A STORM AT SEA
"How strange the sky looks!" Nan exclaimed. She and her Lakeview Hall
companions were standing on deck watching the sun drop below the
horizon.
"How cold!" Grace added, as she pulled her coat around her, held it in
place with her hand, and then huddled closer to Nan as if for
protection.
"A-a-and the wind!" Rhoda supplied, with difficulty. "It's l-l-lashing
at me so that I can't--get--my breath."
"Nor--me----either." Amelia gasped. "I--I--I guess the Captain was right
after all. He said, there was going to be a heavy gale tonight. Come,
let's go in."
"Oh, stay just a minute longer," Nan pleaded. "I like to see it roll.
Look, see how the fish are jumping the waves! They are coming in higher
and higher all the time. I wonder how this boat behaves when there is a
real storm at sea."
"One of the sailors told me this morning," Laura volunteered, "that
'she's a trusty old tub', if that will comfort you any."
"Oh, I don't need comforting," Nan replied. "I'm not afraid."
"You mean to say you wouldn't be afraid in a storm?" Grace asked
incredulously.
"Of course not." Nan answered. "Would you?"
"I'll tell you the answer to that later," Grace threw over her shoulder
as she made for the doors to go in. "Just now I'd rather watch this from
the windows in the lounge where it's warm."
"We'll be in, in a second," Amelia called after her, "Save a place for
us. Have you people seen the ship's log?" She went on, turning to Nan.
"It's posted inside, near the elevators. There is a map of the United
States, the Atlantic Ocean, and Europe with the course of our voyage
marked in little lines on it. Each day the purser sticks a flag,
representing our ship on this line, so that it shows where we are and
how far we have traveled during the day. Underneath, there is a little
weather chart telling how fast the wind is going, what the temperature
is, whether or not the sea is rolling, and what might be expected for
the next twenty-four hours."
"What does it say for today," Nan asked.
"The temperature is dropping--"
"We know that," Laura interrupted. "What else does it say?"
"That the sea is slightly rolling."
"We can feel that," Laura put in again, for the ship was rolling with
the waves.
"That we are headed into a storm. There, Miss Smarty, you didn't know
that," Amelia laughed.
"Did too," Laura retorted. "My creaking bones told me. Now, I'm going in
before I get rheumatism." So saying, she followed Grace. The others,
except Nan, whom not even Bess could persuade to come in as yet,
followed her.
Alone on the dark deck, Nan stood for a while at the rail, watching the
white foam of the waves, listening to the roar of the wind, and glancing
now and then at the clouds, swiftly gathering overhead. Save for a pale
moon, the only light was the ship's beacon which every few seconds,
passed in its circle, over Nan's head.
Once, Nan was tempted to follow her friends. She could hear voices,
singing and laughter, and the sound of a piano inside. She even started
toward the door, but then a dark passageway at her right tempted her and
she went exploring.
Hugging the side of the boat closely, she followed around through the
passageway between the ship's riggings, and then on down the deck until
she came to the barrier between first and second class that Laura had
taunted Bess about. She examined it carefully. It was impossible to get
by. There was no moving it. She tried sliding it and pushing it. It
wouldn't budge.
She turned and retraced her steps, going back to some narrow iron stairs
that went up. The "Keep Off" sign, which she couldn't read in the dark,
she shoved aside. She was determined now to make a complete circle of
the boat. She went up the stairs, around another deck, and down some
steps again.
This was becoming a real adventure and Nan was enjoying every minute of
it. If her conscience troubled her at all, she paid no heed. Others on
the boat had told her of going out of bounds, and she could see no real
harm in it.
She walked around deckchairs piled high against the side of the boat,
caught a glimpse of some phosphorescent fish in the ocean, and walked
over to the rail. How pretty they looked in the deep black of the water!
She stood for a while watching the colors at play and then went on. It
was almost as though she was motivated by some force outside herself.
She heard no sounds from people in the boat now, for she had passed the
lounges and the recreation rooms. She felt almost alone on the boat, and
laughed a little to herself as she thought how timid Grace would be in
such a situation. However, Nan liked it.
It brought back to her mind nights at Pine Camp. How far away all that
seemed now! How far away it was! Northern Michigan was in another world.
The people there, Aunt Kate, Injun Pete, Toby Vanderwiller, and Gedney
Raffer, all of them, were like people she had dreamed about. She shook
herself impatiently, driving away some eerie thoughts, and then went on
until she came to the very back of the vessel, the stern.
Here she stopped, and looked back over the ocean which the boat was
putting behind it. The wake, the white foamy path of the boat stretched
out as far as she could see. The waters, which made it, rolled aside in
big white waves leaving the center black and deep.
How much colder it was getting! And how much rougher! Nan clung to the
rail, and held her head high as the wind whipped her hair back so that
it stung the sides of her cheeks. She watched the waves coming, each one
higher than the last and angrier. She counted them, "One, two, three,"
someone had told her once that the seventh was always the highest,
"four, five." She could feel the spray on her face and the air was full
of mist. "Six, seven--why the seventh wasn't any bigger than any of the
rest! And--eight." It was the eighth that was the biggest of all! It
climbed up the boat, over the rail, and across the deck, taking Nan off
her feet!
She lost her balance completely, wrenched her arm as she fell, and was
afraid for a second that she would go over with the wash of the wave.
But she held on, and as the boat righted itself after the inundation,
Nan rose to her feet, half dazed.
She rubbed her hair out of her eyes, winced with the pain in her arm,
and being very careful now, started toward the door. She stopped short.
Was that a cry she had heard? She raised her head, listening attentively
for some sound other than the roaring of the waves. There wasn't any.
She must have imagined it. She went on across the deck, now shiny after
its bath with sea water. There was something white at her feet. She
stooped to pick it up--a handkerchief. Again, she thought she heard a
low moan and stopped dead still.
Yes, there it was again. Nan hesitated, deciding whether to investigate
herself or call for help. The crash of the waves drowned out everything
and decided Nan. She could hear them coming, one, two--what direction
had the sound come from?--three, four, five. There it was again, over at
her right. She started toward it and lost her balance, grabbed hold of a
flagpole, and then crept forward. Six--seven--it was the seventh that
was the biggest this time, but before it had struck with its full force
Nan's hand reached out and grabbed the coat of someone lying on the
deck. With her other, as the wave struck, she held fast to the pole.
There it was, the wave! It came up and over the two, tugged at them,
first their hips, and then their feet, and finally reluctantly, went on
over the side without them.
Nan screamed, again and again. The form at her hand seemed to have no
life. There was no answer to her call. She, herself, was weaker, much
weaker than she thought.
She got up slowly and painfully and tried to pull her burden after her.
She couldn't budge it. She could hear, as from some far off land, the
waves coming again. She shook her head, aware now that her senses had
been dulled. Now, she could count them again, one, two--the second one
splashed lightly over the deck. They were getting higher all the time.
Three, four--Nan reached down with her strained arm, put it under the
limp form, and half dragged, half carried it to the door, a partial
shelter, as the fifth wave swept like a fury over the deck.
Nan reached up to open the door. It was locked. In a frenzy, she beat
upon it. It was double locked against the storm! She knocked it again,
screamed, and then, for the first time in her life, fainted dead away.