TWO DISCOVERIES.
The captain knocked at the cabin-door, and, having received
permission, entered.
"Well, Drew, what is the matter?" asked the Duke, from a couch.
"The rudder-head is dozed, your grace."
"Dozed, Drew! and you found that out only now?"
There was a tone of alarm and reproach in the old man's voice.
"You see, your grace, it is some time since she was overhauled."
"Yes; but the rudder-head. Drew, the rudder-head! That is not a thing
to trifle with."
"Your grace will remember I could not get at it, owing to the seat."
"Well, talking won't undo the evil now. What do you propose doing?"
"We've cured it so far, your grace. We've served the rudder-head with
the half-inch, and driven wedges inside the iron all round."
"And you think it is safe now?"
"Quite safe for the run."
"And you do not think it necessary or advisable to put in anywhere?"
"That's what I came to speak to your grace about."
"There's Izlemouth, a couple of hours nearer than Silver Bay. How is
the wind for Izlemouth?"
"Fair, your grace. We'd carry it over the quarter."
"And how is it for home?"
"Abeam."
"She'd make a couple of knots more an hour with the wind on the
quarter."
"Yes, your grace, and less leeway."
"I am half inclined to run in there. And yet, if you are satisfied
that the rudder-head will hold until we can reach Silver Bay, I'd much
rather go home."
"The rudder-head will hold, your grace. I'll answer for that. Would
your grace like to come and see it?"
"No, no. Drew. I'll take your word for it. You know all about it. It's
a wonder you never thought of running a knife into that rudder."
"Well, your grace, as I said, it wasn't easy to get at. You see, there
was the seat."
"Ay, ay! So there was--so there was, Drew! I forgot that--I forgot
that. You are not to blame. We must lay the _Seabird_ up when we get
in. We can hire or buy another yacht while this one is under repairs.
What do you think we ought to do, Drew, sell her or repair her? What
do you think?"
"You have had her a good many years now, your grace."
"Yes, yes. You think I ought to sell her. I think you are right. What
course are you steering now, Drew?"
"Nor'-west, your grace; for home."
"Well, then, keep her on that tack--keep her on that tack. If you
answer for the rudder, we'll go home. What do you think she'd fetch as
she swims?"
"Fittings and all?"
He looked round at the superbly-fitted and furnished cabin.
"Yes. Just as she swims. We'd take our personal baggage ashore, and
sell all the rest."
"She's worth thirty pounds a ton builder's measurement, although, if
she was a merchant ship, she would now be off the letter. Thirty
pounds a ton, if she's worth a sovereign."
"Then I tell you, Drew, we three have been shipmates many years now,
and you shall have the old _Seabird_ as she stands; and if you don't
want to better yourself--you are too young a man to retire--you shall
get us a new and a better boat, and be our captain still."
"Your grace, I shall be glad to command your new yacht. I am very
proud to think you have still confidence in me, notwithstanding my
oversight of the rudder----"
"The fullest confidence, Drew. As you say, there was that seat in the
way."
"But, your grace, I could scarcely bring myself to take a present of
the _Seabird_----"
"But you shall take a present of it. Neither I nor my son want her any
more."
"Well, if your grace insists, I have no choice."
"You have no choice. She's beginning to heel over already; she's
beginning to feel this nor'-easter already, and so am I. My pains grow
bad; I feel it in my shoulder now. You may go now. Drew, and lie down,
or take a watch on deck, as you consider best. Anyway, have just
another look at that rudder-head before you turn in, and come and tell
me what you think; we will then finally decide as to our course."
When the captain regained the deck, he found the wind had freshened.
There was as much wind now as she could bear with all fore-and-aft
canvas set. It was not yet necessary to think of taking in sail, but
it would be if the breeze got any stronger. She was now quite
comfortable, with flying-jib and gaff-topsails. The covering-boards on
the port-side were under; but Captain Drew would rather keep her going
than insure a dry deck. The dead-lights were all closed, and
everything snug except the rudder-head. It was worrying to think he
should not have found out about that rudder-head until he was a
hundred and fifty miles from Silver Bay, and upwards of a hundred and
thirty from any port. But the wedging was sure to hold; in fact, it
couldn't help holding, unless the wood was ten times worse than it
looked.
Captain Drew went aft. The carpenter and first and second mates were
still at the rudder-head. The broken-up seat had been carried away.
Pritchard was still at the wheel.
"Well, Mr. Mate, what do you think of the cap now?"
"Taut as a drum now, sir."
"How does she behave? How does she feel, Pritchard?"
"Answers as good as new, sir. Look!"
He put up the wheel a little to port, and then a little to starboard;
at each side, before he got the wheel two spokes over, there was a
check, and plainly the jump of the rudder.
The captain rubbed his hands. He really thought now she would fetch
forty pounds a ton, and tomorrow she would be his.
"Have you looked at the cap-iron, Mr. Carpenter?"
"Yes, sir; most careful."
"How is that?"
"Sound as a bell."
The captain rubbed his hands again. What a fortunate thing for him,
after all, was this fault in the rudder-head. Only for it the Duke
might not think, for goodness knew how long, of parting with the
_Seabird_, and, of course, until he did think of parting with her, he
could not think of making her a present to him, Captain Drew.
Wonderful how things fall out!
As far as the rudder went, all now being in a satisfactory condition,
and the watch sufficiently strong to deal with the duty of taking in
sail, the captain told the first mate to turn in and the carpenter to
go forward to his own duties, having ordered him to leave the lantern
behind him. To the second mate he said:
"I'll take charge, Mr. Starclay. You can turn in, if you like."
"Thank you, sir," said the second mate; and he, too, went forward. The
captain and Pritchard were now the only men on the quarter-deck. The
former went below, told the Duke, and came back to the deck.
Captain Drew was too full of thought for sleep. His pay was very good,
more than very good. He was perfectly content to remain as he was. The
Duke and the Marquis had always treated him well. He had nothing to
complain of, and he had never complained. When he was afloat he lived
like a prince. When he was ashore he had a comfortable home, and a
wife and children, who were dearer to him than all the rest of the
world. But, notwithstanding the liberal pay of the Duke, and that he
had been many years in his grace's employment, he had, owing to no
extravagance on his part, but to the way in which he had kept his home
and brought up his family, been able to lay nothing aside for a rainy
day. Now he was between forty and fifty; all his children were still
upon his hands, and his pay was no more than kept them and his wife
comfortably. He had of late felt some anxiety as to what he should do
with his boys and girls. He knew that if anything happened to himself,
the Duke would pension his widow. But the children were now old enough
to have their careers indicated at least, and he lacked the means of
starting them.
Now all had been changed. This yacht would become his property the
moment they reached Silver Bay, and she would fetch from five to six
thousand pounds! What a blessing! She was as good as his own already.
They all thought the rudder-head would hold. For anything else he
cared nothing. She was a good sea-boat. She was stiff. He knew her
from stem to stem. If the rudder-cap held, he feared nothing wind or
wave could do. This gift had made his fortune, and from the
_Seabird's_ deck he would not go until she had dropped anchor safe
inside the reef-protected Silver Bay.
He told the steward to bring him a cup of coffee, and having put on
his pea-jacket, and lighted a pipe, he shook himself, and began pacing
the quarterdeck at the windward side.
As his feet fell upon the planks, he thought, "My own! My own! The
craft I've sailed these many years, the best years of my life, now is
all mine, to do with as I please! And what shall I do with her? Sell
her! Sell her, and put my little ones fair before the wind?"
"How does she answer now, Pritchard?" he asked the man at the wheel.
"Fast as a racer, sir," replied the man.
"That's right! That's right!" said the captain, rubbing his hands, and
drawing his pipe heartily.
It was the rule of the yacht that the officer in charge, be he captain
or mate, should not smoke. This was the captain's first infringement
of the rule, but there were excuses for him. There was no likelihood
that either the Duke or the Marquis would come on deck again that
night; and in less than four-and-twenty hours the craft he commanded
would be his own. He was now in the zenith of his fortune. All his
worldly future was fairly provided for, and he was mapping it out with
a loving hand.
He paused in his walk, and caught the bulwark, tried to shake
it, that he might enjoy the consciousness of the vessel's--his
vessel's--strength. He laid his hand on the mainboom, as one pats the
head of a favourite child. He looked down the skylight, and saw the
satin-wood panels, the silver fittings, the rich velvet curtains and
upholstery.
Then he took up the lantern and directed the light from the bull's-eye
on to the unshapely ragged rudder-head. The carpenter had not been
able to drive all the wedges fully home, nor had he cut them off level
with the rudder-cap. The clean newly-cut wedges, standing up in the
rude oval formed by the line inside the cap-iron, looked like a double
set of irregular teeth laid flat and open or dislocated. The upper
surface of the rudder appeared lozenge-shaped, but only the outline of
the iron was lozenge-shaped. The wood and the inner side formed an
octagon, the sides of which were arcs of large circles, the plain
being longer by one-third than broad. The irons, when they reached
what may be termed the base or after-line of the octagon, increased
greatly in thickness, and at the line of the base were pierced by an
iron bolt which was riveted over a pair of washers, and this bolt
formed the base-line of the ironwork aft. The iron sides of the
octagon were continued aft, and brought together at a gentle angle,
until they met the iron helm, to which they were firmly welded; the
strength of this joint being enormously increased by a stout exterior
ring clasping all three together, and welded to all three; following
the helm-iron forward, between those two side bands over the bolt,
through the rudder-head, it was finally riveted over a washer in the
foremost iron side of the band.
The workmanship was excellent, and the whole looked as firm as human
hands could make it.
The interior of the iron was an irregular octagon, the exterior was
rounded and lozenge-shaped. The captain now, for the first time,
noticed two things: namely, that the lozenge-shape, which looked so
well, had been obtained at the expense of strength; and, that the
helm-iron must be broken off short at the point where it entered the
rudder-head. The exterior oval had been produced by thinning away the
iron at points exterior to the interior angles. Unless the helm-iron
had been broken, the cap-iron could not have worked so freely a while
ago.
These two discoveries filled him with uneasiness. He knelt down on
the deck and turned the full glare of the bull's eye on the jagged
rudder-head and the symmetrical mass of ironwork.
This closer examination somewhat allayed his fears. If, as he knelt,
he could have seen what was slowly, surely, creeping upwards towards
him in the darkness, he would have sprung to his feet in despair.