The Pirate Island Part 12

"That's all very well," sneeringly retorted this contemptible creature, "but I didn't come to sea to be bullied by you, so I shall withdraw from your exceedingly objectionable neighbourhood; and if ever we reach England I'll make you smart for your barbarous treatment of me, my good fellow."

Saying which, he slunk away back in no very dignified fashion to the most comfortable spot he could find in the bows of the boat, and rolled himself snugly up once more in the shawls and blankets which the women had eagerly given up for his benefit when he was first fished out of the water.

CHAPTER NINE.

THE "ALBATROSS."

All that day the launch continued to scud before the gale; getting p.o.o.ped so often that it was the work of two men to keep her free of water.

Toward evening Mr Bowles came aft, reporting himself "all ataunto" once more, and ready to resume duty. He still looked pale and haggard, but was as keen and determined as ever; and he demurred so vehemently to Captain Staunton's suggestion that he would be all the better for a whole night between the blankets that the skipper was at last compelled to give in, which he did with--it must be confessed--a feeling of the greatest relief that he now had so trusty a coadjutor to share the watches with him; for since the springing up of the gale the poor fellow had scarcely closed his eyes.

The night shut down "as dark as a wolf's mouth,"--to use the skipper's own metaphor; and the chief mate took the first watch, with Bob on the look-out.

It must have been somewhere about six bells, or 11 p.m., when the latter was startled by seeing the crest of the sea ahead of him breaking in a cloud of phosphoric foam over some object directly in line with the launch's bow.

"Keep her away, sir!" he yelled. "Starboard, for your life, _starboard_ hard!"

Up went the boat's helm in an instant; and as she dragged heavily on the steep incline of the wave which had just swept under her, Bob saw floating close past a large ma.s.s of tangled wreckage, consisting of a ship's lower-mast with the heel of the topmast still in its place, and yards, stays, shrouds, braces, etcetera, attached. Dark as was the night there was no difficulty whatever in identifying the character of the wreckage, for it floated in a regular swirl of lambent greenish phosph.o.r.escent light.

"Stand by with the boat-hook, there forward," shouted Mr Bowles, "and see if you can get hold of a rope's-end. If you can, we will anchor to the wreck; and we shall ride to leeward of it as snug as if we were in the London Dock--almost."

As he spoke, he skilfully luffed the boat up under the lee of the ma.s.s; and Bob, with a vigorous sweep or two of the boat-hook, managed to fish up the standing part of the main brace with the block still attached.

Through this block he rove the end of the launch's painter, and belayed it on board, thus causing her to ride to the wreckage by a sort of slip- line. The other apprentices meanwhile lost no time in taking in and stowing the canvas; and in a few minutes the launch was riding at her floating anchor in perfect safety and in comparative comfort; still tossing wildly, it is true, but no longer shipping a drop of water excepting the spray which blew over her from the seas as they broke on the wreckage.

Toward noon on the following day the gale broke; and by sunset it had moderated to a strong breeze. On that evening they were blessed with a glimpse of the sun once more, for just before the moment of his setting the canopy of cloud which had hung overhead for so long broke up, leaving great gaps through which the blue sky could be seen, and revealing the glorious luminary upon the verge of the western horizon, surrounded by a magnificent framework of jagged and tattered clouds, the larger ma.s.ses of which were of a dull purplish hue, with blotches of crimson here and there, and with edges of the purest gold; while the smaller fragments streamed athwart the sky, lavishly painted with the richest tints of the rainbow.

They hung on to the wreckage all that night, the wind being still against them; and the next morning Lance, suspecting that there might be a few fish congregated about the ma.s.s of broken spars, as is frequently the case, roused out the lines and managed to hook over a dozen gaudily marked and curiously shaped fish of decent size, the whole of which were devoured with the greatest gusto that day at dinner, notwithstanding the rather repulsive aspect which some of them presented.

That night the wind, which had dwindled away to a gentle breeze, changed, and blew once more from the westward; and the sea having also gone down to a great extent, our adventurers cast off from the wreckage which had so opportunely provided them with a shelter from the fury of the gale, and with whole canvas and flowing sheets stood away once more on a north-easterly course.

In addition to the delay which the gale had occasioned them, Captain Staunton estimated that they had been driven fully five hundred miles directly out of their course; after a very careful inspection therefore of their stock of provisions the skipper was reluctantly compelled to order a further reduction in the daily allowance of food and water served out.

And now the sufferings of those on board the launch commenced in grim earnest. The women, especially, as might be expected, soon began to feel their privations acutely. Buffeted as they had been by the gale, they were completely exhausted, and needed rest and an abundance of nourishing food rather than to be placed on short commons. They bore their privations, however, with a quiet fort.i.tude which ought to have silenced in shame the querulous complaints and murmurings of Mr Dale; though it did not. The most distressing part of it all was to hear poor little May Staunton piteously crying for water, "'cause I'm so _veddy_ thirsty mama," as the dear child explained. She was not old enough to understand the possibility of a state of things wherein food and drink were scarcities; and her reproachful looks at her father when he was obliged to refuse her request almost broke his heart. Not, it must be understood, that she was limited to the same quant.i.ty of water as the others. The men--always excepting Mr Dale--preferred to suffer in a heightened degree the fiery torture of thirst themselves, rather than to see the child suffer; and they quietly arranged among themselves to contribute each as much as he felt he could possibly spare of the now precious liquid, as it was daily served out to them, and to store it up in a bottle which was to be May's exclusive property. And the same in the matter of food. It was wholly in vain that the child's father protested against this sacrifice; they were one and all firm as adamant upon this point; and he, poor man, notwithstanding his anxiety that all should be treated with equal fairness, could not contest their determination with any great strength of will. Was she not his own and only child, for whom he would cheerfully have laid down his life; and how could he urge with any strength a point which would have resulted in a dreadful deprivation and a terrible increase of suffering to the winning and helpless little creature? Therefore he at last contented himself with pouring the whole of his daily allowance of water into May's bottle, and cheerfully submitted for her innocent sake to endure the tortures of the d.a.m.ned.

Reader, have _you_ ever experienced the torment of thirst while exposed in an open boat to the blazing rays of the pitiless sun? You have not?

Then thank G.o.d for it, and earnestly pray that you never may; for none can realise or even faintly imagine the intensity of the suffering but those who have borne it.

The women, from whom it was of course impossible to conceal the circ.u.mstance that May was receiving more than her own share of food and water, were anxious to follow the example of their male companions by also setting apart a portion of their own allowance for the use of the child, but this was at once decidedly vetoed; yet they were not so easily to be deterred from their generous disposition, and many a sip and many a morsel which could ill be spared did the poor little child receive from their sympathetic and loving hands.

"After the storm comes the calm," says the proverb, and its truth was fully borne out in the present instance.

On the fourth day after casting off from the wreckage the wind began to drop, and by sunset it had fallen so light that the launch had barely steerage-way. This was still another misfortune, for if the calm continued it would seriously delay their progress and thereby protract their sufferings. Next to a gale of wind, indeed, a calm and its consequent delay was what they had most to dread, for they were in a part of the ocean little frequented by craft of any description, except a stray whaler now and then, and their only reasonable hope of salvation rested upon the possibility of their being able to reach land before starvation and thirst overcame them.

Mr Bowles had the first watch, and Bob was posted at the now all but useless helm. The wind had subsided until it was faint as the breath of a sleeping infant, and the boat's sails flapped gently against the masts as she rode with a scarcely perceptible swinging motion over the long stately slow-moving swell which followed her. The vast blue-black dome of the heavens above was devoid of the faintest trace of cloud, and the countless stars which spangled the immeasurable vault beamed down upon the tiny waif with a soft and mellow splendour which was repeated in the dark bosom of the scarcely ruffled ocean, where the reflected starbeams mingled, far down in its mysterious depths, with occasional faint gleams and flashes of pale greenish phosph.o.r.escent light. The thin golden crescent of the young moon hung low down in the velvety darkness of the western sky, and a long thin thread of amber radiance streamed from the horizon beneath her toward the boat, becoming more and more wavering and broken up as it neared her, until within some twenty fathoms of the launch it dwindled away to a mere occasional fluttering gleam. A great and solemn silence prevailed, upon which such slight sounds as the flap of the sails, the pattering of the reef-points, the creak of the rudder, or the stir of some uneasy sleeper broke with almost painful distinctness.

Mr Bowles drew out his watch, and holding it close to his face, discovered that it was a few minutes past midnight. For the previous half-hour he had been sitting on the deck near Bob, with his legs dangling into the little c.o.c.kpit abaft the stern-sheets, and staring in an abstracted fashion astern. As he replaced the watch in his pocket he glanced once more in that direction, but now his look suddenly grew intense and eager. For a full minute he remained thus, then he withdrew from its beckets beneath the seat a long and powerful telescope, which he adjusted and levelled. For another full minute he gazed anxiously through the tube, and then, handing it to Bob to hold, he crept silently forward, so as not to disturb the sleeping women, and quietly called the relief watch.

"Well, Mr Bowles," said the captain, as he rose to his feet, "what weather have you had? Is there any wind at all?"

"Very little, sir," answered the chief mate, replying to the last question first; "just a cat's-paw from the west'ard bow and then, but nothing worth speaking about; and it's been the same all through the watch. I want you to take a squint through the gla.s.s before I turn-in, sir, and to tell me whether I've been dreaming with my eyes open or no."

"Why, what is it, Bowles? Do you think you've seen anything?"

"Well, yes, I do, sir," answered the mate, "but it's so very indistinct in this starlight that I don't care to trust to my own eyes alone."

Without another word the pair moved aft, and when they were fairly settled in the c.o.c.kpit Mr Bowles took the gla.s.s from Bob and put it into the skipper's hand. He then looked intently astern for perhaps half a minute, when he laid his hand on the skipper's arm and said--

"D'ye see them two stars, sir, about a couple of hand's breadths to the south'ard of the moon? They're about six degrees above the horizon, and the lower one is the southernmost of the two; it has a reddish gleam almost like a ship's port light."

"Yes," replied the skipper, "I see them. You mean those, do you not?"

pointing to them.

"Ay, ay, sir; them's the two. Now look at the horizon, just half-way between 'em, and tell me if you can see anything."

The skipper looked long and steadfastly in the desired direction, and at length raised the telescope to his eye.

"By Jove, Bowles, I believe you are right," he at length exclaimed eagerly. "There certainly is a something away there on the horizon, but it is so small and indistinct that I cannot clearly make it out. Do you think it is either of the other boats?"

"No, sir, I don't," answered Bowles. "If it's anything it's a ship's royals. If 'twas one of the boats, she'd be within some five miles of us for us to be able to see her at all, and at that distance her sail would show out sharp and distinct through the gla.s.s. _This_ shows, as you say, so indistinctly that it must be much more than that distance away, and therefore I say that if it's anything it's a ship's royals."

The skipper took another long steady look through the telescope, and then closing it sharply, said--

"There is undoubtedly _something_ astern of us, Bowles, and under the circ.u.mstances I think we shall be fully justified in hauling our wind for an hour or two in order to satisfy ourselves as to what it really is."

Mr Bowles fully concurred in this opinion, and the boat was accordingly at once brought to the wind, what little there was of it, on the starboard tack, which brought the object about two points on her weather bow.

"If it is indeed a ship, Bowles," observed Captain Staunton when the boat's course had been changed and the mate was preparing to "go below,"

as he phrased it, "we have dropped in for a rare piece of luck, for, to tell you the plain truth, I had no hope whatever of falling in with a craft of any description about here. She will be a whaler, of course, but she is a long way north of the usual fishing-grounds, isn't she?"

"Well," returned Bowles meditatively, "you can never tell _where_ you may fall in with one of them chaps. They follows the fish, you see; sometimes here, sometimes there; just where they think they'll have the best chance. Then, I have heard say that sometimes, if they happen to hit upon a particularly likely spot, such as a small uninhabited island, where there's a chance of good sport, they'll put a boat's crew ash.o.r.e there with boat, harpoons, lines, a stock of provisions, and two or three hundred empty barrels, just to try their luck, like, for a month or so, and go away on a cruise, coming back for 'em in due time, and often finding 'em with every barrel full. Perhaps yon craft is up to something of that sort."

"It may be so," returned Captain Staunton. "Indeed in all probability it _is_ so if our eyes have not deceived us. At all events, whatever she is, we are pretty sure of a hearty welcome, and even a not over clean whaler will be a welcome change for all hands, and especially for the ladies, from this boat, particularly now that the provisions are getting low. And I have no doubt I shall be able to make arrangements with the captain to carry us to Valparaiso with as little delay as possible."

"Ay, ay," returned Bowles, "I don't expect there'll be much trouble about that. I only hope we shall be able to get alongside her. I wouldn't stand on too long on this tack if I was you, sir. My opinion is that she's coming this way, and if so we ought to tack in good time so as not to let her slip past us to windward or across our bows. Good- night, sir!"

The night being so fine, and with so little wind, Captain Staunton took the tiller himself, and ordered the rest of the watch to lie down again; there was nothing to do, he said, and if he required their a.s.sistance he would call them. Accordingly, in a very short time, he was the only waking individual in the launch, the others were only too glad of the opportunity to forget, as far as possible, their miseries in sleep.

It is, of course, scarcely necessary to say that the skipper, as he sat there keeping his lonely watch, fixed his gaze, with scarcely a moment's intermission, on that part of the horizon where the mysterious object had been seen. He allowed a full hour to pa.s.s, and then drawing out the gla.s.s, applied it to his eye, sweeping the horizon carefully from dead ahead round to windward. He had not to seek far, for when the tube of the telescope pointed to within about three points of the starboard bow a small dark blot swept into the field of view. Yes, there it was, quite unmistakably this time, and a single moment's observation of it satisfied the anxious watcher that he saw before him the royals and topgallant-sails of a vessel apparently of no very great size.

The fact that the stranger's topgallant-sails had risen above the horizon within the hour since he had last looked at her was conclusive proof to his mind that the craft was standing toward them; that, in fact, they were approaching each other, though at a very low rate of speed, in consequence of the exceedingly light air of wind that was blowing. Fully satisfied upon this point he at once put the boat's helm down, and she came slowly and heavily about, the captain easily working the sheets himself.

By four bells Captain Staunton was able to discern with the naked eye the shadowy patch of darkness which the stranger's canvas made on the dusky line of the horizon, and when he called Mr Bowles at eight bells, or four o'clock in the morning, the patch had become darker, larger, and more clearly defined, and it lay about one point before the weather beam of the launch. The telescope was once more called into requisition, and it now showed not only the royals and topgallant-sails, but also the topsails of the stranger fairly above the horizon.

"Thank G.o.d for that welcome sight!" exclaimed the chief mate, laying down the telescope and reverently lifting his hat from his head. He remained silent a minute or two, and then raising his eyes, allowed his glance to travel all round the horizon and overhead until he had swept the entire expanse of the star-spangled heavens. Then, with a sigh of intense relief, he said--

"We're all right, I do verily believe, sir. There's the craft, plain as mud in a wine-gla.s.s, bearing right down upon us, or very nearly so.