Part 12 (1/2)

Happily the sea was smooth, and there was no outdrift. Even then Archy felt that he could scarcely reach the beach. Tom gave him his hand, exclaiming--

”Come on; we have not far to go now, at all events.”

They waded on. Gradually the water shoaled as they made their way up the shelving sand. Tom felt his strength returning, hot Archy could with difficulty make headway. Now the water reached only to their middles; now it was scarcely knee-deep, and they were able to get on faster. Tom breathed more freely, for he expected to see Archy drop every instant. Scarcely, indeed, had they reached the dry sand than down he sank. Toot threw himself by his side.

”Cheer up, Archy; we are safe,” he exclaimed. ”Don't give way now.”

”I shall be better soon,” said Archy; ”but oh! Tom, let us return thanks to Him who has preserved us. Don't let us fancy it was our own strength. I never otherwise could have done it, I know.”

”I am thankful--indeed I am; but we must not forget our companions.”

”Go, and try to get a boat, and put off to them; I will follow you as soon as I am able to.”

It was already getting dusk, and the gloom was increased by thick clouds gathering in the sky, betokening a blowing night. Tom saw, indeed, that no time was to be lost, and, finding that Archy could not yet move, he unwillingly left him, and hurried off to obtain a.s.sistance.

We must now return on board the _Plantagenet_. When Mr Cherry found that the boat did not make her appearance, as it was long past the time the mids.h.i.+pmen promised to be back, he felt somewhat annoyed, and made up his mind that the next time they asked for the boat they should not have her.

He was walking the deck, when the quartermaster announced that a boat had come off from the sh.o.r.e with a black in her, who had something to say about a pinnace, but what it was he could not exactly make out.

”Let him come on deck at once,” said Mr Cherry, hurrying to the gangway.

”What is it you have to say, my man?” he asked.

The negro doffed his hat, twisting and wriggling about, apparently either from nervousness at finding himself on board a man-of-war, or from his anxiety to deliver his message properly.

Mr Cherry, however, managed to make out that a boat had been capsized, that two mids.h.i.+pmen had swum on sh.o.r.e, and that they had gone off again in two boats to search for the wreck.

Just then Jack and Terence, who had been on sh.o.r.e, returned, and, on cross-questioning the black, they felt satisfied that Tom and Archy Gordon were the two mids.h.i.+pmen who had reached the sh.o.r.e, and that those remaining on the wreck were in extreme peril.

The report of what had happened quickly spread through the s.h.i.+p, and every one felt anxious about their s.h.i.+pmates.

Four boats were immediately manned, Jack and Terence each taking command of one, Higson going in a third, and Mr Scrofton having charge of the fourth. The first ready having called alongside the _Tudor_ to give the information, two of her boats were immediately despatched to aid in the search. The weather in the meantime, as night advanced, grew worse and worse. Down came a deluge of rain, while vivid lightning darted from the sky; the wind, too, had been rising, and as they got outside the harbour they found a considerable sea running.

Each officer was to take the direction he judged best. Before shoving off the boatswain got the black, who brought the information, into his boat, and pumping him learnt exactly whereabouts the pinnace had capsized, while he also ascertained the direction in which the current ran.

It might seem an easy thing to fall in with a boat which had capsized scarcely a mile off; but some hours had elapsed since the accident had occurred, and during all that time she must have drifted for a considerable distance. The direction in which she had gone also could be calculated only by those who knew exactly the set and rate of the current. Jack and Terence went away fully believing that they should before long fall in with the wreck; their only fear was that those left on it might have been washed off, or, succ.u.mbing to fatigue, have dropped into the water. The thunder rattled and the lightning flashed over head. Between the intervals they often fancied they could hear the voices of their s.h.i.+pmates hailing them; sometimes, too, through the gloom they imagined that they could see the boat on her side, with a few still clinging to her; but when they got up to the spot, she was not there. Though Terence hoped to find all the party, he naturally felt most anxious on account of Gerald Desmond.

”I ought to have thought of the risks he would have had to run,” he said to himself. ”To be sure I got into a good many sc.r.a.pes and tumbled out of them, and I hope he may. I cannot bear the thoughts of having to write to my poor sister, and to tell her that her boy is lost.”

Still the boats continued searching in every direction; the wind blowing fresh, and the foaming seas hissing round them. There was little hope, indeed, that they should find those they were looking for, though the boat herself might by chance be fallen in with some time or other.

Mr Scrofton, meantime, who, though a bad philosopher, was a thorough seaman, had run down at about the distance from the sh.o.r.e he understood the pinnace had been when capsized. He had, however, pa.s.sed the spot, according to his calculations, some way, no sign of the wreck having been seen, when a hail was heard.

”There they are! hurrah!” cried some of the men.

”No, no; that came from a boat. I see her.”

”What boat is that?” asked Mr Scrofton.

”A sh.o.r.e-boat, and I am Tom Rogers,” was the answer.