A SIGNAL OF DISTRESS
The steamship was pursuing her course so swiftly, but so easily, that
Russ and Rose Bunker scarcely realized that the chances of the big
bird's landing on the craft were very slim. The children raced along the
deck toward the bows, believing that the big bird would alight there.
Their friend, the lookout officer, however, remained at his post.
The big wings of the great sea-eagle beat the air heavily. They were
covered with almost black feathers above while the feathers on the under
side of the wings were pearl-gray, a contrast that Rose said was
"awfully pretty."
"I don't see anything pretty about that poor, struggling bird," said
Russ shortly. "He's hurt bad. I hope he gets here all right, but--Oh!
There he goes!"
It was a fact that the big bird almost fell into the sea, being
weakened. The bow of the _Kammerboy_ swept past the struggling creature.
Russ and Rose lifted a joined complaint:
"Oh, he's drowned! He drowned!"
It was true that the bird was not a water-fowl and, as the officer had
told the children, could not "roost" on the sea. It was not web-footed,
so could not swim. And with an injured wing it was wonderful that it had
kept up as long as it had, for it was now far, far from the shore.
But the bird had wonderful courage. Although plunged into the water and
suffering one wave to break and pour over him, the great bird sprang
into the air once more. He would not give up the fight! Russ and Rose
saw the flashing eyes, the hooked beak parted, and every other evidence
of the creature's putting forth a last remaining effort to reach a
secure resting place for his feet.
And he made it! He beat his powerful wings for the last time and shot up
over the rail of the steamship. The children shouted with delight. Other
passengers had been attracted to the place. The officer who had made
himself the friend of Russ and Rose was prepared for the bird's coming
inboard. He ran with a piece of strong netting in his hands, and as the
bird came thumping down on the deck, the man cast this net about the
creature.
Then what a flapping and croaking and struggling there was! A sailor ran
forward with a boat-stretcher and wanted to hit the bird; but Russ and
Rose screamed, and the officer sent the man away.
"We're not going to kill the bird. These little folks want it alive,"
said the officer. "And so we are going to make a prisoner of it and mend
that wing if we can."
"Aye, aye, Quartermaster," said the sailor who had tried to interfere.
"See if you can find a big poultry cage," said the officer. "We had live
turkeys aboard for the Thanksgiving run, and what would hold a turkey
ought to hold a sea-eagle. Lively now!"
"Aye, aye, sir," said the man, and hurried away.
While they waited for the cage the quartermaster warned the two Bunker
children to remain well back from the struggling bird, for it might get
away.
"He is certainly a strong bird," said one of the other passengers,
looking on, too, from a safe distance. "Don't you think he'd better be
killed, Officer?"
"Oh, no! Oh, no!" chorused Russ and Rose.
"Of course not. You're one of those folks, sir, that would kill an
American eagle, too--the bird that is supposed to represent the best
fighting spirit of this country. No, sir! this bird is going to have his
chance. If we can heal his wounds, we will set him free again--hey,
little folks?"
"Of course we will," said Russ stoutly.
"Yes, sir! we'll set him free," agreed Rose. "But when you do it I am
going down to the stateroom. I think he is pretty savage."
It was quite true. The injured bird was savage. But when Daddy Bunker
heard about the capture and saw the sea-eagle in its cage, he pointed
out the fact that there was good reason for the bird to be savage if it
had a broken wing.
"You would be cross if you had a broken arm, Russ," Daddy Bunker said
soberly, "So come away and let the poor bird alone for a while. Maybe it
will eat and drink if it is not watched so closely."
It was found that a bullet had passed through the fleshy part of the
great bird's wing. The quartermaster declared that, without much doubt,
the bird had been shot at from a small boat and by some idle and
thoughtless "sportsman."
"It is wrong," Daddy Bunker said, "to call such people 'sportsmen.'
There is no real sport in shooting at and laming an inoffensive
creature, one that cannot be made use of for food. That excuse does not
hold in this case."
"True word, sir," said the quartermaster. "It was a wicked trick, I'll
say. But I think the bird will recover very shortly. Perhaps the little
folks can see the bird released before we get to Charleston."
"Not me!" cried Rose again. "I am going right downstairs when you open
that cage and set him free. He has got such a wicked eye."
And truly, interested as she was in the poor bird, Rose Bunker did not
often go near him during the time he was in captivity. She found other
things to interest her about the swiftly sailing _Kammerboy_.
So did all the other Bunkers. For what interested the six little Bunkers
was sure to interest Daddy and Mother Bunker. It just _had_ to. As
Mother Bunker observed, Mun Bun was not the only one of her flock over
whom she must keep pretty close watch.
They were really well behaved children; but mischief seemed to crop up
so very easily in their lives. Daddy said that any Bunker could get into
more adventures nailed into a wooden cage no bigger than the turkey
crate the great sea-eagle was housed in than other children could find
in a ten acre lot!
Living at sea on this great steamship was a good deal like living in a
hotel. And the little Bunkers had lived in hotels, and liked the fun of
it. Traveling by water was even more fun than traveling on a train. The
_Kammerboy_ was a fine big ship and there was so much to see and to
learn that was new and surprising that that first night none of them
really wanted to go to bed.
Although even that was a new experience. The staterooms were different
from the berths in a sleeping car. Laddie thought they ought all to be
tied into their berths so, if the ship rolled, they would not fall out.
"For I don't like falling out of bed," he said. "I always bump myself."
The steamship did not roll that night, however. At least if it did the
little Bunkers did not know it. They slept soundly and were up bright
and early in the morning and were all dressed and out on deck in the
sunshine long before the first breakfast call came.
They made a call on the captive sea-eagle before breakfast and he seemed
to be recovering, for he snapped his beak viciously when they drew near
and spread his wings as far as the cage would allow.
"I don't think he's very nice," said Rose. "He doesn't seem to know we
were kind to him."
"What are you going to do with him, Rose?" asked Vi.
"Let him go when his wing is well."
"But I guess he doesn't know that," said Laddie. "If he did he'd feel
better about it."
"He bites," said Mun Bun reflectively. "I'd rather have Alexis. Alexis
doesn't bite."
"Alexis would bite if he thought anybody was going to hurt him," said
Russ. "But we can't make this eagle understand."
"Why not?" immediately demanded Vi.
"Because we can't talk bird-talk," replied Rose, giggling.
"When I go to school I'll learn bird-talk," announced Mun Bun. "And I'll
learn to talk dog-talk and cat-talk, too. Then they'll all know what I
mean."
"That is a splendid idea, dear," Rose said warmly. "You do just that."
"S'posing they don't teach those languages where you go to school, Mun
Bun?" suggested Laddie gravely. "I guess they don't in all schools. They
don't in the Pineville school, do they, Russ?"
"I'll ask Mother to send me to a school where they do," declared Mun Bun
before Russ could reply. "I don't need to learn to talk our kind of
talk. I know that already. But birds and dogs and cats are different."
"You talk pretty good, I guess, Mun Bun," said Russ. Mun Bun was quite
proud of this. He did not know that he often said "t" for "c" and "w"
for "r." "But you will be a long time learning to speak so that this
bird could understand."
"Well, I shall try," the littlest Bunker declared confidently.
Anyhow, it was decided that the sea-eagle would have to be released
before Mun Bun learned to talk the eagle language. The quartermaster who
was Russ and Rose's particular friend, came along with some raw meat
scraps for the big bird; but the children had to go to breakfast before
the bird gobbled these up. He was very shy.
Later in the forenoon Russ and Rose were walking along the deck near a
little house amidships and they heard a funny crackling sound--a
crackling and snapping like a fresh wood fire. They stopped and looked
all around.
"I don't see any smoke," said Russ. "But there's a fire somewhere."
"What is that mast with the wires up there for, Russ?" asked his sister,
looking upward.
"Oh! Daddy told me that was the wireless mast," Russ exclaimed.
"But that can't be," said Rose warmly. "It has wires hitched to it; so
it can't be wire_less_."
"You know, Rose, they talk from ship to ship, and to the shore, by
wireless."
"What does that mean?" returned the girl. "A telegraph?"
"That's it!" cried Russ. "And I guess that is what the crackling is.
Listen!"
"Isn't it a fire, then, that we hear?" for the crackling sound
continued.
"That's the electric spark," said her brother eagerly. "That is what it
must be. Let's peep into this room, Rose. It is where the telegraph
machine is."
There was a window near by, but as they approached it the two children
found a door in the wireless house, too, and that door was open. A man
in his shirt-sleeves and with a green shade over his eyes and something
that looked like a rubber cap strapped to his head was sitting on a
bench in front of some strange looking machinery.
He was writing on a pad and the crackling sound came from an electric
spark that flickered back and forth in the machine before him. Russ and
Rose gazed in, wide-eyed.
At length the crackling stopped and the spark went out with a sputter.
The man stopped writing and wheeled about in his seat. He saw them
looking in at the doorway.
"Hullo!" he exclaimed. "If here aren't two of the little Bunkers. Do you
want to send a message by wireless?"
"Thank you," said Rose promptly. "I think it would be nice to send word
to Aunt Jo that we are all right and that the ship is all right and that
we caught an eagle."
"It costs money to send messages," said the wiser Russ.
"Oh! Does it?" asked his sister.
"I am afraid it does," replied the operator, laughing. "You had better
ask Mr. Bunker about sending a message to your aunt, after all. Some
messages we do not charge for. But the rules demand that all private
messages must be paid for in advance."
"Well, then, I guess we'd better write a letter to Aunt Jo," said Rose,
who was practical, after all. "That won't cost anything but a two cent
stamp."
"Oh, my!" laughed Russ. "Going to mail it in the ocean?"
"We'll mail it when we get to Charleston," said Rose cheerfully. "I
guess Aunt Jo won't mind."
Just at this moment there seemed to be some excitement on the deck up
forward. Two officers who stood on what the children had learned was
called the quarter were talking excitedly to one of the lookout men.
They were pointing ahead, and one of the officers put a double-barreled
glass to his eyes and stared ahead.
The operator came to the doorway of his cabin and looked forward, too.
He could see over the bulwarks and marked what had caused the
excitement.
"Ah-ha!" he said. "Come up here, little folks, and you can see it too."
Russ and Rose were quite excited. They stepped up into the doorway
beside the wireless operator. They both saw at once the two-masted
vessel that was rolling sluggishly in the sea. Her rail seemed almost
level with the water and from one of the masts several flags were
strung.
"What is it?" cried Russ. "That ship looks as though it was going
down."
"I guess you've hit it right. She does look so," said the operator. "She
has sprung a leak, sure enough. And she's set distress signals."
"Those flags?" asked Russ. "Do those flags say she is sinking?"
"Those flags ask for help. That schooner doesn't carry a wireless outfit
as this vessel does. Few small vessels do. I guess we will have to help
her out," said the wireless operator.