Part 20 (1/2)

Rus.h.i.+ng forward, followed by Bok and Jack, the captain himself seized the rope and aided the sailors to execute his orders, while Leeks attended to the jib.

Bok was at the wheel.

When on the new tack the _Dart_ was not a cable's length from the boiling water.

”It's a subterranean eruption!” exclaimed the captain. ”Look--look yonder!”

Where he pointed, from the midst of the curling waves, a great black patch of what seemed to be mud rose above the surface.

Round it were thick columns of smoke, which instantly shut it out from view.

The wind chopped round, and a fierce gust came, laden with steam and smoke, from the north.

The yacht heeled over till her copper sheeting gleamed above the water-line.

Gasping for breath, for a fearful stench accompanied the smoke, which enveloped them, all on board could do nothing but hold on to whatever was handiest.

A rus.h.i.+ng, roaring sound filled their ears as the _Dart_ dashed onward, throwing the boiling water in showers of spray over her bows.

The men forward were forced to stagger aft.

It looked as if the _Dart_ was doomed!

Chapter X.--The Escape Of The ”Dart.”

For fully ten minutes no one could tell whether the yacht would right herself or not.

Captain Sumner, aided by our hero and Jack, at length found the topgallant halyards, and lowered the sail in the peak.

We say found, for the darkness was intense.

Then the gallant little vessel, as if freed from an overpowering load, came up to her bracings.

Once more she flew with increased speed through the water.

A few seconds and the star-lit sky again appeared overhead, and the rolling smoke wreaths were left behind.

”Heavens!” cried the captain; ”never in all my life have I seen the like. What a death to have escaped!”

As if exhausted with its own fury, the squall subsided as suddenly as it had sprung up. The smoke gradually blew away.

And there, over the starboard quarter, some two miles distant, lay a long, low, black island.

”Look! look!” yelled Bob suddenly.

All eyes followed his outstretched hand.

There on the sh.o.r.e rested a familiar-looking boat, containing three figures--Mrs. Cromwell, Viola, and the madman.