The Secret of the Sands Part 9

Suddenly he reappeared at the companion, and with a serious countenance remarked:

"I say, Harry, lad, I s'pose there's no chance of that devil,"--with a jerk of the thumb in the direction of our weather quarter--"getting a sniff of our dinner, and making sail in chase, is there?"

I a.s.sured him that, in my belief, there was a strong probability that the serpent was, at that moment, perhaps _miles_ deep in the ocean, banqueting royally on the dead whale; and, seeing the reasonableness of this supposition, he retired, satisfied.

Nothing further occurred that day to disturb us. We continued to bowl away to the southward; and as we kept our canvas a good rap full, the little barkie tripped along a good honest nine knots every hour. The weather was as fine as we could possibly wish, with every appearance of being thoroughly settled; and there seemed to be a good promise of our making an exceptionally rapid pa.s.sage.

It was my eight hours out that night; and when Bob relieved me at midnight the sky was as clear as a bell; and, though there was no moon, the stars were shining brilliantly, and with that mellow l.u.s.tre so peculiar to the tropics.

Bob declared he was glad to be on deck again, for he had been tormented, all his watch below, by "that villainous sarpent;" visions of which so disturbed his restless slumbers that it was a real comfort to have the craft to look after, and something to occupy his mind, I antic.i.p.ated no such disturbing influence myself; for though I candidly confess I was awfully frightened at the moment, the effect had pa.s.sed away almost with the disappearance of the monster; and the cool freshness of the night breeze had induced a feeling of drowsiness, particularly welcome to a man about to retire to his hammock.

In less than five minutes I was fast asleep. When I awoke, which I did without being called, I was surprised to find the sun streaming down through the skylight; and still more so when I observed that we seemed to have gone about during the night. The _Water Lily_ was now certainly on the starboard tack; whereas, when I turned in, we were on the port tack.

"It _can't_ be a change of wind, here in the heart of the trades,"

thought I. "What can Bob be about? and why has he allowed me to overrun my watch. Surely the old fellow was not _afraid_ to come below, and turn in? Hallo! Bob ahoy! what's wrong on deck?" shouted I, springing out of my hammock.

Just as I did so, I heard the mainsail fluttering, as though the boat had luffed into the wind; and at the same moment I caught sight, through the companion-way, of the vacant tiller swinging about.

"Gone forward to shift the jib," thought I; and I jumped on deck to lend a hand.

_Bob was nowhere to be seen_.

"Good heavens!" exclaimed I, "what dreadful thing has happened?"

I thought of the sea-serpent for one moment, but dismissed the idea the next, as being both too horrible and too unlikely.

The creature could hardly have approached without giving Bob the alarm, which I knew he would have instantly communicated to me.

At that moment my eyes fell upon the main-boom, and I missed the life-buoy which we kept suspended from it in readiness for any sudden emergency. Bob then had gone overboard, taking the life-buoy with him, and that too upon an impulse so sudden that there had been no time or opportunity to arouse me.

The _Lily_ was indeed hove-to, as I had observed when I first awoke; but it was with _both_ jib and fore-sheet to windward. The probability was then that, on Bob quitting the helm, she had flown up into the wind until her head-sails were taken aback, when she would, of course, or _most probably_, pay off on the opposite tack, and remain hove-to. This must necessarily have happened _at least_ four hours ago (it was now eight o'clock), because had Bob been on deck at eight bells, he would, of course, have called me. And during all this time the boat had been sailing away from him, not very rapidly it is true, being hove-to, but probably at a rate of at least three knots an hour. What might not have happened to the poor fellow in that time? He was a splendid swimmer, I knew, having acquired the art on our last voyage, and well able to take care of himself in the water; and there was very little sea on.

Besides, I felt pretty certain he had the life-buoy; and, with its a.s.sistance, I knew he could keep himself afloat in such weather until worn out with exhaustion from want of food. But there were other perils than that of drowning; and, if attacked by a shark, what chance had he?

These thoughts flashed through my mind whilst busily employed in taking the necessary steps to return in search of him, for I had no idea of continuing the voyage without making such a search, indeed it would have been impossible. And my chances of success were not so meagre as might at first sight be supposed.

In the first place, knowing how difficult it would be to see such an object as a life-buoy, even with a man in it, at any great distance, from so low an elevation as our deck, I had taken the precaution to have each buoy fitted with a contrivance for hoisting a signal.

This consisted of a small bundle of jointed rods, which could be put together like a fishing-rod, and on the topmost of these was a white flag two feet square. On the buoy itself was firmly lashed a step similar to the "bucket" (I believe it is called) in which a carriage-whip is placed when not in use by the driver. The rods, taken to pieces, were securely lashed in a compact bundle to the buoy, and the bucket was a fixture. Thus, if Bob had the life-buoy, he also had the means of indicating his whereabouts, and that, too, at a considerable distance. And I knew pretty nearly in what direction I ought to steer, in order to take the most effectual means of finding him.

Whilst hove-to, the _Lily's_ course or drift was, on the whole, as nearly as possible at right angles to the direction of the wind. It only remained then to turn her round and keep the wind directly abeam, and I should be going back pretty nearly over the same ground I had been traversing since Bob went overboard.

Accordingly, I lost no time in getting the _Lily_ round, when I once more hove her to, and went aloft to the cross-trees with my gla.s.s to see if the white flag were visible.

A long and anxious scrutiny followed, but without any discovery. I did not feel any very great disappointment at this, for I thought it very probable I was too far away to discover so small an object, even with the aid of my gla.s.s.

Once satisfied that it was nowhere to be seen, I quickly descended to the deck, trimmed the sheets flowing, and away the little craft bounded over the bright flashing sea.

I stood on for an hour exactly, when I once more hauled the fore-sheet to windward, and went aloft with my gla.s.s again.

My first look was ahead, first with the naked eye, and then with the gla.s.s; but not a speck could I discern to break the monotony of the blue-grey of the sea, except an occasional curling foam-crest I next carefully swept the ocean from forward round to windward, thinking I might have run too far off the wind.

Once or twice I thought I detected a flickering of something white, but it instantly disappeared again; and I was obliged to believe it was only the foam of a breaking wave. I was about to descend once more to the deck, when it occurred to me to take a glance to leeward. I once more levelled my gla.s.s, and swept it over the surface of the sea; but again I could see nothing. I reluctantly closed it, slung it over my shoulder, and swung myself off the cross-trees to go down by the mast-hoops, when my eye was arrested for a moment by what I _knew_ at once to be the flag.

Almost as I caught sight of it, I lost it again; and as the craft was constantly falling off or coming up again into the wind, I hardly knew exactly in what point to look for it. However, I regained by position upon the cross-trees, levelling my gla.s.s, rather inconveniently, on the fore side of the topmast, to clear the topsail, and presently I caught it again.

Yes, there it was, sure enough, about three miles dead to leeward; and what was more, I could not only see the flag, but also the buoy, and Bob in it. He seemed to be waving his arms about in a most frantic manner, and making a tremendous splashing, doubtless, I thought, with the view of making his position more apparent, as, of course, he could see the cutter, and knew I must be looking for him.

I slipped down on deck, quick as lightning, triced up the main tack just high enough to enable me to see under the foot of the sail; and squared dead away before the wind.

Ten minutes afterwards I caught a glimpse of the flag right ahead, as the boat rose on a sea; and then I edged away, taking room to run up alongside him on the port tack with my head-sheets to windward. I could now see Bob away on the port bow, every time the _Lily_ rose on the top of a wave; and he was still, to my great surprise, splashing away furiously; and now I caught the sound of his voice, shouting.

"Surely," thought I, "the poor fellow has not become insane through the dreadful strain to which his nerves have been subjected!"

A minute later the cause of his strange behaviour became apparent. A dark object of triangular shape appeared, moving in narrow circles round the spot where poor Bob was floating; disappearing at frequent intervals, and then the splashing became more frantically vigorous than ever. It was a shark that was thus blockading Bob, and the splashing was resorted to to frighten the creature from attacking him.

I carefully measured my distance, and exactly at the right moment jammed my helm hard down, hauling in the main-sheet as I did so.

The _Lily_ shot into the wind, just clearing the buoy by a hair's-breadth. I sprang to the rigging, stooped down, and seized Bob's extended hand with mine as he came alongside, and then, exerting all the strength I could command, I fairly jerked him out of the water upon deck, just as the shark had apparently made up his mind to be no longer denied.

With such impetuosity did he make his rush that his snout rose a good two feet fairly above our gunwale; and had not the impetus with which I jerked Bob out of the water been sufficient to fetch him clear inboard, the shark would have had him after all. As it was, we got a glance into his open jaws, and at his six rows of teeth, the remembrance of which makes me shudder to this day.

As the shark disappeared with a savage whisk of the tail, poor Bob turned to me; his lips quivered convulsively for a moment in an effort to speak, and then he fell to the deck in a dead faint.

Two or three buckets of water dashed in his face, and a gla.s.s of neat brandy, however, soon restored him, and it was almost pitiful to listen to the poor fellow's heartfelt and reiterated expressions of grat.i.tude for his rescue, "Ever since about half an hour after sunrise was that incarnate devil alongside of me," exclaimed he; "and hadn't it been for my seeing the cutter's sails, and knowin' as you was on the look-out for me, I _must_ have give in. Human natur' couldn't hold out agin that sort of thing for long. And now, I feel that weak and done up, that a child might pitch me overboard agin, if he was so minded, I do believe."

The life-buoy came aboard again with Bob; so I unshipped the signal-staff and took it to pieces, made it up in a bundle once more, stopped it to the buoy, and slung the buoy itself in its old position on the boom.

The cutter was still hove-to, and I allowed her to remain so, whilst I went forward to see to the breakfast, Bob meanwhile changing his wet clothes for dry ones, and hanging the former in the rigging to dry.

I was still busy over the cookery, when Bob came into the forecastle, and observed:

"I say, Harry, there's that spiteful devil still alongside, and with a most onchristian longing to make a breakfast off of your old shipmate, I'll go bail! Couldn't we contrive somehow to put a stopper on his tormentin' purpensities?"

"Ay, ay, Bob, old man!" replied I; "I think we may manage to do that without much difficulty. You get one of the air-guns out of the beckets, whilst I look after this coffee--it's just on the boil--and we'll try the virtues of cold lead upon his const.i.tution, and the powers of the gun at the same time."

As soon as I could leave the coffee, I got a piece of pork out of our small harness cask, and lashed it to a piece of line, whilst Bob, under my directions, charged the gun. This done, the pork was hung just outside the taffrail, and full in the shark's view, but not in the water; and I lay down on deck with the gun ready for my gentleman, should he make a rush.

This, however, he seemed indisposed to do; eyeing the bait longingly, but keeping at a respectful distance. Gradually this distance shortened, however, and he finally ventured close under the boat's stern, and within about three feet of the pork.

I kept the gun levelled at him, aiming at his eye; and now, having him so close, and so directly under me, I thought there was little fear of the bullet being diverted from its proper direction by the water, so I fired.

The lead sped true; the blood spirted from the creature's eye, and with a tremendous spring he threw himself backward, only to roll over on his back with a convulsive writhe or two ere he floated motionless and dead.

"So much for bullyin' honest seamen when they has the misfortin' to walk overboard," observed Bob, eyeing the carcase with much complacency. "I shall feel more comfortable like, now I knows as _your_ cruise is over for good and all."

"Walk overboard, Bob!" exclaimed I. "You surely do not mean to say you _walked_ overboard?"

"'Twas little else, my lad. But I'll tell ye all about it whilst we're getting our breakfast stowed under hatches; for I'll be bound you're longing to hear the rights of the story."