CHAPTER VII.
“BEING at sea,” said Wally, thoughtfully, “is very queer.”
“In what way?” demanded Norah.
“Well, you forget all about everything else. At least, I do. Don’t you? It’s only a week since we saw land, but I feel as if I’d never been anywhere but on this old ship. You wake up in the same creaky old cabin, and you have the same tub, at the command of the same steward; and you come up on deck and see the same old sea, and the same faces; nothing else. Then you walk the same deck, and—oh, do the same old things all day! Nothing different.”
“Yes—but it’s all rather jolly,” said Norah. “You like it, don’t you?”
“Oh, awfully! I don’t care how long it goes on. But I’ve got a queer feeling that I’ve never done anything else, and never will again.”
“Well, that’s just stupid!” said Norah, practically. “And if you really felt like it, I think you’d begin to be dull at once.”
“Well, there’s something in that,” said Wally. “Of course, one knows it’s going to end, and that something altogether different is going to happen. Only one can’t picture it. It’s like being told you’ll die some day; you know it’s perfectly true, but you don’t believe it.”
“Wally!” ejaculated Norah, amazed. “What on earth is the matter? Are you sick?”
“Sick?” said Wally, staring. “Not me. I was merely reflecting. Can’t a fellow think?”
“It’s so unusual, in your case,” put in Jim, who had been silently smoking. “You might give us a little warning when you go in for these unaccustomed exercises. All the same, I know what you’re driving at; one gets into a kind of rut on board ship, without being able to see the end of it. If one could imagine how things will be in England, it would be different—but it’s hard to imagine a place you’ve never seen, and under extraordinary conditions!”
“So it is,” Norah said. “The end of this voyage is like a dark curtain across everything. I wish we could see to the other side of it.”
“So do I,” agreed Wally. “But as we can’t, the best thing is not to think of it. What are you going to do to-day, Norah?”
“Oh—just worry through another old day!” said Norah, laughing. “There isn’t any special plan, I believe.”
It was a week since they had seen land. They had said a final good-bye to Australia after a brief stay at Adelaide, spent in scampering round the bright little city lying at the foot of the Mount Lofty Ranges, and in a motor-car run through the hills themselves, seeing exquisite panoramas of plain and sea far below. The almond-orchards were in blossom; over the plains their wide expanse was like a mist of shimmering opal. Above, on the foothills, golden wattle blazed for miles. But South Australia was in the grip of the worst drought in its history, and the hills were dry and bare, and scarred with the marks of great bush-fires; it hurt to see the happy country so worn and tired. They were not sorry when the time came to rejoin the ship, and to steam down the Gulf and out to sea.
Somewhere ahead, rumour said, were the Australian transports; the first contingent of troops had slipped away from Melbourne silently, under cover of darkness, and no one seemed to know definitely the day of their going. Rumour went further, saying that they were to coal at an unfrequented southern port of West Australia; so that thePerseuswould probably draw ahead, without catching sight of the fleet—which was disappointing. After that, rumour became speculative and varied. One report stated that the troops were to go to South Africa, to help the Government there, hard-pressed between rebellion and the enemy; another gave India as their destination, and another, Egypt; while the majority still held to the belief that they would be sent direct to France. And as no one knew any more than any one else, and nothing definite was known in any quarter, thePerseusbuzzed with conjectures and arguments, the natural result of which was that no one got any “forrarder.”
Australia was now far behind them. They had not touched any western port, but had headed straight for the Indian Ocean, and now were swinging across it towards South Africa, apparently the only ship afloat upon its wide expanse. The outward and homeward routes vary, according to ocean currents, so that ships going and coming rarely meet; and, in addition, thePerseuswas running many miles off her course, in the hope of eluding German cruisers, of which several were known to be prowling about, any one of their number ready to pounce upon thePerseuslike a hungry dingo upon a large and very fat lamb. It was, however, unlikely that any would be so far south as their present position, and the passengers had been quite unable to stir themselves to any degree of nervousness. War precautions were observed in obedience to Admiralty instructions rather than from inward convictions.
Meanwhile, the voyage was not exciting. To put thirty passengers on board a ship capable of carrying three hundred and fifty is to produce an effect similar to that of a few small peas in a large pod. And these passengers on thePerseuswere mostly anxious and pre-occupied people: full of anxieties connected with the war, and longing so keenly for the voyage to be over, that the ship and its population held but little interest for them. A sprinkling of South African settlers were hurrying homewards; some to fight, and all concerned for the safety of their properties. There were wives whose husbands were already fighting in France; grave-faced women, who did not talk much, but counted each slow day that must elapse before they could obtain news of their dear ones. Half a dozen young men were on their way to England to enlist there—ready for any job, so that it only meant business; hoping for a commission, but quite willing to join as rankers if necessary. One had his motor-car on board; another had left a vast property in New South Wales; a third had been pearl-fishing off Port Darwin, and had made his way right across the desert in the centre of Australia to join the Expeditionary Force at Adelaide—and finding himself just too late for the first contingent, had been too impatient to await the formation of the second, and so had caught thePerseusat the last moment. Two or three retired British officers, recalled from Australia to the colours, were on board—with stories, half-comical, half-tragic, of homes broken up at a moment’s notice on receipt of a curt cable from the War Office. The cloud that lay upon the whole world rested also on this one atom of Empire, lonely in a wide sea; there was no topic but War.
“It’s maddening to be so long without news,” Jim said, leaning over the rail to watch the white curl of foam breaking away from the bow. “It seemed long enough to wait for one’s morning paper in Melbourne, even after you’d seen every ‘special extra’ the day before; and then suddenly to drop into silence!”
“You’ve only had a week of silence—and there are eleven days yet to Durban,” Wally remarked. “No good in worrying yet. I wish they’d let us use the wireless.”
“They won’t,” Jim said. “Orders are awfully strict; no wireless except in case of absolute emergency. Oh, it wouldn’t be good enough; a German could locate a ship by her wireless to within a few miles. You might as well put a bell on your neck.”
“Inventions are going too far nowadays,” said Wally, with deep disfavour. “Old Marconi had done very well without a further refinement like that—it’s only lately that they have been able to harness sound-waves so completely, and I don’t see any real use in it. It’s a jolly nuisance, anyhow.”
“Did you ever see any one look so miserable as the sentry?” asked Norah, laughing.
A young sailor was on duty at the door of the Marconi-room, standing sentinel, with rifle and fixed bayonet. It was evident that he had not been prepared for warlike uses, and his expression also was a fixed one, full of woe. His mates, passing, grinned at him openly; small cabin-boys and junior stewards peeped round corners and jeered at him, beseeching him not to let his bayonet go off. Like Casabianca, he stood at his post, but without enthusiasm.
“It would be interesting to see him if any one tried to get in to the wireless,” said Jim. “I’m sure he wouldn’t run away, but he’d be much more likely to damage himself than the intruder with that toothpick of his; I don’t believe he ever handled one before.”
“Who would want to get in, anyhow?” Wally inquired, lazily.
“No one, that I know of,” Jim answered. “It would bore most people stiff to be kept in the Marconi-room for ten minutes. Still, they can’t make rules for one ship alone, and there may be Germans on board any ship, able to use the instrument. I suppose if we were on a crowded boat, with a few suspects with foreign accents scattered among the passengers, we’d think all the precautions highly desirable; it’s only because we’re on this peaceful old tub that they seem unnecessary.”
“I wouldn’t mind their having sentries all over the ship, if they wanted to—but I’m beginning to feel I would chance any number of Germans for the sake of fresh air!” said Norah, ruefully. “It’s bad enough to have your cabin shut up from dusk until you’re in bed—but at least you don’t stay in it. The rest of the ship just gets stifling.”
“You see,” said Wally, “if you shut up a ship, you shut so many assorted smells into her—engine-rooms, cooks’ galley, saloon, cabins, and people, with a sort of top-dressing of new paint, hot oil, and wash-up water. Then the gentle aroma of tallow, from the holds, works up through the lot. Then you don’t breathe any more.”
“You wish you didn’t, at any rate,” responded Norah, laughing.
“It beats me, how some of the passengers seem to thrive on it,” Jim remarked. “Look how they sit in the lounge at night, half of ’em smoking, and every chink shut up, and play bridge. I’ve come to the conclusion that they’re made of sterner stuff than we are.”
“Well, we can’t help it—it’s because we live in the open all the year round. A stuffy house is bad enough, but a stuffy ship—ugh!” Norah grimaced, with expression, if not with elegance. “Let’s be thankful we can live on deck most of the time; it’s always lovely there.”
“This is where you hail me as your benefactor, by the way,” Jim observed. “The little cabin next yours is empty; I’ve arranged with your steward for you to use it as a dressing-room in the evenings, and then you needn’t have a light in your own cabin at all—and the port needn’t be shut.”
“Jimmy, you are an angel!” said his sister, solemnly. “When did you think of it?”
Jim had the grace to look sheepish.
“When it struck me this morning to manage the same thing for myself and Wal!” he admitted. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of these empty cabins before. At least it means that we’ll have fresh air to sleep in, and that’s something.” He broke into a suppressed laugh, hiding it by renewed attention to the waves.
“What is it?” asked Norah.
“That seafaring person,” said Jim, indicating an old quartermaster, who had passed them with a slightly aloof air, “had an adventure with Wal and me after you had gone below last night. We were stretched out on our deck-chairs—the deck as dark as usual, of course, only you know how you get used to the dim light after a while?”
Norah nodded.
“Well, he came suddenly out of the light of a doorway, shutting it quickly after him, and approached us. We thought he saw us, so we never thought of speaking; and we only realised that he couldn’t see us at all when he fell violently on top of us. He hit Wal’s chair first, and tripped; then he fell across us both and lay face downwards on us for a moment, with a loud groan—and then he rolled off our knees, and sat up on the deck, looking the biggest idiot you can imagine. And we hadn’t any manners—we just howled!”
“How lovely!” said Norah, twinkling. “What happened?”
“He fled,” said Jim. “And we went on howling. It was a very cheerful happening.”
“No wonder he went past you with his nose in the air,” Norah said. “Poor old fellow!—it must have been a shock to him.”
“Not half such a shock as it was to us,” said Wally. “We never asked him to fall on us—and he’s bonier than you’d think. Next time I would like to choose a fat, soft quartermaster; this one is simply one of the horrors of war, when he falls on you. He’s all bony outcrops. Look, Norah, there’s a porpoise!”
“One!—why, there’s a school!” Jim said.
The big creatures were gambolling about a ship’s length away, having mysteriously appeared from the west. More and more appeared, until the sea seemed full of them—great, dark forms, shooting into the air in a curve that was extraordinarily graceful, considering their bulk, and piercing the waves again with hardly a splash. They came nearer and nearer, evidently interested in the ship; looking down, Norah could see them under water, dim shadows shooting through the green depths. For a while they kept pace with the steamer; then they gradually drew off, as if in obedience to some invisible signal from their leader, and headed westward again, until at length the leaping, sleek forms were lost in the distance.
“They must be immensely strong beasts,” Wally said. “I remember once being in the bow of a big steamer going to Queensland, and three porpoises had quite a game with us—they kept springing into the air and shooting backwards and forwards in front of the bow—so close to it that it looked as if they’d be cut in two as they sprang. But they must know exactly how to judge distance; the bow seemed right on them every time, but it never touched them. They played with that old ship like three great puppies—and she was going along at a good rate, too. I must say I’d like to see a porpoise in a real hurry—he’d be something like a torpedo!”
“Nice people,” said Norah, watching the last dark speck in the west. “I hope they’ll come often. Are we likely to see any whales?”
“It’s not the season, but you never can tell. Durban is a great place for them, I believe,” Jim answered. “Mr. Smith saw a great many there last time he came out.”
“Mr. Smith seems to be developing an affection for you, Jimmy,” Wally said. “I saw him deep in soulful intercourse with you before breakfast.”
“I don’t know about either the soul or the affection,” said Jim—“but he’s a lonely sort of beggar. No one seems to want him. And he’s really rather interesting when he gets talking. I can’t quite make out who he is, or where he comes from; he’s been in Australia for a good bit, and he says he’s a Canadian, but he doesn’t look like one.”
“He’s such a bad-tempered animal,” Wally said. “He fell foul of the purser on his first day on board, and seems to have been fairly uncivil to the captain; and my steward says he’s a ‘holy terror’ in his cabin. One of those people who are never satisfied. And he can’t play games or do anything.”
“Oh, well, he doesn’t worry us much!” said Jim, easily. “He doesn’t often want to talk, and when he does, one can’t be rude to him. He’s very interested in the troopships—has a nephew in the New South Wales contingent. That’s what we were talking about this morning; he heard me say I knew a lot of fellows in the crowd, and he wanted to know if I knew where they were going. His nephew can’t stand heat, he says, and he doesn’t want him to be in Egypt. I guess he’ll get enough cold in Flanders before the show is over.”
“Where’s Mr. Smith going?” inquired Wally.
“Oh, to London, I think! He isn’t communicative about himself, and I don’t know what his business is; he has travelled a lot, and knows Europe pretty well. Quite an interesting animal to talk to. But I haven’t run across any one with so little interest in the war—he says he’s lost heavily by it, and that seems to have soured him—he won’t talk war, except for his beloved nephew. Must be a pretty decent sort of uncle, I should think.”
“That sort of person might be all right as an uncle, but I don’t seem to hanker after him as anything at all, myself,” said Wally. “But you always used to find some decency in the most hopeless little beggars at school, Jim.”
“Oh, well, most people are pretty decent when you come to know ’em a bit!” said Jim, carelessly. “Anyhow, I believe in thinking they are; life wouldn’t be worth living if one went round expecting to find the other fellow a beast. And old Smith isn’t really half bad. Here’s Dad.”
“Where have you been hiding yourself, Dad?” Norah asked, turning to meet her father. “We hunted everywhere for you a while ago.”
“I’ve been up in the captain’s quarters,” explained her father. “He has very comfortable rooms; we have been smoking and talking. It’s an anxious position to hold; I wouldn’t care to be captain of a big liner in the present state of affairs, but it seems to sit lightly enough on him. At any rate, he doesn’t wear his heart upon his sleeve, and if he’s worried, his passengers are the last people likely to find it out.”
“The voyage out must have been exciting,” Wally remarked. “They had a huge passenger-list, and German cruisers were very plentiful—one only missed them by a few miles in the dark.”
“We’re to have boat-drill every week,” said Mr. Linton. “After the drill for the crew, a double whistle is to summon the passengers; every one has been allotted a boat-station, under the command of an officer, and we’re supposed to tumble up pretty sharply and answer to our names. Not much in it, but it will teach us where to go in case of emergency, and to know under which officer we should be. Otherwise we should be like a mob of sheep.”
The captain, cheery-faced and alert, bore down upon the little group.
“Has your father been telling you my plans for disturbing your leisure, Miss Norah?” he asked. At home the captain had small girls of his own; Norah and he were already great friends. “I hope you won’t find it a bore; some passengers on the way out considered it beneath their dignity to turn up to boat-drill, but on the whole they are very good about it.”
“I think it will be rather fun,” said Norah. “Whose boat are we in?”
“You’re in the second boat, under the doctor,” replied the captain. “I shall look to you to aid him, as first mate—with full authority from me to keep Wally in order, and put him in irons if necessary.”
“What have I done?” asked Wally plaintively.
“That’s very satisfactory,” said Norah, laughing, and not heeding the victim. “Captain, if we had to take to the boats in earnest, what luggage could we have with us?”
“H’m,” said the captain, reflectively. “Luggage is a wide term, and it would entirely depend upon the Germans—they might let people take a good deal or nothing at all. I wouldn’t have any say in the matter. There is plenty of room, of course, with so few passengers. I should recommend you to have a small suit-case with valuables and necessaries, and as many rugs and coats as you could carry, separately.”
“Would it be wise to have a suit-case ready packed?”
The captain laughed.
“Well, I don’t suppose for a moment that the Germans are going to get us, Miss Norah,” he said. “Don’t you worry your little head about them. We take precautions, of course, because that’s common-sense, but they need not make any one nervous. A lot of passengers on the way out kept their valuables packed in readiness, and it may have acted as a kind of insurance against trouble, for the enemy didn’t get us—and they were near enough. Just please yourself, and don’t get anxious.”
“Why, I don’t suppose they would hurt the passengers, in any case,” said Mr. Linton. “War isn’t piracy, captain.”
“No; not with decent people. And so far the Germans at sea have been exceedingly decent,” the captain answered. “TheEmdenhas done plenty of damage, but not to people; her captain must be a very good sort, judging by the way he has acted towards British who fell into his hands. No; there might be a certain amount of discomfort, of course, but no danger. Do you like queer experiences, Miss Norah?”
“I do,” said Norah, promptly.
“Then I hope you won’t get this one!” said the captain, as promptly. “Not on my ship, anyhow. And I don’t think you will, either—the route will be well guarded, and we don’t run risks. You must look on boat-drill as just one of the games the doctor advocates—designed to keep you all from getting fat and lazy. And there’s a whale blowing over there—can you see?”
Norah turned in excitement, and could just see the faint spout of water on the horizon.
“Is that all?” she said, disgustedly. “Won’t he come any nearer?”
“I’m afraid that one won’t,” said the captain; “he’s a long way off, and we’re going fast. But don’t say I didn’t provide you with diversions, Miss Norah—porpoises and leviathans of the deep, and boat-drill!” He laughed at the disappointed face. “A whale is really a dull, old thing, until you get to close quarters, but you needn’t say I said so—they’re one of our stock attractions. I must go”—and he went, swiftly, with quick greetings for passengers on the way. The captain possessed in full that valuable attribute of captains of liners—at the day’s end each passenger used to feel that he or she had been the special object of “the skipper’s” attention and interest. It is this quality which helps to lead to the command of big ships.
Some one came up and carried off the boys and Norah to a game of deck-tennis—which is played with a rope quoit across a net, and provides as much strenuous exercise and as many bruised knuckles as the most exacting could demand. Mr. Linton found his deck-chair and a book, and the long, lazy morning went by imperceptibly, as do all mornings on board ship. At luncheon, there were rumours of news—some one had heard that the wireless operator was in communication with a ship, and there ensued a buzz of speculation. The captain, entering, was appealed to by a dozen voices.
“No news at all,” said he, sitting down. “The operator heard a British warship speaking somewhere, a long way off; she speaks in code, but they know the preliminary signals.”
Mr. Smith, looking slightly anxious, shot out a question.
“That does not mean danger to the troopships, I hope, captain?”
“I shouldn’t think so,” said the captain. “There’s no reason that it should; with a big convoy like that the warships will be spread out, and they must exchange messages. It’s probably of the simplest nature—only we don’t know anything about it, so I can’t enlighten any one.” He gave a little laugh. “I suppose there is no use in my mentioning that the best advice I can give you all is to forget that there is a war?”
Mr. Smith, returning to his soup, was heard to murmur something unintelligibly about his nephew. He looked worried and pre-occupied; and when his neighbour, who happened to be the pearl-fishing man from Port Darwin, asked him a question, he hesitated, stammered, and finally gave an answer so incoherent that the other stared.
“He’s a rum chap, that,” the Port Darwin man, John West, confided to Jim, later. “You’d almost think he had something on his mind. Anybody after him, do you think?”
“Well—he joined the ship in a hurry at the last moment,” Jim said. “Naturally, he didn’t mention if any one were on his track.”
“If you come to that, I did the same thing myself,” said West, laughing. “Going down to Port Adelaide, I was thinking I should have to chase the old ship down the Gulf in a motor-boat! So I can’t very well afford to talk about Smith. And I daresay he’s all right—he’s only worried about his precious nephew. I told him at lunch that there were heaps of other people’s nephews in the contingent, so his wouldn’t be lonesome; but it did not seem to comfort him to any noticeable extent. There isn’t much emotion left for a wife or mother when a mere uncle takes on like Smith!”
“He’s a man of feeling—and there aren’t many among you hard-headed young Australians!” said the doctor, laughing in his turn. “You can’t understand a man showing any emotion at all. Smith, being fat and soft, is different—that’s all. Look at him now.”
They were sitting in the deck-lounge, smoking. A few yards away Mr. Smith came into view, an unlit cigar in his mouth. His broad face was almost comically lined and perplexed, and he passed them without any sign of observing them. Immediately behind him came Norah, encumbered with a large, restless baby.
“Wherever did you get that thing, Norah?” Jim called to her.
“He isn’t a thing,” said Norah, indignantly. “He’s a very nice person—only his mother is apt to get a bit tired.”
“I don’t wonder,” said the doctor, as the baby executed a leap that would have been a somersault but for his bearer’s firm grip. “Is he training for a porpoise, do you think? Come and sit down, Miss Norah—he’s too heavy to be carried for long at a stretch.”
Norah sat down thankfully, and the baby graciously accepted the doctor’s silver tobacco-box, and proceeded to concentrate all his energies on opening it.
“What have you done with his mother?”
“Oh, she has gone to lie down—she has a headache, and the baby doesn’t give her much peace,” Norah answered. “He’s really quite good if you show him things. We’ve been looking for whales—but whales are so uninteresting in the distance.”
“I wish I could show you some giant rays I saw once,” the doctor said. “We were going up the coast from Bombay to Karachi in a British-India turbine boat, and after breakfast one morning on a calm day there were a lot of them jumping about two miles off. They’re worth seeing when they jump. You know their shape—enormous flat things—and they came out of the water with a sort of gradual upward rush, like a hydroplane lifting, rise about ten feet from the water, and then come down flat—whop! It’s like a billiard-table falling on the water.”
“Whew!” said Wally. “I’d like to see them. What size do they run to?”
“I could tell you of one that measured thirty feet from nose-tip to tail-tip, and sixteen feet from side to side—only people don’t always believe the yarn, and it discourages me,” said the doctor, with a twinkle in his eye.
“Go on, doctor—we promise to believe anything!” Jim assured him.
“As a matter of fact, the story is sober truth—but it was a queer coincidence,” the doctor said. “We were talking about these big rays to the first officer of the ship, that morning, and he told us that about two years before, a ship in which he was second mate had run into one of them in those same latitudes. It got across the bow, simply wrapped round it, and was drowned by being dragged through the water. They got a rope on to it and lifted it aboard by a windlass. It was the one of which I told you—measured thirty by sixteen.”
“What would he weigh?”
“Oh—tons. I caught a ray once in the Andaman Islands; it was a small one, four feet from side to side, and ten feet long—six or seven feet of that was tail. It weighed a hundred and forty pounds. So you can calculate the big one, Miss Norah.”
“No, thank you,” said Norah, hastily. “We’ll call it tons.”
“Well, the first officer of our ship had photographs of that brute hanging up in Karachi, where he said they had taken it, for exhibition. Of course, it might have been any big ray, hanging anywhere; I’m afraid most of us put it down as a sailor’s yarn, rather more circumstantial than usual. But this is where the queer part of my story comes in.”
The baby drummed happily on the table with the tobacco-box, and gurgled.
“The kiddie likes it, anyhow,” said Jim, laughing. “Go on, doctor.”
“That was about ten o’clock in the morning. We watched the rays as long as they remained in sight, and then forgot all about them. After lunch the skipper noticed that our speed was wrong; he had been suspicious for some time, and on testing it by the patent log he found we were doing only eleven knots instead of fifteen. That sort of thing annoys a skipper, especially when there is no reason for it. So he rang up the engine-room and asked what revolutions she was making, and was told that she was doing her fifteen knots. The captain argued the point with some warmth; the chief engineer defended his engines with equal vigour, and finally they came to the conclusion that something was wrong.”
“Not a leak?”
“Oh, no! I happened to stroll up to the bow about that time; it’s the quietest place on the ship, and I like it—and looking over, I saw something half in and half out of the sea, for all the world like a thick white sheet wrapped round the cutwater. It beat me for a few minutes—the foam from the waves partly concealed it—and then I saw that it was one of these huge rays. The ship had run into it and broken its back, just as the chief officer had described—and it had revenged itself by reducing our speed by four knots!”
“Well!” said Norah. “Did you all go and apologise to the chief officer?”
“It might have pained him to know we’d even doubted him,” said the doctor, laughing. “We made our apologies—mentally. The thing was exactly as he had described. We wanted the skipper to stop and get it aboard, but he was sufficiently disgusted with the delay it had already caused; and it would have taken a good while to rig up a derrick. So he had the engines reversed, and we backed slowly astern, and as soon as the pressure of the water against it was released, Mr. Ray dropped off. I think he was even bigger than the one the chief officer had measured.”
“Well, it would be a good deal of fish that you would need to wrap round the stern, to bring down the speed of a big ship,” said Jim. “I wish you’d got him on board, doctor.”
“So do I—there were batteries of cameras waiting for him; and the skipper was unpopular for fully twelve hours,” said the doctor. “Skippers, however, have to be stern men, and indifferent to questions of popularity—where the coal bill is concerned. Owners and coal bills remain long after passengers are a misty memory; and you can’t appease owners—not even with a fish story!” He patted the baby’s head, rescued his tobacco-box, and was gone.
CHAPTER VIII.
“BOTHER!” said Norah, with vexation.
She sat up in bed in the dark. From the skylight over her door a very faint light filtered in from the shaded lamp in the alley-way; but the cabin was very gloomy.
“Toothache is bad enough in the day,” murmured Norah, indignantly. “But when it wakes one up at night——!” She put her hand to her face, trying to still the throbbing of the offending tooth; obtaining no relief, as was natural, seeing that for half an hour she had been trying such simple means, aided by the warmth of her pillow. The tooth had refused to be soothed; it was evident that sterner measures were demanded.
“Now, if I could remember where I put that bottle of toothache stuff——!” she pondered. “Brownie packed it, I know, and I’m sure I unpacked it; but where did I put it? And I can’t switch on my light to look. Bother the old Germans!”
She slipped out of bed. The breeze blew in sharply through the open port-hole, and shivering a little, she groped for her dressing-gown and slippers, and, having donned them, drew the curtain across the port-hole. Then she found her little electric torch, and blinked as its ray illuminated the cabin.
“That’s better,” she reflected. “Now for that horrid little bottle.”
It is not very easy to hunt for a small object in drawers and boxes when one hand is occupied in pressing the button of an electric torch; and the search was somewhat prolonged. Finally, the missing toothache cure turned up in the retirement of a work-bag, and Norah thankfully applied it to the troublesome tooth. By this time she was cold and tired—glad to get back to the warm comfort of bed.
Peace, however, did not last long. In a very few minutes a heavy step sounded in the alley-way, and an authoritative tap at her half-open door.
“Who’s there?” said Norah, quaking.
“Quartermaster, ma’am,” said a deep voice. “Officer of the watch wants to know if your port is uncovered. Light showing on this side.”
Norah explained briefly.
“My curtain was drawn,” she finished; “and my little torch doesn’t give much light. The purser said I might use it.”
“The purser doesn’t have to stand watch at night,” said the quartermaster, acidly. “That there torch of yours must give more light than you think, ma’am. Orders are to close your port if found open and light showing. Can I come in, ma’am?”
He came in; a sternly official figure in oilskins, bearing a shaded lantern. At the sight of the dismayed little figure with the mass of disordered curls, he relented somewhat.
“Oh, it’s you, miss! Now, didn’t you know you was disobeying orders?”
“No, I didn’t,” said Norah, sturdily. “I had leave. And that is all the light my little torch gives.” She pressed the button.
“Well, it don’t look exactly powerful and that’s a fact,” remarked the quartermaster. “Still, orders is orders—and you’d be surprised to see how a light shines out through a winder, miss, when you’re lookin’ down from the bridge.”
“Well, I won’t light it again—not at all—if only you’ll leave the port open,” Norah pleaded. “The ship is stuffy enough without having one’s cabin stuffy too.”
“Lor, you should put your nose into our quarters, miss!” remarked the quartermaster. “No draughts up there, I promise you! We wouldn’t sleep easy with all this cold air a-blowin’ in.” He looked at Norah’s distressed face. “Well, if you give me your word there won’t be any more light, miss, I might chance it.”
“Not if I have fifty teeth aching—I promise!” said Norah gratefully. “Thank you ever so much, quartermaster.”
“Don’t mention it,” said the sailor, affably. “Good-night miss—or rather good-morning! It ain’t far off dawn.” He tramped out, leaving the cabin redolent of oilskins and hot lantern.
Jim, a few hours later, was indignant.
“I never heard such bosh,” he said, warmly. “Light—why, that little torch couldn’t be seen a dozen yards away! I wonder who was the officer of the watch. I’d like to speak to him.”
“Oh, don’t bother, Jimmy!” said Norah. “It must show more than we thought, or they couldn’t have seen it, that’s clear. And for all we know, I may never want to use it again. If I do, I’ll rig up a dark serge skirt over the port-hole, and I’m sure no one could see a chink of light then.
“Well, it’s rather a bore to have to do that in the dark, but I suppose there’s no help for it,” said Jim. “And there is really nothing to be gained by speaking to headquarters, I suppose; if the light shows, it mustn’t be permitted, and that’s all about it. I’m glad the quartermaster was decent over it, anyhow.”
“Oh, he was a dear! he might have shut the port-hole, and he didn’t. But I’m sorry the officer should think I disobeyed orders,” added Norah.
“I’ll fix that up with him, if I get a chance,” said her brother. “And don’t you go making a habit of getting toothache and lying awake at night; it isn’t good for you.” He gave her hair a friendly tweak. “Come up on deck; Wally will be looking for us.”
It occurred to Norah two nights later, that she was in a fair way to disobeying at least part of Jim’s injunction. Toothache had not visited her, certainly; but she had a most unusual fit of wakefulness. It was a still night, mild and close; scarcely any breeze came through her port-hole. Early in the night she had found the grey ’possum rug too hot and had cast it off; then a blanket followed suit; and still she was hot and restless, and the little bunk seemed suddenly narrow and uncomfortable.
She got up at last, put on her dressing-gown and leaned out of the port-hole. Without, the night was very dark; somewhere, a storm was brewing, and all the stars had disappeared. A faint, occasional glow of phosphorescence shone from the water racing past. There was refreshment in the cool touch of the night air upon her hot face. Norah liked the sea at night; even though now she could scarcely see it, it was there, great, and quiet, and companionable, with something soothing in the gentle touch of the water on the side of the ship. She liked it best when it came in waves that dashed cheerily beneath her port, breaking in a scatter of star-lit foam; but to-night it was dark and mysterious, and if you were wakeful it was easy to weave stories about it, and to picture tropic islands where just such seas lapped lazily on white coral beaches. In the daytime, Norah was a very practical person, and rarely thought of weaving stories. At night everything seemed different and strange; and the sea took possession of her imagination and whispered to her all sorts of queer things that she could never have told to any one—not even to Dad and Jim. They would have been kind and sympathetic, of course, and would never laugh at her; but they would probably have questioned themselves as to whether she were quite well.
As she leaned out, watching, the little phosphorescent gleams on the water came and went fitfully; sometimes barely a glimmer, and then a stronger gleam that rested for a moment on the crest of a lazy swell. So black was the night that every tiny fragment of light seemed twice its real size—and when dark water rolled over the faint sparkles, the gloom seemed a hundred-fold deeper. Presently, however, the little intermittent flashes grew stronger, and the periods of complete darkness less frequent.
“I do believe it’s getting into the air,” Norah murmured. “I never heard of phosphorescence in the air, but that doesn’t say it may not be there!” She leaned further. “There!—that flash wasn’t in the water, I’m sure.”
It had not seemed so—still it was a little difficult to tell where the water ended and the dark bulk of the ship began. She watched, keenly interested; this was a new natural phenomenon—something to tell dad and the boys in the morning. The little flashes in the air came again; and at the same moment, far below, a curl of phosphorescence on a long wave.
“Why!” said Norah, in amazement—“why, it’s quite different. It’s not the same light at all!”
It was not the same. The glimmer on the water was a pure white radiance—almost the ghost of light; but this flash in the air was quite another thing. It came more regularly now; and Norah, searching the side of the ship with wide eyes of curiosity, saw that its origin seemed to be in one place alone; she could not tell how it came. Flash—flash—flash. Then comprehension swooped upon her, and she gasped in amazed horror.
“Why!—it’s some one signalling!”
The flashes came and went, intermittently, yet with a certain regularity. It was puzzling; she could not see their beginning, or what caused them, and yet they were there—in the air, more than coming from the ship; ghostly, mysterious rays. Still, the longer Norah watched, the more certain she felt that this was something wrong—something coming stealthily from the steamer—sending a hidden message over the water.
She slipped down, and stood inside her cabin, breathing quickly. Her first impulse, to ring for the night-steward, she put aside; she must be more certain first. The night-steward was an unintelligent person, and might raise a wild alarm, or simply laugh at her; and neither alternative seemed to meet the case. She must be quite certain before taking any one into her confidence.
Her little electric torch came into her mind. She found it, and managed to wriggle one small shoulder and arm as well as her head, through the port-hole; then, twisting to obtain a clear view along the side of the ship, she pressed the button. The little beam shot out and for an instant she could see the dark hull and the long line of ports like black eye-holes. The second from her own was obscured by what Norah recognised as a wind-scoop—the long tin funnel, like a grocer’s mammoth scoop, with which each cabin was fitted. They used them in the tropics, her steward had told her, screwed into each port to project outwards and catch more air and so suck it into the cabin. This wind-scoop was fitted in the wrong way; its wide part uppermost, so that the port-hole was completely screened from the deck above. It was only a second that Norah looked, but that glance was enough. She released the button of the torch, and wriggled back into the cabin.
“I think I’ll get Jim,” she said, shivering a little in her excitement. “This job is too big for me!”
She found her dressing-gown and a pair of noiseless slippers, and hurried down the dim alley, wondering how she should explain her presence if she met a steward or any of the watch. But it was three o’clock in the morning, when even night-stewards grow sleepy; there was no one visible. Faint snores came from sundry cabins as she passed. She came to Jim’s door; it was wide open, the curtain drawn across it. Norah tapped on it gently.
“Jim! Jim!” she said, very softly.
“Who’s there?” came a voice, prompt, but sleepy.
“It’s me—Norah.”
“What’s wrong?—is Dad ill?” Jim was out of bed, wide awake in an instant.
“No, he’s asleep. But there’s some one signalling, Jim!”
“Well, that’s the ship’s business,” said Jim, in natural bewilderment. “There are plenty of people on deck to receive signals. What are you worrying for, kiddie? Go back to bed.”
“Oh, it isn’t any one signalling to us!” Norah answered, impatiently. “I wouldn’t have waked you for that, Jimmy. But there’s some one in a cabin near mine sending out signals.”
“Are you certain?” Jim asked, incredulously.
“I’ve been watching for a long time. He’s got a wind-scoop fixed over his port-hole, so as to screen it from the deck. It’s on this side; look out of your own port, and you’ll see the flashes. Go on—I’ll wait.”
Jim sprang to his port-hole. A sleepy voice came from Wally’s berth, demanding what was up?
“Look out here, Wal,” said Jim’s voice, from the darkness, in a quick whisper. “Can’t you see flashes? There’s some queer game on. Norah saw it first, and woke me.”
There was never any hesitation on the part of Wally between being profoundly asleep and broad awake. He was at Jim’s side in a bound, craning his neck through the narrow opening. Then the two boys faced each other in the dark.
“This is a nice little find,” Jim ejaculated. “There are no officers’ quarters down here, are there?”
“No; nothing but passengers. Do you know who have cabins on this side?”
“There’s West,” Jim said, considering—“and Grantham, that New South Wales fellow, and I think Mrs. Andrews. I don’t know who else.”
“I’m coming in—I’m lonely!” said Norah, from the door. She groped her way in, suddenly relieved to find Jim’s hand on her shoulder.
“Poor little kiddie!” he said. “A jolly good thing you saw it. Is it next cabin to yours?”
“No—the one after the next—that’s vacant,” Norah said. “It’s the little one where I dress. The light comes from the one next to that. I don’t know who sleeps in it—it opens on a different alley-way. You don’t think we’re making a mistake, Jim? I was so afraid you’d think I was a duffer to come to you.”
“Indeed I don’t,” Jim answered. “It’s no right thing, whatever it is. We’ll go along to your cabin and look out—it’s closer to the enemy.”
They filed along the gloomy alleys, silently, with hurried steps. Further inspection from Norah’s port-hole only confirmed the boys’ previous opinion. They held a council of war, whispering in the darkness.
“Let’s make a dash for him, whoever he may be,” said Wally. “If we spring in and surprise him he can’t get away, and the wind-scoop will be evidence; no other cabin has one sticking out.”
Jim hesitated.
“That won’t do,” he said at length. “He isn’t such a fool as not to have his door bolted—and a wind-scoop is evidence to a certain extent, but it won’t convict a passenger of signalling. He might simply deny any light, and say he had a passion for more air.”
“Much air he’d get with the scoop in that way!” objected Wally. “The broad part has to be against the wind.”
“Yes, but lots of passengers don’t know how to fix them. I don’t see that we can run this by ourselves, Wal—we’ll have to get an officer and let him see the flashes. We don’t want to make fools of ourselves; and there is a chance that it may be something we don’t understand, and quite all right.”
“Oh, all serene!” Wally agreed. “If you’ll watch I’ll go and report it on the bridge. I expect they’ll have to come in here, Norah—do you mind?”
“Of course she doesn’t—and it wouldn’t matter to them if she did!” said Jim in an impatient whisper, cutting across Norah’s quick disclaimer. “Hurry, Wal—it would be awful if he knocked off and went to bed!”
Wally sped for the door, a dim vision of haste, lean and long in his pyjamas. Disaster awaited him—his foot caught in the fur rug trailing from Norah’s berth, unseen in the gloom, and he fell violently against the half-open door. It crashed into a wardrobe behind it, with a clatter of timber and falling bottles within. The noise echoed through the silent ship.
“Oh, Lord!” said Jim, disgustedly, his head through the port-hole. “That’s finished him, I guess.”
The flashes of light ceased abruptly. Silence fell again—and then Mr. Linton’s voice.
“What’s that? Are you all right, Norah?”
“Yes, she’s all right,” answered Wally, ruefully—his bruises nothing in comparison with his deep abasement. “Jim’s here, sir—come in. We’re spy-hunting, and I’ve spoilt the show. Oh, I am a blithering ass!”
“But what on earth——?” began Mr. Linton, justifiably bewildered. Norah whispered a hasty explanation.
“You couldn’t help it,” she finished, consolingly to Wally. “I ought to have remembered about the rug.”
“I ought to have been careful where I was going,” said the disconsolate Wally. “Trust me to mess up a good thing!—why ever did you wake me? He might have been in irons now, but for me! I ought to be put in ’em myself.” He sat down on the edge of the berth and groaned in a whisper.
“Cheer up,” said Jim, coming softly from the port-hole. “The show’s over for to-night, I expect, but I really think he’s given himself away—the flashes stopped the instant the noise came, and after a few minutes the wind-scoop was very gently taken in. We’ll get him yet. Come on back to bed.”
“Aren’t you going to report it?”
“What have we got to report? There is no evidence now—not even a wind-scoop. Whoever is in that cabin has probably unbolted his door by this time, and if any one came to investigate, he would be sleeping peacefully. And it’s getting towards morning—he can’t do much more to-night, in any case.”
“I think you’re right,” Mr. Linton said. “Go back to your cabin now, boys, and let Norah get to bed. We’ll hold a council in the morning.” The boys tip-toed away, and Norah crept into her berth, perfectly certain that she was far too excited ever to sleep again.
Then she suddenly found that she was very tired; and in five minutes she was sound asleep. The ship had not been disturbed by the sudden clamour of a moment; it was perfectly silent, in the sleepy hush before the dawn. Without, the second port-hole from her own loomed round and black. No further flashes came from it to mingle with the phosphorescent glimmer on the water below.