Ronald Morton, or the Fire Ships Part 19

"What!" he exclaimed, when he saw Morton and Glover with Job Truefitt, "have you Englishmen found time, amid all this confusion, to come and look after a wounded wretch like me; an enemy too--who has been taught with his utmost strength to hate the English?"

"We Englishmen have been taught to help our enemies in distress, mounseer," observed Job Truefitt, as, without waiting a moment to ask leave, he lifted the wounded lad on his shoulders. "There's no time for palavering. Come along, sirs."

The midshipmen sprang on, helping Job to support his burden, and they soon reached the upper-deck, when the scene of horror and confusion was indescribable! Not without difficulty, and in great danger of being washed off, they made their way to the after part of the quarter-deck, where Mr Calder, with the other Englishmen, were a.s.sembled.

The ship had driven with her larboard side to the sh.o.r.e, and as she heeled over they were partly sheltered from the force of the seas, which dashed in arches of foam high above her.

The English lieutenant and his party had made fast a cask to the end of the line they had secured, and were endeavouring to float it towards the sh.o.r.e, where three or four people stood ready to receive it. In vain they tried. Several times the cable got almost within their reach, and was carried back again with the reflux of the wave. Morton, however, observed to his satisfaction, that just at that part there were no rocks, and that the seas rushed on without any break till they reached the beach.

"If I could but do it," thought Morton to himself. "I have swum through some tolerably heavy seas on the Shetland coast."

He at once made the proposal to Mr Calder.

"Impossible!" was the answer. "You would be drowned, my boy, to a certainty."

"But I could do it, and whether I'm drowned or not, it matters little,"

exclaimed Job Truefitt. "Here, who'll take charge of this here young Frenchman?"

Rawson offered also to make the attempt, but he was known not to be a good swimmer.

A thundering crash was heard. It was the fall of the remainder of the foremast, and the breaking up of the fore part of the ship. It was a strong hint to the English party to hasten whatever they might undertake.

"You'll let me go, Mr Calder?" said Morton again.

He and Job Truefitt had secured some light line to the cask, which had just been hauled up. It was again lowered, and the lieutenant nodded his head, but his countenance was very sad, as if he had little hopes of the success of the expedition. The instant his permission was gained, Ronald and Job slid down the side of the ship, and were quickly borne on with the cask towards the sh.o.r.e. They both struck out bravely, and soon reached the cask. They had little at first to do, except to keep themselves afloat. All those who anxiously watched them, knew that the trial would come as they neared the beach, and got within the power of the under suck of the receding waves. At first they merely accompanied the cask, and supporting themselves by it, husbanded their strength.

"They will be lost to a certainty, I know," observed Rawson. "If they don't succeed, I don't know who will. I never saw a finer swimmer than that man Truefitt."

"Oh, I hope they will! I hope they will be saved!" cried Glover, in an agony of terror for Morton, who had inspired him with the sincerest affection.

"There they go! bravely they swim!" cried Mr Calder. "They are ahead of the cask--they dart forward--the undertow has got them. No!--they are struggling desperately with it--they don't lose ground--on they go!--No!"

There was a cry that the sea had carried them back, but the next moment their heads appeared on the top of a foaming sea, and on it rushed towards the beach.

Now was the critical moment. Their shipmates on board the wreck held their breath as they watched their progress. One was seen to rise up on the beach from out of a sheet of foam, and to hurry upwards; but there was only one. He did not stop a moment. Down he dashed again. He had a grasp of a rope, though the other end of which was held by the people on the sh.o.r.e.

Without hesitation, he plunged once more into the seething waters; he did not again appear--there was a cry of despair--all thought he was lost--but no--the next instant he was seen, and this time with a companion, and aided by the people, who were on the watch for them, they both together hurried up the beach, and the cask, with the line, was hauled up after them.

The great object was accomplished; a communication was secured with the sh.o.r.e. The pa.s.sage, however, was still full of danger.

More line was procured. A traveller and slings were fitted, and Rawson volunteered to lead the way. Should he succeed, the pa.s.sage would be somewhat less dangerous.

The people on sh.o.r.e now tightened the rope. He took a supply of line with which to haul the next person on sh.o.r.e. A shout from the English seamen proclaimed that he was successful.

It was now according to rule, under such circ.u.mstances, the privilege of the youngest to proceed. d.i.c.ky Glover was ordered into the slings.

"If I must go, may I take the young Frenchman?" he asked. "I know Morton would wish it."

"Yes, be sharp," answered Mr Calder, a.s.sisting himself to secure them both. Away they went on their perilous pa.s.sage. It was near sun-down when the ship struck. It was now rapidly getting dark. What a night of horrors was there for those who were compelled to spend it on board the wreck.

When d.i.c.ky Glover had nearly reached the sh.o.r.e, the surf almost tore young Gerardin from the slings, and the hold he had of him. Almost hopelessly he struggled. In another instant they both would have been carried away, when Glover saw some one making his way through the foaming water towards him. A friendly hand grasped his, and in another minute he and his charge were hauled up out of the power of the sea.

Ronald Morton, with a rope round his waist, had been the means of rescuing him and Gerardin from death. d.i.c.ky began to thank him.

"Only obeying orders--helping each other," answered Ronald. "But lend a hand, Glover, we have plenty to do."

Morton and his companions became very anxious for the fate of their gallant superior. Had the frigate been his own ship, he would have been the last to leave the wreck; but now, having seen his own people on sh.o.r.e, he would have no hesitation in coming.

Ronald applied to Gerardin, but he could get no information from his confused countrymen as to what had become of the English lieutenant.

The Englishmen, notwithstanding this, continued to a.s.sist energetically in hauling the people on sh.o.r.e. Each time a man reached the beach, they hailed him, hoping to find that he was their officer.

Suddenly, as they were hauling in on the line made fast to the traveller, the main line became slack: alas! all communication with the ill-fated ship was cut off.

"Haul on it, lads!" shouted Rawson and Morton in concert.

"It is heavy; there is some one on it," cried the men. "Steady, lads, steady."

Gradually they hauled in the line. The life of one more fellow-creature might be saved. They hauled away. Yes, a man was there! was he still alive, though?

They hailed as he neared them. An English voice answered, "All right, lads!" It was their own lieutenant. They welcomed him with a joyful shout, which showed that he had won the honest affections of his men, a prize worthy of an officer's aim.

"I had a struggle for it," he observed, as soon as he was somewhat recovered. "No sooner was I on the rope, than some of the wretches in their madness cut it, and have so lost all means of reaching the sh.o.r.e in safety. Still we will do what we can to help them."

The Englishmen kept to this resolution. With unceasing watchfulness they moved up and down along the beach, saving the lives of many who would otherwise have fallen victims to the waves.

The wearied seamen, their labours over, threw themselves on the sands to rest, scarcely allowing the thought to trouble them of what next they should do. They had not enjoyed many minutes' repose before they were roused up by a party of soldiers, who, without much ceremony, marched them all off to a tower in the neighbourhood, which Ronald recollected observing before the ship struck. Here, in spite of all Mr Calder's expostulations, they were locked up in an upper chamber without food or water, and left to their own devices.

It is not surprising if their remarks and reflections were not very complimentary to the people on whose sh.o.r.es they had been thrown.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

JOB'S PLAN FOR ESCAPING--A HINT FROM GERARDIN--A ROPE BROUGHT IN A BASKET--DESCENT FROM THE TOWER--THE GUARD MADE PRISONER--GET ON BOARD A FISHING-BOAT.

"If I'd my way I'd break out of this here hole, knock the mounseers down that stands guard, and cut and run," observed Job Truefitt, as he woke up after a sound sleep on some straw, in the afternoon of the day on which he and his companions had been shut up in the tower. "We might get hold of some fishing craft or other, and make good our escape. I've heard of such things being done afore now."

The sentiment was warmly echoed by the speaker's shipmates.

Mr Calder and the other officers had overheard what was said. It was intended that they should. Probably the same idea was occupying the lieutenant's mind; he got up and took a survey of the interior of the tower. The upper part was of wood, and through a c.h.i.n.k came a ray from the setting sun, and cast a bright light on the opposite wall. It showed the prisoners the direction of the ocean, and the point towards which they must make their way if they could escape from the tower.

Mr Calder, with no little exertion, climbed up to the c.h.i.n.k to look out; the chamber was without any window; there had been one in the stone wall, but that had been blocked up. From the dome shape of the roof it appeared, too, that the chamber was the highest in the tower. Mr Calder having completed his survey of the surrounding country, as far as his position would allow him, descended to the floor. He said but little; he was pondering the means of escape. To be kept a prisoner now, almost at the commencement of what everybody said would be a long war, was more than his philosophy would enable him to bear with patience. Morton guessed what was pa.s.sing in his superior's mind.

"It would, indeed, be terrible to be shut up," he observed. "It is only just what I ought to have expected," said Rawson. "My ill-luck will stick to me to the end; no fear of that going, though everything else leaves me."

His remark produced a laugh among his companions, who, if they even believed in ill-luck, had very little compa.s.sion on him when he complained of it; indeed, it was suspected that he rather liked to be joked on the subject.

"I should like to have a look out too," said Ronald, climbing up by the inequalities in the stone wall and the planks which formed the side of the tower.