Part 14 (2/2)
Courtenay once more assisted the shi+p with the helm She steadied herself, and the coh an engineer, knew enough of navigation to recognize the apparent i able to steer with any real knowledge of his surroundings The wheel-twisting, therefore, savored of ic; but his orders were to look ahead, and he obeyed
Soon he thought he could discern an irregular pink crescent, with the concave side doards, somewhere in the blackness beyond the bows He rubbed his eyes, and said nothing, believing that the unaccustoht But the pink crescent brightened and deepened, and speedily it was joined by two others, equally irregular and soer
”Captain, d'ye see yon?” he asked, in a voice tre the summits of snow-topped hills
It not only foretells the dawn, but is a sign of fine weather There are no clouds over the land, or we should not see the peaks”
Walker began to have a respect for the captain which he had hitherto extended only to the superintending engineer, an eoes to sea, but inspects the shi+p when in port, and draws a fat salary and various coan to dispel the gloom The two silent watchers first saw it overhead, and the vast dome of day swiftly widened over the vexed sea The aftermath of the storm spread a low, dense cloak of vapor all round The wind had fallen so greatly that they could hear the song of the rigging Soon they could distinguish the outlines of the heavy rollers near at hand, and Courtenay believed that the shi+p, in her passage, encountered in the water several narrow bands of a bright red color If this were so, he knew that the phenomenon was caused by the prawn-like Crustacea which sailors call ”Whale-food,” a sure sign of deep water close to land, and, further, an indication that the current was still flowing strongly, while the force of the sea must have been broken many miles to ard
Suddenly he turned to Walker
”Do you think you could shi+n up to the masthead?” he asked
”I used to be able to climb a bit, sir”
”Well, try the foremast Up there I aet into trouble Coe it If you succeed, take the best observations possible and report”
Courtenay was becoo the wheel he would have climbed the mast himself Walker set about his mission in a business-like manner He threw off his thick coat and boots, and went forward Half-way up the mast there was a rope ladder for the use of the sailors when adjusting pulleys
The rest of the journey was not difficult for an athleticHe gained the truck all right, and instantly yelled so Courtenay fancied he said:
”My God! We-ah on the wocks!”
Whatever it was, Walker did not wait, but slid doith such speed that it was fortunate the rigging barred his progress
And then, even while Courtenay was shouting for soreat black wall rose out of the deep on the port bow It was a pinnacle rock, high as the shi+p's masts, but only a few feet wide at sea level, and the _Kansas_ sped past this ugly h it were a buoy in a well-ainst it The shi+p could not have been more than sixty feet distant, a little rind against some outlier in the next instant But the _Kansas_ had a char in smoother water after this escape
Walker's dark skin was the color of parchment when he reached the chart-house
”Captain,” he said, weakly, ”I 'll do oi' engines, but I'ed me Did ye see it?”
”Did _you_ see land?” demanded Courtenay, imperatively His spirits rose with each of these thrills He felt that it was ordained that his shi+p should live
”Yes, sir The-aw 's hills, and big ones, a long way ahead, but I 'ain It would be suicide I'host, no, not if I live to be ninety”
Then Joey, sniffing the ht of breakfast, for he had passed a rather disturbed night, the second in one week To cope with such excite needed sustenance