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Bert Foster—A Project Gutenberg eBook - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -div.titlepage {text-align: center; page-break-before: always; page-break-after: always;} -div.titlepage p {text-align: center; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 2em;} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } - - -div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} -h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} - -table { - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; -} - -.tdr {text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;} - - -.pagenum { - position: absolute; - left: 92%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; - font-style: normal; - font-weight: normal; - font-variant: normal; -} - -.center {text-align: center;} - - - -.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - -.gap {padding-left: 5em;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold; text-align: center;} - -.large {font-size: 125%;} -.tiny {font-size: 60%;} - -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; - page-break-inside: avoid; - max-width: 100%; -} - - -.ph1 {text-align: center; font-size: large; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 2em;} -.ph2 {text-align: center; font-size: xx-large; font-weight: bold;} - -.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; - color: black; - font-size:smaller; - margin-left: 17.5%; - margin-right: 17.5%; - padding: 1em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - font-family:sans-serif, serif; } - - </style> - </head> -<body> -<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of From Sea to Sea, by W. Bert Foster</p> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: From Sea to Sea</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>Or, Clint Webb’s Cruise on the Windjammer</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: W. Bert Foster</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 24, 2022 [eBook #67495]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: D A Alexander, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Library of Congress)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM SEA TO SEA ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" width="40%" alt="" /></div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_frontispiece.jpg" alt="" /></div> -<p class="caption"><span class="smcap">“You Want Us To Lose This Race, You Sawney!” He Exclaimed.</span><br /> - -(From Sea to Sea)<span class="gap"> (Page <a href="#Page_135">135)</a></span></p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>From Sea to Sea</h1> - -<p>Or<br /> -<br /> -<span class="large">Clint Webb’s Cruise on the<br /> -Windjammer</span></p> - -<p>By<br /> -<span class="large">W. BERT FOSTER</span><br /> - -Author of<br /> - -The Frozen Ship; or, Clint Webb Among the Sealers.<br /> -Swept Out to Sea; or, Clint Webb Among the<br /> -Whalers. The Ocean Express; or, Clint<br /> -Webb and the Sea Tramp.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_title.jpg" alt="" /></div> - -<p>Chicago<br /> -M. A. Donohue & Co.</p> - -</div> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center"> -Copyright 1914<br /> -M. A. Donohue & Company<br /> -Chicago</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> - -<tr><td class="tdr">Chapter</td><td class="tdr" colspan="2"> Page</td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">I—</td><td>I Shield a Friend and Make an Enemy</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_7"> 7</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">II—</td><td>I Relate My History and Stand Up to a Bully</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_15"> 15</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">III—</td><td>The Bubble of My Conceit Is Pricked</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_27"> 27</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">IV—</td><td>Captain Bowditch Crowds On Sail and There Is Much Excitement</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_37"> 37</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">V—</td><td>We See a Ship Sailing in the Sky</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_47"> 47</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">VI—</td><td>The Gullwing Suffers a Ghostly Visitation</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_54"> 54</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">VII—</td><td>Is Pictured a Race in Mid-Ocean</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_64"> 64</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">VIII—</td><td>It Seems That a Prophecy Will Be Fulfilled</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_72"> 72</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">IX—</td><td>I Pass Through Deep Waters</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_80"> 80</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">X—</td><td>The Impossible Becomes the Possible</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_88"> 88</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XI—</td><td>I See That There Is Tragedy in This Ocean Race</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_96"> 96</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XII—</td><td>The Captain’s Dog Goes Overboard</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_103"> 103</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XIII—</td><td>I Learn a Deal About Sea Monsters in General and the Giant Squid in Particular </td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_110"> 110</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XIV—</td><td>A Signal Retards the Race</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_121"> 121</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XV—</td><td>We Have a Race in Good Earnest</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_131"> 131</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XVI—</td><td>I Return to the Gullwing—and With My Arms Full</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_138"> 138</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XVII—</td><td>We Learn the Particulars of the Wreck of the Galland</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_146"> 146</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XVIII—</td><td>I Become Better Acquainted with Phillis Duane</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_156"> 156</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XIX—</td><td>I Learn Something More About the Barney Twins</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_164"> 164</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XX—</td><td>Phillis Tells Me of Her Dream</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_172"> 172</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XXI—</td><td>The Sister Ships Once More Race Neck and Neck</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_179"> 179</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XXII—</td><td>The Capes of Virginia Are in Sight</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_189"> 189</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XXIII—</td><td>We Escape Death by the Breadth of a Hair</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_197"> 197</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XXIV—</td><td>The Tragedy of the Racing Ships Is Completed</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_203"> 203</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XXV—</td><td>A Very Serious Question Is Discussed</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_210"> 210</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr">XXVI—</td><td>Is Told How the Barney Boys Go Ashore</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_219"> 219</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XXVII—</td><td>I Receive a Telegram That Troubles Me</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_227"> 227</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XXVIII—</td><td>My Homecoming Proves To Be a Strange One Indeed</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_234"> 234</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XXIX—</td><td>Mr. Chester Downes and I Again “Lock Horns”</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_241"> 241</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td class="tdr" valign="top">XXX—</td><td>My Welcome Home Is a Real Welcome After All</td><td class="tdr" valign="bottom"><a href="#Page_249"> 249</a></td></tr> -</table> - - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span> - -<p class="ph2">From Sea to Sea<br /> - - -<span class="tiny">Or,</span><br /> - -<small>Clint Webb’s Cruise on the Windjammer</small></p> - - - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter I</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which I Shield a Friend and Make an Enemy</i></p> -</div> - -<p>The after port anchor had come inboard -before I stepped over the rail of the Gullwing, -and leaped to the deck. The starboard and port -bowers were both catted and fished and the -stay-fore-sail had filled to pay off her head.</p> - -<p>The wind was blowing directly on shore; the -current ran parallel with the land; there was no -choice of direction in getting the big four-master -under weigh, and she was headed into the stream.</p> - -<p>A clarion voice shouted from the poop:</p> - -<p>“Haul main-tack!</p> - -<p>“Come aft with that sheet!</p> - -<p>“Set jib and spanker! Look alive there!</p> - -<p>“Mr. Gates! see if you can’t get some action -out of your watch!”</p> - -<p>“Aye, aye, sir!” from the mate.</p> - -<p>“Helm a-lee! hard a-lee!”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span>“Hard a-lee she is!” growled the helmsman, -a great, hairy, two-fisted salt, with an enormous -quid of tobacco in one cheek, a cast in his eye, -and his blue shirt so wide open at the throat -that we could catch a glimpse of a dashing looking -mermaid, in blue and red, upon his chest.</p> - -<p>“Set fore-sail! Be alive, there, Mr. Barney. -Those men of yours act as stiff as Paddy’s -father—and him nine days dead!”</p> - -<p>The stamping of the men on the deck as -they hauled on the ropes, a confusion of cries -from those in the tops, the squeal of the cables -running over the drum, the coughing of the -donkey-engine amidships by which the huge -anchors had been started from the bottom of -Valpariso roadstead, and the general bustle and -running about, kept Thankful Polk—who had -followed me aboard the big, four-stick schooner—and -I right there by the rail, where we would -be out of the way. Thankful gave me a sly -glance, as he whispered:</p> - -<p>“I reckon we’ve caught a Tartar in Cap’n -Joe Bowditch—what?”</p> - -<p>But I had noted the lines about the skipper’s -mouth and the wrinkles at the corners of his -quick, gray eyes. Those lines and wrinkles had -not been graved in the old sea-captain’s face by -any long-standing grouch. Captain Bowditch<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span> -was a man who liked his joke; and even his -voice as he bawled orders from the quarter had -a tang of good-nature to it that was not to be -mistaken.</p> - -<p>“I reckon we’ll get along all right with him, -if we play the game straight,” I observed to my -chum, and turned then to wave my cap to Cap’n -Hi Rogers, of the whaling bark Scarboro, who -was now being rowed back to his own ship -after leaving us to the tender mercies of Cap’n -Bowditch.</p> - -<p>“By hickey!” exclaimed the boy from Georgia, -glancing now along the deck, “ain’t she a -monster? Looks a mile from the wheel to the -break of the fo’castle.”</p> - -<p>It was the largest sailing vessel I had ever -been aboard of myself. The Scarboro was a -good sized bark, but as we crossed her stern -we could look down upon the whaler’s deck and -wave our hats to the friendly crew that had -been so kind to us. Only a single scowling face -was raised to ours as the Gullwing swept on, a -creamy wave breaking either side of her sharp -bow. This face belonged to my cousin, Paul -Downes, who scowled at me and shook his fist. -But I merely smiled back at him. I thought -that—at length—I could afford to laugh at my -cousin’s threats. I was bound straight for home<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span> -aboard the Gullwing; he had eighteen months, -or more, to serve aboard the whaling bark.</p> - -<p>Seeing that both the captain and the mates -were too busy just then to bother with us, -Thank and I strolled forward. It was a long, -long deck—and the boards were as white as -stone and water could make them. There was -some litter about just now, of course; but from -the look of the whole ship I made up my mind -right then and there that if Captain Bowditch -was a martinet in anything, it was in the line of -neatness and order. The slush tub beside the -galley door was freshly painted and had a tight -cover; there was no open swill bucket to gather -flies; the cook’s wiping towels had been boiled -out and were now hung upon a patent drying -rack fastened to the house, and were as white -and clean as the wash of a New England housewife. -Every bit of brightwork shone and where -paint was needed it had been newly put on with -no niggard hand. As the sails were broke out -and spread to catch the light wind, many of -them were white-new, while those that were -patched had been overboard for a good sousing -before being bent on again. Oh, the Gullwing -was a smart ship, with a smart skipper, and a -smart crew; one could appraise these facts with -half an eye.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>“Makes you think you ought to have wiped -your feet on the mat before stepping in, eh?” -chuckled Thank. “I bet we got to a place at -last, Sharp, where we’re bound to work. That -old feller with the whiskers up there could spot -a fly-speck on the flying jib-boom. I wonder -he don’t have brass cuspidors setting ’round for -the deck-watch!”</p> - -<p>Compared with the frowzy old vessels, captained -and manned by foreigners, that make -American ports, this American ship, American -skippered, and American manned, was a lady’s -parlor. “She’s a beauty,” I said. “We may -work for our pay—whatever it is to be—but -thank’s be ’tis no sealing craft. The stench of -the old Gypsey Girl will never be out of my -nostrils.”</p> - -<p>We stood about for a few minutes longer, -trying to keep out of the way of the busy crew; -but one husky, red faced fellow came sliding -down the backstays and landed square on -Thank’s head and shoulders, pitching him to the -deck.</p> - -<p>“Get out o’ the way, you two young sawneys!” -growled this fellow. “Don’t you know enough -to keep out from under foot?”</p> - -<p>Thank had picked himself up quickly and -turned with his usual good-natured grin. It<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span> -was hard for anybody to pick a quarrel with -Thankful Polk.</p> - -<p>“My law-dee, Mister” he exclaimed. “Is -that the way you us’ally come from aloft? -Lucky I was right here to cushion ye, eh?”</p> - -<p>The red faced fellow, without a word, swung -at him with his hard fist doubled. I was a -pretty sturdy fellow myself, with more weight -than my chum, and I saw no reason for letting -him receive that blow when interference was so -easy. I stepped in and the bully crashed -against my shoulder, his blow never reaching -Thank. Nor did he hurt me, either. His collision -with my shoulder threw him off his -balance and he sprawled upon the deck, striking -his head hard. He rolled over and blinked up -at me for half a minute, too stunned to realize -what had happened to him.</p> - -<p>The encounter was seen by half a dozen of the -men, but none of the officers spied us. The -spectators laughed as though they hugely enjoyed -the discomfiture of the bully.</p> - -<p>“Sarves ye right, Bob Promise,” muttered -one of the A. B.s; “I bet ye got more than ye -bargained for in that youngster.”</p> - -<p>“Caught a Tartar, eh, Bob?” scoffed another -man.</p> - -<p>The fellow on the deck “came to” then, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span> -sprang up with every apparent intention of -attacking me. I had shielded my chum, but -it was plain that I had made an enemy.</p> - -<p>“I’ll teach ye, ye young swab!” Bob ejaculated, -and started for me.</p> - -<p>But the others interfered. Several hustled the -bully back.</p> - -<p>“None o’ that, Bob Promise!” exclaimed the -first speaker. “We’ll have the old man down -here in a second.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll break that feller’s neck!” cried Bob.</p> - -<p>“I dunno whether ye will or not—in a stand -up fight,” drawled another of his shipmates. -“He looks like he could take care of himself.”</p> - -<p>I had involuntarily fallen into an attitude of -self-defense. That is where I had the advantage -of Thank; I knew something about boxing, -and although the bully was heavier and -older than I, it was pretty certain that he had no -science. At any rate I wasn’t going to let him -think I was afraid of him.</p> - -<p>“You wait!” growled Bob Promise. “You -stand up to me in the watch below, and I’ll eat -you alive.”</p> - -<p>I had an idea that if he did I should disagree -with his stomach badly; but I did not say this. -I don’t think I am naturally a quarrelsome fellow, -if I am impulsive. Nor did I wish to get in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span> -bad with the captain and officers of the ship by -being mixed up in a fight.</p> - -<p>“Oh, pshaw!” I said, mildly. “I don’t want -to fight you, Mister. Thank didn’t intentionally -get in your way, and I didn’t mean——”</p> - -<p>“You struck me, you white livered——”</p> - -<p>“I didn’t,” I denied. “You ran against me.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t you give me no back talk,” snarled -the fellow, but looking out watchfully for the -officers now.</p> - -<p>“Don’t be mad,” I said, with a smile. “I’m -sorry if I hurt you——”</p> - -<p>I guess that wasn’t a wise thing to say, although -I did not mean to heap fuel on the flames -of his wrath. He gave me a black look as he -turned away, muttering:</p> - -<p>“Wait till I git you a-tween decks, my lad. -I’ll do for you!”</p> - -<p>Thank and I looked at each other, and I guess -my countenance expressed all the chagrin I -felt, for my chum did not smile, as usual.</p> - -<p>“You butted in for me, Sharp,” he said, -gloomily, “and now that big bruiser will beat -you up, as sure as shooting.”</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter II</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which I Relate My History and Stand Up to a -Bully</i></p> -</div> - -<p>A fine introduction to my readers! That is -the way I look at it. It does seem to me, looking -back upon the last few years of my life, that -my impetuosity has forever been getting me into -unpleasant predicaments. Perhaps if I wasn’t -such a husky fellow for my age, and had not -learned to use my fists to defend myself, I -should not have “butted in,” as Thankful Polk -said, and so laid myself open to a beating at -the hands of Bob Promise, the bully of the Gullwing’s -fo’castle.</p> - -<p>A quarrel with my cousin, Paul Downes, on a -certain September evening more than a year and -a half before, had resulted in a serious change in -my life and in a series of adventures which no -sensible fellow could ever have desired. For all -those months I had been separated from my -home, and from my mother who was a widow -and needed me, and at this particular time when -I had come aboard the Gullwing, my principal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span> -wish and hope was to get back to my home, and -that as quickly as possible. That the reader -may better understand my situation I must -briefly recount my history up to this hour.</p> - -<p>Something more than fifteen years previous -my father, Dr. Webb, of Bolderhead, Massachusetts, -while fishing from a dory off shore -was lost overboard and his body was never recovered. -This tragedy occurred three weeks -after the death of my maternal grandfather, Mr. -Darringford, who had objected to my mother’s -marriage to Dr. Webb, and who had left his -large estate in trust for my mother and myself, -but so tied up that we could never benefit by a -penny of it unless we separated from Dr. Webb, -or in case of my father’s death. Dr. Webb had -never been a money-making man—not even a -successful man as the world looks upon success—and -he was in financial difficulties at the time -of his fatal fishing trip.</p> - -<p>Considering these circumstances, ill-natured -gossip said that Dr. Webb had committed suicide. -I was but two years old at the time and before -I had grown to the years of understanding, this -story had been smothered by time; I never -should have heard the story I believe had it not -been for my cousin, Paul Downes.</p> - -<p>Mr. Chester Downes had married my mother’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span> -older sister, and that match had pleased Mr. -Darringford little better than the marriage of -his younger daughter. But Aunt Alice had died -previous to grandfather’s own decease, so Mr. -Downes and Paul had received but a very small -part of the Darringford estate. I know now -that Chester Downes had attached himself like -a leech to my weak and easily influenced mother, -and had it not been for Lawyer Hounsditch, -who was co-trustee with her, my uncle would -long since have completely controlled my own -and my mother’s property.</p> - -<p>Chester Downes and his son, who was only a -few mouths older than myself, had done their -best to alienate my mother from me as I grew -older; but the quarrel between Paul and myself, -mentioned above, had brought matters to a -crisis, and I believed that I had gotten the -Downeses out of the house for good and all. -Fearing that Paul would try to “get square” -with me by harming my sloop, the Wavecrest, -I slept aboard that craft to guard her. At the -beginning of the September gale Paul sneaked -out of the sloop in the night, nailed me into the -cabin, and cut her moorings. I was blown out -to sea and was rescued by the whaling bark, -Scarboro, just beginning a three-years’ voyage -to the South Seas.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span>I was enabled to send home letters by a mail-boat, -but was forced to remain with the Scarboro -until she reached Buenos Ayres. The -story of an old boatsteerer, Tom Anderly by -name, had revived in my mind the mystery of -my poor father’s disappearance. Tom had been -one of the crew of a coasting schooner which had -rescued a man swimming in the sea on a foggy -day off Bolderhead Neck, at the time—as near -as I could figure—when my father was reported -drowned. This man had called himself Carver -and had left the coasting vessel at New York -after having borrowed two dollars from Tom. -Years afterward a letter had reached Tom from -this Carver, enclosing the borrowed money, and -postmarked Santiago, Chile. The details of -the boatsteerer’s story made me believe that the -man Carver was Dr. Webb, who had deserted -my mother and myself for the obvious reason -that, as long as he remained with us, we could -not benefit from grandfather’s estate.</p> - -<p>While ashore at Buenos Ayres I was accosted -by a queer old Yankee named Adoniram Tugg, -master and owner of the schooner Sea Spell, -but whose principal business was the netting of -wild animals for animal dealers. He called me -“Professor Vose,” not having seen my face, and -explained that my voice and build were exactly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span> -like a partner of his whom he knew by that name. -The character of this Professor Vose, as described -by Captain Tugg, as well as other details, -led me to believe that he was the same man -whom the boatsteerer aboard the Scarboro had -known as Jim Carver, and the possibility of the -man being my father took hold of my imagination -so strongly that I shipped on the Sea -Spell for Tugg’s headquarters, located some miles -up a river emptying into the Straits of Magellan.</p> - -<p>But when we reached the animal catcher’s -headquarters we found the shacks and cages -destroyed and it was Tugg’s belief that his -partner—the mysterious man I had come so -far to see—had been killed by the natives. -Making my way to Punta Arenas, to take a -steamship for home, feeling that my impulsiveness -had delayed my return to my mother unnecessarily, -I fell in again with the Scarboro.</p> - -<p>To my surprise I found aboard of her, under -the name of “Bodfish,” my cousin, Paul Downes. -Fearing punishment for cutting my sloop adrift, -when his crime became known, Paul had run -away from home and had worked his way as -far as Buenos Ayres on a Bayne Line Steamship. -There Captain Rogers of the whaling bark had -found him in a crimp’s place and had bailed him<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span> -out and taken him aboard the Scarboro. Paul -didn’t like his job, and demanded that I pay his -fare home on the steamship, but I believed -that a few months’ experience with the whalers -would do my cousin no harm, and should have -refused his demand even had I had money -enough for both our fares. The details of these -adventures are related in full in the first volume -of this series, entitled, “Swept Out to Sea; or, -Clint Webb Among the Whalers.”</p> - -<p>Because I refused to aid Paul he threatened -again to “get square,” and he certainly made -good his threat. I was to remain but two -nights at Punta Arenas and had already paid -my passage as far as Buenos Ayres on the -Dundee Castle; but Paul got in with some men -from the sealing steamer, Gypsey Girl, and they -shanghaied me aboard, together with a lad from -Georgia, Thankful Polk by name, who had tried -to help me. Our adventures with the sealers, -and our finding of the whaleship Firebrand -frozen in the ice and deserted by her crew after -her cargo of oil was complete, is related in number -two of the series, entitled, “The Frozen -Ship; or, Clint Webb Among the Sealers.”</p> - -<p>During those adventures I learned that -Adoniram Tugg’s partner, Professor Vose, escaped -death at the hands of the Patagonians,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span> -had joined forces with the animal catcher again, -and in the Sea Spell they likewise had sought and -found the frozen ship and her valuable cargo. -Professor Vose boarded the abandoned ship -and remained by her when the Sea Spell lost -most of her spars and top-hamper and Tugg was -obliged to beat into port to be refitted. Meanwhile, -from the deck of the Gypsey Girl, I saw -the vast field of ice and bergs in which the Firebrand -was frozen break up in a gale; was horrified -by the overwhelming of the frozen ship, and -had the evidence of my own eyes that, whether -the mysterious man in whom I was so greatly -interested was merely Vose, Jim Carver, or my -own father, he had sunk with the Firebrand -under the avalanche of ice.</p> - -<p>Later the captain of the Gypsey Girl, a Russ -named Sergius, and Thankful Polk and I were -lost from the sealing steamer and are picked up -by the Scarboro which was on her way to Valpariso -to refit after the gales she had suffered -on the South Pacific whaling grounds. Captain -Rogers, knowing my exceeding anxiety to return -home, got a chance for Thank and I to work -our passage on the Gullwing, which was just -setting sail from Valpariso as the Scarboro -arrived at that port.</p> - -<p>And here we were on the deck of the handsome<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span> -schooner, homeward bound; but before I -had been here half an hour, it seemed, my ill-luck -had followed me. I was enmeshed in a -quarrel with the bully of the fo’castle, and -could look forward to suffering a most finished -trouncing when the sails were all set, the deck -cleared, and the captain’s watch was piped below.</p> - -<p>“I’ve got a good mind to give one of the -mates warning,” muttered Thank, in my ear, as -the bully went grumbling away at some call to -duty by the dapper little second mate, whom I -already judged to be Mr. Barney.</p> - -<p>“Don’t you dare!” I admonished. “That’s -no way to start. We’d have all the men down -on us, then. And we don’t know how many -weeks we may have to sail with them aboard of -this windjammer.”</p> - -<p>When they began to clear up the litter made -by the work of getting under weigh, Thank and -I saw where we could lend a hand, and we did -so. We learned, by talking with the men, that -the Gullwing was short-handed, and that is why -Captain Bowditch, shrewd old Down East -skipper as he was, had so willingly given two -rugged boys, with some knowledge of seamanship, -their passage home. Two men had deserted -at Honolulu, and another had to be -taken ashore to the hospital at Valpariso.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span>The ship, we learned, was well found, and the -men gave the officers a good name. Most of -the crew had been with her more than this one -trip. She was owned by the Baltimore firm of -Barney, Blakesley & Knight, and her run had -been out from her home port, touching at -Buenos Ayres, at Valpariso and thence on to -Honolulu and from there to Manila. On her -return voyage she made Honolulu again, Valpariso, -and now hoped to not drop her anchor -until she reached the Virginia Capes.</p> - -<p>It was the captain’s watch that was short and -we were turned over to Mr. Barney, the smart -young second mate. He was a natty, five-foot-nothing -man, whom, if he had voted once, that -was as much as he’d ever done! But the men -jumped when he spoke to them, and he had a -blue eye that went right through you and Thank -declared—made the links of your vertebrae -loosen.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the Gullwing began to travel. -Unless one has stood upon the deck of a great -sailing ship, and looked up into the sky full of -sails that spread above her, it is hard to realize -how fast such a craft can travel through the sea -under a fair wind. Many a seaworthy steamship -would have been glad to make the speed -that the Gullwing did right then, with but a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span> -fairly cheerful breeze. She made a long tack -to seaward and then a short leg back, and in -that time the Valpariso roadstead was below -the horizon and the outline of the Chilean coast -was but a faint, gray haze from the deck.</p> - -<p>We went below, leaving the mate’s watch to -finish the job. “Now for it,” I thought, for -Bully Bob had kept his eye on me most of the -time, and he crowded down the stairs behind me -when I entered the well-lighted and clean fo’castle -of the four-stick schooner. I expected -he might try to take me foul; for I knew what -sort of fighters these deep-sea ruffians were. As -a whole the crew of the schooner seemed much -above the average; but I believed Bob Promise -needed a good thrashing and I wished with all -my heart that I were able to give it to him.</p> - -<p>But if I could keep him off—make him fight -with his fists alone—I believed I at least might -put up so good a fight that the other men would -interfere when they considered Bob had given -me my lesson. I hated the thought of being -knocked down and stamped on, or kicked about -the fo’castle floor. I had seen two of the -men fight aboard the Gypsey Girl and a more -brutal exhibition I never hope to witness.</p> - -<p>So I kept my eye on Bob, as he watched me,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span> -and drew off my coat and tightened my belt the -moment I got below.</p> - -<p>“Getting ready for that beating are you?” he -demanded, with an evil smile.</p> - -<p>“I hope you won’t insist,” I said. “But if -I’ve got to take it, I suppose I must. All I -have to say, is, that I hope you other men will -see fair play.”</p> - -<p>“You can lay to that, younker,” declared the -big fellow who had held the wheel. He was an -old man, but as powerful as a gorilla. “Give -’em room, boys, and don’t interfere.”</p> - -<p>Scarcely had he spoken when the bully made -for me. His intention was, quite evidently, to -catch me around the waist, pinion my arms, and -throw me. But I determined to be caught by -no such wrestler’s trick. The ship was sailing -on an even keel and I was light of foot. Just -before the bully reached me I stepped aside and -drove my right fist with all my might into his -neck as he passed me.</p> - -<p>Goodness! but he went down with a crash. -Big as he was I had fairly lifted him from his -feet. The men roared with delight, and slapped -their thighs and each other’s backs. I could -see that they were going to enjoy this set-to if I -lasted any length of time against my antagonist.</p> - -<p>“Hold on!” I cried, before Bob Promise had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span> -managed to pick himself up, and believing that -my first blow had won me the sympathy of the -majority. “This man has all the advantage of -weight and age over me. If he’ll stand up and -fight clean with his fists, I’ll do my best to meet -him. But I won’t stand for rough work, or -clinches. He’ll best me in a minute, wrestling.”</p> - -<p>“The boy speaks true,” declared the hairy -man. “And I tell you what, mates. It ain’t -clear in my mind what the fight’s about, or -who’s in the wrong. But the lad shall have his -way. If you try to grab him, or use your feet, -Bob, I’ll pull you off him with my own two hands -and break you in two! Mark that, now.”</p> - -<p>“Hurrah!” cried the irrepressible Thank. -“Go to it, Sharp! I believe you can win out.”</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter III</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which the Bubble of My Conceit Is Pricked</i></p> -</div> - -<p>Now this is no place to report the details of a -fight of this character. It is all well and good for -a boy to learn to box; it is one of the cleanest -sports there is. It teaches one to be quick of -eye and foot, inculcates courage, gives even a -naturally timid person confidence, and aids -wind and muscle. But the game should be -played only with soft gloves—never with bare -fists.</p> - -<p>Maybe once or twice in the average boy’s life -will he need the knowledge gained in the -gymnasium to save himself from a beating. I -think now I should have sidestepped this -trouble with Bob Promise, and could have done -so with no loss of honor or self-respect.</p> - -<p>But as I saw how lubberly the fellow was, and -how clumsy he was on his feet, I was fired with -the conceit that I had a chance to hold my own -in the contest. And so I did.</p> - -<p>I passed my watch to Thank and claimed two-minute -rounds; he acted as timekeeper while<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span> -the gorilla man was referee. We fought altogether -five rounds, and during that time my -antagonist only managed to reach me half a -dozen times, and only once did he knock me to -the deck.</p> - -<p>I was pretty fresh at the end of this time, -while Bob was blowing like a porpoise, I had -closed one of his eyes, and his face was bleeding -where my knuckles had cut him deeply. During -the last round I noticed that the men had kept -mighty quiet, and as the big fellow stepped in -between us when Thank announced the end of -the round, I saw Mr. Barney, the second mate, -standing behind me.</p> - -<p>“I reckon that’s enough, boys,” said the little -second mate, good-naturedly enough. “They’re -not matched by the rules you are following. -This young fellow will soon have Bob groggy. -The boy’s got all the science and Bob has no -show.”</p> - -<p>This was putting it in a light that vexed me. -I had thought <i>I</i> was the one to earn sympathy, -not the bully.</p> - -<p>“Why,” I complained, “he pitched on me for -nothing. And he outweighs me thirty pound.”</p> - -<p>“And you outweigh <i>me</i> twenty pound, you -young bantam, you!” laughed the second mate. -“Come! I’m a better match for you than Bob is.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span>I flushed pretty red at that, for although I -saw Mr. Barney was a man to respect, I did not -think he handled his watch by the weight of his -muscle.</p> - -<p>“If you don’t think so, put up your hands -again, and we’ll try a bout,” said Mr. Barney, -still laughing. “If you give me the kind of an -eye Bob has, I won’t chalk it up against you. -The boys will tell you that if there’s anything -aboard the old Gullwing, it’s fair dealing.”</p> - -<p>“And that’s right for ye, Mr. Barney!” exclaimed -the gorilla man. Then he winked at -me. “Hit him as hard as ye kin, boy!” he -whispered.</p> - -<p>“Come on,” said the mate, buttoning his -jacket tight and taking his position. “You -won’t have to fight the whole crew to get a -standing.”</p> - -<p>I saw he meant it, and I knew by his smile -that he was a fair-minded man and wished me -no harm. I secretly thought, too, that I was -as good as he was.</p> - -<p>“Time!” called Thank, rather shakily.</p> - -<p>The very next second something happened to -me that I hadn’t expected. I thought I could -parry his first blow, at least; but it landed under -my jaw and every tooth in my head rattled. I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span> -leaped back and he followed me up with a swiftness -that made me blink.</p> - -<p>I parried several more swift blows and then -hit out myself when I thought I saw my chance. -He just moved his head a trifle to one side and -my fist shot by. My whole weight went with it -and I collided against him. He only rocked a -little on his feet, and as I dodged back he struck -me a blow on the chest that drove me half a -dozen yards into the arms of the spectators.</p> - -<p>“If I had placed that higher up—as I might—you -would have been asleep, my lad,” he said, -coolly. “Don’t you believe it?”</p> - -<p>“I do, sir,” I said, panting.</p> - -<p>“I am just as much better than you, as you -are than Bob,” he said, laughing again. “He -has no science and you have a little. But I -have more science and so we’re not fairly -matched. And now, boys, that’s fun enough for -to-day,” and he turned on his heel and went up -on deck.</p> - -<p>I tell you right now, I felt pretty foolish. -But the men didn’t laugh. The big man, whom -I learned later was Tom Thornton, said:</p> - -<p>“He’s a smart little bit of a man, is Mr. Jim -Barney. You might be proud to be put out -by him.”</p> - -<p>“Excuse me!” I returned, feeling to see if all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span> -my teeth were sound. “No kicking mule has -got anything on him when he hits you.”</p> - -<p>“And his brother Alf, on the Seamew, is a -match for him,” said another of the men. -“There’s a pair of them—brothers and twins, -and as much alike as two peas in a pod. I mind -the time they was looking for some men down -in a joint on Front Street, Baltimore, and a -gang started in to clean ’em up. Thought they -was dudes trying to be rounders. The Barney -boys held off a dozen of them till the police came, -and neither of them even showed a scratch.”</p> - -<p>I pulled myself together and went over to -Bob, who was swabbing his face in a bucket of -water. I held out my hand to him, and said:</p> - -<p>“The second mate was right. If we’d fought -rough and tumble you could have easily fixed -me. But you’ve got lots of muscle and I bet -that second mate doesn’t sail without a set of -gloves in his cabin. If he’ll lend ’em to us I’ll -teach you what little I know myself about -boxing.”</p> - -<p>“That’s fair enough!” shouted Tom Thornton. -“The boy’s all right.”</p> - -<p>“I’m game,” growled Bob, giving me his -hand. “But I don’t like fresh kids.”</p> - -<p>“That’s all right,” said I. “Mebbe I’ll get -salted a little before the voyage is over.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>And so the affair ended in a laugh. But I -guess I learned one lesson that I was not likely -to forget in a hurry.</p> - -<p>And both Thankful Polk and I had a whole -lot to learn about this big ship. Although my -chum had been five years from home (leaving -his native village in the hills of Georgia when he -was twelve) he had learned little seamanship. -Nowadays ships do not receive apprentices as -they used to in the palmy days of the American -merchant marine, which is a regrettable fact, -for it was from the class of apprentices that most -of our best shipmasters came.</p> - -<p>A seaman—a real A. B.—must know every -part of the ship he serves, its rigging and whatnot, -just as any other journeyman tradesman -must know his business. It is not necessary -that an able seaman should be a navigator; but -every navigator should be an able seaman. Such -a man likewise should be something of a sailmaker, -rigger and shipbuilder. In these days -when the work of a crew is so divided that men -are stationed at certain work in all weathers -few men before the mast are all-round seamen. -And this is likewise regrettable.</p> - -<p>In the months I had spent upon the Scarboro -I had learned much—and in that I had the advantage -of Thank. Captain Rogers and Mr.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span> -Robbins were both thorough-going seamen, and -when we were not chasing whales I had been -drilled by the mate, and by young Ben Gibson, -the second officer, in the ropes, the spars, the -handling of gear, and taught to take my trick -at the wheel with the best man aboard.</p> - -<p>And I was thankful for all this now, for although -the Gullwing was a much larger ship, -and differently rigged from the whaler, I could -catch hold now pretty well when an order was -given. I knew, too, that men like Captain -Bowditch and Mr. Gates and Mr. Barney liked -their hands to be smart, and I was not afraid to -tackle anything alow or aloft.</p> - -<p>The men told me, too, that “the old man” -(which is a term given the captain aboard ship -not at all disrespectful in meaning) was a terror -for crowding on sail. Besides, there was a -deeper reason for Captain Bowditch wishing to -put his ship through the seas and reaching Baltimore -just as soon as possible.</p> - -<p>“Ye see,” said old Tom Thornton, in the dog-watch -that afternoon, “the firm owns another -ship like the Gullwing—the very spittin’ image -of it—the Seamew. They’re sister ships; built -in the same dockyard, at the same time, and by -the very same plans. A knee, or a deck plank,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span> -out o’ either one would fit exactly into the -similar space in the other—and vicy varsy.</p> - -<p>“They was put into commission the same -month, and they make the same v’yges, as -usual. Cap’n Si Somes, of the Seamew is about -the same age as our skipper. They was raised -together down east; they went to sea together -in their first ship. And they got their tickets -at the same time, since which they’ve always -served in different ships, one mounting a notch -when the other did. Rivals, ye’d call them, but -good friends.</p> - -<p>“But they’re always and forever trying to -best each other in a v’yge. They races from the -minute they cast off moorings at Baltimore to -the minute they’re towed inter their berths -again. They crowd on sail, and work their -crews like kildee, and stow their cargoes, and -unload the same like they was racin’ against -time. And now, this trip, they’ve got a wager -up,” and old Tom chuckled.</p> - -<p>“It was this here way: We battened down -hatches the same morning the Seamew did at -Baltimore, and the tugs was a-swinging of us -out. Cap’n Si sung out from his poop: ‘Joe! -I bet ye an apple I tie up here afore you do when -the v’yge is over.’</p> - -<p>“‘I take ye,’ says our skipper, ‘pervidin’ it’s a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span> -Rhode Islan’ Greenin’—I ain’t sunk my teeth -into no other kind for forty year—it’s the kind -I got my first stomach-ache from eatin’ green, -when I was a kid.’</p> - -<p>“And that settled it. The bet was on,” -chuckled Tom. “And we fellers for’ard have -suffered for it, now I tell ye! The Seamew beat -us to Buenos Ayres by ten hours on the outward -v’yge. We caught her up, weathered the Horn -and was unloading at Valpariso when the Seamew -arrived. But, by jinks! she beat us to -Honolulu.”</p> - -<p>“How was that?” I asked.</p> - -<p>“Made a better passage. We got some top-hamper -carried away in a squall. To tell you -the truth, Cap’n Joe carried on too much sail -for such a blow. But we weren’t long behind -her at Manila, and my soul! how Cap’n Joe did -make those Chinks work unloadin’ an’ then -stowin’ cargo again when we started back.</p> - -<p>“The Seamew got away two days before we -did. But we left Honolulu a few hours ahead -of her, and she has to touch at Guayaquil—up -in Equidor. As far as time and distance goes, -however, both ships is about even. We had to -unload a lot of stuff back there at Valpariso, -and load again. Both are hopin’ not to touch -nowheres till we git home. And it wouldn’t<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span> -surprise me none if we sighted the Seamew almost -any day now, unless she’s clawed too far -off shore.”</p> - -<p>This good-natured competition between the -two big ships had, I believe, something to do -with the smart way in which the crew of this -one on which I sailed went about their work. -Jack Tar is supposed to be a chronic grumbler; -and surely the monotony of life at sea may get -on the nerves of the best man afloat; but I -seldom heard any grumbling in the fo’castle of -the Gullwing.</p> - -<p>However, there was another rivalry connected -with this voyage of the sister ships—a much -more serious matter—and, indeed, one that -proved tragic in the end, but of this I was yet -to learn the particulars in the eventful days -that followed.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter IV</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which Captain Bowditch Crowds On Sail and -There Is Much Excitement</i></p> -</div> - -<p>In writing a story of the sea—even a narrative -of personal experiences—it is difficult to -give the reader a proper idea of the daily life -of the man before the mast. It naturally falls -that the high lights of adventure are accentuated -while the shadows of monotony are very faint -indeed. But the sailor’s life is no sinecure.</p> - -<p>Saving on occasion the work on shipboard -is not very hard. The watch-and-watch system -followed on all ships makes the work easy in -fair weather; and foul weather lasts but for -short spells, save in certain portions of the two -hemispheres.</p> - -<p>“Eight bells! Rise and shine!”</p> - -<p>This order, shouted into the fo’castle at four -o’clock in the morning, roused Thankful Polk -and I from our berths. No turning over for -another nap—or for even a wink of sleep—with -that command ringing in one’s ears. We -tumbled out, got into our outer clothing, ran<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span> -our fingers through our hair (no chance for any -fancy toilets at this hour) and went on deck -with the other members of the captain’s watch.</p> - -<p>There was plenty of light by which to chore -around, and Mr. Barney’s sharp voice kept us -stirring until five when we lined up at the galley -door and each man got a tin of hot coffee—and -good coffee it was too, aboard the Gullwing. -Then buckets and brooms was the order and -the ship began to be slopped and scrubbed from -the bowsprit to the rudder timbers. No housewife -was ever half as thorough as we had to be -to satisfy Mr. Barney and the old man. Thank -and I learned that Captain Bowditch made a -tour of the deck every morning after breakfast, -and if there had been any part of the work -skimped he would call up the watch and have -the whole job done over again.</p> - -<p>“But that don’t happen more’n once on a -v’yage,” chuckled Tom Thornton, working beside -us. “The feller that skips any part of the -work he’s set to do on this here packet, gets to -be mighty onpopular with his mates.”</p> - -<p>Thus warned, we two boys were very careful -with our share of the scrubbing—and likewise -the coiling down of ropes which followed. I -can assure the reader that, when we were -through, everything in sight was as spick and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span> -span as it could be—every stain was holystoned -from the deck, the white paint glistened, and -the brasswork shone.</p> - -<p>At seven-thirty the watch below was given -breakfast and at four bells—eight o’clock—we -were relieved and went below to our own -breakfast; and that was not a bad meal aboard -the Gullwing. There are no fancy dishes -tacked onto Jack Tar’s bill of fare—nor does he -expect it; but on this ship food was served with -some regard to decency.</p> - -<p>On the Gypsey Girl “souse” was served in a -bucket, set down in the middle of the long fo’castle -table, and every man scooped his cup into -the mess, broke in his hardtack, and inhaled it a -good deal after the style of a pig at a trough. -But for breakfast on this ship there was more -good coffee, tack that was not mouldy and scraps -of meat and potatoes fried together—a hearty, -satisfying meal.</p> - -<p>Each man washed and put away his own cup, -plate and knife and fork. Some used their -gulleys, or sheath-knives; but Thank and I had -brought aboard proper table tools in our dunnage -bags. After the breakfast was cleared -away, and the fo’castle itself tidied up, the -watch below busied itself in mending, sock darning, -and such like odd jobs. A sailor has got<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span> -to be his own tailor, seamstress and housewife; -and even such a horny-handed and tar-fingered -giant as Tom Thornton was mighty handy with -his needle and “sailor’s palm.”</p> - -<p>Some of the men shaved at this time, one cut -another’s hair and trimmed his beard. The -crew of the Gullwing respected themselves; the -deck of the fo’castle was kept as well scrubbed -as the deck above. Nobody came to the table -without having scrubbed his face and hands -clean; nor was the men’s clothing foul with -tar or the grease of the running gear. They -may all have been “sword-swallowers” when it -came to “stowing their cargo ’tween hatches,” -but cleanliness was the order, and the ordinary -decencies of life were not ignored. These men -may not have been particularly strong on -etiquette, and were not “parlor broke,” as the -saying is; but they were neat, accommodating, -cheerful, and if they skylarked some, it was fun -of a good-natured kind and was not objectionable.</p> - -<p>I liked old Tom Thornton, for despite the -cast in his eye, and his gorilla-like appearance, -he was good hearted. He was just about -covered with tattooing, I reckon. As he said, -if he’d wanted to take any more indigo into his -system he’d have to swallow it! Most of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span> -work had been done on him by a South Sea -Islander who had sailed in whaling ships and -the like and made a little “on the side” by -tattooing pictures on foolish sailors.</p> - -<p>“’Taint done now, no more,” old Tom said, -shaking his head. “But when I was a youngster -it was the fashion. Poor Jack can’t afford to -buy picters and have a family portrait gallery, -or the like. But he used to be strong for art,” -and the old man grinned.</p> - -<p>“I was wrecked with this here nigger-man I -tell you about. About all he saved from the -wreck was his colors and bone needles, and the -patterns he outlined his figgers from. We was -held prisoner on that blamed reef, living on -stuff from the wreck, for three months. There -wasn’t nothing else to do. His tattooing me -kept him from going crazy, and the smart of the -thing kept me alive. So there you have it—tit -for tat! He never charged me nothing for -his work, neither, and I allus was a great lad for -gittin’ a good deal for my money.”</p> - -<p>Tom’s legs were mural paintings of serpents -and sea monsters. He had anklets and bracelets -worked in red and blue. On his back was a -picture of three gallows with a man hanging in -chains from the middle one. I believe that it -was the ignorant South Sea native’s idea of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span> -story of Calvary, for there was the typical -cross and crown worked above it at the back of -Tom’s neck. The mermaid on Tom’s chest -could have won a job as fat woman with a -traveling circus; but then, Tom had an enormous -chest which had given the tattooer plenty -of space to work on. Around his waist was -tattooed a belt like a lattice-work fence. When -he stripped to “sluice down,” as he called his -daily bath, he looked as gay as a billboard.</p> - -<p>At ten o’clock (six bells) of the forenoon watch -most of the watch below turned in for a nap, and -at half past eleven we answered the call to -dinner. At noon we were on duty again until -four o’clock. In pleasant weather this afternoon -watch is a mighty easy one. Besides the -man at the wheel and the two on lookout, the -others haven’t much to do but tell stories, play -checkers, or read. As long as everything was -neat and shipshape the old man did not hound -us to work at odd jobs as some masters do.</p> - -<p>From four to eight p. m. the time is divided -into two dog-watches, although the second half -of that spell is the actual dog-watch. “Dog” -is a corruption of “dodge,” the object of this -division being to make an even number of -watches to the twenty-four hours so that there -will be a daily changing or shifting, thus dodging<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span> -the routine. For example, the watch that goes -below one day at noon will the next day come on -deck at that hour.</p> - -<p>At five-thirty our watch had supper and at six -we took the deck once more until eight o’clock. -Then we could sleep until midnight and from -thence had the watch until four in the morning. -It is a monotonous round—especially in fair -weather. We were like to welcome a bit of a -blow now and then, although the Gullwing was -such a big ship, and her crew was so small, that -all hands had to turn out to shorten or make -sail. On some ships this fact would have made -the crew ugly but these boys had even a good -word for the cook or “doctor,” and usually -Jack looks upon that functionary as his natural -enemy.</p> - -<p>But during those first few days of the run down -the coast of Chile it was seldom that we were -called on to shorten sail. Captain Bowditch -was living up to his reputation; the Gullwing -foamed along through the short green seas -with every sail she would bear spread to the -favoring gale. With her four whole sails on -the lower spars and all her jibs set, she spread -a vast amount of canvas to the wind. And the -only changes we made were in her topsails. -Those the skipper kept spread every moment<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span> -that he dared; and it took a pretty strong gust -to make him give the order to reef down.</p> - -<p>When he left the deck himself, either day or -night, he instructed his mates to call him before -they took in an inch of cloth. And Mr. Gates -and Mr. Barney were just as hungry for speed, -as the old man. The Gullwing was heavily -laden, but there was probably few stiffer -vessels at sea that day than she. With plenty -of ballast there was no gale or no sea that could -capsize her.</p> - -<p>She took cheerfully all the wind and all the -sea could give her. A little loose water flopping -around her deck didn’t trouble Captain Bowditch. -“Tarpaulin her hatches, clamp ’em -down, and let her roll!” had been his order when -we had got well away from our anchorage at -Valpariso. We had good weather, however, as -I have said, for some days.</p> - -<p>Then suddenly, one afternoon in the first dog-watch, -it came on to blow. Carefully as the -captain watched the glass, I do not think this -squall was foretold. A more cautious navigator -might have been better prepared for a -squall. He wouldn’t have had his topsails -spread in any such gale as had been blowing. -And when all hands were called to go aloft, the -wind shrieked down upon us and the foretopsail<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span> -and two staysails were blown clean out of -the boltropes before the men could get at them.</p> - -<p>“What are ye about, ye sawneys!” yelled -Captain Bowditch, dancing up and down on the -deck and shaking his fists at the men above. -“Save my sails for me! Think I’m <i>made</i> o’ -sailcloth? And them right new fixin’s, too! Git -busy there!”</p> - -<p>Oh, we were busy! I had been sent aloft and -so had Thank. We were nimble enough in the -shrouds; but we were not as smart about -handling the stiff canvas as some. I found my -chum beside me as we hauled down the stiff -canvas upon the spar, and threw ourselves upon -the folds to hold them till they could be secured.</p> - -<p>“My law-dee!” gasped the Georgian boy, -grinning. “Jest as lives try to pin an apron -around the waist of a baby hippopotamus—what?”</p> - -<p>I saw his wet, red, grinning face for a moment -looking across at me. Then, suddenly, the ship -keeled over, the rope on which we stood overhung -those leaping, green, froth-streaked waves—waves -which seemed hungrily trying to lap -our feet. Thank disappeared! Something gave -way, his weight left the sail to me alone. And -perhaps, fearful for my chum, I bore off the -canvas myself to look for him.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span>The next instant I was cast back by the wind -tearing under the canvas and lifting it in a great -balloon.</p> - -<p>“Swish—r-r-rip!”</p> - -<p>Like a banshee on a broomstick that sail -kited off to leeward, and I was left hanging -desperately to the shrouds, with the wind booming -in my ears so that I could not even hear the -angry roaring of the skipper below.</p> - -<p>And all the time this question kept thumping -in my head: “Where was Thankful Polk?”</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter V</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which We See a Ship Sailing in the Sky</i></p> -</div> - -<p>I had forgotten my own peril. Indeed, so -disturbed was I for the moment for my chum’s -safety that I cared nothing for the lost sail. I -yelled for Thank at the top of my voice, though -doubtless the shrieking of the wind drowned all -sound of my cries. And Thank, for all I knew, -was already far to leeward, fighting in that -tempestuous sea.</p> - -<p>And then suddenly, through a rift in the flying -spray that stung my face so cruelly and almost -blinded me, I beheld something swinging -from the ropes on which I stood. The ship was -almost on her beam-ends and the waves broke -just below me. There Thank hung by his foot, -which had twisted in the ropes and was held -firm, his head and shoulders buried in the foaming -sea at every plunge of the laboring Gullwing!</p> - -<p>I shrieked again and, clinging with one hand -with a desperate grip, I sought to seize him as -he swung, pendulum-like, to and fro. <i>I could -not reach him.</i></p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>But now the brave ship was righting herself. -We rose higher and higher from the leaping -waves. Thank swung back and forth and, as -we came inboard, I feared he would batter his -poor brains out against the wire cables, or -against some spar.</p> - -<p>He was unconscious. He was helpless. And -it seemed as though I was helpless as well. -Those few momentous seconds showed me -plainly how deeply I loved the youth who had -been my comrade in adventure and labor and -peril during these last few months. I had -never had a chum before of my own age—not -one whom I had really cottoned to. Thank -was as dear to me as a brother would have been.</p> - -<p>As we rose higher and higher another fear -smote me. If his foot loosened now and he -fell, he would be dashed to death upon the deck -below. In my struggles my hand found a -loose rope. I hauled it in quickly, hung to the -spar by my elbows while I formed a noose in the -end, and was unsuccessfully trying to get this -over Thank’s head and shoulders when another -man sprang to the footrope beside me.</p> - -<p>“Git down there and grab him!” yelled this -individual in my ear. “I’ll hold you both.”</p> - -<p>It was Bob Promise and although he was the -man aboard whom I least liked, he was an angel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span> -of mercy to me just then. I knew his muscle -and vigor. With one hand he clung to the rope -and seized my belt with his other paw. I knew -that belt would hold, and I swung myself, without -question, head-downward.</p> - -<p>It was only for a moment that he had to be -under the strain of all my weight and Thank’s -as well. Then I had scrambled back to the -footrope, and held my chum in the hollow of my -arm. Thank was half drowned, but his eyes -opened and he gasped out something or other -before Bob steadied us both again upon the footrope. -Later I realized that he tried to say, in -his cheerful way: “That’s all right, Sharp!”</p> - -<p>Between us Bob and I managed to get him -down to the deck. We should not have been -able to do that without a sling had the squall -not passed away and left the old Gullwing once -more on a comparatively level keel.</p> - -<p>When we landed upon the deck boards, Thank -managed to stand erect. And we three shook -hands with a sort of grim satisfaction. I don’t -think any of us ever spoke of the event thereafter, -and our mates had not seen our peril, -but we three were not likely to forget it.</p> - -<p>The old man was still careening around the -quarter, like a hen on a hot skillet, fussing about -the lost sails. And scarcely had the squall<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span> -passed when he was ordering up new ones to -replace those that had been lost. We went to -work bending on the fresh sails while it was yet -blowing so hard that most captains would have -kept their crews out of the rigging.</p> - -<p>I began to see that Tom Thornton had not -been joking when he said that the men were -paying the penalty for the skipper’s betting an -apple with Captain Si Somes, of the Seamew. -Had it been a thousand dollars at stake, Captain -Bowditch would have been no more earnest in -his determination to beat the Gullwing’s sister -ship.</p> - -<p>But the wind was little more than a stiff gale -when the new sails were set and the ripping repaired. -We drove along until night and then -the air became very light. During the night a -fog began to gather and when our watch was -called at eight bells in the morning it was pretty -thick.</p> - -<p>“Looks like a Cape Horn soup,” growled old -Tom, as he stepped on deck. “Though we’re a -good bit of a ways from that latitude yet.”</p> - -<p>As we stumbled around the deck, doing that -everlasting cleaning up that Mr. Barney watched -so sharply, the fog began to thin and waver. -Somewhere overhead there was a breeze; but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span> -it was pretty near a dead calm down here on the -deck of the Gullwing.</p> - -<p>By the time the sun began to glow upon the -edge of the sea, looking like a great argand lamp -in the fog; overhead the billows of mist were -rolling in imitation of the long, swinging swell -of the sea itself. At first those billows in the -sky glowed in purple, and rose hues, ever changing, -magnificently beautiful! It was a seascape -long to be remembered.</p> - -<p>The sun rose higher. Its rays shot through -the rolling mist like arrows. Now and then -the breeze breathed on our sails and the Gullwing -forged ahead at a better pace. The fog -left us. We were sailing in an open space, it -seemed, with the mist bank encircling us at a -distance on a few cable-lengths, and the billows -still rolling high above the points of our masts.</p> - -<p>And then, to the westward, the curtains rolled -back as it seemed for the scene that had been -set for us. Like the stage of a great theatre, -this setting of cloud and mist and heaving sea -appeared, and there, sailing with her keel in the -clouds, and her tapering masts and shaking -sails pointing seaward, was a beautiful, misty, -four-stick schooner.</p> - -<p>“What do you know about that?” demanded -Thankful Polk. “Do you see what I see, Sharp,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span> -or have I ‘got ’em?’ That ship’s upside down.”</p> - -<p>“It’s a mirage,” I murmured.</p> - -<p>“It’s a Jim Hickey of a sight, whatever the -right name of it is,” he rejoined.</p> - -<p>Everybody else on deck was aware of the -mirage, and a chorus of exclamations arose from -the watch.</p> - -<p>“It’s the Gullwing herself!” ejaculated Bob -Promise. “Of course it is! It’s a four-sticker.”</p> - -<p>“How do you make that out?” demanded -Thank. “I know derned well <i>I</i> ain’t standing -on my head, whatever you be.”</p> - -<p>“It’s her reflection, sawney!” said somebody -else.</p> - -<p>“Oh! well I reckoned that I knew whether I -was on my head, or my heels,” chuckled the -boy from Georgia.</p> - -<p>But I had been watching the mirage very -sharply. I knew just what sails were set upon -the Gullwing, and I counted those upon the -ship in the sky. Misty as the reflection was I -could distinguish them plainly. And suddenly -I saw a movement among those sails. <i>Sharply -defined figures of men swarmed into her -rigging.</i></p> - -<p>“That’s not the Gullwing at all!” I shouted.</p> - -<p>“That boy’s right,” said Mr. Barney sharply, -coming out of the afterhouse with his glass, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span> -with the captain right behind him. “You’ve -got good eyes on you, Webb.”</p> - -<p>“By jinks! It’s the Seamew!” roared our -skipper, the moment he set his eyes upon the -mirage. “And if she’s sailing that way, she’ll -never beat us to the Capes of Virginia.”</p> - -<p>A roar of laughter greeted this joke. But the -ship in the sky began immediately to fade away, -and it had soon disappeared, while the wind -freshened with us and we forged ahead still -faster. When the fog completely disappeared -there was not a sail in sight anywhere on that -sea, although Mr. Barney went into the tops -himself and searched the horizon with a glass.</p> - -<p>But I know that they made a note of the appearance -on the log. Some of the sailors -thought the Seamew couldn’t be far from us, -either head or astern; but I knew that the -mirage might have reflected our sister ship -hundreds of miles away. The incident gave us -a deal to talk about, however, and an added -savor to the race we were sailing half around -the globe.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter VI</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which the Gullwing Suffers a Ghostly Visitation</i></p> -</div> - -<p>“The words of Agur, the son of Jaketh.... -There be three things which are too wonderful -for me, yea, four which I know not: The way -of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent -upon a rock, <i>the way of a ship in the midst of the -sea</i>....”</p> - -<p>That old fellow whose wise sayings make up -the final chapter of the Book of Proverbs had a -deal of experience and knowledge; but navigation -was a mystery to him. And to see a great -ship sailing straight away on her course, in the -midst of the sea, without a sign of land anywhere -about, is like to make one think of the wonder -of it.</p> - -<p>We picked up many a sail after the mirage of -our sister ship, during the next few days; but -none of them were the Seamew. The wind increased -and the Gullwing went snoring through -green seas, her bow in a smother of foam and a -good deal of loose water inboard on occasion.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span> -But that did not bother the captain. We were -speeding up toward the Horn and little else -mattered.</p> - -<p>We were getting into a colder latitude, too. -Now we were down about to the line where the -Gypsey Girl had steamed in and out of the -channels after seals. But we never saw the -land. The Gullwing was keeping well off shore.</p> - -<p>The keen wind blew a fitful gale. We were -glad to get into the lee of the deck-houses when -we were on duty. Thanks to Captain Rogers of -the Scarboro, however, my chum and I were well -dressed for colder weather; but we got each a -suit of tarpaulins and hip boots from Captain -Bowditch, for we had not owned them. We -could safely dress in these water-shedding garments -every watch above, when the weather -was not fair; for the schooner was bound to ship -a deal of suds.</p> - -<p>In our watch besides old Tom Thornton, was -another ancient mariner, and the only man not -an American born aboard the Gullwing—August -Stronson. He was a queer, gentle old man with -the marks of dissipation strong upon his face, -although most of his spare time below he sat and -read a well-thumbed Swedish Bible. He was a -man in whom Alcohol had taken a strangle hold -on Will. A more than ordinarily good seaman,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span> -when ashore he soon became a derelict along the -docks, finally ending in some mission or bethel -where he would be straightened out and a berth -found for him again. He was only safe aboard -ship. Eternally sailing about the Seven Seas -was his salvation.</p> - -<p>He was aboard the Gullwing, as Thank and I -were, merely by chance. And his reason for -wishing to make the port of Baltimore was a -curious one—yet one that gives a sidelight upon -the sailor’s character. As a usual thing, Jack -is grateful to anybody who does him a kindness, -and he does not often forget a favor done him. -Besides, he prides himself on “being square.” -Yet it seemed to me that old Stronson was carrying -that trait farther than most seamen.</p> - -<p>He had been picked up at Honolulu by Cap-Bowditch, -after the two men before mentioned -had deserted the Gullwing to go with a native -trader into the South Seas. Stronson had already -traveled by one craft and another from -Australia and would have traveled, when he -reached Baltimore, all of ten thousand miles to -see just one man. He told me this story in one -watch below and I think it worth repeating.</p> - -<p>“Captain Sowle, who iss de superintendent of -that mission where dey iss so goot to sailormans, -lend me a dollar five years ago when I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span> -was sick. I ban goin’ to pay dat dollar, me! I -ban going to Baltimore to pay him.”</p> - -<p>“But why didn’t you send it to him by mail?” -I asked the old fellow.</p> - -<p>“Captain Sowle, gif me dat dollar in his own -hand, and I haf to give it back to him mit mine. -I could nefer forget his kindness—no. In many -foreign ports I thought of him—how goot he -wass. I long carry that dollar note in my shirt—yes. -In Sydney I went to the sailor’s mission -one night and heard an old song das Captain -Sowle sung to me and odders in Baltimore. I -had that dollar note I haf saved mit me den. -Why! I ban shipwrecked once and safe only dot -dollar and a jumper. Luck foller me mit das -dollar.</p> - -<p>“I says to my mate dere in Sydney, ‘Bill,’ -I says, ‘I got de old man’s dollar yet. Meppe -he need it for de poys when he sing dot old -hymn to-night over seas.’</p> - -<p>“‘Do you feel uneasy like?’ Bill asks me.</p> - -<p>“‘No,’ says I, ‘but I seems to hear the old -man singing and I’m minding the old Bethel and -the winter night he ban givin’ me de dollar.’ -‘Well,’ says Bill, ‘you must bring your cargo to -port and get a discharge. You must show de -old man dat you sail straight. That’s my verdict.’</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span>“So we shook hands undt I go find me a -berth to Manila—best I can do just then. I -makes Honolulu on a Pacific Mail; but she drops -me there. Then I finds de Gullwing. She iss -de ship for me,” added Stronson, smiling in his -simple way. “She carry me straight for Baltimore, -undt I pay das dollar to Captain Sowle.”</p> - -<p>Some of the men made a good deal of fun of -Stronson because he was slow of intellect; but -he was an able seaman and even the sharp-spoken -Mr. Barney seemed to bear easy on the -old man. He was stiff in his joints at times, for -the sailor’s chief enemy, rheumatism, had got a -grip on Stronson. Thank and I saved him -many a job aloft, and in return he patiently set -about teaching us all he knew about splicing and -knotting—which was no small job for either -the old man or for us.</p> - -<p>It was soon after this that we got the four -days’ gale that I, for one, shall not soon forget. -The wind, however, did not increase so suddenly -as before, and Captain Bowditch took warning -in time and had the small sails furled. But when -the gale fairly struck us we had enough lower -canvas set in all good conscience. The ship -fairly reeled under the sudden stroke of the -blast.</p> - -<p>With the wind, too, came the snow. Such a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span> -snowstorm I had not seen for several years, for -we had had two or three mild winters in New -England before I had gone to sea. We were -forced to reef down the big sails, though every -order from the skipper to this end was punctuated -by groans. The canvas was stiff and the -snow froze on it, and we had a mess. Glad was -I that the work was not to be done in the tops.</p> - -<p>A smother of snow wrapped the Gullwing -about and we plunged on without an idea as -to what was in our path. The lookout forward -could not see to the end of the jib-boom. The -sea was lashed to fury and, again and again, a -wave broke over our bows and washed the deck -from stem to stern. To add to the wonder of it, -somewhere in the depths of the universe above -us an electrical storm raged; we could hear the -sullen thunder rolling from horizon to horizon. -At first I had thought this was surf on the rocks -and believed we were going head-on to death -and destruction; but the officers knew where we -were and they assured us that the chart gave us -an open sea.</p> - -<p>The decks were a mess of slush and it was -dangerous to go about without hanging to the -lifelines that checkrowed the Gullwing from -forward of the fo’castle to the after companionway. -Yet how the staunch craft sailed! She<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span> -shook the waves off her back like a duck under -a waterspout, and seemed to enjoy the buffeting -of the sea like a thing alive.</p> - -<p>While the storm continued we got just such -food as we could grab in our fists. Nothing -was safe on the table. The doctor kept the -coffee hot in some magic way; yet there were -times when the ship rolled so that the lids flew -off his stove and the fire was dumped on the -deck of the galley.</p> - -<p>Sixty hours and more of this sort of weather -dragged past. I once said to Tom Thornton:</p> - -<p>“It’s a pity the skipper didn’t try for the -Straits, isn’t it?”</p> - -<p>“And what would the Gullwing be doing in -the Straits, in a blow like this, my lad?” he -demanded. “A big ship like her in that narrow -way has little chance in a storm. The tail of -such a gale as this would heave her on the rocks. -There’s not seaway enough there for anything -bigger than a bugeye canoe.”</p> - -<p>“But the Scarboro made a fair course through -it,” I said.</p> - -<p>“That greaser!” snorted the old A. B. “She -can loaf along as she pleases. Sea-anchor, if -there’s a bit of a gale. But the Windjammer -has to make time. These days the big sailin’ -ships hafter compete with them dirty steam<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span> -tramps. We can’t risk bein’ becalmed in any -narrow waterway—no, sir!”</p> - -<p>It was on the fourth night, with the wind -blowing a hurricane and the snow as thick about -us as a winding-sheet, that our watch had come -on deck at midnight. I was sent as second man -with Bob Promise to the wheel. It took both -of us to handle the steering gear when the old -schooner kicked and plunged so.</p> - -<p>We were under close-reefed mainsail and jibs -and were battling fearful waves. The sleet-like -snow drove across her deck and all but blinded -us. I had to keep wiping the slush off the -binnacle, or the lamp would have been completely -smothered and we could not have seen -the trembling needle.</p> - -<p>Sometimes the officer on the quarter was -hidden from our eyes, but his voice reached us -all right:</p> - -<p>“Steady your helm! You lubbers act like -your muscles were mush. Keep off! Can’t you -hear that sail shaking? You’ll have us under -sternway yet. Call yourselves sailors? You’re -a pair of farmers! What d’ye think you’re doing? -Plowing with a pair of steers? Steady!”</p> - -<p>Bob muttered imprecations on Mr. Barney’s -head; but I knew better.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span>“He’s nervous, that’s all,” I said. “He’s -always so when the skipper ain’t on deck.”</p> - -<p>“All he thinks of is whether we’re beatin’ the -Seamew, or not,” growled Bob.</p> - -<p>“I notice that bothers him,” said I. “But -he hasn’t bet a Greening apple on the race, has -he?”</p> - -<p>“It’s bigger than that, I reckon. They say -it’s something betwixt him and his brother Alf. -They’ve been sore on each other for a year or -more.”</p> - -<p>I knew Mr. Alfred Barney was second mate -of the Seamew, and I wondered what the -trouble was between the twin brothers.</p> - -<p>But just as this moment something happened -that gave our minds a slant in another direction. -The snow squall had thinned. We could see -pretty near the length of the deck from where -we stood—Bob and I—at the wheel.</p> - -<p>Suddenly my mate uttered a stifled yell and -his hands dropped from the spokes.</p> - -<p>“Looker there!” he gasped.</p> - -<p>I hung to the wheel, although a kick of the -schooner near sent me on my head.</p> - -<p>“Catch hold here, confound you!” I bawled.</p> - -<p>“There!” he cried again, pointing with a -terror stiffened arm into the forerigging.</p> - -<p>I saw a flash of light—a glow like that of a big<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span> -incandescent lamp bulb. It hung for fully -thirty seconds to the very tip of one of the fore-topmast -spars. Again, another flashed upon -another point of the rigging. Bob Promise -crouched by the wheel; he fairly groveled, while -I could hear cries and groans from many of the -hands on deck.</p> - -<p>“What’s the matter with you? What is it?” -I demanded, still fighting with the wabbling -wheel alone; and I am afraid I kicked him. -“Catch hold here!”</p> - -<p>“Corpse lights!” groaned Bob, not even resenting -my foot. “We’re all dead men. We’re -doomed.”</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter VII</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which Is Pictured a Race in Mid-Ocean</i></p> -</div> - -<p>There was a snapping and crackling in the air -over the laboring ship. It sounded as though -the taut stays were giving way, one after another. -For the moment, what Bob said about “corpse -lights” I did not understand; I was mainly -giving my attention to the wheel.</p> - -<p>But the ship came to an even keel for a minute -and I was able to hold her on her course, and get -my breath. Then I beheld the strange lights -shining here, there, and everywhere about the -rigging, and I was amazed. Not that I was -frightened, as Bob and some of the others of the -watch appeared to be. The sailor is a very -superstitious person; and let him tell it, there -are enough strange things happen at sea to convince -a most philosophical mind that there is a -spirit world very, very close to our own mundane -sphere. There’s a very thin veil between the -two, and at times that veil is torn away.</p> - -<p>But I knew in a minute that what Bob<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span> -meant by “corpse lights” were corposant lights -and were an electric display better known as -“St. Elmo’s fire.” The lights were globular in -shape, and about four inches in diameter. -There were apparently a score of them all -through the rigging, and they appeared at -intervals of a minute, or two. The driving -sleet could not hide them, and the fires illuminated -the ship and the sea for some distance -around her.</p> - -<p>It certainly was a queer sight, and the brilliance -of the corposant lights was very marked. -I heard Mr. Barney shouting from his station:</p> - -<p>“Keep your shirts on, you hardshells! They -won’t bite—nor none o’ you ain’t got to go aloft -to put ’em out. There’s one sure thing about -them lights—they won’t set the rigging afire.”</p> - -<p>“Get up and take hold of this wheel, Bob,” -I exclaimed, “or I’ll yell for help. I can’t -handle her proper if she plunges again.”</p> - -<p>He got up shakingly and took hold. When -the sea was sucked away from the bow of the -Gullwing next time we held her on her course. -But my companion was still frightened and -looked at the glowing lights askance.</p> - -<p>“Holding your own there at the wheel, boys?” -demanded Mr. Barney.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span>“Aye, aye, sir!” I replied, but Bob didn’t even -whisper.</p> - -<p>Suddenly the last light disappeared—as suddenly -as the first had appeared—and immediately -there was a loud explosion over our -heads and Mr. Barney pitched down the ladder -to the deck. Several of the other men were -flung to the deck, too, and Bob gave another -frightened yell and started forward on a dead -run.</p> - -<p>He collided with Captain Bowditch, who had -just shot up through the companionway.</p> - -<p>“What’s this, you swab?” yelled the skipper, -grabbing Bob by the collar with one hand and -seizing a rope with the other, as the ship staggered -again. “What d’ye mean?”</p> - -<p>Then he saw Mr. Barney just scrambling to -his feet.</p> - -<p>“What’s this mutinous swab been doing, -sir?” added the captain.</p> - -<p>The second mate explained in a moment. -But Bob suffered. The old man was in a towering -rage because he had left his post.</p> - -<p>“You flat-footed son of a sea-cook!” he -bawled, shaking Promise, big as he was, like a -drowned kitten. “What d’ye mean by leaving -the wheel? That boy yonder kept his place -didn’t he? Scared of a light, be ye? Why, if a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span> -sea-sarpint came aboard that wouldn’t be no -excuse for your leaving the helm. Git back -there!”</p> - -<p>And when he started Bob aft again he accelerated -his motions with a vigorous kick in -the broad of the seaman’s back. Bob grabbed -the spokes of the wheel, and braced himself, -with a face like a thundercloud. I crowded -down my amusement and perhaps it is well I -did. The fellow was in no mood for enduring -chaffing. When a man is both angry and scared -a joke doesn’t appeal to him—much.</p> - -<p>I am reminded that this is a sorry scene to -depict. Yet Captain Bowditch was a kindly -man and not given to unjust punishments. -And I believe that Bob got only what he deserved. -Even terror cannot excuse a man for -neglecting his duty, especially at sea. It is -like a private in the ranks enduring the natural -fear of a first charge against the enemy. No -matter what he may feel in his trembling soul, -for the sake of the example he sets the man -next to him, he must crowd down that fear and -press on!</p> - -<p>The storm had broken, however. At daylight -we found that four feet of the fore-topmast -had been snapped off short, whether by the -electrical explosion, or by the wind, we could not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span> -tell. But that was the end of that bad spell of -weather, thanks be! The Gullwing sailed -through it, we spliced on a new spar, trimmed our -sails, and tore on, under a goodly press of canvas, -for the Horn.</p> - -<p>But several of the crew remained gloomy because -of the “corpse lights.” Something was -bound to happen—of course, something unlucky. -The lights had foretold it. And Stronson, with -Tom Thornton and other of the old salts, told -weird tales in the dog-watch.</p> - -<p>In spite of the hurricane we had made good -time in this run from Valparaiso. As far as I -could see, however, nothing momentous happened -at once; and the next important incident -that went down in the ship’s log was the sighting -of the Seamew.</p> - -<p>We really saw her this time—“in the flesh,” -not a ghostly mirage. She came out of the murk -of fog to the south’ard at dawn and, far away as -she was, the lookout identified her.</p> - -<p>“Seamew, ahoy!” he yelled.</p> - -<p>It brought all hands upon deck—even the -mate himself who had just turned in, and the -captain, too. There the sister of the Gullwing -sailed, her canvas spread to the freshening morning -breeze, her prow throwing off two high foamy -waves as she tacked toward us.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span>She was on one tack; we were on the other. -Therefore we were approaching each other -rapidly. And what a sight! If a marine artist -could have painted the picture of that beautiful -ship, with her glistening paint, and pearl-tinted -sails, and her lithe masts and taut cordage, he -would have had a picture worth looking at. -And from her deck the Gullwing must have -seemed quite as beautiful to those aboard the -Seamew.</p> - -<p>The two ships were the best of their class—more -trimly modeled than most. I had not -realized before what a beautiful ship the Gullwing -was. I saw her reflected in the Seamew.</p> - -<p>She carried an open rail amidships; and her -white painted stations, carved in the shape of -hour-glasses, with the painted flat handrail -atop, stood clearly and sharply defined above -her black lower sides and the pale green seas.</p> - -<p>Not that either ship showed much lower -planking, saving when they rolled; they were -heavily laden. With all her jibs and all her -whole sails on the four lower spars, and most of -the small sails spread above, our sister ship -certainly was a beautiful picture.</p> - -<p>But the old man wasn’t satisfied. Through -his glass he saw something that spurred him to -emulation.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span>“She’s got all her t’gallant-sails set, by -Pollox!” he bawled. “Mr. Gates! what are you -moonin’ about? Get them men up there in -short order, or I’ll be after them myself.” And -as we jumped into the rigging, I heard him growling -away on the quarter: “That’s the way Cap’n -Si beats us. He crowds on sail, <i>he</i> does. Why, I -bet he never furled a rag durin’ that four-day -breeze we just struck, and like enough had the -crew pin their shirts on the wash line inter the -bargain.”</p> - -<p>Two vessels may be rigged alike and built -alike, but that doesn’t mean that they will sail -exactly alike. The Seamew was a shade faster -in reaching and running than the Gullwing. -Mr. Barney told me that.</p> - -<p>“But to windward we have the best of her. -And that’s not because of our sailing qualities. -The difference is in the two masters,” the second -mate said. “Captain Joe can always get more -out of his ship than Captain Si can out of his -when the going is bad. In fair weather the -Seamew will beat us a little every reach. But it -isn’t all fair weather in a voyage of ten thousand -miles, or so,” and he smiled—I thought—rather -nastily.</p> - -<p>I was reminded of the hint Bob Promise had -given me that there was bad blood and no<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span> -pleasant rivalry between our second mate and -the twin who held the same berth on our sister -ship. Mr. Barney was in the tops studying the -Seamew a good deal through the glass that day, -too. I wondered if he was trying to see if his -brother was on deck.</p> - -<p>For we did not run near enough to her that -day for figures to be descried very clearly either -on her deck or in her rigging.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter VIII</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which It Seems That a Prophecy Will Be -Fulfilled</i></p> -</div> - -<p>We wallowed through the seas, but with -comparatively fair winds, for two days. The -Seamew would stand off on one tack, we on the -other; and by and by we would lose her below -the horizon; but, standing in, after some hours, -we found her again and were glad to see that she -had not pulled so very much ahead of us. But -it made Captain Joe awful fidgety, and he -certainly did keep the men hopping—reefing -and letting go the topsails, and working every -moment to gain a bit over his antagonist. Why, -we might as well have been sailing a crack yacht -for the America’s cup!</p> - -<p>All this activity was very well during bad -weather; but the men began to get pretty sore -when the hard work continued throughout the -hours of fair days too. The Gullwing was, as I -have said, short-handed. The sea laws cover -such cases as this; but there are so many excuses -masters may give for going to sea without sufficient<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span> -hands to properly manage the ship that -it is almost impossible to get a conviction if -the case is carried to court.</p> - -<p>Besides, it is the law that, if a case is not -proved against the master of a vessel, the men -bringing the suit must pay all the costs. Jack -Tar knows of something else to do with his small -pay without giving it to “landsharks of lawyers.” -That is why being a sailor and being a slave is -an interchangeable term. Many legislators, -having the welfare of seamen at heart, have -tried to amend the laws so that the sailor will -get at least an even break; but it seems impossible -to give him as fair a deal as the journeyman -tradesman in any other line of work obtains.</p> - -<p>Old Captain Joe Bowditch, as decent a master -as he really was, had a streak of “cheese-paring” -in him that made him delight in saving on -the running expenses of his ship. Besides, he -probably knew his employers, Barney, Blakesley -& Knight. Many a sea captain takes -chances, and runs risks, and sails in a rotten -ship with an insufficient crew, because he needs -to save his job, and if he doesn’t please his employers, -some other needy master will!</p> - -<p>Although the Gullwing was so large a ship, -there are larger sailing vessels afloat, notably<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span> -some engaged in the Atlantic sea-board trade, -and a fleet of Standard Oil ships that circumnavigate -the world. These are both five and six -masted vessels; but many of them are supplied -with steam winches, steam capstans, and various -other mechanical helps to the handling of the -sails and anchors. The Gullwing had merely a -donkey-engine amidships, by which the anchors -could be raised, one at a time, or to which the -pumps might be attached. The great sails on -her lower masts had to be raised by sheer bull -strength.</p> - -<p>But in our watch old Tom Thornton was a -famous chantey-man, and the way we hauled -under the impetus of his rhythm, and the swing -of the chants (“shanties,” the sailor-man calls -them) would have surprised a landsman. I -learned that “a strong pull, a long pull, and a -pull altogether” would accomplish wonders.</p> - -<p>We were now down in the regions where the -tide follows the growing and waning of the -moon exactly. Indeed, the great Antarctic -Basin, south of the Cape of Good Hope and -Cape Horn, is the only division of the seas where -the tide follows the moon with absolute regularity. -This is because the great sweep of water -here is uninterrupted by land.</p> - -<p>The enormous wave, raised by the moon’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span> -attraction, courses around the world with nothing -to break it. Here in our northern hemisphere -immense masses of land interfere with the -coursing of this tidal wave; and the shallow seas -interfere, too. In the Mexican Gulf, for instance, -the tide seldom rises more than two feet, -while up along our north Atlantic shores it -often rises six and eight feet, while everybody -has heard of the awful tidal wave of the Bay of -Fundy.</p> - -<p>The depth of the water, therefore, has much -to do with tidal irregularities. Out in the open -ocean, where the tide is abyssmal—that is, about -five thousand fathoms—the speed of the waves -is amazing. Where the depth decreases to five -fathoms the tide cannot travel more than fifteen -miles an hour. In England, for example, which -is surrounded by narrow land-broken seas, the -result is that they get some of the most terrible -and dangerous tidal races and currents to be -found anywhere on the globe.</p> - -<p>In the South Seas—particularly at Tahiti—the -ebb and flow of the tide is perfectly adjusted. -It is always full tide at noonday and at -midnight, while at sunrise and sunset it is low -water. The rise and fall seldom exceeds two -feet; but once in six months a mighty sea comes -rolling in and, sweeping over the corral reefs,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span> -nature’s breakwater, it bursts violently on the -shore. Indeed, sometimes this tidal wave inundates -entire islands.</p> - -<p>In various parts of the world the tide creates -various natural phenomena. There is the -whirlpool between the islands of Jura and Scarba, -on the west coast of Scotland, known as the -“Cauldron of the Spotted Seas.” The Maelstrom -upon the coast of Norway is another -creation of the tide. The force of a heavy tidal -current pushing up a wide-mouthed river, -causes what is termed a “bore.” The most -striking example of this tidal feature is seen at -the mouth of the Amazon, where a moving wall -of water, thirty feet high and from bank to bank, -rushes inland from the ocean.</p> - -<p>The waves raced by the Gullwing’s bulwarks -with dizzy speed. We plowed on, gaining all -we could in every reach, but noting likewise that -the Seamew, when she was in sight, seemed to -draw away from us. When we had beheld her -in the mirage she must have been a long way -behind.</p> - -<p>I reckon Captain Bowditch prayed for foul -weather. And he did not have to pray long in -this latitude. We were in the district of the -Boiling Seas. Fogs are frequent; gales sweep -this section below the Horn almost continually—sometimes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span> -from one direction, sometimes from -another. All the winds of heaven seem to meet -here and gambol together.</p> - -<p>“He’s runnin’ us into trouble, that’s what he -ban doing,” croaked Stronson. “De old man, I -mean. He iss not satisfied with the fair wedder; -and who but a madt man vould crave for a gale -down here under de Horn?”</p> - -<p>But we younger fellows laughed at the old -Swede. We were almost as much excited in the -race between the two windjammers as were -Captain Bowditch and Mr. Barney.</p> - -<p>“Remember!” croaked Stronson. “The corpus -lights wass not for nottings. Trouble iss -coming.”</p> - -<p>“But not necessarily trouble to the ship,” -declared Tom Thornton. “Them St. Elmo’s -fires foreruns death.”</p> - -<p>“Dey ban mean bad luck, anyway,” growled -Stronson.</p> - -<p>Thank and I listened to all this croaking with -a good deal of amusement. It surely never -entered my head that the prophecy of the old -men might be in anyway fulfilled.</p> - -<p>And I certainly did not feel any foredoom of -peril myself. The expected gale came down. -We passed within sight of the islet named Cape -Horn, with a terrific wind blowing and the waves<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span> -running half mast high. The Seamew had then -been dropped behind. Indeed, the last we saw -of her, she was wallowing in our very wake.</p> - -<p>“Gimme a breeze like this,” roared Captain -Joe from his station, to Mr. Gates and Mr. -Barney, “all the way to the time we take our -tug, and we’ll be eating supper in Baltimore -before that Seamew sights the Capes o’ Virginia.”</p> - -<p>But this, of course, was only brag. The -Seamew was not far behind us.</p> - -<p>And then, that very night the prophecy of ill-luck -was fulfilled, at least insofar as it affected -me. Something broke loose and began to slat -in the tops. Mr. Gates, roaring through the -captain’s speaking trumpet, shouted for all -hands. We had barely got to sleep below, and I -reckon I was half way up the shrouds before I -got both eyes open.</p> - -<p>It was a black night, with the wind coming in -strange, uneven puffs, and the deck all a-wash -with loose water. The ship was rolling till the -ends of her yardarms almost dipped in the leaping -waves.</p> - -<p>My foot slipped; futilely I clutched at the -brace with the tips of my fingers. I knew I was -lost, and the shriek I uttered was answered by -Thank’s voice as I whirled downward:</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span>“Man overboard!”</p> - -<p>I shot down, and down, and down—and then -struck the sea and kept on descending. I -thought of Mahomet’s coffin, hung between the -heavens and the earth. I was hung between the -ship’s keel and the bottom of the vast deep, -swinging in that coffin which can never rot—the -coffin of the ocean.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter IX</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which I Pass Through Deep Waters</i></p> -</div> - -<p>But I came to the surface after a time—and -with all my wits about me. I had need of them.</p> - -<p>In these months that I had been knocking -about the seas I had been in peril often. Nor -was this the first time that death by drowning -had threatened me.</p> - -<p>But on no former occasion had I been in so -desperate a strait. I know that in this rising -gale the Gullwing could neither be hove to, nor -could a boat be launched for me.</p> - -<p>The schooner had gone on at the pace of a -fast steamship. And the tide was sweeping me -astern just as rapidly as the ship was sailing. -When I rose breast high on the first breaker I -saw the Gullwing’s twinkling lights so far ahead -that they seemed like candle flames.</p> - -<p>I was alone—and this was one of the loneliest -seas upon all this great, round globe!</p> - -<p>But when one is thrown into such a situation -of peril as I was then, his thoughts are so confused -that it is only afterward—if there <i>is</i> an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span> -afterward—that he analyzes his mental activities. -Just then I had only the clear desire to -live.</p> - -<p>I turned on my back almost immediately and -letting my legs hang well down, floated easily -with my nostrils just out of water, and enjoyed -two or three minutes of very, very grateful repose. -I had been under the surface so long that -it was some time before I could breathe clear to -the bottom of my lungs again.</p> - -<p>The buzzing in my head gradually died away. -I began to think collectedly. I did not waste -time thinking of rescue. At least, I could expect -no help from my comrades on the Gullwing.</p> - -<p>When I took my headlong plunge from the -rigging I was clad in the heavy garb that most -deep-water seamen wear. I had on two thick -shirts, a heavy pea-jacket closely buttoned, and, -worse than all, boots to my hips. Sooner or -later all this weight of clothing would drag me -down.</p> - -<p>I had paddled half a day at a time in Bolderhead -Bay; and even the fresh water ponds about -Darringford House, with their hidden springs -and under-tows, had never frightened me. I -was the first boy to go in swimming in the -spring and it had to be a pretty cold day in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span> -fall that drove me out of the water after the first -plunge.</p> - -<p>Of course, this sea off the boisterous islet of -Cape Horn, was no warm bath. The chill of -it struck through to the marrow of my bones; -yet I believed I was good for several hours yet, -if I could get rid of those clothes.</p> - -<p>Undressing under water was a trick I had tried -more than once; but it was those long-legged -boots that scared me. They already made my -lower limbs feel as heavy as lead.</p> - -<p>Paddling with one hand I tore open my jacket -with the other, ripping the buttons off or through -the buttonholes as they pleased, and finally got -one shoulder and arm clear. As I was fumbling -to get the other arm out of the sleeve I felt the -handle of my knife.</p> - -<p>The coat stuck to my left shoulder; but a -few slashes cleared me of the garment. It went -floating away on the tide.</p> - -<p>I had bobbed up and down in this operation; -but was none the worse for the plunges under the -surface, being careful to breathe no water into -my lungs.</p> - -<p>With the knife I slit both my shirts and tore -them off. But the boots were the problem -that shook me. I had to rest a bit before I -tackled them.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span>I doubled up in a sitting posture and made a -slash at one bootleg. Down I went—down, -down, until it was a fight to get up again—especially -with my fist closed upon my knife -handle. It was pretty hard work; every slash -meant a plunge under. It was slow.</p> - -<p>I would draw up my left foot, for example, -paddle vigorously with my left hand, take a long -breath, make a slash with the knife in my right -hand—and start for the bottom of the sea!</p> - -<p>But I got those boots off at last, though not -without suffering several cuts and slashes upon -my legs, which the salt seawater stung tremendously. -I had already gotten rid of my -belt, and my trousers came off easier. I was -sorry to lose some things in my pockets; but -was glad to think that my father’s chronometer -was hanging above my berth in the Gullwing’s -fo’castle and that what money I had was in the -keeping of Captain Bowditch.</p> - -<p>And yet, it seemed utterly foolish to think of -escape from this predicament. I had heard -stories of wonderful rescues from drowning in -mid ocean; but why should <i>I</i> expect a miracle? -Here I was, struggling miles behind the Gullwing, -as naked as the day I was born.</p> - -<p>Not many minutes had been spent in these -maneuvers, for all the time occupied in their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span> -telling. For the Gullwing to have launched a -boat to hunt for me would have been ridiculous. -By day there might have been some chance of -their finding me before I sank for good; but in -the night—and a night as black as this—such -an attempt would endanger a boat’s crew for -nothing.</p> - -<p>If they had flung me life-buoys, they would -have to come to me, for I could not see them. -Gazing up into the sky I saw that scurrying -clouds gave signs of a break in the weather. -Here and there a little lightening of the gloom -overhead showed the moon’s rays trying to -break through the mists.</p> - -<p>Breast high again upon a rising wave, I took -one swift, whirling look all about. Dense -blackness everywhere on the face of the ocean; -but just as I sank back again the moon, breaking -through a rift, lighted up a silvery path before -me and at the end of that path—for an instant—I -believed I saw the glistening sails of the Gullwing!</p> - -<p>It may have been a mirage—a vision. The -blackness shut down upon me, and upon the -sea again; but I fell back into the trough experiencing -a more sickening sense of desolation -than I had yet felt. It seemed to me as though<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span> -I had looked upon the last sign of human life -that I would ever see.</p> - -<p>I suppose a more hopeless situation than mine -could scarcely be imagined. Yet I have philosophized -upon it much more since than I did at -the time. I would not let my mind picture the -natural end of this adventure. My mind rebounded -from the horrible thought that I was -lost. I would not contemplate it.</p> - -<p>In the middle of this broad, tempestuous sea—naked—alone. -No hope of rescue by my companions -on the Gullwing, with not a splinter to -cling to, keeping from death only by constant -effort. Yet there was something inside me that -would not give up hope—that would not let my -muscles relax—that clung with a desperation -that clamped me to life!</p> - -<p>But at first it was little exertion for me to -keep afloat. I was in first rate physical condition -and I was not afraid of sinking right -away. I knew how to handle myself.</p> - -<p>I lay on my back with my head deep, my -mouth closed, only my nostrils above, conserved -the strength of my legs by letting them hang -deep, kept my arms outstretched, pretty well -down in the water, palms down, and paddled -gently, sometimes with both legs and arms, and -again only with my hands.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span>The waves rolled me over occasionally and -used me roughly; but I did not lose my head -and never sank to any depth, having always -plenty of air in my lungs. When I felt that my -arms might become wearied I folded them under -my head and kicked easily.</p> - -<p>I am not sure that the sea subsided; but I -believe it must have done so. It was a providence -for me, then. I know that not many of -the waves broke over me, and I seemed sliding -up and down vast swells which heaved up out of -Nowhere, gray and green and foam-streaked, -and then disappeared and left me floating in the -deep trough.</p> - -<p>If anyone was ever literally rocked in the -cradle of the deep, I was that person—from the -crest of the wave, down, down, in a gradually -diminishing rush, and then up and up to the -crest of the next roller—and so on, over and -over again.</p> - -<p>Once I let my mind slip and began to calculate -the chances for and against my escape. The -conviction that it was impossible rushed over -me and I turned over quickly and struck out -with a savage, hand-over-hand stroke through -the waves, with the momentary insane feeling -that I must get somewhere!</p> - -<p>The dogged idea of living as long as I could,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span> -however, came to me again with fatigue, and I -rolled over and rested, cradled in the waves.</p> - -<p>My hand touched my knife, which still hung -by its lanyard from my neck. An awful thought -touched my mind, at the same moment. They -say it is an easy death, this drowning; but I -can imagine nothing more awful than to drift -for hours upon the surface of the sea with the -knowledge in one’s mind that, after all, there is -but one end possible. I opened my knife and -held it tightly gripped in my hand a moment. -Then I pulled the lanyard over my head and -let the knife and all drop into the depths—and -the curse went from me.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter X</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which the Impossible Becomes the Possible</i></p> -</div> - -<p>Four hours had I floated on the tumbling -sea, with the clouds above gradually breaking -and with the moon finally paleing under the -stronger light of the advancing sun. The blackness -disappeared. A wind-driven sky arched -the sea. And I lay looking up into heaven, waiting -for the end.</p> - -<p>For I was in a sort of mesmerized state toward -the last, and kept myself afloat automatically. -It must have been so; by no other means can I -explain that I was still floating on the surface -when the sun arose.</p> - -<p>The rocking motion of the swells soothed me -to a strange content that I can neither explain -nor talk about sanely. I remember I babbled -something or other over and over again; I was -talking to the moon riding so high there among -the rifted clouds.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>In the night of July 14, 1886, the British ship<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span> -Conqueror, fourteen days out from Liverpool, -bound for the lumber and fishing ports of the -Miramichi, in the Straits of Northumberland, -lost overboard Robert Johnson, A. B. The fact -is registered on the ship’s log. Three days after -the Conqueror reached Miramichi, the Bark -Adelaide, from Belfast, likewise came into port -and when she was warped into her berth beside -the Conqueror, the first man to step from the -Adelaide to the Conqueror’s deck was Bob -Johnson.</p> - -<p>There are reasons for the sailor-men being -superstitious. The crew of the Conqueror would -not sail with Bob Johnson again. He was <i>fey</i>. -But really, he had only experienced a strange -and harsh adventure. The Adelaide, following -the unmarked wake of the Conqueror, had -picked him up after he had floated for some -hours.</p> - -<p>And there are plenty of similar incidents in the -annals of those who go down to the sea in ships -to match this narrative of Bob Johnson.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The men who picked <i>me</i> up told me that I -shouted to them; but I do not remember it. -They were a crew of a boat put overboard by -the Seamew, and they brought me aboard and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span> -I lay in a bunk in the fo’castle all that day without -knowing where I was, or how I had been -snatched from an ocean grave.</p> - -<p>About the first thing I remember clearly was -that a young man stood beside my berth and -looked down upon me with a rather quizzical -smile. I knew him at once and thought that I -must be in my old bunk aboard the Gullwing.</p> - -<p>“I—I—. Have I been sick, Mr. Barney?” I -asked, and was surprised to find my voice so -weak.</p> - -<p>He seemed surprised for a moment, too, and -then I saw his face flush. He exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“By the great hornspoon! this fellow is off -the Gullwing.”</p> - -<p>“I <i>was</i> off the Gullwing,” I whispered. “But -I guess this is no dream? I am aboard again -now.”</p> - -<p>“No you’re not!” he declared, but he still -seemed bewildered.</p> - -<p>“This isn’t the Gullwing?”</p> - -<p>“It’s the Seamew,” he said.</p> - -<p>“But—but—you’re Mr. Barney?”</p> - -<p>“I am,” he said, grimly. “But not the Mr. -Barney you know, young man.”</p> - -<p>Then the mystery broke and I understood. -It was Mr. Alf Barney I was talking to, the -second mate of the Seamew.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span>“Then—then you picked me up,” I murmured.</p> - -<p>“And we had an idea that you were a merman,” -he said, with a quick laugh. “Out here -in the ocean without a stitch of clothing on you.”</p> - -<p>I told him how I had got rid of my garments -after falling overboard from the other ship. The -men below gathered around to listen. They -were men of about the same class as manned the -Gullwing, I saw.</p> - -<p>“You’re the luckiest fellow that ever drew -breath, I believe,” said the second mate, finally. -“You stay abed here till morning. Then you -can go forward and talk to the captain. It’s -almost unbelievable.”</p> - -<p>And I scarce believed it myself—at least, not -while I was so lightheaded and weak. But being -a husky fellow my strength quickly came back -to me, and the care of the kind fellows in the -fo’castle set me on my pins the next day. I had -a brief interview with Captain Si Somes—a long, -cadaverous, hatchet-faced man who barked his -words at one as though he did not like to waste -either voice or words.</p> - -<p>“So Cap’n Joe didn’t try to pick ye up?”</p> - -<p>“I reckon he couldn’t. It was blowing pretty -hard just then.”</p> - -<p>“That’s like the old murderer,” he snapped.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span> -“Didn’t clew down his tops’ls quick enough of -course. He means to beat me if he kin.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir,” I said.</p> - -<p>“Well, he won’t. We’ll pick him up if the -wind keeps this a-way.”</p> - -<p>“No chance of my getting back to her I -sp’ose?” I suggested.</p> - -<p>“To the Gullwing?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> - -<p>“Wa-al! I ain’t goin’ to waste no time puttin’ -you aboard. He’s short-handed anyway. He -allus is. I’ll feed ye for the sake of keepin’ -ye,” and he cackled rather unpleasantly.</p> - -<p>I didn’t like him as well as I did Captain -Bowditch. And my interest was centered in -the success of the Gullwing, too. I wanted to -get back to her and see her win the race.</p> - -<p>I found the fo’castle hands of the Seamew just -as much interested in the rivalry of the two -ships as the Gullwing’s hands were. They believed -they were on the better craft, too.</p> - -<p>“Why, she sails a foot and a half to the Gullwing’s -one in fair weather,” one man told me. -“Wait till we get out of this latitude. You’ll -see something like sailing, then, when the Seamew -gits to going.”</p> - -<p>I thought she was sailing pretty fast just then, -and said so.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span>“If she ever struck another craft—or anything -drifting in the sea—she’d just about cut it -down with that sharp bow,” I observed.</p> - -<p>“Ain’t much danger of running into anything -down here. We ain’t seen another sail but the -Gullwing—save one—for a week.”</p> - -<p>“We hadn’t spoken a vessel on the Gullwing -for a number of days,” I replied.</p> - -<p>“No. Not many windjammers just now in -these waters. And all the steamers go through -the Straits,” my informant said. “But this -craft we spoke three days ago was a-wallowin’ -along pretty well—and she had a tow, too.”</p> - -<p>“A steamship, then?”</p> - -<p>“No. She was a two-stick schooner, but -she had a big auxiliary engine and was under -both steam and sail. The Sea Spell, she was.”</p> - -<p>“The Sea Spell!” I cried, in surprise. “I -know her. I’ve been aboard her. Cap’n Tugg, -skipper and owner.”</p> - -<p>“That’s the Yankee,” said my friend. “And -ain’t he a cleaner? What do you suppose he -had in tow?”</p> - -<p>I was too amazed to answer, and the man -went on:</p> - -<p>“That’s one cute Yankee, that Adoniram -Tugg. If there wasn’t but two dollars left in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span> -the world he’d have one in his pocket and a -mortgage on the other.”</p> - -<p>I had to laugh at this description of the -master of the Sea Spell. And it hit off Adoniram -pretty well, too.</p> - -<p>“That Yankee has made a killing this time,” -continued my informant. “He has been for -weeks cruising south of here, so he yelled across -to Cap’n Somes, hunting for an old whaler -stranded in the ice.”</p> - -<p>“The Firebrand. I know about her. Indeed, -I’ve seen her,” I said, and told him the story of -my cruise on the Gypsey Girl and how we had -come across the frozen ship and I had boarded -her.</p> - -<p>“Well! don’t that beat cock-fighting!” ejaculated -the seaman, who was called Job Perkins. -“That old ile boiler was worth a mint of money.”</p> - -<p>“I know it. They said she had fifty thousand -dollars in oil aboard.”</p> - -<p>“And if Adoniram Tugg makes port with her -he’ll turn a pretty penny. Salvage and all,” -ruminated Job.</p> - -<p>“What do you mean?” I gasped, suddenly -awakened to the fact that I was listening to a -mighty queer story.</p> - -<p>“Why, that’s what Tugg was tugging,” and -Job smote his knee and laughed at his own joke.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>“He was tugging <i>what</i>?”</p> - -<p>“Why, I told you he had a ship in tow. She -was a sight, she was! Her masts were just -stumps; there wasn’t ten feet of her rail that -hadn’t carried away, and she was battered and -bruised and looked like she’d sink under the -surface every time a wave struck her.</p> - -<p>“But that cute Yankee had broached oil -barrels on her deck, and she was just wallowin’ -along in a pond of ile—a reg’lar slick. The -waves couldn’t break over her,” declared Job, -still laughing. “I reckon he’d patched up her -hull in some way, and it looked to me as though -he’d tow her into San Pedro, at least.”</p> - -<p>“But, man alive!” I cried. “What was she? -What was the Sea Spell towing?”</p> - -<p>“Why, that Firebrand,” he said. “And he’ll -make a mint of money out of her, as sure as -you’re a foot high.”</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XI</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which I See That There Is Tragedy in This -Ocean Race</i></p> -</div> - -<p>I was dumfounded by this story of Job -Perkins. Later it was corroborated by the other -hands. It had really been Adoniram Tugg and -the Sea Spell that had sailed near enough to this -ship for conversation between the two skippers. -And the Sea Spell actually had that old whaleship -in tow.</p> - -<p><i>This</i> was the astonishing part of it: The fact -that the Firebrand was not at the bottom of the -seas. I thought I had seen her rained upon by -ice—beaten down by the bursting berg—driven -under the leaping waves.</p> - -<p>Yet, come to think of it, the rotating icefield -had turned so as to hide the frozen ship from us -aboard the Gypsey Girl when the ice split up, -and a curtain of ice-mist and leaping waves had -really hidden the spot where the Firebrand lay.</p> - -<p>I had taken it for granted that the frozen -ship—more than a year and a half in the ice—had -found her grave right then and there. But<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span> -I remembered how sound the hulk of the whaleship -seemed when I went aboard of her. Only -her spars and upper works were wrecked. She -had collided with the ice and slid right out of the -sea at the collision. Perhaps the blow had -never made her leak a drop!</p> - -<p>And then it smote upon my mind that the man -of mystery, Tugg’s partner, must be alive, too.</p> - -<p>That stern, sturdy man with his gray beard -and hair, and his wonderfully sharp eyes, who -had stuck by the frozen ship when his mates -were driven off, and had battled against the gang -of sealers to preserve the treasure of oil from -their greed—this man in whose presence I had -felt a thrill not yet to be explained even in my -most serious times of thought. Why, Professor -Vose must be alive! There was no doubt of -that.</p> - -<p>I could remember very distinctly our brief -interview upon the frozen ship. How quickly -he had disarmed me and showed me that he was -my master. I could imagine that he had not -given up hope even when the ice split up and the -Firebrand had slid back into the water amid the -crashing bergs and boiling sea.</p> - -<p>Whoever this man was, he was a person of -marked character. He had impressed me deeply -and I felt that I could never really get him out of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span> -my mind. Be he Jim Carver, the renegade -that had stolen money from the fish firm back -in Bolderhead, or Professor Vose, the marvelous -scientist that Tugg claimed him to be, the man -who had risked his life for the fortune of oil -aboard the Firebrand, was an individual whom -I should never forget.</p> - -<p>I can’t say that I was as pleased, as the hours -passed, with my situation aboard the Seamew as -I had been on her sister ship. In the first place, -I had no proper niche here. I was not one of the -crew. I was really an outsider—and from the -enemy’s camp at that.</p> - -<p>There seemed to be a different spirit in this -crew. They spoke more bitterly of the Gullwing’s -company. They seemed to have no good -word for Captain Bowditch and Mate Gates, -and it was from Job Perkins that I finally got an -insight into the real significance of the rivalry -between the sister ships.</p> - -<p>“Ye wanter jump quick, young feller, when -Mr. Barney speaks,” Job advised me.</p> - -<p>“I know. That is the way it is with <i>our</i> -Mr. Barney,” I replied.</p> - -<p>“Shucks! Jim Barney’s another sort of a man -from Alf Barney.”</p> - -<p>“Not to the naked eye,” I responded, laughing. -“I couldn’t tell ’em apart.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span>“That’s because you don’t know either of -them very well.”</p> - -<p>“Why—I don’t know. I think I know our -Mr. Barney pretty well. He’s a smart second -officer and altogether a good fellow, too.”</p> - -<p>“Smart! Why, he’s a fool to his brother -Alfred,” declared Job. “They ain’t in the same -class—them boys. No, they ain’t.”</p> - -<p>“Why, I thought they were considered very -much alike,” I murmured.</p> - -<p>“Alf will show Jim, I reckon, how much better -he is,” and Job chuckled. “Ye see, they useter -be the best of friends, though brothers——”</p> - -<p>“What do you mean by that?” I cried. -“Hadn’t brothers ought to be the best of -friends?”</p> - -<p>“Never had a brother, had ye?”</p> - -<p>“No. For which I’m awfully sorry.”</p> - -<p>“I had brothers. You needn’t be sorry,” -said Job, in his sneering way. “And I reckon -that is the way Alf Barney looks at it. Brothers -can be in your way, I tell ye. I found it so. -So does Alf Barney. Them boys is rivals.”</p> - -<p>“Well, so are Captain Si and Captain Joe.”</p> - -<p>“Huh! Them old tarriers!” snorted Job, very -disrespectfully. “They only play at fighting -each other. These Barney boys mean business.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span>“But why?” I demanded.</p> - -<p>“Well, it’s something about their uncle. You -know, their uncle, old Jothan Barney, is senior -partner of the firm?”</p> - -<p>“Yes.”</p> - -<p>“And he’s put ’em into the business. Not -that he’s showed favoritism. No. These Barney -twins air good seamen.”</p> - -<p>“I’m glad you will allow that,” I said, rather -sharply.</p> - -<p>“Yes. Jim is good; but Alf is a corker! a -crackajack!” chuckled Job. “They begun to be -rivals in a serious way previous to the v’yge -before last.</p> - -<p>“Ye see, there ain’t but one rung at the top -o’ any ladder. And there can’t but one man -stand at the top of a pyramid. When old -Jothan passes in his checks there will be just one -chance for a nephew to take his place.”</p> - -<p>“You mean that the two boys are jealous of -who will get the old man’s money?”</p> - -<p>“And stand in his place in the business,” -said Job. “Jothan isn’t one for dividing power. -He’s always been the cock o’ the walk in the -firm. He’ll expect the nephew that takes his -place to be the boss. Can’t divide responsibility. -That is the way he looks at it.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span>“And a bad thing for the Barney boys,” I -muttered.</p> - -<p>“Well, he puts it to his nephews two years -ago,” continued Job Perkins. “He tells them -they’re running too even. He can’t tell which -is the best man. He don’t believe they are -just alike, even if they be twins.</p> - -<p>“‘You git up and dust, boys,’ he said. -‘One of ye do something different from the -other. Ye air jest of a pattern. I can’t tell -which is the man and which is his reflection in -the glass.’</p> - -<p>“Ye understand, old Jothan didn’t know -which to put down in his will to be boss of his -money and the firm. The boys have got to -show him. He gives ’em both the same chance, -but he expects one to beat the other.</p> - -<p>“Old Jothan begun before the mast. He -believes in the boys working out their salvation -aboard ship. And even so near a thing as these -two craft racin’, and one beating the other, -will tell in the favor of the second mate who’s -aboard the winning ship.”</p> - -<p>“I can’t believe it!” I said to Job.</p> - -<p>“You don’t hafter—only watch. Old Jothan -is getting tired of holding on to the business. -He wants to be shown who is the best man of the -two boys. That best one he’ll take into the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span> -House after this voyage—and you mark my -word, sonny, that best man is going to be Mr. -Alf Barney.”</p> - -<p>I didn’t know whether Job had told me the -truth, or not; but I was sorry to learn of the -sordid rivalry between the two brothers. It -was tragic—no less; and I wondered what -would come of it in the end?</p> - -<p>But my wildest imaginings would have been -tame indeed beside what really was to be the -outcome of the misunderstanding between Jim -and Alf Barney.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XII</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which the Captain’s Dog Goes Overboard</i></p> -</div> - -<p>The heavy weather could not last forever; -we came to a comparatively calmer season of -several days. But the Gullwing was not sighted -and I began to be worried. So many things -might easily happen to her. The officers and -crew of the Seamew were interested in finding -the sister ship, too; but their comments upon -her absence were neither kindly nor cheering.</p> - -<p>“Is she still ahead, or has she sunk?” demanded -Cap’n Si, after an examination of the -entire circle of sea through his glass.</p> - -<p>“I bet we’ve sailed clean around her,” said -the first mate, chuckling. “She’s in the discard.”</p> - -<p>“No,” said Cap’n Si. “It couldn’t be that.”</p> - -<p>“She’s reached land, then,” grinned the mate -pointing downward.</p> - -<p>I thought that after all, both the crew and -officers of the Seamew were little like my friends -aboard the Gullwing. But we had such fitful -winds for a time and made so little speed, that -I reckon all hands were badly rasped.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span>We sighted several craft in these seas—all -windjammers; but none of them proved to be -our sister ship. We were now in the South -Atlantic, and had clawed well off from the -threatening rocks of Terra del Fuego. We had -passed from one great sea to another, and the -prow of the Seamew was turned northward. -She was headed for home in earnest.</p> - -<p>The men and officers were decent enough to -me. I had been drafted into the mate’s watch -and I was smart at my duties and had learned -a deal aboard the Gullwing which came into -good play aboard her sister ship. But I wasn’t -happy.</p> - -<p>The captain had a big Newfoundland dog -aboard—Major. He was the pet of the crew -and was a good fellow. Every day that it was -not too rough he went overboard for his bath—usually -in a sling made of an old sail, although in -these waters there was not so much danger of -sharks as in the more tropical seas.</p> - -<p>However, there were other wicked marine -creatures—far more blood-thirsty than Mr. -Shark. And we had occasion to find this fact -out for ourselves within a few days of my coming -aboard the Seamew so strangely.</p> - -<p>We had a morning when the sea was almost -calm. The wind scarcely gave the ship headway,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span> -and the canvas slatted and hung dead, -from time to time. We all “whistled for a -breeze.”</p> - -<p>Along about the middle of the morning watch -a school of porpoises came into view. First we -saw them in a string to windward, and stories -of sea-serpents, told by both seamen and landsmen, -came to my mind. In the distance, following -one another with an undulating motion -through the short seas, the porpoises looked like -one enormously long creature—a huge serpent -indeed.</p> - -<p>The porpoises struck a school of small fish -nearby and then there was fun. The big fish -sported all around the ship, rolling and bouncing -through the water in much excitement.</p> - -<p>The Captain’s dog likewise grew excited. He -ran to the open rail and barked and yapped at -the sea-pigs; and I believe that one of the men -slyly “set him on” at the porpoises.</p> - -<p>However, to the surprise of the watch on -deck (the captain was below), Major suddenly -leaped the rail and went plump into the water.</p> - -<p>“Hi, there!” cried Job Perkins. “That dog’ll -git inter trouble; and then what will Cap’n Si -say?”</p> - -<p>I fancy the surprise of the porpoises when -Major got among them was quite as great as the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span> -amazement of the men on the deck of the slow -moving Seamew. The schooner was just slipping -through the sea, the short waves lapping -against her hull very gently. Major could -easily have kept up with us.</p> - -<p>The porpoises were sailing around and around -the ship by this time, and the big dog bounced -among them, barking and biting—or trying to -bite—and otherwise acting like a mad dog. He -plunged first for one porpoise, then for another, -rising as lightly as a dog of cork on the waves, -and throwing himself about in great abandon.</p> - -<p>He so excited the porpoises that they made a -general charge upon him. The dog beat a retreat -in a hurry; but the sea-pigs had their -“dander up” now and a score of them followed -him, jumping, snorting, and tumbling about, -evidently much delighted at putting the black -stranger to flight.</p> - -<p>Major came towards the ship with a rush—his -only refuge. The men cheered him excitedly; -and the watch below was aroused and rushed -up to see what was going on. So did Captain -Somes appear, and the moment he saw the dog -with the big fish after him, he sang out for the -sling and scolded us unmercifully for letting -Major overboard.</p> - -<p>I verily believe that the porpoises would have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span> -torn the noble fellow to shreds in a very few -minutes. When Major came over the side, he -was cut in several places and one of his ears hung -from a thread or little more. I learned then -that, although the porpoise is such a playful -creature, and apparently harmless, it has means -of defending itself not to be sneered at!</p> - -<p>I was leaning on the forward port rail, looking -idly across the stretch of comparatively quiet -sea (the porpoises having rushed away to lee’ard), -when I saw rising to the surface not many -furlongs from the ship’s side, a great brownish -mass that I took to be seaweed.</p> - -<p>After a storm we often met fields of rock weed, -wrenched from the shallow banks underneath the -ocean by the terrific waves. This rising mass -was not much different—in first appearance—from -many weed-fields I had seen.</p> - -<p>Mr. Alfred Barney was seldom on deck without -his fowling-piece—a beautiful, double-barreled -shotgun—in weather like this. He was a -splendid wing shot and seemed to delight in -bringing a gull flapping down into the sea, although -he never shot at albatross.</p> - -<p>“What you looking at, Webb?” he demanded -of me, suddenly, coming around the corner of -the forward house, gun in hand.</p> - -<p>“Why, sir,” said I, just making up my mind<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span> -that I had made a mistake in my first diagnosis -of the nature of the brown mass that had now -risen to the surface, “why, sir, I believe it is -something alive.”</p> - -<p>“Something alive?”</p> - -<p>“That thing off there,” I replied, pointing to -the object that had attracted my attention.</p> - -<p>He stepped to my side quickly and shaded his -eyes under the palm of his hand as he gazed at -the peculiar looking brown patch.</p> - -<p>“A whale’s back?” I suggested, as he remained -silent.</p> - -<p>“No. It hasn’t got slope enough,” replied -Mr. Alf Barney. “By George, though! it’s -alive.”</p> - -<p>“That’s what I thought,” I said. “I believed -it moved—there!”</p> - -<p>A tremor of life seemed to seize the object -and passed all through it. Whatever it was, its -length was fifty or sixty feet.</p> - -<p>“Maybe it’s dying,” I said. “Some great -beast——”</p> - -<p>“Not a bat-fish,” he muttered, half raising his -rifle.</p> - -<p>“No, sir. I don’t see either head or tail to -it.”</p> - -<p>It moved again—rather, it quivered. I can -scarcely express the feeling of horror and dislike<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span> -for the thing that came over me. I shuddered.</p> - -<p>“I wish it would go away,” I muttered.</p> - -<p>Mr. Barney laughed, shortly. He raised his -gun again. Suddenly we heard a sharp, mandatory -voice behind us:</p> - -<p>“Don’t do that, Mr. Barney!”</p> - -<p>We both turned. It was the mate, Mr. Hollister. -He was a dark, stern, silent man, who -spoke to the men without much bustle, but who -evidently expected to be obeyed the first time.</p> - -<p>“That’s a giant squid, Mr. Barney,” said the -mate. “He’s ‘bad medicine.’ You don’t want -to fool with one of those fellows. I did so once -to my sorrow.”</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XIII</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which I Learn a Deal About Sea Monsters in -General and the Giant Squid in Particular</i></p> -</div> - -<p>“A squid of <i>that</i> size?” cried the young second -mate, doubtfully, while I gave my closer attention -to the long, dark brown body that lay -quivering upon the surface of the sea.</p> - -<p>“There’s bigger,” said Mate Hollister, grimly. -“Ask any old Norwegian hardshell about the -‘kraken.’ I don’t mean the octopus; I mean -the real devil-fish—the squid.”</p> - -<p>“I know the octopus and the squid are two -different creatures,” said Barney.</p> - -<p>“Yes. And that yonder is a squid—a devil-fish -of the largest size. There! you can see his -fore-arms now—look!”</p> - -<p>I had observed something moving thirty feet -beyond one end of the bulky brown creature. -Two snake-like tentacles suddenly whipped out -of the water. They bore between their ends a -struggling fish. In a moment tentacles and fish -disappeared, apparently sucked in toward the -head of the monster.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span>“Good-bye, Johnny Fish!” said Mr. Hollister, -grimly. “The parrot-beaks of that gentleman -have snapped him up.”</p> - -<p>I had seen small squid. This beast lying on -the sea so near us was between fifty and sixty -feet long, with an average diameter of something -like five feet, and a ten-foot breadth of tail.</p> - -<p>The squid are the natural food of the sperm -whale. Often the whale is so greedy for the -squid that it tackles one of these giants and -swallows the hard and indigestible beak which, -causing a disease in the cetacean’s stomach, -sometimes brings about the death of the gourmand. -As parts of squid beaks have been found -imbedded in masses of ambergris, scientists are -quite convinced that this gormandizing of the -sperm whale on squid is the immediate cause of -that secretion in its stomach which, strange as -it may seem, is the basis of many of the best -perfumes. Ambergris is a very valuable “by-product” -of the sperm whale.</p> - -<p>The orca—that tiger of the sea—is inordinately -fond of the squid, too, as a diet. This -devil-fish, with its eight short arms, each -covered on the underside with innumberable -“suckers,” and its two fishing-arms which have -suckers only at the extremity, excites no fear -in the killer-whale.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span>Concealed at the base of the squid’s ten arms is -the terrible beak, shaped like that of a hawk, -except that the upper jaw shuts into the lower. -This beak is likewise dark brown in color, almost -black at the tips, and is supported by -powerful muscles.</p> - -<p>Years ago there was a huge squid captured at -Catalina, on the southern shore of Trinity Bay, -Newfoundland. This squid was bought by the -New York Aquarium and was the largest perfect -specimen of its kind ever examined by -scientists. Of course, they had to satisfy themselves -with a post-mortem examination!</p> - -<p>The beak of this immense fish—which could -not have been much larger than the one we were -contemplating from the deck of the Seamew—was -as big as a six-gallon keg.</p> - -<p>No animal can have a more formidable appearance, -or a more deadly grasp, than these -squid. It would seem as though the long, flexible, -muscular tentacles were a sufficient means -of defense and offense, without their being armed -with the terrible suction cups.</p> - -<p>These cups have a serrated edge like a handsaw, -and are used for anchors as well as to secure -prey. They cling with the greatest tenacity, it -being easier to tear away an arm from the body -of the squid, than to force the beast to give up<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span> -its hold. It has all the desperate nature of a -bulldog.</p> - -<p>The beak, or jaw, is provided with terrible -teeth, and even the tongue is covered on the -upper part by a horny bed, bristling in the -center with a series of recurving teeth, while its -edge is armed with three other erect teeth, -which are slender and hooked. A man might -as well put his hand into a knitting machine and -expect to take it out unscarred, as to risk a hand -in the jaws of a squid. Those teeth tear the -creature’s food to shreds.</p> - -<p>And one other characteristic the squid possesses -which gives it advantage over both enemy -and prey. When excited, and at will, it can -eject a substance like ink—indeed, it was used -by the ancients as ink—by which it clouds the -sea, and so often escapes an enemy. Its own -eyes being of a phosphorescent nature, it can see -well enough through the haze of this cloud of -ink, therefore its prey cannot escape. Besides, -its fishing-arms being three times the length of -its other tentacles, the squid can “fish a long -way from headquarters.”</p> - -<p>This ink of the squid, or cuttle-fish, when -dried, is used in water-color painting, and is -known by the name of “sepia.” It is practically -indestructible.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span>Now, all this by the way of introducing the -squid. The Seamew crept by the creature and -I, for one, was not sorry to see it finally disappear. -And from what the men told about the -cuttle-fish I judged that it would have been the -part of unwisdom for Mr. Barney to have fired -at the creature.</p> - -<p>“Lemme tell you,” said old Job Perkins, leaning -on the rail beside me. “Them ain’t critters -to fool with. I know. I been there and -learned.”</p> - -<p>“Did you ever get real close to a big squid, -Job?” I asked him.</p> - -<p>“Big enough and near enough to suit me,” -he said, wagging his head and expectorating over -the rail. “I went up against a reef-squid once—in -the Galapagos, it was—and that was enough -for Job. Yes, sir!</p> - -<p>“I was in the clipper ship Chelsea that time, I -was,” continued the old man, taking another -“chaw.” “Cap’n Daggett ordered a boat -ashore for turtles. He shot ’em for soup and -fresh meat. Good eatin’, too. But I took a -seal-club with me, for I wanted a sea-lion’s skin -to make me a pair of moccasins, and I’d heard -’em roaring when we dropped anchor.</p> - -<p>“I went off by myself and waded around a -low, rocky point, in water not ha’f knee deep,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span> -but deep jest outside, when I saw Mr. Squid -moving along atop of the water. He made -considerable thrashing as he come along, like a -whirligig waterwheel; his body part looked -bigger than I am, and his arms two or three -times as long—at any rate, them two long arms -was tremendous.</p> - -<p>“It headed into a little bay ahead of me,” -pursued Job, “and when it got into about three -foot of water it dropped anchor and began to feel -around with three or four of its arms. The -upperside of them arms were brown colored like -the rocks, with wrinkles and stiff bristles all -along the edge; the underside was white—sort -of a nasty, yallerish, dead-looking white—with -suckers like saucers in two rows. What I took -to be the head had something like eyes; but I -couldn’t make ’em out plain.</p> - -<p>“Ye know how it is when ye see a snake, when -you’re walking on shore,” said old Job. “Ye -always want to try and kill it. That’s the way I -felt about that squid. I didn’t think of any -danger when I waded to it, but it seemed to be -watchin’ me, for it squared round, head-on. I -hit it a clip with my iron-bound seal-club, when, -quick as a thought, it took a turn around the -club with one o’ them short suckers, and held -on. I pulled my blessedest, but the critter was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span> -too much for me. Then’s when I’d oughter -backed out.</p> - -<p>“But I was obstinate and I kept tugging at -the club. Just then it showed its head—it shot -out from the knob in front, a brown-and-purple -spotted thing with the eyes showing. And in a -second one of its arms was around me. It -wound around my bare leg and another shot -around my neck. The suckers took hold like a -doctor’s cups.</p> - -<p>“It began to heave and haul on me. You kin -guess I pulled and hollered. I got out my knife -and hacked at it, but it would have mastered me—it -sure would!—if Cap’n Daggett hadn’t -come running along the shore and fired both -barrels of his gun into its head. Then it let go -and slid back into deep water, squirting its -nasty ink all about.</p> - -<p>“I ain’t never fooled with no squid again,” -concluded Job Perkins. “They ain’t no pets.”</p> - -<p>It was later in that day, when I was standing -my trick on lookout, and the Seamew had got a -better wind and was forging ahead at a spanking -pace, that Mr. Hollister and Mr. Barney -stood near me and I heard the second mate ask -the older man about the experience <i>he</i> had had -with a giant squid.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said Mr. Hollister, “when I was a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span> -young fellow I ran against one of those squids, -and I never want to bother with another one. I -was mate of a little schooner—the Pearl, she -was—150 tons and a crew of six men forward, -with the cook. We were bound from the -Mauritius to Rangoon in ballast, to return with -paddy, and had put in at Galle for water. Three -days out we fell becalmed in the bay—about -latitude 8 degrees 50 minutes North, longitude -84 degrees 5 minutes East.</p> - -<p>“On the 10th of May about five o’clock in the -afternoon—eight bells, I know, had gone some -time before—we sighted a two masted screw -steamer on our port quarter, about five or six -miles off. Very soon after, as we lay motionless -on a sea like glass, a great mass rose slowly to -the surface about half a mile on our larboard side, -and remained spread out, as it were, and -stationary.</p> - -<p>“Even at that distance I could see that it was -fully as long as the Pearl, and I sung out to the -skipper to ask what he thought it was.</p> - -<p>“‘Blest if I know,’ says he. ‘Barring its size, -color and shape, it might be a whale. Some -deep-sea critter, sure enough,’ and he dove below -and came up with a heavy rifle.</p> - -<p>“The crew was discussing it, too, and as the -skipper was preparing to fire at the thing, Bill<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span> -Darling, a Newfoundlander, exclaimed, putting -up his hand:</p> - -<p>“‘Have a care, Skipper. That ere is a squid -and it’ll capsize ye if ye hurt him.’</p> - -<p>“I’d heard of squid, and seen squid,” proceeded -Mr. Hollister, “and so had the skipper. -But we both laughed at old Bill. The skipper -up with his gun and let her go. He hit the thing, -and it shook all over; there was a great ripple -all around him and he began to move.</p> - -<p>“‘Out with all your axes and knives!’ shouted -Bill, ‘and cut at any part of him that comes -aboard.’</p> - -<p>“The old fellow taking the deck in that way -made the skipper mad, and I was some surprised -myself. You know how old sailors are—superstitious, -as Negroes were in slavery. We -couldn’t do anything to move the schooner, of -course, and the skipper and I didn’t say a thing -to the crew. Bill and the two others got axes -and one other a rusty cutlass. We were all looking -over the side at the advancing monster; but -I for one, didn’t believe it was dangerous.</p> - -<p>“We could now see a huge, oblong mass, -moving by jerks, just under the surface of the -water, and an enormous train following. The -oblong body was at least half the size of the Pearl<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span> -and just as thick. The wake, or trail, might -have been a hundred feet long.</p> - -<p>“In the time I’ve taken to tell you,” said Mr. -Hollister, “the brute struck us and the ship -quivered under the thud; I wasn’t scared a mite -until then. The skipper gave a yell and plugged -away with his rifle another time. And then -monstrous arms like trees seized the vessel and -she keeled over; in another second the monster -was aboard, squeezing its great polypus bulk in -between the two masts.</p> - -<p>“Bill screamed, ‘Slash for your lives!’ But -all our slashing and yelling didn’t do a mite of -good. Holding on by his arms, the monster -slipped back into the sea again, and dragged -the vessel down with him on her beam-ends.</p> - -<p>“The skipper and I were thrown into the -water. I caught sight of old Bill and one of the -others squashed up betwixt the mast and one of -them arms. It was an awful sight, I tell you.</p> - -<p>“Of course, the Pearl’s hatches were open and -in a few moments she filled and went down. -Those two went with her. The rest of us escaped -the brute’s tentacles and a boat from the -Strathowen—the steamer we’d seen—picked us -up a little later.</p> - -<p>“That was the finish of the Pearl and two -brave men,” added Mr. Hollister, gravely.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span> -“And she isn’t the only craft that’s been carried -down by a giant squid. Most folks I’ve told it -to think it’s a sailor’s yarn. But the crew and -the passengers of the Strathowen could swear -to it—and did so, too. The story was printed -in the Indian papers when we reached Madras. -And you’ve seen one of the beasts yourself, to-day, -and know to what an enormous size they -grow. There are dangerous monsters in the -sea, Mr. Barney; but I reckon there’s nothing -worse than a healthy, full-grown devil-fish.”</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XIV</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which a Signal Retards the Race</i></p> -</div> - -<p>It was at six bells in the morning watch of the -next day that the lookout in the top sang out -the wailing cry:</p> - -<p>“On deck!”</p> - -<p>“Crow’s nest, ahoy!” responded Mr. Hollister, -who had the deck.</p> - -<p>“Sail-oh!”</p> - -<p>“Where away?”</p> - -<p>“Two points off the weather bow. Four-sticker! -It’s that blessed Gullwing, by Jiminy -Christmas!” responded the sharp-eyed seaman -aloft.</p> - -<p>There was as much excitement aboard the -Seamew now as though this was the first time -her sister ship had been spied in the offing. We -ran up the shrouds to see her better, and the -officers were all on deck with their glasses.</p> - -<p>She came snorting up to us on the starboard -tack, all her bright canvas bellying, and so trim -and taut that it was a pleasure to gaze upon her. -I felt a thrill of delight as I watched the Gullwing.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span> -Aboard of her was my chum, Thankful -Polk, and my other friends, and I wished with -all my heart that I might rejoin them.</p> - -<p>But I knew very well that under the present -circumstances that would be impossible. Had -the two schooners been becalmed the day before, -side by side, I might have got Cap’n Si to -put me aboard the Gullwing.</p> - -<p>But one thing I did beg the captain of the -Seamew to do, and, after some little demur, he -agreed to it. He ordered Mr. Barney to bring -out the signal flags, kept in the chest amidships, -and instructed him to inform Captain Bowditch -that the Seamew had picked up, alive, the lost -member of his crew.</p> - -<p>This signaling was not done until the Gullwing -was so near that both ships were about to tack. -As soon as the line of flags was run up on the -Seamew, they hustled about on the Gullwing -and replied. Nor did Captain Bowditch shift -his helm at once. The sister ships continued to -approach each other.</p> - -<p>The Seamew had plainly overtaken the Gullwing, -and now, when she sheered off, she would -begin to creep ahead of the craft in which I was -the more interested. With the wind as it was, -and nothing untoward occurring, the Seamew<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span> -was bound to gain something over her rival in -each leg she made.</p> - -<p>“What’s he sayin’?” bawled Cap’n Si to Mr. -Barney.</p> - -<p>I had already learned something about the -signal code, and when the second mate’s back -was turned I got a squint at the codebook. -Captain Bowditch was asking if the Seamew -would heave to and send me aboard!</p> - -<p>“Cap’n Joe is sure cracked!” cackled the commander -of the Seamew. “Tell him I wouldn’t -do it for a hull barrel of greening apples.”</p> - -<p>I reckon Mr. Barney put the refusal more -briefly. But the Gullwing continued to hang -in the wind while another line of flags was run -up to her fore. The book told me that the -signal read: “I’ll send boat aboard.”</p> - -<p>“No he won’t, by jinks!” crowed Cap’n Si. -“Nor he wouldn’t wanter do it if he warn’t so -blamed short-handed. Stow your flags, Mr. -Barney. Stand by. Ready! haul sheet!” and -he went ahead and gave swift orders to put the -Seamew about on the other tack.</p> - -<p>But I was glad that those aboard the Gullwing -knew that I was alive. I could imagine Thank’s -relief, and how surprised and—I hoped—glad, -the others would be to know that I had not -found my grave in the ocean. I even thought<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span> -kindly of Bob Promise, the bully, and believed -that he was likewise thinking kindly of me at -that moment.</p> - -<p>“And to serve Cap’n Si out for not being willing -to meet Cap’n Joe half way, and let them -take me aboard,” I muttered to myself, “I hope -the Gullwing beats the Seamew all to flinders!”</p> - -<p>The Seamew, however, gained slowly upon her -sister ship. On every tack that day she made a -better showing. Sometimes the Gullwing was -below the horizon; but whenever we sighted her -she was dropping back a bit. The wind remained -steady and from a favorable quarter -and by and by the night dropped down and -divided the two ships more effectually than the -sea itself.</p> - -<p>As the light faded upon sea and sky we sailed -under a vast, black-velvet canopy embroidered -upon which were the countless stars and planets. -Constellations that I knew nothing about glowed -from the depths of the firmament; and brighter -than all was the Southern Cross. The moon -had dipped below the horizon and therefore the -Cross and the stars were the more brilliant. I -paced the deck alone and thought of my mother, -and wondered what she was doing just then, and -if Chester Downes was still trying to circumvent -me, and Mr. Hounsditch, and gain control of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span> -the fortune, possession of which he so much -begrudged my mother and myself.</p> - -<p>And a thought came to me from out the stillness -and immensity of that night—a thought -that forever after seemed to haunt me; was there -not some curse upon my grandfather’s huge -property, which had been willed my mother and -I under such wicked conditions? For that -Grandfather Darringford’s will had been inspired -by hatred of Dr. Webb, my father, one could not -doubt.</p> - -<p>Had my father not been drowned as he was -off White Rock, that will of grandfather’s would -have been the source of heartburnings in the -family. Human nature is human nature; the -time would have come when the fact that Dr. -Webb was a stumbling-block to his son’s advancement, -or his wife’s ease, would have been -advanced. That is, if my father had remained -all these years a poor man. And what else -could he have been with his practice in Bolderhead?</p> - -<p>Men get stunted in small towns—especially -professional men. Dr. Webb could never have -made much more than a miserably poor living -for mother and I had he lived; and all that -time the thought of the great Darringford Estate -would have been the skeleton in our closet!</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span>It was better as it was, I suppose. It had -been a dream that my father was still alive. I -believe I would have gladly given up my share -of my grandfather’s money to have found that -the mysterious man aboard the frozen ship was -my father! I had been strangely drawn toward -that man.</p> - -<p>Besides, I felt now as though I were old enough -and big enough to make my own way in the -world, and to keep my mother in comfort, if not -in luxury, as well.</p> - -<p>Dawn drew near and the stars began to fade. -Soon the deck would be a-bustle with our watch -washing down. We had probably crossed and -recrossed the way of the Gullwing during the -night, but she had not been hailed from the -lookout.</p> - -<p>As the light of day advanced the wind fell. -We hardly made steerage-way in the pearl-colored -light of dawn. The coming day is -heralded ashore by hundreds of feathered trumpeters; -but here on the open sea it advances with -silence.</p> - -<p>Far, far out on the sea, where the gently -swelling water seemed buttoned to the rim of the -sky, a sudden flush appeared. The hue lay -upon both sky and sea—indeed, it was hard to -distinguish for a bit the one element from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span> -other. But I knew the sun was about to poke -his head up just there!</p> - -<p>And as the glow grew, a ghostly figure drew -across the pink patch. I watched it eagerly. -The sun, mist-shrouded and sleepy, was thrust -out of the sea; and across the red face of him -sailed a four-stick ship—the Gullwing! It did -not need the man in the crow’s nest to hail the -officer of the deck and announce the fact. I -could identify our sister ship from where I -stood.</p> - -<p>Long red rays like pointing fingers played -across the sea. The Gullwing and the Seamew -were several miles apart. The early rays of the -sun touched an object on the sea—at first merely -a black spot—lying about equi-distant of the -two ships.</p> - -<p>When I first saw this black thing I sprang -into the shrouds. Mr. Hollister hailed me:</p> - -<p>“What do you see, Webb?”</p> - -<p>“Something adrift—yonder, sir!”</p> - -<p>“Lookout, ahoy!” bawled the mate.</p> - -<p>“Aye, aye, sir! I sees it.”</p> - -<p>“What d’ye make it out to be?” demanded -the mate.</p> - -<p>“It’s the black hulk of an open boat,” I cried, -as the seaman above hesitated. I expect the -rising sun half blinded him. “There’s a stump<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span> -of a mast and she seems decked over forward—no! -it’s an awning.”</p> - -<p>“A ship’s boat?” cried the mate, eagerly.</p> - -<p>“Aye, aye, sir!” came down the voice of the -man in the top. “That’s what she be. And -wrecked. Not a sign of life aboard her.”</p> - -<p>“How is it, Webb?” Mr. Hollister repeated.</p> - -<p>“I see nothing moving,” I admitted, slowly.</p> - -<p>Mr. Hollister sent down for his glass, and then -joined me in the shrouds. The deck was all -a-bustle by now. Cap’n Si came up, rubbing -his eyes and yawning.</p> - -<p>“What’s the matter with all you lubbers?” -was his pleasant demand. “What’s that—the -Gullwing? Ain’t you never seen her before?”</p> - -<p>“Drop your eyes a bit, Captain,” advised -Mr. Hollister, swinging down after a look -through his glass.</p> - -<p>“Huh!” exclaimed the skipper. “A boat.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> - -<p>“Empty?”</p> - -<p>“It looks so,” replied Mr. Hollister, and -passed him the glass.</p> - -<p>“Ain’t wuth picking up,” decided Cap’n Si, -after a long look at the drifting boat.</p> - -<p>He closed the glass. Mr. Hollister waved me -down and turned to order the watch to work, -when the man in the tops hailed again. He was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span> -in a better position to see into the drifting boat -than anybody else.</p> - -<p>“I see something moving in that boat, sir!”</p> - -<p>“What do you see?” bawled Cap’n Si.</p> - -<p>“It’s something fluttering—a flag, or a rag. -There it is!”</p> - -<p>There were light airs stirring. Suddenly -something upon the broken mast moved. A -flaw of wind fluttered something fastened there. -Was it a signal of distress? Was some poor -creature adrift in the half wrecked boat?</p> - -<p>I wondered what Cap’n Si would do. To -ignore a flag of distress—to pass by the opportunity -of rescuing a fellow-creature from -death—would be an awful thing. Yet there -might be nobody in the boat. I could see the -old man doubted.</p> - -<p>And then the lookout hailed again:</p> - -<p>“The Gullwing’s dropping a boat, sir!”</p> - -<p>“That’s enough!” roared Cap’n Si, all in a -bluster at once. “I won’t let Cap’n Joe do -more’n me. Mr. Barney!” The second mate -had followed him on deck. “Call away a boat’s -crew.”</p> - -<p>“Aye, aye, sir!” was the second mate’s smart -response.</p> - -<p>“Beat the Gullwing’s boat to that barge. -Understand me? You git there first. I ain’t<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span> -goin’ to let Joe Bowditch crow over me in Baltimore. -Mebbe the boat’s wuth savin’ after all.”</p> - -<p>Before he had ceased speaking Mr. Barney -had shouted down the fo’castle hatchway and -his watch tumbled up. I had slid down the -stays to the deck and was right beside the boat -Mr. Barney had elected to launch. I wanted -to go in that boat, but I belonged to the mate’s -watch and knew I would not be selected.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XV</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which We Have a Good Race In Earnest</i></p> -</div> - -<p>And I had an idea that if I asked the captain -to go in the boat, or suggested it to Mr. Barney, -I’d get an immediate refusal. I had a decided -belief that Captain Somes didn’t wish me to -get aboard the Gullwing again. Not that he -needed my services particularly—although my -work was costing him nothing but my grub and -the cast-off clothes I had been given; but -Captain Si feared that Captain Joe needed me, -and my remaining with the Seamew was crippling -his rival. Which, by the way, was likely -to be the facts in the case.</p> - -<p>So, with this scheme in my mind, I expect I -was even more cautious than was necessary. I -might have been unnoticed had I jumped right -into the boat as it went overboard.</p> - -<p>But when I heard Mr. Barney call off the -men’s names, I noted that Job Perkins was -among the chosen. I had sized up Job for what -he was. I grabbed him as he passed me on the -run and shot into his ear:</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span>“Listen! ten dollars when we reach Baltimore -if you’ll let me take your place in the boat.”</p> - -<p>“Huh?” said Job, wonderstruck for a moment. -But it was only for a moment. The -old fellow had all his wits about him and in -working order.</p> - -<p>“It’s a bargain, boy,” he whispered, and the -next moment he fell sprawling over a coil of -rope and scrambled up again right before Mr. -Barney.</p> - -<p>“Hullo! what’s the matter with you, old -man?” demanded the second officer.</p> - -<p>“Ow-ouch!” groaned Job, rubbing his arm.</p> - -<p>“Hurt you?” snapped Mr. Barney.</p> - -<p>“By gravey! I <i>did</i> wrench my arm,” groaned -Job, his face writhing with an expression of -pain.</p> - -<p>I stepped in at once. “I’ll take his place, -sir,” I said.</p> - -<p>“All right!” cried the officer, without a glance, -and I slid down the falls and seized the bow oar.</p> - -<p>In another moment the officer followed me, -getting into the stern, and we cast off.</p> - -<p>“You git that boat for me, Mr. Barney!” -bawled Cap’n Si, over our heads. “Don’t you -let them fellers from the Gullwing beat ye.”</p> - -<p>“We’ll do our best,” responded Mr. Barney, -waving his hand. Then to us he said: “Give<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span> -way, men! See what you can do. Bend the -ash!”</p> - -<p>Before we had left the deck of the Seamew we -knew that the Gullwing’s boat was off ahead of -us. It looked as though the drifting boat was -about as far from one vessel as she was from the -other. The air being so light, we would have -lost time trying to beat down to the spot. The -race was between the six-oared boats, and I do -not believe any college regatta was ever pulled -amid more intense excitement.</p> - -<p>At first, however, as we were so low in the -water, we could not see our rival. Nor could we -scarcely observe the object of our race.</p> - -<p>But over these gentle waves we could pull a -mighty stroke, and I found that the men with -me at the oars were practiced hands. The -strokeman set a pace that made us bend our -backs in good earnest. This was a race!</p> - -<p>Mr. Barney was using a steering oar, and using -it well. He stood up to the work, and therefore -he could see much farther than we at the oars. -By glancing now and then over my left shoulder, -however, I could see the black hulk of the drifting -boat rising and falling upon the gentle -waves.</p> - -<p>And at first I saw nothing about the boat to -express life saving the fluttering rag. It was a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span> -flag. After some minutes of hard pulling it -was revealed to us that it was a British flag, set -union down.</p> - -<p>As I pulled I saw that Mr. Barney was looking -across at some other object than the mysterious -black craft. His eyes were squinted up as he -gazed into the rising sun, and the expression of -his face was mighty grim.</p> - -<p>“He sees the Gullwing’s boat,” I thought.</p> - -<p>“Pull, you fellows!” he suddenly barked at -us. “Why don’t you pull?”</p> - -<p>And we <i>were</i> pulling. I could stand the pace -for a bit longer, I thought; but the stroke was -certainly bending his back and driving his oar -with a vigor that left little more to be expected -from mortal man.</p> - -<p>“Pull!” yelled our mate. “Pull, or those -lubbers will beat you to it.”</p> - -<p>There was no feathering of oars, or any fancy -work. This was just the hard, deep pull of the -deep-sea oarsman. We breathed heavily; the -sweat poured from our limbs; we neither spoke -nor looked back over our shoulders now. We -became veritable pieces of mechanism, set to do -this certain stroke, and to do it until we broke -down completely!</p> - -<p>“Keep it up! Break your backs!” yelled the -second mate.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span>I had an idea that there was an added incentive -for Mr. Barney’s excitement. His twin -brother more than likely commanded the boat -from the Gullwing. But we at the oars could -not see her yet.</p> - -<p>Nearer and nearer we came to the drifting -boat. Our craft sprang through the sea at the -end of every stroke. Had one of the oars broken -I believe we would have been capsized.</p> - -<p>Once more I glanced around. Not a sign of -life in that floating mystery with its signal -floating from the broken mast. But there <i>was</i> -a bit of canvas spread forward of that mast, like -an awning.</p> - -<p>Mr. Barney saw me look back and he swore -at me good and plenty.</p> - -<p>“You want us to lose this race, you sawney!” -he exclaimed.</p> - -<p>I was convinced that, for his part, he was -more anxious to beat the Gullwing’s crew—and -incidentally his brother—than to save any life -there might be remaining on the wreck.</p> - -<p>But perhaps I misjudged Mr. Alfred Barney. -We were all excited. Even I, who had no -reason for wishing to see the Seamew’s boat -win, pulled my oar with every last ounce of -strength I possessed. Mr. Barney had accused -me without warrant of trying to throw the race.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span>The two racing boats were not head-on to each -other, but were approaching the wreck at an -angle that now brought each in sight of the -other. When the Gullwing’s boat flashed into -the range of my eyes I saw half a dozen of the -men I knew. There was Thankful Polk, heaven -bless him, and Mr. Jim Barney at the steering -oar. The sight of them made me feel good all -over.</p> - -<p>But I could not see the wreck now without -twisting my head around. And if I did that I -knew I should bring the wrath of our second -mate upon me. The Gullwings cheered. For a -moment I did not know what for. Could they -be winning?</p> - -<p>And then Thank’s jolly voice reached me -across the stretch of sea:</p> - -<p>“Hurray, Clint! Go it, old boy! You’re a -sight for sore eyes!”</p> - -<p>But I had no breath with which to answer. -And I reckon if he had been pulling his oar as -I was, he would not have been so boisterous.</p> - -<p>The strain of the last few minutes of the race -was terrific. My breath came in great sobs, and -I heard the other men with me groan as they -strained at the heavy oars. We were about all in.</p> - -<p>“Pull, you tarriers!” barked Mr. Alf Barney -again.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span>“Keep it up, boys!” yelled Mr. Jim Barney -in the other boat.</p> - -<p>I saw scowling looks exchanged between the -twin brothers. It must be true, as Job Perkins -had said, the two Barney boys were deadly -enemies!</p> - -<p>Then suddenly our cox shouted: “In oars! -Way all!”</p> - -<p>I felt the nose of the boat bump something -behind me. I dropped my oar and turned to -seize the broken gunwale of the drifting hulk we -had pulled so hard to reach. We of the Seamew -had won the race.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XVI</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which I Return to the Gullwing—and With -My Arms Full</i></p> -</div> - -<p>I hadn’t breath enough left at first to answer -Thankful Polk’s hail. And when my eyes fell -upon the contents of the drifting boat that we -had pulled so far to reach, what I saw was not -calculated to aid me to easy breathing. Lying -upon his back, face upwards, in the glare of the -morning sun, lay a man, bareheaded and barefooted, -dead.</p> - -<p>And such an awful death as he must have -died! His face was quite black, although he -was a white man by nature, it was as though -the blood had been congested in his face. His -tongue had protruded slightly from between his -firm, white teeth. His legs were drawn up as -though in a convulsion and the corpse had stiffened -that way. His limbs had not been composed -by any kindly hand after the spirit had -left its body.</p> - -<p>He was a sailor. There was tattooing on his -chest and arms. He had a short, bushy beard.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span> -I believed at first glance that he was a British -seaman. And almost at this first moment of -glancing into the boat I made another discovery. -I learned how the man had died.</p> - -<p>His tongue was not black; and although he -was much emaciated, neither thirst nor hunger -had hounded the sailor to his dreadful end.</p> - -<p>He wore a gully slung by a lanyard around his -neck. That knife was twisted tightly in the -cord, and the cord itself was imbedded in the -flesh of the dead man’s throat. Actually a -tournequet had been made of the knife and cord, -and the sailor had been strangled. He was a -horrid sight, as he lay with his feet to the empty -stern and his touseled head thrown back over a -seat.</p> - -<p>Perhaps many of the details of this awful -scene were a matter of later observation; but -it seems to me now as though everything about -the dead man was photographed upon my brain -at the first glance.</p> - -<p>And then my gaze roved beyond him. There -was a piece of sailcloth laid across the bow of -the open boat beyond the stump of the mast. It -was dark under that awning. But right at the -entrance lay something white and gold.</p> - -<p>Without waiting for any order from Mr. -Barney, I stood up and leaped into the half<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span> -wrecked boat. I heard none of the other men -speak a word. All my attention was given to the -object which my dazzled eyes now rested upon.</p> - -<p>A young girl—the prettiest, most appealing -child I had ever seen—lay under the awning. -Her head was toward me. Her face was as -white as milk, and the blue veins showed plainly -at her temples and were traced along her throat. -Her cheeks were without an iota of color.</p> - -<p>She was all white—her face, her thin, ruffled -dress—the bare arm from which the sleeve had -been pushed back to her elbow. All white, -save the great mass of her hair. That was gold—pure -gold. Such a beautiful child I had never -imagined before. She was twelve or thirteen -years old.</p> - -<p>“What’s that you got there, Webb?” I heard -Mr. Alf Barney shout.</p> - -<p>I had dropped on my knees beside the unconscious -girl. I saw that she was only delicate and -exhausted. There was a breaker of water lashed -to the gunwale right beside her, and a cup with -water in it. I saw no food; but I knew well -enough that the girl was not dying of thirst. -No more than the sailor had died of thirst!</p> - -<p>I gathered the girl up in my arms. She was a -light weight. I thought she sighed and her -eyelids fluttered.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span>And then suddenly sounded a raucous bellow, -in a strange tongue, from within the decked-over -portion of the boat. Something moved. I -leaped back and almost trod upon the dead man.</p> - -<p>Out from under the awning crept a tall, lean, -lithe brown man, dressed in torn sailor togs, but -with a dirty turban around his head. He was a -wild-eyed, yelling fiend. In a moment there -flashed out of his dress, from some secret place, -a long, glittering blade. With this raised above -his head he bounded in his bare feet the length -of the boat after me.</p> - -<p>At that moment the boat from the Gullwing -scraped alongside the wreck. As I whirled to -escape this murderer, this boat was nearest to -me. Thankful Polk, his red face transfixed -with horror, shouted to me:</p> - -<p>“Here, Sharp! Quick! This way!”</p> - -<p>Their boat was really nearest me. I leaped -into it. Thank shoved off with his oar and the -boat and the wreck were separated by a growing -streak of sea.</p> - -<p>The men in both boats all talked at once; and -the two Mr. Barneys shouted; but above all -the uproar I could hear the frenzied shrieks of -the brown man in the turban.</p> - -<p>“Come back, here, Webb!” cried the second<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span> -officer in the Seamew’s boat. “We’ll take that -child with us.”</p> - -<p>“Sit down, Clint!” commanded Mr. Jim -Barney, quietly. “You’ll have us swamped.”</p> - -<p>I obeyed him quickly. Thank smote me a -hearty blow between the shoulders.</p> - -<p>“Sharp! you’re a daisy! I knowed they -couldn’t never drown you,” he declared.</p> - -<p>But I couldn’t reply to him. I still held the -girl in my arms. There seemed to be no good -place there in the stern to lay her down. And -she was so frail, and soft, and pretty! I had -never seen such a delicate creature before.</p> - -<p>We were still moving from the wreck and the -Seamew’s boat, the men backing water. There -was a splash and a louder yell from the Seamew’s -men. I glanced over my shoulder. I could see -the turbanned head of the wild man and his thin, -bare arms beating the water. He was swimming -desperately after our boat.</p> - -<p>“That monkey’ll be drowned,” Thank cried.</p> - -<p>“We kin get away from him easy,” said another -of the rowers.</p> - -<p>“He’ll be drowned,” I said to Mr. Barney. -“We’ll have to take him in.”</p> - -<p>“I reckon that’s so, Webb,” said the second -mate. “The Seamew is welcome to the old -tub—and the dead man.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span>The brown man came to the side of our boat, -panting and moaning. He was near spent.</p> - -<p>“I believe he belongs to this girl and he thinks -we’re running off with her,” said Mr. Barney.</p> - -<p>“He’s crazy as he can be,” said Thank.</p> - -<p>“Help him in. See that he doesn’t have that -knife. If he doesn’t behave, we can lash his -wrists together,” said Mr. Barney.</p> - -<p>The foreign looking man was hauled in. He -lay panting on the bottom, between Mr. Barney -and I. We were being hailed from the other -boat.</p> - -<p>“Let that Webb come back with us, you fellows!” -cried Mr. Alf Barney. “Cap’n Si will be -furious.”</p> - -<p>“He belongs to the Gullwing,” said our Mr. -Barney, promptly. “You can’t have him.”</p> - -<p>“We’ll see about that—”</p> - -<p>“See about it, then,” said the officer, shortly. -Then to his own crew he said: “Give way, -men! Altogether, now.”</p> - -<p>We swept away on a graceful curve and -headed for the Gullwing. Mr. Barney nodded -to me with a smile.</p> - -<p>“You certainly had a close call for your life, -Clint,” he said. “Luck was with you when -you went overboard from the Gullwing, after -all. Everybody gave you up for lost—save<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span> -Thank there. He swore that if you went to the -bottom you could walk ashore, somehow.”</p> - -<p>At that moment the brown man drew a longer -breath and struggled to his knees. Mr. Barney -reached forward to seize him; but I saw that -the foreigner’s eyes glowed no longer with the -wild light that had made him look so savage.</p> - -<p>“Sahib,” he said softly, “is Her Innocence -safe? Is the Missee unharmed? Is it well with -her?”</p> - -<p>I looked down at the child’s face. She was -breathing quietly, but her eyes were still closed.</p> - -<p>“She is asleep. She does not seem to be -harmed,” I said.</p> - -<p>“Sahib! I was overcome. I had watched so -long. Two long weeks have we been in that -boat. Water we had, but little food. That -food I had brought myself for Missee. One -man become touched of the finger of the gods and -leaped overboard. The other desired the fragments -of food which only remained for Her -Innocence. I felt myself fast losing the thread -of life. Then—the other man died.”</p> - -<p>I knew what he meant. I understood how -that man had been strangled by the lanyard -around his neck that the food might be saved -for the girl. I guess this strange man was -pretty nearly a savage; but I believed then—and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span> -I believe now—that he had done right.</p> - -<p>“I—Dao Singh—then fell asleep, Sahib. I -believed it was to be my last sleep. But the -Missee had her food and the water.”</p> - -<p>“I see,” I said, for he spoke only to me, even -ignoring Mr. Barney. “Now you will both be -saved. Our ship is at hand.”</p> - -<p>“It is well, Sahib,” he sighed. “Dao Singh—is -the Sahib’s—servant—”</p> - -<p>He fell back into the bottom of the boat and -his eyes closed. I feared he had died then and -there; but Mr. Barney bent over him, opened -his shirt, felt of his heart, and then nodded to -me with encouragement.</p> - -<p>“He’s asleep,” he said. “Just done up—plucky -brown devil. A Hindoo, I take it. -These folks were from a British ship; but that -boat had no name on her.”</p> - -<p>Half an hour later we pulled under the Gullwing’s -rail. All hands were there to eagerly -welcome us. We caught the falls and they -hauled us up to the davits, heavy as the boatload -was.</p> - -<p>As we swung inboard I leaped down to the -deck, still bearing the unconscious girl in my -arms.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XVII</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which We Learn the Particulars of the Wreck -of the Galland</i></p> -</div> - -<p>Captain Joe Bowditch smiled down broadly at -me from the poop as I leaped to the deck; but -when he saw the burden in my arms his countenance -changed queerly.</p> - -<p>“What in the name o’ goodness you got -there?” he barked.</p> - -<p>“A little girl, Captain Bowditch,” I replied.</p> - -<p>“A little—well! what d’ye think o’ that?” -he gasped, waddling down the ladder. “Ye -didn’t git that aboard the Seamew? Nor out o’ -the ocean when ye went overboard, neither?”</p> - -<p>“No, sir,” said Mr. Barney, who had followed -me. “She is what we found in that drifting -boat—part of what we found, at least.”</p> - -<p>“A gal! Moses ter Moses, and all hands -around!” groaned the captain. “Whatever will -we do with a gal aboard the Gullwing?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t see how we could have left her there, -Captain,” laughed Mr. Barney.</p> - -<p>“Now, don’t ye cackle!” snapped the old man.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span> -“Why didn’t you leave her for Cap’n Si? He’s -a man that’s more used to female children than -I be. Why, Cap’n Si’s sister married a man -whose brother got spliced to a widder woman -that had twin gal babies. He’s more fitten to -take such a responsibility than what I be.”</p> - -<p>He looked as though he thought he had proved -his case, too. But I was too much worried over -the condition of the pretty creature in my arms -to pay much attention to his growling.</p> - -<p>And when the Hindoo was brought inboard, -Captain Joe went off into another fit. “Holy -smoke!” he yelled. “Another useless critter to -feed. Didn’t you leave nothin’ in that boat for -the Seamew?”</p> - -<p>“We left a dead man,” chuckled one of the -men.</p> - -<p>“Well—we could have buried him easy,” -grunted the old man. “Take that nigger below -and find out what seems to be the matter with -him.”</p> - -<p>But his bark was a whole lot worse than his -bite. He hurried away to open the spare cabin -for the girl, and I followed him into the afterhouse, -still bearing her in my arms.</p> - -<p>Mr. Bates, who had the deck, came to look -down upon her pretty, white face as I started -below.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span>“Bless her!” he murmured. “Have a care -with her, Clint. Glad to see you again, boy. -Ah! that pretty one ought to bring us luck, sure -enough.”</p> - -<p>“Come right this way, boy, and lay her in the -bed,” ordered Captain Bowditch. “My! she -looks bad—but pretty! Sh! is she asleep?”</p> - -<p>And then the trembling lids, with their long -golden lashes, opened slowly. With her complexion -and hair, I had expected to look into -blue eyes. But I was astonished to find that -the little creature’s orbs were a beautiful, deep, -deep brown, with golden sparks in their depths. -My face was so close to hers at the moment her -lids parted that I could see the reflection of my -own countenance in the pupils.</p> - -<p>“My soul!” murmured Captain Joe, looking -over my shoulder, “she’s jest the prettiest thing -I ever see.”</p> - -<p>Her wan face changed slowly. A faint color -was breathed over it. She gazed steadily into -my countenance, and it was evident that I did -not frighten her. She put up one hand and -touched my cheek. I tell you, the touch thrilled -me!</p> - -<p>Then her eyes closed again, she sank deeper -into the pillow, and was again asleep.</p> - -<p>“Here, boy!” croaked the master of the Gullwing,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span> -trying to speak softly. “You run and -tell the doctor to kill a chicken and make some -broth—strong broth, now. Don’t want no -‘phantom soup’—suthin’ that tastes like a -chicken did more than wade through a gallon of -water on stilts. If he don’t make it good I’ll -be in his wool!”</p> - -<p>I ran to do his bidding. I knew very well -that the little girl would have the very best of -everything there was upon the big schooner.</p> - -<p>In the dog-watch I held a regular reception. -The men were eager to hear the story of my adventure -overboard, and old Tom Thornton declared -I might live to be “a second Methuserlum” -and never experience a closer call than -that. Old Stronson shook his head.</p> - -<p>“De poy iss fey,” he muttered, shaking his -head.</p> - -<p>“He’s sure a lucky youngster,” declared Bob -Promise. “No wonder he got the best of me -when we had our set-to.”</p> - -<p>Thank and I had much to talk over. I know -my chum had suffered in spirit when it seemed -that I was drowned. He never would admit -to the others that he had given up hope of seeing -me again. Now he clung close around me and -did not seem to want to let me out of his sight—not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span> -even long enough for me to go down to take -a look at Dao Singh.</p> - -<p>“Let that Jasper be, Sharp,” Thank drawled. -“You can’t kill a nigger easy—sleep won’t hurt -him. If he was pretty near two weeks on watch -in that boat, no wonder he’s all in.”</p> - -<p>“He is a faithful creature,” I said. “And he -must love his mistress.”</p> - -<p>“That Jasper’s taken a fancy to you, too,” -Thank said. “You’re ‘it’ with him.”</p> - -<p>I did not realize at the time how very right -Thank was, and what it meant to be canyonized -by Dao Singh.</p> - -<p>The report came forward that the little girl -had taken some of the broth the cook had made, -was seemingly satisfied with her surroundings, -and had gone to sleep again. Mr. Barney told -me that Cap’n Bowditch was peeking in at her -every hour or so, and that it was plain the old -man was prepared to get down on the deck -and let his little visitor walk on him—if she so -desired.</p> - -<p>But in the morning watch they called me and -I found that the girl wanted to go up on deck, -but had asked to be lifted by the boy who had -taken her from the wrecked boat. She remembered -me, then! And I had not really supposed -she had seen me until after I had lain her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span> -down in the berth and she had opened her eyes.</p> - -<p>She had had some breakfast. There was a -little flush in her face. She looked much -brighter, and when she saw me she smiled delightfully.</p> - -<p>“I know your face!” she said, and although her -voice was weak, it was as sweet as a tinkling -silver bell. “I was sure I could not be mistaken.”</p> - -<p>“Mistaken?” I asked, puzzled.</p> - -<p>“Yes. You were the boy I saw before—oh, -long, long before I came here.”</p> - -<p>That puzzled me, and I suppose my face must -have shown my surprise. She laughed—a pretty, -resonant chime. I fell for that voice of hers!</p> - -<p>And then what she said about seeing me so -long before got me going, too.</p> - -<p>“Say, you never saw me before I got you out -of that boat,” I declared.</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, I did,” she returned, confidently. -“I haven’t been aboard this big ship long, have -I?”</p> - -<p>“Only since yesterday,” I admitted.</p> - -<p>“That is what the nice captain told me,” she -returned, as though satisfied.</p> - -<p>“Then you’ve seen me just once before. -When I brought you below yesterday.”</p> - -<p>“But you took me out of the boat?”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span>“Yes.”</p> - -<p>“And held me all the time we were getting -here?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, ma’am!”</p> - -<p>“I knew it,” she breathed, smiling up into my -face again. “I knew it couldn’t be all just a -dream.”</p> - -<p>The captain had fixed a chair himself, with -blankets and the like, in the shade of the afterhouse. -There I laid her down and then, having -no further orders, would have gone forward to -my own place. But she clung to my hand.</p> - -<p>“You sit down here on the deck beside me, -tell me your name, and all about you,” she said. -“For although I saw you so long ago, I never -learned who you were.”</p> - -<p>I looked up at Mr. Gates and the Captain and -slyly tapped my forehead. I believed she was -lightheaded. The old man nodded and said, -gruffly enough, for he was deeply moved:</p> - -<p>“You stay with her, Clint. Do jest what she -wants ye to.”</p> - -<p>“Clint?” she repeated, questioningly. “Is -that your name?”</p> - -<p>“Clinton Webb,” I replied.</p> - -<p>“Clinton is pretty. You are English?”</p> - -<p>“I should say not!” I exclaimed. “American.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span>“Oh, yes! I am an English girl; but I have -lived in British India most all my life.”</p> - -<p>“That’s it, Miss,” I said, knowing that the -captain and mate were dying to hear her story. -“You tell us all about it. How did you come in -that boat? And what vessel was it that was -wrecked?”</p> - -<p>“We sailed in the Galland, a big steamship, -from Calcutta,” said the girl softly. “I was -with friends. They were taking me home—‘home’ -means England to all British India -people who are white.”</p> - -<p>“Then you were going to relatives?”</p> - -<p>“I do not know. I am not sure. My father -had some people—<i>once</i>. But they treated him -unkindly, I believe. He had not heard from -them for years. My father was Captain Erskin -Duane. He died very, very suddenly. My -mother had been a long time dead,” and the -tears now began to fill her eyes and creep down -her pale cheeks.</p> - -<p>“Friends who were about to go to England -took me on the Galland with them. These -were Mr. Suffix, and Mr. and Mrs. Traine, and -Cecelia Traverstone.”</p> - -<p>“Were they saved?” asked Mr. Gates, quietly.</p> - -<p>“I do not know. I think not. I think the -steamer’s boilers blew up and smashed most of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span> -the boats and liferafts, so that few were saved,” -said the girl, simply.</p> - -<p>“You poor child!” breathed Captain Bowditch, -blowing his nose right afterward like a -fog siren.</p> - -<p>“I am Phillis Duane,” she said, after a moment. -“I traveled with my <i>ayer</i> and Dao -Singh, who would not leave me when father -died. He had always served the captain. We -lived up country from Calcutta. I do not think -that my father was very well acquainted with -the people I sailed with, after all. I was alone, -and they were just kind to me.”</p> - -<p>“And you don’t know what you were going to -do when you reached England—whom you -would meet?” queried Mr. Gates, gravely.</p> - -<p>“No. It was all in the hands of my friends,” -she said, shaking her head. “And I am quite -sure they never got away from the Galland. I -would not, had it not been for Dao Singh.”</p> - -<p>“That nigger, eh?” grunted the captain.</p> - -<p>“He is a Hindoo. He is a very intelligent -man in his own language and among his own -people. I have heard my father say so. I fear -he sacrificed his caste by attending on the -captain—and on me.”</p> - -<p>“But he saved you from the wreck?” I urged, -keeping her to the story of the wreck.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span>“Yes. When the boilers blew up (the steamship -had been afire all night) Dao Singh ran -into the cabin and hurried my <i>ayer</i> and me out -on the deck. Some men were lowering a boat. -It was damaged some.</p> - -<p>“Singh tried to put the <i>ayer</i> and me in it. -But I believe she must have fallen overboard, -or been pushed overboard. There was much -confusion. I was scared and cried. When I -understood a little better about matters, we -were in the boat, drifting without oars, and the -Galland, all a mass of flames, seemed to be going -down, stern-foremost, under the sea.”</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XVIII</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which I Become Better Acquainted With -Phillis Duane</i></p> -</div> - -<p>There was little more to be learned, it seemed, -about the actual tragedy of the burned steamship. -How the fire had been started she could -not say. She had been asleep. Her nurse, or -<i>ayer</i> awoke her at the height of the stampede of -passengers for the deck. Whether the officers -and bulk of the crew had been killed by the -explosion, or had abandoned the ship and her -human freight, she did not know.</p> - -<p>The Galland had been some months on the -voyage, having circumnavigated the world, when -Phillis Duane and her friends boarded her at -Calcutta. She had touched at Chinese ports, -and again at Tahiti. She was a British tramp -steamship and Phillis seemed to think that her -home port was Edinburgh. It might be that -the lost girl’s friends were Scotch, and that the -friends she traveled with were likewise Scotch, -and that is why they had selected the ill-fated -Galland to get home on.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span>“Do you suppose that nigger knows?” demanded -Captain Bowditch, of Mr. Gates, in a -whisper.</p> - -<p>“Doubtful if you get anything out of him,” -returned the mate.</p> - -<p>“Understands English, doesn’t he?” growled -the skipper.</p> - -<p>“And speaks it. But these Hindoo servants -don’t really know anything about the English -sahibs they serve. The Britisher governs India -in a boiled shirt and evening clothes. He is -about as human to the natives as one of their -own cast-iron gods. That’s how Johnny Bull -has been able to boss the several million of -blood-thirsty inhabitants of his colonies. No. -The nigger wouldn’t be likely to know anything.”</p> - -<p>“But why did he follow the girl to wait on her, -then, Mr. Gates?” I asked.</p> - -<p>“Because he’s a nigger—an inferior tribe. -That’s the nature of ’em.”</p> - -<p>I did not believe it. I had never read that -the people of Hindoostan were particularly inferior -to the whites. And Dao Singh looked to -me as though he knew a whole lot more than the -ordinary European. I was mistaken if he was -not the best educated person aboard the Gullwing -at that moment!</p> - -<p>But it might be that the Hindoo knew nothing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span> -of the cause of the wreck and of what had become -of her other passengers and the crew. -Unless some other boats had been picked up from -the lost Galland, her case was likely to be another -of those unexplained tragedies of the deep -which fill the columns of our newspapers for a -few issues and then are forgotten—so easily -forgotten!</p> - -<p>The officers and I had held the brief conversation -noted above when we had withdrawn out of -earshot of the little girl. The cook had brought, -her a beaten egg to drink as a “pick-me-up” -between breakfast and dinner. When she had -finished it she looked around for me again.</p> - -<p>“Go on, boy,” said the captain. “Keep her -amused. Poor little thing.”</p> - -<p>“And encourage her to talk with you, Clint,” -advised Mr. Gates. “Put what she says down -in your log. If you do that, you may gradually -get together a connected story of what and who -she is. Such information will be valuable in -aiding her to find her friends.”</p> - -<p>I thought well of that idea, and promised to -do so; though I wondered how the mate knew I -kept a log. I had taken notes of my adventures -ever since I had been blown out to sea on my -little sloop, the Wavecrest; but at this time I -did not know what an aid to memory a log—or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span> -diary—would be. By the way, a seaman never -calls it “logbook;” the daybook of a ship at -sea is merely a “log.” One of the most popular -magazines published has a correspondence department -called “The Logbook,” and that -makes the sailor smile!</p> - -<p>I had no objection to being attentive to our -little passenger. I judged her to be a mighty -plucky little girl. Of course, her father had -been dead long enough for the first of her grief -to have been assuaged before she had sailed -from India. And the friends she had sailed -with had won her heart; therefore she had not -loved them enough to miss them much now.</p> - -<p>She had endured privations in the drifting -boat remarkably well. She told me of the man -that had gone crazy and leaped overboard. She -did not seem to know that the men aboard the -boat with her had had no food. I began to -have a remarkably high opinion of Dao Singh. -Yet I knew very well that he had strangled the -man I had found dead in the boat and had been -unable to throw the heavy body overboard.</p> - -<p>There’s a vast difference between the negro -race and the Hindoo, I thought, remembering -Mr. Gates’ words, “This Dao Singh is a remarkable -man, or <i>I</i> am much mistaken.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Barney came along and spoke to the little<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span> -one, and she seemed to like him—as I had—at -first sight. Afterward the young second mate -talked a little in private with me.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Robbins says she takes to you and is -willing to talk with you, Webb.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> - -<p>“And you’re trying to draw out from her her -history?”</p> - -<p>“I am, sir.”</p> - -<p>“It’s a good idea. There may be some difficulty -in getting trace of her friends.”</p> - -<p>“Well, she sha’n’t suffer, if her friends don’t -turn up,” I said, with emphasis. “My mother is -rich and she will be glad to take Phillis herself, -I have no doubt.”</p> - -<p>“That’s a good thing, too,” said Mr. Barney, -heartily. “But you understand, my lad, that -there may be friends expecting the girl in the -Old Country, that she knows nothing about. -We shall have to report the case to the British -consul at Baltimore, and he will look up her -folks—if she has any. In case there should be -none, somebody might have to step in to save -the child from being sent to an institution—in -England, I presume. They would scarcely send -her back to India.”</p> - -<p>“Not much, sir!” I exclaimed. “They will<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span> -have to show pretty good grounds for taking -her from mother——”</p> - -<p>“Why, you don’t know whether your mother -will take her or not,” laughed Mr. Barney.</p> - -<p>“Yes she will,” I assured him. “She’d love -to have a girl like Phillis.”</p> - -<p>And I had no fear on that score. Mother -couldn’t help but fall in love with such a dear -little thing as Phillis Duane. I was glad to see -that Phillis seemed fond of me, too. I had -never had a sister, and it struck me just then -that a sister was what I had missed all my life!</p> - -<p>We were getting on fine together and she was -chattering to me just as though she had known -me for years, when I spied a figure coming -waveringly down the deck from the forward -house.</p> - -<p>“It’s poor Dao Singh!” exclaimed Phillis. -And then she called to him in her sweet voice; -but what she said none of us could understand -as it was in his own tongue.</p> - -<p>He glided rather than walked along the deck. -Somehow he had obtained clean garments; and -he had washed his turban. Altogether he looked -very neat and trim. But he was very weak and -cadaverous. That Hindoo had come pretty -near starving to death, and no mistake.</p> - -<p>When he had spoken to the girl in reply, bowing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span> -low before her, he turned quickly to me. I -was not only astonished, but I felt mighty foolish -when he dropped gracefully on his knees and -touched the deck lightly with his forehead right -at my feet.</p> - -<p>“Dao Singh is the servant of Webb Sahib,” -he said, softly.</p> - -<p>“For the love of Mike, get up!” I gasped, and -I heard Thankful Polk giggling behind me, while -Mr. Barney laughed outright. “You don’t -want to kneel to <i>me</i>.”</p> - -<p>Singh arose and stood, with dignity, before -me.</p> - -<p>“Webb Sahib has but to command,” he said, -quietly. “He is the friend and protector of -Her Innocence,” indicating Phillis with a -scarcely perceptible gesture. “His word is law -to Dao Singh.”</p> - -<p>“All right, if that is so,” I said, glad that he -had spoken too low for anybody else to hear. -“If my word’s law, just you treat me with a -little less deference. I’m only a man before -the mast on this ship, and it won’t do to be -kowtowing to me and treating me as you do the -Memsahib. That’s all right for <i>her</i>, Dao Singh; -but I’m not used to it.”</p> - -<p>“It is as the Sahib pleases,” he replied, -gravely. “He has but to command.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span>I began to wonder if a Hindoo, who was so -enthusiastically my friend, might not prove to -be something of a nuisance in the end!</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XIX</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which I Learn Something More About the -Barney Twins</i></p> -</div> - -<p>The captain allowed Singh to wait upon his -“Missee” to his heart’s content, and I heard -the two mates laughing over the fact that the -Hindoo insisted upon acting as steward and -waiting upon the Captain Sahib at table. The -Old Man wasn’t used to having a man standing -behind his chair at meals and it near took his -appetite away at first. But Phillis being in the -cabin and soon taking her meals at the first -table, pleased the officers immensely, I could see.</p> - -<p>Forward, Singh was forever trying to do little -things for me, and learning that I thought a good -deal of Thankful Polk, the Hindoo included my -chum in his voluntary services. He looked over -our clothes and mended them, and insisted upon -doing our washing.</p> - -<p>“That Jasper is just as handy as any house-broke -nigger I ever saw,” declared Thank. -“My folks owned slaves before the war; but I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span> -don’t know but being waited on by one is going -to be too rich for my blood.”</p> - -<p>Thank saw no difference between a Hindoo -and a Negro; anything off color was a “Jasper” -to him. But it tickled him when Singh called -him “Polk Sahib.” With the other hands he -was never familiar; but nobody save Bob -Promise treated him unkindly. Bob was a -bully, and that mean streak in him was bound -to show on the surface every once in awhile.</p> - -<p>Meantime the old Gullwing was snoring away -up the coast of South America. Not that the -land was in sight, for we were miles and miles off -shore; but the course she followed was parallel -to the coast. The Seamew was not sighted for -days at a stretch, and we did not know whether -she was ahead of us or astern. I had an idea, -however, that during the favorable weather she -was walking away from us at a pretty lively gait.</p> - -<p>Since I had returned from my sojourn aboard -the Seamew I thought that Mr. Barney treated -me differently. That is, when we were off duty -and chance threw us together. Before my accident -I had put on the gloves with him on several -occasions, and he had been kind enough to say -that I was as good a sparring partner as he had -ever had. We took up this exercise again, as -the weather remained so favorable.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span>He was curious about the attitude of the -Seamew’s company toward us, and whether -they were as eager to win the race to Baltimore -as were the men aboard the Gullwing.</p> - -<p>“More so,” I told him. “They mean to beat -us if they can—from Cap’n Somes all down the -line.”</p> - -<p>He threw off the gloves and said, with a side -glance at me:</p> - -<p>“My brother, too?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, <i>sir</i>.”</p> - -<p>“Just as eager as the others?”</p> - -<p>“Just as eager, sir.”</p> - -<p>He was silent a moment, as I got into my shirt, -and then he shot at me:</p> - -<p>“What did you think of my brother, Alf -Webb?”</p> - -<p>I was rather taken aback for a moment. Then -I saw that he expected a straight answer and I -did not like to say that I did not like Mr. Alf -as well as I did him. So I stammered:</p> - -<p>“I—I thought there was something troubling -Mr. Alfred’s mind.”</p> - -<p>“Aye?” returned Mr. Barney, cocking his -eye. “There’s something troubling both our -minds, I reckon.” And then, after a moment’s -silence, he asked: “Will the Seamew beat us, -Webb?”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span>“I hope not!” I cried. “But the spirit -among the crew of the Seamew is different from -ours. Cap’n Somes would take any advantage -he could to beat us; so would Mr. Hollister -and—and——”</p> - -<p>“And my brother?”</p> - -<p>“I—I am afraid so. That is the way it impressed -me,” I admitted.</p> - -<p>“Alf didn’t use to be like that,” said Mr. -Barney, gravely. “But he and I have been at -outs for some time. It’s a bad, bad affair,” he -added, more to himself than to me. “And it’s -Uncle Jothan’s fault. Confound that old man, -anyway!” he completed, with a good deal of -emphasis.</p> - -<p>Then it was just as Job Perkins had told me! -The rivalry between the Barney twins was -fostered by their rich uncle. I had no comment -to make—it wasn’t my place. But Mr. Barney -seemed to wish to talk to somebody, and perhaps -because I was so near his own age (he could not -have been twenty-three yet) and came from -people who were more like his own class, he -warmed toward me for the moment. Perhaps, -too, I am a sympathetic listener.</p> - -<p>“Alf and I,” said Mr. Barney, thoughtfully, -“have always been more than brothers. We’ve -been <i>friends</i>. There’s a difference. We understand<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span> -each other fully—or always have until -now. I never had any other chum, nor did he. -We have been just as close to each other all our -lives as the day we were born.</p> - -<p>“I guess we had to be,” he added, thoughtfully. -“There wasn’t anybody else for us to -get close to. Our mother died soon after we -were born. Father was lost in that old leaky -bucket belonging to the firm, the Timothy K.—named -after T. K. Knight, who used to be head -of Barney, Blakesley & Knight before Uncle -Jothan worked up in the firm.</p> - -<p>“And that’s what makes the old man so crazy -now. He wants a Barney to take his place so -that another Knight won’t boss things. He’s -nutty on it—that’s what he is!</p> - -<p>“Uncle Jothan has had the care of us since -we were small, you see. It’s nothing to his -credit, however. Father left some property—sufficient -to give Alf and me our education and -set us out into the world with a little something -to rattle in our pants’ pockets besides a bunch of -keys!</p> - -<p>“Old Uncle Jothan tried to set us boys at -each other long ago. He tried his best to set -one off against the other—to make Alf sore on -me, or me sore on Alf. We didn’t see what he -was getting at, at first.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span>“But he didn’t succeed very well. He made -his favor, and his money, and his influence an -object for us to struggle for. As it happened, -we just wouldn’t struggle. We would not be -rivals. What one had, t’other had. And that -satisfied us—until last year,” and Mr. Barney -shook his head dolefully.</p> - -<p>“When we got our tickets the old man was -crazy to find out if one of us passed better than -another. We were about equal, I reckon. -What one knows about seamanship, the other -knows. In navigation I’m sure we stood equal.</p> - -<p>“That didn’t satisfy Uncle Jothan. The -last day we saw Baltimore he had us to breakfast -with him. He was more ornery that morning -than ever before.</p> - -<p>“‘You two boys make me sick!’ he said to us. -‘I believe you try your blamedest to keep even -in everything.’</p> - -<p>“‘And what if we do?’ I asked him. ‘Ain’t -that as it should be? We’re twins.’</p> - -<p>“‘You’re a pair of twin fools,’ says he, with -his usual politeness. ‘One of you don’t know -which side of his slice of bread the butter’s on.’</p> - -<p>“I looked at mine. ‘The top side,’ I says, -‘so far,’ and Alf laughed.</p> - -<p>“‘And you’ll find it butter side down, if -you don’t have a care,’ snarled Uncle Jothan.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span> -‘I got about tired of waiting for one of you to -show some sense. I tell you there’s only room -for one of you in the firm, and that one is going -to handle my money. The other is going to be -a poor man all his life.’</p> - -<p>“‘Which one’s going to be poor, and which -one rich?’ Alf asked him.</p> - -<p>“‘You might as well tell us which will be -rich, Uncle,’ I said, laughing. ‘For if it’s Alf, -then I can begin to borrow from him right now.’</p> - -<p>“‘That’s right,’ says Brother Alf. ‘What’s -mine is yours.’</p> - -<p>“That really made the old man mad, I expect. -He pretty near gnashed his teeth.</p> - -<p>“‘I believe I’ve got a pair of totally condemned -fools for nephews!’ he yelled, only he -put it even stronger.</p> - -<p>“Oh, he was mad! I saw that we’d gone too -far with him.</p> - -<p>“‘Never mind, Uncle,’ I said, soothingly. -‘We’ll both do our best for you——’</p> - -<p>“‘And your “best” will be just exactly -alike,’ he cried. ‘When you get your mate’s -tickets it will be the same, and in the end I’ll -have a couple of masters of windjammers as -near alike as old Somes and Bowditch. What -one can do the other can do. Ye stood just the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span> -same in your books at school, and you stand -just the same in your rating at sea.’</p> - -<p>“I expect the old man was pretty well heated -up. But we just laughed as though it was a -joke.</p> - -<p>“‘I tell you what,’ says he, pushing back his -chair. ‘You sha’n’t fool me no more. One of -you is going to take his place in the firm at the -end of this v’yge you are beginning. One of -you will win and the other will lose. And I’ll -never let a penny of my money get into the -hands of the fellow that loses.’</p> - -<p>“Oh, he was quite in earnest, we could see. -Alf looked at me and shook his head. It was -past laughing at.</p> - -<p>“‘The Gullwing and the Seamew,’ says uncle, -‘are putting to sea on the same day. They will -practically make the same voyage. Now listen -to me! Whichever of you boys steps ashore at -Baltimore at the end of the voyage, that boy will -be my heir, and the other sha’n’t have a cent. -Now, that’s final. One of you has got to win, -whether you want to, or not. I’ll settle it -myself.’</p> - -<p>“And with that he walked off and left us, too -mad to even bid us good-bye,” said Mr. Barney.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XX</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which Phillis Tells Me of Her Dream</i></p> -</div> - -<p>I thought Mr. Barney had finished his story, -he was so long silent. I saw, however, that he -was still thinking of his brother, and I was not -sure whether he was expecting a word of sympathy, -or not. I reckoned he had been talking -more to relieve his mind than for any other purpose. -And finally he went on with it:</p> - -<p>“Alf and I talked it over as we walked down -to the docks. I told him I was sick of Uncle -Jothan’s nagging. I wished he’d pick the one -he wanted and close the discussion. I believed -the price we’d have to pay for his money was -too great, anyway.</p> - -<p>“‘But money’s a good thing,’ says Alf. ‘And -Uncle Jothan has got a good deal of it.’</p> - -<p>“‘I believe too much money spoils folks, -Alf,’ says I.</p> - -<p>“‘We could stand some spoiling,’ he returns, -laughing.</p> - -<p>“‘Look at uncle himself,’ says I. ‘He’s -spoiled.’</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span>“‘I’m not afraid of being spoiled by it,’ says -Alf.</p> - -<p>“‘I believe it would hurt you as quick as anybody,’ -I told him. And that riled him, though I -had no thought that it would.</p> - -<p>“‘Speak for yourself, Jim,’ says he. ‘Money’s -worth going after.’</p> - -<p>“‘We’ve had everything equal so far, Alf,’ -says I. ‘I’m not hungry for his money.’</p> - -<p>“‘And I suppose you think I am?’ and then -I saw he <i>was</i> miffed.</p> - -<p>“‘The one that tries to get the best of the -other for the sake of Uncle Jothan’s money, will -show he’s hungry,’ I said.</p> - -<p>“‘Then call it what you like, Jim!’ he cries. -‘I’m going after it.’</p> - -<p>“‘How?’ says I.</p> - -<p>“‘I’m going to beat you back to Baltimore,’ -says he.</p> - -<p>“‘I’ll be hard to beat,’ I told him.</p> - -<p>“‘Wait and see!’ cried Alf, and with that he -flung off from me and went his way to the -Seamew alone.</p> - -<p>“I had to do an errand. When I got aboard -the Gullwing the two schooners were just about -to pull out. It was then old Cap’n Si made his -bet with Cap’n Joe. I believe Alf put him up -to it. When I saw Alf in Buenos Ayres I told<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span> -him so, and he didn’t deny it,” said Mr. Barney, -sorrowfully.</p> - -<p>“When we met in the other ports we had -words. I’m blamed sorry now, but it’s too late -to patch it up. I’ll tell you honest, Webb, I -don’t care who gets Uncle Jothan’s money and -the job with the firm; but I’m going to not let -Alf beat me to Baltimore if I can help it.”</p> - -<p>He went aft then without another word; but -I did a good deal of thinking about the friction -between the two Barneys. Privately I liked -Mr. Jim Barney the better of the two; but it -was a wicked shame that the head of Barney, -Blakesley & Knight should have set the twins -by their ears in this way. Money was at the -root of the trouble. Mr. Jothan Barney seemed -about to devote his wealth to as bad a cause as -my grandfather had tried to devote <i>his</i> property.</p> - -<p>The Gullwing struck a streak of headwinds -soon after this and we wallowed along without -making much headway. That made us all feel -pretty sure. It was a chance that the Seamew -might have forged so far ahead of us that she -had escaped these contrary winds entirely.</p> - -<p>Captain Bowditch was on deck almost all the -time. His better seamanship began to be displayed -now. He took advantage of every flaw -in the wind. He had us making sail, and reefing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span> -down, most of the time, and Bob Promise -grumbled that we topmen had better stay up -there in the rigging all the time, and have our -meals brought to us by the cook.</p> - -<p>We saw nothing of the Seamew, and that -added to our anxiety, too. Days passed and we -crossed the line, under the heat of a tropical -sun that fairly stewed the pitch out of the deck -planks. Dao Singh seemed the only person -aboard that accepted the heat with good temper.</p> - -<p>We rigged an awning for our passenger, and -Phillis lived under it both day and night. She -was getting plump and hearty, however; surely -the voyage was doing her no harm. And she was -the sweetest tempered, jolliest little thing one -could imagine. It cheered a fellow up and -made him ashamed to be grouchy, just to be -near her.</p> - -<p>She liked Thankful Polk, and he amused her -by the hour. The officers were pretty easy on -Thank and I as long as we were with her. To -me she clung as though I really was her brother—and -I was proud that she so favored me.</p> - -<p>Phillis told me much of her life in India—as -far back as she could remember it. She had -come out from England when she was very -small. On her last birthday she had been -twelve. But little that she could tell me would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span> -help in finding her relatives—if she had any.</p> - -<p>Her father, Captain Erskin Duane, had not -been in active service. Not as far as she knew, -at least. He had been an invalid for months; -but had died very suddenly. There seemed to -have been few army friends, and the people she -had sailed with from Calcutta she had hardly -ever seen before the captain’s death.</p> - -<p>I had tried pumping Dao Singh about the -private history of the little girl; but either he -knew nothing about the captain’s affairs, or he -would not tell me. He was as simple, apparently, -as a child about his own expectations. -He had insisted upon accompanying the little -Memsahib in her voyage “because she needed -him.” <i>Why</i> he thought she needed him he -could not, or would not, explain.</p> - -<p>For my part I told Phillis everything about -myself, and recounted, from time to time, all -the adventures through which I had been since -leaving Bolderhead. I told her much about my -mother, too, and about Darringford House, and -our summer home on Bolderhead Neck.</p> - -<p>I assured her that I should take her at once -to my mother when we landed and that I knew -my mother would be delighted to give her a -home with us. This seemed to please the little -girl greatly.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span>“Then we shall really be brother and sister, -sha’n’t we?” she cried.</p> - -<p>“Of course,” I said.</p> - -<p>“That will be splendid! For, do you know, -Clinton, I think you are the very nicest brother -I could have picked out. You are just as nice -as I dreamed you would be.”</p> - -<p>“There!” said I. “You have said that before. -How do you mean, that you <i>dreamed</i> about me?”</p> - -<p>“So I did. Only it was a dream that came -true.”</p> - -<p>“You mean that you dreamed of me when you -were aboard that boat?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, no! it was long before that. It was -soon after we left Calcutta that I saw you,” -she said, confidently.</p> - -<p>“Why, Philly!” I exclaimed. “That’s impossible, -you know.”</p> - -<p>“But I <i>did</i> dream about you,” she returned, -seriously. “I knew that I was in a little boat. -I thought I was all alone on the great ocean. -And I was frightened, and sick—just as I <i>was</i> -frightened and sick when the time came. But -you came to me, and told me you would save -me, and you held me in your arms just as you -<i>did</i> hold me afterward all the way to this ship.”</p> - -<p>She was so positive that she had dreamed it -all before, that I saw it was no use to gainsay it.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span> -And then, why should I contradict her? Perhaps -she had had some secret and wonderful assurance -that she would be saved from the wreck. -I did not understand the clairvoyant part of it, -or whatever it might be; so I did not touch upon -the subject again.</p> - -<p>It was after that that the great gale struck us -and the staunch Gullwing was battered continually -for a week. We ran almost under bare -poles for a time, and fortunately the gale favored -us. But we lost our mizzen topmast completely -and some of our other rigging was -wrecked.</p> - -<p>Phillis had to remain below during this storm, -and she was sick again. She cried so for me -that the captain—kind old man that he was—let -me go down to her whenever I could be -spared from the deck. The child seemed to -feel that she was perfectly safe if I was with -her.</p> - -<p>Her constant trust in me made a strong impression -upon my mind. Nor was it an unpleasant -impression. Nobody had ever leaned -before on me as this child did—not even my -mother. It made me feel more manly and put -me on my very best behavior.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXI</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which the Sister Ships Once More Race -Neck to Neck</i></p> -</div> - -<p>That gale hit the Gullwing harder than any -blow she had been through (so Mr. Barney said) -since she had left Baltimore. We could not do -much toward making repairs until the gale had -blown out; we only cleared away the wreckage -aloft, reefed everything snug, and let her drive.</p> - -<p>Captain Bowditch worried like an old hen -with a mess of ducklings. I don’t know when -the old man slept. He was on deck every moment -of his own watch, and I could hear him -often roaring orders during our watch below.</p> - -<p>This was the time when the fact that the -Gullwing was short-handed made the crew groan. -It was up and down at all hours for us. If -there was a lull in the gale we were yanked out -and sent aloft to risk an inch more canvas. -Cap’n Joe coaxed her along every chance he -saw. The thought of getting ahead of the Seamew -obsessed the Old Man’s mind while he <i>was</i> -awake, that was sure!</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span>We discussed our chances forward with much -eagerness, too. The Seamew had left us behind -during the fair weather; we could make up our -minds to that. But now we had a better chance. -The Gullwing was better worked, short of hands -as she was, than the Seamew.</p> - -<p>I remembered vividly how Cap’n Si Somes -hopped about, and bawled orders, and seemed to -get in his own way when a squall came up, or -the weather was unfavorable. He was a more -nervous man that our skipper; and, I believed, -he was nowhere near so good a seaman. At -least, I had got that idea in my head, and comparing -the actions of the two skippers in a squall, -I guessed any unprejudiced person would have -accepted my view as correct.</p> - -<p>We came out of this blow at last, fair weather -returned, and Phillis had her awning re-rigged, -and was able to come on deck again, although -the Atlantic billows were tumbling heavily.</p> - -<p>All hands were busy on the new rigging. The -captain had got up a spare spar and Old Tom -Thornton and Stronson, went to work on that. -The captain was determined to get up a new -mizzen topmast and bend on new sails. Every -square inch of canvas spread to the favoring -breeze would aid us in the race home.</p> - -<p>We had gotten now into the greatest ocean<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span> -current in the world—the Gulf Stream. Ocean -currents are mysterious phenomena. The source -of energy required to set and keep the vast -masses of water in motion has been productive of -endless discussion.</p> - -<p>Temperature, barometric pressure, attractive -force of the moon, have all been advanced as -bringing about ocean currents. Seamen believe -that it is the wind that brings about certain -oceanic movements. But the winds do not explain -the reason entirely—not even in any single -case. As to the direct action of the wind on the -surface of the sea alone, it has been shown that -with a wind blowing at twenty-five miles an -hour the surface water would have a movement -of not more than fifteen miles in the twenty-four -hours! The Gulf Stream is the greatest of the -Atlantic currents, if not the greatest current on -the wet portion of the globe. It is really a -wonderful river—a river flowing through an -ocean. Its temperature is different from the -surrounding waters, it is of a different color, and -the edge of it can be noted almost exactly wherever -a ship crosses into or out of the Gulf Stream.</p> - -<p>This warm current starts between the coast of -Cuba and the Florida reefs, and certainly with -this mighty current the wind has absolutely -nothing to do. The force of the current is at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span> -its maximum strength when it emerges from the -Bemimi Straits, between the Bahama Bank on -the east and the coast of Florida on the West. -Between Fowey Rocks and Gun Gay Light the -average depth of the Gulf Stream is 239 fathoms, -and it runs at a speed of fifty miles in the -twenty-four hours. Occasionally, under particular -circumstances, it will speed up to a hundred -miles in the twenty-four hours. Little -wonder that homeward bound windjammers are -glad to strike the Gulf Stream. After we -crossed into the clear azure of that current there -was a steady tug on the Gullwing’s prow.</p> - -<p>“The women-folks are pullin’ her home with -their apron strings,” chuckled Captain Bowditch.</p> - -<p>I rigged fishing tackle for Phillis and she -caught some of the smaller fish of the Gulf -Stream—fish which cannot be caught in the -waters even a short distance outside of the line -of the current. They were brilliant trunk-fish, -and angel-fish, and the like; not edible, but -interesting to look at.</p> - -<p>Shark were plentiful, too, and followed the -ship like dogs, to fight for the scraps the cook -flung overboard. Thank got a big hook and -about a pound of fat pork (he could wheedle<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span> -anything out of the black cook) bent on a strong -line, and we trolled for shark.</p> - -<p>We caught one about eight foot long; he was -an ugly beast, and fought like a tiger when we -got him onto the deck. He would snap at a -broomstick and bite it through as neatly as we -could have cut it with an axe. A sailor hates a -shark just as the ordinary man ashore dislikes a -snake.</p> - -<p>“I tell you what we’ll do with him,” said Bob -Promise, chuckling. “I seen it done on the old -Beatrix two years ago. We ‘belled the cat’ with -an old he shark, and it’s an all right trick to play -on the dirty critters.”</p> - -<p>“How d’ye do it?” asked Tom Thornton.</p> - -<p>“Lemme have that broken broomstick,” said -Bob, grabbing it. “Now watch—when he snaps -at me.”</p> - -<p>The huge fish, lying on its side, with its wicked -eye watchful of us all, opened wide his jaws when -Bob Promise approached. The bully was a -reckless fellow, and as the shark snapped open -his jaws he thrust his hand and arm into the -cavity and thrust the stick upright, far back in -the beast’s throat.</p> - -<p>Thank actually screamed aloud, and I felt -sick—I thought sure the foolish fellow’s arm -would be snapped off between the closing jaws.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span>But the shark couldn’t close his jaws! That -was the trick of it. The stick was thrust upright, -sticking into the roof of the great mouth -and into the root of the tongue. The fish was -“belled” indeed.</p> - -<p>There it writhed upon the deck, thrashing its -strong tail about, its wicked eyes rolling, and -evidently in awful agony.</p> - -<p>“Now pitch him overboard,” laughed Bob -Promise. “He’ll live some time that way—mebbe -till he starves to death or until some of -the smaller fish pitch upon him and eat his liver -out. Ugh! the ugly beast!”</p> - -<p>Somebody took a turn of the rope around the -fish’s tail and in a moment the shark was swung -up by the falls we had rigged. But while he -hung in the air and was about to be swung over -the rail, Phillis ran up to us.</p> - -<p>“Don’t!” she cried. “Don’t do it! I saw you! -How could you be so dreadfully mean—Oh! -Clint! how could <i>you</i> do such a cruel thing?”</p> - -<p>I had been thinking all the time that it was a -blamed mean piece of business; but I hadn’t -had the pluck to say so!</p> - -<p>“You stand away, Missee,” laughed Bob. -“He’s all right. Overboard he goes—plop into -the sea—and it will be one murderin’ old shark -fixed jest right.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span>“You shall not do it!” she cried, and she was -so earnest and excited that she stamped her little -foot upon the deck. “It is wicked and cruel.”</p> - -<p>“Why, it ain’t nothin’ but an old shark, -Missee,” growled Tom Thornton. “He ain’t -fit for nothing better.”</p> - -<p>“He’s God’s creature. God made him,” declared -the child. “You’ve no right to maltreat -him. It’s wicked. I won’t have it.”</p> - -<p>She was so excited I was afraid she would get -sick. I put in <i>my</i> oar:</p> - -<p>“That’s all right, Philly. None of us stopped -to think of that side of it. Lower away here, -boys, and we’ll knock that prop out of his -mouth again.”</p> - -<p>“No you won’t!” exclaimed Bob Promise.</p> - -<p>I stopped and looked at him. “Why, sure, -Bob, you don’t mind. If the little girl doesn’t -want us to do it——”</p> - -<p>“Stow that,” said Bob, in his very ugliest -tone. “That shark ain’t hers. I put that stick -there. I want to see the man that’ll pull it -out,” and he swelled up like a turkey-cock and -acted as though he thought he was the biggest -man who ever stepped on the Gullwing’s deck.</p> - -<p>But if he had been twice as big I reckon I -should have stepped up to him! To have anybody -speak before Phillis as he did was not to be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span> -endured. Thankful Polk flamed up, too, until -you could have touched off a match on his face. -Old Tom Thornton reached an arm across and -put me back as lightly as though I had been a -feather, and seized the rope above Bob’s hand.</p> - -<p>“Drop it, you landcrab!” he growled. Old -Tom seldom got angry; when he did we knew -enough to stand from under!</p> - -<p>And then appeared Dao Singh. How he had -heard the racket I do not know. Light as a -panther, and with an eye wickeder than the -shark’s own, he slid along the deck and stood -right at the other elbow of the bully.</p> - -<p>“Let the rope go, as Webb Sahib say,” he -hissed into Bob’s ear.</p> - -<p>The bully was as amazed as he could well be -and keep on his pins. He stepped back and -glared from Thank and me to Old Tom, and then -around at Singh.</p> - -<p>“Holy mackerel!” he murmured. “Do the -hull of ye’s want the blamed fish? Then, take -him!”</p> - -<p>The watch burst out laughing. Mr. Barney -had himself come forward, and now he spoke.</p> - -<p>“Get a harpoon, Webb, and kill the beast at -once. That will settle the controversy. I’m -not sure that the little one isn’t right. We’re -all too big to torture even such a beast as a shark.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span>That was the kind of influence Phillis Duane -had over all of us. The captain had her on the -bridge with him and showed her everything he -did when he took the sun’s altitude, and all -that. Mr. Gates talked with her by the hour. -Mr. Barney was forever finding something new -with which she could amuse herself. And the -black cook and Dao Singh almost came to blows -over who should wait upon her the most.</p> - -<p>Then came the day when, off Hatteras, we -sighted another four-masted ship. She crept -out of a fogbank to leeward of us and it was -some time before we saw her clearly enough to be -sure. That she was tacking northward was the -main fact at first which urged us to believe it -was our sister ship.</p> - -<p>But in an hour it came clearer, and we could -be sure. It was the Seamew, standing in very -prettily, and it was plain she had sighted us, -too. We tacked and her course brought her -across our stern. We ran so near the captains -could hail each other. Old Cap’n Si waved his -glass and shouted:</p> - -<p>“We’re about to bid you a fond farewell, Joe! -Next tack will put us ahead of you. That -apple’s mine, by jolly!”</p> - -<p>“Seems to me if I had such a great craft as -the Seamew, I’d have got farther ahead than you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span> -be now,” returned our skipper, with scorn. “I -reckon the race ain’t over yet.”</p> - -<p>“It’s pretty near over. We got good weather -comin’. The Seamew can walk away with you -in a fair wind.”</p> - -<p>“All right. Brag’s a good dog, but Holdfast’s -a better one,” said Cap’n Joe. “Wait till we -sight the Capes o’ Virginia.”</p> - -<p>She was too far away from us then for Cap’n -Si to shout again. The rest of us had grinned -or scowled at the men aboard the Seamew, as -our natures dictated. I had noticed that the -boat found adrift with Singh and Phillis in it, -had been hoisted aboard the Seamew and was -lashed amidships.</p> - -<p>Away we went on our tack, came about, and -again neared our rival. The Seamew was not -pulling away from us much; the wind was heavy. -The Gullwing crept up on her and, finally, when -the Seamew tacked again, we did the same and -she had no chance to cross our bows, even had -she been able to.</p> - -<p>So we sailed, neck and neck, not half a mile -from each other, both ships plunging through the -swells with a line of white foam under their -quarters, and well heeled over to the wind. -Whichever won the race—whether the Gullwing -or the Seamew—it would be a good fight.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXII</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which the Capes of Virginia Are In Sight</i></p> -</div> - -<p>We had a stiff wind blowing—half a gale, indeed—and -when we raised other sailing ships, -their canvas was clewed down and some of them -were running under little more than stormsails. -But neither the captain of the Seamew nor of the -Gullwing had any intention of losing a breath of -such a favorable breeze.</p> - -<p>Our ship heeled over until her rail was under -water; and she was laden so heavily that this -sort of sailing was perilous. Suppose some of -the cargo should shift? Where would we be? -Well, just about there, I guess!</p> - -<p>“Some day the old man will carry the sticks out -of her completely,” growled Mr. Gates to Mr. -Barney.</p> - -<p>“Well, let him!” exclaimed the second mate. -“We’ve got to win this time.”</p> - -<p>“What for?” I heard the other ask, curiously. -“Just so Cap’n Joe will win his greening apple?”</p> - -<p>Mr. Barney cursed the captain and his apple.</p> - -<p>“You want us to win anyway, eh?” pursued<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span> -Mr. Gates, in his slow, thoughtful way. “No -matter what happens to the Gullwing?”</p> - -<p>“She’s insured; so’s her freight,” snapped Mr. -Barney.</p> - -<p>“It doesn’t matter if both good ships should -founder and be lost?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t give a hang!” exclaimed the younger -man, bitterly, “as long as the Gullwing goes -down fifty fathoms nearer Baltimore than the -Seamew.”</p> - -<p>“And how about the crews?”</p> - -<p>“Who’s thinking of men—or ships—just -now?” demanded Mr. Barney. “Aren’t both -captains risking lives and property for a silly -competition? I’m no worse than they are.”</p> - -<p>“And so, the rivalry of Cap’n Joe and Cap’n -Si will excuse your own mad determination to -get to port first?” suggested Mr. Gates, quietly. -“I don’t believe you’ll feel that way, young -man, twelve months from now. And how about -the little girl?”</p> - -<p>“Pshaw! there’s no danger,” said Mr. Barney, -lightly.</p> - -<p>“I hope there will be no danger—no more than -there is now, at least,” said the mate, significantly. -Then he saw me on lookout and said, -irritably: “Come away! This is no place to -talk.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span>I wondered what the mate thought Mr. -Barney would do for the sake of helping the -Gullwing to win the race; but I heard nothing -more of their conversation. This occurred in -the evening when we could just see the ghostly -sails of the Seamew as she stood on for us. Mr. -Barney soon after took the wheel himself, it -being the captain’s watch. From that point on -to the end the second mate was more frequently -at the wheel than at any previous time during -the cruise.</p> - -<p>Day and night the two huge schooners ran -almost even. Our skipper was seldom off the -deck. I don’t know when he found time to -sleep. He never lost a chance to make the most -of a puff of wind. The men worked for him -eagerly and well; but they stood double watches.</p> - -<p>Some of the small sails Cap’n Joe even had us -dip overboard so that, well wetted, they would -better hold the wind. It was four bells in the -morning watch when the Seamew crossed our -bow. She had been trying for it for twenty-four -hours, or more. And when she cut us off and -we had to take her white water, a groan of derision -was raised by her crew.</p> - -<p>We were sore—every man Jack of us. Cap’n -Joe and Cap’n Si had it hot and heavy from their -respective stations.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span>“Better give us a line aboard so’t we can tow -ye in, Joe!” bawled Cap’n Si.</p> - -<p>“You air mighty willin’ to give a helpin’ -hand jest now, Si,” returned our skipper, with -scorn. “But it warn’t allus so.”</p> - -<p>I saw Mr. Alf Barney at the Seamew’s wheel. -He handled the ship splendidly. When the -Seamew came about on the other tack, her helmsman -met the waves just right and swung her -over so that the sails scarcely shook at all. She -reared up on one tack, turned as it were on her -heel, and swept away on the other tack at a -speed that sent the spray flying high above her -rail. It was a pretty sight.</p> - -<p>Our Mr. Barney stood right beside me as I -manipulated the Gullwing’s helm. He watched -the handling of our rival with lowering brow.</p> - -<p>“Gimme that wheel!” he snapped, pushing -me away and seizing the spokes. The Gullwing -was right in the eye of the wind. Cap’n Bowditch -was shouting his orders. If the Seamew -had rounded prettily, the Gullwing went her one -better. We wasted less time hanging in the -wind than the Seamew.</p> - -<p>“That’s the way to do it!” bawled our skipper, -dancing on the quarter. “By jinks, Mr. Barney, -you handled that wheel well. Keep her so! -Steady.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span>The second mate let me take the wheel again -after a minute or two; and his face had remained -unsmiling all the time. He had merely been -determined to show them all that he could handle -the big ship’s helm as well in every particular as -did his brother.</p> - -<p>Our course was west-northwest now to the -Capes of Virginia. The fresh gale was out of -the same quarter. Therefore we had to beat to -windward all the remainder of the race, and although -the Seamew had gotten a little the start -of us, the Gullwing had a slight advantage. -She handled better to windward than her sister -ship.</p> - -<p>The Seamew stood off on one tack, we on the -other. She disappeared beyond the sea line, -but standing in some hours later we found her -again—and finding her were pleased more than -a little in seeing that we had made something -up on her. Our skipper’s shrewdness was telling.</p> - -<p>I knew how it was with Cap’n Si; when things -broke wrong for him he paddled about the deck, -cursing the hands and the wind and various other -things, altogether irrational. Whereas our skipper -never lost a trick, kept his head, and never -gave an order he was sorry for—and that last is -saying a good deal.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span>We filled away once more and stood back to -her. We were making distance fast. Had we -held on this time we should have crossed her -wake almost under her stern. The man aloft -suddenly sang out:</p> - -<p>“Land, ho!”</p> - -<p>I heard the cry repeated in the Seamew’s tops.</p> - -<p>“Cape Henry, sir!” shouted our man to the -skipper.</p> - -<p>“Aye, aye,” said Cap’n Joe, eagerly. “And -when we tack back again we’re going to cross -ahead of the Seamew’s bow—and the race will be -over.”</p> - -<p>He said it with enormous satisfaction. He believed -it, too.</p> - -<p>“Why will the race be over, Clint?” asked -Phillis, who stood beside me at the moment. “I -looked at the chart. We’re a long way yet from -Baltimore. We are not in sight of the opening -into Chesapeake Bay.”</p> - -<p>“There are tugs waiting up there in the roads -for us,” I told her. “You’ll soon see their -smoke. <i>They</i> will race out for us, as we race in -for the port. We shall go up to Baltimore under -steam.”</p> - -<p>And my statement was scarcely made ere we -saw in the far distance the pillars of smoke from -the stacks of the ocean-going tugs. The land<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span> -that had been merely a hazy line, grew more -clearly defined, although we were not approaching -it directly. Soon I could point out to my -little friend the other cape guarding the mouth of -the Chesapeake—Cape Charles.</p> - -<p>The tugs steamed out to meet us under forced -draught. More quickly to get in tow of the tug -nearest us, which was coming already hooked -up, Cap’n Bowditch put the Gullwing about -earlier than he had originally intended. As we -tacked, so did the Seamew.</p> - -<p>“She’s afraid to give us an inch,” laughed Mr. -Barney, taking his place beside the wheel again, -and looking up at Mr. Gates.</p> - -<p>“It’s nip and tuck,” returned the first mate. -Then to the skipper he said: “Shall I make -ready to take the tug’s hawser, sir?”</p> - -<p>“Right-oh!” declared Captain Bowditch. -“And be lively with it. We’re too close to fool -away a moment. I hope we get the fastest tug.”</p> - -<p>“She’s the Sea Horse, Cap’n!” bawled down -the man aloft.</p> - -<p>“Smart tug, she is,” agreed the skipper.</p> - -<p>“And I believe that’s the Comet makin’ to -meet the Seamew.”</p> - -<p>“Both Norfolk Tug Company’s craft—and -good ones. I wouldn’t give a dollar bonus either -way on ’em, would you, Mr. Gates?”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span>“They’re just as near alike as the Seamew and -the Gullwing are alike,” agreed the mate, and -went forward.</p> - -<p>We were standing in now directly for the -channel. The Seamew was headed likewise. -We were bound to pass close to our sister ship—so -close that, as the moments slipped past, I -began to feel some disturbance of mind.</p> - -<p>Heaven knows the ocean was broad enough; -but the two skippers were obstinate and eager. -One would not be likely to want to give way -to the other. And moment after moment the -two great ships, their canvas filled and the -white water split in great waves from their -prows, rushed closer and closer together.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXIII</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which We Face Death by the Breadth of a Hair</i></p> -</div> - -<p>I had walked forward, anxious over the -situation of the sister ships. Tom Thornton -was right by my side, for Mr. Barney had taken -the wheel himself.</p> - -<p>“In case of doubt,” I asked Tom, “who gives -way—the Seamew or the Gullwing?”</p> - -<p>“Why, the Seamew, of course,” growled -Tom.</p> - -<p>“Are you sure?”</p> - -<p>“I be,” he said, emphatically. “No gittin’ -around it. It has to be her gives way—not us. -Both of us are close-hauled, that’s a fact; but -we on this tack has the right of way. The -Seamew’s got to come about and give us the -road.”</p> - -<p>“She don’t look like she would,” I said, -gravely.</p> - -<p>“Of course she will!”</p> - -<p>“Then she’ll miss meeting the other tug this -time. It will give us a big advantage.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t ye suppose our skipper knows that?”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span> -returned Tom, with a wide grin. “That’s -what he aimed to do. Oh, Cap’n Joe is a -cleaner, now I tell ye!”</p> - -<p>It did look to me as though the two great -ships were rushing together. If they had been -two old-time frigates, aiming to come to a clinch -and the crews ordered to “board with cutlass,” -the appearance of the two could have been no -more threatening.</p> - -<p>The Seamew’s men were grouped along her -rail and swinging in her lower shrouds, watching -us; and every person aboard the Gullwing, -including the cook, was on deck. I heard -Captain Bowditch growling to himself:</p> - -<p>“What does that lobster mean? Ain’t he -goin’ to give us no seaway?”</p> - -<p>Mr. Barney had taken the wheel of the Gullwing. -I saw that his brother was already -glued to the spokes of the Seamew’s wheel.</p> - -<p>“’Ware what ye do there, Mr. Barney,” -sang out Captain Bowditch.</p> - -<p>“Aye, aye, sir.”</p> - -<p>“Keep her steady.”</p> - -<p>“Aye, aye, sir.”</p> - -<p>I caught old Tom by the sleeve of his jumper -again.</p> - -<p>“Cap’n Si don’t mean to give way!” I -gasped.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span>“Wal,” said the old seaman, reflectively, -“it’ll be up to him if he doesn’t.”</p> - -<p>“But——”</p> - -<p>“It ain’t our place to give that blamed Seamew -the whole ocean.”</p> - -<p>“But if the Seamew <i>won’t</i> give way?” I -repeated, vainly.</p> - -<p>“What! Not give way! That’d be foolish,” -growled old Tom. “A man can go bullying -his way ashore, pushin’ folks inter the gutter -and all that, if he’s big enough—like Bob yonder. -But a captain can’t do that at sea. He’d -only git what’s due him. He’ll <i>have</i> to give -way.”</p> - -<p>Yet no order was given from the Seamew’s -quarter; nor did our skipper say a word. I -could not believe that Captain Bowditch, even -with the sea-law on his side, would risk his -beautiful ship and the lives of her crew. Yet if -the Seamew continued to run in on us much -longer we would have to fall off, or collide with -her.</p> - -<p>Little Phillis was sitting calmly under her -awning, busied with some pieces of sewing—for -she was a housewifely little thing. It -struck me that an awful death was threatening -the innocent child, and I moved toward her.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span> -Thankful Polk was working his way along the -deck in the same direction, too.</p> - -<p>Captain Bowditch glanced at the child under -the awning. If he had had any desperate -intention of keeping on, whether or no, so as -to pick up his tug ahead of the Seamew, I believe -the presence of Phillis Duane restrained -him. His hard old face changed.</p> - -<p>The Seamew was holding on. She was going -to force us. The old man jumped to the -rail and motioned with his arm for the helmsman -of the Seamew to keep off. But Mr. Alf Barney’s -gaze rested only on the face of his brother -at <i>our</i> wheel; and Captain Somes never gave -an order.</p> - -<p>Captain Bowditch turned and yelled:</p> - -<p>“Keep off! keep off, I say! D’ye wanter -wreck us?”</p> - -<p>He started for the wheel. I do not know -whether our Mr. Barney obeyed the order—or -tried to obey it. The two great ships, their -canvas bellied with the strong gale, seemed to -sweep together as though they were magnetized!</p> - -<p>It may have been explained by the fact that -we were so near each other that one took the -wind out of the other’s sails. At least, the two -huge ships were no longer under control.</p> - -<p>“I’m hanged if she ain’t got away from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span> -him!” I heard Tom Thornton yell; but which -ship he meant I did not know.</p> - -<p>The Gullwing took a shoot. The Seamew -took a shoot. Then the two ships clinched!</p> - -<p>Talk about a smash! It was the most awful -collision one could imagine. Two express trains -on the same track, coming head-on, could have -made no greater explosion of sound. And it -did seem as though no other kind of a collision -could have resulted in so much wreckage.</p> - -<p>I grabbed up Phillis just before the ships -came together, and dashed for the companionway. -But as I gained its shelter I saw the -spars raining from aloft on both vessels, with -the canvas and cordage in a perfect jumble.</p> - -<p>It fairly shook the spars out of the Seamew. -I believed, at the last moment, that the Gullwing -had sheered off. At least, she had taken -the blow on more of a slant. The wire stays -upon our sister ship had been torn away and -her foremast came down and hung over the -rail a complete wreck.</p> - -<p>Her other masts wavered. I could see that -she was shaking like a wounded thing; I believe -she was settling even then. She had -opened a great hole in her hull forward. I -could see the ragged, splintered ends of the -planks.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span>Our own damage and peril I could not gauge -until I had set Phillis down and rushed back to -the deck. The old Gullwing was hobbling -away from her sister ship. Captain Bowditch -was bawling orders from the bridge; but I -heard nothing but screams of rage and fear -from the Seamew. <i>And Captain Si Somes was -no longer in sight.</i></p> - -<p>“Axes, men!” roared our skipper. “Get -aloft there! Cut away wreckage! Clew up -everything that ain’t torn away. Look alive, -up there, Mr. Gates.”</p> - -<p>“Aye, aye, sir!” responded the mate from -forward.</p> - -<p>“Keep her steady, Mr. Barney!” commanded -the captain.</p> - -<p>I heard no response. I glanced aft as I -worked my way up the backstays. Mr. Jim -Barney still stood at our wheel. He hung to -the spokes and held the ship steady. But a -whiter face and a more miserable face I had -never seen upon mortal man.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXIV</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which the Tragedy of the Racing Ship Is -Completed</i></p> -</div> - -<p>League upon league of the sea—across and -again across two oceans—the sister ships had -raced, to fall afoul of each other here almost -within sight of port!</p> - -<p>While we aboard the Gullwing were cutting -adrift the wreckage for dear life, another mast—the -mizzen—fell across the Seamew. She was -down dreadfully by the head. We could hear -the roar of the water pouring into the hole -stove in her hull.</p> - -<p>I knew Mr. Hollister’s voice, and he was -shouting orders to the crew. But nobody -heard Cap’n Si speaking; nor was he in sight. -I knew as well then as I did afterward that, -at the moment of the collision, the master of -the Seamew went overboard, sank, and never -came up again!</p> - -<p>Down came the aftermast of the Seamew; -the mainmast was swaying. I reckon the crew<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span> -responded to Mr. Hollister’s orders not at all. -I heard the wail of:</p> - -<p>“Boats! boats! take to the boats!”</p> - -<p>But when they took another look at the -wabbling masts, they waited to launch no -boat. With a few words but much action the -crew went over her rail, now almost even with -the sea, and one after the other began to claw -out for the Gullwing which lay to not two -cable’s lengths away from the sinking ship.</p> - -<p>But Mr. Alfred Barney held to the spokes -of her wheel; he made no offer to leave the -Seamew, although Mate Hollister, like the men, -was already in the sea.</p> - -<p>As I hacked at the steel cordage and broken -spars I heard Captain Bowditch shouting directions -to the men below, and to the men in -the water. Ropes and life-buoys were flung to -the seamen from the sinking ship. In this comparatively -quiet sea there was little likelihood of -any of them being drowned.</p> - -<p>Mr. Hollister waited to see his hands drawn -over the rail of the Gullwing before he came -inboard himself. But while this was going on -Captain Bowditch discovered the missing second -mate still on the wreck.</p> - -<p>“Come away from that!” he shouted to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span> -Alfred Barney. “Come on! Jump in! We’ll -haul you out.”</p> - -<p>The young man made no reply, nor did he -move from the wheel.</p> - -<p>“Come away, you fool!” roared Captain -Bowditch.</p> - -<p>But Alfred Barney, like Jim Barney, seemed -frozen to the spokes of the wheel. The thought -in my confused mind was: <i>Had the two brothers -deliberately wrecked the sister ships?</i></p> - -<p>The Gullwing had recovered from the shock -of the collision. She was not going to sink—at -least, not right away. All her crew were -inboard now, and Mr. Hollister followed. Nobody -spoke of poor Cap’n Si. We all knew -that he was missing. But there was a great -to-do about Alfred Barney.</p> - -<p>“What does that etarnal fool want to stay -over there for?” yelled Captain Joe to Mr. -Hollister. “Is he a dummy?”</p> - -<p>“He iss <i>fey</i>,” whispered old Stronson in my -ear.</p> - -<p>“Looks like it was his fault the ships came -together,” said Bob Promise.</p> - -<p>We had descended to the deck again now. -Our upper works were in an awful tangle; but -we could do no more at present. The tug was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span> -steaming in near to us now and it did not matter -if we did drift.</p> - -<p>All our eyes were fastened upon the Seamew. -She was going down steadily, head-on. Already -her bows were being lapped by the waves -clear to the butt of the jib-boom.</p> - -<p>Mr. Hollister sent another wailing cry across -to the second mate at the Seamew’s wheel; -but the figure did not move, nor did Alf Barney -make any reply.</p> - -<p>Suddenly our Mr. Barney left the helm. He -just motioned to me, and I grabbed the spokes. -He sprang to the rail and held out both his -arms to his brother.</p> - -<p>“Come! Alf, Alf! Come!”</p> - -<p>Then it was that Alfred Barney turned his -head and looked across at us. His face, white -as his brother’s had been, broke into a frosty -smile. He raised one hand and waved it to -his twin. And then——</p> - -<p>There was a roar of sound, a rush of wind, -a yell in chorus from all hands aboard the Gullwing, -and the mainmast of the Seamew came -rushing down, astern! The great spar had -been shaken loose and it fell with all its weight -along the deck of the laboring schooner. The -topmast broke off and sprang into the air, along -with a tangle of steel cable and shredded sails.</p> - -<p>And when that topmast struck the deck -again it wrecked the Seamew’s wheel and -pinioned Mr. Alfred Barney beneath its wreckage!</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span>A general shout of horror arose from the Gullwing; -but above it rang the clarion tone of -Jim Barney’s voice:</p> - -<p>“Boat! Boat! Launch the quarterboat!”</p> - -<p>Our men sprang to their stations; the young -second mate gave his orders quick and sharp. -Captain Bowditch did not gainsay him. Mr. -Jim Barney had it all his own way.</p> - -<p>His crew—the same that had manned the boat -when she had picked up the castaways—quickly -took their places in the craft. She was lowered -with a plop into the sea.</p> - -<p>“Give way, men!”</p> - -<p>They bent to the oars like giants. The boat -shot across the sea to the fast sinking Seamew. -I held the spokes of the Gullwing’s wheel idly -and watched. Indeed, the tug coming up to -hook us attracted no attention from anybody -aboard our ship at that moment.</p> - -<p>The Seamew was wallowing deep in the -water now. Her head was under and her stern -was kicking up. She was about to dive like a -duck to the bottom.</p> - -<p>Suddenly the air-pressure below blew off -her forward hatch. Instantly the waves broke -across the deck and the water poured into the -open hatchway.</p> - -<p>Swiftly and more swiftly she sank. When -our boat came to the hulk, she presented a steep -side for one to mount from the small boat.</p> - -<p>“Alf! Alf!” we heard our second mate yell. -We could not hear that there was an answer<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span> -from the man under the wreckage of the topmast.</p> - -<p>“Hold her in close, boys!” commanded Mr. -Jim Barney. “Give me that boathook!”</p> - -<p>“You’ll be drowned, sir!” I heard Thankful -Polk cry.</p> - -<p>“She’s going down—she’ll suck us all under,” -declared Bob Promise.</p> - -<p>“Stand by, as I tell you!” commanded the -second mate again.</p> - -<p>In a moment he had fastened the boathook -somehow, and went up hand over hand. He -seized the rail of the sinking ship. The small -boat backed away. I believe Bob Promise -thrust her off with his oar.</p> - -<p>“Look out there!” bawled Captain Bowditch, -from our poop. “You’re taking your -life in your hand, lad!”</p> - -<p>Mr. Jim Barney merely waved his hand, -notifying the master of the Gullwing that his -warning had been heard. But he crawled -right up to the stern over that wreckage. He -did not look back once.</p> - -<p>And down settled the Seamew, lower and -lower. She was under seas as far back as the -stump of the mainmast. The water boiled -around her. There was good reason for our -men in the quarterboat to back off. Once -caught in the suck of the sinking ship, our men -and their craft would go under, too!</p> - -<p>I saw Mr. Jim Barney spring over a pile of -debris. He stooped, tore away some of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span> -wrecked stuff, and then stood up with his -brother’s body clasped in his arms.</p> - -<p>For an instant I saw the white face of the -unconscious man. There was a streak of crimson -on his forehead. Jim Barney looked down -into the countenance of his brother and the -men in our quarterboat uttered in chorus a long-drawn -cry. The Seamew was going down.</p> - -<p>Slowly, the eddying water seething about her -wounded hull, the ship settled.</p> - -<p>“Jump!” shouted Cap’n Bowditch, leaning -over the rail, his own face pallid and his eyes -aglare.</p> - -<p>But that would not have saved them. Mr. -Barney could not have leaped far enough with -his burden to have overcome the suck of the -maelstrom forming about the wreck. And it -was right for the men in the small boat to sheer -off.</p> - -<p>The wreck slid under the surface. Almost -the last thing we saw was Mr. Barney, holding -his burden in his arms, his own face still bent -above the unconscious countenance of his -brother.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXV</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which a Very Serious Question Is Discussed</i></p> -</div> - -<p>The boat from the Gullwing was so near the -maelstrom caused by the sinking of the ship -that her bow was sucked under and she shipped -a lot of water. We saw the boys bailing energetically.</p> - -<p>Then Thank stood up and cast off his outer -clothing and his shoes. Bob Promise, who -pulled the bow oar, followed suit. They each -took the precaution to lash the end of a line to -one wrist before going overboard. Where the -Seamew had sunk was a circle of tossing waves, -and broken bits of wreckage were popping up -from below in a most dangerous fashion.</p> - -<p>The suspense aboard the Gullwing and in -the boat was great indeed as the two young -fellows went down. If the Barneys had been -entangled in any wreckage on the lost vessel, -Thank and Bob would never be able to reach -them, for the sea at that spot is very deep, and -the hulk of the schooner would finally rest upon -the bottom.</p> - -<p>Mr. Gates had run back to the stern and stood -beside me, gazing off across the tumbling sea.</p> - -<p>“God help the boy!” he muttered, and I -knew he referred to our Mr. Barney. “I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span> -doubt now he’d rather be under the seas than -above after this day’s work.”</p> - -<p>“Do you believe it was Mr. Barney’s fault?” -I whispered.</p> - -<p>He started and looked around at me. I -repeated my question.</p> - -<p>“Was it Jim Barney’s fault?” he returned. -“What do you think?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t believe it. He sheered off——”</p> - -<p>“Too late,” muttered Mr. Gates.</p> - -<p>“Just as soon as the captain ordered him -to,” I declared eagerly. “When Captain Bowditch -ordered him to ‘Keep off’ he swung her -over. I saw him.”</p> - -<p>“It was too late then, I tell you,” declared -the first mate of the Gullwing.</p> - -<p>“But how about Mr. Alf Barney?” I cried. -“He held on to the course all the time till she -hit us.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Gates said nothing.</p> - -<p>“If it was anybody’s fault it was Mr. Alf -Barney’s,” I repeated, stubbornly.</p> - -<p>“No. It cannot be laid to his fault in any -case,” said the mate, sternly.</p> - -<p>“Why not, sir?” I asked.</p> - -<p>“Because his captain gave no order. Captain -Si had the deck. He was in command.”</p> - -<p>“Then Captain Bowditch is at fault, too,” -I declared. “He did not speak quick enough.”</p> - -<p>“He gave the order quick enough,” returned -Mr. Gates, gloomily, “but Jim Barney hesitated. -That’s where the fault lies. Jim Barney<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span> -hated to give the Seamew right of way, -and he held us onto the course after he was -ordered to keep off. That’s where the fault -lies, my boy—that’s where it lies.”</p> - -<p>At another time I do not suppose the mate -would have discussed the point with me, I -being merely a foremast hand. But we were -all stirred up and for the moment quarterdeck -etiquette was forgotten.</p> - -<p>But in a moment there was a cheer raised in -our little boat, dancing out there on the swells. -Thank’s head appeared, and one hand grasped -the gunwale of the boat. He dragged into view -the two Barney’s, locked in an embrace that -could not be broken.</p> - -<p>Bob Promise came to his help instantly. -Together they held the twins up. Both the -Barneys were unconscious. Mr. Jim must have -had a frightful fight down there under the sea -to hold to his brother and get out of the strong -suck of the settling wreck.</p> - -<p>The brothers were hauled into the small boat, -and then Thank and Bob followed. As quickly -as possible she was rowed back to the Gullwing.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the big tug Sea Horse had -steamed up to us and rounded to under our -bows. The hawser was passed and Mr. Gates -took charge of the rigging of the bridle. Our -skipper himself went to the rail to meet the incoming -boat.</p> - -<p>“Good boys,” he said, warmly. “It’s a -pity poor old Si warn’t found, too.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span>I wondered if that was so. It seemed to me -that Captain Silas Somes was the man mainly -to blame for the tragedy. I could not believe -that the onus of it would be heaped upon our -second mate.</p> - -<p>The boat was hoisted in. Both the Barneys -remained unconscious; but Mr. Hollister and -the captain declared they would be all right -soon. Mr. Alf Barney had not been seriously -injured by the falling of the mast. They were -taken below and Mr. Hollister took charge -of them, with one of his own hands to help in -bringing the brothers back to their senses.</p> - -<p>The Gullwing quickly felt the tug of the -hawser binding her to the Sea Horse and with -her sails clewed up she wallowed on through -the choppy seas into the broad mouth of the -Chesapeake.</p> - -<p>No need of aiding the steam-tug by hoisting -sail. The race was over. The Seamew had -run her course and the Gullwing was the winner. -But a sorry winning of the race it proved to be.</p> - -<p>Mr. Gates kept both watches at work for a -time making the loose spars secure. The steel -stays that had been broken had to be reset, or -we might have one of our masts coming down -as the Seamew’s had.</p> - -<p>The work was done before the second dog-watch -and then we had a chance to sit down and -fraternize with the men from the Seamew.</p> - -<p>“What gave the old Seamew her ticket,” -said Job Perkins, “was our changing a live<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span> -man for a dead one. When Clint, here, went -over the side and a man that had been garroted -came back inboard, I knowed we was -in for trouble. And that ten dollars you’re -to pay me at Baltimore,” he whispered in my -ear, “ain’t going to pay me for the dunnage I -lost.”</p> - -<p>“How d’ye s’pose that feller got strangled -with his lanyard?” demanded another of the -Seamew’s men.</p> - -<p>“Ask that nigger they’ve got aboard the Gullwing -here,” growled another. “He knows. -And he’ll hafter tell it to the consul.”</p> - -<p>But I made up my mind that, if it were possible, -Dao Singh should not be obliged to go -before any court, or any consul, to explain that -matter. The fact was, there wasn’t anything -he could explain. Under a dreadful provocation -he had killed the sailor. But I doubted -if his excuse for committing the act would be -accepted by the law.</p> - -<p>The men were mainly interested, however, -in the circumstances surrounding the collision -of the sister ships and the sinking of the Seamew. -The great question was: Who was at -fault? But we conducted the discussion in -very low tones, that the officer on deck might not -overhear us.</p> - -<p>“Talk as ye please,” grunted Job Perkins. -“If two other men—men that warn’t Barneys—had -been at the helm of the two ships, -there wouldn’t never been no trouble.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span>“Well,” declared I, “<i>our</i> Mr. Barney sheered -off.”</p> - -<p>“Not soon enough,” said Tom Thornton, -shaking his head.</p> - -<p>“Just as soon as the order was given!” I -cried. “And it wasn’t our place to give way, -at that.”</p> - -<p>“Oh,” said Job, “we’ll all grant the old man—Cap’n -Si—was the main one to blame. -Leastways, he’s the one dead, and the dead -man is always blamed. But Mr. Alf Barney -never got no word to change his helm—and -yours did.”</p> - -<p>“The ships come together; they was bound -to do so, sooner or later,” said old Stronson, -shaking his head. “It iss not de men iss to -blame—no! You remember the Chieftain and -de Antelope? Dey was sister ships, too. Dey -could not be anchored within a cable’s length -of each odder, or dey come togedder.”</p> - -<p>“By jings! the old man’s right,” declared -Tom Thornton. “I sailed on the Antelope -once. There seemed to be magnets drawin’ -them two ships together. Gettin’ under way at -Savannah we bumped the Chieftain and tore -away her fore chains and made a mess of our -own bows.”</p> - -<p>“I heered if the two craft was anchored full -and plenty apart, and in no tideway, they’d -rub sides within twenty-four hours,” said -another man.</p> - -<p>“And das iss de trut’,” declared Stronson.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span> -“Dey wass sister ships—like das Seamew and -Gullwing. Nopoty can keep dem apart when -dey gets jest so near to each odder.”</p> - -<p>“That’s so! I bet that was what did it more -than the Barney boys,” agreed Job Perkins.</p> - -<p>“Sich things happen, as we knows,” said -Tom Thornton.</p> - -<p>And I declare, all the old fellows went off on -this tangent and accepted this idea as the true -explanation for the sinking of the Seamew. -They talked it over and became more and more -positive that it was so. The superstition that -the sister ships had a natural attraction for -each other took a firm hold upon their minds. -I could see plainly that if the firm had any of -these old barnacles into court, they would -swear to this ridiculous idea. At least, it might -throw a bit of weight against the idea that the -Barney boys had deliberately wrecked the two -ships.</p> - -<p>“Jest the same,” observed old Tom, slowly, -“study on it as we may, there’s one place where -it’ll be decided for sure, as far as the legal end -of it goes. The insurance court will have the -last say.”</p> - -<p>“Wrong you be, Tom,” declared Job, “wrong -you be. The final settlement of the hull matter -will be in the offices of Barney, Blakesley & -Knight. Never mind what the court says, nor -how the insurance is adjusted; them two boys -will hafter go before the firm.”</p> - -<p>“By mighty! that’s so,” agreed Tom.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span>“And the way it’s turned out,” pursued Job, -“it looks like Mr. Jim Barney would have the -best of it.”</p> - -<p>“How so?” we asked.</p> - -<p>“Don’t you see that he’s bound ter be first -ashore at Baltimore?” and the Seamew’s oldest -hand chuckled. “He’s come through on his -ship and will stand first in the old man’s estimation—no -matter how he done it. Ye know -Jothan Barney.”</p> - -<p>“By crackey! will Mr. Jim beat Mr. Alfred, -then, and be boss of the firm?” Thankful Polk -demanded.</p> - -<p>“That’ll be the end of the story, son,” said -Job, turning his cud in his cheek. “Old Jothan -sent ’em out, one ter beat the other. By -jinks! one <i>has</i> beat the other. No matter how -he’s done it. It’s done, and so old Jothan will -agree, I reckon.”</p> - -<p>“But won’t the firm punish Mr. Jim?” I -asked.</p> - -<p>“I wanter see the firm do anything that old -Jothan don’t want it to do,” scoffed Job.</p> - -<p>“And that’s so, too,” agreed old Tom.</p> - -<p>“Then, believing that Mr. Jim Barney deliberately -wrecked the Seamew so as to beat -his brother into Baltimore, you fellows think -his uncle will receive him with open arms?”</p> - -<p>“That’ll be about it,” said Job. “Jothan -Barney is that way. He wanted one of his -nephews to show what they call ‘initiative’ -and all that. Jim Barney’s showed it——”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span>“And risked drowning a whole ship’s crew—two -ships’ crews, in fact!—including his -brother?” I cried. “You believe he did that -just to get ahead and win his uncle’s approval?”</p> - -<p>“That’s it,” said Job.</p> - -<p>“Then if he hated his brother so,” I demanded, -raising my voice in my earnestness, -“why did he risk his own life to save him?”</p> - -<p>The men were silent for a moment. Then -Mr. Gates’ voice came booming forward from -the quarter:</p> - -<p>“You men stow your jaw-tackle. You’re -gassin’ too much.”</p> - -<p>That ended the discussion. But I was by -no means convinced that the seamen understood -the two Barneys. I had an entirely different -idea of how the matter would fall out in the -end.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXVI</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which Is Told How the Barney Boys Go Ashore</i></p> -</div> - -<p>Of course, the sinking of the Seamew would -be reported by the tug Comet, that had gone -out to meet her, and the news would be telegraphed -to Baltimore long before we reached -the port. The owners would know all about -the trouble, and I reckon Captain Joe Bowditch -had pretty serious thoughts that night as -we were towed up the bay.</p> - -<p>It was a lovely evening and Phillis came out -on deck and begged me to sit with her. She -had not been so greatly frightened when the -two ships collided, because I had been right -with her and the trouble was over so quickly. -I hated to think of what might have happened, -however, if it had been the fate of the Gullwing -to sink instead of her sister ship.</p> - -<p>Since they have been carried below, unconscious, -none of we foremast hands had seen -the two Barney boys. We only knew that they -had both recovered and were none the worse -for their ducking.</p> - -<p>It was now the captain’s watch, however, -and Mr. Jim Barney came up and paced the -larboard side of the deck, aft. It was not long -before I caught sight of a similar figure pacing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span> -the starboard side of the house, and knew that -Mr. Alf Barney had come up, too.</p> - -<p>Philly and I had been whispering together -under her awning and suddenly she put her -finger on my lips to enjoin secrecy, and tripped -away to Mr. Jim Barney’s side.</p> - -<p>She tucked her hand in his, I could see, and -walked beside him. I am not sure whether -she said anything to him, or not; but I know he -did not send her away from him, although he was -on duty.</p> - -<p>Then, after a bit, I saw Philly go to the other -side of the deck and join Mr. Alf Barney. She -must have got acquainted with him below deck, -for he welcomed her warmly. They talked -earnestly for a few moments, and then the little -girl ran back to me.</p> - -<p>I had been gazing idly off over the rail, watching -the lights ashore, and thinking of my home-coming. -In this land-locked bay I could be -pretty safe in believing that I would soon be -with my mother.</p> - -<p>Of course, through the machinations of my -cousin I had been kept from coming directly -home when I was at Punta Arenas. But Paul -Downes would not be in Baltimore when we -landed, to trouble me in the least. Once I got -ashore with Phillis and Thank, I was determined -to hike for Darringford House in short order.</p> - -<p>I had enough money to pay two railroad fares -home—the little girl’s and my own. Thank and -I were to receive no wages for our work aboard<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span> -the Gullwing. But I would leave Thank enough -money to keep him until I could telegraph him -more from Darringford.</p> - -<p>He proposed to go home himself for a time—back -to Georgia. He had a half sister there -that he wanted to see. Then he was to join -me for the balance of the summer on the Massachusetts -coast. We had already planned -great fun at Bolderhead, despite the fact that -my bonnie sloop, the Wavecrest, was far, -far away—at Buenos Ayres.</p> - -<p>The matter of Dao Singh was not so easily -adjusted. I knew very well that Captain -Bowditch would insist upon reporting the case -of Phillis to the proper authorities at Baltimore. -That would include the examination -of the Hindoo on the details of the wreck of the -Galland. And just as sure as they got the -man into court I knew he would convict himself.</p> - -<p>I was not willing to see the examination -dragged on for weeks, perhaps months. And -the end was not sure, either. I did not want -Dao Singh punished; and I knew that it would -trouble Philly greatly if the man was not at -her beck and call most of the time.</p> - -<p>However, if Dao Singh, as a pertinent witness -in the case, was not to be found, I believed -I could get any fair-minded court to place -Phillis in the care of my mother until the -matter was concluded. That was the scheme -I had in mind.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span>Therefore, when we landed I proposed that -Dao Singh should disappear. I had already -sounded him. I had no money to spare, but -he seemed to have worn a belt about his waist -under his clothing, in which he told me he -carried valuables. Money I supposed.</p> - -<p>Nor was he ignorant of the port to which we -were bound. He had studied the geography -of the world and he had corresponded in some -way with members of his own race located -in Baltimore.</p> - -<p>“To them will I go, Webb Sahib, directly -the ship docks. If there is hue and cry, they -will not find me. When your augustness and -the Memsahib en train for your home, I shall -en train likewise. I shall not be far from you.”</p> - -<p>“But you will not know when we go,” I -cried.</p> - -<p>“Let not the Sahib fear for that. Dao -Singh will have means of knowing. Your -movements, Webb Sahib, will be learned, although -I be afar. Fear not.”</p> - -<p>And this is all he would tell me. Rather a -rare bird, was Singh. He treated me always -with immense deference, waited on me when -I would let him, hand and foot, yet always -retained an air of being upon a mental or -spiritual plane immensely removed from my -own. And I’m not at all sure that he was -not possessed of intelligence far above the -order of the European or American.</p> - -<p>But I have got away from my text. Philly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span> -and I were sitting watching the lights on shore. -As we were under towage, the watch on deck -had little to do. Therefore the captain did -not mind being aft with the little lass.</p> - -<p>Suddenly I saw the two Barney boys cross -the deck and stand together under the break -of the quarter. It was dark there and I could -not see how they looked at each other, nor -could I hear what they said. But they stood -there for some minutes and, when they separated, -and Mr. Jim went back to his duty, I -hoped that they had not parted in anger.</p> - -<p>It seemed a dreadful thing if either, or both, -of the twins should be accused of losing one -ship and all but wrecking the other. As young -merchant officers, just starting out in life, the -affair would about ruin them. And if old -Jothan Barney stuck to his word and took -Jim Barney into the firm, and gave him all his -money, what would become of Mr. Alfred?</p> - -<p>At midnight I turned in; Philly had sought -her cabin long before. She wished to be up -bright and early to see the Gullwing docked. -But I could not sleep for mulling over the case -of the Barney boys in my mind.</p> - -<p>My watch was called at eight bells to wash -down and make the deck as tidy as possible -for the docking, although we were not yet -far north of the mouth of the York river. The -best we could do, however, our beautiful Gullwing -looked like a drunken old harridan that -had been out all night!</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span>The day was beautiful. As the shores and -islands were more clearly revealed, Philly’s -delight knew no bounds.</p> - -<p>“Oh, the land! the beautiful land!” she -sighed. “I want to jump for joy.”</p> - -<p>“Have you got enough of the sea for all -time?”</p> - -<p>“I do not think I am afraid of the sea—not -as afraid as I was once,” she replied. “But -think how good it will be to step ashore! I -really don’t feel, Clint, as though I would care -to sail again right away.”</p> - -<p>And despite the sorry story we had to tell -of the Seamew, there was a briskness in everybody’s -movements that told of shore leave, -and most of the men’s faces were agrin. Those -forward were making up parties for certain -pleasures and entertainments which had been -denied them for so many months.</p> - -<p>Old Stronson was going immediately to the -Bethel, there to pay Captain Sowle the dollar -he had owed the good superintendent for five -years and more.</p> - -<p>“I do that chob at vonce,” said the old man, -“pefore somet’ings happen to me. Meppe -Captain Sowle vill take my moneys for me -and find me a goot berth aboard some gentleman’s -yacht. Das berth I like, I t’ank.”</p> - -<p>I knew he wanted to get away from the drink -and I hoped with all my heart that the old -man would be able to do so.</p> - -<p>Tom Thornton had a married sister in Baltimore,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span> -over to whom the bulk of his paycheck -was always paid by Barney, Blakesley & Knight. -He would be put up by her, and cared for, and -kept straight as long as possible; then the old -man would go to sea again—in the Gullwing -if possible.</p> - -<p>As for Bob Promise and some other of the -younger men, they were all for “the sporting -life.”</p> - -<p>“I’m goin’ to tog meself up in decent clothes,” -said Bob. “No slops or sheeny hand-me-downs -for me. You watch my smoke, boy, -when I get ashore. I ain’t sure that I won’t -go up to some swell hotel and stay for a week. -I reckon my bunch of coin will stand for it.”</p> - -<p>Never a word about salting some of the money -away for some worthy object. Jack Tar of the -merchant marine has only two states of existence—slavery -aboard ship and license ashore. -There seems to be no happy medium for him.</p> - -<p>The Sea Horse towed us into our berth. -The hawsers went ashore and we were warped -in beside the dock amid a deal of clatter and -confusion.</p> - -<p>There was a crowd to receive us. Some of -these people were newspaper men. The story -of the wreck of the Seamew had appeared in -the Baltimore morning papers and reporters -for the afternoon sheets were here for the particulars -at first hand. Nobody was allowed -aboard, however, although the quarantine officers<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span> -had given us a clean bill of health down -the bay.</p> - -<p>I saw standing upon the dock a tall, withered -old man, with a very sharp face and white hair -and mustache. He looked like a hawk, and -was dressed all in shabby black. Without -asking, I knew this to be old Jothan Barney, -the head of the firm that owned the Gullwing.</p> - -<p>I did not see either of his nephews greet him -from the ship. Mr. Jim had plenty to do while -the ship docked, and Mr. Alf was not far from -his brother at any time. Indeed, I was not -the only person who noticed that the Barney -boys stuck together.</p> - -<p>A section of the rail had been removed amidships. -A narrow gangway was run out from -the dock, the ropes were caught by two of the -seamen, and the plank made fast.</p> - -<p>“First ashore!” sang out the old man and -looked from our Mr. Barney to his brother.</p> - -<p>We all fell back for a moment. It was evident -that the Barneys would go ashore even -before Cap’n Joe. They approached the plank -and both smiled.</p> - -<p>“All right, Alf?” I heard Mr. Jim say.</p> - -<p>“I’m with you, Jim,” was the reply.</p> - -<p>And with their arms locked, the twin brothers -walked ashore together and went straight to -stand before old Jothan Barney!</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXVII</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which I Receive a Telegram That Troubles Me</i></p> -</div> - -<p>For a moment there was a dead silence among -the crews of the sister ships. Then Captain -Bowditch himself took off his hat and started -the cheering.</p> - -<p>And how he did yell! If both vessels had come -home safely we could not have given tongue -more joyfully. For in that moment every -man of us knew that whatever friction there -had been betwixt Jim and Alf Barney, they -were once more brothers and friends!</p> - -<p>Of course, the crowd ashore thought we were -just glad to get home again—that we were -expressing our satisfaction upon getting to -Baltimore, safe and sound. But the Barneys -knew what it meant and both of them waved -their hands in response to our hearty hurrah.</p> - -<p>As the newspaper reporters crowded aboard -to interview Captain Bowditch I saw that the -three Barneys walked away. The old man did -not even speak to the skipper of the Gullwing. -I reckoned any comment upon the skipper’s -actions by the members of the firm of Barney, -Blakesley & Knight would be postponed until -some later time.</p> - -<p>The newspaper fellows were eager for a story;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span> -but Mr. Gates and Mr. Hollister “shooed” -them away from the foremast hands. The men -would not be discharged until the next day, -when they would be taken to the offices of the -firm for a settlement of their accounts, and to -receive their discharges. Until that time they -must remain aboard and continue under the -discipline of the officers.</p> - -<p>“If you writer chaps,” said Mr. Gates, with -a grin, “want to get these old hardshells to -spinning yarns, you’ll have to wait till they -lay their course for Front Street. You’ll have -to be contented with facts from Captain Bowditch -just now.”</p> - -<p>So the stories of the Seamew’s tragedy were -not very ornate in the afternoon papers after -all; and public interest in the affair was soon -quenched.</p> - -<p>When my watch was piped to dinner the -doctor gave me the tip to wait on deck and in -a few minutes Mr. Gates beckoned me to the -afterhouse.</p> - -<p>“Quarterdeck etiquette is busted all to flinders, -Clint,” he said, in an unusually jolly tone, -for he was naturally a grave man. But the fact -that we were in the home port after so many -months was bound to thaw the iciest manner. -“You’re to dine with the old man and Miss -Philly.”</p> - -<p>It was a shame the way I looked! My second -suit of slops from the chest were pretty well -worn out and my head was a regular mop. I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[229]</span> -had reckoned on seeing a barber about the first -thing I did when I went ashore; and I hoped -to squeeze out money enough for a cheap suit, -too, in which I might make a more presentable -appearance going home.</p> - -<p>“Never mind your clothing, Clinton,” said -Captain Bowditch, when I made some remark -of this kind. “We’ll excuse your looks.”</p> - -<p>“And I’m not much better off than you,” -laughed Philly. “I have to go to bed when -Singh washes this dress.”</p> - -<p>“By the way, where <i>is</i> Singh?” demanded -the captain. “After dinner I want we should -all go up to the British consul—and I want -Singh to go to.”</p> - -<p>But Dao Singh was not to be found. I said -nothing about my talk with the Hindoo. I -knew that nobody had seen him after we got -into our berth. He might, even, have gone -ashore ahead of the Barneys. However, gone -he was and the captain was quite put out.</p> - -<p>“That’s the trouble with these natives,” -he growled. “Can’t trust ’em. I’d ought -to put him in irons——”</p> - -<p>“What for, Captain? What has poor Singh -done?” asked Philly.</p> - -<p>And then the captain took a tumble to himself. -The little girl knew nothing about the -man murdered in the boat from the wreck of -the Galland.</p> - -<p>“Well, it’s a serious thing—for me—to have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[230]</span> -let him get away without his going before the -authorities,” Captain Bowditch growled.</p> - -<p>That was not exactly true however. Nobody -would blame him because the Hindoo had departed. -But the old man said he would take -us both up town right after dinner. I begged -for a little time to make myself presentable -and was given an hour’s leave ashore. I found -a barber and got my hair trimmed properly and -then went to a second hand shop and got an -outfit of coat, pants and shoes, with a new hat -for six dollars. Nothing very fashionable, you -may be sure; but I reckoned the butler would -let me into the house with ’em on—by the side -door, at least!</p> - -<p>So the captain and Philly and I walked over -to the British consulate and saw a young man -with eyeglasses and something of a lisp, dressed -in clothes that could not possibly be made so -badly anywhere else but in London. He was -a nice young man, though; and he insisted upon -making tea for Philly when he heard that she -had been two weeks in an open boat, as -though she might still need a “pick-me-up” -because of that adventure.</p> - -<p>It seemed that he had already heard of the -loss of the Galland. Her burned hull had been -sighted by two steamships and reported before -the Gullwing arrived in port. But none of -the crew or passengers of the ill-fated ship, -until Phillis Duane came, had been reported<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[231]</span> -as saved. The Galland had been posted as a -complete loss, with crew and passengers.</p> - -<p>“What puzzles me,” said the English official, -“is the distance the Galland and the boat you -found drifted apart. Her bulk was reported -as sighted only a day or two after your Gullwing -picked up the little girl and the Hindoo.” -The captain had already explained about Dao -Singh. “Yet,” continued the consul, “the Galland -had drifted far up the coast in the steamship -route—she’s a dangerous derelict, and -has been so reported to the Hydrographic office -at Washington, and to Lloyds in London.</p> - -<p>“Whereas, Captain, the latitude and longitude -you give is far, far to the south. South -of the Straits, in fact.”</p> - -<p>“Three hunder’ mile sou’east of the Capes -of the Virgin, sure enough,” admitted Captain -Bowditch.</p> - -<p>“Yes. The Galland had come through the -Straits and must have met with her accident -not far outside. It seems strange that only -one boat got away from her—and that one -improperly manned.”</p> - -<p>“As near as we can find out, sir,” said the -skipper, “she had but two seamen in her beside -the Hindoo and the little girl here.”</p> - -<p>He had taken the captain and I into his private -office while he examined us regarding the -particulars of the affair. I told him frankly -about the dead man in the boat.</p> - -<p>“I must find this Dao Singh,” he said. “Until<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[232]</span> -I get him I cannot call the case closed, of -course. And then, there’s the little girl.”</p> - -<p>Captain Bowditch spoke up for me, then. -He had had a good report of me from Captain -Hiram Rogers of the Scarboro, and he believed -what I had told him about my folks. He -would go bail for my appearance, and the production -of Philly safe and sound, whenever we -should be wanted.</p> - -<p>“A very good arrangement,” agreed the -consul, seemingly mightily relieved regarding -the girl. He was a bachelor himself. “Meanwhile -I will do my best to locate her people. -Of course, she must have been consigned to -somebody in England, even if she does not -know who. It seems to me as though the name -of Captain Erskin Duane is not unfamiliar to -me.”</p> - -<p>So we got away from there after a while. -When I had gone ashore to get my fancy rigout -I had sent a telegram to Ham Mayberry. -I did that so as not to startle my mother, believing -that Ham would know how to break the -news of my arrival to her better than anybody -else. Ham had been with us so many years -that he was like one of the family.</p> - -<p>And having telegraphed him I was mighty -anxious for a reply that all was well.</p> - -<p>Captain Bowditch left us to report at the -offices of the ship owners and Philly and I went -back to the Gullwing where Ham was to send -his message. It had arrived while we were at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[233]</span> -the consul’s and Mr. Gates handed the envelope -to me the moment I came aboard.</p> - -<p>With some perturbation, I broke the seal, and -to say the least I was amazed when I read -Hamilton Mayberry’s telegram:</p> - -<p>“I will meet every train. Speak to nobody -until you see me.—H. M.”</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[234]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXVIII</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which My Homecoming Proves To Be a Strange -One Indeed</i></p> -</div> - -<p>Naturally I thought that Ham’s telegram -spelled trouble; but I kept my thoughts to -myself. I did not feel like discussing the -matter even with Thankful Polk.</p> - -<p>We had begun to break out the Gullwing’s -cargo and worked until dark. The next day -the roustabouts would come aboard and relieve -us of that. All hands (save Thank and I) -would go up to the office to be paid off.</p> - -<p>We in the forecastle heard nothing about -the Barneys that day, nor did Mr. Jim return -to the ship. We spent the evening skylarking -on the forward deck. A man had come aboard -with an accordion and the men danced, and -sang, and had a general rough-and-tumble -jollification. But I only looked on. Tomorrow -would close such scenes for me—perhaps forever.</p> - -<p>In the morning a lawyer and his clerk came -aboard to take testimony regarding the loss -of the Seamew. Just as I had supposed, the -men who talked most were the old fellows who -believed that the two ships had come together -because of some supernatural attraction. The -real incidents of the collision were buried under<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[235]</span> -a heap of rubbish, testimony that would help -the courts and the insurance people mighty -little in getting at the facts of the case.</p> - -<p>I was thankful that the lawyer did not put -many questions to me. I stuck to my belief -that Mr. Jim Barney had obeyed Captain -Bowditch’s order to change the course of the -Gullwing as soon as the order was given.</p> - -<p>When the examination was over there was -a deal of bustle in preparation of all hands -going ashore. I paid Job Perkins the ten -dollars I had promised him and lent Thank all -I could spare after saving out enough for the -tickets for Philly and myself to Darringford.</p> - -<p>I suppose I might have borrowed a little -money from Captain Bowditch; but Thank -could get along until I could telegraph him a -hundred from home. He had agreed to accept -that much from me, and promised to join me -at my mother’s summer home later.</p> - -<p>Then we bade the men good-bye, and shook -hands with the skipper and Mr. Gates and Mr. -Hollister. Thank went with Philly and me to -the railroad station. There I hoped to find -Dao Singh—and Philly was anxious about him, -too. But the Hindoo did not appear.</p> - -<p>We could not wait for him; nor did I know -how to find him in Baltimore. But I told -Thank to keep a watch out for him, and if he -saw Singh to let me know at once by telegraph.</p> - -<p>We took the fast express for Boston and only -had to transfer at one point. From that point<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[236]</span> -I had engaged seats in the chair car and berths -for both Philly and myself. There was but -one day coach attached to the train when we -changed, and we were scarcely aboard when a -tall, turbanned figure appeared at the window -beside my seat.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Dao Singh!” cried Philly, and then -rattled away to him in his own tongue.</p> - -<p>He made me a low obeisance. “I have come, -Sahib, as I promised,” he said, softly. “I -take train here with you and the Memsahib. -I ride forward in the other coach;” and bowing -he left us.</p> - -<p>I saw that he had a complete new outfit—a -costume of his own country. He was a -strange looking object as he stalked away to -take his place in the day car.</p> - -<p>I sent Ham another wire to say what hour -we would arrive at Darringford station. I -was sincerely worried about my mother. Perhaps -she was ill. Perhaps—I dared not ruminate -farther on that subject.</p> - -<p>Phillis was greatly interested in the country -through which the train flew. We looked -pretty shabby—both of us—to be riding in a -first-class coach, and the other passengers were -curious about us. But we made no acquaintances -on the way.</p> - -<p>We arrived safely in Boston in the morning, -and crossed the city to the other station. We -had not long to wait for a local train that -stopped at Darringford. It was not long after<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[237]</span> -nine o’clock when the train stopped and we -disembarked.</p> - -<p>I saw Ham instantly; but he did not have -our carriage. There was nobody else to welcome -me—there was nobody about the station, indeed, -who recognized me. I had changed a good -deal during the twenty-two months I had been -away.</p> - -<p>But old Ham knew me. He rushed at me -and wrung my hands and sputtered something -at first that I could not understand. At last -he said:</p> - -<p>“And ye couldn’t have timed it better, -Master Clint. You’re just in the nick of time. -The court sits in ha’f an hour.”</p> - -<p>Then he caught sight of Phillis and Dao -Singh right behind me.</p> - -<p>“What’s all this?” he muttered.</p> - -<p>“I’ll tell you later,” I said. “It’s too long -a story to give you now. Besides, you’ve got -to tell me things first. Isn’t the carriage here? -Can’t we all go right to Darringford House? -Haven’t you told mother?”</p> - -<p>He shook his head slowly.</p> - -<p>“Can’t take you home, jest yet, Master -Clint,” he said.</p> - -<p>“But mother! is——?”</p> - -<p>“She ain’t sick, and she ain’t well. Only -poorly. Nothing to be worried about. And -now that you’re here I reckon things will be -straightened out all right.”</p> - -<p>“Chester Downes!” I ejaculated.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[238]</span>“Yes. He’s cutting up didoes,” grunted -Ham.</p> - -<p>“But where is Lawyer Hounsditch?” I cried.</p> - -<p>And then Ham <i>did</i> amaze me—and startle -me, too.</p> - -<p>“Old Mr. Hounsditch died a month ago, -Clint,” he said. “It was sudden. He was -an old man, you know, and there is nobody to -take his place.”</p> - -<p>“My guardian is dead, then!” I exclaimed.</p> - -<p>“He was co-trustee with your mother, Clint. -That’s where the trouble lies. Chester Downes -is riggin’ to get appointed in his place. It -comes up before the Judge of Probate this -morning. You ain’t but jest in time.”</p> - -<p><i>That</i> woke me up, now I tell you! All my -wits were working in a minute. Ham needed -to make little more talk about it for me to -fully understand what was threatening.</p> - -<p>“And mother didn’t object?” I asked.</p> - -<p>“You know what a holt Downes has over -her,” Ham said gravely. “She <i>did</i> want him -to wait until you came home. We got your -letter from Valpariso and we knew the Gullwing -was about due in Baltimore. But Chester -Downes—you know him!”</p> - -<p>“Let us take my little friend and Dao Singh -to the hotel,” I said. “They can wait for us -there. I must have a lawyer, Ham.”</p> - -<p>“I got you one,” said the old man, quickly. -“We’d have gone before the court if you hadn’t -come in time and tried to get a stay.”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[239]</span>“Who is he?”</p> - -<p>“Colonel Playfair.”</p> - -<p>I knew him by reputation. A better man -didn’t live in Darringford, nor a better lawyer—now -that Mr. Hounsditch was dead. And it -seemed to me that I remembered something -about Colonel Playfair and my grandfather -having once been close friends.</p> - -<p>“Have you got any money, Ham?” I asked -him. “For I haven’t a cent.”</p> - -<p>“Plenty,” he replied.</p> - -<p>“Get a carriage, then, and drive us to the -hotel first; then to Colonel Playfair’s office.”</p> - -<p>“Aye, aye, sir!” returned Ham and in a few -moments we were off in a station hack, Ham -on the seat with the driver.</p> - -<p>Mr. and Mrs. Bramble kept the Darringford -Hotel, and I left Philly in the good lady’s care. -Dao Singh remained with her, of course. Then -Ham and I raced to the office of the lawyer.</p> - -<p>It was already half past nine. There was no -time to lose if the matter of an appointment of -a new trustee for the Darringford estate was -the first item on the docket.</p> - -<p>I knew Colonel Playfair by sight—a soldierly, -white haired veteran with one arm. His shabby -offices were in a brick building near the courthouse. -I don’t suppose he would have known -me in my present guise had not Ham Mayberry -vouched for my identity.</p> - -<p>“A close call, young man,” he said. “I -understand you object to this Chester Downes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[240]</span> -being appointed in the place of Mr. Hounsditch?”</p> - -<p>“I more than object,” I cried. “I won’t -have it!”</p> - -<p>“Hoighty-toighty!” he said. “That’s not -the way to go into court. You have a choice, -of course; but don’t speak that way to Judge -Fetter.”</p> - -<p>“No, sir,” I said, restraining myself.</p> - -<p>“And you must have somebody else in mind -to suggest for the appointment.”</p> - -<p>“You are familiar with the situation, Colonel?” -I asked. “You knew my grandfather, -and you know how he made his will?”</p> - -<p>“Humph! I know all about it,” he returned, -grimly.</p> - -<p>“You are the man to take Lawyer Hounsditch’s -place. The co-trustee should be a -lawyer, anyway.”</p> - -<p>“Well, well, I don’t know about this,” he -said, slowly. “You really should have another -attorney, then, to appear before Judge Fetter.”</p> - -<p>“Jest git it put over, Colonel,” said Ham, -eagerly. “Then we kin settle about the trimmings -afterward.”</p> - -<p>The colonel laughed and took up his hat.</p> - -<p>“All right,” he said. “We’ll go across to -the judge’s chambers and see what we can do,” -and he led the way out of his office.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[241]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXIX</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which Mr. Chester Downes and I Again -“Lock Horns”</i></p> -</div> - -<p>This had not been the home-coming I had -looked forward to. I had not desired to take -up the old fight with my uncle, Mr. Chester -Downes. But it seemed as though circumstances -were forever opposing us in some wrangle -or other!</p> - -<p>We three, with the old Colonel leading, went -quietly into the room where Judge Fetter held -his court. Nobody noticed us and Colonel -Playfair motioned Ham and I to seats well -back in the room. There were maybe a score -of people on the benches. The lawyers and -those individuals who were pertinently interested -in the matters to be arranged, were allowed -inside the rail before the Judge’s desk. Colonel -Playfair went up there and the justice -nodded to him. Nobody knew whom he represented, -or in what matter he was interested.</p> - -<p>I saw Mr. Chester Downes at once; but my -uncle did not see me. He sat with his back to -me, in fact, and beside him was a slim and sleek -looking man with a green bag before him on -the table.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[242]</span>“That’s Jim Maxwell,” whispered Ham. -“And he’s the kind of a lawyer that Chester -Downes would cotton to, all right. I ain’t -got no manner o’ use for Jim Maxwell. He’s -one o’ them landsharks, he is.”</p> - -<p>The proceedings droned along for a time. -Two matters of probate were settled before our -case came up. Then his clerk handed Judge -Fetter some papers, he put on his nose glasses, -glanced at them, and said:</p> - -<p>“In the matter of the appointment of Mr. -Chester Downed as co-trustee with Mrs. Mary -Webb, Widow—the Darrington Estate. There -is a minor child, I believe? You speak in this -matter, Mr. Maxwell?”</p> - -<p>“I have the honor to do so,” said the sleek -man.</p> - -<p>“There is no objection to the appointment, -I understand?” pursued the Judge. “The -widow is satisfied?”</p> - -<p>“Very much so,” declared the lawyer.</p> - -<p>“She is not here present?”</p> - -<p>“Ill health, your honor,” said Maxwell, -briskly! “But Mr. Downes, who is her brother-in-law, -has been her man of business for years. -Mr. Hounsditch, lately deceased, although appointed -under the will, was merely a figure-head -in the affairs of the estate.”</p> - -<p>“And this minor child—how old is he?”</p> - -<p>“Seventeen.”</p> - -<p>“Ah. He has no choice, then? He does not -object to his uncle as a trustee?”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[243]</span>“The boy has run away from home, your -honor. He is a little wild——” began Mr. -Maxwell.</p> - -<p>I was so enraged that I could not keep my -seat; but Ham pulled me back. “Take it -easy, Clint,” he whispered.</p> - -<p>“In that case,” the judge mooned along, -rustling the papers, “there being no objection, -and Mr. Chester Downes’ bond being entirely -satisfactory——”</p> - -<p>Colonel Playfair arose. The Judge looked -at him in surprise.</p> - -<p>“I beg pardon, Brother Playfair,” he said, -politely. “You surely do not appear in this -matter?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, your honor, I do,” said the Colonel.</p> - -<p>“You represent anybody interested?”</p> - -<p>“I most certainly do,” said the Colonel. “I -represent the minor child, Clinton Webb.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Chester Downes leaned forward and -whispered to his lawyer. The latter sprang -up again.</p> - -<p>“I beg Colonel Playfair’s pardon,” Maxwell -said. “Does he state that he has been engaged -directly by the boy mentioned to represent -him before this court?”</p> - -<p>Colonel Playfair was silent for a moment, -and the other lawyer went on:</p> - -<p>“For if not, I object. No engagement of an -attorney by outside parties will stand, your -honor. We expected some interference by officious -friends of the misguided boy. His mother<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[244]</span> -is his legal guardian, Mr. Hounsditch being -dead——”</p> - -<p>“Wait,” said the Judge, patiently. “Colonel -Playfair knows the law as well as any man -here,” and he smiled and bowed. “State -your position, sir,” he said to the Colonel.</p> - -<p>“I represent the minor, your honor,” he said, -quietly. “If it becomes necessary application -will be made for the appointment of both a -guardian as well as co-trustee of the estate, -on behalf of Clinton Webb.”</p> - -<p>“But the boy has run away! He is incorrigible,” -cried Lawyer Maxwell.</p> - -<p>“Brother Maxwell is misinformed,” said the -Colonel, suavely, “If he does not know the -truth, his client does. Clinton Webb did not -run away from home. He was blown out to -sea in a little sloop from Bolderhead. It is a -matter of record—newspaper record, your honor. -He was picked up by a vessel bound for the -South Seas. From that distance he has only -lately been able to get a ship homeward bound.”</p> - -<p>Chester Downes was whispering again to -his lawyer. The eyes of the sleek Mr. Maxwell -snapped.</p> - -<p>“Your honor!” cried he, interrupting Colonel -Playfair.</p> - -<p>The colonel politely gave way to him. The -Judge looked puzzled.</p> - -<p>“Your honor! The fact of his having left -home in the first place involuntarily is admitted. -But he has refused to return. His mother sent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[245]</span> -money for his passage to Buenos Ayres. He -supposedly wasted the money and remained -wilfully out of her jurisdiction.”</p> - -<p>“Colonel Playfair?” queried the Judge.</p> - -<p>“If Brother Maxwell is quite finished,” said -the colonel, “I would like to state our side of -the argument.”</p> - -<p>“Continue,” said the Judge.</p> - -<p>“I am sorry to wash dirty linen in court,” -Colonel Playfair said, quietly. “These family -troubles would better be settled outside of the -courtroom. But it seems necessary to place -the full facts before your honor. It is not only -a proven fact that Clinton Webb left home -involuntarily; but there was a crime attached -to his adventure. He was nailed into the cabin -of his boat and the boat was cut adrift at the -beginning of the September gale, two years -ago this coming fall.”</p> - -<p>The spectators began to sit up and take -notice. The affair was assuming a serious hue.</p> - -<p>“The person who committed this dastardly -crime is known—known to Brother Maxwell’s -client. This person, afraid of being arrested -for his deed, actually <i>did</i> run away from home, -went to Buenos Ayres, there represented himself -as Clinton Webb and obtained the money -sent there by Mrs. Webb for her son, and is -now, I understand, a member of the crew of the -whaling bark, Scarboro, in the South Pacific.</p> - -<p>“These final facts are proven by a letter from -the American consul at Buenos Ayres, sent to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[246]</span> -Mr. Hounsditch, deceased, together with the -amount of money which had been given to the -false claimant by a clerk in the consul’s office. -Does Mr. Maxwell wish me to state the name -of the person who committed these criminal -acts?”</p> - -<p>My uncle’s lawyer was evidently in a fine -flurry. He jumped up to say:</p> - -<p>“We let the point pass for the present. But -we claim that the minor child, Clinton Webb, -has no standing in this court. He is on the -high seas——”</p> - -<p>“Wrong, Brother Maxwell,” said the colonel, -very sweetly. “He is here.”</p> - -<p>I saw Mr. Chester Downes start from his -seat. He cried out something, but the Judge -rapped his desk for order.</p> - -<p>“You say your client is present in court, -Colonel?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“Clinton Webb! Come forward!” commanded -my lawyer, and that time Ham did -not try to keep me in my seat.</p> - -<p>I marched down the aisle. Mr. Chester -Downes saw me coming. His dark face never -paled; the blood flooded into it, darkening it -until his cheeks and brow were almost black.</p> - -<p>We looked at each other. There was no need -for either to threaten the other. As of old, we -were sworn enemies. And I believed that I -had again crossed him in his most precious -project.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[247]</span>The colonel let me into the enclosure through -the gate.</p> - -<p>“You recognize your nephew, do you, Mr. -Downes?” asked the Judge.</p> - -<p>Chester Downes nodded. He could not speak.</p> - -<p>“And I understand that Clinton Webb, here -before us, objects to the appointment of his -uncle as co-trustee of the estate?” he asked -the colonel.</p> - -<p>“He does,” was the brief reply.</p> - -<p>“What is your wish, then, Colonel?” asked -Judge Fetter. “This matter, evidently, is not -ready for closing to-day?”</p> - -<p>“No, your honor. We ask for a postponement—that -is all.”</p> - -<p>“Do you agree, Brother Maxwell?” asked -the judge.</p> - -<p>Maxwell looked at his client. There was -nothing else to do but to agree and Downes -knew it as well as the lawyer.</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes!” snarled Chester Downes. “We -will have to fight, I see.”</p> - -<p>He and I had locked horns again; but he -would not admit then that he was worsted.</p> - -<p>Colonel Playfair had a few moments’ whispered -conversation with Judge Fetter, and then -we went back to the lawyer’s office. Chester -Downes and Maxwell had hastened away from -the courthouse. My uncle did not try to speak -to me—and I was glad. I am afraid I could not -have controlled myself just then.</p> - -<p>There were some papers to sign and more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[248]</span> -discussion in Colonel Playfair’s office. He called -in a brother practitioner, Mr. Charles Ahorn, -and the matters were turned over to him. -Colonel Playfair agreed to step into poor Mr. -Hounsditch’s shoes, and be my guardian and -co-trustee with my mother, if the other side -could come to an agreement. I believed, -when I had talked with my mother, that she -would make no objection.</p> - -<p>Crafty as I knew my uncle to be, I could not -believe that he had so succeeded in warping -my mother’s judgment that she would believe -everything ill he had said of me. And I counted -on her love as a surety.</p> - -<p>Much as she might disregard my personal -opinion of Chester Downes, I was sure she -would welcome me with open arms!</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[249]</span> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="smcap">Chapter XXX</span></h2> - - -<p class="ph1"><i>In Which My Welcome Home Is a Real Welcome, -After All</i></p> -</div> - -<p>Ham and I went back in the hack to the -hotel, where we had dinner with Phillis, Dao -Singh standing behind my chair, and waiting -at table. I had an idea right then and there -that James, the butler, would find his job in -danger when we got settled at Darringford -House.</p> - -<p>Briefly, while we ate, I related some of my -adventures to my old friend. Particularly -those that had to do with Philly and the Hindoo.</p> - -<p>“It beats all—it sure does!” Ham kept repeating, -and could scarcely keep his eyes off -the turbanned servant.</p> - -<p>When we drove through the wide gateway -to the grounds surrounding Darringford House, -I saw the flutter of a light dress upon the verandah. -When we rounded the turn in the drive -and the shrubbery was past, I knew my mother -was standing there. But I certainly <i>was</i> -amazed to see Chester Downes sitting in one -of the arm chairs. No matter what happened, -he never owned up beat! I had to hand it to -him there.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[250]</span>But I saw what he was up to immediately. -He had hurried ahead to break the news of -my coming to my mother, and to lay plans for -his continued influence in the house. My -mother and the estate were practically his -bread and butter. I knew that well enough.</p> - -<p>But nothing then could spoil the joy of my -home-coming. I tore open the door of the -hack before it stopped and leaped out. Mother -rushed into my arms as I came up the step and -I swung her up off the ground—she was such -a little, dainty woman!—and I knew that -she had never ceased to love me.</p> - -<p>“Clint! Clint!” she sobbed. “My dear, -dear boy!”</p> - -<p>“Hug me again, mother!” I returned, trying -to laugh, but making a poor mess of it. “This -is the happiest minute I’ve seen for two years.”</p> - -<p>“And how you’ve grown!” she gasped, -pushing me off a bit so that she could look me -over better.</p> - -<p>“And you haven’t grown a bit!” I laughed, -and swung her again until she was breathless.</p> - -<p>“And I hope you have got enough of the -awful sea and sea-going!” she cried. “Oh, -Clint! You will stay at home now?”</p> - -<p>“I certainly hope to,” I returned, casting a -meaning glance at Chester Downes, who had -risen, with a false smile on his face, and his -hand outstretched.</p> - -<p>But in spite of the fact that at that moment -I meant all that I said, and had not the remotest<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[251]</span> -idea that I should ever go to sea again, circumstances -not then dreamed of changed my intentions -later; and the reader who so desires -may follow my further course afloat in the -fourth volume of this series, entitled: “The -Ocean Express; or, Clint Webb Aboard the -Sea Tramp.”</p> - -<p>Then my mother caught sight of Philly and -Dao Singh. They had stepped out of the hack -and the tall Hindoo, in his oriental costume, -stood gravely behind the little golden haired -beauty. She looked like a story out of some -Eastern Fairy Tale, and Dao Singh just set -her off nicely.</p> - -<p>“The pretty child!” mother murmured, clasping -her hands, and I know that at that instant -her heart went out to Phillis Duane.</p> - -<p>Philly was looking up at her with a bashful -little smile; yet the golden lights in her brown -eyes were dancing. She had laughed to see -how I had caught my little mother up off the -ground.</p> - -<p>“Who is she, Clinton?” mother asked.</p> - -<p>“My sister,” I told her, proudly.</p> - -<p>“What?” gasped mother, and I saw Chester -Downes echo the word, but in a whisper. I -could imagine the start my announcement gave -him. And yet, my statement could not explain -all that I saw in my uncle’s face as he glared -at little Phillis. It was not until afterward, -however, that I remembered how startled -Chester Downes was.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[252]</span>“That’s what we’ve agreed to, mother,” -I said, smiling, too, at my pretty little friend. -“We have adopted each other. Now it remains -with you to take Phillis Duane right into your -heart along with me.”</p> - -<p>“The dear, dear child!” mother murmured, -and went down the verandah steps to meet the -girl.</p> - -<p>“I know I shall love you, dearly! dearly!” -cried Philly, and put her arms around mother’s -neck as the latter stooped over her.</p> - -<p>Dao Singh made a low obeisance. Mother -looked rather startled at him and then turned -to me.</p> - -<p>“Dao Singh,” I explained, “has had much -care of Phillis since she was little. He insists -upon attending upon her——”</p> - -<p>“And upon the Webb Sahib,” concluded -the Hindoo, gravely. “It is well that the little -Memsahib and Webb Sahib, come in health -to Her Ladyship, on whom be peace and health. -Dao Singh is her servant.”</p> - -<p>He bent low again, took up the hem of my -mother’s voluminous summer dress, and pressed -it to his forehead. Mother looked amazed, -and well she might—a new daughter and such -a kingly serving person thrust upon her so -unexpectedly. I had to laugh.</p> - -<p>“Your Ladyship will get used to it in time. -As a man before the mast in an old windjammer, -being served by an oriental prince has its drawbacks; -but you’ll get used to it, Little Mum!”</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[253]</span>But mother’s interest was soon fixed entirely -upon Phillis, and with her hand upon the child’s -shoulder, she urged her up the steps. There -Chester Downes was hanging about, eager to -be noticed, anxious to come into the picture.</p> - -<p>“Your Uncle Chester, Clinton,” said mother, -“has been so kind to me while you were away.”</p> - -<p>I said nothing. She glanced from my face -to his, and then back again, and her lips began -to tremble.</p> - -<p>“Oh! I hoped that you would meet him differently -now, Clinton,” she said.</p> - -<p>“I am sorry if I consider Mr. Downes just -what he was before I went away. Any house -would be uncomfortable if both of us remained -in it. Can I speak plainer?”</p> - -<p>“You don’t need to, boy!” snarled Mr. -Downes, his face reddening again.</p> - -<p>“Colonel Playfair will probably see you at -any time you wish to call on him—either he or -Mr. Charles Aborn,” I said, pointedly. “They -have my affairs in charge.”</p> - -<p>Mother did not hear. She was talking with -Phillis. And Mr. Downes, after a brief hesitation, -went down the steps and through the -shrubbery to the street.</p> - -<p>I took the chair upon the other side of Philly -and Dao Singh, like a gaily painted life-size -statue, stood at a respectable distance. Briefly -we told mother the story of the little girl’s -adventures; and as I well knew mother received -the waif with joy.</p> - - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[254]</span>“It has been a great sorrow all his life, my -child,” mother said, drawing Philly upon her -lap, “that Clint had no sister. A boy is a -great comfort to a widowed woman; but he -cannot take the place of a daughter. Love -me, my child, if you can.”</p> - -<p>And I knew by the way that the child threw -her arms about mother’s neck and sobbed upon -her breast, that she had already begun to love -my mother. Philly’s heart had been sore for -just the sort of protective care my mother could -give her. I saw that my scheme was going to -be a huge success!</p> - -<p>With Chester Downes out of the way my -home-coming was all that I could have hoped -for. The help around the house welcomed -me with delight, too. Even my mother’s -French maid, Marie Portent, gave me a wintry -smile—and I had never been a favorite with -her.</p> - -<p>The neighbors came in to see me, too, for -the news had spread all over town that I had -come back from my wanderings. Mr. Chester -Downes had not succeeded in turning everybody -against me.</p> - -<p>But you may believe I got into some decent -clothes before I held any reception. Then I -went down town and wired Thankful Polk a -hundred dollars and the news that everything -was O. K. with me.</p> - -<p>“Now we will go to Bolderhead and open -the house for the rest of the summer,” mother<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[255]</span> -said that very evening. “I could not bear to -open it without you, dear boy.”</p> - -<p>We kept off the subject of the Downes just -then; but I might as well state right here that -Mr. Chester Downes was not appointed by -the court co-trustee with my mother. Colonel -Playfair <i>was</i>, and that before we closed Darringford -house and went to live in mother’s -summer villa on Bolderhead Neck.</p> - -<p>Thankful Polk came north to visit us, too; -and mother was greatly pleased with him. -Dao Singh, as I foresaw, soon made it advisable -for us to find another situation for James, our -butler. Singh actually, when we got to Bolderhead, -took the entire responsibility of the -housekeeping upon himself, and mother thankfully -declared that she had never had so easy -a time before, nor had the household been run -so smoothly.</p> - -<p>For the first time since I could remember -Mr. Chester Downes did not go to Bolderhead -with us. I had no friction over it, and mother -was not troubled. Colonel Playfair knew how -to bring things about. I liked him a whole -lot better for a guardian than I had Mr. Hounsditch.</p> - -<p>As for my cousin Paul, when he returned -home—if he ever did—I knew I had a method of -keeping him at a distance. The threat of -punishment for what he had done to me still -hung over him like a sword of Damocles.</p> - -<p>It was not many weeks before I had a letter<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[256]</span> -from Mr. Jim Barney. Among other interesting -items of news, he stated that both he and his -brother had been exonerated together with -Captain Bowditch in the matter of the collision -and the sinking of the Seamew. If blame lay -anywhere it was upon poor Captain Somes, who -had gone down with his ship.</p> - -<p>As to the Barney brothers’ private affairs, -they had both refused their uncle’s offer of -money and position. As long as the old man -would not divide his wealth between them and -give both of them an opportunity of entering -the shipping firm, Jim and Alf had resigned -and were going to sail upon ships belonging to -other owners. That seemed to them to be the -best and final settlement of the matter.</p> - -<p>I often thought of my long cruise in the Windjammer, -and I could not say that I was sorry -for having gone through those adventures. -I certainly was not sorry that they had brought -about the coming of Phillis Duane to our -house. For, as the weeks flew by, the British -consul heard nothing regarding the girl’s friends -or relatives.</p> - -<p>It looked as though she was ours “for keeps,” -as Thank said; and both my mother and I were -satisfied.</p> - - -<p class="center">THE END.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="transnote"> -<p class="ph1">TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:</p> - - - -<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.</p> - -<p>Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.</p> - -<p>Archaic or alternate spelling has been retained from the original.</p> -</div></div> - - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM SEA TO SEA ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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