Part 20 (1/2)
”Four o'clock!” shouted Lawry, as the timepiece in the kitchen struck the hour. ”All hands ahoy, Ethan!”
His enthusiastic fellow laborer needed no second call, and leaped out of bed. Ben was still awake, and the lapse of the hours had in some measure sobered him.
”It's a fine day, Ethan,” said Lawry.
”Glad of that. How long do you suppose it will take to pump her out?”
”All day, I think; but we are to have four men to help us. I was considering that matter when I went to sleep last night,” replied Lawry. ”I was thinking whether we could not rig a barrel under the derrick so as to get along a little faster than the pumps will do it.
”Perhaps we can; we will see.”
”Where is your steamer?” asked Ben, rising in bed.
”We anch.o.r.ed her near the Goblins,” replied Lawry.
”She isn't there now,” added Ben.
”How do you know?” demanded the pilot.
”I've been sick, and couldn't sleep; so I got up and went outdoors.
She isn't where you left her, and I couldn't see anything of her anywhere.”
”Couldn't see her!” exclaimed Ethan.
”I knew very well she wouldn't stay on top of the water. Casks wouldn't keep her up,” said Ben maliciously.
Lawry rushed out of the room to the other end of the house, the attic window of which commanded a full view of the lake. As his brother had declared, the _Woodville_ was not at her anchorage where they had left her; neither was she to be seen, whichever way he looked.
”She is gone!” cried he, returning to his chamber.
”Of course she is gone,” added Ben.
”I don't understand it.”
”She has gone to the bottom, of course, where I told you she would go. You were a fool to leave her out there in the deep water. She has gone down where you will never see her again.”
”It was impossible for her to sink with all those casks under her guards,” said Ethan.
”I guess you will find she has sunk. I told you she would. If you had only minded what I told you, she would have been all right, Lawry.”
Both of the boys seemed to be paralyzed at the discovery, and made no reply to Ben. They could not realize that all the hard labor they had performed was lost. It was hard and cruel, and each reproached himself because they had not pa.s.sed the night on board of the steamer, as they had purposed to do.
”Well, it's no use to stand here like logs,” said Lawry, ”If she has sunk, we will find out where she is.”
”I reckon you'll never see her again, Lawry. Those old casks leaked, I suppose, and when they were full of water the steamer went down again; or else they broke loose from her when the wind blew so hard.”
”It didn't blow much when we went to bed. What time did you come home, Ben?”
”I don't know what time it was,” he answered evasively.