Part 4 (1/2)
”Was anything wrong on board you last night? Some of my people thought they heard some sort of a commotion in your direction.”
”Yes,” answered the skipper from the barque. ”I am grieved to say that we lost one of our best men. The poor, foolish fellow--unknown to me, of course--took the notion into his head to jump overboard, with the idea of swimming round the s.h.i.+p. He jumped from the starboard cat-head, and had very nearly completed his journey when he was seized by a shark and carried off from under our very eyes, as it might be. We lowered the gig and gave chase, but the boat could not get near him, and at last the fish dived, taking the man down with him, and we never saw any more of either. Good-bye! if we don't meet again I'll be sure to report you when we get in!”
The vessels gradually drifted apart, and the short colloquy was brought to a close.
”Good heavens, how horrible!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Gaunt, turning to his fellow- pa.s.sengers, who, with himself, had heard the short history of the tragedy. ”That must, undoubtedly, have been the identical shark we saw.
Being in the water he, of course, heard the plunge of the unfortunate man before the sound reached our ears, and at once made off, as we saw, in that direction. How little we dreamed of the fatal errand on which he was bound as we watched him disappear! Truly, 'in the midst of life we are in death.'”
Shortly before noon a black, heavy, thunderous-looking cloud worked up from the southward, and, when immediately over the s.h.i.+p, burst with a tremendous downpour of rain, but with no wind. Seeing that the fall was likely to be heavy, Captain Blyth ordered a couple of studding-sails to be opened out and spread to catch the water as it fell, and so copious was the shower that not only did they succeed in completely refilling all the tanks, but, by plugging up the scupper-holes the men were actually enabled to enjoy the unwonted luxury of a thorough personal cleansing in the warm soft water, and also to wash a change of clothing.
The ladies and children, had, of course, been driven below by the heavy downpour; but they were not forgotten, Messrs. Henderson and Gaunt taking care to promptly secure a sufficiency of water to afford each of them the treat of a copious fresh-water bath.
Between sunrise and sunset that day, the _Flying Cloud_ contrived to make nearly eight miles of southing, and a small slant of wind during the night enabled her to make about fourteen more. When morning dawned they were again becalmed; but the sky was overcast, and it was evident that a heavy thunder-squall was working up from the eastward, and Captain Blyth was in hopes that when it came it would do them good service. He was on deck at daylight, eager to see if he could discover any traces of the _Southern Cross_; and great was his jubilation when, after a most careful scanning of the horizon from the main-topgallant- yard, he failed to detect anything at all like her in sight.
By breakfast-time the aspect of the sky was so threatening that Captain Blyth gave instructions to have all the lighter canvas taken in, leaving the s.h.i.+p under topsails, courses, fore-topmast staysail, jib, and mizen.
It was well that he took this precaution, for just as they sat down to breakfast it began to thunder and lighten heavily, and about ten minutes later, a terrific downpour of rain followed. The rain suddenly ceased, and the murky darkness of the atmosphere as suddenly gave place to a vivid yellow light, a change which caused the skipper to spring to his feet and rush out on deck without even the pretence of an apology to his pa.s.sengers for so abrupt a movement. On reaching the deck his first glance was to the eastward, the direction from which the light emanated, and he then saw that the heavy veil of black cloud--which now completely overspread the heavens--was in that quarter rent asunder, leaving a great gap through which was revealed a momentarily increasing patch of pale straw-coloured sky. The water was every where black as ink save beneath this livid streak, but there it presented the appearance of a long line of snow-white foam advancing toward the s.h.i.+p with terrific rapidity.
The second-mate, who was in charge of the deck, was standing on the p.o.o.p regarding this phenomenon with a doubtful expression of visage, which gave place to one of unmistakable relief when he saw the skipper on deck.
”That looks like a squall coming down, sir”--he began. But Captain Blyth had no time to attend to him just then; he saw that there was not a moment to be lost, and turning his back unceremoniously upon Mr Willoughby he shouted:
”Stand by your topsail-halliards here, the watch! Hurry up, my lads, or we shall lose the sticks! Let run, fore and aft!”
The men, who saw what was coming, and had been expecting the call, sprang at once to their stations, let go the halliards, and then helped the revolving yards down by manning the topsail-clewlines, by which means the three topsails were snugly close-reefed by the moment that the squall burst upon them. There was no time to do more or Captain Blyth would have taken the courses off the s.h.i.+p. As it was she had to bear them; and so heavy was the squall that during its height the vessel was compelled to run dead before it. Her head was, however, brought to the southward the moment that it was safe to do so, and away she went like a frightened thing, tearing through the surges with her lee gunwale under.
The first fury of the squall was spent in about a quarter of an hour, but it continued to blow with great violence until noon, when the gale broke and the crew were able to take a pull of a few feet upon the topsail-halliards. By eight bells in the afternoon watch the s.h.i.+p was under whole topsails once more, with a clear sea all round her and a rapidly clearing sky; and at ten o'clock that same evening, when Captain Blyth entered the saloon, after personally superintending the setting of the topgallant-sails, he announced not only that there was every prospect of a fine night and a steady breeze, but also that he believed they had caught the south-east trades.
CHAPTER FIVE.
THE DERELICT BARQUE.
The next morning demonstrated the correctness of Captain Blyth's surmise; for daylight found them with the breeze still steady at about east by south, and so fresh that they were compelled to keep all their skysails and the mizen-royal stowed. Needless to say, everybody was delighted at having slipped through the Doldrums so easily; even the chief-mate almost allowed himself now and then to be betrayed into an expression of dawning amiability; and, as for Captain Blyth, his exuberance of spirits threatened at times to pa.s.s all bounds. He believed it quite impossible that the _Southern Cross_ could now cross the line in less than three days, at least, after himself; and the way in which the _Flying Cloud_, against a fair amount of head sea and on a taut bowline, was steadily reeling off her eight, nine, and sometime even ten knots per hour, with her really extraordinary weatherliness, quite convinced him that he could beat his antagonist in any weather which would permit him to show his topgallant-sails to it.
This state of general satisfaction and good humour was at its height, when about ten o'clock on that same morning, a man who was at work on the weather fore-topsail-yard-arm hailed the deck with:
”On deck, there! There is a wreck, or something like it, broad on our weather-beam, and about nine mile off.”
Captain Blyth was on deck, and so was Ned; and the skipper immediately ordered that young gentleman to go aloft with his gla.s.s to see if he could make out the object.
Ned was soon in the main-topmast cross-trees, from which elevated stand- point he was at once enabled to make out the whereabouts of the supposed wreck with the naked eye, and he was not long in bringing his gla.s.s to bear upon it.
”Well, Ned, my hearty,” hailed the skipper, when the lad had been working away in a puzzled manner with his telescope, ”that you see something is perfectly evident. What d'ye make her out to be?”
”It is not very easy to say, sir,” replied Ned. ”The light is so dazzling in that quarter that I can see nothing but a dark patch; but it looks more like a vessel on her beam-ends than anything else. But, if it is so, she is lying over so much that her sails are in the water.”
”Phew!” whistled the skipper. ”We must have a look at her; it will never do to leave a s.h.i.+p in such a fix as that. Can you see any people on board her, Ned?”
”No, sir,” was the answer. ”But if there _are_ people on board it would be impossible to make them out from our present position.”
”No, no,” muttered the skipper, ”I don't suppose it would; of course not. Hark ye, Ned; just stay where you are, my lad, and let me know when we have brought the wreck a good couple of points abaft our beam, and in the meantime take a look round with your gla.s.s and see if you can make out anything like a boat anywhere.”