Sail Ho! Part 77

"Then there is a way on?" I said excitedly.

"Kind of a sort of a way, sir. I don't think I could ha' got along if I'd tried ever so hard, 'cause the cargo's jammed up so close to the roof; but a small sort o' man might do it, or p'r'aps I might if old Frenchy keeps me here long enough to get precious thin."

"But a boy could get along?" I said.

"Oh yes, sir, I dessay a boy could; but don't you get thinking it's a regular pipe or a pa.s.sage, 'cause it arn't. It's all in and out, and over chests and cases and things as don't fit together, or has got settled down; and you have to feel all this as you go, and trust to the tips of your fingers for leading of you right. It arn't as if there was any light, you see; 'cause their ain't enough to show a mouse the way to the inside of a Dutch cheese."

"Then if any one got along there far enough, he would come to the forecastle bulk-head?" I said eagerly.

"Well, that I can't say, sir; 'cause, you see, he might find he had to creep along right under the forksle floor, and the men's bunks."

"If he got to the place where our friends are, that would not matter," I cried excitedly. "The distance must be very small."

"O' course, sir."

"But one moment, Barney. Could any of the cargo be pushed out of the way, so as to make more room?"

"No, sir, for sartain, 'cause it's all wedged together, and there's nowhere else to put it so as to make room."

"And I don't see, if one got there, that it could be a great deal of good, because they couldn't get here, and we couldn't all get there."

"They seems to think it would be some good, sir," growled Barney, "because they keeps on knocking. There they goes again."

For once more the tapping commenced, and was repeated impatiently as we did not answer.

"Give 'em the sigginals, Bob," said Dumlow, gruffly.

The tapping was answered--three taps together, two, then one, and in all manner of variations; till the others stopped, and so did we, and there was silence till Bob spoke.

"That's all very pretty," he said; "but, you see, it don't lead to nothing. They raps, and seems to say, Here we are! And then we raps, and says, So are we! And so it goes on, over and over again, till you don't know what they mean, or what you mean, or where you are. I wish we could do something to make 'em understand as we're stuck fast."

"The only way to do that is to tell them so," I cried pa.s.sionately.

"Even if nothing more comes of it, I feel as if it would be something to feel that you can communicate with your friends when you like. We might contrive something too, some means of escape. Yes, we must get to them, my lads."

"Then you'll have to starve down, Barney, till you're as thin as a skelington," said Bob, "and then have another try."

"All right, messmate, I'm willin'," said Barney, with a sigh. "I don't like going without my wittles, but what we gets here arn't much to lose.

There you are then, Mr Dale, sir; starve me down till I'm small enough."

"No, Barney," I said firmly; "there's no need. I'm small enough already; and if you'll follow me for company as far as you can, and to help me if possible, I will go myself. I said when you were in there I'd try and help you; now you must try and help me. Will you come?"

"My hand on it, sir, if you'll shake it."

I shook it.

"I shall keep as close to you as I can, sir," said the sailor. "You won't want any telling which way to go, for there is only one way for you to get along, as you'll soon find out."

I started, and soon felt that I must be past where the two men had found it so tight a fit, though I had had no difficulty in getting along whatever, and gaining courage from the excitement, I crawled forward over the tops of rough packing-cases and between others, finding the pa.s.sage uneven, and with a different level every minute. Now there would be plenty of room; but a foot or two farther I had to crawl over a case that came so close to a beam arching over from side to side of the ship that I began wondering how my companion had pa.s.sed in, and as soon as I was through and into the wider s.p.a.ce beyond, I stopped with my head turned back to speak.

"You can't get through there, can you?" I asked.

"Well, it is pretty tight, sir, but I did it afore, and I've got to do it again."

I listened to his efforts, and could make out that he was getting through inch by inch, and he kept on commenting upon his progress the while.

"Good job as one's bones give a bit, sir," he was saying, when the knocking ahead came clearly, and seemed not so very far away. "Give 'em an answer, sir; not too loud. Do it with your knuckles on something."

I was upon a case as he spoke, and I answered at once; but to my annoyance this only drew forth fresh knockings in various ways--two knocks together, then two more very quickly--a regular rat-rat--and then all kinds of variations, to which I replied as well as I could, and then left off in a pet.

"Who's going to keep on doing that?" I cried angrily. "They must wait."

"Yes," growled Barney; "I'd go on, sir. That arn't doing n.o.body no good."

The consequence was that I went forward slowly, with an accompaniment of taps, which kept irritating me in that hot, stifling pa.s.sage--no, it is not fair to call such a place a pa.s.sage, seeing that it was merely an opening formed by the settling down of the packages, or their opening out from the rolling of the ship in the storm.

I was pa.s.sing along one of these latter portions with great care when a cold chill ran through me, for the thought came--suppose the ship heels over now, I shall be nipped in here and crushed to death.

But the ship did not heel over; though I did not feel comfortable till I was out of the opening, and flat once more on the top of a huge crate, between whose openings, the sharp ends of the straw used in packing it projected and scratched my face. Here I paused to listen to Barney panting and grunting as he struggled along.

"Mustn't make quite so much noise, sir," he whispered; "or some 'un uppards 'll be hearing of us."

He was more careful, and I once more went crawling laboriously, and finding on the whole so little room that I began to think I must have gone much farther than Barney had been before. And there was a strange thing connected with that creep over and amongst the cargo. Time seemed to be indefinitely prolonged. I could fancy one moment that I had been crawling and crawling for hours, and going a tremendous distance, while the next my idea was that I had hardly moved and not been there a minute. Every now and then, in spite of setting my teeth hard, and even biting my tongue, that horrible feeling of fright came back; and I have often asked myself since whether I was an awful coward. But I never could give a fair judgment, for I have thought that most people would have felt the same, whether they were lads or grown men, and certainly my three companions in talking it over said it upset them more than going in for a real fight.

It was curious, too, how busy one's brain was when I could keep from thinking of being smothered or crushed, or so fixed in that I could not get out. For then I began to think about moles burrowing underground, and worms in their holes, and rabbits and mice; and on one of these occasions I started and wondered at the peculiarity of the coincidence, for I suddenly became aware of a peculiar, half-musky smell, and then there was a scuffling, squealing sound which sent a shudder through me.

"Hear the rats, sir?" whispered Barney; but I was so upset that I couldn't reply.

All at once, as I was crawling more freely, my companion whispered--

"You ought to be close to where I turned myself round, sir. Aren't there more room?"

"Yes," I said.

"Then that's it, sir. Eh?"

"I didn't speak."

"But some one did, sir. It arn't them in the forksle, is it?"

We listened, and there was whispered, close to us apparently--

"How are you getting on?"

"It's them behind, sir. I'll lay down flat as I can, and you whisper back as we're all right. Sound travels easy."

I found that I could readily turn, and I did as he proposed that I should, hearing my voice sound so smothered that it startled me again.

But the tapping was resumed; and answering it again, I turned and went on once more in silence till all at once my way was stopped by a crate which touched the beams overhead.

"Is this where you got to, Barney?" I said.