OFF FOR LABRADOR.
Slowly but surely the launch gained on the flying schooner, until, as
the sun was sinking behind its western horizon of water, she fired a
shot that passed through the "Sea Bee's" mainsail and fell a hundred
yards beyond her.
"Wh-e-e-w!" exclaimed White, as he glanced up at the clean-cut hole.
"That's rather too close for comfort, and I shouldn't be surprised if
the next one made splinters fly. However, it will soon be dark, and
then, if we are not disabled, we may be able to give them the slip."
"I don't believe there's going to be another shot," cried Cabot, who
was gazing eagerly astern. "No--yes--hurrah! They are turning back.
They have given it up, old man, and we are safe. Bully for us! I
wonder what possesses them to do such a thing, though, when they had so
nearly caught us?"
"Can't imagine," replied White, who was also staring at the launch,
which certainly had circled back and was making towards the place
whence she had come. "They are afraid to be caught out at sea after
dark perhaps. I always understood that Frenchmen made mighty poor
sailors. Lucky thing for us she wasn't a British launch, for they'd
have kept on around the world but what they'd had us."
In justice to the Frenchmen it should be said that their reason for
turning back, which our lads did not learn until long afterwards, was
the imminent exhaustion of their coal supply, which, not calculated for
a long cruise, would barely serve to carry them back to the Bay of
Islands.
By the time the launch was lost to sight in the growing dusk the "Ruth"
had also disappeared. She was headed southward when last seen, and now
White said it was time that they, too, were turning towards their
ultimate destination. So, topsails and mainstaysail were taken in, and
the helm was put down until fore and mainsails jibed over. Then sheets
were trimmed until the little schooner, with lee rail awash, was
running something east of north, on an easy bowline, carrying a bone in
her teeth and leaving a bubbling wake trailing far astern. With
everything thus satisfactorily in shape, White lighted the binnacle
lamp, and giving Cabot a course to steer, went below to prepare the
first meal of their long cruise. "You must keep a sharp lookout," he
said as he disappeared down the companionway, "for I don't dare show
any lights. So if we are run into we'll have only ourselves to blame."
Left thus to his own devices, Cabot realised for the first time the
responsibility of his position and began to reflect seriously upon what
he had done. Until this time one disturbing event had followed another
so rapidly that he had been borne along almost without a thought of
what he was doing or of the consequences. As a result, instead of
carrying out the purpose for which he had been sent to Newfoundland,
and studying its mineral resources, he now found himself forced into
flight for having defied the authorities of the island, embarked upon a
doubtful trading venture into one of the wildest and least known
portions of the continent, and, with but a slight knowledge of
seamanship, engaged in navigating a small sailing vessel across one of
its stormiest seas. What would his guardian and employer say could he
know all this and see him at the present moment?
"I wish he could, though," exclaimed Cabot half aloud, "for it would be
fun to watch his look of amazement and hear his remarks. I suppose he
is wondering what has become of that Bell Island report I was to send
in the first thing, and I guess he'll have to wonder for some time
longer, as St. Johns is about the last place I feel like visiting just
at present. I certainly have made a mess of my affairs, though, so
far, and it looks as if I had only just begun, too. At the same time I
don't see how I could have acted differently. I tried hard enough to
reach St. Johns, and would have got there all right if it hadn't been
for this factory business. But when the fellow who saved my life got
into trouble, from which I could help him out, I'm sure even Mr.
Hepburn would say I was bound to do it. Besides, I have found one
promising outcrop of copper, and now I'm off for Labrador; so perhaps
things will turn out all right after all. Anyway I'm learning how to
sail a boat, and that is something every fellow ought to know. I wish
it wasn't so awfully dark though, and that White would hurry up with
that supper, for I am powerful hungry. How good it smells, and what a
fine chap he is. Falling in with him was certainly a great bit of
luck. But how this confounded compass wabbles, and how the schooner
jumps off her course if I lift my eyes from it for a single instant. I
don't see why she can't go straight if I hold the tiller perfectly
still. There's a star dead ahead, and I guess I'll steer by it. Then
I can keep the sharp lookout White spoke of at the same time."
Thus deciding, the anxious helmsman fixed his gaze upon the newly risen
star that he had just discovered, and wondered admiringly at its rapid
increase in brilliancy. After a little he rubbed his eyes and looked
again at two more stars that had suddenly appeared above the horizon
directly below the first one.
"Never saw red and green stars before," Cabot muttered. "Must be
peculiar to this high latitude. Wonder if they can be stars, though?
Oh! what a chump I am. White! I say, White, come up here quick!"
In obedience to this summons the young skipper thrust his head from the
companionway.
"What's up?" he asked.
"Don't know exactly," replied Cabot, "but there is a lighthouse or a
dock or something right in front of us."
"Steamer!" cried White as he sprang on deck and glanced ahead. "Keep
her away, quick. I don't want them to sight us."
"Steamer," repeated Cabot as he obeyed this order and let the schooner
fall off to leeward. "I never thought of such a thing as a steamer
away up here. Do you mean that she is a frigate?"
"No," laughed White. "There are other steamers besides frigates even
in these waters, and that is one of them. She is the 'Harlaw,' from
Flower Cove, near the northern end of the island, and bound for
Halifax. It's mighty lucky she didn't pass us by daylight."
"Why?"
"Because she is already heading in for the Bay of Islands and would
have reported us as soon as she got there. Then we would have had a
frigate after us sure enough."
"But how do you know she's a steamer? Mightn't she be a sailing
vessel!"
"Not with that white light at her foremast head. Sailing vessels
aren't allowed to show any above their side lights. Now go below and
eat your supper while I take her."
This eating alone was such an unpleasant feature of the cruise that, as
Cabot sat down to his solitary meal, he regretted having persuaded
White to leave David Gidge behind.
"I am afraid this going to sea shorthanded will prove a false economy
after all," he said to himself, thereby reaching a conclusion that has
been forced upon seafaring men since ships first sailed the ocean.
Finishing his supper as quickly as possible, Cabot rejoined his
companion, and begged him also to hurry that they might bear each other
company on deck.
"All right," agreed White, "only, of course, I shall be longer than you
were, for I have to wash and put away the dishes."
"Oh, bother the dishes!" exclaimed Cabot "Let them go till morning."
"Not much. We haven't any too many dishes as it is, nor a chance of
getting any more, and if I should leave them where they are we probably
wouldn't have any by morning. Besides, it wouldn't be tidy, and an
untidy ship is worse than an untidy house, because you can't get away
from it. But I won't be long."
True to his promise, White, bringing with him a heavy oilskin coat and
an armful of blankets, speedily rejoined his comrade, who was by this
time shivering in the chill night air.
"Put this on," said the young skipper, tendering Cabot the oilskin,
"and then I am going to ask you to stand first watch. I will roll up
in these blankets and sleep here on deck, so that you can get me up at
a moment's notice. You want to wake me at midnight, anyhow, when I
will take the morning watch."
"Very well," agreed Cabot resignedly. "I suppose you know what is best
to be done, but it seems to me that we are arranging for a very
lonesome cruise on regular Box and Cox lines."
As White had no knowledge of Box and Cox he did not reply to this
grumble, but, rolling up in his blankets until he resembled a huge
cocoon, almost instantly dropped asleep.
During the next four hours Cabot, shivering with cold and aching with
weariness, but never once allowing his tired eyes to close, remained at
his post. Through the black night, and over the still darker waters,
he guided the flying schooner according to the advice of the unstable
compass card that formed the only spot of light within his whole range
of vision. At the same time, knowing how little of skill he possessed
in this new line of business, and not yet having a sailor's confidence
in the craft that bore him, he was filled with such a fear of the
night, the wind, the leaping waters, and a thousand imaginary dangers
that his hardest struggle was against an ever-present impulse to arouse
his sleeping comrade. But he would not yield, and finally had the
satisfaction of coming unaided to the end of his watch.
"Midnight, and all hands on deck," he shouted, and White, springing up,
asked:
"What's happened? Anything gone wrong?"
"Nothing yet," replied Cabot, "but something will happen if you leave
me at this wretched tiller a minute longer."
"I won't," laughed the other. "It will only take me half a minute to
get an eye-opener in shape of a cup of cold tea, and then you can turn
in."
When Cabot was at length free to seek his bunk he turned in all
standing, only kicking off his boots. The very next thing of which he
was conscious was being shaken and told that breakfast was ready.
It was broad daylight; the sun was shining; the breeze had so moderated
that White had been able to leave the schooner to herself with a lashed
helm while he prepared breakfast, and as Cabot tumbled out he wondered
if he had really been anxious and fearful a few hours earlier.
All that day and through the following night our lads kept watch and
watch while the "Sea Bee" travelled up the coast. Early on the second
morning they passed Flower Cove, and from this point White headed
directly across the Strait of Belle Isle, which, here, is but a dozen
miles in width. Then, as Newfoundland grew dim behind them, a new
coast backed by a range of lofty hills came into view ahead; and, in
answer to Cabot's eager question, White said:
"Yes, that is Labrador, and those are the Bradore Hills back of
Forteau."