"Tell me, is there any danger?" asked Mrs Gilmour, speaking quite
calmly, in spite of her fears; for, although of a somewhat hasty
disposition and apt to be put out at trifles, she was possessed of a
strong, natural courage, which, as is the case with most of the so-
called "tender sex," only displayed itself in great emergencies. "You
may disclose the worst. I can bear it!"
"Pooh!" grunted the Captain off-hand, rather impolitely. "There's no
`worst' to tell, ma'am. All on board are quite safe, and will be put
ashore securely as soon as the boats come off. My fears are for the
unfortunate vessel, the loss of which will be a sad blow to her skipper,
poor fellow, as he has staked his all in her!"
"But, Captain," she rejoined, "why do you look so serious?"
"Serious?" he repeated after her, the hard lines in his face at once
relaxing--"so would you, too, look serious, ma'am, if you thought of the
matter in the same light. You see, I can't help looking upon a ship as
a sort of living creature; and to think of a fine boat like this coming
to grief in such a lubberly fashion is enough almost to make one cry!"
His eyes blinked furiously as he said this, the bushy eyebrows above
moving up and down; and, taking out his bright bandana handkerchief, he
blew his nose with vigour, as if to give vent to his emotion,
Nellie, whose pale face had gained a little more colour since the
Captain's reassuring words to her aunt, now sidled up to him, catching
hold of his hand affectionately.
"But will the poor steamer really be lost?" she inquired timidly;
"wrecked, as sailors call it?"
"Yes, I'm afraid so with the pack of nincompoops we've got on board," he
growled. "They're talking of beaching her; and if so, with the wind
chopping round to the eastwards, as those porpoises you saw this morning
told us it will do by and by, for they're unfailing weather prophets
always, why, the unfortunate craft will lay her bones on the shingle.
She will, at all events, if any sort of a sea get up, or call me no
sailor!"
Bob, who on his return from the fore-part of the vessel in company with
Captain Dresser had stationed himself again by the engine-room hatchway,
here gave a shout.
"They're moving," he cried; "I see the piston going up and down, and the
shaft turning round!"
The rapid beat of the paddle-wheels on the water alongside gave
testimony to the truth of Bob's statement; but to Nell's surprise, no
churned-up foam came drifting by astern as before, and she couldn't make
it out.
The paradox, however, was made plain to her by Hellyer, who did not seem
to trouble himself much about the mishap, remaining seated on the
hamper, which he had placed by the after sponsing of the starboard
paddle-box. The coastguardsman, indeed, appeared as unconcerned
throughout all the fuss as if he were safe ashore in his own little
cabin on the beach; while Rover kept close beside him, as he had done
since Hellyer took charge of the hamper which he had brought on board--
the dog evidently considering himself still responsible for all the
picnic goods and chattels that his young mistress had told him to watch.
"The paddles is backin' astern," replied Hellyer; "and so, miss, their
wake drifts for'ard instead of aft. That's the reason, miss, you sees
nothing washing by."
But this movement did not long continue, two strokes of the gong in the
engine-room being heard as the captain of the steamer moved the brass
handle of the mechanical telegraph on the bridge; whereupon, the
machinery was suddenly stopped.
Then the gong sounded twice again, the signal being followed by the
quick "splash--splash--splash!" of the paddles once more in the water;
when Nellie was delighted by seeing the creamy foam tossing up alongside
where she and her aunt were now standing again, they having vacated
their seats on the first alarm, like others of the passengers.
"By Jove!" muttered the Captain, half aloud. "The fool of a fellow is
actually going ahead again!"
"What!" cried Mrs Gilmour-- "any new danger?"
"Oh, nothing," he snapped out, evidently very grumpy at things not being
done in the way he thought best. "I was only uttering my thoughts
aloud, ma'am. If you must know, I think it very risky of our friend the
skipper trying to drive the boat ahead when she's down by the bows.
Poor chap, I'm afraid he has lost his head, the same as the vessel has
hers! Never mind, though, she cannot go very far in this shoal water,
or I'm a Dutchman!"
Nor did she.
In less than a minute there was another heavy bump that shook the deck
fore and aft, making all the passengers tumble about like ninepins. Bob
nearly took a dive through the hatchway of the engine-room, into which
he was still peering, and Nellie fell on poor Rover, causing him to
utter a plaintive howl; while, as for Mrs Gilmour, she lurched against
the Captain as if she were going to embrace him with open arms, treading
at the same time on his worst foot, whereon flourished a pet corn that
gave the old sailor infinite trouble, which he ever guarded as the apple
of his eye.
"O-o-o-o-oh!" he groaned, hopping about the deck on one leg and holding
up the injured foot with both his hands, "I knew some further mischief
would come from what that idiot of a skipper was doing!"
Meanwhile, the steamboat people on the pier, off which they had grounded
only some three or four hundred yards away, seeing the predicament of
the vessel, set to work sending off boats to land the passengers.
The first of these reached the little vessel just as she struck the
sandbank she had run foul of for the second time; then coming to a dead
stop as if she meant now to remain there for good and all.
"Are we to go ashore in one of those?" asked Bob, pointing out the fleet
of small boats making for the steamer, besides the two that had already
come up to her; some being launched by the watermen on the beach in
addition to those sent off from the pier. "What fun to have a boat all
to ourselves, as I suppose we shall!"
"Yes, I suppose so, if we are to get to land at all," replied the
Captain, who had become a little more amiable, his natural good-humour
asserting itself as the pain in his foot somewhat subsided; "I don't see
how we can otherwise, unless we swim for it; the vessel is now stuck
quite fast with no chance of her moving until she is lightened of her
cargo of passengers."
"That will be jolly!" cried Bob. "Why it's just like a regular
shipwreck!"
"Ah, my boy," said the old sailor, shaking his head, "if you ever
experienced the realities of one, you would not speak so lightly. A
shipwreck, let me tell you, is no laughing matter."
"I didn't mean that," explained Bob, "I was only thinking how jolly it
would be for us all to have a row, instead of landing at the pier
quietly, as we would have done if nothing had happened."
"Sure, and I don't see where your `jollity' comes in, Master Bob!"
observed his aunt, not by any means relishing the prospect. "It may be
all very well for you; but I can't say I like the idea of scrambling
down the side of the vessel into one of these cockleshells and running
the risk of getting drowned."
"Oh, no, you won't, ma'am," rejoined the Captain chuckling again, her
comical consternation soothing the last acerbities of his temper. "You
shan't drown yourself if I can prevent you, ma'am!"
There was no necessity, however, for the Captain to exert himself
especially on her behalf; for, the boats being hauled up in turn
alongside and only a proper number being allowed to get into each, no
casualty occurred such as Mrs Gilmour dreaded. Thus, in a very short
space of time, all the passengers were safely transferred from the
stranded steamer to the shore, where a large crowd of sympathising
bystanders had now assembled.
"There!" exclaimed the Captain, as he jumped out of the wherry in which
their little party had taken passage, "catch me going in one of those
excursion craft again! Of all the clumsy lubbers I have ever had the
misfortune to be shipmate with, that skipper is about the biggest and
most lubberly. You can take the word of an old sailor for that!"
"Why, sure, what could the poor man have done, when the steamer was
sinking?" said Mrs Gilmour, as he assisted her also carefully to land.
"It's none of his fault that I can see."
"What could he have done, eh?" retorted the Captain warmly. "Why,
anything else but what he did do. When he saw his fore compartment was
full of water, he should have backed the vessel; and then he could have
taken her stern-end foremost up to the pier, and landed us comfortably
without any bother half an hour ago. Instead of that, what does he do
but go backing and filling, first with his engines full speed ahead, and
then ditto astern, ending by sticking hard and fast at the same spot
where he first struck. While now, to clench the matter, he's going to
run the steamer ashore and beach her, he tells me, as soon as the tide
floats her; the upshot of which will be that she'll break her back and
probably become a total wreck."
"Why didn't you advise him?" she asked. "Eh, my old friend?"
"The foolish fellow! I pitied him at first, but I can't say I do so any
longer. He wouldn't listen to me. He's just like the intelligent Isle
of Wight farmer I've heard of, one of whose calves having got its head
entangled in a wooden fence, in lieu of cutting the palings, thought the
only way to release the calf was by cutting its head off!"
"Sure, nobody could have been so stupid!" cried Mrs Gilmour laughing.
"What, cut off the poor thing's head in order to extricate it?"
"Sure an' they did, ma'am," said he, mimicking her; "and, I'm sorry to
say, our friend the skipper is one of the same kidney!"
While the two were thus talking, Bob and Nell remained down on the
beach, awaiting the arrival of Dick and Hellyer, who through want of
room in their wherry had to come ashore in another boat.
Rover, such was his strict sense of duty, strange to say, instead of
accompanying his young master and mistress, was still intent on keeping
in sight of the hamper.
Accordingly, he stopped on board the steamer till Hellyer, the hamper's
custodian, left her; when after seeing him and Dick embarked along with
the hamper, the retriever jumped over the side of the stranded vessel
and swam ashore in company with the boat containing his friends,
apparently mistrusting the frail craft, and preferring to rely upon his
own powers in the water.
Nor was he far behind, getting to land almost at the same moment that
the wherry's keel grated on the beach; when, after shaking himself
decorously as he had been taught, so as to avoid wetting his friends by
his excessive moisture, Rover barked and pranced round Hellyer and the
hamper, and then round Bob and Nellie, as if to say in his dog
language-- "There, my dear young master and mistress, I have discharged
my trust faithfully," scurrying off then to the higher part of the
shore, where Mrs Gilmour and the Captain were standing, to tell them
the same tale, with a loud "Bow wow!"
"Come now," cried Mrs Gilmour, on the little party being reunited
again, "we must be off home at once; for, it is getting late, and Sarah
will be wondering where we all are."
"Well, we mustn't keep `the good Sarah' waiting," said the Captain
slily, with a wink to Nellie that set her off laughing so that she
dropped the bunch of wild-flowers which her aunt was just handing her at
the moment, and was obliged to stop to pick them up. "By Jove! though,
ma'am, she may have forgotten _us_ as she did the other things."
"You're too bad entirely!" exclaimed Mrs Gilmour a little pettishly.
"I suppose I shall never hear the last about that, nor poor Sarah
either. Come on now, dearie; we must hasten home whether or no."
So saying, she made the Captain wheel round from taking a last lingering
look at the _Bembridge Belle_, whose skipper, now that she was a bit
lightened aft by all the people having cleared out of her, had backed
again into deep water; and then putting on full steam ahead, was trying
to run her up high and dry ashore.
After this parting glance at the poor vessel, our party proceeded on
their way across the common back to The Moorings, Miss Nell, as
aforesaid, carrying the bouquet of wild-flowers, and Bob the tin bucket
of sea-anemones, their "spoil" of the day, in sporting parlance; while
Hellyer and Dick brought up the rear of the procession with the hamper
and empty water-jar, representing the relics of their picnic feast.
Rover on this occasion, it may be added, acted anon as pioneer of the
column when he caracoled for awhile in front of them all; anon as
baggage-guard, when he followed at the heels of Hellyer, sniffing the
empty hamper.
Poor Sarah, "that good Sarah" whom Mrs Gilmour had so unhappily
praised, her penance was yet to come!
Bob was the first to assail her as she opened the door on their arrival
home.
"Who forgot the bread?" he shouted out, so loudly that, starting back
with fright, she almost tumbled. "Who forgot the bread?"
"Who forgot the tea?" cried Nellie, immediately behind him, following up
her brother's attack and making Sarah jump afresh. "Who forgot the
tea?"
"And who forgot her head?" said the Captain from the rear, pressing the
charge home; whereupon, they all, Mrs Gilmour included, halted on the
doorstep and roared with laughter. "Aye, who forgot her head?"
This was too much for the girl.
"Oh my, me!" she exclaimed, staring at them in hopeless stupefaction.
"Oh my, me!"
"Dear me!" observed Mrs Gilmour, her laugh subsiding into a broad
smile. "Why, you are quite a poet, Sarah."
"Me, mum?" ejaculated the other, more astonished than ever. "Whatever
have I gone and done now?"
"Yes," continued her mistress, "you've just supplied `the missing link'
in our rhyme; and people who make poetry, of course, are poets."
"Oh, auntie, I see, I see!" called out Nellie excitedly, in great glee.
"I see it--don't you, Bob?"
"No, what is it?" asked that young gentleman. "See what?"
"Oh dear! and you began it, too," cried Nell. "You really are a very
stupid boy. Why, it's a regular verse of poetry--
"Who forgot the bread?
Who forgot the tea?
And who forgot her head?
Oh, my--me!
"Don't you see it now?"
"Oh, yes," replied Bob, adding his usual expression when praising
anything--"it's jolly!"
"I confess I did not see it either at first; so, I suppose, you'll call
me a stupid too, Miss Nellie, eh?" chuckled Captain Dresser. "However,
now you've made it all clear to us, I will, if you like, christen your
short but sweet poem for you. What say you to `Sarah's forget-me-nots'?
Do you think that will do, eh?"
"Splendidly!" said Nell; an opinion which they all seemed to share,
excepting poor Sarah, into whose ears the verselet was dinned so
incessantly, both by Bob and Nellie, and even by the pert Dick, too,
that its repetition, or any specific allusion to any one of the articles
she had omitted in making up the historic hamper, would invariably make
the unfortunate damsel wince; while if the simple name of the innocent
flower which the Captain had adopted were but mentioned, even without
any malice prepense, the poor girl would leave the room at once.
"Where are the forget-me-nots?" said Mrs Gilmour incautiously, for
instance, to Nellie, while arranging the wild-flowers in vases shortly
before going to bed. "I can't see them at all anywhere. Can you,
Sarah?"
There was no answer from her, however.
Sarah was off like a shot!