The Ghost Ship Part 14

All laughed at this, Captain Applegarth now losing his preoccupied air as if there were nothing to be gained, he thought, by dwelling any longer on the past.

It was wonderful, though, how we _had_ drifted in the short interval, comparatively, that had elapsed since we became disabled!

As Mr Fosset had been the first to find out in the morning the Gulf Stream--that great river that runs a course of some two thousand miles in the middle of the ocean, keeping itself perfectly distinct from the surrounding water through which it flows, from its inception as a current in the Caribbean Sea to its final disposal in the North Atlantic--had first carried us in an easterly direction after we had broken-down so utterly; while the strong nor'-westerly gale, aided probably by the Arctic current, running due south from the Polar regions and which disputes the right of way with the Gulf Stream some little distance to the southwards of the great Banks of Newfoundland, had pressed upon the helpless hull of the _Star of the North_, bearing her away whither they pleased.

So, unable to resist either the winds or the waves, these combined forces had driven her off her course at an oblique angle, thus converting the nor'-easterly, or easterly drift proper, of the Gulf Stream into a true sou'-westerly one, taking us from lat.i.tude 41 30 minutes north and longitude 51 40 minutes west, where we were on the previous Friday night, when we were forced to lie-to, to our present position on the chart.

To put the case more concisely, the _Star of the North_ had been carried for the distance of _four degrees and a half_ exactly of longitude backward on her outward track to New York and some _two degrees_ or thereabouts to the southwards, placing us as nearly as possible in the position the skipper had already indicated, a direction of some five hundred miles more or less from our proper course and about midway between Bermuda and the Azores, or Western Islands.

While Captain Applegarth was explaining this, as much for my benefit and instruction, I believe, as anything, a thought occurred to me.

"Are we not now, sir, in the track of all the homeward-bound ships sailing on the great circle from the West Indies and South American ports?"

The skipper looked at me steadily, "smelling a rat" at once.

"I suppose, Haldane," he said somewhat sternly, "you want to get me back to that infernal ship again? Not if I know it, my lad. As you told Mr O'Neil just now, we've all had enough and to spare of that vessel and the wild-goose chase she has led us from first to last. I won't hear another word about her, by Jingo!"

Just then old Masters, who had gone up in the foretop to set something right which had struck his sailor eye as not being altogether as it should be aboard the _Star of the North_, raised his arm to attract the attention of those on deck below him.

"Hullo, there, bo'sun!" called out the skipper, seeing him, for he seldom kept his gla.s.ses away from the rigging of the ship and things aloft. "What's the row, eh?"

"I sees summit to win'ard, sir."

"By George!" exclaimed the skipper in a tone that made every one laugh who heard, all but Masters; the coincidence was so comical after what Captain Applegarth had said only a minute before. "Not another 'ghost- ship,' I hope!"

"No, sir," growled the boatswain rather savagely. "It bean't no ghost- ship this time, though _she_ ain't far off, I knows, to my thinkin'!"

He added the last words as if speaking to himself, but I heard him, and his remark stopped my mirth instanter.

"What is it, bo'sun, that you _do_ see, then?" cried the skipper impatiently; "that is, if you see anything at all beyond some vision of your own imagination!"

"I ain't dreaming," hailed back old Masters, not quite catching what he said. "I sees summit as plain as possible out to win'ard. Aye, it be a-driftin' down athawt our hawser, too, cap'en. Why, hullo! I'm blessed. Boat ahoy!"

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

IN THE NICK OF TIME.

"A boat!" exclaimed Captain Applegarth, his jesting manner changing instantly to one of earnest attention. "Where away?"

"On our starboard beam, sir," sang out Masters from the foretop. "About two points off, I fancies, sir."

"I can't see her," said the skipper, looking in the direction the boatswain had indicated. "I thought she was close-to from your hailing her."

"She's further away now than I thought, sir!" shouted old Masters in reply to this, after having another squirm over the topsail yard. "I'm blessed, though, if I ain't lost her, with the ship's head bobbing all round the compa.s.s. No; there she be ag'in, sir. No--yes--yes. There she is, about a mile or so off, sir, I'm thinkin'."

"By George, Masters, you think too much, I think!" the skipper retorted angrily. "You don't seem to know what you're saying, and I believe you've gone off your chump since you saw that 'ghost-ship,' as you called it! Go aloft, Haldane, and see what you can make of this blessed boat he says he sighted!"

I was already in the weather shrouds before the skipper gave me this order, and in another minute I was on the top beside the boatswain, who pointed out silently to me a little black speck in the distance apparently dancing about amid the waves, which were beginning to curl before an approaching breeze that was evidently springing up from the westwards. Fortunately, I had a pair of binoculars in my jacket pocket, and I immediately levelled the gla.s.ses at the object in view.

"Well, Haldane!" at last sang out the skipper impatiently from the end of the bridge, where he still stood, looking up at me with his chin c.o.c.ked in the air. "What do you make it out to be, eh, my lad?"

"It's a boat sure enough, sir," I shouted down to him, without taking my eyes off it. "She's a long way off, though, sir, and I think she's drifting further away, too."

"The deuce!" exclaimed Captain Applegarth. "Can you see any one in the boat?"

"No--no--not distinctly, sir," I replied after another searching look.

"Stay; I do--I do think there's a figure at one end! and, yes--yes--I'm sure I noticed something that appeared like a movement, but it might have been caused by the rocking of the sea."

"But don't you see anybody, or can't you make anything else out?"

"Only the boat, sir, and that a breeze seems coming up from the westward. I see a white line on the water along the horizon. That's all I can see, sir!"

"Well, that's not much use to us," he growled below, beginning his customary "quarter-deck walk" up and down the bridge. "I wish some one would come up from the engine-room to say they had repaired the cylinder and that we could go ahead again!"

Almost as soon as he spoke thus I noticed Mr Stokes, who I thought was lying down in his cabin, coming towards the forepart of the ship where we were, from the direction of the engine-room hatchway.

"Hullo, Stokes," said the skipper, catching sight of him at once with his eagle eye that seemed to take in everything that went on, whether his back was turned or not. "I thought you were on the sick list still, and ill. You oughtn't to be bustling about so soon after your accident, my dear fellow!"

"No, but I feel better!" replied the old chief, who, although he was still pale and shaky, had a more cheerful look on his face than the day before, when he appeared decidedly ill. "I've been down below and I'm glad to say Stoddart and the other artificers, who I must say have worked well without me, you will be glad to know, have got the cylinder cover on again. They've made a splendid job of it!"

"Stoddart himself is a splendid fellow," said the skipper enthusiastically. "Aye, and the rest of your staff, too, my dear Stokes. By George, you've brought us good news!"

"But that isn't all, cap'en," cried the old fellow, beaming over with a broad smile of quiet enjoyment at the surprise the skipper showed.

"They say below that they'll be able to start the engines as soon as there's a full head of steam on! Now what do you think of that, sir?

Isn't that good news?"

The skipper looked ready to embrace our fat chief, and I believe only refrained from giving this expression of his joy by the sight of poor Mr Stokes' bandaged arm, which was still in a sling.

He contented himself, therefore, with patting him tenderly on the back and walking round him admiringly, like a cat purring round a saucer of cream.

"By George!" he cried. "I feel as pleased as if my grandmother had left me five thousand pounds!"

"I wish she had," laughed the old chief. "I would ask to go shares!"

"And so you should, my boy; so you should," repeated the skipper with much heartiness, and as if he really meant it. "How soon do you think we shall be able to start, eh?"

"Very soon, I think, sir. The after-boiler fires were lit early this morning and they've been getting up steam ever since."

"That's good!" cried the skipper, stopping in his excited walk up and down the bridge, which he had again resumed, being unable to keep still, when he looked up, caught sight of me and hailed me.

"I say, Haldane?"

"Aye, aye, sir?" I sang out from the top, where I had remained with the boatswain on the look-out, and hearing likewise all that transpired beneath. "What do you want, sir?"

"I hope you're keeping your eye on that boat, my lad. If she is there we may be able to overhaul her yet, if you don't lose sight of her!"

"No fear of that, sir," I shouted back, pointing with my finger in the distance. "There she is, still to win'ard, pretty nearly flush with the water."