The Boy Ranchers of Puget Sound Part 41

She forged ahead on the other tack--and the most imminent peril was past.

It was two hours later when they raised the land again, and though one or the other of them had pumped continuously the water was splashing high about their feet. Jake had, however, made a good shot of it, for he recognized a ridge of higher ground marked upon the chart, and they drove in toward it, battered, swept, and streaming. Frank felt strangely limp when at length they ran into smoother water, and Jake made one significant remark.

"We're through," he said, "but if we'd had to make another tack it would have finished her."

The black land grew higher until they could make out ma.s.ses of shadowy pines, and eventually dropping the jib and peak they ran her in behind a point with very thankful hearts and let go the anchor. Half of their task was finished, and they could take their ease until morning broke.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE DERELICT

The wind freshened after they reached shelter and it blew very hard. For a time Frank found sleep impossible, though he was glad to lie snug in the warm cabin with the lamp burning above him and the stove snapping cheerfully. The sloop lurched and rocked, drawing her chain tight now and then with a bang, while a m.u.f.fled uproar went on outside her. Frank could distinguish the angry splash of water upon her bows and the drumming and rapping of loose ropes against the mast, though these sounds were partly drowned by the furious clamor of the ground sea beyond the point and a great deep-toned roaring made, he supposed, by long ranks of thrashing trees. Once or twice, when Jake, who crawled out to see if the anchor was holding, left the slide open, the sound filled the cabin with tremendous pulsating harmonies.

Besides this, the boy's face smarted after the lashing of icy spray, and he wondered whether Mr. Barclay's plans were working out successfully and what fresh adventures awaited Harry and himself on the morrow, all of which was sufficient to keep him in a state of restless expectation.

He envied his companion who presently went to sleep, but it was toward morning when at last his own eyelids closed and he got a few s.n.a.t.c.hes of fitful slumber broken by fantastic dreams. He was awakened by a chill upon his face, and looking around saw that Jake had gone out again into the well. The roar of the wind did not seem so overwhelming as it had been, though there was no doubt that it was still blowing hard. By and by Jake called out.

"You'd better get up," he said. "I've a notion that there's somebody hailing us."

Frank crawled out shivering, with Harry grumbling half asleep behind him, and when he stood in the well found he could see a hazy loom of trees across the little white waves that came splashing toward the boat.

They made a sharp, rippling sound, pitched in a different tone from the din that rose all around. The latter swelled and sank, and he was slightly surprised when he was able to hear what seemed to be a faint shout. It rose again more clearly, and there was no longer any doubt that somebody on the beach was hailing them.

"Can we get ash.o.r.e?" he asked.

"You'll have to try," said Jake. "The man's to windward of us, and it will be a stiff paddle, but if you can't manage it you'll blow across to the beach on the other side of the inlet safe enough and he may be able to get round to you. Anyway, I don't want to leave the sloop. She'd have picked up her anchor once or twice if I hadn't given her more cable."

"What time is it?" Harry inquired.

"About seven o'clock," Jake answered. "We'll have daylight soon after you're back."

They hauled up the canoe and were not surprised to find that she was full of water. It took them some time to bail her out, and Frank felt anxious when at last they pushed her clear of the sloop. It was difficult to tell how far off the beach was, and for the first few moments they could make no progress against the blast. Then they won a yard or two in a partial lull, and after that for a while barely held their own by determined paddling. Thick rain drove into their faces and the spray from the bows and splashing blades blew over them. Frank was breathless when they reached the beach, and it cost him an effort to scramble over the uneven stones as far as the edge of the bush, where a shadowy figure stood beside a horse. Its head drooped and even in the darkness, which was not very deep, its att.i.tude was suggestive of exhaustion. The man was dimly visible, and they felt sure that he was the messenger they expected.

"You're here on Barclay's business?" he said.

"Yes," said Harry. "Have you a message for him?"

The man fumbled in his pocket and took out an envelope.

"That's from the boss. I guess it will explain the thing, but he said I'd better let you know that we'd had trouble."

"Then you didn't get the dope men?"

"We corralled three of them; the rest broke away. One of the boys got a bullet in him and he's been lying in the rain all night. I don't know how we're going to pack him out."

"Things went wrong?" said Frank.

"They did," the man a.s.sented. "One of the boys got his pistol off by accident just after the boat had come ash.o.r.e, and that gave our plans away. The boat's crew shoved off and several men who'd been landed broke through in the dark. Anyhow, when the trouble was over we'd got one case of dope, two whites of no account, and a Chinaman."

"And the schooner?"

"She was heading out to sea with mighty little sail on her when I left.

You'll be able to take word through to Barclay?"

"I don't know," Harry answered dubiously. "It's too dark to tell what the sea's like now. I suppose there's no other means of warning him?"

"No," said the man. "Even if I could get a message on to the wire they wouldn't be able to deliver it at the other end, but he has to be warned somehow."

"If you'll come off we'll give you breakfast. It should be light enough to see what the weather's like by the time you had finished," Harry suggested.

"It can't be done," was the answer. "I've to go on for a doctor and raise a crowd to run those fellows down. I've already stayed longer than I should."

"Your horse is played out," Frank objected.

"I'll hire another. There's a ranch somewhere ahead. I'll say you have taken that message."

"We'll do it if it's any way possible," said Harry.

The man turned away without another word and they heard him stumbling through the wood beside his horse until the roar of the wind drowned the sound, after which they went back to the canoe. They had no trouble in reaching the sloop, for they were driven down upon her furiously, and on clambering on board they found that Jake had breakfast ready.

It was daylight when they crawled out of the cabin after the meal, but the sky was hidden by low-flying vapor, and gazing seaward they could see only a short stretch of big leader combers which rolled up out of the haze crested with livid froth. Jake shook his head doubtfully at Harry.

"You'll have to stop a while," he said. "She wouldn't run for half an hour before that sea. We couldn't start till after dinner if the wind dropped right now, but it's falling and we might get away in the afternoon."

The morning dragged by while the boys chafed at the delay, though they had no doubt that Jake was right and neither of them felt any keen desire to face the sea that was tumbling in from the Pacific. Still, the roar of the wind steadily diminished and the sloop rode more easily, and at length Jake offered to make the venture after they had had a meal.

They lashed three reefs down before they started, leaving only a small triangular strip of mainsail set, but that proved quite enough, and during the first few minutes Frank felt almost appalled as he glanced at the great gray combers that heaved themselves up astern. Most of them were hollow breasted, and their tops curled over, flinging up long wisps of foam and roaring ominously. As a rule they broke, divided, on either side of the boat, piling up in a snowy welter high about her shrouds, but now and then one seemed to break all over her and most of her deck was lost in a furious rush of water. Twice the canoe, which was too big to stow on deck, charged up and struck her with a resounding crash, and then broke adrift and disappeared.

By degrees, however, Frank's uneasiness diminished. Somewhat to his astonishment, the light and buoyant craft stood the buffeting, and by the time dusk fell the seas were getting smaller. Still, they were big enough, and the boat appeared to be driving before them at an extraordinary speed. By eight o'clock in the evening they had shaken out one reef, and soon afterward Frank lay down in the cabin, because Jake said that he had no intention of entrusting either him or Harry with the helm, which was on the whole a relief to both of them. To run a small craft before a breaking sea in the dark is a very severe test of nerve, and it is, perhaps, worse when the combers still come foaming after her after the wind has somewhat fallen.

In spite of the violent motion Frank managed to sleep until he was awakened some time after midnight by a shout from Jake. Crawling out, partly dazed, with his eyes half open, he saw that the sky had cleared and that a crescent moon was shining down. Then, close ahead of them, he saw the schooner.

She was also running, for her stern was toward them, though for a moment or two it was hidden by the white top of a sea, and Frank could only make out the forward half of her sharply tilted deck. Her bowsprit and two torn jibs above it were high in the air, and her black boom-foresail all bunched up, with its gaff, which had swung down, jammed against the foremast shrouds. She carried no after canvas, and the reason became evident when, as her stern lurched up, Frank saw that her mainmast was broken off short. She sank down again while a comber foamed high about her rail, which was shattered on one quarter where the falling mast had struck, and a ma.s.s of canvas and tangled gear trailed in the sea beneath it. What struck the boy most, however, was the erratic manner in which she was progressing, for her bows swung up to windward every now and then until all her side was visible and she lumbered off at angle to her course and then came lurching back again. She was herringboning, as it is called at sea, in an extraordinary fashion, and she seemed low in the water.

In the meanwhile the sloop was coming up with her fast and Jake stood up at the tiller to see more clearly.

"They've been in trouble, sure," he said. "I could tell there was n.o.body at her helm when I first saw her and that's why I ran up so close. Ease the peak down, one of you; I don't want to run by until we've had a look at her."

Harry did so, and as they stood watching her the schooner slued round until she was almost beam to wind. The sea streamed down her weather side, which rose up like a wall, and Frank could see her wheel behind the low deckhouse jerking to and fro. There was no sign of life anywhere on board her.

"Deserted!" Jake said shortly. "They must have jibed her and smashed her mainmast. She seems a smart vessel. Seems to me she ought to fetch a good many dollars."

The sloop was sailing more slowly now with her peak swung down, keeping pace with the schooner but a little behind her, and the boys gazed hard at Jake. His rugged face looked very thoughtful in the moonlight.

"It's a fair wind to the islands and she'd come up until it was abeam with the foresail set if it was necessary," he said. "It wouldn't be much trouble to sail her in and she could be beached somewhere in smooth water. Anyhow, I'd like to get on board her."

"If you ran up close alongside when she screws to windward one of us could jump," Harry suggested eagerly. "There's a raffle of ropes over her quarter."