"Brave Ben!--brave fellow! he has saved her! Hurrah!"
Whether it was the violent gestures that accompanied this ebullition of
feeling that caused the water-cask to lurch from under his feet,--or
whether it arose from his nervous system suddenly becoming relaxed after
such a spell of intense anxiety,--certain it is that the sailor-lad, as
he repeated the final "Hurrah!" lost his balance upon the task, and,
staggering over, he fell with all his weight upon the prostrate body of
the slumbering sea-cook.
The latter, in his sleep more sensible to touch than hearing, was at
length aroused.
"Gorramity!" cried he, suddenly starting to his knees, and endeavouring
to disembarrass himself of the weight of little William, still
scrambling upon his back. "Gorramity! What all dis _fracas_ 'bout?
Someb'dy shout `Hurrah?'--Ha! you, lilly Willy? you shout dat jess now?
I tink I hear ye in ma 'leep. What for you hurrah? Golly! am dar a
ship in sight? I hope dar am--Wha's Mass' Brace?--wha's de lilly gal?
Augh?"
This string of interrogations was put in such rapid succession as to
give the lad no opportunity of replying to them. But, indeed, a reply
was not needed, as may be deduced from the final ejaculation of the
questioner.
Snowball, having swept the surface of the _Catamaran_ with a quick,
searching glance, and missing from it not only its captain, but--what
was of greater moment--his own _protege_, became equally the victim of
surprise and consternation.
His eye was at once turned towards the water; and, like all men
accustomed to the sea, was intuitively directed sternward. The missing
individuals could not be elsewhere than in the wake of the craft going
under sail.
He was soon satisfied of the correctness of his conjecture. On the
instant of his turning he beheld Ben Brace,--or rather, only the head of
that individual,--just visible above the rippling surface of the sea.
Close by was another head, of smaller size, with dark ringlets floating
on both sides of it, and a tiny arm stretched out and apparently
clinging to the shoulder of the seaman.
Snowball needed no one--not even little William--to interpret what he
saw. At a glance he comprehended what had occurred during his sleep,--
all except the cause. Little did he suspect that the disaster had its
origin in his own negligence. But it did not need that thought to beget
within him a feeling of anxiety,--or, rather, of intense alarm.
This feeling did not arise on the instant. Seeing the girl sustained by
such a strong swimmer as he knew his old shipmate to be, he had but
little fear for the result,--so little that he checked his first
impulse, which was to leap overboard and swim to the assistance of both.
A moment's reflection, however, satisfied him that there was still
danger both for Lalee and her brave rescuer,--a danger which little
William while giving utterance to that joyful "Hurrah!" had not taken
into account. The lad had seen the girl picked up by the strong seaman;
and, having an unlimited faith in the prowess of his own protector, he
had no other thought than that the latter would soon swim back to the
_Catamaran_, bearing his light burden along with him.
In his joy little William had overlooked the circumstance that the
_Catamaran_ was _under sail_, and moving through the water at a rate of
speed that the swiftest swimmer, unembarrassed with the slightest
weight, might in vain attempt to overtake her!
This sinister circumstance, in the excitement of the hour overlooked by
the youthful sailor, was even, for a moment, unthought of by the more
experienced mariner,--for Snowball, in addition to being a sea-cook, was
also a competent seaman. Not for long, however, did the latter continue
unconscious of the danger. Almost on the instant did he perceive it;
and quickly squatting himself in front of the cask, he took hold of the
steering-oar,--which he had so culpably neglected,--and, although still
ignorant of the fact that his own negligence had caused the disaster, he
bent all his energies towards remedying it.
Under the strong arm of the Coromantee, the _Catamaran_ was fast coming
round towards the wind,--and so shortening the distance between the
swimmer and the craft,--when an object came under the eye of her
steersman that caused him to drop the oar as if either his arm had
become suddenly paralysed, or the piece of rounded ash grasped between
his hands had become transformed into a bar of red-hot iron!
The former it could not be; since paralysed arms could not act, as did
those of Snowball on that instant. On dropping the oar, his right hand
was suddenly carried towards his left thigh, where a long knife hung
suspended in its sheath. Upon the hilt of this his fingers rested for a
moment, evidently not with the intention of drawing it, but apparently
to assure himself that the knife was in its place.
In an instant the hand was withdrawn; but during the action the negro
had hastily risen to his feet; and, having already abandoned the oar, he
rushed towards the edge of the raft and leaped overboard into the water!