IN THE DEPTHS
Billy was the first to break the portentous silence. “We don’t know
where we’re going, but we’re on our way,” he chanted lugubriously. “It
looks to me as though we are in a regular mess.”
“It’s wonderful the way you catch on to things right away without any
one having to tell you,” said Fred sarcastically. “How in the world did
you ever find it out, Billy?”
“You fellows had better cut out the humor and set your wits to work at
some plan to get us out of this,” said Bobby, impatiently. “We’ve got to
attract attention some way, there’s no two ways about it.”
They shouted and hammered at the bulkheads until both their throats and
muscles were sore, but with no better success than before. They realized
the futility of the attempt after a time and held a council.
“We’re here, and so we might as well make the best of it,” observed
Bobby. “There’s no telling when we’ll be discovered here—possibly not
until the ship makes port. The first thing to do is to try to find
something among all this mess of cargo that’s fit to eat. I don’t know
about you fellows, but I feel as though a little grub might not go so
bad.”
“I guess we all feel that way,” said Fred. “Even if there’s food in this
place, though, it’s going to be an awfully hard thing to find it in such
black darkness.”
“Darkness or no darkness, we’ll get it if it’s here,” replied Bobby,
grimly. “Feel around and see if you can find anything that will break
these boxes open. We’ll just have to keep at it until we do find some
grub.”
The boys stumbled about in the pitchy darkness, but for a long time
could not find a suitable tool. At length Mouser succeeded in
discovering a loose top on a crate, and by all pulling together they
managed to pry this loose. This gave them a lever with which they could
lift the covers off other crates, and soon they were busily at work,
although the pitch darkness and close air of the hold were great
handicaps. The first two crates they opened yielded nothing that would
be of service to them, but the third one proved more valuable.
“There’s cans of something in this one!” cried Fred, excitedly. “I only
hope there’s something inside that’s fit to eat.”
“More likely it’s filled with white lead,” said Mouser, pessimistically.
“It doesn’t feel quite heavy enough for that,” replied Fred. “But now
the question is, how are we going to get them open? Those crooks didn’t
even leave me my jackknife, worse luck to them.”
“There’s some big nails in the cover of one of these crates,” said
Bobby. “I’m going to have a try at the can with that,” and he forthwith
fell to work with an energy that was ably assisted by a growing
appetite. In a short time he had hacked an edge of the cover loose, and
then gave a whoop of delight.
“It’s corn, fellows, or I don’t know anything,” he shouted. “Dig out a
can apiece and go to it.”
They all “went to it” with a will, and they were soon eating their fill.
Never had corn tasted so good before, and they each cleaned out a can
without the least difficulty. There were dozens more in the crate, and
they had little doubt that where there was one box full there would be
others. Further exploration proved this to be the case, and they had
soon unearthed several varieties of foodstuffs, so that they knew they
would not have to fear starvation, no matter how long the voyage proved
to be. They found some cans of tomatoes, which served to relieve their
thirst.
“We seem to be provisioned for a cruise around the world,” remarked
Billy. “If only it wasn’t so confoundedly dark, this wouldn’t be half
bad. I feel like lying down and having a good long nap.”
“I guess nobody will stop you,” said Fred. “There doesn’t seem to be
much else to do, as far as I know.”
Billy stretched himself out in the most comfortable corner he could
find, but sleep was not as easy as he had imagined. The ship was getting
out to sea and was beginning to roll with a long, deliberate motion,
that was most unsettling to a landsman. In addition to this, various
loose boxes began to shift about, and the boys were in imminent danger
of being struck by one of these. In the darkness it was impossible to
dodge, and they had simply to trust to luck to escape injury. Evidently
the ship was sailing in a hurry, before the cargo could be properly
stowed away.
After a while the cargo settled down somewhat, and the danger lessened,
but still there were occasional small landslides whenever the ship gave
an unusually violent roll.
Bobby had been doing some thinking, and now he gave voice to his
conclusions.
“It seems to me there must be an electric light in this place
somewhere,” he said. “Probably there’s a switch somewhere if we could
only find it. I’m going to look for one, anyway, and it wouldn’t do any
harm if you fellows did the same thing, although I hate to disturb
Billy’s beauty sleep.”
“Sleep nothing!” exclaimed Billy. “How do you think I can sleep when
this old tub is skipping around like one of the clowns in the circus?
Anybody that could sleep in this place would have to be pretty tired, it
seems to me.”
“Well, if you can’t sleep, get on the job, then, and try to locate a
switch somewhere,” said Bobby. “The only thing to do is to feel around
the walls and trust to luck that we’ll find one. If we don’t, we won’t
be any worse off.”
The boys started out on their quest, more for the sake of having
something to do than with any idea of actually finding a switch. But
they had hardly started when Mouser gave a cry of triumph, there was a
sharp click, and the place was illuminated by two electric bulbs high up
under the decks. The light was far from bright, but it was infinitely
better than no light, and the boys shouted delightedly at this stroke of
luck.
“Bobby, you’re right there with the inspirations!” exclaimed Fred,
slapping him on the back.
“Try again and see if you can’t think us up on deck. I wouldn’t put it
beyond you.”
“While you’re about it, you might as well think us home and sitting out
on the front porch,” said Billy. “It wouldn’t be so much harder.”
“Maybe if you’d do a little more thinking, I wouldn’t have to do so
much,” said Bobby.
“Thinking!” echoed Billy, in an aggrieved tone.
“Don’t I think up all the jokes for this crowd? If I don’t, who does,
I’d like to know.”
“Oh, well, that’s worse than no thinking,” declared Fred. “That doesn’t
really come under the head of thought at all, as Mr. Carrier would say.”
“What is it, then?” demanded his friend.
“It’s just bum humor, neither more nor less,” retorted Fred. “I’ll leave
it to the others if I’m not right.”
“No, I don’t think you are,” said Mouser, seriously. “I don’t think it’s
humor at all, bum or otherwise. It’s just something that makes me feel
sad, something like having a stomachache, for instance.”
“Oh, you go chase yourself!” exclaimed Billy, disgustedly. “I’m not
going to waste any more time on you ungrateful knockers. Now that we’ve
got light, I’m going to fix myself up a bunk where even this dizzy ship
can’t shake me loose, and then I’m going to sleep until we reach China
and they take the hatches off.”
“Well, pleasant dreams,” said Fred, grinning. “We’ll wake you up in time
to go and tell your troubles to the Chinks.”
“We ought to be able to get our laundry cleaned cheap,” said Billy, with
a feeble attempt at a joke. “Where there are so many Chinamen, the
competition in the laundry business must be fierce.”
“There’s just a bare possibility that we’ll get out of here before we
get that far,” said Bobby. “Don’t give up hope so easily, Billy.”
“Hope and I are strangers just at present,” answered Billy,
lugubriously. “Be sure you have my bawth waiting for me when I wake up,
James.”
“The only bath you’ll get will be if this tub springs a leak, and then
you may get more than you’re looking for,” Fred assured him.
“Well, don’t let me be disturbed, no matter what happens,” said Billy.
“Just take something and mop it up, and don’t bother me about it. Good
night, fellow Argonauts.”
“Oh, go to sleep and don’t call us names,” said Mouser, and Billy obeyed
orders to the letter.
The boys had no means of keeping track of the time, and the hours
followed each other in an endless procession. They had plenty to eat,
but when four days had passed they would have given anything they owned
to be out of that stifling hold and up on the clean, windswept decks.
They had almost given up hope of this, when suddenly there was the sound
of footsteps on the deck far above their heads and the scraping sound of
a hatch being removed.