Part 19 (1/2)
I cannot dwell upon the scene. I could not describe it. I would not if I could.
The steamer was still in her berth; her head was pointed seawards. Loud orders rang over the water. The roar of the chain running out through the hawse-hole and the heavy splash could not be mistaken. Anderson had slipped his cable. Then the chime of the telegraph on the bridge was followed almost instantly by the first smas.h.i.+ng stroke of the propeller.
The _Esmeralda_ was under weigh!
CHAPTER XIX.
THE CATASTROPHE.
The _Esmeralda_ was putting out to sea when I thought of a last expedient to draw the attention of her captain. Filling my revolver with cartridges which I had loose in my pockets, I fired all the chambers as fast as I could snap the trigger.
My signals were heard, and Anderson proved true to his bargain. He immediately reversed his engines, and, when he had backed in as close as he thought safe, sent a boat ash.o.r.e for us. We got into it without any obstruction from the cowering natives, who only shrank from us in horror, now that their prayers had failed to move us. The moment our boat was made fast to the steamer's davit ropes and we were pulled out of the water, ”full speed ahead” was rung from the bridge. We were raised to the deck while the vessel was getting up speed.
I crawled up the ladder to the bridge feebly, for I was becoming stiff from the bruises of the fall from my horse. Anderson received me coldly, and listened indifferently to my thanks. An agreement such as ours hardly prepared me for his loyalty.
”Oh, as to that,” he interrupted, ”when I make a bargain my word is my bond. On this occasion I am inclined to think the indenture will be a final one.”
His bargain was a hard one, but, having made it, he abided faithfully by its conditions. He was honest, therefore, in his own way.
”How far can you get out in fifteen minutes?” I asked.
”We may make six or seven knots. But what is the good of that? There will be an earthquake on that island on a liberal scale--on such a scale that this s.h.i.+p would have very little chance in the wave that will follow us if we were fifty miles at sea.”
”You have taken every precaution, of course--”
Anderson here looked at me contemptuously, and, with an air of sarcastic admiration, he said:
”You have guessed it at the first try. That is precisely what I have done.”
”Pshaw! don't take offence at trifles at a time like this,” I said testily. ”If you knew as much about that earthquake as I do, you would be in no humour for bandying phrases.”
”Might I ask how much you do know about it? You could not have foreseen the trouble more clearly if you had made it yourself.”
”I did not make it myself, but I know the means which the man who did employed, and but for me that earthquake would have wrecked this earth.”
Anderson made no direct answer to this, but he said earnestly:
”You will now go below, sir. You are done up. Roberts will take you to the doctor.”
”I am not done up, and I mean to see it out,” I retorted doggedly. My nervous system was completely unhinged, and a fit of stupid obstinacy came on me which rendered any interference with my actions intolerable.
”Then you cannot see it out upon my bridge,” Anderson said. The determined tone in which he spoke only added to my impotent wrath.
”Very well, I will return to the deck, and if any of your men should attempt to interfere with me he will do so at his peril.” With that, I slung my revolver round so as to have it ready to my hand. I was beside myself. My conduct was already bad enough, but I made it worse before I left the bridge.
”And if you, Anderson, disobey my orders--my orders, do you hear?--an explosion such as took place in the middle of the English channel shall take place in the middle of this s.h.i.+p.”
”For G.o.d's sake leave the bridge. I want my wits about me, and I have no intention of earning another exhibition of your devilries.”
”Then be careful not to trouble me again.” Thus after having pa.s.sed through much danger with a spirit not unbecoming--as I hope--an English gentleman, I acted, when the worst was pa.s.sed, like a peevish schoolboy.