Another week elapsed before I could convince Mrs Vansittart that I was
strong enough to be permitted to rise from my bunk and sit in a chair
for a short time; but after that my recovery was rapid. My wound healed
nicely, my strength returned, and five days later I was able to dress
and, with assistance, make my way up on to the main-deck, where Julius,
helped by the others--with a forethought for which I should certainly
never have given him credit--had rigged up a sort of makeshift awning
for my especial benefit. I learned, with the utmost satisfaction, that
since the memorable morning of the junk's appearance the boy had behaved
with almost unbelievable goodness. The talking-to which he had received
from his sister seemed to have awakened his better nature, and now they
assured me that--as indeed it seemed--he was everything that could be
desired. Of one thing at least there could be no possible mistake: his
strange antipathy to me had entirely vanished, and he now seemed anxious
to be as friendly and agreeable as before he had been objectionable.
It was nearly six weeks after the appearance of the junk when at length
I felt strong enough to resume my boat-building operations, and even
then I was only able at first to do such comparatively light work as
shaping and planing planks. Gradually, however, I got back again to the
heavier work which came from time to time when it was necessary to shift
the framework of the hull while working upon it. Every day witnessed a
certain amount of progress, until at length the open shell was finished
and caulked. Then by our combined efforts we placed the boat in
position ready for launching, bows first, off our sloping deck, since
she was now so heavy that no further lifting would be possible. This
brought the time on to five months and a few days from the date of the
wreck, during the whole of which period we had been favoured with
glorious weather, except for a few days of calms, accompanied by heavy
rain, about the time when I was emerging from my state of delirium.
But a few days after we had completed the shell of the boat, and while I
was preparing the planking with which to lay her deck, there occurred
signs of a change. The wind, which usually blew a moderate breeze from
the eastward, died away to a calm, and the sky became veiled by a thin
film of haze that gradually thickened until the sun was completely
blotted out. The atmosphere grew almost unbearably sultry, so that we
seemed to breathe only with the utmost difficulty, while work, even the
lightest, became almost impossible. The barometer fell so rapidly that
even the veriest tyro in weather lore could not have mistaken the signs;
and that night, or rather in the small hours of morning, a thunderstorm
broke over us, the like of which for violence and duration I had never
seen.
It started dry, and for four hours the heavens were incessantly ablaze
with lightnings, the vividness and alarming character of which it is
quite impossible to describe, while the continuous crash of thunder,
immediately overhead as it seemed, was terrific, causing the very wreck
herself to tremble with its vibrations. As I left my cabin and went up
on deck to watch it, I felt that sooner or later the wreck must
inevitably be struck; and indeed I frequently thought she actually had
been, for the lightning seemed to be playing all about her. But I
suppose she escaped somehow; or at least, if she was struck, no apparent
damage was done.
Then, about the time when daylight was beginning to make itself
apparent, it suddenly began to rain, the warm fresh water from the
clouds pelting down in a perfect deluge and totally obscuring everything
beyond a hundred yards' radius. The water poured off the decks in
cataracts, while from the poop it gushed through a scupper which
discharged on to the main-deck as though flowing from the spout of a
pump. In ten minutes the decks were as effectually cleansed as though
they had been scrubbed with soap and water. Thinking it a pity that so
much delicious fresh water should be permitted to run to waste, I went
below and brought up several small breakers and proceeded to fill them,
one after the other, until I had the lot, numbering about twenty,
brimming full. And all this time the thunderstorm continued to rage
with unabated fury.
The filling of the breakers during the continuance of that terrific
deluge naturally resulted in my getting wet through to the skin. Upon
the completion of my task, therefore, I retired to my cabin and effected
a complete change of garments; and I had barely finished my toilet when
I heard the sound of the gong summoning the party to breakfast.
While I was discarding my drenched garments and donning dry ones, I
became aware of the fact that the thunderstorm was at last easing up a
little. The lightning flashes were no longer a continuous blaze; the
thunder no longer was one continuous, uninterrupted crash and crackle
and boom, like the firing of two enormous fleets engaged in fighting a
fiercely-contested action, but each peal was separate and distinct, with
momentarily increasing intervals between the peals. Thus when we
presently met and sat down to breakfast, conversation of a sort was
possible, although by no means easy. The topic of the moment was of
course the storm, and I was not at all surprised to learn that the
entire party had been thoroughly terrified, and were by no means
reassured even now, when if was indisputable that the storm was passing.
We were all rather inclined to be silent at that meal. Mrs Vansittart
and her daughter both confessed to the possession of distracting
headaches, the result, no doubt, of their terror, and even Julius was in
a distinctly subdued mood; nobody but myself ate at all heartily, and I
think they were all glad when I laid down my knife and fork and made it
possible for them to rise from the table. The ladies and Julius
announced their intention to retire to their respective cabins in the
hope of obtaining relief in slumber; and as work on deck was quite out
of the question so long as the rain continued, I decided to follow their
example, having myself lost some hours of sleep. I accordingly carried
out my resolution, and soon sank into a condition of semi-oblivion,
during which I was only partially conscious of the fact that, although
the rain was still sluicing in torrents, the thunder and lightning had
dwindled away to a few distant rumblings and occasional flashes.
Finally this consciousness also passed and I fell sound asleep.
When I awoke rather more than an hour later, I at once became aware that
both the rain and the thunder had entirely ceased. It was still so dark
that until I referred to my watch I had the impression that I must have
overslept myself, and that the night was coming on. Then I flung open
the port of my cabin, which had been closed to exclude the rain, and,
poking my head out, saw that the sky was still overcast with enormous
masses of blackish, lurid-looking cloud which, as I watched, I saw were
working slowly in a strange writhing fashion, as though agitated by
several conflicting internal forces.
I went up on deck, and observed that the overcast condition of the sky,
of which I had obtained a partial view from my cabin port, extended in
every direction, right down to the horizon. A visit to the chart-house
revealed the fact that the barometer still stood alarmingly low; and it
was this fact, perhaps, in conjunction with the disquieting aspect of
the sky, that subconsciously awakened in me a sudden anxiety to hasten
my work upon the craft which, for want of a better name, I have spoken
of as a boat.
Be that as it may, I remember that I flung off the light jacket which,
for appearance' sake, I wore at meal times and when otherwise in the
company of the ladies, and set to work as though my very life depended
upon it. As I have already mentioned, the shell of the boat was
finished, caulked, and placed in position ready for launching; and in
addition to this the beams upon which the deck was to be laid were
fitted and fixed, and the planking planed up and roughly cut to shape.
My next task, therefore, was to complete the fitting of the planks and
the nailing of them in position, which I at once proceeded to do, with
the fixed determination to finish the job before dark. This
determination I carried out, although it necessitated my working for an
hour by lantern light; and when at length I knocked off, I had the
satisfaction of leaving the boat completely decked with the exception of
the cockpit, the coaming of which I also insisted on fixing before I
could persuade myself to lay down my tools.
The day had been one of lowering, breathless calm, with an insufferably
close atmosphere that rendered hard work exceedingly trying, and the
black, working canopy of cloud that overhung us continued to writhe and
twist itself into the most extraordinary shapes, while it showed no sign
of dispersing. This state of affairs continued until about four o'clock
in the afternoon, when a light, puffy, southerly breeze sprang up which
gradually freshened until, when at length I ceased work for the day, it
was blowing quite gustily, while a sea came rolling in over the reef
that soon caused the wreck occasionally to rock lightly upon her coral
bed.
I was very tired after my strenuous labours that day; moreover, I had
not yet fully recovered the strength that I had lost during my illness;
therefore, under ordinary circumstances, I should have gone to my cabin
and turned in soon after dinner. But as it was, I felt uneasy. I did
not at all like the look of the weather; I felt convinced that we were
booked for a blow, possibly a heavy one; and a further reference to the
barometer fully confirmed me in that conviction. If my foreboding
should prove to be correct, what would be the probable result? Should
the wreck but remain where she was, we would no doubt be all right, and
nothing worse would befall us than possibly an unpleasant and anxious
night. But if she did not, what then? She would gradually bump her way
over the few yards of the inner edge of the reef and then reach the
lagoon, in which she would probably founder, unless, indeed, she
remained afloat long enough to drive across it and fetch up again on the
opposite reef.
That was a possibility that I had long since recognised; but now, as I
looked out into the night and dimly saw the breakers thundering in upon
the outer end of the reef, shattering themselves into a wall of
madly-leaping water thirty feet high, and then continuing their course
across the reef in the form of foam-flecked waves, the power of which
was rapidly dissipated as they swept inward toward the wreck, I began to
doubt whether the _Stella Maris_ would ever again shift her berth. It
is true that those waves, as they swirled and foamed about her, had
power enough to cause the hull to rock a little now and again; but as to
lifting her bodily and throwing her into the lagoon--well, I thought it
unlikely. I reflected that when, in the first instance, she piled
herself up, there was a strong breeze blowing and a heavy sea running,
and that she had hit the reef stem-on under a heavy press of sail; yet
she had not then been flung right across the reef. The seas had brought
her so far, and then their power had failed to move her an inch farther.
Why should not that be the case now?
There was something comforting, almost reassuring, about this line of
argument; yet at the back of my mind there was another something that
seemed to tell me I must not take my data too much for granted--that
there was another possibility of which I must not permit myself quite to
lose sight. I therefore set myself to answer the question, in the event
of that other possibility happening, How were we to meet it? There was
but one answer--with the boat; and unfinished and destitute of equipment
as she was, we should undoubtedly be obliged to trust ourselves to her
if the worst came to the worst.
This point settled, the next question I asked myself was: What should we
require to take with us, supposing that it should come to our being
obliged to take to the boat in a hurry--that night, in fact? Provisions
and water, of course, in such abundance as the boat's capacity would
permit; a pair of oars, a coil of line, a baler, a bucket, a few tools;
say, half a dozen rifles, and a good supply of ammunition for same. But
why tools? I may be asked. Because if once we were compelled to trust
ourselves to a boat without mast or sails, we should be compelled to go
practically wherever the wind chose to drive us, and that might be to an
uninhabited island, where tools would be worth their weight in gold.
The carpenter's chest stood on the deck close by the boat--I had been
using the tools only a few hours earlier--and the thought came to me
that they might as well be in as out of her. I therefore emptied the
chest, since it was too heavy for me to lift full, and, having decided
upon the most suitable spot for it, I stowed it inside the boat, and
then proceeded carefully to replace its contents. This done, I hunted
up a pair of twelve-foot oars and put them aboard; found a pair of
rowlocks, and then, remembering that I had as yet made no provision for
shipping them, proceeded to cut out a good stout pair of cleats, which I
firmly secured to the gunwale of the boat. There was plenty of rope
lying about the deck, neatly done up in coils--the salvage of the
running gear; and from this I selected the mizen topgallant halyard as
of suitable size, putting it into the boat, unstopping it, and bending
one end to a hole in the stem head which I bored for the purpose.
Having gone so far, I decided that I would complete my preparations, so
that in the event of our being driven to the last extremity, we might be
ready. I considered a little as to what I would next put into the boat,
and fixed upon a case of ammunition, which I would stow alongside the
carpenter's chest, it being desirable, in order to secure stability,
that the heaviest articles should be at the bottom. Accordingly I dived
below to the magazine. Now, our Remington-rifle cartridges were done up
in small tin boxes of one hundred each, sealed up in air-tight tin
cases, which were in turn stowed in stout wooden chests each containing
one hundred tins; consequently each chest contained ten thousand rounds.
This was a large quantity, yet not too large, I decided, considering
the uncertainties of our position; I therefore emptied a case--which,
apart from its contents, was fairly heavy to drag up on deck--carried it
up to the boat, stowed it in position, and then returned for the small
tin cases.
The transport and stowage of these occupied some time, involving several
journeys up and down between the deck and the magazine, and when I had
finished this job I was distinctly tired. Nevertheless I brought up six
Remingtons, a cutlass, a brace of automatic pistols, and a box of
cartridges for the latter, and stowed them all in the boat before
knocking off for a rest. The work had given me an appetite, and since
it was now close upon midnight, I went below and routed out a good
substantial cold meal, which I consumed while I rested. Then--why
attempt to conceal the truth?--overcome, I suppose, by my unusual and
protracted exertions, I fell asleep as I sat.
I remember that as I slept I dreamed that we were away back there at the
entrance to the Straits of Malacca, where we lost the blades of our
propeller. I felt again the shock of our collision with the supposed
wreckage to which we attributed the loss, and the start I gave awoke me.
I instantly became aware that it was blowing heavily, for the howl and
whoop of the gale came distinctly to my ears; also the wreck was rolling
heavily from side to side, and for a moment I thought she was afloat,
until her harsh grinding upon the coral reached me above the tumultuous
crying of the wind. I staggered to my feet, for I realised that matters
were becoming serious. At that instant I felt the hull lift as the
wreck heeled over, and come down again with a jar that all but jolted me
off my feet; also, unless I was greatly mistaken, I caught, among the
other sounds, the thud of water falling heavily on deck.
I made a spring for the ladder, and in a couple of seconds was out on
deck, to find myself in the midst of a living gale. Coming up out of a
lighted room, I found the night intensely dark; yet as I stood there by
the open hatchway, clinging to the main fife-rail, I presently became
dimly aware of my more immediate surroundings. As it chanced, it was
about the time of full moon, and although the planet herself was
completely hidden by the dense masses of cloud that drove wildly athwart
the firmament, her light filtered through. Presently I was able to see
as far as the outer edge of the reef, where the surf, brilliantly
phosphorescent, plunged madly down upon it and burst into leaping
fountains of spray that came driving over the wreck like heavy rain,
though I knew it was not rain by the bitter, salt taste of it on my
lips. The surface of the water all round the wreck and on either hand--
in fact, over the whole of the weather portion of the reef--was a mass
of swirling, phosphorescent foam, which rose and fell as the rollers
came sweeping across the reef. It was these rollers that were causing
the ship to roll on her bed of coral, while occasionally one heavier
than the others would lift her bodily, break furiously over her, and
shift her a foot or more toward the inner edge of the reef, as I judged
by the feel of her, before it dashed her down again.
Instinctively my glances flew to where the boat should lie. Yes, thank
God! she was still where I had left her, held down mainly, I believed,
by the weight of the things that I had put in her, for when a sea broke
over the deck the water surged past her to leeward with quite weight
enough to wash her off had she been empty. I rushed at her, snatched
the rope which I had bent to her stem head, led it across the deck to
the stump of a stanchion, and made it fast with a clove hitch, thus
ensuring that the boat should not be washed off the deck so long as the
rope held. Then I stood for a minute or two, looking about me and
taking careful note of all the details of the situation.
It was in all essentials the complete realisation of the fear which had
haunted me ever since the wreck, and which, but a short time before, I
had been inclined to deride as highly improbable--the gale, the heavy
sea sweeping in across the reef, and the only question whether the wreck
would be battered to pieces where she lay or be washed off to founder in
the deeper water of the lagoon. A heavier sea than any that had
preceded it, surging in at that moment and making a clean breach over
the wreck, washed me off my feet, and would have swept me overboard had
I not chanced to have in my hand the rope by which I had secured the
boat. It lifted the wreck, slued her nearly half round, and swept her a
good fathom nearer that danger point, the inner edge of the reef; and I
began to realise that the peril was imminent, and momentarily growing
more so, and that immediate action was necessary.
Without pausing to consider further, I rushed below and hammered at the
cabin doors of Anthea and Julius, which were contiguous; and upon
receiving a reply, shouted to them to dress at once and join me with all
speed in the drawing-room. Then I sped to the stewardesses' quarters,
roused them, and finally made my way to Mrs Vansittart's cabin, where I
met the lady, fully dressed, just emerging.
She must have read in my countenance that there was trouble ahead, for
she came forward at once with outstretched hands, exclaiming:
"What is it, Walter? Does this dreadful gale mean danger to us?"
"It does indeed, madam, I greatly fear," I replied; and I proceeded to
explain the situation rapidly to her. While I was doing so, Anthea and
her brother made their appearance.
Naturally, they were all greatly discomposed at my statement of the
imminence of our danger, but never for a moment did they flinch. On the
contrary, the women appeared to be a good deal more calm and composed
than I was. They asked what they were to do, and when I told them, set
to work quietly but expeditiously collecting a quantity of food of
various kinds in tins, being assisted in this by the two stewardesses,
who now came upon the scene.
Meanwhile, the wreck had been bumping more and more heavily as we stood
and hurriedly conversed; sea after sea had broken over her, with
ever-increasing violence, and I was now in a very fever of anxiety
touching the safety of the boat. As soon, therefore, as I had started
my little crew to work, I rushed out on deck again, to see how matters
were going there.
I was no sooner in the open than I perceived that, even during my short
absence from the deck, the conditions had changed very materially for
the worse. The wind was now blowing with hurricane force, and evidently
piling up the water on the reef, for the seas that now swept across it
were momentarily gaining in power and weight, almost every one that
reached the wreck lifting her bodily and shifting her a fathom or so,
ever in the fatal direction of the edge of the reef. But the worst
feature of the case, after all, was that, while shifting the wreck, the
seas had canted her, so that she now lay fair and square broadside on to
them, and every one that struck her made a clean breach over her, and
threatened either to destroy or to sweep away our boat. This, even as I
stood, was lifted, and would have been washed away but for the restraint
of the rope by which I had secured her. I could see plainly, however,
that the rope would not bear the strain much longer than a few minutes,
or perhaps even seconds, and that if we should lose the boat our doom
would be sealed. I therefore rushed back to the drawing-room, called
the little party together, bade them take as much as they could carry,
and, watching their chance, make a dash for the boat. I set the example
by gathering in my arms as many tins and bottles as my hands and arms
would hold, rushed out on deck, just missed being washed overboard, and
hurriedly tumbled my load into the cockpit anyhow. Then I suddenly
remembered that as yet there was no water in the boat, and I dashed aft
to where I had left the water breakers which I had filled with rain
water, passing the other members of the party on my way.
"Do not attempt to return for another load," I shouted to them as I
passed; "get into the boat and stow yourselves under her deck; your
weight will be more useful there than anywhere else. I will attend to
the rest." Seizing one of the breakers, I proceeded to roll it quickly
along the deck until, after a hazardous and adventurous journey, I
arrived at the boat, into which, with Julius's assistance, I lifted it.
We both got into the cockpit to stow the breaker securely--the women
having already entered and stowed themselves away--when, just as matters
were satisfactorily arranged and I was in the very act of leaving the
boat to secure another armful of provisions, a tremendous sea struck the
wreck, heeling her over until her starboard waterway was buried. The
breaking sea swept the deck like a cataract, lifting the boat clean off
it, just as I sprang back into the cockpit; there was a little jerk and
a twang as the rope parted, and in an instant we were afloat and driving
rapidly away to leeward across the lagoon.