The Blue Grass Seminary Girls on the Water Part 16

Each boat was well stocked with provisions and water, for the Germans had no mind to set their prisoners adrift and let them starve or perish of thirst.

The sh.o.r.e of Cuba was not far away, and, with steady rowing by the men, it would be possible for them to reach there within twelve hours.

Besides, there was always the chance they would be picked up by a pa.s.sing vessel.

Fortunately, the pa.s.senger list was not large. The bulk of it had been made up of the men who had later captured the ship. Therefore, officers, pa.s.sengers and crew included, there were not more than three hundred set adrift.

The engine room crew had been impressed into service by the Germans.

The Willing party found themselves in the boat with the captain and perhaps a dozen other pa.s.sengers. As the boat struck the water, and the men began to row away from the big steamship at the captain's command, Shirley and Mabel were badly frightened.

In spite of the cheering words spoken by their fathers, d.i.c.k and other male pa.s.sengers, they did not bear up very well. As they looked first in one direction and then the other and saw nothing but water, they broke into tears. The small boat looked very small indeed to be at large upon the water.

Presently all the boats were launched, and rowed some distance from the steamer. There they stopped as a sudden blast signified that the big ship was about to get under way and leave them.

It began to grow dark. The electric lights aboard the large vessel glowed suddenly, and slowly the brilliantly lighted floating palace made off in the gathering darkness.

As it went away and left them to the mercies of the sea, cries of anguish, despair and condemnation were hurled after the men who had thus set the pa.s.sengers and crew adrift. Women sobbed, and men stood up in the boats and shook their fists after the steamship _Yucatan_.

And then the great ship disappeared from sight. The men in the small boats renewed their work at the oars, and the boats moved toward the distant Cuban coast.

Adding to the fearfulness of their condition, darkness descended upon them like a pall.

CHAPTER X.-COLON.

At a word from Mr. Willing, after several hours of rowing, Shirley and Mabel cuddled up in their end of the boat and tried to sleep; but this they found impossible, and all through the night they gazed out over the dark waters.

Here and there the lights in the other boats were visible, but before morning they had lost sight of these. When the first faint streaks of dawn appeared in the east there was not another boat to be seen. They had become separated in the night.

The almost twenty pa.s.sengers in the little craft ate of the food that had been provided and drank of the water. Thus refreshed, and with the sun now appearing above the horizon, their predicament did not seem as serious as it had during the blackness of the night.

There was not an object in sight to break the monotony of the water, and the boat rocked gently on the easy swell of the sea. The men bent to the oars again and sent the little craft skimming through the water.

Came a cry from the man at the rudder, and the eyes of the others followed his gaze toward the distant horizon. They beheld a faint cloud in the otherwise clear sky.

"Steamer!" cried the first man.

The cloud approached nearer and at last the outline of a ship, appearing very small at that distance, could be made out. It was headed on a course that would bring it almost directly in the path of the smaller boat.

As the hull of the vessel grew larger by its approach, occasional cheers broke from the lips of those in the little craft. So far it was impossible to tell whether the castaways had been sighted or not; but as the big ship neared them-now scarcely more than a mile away-the shrill blast of the steamer's whistle split the air. The small boat with its pa.s.sengers had been discovered. The pa.s.sengers raised another cheer.

Rapidly the large vessel bore down on them, and the little craft bobbed swiftly toward it. At last they came alongside.

"Ladies first!" cried the captain of the _Yucatan_.

Shirley and Mabel were the first over the rail, where they stood awaiting the arrival of the others.

Mr. Willing, Colonel Ashton and d.i.c.k were the last to go aboard, and no sooner were the refugees all on deck than the big vessel resumed her course. The captain motioned them to his cabin.

The ship upon which they now found themselves proved to be the _Reliance_, with a cargo of freight from New Orleans for Colon.

This the captain explained when he learned where the erstwhile refugees were bound.

"We can't offer you the same accommodations you had aboard the _Yucatan_," he said, "but you are welcome to the best we have."

"And we are indeed glad to get it, captain," Shirley spoke up.

"No doubt, no doubt," smiled the captain. "All night in an open boat is no pleasure trip, even if this is the month of June," and he ordered them a.s.signed quarters forward.

While by no means as large and pretentious as those on the _Yucatan_, the cabins were nevertheless clean and comfortable.

"We can thank our stars that we were fortunate enough to be picked up so soon," declared d.i.c.k.

"What can have become of the other boats?" asked Mabel.

"Probably reached the Cuban sh.o.r.e," replied Colonel Ashton. "We are doubtless the only ones that lost our course. The others more than likely stuck close together."

"I hope they are all safe," declared Shirley.

"I am sure they are," returned her father.

"Now," said Colonel Ashton, "the thing to be considered is, what to do when we reach Colon. Shall we take another steamer and continue our course, or shall we turn about and go home?"

"We don't want to go home, Dad," exclaimed Shirley. "You won't give up the trip to San Francisco, will you?"

"No, I think not," was the reply. "We can replenish our wardrobes in Colon sufficiently to get to Frisco, and we can do the rest of our buying there. No, we shall go on."

The girls clapped their hands in delight. Both had feared that the disaster might put an untimely end to their summer vacation.

"What do you suppose the Germans intend doing with the _Yucatan_?" asked d.i.c.k.

"Well, you heard the captain speak of a naval base on the coast of Cuba.

They probably will run in there, put some big guns aboard and start out on a privateering cruise. There have been a couple of such German raiders, and they did considerable damage to British merchant ships before they were chased to the safety of internment in Newport News."

"I guess that is about what they plan to do," agreed d.i.c.k. "I'll surely have one experience of which to write when I get back to work."

An hour later the party was gathered on deck, when the captain of the _Yucatan_ approached.

"The first thing I shall do is to report this to General Fullaway, at Colon," he declared.

"General Fullaway!" exclaimed Mr. Willing. "You don't mean General Hugh Fullaway?"

"The same," replied the captain. "Do you know him?"

"Well, rather," replied Mr. Willing. "We were schoolmates years ago, and have been close friends since. He comes from my home town. I shall look him up. But I didn't know he was in command in Colon."