Part 10 (1/2)
”We 're on a sort of breakwater, sir,” said the second officer
”Seems like it Is the shi+p hard and fast?”
”I a Go and see how the barometer stands”
”Steady i in?”
”Mr Walker said he thought not”
”Perhaps it doesn't et the first life-boat lowered
Let her carry as many extra hands as possible We have lost two boats
But do not send any woo in the next one Take charge of that yourself”
”Would you htly just here, sir?”
The second officer held out his left forearm
”Were you knifed, too?” asked Courtenay
”It is not ood deal of blood”
”The brutes--the unreasoning brutes!” h tourniquet the other asked:
”Shall I report to you when the first boat gets away, sir?”
”No need I shall see what happens When she is clear I shall bring the ladies to you”
Pride of race helped these side a Thaht lift again and turn turtle, yet they did not drea a hair's breadth from their duties The second officer went aft to carry out the captain's instructions Courtenay followed a little way, passing to leeward of the chart-house, until he reached his own quarters There was no door on that side, but light streae port-holes across which the curtains had not been drawn He looked in Elsie was leaning against the table to balance herself on the sloping deck She held Joey in her ar, who answered in his oay, by trying to lick her face The glass was so blurred that Courtenay could not see that she was crying
”Better wait,” he ain Yes, there could be no doubt that the alth of the shi+p proers lay beyond To his reckoning, the nearest land enty ht extend all the way, and, with a falling wind, waves once disintegrated would not regain any considerable size It was a throw of the dice for life, but it ht as to his own course Would he leave the shi+p in the last boat? Yes, if every wounded man on board were taken off first; and how could he entertain even a shred of hope that his cowardly creould preserve such discipline to the end as to per done?
The answer to his mute question ca there alone about fivethe set of the sea, so as to deter a boat, when, a of the spray, he heard sounds which told hi outward on the davits The hurricane deck was a ures The two boats to starboard, a life-boat and the jolly-boat, had been carried across the deck in readiness to take the places of the port life-boats A landsned supre with the utmost speed and system, when an accident happened For soh it was believed that theboat were too anxious to clear the falls and failed to take the proper precautions, the heavy craft pitched stern foremost into the sea She sank like a stone, and with her went a nu up fronal for the deain, this ti blaze that would not be stayed Each ht blindly for hie of this latest disaster spread with a rapidity Up from the saloon came a rush of stewards and others Overborne in the panic-stricken flight, Gray, Tollemache, Christobal, the French Count and the head steward, not knohat new catastrophe threatened, brought Mr So to their fate those who, like Boyle, were unable to e companion; others ain, swung the standards Even before Courtenay could reach the scene, both the second and third officers were stabbed, this time mortally He saw one of the infuriated mutineers heave the third officer's body overboard--a final quittance for some injury previously received
He efrom the saloon, and perhaps owed his escape froain, shouting, entreating, striking right and left, but he felt bitterly that his efforts noere of no avail, and he bethought him that there was only one resource left These frenzied wretches would destroy themselves and all others--so, if he would save even a few of the lives entrusted to his care, at least one of the boats le was fiercest for the possession of the two life-boats By a deterht be secured
So he ran to obtain help from the few he could trust, from the tiny company of white men he had left in the saloon; he e The all-powerful instinct of self-preservation, aided, no doubt, by the stinging, drenching showers of spray, had gone far towards reani Isobel and her maid, while Mrs Soh benumbed with the sudden cold Courtenay unlocked the door of his cabin Elsie, her face pale and tear-stained, but outwardly co from her arms the moment his master appeared
”Thank God!” she said, all of a flutter now that the solitary waiting for a death which caain Is the shi+p lost?”
The wild soughing of the wind rendered her words indistinct And the captain had no time for explanations
”In here!” he shouted to Gray, who had helped Isobel to enter the chart-rooe available on this exposed deck
”Sharp with it!” he thundered, when Isobel was unwilling to face the storain The men took their cue from his imperative tone Gray clasped Isobel in his arh the doorway
The others followed his example Soon the three women ith Elsie in the cabin Isobel, by sheer reaction from her previous hysteria, was sullen now, and heedless of all considerations save her own misery
When she set eyes on Elsie she snapped out: