SWEPT ONWARD BY A TIDAL WAVE
"Off at last, and I am glad of it!"
"I suppose you are anxious to get to Nanpi, Dave?"
"I am, Roger. Can you blame me?"
"Not at all. In fact, if I were in your place, I think I'd be even more
anxious. Meeting this Dunston Porter means so much to you," went on the
senator's son.
The two chums were on the forward deck of the _Stormy Petrel_ and the
bark was just leaving the harbor of Tolao. It was a clear day, with a
bright sun high overhead, and the boys felt in excellent spirits.
Nothing had been seen or heard of Jasper Van Blott, and, with the
sailing of the bark, he was practically forgotten by Dave and Roger. But
Phil and the captain remembered him and were sorry that they had not
been able to bring the wicked supercargo to justice.
Although he was in nominal authority, Captain Marshall turned over the
cargo books to Phil, and the shipowner's son did very well when it came
to straightening out the tangle left by Van Blott. Phil wished to make
a clean report to his father and worked with a will, until he "knew
where he was at," as he declared.
"I rather think it will open my father's eyes," said Phil. "He has
suspected Van Blott for some time, but he didn't think of anything like
this."
On the second day out the wind died down utterly, and this state of
affairs continued for several days. The sails flapped idly against the
masts, and scarcely any progress was made.
"We are not going to make such a quick passage, after all," remarked
Roger. "My! but this is slow work, I must declare!"
"And haven't you noticed the heat?" added Phil. "It seems to me to be
unusually hot."
"It is," said Dave, who had been consulting a thermometer. "This is our
warmest day, by four degrees. If it gets much warmer, we'll certainly
melt."
That afternoon the sea appeared to be strangely agitated, and toward
night the sailors noticed a large number of dead fish rising to the
surface. Dave discovered a large shark, and this proved to be dead,
also.
"There has been some disturbance under the ocean's surface," said
Captain Marshall. "More than likely an earthquake."
"An earthquake! And we never knew it!" ejaculated Roger, and his tone
showed his disappointment.
In the morning the sea was more agitated than ever. One minute it would
appear to flatten out, the next, two waves would come together with a
clash that sent the spray flying upward for many feet. More dead fish
were in evidence on every hand.
"I have never witnessed anything like this," commented Captain Marshall.
"I trust it gets no worse."
When the breeze sprang up, it came from the wrong direction, and the
_Stormy Petrel_ had to tack as best she could. The breeze kept growing
stiffer and stiffer, until it was little short of a gale. Then a thick
mist settled down on the ocean, shutting out the view upon all sides.
"I must say I don't like this," observed the senator's son. "Supposing
we should run into something?"
"There isn't much to run into," replied Dave. "I just asked the captain,
and he told me we were a good many miles from land of any sort."
"We might run into some other ship."
"There seem to be very few ships in this locality."
Morning found the _Stormy Petrel_ still surrounded by the mist, and
there was now little or no wind. The barometer had gone down, and the
captain ordered some sail taken in, in anticipation of a storm.
At noon the mist appeared to lift a little, and once more the wind
sprang up. This continued for several hours, when, of a sudden, a
strange humming filled the air.
"What can that be?" cried Dave, who was on the forward deck.
"It's wind!" cried Billy Dill. "A reg'lar tornado, too."
Captain Marshall was on deck, no longer disposed to trust his first
mate. He at once ordered all of the sails taken in and stowed away
securely. This was just accomplished, when the hurricane--for it was
nothing less--struck the _Stormy Petrel_, almost sending the bark on her
beam ends.
"Better go below!" shrieked the captain to the three boys. "It's not
safe for you on deck."
"I'll be careful," answered Phil, but the master of the bark shook his
head, and then the three lads started for the companionway, holding on
to first one thing and then another as they moved along.
Phil had just reached the bottom of the steps, Roger was half-way down,
and Dave still at the top, when a wild cry from the bow reached their
ears.
"Hold tight, all of ye!" came in the voice of Billy Dill. "Hold on, or
ye'll be swept overboard, sure!"
Everybody on board the _Stormy Petrel_ realized that this could be no
idle warning, and all held on like grim death to anything that was
handy. The next moment there was a strange hissing and pounding of the
ocean, and, in a twinkling, the _Stormy Petrel_ was caught on what
seemed to be the top of a giant wave and carried along as if in the grip
of a demon of the deep!
The upward and forward movement came with such a force that nearly
everybody was taken clean and clear off his feet, and had not each one
clung fast, as directed by Billy Dill, somebody must surely have been
flung overboard. The bark turned around and around on the top of the
wave, and then lurched forward and went on and on, the spray flying so
thickly that scarcely a thing of what was beyond could be seen.
"My gracious!" gasped Roger, who had been flung down on top of Phil.
"What is this?"
"Don't ask me!" returned Dave, who was sitting on the upper step with
his arms entwined around the companionway rail. "I guess it's an
earthquake and a hurricane rolled into one."
"Has anybody gone overboard?" asked Phil, as he tried to stand up.
"I don't know. Billy Dill gave the warning."
The door to the cabin was open, and the three lads fairly tumbled into
the compartment. The bark was rocking to such an extent that to stand
upright was out of the question. Everything that was loose was on the
floor, shifting from one side to the other.
The boys waited with bated breath, and a few minutes later heard a crash
on the deck, which told that a topmast, or one of the yards, had come
down. Then came a yell of alarm from one of the sailors.
"We are going to sink! We are going to sink!"
"Did you hear that?" ejaculated Roger. "He said the _Stormy Petrel_ was
going to sink!"
"What shall we do?" put in Phil. "I don't want to drown!"
Phil had scarcely spoken when a side door to one of the staterooms burst
open and a man came forth, wild with terror, his face scratched and
bleeding. Much to their amazement, they saw it was Jasper Van Blott.
"Is the ship really going down?" cried the former supercargo, in a
trembling voice.
"Where did you come from?" cried Dave.
"I--er--I've been in hiding. But, tell me, are we going down?"
"I don't know."
"I--er--I must go on deck and see. It nearly killed me, the bark bounced
around so," went on Van Blott.
He started for the companionway, but had not yet reached the top when a
big wave hit the _Stormy Petrel_ broadside, sweeping the deck from end
to end and sending some of the water into the cabin. The former
supercargo was washed off the steps and came down flat on his back,
screaming with terror.
[Illustration: The former supercargo was washed off the steps and came
down flat on his back.--_Page 225._]
The boys were nearly as much alarmed, and, as soon as it was possible to
do so, all three crawled up to where they could get a view of the deck
and the sea beyond.
The outlook was truly startling. The ocean was whipped up into a
milk-white foam and was dashing and churning in all directions. One
tremendous wave was rolling straight to the southward, and on this the
bark was riding, like a monkey on a runaway race horse. The wind was
whistling through the rigging, and the sky was filled with dark clouds
and a strange, whitish dust.
"What is this?" called Dave to the captain, as the latter passed.
"It's a tidal wave!" yelled back Captain Marshall. "There has been
another earthquake, and, most likely, some of the volcanoes in this
vicinity have become active."
"Are we going down, as that sailor said?"
"Not yet. I will warn you, if there is any danger of our sinking."
"You can't put out any small boats, can you?" asked Phil.
"No, a small boat would not live a minute in such a sea as is now
running."
"Has anybody been washed overboard?" asked Roger.
"I believe not--but I am not sure. It came on so sudden, we had no time
to prepare for it," said Captain Marshall.
"Mr. Van Blott is below," said Dave.
"Van Blott! You must be dreaming!"
"No. He had been in hiding, and the alarm scared him."
"Humph! Well, we'll take care of him later--if we get out of this with a
whole skin."
The boys could do nothing on deck, and so went below again, to find that
the former supercargo had disappeared.
"It doesn't matter," observed Phil. "We know he is on board, and he
can't get away until we land, and I guess we can root him out before
that time."
The _Stormy Petrel_ was still being carried forward, but now the motion
was a bit more steady than before. It was true that she had encountered
a tidal wave, due to a submarine earthquake, and also true that a
volcano on the island of Cholomu had become active. The fine volcanic
dust floated for miles over the ocean, covering the bark from stem to
stern as with flour.
Half an hour later came another alarm. Somebody roared out: "Breakers
ahead!" and in a moment more the _Stormy Petrel_ was in the midst of a
choppy sea, and staggered from side to side, as if ready to go over.
Then came a scraping at the bottom.
"We have struck a reef!" cried the first mate. "We are done for now!"
But, even as he spoke, the bark went on, over the reef and into what
seemed to be a large harbor. Far in the distance could be seen a
palm-fringed shore, with the waves dashing high up on the sands.
It took Captain Marshall but an instant to consider the situation, and
he immediately gave orders to cast an anchor. The _Stormy Petrel_
continued to rush onward, but quarter of a mile from the shore the
forward progress was checked. Then another anchor was dropped, and it
was seen that this had secured a good hold. In the meantime the waters
of the tidal wave began to recede, and by sunset the ocean was almost as
calm as ever.
"Thank fortune, that peril is a thing of the past!" said Dave,
fervently; and the other boys and Captain Marshall echoed his
sentiments.