repairing damages; but, in the evening, a tremendous sea broke on board
carrying away the bulwarks and chain-plates fore and aft on the port
side, the accompanying violent gust of wind jerking the maintopsail as
if it had been tissue paper out of the ship.
Immediately after this, with the first lee roll, the foremast broke off
almost flush with the deck and fell with a crash over the side, taking
with it everything that stood but the lower main and mizzen masts,
leaving the _Greenock_ rolling a hopeless wreck on the waste of raging
waters.
CHAPTER TWELVE.
EASTER ISLAND.
The gale suddenly ceased during the night, but all hands remained on
deck; for, the sea was still rolling mountains high and coming in
occasionally over the broken bulwarks, causing Captain Lennard much
anxiety about the boats, which, fortunately, the broken top hamper kept
from being washed overboard.
In the morning it was quite calm again; but the poor old ship presented
a piteous scene of desolation, with her broken sides, and her gay array
of towering masts and spreading yards and spread of canvas all swept
away.
Teddy could nearly have cried at the sorry sight; not reflecting that
through the merciful care of a divine providence watching over all not a
life had been lost.
With the daylight, Captain Lennard took a rapid review of their
position.
He had caused a stout tarpaulin to be lashed over the engine-room hatch,
thus preventing any more water from passing down into the hold there in
any perceptible quantity; still, the carrying away of the bulwarks and
chain-plates had strained the ship very much on the port side, and when
the carpenter sounded the well at eight bells the ship was found to be
leaking fast, having already a depth of two feet in her.
"Man the pumps!" cried the captain; when Uncle Jack lending a willing
hand, the crew under his encouragement were soon working away steadily
with a clink-clank, clink-clank, the water pouring out through the
scuppers in a continuous stream.
However, on the well being sounded again presently, it was found to be
flowing in equally steadily, having risen already six inches more in
spite of all their pumping!
What was to be done?
The captain and Uncle Jack deliberated together, summoning the new third
mate to assist their counsels; but, they could only arrive at one
opinion.
The ship was sinking fast, and all hands knew it as well as they
themselves; for, in addition to the damage done to the sides and
bulwarks, the heavy propeller had aided the waves in wrenching away the
rudder, which carried with it the greater portion of the stern-post.
"We must take to the boats," said Captain Lennard. "Thank God, they are
all right, and haven't been washed away in the storm!"
Leaving the useless pumps, therefore, for it was of no avail fatiguing
the men with the unnecessary exertion any longer, all the pumping in the
world being idle to save the vessel, the hands were at once set to work
clearing the boats and getting them over the side.
It was a ticklish job, the long-boat especially being very heavy, and
there being no means, now they had lost their masts, of rigging a tackle
aloft to hoist it off the chocks amidships.
Still, necessity teaches men alternatives in moments of great peril; so,
now, knocking away the under fastenings of the boat by main force, the
crew managed at last to get it free. Then, improvising rollers out of
pieces of the broken topmast, they contrived by pulling and hauling and
shoving, all working with a will together, to launch it over the side
through the hole in the bulwarks.
The jolly-boat followed suit, an easier task; and then, the two being
deemed sufficient to accommodate all on board, just sixty-one in number
including the two passengers, Captain Lennard gave the order to
provision them, telling the steward to bring out all the cabin stores
for this purpose, there being now no further use for them on board the
ship, and officers and men being entitled to share alike without
distinction.
The captain himself, while this was being done, saw to the ship's log
and other papers, taking also out of the cabin his best chronometer and
a chart or two, as well as a sextant and some mathematical instruments.
These preparations for departure, though, were abruptly cut short by a
warning cry from Bill Summers, the boatswain.
"We'd better look sharp, sir," he called out to Uncle Jack, who was
busily engaged superintending the stowage of the provisions in the two
boats. "The water is arising rapidly, and is now nearly up to the
'tween-decks!"
Uncle Jack passed on the word to the captain, who instantly came up the
companion.
Seeing the truth of the boatswain's statement from the deeper immersion
of the ship since he had gone below, he at once ordered the men down
into the boats, the passengers going first; then the foremast hands;
and, lastly, the officers.
"Mr Althorp," said the captain, "you will take charge of the jolly-boat
and shove off as soon as she's got her complement. I will command the
long-boat myself."
"Aye, aye, sir," responded Uncle Jack, descending into the boat when she
had as many in her as she could safely hold; when, shoving off from the
ship's side and rowing a few strokes, the men lay on their oars,
remaining some twenty yards off so as to be out of the whirlpool or eddy
that would be formed when the vessel presently foundered.
The long-boat now received its quota of passengers, all descending into
it and seating themselves on the thwarts and in the bottom so as not to
be in the way of those rowing, Captain Lennard waiting till the last to
get into her.
Just as he got in, however, he suddenly remembered that he had forgotten
a compass, and hastily climbed back on board to get it.
"Look sharp, Cap'en!" shouted Bill Summers from the bow as the ship gave
a quiver all over. "She's just about to founder."
The captain was quick enough, racing back to the companion and down the
stairs in two bounds, where, although the cabin was half full of water,
he contrived to wrench away the "tell-tale" compass that swung over the
saloon-table; and he was on the poop again with it in an instant.
The instrument, however, was heavy, but he had hard work to carry it
with both hands; and he managed to get to the side with it, when bending
down handed it to Bill Summers, who stood up in the bow of the boat to
receive it.
At that instant, the ship gave a violent lurch, and some one sang out to
shove off; when, the oars being dropped in the water, the boat was
impelled some yards from the side, leaving Captain Lennard still on
board.
"What, men, abandon your captain!" Teddy cried, his voice quivering
with emotion. "You cowards, row back at once!"
"We can't," sang out the same voice that had before ordered the men to
shove off.
Who it was no one noticed in the general flurry, nor knew afterwards;
but, while the men were hesitating which course to adopt, Teddy, without
saying another word, plunged overboard and swam back to the sinking
_Greenock_, having no difficulty in getting up the side now for it was
almost flush with the water.
"Come on board, sir!" said he jokingly, touching his forehead with his
finger, his cap having been washed off as he dived.
"My poor boy!" cried Captain Lennard, overcome with emotion at the
gallant lad's devotion; "you have only sacrificed two lives instead of
one! Why did you not stay in the boat?"
"Because," began Teddy; but ere he could complete the sentence there was
a violent rush of air upwards from the hold, and a loud explosion, the
decks having burst.
At the same time, the ship made a deep bend forwards.
Then, her bows rose high in the air above the waves as the stern sank
with a gurgling moan; and, the next moment, Teddy and Captain Lennard
were drawn below the surface with the vessel as she foundered!
Teddy was nearly suffocated; but, holding his breath bravely, as Jupp
had taught him, and striking downwards with all his force, he presently
got his head above water, inhaling the delicious air of heaven, which he
thought would never more have entered his nostrils.
When he came to himself, he saw the captain's body floating face
downwards amongst a lot of broken planks and other debris of the wreck,
by some fragment of which he must have been struck as the _Greenock_
foundered.
To swim forwards and seize poor Captain Lennard, turning him face
upwards again and supporting his head above the water, was the work of a
moment only with Teddy; and then, holding on to a piece of broken spar,
he awaited the coming up of the launch, which, now that all danger was
over from the eddy rowed up to the scene, when he and the captain were
lifted on board--all hands enthusiastic about the courageous action of
the little hero, and none more so than Captain Lennard when he recovered
his consciousness.
"You have saved my life!" he said. "Had you not been close by to turn
me over when I rose to the surface I should have been drowned before the
boat could have come up. I will never forget it!"
Nor did he, as Teddy's subsequent advancement showed; but, there was no
time now for congratulation or passing compliments.
The peril of those preserved from the wreck was not yet over, for, they
were thousands of miles away from land floating on the wide ocean!
Hailing the jolly-boat, Captain Lennard announced what he thought the
proper course should be.
"The best place for us to make for now is Valparaiso," he said; "and if
we steer to the east-nor'-east we ought to fetch it in three weeks or so
under sail; that is, if our provisions hold out so long."
Uncle Jack approving, this course was adopted; and, day after day, the
boats, setting their sails, which Bill Summers had not forgotten to
place on board, made slow but steady progress towards the wished-for
goal.
One morning, all were wakened up by the welcome cry of "Land ho!" from
the look-out forwards in the bow of the long-boat, which kept a little
ahead of the jolly-boat, although always reducing sail if she forged too
much forward so as not to lose her.
A signal was made, therefore, telling the glad news to Uncle Jack and
those with him; while the boat pressed onwards towards the spot where
the hazy outline of a mountain could be dimly seen in the distance.
"That is not the American continent," said Captain Lennard to the men,
in order to allay any future disappointment that might be afterwards
felt. "We are nearly a thousand miles off that yet. It must be Easter
Island. That is the only land I know of hereabouts in the Pacific; and,
although I have never visited the place myself, I have heard that the
natives are friendly to strangers. At all events we'll pay them a call;
it will be a break in our long journey!"
Bye and bye the boats approached the shore and all landed, when a lot of
copper-coloured savages came down to the beach waving branches of trees
in sign of welcome.
The islanders had not much to eat; but Captain Lennard, seeing that
their provisions were well-nigh expended, determined to stop here, while
sending on Uncle Jack with a small party to Valparaiso to charter some
vessel to come and fetch them all, the boats being so crowded that
misfortune might await them all if they continued the voyage in such
small craft.
For months and months all awaited in constant expectation Uncle Jack's
return; but, he came not, and they at length believed that he and those
with him must have been lost in some hurricane that had sprung up off
the Chilian coast, and so had never reached Valparaiso at all!
They had no fear of starvation, however, the islands abounding in
poultry in a semi-wild state, which they had to hunt down for
themselves; for the natives lent them no assistance. Indeed they were
rather hostile after a time; although the Englishmen were too numerous
for them to attack, especially as they were always on their guard
against surprise.
In wandering over the island, which is only some thirty miles round,
Teddy was surprised, like the others, by the numbers of stone obelisks,
rudely carved into the semblance of human faces and statues, which could
not possibly have been executed by the present inhabitants.
It is believed by geographers that Easter Island must have formed a
portion of a vast Polynesian continent peopled by some kindred race to
those that designed the colossal monuments of an extinct civilisation,
now almost overgrown with vegetation, that are yet to be found as
evidences of a past age amidst the forests of Central America.
One day, more than a year after Uncle Jack had left, and when they had
almost given up all hope of ever seeing him again, or of being relieved
from their island prison--the long-boat being dashed to pieces in the
surf soon after he started--a schooner in full sail was discovered
making for the island.
Presently, she came nearer and nearer.
Then she hove to, and a boat was seen to be lowered from her side, and
shortly afterwards being pulled in to the shore.
A moment later, and Uncle Jack's well-known face could be seen in the
stern-sheets, a glad hurrah being raised by the shipwrecked men at the
sight of him.
Soon, Uncle Jack landed, and he had a long tale to tell of the jolly-
boat losing her sail, and being tossed about on the ocean till picked up
by an American whaler, which first took a cruise down the South Seas,
there detaining him many weary months before landing him at Sandy Point,
in the Straits of Magellan, from whence he got finally to Valparaiso
after awaiting a passage for weeks.
Arrived here, however, he at once got in communication with the British
consul, and chartered a schooner to go to Easter Island and fetch his
comrades.
Uncle Jack, too, mentioned that he had written home to the owners of the
_Greenock_, telling of her loss and the safety of all hands on their
temporary island home; and he had also sent a letter to Endleigh, he
said, narrating all about Master Teddy's adventures, and saying that he
was safe and well.
Captain Lennard did not long delay the embarkation of his little band,
who were glad enough to leave Easter Island; so, in a couple of weeks'
time all landed safely in Valparaiso, where they luckily caught the
outgoing mail steamer as they arrived, and started off to England,
rejoicing in their timely rescue and preservation from peril amid all
the dangers of the deep.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
AT HOME AGAIN.
It was a bright August day at Endleigh.
There was a scent of new-mown hay in the air, and gangs of reapers were
out in the fields getting in the harvest, the whirr of the threshing-
machine, which the squire had lately brought down from London, making a
hideous din in the meadows by the pond, where it had been set up;
puffing and panting away as if its very existence were a trial, and
scandalising the old-fashioned village folk--who did not believe in such
new-fangled notions, and thought a judgment would come on those having
to do with the machine, depriving, as it did, honest men who could wield
the flail of a job!
In the garden of the vicarage, the warm sun seemed to incubate a dreamy
stillness, the butterflies hardly taking the trouble to fly, and the
very flowers hanging down their lazy heads; while the trees drooping
their leaves, as if faint and exhausted with the heat.
Everything out of doors looked asleep, taking a mid-day siesta.
Everything, that is, but the bees, which carried on their honey-
gathering business as briskly as ever, utterly impervious to the warmth.
Indeed, perhaps they got on all the better for it, probing the petals
of the white lilies yet in bloom, and investigating the cavities of the
foxglove and wonderful spider-trap of the Australian balsam, or else
sweeping the golden dust off the discs of the gorgeous sunflowers, a
regular mine of mellifluent wealth; a host of gnats and wasps and other
idle insects buzzing round them all the time and pretending to be busy
too, but really doing nothing at all!
The heat-laden atmosphere was so still that it had that oily sort of
haze that distinguishes the mirage in the East, when the air appears
composed of little waving lines wavering to and fro that dazzle your
eyes with their almost-imperceptible motion as you look at them; and the
silence was unbroken save by the chuck-chuck-chuck of some meddlesome
blackbird in the shrubbery annoying the sparrows in their nap, and the
answering click-clink-tweedle-deedle-dum-tum-tweedle-um of the yellow-
hammer, telling as plainly as the little songster could tell that he at
all events was wide awake, while, in the far distance, there could be
heard the coo of ring-doves and the melancholy lament of the cuckoo
investigating the hedgerows in quest of other birds' nests wherein to
lay its solitary egg, and finding itself forestalled at every turn!
But if everything was so quiet without, such was not the case indoors at
the vicarage.
A telegram had been received from Uncle Jack, saying that he and Teddy,
having reached London in safety, would be down by the afternoon train;
so, all in the house were in a state of wild excitement at meeting again
those they had thought lost for ever.
Even the vicar was roused out of his usual placidity, although Uncle
Jack's letter from Valparaiso had told all about the wonderful escape of
the survivors of the _Greenock_; while, as for Miss Conny, who was now a
perfectly grown-up young lady of eighteen, all her sedateness was gone
for the moment and she was every bit as wild as the rest.
"Dear me, I'm sure the afternoon will never come!" exclaimed Cissy,
walking to the window after arranging and re-arranging the flowers in
the vases on the little table in the centre of the drawing-room and on
the mantel-piece for about the one-and-twentieth time. "It's the
longest day I ever knew."
"Don't be so impatient, dear," said Conny, trying to appear cool and
tranquil as usual, but failing utterly in the attempt as she followed
Cissy to the window and looked out over the lawn; "the time will soon
pass by if you'll only try and think of something else but the hour for
the train to come in."
"You're a fine counsellor," cried Cissy laughing, as she watched Conny's
hands nervously twisting within each other. "Why, you are as bad as I
am, and can't keep still a moment! Only Liz is calm--as if nothing had
happened or was going to happen. I declare I could bang her, as Teddy
used to say, for sitting there in the corner reading that heavy-looking
book. I believe it must be a treatise on metaphysics or something of
that sort."
"Mistaken for once, Miss Ciss," said the student, looking up with a
smile. "It's a volume of travels telling all about the Pacific Ocean
and Easter Island, where Teddy and Uncle Jack stopped so long with the
natives; so, it is very interesting."
"Well, I'd rather for my part wait and hear about the place from our own
travellers," rejoined Cissy impatiently. "I do wish they would come! I
think I will go and see how Molly is getting on with the dinner. I'm
sure she'll be late if somebody doesn't look after her."
"You had better leave her alone, Cissy," remonstrated Conny. "Molly,
you know, doesn't like being interfered with; and, besides, it is very
early yet, for they can't be here before three o'clock at the earliest."
"Oh, she won't mind me, Con," replied Cissy as she whisked out of the
room, gaily singing now, the idea of having an object or doing something
banishing her ennui; "Molly and I are the best of friends."
However, on entering the cook's domain Cissy found the old servant the
reverse of amiable, for her face was red and hot with basting a little
sucking-pig that was slowly revolving on the spit before a glowing fire
that seemed to send out all the more heat from the fact of its being
August, as if in rivalry of the sun without.
"Well, how are you getting on?" asked Cissy cheerfully, the sight of the
little roasting piggy which Molly had selected for the repast that was
to welcome Teddy, with some dim association of the fatted calf that was
killed on the return of the prodigal son, making her feel more assured
that the time was speeding on, and that the expected ones would arrive
soon.
But, Molly was not amenable to friendly overtures at the moment.
"Excuse me, miss, I don't want to be bothered now," she replied, turning
her perspiring countenance round an instant from her task and then
instantly resuming it again and pouring a ladleful of gravy over the
blistering crackling of her charge. "There, now--you almost made me
burn it by interrupting me!"
"I'm very sorry, I'm sure, Molly," said Cissy apologetically; and seeing
that her room was preferred to her company, she went out into the
kitchen-garden to seek solace for her listlessness there.
It was a vain task, though.
The bees were still busily engaged hovering from flower to flower and
mixing up in their pouches the different sorts of sweet flavours they
extracted with their mandibles from the scabius, whose many-hued
blossoms of brown, and olive, and pink, and creamy-white, scented one
especial patch near the greenhouse. This corner the industrious little
insects made the headquarters of their honey campaign, sallying out from
thence to taste a sweet-pea or scarlet-runner and giving a passing kiss
to a gaudy fuchsia, who wore a red coat and blue corporation sort of
waistcoat, as they went homeward to their hive.
On the ground below quite a crowd of sparrows were taking baths in turn
in a flat earthenware pan which was always kept filled with water for
their particular delectation; and the butterflies, too, waking up, were
poising themselves in graceful attitudes on the nasturtiums that twined
over the gooseberry bushes, which were running a race with the broad-
leaved pumpkins and vegetable marrow plants to see who would first
clamber over the wall, the red tomatoes laughing through the greenery at
the fun.
But there was little amusement for Cissy in all this at such a period of
expectancy, when her pulses throbbed with excitement; so, she turned
back towards the house with a yawn, uttering her longing wish aloud,
"Why can't Teddy come?"
It being summer time, all the doors and windows were wide open to let in
all the air possible, and as she retraced her steps slowly and
disconsolately from the bottom of the garden at the back she heard a
noise in front like the sound of wheels in the lane.
To dart through the side gate instead of returning by way of the kitchen
was the work of a moment; and she reached the front of the house almost
as soon as Conny and Liz, who had only to step out on to the smooth turf
from the low French windows of the drawing-room.
It was only a false alarm, though, Doctor Jolly having driven up from
visiting a patient to know when the travellers were expected.
"By the three o'clock train, eh?" he said on being told; then looking at
his watch he added: "Why, it's close on two now. Any of you going down
to the station to meet them?"
"Yes," answered Miss Conny in her prim way, "I was thinking of taking
the children, if you do not consider it too warm to venture out in the
heat of the sun? Poor papa is not so well to-day and unable to walk so
far."
"Pooh, pooh!" ejaculated the doctor, with his hearty laugh. "Call this
fine day too warm; you ought to be ashamed of yourself! You need not
any of you walk. Go and put on your bonnets, and tell the vicar, and
I'll cram you all into my old shanderadan and drive you down."
The Reverend Mr Vernon, however, besides suffering from one of his
usual nervous headaches, which always came on when he was excited by
anything as he was now, wished to be alone on first meeting with his
lost son again, so that none might witness his emotion, being a
particularly shy man amongst strangers; so, although he came out of his
study on hearing Doctor Jolly's voice he begged him to excuse his going,
while accepting his kind offer for the girls--who were ready in less
than no time, Miss Conny losing her primness in her anxiety not to keep
the doctor waiting, and the generally slow Liz being for once quick in
her movements.
In another minute they were all packed within the hybrid vehicle, half
gig, half wagonette, which the doctor only used on state occasions, and
must have brought out this afternoon with the preconceived idea of its
being specially wanted.
"This _is_ jolly!" exclaimed Cissy as they all drove off gaily down the
sleepy lane, passing neither man nor beast on their way. "You are very
good to us, doctor!"
"Ho, ho, ho! Miss Cissy," laughed he; "you're getting extremely
familiar to address me like that. Jolly, indeed! why, that's my name,
ho, ho!"