Part 24 (1/2)
”Well, it won't be for long,” Russ said. ”It will be all over in a few minutes--I mean the s.h.i.+pwreck proper, though there'll be a lot of rescue scenes, and then the castaways on an island, and all that sort of thing. Put me over a little more to the left, Pepper. I can get a fine view that way, with the light s.h.i.+ning on the pa.s.sengers at the rail.”
He clicked away at the camera crank, and then exclaimed:
”No, no! I said to the left. You're putting me to the right.”
”Oh, so I am. I was watching that storm. I don't like the looks of things, Russ. I believe we're going to be in for it sooner than they thought.”
”It does look as though it were going to burst,” Russ agreed, as he looked up from the ”finder” of his machine long enough to take a glimpse at the weather. ”Mr. Pertell said he'd signal us with a flag when he thought we had enough, but I don't see anything of a signal, do you?”
”No,” answered the gloomy actor, who had not been needed in the present scenes. ”And I wish I _could_ see it. It's getting too rough out here for me, even if we have a good boat,” and he adjusted the gasoline feed to give a little more power to the engine.
”Well, it's getting almost too dark to get any more pictures, anyhow,”
Russ declared. ”We sure are in for a blow. It's coming up fast too.
We'd better get back to the s.h.i.+p without waiting for a signal. They may have hoisted one, that we didn't see.”
”That's it, I think!” cried the other. ”Say, where is the schooner, anyhow?”
Russ, who was taking the tripod from his camera looked up quickly.
”Why, can't you see her?” asked the young operator.
”No, and I don't believe you can, either, nor can your camera find her.
She's disappeared!”
”Disappeared? Nonsense!” Russ cried. ”It's just that the sea mist has come up and hidden her. It will blow away in a moment. Say, but it is getting rough!”
Well might he say that, for he could hardly keep his footing on the platform where he had stood to make the views. He came down into the half-covered cabin which formed the forward part of the _Ajax_.
”Well, where is the schooner, if you can see her?” growled Pepper Sneed.
”Steer for her if you can sight her--I can't!”
He seemed morose and angry. Perhaps it was just fear. Russ did not stop to determine that point. The operator took the steering wheel, first standing up to get an idea of his course.
”Say, it _is_ getting dark!” he cried. ”Well, we'll have to go it blind.
We'll pick up the schooner in a minute or two, I expect. She ought to be right over there,” and he pointed.
”Where?” asked Mr. Sneed.
”There,” said Russ again.
”Humph! You're away off!” declared his companion. ”The last I saw her, and I was headed right for her, she was over there,” and he indicated a direction differing from that Russ had shown by at least forty-five degrees.
”I wish they'd show a light!” Russ murmured as he tried to peer through the mist and the gathering darkness. ”Why don't they show a light? We could see that!”
”Maybe they don't know we're lost,” suggested Pepper Sneed.
”Lost!” cried Russ. ”We're not lost! We'll be up to them in a minute or so, but I do wish they'd show a light.”
The motorboat _Ajax_ was chugging over the heaving water at good speed, but as far as the eyes of either of her occupants could see, she might have been driving straight into the utter desolation of a vast ocean, for not an object was in sight.