The repugnance and horror gave way to a sensation of joy. Here was
another companion in misfortune, alive and ready to share the terrible
trouble with us, but who was it?
I tried to withdraw my left hand from Ching's grasp; but as soon as he
felt it going, he clung to it spasmodically, and it was only by a sharp
effort that I dragged it away, and turned to the side of my other
companion, and began to touch him. There was the bare arm, but that was
no guide; the face helped me no more; but the torn remnants of his
clothes told me it was not Mr Brooke, and my heart sank. I felt again,
and my hand encountered a drawn-up leg, and then I touched a bandage.
It was Tom Jecks, who had been wounded by the fire from the junk.
I could learn no more. I tried to speak; I shouted; but he made no
sign, and I could not even hear my own cries. The darkness remained
profound, and the deafening roar of the wind kept on without cessation.
But, feeling more myself at last, I determined to crawl about a little,
and find out whether any more of our crew were near us. Then I
hesitated; but, summoning courage, I crept on my hands and knees, passed
Ching, and then crouched down nearly flat, for I had crept to where the
shelter ceased, and to have gone on would have been to be swept away.
To test this I raised one hand, and in an instant I suffered quite a
jerk, and each time I repeated the experiment I felt more and more that
to leave the shelter meant to die, for the power of the blast was
appalling.
Crawling back, I proceeded in the other direction, and found that I
could go what I guessed to be quite a dozen yards, feeling more and more
in shelter. Then all at once I reached a point where the wind came
through what afterwards proved to be a narrow pass between two masses of
rock, and I shrank back disheartened at the barrenness of my search.
In that black darkness it was very difficult to find my former position,
even in so confined a space, and I found myself completely going wrong,
and into the rushing wind, the effect being horribly confusing again.
But, after lying flat down on the sand, which kept flying up and nearly
blinding me, I grew more composed, and, resuming my search once more,
found where my two companions lay; and, after touching our wounded
sailor, and finding him lying as I had left him, I began to think of
what I could do to help him, but thought in vain. To give help was
impossible in the midst of that awful storm, and, utterly exhausted now,
I sank back and reached out my left hand once more to try and touch
Ching.
He was on the alert, and caught my hand in both his, grasping it firmly,
as if, boy as I was, he would gladly cling to me for protection; while
I, in my horror and loneliness, was only too thankful to feel the touch
of a human hand.
Then, amid the strange confusion produced by the roar of the wind and
thunder of the waves whose spray hissed over our heads, I lay wondering
what had become of Mr Brooke and the others--whether they had reached
the land, and were screened behind the rocks as we were; then about the
_Teaser_--whether she had been able to make the shelter of the river
before the typhoon came down upon them in all its fury.
I seemed to see the men at their quarters, with the spars lowered upon
deck, the boats doubly secured, and everything loose made fast. I
fancied I felt the throb of the engines, and the whirr of the shaft, as
it raced when the stern rose at some dive down of the prow; and the
sharp "ting-ting" of the engine-room gong-bell struck on my ears above
the yelling of the storm, for wild shrieks at times came mingled with
the one tremendous overpowering roar.
Then I began thinking again about Mr Brooke, and whether, instead of
lying there in shelter on the sand, I ought not to be striving with all
my might to find him; and all at once the roar over my head, the thunder
of the breakers somewhere near, and the hiss and splash of the cutting
spray, seemed to cease, and I was crawling about the shore, over sand
and rocks, and through pools of water, to find Mr Brooke, while Ching
followed me, crying out in piping tones, "Velly long of you. Windee
blow allee way." But still I toiled on, lying flat sometimes, and
holding tightly to the rocks beneath me, for fear of being snatched up
and sent whirling over the sea. Then on again, to come to a mass of
rock, up which I climbed, but only to slip back again, climbed once more
and slipped, and so on and on till all was nothingness, save that the
deafening roar went on, and the billows dashed among the rocks, but in a
subdued far-off way that did not trouble me in the least. For my
sleep--the sleep of utter exhaustion--had grown less troubled, the
dreamy crawl in search of Mr Brooke died away, and I slept soundly
there, till the sun glowing warmly upon my face made me open my eyes, to
find Ching's round smooth yellow face smiling down at me, and Tom Jecks
nursing his leg.
I started up in wonder, but sank back with a groan, feeling stiff and
sore, as if I had been belaboured with capstan bars.
"You feel velly bad?" said Ching.
"Horribly stiff."
"Hollibly 'tiff; Ching lub you well."
Before I knew what he was about to do, he seized one of my arms, and
made me shout with agony, but he moved it here and there, pinching and
rubbing and kneading it till it went easily, following it up with a
similar performance upon the other. Back and chest followed; and in ten
minutes I was a different being.
But no amount of rubbing and kneading did any good to my spirits, nor to
those of our companion in misfortune, whose wound troubled him a good
deal; but he sat up, trying to look cheerful, while, with my head still
confused, and thought coming slowly, I exclaimed--
"But the storm--the typhoon?"
"Allee blow way, allee gone," cried Ching, smiling; "velly good job.
You feel dly?"
I did not answer then, for I felt as if I could not be awake. I had
been lying in the lee of a huge mass of rock, amid stones and piled-up
sand, upon which the sun beat warmly; the sky overhead was of a glorious
blue; and there was nothing to suggest the horrors of the past night,
but the heavy boom and splash of the billows which broke at intervals
somewhere behind the rock.
At last I jumped up, full of remorse at my want of thought.
"Mr Brooke--the others?" I cried.
"We were talking about 'em, sir, 'fore you woke up," said Jecks sadly;
and I now saw that he had received a blow on the head, while he spoke
slowly, and looked strange.
"And what--"
"I'm afraid they're--"
"Allee dlowned; velly much 'flaid."