LASHED AND ADRIFT.
"Guess not!" answered the voice of old Tom Turk, "he's as safe as a
marlinespike in a rack!"
So saying, the old fellow by a dextrious movement, threw a bowline
hitch he had quickly formed at the end of a rope, over the young man's
head, and drew him safely aboard.
Mary, who, hearing of her lover's peril, had ventured on deck in spite
of the storm, sprang towards him.
"Ay, ay, now, lass!" exclaimed Turk, "mustn't be in too much of a
hurry to go, as there's a mighty danger of our all goin' before long.
Bless your pretty eyes! that's what I call a collapse!" as Mary
impulsively threw her arms around her lover's neck, in her joy at his
safety.
On went the vessel, booming, crashing, thundering on her course, with
all her timbers quivering, as if about to fly apart.
"Oh, Harry!" exclaimed Mary, "will this storm ever be over!"
"Yes! be not afraid!" he answered, as he helped her into the cabin.
There he beheld a sight which was truly appalling. The water was
washing and swashing about the cabin floor up to his very knees, while
articles of furniture were floating about like so many chips!
The young man conducted the girl back again, and having safely secured
her to the mizzenmast, by means of a rope, he went over to the captain.
"Your ship has sprung a leak!"
"What?" exclaimed Brand, almost bounding off his feet.
Harry repeated the information, when Brand, peering into the cabin,
discovered that he had spoken correctly.
The vessel, it was evident, had sprung a leak somewhere beneath the
counter.
Pumps were immediately rigged, and their dismal clanging was ere long
heard like a knell through the storm.
The carpenter being sent below, half an hour later, reported the water
gaining.
Brand stared at him half stupefied.
Then, with eyes rolling wildly in his head, he shrieked out:
"I might have known I'd have no luck in these accursed waters!"
He drew back, shuddering from head to foot. The blue eyes of Mary
Manton were turned full upon his dark, distorted face!
"Why?" inquired a voice at his elbow, when, turning he beheld Harry
Glenville.
He gave the young man a black look! then uttered a horrible oath!
"Blast you, young eavesdropper, are you a-goin' to follow me about
like a spy?"
"I don't understand! You talk foolishly!" said Harry.
"Do I?" inquired Brand, with a sneer, apparently recovering his
calmness all of a sudden. "Well, I'll tell you what I meant. I meant
on account of the infernal storms one often meets with in these
latitudes. It matters little, however, we are all doomed to Davy Jones
now, unless we can get off in the boats!"
"Ay, ay, the boats are probably our only recourse!" answered Harry,
with great coolness.
Brand admired him in spite of himself.
"Why, now, blast it! it seems to me you take matters easy, youngster!"
"This is not the first storm I've seen!" answered Harry.
"No! but when you know that it's p'raps to be your last, one would
think you'd feel uneasy, to say the least."
"A difference in temperaments," answered the other; "but come! don't
you think we'd better be getting the boats ready? The lashings are
loose and they'll soon be adrift, if we don't hurry."
"Ho, ho! so you're getting anxious, after all, my young shaver!"
"Not in the least for myself," answered Harry contemptuously, "but
there is another in my charge."
As the young man spoke, the ship suddenly fell off, when, with a crash
and a roar like a thunderbolt, a huge cataract of water was borne
directly across the vessel, carrying away the wheelhouse with the man
at the helm, the caboose, a part of the forecastle, and last, but by
far not least, all the boats, which, as Harry had stated, were become
loosened in their lashings.
This catastrophe held every man mute after he had saved himself from
going overboard.
White and dumb the sailors saw the last means of their leaving the
doomed ship borne away from them.
"It's all up with us!" screamed Brand--the first to break the silence.
"We are lost! we cannot be saved! Is it not so?" cried Mary, clinging
to the arm of her lover.
"There is no telling!" he answered; "but hope for the best."
Just then the ship falling off yet further, headed directly for that
great mass of red lurid light, gleaming like a bonfire of demons
through the bleak darkness of the night and the storm.
"Ay, ay, there's the volcano," cried Harry.
"Yes, how like a beacon of hope it seems!" exclaimed Mary.
"Ay, a hell-beacon!" growled the captain, as he passed into the cabin.
What business had he in the cabin at such a moment, when his ship was
going down into the dark waters!
Rum!
He would drink, drink, drink, drowning the dragon of conscience which,
in this dread moment, seemed gnawing at his very vitals.
Up to his waist in water, he found the swimming chests containing his
grog, and breaking it open, poured the fiery contents of one of the
bottles down his throat.
The next moment he felt a rope drawing tightly round his breast
beneath the armpits, became aware then of being hauled up through the
companionway, while the voice of old Tom Turk rang in his ears:
"Hold there, Cap! Blast me, sir, but this ain't a square above-board
bizness, do you see--a drinkin' of grog when there's peril! How do
you know, but some of t'others aboard would like a few tauts, when
opportunity drifts to em."
The captain would have responded the minute he was hauled up, with a
blow of the fist, or at least an oath but for the terrible catastrophe
which now seemed impending.
Humming, gurgling and roaring, a strange noise, growing louder every
moment, was heard in the hold.
"God help us all!" screamed the carpenter; "no more use at them pumps.
What you hear is the water surgin' into the hold."
Mary clung closely to her lover, while the men with axes at once went
to work, chopping down pieces of timber for the purpose of forming a
raft.
"How far should you judge we are from yonder island!" said Harry, now
pointing to the red gleam which seemed to send a track of lurid fire
shooting through the darkness.
"Well," answered Tom Turk, "it's hard tellin' at night though I'm
shouldn't say we're more than a league from it. It's symbological,"
continued Turk, gloomily crossing his arms over his breast, "to many
of us as shall go below instead of aloft."
"I dare say you have sinned as well as others, you old rascal!" cried
Brand, fiercely addressing the speaker.
"There's no denying that," answered Tom; "I have sinned when I was
a little chip, but not since the days o' my apple steelin', from
orchards and such like. Ever since, I have behaved myself like a
martyr, confinin' myself to but eights tauts of grog at a time--when I
could get it, that is; which ain't under present state of affairs."
Meanwhile the men hurried to construct the raft, which was at last
completed in a clumsy manner, owing to the hurried nature of the work.
It was high time it was finished, for every part of the craft except a
dry spot on the quarterdeck, was now buried, the water reaching half
way up the stumps of the shattered masts.
The raft was secured alongside, after which Harry helped Mary to the
floating platform, taking care to lash her securely to the timbers.
In a minute all hands were upon the raft, and Brand was about severing
the rope with his knife, when, with a sudden lurch, down went the ship
dragging the floating platform with it.
The men drifted off into sea! but Mary being lashed to the raft went
down with it!