Part 7 (2/2)

”We have given our message,” I observed to Boxall; ”and I cannot help thinking that Jose is right. We must not forget the sample they have given us of their feelings.”

”I am afraid it must be so,” said Boxall with a sigh. ”For our own safety, we must make for the sh.o.r.e without further delay. Hoist the sail, Ben. I will take the steering-oar; Jose can manage the bow oar; and you, Halliday, and Charlie can tend the halyards and sheet.”

We a.s.sisted Ben to hoist the sail, which was somewhat large for the raft, except under a very light wind. Before the sail was set, however, the breeze had greatly increased, and scarcely had we brought the sheet aft when over went the mast, carried off at the heel. We of course set to work to get in the sail, while Ben, with an axe, endeavoured to cut out the broken heel from the step, in which he had fixed it. This took some time, as the raft was rocking about far more than it had hitherto done, and he could not work quickly in the darkness. Having at length succeeded, he had next to chop the heel of the mast to the proper size to fit the step. He was working away as rapidly as possible, and we were stooping down to a.s.sist him, when Jose shouted out, ”They are coming, they are coming!” Looking round, we observed that the sail of the big raft was hoisted, and that she was coming towards us faster than we should have supposed it was possible for her to move. In little more than a minute she might be up with us; while the wild shouts and execrations of the miscreants who were on the raft rang in our ears, and showed us what he had to expect from them.

Ben worked away as composedly but as rapidly as he could, while we were engaged in taking a reef in the sail.

”It's done,” cried Ben at last; and lifting the mast, we found, to our great satisfaction, that the heel fitted into the step. We immediately set up four stays.

”Be smart now,” cried Boxall. ”Hoist away with the sail.”

He had good reason to give the order, for, as we looked round, we saw the head of the big raft with several people on it, some rowing to give it more impetus, while one stood with a boat-hook ready to catch hold of us. In another instant the fellow might have hooked on, or have run the point of it into the back of Boxall, who had again resumed the steering-oar; but, hoisting away with all our might, we got the sail up, and while Ben was making fast the halyards Halliday and I carried the sheet aft.

Over the now foaming sea we flew, while the big raft followed close astern,--those on it uttering the most fearful oaths and execrations as they found themselves disappointed in their project of seizing us. Our light raft went over the water far more rapidly than theirs, and we soon distanced them; but for long their shrieks and cries sounded in our ears.

”I thought, sir, that they intended treachery,” observed Jose to me; ”and we may be thankful that we escaped them.” I agreed with him; at the same time, having escaped, we had the satisfactory reflection that we would have done our best to have rendered them a.s.sistance, and that we could not blame ourselves for deserting our fellow-creatures. What would now be their fate, it was not difficult to say. They might possibly reach the sh.o.r.e; but the large raft, hurriedly put together, was but ill calculated to resist the now fast rising sea, and we could not but fear that many of the unfortunate wretches would speedily be washed off it. Our little raft was tolerably strong, but the way the pieces of which it was constructed worked, gave us a notion what would be the fate of theirs.

We were tossed fearfully about, and had to run now to one side, now to the other, to balance it as it was lifted by the seas. Boxall kept his seat on a cask, endeavouring to steer it, but he had at length to call me to his a.s.sistance, while Ben helped Jose. On and on we flew. As the clouds gathered in the sky the night grew darker and darker, and we soon lost sight of the large raft, while the voices of those on it no longer reached our ears. I asked Boxall what he thought would happen to the miserable people.

”Too probably they have been washed off the raft, or it has been capsized, by this time,” he answered. ”I confess, I do not like to think of what must have been their fate.”

Our thoughts were now turned towards what might happen to ourselves. We had no means of judging how far off we were from the coast, but I calculated that, as we had not seen it, we could not be within fifteen miles or so of it--an opinion which I expressed to Boxall.

”You forget that, low down as we are in the water, our horizon is very circ.u.mscribed; while for miles together, on this part of the African coast, the sandy sh.o.r.e rises but a few feet above the level of the sea,”

he answered. ”It may therefore be much nearer, than we suppose. We must, at all events, keep a good look-out; although, with the wind blowing strong, and running as we are directly before it, we shall have no choice where to land, and shall have to make good our footing on the dry land as best we can.”

We were silent for some time; indeed, we had enough to do to steer the raft.

”Keep a bright look-out, Ben,” cried Boxall. ”Do you see anything of the land?”

”No, sir,” answered Ben, somewhat surprised; for he supposed, as I had done, that we were still a long way off. ”I don't expect to see it for the next three or four hours.”

”We may reach it sooner than you fancy,” said Boxall.

”Very glad to hear that, sir,” answered Ben; ”for though I am very well satisfied with this craft of ours, I would sooner feel my feet on dry land than aboard of her, if it should come on to blow much harder than it does now.”

I suspect we all felt as Ben did. The sea was fast rising, and as the foaming crests of the tumbling waves came hissing over the raft, we had to hold on tightly to avoid being carried away. But our chief anxiety was about our mast. Should that give way, the raft would be left tossing helplessly amid the seas, and in all probability be washed off.

We had, however, stayed it up securely, and we could only hope that it would hold.

I now proposed taking another reef in the sail.

”No, we will let it stand,” said Boxall; ”we shall only run a greater risk than we do now of being p.o.o.ped, should we shorten sail, and if the wind does not increase we shall easily carry it; indeed, by the look of the sky, I have hopes that the weather will not grow worse,--and perhaps by the morning we shall have it calm again.”

”We may then congratulate ourselves on having had the strong breeze which is sending us along so famously,” observed Halliday.

”We shall have reason to be thankful to Him who has caused the westerly wind to blow,” answered Boxall. ”It might have come from the eastward, and we should have been driven still further off the coast--when, if not swamped, we would in all probability die of starvation, did we fail to fall in with a pa.s.sing vessel.”

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