“WHO WILL STAY?”
The decision was a momentous one. It might be death to remain on the
ship, but to a landsman it seemed still more perilous to embark on an
angry sea in a frail boat.
The passengers looked at each other in doubt and perplexity.
They had but fifteen minutes in which to make up their minds.
The mate stood by, his face and manner serious and thoughtful.
“Mr. Holdfast,” said Mr. Stubbs, “do you agree with the captain that
it is our best course to take to the boats?”
“I should prefer to try the ship a little longer. I say so with
diffidence, since the captain has a longer experience than I.”
“I don’t think much of your judgment, Mr. Holdfast,” said Captain
Hill, in a tone of contempt.
The mate’s face flushed--not so much at the words as the tone.
“Nevertheless Captain Hill,” he said, “I stand by what I have said.”
“Mr. Holdfast,” said Mr. Stubbs, who seemed to speak for the
passengers, “if some of us decide to remain on the ship, will you
remain with us?”
“I will!” answered the mate, promptly.
“Then set me down as the first to remain,” said Stubbs.
Somehow this man, rough and abrupt as he was, had impressed Harry as a
man in whom confidence might be reposed. He felt safe in following
where he led.
“I am but a boy,” he said, “but I have to decide for my life. I shall
remain with the mate and Mr. Stubbs.”
Quietly Stubbs shook hands with Harry.
“I am glad to have you with us,” he said earnestly. “We will die or
live together.”
Next came Professor Hemenway.
“Put me down as the third,” he said. “Harry, we sailed together, and
we will remain together to the end.”
“I go in the boat,” said John Appleton. “I have a great respect for
Mr. Holdfast, but I defer to the captain’s judgment as superior.”
He went over and ranged himself beside the captain.
“You are a sensible man, sir,” said Captain Hill, with a scornful
glance at the mate and the passengers who sided with him.
“Mr. Holdfast can go down with the ship, if he desires. I prefer to
cut loose from a doomed vessel.”
Marmaduke Timmins, the invalid, looked more sallow and nervous than
ever. He had swallowed a pill while the others were speaking, to give
himself confidence.
“I will go with the captain,” he said. “My life is likely to be short,
for my diseases are many, but I owe it to myself to do my best to save
it.”
“In deciding to go with me, you are doing your best, sir,” said
Captain Hill.
He had not hitherto paid much attention to Mr. Timmins, whom he looked
upon as a crank on the subject of health, but he was disposed to look
upon him now with more favor.
At this moment Montgomery Clinton appeared at the head of the stairs.
The poor fellow was pale, and disheveled, and tottered from weakness.
“What’s going on?” he asked, feebly. Harry took it upon himself to
explain, using as few words as possible.
“Will you go with the captain, or stay on the Nantucket?” asked Harry.
“Really, I couldn’t stand sailing in a little boat, you know.”
“That’s settled, then!” said the captain. “Into the boats with you!”
The sailors and two passengers lowered themselves into the long boat,
which was large enough to receive them all, till only Jack Pendleton
and the captain remained.
“Get in, boy!” said the captain, harshly.
Jack stepped back, and said, manfully: “I will remain on board the
ship, sir.”
While this discussion had been going on, the boat was being stored
with kegs of water and provisions, and soon after the sailors began to
ply the oars.
The little band that remained looked silently and solemnly, as they
saw their late companions borne farther and farther away from them on
the crested waves.
“It’s a question which will last longer, the ship or the boat,” said
Mr. Holdfast.
“We must work--I know that,” said Mr. Stubbs. “Captain Holdfast, I
salute you as my commander. Give us your orders.”
“Are you all agreed, gentlemen?” asked Holdfast.
“We are,” answered all except Montgomery Clinton, who was clinging to
the side with a greenish pallor on his face.
“Then I shall set you to work at the pumps. Jack I assign you and the
professor to duty first. You will work an hour; then Mr. Stubbs and
Mr. Vane will relieve you. I will look out for the vessel’s course.”
“I am afraid I couldn’t pump,” said Montgomery Clinton. “I feel so
awfully weak, you know, I think I’m going to die!”
Harry looked out to sea and saw the little boat containing the remnant
of their company growing smaller and smaller. A sudden feeling of
loneliness overcame him, and he asked himself, seriously: “Is death,
then, so near?”
The sea was still rough, but the violence of the storm was past. In a
few hours the surface of the sea was much less agitated. The spirits
of the passengers rose, especially after learning from the mate that
he had been able to stop the leak, through the experience which he
acquired in his younger days as assistant to a ship carpenter.
“Then the old ship is likely to float a while longer?” said
Mr. Stubbs, cheerfully.
“Not a short time, either, if the weather continues favorable.”
“Captain Hill was in too much of a hurry to leave the vessel,”
remarked Harry.
“Yes,” answered Holdfast. “Such was my opinion when I thought the
Nantucket in much worse condition than at present. If the captain and
sailors had remained on board, we could have continued our voyage to
Melbourne without difficulty.
“And now?” said Mr. Stubbs, interrogatively.
“Now we have no force to man her. Little Jack and myself are the only
sailors on board.”
“But not the only men.”
“That is true. I think, however, that you or the professor would find
it rather hard to spread or take in sail.”
Mr. Stubbs looked up into the rigging and shrugged his shoulders.
The next day Mr. Clinton appeared on deck. He looked faded and played
out, but he was no longer the woebegone creature of a day or two
previous. Even he turned out to be of use, for he knew something about
cooking, and volunteered to assist in preparing the meals, the ship’s
cook having left the ship with the captain. Accordingly, he rose in
the estimation of the passengers--having proved that he was not wholly
a drone.
Jack and Harry grew still more intimate. The young sailor was under no
restraint now that the captain was not on board, for with the mate he
had always been a favorite.
All efforts were made to keep the ship on her course. They could not
put up all the sails, however, and made but slow progress. They did
little but drift. Nor did they encounter any other vessel for several
days, so that there was no chance of obtaining the desired assistance.
“I wonder where it will all end, Jack?” said Harry, one evening.
“I don’t trouble myself much about that, Harry,” said the young
sailor. “I am content as I am.”
“Don’t you look ahead, then?”
“I am happy with you and the few we have on board. They are kind to
me; what more do I need?”
“I can’t be contented so easily, Jack. I hope there is a long life
before us. Here we are, making no progress. We are doing nothing to
advance ourselves.”
But this did not make much impression on Jack. He did not look beyond
the present, and so that this was comfortable, he left the future to
look out for itself.
“What do you think has become of Captain Hill and his companions,
Mr. Holdfast?” asked Mr. Stubbs, on the third evening after the
separation.
“He is probably still afloat, unless he has been fortunate enough to
be picked up by some vessel.”
“There is no hope of reaching land in the Nantucket is there,”
continued Mr. Stubbs.
“There is considerable fear of it,” said the mate.
“Why do you use the word fear?” asked Stubbs, puzzled.
“What I mean is, that we are likely to run aground upon some unknown
island. If the shore is rocky, it may break us to pieces, and that, of
course, will be attended with danger to life or limb.”
Stubbs looked thoughtful.
“I should like to see land,” he said, “but I wouldn’t like to land in
that way. It reminds me of an old lady who, traveling by cars for the
first time, was upset in a collision. As she crawled out of the
window, she asked, innocently: ‘Do you always stop this way?’”
“There are dangers on land as well as on the sea,” said the mate, “as
your story proves; though one is not so likely to realize them. In our
present circumstances, there is one thing I earnestly hope for.”
“What is that?”
“That we may not have another storm. I fear, in her dismantled
condition, the Nantucket would have a poor chance of outliving it,
particularly as we have no one but Jack and myself to do seamen’s
work.”
Mr. Stubbs walked thoughtfully away.
Harry, who had seen him talking with the mate, asked him what the
nature of the conversation was.
Mr. Stubbs told him.
“The fact is, Harry,” he said, “we are in a critical condition.
Whether we are ever to see old terry firmy again”--Mr. Stubbs was not
a classical scholar--“seems a matter of doubt.”
“And the worst of it is,” said Harry, “there seems to be nothing you
or I can do to increase our chances of safety.”
“No, unless we could manage to see a ship which the chief officer had
overlooked. That, I take it, is not very likely.”
It was toward morning of the fifth night after the captain had left
the ship that all on board were startled by a mighty thumping,
accompanied by a shock that threw the sleepers out of bed.
Harry ran hastily on deck. The mate was there already.
“What’s happened, Mr. Holdfast?” asked the boy, anxiously.
“The ship has struck on a rocky ledge!”
“Are we in danger?”
“In great danger. Call all the passengers. We must take to the boat,
for the Nantucket is doomed!”