Part 4 (1/2)

Another great roller struck the _Hawk_ amids.h.i.+ps and she reeled till her port bulwarks were under water. Gradually she righted, her funnel-guys twisted into a ma.s.s of tangled wire, her boats carried away or stove in, her decks, fore and aft, littered with wreckage and gear which had been swept loose. Between the deafening peals of thunder, the shouts and curses of the poor wretches in the stokehold could be heard as they were thrown against the glowing furnace doors, or the firebars slipped out, shooting great ma.s.ses of red-hot coal and clinker among their half-naked bodies.

Sometimes a wave would catch the vessel under the stern, lifting her so that her bows plunged forward into the boiling sea ahead, her propeller racing high in the air until the plates quivered with the vibrations. Or she would lift her nose to an oncoming billow, and, rising with it, bury her stern in the seething vortex till the wheel-house disappeared from view beneath the turbid, foaming water. It seemed impossible that any s.h.i.+p could live through such a storm.

But at last the lightning began to grow less vivid, the thunder gradually died away in the distance and the sea, little by little, subsided. Firemen, black from head to foot, staggered along the deck to the forecastle and threw themselves just as they were upon their bunks; the second engineer came off duty, a b.l.o.o.d.y sweat-rag twisted round his head, and reeled, rather than walked, to his cabin. Then McPhulach appeared at the fiddley, mopping his face with a lump of oily waste.

”Are you all right below?” shouted Calamity from the bridge.

”Aye, but some of the puir deils will carry the mairks o' this day upon their bodies as long as they live,” answered the engineer. ”h.e.l.l must be a garden party to what it was down yon a wee while aback.”

As he spoke, two injured firemen, the upper parts of their bodies wrapped round with oil-soaked waste, were brought on deck and carried to the forecastle. Their faces, which had evidently been wiped with sweat-rags, were of a corpse-like whiteness that was accentuated by the circles of black coal-dust round their eyes.

”Half roasted,” said McPhulach, indicating with a jerk of his head the two injured men. ”If they hadna rinds like rhinoceros hide, they'd be dead the noo. Mon, the stokehold smelt like a kitchen wi' the stink o'

scorching meat.”

The engineer disappeared and Calamity turned to Mr. d.y.k.es, who had relieved Smith on the bridge.

”Serve out a tot of rum to all hands,” he said. ”It's been a trying experience.”

”Trying experience!” echoed the mate. ”It was as near h.e.l.l as ever I touched, sir.”

The Captain was about to make some remark when he suddenly s.n.a.t.c.hed a pair of binoculars out of the box fastened to the bridge-rail. He focussed them upon the seemingly deserted waste of tossing grey waters and then handed them to the mate.

”What do you make of that, Mr. d.y.k.es?” he asked, indicating a point on the port quarter.

The mate stared through the gla.s.ses for some minutes, then handed them back to the Captain.

”It's a boat with a man and a woman in it, or I'm a n.i.g.g.e.r,” he said.

”So I thought,” answered the Captain.

CHAPTER V

DORA FLETCHER

A signal was immediately hoisted to let the castaways know that they were observed and the steamer's course was changed to bring her as near as possible to the drifting boat. But there was still such a heavy sea running that a near approach would have involved the risk of the boat being dashed against the _Hawk's_ side before the occupants could be rescued. So the bos'n, standing on the foc'sle head, cast a line which, after three vain attempts, was caught by the young woman in the stern sheets, who made it fast to one of the thwarts. Then one of the steamer's derricks was slung outboard with a rope sling suspended and half a dozen men laid on to the line attached to the boat.

”Catch hold of that sling as you pa.s.s under it!” roared Calamity from the bridge.

After some difficult manoeuvring, boat and steamer were brought into such a position that the former pa.s.sed immediately under the sling.

”Quick now, my girl, or you'll lose it!” shouted the Captain.

But, to the amazement and indignation of everyone, it was the man and not the girl who caught the sling and was hoisted safely out of the boat.

”Oh, the gory swine,” growled the second-mate. ”Get the derrick inboard, men,” he added aloud.

The derrick swung round and the sling was let go with a run that deposited the man on the deck with a terrific b.u.mp.

”Outboard again!” cried Calamity. ”Stand by, bos'n.”