THE GALE.
The Sandwich Islands having been thoroughly explored, the Stranger set
sail for the harbor of Hilo, and shaped her course across the Pacific.
Japan was the Club’s destination, but they were in no hurry to get
there, and besides there were objects of interest to be seen on the way.
There were numerous islands to be visited, and among them were the
Mangroves. The boys were anxious to see the place where the fight with
the natives occurred, and Uncle Dick, yielding to their entreaties, told
Frank to take the schooner there, a command which he gladly obeyed. The
boys would also have been delighted could they have seen the village
which had been burned by Frank’s orders. They tried to induce Uncle Dick
to let them go there, giving as a reason for this insane desire that
possibly the savages might be holding other prisoners whom they could
release. But the old sailor settled that matter very quickly. He wasn’t
going to put his vessel and crew in danger for nothing, that was
certain. The boys might go ashore after terrapins if the schooner
stopped in the bay over night, and that was all they could do.
When they arrived in sight of the principal island, and had approached
within a mile of the beach, Uncle Dick said to Frank:
“The natives of course know by this time that we are coming, and to show
them that we are prepared to take care of ourselves, wouldn’t it be a
good plan to kick up a little dust out there with a thirty-pound shot?”
“I think it would,” answered Frank. “As our vessel is small, they will
know that we have a small crew, and the noise of a shell or two
whistling through the trees may save us from an attack if we lie at
anchor all night.”
Since leaving Bellville the crew had been drilled in the use of small
arms and in handling the big guns almost as regularly as though the
Stranger had been a little man-of-war; but none of the pieces had ever
spoken yet, and the Club were delighted with the prospect of hearing
Long Tom’s voice. The crew were at once piped to quarters, the shifting
men took their place about the thirty-pounder (the vessel’s company was
too small to allow of a full crew for each of the three guns), and in
response to the old familiar order, “Cast loose and provide,” which they
had all heard many a time when it meant something besides shelling an
unoccupied piece of woods, quickly stripped off the canvas covering and
made the piece ready for business. A cartridge was driven home, a shell
placed on top of it, the gun was trained in accordance with Frank’s
desires, the second captain lowered the breech a little, the first
captain raised his hand, and the crew stood back out of the way.
“Fire!” said Frank.
The first captain pulled the lock-string, and the little vessel trembled
all over as Long Tom belched forth its contents. Then something happened
that the Club had not looked for. As the smoke arose from the mouth of
the cannon, a crowd of natives, who had been lying concealed behind the
rocks on the beach, jumped to their feet and ran with all haste into the
woods. The shell ploughed through the trees above their heads, and
exploding, sent up a cloud of white smoke to mark the spot.
“That was pretty close to some of them, Frank,” said Uncle Dick.
“It is no matter if it hurt some of them,” said Frank, in reply. “They
had an ambush ready for us, didn’t they? Suppose we had been out of
water, and had sent a boat’s-crew ashore after some? There wouldn’t a
man of them have come back to us.”
Three more shells followed the first, being thrown toward other points
on the island, to show the treacherous inhabitants that the schooner’s
company could reach a good portion of their territory if they felt so
disposed, and then the cannon was taken in charge by the quarter-gunner,
who, after rubbing it inside and out until it shone like a mirror, put
on its canvas covering again. A few minutes afterward, the Stranger
dropped anchor in the bay, near the spot where the Tycoon had been
moored when attacked by the natives.
“This is the place,” said Frank, to the boys who gathered around to hear
once more the story of the thrilling scenes that had been enacted in
that lonely spot but a few short weeks before. “Here is where the ship
was anchored, and that creek over there was the ambush from which the
canoes came. The boats’ crews who went ashore after water were attacked
on that white beach you see off the port bow, and there was where we
landed when we went out to burn the village, which was located about
three-quarters of a mile from the beach.”
The boys could understand Frank’s description of the fight now that they
saw before them the very spot in which it had taken place. They listened
to the story as attentively as though they had never heard it before,
and ran down to supper telling one another that they would see and learn
more in the morning when they went ashore after terrapins. “And I hope
that then the natives will try and see what we are made of,” said Eugene
to Archie, in a confidential whisper. “My new Henry rifle that I bought
in ’Frisco to replace the one Jack stole from me will rust for want of
use if it lies in its case much longer.”
“I hope we shall have a chance to rescue the prisoners they are still
holding,” said Archie. “It must be dreadful to pass one’s life here
among these heathen. The worst part of such a captivity to me would be
the knowledge that every now and then friends came here who would be
only too willing to take me off if I could only get to them. I wish
there were enough of us to take the island.”
Probably the prisoners who were still in the hands of the natives wished
the same thing. Perhaps, too, they had some hopes of rescue when they
heard the roar of the thirty-pounder awaking the echoes among the hills.
But the schooner’s company was in no situation to render them
assistance, and the Club were now as near the island as they ever went.
While they were at supper, the officer of the deck suddenly descended
the companion-ladder and interrupted the lively conversation that was
going on by asking the captain if he would come on deck a minute. Uncle
Dick went, and had hardly disappeared before the boys heard the
boatswain’s whistle, followed by the order: “All hands stand by to get
the ship under way.”
With one accord the Club dropped their knives and forks and ran up the
ladder to see what was the occasion of the order; some of them being in
such a hurry that they did not stop to find their caps.
“Master Frank,” said Dick Lewis, who met his young friend at the top of
the ladder, “is that a quid out thar? Is that ole whale comin’ to ax the
cap’n what he’s done with her baby?”
The trapper pointed seaward, and Frank, looking in the direction
indicated by his finger, saw a dark cloud rising rapidly in the horizon,
and beneath it a long line of foam and a dense bank of mist that was
moving toward the island.
“Rodgers says we’re done for now,” continued Dick, whose face was white
as a sheet. “He says me and Bob never seed a whale yet, but will see one
now; that is, if we have a chance to see anything afore she opens her
mouth and sends us to—, to—; what sort of a place did he say that was,
Bob?” inquired Dick, turning to his frightened companion, who stood
close beside him.
“I don’t know; somebody’s cupboard,” replied Bob.
“Davy Jones’s locker, most likely,” explained Frank. “Now, Dick, when
Rodgers or anyone else, says such a thing to you again, you just tell
him that you know better. We’re going to have a blow, that’s all. You
have seen enough of them among the mountains and on the prairies to know
what they are.”
“But, whar be we goin’?” asked Dick, seeing that the Stranger was
walking rapidly up to her anchor.
“We’re going out, of course.”
“In the face and eyes of it?” gasped the trapper, looking dubious at the
angry clouds, whose appearance was indeed most threatening. “Why don’t
we stay here whar we’re safe?”
“Because we are not safe here. This is the most dangerous spot we could
be in. The wind will blow directly on shore, and the waves will come
rolling in here as high as the crosstrees. The first one that struck us
would carry us out there in the woods.”
“Then, let’s take our shootin’ irons an’ go ashore,” said Dick. “I’d
sooner fight the niggers than stay on this little boat and be drownded.”
“And what would we do with the schooner? Leave her to take care of
herself? That’s a pretty idea, isn’t it? She would be smashed into
kindling-wood on the beach, and then how would we ever get home again?
No, no, Dick; we must take care of the vessel first, so we are going out
where we shall have plenty of room. I wish we were out there now,” added
Frank, anxiously, as he directed his gaze toward a high rocky promontory
which jutted out into the water a mile in advance of them. “That point
is a pretty long one, and if we don’t weather it before the storm breaks
it will be good-bye, Stranger, and Sportsman’s Club, too.”
“Never fear,” exclaimed Uncle Dick, who happened to overhear this last
remark. “We’ve got a capful of wind, and that is all we need to make an
offing. Once off this lee-shore, we shall have plenty of room, unless we
are blown up against the Ladrone Islands.”
“And about the time that happens, look out for pirates,” said Eugene.
“What’s them?” asked Dick.
“Oh, they are wild, lawless men, like Allen and Black Bill,” replied
Eugene.
The trapper’s brow cleared at once. He was not afraid of lawless men,
for he had met too many of them during his career on the plains. He was
perfectly willing to meet anything that could be resisted by the weapons
to which he had been accustomed from his earliest boyhood, but storms
like this that was now approaching, and whales and “quids,” that could
destroy a vessel, and elephants as large as a house, Dick did not want
to see.
The Stranger was under sail in a very few minutes, and with all her
canvas spread she began to move away from the dangerous shore under her
lee. What little wind there was stirring was rapidly dying away, but it
blew long enough to enable the little vessel to pass the threatening
point which Frank so much dreaded, and then sail was quickly shortened,
and every preparation made to meet the on-coming tempest.
“Go below, now, boys,” said Uncle Dick, as he came out of the cabin with
his oilcloth suit on, and his speaking-trumpet in his hand. “I am going
to batten down everything. Take Dick and Bob with you.”
Before the trappers could refuse to go, as they would probably have done
had they been allowed time to think, they were pulled down into the
cabin, and the door, being closed behind them, was covered with a
tarpaulin; so were the skylights, and thus the cabin was made so dark
that the boys could scarcely distinguish one another’s features. This
was the first time these precautions had been taken since rounding Cape
Horn, and the boys made up their minds that the storm was going to be a
severe one.
“I don’t like this at all,” said Eugene. “I’d much rather go on deck and
face it.”
“You are safer here, for there is no danger of being washed overboard,”
said Featherweight.
“But I want to see what is going on,” said Eugene. “I can’t bear to be
shut up in this way.”
“How would you like to belong to the crew of a monitor?” asked George.
“In action, or during a storm at sea, the crew are all below, and they
are kept there by heavy iron gratings.”
“Whew!” exclaimed Eugene. “They must be regular coffins.”
“They sometimes prove to be, that’s a fact. The Tecumseh was blown up by
a torpedo in Mobile harbor, and went to the bottom, carrying one hundred
and twelve men with her.”
“Human natur’!” shrieked Dick, as all the occupants of the cabin were
thrown from their seats by the sudden lurching of the vessel. “We’re
goin’, too! We’re goin’, too!”
“Oh, no,” replied Frank, picking himself up from under the table, where
he had been pitched headlong. “That was only the first touch of the
storm.”
“Well, if that’s a _touch_, I sincerely hope that we shall not get a
blow,” said Archie, crawling back to his seat and rubbing his elbow with
one hand and his head with the other.
“She will soon come right side up,” said Frank.
But to Dick and Bob, and even to some of the other occupants of the
cabin, it seemed for a few minutes as though the Stranger was destined
to come wrong side up. She heeled over until the floor stood at such an
angle that it was useless for one to attempt to retain an upright
position, and the boys were knocked and bumped about in a way that was
quite bewildering. But she came up to a nearly even keel at last, as
Frank had said she would, and then the boys could tell, confined as they
were, that she was travelling through the water at a tremendous rate of
speed. They looked out at the bull’s-eyes, but could gain no idea of the
state of affairs outside, for the glasses were obscured by the rain and
by the spray which was driven from the tops of the waves. The waves must
have rolled mountains high, judging by the way their little vessel was
tossed about by them, and the wind roared and screeched so loudly that
the boys could not hear a single order, or even the tramping of the
sailors’ feet as they passed over their heads. So completely were all
sounds of life above decks shut out from them, that the Club might have
thought that the captain and all his crew had been swept overboard, had
it not been for the steady course the vessel pursued. That told them
that there was somebody watching over them, and that there was a skilful
and trusty hand at the helm.
The storm continued with unabated fury all the night long, but with the
rising of the sun the wind died away almost as suddenly as it had
arisen, the tarpaulin was thrown off, and the captain came into the
cabin looking like anything in the world except a man who had spent the
last twelve hours in fighting a gale. He looked as jolly and
good-natured as though he had just arisen from a refreshing sleep.
“Well, Uncle Dick, this is rather more than a sailing wind, isn’t it?”
asked Eugene.
“Rather,” was the laughing reply. “But the worst of it is over now. We
shall have a heavy sea for a few hours, but that will not prevent us
from fixing up a little. It was one of the hardest gales I ever
experienced; and if the Mangrove Islands had been under our lee when it
struck us—”
The old sailor shrugged his shoulders, and the boys knew what he meant
by it.
“You said something about fixing up a little,” said Frank. “Was anything
carried away?”
Uncle Dick nodded his head, and the Club went on deck in a body to take
a survey of the schooner. She did not look much like the Stranger of the
day before, and the boys wondered how she could have received so much
damage without their knowing anything about it. The flying jibboom was
gone, and so were both the topmasts. Some of the ratlines had parted and
were streaming out straight in the wind like signals of distress, the
port bulwarks were smashed in, the deck was littered with various odds
and ends, life-lines were stretched along the sides, and altogether the
handsome little craft looked very unlike herself. What must have been
the power of the elements to work all this ruin to a stanch craft which
had been built solely for strength and safety? It must have been
tremendous, and the boys were reminded that all danger from it had not
yet passed when they looked at the man who was lashed to the helm.
Presently they received another convincing proof of the fact. The
officer of the deck suddenly called out, “Hold fast, everybody!” and the
boys looked up just in time to see the schooner plunge her nose into a
huge billow which curled up over her bow, and breaking into a small
Niagara Falls, washed across the deck, sweeping it clean of everything
movable, and carrying with it one of the sailors, who missed the
life-line at which he grasped. Ready hands were stretched out to his
assistance, but the man saved himself by clutching at the life-rail and
holding fast to it.
The Club knew now how the bulwarks had been smashed in. The wave filled
the deck almost waist deep, and they were astounded at the force with
which it swept along. That portion of it which did not flow down into
the cabin passed out through the scuppers, leaving behind it a party of
youngsters with very wet skins and pale faces, who clung desperately to
the life-lines, and looked hastily about to see if any of their number
were missing. Their fears on this score being set at rest, they glanced
down into the cabin to see how Uncle Dick was getting on. The old sailor
was holding fast to the table and standing up to his knees in water, but
he had nothing to say. He was used to such things.
“Why don’t we lay to till the storm subsides?” said Eugene, slapping his
wet trowsers and holding up first one foot and then the other to let the
water run out of his boots.
“The gale is over now,” said the officer of the deck; “but we can’t
expect the sea to go down at once after such a stirring up as it had
last night.”
Although the waves did not go down immediately, they subsided gradually,
so that the men could be set to work to repair the damage done during
the storm. At the end of a week the Stranger looked as good as new, and
was ready for another and still more severe test of her strength, which
came all too soon, and promised for the time being to bring the Club’s
voyage to an abrupt ending.