Part 30 (1/2)

Jarrold glanced at his niece. She came to his side and stood there proudly.

”Let it be the boat,” she said; and Jarrold nodded his head in silent a.s.sent. He seemed crushed and broken by the way in which fate had turned against him in the very hour of his triumph.

CHAPTER x.x.xVII

THE IRONY OF FATE

The _Tropic Queen_ moved majestically through a sapphire sea. It was a perfect tropic night. A dream mist, like a scarf of s.h.i.+mmering, spangled vapor lay over the water. Above, the great, soft stars of the equatorial regions beamed from a sky like blue-black velvet. High above the main mast, like a great lamp, hung the full moon.

Disaster, danger and death seemed miles away, a contingency too remote to be considered. Yet they were close at hand, far closer than any of the sleeping pa.s.sengers dreamed.

The bells chimed the hours and half hours as they slipped by to the steady thres.h.i.+ng of the propeller, and the wake of the big s.h.i.+p spread fan-like from her stern in a milky stream that flashed with luminous phosph.o.r.escence.

Suddenly, from the lookout in the crow's nest came a shout sharp and clear.

”Something dead ahead, sir,” was the reply to the inquiring hail from the bridge.

”Can you make it out?”

”Not yet, sir. It's two points on the starboard bow.”

From the bridge night-gla.s.ses were leveled, but the eyes in the crow's nest made out the nature of the drifting object on the moonlit sea first.

”It's a boat, sir.”

”A boat?”

”Aye, aye, sir. Looks like a s.h.i.+p's boat.”

”Anybody aboard?”

”Can't just make out yet, sir.”

And then a minute later:

”Yes, sir. I see somebody standing up and waving. It's-it's a woman, sir.”

”Jove,” exclaimed Mr. Metcalf, who had the watch. ”Schultz, call the captain. Tell him there's a boat with a woman castaway on board ahead of us.”

”Aye, aye,” cried the old quartermaster, and hurried off on the errand, leaving the wheel to his mate; for on such a night the s.h.i.+p could be steered almost by a boy.

The captain hastened to the bridge in his pajamas and bath-robe.

”A boat, eh, Metcalf?” he said.

”Yes, sir. A s.h.i.+p's boat, by the looks of her.”

”Order the engines slowed down. Schultz, get the after cutter ready for clearing away.”