THE STORY OF A WRECK.
The day which had begun in Sabbath stillness, so far as wind and
weather were concerned, was destined to end in a far different manner.
The dingey had scarcely reached the drifting vessel when the wind began
to freshen into a decided blow. Clouds rolled up from the southwest,
and it grew rapidly darker. Many of the passengers retired to their
staterooms, but the twins, consumed with anxiety for their father,
would not leave the deck, and Lady Moreham, Mr. Lawrence, Bessie, and
Dwight remained with them, the other ladies being obliged to retire.
Presently, as the group watched, talking in subdued tones, amid the
increasing noise of the coming storm, the watch sang out the glad news
of the captain's boat in sight, and the girls, straining their gaze
across the hillocks of gray-black waters beneath the angry sky, could
see the tiny thing approaching. Sometimes it seemed fairly swallowed
in the trough of the sea, again it rose on the crest, only apparently
to topple into oblivion the next instant--yet in spite of wind and wave
making its sure and steady way to the great home ship, and safety.
At length it was alongside, and, amid ringing cheers, the captain came
aboard, wet to the skin, and waving back the eager girls, whose eyes
were wet with tears of relief.
"Don't touch me, daughters; I'll give you a chill. And the first thing
necessary is to see to our rescued man. Come to me presently."
They had just a glimpse of this person as he was carried forward by
four men, but that glimpse was one never to be forgotten. The haggard
face, with the dark skin drawn like a mummy's across the prominent
bones, the lips stiff and blackened, between which the teeth shone
whitely, the eyes sunken and but half closed, gave it a horrible
appearance.
"Oh!" whispered Faith in distressed tones, "Isn't he already dead?"
"Not quite," was the response. "We'll bring him around, I reckon, but
it was a close call."
When all duties were discharged and the captain, in dry clothing, sat
before a substantial supper in his own cabin, Joey was sent for the
girls, who gladly joined him without loss of time.
"Sit down," he cried gaily, between big mouth-fills. "I know you are
quivering with curiosity--I can see it sticking out all over you. Just
let me fill up this gaping void a little, and then I'll tell you a
story that will make your two eyes like stars start from their spheres,
and all the rest of it. But now I must eat."
They waited patiently, and presently, leaning comfortably back, with
his third cup of coffee in his hand, he told them what follows:
"We thought, when we reached the sunken, dismasted hull, that of course
she was abandoned, but concluded to board her, and see if there was
anything of value inside. We made her out to be a tartan, probably
with an Arab, or African, crew and it was evident she had been through
a heavy storm, for her masts were washed clean overboard, and her
bulwarks stove in. We could not distinguish a soul aboard, and if she
had carried boats they were gone, but as we went down into the hatchway
we came upon a sight that I wouldn't care for you to see. It was a
dark 'tween-decks cabin, and the stench, as we descended, was simply
horrible! At my first step I stumbled over something that sent a
shudder through me, and when I lighted a match and looked around the
sight made me crawl. Two poor wretches lay there, both dead, as we
thought, but after giving them a thorough examination I decided there
was a spark left in this poor fellow, at least, and after working over
him a while we were sure of it. The other could not be revived, so we
weighted his feet, and let him slide the plank to his watery grave.
But that wasn't all--however I guess I won't tell any more. It's
downright gruesome, and I've got to go up and take a lookout, for we're
likely to have a wild night."
"Oh yes, yes, father!" they begged. "Don't leave us cut off short like
this. We want to hear it all."
"Well, we managed to find a lantern, so that we could go on with our
investigations. Evidently, there had been foul play of some kind, for
the cabin plainly showed signs of a fierce scrimmage. There was blood
on the walls and floor; one or two rusty weapons lay about, and on one
was human hair. I shouldn't have thought to look further, but a cry
from Tower called me into the bit of an after-cabin, fitted up with
bunks, and there lying flat, face downwards and head towards the door,
as if she had fallen while running out, was an Arab woman."
"And she was dead?" whispered Hope hoarsely.
"Yes, and in the bunk was her baby, a little thing not many months old.
I tell you, it was pitiful!"
"Oh!" breathed Faith, "do you suppose it was left to starve?"
"I'm afraid so. I think the mother heard the fighting and started to
run out, leaving her child safely hidden, when her husband was
attacked, but was felled by a blow on the head. We saw the marks."
"Horrible!" Hope covered her eyes, and the captain sprang up.
"I ought not to have told you. It was bad enough to see it myself,
hardened as I am. Now I must go. Do you want one of the women to come
and stay with you?"
"No," said both, and he hurried out, but at the door was arrested by
Hope.
"One question more--did you bury them too, papa?"
"Yes."
"In the same way?"
"Yes."
She drew a long, sighing breath as he disappeared, and turning clasped
Faith close with a sob of overwrought feeling. The sisters could not
talk much over the hideous tale. The night was shutting down wild and
stormy, and the labored motion of the good steamship already showed
that she was meeting heavier seas than they had yet encountered. Yet,
singularly, neither felt seasick, as yet. The intense anxiety until
their father's return, and the deep interest in his narration since,
had driven all physical feeling from their minds.
But, after a little, Faith said in a hushed voice, "I'm going to bed,
Hope. I couldn't talk to anybody in the saloon, and it's too wild to
be on deck, so I might as well.
"I'll go too," said Hope, "but let's just take a look out, at least."
She suddenly turned off the electric switch leaving the cabin in total
darkness, then drew her sister to the broad swell of windows looking
out upon the forward deck. It was bare enough tonight. All the
awnings were closely furled and the chairs stowed away in snug stacks,
while not a figure could be seen where all had been light, warmth and
cheer, a few hours earlier. Only one or two of the incandescent lights
were on, and beyond that feeble glow there seemed a great void of
darkness and storm. The gloom shut in the steamer's world as with a
thick curtain; not a star was visible, but now and then a white swirl
of foam gleamed for a second through the murk, and then, with a
creaking and groaning as if in pain, the good ship lurched, trembled,
and as the wave broke with an indescribable noise, steadied herself
once more, to plunge onward as fast as steam could force her in the
teeth of wind and wave.
Some days later, when the almost perished man had regained
consciousness and a modicum of strength, the girls were told the rest
of his story, which I will give you here.
He was first-mate of the "Shiraz," a tartan, which, to be explicit, is
a small coasting vessel peculiar to the Mediterranean Sea, used
principally for conveying stock, and sometimes other merchandise.
This, headed for the Balearics, had shipped a crew at Algiers, the
captain being forced to take what he could pick up in a hurry. He was
a Corsican, and seems to have been a cruel man, though his mate loyally
made the best of him, and insisted he was a good captain.
But, be that as it might, some failure in rations and water made the
crew surly and ready to break out into open grumbling upon any
pretense, so that, when they encountered a fierce squall, and sprung a
leak, it was almost impossible to keep them at the pumps, until terror
of their own lives forced them to yield to discipline.
But, though they finally succeeded in stopping the leak, this was not
accomplished until the mainsail had been carried away by the heavy sea,
and other injuries sustained. It was a terrible time for all, and the
crew, exhausted and overworked on insufficient food, were only held to
their tasks by the captain and mates standing over them with loaded
firearms.
In some unknown way one of them discovered a hogshead of arrack, the
East Indian whisky, and, unseen by the officers, they tapped it and
secretly helped themselves.
The fiery, stuff changed them from men into demons, and that night they
mutinied. The second mate, who was upon deck, attempted to check their
rush, but was felled with a cutlass and kicked overboard. Next, they
made for the cabin, where the captain and mate were sitting, while the
former's wife and child were asleep in the adjoining apartment.
There was a sharp, desperate encounter in the small space, in which
they were quickly over-powered. But when the mate was struck senseless
he rolled under the large table, and must have escaped further notice,
for after despatching the captain and his screaming wife, the mutineers
evidently took at once to the boats, and left the dismasted hulk to
founder with its gruesome freight.
But the storm was over by that time, and it had drifted for two days
and nights, at least, by the mate's reckoning, during which he had lain
unconscious, wondrously preserved from death.
What was the fate of the seamen thus deserting no one could tell, but
with men insensate from arrack, even should they have escaped immediate
danger from the sea, they could hardly make port safely in a small open
boat.
It was more than probable that the mate was the only one left of the
ill-fated crew. Captain Hosmer was unable to take the tartan in tow on
account of the storm, but marked its location to report it at Algiers,
that wreckers might be sent to save the cargo and sink the hulk that it
should no longer be a menace and danger to every passing craft.
"How delightful this is!" murmured Faith early next morning, after
hours of storm-tossed uneasiness and dread. "Did you ever hear such
awful noises as we had all night? I'm almost afraid to look, for fear
everything is broken in here."
Hope, wide awake in an instant, returned,
"It is astonishingly still now, isn't it? I wonder what it means.
Even the engines have stopped--don't you hear?"
"How can I hear stillness?" laughed Faith. "I do perceive that they've
stopped, though. Yes, we must have come safely into port
somewhere--why, I wonder if it is Algiers?"
Hope rose up on one elbow, in some excitement, then gave a cry.
"Why, look at the cage--and where is Texas?" and Faith, rising also,
saw that the bottom had dropped out of the parrot's home and lay, with
its contents, but not its inmate, upon the floor amid some broken glass
and crockery.
"The storm has done it! Where can Texas be? Oh, I hope he is not
killed--"
"Good-morning!" croaked a voice at their very ears, and there, on the
thick nickel rim surrounding one of the portholes just above their
heads, perched Texas, dignified and imperturbable as ever.
Both girls broke into laughter, and tried to coax him down, but
unvailingly. He sat in a solemn quiet such as he seldom showed in his
cage, and clung to his slippery place with an air that said, "I have
known trouble and insecurity enough. Now that I have a foothold, poor
as it is, I mean to keep it," and though he returned to their coaxing
civil enough responses, he could not be tempted even to perch upon
Hope's white wrist, which was usually a proud privilege to his birdship.
"Well," she said, giving it up, "I mean to see what has happened and
where we are at, as those American newspapers put it. We must be safe
somewhere, for they are washing down decks just as usual."
"I wonder if father slept a wink all night," said Faith. "If he didn't
then he is probably resting now, so we must be careful not to disturb
him."
"That's true. I'll be like a mouse!" Hope was hurrying into a pink
_robe de chambre_, which the girls best liked to call a pajama, and now
slipped her feet into a pair of little Turkish slippers, all toe and
sole, and opening the communicating door, peered into the library. It
was empty, but her father's tarpaulins, in a heap on the floor, just
outside his stateroom door, showed he was within, so she moved very
softly across to the broad outlook of windows.
In a minute she went flying back in silent swiftness. "Come, Faith,"
she whispered excitedly, "it's the finest thing you ever saw!"
Soon both pajamaed figures were looking with great eyes at the novel
scene before them. They found themselves anchored in some large harbor
amid a forest of shipping, much of it the oddest they had ever seen.
Instead of the straight, strong masts they were accustomed to, here
were those that shot up so tall and slender they seemed to bend over of
their own weight, like a young sapling. To these rapier-like masts
were fastened sails of quaint square shape and dingy hues, or of sharp
triangular form, which they learned afterwards were the lateen sails
they had read of, but never seen. The prows of these small vessels
were all so oddly curved and shaped, while the figureheads suggested
nightmare fancies of the brain. Off a little way rose a fine walled
city that seemed made all of marble, at first glance. Just now, in
this early light, it was coldly white like a cemetery, but presently
the sun shot his first warm beam over the horizon's edge, and lo! a
transformation. The towering whiteness now blushed into rosy hues, the
black-green of the foliage lightened to a delicate tint, while bits of
gay colors here and there suggested parks and gardens filled with
bloom. The cemetery had become a Palace Beautiful.
The girls gazed a long time, then, a bit chilled, for the night's gale
had greatly cooled the air, they crept back, to sleep a while longer,
in spite of the well-meant advice of Texas. "Get up, lazyheads!"
austerely flung down from the porthole.