THE fiddle ended in mid-tune, and the men crowded aft with anxious faces.
The captain sounded the well and found three feet and a half water in it.
He ordered all hands to the pumps.
They turned to with a good heart, and pumped, watch and watch, till
daybreak.
Their exertions counteracted the leak, but did no more; the water in the
well was neither more nor less, perceptibly.
This was a relief to their minds, so far; but the situation was a very
serious one. Suppose foul weather should come, and the vessel ship water
from above as well!
Now all those who were not on the pumps set to work to find out the leak
and stop it if possible. With candles in their hands they crept about the
ribs of the ship, narrowly inspecting every corner, and applying their
ears to every suspected place, if haply they might hear the water coming
in. The place where Hazel had found Wylie at work was examined along with
the rest; but neither there nor anywhere else could the leak be
discovered. Yet the water was still coming in and required unremitting
labor to keep it under. It was then suggested by Wylie, and the opinion
gradually gained ground, that some of the seams had opened in the late
gale and were letting in the water by small but numerous, apertures.
Faces began to look cloudy; and Hazel, throwing off his lethargy, took
his spell at the main pump with the rest.
When his gang was relieved he went away, bathed in perspiration, and,
leaning over the well, sounded it.
While thus employed, the mate came behind him, with his cat-like step,
and said, "See what has come on us with your forebodings! It is the
unluckiest thing in the world to talk about losing a ship when she is at
sea."
"You are a more dangerous man on board a ship than I am," was Hazel's
prompt reply.
The well gave an increase of three inches. Mr. Hazel now showed excellent
qualities. He worked like a horse; and, finding the mate skulking, he
reproached him before the men, and, stripping himself naked to the waist,
invited him to do a man's duty. The mate, thus challenged, complied with
a scowl.
They labored for their lives, and the quantity of water they discharged
from the ship was astonishing; not less than hundred and ten tons every
hour.
They gained upon the leak--only two inches; but, in the struggle for
life, this was an immense victory. It was the turn of the tide.
A slight breeze sprung up from the southwest, and the captain ordered the
men from the buckets to make all sail on the ship, the pumps still going.
When this was done, he altered the ship's course and put her right before
the wind, steering for the island of Juan Fernandez, distant eleven
hundred miles or thereabouts.
Probably it was the best thing he could do, in that awful waste of water.
But its effect on the seamen was bad. It was like giving in. They got a
little disheartened and flurried; and the cold, passionless water seized
the advantage. It is possible, too, that the motion of the ship through
the sea aided the leak.
The _Proserpine_ glided through the water all night, like some
terror-stricken creature, and the incessant pumps seemed to be her poor
heart, beating loud with breathless fear.
At daybreak she had gone a hundred and twenty miles. But this was
balanced by a new and alarming feature. The water from the pumps no
longer came up pure, but mixed with what appeared to be blood.
This got redder and redder, and struck terror into the more superstitious
of the crew.
Even Cooper, whose heart was stout, leaned over the bulwarks and eyed the
red stream, gushing into the sea from the lee scuppers, and said aloud,
"Ay, bleed to death, ye bitch! We shan't be long behind ye."
Hazel inquired, and found the ship had a quantity of dye-wood among her
cargo. He told the men this, and tried to keep up their hearts by his
words and his example.
He succeeded with some; but others shook their heads. And by and by, even
while he was working double tides for them as well as for himself,
ominous murmurs met his ear. "Parson aboard!" "Man aboard, with t'other
world in his face!" And there were sinister glances to match.
He told this, with some alarm, to Welch and Cooper. They promised to
stand by him; and Welch told him it was all the mate's doings; he had
gone among the men and poisoned them.
The wounded vessel, with her ever-beating heart, had run three hundred
miles on the new tack. She had almost ceased to bleed; but what was as
bad, or worse, small fragments of her cargo and stores came up with the
water, and their miscellaneous character showed how deeply the sea had
now penetrated.
This, and their great fatigue, began to demoralize the sailors. The pumps
and buckets were still plied, but it was no longer with the uniform
manner of brave and hopeful men. Some stuck doggedly to their work, but
others got flurried and ran from one thing to another. Now and then a man
would stop and burst out crying; then to work again in a desperate way.
One or two lost heart altogether, and had to be driven. Finally, one or
two succumbed under the unremitting labor. Despair crept over others.
Their features began to change, so much so that several countenances were
hardly recognizable, and each, looking in the other's troubled face, saw
his own fate pictured there.
Six feet water in the hold!
The captain, who had been sober beyond his time, now got dead drunk.
The mate took the command. On hearing this, Welch and Cooper left the
pumps. Wylie ordered them back. They refused, and coolly lighted their
pipes. A violent altercation took place, which was brought to a close by
Welch.
"It is no use pumping the ship," said he. "She is doomed. D'ye think we
are blind, my mate and me? You got the long-boat ready for yourself
before ever the leak was sprung. Now get the cutter ready for my mate and
me."
At these simple words Wylie lost color, and walked aft without a word.
Next day there were seven feet water in the hold, and quantities of bread
coming up through the pumps.
Wylie ordered the men from the pumps to the boats. The long-boat was
provisioned and lowered. While she was towing astern, the cutter was
prepared, and the ship left to fill.
All this time Miss Rolleston had been kept in the dark, not as to the
danger, but as to its extent. Great was her surprise when Mr. Hazel
entered her cabin and cast an ineffable look of pity on her.
She looked up surprised, and then angry. "How dare you?" she began.
He waved his hand in a sorrowful but commanding way. "Oh, this is no time
for prejudice or temper. The ship is sinking. We are going into the
boats. Pray make preparations. Here is a list I have written of the
things you ought to take. We may be weeks at sea in an open boat." Then,
seeing her dumfounded, he caught up her carpet-bag and threw her workbox
into it for a beginning. He then laid hands upon some of her preserved
meats and marmalade and carried them off to his own cabin.
His mind then flew back to his reading, and passed in rapid review all
the wants that men had endured in open boats.
He got hold of Welch and told him to be sure and see there was plenty of
spare canvas on board, and sailing needles, scissors, etc. Also three
bags of biscuit, and, above all, a cask of water.
He himself ran all about the ship, including the mate's cabin, in search
of certain tools he thought would be wanted.
Then to his own cabin, to fill his carpet-bag.
There was little time to spare; the ship was low in the water, and the
men abandoning her. He flung the things into his bag, fastened and locked
it, strapped up his blankets for her use, flung on his pea-jacket, and
turned the handle of his door to run out.
The door did not open!
He pushed it. It did not yield!
He rushed at it. It was fast!
He uttered a cry of rage and flung himself at it.
Horror! It was immovable!