JIMMY TAKES COMMAND
Darkness was closing down on the waste of tumbling foam, and the
_Sorata_ was clear of the shore, when Jimmy made shift to hoist the
trysail reduced by two reefs to a narrow strip of drenched canvas. Then,
while Anthea Merril held the helm, he proceeded to set the little
spitfire jib. However, he clung to the weather-shrouds, gasping and
dripping with perspiration for the first few moments, because the
struggle with the trysail had tried his strength. Indeed, Anthea, who
stood bareheaded at the helm with her loosened hair whipping about her,
wondered how he had contrived to do it alone in that strength of wind.
His figure, shapeless in the streaming oilskins, cut darkly against the
livid foam as the _Sorata_ swung her bows high above the sea, and then
was almost lost in a filmy cloud as she plunged and buried them in the
breast of a big comber. Suddenly, however, he dropped on hands and
knees, and, crouching with one arm around the forestay, hauled the strip
of canvas out along the bowsprit until once more a sea smote the
_Sorata_ and he sank into a rush of foam. The girl caught her breath as
she waited until the boat swung her head out again, for it was very
evident that the man alone stood between her and destruction.
He swung into sight, clinging with an arm around jib and bowsprit until
he staggered to his feet, and a strip of sailcloth that went aloft beat
him with its wet folds amidst a frantic banging. Anthea scarcely dared
to look at him as he struggled with the rope that hoisted it, and she
gasped with relief when at last he came scrambling back and pushed her
from the tiller.
"Thanks!" he said. "Go down and get Miss Austerly on to the leeward
settee, and then try to sleep. The boat ought to lie-to dryly until the
morning, but I can't leave the tiller."
Anthea just heard him through the turmoil of the sea, and did not resent
the grasp he had laid on her shoulder. Quietly imperious as she usually
was, it seemed only fitting that she should obey him then. She went down
through the little companion, and Jimmy, pulling the slide to after her,
settled himself for his long night-watch as darkness rolled down upon
the sea. He was anxious, but not unduly so, for the boat was high of
side and able; and a comparatively small craft will usually ride out a
vicious breeze if one can keep her hove-to under a strip or two of sail,
so as to meet the sea while not forging through it with her weather-bow.
Indeed, after the first half-hour he felt somewhat reassured, and his
thoughts went back to a subject which had occupied them somewhat
frequently of late, and that, not unnaturally, was Anthea Merril.
She was, he knew, the daughter of the man who was ruining his father,
but that was an incident and no fault of hers. It was, he fancied, clear
that she knew nothing about Merril's business operations, and was
unacquainted with one aspect of his character. In fact, it seemed to him
that there was a painful shock in store for her when she made the
discovery. He had never met a woman with so much that compelled his
appreciation besides her physical beauty. Her quiet graciousness and
courage had their effect on him, and he was sure, at least, that he
would never feel quite the same regard for anybody else. Indeed, he
admitted that she was a woman with whom he might have fallen in love had
circumstances been propitious, but, as they certainly were not, he
strove to assure himself that he had sense and will enough to refrain
from thinking more of her than was advisable.
These reflections were, however, fragmentary, for the boat required
attention, and he fancied that a good deal of water was finding its way
into her. The _Sorata_ would not lie-to without somebody at the helm,
and he could only leave the tiller lashed for a few minutes now and then
while he labored at the little rotary pump. Once or twice when he did
so, a foot of brine came frothing into the cockpit across the coaming,
and he commenced to wonder how long the breeze would last, for he was
becoming sensible that another twelve hours of it would probably be as
much as he could stand.
In the meanwhile the night was wearing through, and at last a faint
light crept up from the east across the waste of tumbling seas. They
were not by any means mountainous, for as a matter of fact it is very
probable that the biggest ocean sea scarcely exceeds forty feet between
its trough and summit, but they rolled up out of the northwest in a
continuous phalanx of steep, gray ridges crested with spouting froth
that looked quite big enough. The drift whirled across them, and now and
then wrapped the craft in wisps of filmy smoke, while Jimmy, with
smarting and temporarily blinded eyes, trusted to the feel of the
tiller. He was as wet as he could be, as well as stiff and cold, and it
was with relief and some astonishment that he saw the saloon companion
open, and Miss Merril appear with a plate and a jug of steaming coffee.
Her skirt was woefully bedraggled, from which he surmised that there was
more water than there should be in the saloon, and her hair was promptly
powdered with glistening spray; but her face was quiet, and she sat down
collectedly, huddling herself on a locker, where the after bulkhead of
the saloon partly sheltered her. Jimmy dropped into the cockpit, and
crouched there with the tiller against his shoulder, for nobody could
have eaten in the face of that wind. Then he stretched out a hand for
the coffee.
"I'm unusually glad to get it. It was very kind of you," he said.
Anthea smiled. "Why?" she asked. "Are you sure it wasn't selfishness? We
couldn't take the boat home without you, and a man must eat if he has to
go on with this kind of task."
Jimmy looked at her, and, finding no very apposite rejoinder, nodded.
"Well," he said, "I suppose he must; but did you get anything for
yourself or Miss Austerly? You can't live on nothing any more than I
can. At least, that's the conclusion I've come to after what I've
noticed in the mail-boat's saloons."
He was aware that he had made a slip, but fancied it had escaped his
companion's attention, which, of course, displayed very little
perspicacity. In the meanwhile, he got a turn of the weather tiller line
round a cleat, and lowered himself further until he sat in the cockpit
with several inches of water swishing about him.
"Nellie is asleep at last. I did not awaken her," said his companion.
"That isn't all I asked. Did you get anything yourself?"
The girl said she had not done so, and for a moment there was the
faintest suspicion of color in her face.
"Then you will share what you have brought with me," said Jimmy.
"There isn't a cup. I couldn't find one that wasn't broken. The
forecastle shelf has torn away."
"You couldn't have kept the coffee in it if you had. Take what you want
before it gets cold," and Jimmy pointed to the jug.
Anthea raised it to her lips, and then pushed it back along the cockpit
floor, while, though she had not meant to do so, she flashed a swift
glance at her companion when he held it in his hand. As it happened,
Jimmy looked at her just then, and she saw the little glint in his eyes.
He felt that she had done so, and, while he would not have had it
happen, let his gaze rest on her steadily while he made her a little
inclination. Then he drank, and, after he had thrust the plate in her
direction, broke off a portion of bread and canned meat; some of which
crumbled and stuck to his wet oilskins.
He was quite aware that neither his attitude nor manner of eating was
especially graceful, but that could not be helped, and he laughed when
his companion clutched at the remnant on the plate. She smiled at him
too, and he wondered why they were both apparently so much at ease.
Still, it did not seem in any way an unusual or unfitting thing that he
and this delicately brought up girl should make their meal as equals in
the little dripping cockpit with a single plate and one drinking vessel
between them. He felt that it was as a comrade she regarded him, in
place of tolerating him from necessity, and he noticed that even under
the very uncomfortable conditions she ate daintily.
"Where are we?" she asked at last.
"About twenty miles to leeward of the Inlet, and perhaps eight off the
shore. At least, I should like to believe we are. How is it you look so
fresh, instead of worn out? Where did you learn to make yourself at home
in a boat?"
"In Toronto," said Anthea. "I was there two years, and they are fond of
yachting in that city. I once did some sailing in England too. What do
you think of their boats? It is, perhaps, fortunate Valentine made the
_Sorata_ a cutter, as they generally do, instead of a sloop. You could
hardly have handled her under the latter's single headsail last night."
"No," said Jimmy, "I don't think I could. If she had been rigged that
way she would probably have gone under by now. Still, I don't see why
you should expect me to know anything about English boats."
Anthea smiled as she looked at him. "Perhaps you don't, though you don't
invariably express yourself as a man would who had never been away from
the Pacific Slope."
"Well," said Jimmy reflectively, "it's not quite a sure thing that the
way they talk in an English ship's forecastle is very much nicer."
"There are more places in a mail-boat than her forecastle."
It seemed to Jimmy advisable to change the subject, and he made a little
grimace as he glanced at the plate.
"I'm afraid I've cleaned up everything," he said.
Anthea laughed. "Which is quite as it should be. I can get more, and you
can't. Still, perhaps you have left some coffee."
Jimmy was about to point out that there was no cup, but refrained, for
it flashed on him that his companion was, of course, aware of this, and
he gravely handed her the jug. What her purpose was he did not know, and
indeed he was never clear on this point, though he fancied that she had
one; but it was, at least, evident that she was damp and chilled, and
needed the physical stimulant. The trifling act, it seemed, might
equally be a pledge of camaraderie, or a recognition of the fact that
they were for the time being no more than man and woman between whom all
distinctions had vanished in the face of peril; but he seemed to feel it
had a still deeper significance. He had once held her in his arms, and
now they had shared the same plate and drunk from the same vessel.
Then the _Sorata_ reminded him that she required attention, for a sea
seethed on board her forward, and when it poured into the cockpit he
swung himself back to the coaming. A minute or two later he stretched
out his hand, and the girl drew in her breath as she glanced ahead, for
a sail materialized suddenly out of the vapor. It was suggestively
slanted, and a dusky strip that looked very small appeared beneath it
when it swung high on the crest of a sea.
"Siwashes," said Jimmy; "one of their sea canoes. They have to keep her
running. She wouldn't lie-to."
The craft drew abreast of them, traveling wonderfully fast, and Anthea
long remembered how she drove by the _Sorata_, hove half her length out
of water, riding on the ridge of a big gray sea. She was entirely open,
a long, narrow, bird-headed thing, and the foam she flung off forward
seemed to lap over her after-half. A little drenched spritsail was
spread from an insignificant mast, and four crouching figures with dusky
faces were partly visible amidst the wisps of spray that whirled about
her. One of them held a long paddle, and looked fixedly ahead; the
others gazed at the _Sorata_ expressionlessly until the craft swooped
down between two seas. Jimmy saw his companion's hands clench on the
coaming, and the color ebb from her face, and then she gasped as the
little strip of canvas swung into sight again.
"Ah!" she said, "it's a trifle horrible to watch them; and what must it
be to steer her? How many of us in the cities know what the struggle for
existence really is?"
Jimmy nodded assent. "At least," he said, "the thing is tolerably clear
to the men who live at sea. If that Siwash lost his nerve for a moment
the next comber would swallow the canoe. After all, the sea knows no
distinctions; white men and red men alike must face the strain."
"In the big mail-boats too?"
"Of course. I'm not sure it isn't a little heavier there. When you are
traveling as fast as a freight train there is little time to decide how
you will clear a crossing steamer, or to pick out green from yellow
among a blink of sliding lights. The man who fails is very apt to hurl
as much as fourteen thousand tons of hull and cargo into destruction,
and, perhaps, two thousand passengers into another world, though some
vessels now carry more than that. The owner seldom gets rich when he
doesn't; and there is, after all, no very great difference between his
lot and that of the Siwash, who stakes his life against the value of a
few salmon or halibut."
He broke off with a laugh. "Hadn't you better go back? You are getting
very wet."
Anthea did so, and it was almost noon when she came up again. Jimmy
still sat at the tiller, and his wet face looked a trifle worn; but the
breeze had softened, and as the girl glanced round her, a shaft of
sunlight fell suddenly upon the foaming sea.
"Yes," said Jimmy, "it's blowing itself out. I expect we'll be able to
shake the reefs out of the trysail and beat up for the Inlet before it's
dark. If it were necessary I would run her before it now."
"Wouldn't there be shelter in one of the inlets to leeward?" asked the
girl, with a very natural longing to escape from the strain and turmoil.
"It's very probable," said Jimmy. "I dare say I could make one. Still,
you see----"
He stopped, and Anthea flushed ever so slightly, for it was evident to
her that she and her companion could not extend that cruise
indefinitely in company with Valentine's hired man.
"Of course!" she said. "Austerly will be horribly anxious. Well, if you
think you could leave the tiller lashed, I have dinner ready."
"I believe I could. Still, it might be awkward to get back fast enough
from the forecastle in case of necessity."
"I wonder," said the girl, "whether you have any very decided objections
to sitting down with us in the saloon? If you have, it would make it
necessary for Nellie or me to bring the things out to you."
Jimmy fancied that the last was an inspiration, and after a glance to
windward went down into the saloon, which was very wet. Miss Austerly,
who seemed to have stood the shaking better than he expected, reclined
on one settee with her feet drawn up for the sake of dryness, and she
smiled at him. He wondered when he saw how the little swing-table was
set. Miss Merril, finding the crockery kept for charterers mostly
smashed, had apparently come upon Valentine's enameled and indurated
ware.
There was no restraint upon any of them during the meal. The fact that
the breeze was undoubtedly falling would have been sufficient in itself
to restore their cheerfulness, but Jimmy was also sensible of a curious
exhilaration, and discoursed whimsically upon various topics besides the
sea. In fact, he was astonished to find that he had been away an hour
when at last he went back to the cockpit. The breeze was falling
rapidly, and before Anthea prepared the supper, which was, as usual in
that country, at about six o'clock, he had set the whole trysail, and
soon afterward he got the reefed mainsail up. By midnight the _Sorata_
was close in with the coast, working fast to windward through smooth
water with her biggest topsail set, while a half-moon hung low in the
western sky. The sea gleamed silver under it, and scarcely half a mile
away dim hillsides and long ranks of somber pines half-veiled in fleecy
mists went sliding by.
The soft gleam of the swinging lamps in the saloon shone out in faint
streams of colored radiance through the skylights, and, late as it was,
Nellie Austerly nestled well wrapped up on a locker in the cockpit. She
watched the long swell break away from beneath the bows in glittering
cascades, and Jimmy fancied he knew what she was thinking when she gazed
aloft at the tall spire of canvas that shone in the moonlight as white
as the peak ahead of them. It was a nocturne in blue and silver, and if
sound were wanted, the splashing at the bows and the deep rumble of the
surf emphasized the softer harmonies of the night.
"You are not so very sorry we were blown off, after all?" he asked.
The girl smiled. "No," she said; "I managed to sleep through a good deal
of it, and now I feel almost as fresh as if I had stayed ashore.
Besides, this would make up for anything. One could almost wish we could
sail south with the topsail up under the moonlight--forever. In spite of
the bad weather, I have been so well since I came to sea."
"Just the three of us?" asked Jimmy unguardedly.
He saw the twinkle in the girl's eyes as she glanced at her companion,
who sat close by.
"I wonder," she said, "whether you would like that, Anthea? I almost
think I should."
The moonlight sufficed to show the faint tinge of color in Anthea's
face, but she laughed. "And what about your father?"
Nellie Austerly did not appear concerned. "It is very undutiful, for he
must have been anxious; but I really can't help feeling amused when I
think of him and Mr. Valentine being left on the beach to sleep in the
Siwash rancherie. One understands they are rather dreadful places, and
he is so horribly particular, you know."
Anthea said nothing further, and presently the two girls went below, but
they were about again when, soon after six o'clock next morning, Jimmy
beat the _Sorata_ into the Inlet. Indeed, he left Anthea at the tiller
while he went into the saloon to look for a piece of spun yarn which
Valentine kept in one of the lockers. Nellie Austerly smiled at him as
he opened it.
"I suppose we shall be in very soon, and I want to thank you now for
bringing me back safe," she said. "Anthea, of course, can thank you for
herself."
Jimmy felt a trifle embarrassed. "I really don't see why she should. I
think the charter covers anything I have done."
The girl made a little whimsical gesture. "Does it? You are not a
regular yacht-hand, really?"
"I am, at least, mate of a lumber-carrying schooner, which comes to much
the same thing."
The twinkle in Nellie Austerly's eyes grew plainer. "I can be quite
frank with Mr. Valentine and you, and perhaps it is because I like you
both. You can make what you think fit of that. Still, I haven't asked
you how long you have been on board the schooner, and one understands
there are a good many opportunities for men--like you and Mr.
Valentine--in this country."
Jimmy was a little startled, for it almost seemed that she had guessed
his thoughts, but he smiled.
"Valentine seems to have all he wants already. He is content with the
sea."
The girl laughed. "Well," she said, "I don't think the sea would
altogether satisfy him. But I must not keep you here; hadn't you better
make sure Anthea isn't running us ashore?"
Jimmy went up, and found the _Sorata_ was smoothly slipping by the
climbing pines; and a little later her dory with three white men in it
came sliding toward them as he hauled the topsail down.