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[Illustration: Harry pointed seaward, toward the brigantine, moving
through the water slowly.--(See page 9.)]
A RUNAWAY BRIG;
OR,
An Accidental Cruise.
BY JAMES OTIS,
_Author of_
"The Castaways," "Toby Tyler," "Mr. Stubbs' Brother," "Left Behind,"
"Raising the Pearl," "Silent Pete," etc., etc.
ILLUSTRATED.
[Illustration]
NEW YORK:
A. L. BURT, PUBLISHER.
COPYRIGHT 1888, BY A. L. BURT.
A RUNAWAY BRIG.
CHAPTER I.
THE SALLY WALKER.
"I'm going down to the beach to find Jim Libby. If you'll come along
we'll have a prime sail; and most likely this is the last chance we
shall have to go out with him, for his vessel leaves in the morning."
"How can I go when I've got to mind this young one all the forenoon just
'cause the nurse must go an' have a sick headache? I don't believe she
feels half as bad as I do!" And Walter Morse looked mournfully out over
the blue waters with but little care for his baby sister, who was
already toddling dangerously near the long flight of steps leading from
the veranda of the large summer hotel.
"Can't you coax off for a couple of hours?" the first speaker, Harry
Vandyne, asked.
"It's no use. Mother has gone to ride, and said I was to stay here until
she came back."
Harry started toward the beach, determined not to lose a single hour of
pleasure because of his friend's engagements; but before he had taken
half a dozen steps a sudden, and what seemed like a very happy thought,
occurred to him.
"I'll tell you how it can be fixed. Hire one of the other nurses to take
care of your sister till we get back. Any of them will do it for a
quarter, an' we'll be home before your mother comes."
The boys were spending the summer at the Isle of Shoals, off the New
England coast. Harry's father was Robert Vandyne, the well-known
ship-owner of New York, and Walter's was equally prominent in the
wholesale dry-goods business on Broadway. During their stay at this
summer resort they had made the acquaintance of Jim Libby, "cook's
assistant and everybody's mate" on the fishing-schooner Mary Walker, a
craft which visited the Shoals once each week to supply the hotels with
fresh fish.
Jim was at liberty to follow the dictates of his own fancy several hours
each day while in port, and the boys found him ever ready to take them
out sailing in the square-bowed, leaky tender belonging to the schooner.
As Harry had said, this was Jim's last day on the island until the end
of another cruise, and Walter was so eager to blister his hands and wet
his feet once more by rowing the Sally Walker--the tender was dignified
with a name--around the shore that he really did not stop to consider
all Harry's advice implied.
He wanted to go on the water; Bessie would have even better care from
one of the nurses than he could give her; and it was not difficult to
convince himself that, under all the circumstances, he would be
warranted in disobeying the positive commands of his mother.
"She didn't know Jim was going away in the morning, or I'm sure she'd
'a' fixed it so's I could take one more trip in the Sally."
"Of course she won't care," Harry said in such a decided tone that
Walter, who was more than willing to be convinced by the most flimsy
argument, made his decision at once.
"Come on; there's Mrs. Harvey's maid, and we'll ask her."
The bribe of twenty-five cents was sufficient to enlist the good-natured
girl's sympathies, and five minutes later the two boys were running at
full speed toward the shore, while Bessie, apparently well content with
the change of nurses, looked so happy that Walter really began to
believe he had done the child such a very great favor that his mother
could not but be pleased.
The unwieldy-looking Sally Walker was drawn up in a little cove which,
owing to a line of rocks just outside, made a most convenient
landing-place, and on the bow sat Master Jim, his face striped with dirt
but beaming with good-nature, and his clothes as ragged as they were
redolent of fish.
"I'd jes' begun to think you couldn't come, an' was goin' back," he
cried as his neatly-dressed acquaintances came into view. "If we wanter
do any sailin' it's time to be off, 'cause this wind's dyin' out mighty
fast."
"It's better late than never, Jim," Harry cried cheerily as he commenced
to push at the bow of the boat. "Let's get the old craft afloat, and do
our talking afterward."
To launch the Sally into deep water was quite a hard task owing to her
breadth of beam; but after that had been done the labor was ended for a
time, save such as might be necessary with the bailing-dish.
Jim stepped the short mast with its well-worn leg-of-mutton sail, got
one of the oars aft as a rudder, and the full-bowed clipper began to
move through the water slowly, but with a splashing and a wake
sufficient for a craft ten times her size.
"We can't run along the coast very well 'cause the wind's blowin'
straight out to sea, an' she don't stand up to it like a narrower boat
would," the skipper said as he settled himself back comfortably in the
stern-sheets while he pulled the fragment of a straw hat down over his
eyes.
"Let's sail before the wind two or three miles and then row back,"
Walter suggested. "I'd like to get to the hotel before mother comes."
"It'll be a tough pull," Jim replied as he glanced at the clumsy oars.
"I'd rather row the Sally one mile than two."
"Harry and I will do that part of the work."
"Then let her go," and as Jim eased off on the sheet the old craft came
around slowly, for she was by no means prompt in answering the helm.
"See that ship over there? How far away is she?" Harry asked as he
pointed seaward, when the Sally was well under way.
"That ain't a ship," Jim replied with a slight tone of contempt because
his companions were so ignorant. "She's a brigantine, an' hard on to
three miles from here."
"Let's run over to where she is. We can row back by dinner-time easily
enough."
Since his crew were to do all the work on the return trip Jim would have
been perfectly willing had the distance been twice as far, and he gave
assent by nodding his head in what he intended should be a truly
nautical manner.
The brig, which was now the objective point of the trip, appeared to be
a craft of about three hundred tons, and moving through the water
slowly, under the influence of the rapidly-decreasing wind, on a course
at right-angles with the one the Sally was pursuing. She was running
with yards square, under her upper and lower topsails, foresail, jib and
foretop-mast stay-sail, and the head-sheets were flowing.
"She ain't goin' so fast but what we can come up with her before the
breeze dies away, I reckon, an' if she's becalmed they won't say
anything agin our goin' aboard," Jim said after a few moments of
silence, during which all hands gazed intently at the stranger.
The idea of visiting a vessel at sea was very enticing to the city boys,
and they were now as eager for a calm as they had previously been to
have the wind freshen. The Sally took in so much water between her
half-calked seams that it was necessary to keep the bailing-dish in
constant use, consequently there was little time for speculation as to
where the brig was bound until, when they had sailed not more than a
mile and a half, Jim said in a tone of mild disappointment:
"It's no use, fellers, we can't get there. It's dead calm, an' we ain't
makin' a foot an hour."
"What's to prevent our rowing?" Harry asked. "You take down the sail and
keep the bailing dish going while Walter and I show you how to make the
Sally walk."
"I'm willin' if you are," and Jim unshipped the stumpy mast. "My vessel
won't get under way before mornin', an' it makes no difference if I
ain't back till sunrise."
To make the Sally "walk" required a great deal of hard work; but since
it was under the guise of play Harry and Walter went at it with a will,
while Jim wondered what sport boys could find in pulling a heavy boat,
for this was the one portion of a fisherman's life at which he rebelled.
Slowly but surely the little craft gained upon the larger one, which
swung to and fro on the lazy swell, and when they were about a quarter
of a mile apart Jim said, in a tone of disapprobation:
"The crew on that brig are worse'n fishermen. Every one of 'em must be
below, for I haven't seen so much as a feller's nose yet. Perhaps some
of the crew have gone ashore--the gangway's unshipped."
Unacquainted with nautical matters as the city boys were, they did not
think there was anything strange in such a condition of affairs, but
kept steadily at work with the oars until Jim scrambled into the bow to
fend off, the journey having been finished.
"I'll make fast here while you go aboard," he said as he seized the
ladder of rope and wood which hung over the rail as an invitation to
visitors.
"We'd better find out first whether they're willing to have us," Harry
suggested.
"That'll be all right," and Jim spoke very confidently. "If you're
afraid I'll go first; but it seems kinder strange that somebody don't
hail us."
Having made the Sally's painter fast, Jim clambered over the side
closely followed by his companions; but not a person could be seen on
deck. The fore hatch was lying bottom upward, and the appearance of the
ropes indicated decided carelessness on the part of the crew, yet no
sound was heard save the creaking of the booms as they swung lazily to
and fro.
"What's the matter?" Harry asked in a whisper as he noted the look of
fear which came over Jim's face.
"I'm sure I don't know. Let's see if we can raise anybody;" and then Jim
shouted, "Ahoy below! ahoy!"
No reply came. Again and again was the cry repeated, until Walter asked,
impatiently:
"Are you afraid to go into the cabin and stir them up?"
Jim would have braved many dangers rather than be thought a coward, and
without answering the question he leaped down from the rail, running
first into the forecastle and then the cabin, after which he returned to
his companions with a very pale face as he said, in a tremulous whisper:
"Boys, there ain't a single soul on this 'ere brig but ourselves, an'
there's a sword on the cabin floor! Do you s'pose pirates are anywhere
around?"