MISSING
"Mend a broken shaft?" repeated the chief engineer, in amazement. "How
do you expect to do that?"
"I will show you," replied the mate of the little schooner, who
immediately proceeded to business.
The first thing he asked for was several coils of wire, which were
immediately furnished him. Then, with great labor, the two parts of
the shaft were fitted together and the wire was twisted tightly around
the fractured portion over and over again.
As the tenacity of iron is tremendous, the shaft was securely
fastened, but this was not enough. Ropes and chains were bound around
the iron in turn, until there was really no room to bandage the broken
shaft further.
"There, sir!" exclaimed Storms, as he stepped back and viewed his
work. "That is as secure as before, though, if you can possibly do so,
you should avoid reversing the screw until you reach Tokio, for you
can understand that to reverse and start will wrench the shaft to a
dangerous degree."
The captain now told the engineer, who had been assisting in the
operation, to start the engine slowly and with great care.
Captain Bergen ran on deck to see that the _Coral_ was in position to
receive no harm from the forward motion, while the rest of the group
watched the movements with intense interest, standing away from the
shaft so as to escape the "splinters," that more than one thought
might be flying about their heads the next minute.
There came the sound of steam, of plunging rods and cylinders from
ahead, then there was heard a furious splash at the stern, and all saw
that the shaft in its entirety was revolving.
The keen eyes of Abe Storms, who had leaned directly over his
handiwork, lamp in hand, his nose almost touching the gleaming chains,
detected the very yielding which he had prophesied. He heard the
creaking of the chains, the faint gasping, as it may be called, of the
rope, and the soft grinding of the fine wire beneath.
All this showed what an enormous strain was brought upon them, and
almost any other person detecting the rasping of the ragged edges of
iron against each other would have started back appalled, believing
that everything was about to fly apart. But it was precisely what the
mate expected, and what was inevitable under the circumstances. Then,
at his request, the engineer was ordered to put on a full head of
steam, and the _Polynesia_ plowed forward, cleaving the water before
her.
Abe Storms knelt down and bent almost lovingly over the round mass
revolving on its axis. Then he beckoned to the engineer to approach
and do the same. He obeyed, as did several others, and placing their
ears close, they listened intently to the revolution of the shaft.
Not even the faintest noise could be detected to show that there was
anything but a normal movement of the shaft. Every one saw, too, that
the revolutions were not only going on regularly, but would continue
so for an indefinite time. The shaft was practically whole again, with
the exception that a reverse movement would be likely to undo
everything, and by scraping the corrugated surfaces of the fractures,
render it impossible to do anything of the kind again.
Captain Strathmore and his officers stood for a full hour more
steadily watching the revolving shaft, and at the end of that time
they were satisfied. Then the new acquaintances saluted and bade each
other good-by, the officers of the _Coral_ passing over the rail, and
were rowed back to their own vessel, which had followed in the wake of
the steamer, as may be said.
By this time it was midnight, and the captain returned to his
station on the bridge, reflecting to himself that some of the most
insurmountable difficulties, apparently, are overcome by the simplest
means, and that there are some persons in the world who really
seem capable of inventing anything.
The hour was so late that all the passengers had retired, and little
Inez, as a matter of course, had become invisible long before. She had
declared several times that she was going to sit up with the captain,
and she tried it, but, like most children under such circumstances,
she dropped off into slumber by the time it was fairly dark, and was
carried below to the cabin.
The child was like so much sunshine flitting hither and thither upon
the steamer, and whose presence would be sorely missed when the hour
came for her to go. But Captain Strathmore was a disciplinarian, who
could never forget his duty, and he remained at his post until the
time came for him to go below to gain the few hours' sleep which
cannot be safely dispensed with by any one, no matter how rugged his
frame.
Tumbling into his berth, he stretched out with a sigh of comfort, and
went to sleep.
"Inez will be in here bright and early to wake me," was his
conclusion, as he closed his eyes in slumber.
But he was disappointed, for when he was called from his couch, it was
not by the little one whom he expected to see. At the breakfast-table
she did not appear, and then Captain Strathmore, fearing that she was
ill, made inquiries. He heard nothing, and filled with a growing
alarm, he instituted a thorough search of the vessel from stem to
stern and high and low. Not a spot or corner was omitted where a cat
could have been concealed, but she was not found.
And then the startling truth was established that little Inez
Hawthorne was not on board the steamer.
"Oh!" groaned poor Captain Strathmore, "she became my own child! Now I
have lost her a second time!"