Part 3 (2/2)
CHAPTER III
Jim Partington shows his Mettle
”Come back, lad,” shouted the captain, as Jim's heels disappeared beneath the surface of the ocean. Then he rose quickly to his feet, and, gripping the gunwale of the rocking boat with both hands, he stared through the gloom at the sinking s.h.i.+p, and at the solitary figure now clinging to the rail amids.h.i.+ps. Indeed the unhappy individual who had been accidentally left on the foundering vessel showed that he was in almost as frantic a condition as had been the Spanish workmen, when fighting in the waist for possession of the boats. He was waving the one arm which was uninjured vigorously, and as Jim set out in his direction he was seen to throw one leg over the rail, to clamber with difficulty upon it, then to sit there holding desperately, and looking as though every movement of the s.h.i.+p would cast him into the water.
”She's a going! Gee! did yer see her lurch then? My, I thought she was under!”
The deck hand who had shouted the words threw up his hands in the direction of the steamer, and turned a pair of startled, staring eyes upon her. There was good reason for his alarming observation, for at that moment the foundering vessel rolled heavily from side to side, as if she found her position irksome. Then she dipped her nose still deeper into the ocean, kicking her stern clear of the water till ten feet of her dripping keel were visible, and until her decks were at such a steep angle that none but an acrobat could have retained his position on them.
Indeed the unfortunate individual clinging to the rail was swung from his insecure seat, and, falling backwards, crashed on to the deck and slithered down it till one of the bridge pillars arrested his progress.
”Holy poker, but dat near shave, I guess! Ma.s.sa Jim, what yo doin' dat for? Yo's mad! Yo's goin' to drown yo'self!” shouted Tom, rising to his feet so rapidly that his huge bulk set the s.h.i.+p's boat rocking dangerously.
”Drown himself! He's jest committing suicide! I tell you, he's bound to go under,” growled the captain, who, if the truth had only been known, felt himself so strongly impelled to leap into the sea and help in this foolhardy but gallant effort at rescue that it was only by exercising the greatest self-control that he was able to hold himself in check.
”If I wasn't skipper I'd do it,” he cried. ”But it would be a fool's game. Besides, I've got to remember that I'm in charge of this expedition.”
Meanwhile Jim's head had burst from the surface of the water, and the plucky lad was forcing his way towards the sinking vessel with powerful strokes. He gave no heed to the shouts and calls of those behind him, not even when Sadie, beside herself with anxiety, rose from her seat in the stern of the boat and shrieked to him to return instantly.
”I'll do it, or go under,” he told himself grimly. ”A sinking s.h.i.+p ain't going to frighten me. Guess a chap couldn't float out there in safety and see a man drowned before his eyes, especially a man that's unable to fend for himself.”
Though the water dripped into his eyes from his hair, and made seeing difficult, he, too, had observed the terrific lurch which the foundering vessel had just given; and if he had had any doubts as to her true condition they were instantly set aside by the ma.s.s of her stern elevated in such an ungainly manner into the air.
”Aboard there!” he shouted; ”jump over into the water. She is going down.”
Thanks to an oil lantern which still hung amids.h.i.+ps, below the bridge, he could see the man for whose rescue he was striving, and as he thrust his way strenuously through the water he watched the injured pa.s.senger pick himself up on hand and knees and struggle towards the rail. He wedged his feet against a stanchion supporting the latter, and as Jim arrived within a few yards of the vessel, the man was again endeavouring to clamber over the rail.
Then there came, of a sudden, another sluggish lurch. The s.h.i.+p appeared to s.h.i.+ver throughout her framework, and rolled heavily from side to side. A moment later her bows rose rapidly from the ocean in which they had been submerged, while the stern regained almost its normal position.
It looked, in fact, as if she were making one last gallant effort to float upon the surface. But again she rolled heavily from side to side, till her decks were slanting at a sickening angle, greater indeed than that to which Jim and his mates had become accustomed when cruising to the south along the Caribbean coast.
”By de power, but dat terrific, dat 'nough to shake de life out of anybody,” muttered Tom, whose eyes all this while had been staring into the gloom, endeavouring to follow every movement of his young American master. Indeed, so acute was the vision of the dusky giant that details were visible to him, and to Sam, his diminutive brother, which others aboard the boat had no idea of. ”Lummy, but Tom not like to see dat s.h.i.+p shake herself so! She go down with a bust in one little moment, and den--and den, what happen to Ma.s.sa Jim?”
The very thought of the disaster which would follow drove the negro into a condition almost of frenzy. His eyes bulged from their sockets and looked as though they would tumble from his head. A whimper from Sadie set Tom's honest heart throbbing and palpitating. It was real pain to the fine fellow to know that his little mistress was in trouble. That and his own courageous, impetuous nature made it impossible to stay any longer inactive in the boat. Every muscle in his body trembled, while his breath came quick and deep.
”I's goin' ter help!” he shouted. ”Nebber yo fear, missie; soon hab Ma.s.sa Jim back safe and sound.”
With that he floundered overboard, causing the boat to rock once more till her gunwale dipped beneath the oily surface of the ocean, a ma.s.s of water flooding the interior instantly. His head had hardly bobbed up in view again when there came a sudden exclamation from Sam, and a moment later the little fellow had slipped away to help his dusky brother in his gallant task.
”Jemima! But if that don't take it!” bellowed one of the crew of the boat, looking himself as if he were about to follow. ”Every mother's son of 'em'll go down. That s.h.i.+p'll suck 'em under sure. Ain't we going nearer?”
In his eagerness he seized an oar, banged it into the rowlock, and proceeded to bear upon it; but a stern order from the captain at once arrested the movement.
”Belay there!” he cried sharply. ”I ain't going to risk the lives of all aboard for those in the water. We're too close to that s.h.i.+p by a long way, much too close to my liking. Drop another oar in there, Macdougal, and pull us away a bit. Harvey, jest get to at bailing; she's taken a bit of water aboard. Miss Sadie, it's the right thing we're doing. It'll help them best in the end.”
But there was mutiny in the eye of Macdougal. In the excitement of the moment the eager fellow could not in his own mind differentiate between the safety of those aboard the boat and those who had plunged into the water.
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