The wind howled, and shrieked, and whistled in the rigging, the seas
roared and dashed against the sides of the corvette, as under bare poles
she rushed on amidst them. Now she rose to the summit of a dark green
mountainous billow, with its crest all leaping, foaming, and hissing;
then she glided rapidly down its side, as if it had been an
ice-mountain, into the dark valley below, again to rise up more slowly
to the top of another sea, suddenly to find herself once more in the
deep trough, with a huge curling wave reaching almost to her tops,
threatening to break over her. Two of the quartermasters were at the
helm. The officers were all on deck, the crew at their stations. No
one could tell what might next happen.
"If the wind holds as it does now, we shall be all right," observed Mr
Truck, the master, "but if it shifts, we may find ourselves running in
among some ugly navigation, and our best chance is to scud as we are
doing."
"Hurricanes always do shift," observed Captain Trevelyan: "but we must
hope for the best. The wind may hold in its present quarter for some
time to come."
"Well, Bill, what do you think of this here breeze?" asked Tommy Rebow.
"I was telling you it blew pretty stiffish out in these parts."
"Why, that if I had my choice, I would rather it did not blow so hard;
but then do you see, Tommy, we have not got our choice, and it's for us
to take the weather as we find it. I am very sure that God has got His
reasons for sending this hurricane,--though maybe we don't see them,--
and so it's our business to make the best of it."
"Maybe," put in old Grim; "but I have a notion you won't be so content
as you are now, when it comes on to blow ten times harder. I tell you I
am expecting every moment to see the ship come right up, with one of
those seas breaking clean over her, and then there will be `cut away the
masts' in earnest, if there's time for it, and if not, we shall all go
to the bottom together."
Jack Windy and two or three other men who heard old Grim growling out
these remarks, burst into a loud laugh. "Why, any one would suppose you
had taken a double dose of growling-powder, old Grim," exclaimed Jack.
"Do you want to frighten these young chaps, or not? If you do, maybe
they will be taking a turn out of you one of these days. Of course it
may blow, and a good deal harder than it does now; but the _Lilly_ is
not a craft to mind a cap full of wind, more or less, and she will
weather a worse gale than this, I have a notion."
Night was coming on. The hurricane raged as fiercely as ever; the light
grew greyer and greyer, till, by degrees, a black darkness settled down
over the ocean. Still the seas rose up more wild and fierce-looking
every instant, and the ship rushed on, seemingly into space. Sharp eyes
only could see beyond the jib-boom, yet there were some who could have
pierced even that thick darkness, if there had been anything to see
besides the tossing seas. They, however, only appeared leaping up ahead
and round the ship, as if each one was eager to get hold of her, and
carry her down to the depths of old ocean. On, on she flew. The
captain and master frequently cast anxious looks at the compass in the
binnacle, while the second lieutenant with the boatswain went forward
and stood on the forecastle, peering with all their might and main into
the darkness ahead. Not a few other eyes were trying to look out ahead
also; but it seemed as if all the eyes and all the looking would do
little to discover any object, till the ship was too close to avoid it.
The seconds appeared like minutes, the minutes hours, as thus the
corvette rushed on. Not a man spoke. In truth, speaking, except at the
top of the voice, was of little use, the howling of the wind and the
roaring of the sea drowning all other sounds.
At length, however, there came a cry from forward, such as a seaman
alone could give. "Breakers! Breakers! On the starboard bow!" It
reached right aft, sounding high above the hurricane.
"Starboard the helm!" cried the captain.
There were few on board who did not hold their breath, till they were
obliged to gasp for more. It seemed as if the last moments of the ship
and all on board were approaching. Yet there was no sign of terror; not
a man quitted his station. The captain sprang into the starboard
rigging and looked anxiously out on that side. His eye distinguished
breakers, and his ear the increased roaring of the seas, as they dashed
against the rocky impediment to their course. Would the ship weather
the reef, and if she did, were there more reefs ahead? On she flew; but
the compass showed that she had come up a little to the wind: still
there was now the danger, as her bows met the seas, of their breaking on
board.
"Hold on! Hold on for your lives!" shouted the second lieutenant, as he
and the boatswain, clinging desperately to the fore-stay, saw a huge sea
about to break over the ship's bows. On it came. It was upon them, and
over them it burst, deluging the deck, and almost tearing them from
their hold. The crew clung to whatever they could grasp. On rolled the
sea across the deck, with difficulty finding its way through the
scuppers, the greater bulk at length breaking open a port, and thus
getting free, a considerable quantity of water, however, finding its way
down below.
"If another sea like that comes aboard us, we shall be sent to the
bottom!" exclaimed old Grim, shaking himself from the water, which had
covered him from head to foot. "It's lucky you boys have got paws to
hold on by, like Master Queerface there, or you would have broken
biscuit for the last time."
Neither Bill nor Tommy made any answer. Tommy, in fact, was more
frightened than he had ever before been in his life, and Bill could not
help feeling that the ship was in no small danger. Still he thought to
himself,--"There's One looking after us who can help us better than we
can ourselves, and so why should I cry out till I have got something to
cry for?"
Many on board who saw the breakers, expected every instant to hear the
fearful crash of the ship driving on the pointed rocks, to see the masts
falling, and the seas come leaping triumphantly over the shattered
wreck; but it was not to be so.
The first danger was passed, and no other sign of breakers was
perceived. The master had gone below to examine the chart.
"We may keep her before the wind again," he said. "All is clear ahead,
for if any of those ugly seas were to break on board, it might play
havoc with the barky."
The longest night has an end. In the middle of the watch, the hurricane
began to abate, and though the seas tumbled and rolled, and leaped and
roared, with almost unabated fury, it was evident that there was much
less wind. At length the fore-topsail was set, closely reefed, and the
ship ran bounding on from sea to sea, as if escaping from the huge
billows which came roaring up astern. Next the foresail was set.
Another sail succeeded, till once more, under her usual sail, in spite
of the heavy sea still running, the ship was hauled up on her course, a
long way out of which she had for some time been running. The sun shone
forth, casting his beams on the white crests of the seas, making them
glitter and shine like frosted silver.
"Well, Grimshaw," said Bill, addressing old Grim, "the sun has come out,
as I said he would, and the hurricane has had its blow, and we shall
have fine weather again presently."
"Don't you be boasting too much about that, youngster," answered old
Grim. "You don't know what is going to happen next, and you will be
laughing on the wrong side of your mouth before long, so look out for
squalls, boy."
No one minded what old Grim said, so these remarks made but little
impression on Bill, and he went about his duties with as much briskness
as ever. Bill was a favourite on board; no doubt about that, both among
officers and men. The lieutenants had applied to have him appointed as
one of the boys in the gun-room. It would give him more work; but Bill
was ready for that at all times.
The sun had set. It was rapidly growing dark, when the watch on deck
were ordered to take a reef out of each of the topsails. Bill and Tommy
Rebow sprang up the mizen rigging, as they were both in the mizen-top,
and were soon lying out on the mizen-topsail yard. They were both in
high spirits, feeling up to anything at the moment. One of the older
topmen was in the lee-earing. Bill was next to him. Tommy came next.
Suddenly the ship gave a tremendous lurch. There was a cry.
"Where's Bill?" exclaimed Tommy, a horror coming over his heart.
"A man overboard! A man overboard!" was shouted from the mizen-top. It
was echoed from below.
At that instant the captain came on deck. In falling, Bill had struck
the chain-span of the weather-quarter davits, breaking it as if it had
been packthread. Mr Collinson, the second lieutenant, who had charge
of the deck, pointed it out to the captain.
"The poor fellow must have been killed, whoever he was."
"Who is it?" asked the captain.
"Sunshine Bill!" cried out a voice.
"Bill Sunnyside, sir," said another.
"Alas!" thought the captain, "the poor lad I promised his widowed mother
I would look after. Does any one see him?" asked the captain.
"Yes, sir; there he is! There he is!" answered several voices.
Bill was seen floating on the top of a foaming sea. The life-buoy was
let go, its bright light bursting forth, and burning a welcome beacon,
it might be, to poor Bill. He was known to be a good swimmer. No boy
was equal to him on board. The ship was flying away, however, at a
rapid rate from him. Many declared that they saw him swimming, and that
therefore he could not have been killed, as had been supposed. Captain
Trevelyan gazed for an instant at the spot where Bill had been seen. He
was no longer, however, visible. It was a moment to him of intense
anxiety. To lower a boat in that foaming sea would in all probability
cause the loss of many more, and yet could he desert the poor lad?
Suddenly, with startling energy, he shouted out, "Wear ship! Up with
the helm! Square away the after-yards!"
The ship went on plunging into the heavy seas as she made a wide
circuit, the yards being again braced up on the other tack.