The mere possibility that rescue might actually be at hand acted as a
tonic upon me, imparting renewed life and hope, and clearing away the
more than half-delirious fancies that had clouded and bemuddled my
brain; thus enabling me once more to think and act rationally. I pulled
myself resolutely together, collected my wandering wits, and peered long
and anxiously at the shadowy shape that had, as it were, crystallised
out of the surrounding darkness; then I looked away from it toward other
points of the horizon to see whether it repeated itself elsewhere. No;
it was peculiar to one definite spot; and I no longer had any doubt but
that there was a certain tangible something, which could only be a ship,
and that I must quickly determine upon the steps necessary to intercept
her.
The first thing was to ascertain in what direction she was steering.
When I first discovered her she was dead to windward, and since then she
had drawn aft a trifle, being now about two points before my weather
beam. She could not have overtaken me, because in that case she would
have passed so close as to have all but run over the boat, and I could
not have failed to see her; and the fact that she had slowly and
imperceptibly grown up out of the darkness argued that she was not
sailing away from me. Nor could she be sailing toward me, because in
that case she would have grown in size and distinctness much more
rapidly than she had done. Nor, strangely enough, did she seem to be
crossing my course in either direction, the slight change in her
bearings being accounted for by the progress of the boat. Possibly she
might be hove-to; although it was difficult to imagine why she should be
so, unless she had lost a man overboard. But if that were the case she
would be showing lights as a guide to her boat, which ought not to be
very far away. And why so deadly silent? I could not understand it.
But as these ideas flitted through my mind I came to the conclusion that
the correct thing to do was to close with her as quickly as possible by
making short tacks toward her. So I put down my helm and hove the boat
round upon the starboard tack, bringing the vague, black shadow about
two points on the weather bow. The flapping of the sails while the boat
was in stays awoke my companion, who sat up and, in a weak and husky
voice, asked me what was the matter.
"Nothing," I answered; "at least nothing of an alarming nature. The
fact is that I fancy I can see something, away out there on the weather
bow, and I have tacked the boat for the purpose of investigating the
object more closely."
"Whereabout is this object of which you speak?" she asked.
I pointed it out to her, and she almost immediately saw it. "Do you
imagine it to be a ship, Mr Conyers?" she inquired.
"I know not what else it can be," said I. "But," I added, "we must not
be too sanguine of help or rescue just yet. There are one or two points
in connection with that object that make me doubtful as to its being a
ship."
"What are they?" she quickly demanded.
I told her that one was the apparent immobility of the object; the other
being the fact that no lights were being displayed. And I explained
that the two together seemed incompatible with the supposition that the
object ahead was a ship, repeating to her, indeed, the arguments that
had flitted through my own mind only a few minutes before.
Yet with every fathom that the boat advanced, the shadow grew more
palpable, expanded, and approximated more closely to the appearance of a
vessel hove-to under bare poles. And at length, after several anxious
minutes of alternating hope and doubt, there arrived a moment when doubt
became no longer possible, for the shadow had finally resolved itself
into the silhouette of a brig under bare poles; even the thin lines of
the masts--which, by the way, looked stumpy, as though her
topgallant-masts were gone--were perceptible to my practised eye.
Without pausing to puzzle out a possible reason for the singular
condition of the vessel, I hastily resigned the yoke-lines to Miss
Onslow and, springing upon the mast thwart, proceeded to hail the brig
at the full power of my lungs, my delight at once more seeing a vessel
so close at hand being coupled with a deadly anxiety lest she should
suddenly make sail and get away from me. But to all my hailing there
came no reply, nor was a light shown, or any other indication vouchsafed
that my cries had been heard, even though I continued them until the
boat was actually crossing the stern of the stranger at a distance of
barely fifty fathoms. There was only one inference to be drawn from
this strange silence, namely, that the brig was derelict, a surmise that
was borne out by the fact that her boats appeared to be gone. Yet I
could not detect any sign that anything was wrong with her; she was not
sitting particularly deep in the water--so far as I could judge in the
darkness--nor did her spars appear to be damaged, except that, as I have
already mentioned, her topgallant-masts seemed to have been carried
away; there appeared, therefore, to be no reason why we should not
venture alongside; and accordingly, as soon as we had stood on far
enough to fetch her on the next tack, I hove the boat round and--the
brig happening to lie broadside-on to the sea--ran her alongside to
leeward, dousing my sails as we came up abreast the stranger's lee
quarter. As we shot up alongside I found that the vessel was certainly
deeper in the water than I had at first imagined her to be, yet not
deeper than might be accounted for by her carrying a heavy cargo; her
covering-board seemed to be about eighteen inches above the water, and I
therefore had no difficulty in clambering in over her bulwarks from the
gunwale of the boat, of course taking care to carry the end of the
boat's painter on board with me. Making this securely fast to a cleat
in the bulwarks, I glanced fore and aft to see whether I could discover
any indication of the presence of human beings on board; but the deck
appeared to be deserted; no gleam of light showed either forward or aft;
and no sound broke the silence save the wash of the water along the
bends, the choking gurgle of the scuppers, and the monotonous jerk-jerk
of the spanker-boom at its sheet with the roll of the ship. Under these
circumstances I considered that my companion might safely venture
aboard, and I accordingly assisted her up the side and in on deck,
afterwards dropping the boat astern and carefully securing her by her
painter. This done, I conducted Miss Onslow aft to the cabin
companion--which was fitted with seat-lockers on each side--begged her
to be seated for a short time while I investigated further; and
forthwith plunged below.
Arrived at the foot of the companion ladder, I found myself confronted
by a bulkhead running athwart the ship, and in this I presently found
the handle of a door. Turning this, I found myself--as I had expected--
in the cabin, which was of course pitch dark, the panes of the skylight
just dimly showing, overhead, with the merest suggestion of a certain
faintly--gleaming something hanging from the beams, and swinging with
the roll of the ship, which I presently identified as the extinguished
cabin lamp. Groping cautiously with my hands, I presently encountered a
table, uncovered, working round which I next came to some lockers
upholstered in horsehair--as I gathered from the touch; and while I was
groping about on these lockers my hands suddenly encountered what seemed
to be a tablecloth, with a few knives and forks, some broken crockery,
and a few other matters entangled in its folds, the whole suggesting the
idea that the cabin had been the scene of a furious struggle, during
which the table, laid for a meal, had been swept of everything upon it.
Leaving all this quite undisturbed--in the belief that when I could see
just how it all lay I might obtain a clue to the mystery at present
connected with the ship--I continued my researches, with the result that
I made out the cabin to occupy the extreme after-end of the vessel, with
possibly a small sail-room, or something of that kind, abaft it, and
that it took up the whole width of that part of the hull; that is to
say, there were no staterooms between it and the ship's side, as is
sometimes the case. Continuing to grope my way round the cabin, I
presently arrived once more at the bulkhead, wherein, on the starboard
side, I found another door, giving access to a stateroom, as I soon
discovered by finding the bunk, with the bedding still in it, and
apparently quite ready for an occupant. It did not take me long to
arrive at the conclusion that I was in the skipper's stateroom; for I
found that underneath the bunk was a chest of drawers; while in one
corner was a wash-basin, etcetera, and in the other what seemed to be a
small bookcase. Having progressed thus far, I had hopes of soon finding
that of which I was in search, namely, a box of matches. Being a
sailor, and well acquainted with sailors' ways, I knew exactly where
would be the most likely place to find what I wanted, and, clambering up
on the bunk, I felt for the shelf that I knew ought to be at the head of
it. Yes, there it was; but as I felt along it I was disappointed to
find that there was nothing on it. But was there not? I had not
examined the entire length of it when I too hastily jumped to the
conclusion that it was empty; as my hand travelled over into the far
corner it suddenly encountered quite a little store of things, all
heaped together--a clasp knife, a pipe, a piece of stick tobacco, and a
few other odd articles, among which was a box about half full of
matches!
They proved to be rather damp, and I had to strike a full half-dozen or
more before I succeeded in persuading one to ignite, and while thus
employed I was struck for the first time by the coincidence between the
condition of affairs on the skipper's shelf and that in the cabin--every
loose article had in each case found its way right over to starboard, as
far as it could go! What did that point to? Why, obviously, that at
some time or another the brig had heeled so heavily to starboard that
every movable thing had fetched away by the run and gone over to that
side, _and had never been replaced_! I gathered from this that the brig
had been suddenly hove over upon her beam-ends, and that her crew,
seized with panic, and no doubt under the impression that she was
capsizing, had made a rush for the boats and abandoned her, being, as
likely as not, blown so far to leeward by the squall that hove the brig
over, that they lost sight of her altogether, and imagined that she had
foundered. And by and by, when the squall had blown itself out, the
brig, with perhaps her canvas blown away, had simply righted again, and
had been drifting about ever since. How long ago that might have
happened, I could not at the moment guess, but I thought that possibly
with the return of daylight I might be able to discover indications
enough to furnish me with a clue.
While thinking thus I had succeeded in finding and lighting a small
lamp, hung in gimbals from the fore bulkhead, and by its illumination I
saw that the stateroom was a nice, clean, cosy little apartment, such as
Miss Onslow might occupy without discomfort; and, waiting only to light
the cabin lamp--the globe of which was smashed in on its starboard side,
as though it had been dashed violently against the deck above--I hurried
up the ladder, and invited the young lady to descend. I led her
straight to the skipper's stateroom, and urged her to lie down while I
proceeded to search for some food, but she declined to take any rest
until we had both partaken of a good meal; so I established her
comfortably on the sofa-lockers, and proceeded forthwith in search of
the pantry.
I found this, as I had expected, in a corresponding position, on the
opposite side of the ship to the cabin which I already designated in my
own mind as Miss Onslow's; and in it were several tins of preserved
meats and soups, a bottle of pickles, some vinegar, a jar of salt, a
bottle of pepper, a cask about three-quarters full of potatoes, part of
a string of onions, a barrel nearly full of fine cabin biscuit, or
"bread," as it is called at sea, a small canister of tea, another of
coffee, a jar of brown sugar, and, in fact, a very fair assortment of
such commodities as are usually to be found in an ordinary ship's
pantry. I observed, by the way, that such articles as were labelled
bore the names of American manufacturers, and I deduced from that fact
the impression that the brig was Yankee, an impression that was
subsequently confirmed.
I took a biscuit out of the barrel, broke it in two, and handed one
piece to Miss Onslow, nibbling at the other myself while I further
prosecuted my researches. I did this because the biscuit was hard and
dry, and, starving as we were, there was not much likelihood of our
eating so much of it as to prove injurious; moreover it would have the
effect of taking the sharp edge off our hunger, and enabling us to eat
cautiously and in moderation of the more appetising food that I intended
to place upon the table as quickly as possible.
My next task was to explore the galley, which I found to be very nicely
fitted up with what appeared to be an excellent cooking-stove and a
generous supply of implements, the whole of which had, like the articles
in the cabin, found their way right over to the starboard side; moreover
the top of the stove was rusted in such a way as to suggest that the
water from the coppers had been capsized over it--everything, in short,
tending to confirm my original impression that the brig had been on her
beam-ends. I looked into the coppers, and found them empty. Then I
went to the scuttle-butt, but it also was so nearly empty that I did not
care to use the small remainder of water in it. There were no more
casks on deck, so I concluded that the ship's stock of water was kept
below, most probably in tanks. And the thought of the latter reminded
me that I had seen a small copper pump in the steward's pantry, so I
returned there to get it. Then, with it in one hand, and a lantern in
the other, I searched about on deck until I had found the small screw
plug that fitted into the tank pipe; and presently I had at my disposal
a bucket of sweet fresh water, which I poured into the coppers. I then
lighted the galley fire--finding plenty of coal for my immediate wants
in the locker--and proceeded to prepare a couple of tins of the
preserved soup that I had found in the pantry. Then, while this was
cooking, I returned to the cabin to lay the table, but found that Miss
Onslow had forestalled me, having cleared away the wreck off the
starboard locker, restored the tablecloth to its proper position, and
rearranged such portions of the table equipage as had not been smashed
in the capsizal. The poor girl looked dreadfully white and thin and
weary, but I noticed that during my absence she had found time to take
off her hat and to roughly rearrange her hair! Her eyes looked red, as
though she had been crying; so, with the view of toning her up a little,
I went to work rummaging in the sofa-lockers, and presently found a few
bottles of port wine, the neck of one of which I promptly knocked off,
and insisted upon her taking a glass there and then. She obeyed me with
a sweet submissiveness that was in extraordinary contrast with her
demeanour aboard the _City of Cawnpore_; but a flash of her old spirit
returned when she had swallowed the wine, as, handing me the glass, she
said:
"There! I have done as you bade me. And now I _insist_ upon your
taking some also; for you look positively ghastly, and so ill that,
unless you take great care of yourself, you will break down altogether!"
I took the wine, and then hurried away back to the galley, where I
remained until the soup was ready. Of this we made a moderate meal, and
then, without attempting to clear the table, I gently conducted my
companion to the skipper's stateroom, closed the door upon her, and
flung myself, just as I was, upon the sofa-lockers of the main cabin,
where I instantly fell into a sleep that was absolute oblivion.
I was awakened next morning by a beam of brilliant sunshine flashing
intermittently athwart my closed eyelids to the lazy roll of the ship,
and, springing to my feet and peering out through the nearest port, I
saw that the wind had died away to a flat calm, and that the water was
oil-smooth, with very little swell running. I felt greatly refreshed by
my sleep--brief though it had been--for it was the first spell of really
sound slumber that our precarious situation, and the anxiety attendant
upon it, had permitted me to take since the loss of the _City of
Cawnpore_; and, prompted thereto by the hilarity resulting from rest and
the cessation of anxiety, I started whistling softly as I gazed out
through the port. A moment later Miss Onslow's cabin-door opened for
the space of half an inch, and the young lady thus addressed me through
the chink:
"Good-morning, Mr Conyers; I am glad to hear you whistling; it shows
that your rest has done you good."
"Thank you, yes," I answered; "I am feeling quite my old self again this
morning. Were you able to get any rest?"
"Yes indeed," was the reply. "I was so tired that I scarcely remember
lying down; and I have not been awake more than five minutes. What a
lovely morning it is! I wonder whether I might venture to trouble you
to get me a little water to wash in; there is none in here."
"Certainly," I said. "I will fetch you a bucketful at once, and place
it at your door, after which I intend to have a bath myself on deck."
"A bath?" she exclaimed, in a tone of unmistakable anxiety. "You surely
do not mean that you are going to bathe in the sea? Oh, _please_ do
not, Mr Conyers, I beg you; it is _far_ too dangerous; for I am sure
there must be sharks here."
"I think it exceedingly probable, and therefore I shall not risk going
overboard," I answered. "No; my bath will be taken on the fore deck, in
a wash-deck tub, if I can find one."
"Thank you," she returned. "And while you are so engaged I will lay the
table for breakfast; I still feel most atrociously hungry!"
I answered that I was glad to hear it, now that we were once more in
possession of provisions; and then hurried off up on deck to procure the
water asked for; after which I went forward, found a wash-deck tub,
filled it from over the side, and treated myself to a salt-water bath,
the refreshment of which was like a renewal of life to me.
Then, having dressed, I lighted the galley fire, filled and put on a
kettle, had a wash in fresh water, and made my way aft to the cabin,
where I found Miss Onslow, looking wonderfully fresh and bright after
her night's rest, busily engaged in arranging the cabin table for
breakfast. Then came the question: What were we to have? I had a
strong fancy for a rasher of bacon, which delicacy seemed also to
commend itself to my companion. I therefore looked about for the
lazarette hatch, which I discovered underneath a mat at the foot of the
companion ladder, and was soon overhauling the contents of the
storehouse. The craft proved to be abundantly stocked with excellent
provisions, among which I discovered an open cask nearly full of smoked
hams, one of which I at once appropriated; and half an hour later found
the Indian judge's daughter and myself seated before a most appetising
breakfast.
And, as we ate, we talked--talked of what we were now to do. My
companion seemed to be under the impression that the discovery of this
derelict brig would in some way alter all our arrangements; but I had no
difficulty in demonstrating to her that our object--the making of our
way to some civilised port from which we could make a fresh start for
Calcutta--still remained the same, the only difference being that
whereas on the previous day we had possessed only an open boat, and were
starving, we now had a vessel under our feet that, if staunch, would
prove far safer and more comfortable than the boat, while we also
possessed food in abundance. But, as I pointed out to her, there was a
certain price to pay for these advantages, namely, the greatly-increased
labour of handling the brig, as compared with the boat; and I thought it
advisable to make the young lady understand at once that I should from
time to time require her assistance. But I presently discovered that
there was no need for me to dwell upon this point; she quickly informed
me that she had already planned for herself the performance of what
might be called the "domestic" part of the work, such as the preparation
of meals, and so on; while she also expressed her perfect readiness to
steer, when required, or in any other way assist me, so far as she
could. And here I could not avoid being impressed afresh with the
extraordinary change that misfortune had wrought in this girl; for
whereas while on board the _City of Cawnpore_ she had maintained a
demeanour of haughty and repellent reserve that was almost insolent, she
now exhibited a gentle submissiveness and amiability of manner, with a
quiet, steadfast courage under circumstances, of peculiar and terrible
hardship and privation for a gently-nurtured woman, that, conjoined with
her exceptional beauty of face and form, exercised a fascination upon me
so potent that I frequently found it exceedingly difficult to maintain
that equable coolness and strict friendliness of behaviour demanded by
the exigencies of our peculiar situation. All of which, however, is
merely parenthetical.
Breakfast over, a busy day awaited me. I had used my eyes to good
purpose, even while taking my morning tub; and had observed, among other
things, that the brig's canvas was not furled; it had simply been blown
clear and clean out of the boltropes. When the accident befell her she
had been under courses and single-reefed topsails, spanker, fore-topmast
staysail, and jib, for there the boltropes still were, with small
fluttering rags of canvas still adhering to them, here and there. There
was no difficulty whatever in arriving at a correct conclusion as to
what had happened,--the aspect of the ship told the story as plainly as
her own crew could have related it. The thing had happened after
nightfall--that part of the story was made clear by the litter that had
been shot off the cabin table, and which showed that the skipper and one
of the mates had been at supper at the time. The single-reefed topsails
indicated that it had previously been blowing strong, and I took it that
the night had settled down so dark and cloudy that the officer of the
watch had failed to note the approach of the squall until too late. The
topsail halliards had been let go fore and aft when the squall swooped
down upon them, but before it was possible to do anything further the
brig had been hove down upon her beam-ends, a panic had seized the crew,
they had made a mad rush for the boats, under the conviction that the
vessel was capsizing, and they had either been swamped, or had been
driven out of sight to leeward, before the brig had righted again.
There was no doubt that the squall had been of exceptional violence, for
not only were all the sails blown away, but both topgallant-masts were
gone at the caps--not only broken off but actually torn away, the
rigging that held them having parted.
It would be strange indeed if a vessel, having passed through such an
ordeal as this, should not show signs of having been more or less
strained, and I was quite prepared to find that she had a considerable
amount of water in her. And this anticipation was so far confirmed
that, upon sounding the well, I found close upon three and a half feet
of water in the hold. This was bad enough, still it was hardly as bad
as I had expected; and now, the next thing to find out was whether she
was still leaking, or whether what she contained had all drained into
her during the time when she lay hove down on her beam-ends. This could
be done by patiently waiting some few hours, and then sounding the well
again. Or it could be done equally effectively by pumping the hooker
dry, and then seeing whether any more water drained into her. It was
vitally necessary to restore her to her normal condition of buoyancy as
speedily as might be, in view of a possible recurrence of bad weather.
But the same contingency rendered it almost, if not quite, as necessary
to bend and set a sufficient amount of canvas to put the ship under
control; and the first question to be settled was: Which should I first
undertake? I considered the matter for a minute or two, and came to the
conclusion that the pumping out of that three and a half feet of water
would leave my hands in such a blistered and raw condition that they
would be practically useless for such work as bending sails; so I
determined to undertake the latter job first, especially as there was of
course the chance that the weather might continue fine after the
springing up of a breeze, in which event, if the brig were under canvas,
she would be making headway during the operation of pumping her out.
I was under the impression that on the preceding night I had detected
the presence of what might prove to be a sail-locker abaft the after
bulkhead of the cabin, so I now descended with the object of further
investigating. My surmise proved well founded, for when I opened the
door in the bulkhead there lay a whole pile of sails before me, each
sail neatly stopped, and many of them apparently quite new. I had come
to the conclusion that I would bend the fore-topmast staysail first, and
after a great deal of laborious work in turning over the various bundles
of canvas I came to what I was searching for, but not until I had
previously encountered new fore and main-topsails, which I managed, with
considerable difficulty, to drag on deck.
The bending of the staysail was no very serious matter; it simply meant
letting go the halliards, dragging upon the downhaul, cutting the
boltrope away from the hanks, passing the new seizings, hoisting the
sail foot by foot until I had got all the seizings finished, bending the
sheets afresh, and there we were.
But to bend a topsail, single-handed, was a much more difficult job. I
decided to bend the main-topsail first; and by the time that I had
completed my task the day was done and it was growing so dark that I
could scarcely see to finish off properly. Nevertheless I was very well
content with my day's work, for I now had canvas enough on the brig to
place her under command whenever the breeze might choose to come.
Meanwhile Miss Onslow had been no less busy than myself, in another way.
She had started by making herself complete mistress of the brig's
resources, looked at from a housekeeper's point of view; and in course
of the process had discovered--what I had already suspected, but had not
found time to verify--that outside the cabin, and alongside the
companion ladder, was another stateroom, that, judging from its
appearance and contents, had belonged to the mate. This cabin she had
overhauled, making an inventory of its contents--which she handed to
me--and had then tidied it up and made it ready for my occupation.
Moreover, she had taken possession of the galley, and had prepared a
good, substantial, and appetising dinner in a style that, if not quite
equal to that of a professional cook, betrayed at least an aptitude that
was as creditable as it was opportune. She had also found time to do
something--I had not the remotest idea what--to her dress that had gone
a considerable way toward renovating its appearance and obliterating the
disfigurement caused by the action of the sea water upon it; while in
other ways she had spruced-up her appearance to an extent that excited
my fervent but carefully-concealed admiration.
At sunset that night it was still stark calm, and the sky had a fine,
clear, settled aspect that, combined with a slight disposition to rise
on the part of the brig's barometer, led me to anticipate that the calm
was destined to endure for a few hours longer. For this I was devoutly
thankful, for I had been toiling like a slave all day, fully exposed to
the scorching rays of a cloudless sun, and I was fatigued to the verge
of exhaustion; it was a great comfort, therefore, to feel that I should
not be called upon to look after the ship all night, but might safely
indulge in a few hours' sleep. That I might do so with the greater
confidence, I routed out a tarpaulin from below, and with it rigged up a
tent on the wheel grating, as a shelter from the heavy dew; bringing up
the bed from the mate's bunk, and turning in on deck. This arrangement
ensured that in the event of a breeze springing up during the night I
should instantly become aware of it, and be ready to promptly take such
measures as might appear necessary.