Part 21 (2/2)
”What do you think of it, Captain?” asked Walter of the skipper of the steams.h.i.+p. ”Is it possible to go about down among these islands in a big motor boat?”
”Yes, if the boat be large enough, and seaworthy.”
”I'm thinking of the Tartar,” said Jack. ”I heard of her from the engineer of the boat we came out in just now.”
”Oh, the Tartar. Yes, she is a very fine boat, and quite safe, except in a very bad storm.”
”Oh!” gasped Bess.
”But you are not likely to have bad blows now,” the captain went on, ”especially after this one we've just pa.s.sed through. It is the last of the hurricane season, I hope. In fact, this was most unusual.
Yes, I should say it would be very safe to make a cruise in the Tartar. I know the craft well.”
”And what are the chances of success?” asked Walter in a low voice of the commander, as Jack, with his sister and the Robinson twins withdrew a little apart to discuss the important question of the coming cruise.
Captain Ponchero shrugged his shoulders in truly foreign fas.h.i.+on.
”One cannot tell, Senor,” he said in a low voice. ”Certainly it is a dubious tale the sailors told--a tale of mutiny and s.h.i.+pwreck. But the sea is a strange place. Many unforeseen things happen on it and in it. I have seen s.h.i.+pwrecked ones come back from almost certain death, and again--”
He hesitated.
”Well?” asked Walter, a bit impatiently. ”Might as well hear the worst with the best.”
”And again,” resumed the captain, ”I have seen what would appear to be the safest voyage result in terrible tragedy. So one who knows much of the sea, hesitates to speak with certainty about it. I should say, Senor, that the chance was worth taking.”
”Then we may find some of them alive?”
”You may, and again--you may not. But it is worth trying. If you will come below with me, I will give you the exact longitude and lat.i.tude where we picked up the two sailors in the open boat. Then you can put for there, and make it the starting point of your search.”
”Good idea,” commented Walter.
By this time Jack and the others had finished their little discussion, and were eager to further question the captain concerning all the details he could give about the foundering of the Ramona.
But there was little else that could be told.
The sailors had given all the information they possessed. They repeated again how the s.h.i.+p had suddenly run into a storm, and how the refusal of the captain to put into a port, hard to navigate in a storm, brought on the mutiny.
”But did they see any of our folks--either Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, or Mrs. Kimball?” asked Jack, while his sister and the twins hung breathless on the answer.
The sailors had not especially noticed any pa.s.sengers. They had been in hard enough straits themselves, not having joined the mutineers.
”But they are certain the s.h.i.+p foundered? asked Cora.
”There seems to be little doubt of it, Senorita,” said the captain.
”It was a fearful storm. We had three boats carried away, as well as part of our port rail.”
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