Part 13 (2/2)

”I don't half like the look of the weather, Mr Rogers,” said Needham to Tom, who had remained with him on deck, while Gerald and Archy were making preparations for supper below. ”I wish we were in a snugger berth, where we could moor s.h.i.+p--that I do.”

”Why the water is as calm as a millpond. I don't see how we can come to any harm,” answered Tom. The words were scarcely out of his mouth, when, with the suddenness of a clap of thunder a fearfully loud rus.h.i.+ng sound was heard, as if the top of the mountain was hurtling down on their heads. The next instant they were lifted almost off their legs, and had they not clutched the shrouds they would have been carried overboard. The breath of the hurricane was upon them. The loosened canvas blew out and flapped wildly--the little vessel strained desperately at her anchor, while the water hissed and foamed round her bows. Gerald and Archy wondering what had happened, came rus.h.i.+ng up from below.

”What's to be done?” they both asked.

”The first thing is to get the mainsail and foresail stowed, and then to strike the topmast,” answered Needham.

With their united strength it was no easy matter to secure the mainsail.

It was done, however, in a way, when Needham casting his eyes towards the sh.o.r.e, exclaimed--

”The drogher is drifting--we must veer out more cable!”

There were not many fathoms to spare. The fury of the blast, however, had somewhat decreased, and the vessel appeared to be stationary.

Needham hurried aloft, and while the mids.h.i.+pmen hauled on the heel-rope of the topmast--the shrouds and stays being slacked--he tugged away at the fid. He had just got it out, when a second blast as furious as the first burst on them--a loud report was heard. Ned slid down like lightning from aloft, and sprang aft to the helm. Tom, who had run forward, exclaimed--

”The cable has parted!”

”I know it,” answered Ned. ”Hoist a foot of the foresail, Mr Rogers.”

The drogher spun round like a top, and off she flew before the hurricane.

”Hadn't we better jump into the boat, and let the vessel go?” asked Archy.

”We could never pull to sh.o.r.e in the teeth of this wind, sir,” answered Needham. ”We can't get her on board, or tow her either--we must let her go.”

Meantime, Tom and Gerald had been busy in stowing the fore-sail and securing the topmast shrouds and stays. As they looked aft for an instant, they could just distinguish some figures on the sh.o.r.e; but amid the wild tumult, no voices could be heard had they shouted ever so loudly. Needham now called Tom and Gerald to take the helm while he tried to find a storm staysail, hoping with a couple of feet of it set to be able to scud before the hurricane.

”It's our only chance,” he said, ”we've no hope of beating back till it's over--and the wider berth we give the island the better; for if the wind s.h.i.+fts we may be blown right on it, and lose the craft and our own lives too.”

The prospect was an appalling one--but the mids.h.i.+pmen did not lose heart. Away flew the drogher amid the roaring seas into the pitchy darkness, which now settled down over the ocean.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

A BALL AT ANTIGUA--A HURRICANE PUTS A STOP TO THE DANCING--A RIDE THROUGH THE STORM--MURRAY'S RIDE WITH STELLA, AND A DECLARATION--COLONEL O'REGAN AND HIS DAUGHTER SAIL IN THE SARAH JANE.

The inhabitants of Antigua are noted for their hospitality. The officers of the two s.h.i.+ps received as many invitations as they could accept, with the loan of horses whenever they chose to ride. They lived on sh.o.r.e in airy barracks--far pleasanter quarters than the close cabins of the s.h.i.+ps afforded. The colonel and his daughter were living at a cottage in the neighbourhood. Murray was Stella's constant attendant when she rode, and a frequent visitor at the cottage. If her father remarked the attention paid her by the young lieutenant, he did not consider it necessary to interfere. Perhaps he had ascertained that Murray was well off, and thought it best to let matters take their course; or, perhaps, absorbed in his own schemes, it did not occur to him that his daughter, who seemed so devoted to the cause he advocated, could do so weak a thing as fall in love. At all events, Alick lived in an elysium partly created by his imagination, and did not allow the future to interfere with his present happiness. Jack and Adair still thought Stella very charming, but, observing Alick's devotion to her, they would have considered it a gross breach of friends.h.i.+p to attempt cutting him out. She had other admirers, but she certainly gave them no encouragement. The mids.h.i.+pmen of the frigate thought their captain spoony, and the captain's clerk of the _Tudor_ was guilty of a most reprehensible breach of confidence, if he spoke the truth, in whispering that he had one day discovered on the commander's desk a sonnet addressed to Stella's eyebrow. The fact, however, was doubted, as Captain Babbicome had never been suspected of possessing the slightest poetical talent, nor had a book of poetry ever been seen in his cabin.

”Still,” insisted the clerk, ”love can work wonders. It must have been poetry, for the lines all began with capitals, and were written in the middle of the page.”

At length the ball took place. The Antiguan young ladies were full of life and spirit, and danced to perfection, never getting tired, so that the officers had no lack of partners, and voted it great fun. There were many very pretty girls among them, and several with much more of the rose on their cheeks than usually falls to the share of West Indian damsels. Some censorious critic even ventured to hint that it was added by the hand of art. That this was false was evident, for the weather was so hot that had rouge been used it would have inevitably been detected; but the island damsels trusted to their good figures and features, and their lively manners and conversation, rather than to any meretricious charms, to win admiration. Stella was generally considered the most charming of the maidens present, as undoubtedly she was the most blooming, and she seemed to enjoy the ball as much as any one. She danced with Captain Hemming, and went through a quadrille with Commander Babbicome. He then entreated her to perform a valse with him. Laughing heartily, she advised him not to make the attempt. Even the quiet dance had reduced him to a melting mood.

”Why, you have valsed twice with my second lieutenant,” he remarked, his choler rising.

Stella gave him a look which might have shown him that he had better have held his tongue. The ball, which began at a primitively early hour, had been going on for some time, when a fierce blast which shook the building to its very foundations swept over it.

”A hurricane has burst on the island,” was the general exclamation.

”Will it be a heavy one?”

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