Part 28 (1/2)

He reached without difficulty the banks of the Dong-Nai; but here obstacles presented themselves of which he had not thought. The night was so dark, that he could hardly see to find his way along a wharf in process of construction, and covered with enormous stones and timber. Not a light in all the native huts around. In spite of his efforts to pierce this darkness, he could discern nothing but the dark outline of the vessels lying at anchor in the river, and the light of the lighthouse as it trembled in the current.

He called. No voice replied. The silence, which was as deep as the darkness, was broken only by the low wash of the river as it flowed down rapidly.

”I am quite capable,” thought Daniel, ”of not finding the boat of 'The Conquest.'”

Still he did find it, after long search, drawn up, and half lost, in a crowd of native boats. But the boat seemed to be empty. It was only when he got into it, that he discovered a little mids.h.i.+pman fast asleep in the bottom, wrapped up in a carpet which was used to cover the seats for the officers. Daniel shook him. He rose slowly, and grumbling, as if overcome by sleep.

”Well, what is the matter?” he growled.

”Where are the men?” asked Daniel.

Quite awake now, the mids.h.i.+pman, who had good eyes, had noticed, in spite of the darkness, the gold of the epaulets. This made him very respectful at once; and he replied,- ”Lieutenant, all the men are in town.”

”How so? All?”

”Why, yes, lieutenant! When all the officers had gone on sh.o.r.e, they told the boatswain they would not come back very soon, and he might take his time to eat a mouthful, and to drink a gla.s.s, provided the men did not get drunk.”

That was so; and Daniel had forgotten the fact.

”And where did they go?” he asked.

”I don't know, lieutenant.”

Daniel looked at the large, heavy boat, as if he had thought for a moment to return in it to ”The Conquest” with no other help but the little mids.h.i.+pman; but, no, that was impracticable.

”Well, go to sleep again,” he said to the boy.

And jumping on sh.o.r.e, without uttering a word of disappointment, he was going in search of his comrades, when he saw suddenly a man turn up out of the darkness, whose features it was impossible to distinguish.

”Who is there?” he asked.

”Mr. Officer,” answered the man in an almost unintelligible jargon, a horrible medley of French, Spanish, and English. ”I heard you tell the little man in the boat there”- ”Well?”

”I thought you wanted to get back on board your s.h.i.+p?”

”Why, yes.”

”Well, then, if you like it, I am a boatman; I can take you over.”

There was no reason why Daniel should mistrust the man. In all ports of the world, and at any hour of the day or the night, men are to be found who are lying in wait on the wharves for sailors who have been belated, and who are made to pay dear for such extra services.

”Ah! you are a boatman, you say?” Daniel exclaimed, quite pleased at the encounter. ”Well, where is your boat?”

”There, Mr. Officer, a little way down; just follow me. But what s.h.i.+p do you want to go to?”

”That s.h.i.+p there.”

And Daniel pointed out to him ”The Conquest” as she lay not six hundred yards off in the river, showing her lights.

”That is rather far,” grumbled the man; ”the tide is low; and the current is very strong.”

”I'll give you a couple of francs for your trouble.”

The man clapped his hands with delight, and said,- ”Ah! if that's the way, all right. Come along, Mr. Officer, a little farther down. There, that's my boat. Get in, now steady!”

Daniel followed his directions; but he was so much struck by the man's awkwardness in getting the boat off, that he could not help saying to him,- ”Ah, my boy, you are not a boatman, after all!”

”I beg pardon, sir; I used to be one before I came to this country.”

”What is your country?”

”Shanghai.”

”Nevertheless, you will have to learn a great deal before you will ever be a sailor.”

Still, as the boat was very small, a mere nutsh.e.l.l, in fact, Daniel thought he could, if needs be, take an oar himself. Thereupon, sitting down, and stretching out his legs, he was soon once more plunged in meditations. The unfortunate man was soon roused, however, by a terrible sensation.

Thanks to a shock, a wrong movement, or any other accident, the boat upset, and Daniel was thrown into the river; and, to fill the measure of his mishaps, one of his feet was so closely jammed in between the seat and the boat itself, that he was paralyzed in his movements, and soon under water.

He saw it all in an instant; and his first thought was,- ”I am lost!”

But, desperate as his position was, he was not the man to give up. Gathering, by one supreme effort, all his strength and energy, he took hold of the boat, that had turned over just above him, and pushed it so forcibly, that he loosened his foot, and at the same moment reached the surface. It was high time; for Daniel had swallowed much water.

”Now,” he thought, ”I have a chance to escape!”

A very frail chance, alas!-so small a chance, in fact, that it required all the strong will and the invincible courage of Daniel to give it any effect. A furious current carried him down like a straw; the little boat, which might have supported him, had disappeared; and he knew nothing about this formidable Dong-Nai, except that it went on widening to its mouth. There was nothing to guide him; for the night was so dark, that land and water, the river and its banks, all melted together in the uniform, bottomless darkness.

What had become of the boatman, however? At all events, he called,- ”Ahoy, my man!”

No answer. Had he been swept off? Or did he get back into the boat? Perhaps he was drowned already.

But all of a sudden Daniel's heart trembled with joy and hope. He had just made out, a few hundred yards below, a red light, indicating a vessel at anchor. All his efforts were directed towards that point. He was carried thither with an almost bewildering rapidity. He nearly touched it; and then, with incredible presence of mind, and great precision, at the moment when the current drove him close up to the anchor-chain, he seized it. He held on to it; and, having recovered his breath, he uttered three times in succession, with all the strength of his lungs, so sharp a cry, that it was heard above the fierce roar of the river,- ”Help, help, help!”

From the s.h.i.+p came a call, ”Hold on!” proving to him that his appeal had been heard, and that help was at hand.

Too late! An eddy in the terrible current seized him, and, with irresistible violence, tore the chain, slippery with mud, out of his stiffened hands. Rolled over by the waters, he was rudely thrown against the side of the vessel, went under, and was carried off.

When he rose to the surface, the red light was far above him, and below no other light was in sight. No human help was henceforth within reach. Daniel could now count only upon himself in trying to make one of the banks. Although he could not measure the distance, which might be very great, the task did not seem to him beyond his strength, if he had only been naked. But his clothes enc.u.mbered him terribly; and the water which they soaked up made them, of course, every moment more oppressive.

”I shall be drowned, most a.s.suredly,” he thought, ”if I cannot get rid of my clothes.”

Excellent swimmer as he was, the task was no easy one. Still he accomplished it. After prodigious efforts of strength and skill, he got rid of his shoes; and then he cried out, as if in defiance of the blind element against which he was struggling,- ”I shall pull through! I shall see Henrietta again!”

But it had cost him an enormous amount of time to undress; and how could he calculate the distance which this current had taken him down-one of the swiftest in the world? As he tried to recall all he knew about it, he remembered having noticed that, a mile below Saigon, the river was as wide as a branch of the sea. According to his calculation, he must be near that spot now.