, she'll put us on board another vessel homeward-bound, or land us on some part of the coast, the back of the Isle of Wight, or Portland."

"First let us get on board her before we talk of where we shall be landed," said Jim. "It seems to me as if she was going about. The head sails are shaking."

"No, no! the man at the wheel was not minding his helm," I answered.

"I'll wave again."

"They won't see that little bit of a rag," cried Jim, "I'll try what I can do. Here, Peter, just take hold of my jacket," he continued, as he stripped it off, and then loosening his waistband he pulled his shirt over his head, and began to wave it frantically. I waved my handkerchief, and then in our eagerness we shouted out at the top of our voices, as if the faint sounds could be carried as far as the ship.

Presently our hearts sank, for there was no doubt that the ship was keeping away. Still, should anyone on board be using a spy-gla.s.s, and turn it towards us, we should, we hoped, be observed. We waved and shouted even more vehemently than before, but even I was almost in despair.

"She's going to pa.s.s us after all," cried Jim, "and there's not another sail in sight."

Just as he spoke there came a puff of smoke with a bright flash, from the ship's bows, followed by a sharp report.

"We are seen! We are seen!" shouted Jim. "That's a signal to us.

Hurrah! Hurrah!"

The ship now came rapidly on, and we had no longer any doubt about being rescued. This very circ.u.mstance caused a reaction in our feelings, and, strange as it may seem, we both burst into tears. We recovered ourselves, however, very soon, and continued waving, still having an idea that the ship might sail away from us, but on and on she came.

Presently her courses were brailed up, and she hove-to about three cables' lengths from our mast. Almost at the same instant one of her boats was lowered, and came pulling towards us as fast as the men could bend their backs to the oars. In a few minutes kindly hands were stretched out to help us into the boat.

"Are you the only two?" asked the mate, who was steering.

"Yes, sir; all the rest are gone," I answered.

"Well, we'll hear all about it when we get you on board, lads, for you both seem as if you wanted looking after," he said.

The boat leaving the mast, returned rapidly towards the ship.

While most of the crew scrambled up the sides, the tackles were hooked on, and we were hoisted up in the boat, from whence we were speedily handed down on deck. I could not have stood if I had not been supported, and Jim was much in the same condition.

We were soon surrounded by strange faces, some looking compa.s.sionately upon us, others with indifference, as if it was a matter of very little consequence that two boys should have been saved from perishing.

Meantime the yards were swung round and the ship stood on her course.

"We must have the lads below at once," said one of the persons standing round. "They have been many hours wet through and exposed on the mast, and even now, if we don't look out, they may slip through our fingers."

"Very true, Doctor c.o.c.kle," said another, who was, I saw by his dress, an officer. "One of them may be put into my cabin, where you can look after him better than for'ard."

"And the other can go into mine," said the doctor, the person who had first spoken.

No one had asked us any questions; probably they saw by our condition that we should have been unable to answer them, for both Jim and I were fast verging towards unconsciousness.

We were at once carried below, when I was put into the mate's cabin, where my clothes were stripped off by the doctor's orders, and, being rubbed dry, I was placed between the blankets. The doctor, who had been looking after Jim, soon came and gave me something out of a gla.s.s, which seemed to warm me up wonderfully. But even then I could not have spoken if my life had depended upon it.

"Get some warm broth as quickly as you can," I heard the doctor say to someone, he in the meantime rubbing my feet and hands and chest. It seemed as if scarcely more than two or three minutes had pa.s.sed when a basin of hot broth was brought me, which I drank without difficulty, and it did me more good than the stuff in the gla.s.s.

"You may go to sleep now, my lad," said the doctor, in a kind tone; "you'll do well. You shall tell us by-and-by how you and your companion came to be on the mast."

I obeyed the doctor's orders, and scarcely had the door been closed than I was fast asleep. I was awakened by the doctor coming in, accompanied by a boy who brought some more soup and some bread, and which, being very hungry, I thankfully swallowed.

"You can eat something more substantial now," said the doctor, and he told the boy to bring in some fowl and more bread from the breakfast-table.

By this I guessed that I must have had a long spell of sleep, and that a whole day and a night had pa.s.sed since we were taken on board. I eagerly ate all that was given me.

"You may get up now, my boy, and dress, and we will find another berth for you; we must not keep Mr Griffiths out of his bed," said the doctor.

"I would not do that on any account, sir," I said; "I feel quite strong, and am accustomed to live forward."

I soon dressed, and was glad to see that Jim also was up. There were two apprentices on board, who lived on the half-deck, and the doctor said that the first mate promised to have some berths knocked up for us with them.

"How did you come to be on board the vessel which went down?" asked the doctor, when I accompanied him on deck.

From the kind way he spoke I was encouraged to give him a full account of myself and Jim, so I told him that he and I belonged to Portsmouth, and had gone in the _Good Intent_ to Bergen; and how she had lost her masts, and the crew had been washed overboard. How the captain had died, and we had done our best to keep the brig afloat, and had been driven in close to Shetland, and that I had found a relative there, and was coming south in the _Nancy_ to fetch my sister. He then asked me about my father, and I told him that he had been lost at Spithead, and that mother had died, and old Tom had taken care of Mary and me, and how, after he had been blown up in the ship at Spithead, Jim and I had managed to gain our bread and support Mary and Nancy till a claimant appeared for old Tom's property, and our boat had been taken from us, and we had been turned out of the house, and should have been in a bad way if the good Quaker, Mr Gray, had not come to our a.s.sistance.

The doctor listened attentively, and he then asked me what sort of man my father was, and whether I had a brother in the navy.

I described my father, and then said that Jack had gone away on board the _Lapwing_ brig of war, but that he was supposed to have been cut off by savages in one of her boats when in the Indian seas. At all events, that we had never since heard of him.

"That's very strange," he observed; "I think, Peter Trawl, that we have met before, when you were a very little chap. Do you remember your father taking off the doctor and the mate of a ship lying at Spithead, when you and your brother Jack were in the boat, and he was to be put on board the brig?"

"Yes, sir," I said, looking up at his face: "I recollect it perfectly, as it was the last time I saw Jack, though I little thought then that I should never see him again."

"I was the doctor, and the first mate of this ship was my companion.

When I first heard your name, as it is a peculiar one, I all of a sudden recollected that it was that of the boatman who took Mr Griffiths and me off on the occasion I speak of. We are now brothers-in-law, and have ever since gone to sea together--that is to say, when we have gone to sea, for both of us have taken long spells on sh.o.r.e. If it hadn't been for that, Mr Griffiths would have been a captain years ago."

"I am very glad to meet you and him again, sir," I said; "and now I look at you I fancy I recollect your countenance, as I did your voice. You were not as well accustomed to the sea then as you are now."

"No," he answered, laughing. "That was my first voyage. I sometimes wish that I had lived comfortably on sh.o.r.e, and made it my last, but I got accustomed to a roving life, and having no regular business or tie, when circ.u.mstances compelled Mr Griffiths--who married my sister--to come to sea again, I agreed to accompany him."

I felt sure from the kind way in which Doctor c.o.c.kle spoke that he would wish to serve me.

I asked him if the ship was going to put into Saint Helens, or if not, would he get the captain to land Jim and me at Portland?