IN THE TEETH OF THE STORM.
An old German bos’un came by as Jack was picking himself up.
“Hullo! Almost man overboard,—vat?” he chuckled. “Don’d go overboard in
dis vedder, Mister Vireless, aber vee nefer see you no more.”
“Did you ever see a storm as bad as this?” sputtered the dripping Jack.
“Dis not amount to much,” was the reply. “Vait till you cross in
midt-vinter, den you see storms vos is storms.”
He hurried off on his work, while Jack, having recopied his messages,
started forward again. This time he met with no mishaps.
On the reeling bridge he found Captain Braceworth. The captain was
clinging to the railing, a shining, uncouth figure in dripping
oil-skins. The clamor of wind and sea made speech almost impossible, but
Jack touched the captain on the elbow to attract his attention.
In spite of his feeling, almost of aversion to the grim, strict captain,
Jack felt a sensation of admiration for this stalwart, silent figure,
guiding his wallowing ship through the storm as calmly as if he had been
seated at a dinner table. One thing was certain, Captain Braceworth was
no fair-weather sailor. Martinet though he might be, he was a man to
meet a crisis calmly and with cool determination.
The captain took the messages silently and once more retired to the
wheel-house to scan them. At the other end of the bridge the chief
officer stood, an equally silent figure, looking out over the
tempest-torn ocean. The captain was soon back on the bridge. He went
over to the chief officer and Jack could see the two talking, or rather
shouting.
He stood waiting respectfully for orders, crouching in the lee of the
weather-cloth for protection against the screaming gale.
As soon as he saw that the captain had finished his conference with the
officer, Jack came from the shelter and clawed his way to the skipper’s
side.
Captain Braceworth placed his hands funnel-wise to his mouth and shouted
into Jack’s ear:
“Try to get Cape Race or Siasconset, and tell the office in New York
that we are in a bad gale and running under reduced speed. From the look
of the glass it may last two days and delay our arrival at Antwerp.”
Jack saluted and was off like a flash, while the captain resumed his
silent scrutiny of the racing billows. Five minutes later, the young
wireless boy sat at his post, sending his message through the shouting,
howling turmoil of wind and wave.
Experienced as he was at the key, it was, nevertheless, a novel
sensation to be sitting, snug and warm in his cabin, flashing into
storm-racked space, the calls for Siasconset or “the Cape.” Occasionally
he groped with his key for another vessel, through which his message to
the New York office might be “relayed.”
He knew that some of the big liners had a more powerful apparatus than
he possessed, and if he did not succeed in raising a shore station, his
message could be transmitted to one of the steamers and thence to the
land.
The spark whined and crackled and flashed for fifteen minutes or more
before there came, pattering on his ears through the “watch-case”
receivers, a welcome reply.
It was from Cape Race. Jack delivered his message and had a short
conversation with the operator. He had hardly finished, before, into his
wireless sphere, other voices came calling through the storm. Back and
forth through the witches’ dance of the winds, the questions, answers
and bits of stray chat and deep sea gossip came flitting and crackling.
But Jack had scant time to listen to the voice-filled air. He soon shut
off his key and prepared to go forward again, with the news that the
message had been sent. In less than an hour some official at the office
of the line in New York would be reading it, seated at his desk, while
miles out on the Atlantic the ship that had sent it was tossing in the
grip of the storm.
Jack thought of these things as he buttoned himself into his oil-skins,
secured the flaps of his sou’wester under his chin and once more fought
his way forward along that dancing, swaying bridge, below which the
water swirled and swayed like myriads of storm-racked rapids.
The captain, grim as ever, was still on the bridge, but now Jack saw
that both he and the officer who shared his vigil were eying the seas
through the glasses. They appeared to be scanning the tumbling ranges of
water-mountains in search of some object. What, Jack did not know. But
their attention appeared to be fully engrossed as they handed the
glasses from one to another, holding on to the rail with their free
hands to keep their balance.
Presently the chief officer shook his head and shrugged his shoulders as
if he had negatived some proposition of the captain’s.
The latter replaced the glasses in their box by the engine room
telegraph, and Jack, deeming this a favorable opportunity, came forward
with his report.
He had almost to scream it into the captain’s ear. But the great man
heard and nodded gravely. Then he turned away and drew out the glasses
once more and went back to scanning the heaving seas.
Jack, from the shelter of the wheel-house, within which an imperturbable
quartermaster gripped the spokes of the wheel, followed the direction of
the skipper’s gaze.
All at once, as the _Ajax_ rose on the summit of a huge comber, he made
out something that made his heart give a big jump.
It was a black patch that suddenly projected itself into view for an
instant, and then rushed from sight as if it would never come up again.
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