Story 3—Chapter IV.

Story 3—Chapter IV.Alone on the Ocean.For hours the two boys remained in a sort of nameless terror, David feeling almost as frightened as Jonathan, although he concealed his fright in order to reassure his companion, with the terrible object that had excited their fear bobbing up and down alongside them, and occasionally coming with a crash against their frail raft, that threatened to annihilate it and send them both into the water, when it would be all over with them.The night was pitch dark, for the mist that hung over the surface of the deep appeared to increase in intensity, and they could not see even the faint glimmer of a star to cheer them; while all they could hear was the lapping of the waves as they washed by them, and the ripple and swish of some billow as it overtopped its crest, and spent its strength in eddies of circling foam, as David could imagine—for the darkness rendered everything invisible now, even the platform on which they were supported, and the unknown companion beside them, which might be anything, and their very hands when held before their faces.Some time after midnight, when David and Jonathan had gone through a purgatory of dread, not knowing what might happen to them any moment, the moon rose gradually from the horizon, shining faintly through a veil of clouds that almost obscured its light, and the morbid terror of the two boys was at once dispelled on their being able to perceive what it really was that had occasioned them such alarm.“Goodness gracious me, Jonathan!” exclaimed David, with a tone of glad surprise in his voice, which at once aroused his friend, who was lying face downwards on the raft, with his head buried in his crossed arms. “Why, what do you think it is that has frightened us so? I’m blest if it isn’t that very identical boat that you saw in the afternoon passing by theSea Rover! Isn’t it providential, old chap, that after all these hours we should come across it again? Thank God for it, Jonathan,” he added more earnestly a moment afterwards; “it may save both our lives in case the ship is unable to find us and pick us up!”Yes, there it was, a long black boat, the cutter of some vessel, that had been washed away from the bows, as it was twenty feet long and more, floating keel uppermost, alongside the raft, although buried somewhat deep in the water.The night had no longer any terrors for them; and, although they waited anxiously for the sun to rise to see whether theSea Roverwas still in sight—for the moon was frequently obscured by clouds, and its light too intermittent and deceptive for them to scan the ocean by—they did not dream of despairing now, even if their worst suspicions should be realised, and the ship have left them to their fate, as the boat offered them a tangible means of rescue, which the raft did not; albeit it had saved their lives for the while, and served as a “pis-aller.”Morning came at last, first tinging the horizon to the eastwards with a pale sea-green hue, that deepened into a roseate tinge, and then merged into a vivid crimson flush, that spread and spread until the whole heavens reflected the glory of the orb of day, that rose in all its might from its bed in the waters, and moved with rapid strides towards the zenith, the crimson colour of the sky gradually fading away, as the bright yellow sunlight took its place, and illuminated the utmost verge of the apparently limitless sea; but theSea Roverwas nowhere in sight, nor was the tiniest speck of a distant sail to be seen on the horizon!“Never mind, Jonathan,” said David, cheering up his companion; “you mustn’t be disappointed: it is only what I expected, although I didn’t tell you so before! Now that we have the boat, you know, we are not half so badly off as we thought ourselves at first. We’ve no reason to despair!”And then, sailor-like, he immediately began to overhaul their God-sent gift, to see whether it was all a-tanto and seaworthy, without losing any more time in vain repinings, and scanning the ocean fruitlessly for theSea Rover; Jonathan sitting up, and beginning to be interested, as he regained his courage and self-reliance, through his companion’s words and the warmth of the sun combined, and lost that feeling of hopeless despair that seemed to overwhelm him and weigh him down since they lost sight of the ship for the last time on the previous night.“It must have been adrift a good while,” said David, clambering on to the keel of the boat, and getting astride on it. “The bottom is quite slimy. Oh, my poor leg, how it hurts! I forgot all about that squeeze I had between the rudder beam and the wheelhouse, for a moment. Never mind,” continued the brave boy, hiding his pain from his companion, who winced in sympathy; “it was only a little wrench I gave it, and it has passed off now. But pray hold on tight to the stern, Jonathan—you can catch hold of it by the rudder-hinge—or else I’ll be parting company, and going off on a cruise by myself.”Working himself along with his hands and knees on the slippery surface of the boat, he felt the exposed portion all over, and as far under water as his arm could reach down, when he proceeded to give his opinion like a consulting surveyor.“The timbers are all sound, old chap,” he said, “at least, as well as I can make out; and not a hole anywhere that I can see. I can’t tell for certain, however, till we right her properly, and get the water out of her; and I think we’ll find our work cut out for us to do that, Jonathan, my boy.”“I’m sure I don’t see how we can manage it,” replied his friend despairingly.“Oh, don’t you?” answered David cheerfully, his spirits rising with the sense of action and the feeling of having something to do, and as happy and unconcerned as if he were safe on board theSea Rover. “Oh, don’t you, Master Jonathan? Then allow me to inform you, as Dick Murphy says, that there are more ways of killing a pig besides hanging him; and that I see a way to our righting that boat.”“How?” inquired the other.“I’ll soon show you,” said David. “But I guess and calculate it will take a pretty considerable time I reckon, and you’ll have to help us, sirree.”“Of course I will,” said Jonathan, laughing at David’s apt imitation of an American passenger on board their ship, who had unwittingly been the source of much amusement to the two boys, with his drawling voice, and habit of speaking through his nose in regular “down eastern” fashion.“Well, bear a hand, old cock,” said David jocularly, pleased at seeing Jonathan laugh again, and getting off the boat’s keel gingerly on to their raft again. “The first thing we have to do, Jonathan, is to try and raise the bow of the craft on top of these timbers here—or rather, sink down the end of the wheelhouse roof so that it may get under the boat. We can do it easy enough by both going to the extreme point of it and bearing it down by our united weight; but mind you don’t slip off, old boy. Hold on tight.”It was no easy task, as the motion of the waves hindered them, and the raft was lifting and falling as the surges rolled under them; besides which, the boat was heavy, and the suction of the water seemed to keep it down and resist their efforts.However, they persevered, and, after innumerable attempts and failures, succeeded at length in getting part of the bow of the cutter on to the end of the raft, which it almost submerged, although it was itself lifted clean out of the sea.“So far, so good,” said David, puffing and blowing like a grampus with his exertions, and Jonathan following suit. “We’d better have a spell off for a bit; the heaviest part of the work is yet to come.”“Don’t you think,” said Jonathan presently, after a rest, “that it would be a good plan to float her stern round at right angles to the raft? Then the waves would force her on to it, almost without our help.”“Right you are,” said David. “Two heads are always better than one!”“You stop where you are,” said Jonathan. “You know your leg is bad; and besides, I’m more at home in the water than you are, although you’re a sailor. I’ll jump in, and soon turn her stern round, while you hold on to the bow, so that it doesn’t slide off and give us all our trouble over again to get it back.”So saying, he let himself down into the sea, and catching hold of the aftermost end of the boat, which was now much deeper down in the water, owing to the bow being raised, struck vigorously with his free hand, swimming on his side, and soon managed to slew it round so that it pointed athwart-wise to the raft.“Now, David,” he said, when this was accomplished, “if you’ll come into the water too,—I’m sorry to trouble you, old man, but I can’t do it all by myself—and put your shoulder under the other gunwale of the boat, the same as mine is under this, and hold on to our staging at the same time, we’ll be able by degrees to lift and drag it bodily on to the raft, as the send of the sea, as you call it, will assist us.”“Why, Jonathan, you ought to be a sailor,” said David admiringly. “It’s the very thing to be done, and just what I was going to suggest.” And he also slid off into the sea, taking particular care of his wounded leg, and went to his companion’s assistance, placing himself in the position he had advised.The two boys exerted themselves to the utmost, held on tightly to the raft as they “trod the water,” as swimmers say, with their feet, lifting the boat an inch or two at a time with each wave that rolled towards them, until, little by little, they got one end well upon the raft, which it sank quite a foot in the water, when they clambered out of the sea and got on to it, too.“Now,” said David, “comes the tug of war, to get the boat over, right side uppermost.”“And then,” rejoined Jonathan, “we’ll have to bale her out. How will you manage that?”“With our boots, to be sure,” was the prompt answer.“Oh yes,” said Jonathan, “I quite forgot those. Let us get her over at once; it is cold work standing thus in the water; and we may as well be comfortable as not!”After a long and weary struggle, during the course of which the boys were in the water, with their weight hanging on to the keel, and endeavouring to turn it over—they succeeded at last, almost when they were half inclined to give up the task as hopeless.Then when the boat was righted, they pushed it off the raft, and David kept it in proper position, while Jonathan, taking off one of his boots, baled away until he was tired; David relieving him, and he taking his place in keeping the boat steady. It was slow work, but it was done in time; and when it was half emptied of its contents, they both climbed in, and being now able to bale together, they soon had it clear, and floating bravely like a cork.Much to their joy, it did not leak a bit; and after having satisfied themselves on that point, they went on to examine their craft in detail. It was a smart ship’s cutter, which had evidently, as David had surmised, been washed off the bows or davits of some sea-going vessel through being carelessly fastened, for it was perfectly uninjured, and, to the delight of the boys, it had its proper oars and a mast and sails lashed fore and aft under the thwarts. There was also a locker in the stern-sheets which was locked, and on David prising it open with his clasp knife, it was found to contain some fishing-line and hooks. A small cask, or breaker, was also locked in the bow of the boat, and this was found to contain water, a trifle impregnated by the sea, and slightly brackish, but still quite drinkable. It need hardly be mentioned what a great boon this was to them, as they had begun to be afflicted with thirst as the sun’s heat grew more powerful towards mid-day.“Oh, David,” exclaimed Jonathan presently, from his seat in the stern of the boat, where he had been giving way to his thoughts while his friend was bustling about in the bows, stepping the mast, and seeing that the sail and tackle answered properly, “God has been very watchful over us!”“Yes,” replied the other, “we have much to be thankful for, old man, and I am for one, as I’ve no doubt you are; but still I don’t see why we should remain here, as there is no chance of theSea Rovercoming back for us now, and there is a good southwesterly breeze blowing just on purpose for us.”“Why, in what direction would you steer?”“Nor’-east, to be sure, and we’ll fetch the Cape of Good Hope in time, besides the chance of falling in the track of passing vessels.”“Have you any idea of where we are, David?”“Well, the ship yesterday was in latitude 36 degrees and something, and just nearing the longitude of Greenwich, which is neither east nor west, as you know, so I suppose we’re about a thousand miles or so off the Cape.”“Good heavens, David! a thousand miles!”“It isn’t such a tremendous long way, Jonathan. We can run it easily, if the wind lasts from the same quarter, in about eight days; and if we don’t quite fetch the Cape, we’ll reach some part of South Africa at all events—that is, if we don’t come across the track of a ship, and get picked up before then.”“But even eight days, David. What shall we do for food all that time?” said Jonathan, who was by no means of so hopeful a disposition as his friend.“Don’t you recollect, old fellow,” rejoined David, “what you said just now, of God watching over us? As He has done so up to now, don’t you think He’ll look after us still, and provide some means by which we shall not starve?”“Yes,” said the other, feeling the rebuke, “you are quite right, David; and I was wrong to doubt His mercy. But, oh, I do feel so hungry!”“So do I,” replied David. “But we’ll have to grin and bear it for a while, old chap, as we are not near old Slush’s caboose, on board theSea Rover, and I don’t see any grub anywhere in sight. However, Jonathan, we haven’t felt the pangs of real hunger yet, and needn’t begin to shout out before we’re hurt. Let us do something—make sail on the boat and abandon our old raft, which has served us a good turn—and we’ll wear off the edge of our appetites.”David’s advice was followed. Taking only the life-buoy with them, they cast loose from the raft almost with feelings of regret, for it had saved their lives, and it seemed like ingratitude to leave it there tossing alone on the surface of the deep now that they had no further service for it; and, hoisting the cutter’s “leg-of-mutton” sail, and steering with an oar, as the boat’s rudder was missing, they ran before the wind, David directing their course, as nearly as he could possibly guess to the north-east, by the sun, which had now passed the meridian.“I say, Jonathan,” said David, after a time, when they had quite lost sight of the raft, and must have run some miles, “just rummage in the locker again, and see if their is anything else we passed over in our first search?”“No,” said Jonathan, after going down on his knees and looking into every corner of the receptacle with his fingers, so that not a crevice was left unsearched, “nothing but the fishing-lines.”“Well, let us have them out and see if we can catch anything.”“But we’ve got no bait.”“Oh, we can tie a bit of my red flannel shirt or your white one to the hooks. Fish bite at anything at sea, if they can only see it. Hullo!” added David, “I didn’t see that before.”“What?” exclaimed Jonathan.“Why, the name of the vessel to which this boat belonged. There it is, painted there on the gunwale as large as life, theEric Strauss. I suppose she was a German ship, but I never heard of her.”The two boys got out the lines presently, attaching small pieces of fluttering cloth to the hooks, and heaved them overboard, dragging them in the wake of the boat some distance astern; but they caught nothing that day, nor did they even see the sign of a fin. A whale travelling by himself, and not accompanied by a “school” as usual, was the only solitary denizen of the deep that they perceived.It was the same the next day, the boat sailing in a north-east direction as well as David could judge, for the wind remained in the same quarter, from the southward and westward. But he had some difficulty in keeping her on her course at night, owing to the absence of the north star, which is never seen south of the equator, although he could manage to steer her all right by the sun during the day.When the third morning broke, the boys were starving with hunger, and could have eaten anything. They even tried to gnaw at bits of leather cut out of their boots, but they were so tough and sodden from their long immersion in the sea that they could make nothing of them.If it had not been for the breaker of water which they found providentially in the boat, they felt that they must have died.

For hours the two boys remained in a sort of nameless terror, David feeling almost as frightened as Jonathan, although he concealed his fright in order to reassure his companion, with the terrible object that had excited their fear bobbing up and down alongside them, and occasionally coming with a crash against their frail raft, that threatened to annihilate it and send them both into the water, when it would be all over with them.

The night was pitch dark, for the mist that hung over the surface of the deep appeared to increase in intensity, and they could not see even the faint glimmer of a star to cheer them; while all they could hear was the lapping of the waves as they washed by them, and the ripple and swish of some billow as it overtopped its crest, and spent its strength in eddies of circling foam, as David could imagine—for the darkness rendered everything invisible now, even the platform on which they were supported, and the unknown companion beside them, which might be anything, and their very hands when held before their faces.

Some time after midnight, when David and Jonathan had gone through a purgatory of dread, not knowing what might happen to them any moment, the moon rose gradually from the horizon, shining faintly through a veil of clouds that almost obscured its light, and the morbid terror of the two boys was at once dispelled on their being able to perceive what it really was that had occasioned them such alarm.

“Goodness gracious me, Jonathan!” exclaimed David, with a tone of glad surprise in his voice, which at once aroused his friend, who was lying face downwards on the raft, with his head buried in his crossed arms. “Why, what do you think it is that has frightened us so? I’m blest if it isn’t that very identical boat that you saw in the afternoon passing by theSea Rover! Isn’t it providential, old chap, that after all these hours we should come across it again? Thank God for it, Jonathan,” he added more earnestly a moment afterwards; “it may save both our lives in case the ship is unable to find us and pick us up!”

Yes, there it was, a long black boat, the cutter of some vessel, that had been washed away from the bows, as it was twenty feet long and more, floating keel uppermost, alongside the raft, although buried somewhat deep in the water.

The night had no longer any terrors for them; and, although they waited anxiously for the sun to rise to see whether theSea Roverwas still in sight—for the moon was frequently obscured by clouds, and its light too intermittent and deceptive for them to scan the ocean by—they did not dream of despairing now, even if their worst suspicions should be realised, and the ship have left them to their fate, as the boat offered them a tangible means of rescue, which the raft did not; albeit it had saved their lives for the while, and served as a “pis-aller.”

Morning came at last, first tinging the horizon to the eastwards with a pale sea-green hue, that deepened into a roseate tinge, and then merged into a vivid crimson flush, that spread and spread until the whole heavens reflected the glory of the orb of day, that rose in all its might from its bed in the waters, and moved with rapid strides towards the zenith, the crimson colour of the sky gradually fading away, as the bright yellow sunlight took its place, and illuminated the utmost verge of the apparently limitless sea; but theSea Roverwas nowhere in sight, nor was the tiniest speck of a distant sail to be seen on the horizon!

“Never mind, Jonathan,” said David, cheering up his companion; “you mustn’t be disappointed: it is only what I expected, although I didn’t tell you so before! Now that we have the boat, you know, we are not half so badly off as we thought ourselves at first. We’ve no reason to despair!”

And then, sailor-like, he immediately began to overhaul their God-sent gift, to see whether it was all a-tanto and seaworthy, without losing any more time in vain repinings, and scanning the ocean fruitlessly for theSea Rover; Jonathan sitting up, and beginning to be interested, as he regained his courage and self-reliance, through his companion’s words and the warmth of the sun combined, and lost that feeling of hopeless despair that seemed to overwhelm him and weigh him down since they lost sight of the ship for the last time on the previous night.

“It must have been adrift a good while,” said David, clambering on to the keel of the boat, and getting astride on it. “The bottom is quite slimy. Oh, my poor leg, how it hurts! I forgot all about that squeeze I had between the rudder beam and the wheelhouse, for a moment. Never mind,” continued the brave boy, hiding his pain from his companion, who winced in sympathy; “it was only a little wrench I gave it, and it has passed off now. But pray hold on tight to the stern, Jonathan—you can catch hold of it by the rudder-hinge—or else I’ll be parting company, and going off on a cruise by myself.”

Working himself along with his hands and knees on the slippery surface of the boat, he felt the exposed portion all over, and as far under water as his arm could reach down, when he proceeded to give his opinion like a consulting surveyor.

“The timbers are all sound, old chap,” he said, “at least, as well as I can make out; and not a hole anywhere that I can see. I can’t tell for certain, however, till we right her properly, and get the water out of her; and I think we’ll find our work cut out for us to do that, Jonathan, my boy.”

“I’m sure I don’t see how we can manage it,” replied his friend despairingly.

“Oh, don’t you?” answered David cheerfully, his spirits rising with the sense of action and the feeling of having something to do, and as happy and unconcerned as if he were safe on board theSea Rover. “Oh, don’t you, Master Jonathan? Then allow me to inform you, as Dick Murphy says, that there are more ways of killing a pig besides hanging him; and that I see a way to our righting that boat.”

“How?” inquired the other.

“I’ll soon show you,” said David. “But I guess and calculate it will take a pretty considerable time I reckon, and you’ll have to help us, sirree.”

“Of course I will,” said Jonathan, laughing at David’s apt imitation of an American passenger on board their ship, who had unwittingly been the source of much amusement to the two boys, with his drawling voice, and habit of speaking through his nose in regular “down eastern” fashion.

“Well, bear a hand, old cock,” said David jocularly, pleased at seeing Jonathan laugh again, and getting off the boat’s keel gingerly on to their raft again. “The first thing we have to do, Jonathan, is to try and raise the bow of the craft on top of these timbers here—or rather, sink down the end of the wheelhouse roof so that it may get under the boat. We can do it easy enough by both going to the extreme point of it and bearing it down by our united weight; but mind you don’t slip off, old boy. Hold on tight.”

It was no easy task, as the motion of the waves hindered them, and the raft was lifting and falling as the surges rolled under them; besides which, the boat was heavy, and the suction of the water seemed to keep it down and resist their efforts.

However, they persevered, and, after innumerable attempts and failures, succeeded at length in getting part of the bow of the cutter on to the end of the raft, which it almost submerged, although it was itself lifted clean out of the sea.

“So far, so good,” said David, puffing and blowing like a grampus with his exertions, and Jonathan following suit. “We’d better have a spell off for a bit; the heaviest part of the work is yet to come.”

“Don’t you think,” said Jonathan presently, after a rest, “that it would be a good plan to float her stern round at right angles to the raft? Then the waves would force her on to it, almost without our help.”

“Right you are,” said David. “Two heads are always better than one!”

“You stop where you are,” said Jonathan. “You know your leg is bad; and besides, I’m more at home in the water than you are, although you’re a sailor. I’ll jump in, and soon turn her stern round, while you hold on to the bow, so that it doesn’t slide off and give us all our trouble over again to get it back.”

So saying, he let himself down into the sea, and catching hold of the aftermost end of the boat, which was now much deeper down in the water, owing to the bow being raised, struck vigorously with his free hand, swimming on his side, and soon managed to slew it round so that it pointed athwart-wise to the raft.

“Now, David,” he said, when this was accomplished, “if you’ll come into the water too,—I’m sorry to trouble you, old man, but I can’t do it all by myself—and put your shoulder under the other gunwale of the boat, the same as mine is under this, and hold on to our staging at the same time, we’ll be able by degrees to lift and drag it bodily on to the raft, as the send of the sea, as you call it, will assist us.”

“Why, Jonathan, you ought to be a sailor,” said David admiringly. “It’s the very thing to be done, and just what I was going to suggest.” And he also slid off into the sea, taking particular care of his wounded leg, and went to his companion’s assistance, placing himself in the position he had advised.

The two boys exerted themselves to the utmost, held on tightly to the raft as they “trod the water,” as swimmers say, with their feet, lifting the boat an inch or two at a time with each wave that rolled towards them, until, little by little, they got one end well upon the raft, which it sank quite a foot in the water, when they clambered out of the sea and got on to it, too.

“Now,” said David, “comes the tug of war, to get the boat over, right side uppermost.”

“And then,” rejoined Jonathan, “we’ll have to bale her out. How will you manage that?”

“With our boots, to be sure,” was the prompt answer.

“Oh yes,” said Jonathan, “I quite forgot those. Let us get her over at once; it is cold work standing thus in the water; and we may as well be comfortable as not!”

After a long and weary struggle, during the course of which the boys were in the water, with their weight hanging on to the keel, and endeavouring to turn it over—they succeeded at last, almost when they were half inclined to give up the task as hopeless.

Then when the boat was righted, they pushed it off the raft, and David kept it in proper position, while Jonathan, taking off one of his boots, baled away until he was tired; David relieving him, and he taking his place in keeping the boat steady. It was slow work, but it was done in time; and when it was half emptied of its contents, they both climbed in, and being now able to bale together, they soon had it clear, and floating bravely like a cork.

Much to their joy, it did not leak a bit; and after having satisfied themselves on that point, they went on to examine their craft in detail. It was a smart ship’s cutter, which had evidently, as David had surmised, been washed off the bows or davits of some sea-going vessel through being carelessly fastened, for it was perfectly uninjured, and, to the delight of the boys, it had its proper oars and a mast and sails lashed fore and aft under the thwarts. There was also a locker in the stern-sheets which was locked, and on David prising it open with his clasp knife, it was found to contain some fishing-line and hooks. A small cask, or breaker, was also locked in the bow of the boat, and this was found to contain water, a trifle impregnated by the sea, and slightly brackish, but still quite drinkable. It need hardly be mentioned what a great boon this was to them, as they had begun to be afflicted with thirst as the sun’s heat grew more powerful towards mid-day.

“Oh, David,” exclaimed Jonathan presently, from his seat in the stern of the boat, where he had been giving way to his thoughts while his friend was bustling about in the bows, stepping the mast, and seeing that the sail and tackle answered properly, “God has been very watchful over us!”

“Yes,” replied the other, “we have much to be thankful for, old man, and I am for one, as I’ve no doubt you are; but still I don’t see why we should remain here, as there is no chance of theSea Rovercoming back for us now, and there is a good southwesterly breeze blowing just on purpose for us.”

“Why, in what direction would you steer?”

“Nor’-east, to be sure, and we’ll fetch the Cape of Good Hope in time, besides the chance of falling in the track of passing vessels.”

“Have you any idea of where we are, David?”

“Well, the ship yesterday was in latitude 36 degrees and something, and just nearing the longitude of Greenwich, which is neither east nor west, as you know, so I suppose we’re about a thousand miles or so off the Cape.”

“Good heavens, David! a thousand miles!”

“It isn’t such a tremendous long way, Jonathan. We can run it easily, if the wind lasts from the same quarter, in about eight days; and if we don’t quite fetch the Cape, we’ll reach some part of South Africa at all events—that is, if we don’t come across the track of a ship, and get picked up before then.”

“But even eight days, David. What shall we do for food all that time?” said Jonathan, who was by no means of so hopeful a disposition as his friend.

“Don’t you recollect, old fellow,” rejoined David, “what you said just now, of God watching over us? As He has done so up to now, don’t you think He’ll look after us still, and provide some means by which we shall not starve?”

“Yes,” said the other, feeling the rebuke, “you are quite right, David; and I was wrong to doubt His mercy. But, oh, I do feel so hungry!”

“So do I,” replied David. “But we’ll have to grin and bear it for a while, old chap, as we are not near old Slush’s caboose, on board theSea Rover, and I don’t see any grub anywhere in sight. However, Jonathan, we haven’t felt the pangs of real hunger yet, and needn’t begin to shout out before we’re hurt. Let us do something—make sail on the boat and abandon our old raft, which has served us a good turn—and we’ll wear off the edge of our appetites.”

David’s advice was followed. Taking only the life-buoy with them, they cast loose from the raft almost with feelings of regret, for it had saved their lives, and it seemed like ingratitude to leave it there tossing alone on the surface of the deep now that they had no further service for it; and, hoisting the cutter’s “leg-of-mutton” sail, and steering with an oar, as the boat’s rudder was missing, they ran before the wind, David directing their course, as nearly as he could possibly guess to the north-east, by the sun, which had now passed the meridian.

“I say, Jonathan,” said David, after a time, when they had quite lost sight of the raft, and must have run some miles, “just rummage in the locker again, and see if their is anything else we passed over in our first search?”

“No,” said Jonathan, after going down on his knees and looking into every corner of the receptacle with his fingers, so that not a crevice was left unsearched, “nothing but the fishing-lines.”

“Well, let us have them out and see if we can catch anything.”

“But we’ve got no bait.”

“Oh, we can tie a bit of my red flannel shirt or your white one to the hooks. Fish bite at anything at sea, if they can only see it. Hullo!” added David, “I didn’t see that before.”

“What?” exclaimed Jonathan.

“Why, the name of the vessel to which this boat belonged. There it is, painted there on the gunwale as large as life, theEric Strauss. I suppose she was a German ship, but I never heard of her.”

The two boys got out the lines presently, attaching small pieces of fluttering cloth to the hooks, and heaved them overboard, dragging them in the wake of the boat some distance astern; but they caught nothing that day, nor did they even see the sign of a fin. A whale travelling by himself, and not accompanied by a “school” as usual, was the only solitary denizen of the deep that they perceived.

It was the same the next day, the boat sailing in a north-east direction as well as David could judge, for the wind remained in the same quarter, from the southward and westward. But he had some difficulty in keeping her on her course at night, owing to the absence of the north star, which is never seen south of the equator, although he could manage to steer her all right by the sun during the day.

When the third morning broke, the boys were starving with hunger, and could have eaten anything. They even tried to gnaw at bits of leather cut out of their boots, but they were so tough and sodden from their long immersion in the sea that they could make nothing of them.

If it had not been for the breaker of water which they found providentially in the boat, they felt that they must have died.

Story 3—Chapter V.Starvation and Plenty.“Look, David,” said Jonathan, when the sun had risen well above the horizon on that third morning.He was sitting down in the bow of the boat, looking out almost hopelessly for the sight of some sail, while David was in the stern-sheets steering.“There’s a big flock of birds right in front of us. Oh, if we only could catch one! I could eat it raw.”“Well, I don’t think we’d wait for the cooking,” said his companion philosophically, although he put the helm down a bit so that he might likewise see the birds that Jonathan had spied.“What can they be so far out at sea?” inquired the latter.“Molly hawks, to be sure,” said David promptly. “We must be getting into the latitude of the Cape.”“Why, they’re as big as geese,” said Jonathan, when the boat got nearer them. “But some are quite small; are they the young ones?”“No,” replied David; “those are the cape pigeons, which generally sail in company with the others, and not far off at any rate. When you see them close, as I’ve seen them scores of times, and as you’ll be able to if we catch one, as I hope we shall, you’ll find they are very like a large pigeon, only that they have webbed feet; and they always seem plump and fat. See, their feathers are white and downy, while their heads are brown and their wings striped with the same colour, giving them the appearance, if you look down on them from a ship, of being large white and brown butterflies, with their large wings outspread. Draw in your line a bit, Jonathan, and let the white stuff on the hook flutter about in the air; perhaps one of them will grab at it thinking it’s something good. It’s our only chance.”No angler, not even the celebrated Izaac Walton, ever angled more industriously than the two boys did for the next hour, trying to attract one of the birds, which, both molly hawks and cape pigeons, hovered about the boat all the time, making swoops every now and then down into the sea.They were too knowing, however, to accept David’s fictitious bait, as a fish would probably have done.One look at it was quite sufficient for them; first one and then another wheeling round and coming nearer the surface of the water to inspect the inducement offered them, and flying off again in disgust.At last, just as a group of three of the cape pigeons, which were the most inquisitive of the lot, stooped down over the strip of red flannel attached to David’s hook, he gave it a jerk and it caught somehow or other in the bird’s foot or leg, and he pulled it in, squeaking and fluttering all the time, its companions circling round it in alarm, and cawing in concert over its misfortune.“Hurrah!” exclaimed Jonathan, as David hauled in his prize, flapping vigorously, over the gunwale in triumph; and he stretched out his hand to take hold of it.“Look out, and stand clear a moment,” shouted out his friend. “Those cape pigeons have a nasty habit of throwing up everything they have in their stomachs on to you as soon as you catch them. There, you see. I suppose it’s a means of protection given them by nature, the same as the savoury perfume of the American skunk.”“He’s lucky to have anything to bring up,” said Jonathan drily. “It is more than we could do, I’m sure. There’s plenty of him to eat, however, old fellow,” he added, when the bird had disgorged its last feed, “and I vote we pluck off his feathers at once and begin business.”“All right,” said David, giving the bird a rap on the head with the steering oar, which effectually stayed any further proceedings on its part. “Pipe all hands to dinner.”Both the boys said afterwards, when detailing their experiences during that voyage in an open boat across the ocean when they were lost at sea, that they never before or since ever enjoyed such a meal in their lives as that cape pigeon, which they plucked, and divided into two equal portions, eating the raw flesh, share and share alike, with the greatest gusto, even licking up afterwards the blood that dropped from it on to the thwarts.The repast gave them new life and spirits, and from that hour the tide of their affairs seemed to flow more favourably, as shortly afterwards they caught a molly hawk, which they carefully put away in the boat’s locker along with the water, which David was very particular in allowancing out, giving Jonathan and himself only a small quantity twice a day out of a measure he had made by cutting off the toe part of one of his boots.Towards the afternoon of the same day the heavens grew dark right ahead, a big black cloud spreading across the horizon like a great curtain, and mounting gradually till it hid the sun from view.“We’re going to have a squall, Jonathan,” said David. “You must look out sharp to shift the sheet when I tell you, and unstep the mast, if necessary, the very moment I say, mind!”“Right you are,” answered the other, who had now lost all that nervousness for which David used to chaff him when on board theSea Rover. “You only give the word, old man, and you’ll find me all there.”The squall, however, passed away without touching them, having vented its force in some other quarter; but the wind veered round to the eastwards, much to David’s disgust, as he had to let the boat’s head fall off from the course he wished to steer, and, strange to say, the great black cloud they had first seen seemed still to face them and keep right ahead, although their direction had been altered—it looked, really, just as if standing like a sentry to bar their progress.“I don’t know what it can mean,” said David anxiously. “The wind has shifted, so why can’t it shift too?”“It doesn’t appear so big as it was,” observed Jonathan. “It is gradually narrowing at the bottom as it spreads out on top. And look, David, the end of it, close to the sea, comes down into a point just like a thread.”Presently, as the boat ran nearer towards the cloud, which seemed to rest stationary over the water, they could see that the sea was churned up around it in a state of violent commotion, and they could hear a peculiar sucking noise rumbling in the air at the same time.“I tell you what it is,” said David; “although I’ve never seen one before, it must be a waterspout, and we’ll have to give it a wide berth. Look out, Jonathan, for the sheet; I’m going to put the helm up and bring the boat about on the other tack.”Almost as soon as the cutter turned off at an angle from the direction of the waterspout, although not absolutely going away from it, as the boys were interested in the sight, David uttered another exclamation.“Gracious goodness, Jonathan!” he ejaculated. “Look, if there isn’t a whale there! And he is going slap at it, as if he is going to bowl it over.”It was true enough; but, whether the leviathan of the deep had been caught in the maelstrom of the waterspout, or had gone towards it from choice, they could not tell. There he was, however, at all events, circling round in the eddy of the sea at the foot of the cloud, and sending up columns of spray every now and then with the flukes of his tail, as they came down with a bash on the water, like the sound of a Nasmyth steam-hammer.Almost as soon as the boy spoke, the whale appeared to raise itself up on end, as they could see nearly the whole length of its body; there was a tremendous concussion; and then, with a report like thunder, the waterspout burst, falling around the boat in the form of heavy rain.“I say,” said Jonathan, when the unexpected shower had ceased, “it’s an ill wind that blows nobody good. Look, if there are not a number of dead fish which the waterspout must have sucked up. How thankful we ought to be! there is enough to last us ever so long and keep us from starvation.”“You are light,” said David. “Let us kneel down and thank God for His mercy and care in watching over us!”And, after they had prayed fervently to Him who had guarded them through all the perils of the deep, and now showered on them a supply of food almost from heaven, they set to work and collected all the fish they could see floating about on the surface of the sea, David saying that they were bonetas and skipjacks, and capital eating, as he stored them in the locker.“We’ll cut them open and dry them in the sun by and by,” he added. “It’s too much overcast to do it now; and it’s so rough with the spray dashing over us that they would only get wet instead of dry.”Soon after the waterspout had burst, the boat’s head had been brought round again as near to the northward as the easterly wind would permit; but, towards evening, as the breeze grew stronger and stronger, and the sea rose in mountainous billows, just the same almost as on the day on which they bade good-bye to theSea Rover, they were obliged to let her off a point or two and scud before the gale.It was a day of surprises; for, just as night was closing in, Jonathan—who took the station of lookout man in the fore-sheets, while David steered, being more at home with the rudder oar than his friend—observed something white, standing out in relief against the dark background of the horizon, which was piled up with a wrack of blue-black storm-clouds.“I say, David!” he shouted out, “what is this white thing in front—is it another waterspout, or a squall, or what?”“I’ll soon tell you,” said David, standing up in the stern-sheets to get a better view. But he had no sooner looked than he dropped down again in his seat as if he had been shot, and turned as pale as a ghost, as he exclaimed hysterically, half laughing, half crying, “A sail! a sail!”

“Look, David,” said Jonathan, when the sun had risen well above the horizon on that third morning.

He was sitting down in the bow of the boat, looking out almost hopelessly for the sight of some sail, while David was in the stern-sheets steering.

“There’s a big flock of birds right in front of us. Oh, if we only could catch one! I could eat it raw.”

“Well, I don’t think we’d wait for the cooking,” said his companion philosophically, although he put the helm down a bit so that he might likewise see the birds that Jonathan had spied.

“What can they be so far out at sea?” inquired the latter.

“Molly hawks, to be sure,” said David promptly. “We must be getting into the latitude of the Cape.”

“Why, they’re as big as geese,” said Jonathan, when the boat got nearer them. “But some are quite small; are they the young ones?”

“No,” replied David; “those are the cape pigeons, which generally sail in company with the others, and not far off at any rate. When you see them close, as I’ve seen them scores of times, and as you’ll be able to if we catch one, as I hope we shall, you’ll find they are very like a large pigeon, only that they have webbed feet; and they always seem plump and fat. See, their feathers are white and downy, while their heads are brown and their wings striped with the same colour, giving them the appearance, if you look down on them from a ship, of being large white and brown butterflies, with their large wings outspread. Draw in your line a bit, Jonathan, and let the white stuff on the hook flutter about in the air; perhaps one of them will grab at it thinking it’s something good. It’s our only chance.”

No angler, not even the celebrated Izaac Walton, ever angled more industriously than the two boys did for the next hour, trying to attract one of the birds, which, both molly hawks and cape pigeons, hovered about the boat all the time, making swoops every now and then down into the sea.

They were too knowing, however, to accept David’s fictitious bait, as a fish would probably have done.

One look at it was quite sufficient for them; first one and then another wheeling round and coming nearer the surface of the water to inspect the inducement offered them, and flying off again in disgust.

At last, just as a group of three of the cape pigeons, which were the most inquisitive of the lot, stooped down over the strip of red flannel attached to David’s hook, he gave it a jerk and it caught somehow or other in the bird’s foot or leg, and he pulled it in, squeaking and fluttering all the time, its companions circling round it in alarm, and cawing in concert over its misfortune.

“Hurrah!” exclaimed Jonathan, as David hauled in his prize, flapping vigorously, over the gunwale in triumph; and he stretched out his hand to take hold of it.

“Look out, and stand clear a moment,” shouted out his friend. “Those cape pigeons have a nasty habit of throwing up everything they have in their stomachs on to you as soon as you catch them. There, you see. I suppose it’s a means of protection given them by nature, the same as the savoury perfume of the American skunk.”

“He’s lucky to have anything to bring up,” said Jonathan drily. “It is more than we could do, I’m sure. There’s plenty of him to eat, however, old fellow,” he added, when the bird had disgorged its last feed, “and I vote we pluck off his feathers at once and begin business.”

“All right,” said David, giving the bird a rap on the head with the steering oar, which effectually stayed any further proceedings on its part. “Pipe all hands to dinner.”

Both the boys said afterwards, when detailing their experiences during that voyage in an open boat across the ocean when they were lost at sea, that they never before or since ever enjoyed such a meal in their lives as that cape pigeon, which they plucked, and divided into two equal portions, eating the raw flesh, share and share alike, with the greatest gusto, even licking up afterwards the blood that dropped from it on to the thwarts.

The repast gave them new life and spirits, and from that hour the tide of their affairs seemed to flow more favourably, as shortly afterwards they caught a molly hawk, which they carefully put away in the boat’s locker along with the water, which David was very particular in allowancing out, giving Jonathan and himself only a small quantity twice a day out of a measure he had made by cutting off the toe part of one of his boots.

Towards the afternoon of the same day the heavens grew dark right ahead, a big black cloud spreading across the horizon like a great curtain, and mounting gradually till it hid the sun from view.

“We’re going to have a squall, Jonathan,” said David. “You must look out sharp to shift the sheet when I tell you, and unstep the mast, if necessary, the very moment I say, mind!”

“Right you are,” answered the other, who had now lost all that nervousness for which David used to chaff him when on board theSea Rover. “You only give the word, old man, and you’ll find me all there.”

The squall, however, passed away without touching them, having vented its force in some other quarter; but the wind veered round to the eastwards, much to David’s disgust, as he had to let the boat’s head fall off from the course he wished to steer, and, strange to say, the great black cloud they had first seen seemed still to face them and keep right ahead, although their direction had been altered—it looked, really, just as if standing like a sentry to bar their progress.

“I don’t know what it can mean,” said David anxiously. “The wind has shifted, so why can’t it shift too?”

“It doesn’t appear so big as it was,” observed Jonathan. “It is gradually narrowing at the bottom as it spreads out on top. And look, David, the end of it, close to the sea, comes down into a point just like a thread.”

Presently, as the boat ran nearer towards the cloud, which seemed to rest stationary over the water, they could see that the sea was churned up around it in a state of violent commotion, and they could hear a peculiar sucking noise rumbling in the air at the same time.

“I tell you what it is,” said David; “although I’ve never seen one before, it must be a waterspout, and we’ll have to give it a wide berth. Look out, Jonathan, for the sheet; I’m going to put the helm up and bring the boat about on the other tack.”

Almost as soon as the cutter turned off at an angle from the direction of the waterspout, although not absolutely going away from it, as the boys were interested in the sight, David uttered another exclamation.

“Gracious goodness, Jonathan!” he ejaculated. “Look, if there isn’t a whale there! And he is going slap at it, as if he is going to bowl it over.”

It was true enough; but, whether the leviathan of the deep had been caught in the maelstrom of the waterspout, or had gone towards it from choice, they could not tell. There he was, however, at all events, circling round in the eddy of the sea at the foot of the cloud, and sending up columns of spray every now and then with the flukes of his tail, as they came down with a bash on the water, like the sound of a Nasmyth steam-hammer.

Almost as soon as the boy spoke, the whale appeared to raise itself up on end, as they could see nearly the whole length of its body; there was a tremendous concussion; and then, with a report like thunder, the waterspout burst, falling around the boat in the form of heavy rain.

“I say,” said Jonathan, when the unexpected shower had ceased, “it’s an ill wind that blows nobody good. Look, if there are not a number of dead fish which the waterspout must have sucked up. How thankful we ought to be! there is enough to last us ever so long and keep us from starvation.”

“You are light,” said David. “Let us kneel down and thank God for His mercy and care in watching over us!”

And, after they had prayed fervently to Him who had guarded them through all the perils of the deep, and now showered on them a supply of food almost from heaven, they set to work and collected all the fish they could see floating about on the surface of the sea, David saying that they were bonetas and skipjacks, and capital eating, as he stored them in the locker.

“We’ll cut them open and dry them in the sun by and by,” he added. “It’s too much overcast to do it now; and it’s so rough with the spray dashing over us that they would only get wet instead of dry.”

Soon after the waterspout had burst, the boat’s head had been brought round again as near to the northward as the easterly wind would permit; but, towards evening, as the breeze grew stronger and stronger, and the sea rose in mountainous billows, just the same almost as on the day on which they bade good-bye to theSea Rover, they were obliged to let her off a point or two and scud before the gale.

It was a day of surprises; for, just as night was closing in, Jonathan—who took the station of lookout man in the fore-sheets, while David steered, being more at home with the rudder oar than his friend—observed something white, standing out in relief against the dark background of the horizon, which was piled up with a wrack of blue-black storm-clouds.

“I say, David!” he shouted out, “what is this white thing in front—is it another waterspout, or a squall, or what?”

“I’ll soon tell you,” said David, standing up in the stern-sheets to get a better view. But he had no sooner looked than he dropped down again in his seat as if he had been shot, and turned as pale as a ghost, as he exclaimed hysterically, half laughing, half crying, “A sail! a sail!”

Story 3—Chapter VI.In Extremity.“What? a ship really?” said Jonathan, sharing the other’s excitement. “Oh, I’m so glad, so glad!”“Yes,” said David, recovering a bit from his hysterical fit, and speaking in a more collected manner. “But she’s crossing our course, and if she does not see us and take in sail, I’m afraid we won’t be able to catch her up!”What was a gale to those in the cutter, with a gunwale hardly a foot above the surface of the water, was only just a fair wind to the full-rigged ship which was sailing on a bowline away from them almost hull-down on the horizon, with all her canvas spread that could draw, to take advantage of the breeze.The boat’s head was pointed right towards the vessel, whose course was nearly at right angles to theirs, and David put the helm up to bring them nearer the wind so that they might intercept her; but the cutter dipped so much in the waves, and shipped such a lot of water, that he had to let fall off again and run free, much to his mortification, as the stranger was steadily ploughing her way ahead; and, proceeding in the direction they did, they would fetch far to leeward of her.“Oh, it’s cruel,” said Jonathan, “to sail away like that and leave us!”“We mustn’t accuse them wrongfully,” said David, who, of course, was more versed in nautical matters. “Ships when far at sea don’t keep much of a look-out, as they would have to do in the channel or near land. And, besides, old fellow, you must recollect that although we can see her plainly, we to those on board would appear but the tiniest speck in the distance, if we were seen at all, and would be taken for a wandering albatross, or one of those Molly hawks like that we caught this morning. They don’t see us, evidently, or they would take in sail.”Jonathan, however, would not give up hope, but continued to wave his shirt—which he had taken off for the purpose—in the bow of the boat, until she lessened as she drew away, and finally, disappeared below the horizon as night came on with hasty footsteps—as it always does in southern latitudes—shutting out everything from their gaze.The two boys were bitterly disappointed.Up to the time of their sighting the ship they had been almost contented with their lot, for the fear of starvation, which had threatened them, had passed away when their hunger had been appeased by the cape pigeon that David had captured, and they subsequently secured another bird, besides the half-dozen fish or so that had been brought within their reach by the waterspout; to add to which the weather had not been hot enough to cause them to make such inroads on their stock of water—which David had judiciously apportioned from the first—as to arouse any dread of thirst, which is far worse than want of food to shipwrecked mariners.It was the fact of the means of escape from their perilous position having been so unexpectedly brought near them, and as suddenly taken away, that deprived them of their courage and hopefulness for a time, and made them forget the Eye that was watching over them, and the hand that had already so miraculously helped them when they seemed to be at death’s door! The weather, however, did not allow them to give way to despondency, much as they might have been inclined, for, as night came on, the darker it grew, the wind and sea increasing so that David had an onerous task to steer the boat in such a manner as to prevent her being swamped; while Jonathan was as continually busy in baling out the heavy seas that, partly, lurched in over the gunwale, first on the port side and then to starboard, as the cutter rocked to and fro in her course, tearing madly up and down the hills and valleys formed by the waves, and sometimes leaping clean out of the water from one mountainous ridge to another.And thus, the weary hours passed till morning, without giving them a moment’s rest from their anxious labour, the constant fear of being overset and swallowed up by the tiger-like billows that raced after them banishing the feeling of fatigue, and making them forget for the while their disappointment.When the sun rose, for the fourth time since they had been left deserted on the deep, the boys were completely worn out.David’s leg, too, had got worse; whether from the exposure or not they could not tell, but it had swollen up enormously, and he could hardly move; so, Jonathan had to take his place at the steering oar, and act under his directions carefully, as the sea was still very high, and it required critical judgment and a quick eye to prevent the boat being taken broadside on by any of the swelling waves that followed fast in their track, raising their towering crests and foaming with impotent fury as far as the eye could reach, astern, and to their right hand and their left, while in front the waters sometimes uplifted themselves into a solid wall, as if to stop their way. With mid-day, came a change of scene.The wind gradually died away, and there fell a dead calm, while the sea subsided in unison; although a sullen swell remained, in evidence of old Neptune’s past anger, and to show that he had a temper of his own when he liked to use it—a swell that rocked the boat like a baby’s cradle, and flapped the loose sail backwards and forwards across their heads, in such a disagreeable manner that David suggested their hauling it down; which they did, the boat not rolling half so much without its perpendicular weight, while it was pleasanter for them.“I tell you what, Dave,” suggested Jonathan after a while to his friend, who was stretched out on the stern-sheets, resting his wounded leg on a seat, “I think if you’d let me bandage your thigh with a strip of my shirt, and keep it soaked with water, the evaporation of the sun would take down the swelling and make it feel better?”“So it would probably,” he assented; “and at the same time, Jonathan, get those fish and the bird out of the locker. I had almost forgotten them;—I suppose, because I don’t feel hungry yet! We will skin them and split them in two: and if we expose them spread out on top of the sail, which you can stretch across the thwarts, our old friend can cook them while he is acting as my physician.”Jonathan, who had been tearing a couple of long strips off his shirt, and binding them round David’s leg while he was speaking, now soused the bandages with sea water, taking it up in the one uninjured boot which he had kept for baling purposes, and then propped it up in an easy position, so that it should be directly exposed to the rays of the sun, which was now almost vertical, and hotter than they had yet felt it. He then unstepped the mast, and arranged the sail like an awning over the rest of the boat, serving to shelter themselves—with the exception of David’s leg, of course—from the heat, which was decidedly more comfortable, and act as a table for their culinary arrangements.On counting them, which they had not done before, they found they had thirteen bonetas and skipjacks, beside the molly hawk, which they determined to eat while it was fresh; and then would have sufficient food, as the fish would keep perfectly when dried, for quite that number of days—a lucky number as Jonathan said, as it was “a baker’s dozen,” and certainly not an even one.“An unlucky one, you mean,” said David. “They say that when thirteen people sit down at table together one is sure to die before the year is out.”“That will only apply to the fish,” said Jonathan laughing, “and they’re dead already, and will be eaten soon. And talking of that, Dave, I think it’s about dinner-time; what say you? My clock here,” patting his stomach as he spoke, “warns me that it needs winding up.”“All right, I feel peckish myself,” answered David, who was skinning and cutting open the fish leisurely with his clasp knife, which he could do easily without removing from his position or shifting his leg, while Jonathan cleaned them and washed them in the sea over the side of the boat preparatory to spreading them out on the top of their awning to dry in the sun. “Just wait till I finish this last beggar, and then I’ll tackle Miss Molly Hawk, and we’ll begin. Do you know, Jonathan, I don’t think birds are half so bad eaten raw? I did enjoy that cape pigeon yesterday.”“So did I,” said the other. “It makes me hungrier to think of it. Look alive, old boy, or I’ll start on one of these fish just to keep my hand in.”“No, you won’t, or your teeth either, you cannibal,” said David jocularly. “I’m captain, and purser too, and I’m not so extravagant as to serve out two courses for dinner. Chaffing aside,” he added more seriously, “we’ll have to be rigidly economical, Jonathan, for we can’t tell how long it may be before we fall in with a ship or reach land, and we’ve already experienced something of what the pangs of starvation are like, though, thank God, we were not put so severely to the test as some have been! I wish, old fellow, we were as well off for water as we are for grub. I don’t think there is a pint more in the breaker, now that we’ve had that last drink, and I’m sure we’ve not been very prodigal of it, and I’ve measured it out carefully every day.”“Perhaps it will rain,” said Jonathan cheerfully—the sight of the molly hawk, which David had dexterously plucked and cut in two, the same as he had done the cape pigeon on the previous day, making him feel ravenously hungry, and limiting all his considerations to the present, instead of his being impressed with their future needs, as was the case with his more reflective companion, “Perhaps it will rain, David. ‘Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.’ Let us set to work; I’m starving!”The appetites of the boys being hearty, they finished every scrap of the bird, which, raw as it was, tasted like roast goose to them, although it was not nearly so large as it had appeared with all its feathers on; and then both lay down in the boat and had a hearty sleep, the first they had had without interruption since they left their bunks for the last time on board theSea Rover.Poor fellows! they had need of rest, for the calm lasted a week, during which time their water ran out, and for more than two days they had not a single drop, although they reduced their allowance to such an infinitesimal quantity that their final draught did not amount to more than a minim.They now endured all the agonies of thirst, their diet of dried fish making them feel it worse; and it was as much as David could do to prevent Jonathan from drinking the sea water and losing his senses, as he would have done—like many others who would not control their inclinations, but insisted on having it, and afterwards went mad and died.Then, in the very height of their sufferings, a storm of rain came on which half filled the boat with water, giving them plenty to drink, but spoiling the remainder of their fish, so that they had to throw them overboard.After the rain the wind sprang up again, and the sail was once more hoisted, David trying to keep the boat as nearly in the direction of the coast of South Africa as he could guess, during the day steering by the sun; but at night she went as the breeze willed, and so it continued for days, the boys getting weaker and weaker through starvation, although they had saved plenty of water in their cask to assuage the pangs of thirst, during which time they never saw a bird or a fish to which they could get near.They sighted several ships, but they were too far off to attract their notice; and when, finally, a sudden squall in the night blew away their mast and sail, and left them tossing helplessly on the ocean, starving and worn out with fatigue, they gave up all hope, and lay down in the bottom of the boat to die—Jonathan being the first to succumb.“Good-bye, Dave!” said he, raising himself with a feeble effort.“Good-bye, Jonathan!” said the other, grasping his companion’s hand, as he thought, for the last time.“I think I am going to die,” continued Jonathan: “my head is spinning round, and I feel faint. I will lie down a bit until the end comes. Good-bye, Dave, once more!”And he sank down again into a restless sleep, the other following his example a moment or two afterwards; first giving one last haggard glance around the horizon—on which not a single sail appeared in sight—as if bidding it an eternal farewell.

“What? a ship really?” said Jonathan, sharing the other’s excitement. “Oh, I’m so glad, so glad!”

“Yes,” said David, recovering a bit from his hysterical fit, and speaking in a more collected manner. “But she’s crossing our course, and if she does not see us and take in sail, I’m afraid we won’t be able to catch her up!”

What was a gale to those in the cutter, with a gunwale hardly a foot above the surface of the water, was only just a fair wind to the full-rigged ship which was sailing on a bowline away from them almost hull-down on the horizon, with all her canvas spread that could draw, to take advantage of the breeze.

The boat’s head was pointed right towards the vessel, whose course was nearly at right angles to theirs, and David put the helm up to bring them nearer the wind so that they might intercept her; but the cutter dipped so much in the waves, and shipped such a lot of water, that he had to let fall off again and run free, much to his mortification, as the stranger was steadily ploughing her way ahead; and, proceeding in the direction they did, they would fetch far to leeward of her.

“Oh, it’s cruel,” said Jonathan, “to sail away like that and leave us!”

“We mustn’t accuse them wrongfully,” said David, who, of course, was more versed in nautical matters. “Ships when far at sea don’t keep much of a look-out, as they would have to do in the channel or near land. And, besides, old fellow, you must recollect that although we can see her plainly, we to those on board would appear but the tiniest speck in the distance, if we were seen at all, and would be taken for a wandering albatross, or one of those Molly hawks like that we caught this morning. They don’t see us, evidently, or they would take in sail.”

Jonathan, however, would not give up hope, but continued to wave his shirt—which he had taken off for the purpose—in the bow of the boat, until she lessened as she drew away, and finally, disappeared below the horizon as night came on with hasty footsteps—as it always does in southern latitudes—shutting out everything from their gaze.

The two boys were bitterly disappointed.

Up to the time of their sighting the ship they had been almost contented with their lot, for the fear of starvation, which had threatened them, had passed away when their hunger had been appeased by the cape pigeon that David had captured, and they subsequently secured another bird, besides the half-dozen fish or so that had been brought within their reach by the waterspout; to add to which the weather had not been hot enough to cause them to make such inroads on their stock of water—which David had judiciously apportioned from the first—as to arouse any dread of thirst, which is far worse than want of food to shipwrecked mariners.

It was the fact of the means of escape from their perilous position having been so unexpectedly brought near them, and as suddenly taken away, that deprived them of their courage and hopefulness for a time, and made them forget the Eye that was watching over them, and the hand that had already so miraculously helped them when they seemed to be at death’s door! The weather, however, did not allow them to give way to despondency, much as they might have been inclined, for, as night came on, the darker it grew, the wind and sea increasing so that David had an onerous task to steer the boat in such a manner as to prevent her being swamped; while Jonathan was as continually busy in baling out the heavy seas that, partly, lurched in over the gunwale, first on the port side and then to starboard, as the cutter rocked to and fro in her course, tearing madly up and down the hills and valleys formed by the waves, and sometimes leaping clean out of the water from one mountainous ridge to another.

And thus, the weary hours passed till morning, without giving them a moment’s rest from their anxious labour, the constant fear of being overset and swallowed up by the tiger-like billows that raced after them banishing the feeling of fatigue, and making them forget for the while their disappointment.

When the sun rose, for the fourth time since they had been left deserted on the deep, the boys were completely worn out.

David’s leg, too, had got worse; whether from the exposure or not they could not tell, but it had swollen up enormously, and he could hardly move; so, Jonathan had to take his place at the steering oar, and act under his directions carefully, as the sea was still very high, and it required critical judgment and a quick eye to prevent the boat being taken broadside on by any of the swelling waves that followed fast in their track, raising their towering crests and foaming with impotent fury as far as the eye could reach, astern, and to their right hand and their left, while in front the waters sometimes uplifted themselves into a solid wall, as if to stop their way. With mid-day, came a change of scene.

The wind gradually died away, and there fell a dead calm, while the sea subsided in unison; although a sullen swell remained, in evidence of old Neptune’s past anger, and to show that he had a temper of his own when he liked to use it—a swell that rocked the boat like a baby’s cradle, and flapped the loose sail backwards and forwards across their heads, in such a disagreeable manner that David suggested their hauling it down; which they did, the boat not rolling half so much without its perpendicular weight, while it was pleasanter for them.

“I tell you what, Dave,” suggested Jonathan after a while to his friend, who was stretched out on the stern-sheets, resting his wounded leg on a seat, “I think if you’d let me bandage your thigh with a strip of my shirt, and keep it soaked with water, the evaporation of the sun would take down the swelling and make it feel better?”

“So it would probably,” he assented; “and at the same time, Jonathan, get those fish and the bird out of the locker. I had almost forgotten them;—I suppose, because I don’t feel hungry yet! We will skin them and split them in two: and if we expose them spread out on top of the sail, which you can stretch across the thwarts, our old friend can cook them while he is acting as my physician.”

Jonathan, who had been tearing a couple of long strips off his shirt, and binding them round David’s leg while he was speaking, now soused the bandages with sea water, taking it up in the one uninjured boot which he had kept for baling purposes, and then propped it up in an easy position, so that it should be directly exposed to the rays of the sun, which was now almost vertical, and hotter than they had yet felt it. He then unstepped the mast, and arranged the sail like an awning over the rest of the boat, serving to shelter themselves—with the exception of David’s leg, of course—from the heat, which was decidedly more comfortable, and act as a table for their culinary arrangements.

On counting them, which they had not done before, they found they had thirteen bonetas and skipjacks, beside the molly hawk, which they determined to eat while it was fresh; and then would have sufficient food, as the fish would keep perfectly when dried, for quite that number of days—a lucky number as Jonathan said, as it was “a baker’s dozen,” and certainly not an even one.

“An unlucky one, you mean,” said David. “They say that when thirteen people sit down at table together one is sure to die before the year is out.”

“That will only apply to the fish,” said Jonathan laughing, “and they’re dead already, and will be eaten soon. And talking of that, Dave, I think it’s about dinner-time; what say you? My clock here,” patting his stomach as he spoke, “warns me that it needs winding up.”

“All right, I feel peckish myself,” answered David, who was skinning and cutting open the fish leisurely with his clasp knife, which he could do easily without removing from his position or shifting his leg, while Jonathan cleaned them and washed them in the sea over the side of the boat preparatory to spreading them out on the top of their awning to dry in the sun. “Just wait till I finish this last beggar, and then I’ll tackle Miss Molly Hawk, and we’ll begin. Do you know, Jonathan, I don’t think birds are half so bad eaten raw? I did enjoy that cape pigeon yesterday.”

“So did I,” said the other. “It makes me hungrier to think of it. Look alive, old boy, or I’ll start on one of these fish just to keep my hand in.”

“No, you won’t, or your teeth either, you cannibal,” said David jocularly. “I’m captain, and purser too, and I’m not so extravagant as to serve out two courses for dinner. Chaffing aside,” he added more seriously, “we’ll have to be rigidly economical, Jonathan, for we can’t tell how long it may be before we fall in with a ship or reach land, and we’ve already experienced something of what the pangs of starvation are like, though, thank God, we were not put so severely to the test as some have been! I wish, old fellow, we were as well off for water as we are for grub. I don’t think there is a pint more in the breaker, now that we’ve had that last drink, and I’m sure we’ve not been very prodigal of it, and I’ve measured it out carefully every day.”

“Perhaps it will rain,” said Jonathan cheerfully—the sight of the molly hawk, which David had dexterously plucked and cut in two, the same as he had done the cape pigeon on the previous day, making him feel ravenously hungry, and limiting all his considerations to the present, instead of his being impressed with their future needs, as was the case with his more reflective companion, “Perhaps it will rain, David. ‘Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.’ Let us set to work; I’m starving!”

The appetites of the boys being hearty, they finished every scrap of the bird, which, raw as it was, tasted like roast goose to them, although it was not nearly so large as it had appeared with all its feathers on; and then both lay down in the boat and had a hearty sleep, the first they had had without interruption since they left their bunks for the last time on board theSea Rover.

Poor fellows! they had need of rest, for the calm lasted a week, during which time their water ran out, and for more than two days they had not a single drop, although they reduced their allowance to such an infinitesimal quantity that their final draught did not amount to more than a minim.

They now endured all the agonies of thirst, their diet of dried fish making them feel it worse; and it was as much as David could do to prevent Jonathan from drinking the sea water and losing his senses, as he would have done—like many others who would not control their inclinations, but insisted on having it, and afterwards went mad and died.

Then, in the very height of their sufferings, a storm of rain came on which half filled the boat with water, giving them plenty to drink, but spoiling the remainder of their fish, so that they had to throw them overboard.

After the rain the wind sprang up again, and the sail was once more hoisted, David trying to keep the boat as nearly in the direction of the coast of South Africa as he could guess, during the day steering by the sun; but at night she went as the breeze willed, and so it continued for days, the boys getting weaker and weaker through starvation, although they had saved plenty of water in their cask to assuage the pangs of thirst, during which time they never saw a bird or a fish to which they could get near.

They sighted several ships, but they were too far off to attract their notice; and when, finally, a sudden squall in the night blew away their mast and sail, and left them tossing helplessly on the ocean, starving and worn out with fatigue, they gave up all hope, and lay down in the bottom of the boat to die—Jonathan being the first to succumb.

“Good-bye, Dave!” said he, raising himself with a feeble effort.

“Good-bye, Jonathan!” said the other, grasping his companion’s hand, as he thought, for the last time.

“I think I am going to die,” continued Jonathan: “my head is spinning round, and I feel faint. I will lie down a bit until the end comes. Good-bye, Dave, once more!”

And he sank down again into a restless sleep, the other following his example a moment or two afterwards; first giving one last haggard glance around the horizon—on which not a single sail appeared in sight—as if bidding it an eternal farewell.

Story 3—Chapter VII.Rescued.“Boat ahoy!”The two boys might have been asleep for hours only, or insensible for days, they never knew for certain which, and nobody else could inform them; but that shout ringing in their ears awoke them, with a thrill of agony that it might be merely a dream of their disordered imagination.One look, however, satisfied them to the contrary, when they painfully raised themselves into a sitting posture in the bottom of the boat—which they could hardly do by reason of their weakness—holding on to the gunwales on either side as they dragged up their attenuated bodies, and directing their sunken eyes, which rolled with incipient delirium, to the point from whence the hail came.They could have screamed for joy, but their voices failed them, and their emotion found relief in tears and stifling sobs.A large ship lay to about a hundred yards off; and a boat, which had evidently just been lowered from its side, was being pulled rapidly towards them.As soon as the boat came alongside, the men in her, who appeared to be foreigners, looked at the boys with the deepest pity, and spoke to each other rapidly in some guttural language, which Jonathan had a hazy idea was German, as if expressing sympathy with their emaciated condition.One of them whom they took to be an officer, from the gold band on his cap and the tone of authority in his voice, stepped into their boat, and appeared to have the intention of lifting them out of it into the other; but all at once he seemed to notice the name of theEric Strauss, and stopped short, with an expression of surprised astonishment on his face.“Wunderbar!” he exclaimed, pointing out the name to his companions, who also looked eagerly at it; and then, while he remained with the boys in the cutter, the painter of the latter was attached to the other boat, which towed it alongside the ship; and, after that David and Jonathan remembered no more, as they both fainted as they were being tenderly hoisted on board.Jonathan was the first to come to himself.He was in a hammock in the ’tween decks of a ship, which he could feel was in motion. At the slight movement he made in raising his head and peering over the side of the hammock, a man with a grave face came to him, saying something he could not understand.“Where’s David?” inquired Jonathan, a little bit still puzzled in his head.The man evidently knew that he was asking after his friend, as he pointed to another hammock, suspended a short distance from his own, in which David was calmly sleeping; after which he gave him some soup to drink, and Jonathan dropped off to sleep too.When he awoke again he felt much better, and motioning to the attendant that he would like to get out of the hammock, the man assisted him on to his feet. He was a little shaky at first, feeling sore all over; but after walking up and down a few steps with the assistance of the attendant’s arm, he regained his strength, and proceeded to the side of David’s hammock to pay him a visit.At the sound of Jonathan’s voice, the other—whoappeared to have been wide awake although he had made no movement—at once jumped up, and without any assistance got out and stood on the deck by Jonathan’s side.“Well, old fellow!” said he.“Well, Dave!” ejaculated the other; and they clasped each other’s hands with a tight grip, as they had never expected to do again on earth. They fully appreciated their rescue, and thanked God for it.“And how do you feel, Dave?” inquired Jonathan, after they had had a long look at each other.“First-rate,” said he. “And you?”“Oh, I’m all right. But your leg, Dave, is it better?”“To tell you the truth,” answered he with a hearty laugh, “I forgot all about it. It’s quite well now—look! and that black and blue appearance it had has disappeared. I don’t feel the slightest pain, so it must be all right.”The attendant, seeing both the lads better and able to move about, here brought them each a mess of something nice to eat, which they polished off in so hearty a manner as to make him smile, and exclaim, “Sehr gut!” with much satisfaction to himself; and he then handed the boys their clothes, which had been carefully dried and smoothed, and assisted them to dress.“I wish,” said David, as he completed his toilet by pulling on a pair of Hessian boots, that the man brought him in place of the solitary one which he remembered having on in the boat, “I wish we had been picked up by an English ship, although these chaps have been very kind, of course, and beggars mustn’t be choosers. They are Germans, I suppose, eh? Do you know the lingo, Jonathan?”“Yes, it’s a German ship,Die Ahnfrau,” replied his friend, likewise donning another pair of “loaned” boots, and accepting a cap, which the attendant produced with a bow. “How polite this chap is, Dave! I’m sorry I only know one or two words of the language, or I would thank him, and get out all the information I could about the vessel, and how they picked us up.”“Oh we’ll find that out somehow,” said David carelessly, “all in good time, old fellow.” And the man at that moment tapping him on the arm, and making a motion that he should follow him, he and Jonathan went after him up the companion-stairs, from the cabin in which they were, on to the upper deck.They were in a large barque, as they could see, under full sail, with royals, staysails, stunsails, and everything that could draw, set; but they had not much time given them for observation.“Wie heissen Sie?” said a short, stout man in spectacles, speaking in a sharp imperative voice. He had a very broad gold band on his cap, and the boys took him for the captain of the vessel, as indeed he was. He specially seemed to address Jonathan, as the attendant who had escorted them on deck took them up to him, where he was standing by the binnacle with two or three others.“John Liston,” answered that worthy, speaking almost involuntarily, as the phrase the captain used, asking his name, was one of the few German ones with which he was acquainted.“Ah, ah!” exclaimed the captain, in a very meaning tone, addressing an officer that stood by his side, and whom David fixed as the first mate. “Sie sprechen Deutsch! Ah, ha!”“Nein,—no,” said Jonathan, “I do not. I cannot speak German, I assure you.”“Very vell,” said the little captain, in pretty good English, although with a strong foreign accent. “We will suppose you cannot! Tell me, how did you come in that boat in which we picked you up?”Thereupon Jonathan told him of their being lost from theSea Rover, David adding, as Jonathan left out that part of the story, how his friend had bravely plunged overboard to his rescue. The German captain, however, much to David’s disgust, did not believe him. He wasn’t accustomed to heroism in his sphere evidently!“Oh, it’s all very well,” he said sneeringly, “but will you tell me how it was that you two boys, belonging to theSea Rover, as you say, came to be in a boat belonging to theEric Strauss, which boat was taken away from that vessel by some of the crew—amongst whom, we were informed at the Cape by the authorities there, were two lads like yourselves—after a mutiny in which they nearly murdered the master?”Of course they explained; but the captain only turned a deaf ear to all they said. He insisted that they were the survivors of the mutineers of theEric Strauss, and told them he intended putting them in irons, and taking them home for trial at Bremerhaven—whereDie Ahnfrauwas bound from Batavia, having only stopped at the Cape of Good Hope for fresh provisions and water, and having there heard of the mutiny on board theEric Strauss, in which vessel the captain of the former was deeply interested, being the brother of the master, whom the crew had set upon, as well as partner of the ship.All remonstrances on the boys’ part were useless; and, after being so miraculously preserved from the perils of the deep, they wound up the history of their adventures when “lost at sea,” as David pathetically remarked, by being “carried off prisoners to Germany by a lot of cabbage-soup-eating, sourkrout Teutons, who were almost bigger fools than they looked!” It was all Jonathan’s little knowledge of the German language that did it, however.Naturally, the mistake ofDie Ahnfrau’scommander was soon discovered on the arrival of the ship at Bremerhaven, when the boys were able to communicate with their friends and the owners of theSea Roverin London, and they were released immediately. But the insult rankled in their bosoms for some time after, and did not completely disappear, from David’s mind especially, until theSea Rover—which, they heard from the owners at the same time that they produced proof of the boys’ identity, had already left Melbourne on her return voyage—had got back safely to the port of London, and Johnny Liston’s father and Captain Markham had greeted their young heroes as if they had been restored from the dead.Jonathan received the medal of the Royal Humane Society for his bravery in plunging overboard to David’s assistance; and the two boys are still the closest and dearest friends in the world, David being third mate, and Jonathan, who took to the sea for the other’s sake, fourth officer of theSea Rover, at the present moment, “which, when found,” as Captain Cuttle says, “why, make a note on!”

“Boat ahoy!”

The two boys might have been asleep for hours only, or insensible for days, they never knew for certain which, and nobody else could inform them; but that shout ringing in their ears awoke them, with a thrill of agony that it might be merely a dream of their disordered imagination.

One look, however, satisfied them to the contrary, when they painfully raised themselves into a sitting posture in the bottom of the boat—which they could hardly do by reason of their weakness—holding on to the gunwales on either side as they dragged up their attenuated bodies, and directing their sunken eyes, which rolled with incipient delirium, to the point from whence the hail came.

They could have screamed for joy, but their voices failed them, and their emotion found relief in tears and stifling sobs.

A large ship lay to about a hundred yards off; and a boat, which had evidently just been lowered from its side, was being pulled rapidly towards them.

As soon as the boat came alongside, the men in her, who appeared to be foreigners, looked at the boys with the deepest pity, and spoke to each other rapidly in some guttural language, which Jonathan had a hazy idea was German, as if expressing sympathy with their emaciated condition.

One of them whom they took to be an officer, from the gold band on his cap and the tone of authority in his voice, stepped into their boat, and appeared to have the intention of lifting them out of it into the other; but all at once he seemed to notice the name of theEric Strauss, and stopped short, with an expression of surprised astonishment on his face.

“Wunderbar!” he exclaimed, pointing out the name to his companions, who also looked eagerly at it; and then, while he remained with the boys in the cutter, the painter of the latter was attached to the other boat, which towed it alongside the ship; and, after that David and Jonathan remembered no more, as they both fainted as they were being tenderly hoisted on board.

Jonathan was the first to come to himself.

He was in a hammock in the ’tween decks of a ship, which he could feel was in motion. At the slight movement he made in raising his head and peering over the side of the hammock, a man with a grave face came to him, saying something he could not understand.

“Where’s David?” inquired Jonathan, a little bit still puzzled in his head.

The man evidently knew that he was asking after his friend, as he pointed to another hammock, suspended a short distance from his own, in which David was calmly sleeping; after which he gave him some soup to drink, and Jonathan dropped off to sleep too.

When he awoke again he felt much better, and motioning to the attendant that he would like to get out of the hammock, the man assisted him on to his feet. He was a little shaky at first, feeling sore all over; but after walking up and down a few steps with the assistance of the attendant’s arm, he regained his strength, and proceeded to the side of David’s hammock to pay him a visit.

At the sound of Jonathan’s voice, the other—whoappeared to have been wide awake although he had made no movement—at once jumped up, and without any assistance got out and stood on the deck by Jonathan’s side.

“Well, old fellow!” said he.

“Well, Dave!” ejaculated the other; and they clasped each other’s hands with a tight grip, as they had never expected to do again on earth. They fully appreciated their rescue, and thanked God for it.

“And how do you feel, Dave?” inquired Jonathan, after they had had a long look at each other.

“First-rate,” said he. “And you?”

“Oh, I’m all right. But your leg, Dave, is it better?”

“To tell you the truth,” answered he with a hearty laugh, “I forgot all about it. It’s quite well now—look! and that black and blue appearance it had has disappeared. I don’t feel the slightest pain, so it must be all right.”

The attendant, seeing both the lads better and able to move about, here brought them each a mess of something nice to eat, which they polished off in so hearty a manner as to make him smile, and exclaim, “Sehr gut!” with much satisfaction to himself; and he then handed the boys their clothes, which had been carefully dried and smoothed, and assisted them to dress.

“I wish,” said David, as he completed his toilet by pulling on a pair of Hessian boots, that the man brought him in place of the solitary one which he remembered having on in the boat, “I wish we had been picked up by an English ship, although these chaps have been very kind, of course, and beggars mustn’t be choosers. They are Germans, I suppose, eh? Do you know the lingo, Jonathan?”

“Yes, it’s a German ship,Die Ahnfrau,” replied his friend, likewise donning another pair of “loaned” boots, and accepting a cap, which the attendant produced with a bow. “How polite this chap is, Dave! I’m sorry I only know one or two words of the language, or I would thank him, and get out all the information I could about the vessel, and how they picked us up.”

“Oh we’ll find that out somehow,” said David carelessly, “all in good time, old fellow.” And the man at that moment tapping him on the arm, and making a motion that he should follow him, he and Jonathan went after him up the companion-stairs, from the cabin in which they were, on to the upper deck.

They were in a large barque, as they could see, under full sail, with royals, staysails, stunsails, and everything that could draw, set; but they had not much time given them for observation.

“Wie heissen Sie?” said a short, stout man in spectacles, speaking in a sharp imperative voice. He had a very broad gold band on his cap, and the boys took him for the captain of the vessel, as indeed he was. He specially seemed to address Jonathan, as the attendant who had escorted them on deck took them up to him, where he was standing by the binnacle with two or three others.

“John Liston,” answered that worthy, speaking almost involuntarily, as the phrase the captain used, asking his name, was one of the few German ones with which he was acquainted.

“Ah, ah!” exclaimed the captain, in a very meaning tone, addressing an officer that stood by his side, and whom David fixed as the first mate. “Sie sprechen Deutsch! Ah, ha!”

“Nein,—no,” said Jonathan, “I do not. I cannot speak German, I assure you.”

“Very vell,” said the little captain, in pretty good English, although with a strong foreign accent. “We will suppose you cannot! Tell me, how did you come in that boat in which we picked you up?”

Thereupon Jonathan told him of their being lost from theSea Rover, David adding, as Jonathan left out that part of the story, how his friend had bravely plunged overboard to his rescue. The German captain, however, much to David’s disgust, did not believe him. He wasn’t accustomed to heroism in his sphere evidently!

“Oh, it’s all very well,” he said sneeringly, “but will you tell me how it was that you two boys, belonging to theSea Rover, as you say, came to be in a boat belonging to theEric Strauss, which boat was taken away from that vessel by some of the crew—amongst whom, we were informed at the Cape by the authorities there, were two lads like yourselves—after a mutiny in which they nearly murdered the master?”

Of course they explained; but the captain only turned a deaf ear to all they said. He insisted that they were the survivors of the mutineers of theEric Strauss, and told them he intended putting them in irons, and taking them home for trial at Bremerhaven—whereDie Ahnfrauwas bound from Batavia, having only stopped at the Cape of Good Hope for fresh provisions and water, and having there heard of the mutiny on board theEric Strauss, in which vessel the captain of the former was deeply interested, being the brother of the master, whom the crew had set upon, as well as partner of the ship.

All remonstrances on the boys’ part were useless; and, after being so miraculously preserved from the perils of the deep, they wound up the history of their adventures when “lost at sea,” as David pathetically remarked, by being “carried off prisoners to Germany by a lot of cabbage-soup-eating, sourkrout Teutons, who were almost bigger fools than they looked!” It was all Jonathan’s little knowledge of the German language that did it, however.

Naturally, the mistake ofDie Ahnfrau’scommander was soon discovered on the arrival of the ship at Bremerhaven, when the boys were able to communicate with their friends and the owners of theSea Roverin London, and they were released immediately. But the insult rankled in their bosoms for some time after, and did not completely disappear, from David’s mind especially, until theSea Rover—which, they heard from the owners at the same time that they produced proof of the boys’ identity, had already left Melbourne on her return voyage—had got back safely to the port of London, and Johnny Liston’s father and Captain Markham had greeted their young heroes as if they had been restored from the dead.

Jonathan received the medal of the Royal Humane Society for his bravery in plunging overboard to David’s assistance; and the two boys are still the closest and dearest friends in the world, David being third mate, and Jonathan, who took to the sea for the other’s sake, fourth officer of theSea Rover, at the present moment, “which, when found,” as Captain Cuttle says, “why, make a note on!”

Story 4—Chapter I.“Black Harry.”“The cap’en p’r’aps was in fault in the first instance; but then, you know, it’s no place for a man to argue for the right or wrong of a thing aboard ship. When he signs articles, he’s bound to obey orders; and as everybody must be aware, especially those in the seafaring line, the captain is king on board his ship when once at sea—king, prime minister, parliament, judge and jury, and all the rest of it.”“But,” said I, “he’s under orders and under the law, too, as well as any other man, isn’t he?”“Yes, when he’s ashore,” said the mate with the shade over his eye. “Thenhe’s got to answer for anything he might have done wrong on the voyage, if the crew likes to haul him up afore the magistrates; but at sea his word is law, and he can do as he pleases with no hindrance, save what providence and the elements may interpose.”“And providencedoesinterpose sometimes?” said I.“Yes, in the most wonderful and mysterious ways,” said the mate with the shade over his eye, speaking in a solemn and awe-struck manner. “Look at what happened in our case! But stop, as I don’t suppose you’ve heard the rights of it, I’ll tell you all about it.”“Do,” said I.He was the mate of a vessel which had been picked up at sea, disabled and almost derelict under most peculiar circumstances, with only one other survivor besides himself on board, and brought into Falmouth by the passing steamer which had rescued her. He was a most extraordinary man to look at. Short, with a dreamy face and lanky, whitish-brown hair, and a patch or shade over one eye, which gave him a very peculiar appearance, as the other eye squinted or turned askew, looking, as sailors say, all the week for Sunday.“Do,” said I. “There’s nothing that I should like better!”Clearing his throat with a faint sort of apologetic cough, and staring apparently round the corner with his sound, or rather unshaded eye, he began without any further hesitation.“The cap’en p’raps was in the wrong at first, as I said afore, sir. You see, some men are born to authority, and some isn’t, and Captain Jarvis was one of those that aren’t. I don’t wish to speak ill of a man, when he’s dead and gone to his account, and not here to answer for himself; but I must say, if I speak the truth, that it was all through Cap’en Jarvis’ fault theGulnarecame to grief and all on board murdered each other; and what weren’t murdered were swept off the ship and drowned in the storm that came on afterwards, when everybody was seeking each other’s blood, and so met their doom in that way—all, that is, barrin’ little Peter and me, who only lived through the scrimmage and the gale to tell the story of the others’ fate. The cap’en had a bad temper and didn’t know how to keep it under; that was at the bottom of it all; and yet, a nicer man, when the devil hadn’t got the upper hand of him, and a handsomer chap—he was better looking than me, sir,” said the mate in an earnest way, as if his statement was so incredible that he hardly expected it to be believed—“yes, a nicer and a handsomer chap you never clapped eyes on in a day’s run than Cap’en Jarvis! He stood a trifle taller than me, and had a jolly bearded face with merry blue eyes; but with all that and his good-humoured manner when everything was up to the nines and all plain sailing, he had old Nick’s temper and could show it when he liked! We left Mobile short-handed; and when you leave port to cross the Atlantic short-handed at this time of the year, I guess, mister, you’ve got your work cut out for you, you have! There was only the cap’en; myself, first mate; the second officer, boatswain, and ten hands all told, includin’ idlers, to navigate a ship of over eight hundred tons from Mobile to Liverpool in the very worst time of the year! A bad lookout when you come to consider it fairly as I have; and when you have a cap’en as is continually working the men to death and a-swearin’ and a-drivin’ at them, and they undermanned too, why it stands to reason that harm will come: you’re bound to have a muss, you bet, before the voyage is through!“We’d hardly cleared the Gulf of Florida when the weather got bad, with a foul wind and a heavy sea; and we were driven past Cape Hatteras before we could make a bit of easting in our longitude. You never saw such a rough time of it as we had. The watch below had no sooner turned in than they had to be called up again to reef topsails or make sail, for there were too few hands to be of much use without both watches worked together, and so the men had to do double tides, as it were, with neither time to eat nor sleep comfortably. To add to their hardships, they were constantly in wet clothes, as it poured with rain the whole time; besides which, the ship was so heavily laden that we were continually taking in seas over the bows as she laboured, the water washing aft of course, and drenching them who might have escaped the rain to the skin, so that not a soul aboard had a dry rag on. You can imagine, sir, how the men stomached this, particularly when there was the skipper swearing at ’em all the time, and saying that they were lazy lubbers and not worth their salt, when they were trying hard to do their best, as I must give them the credit of! I spoke to the cap’en, but it was of no use—not a bit; you might just as well have expected a capstan bar to hear reason!“‘Mr Marling,’ says he, in the still way he always spoke when he was real angry. ‘Mr Marling, I’m captain of my own ship, and always intend to be so as long as I can draw my breath: I’ll thank you to mind your own business!’“What could I say after that? Nothing; and so I said nothing more, although I could almost foresee what was coming, step by step!“This dirty weather had been going on for about a fortnight, or thereabouts; the wind heading us every now and then and veering back again to the southward and westwards, accompanied by squalls of hail and rain following each other with lightning rapidly; so that no sooner had one cleared off than another was on to us, and we had to clear up everything and let the ship drive before the gale as she pleased, for it was of no use trying to make a fair wind out of a foul one any longer. As well as we could make out our reckoning, with the aid of some lunar observations Captain Jarvis booked the night before, for we were unable to see the sun long enough for our purpose, we were about some three or four hundred miles to the west of Bermuda, when, just as the clouds were breaking up blue-black against the sky, and the barometer told us in its plain language that it was coming on to blow harder, and that we would have worse weather than we had yet had, all the hands, as if with one accord, struck work—with the exception of the man at the wheel, who stuck to his post! There was no mistake about it: the watch on deck refused point-blank to go aloft when the skipper ordered them, for about the fourth time in the hour, I should think it was, to take in sail; while the watch below, in spite of the boatswain’s hammering away at the fore-hatch and the capen’s swearing, declared that they wouldn’t rouse up, not even if the ship was sinking, and if they were shouted at any more they would sarve him out. It was a mutiny, there’s no denying; a regular crisis, if ever there was one; and just what I expected, seeing as how things were going ever since we left Mobile, not three weeks before.”“Captain Jarvis,” he resumed after a brief pause, “no sooner heard the men refuse to come on deck than he went below. Not to where they were in the fore-hatch—he knew a thing or two better than that—but to his cabin, and in a minute he comes up again with a revolver in each of his fists.“‘Now,’ says he in a firm, hard, but quiet voice, not loud—he always spoke particularly quiet when he was angry, as I’ve told you; and he was angry now, if ever a man was! ‘Now, you skulkers,’ he says, addressing first the hands on deck—‘Aloft every man-jack of you! I’ll shoot the last man that’s up the shrouds!’ They were up in the rigging pretty smart, you bet, at that, when he had a revolver levelled dead at their heads. ‘See that you stow that main-topsail in a brace of shakes! And you lubbers below, wake up there!’ he exclaimed over the fore-hatch, firing a shot down below as he spoke. ‘Wake up there and on deck; or, I’ll riddle every mother’s son of you before I count ten. You, Black Harry, I know you’ve set this pretty little scheme going! Up with you, or by the Lord Harry, your namesake, I’ll put a bullet through your carcass!’“With that the watch below, knowing with whom they had to deal, thought it best to give in; and up they came, Black Harry at their head, as sullen as a lot of schoolboys going up to be flogged, who had just thought they had barred out the master.“‘It’s no use your grumbling,’ says Cap’en Jarvis, with a queer grin on his face that was more angry-like than a pain, ‘It’s no use your grumbling with me! Aloft with you, and make that fore topsail all snug, and set storm staysails, for we’ve got something rougher coming. I’ll settle with you, Master Harry, by-and-by!’”“You haven’t told me yet about this man, though I’ve read his name in the papers. Who was Black Harry?” asked I.“Haven’t I told you about him yet? No; then, I’ll tell you all about him now, for he had more to do with the row aboard theGulnarethan anybody else! He was a regular dare-devil of a pocket-a-win, as they are called at Liverpool—a tall, lean, down-east Yankee from Boston, with jet-black hair, and a swarthy face, which made you think he had nigger blood in him and got him his name of ‘Black Harry.’ A powerful man and a good foremast hand; but an all-fired lazy devil about work, and as sulky as a bear when he didn’t get his grub regular. He was no coward though; and no skulker in danger, as some white-livered chaps are who ought to be ashamed to ship as sailors, for he’d venture aloft sometimes when no one else would dare, and was the first man at the weather-earing when it was ‘Reef topsails!’ But he had a temper as skittish as the cap’en’s, and couldn’t stand being swore at. I’ve heard him many a time mutter after the captain had been going on at him. I know I’d not have liked to have said half to him that Captain Jarvis did, for Black Harry looked like a man who would never forget nor forgive a grudge.“Well, by-and-by the hands came down from aloft; and amongst them Black Harry, who lagged behind the rest, although he had been the first in the foretop going up.“‘Come here, you lubber!’ said the cap’en to him, singing out aloud as he touched the deck—‘you, I mean, Black Harry. I’ve got a little matter to settle, I think, with you. Who incited the hands to mutiny just now? I don’t forget, Master Harry—I don’t forget!’“‘Neither do I!’ grumbled Harry below his voice.“‘What is that, you mutinous dog?’ exclaimed the cap’en, flying into a violent passion again, although he had somewhat calmed down from his former rage—‘Answer me to my teeth, you scoundrel? Take that!’ and he hit a drive full fair in the centre of the forehead, with the butt-end of his revolver, holding it by the barrel, felling Harry to the deck senseless, like a bullock under the poleaxe!“Some of the crew murmured ‘Shame!’ But the cap’en kept up his authority. ‘Silence there!’ he cried out. ‘Down with you, watch below, if you want to see your bunks to-night, and take that hulking carcass with you, or I’ll throw it overboard!’ And then the men went below, and took poor Black Harry, with them; the vessel was made snug under her jib, storm staysails, and close-reefed mainsail; and Captain Jarvis, who hadn’t been off the deck, except to fetch his revolver that time, once in the twenty-four hours, returned to his cabin to have a bit of sleep, leaving me on the watch; the second officer and boatswain, who acted also as third mate, having also turned in for a caulk and gone down into the steerage.“The sun, which we couldn’t see, had set long since, before indeed that little misunderstanding had occurred about going aloft; and the moon shone feebly now and then through an occasional opening in the clouds, which had piled up atop of each other so heavy to windward that they were like a pall in the sky.“There was only myself and the steersman aft, the rest of the watch, which were only five in number altogether, being stowed somewhere under the bulwarks amidships, trying to get an odd wink if the seas that were shipping in as the ship’s bows fell would let them. Not a sound was to be heard save the whistle and screech of the wind through the cordage, and the creak of a block occasionally aloft; and I was looking out at the weather, wondering how soon the next squall would tackle us, when my arms were seized by somebody behind me, who held them down close to my sides, and a gag of a reef-knot or some piece of rope shoved into my mouth, so that I couldn’t cry out.“‘Mr Marling!’ says a voice, which I recognised at once as Black Harry’s, whispering in my ear, ‘you need not fear nothing, only keep quiet, and no harm will be done to you; but if you tries to make a noise, why, we’ll have to quiet you in a way you won’t like!’“With that, you may be sure, I was as tranquil as a mouse, while they tied me down to a ring-bolt close by the cabin skylight, so that I couldn’t move; but from my position I could see and hear everything that went on afterwards, although I couldn’t get the gag out of my mouth so as to be able to speak.“‘Now, men,’ I heard Black Harry then say aloud; ‘now, we’ll pay out that devil below! I wonder how he’ll like his mutinous dogs at close quarters?’ and he laughed a horrible bitter laugh.“Then I heard them begin to descend the companion ladder into the captain’s cabin.“They didn’t go far enough! No sooner had Black Harry placed his foot on the first stair, followed by the other mutineers, than there was a flash and a stunning explosion from below. The captain, who had the quick hearing of a hound, must have caught the sound of their tussling with me on the deck, for he was ready for them with his double-barrelled gun. I saw him distinctly by the flash through the skylight, standing at the foot of the companion, while Gripper, the second officer, was hurrying up behind him through the door leading into the steerage where our berths were. Yes, I saw the captain. He had fired one shot, and stood waiting with the other barrel ready.“‘Come on, you dogs!’ I heard him exclaim as he discharged the gun. ‘There’s one dose of slugs, and I’ve got another handy for you!’“The men from the sound appeared to shrink back for a second, but the next minute they rushed down in a body; there was a second report of the captain’s gun, and I received, unbeknown to him, poor fellow—for he didn’t intend it, I know—a slug right in my eye here; and for some time I was in such agony that I didn’t know what occurred below, although I heard plenty of shots fired, and the sound of hand-to-hand fighting mingled with oaths, and curses, and cries.“When I recollected myself again there was Black Harry near me surrounded by only four others, as well as I could see after wiping the blood off my face with part of my arm, which I was able to do by wriggling at my lashings; the rest must have gone under in the scrimmage.“‘Now, you villain,’ I heard Black Harry say again in a voice full of spite and anger, ‘I’ve got you! Lash him up there in the lee rigging!’ says he to his fellow-murderers; and in a trice I saw the poor cap’en, quite pale and exhausted, fixed like a spread eagle in the mizzen shrouds to leeward. ‘Now, you villain!’ says Black Harry again, cocking one of the captain’s revolvers which he had ready in his hand, ‘you said you would riddle us just now if we didn’t go aloft after treating us like dogs ever since we came on board your cursed ship! Well, Jarvis, you dog—Cap’en Jarvis, I beg your pardon!—I intend to riddle you now!’“The cap’en didn’t say a word; he only looked at him; but if looks could kill, his would then!“‘You dog!’ said Black Harry again, after a stop to see if the captain would speak. ‘I’ve got three slugs in my stomach, and you’ve swore three times at me to-day like a dog—that makes six in all; I intend to send six shots through your vile carcass without killing you if I can help it. You knocked me down on the deck with the butt-end of your pistol, and ordered my body to be taken below by the hands, or else you said you’d throw it overboard. For that outrage I’ll take my last revenge, after riddling you like a sieve, by smashing in your skull, and pitching your vile carcass to the sharks—Dog!’“With that the ruffian fired his first shot with the revolver at his powerless victim. The captain winced slightly, and I saw the bullet had carried off part of one of his ears.“‘Ha!’ said Black Harry, ‘nervous, are you? Here’s another fillip for you.’“But at the same moment the storm, which I had seen brewing up to windward, burst over the ship; and a tremendous wave seemed to flatten me down on the deck, the ring-bolt to which I was lashed preventing me from slipping away. When the rush of water had subsided, and I was able to hold up my head once more, my wounded eye smarting worse than ever, I saw that the mizzen and main masts with part of the foremast had been washed clean away with the shrouds, running-gear, and all their hamper, and, of course, the body of the poor captain, Black Harry, and all his companions in crime had been carried off too in the general wreck.“How long I remained lashed to the deck of the crippled vessel with the waves dashing over me, the sport of the sea and the mark of the weather, I know not. The first thing I recollect after what appeared to be an eternity of torture, was that I found myself on board theSaracen, a screw steamer bound from New York to Southampton, which had sighted theGulnaretossing at the mercy of the wind and waves, and sent a boat to see whether there was anybody alive on board. I was on board, alive though senseless for a time, and brought to after much kindly solicitude; so, too, was little Peter, the cabin-boy, whom the mutineers had tied up in his bunk in the forecastle, and who was also alive, though nearly starved to death. Besides our two selves, there was no other living thing; but the bodies of Gripper, the second officer, Painter, the boatswain, and those of the mutineers who had not been washed overboard, were found floating about in the cabin, all with the marks of bullet and shot wounds and other injuries, to show that they had come by a violent death after a hard struggle.“When my senses were to the fore again, naturally I informed my salvors of all that had occurred; and as the cargo of theGulnarewas a valuable one, her hull not very much damaged, and the weather calm and favourable, the captain of theSaracen, which had so providentially come across her—and a right good fellow he has been to me!—made up his mind to salvage my old ship if he could.”“And so he towed her in here at Falmouth, and you made your depositions along with the cabin-boy, Peter, the only survivors of the catastrophe, about the facts of the case, for the benefit of the underwriters and the clearance of your own character?”“Just so, mister,” said the man with the shade over his eye, who it strikes me from certain circumstances was of American nationality; “and that’s the whole story about ‘Black Harry,’ I guess!”The End.

“The cap’en p’r’aps was in fault in the first instance; but then, you know, it’s no place for a man to argue for the right or wrong of a thing aboard ship. When he signs articles, he’s bound to obey orders; and as everybody must be aware, especially those in the seafaring line, the captain is king on board his ship when once at sea—king, prime minister, parliament, judge and jury, and all the rest of it.”

“But,” said I, “he’s under orders and under the law, too, as well as any other man, isn’t he?”

“Yes, when he’s ashore,” said the mate with the shade over his eye. “Thenhe’s got to answer for anything he might have done wrong on the voyage, if the crew likes to haul him up afore the magistrates; but at sea his word is law, and he can do as he pleases with no hindrance, save what providence and the elements may interpose.”

“And providencedoesinterpose sometimes?” said I.

“Yes, in the most wonderful and mysterious ways,” said the mate with the shade over his eye, speaking in a solemn and awe-struck manner. “Look at what happened in our case! But stop, as I don’t suppose you’ve heard the rights of it, I’ll tell you all about it.”

“Do,” said I.

He was the mate of a vessel which had been picked up at sea, disabled and almost derelict under most peculiar circumstances, with only one other survivor besides himself on board, and brought into Falmouth by the passing steamer which had rescued her. He was a most extraordinary man to look at. Short, with a dreamy face and lanky, whitish-brown hair, and a patch or shade over one eye, which gave him a very peculiar appearance, as the other eye squinted or turned askew, looking, as sailors say, all the week for Sunday.

“Do,” said I. “There’s nothing that I should like better!”

Clearing his throat with a faint sort of apologetic cough, and staring apparently round the corner with his sound, or rather unshaded eye, he began without any further hesitation.

“The cap’en p’raps was in the wrong at first, as I said afore, sir. You see, some men are born to authority, and some isn’t, and Captain Jarvis was one of those that aren’t. I don’t wish to speak ill of a man, when he’s dead and gone to his account, and not here to answer for himself; but I must say, if I speak the truth, that it was all through Cap’en Jarvis’ fault theGulnarecame to grief and all on board murdered each other; and what weren’t murdered were swept off the ship and drowned in the storm that came on afterwards, when everybody was seeking each other’s blood, and so met their doom in that way—all, that is, barrin’ little Peter and me, who only lived through the scrimmage and the gale to tell the story of the others’ fate. The cap’en had a bad temper and didn’t know how to keep it under; that was at the bottom of it all; and yet, a nicer man, when the devil hadn’t got the upper hand of him, and a handsomer chap—he was better looking than me, sir,” said the mate in an earnest way, as if his statement was so incredible that he hardly expected it to be believed—“yes, a nicer and a handsomer chap you never clapped eyes on in a day’s run than Cap’en Jarvis! He stood a trifle taller than me, and had a jolly bearded face with merry blue eyes; but with all that and his good-humoured manner when everything was up to the nines and all plain sailing, he had old Nick’s temper and could show it when he liked! We left Mobile short-handed; and when you leave port to cross the Atlantic short-handed at this time of the year, I guess, mister, you’ve got your work cut out for you, you have! There was only the cap’en; myself, first mate; the second officer, boatswain, and ten hands all told, includin’ idlers, to navigate a ship of over eight hundred tons from Mobile to Liverpool in the very worst time of the year! A bad lookout when you come to consider it fairly as I have; and when you have a cap’en as is continually working the men to death and a-swearin’ and a-drivin’ at them, and they undermanned too, why it stands to reason that harm will come: you’re bound to have a muss, you bet, before the voyage is through!

“We’d hardly cleared the Gulf of Florida when the weather got bad, with a foul wind and a heavy sea; and we were driven past Cape Hatteras before we could make a bit of easting in our longitude. You never saw such a rough time of it as we had. The watch below had no sooner turned in than they had to be called up again to reef topsails or make sail, for there were too few hands to be of much use without both watches worked together, and so the men had to do double tides, as it were, with neither time to eat nor sleep comfortably. To add to their hardships, they were constantly in wet clothes, as it poured with rain the whole time; besides which, the ship was so heavily laden that we were continually taking in seas over the bows as she laboured, the water washing aft of course, and drenching them who might have escaped the rain to the skin, so that not a soul aboard had a dry rag on. You can imagine, sir, how the men stomached this, particularly when there was the skipper swearing at ’em all the time, and saying that they were lazy lubbers and not worth their salt, when they were trying hard to do their best, as I must give them the credit of! I spoke to the cap’en, but it was of no use—not a bit; you might just as well have expected a capstan bar to hear reason!

“‘Mr Marling,’ says he, in the still way he always spoke when he was real angry. ‘Mr Marling, I’m captain of my own ship, and always intend to be so as long as I can draw my breath: I’ll thank you to mind your own business!’

“What could I say after that? Nothing; and so I said nothing more, although I could almost foresee what was coming, step by step!

“This dirty weather had been going on for about a fortnight, or thereabouts; the wind heading us every now and then and veering back again to the southward and westwards, accompanied by squalls of hail and rain following each other with lightning rapidly; so that no sooner had one cleared off than another was on to us, and we had to clear up everything and let the ship drive before the gale as she pleased, for it was of no use trying to make a fair wind out of a foul one any longer. As well as we could make out our reckoning, with the aid of some lunar observations Captain Jarvis booked the night before, for we were unable to see the sun long enough for our purpose, we were about some three or four hundred miles to the west of Bermuda, when, just as the clouds were breaking up blue-black against the sky, and the barometer told us in its plain language that it was coming on to blow harder, and that we would have worse weather than we had yet had, all the hands, as if with one accord, struck work—with the exception of the man at the wheel, who stuck to his post! There was no mistake about it: the watch on deck refused point-blank to go aloft when the skipper ordered them, for about the fourth time in the hour, I should think it was, to take in sail; while the watch below, in spite of the boatswain’s hammering away at the fore-hatch and the capen’s swearing, declared that they wouldn’t rouse up, not even if the ship was sinking, and if they were shouted at any more they would sarve him out. It was a mutiny, there’s no denying; a regular crisis, if ever there was one; and just what I expected, seeing as how things were going ever since we left Mobile, not three weeks before.”

“Captain Jarvis,” he resumed after a brief pause, “no sooner heard the men refuse to come on deck than he went below. Not to where they were in the fore-hatch—he knew a thing or two better than that—but to his cabin, and in a minute he comes up again with a revolver in each of his fists.

“‘Now,’ says he in a firm, hard, but quiet voice, not loud—he always spoke particularly quiet when he was angry, as I’ve told you; and he was angry now, if ever a man was! ‘Now, you skulkers,’ he says, addressing first the hands on deck—‘Aloft every man-jack of you! I’ll shoot the last man that’s up the shrouds!’ They were up in the rigging pretty smart, you bet, at that, when he had a revolver levelled dead at their heads. ‘See that you stow that main-topsail in a brace of shakes! And you lubbers below, wake up there!’ he exclaimed over the fore-hatch, firing a shot down below as he spoke. ‘Wake up there and on deck; or, I’ll riddle every mother’s son of you before I count ten. You, Black Harry, I know you’ve set this pretty little scheme going! Up with you, or by the Lord Harry, your namesake, I’ll put a bullet through your carcass!’

“With that the watch below, knowing with whom they had to deal, thought it best to give in; and up they came, Black Harry at their head, as sullen as a lot of schoolboys going up to be flogged, who had just thought they had barred out the master.

“‘It’s no use your grumbling,’ says Cap’en Jarvis, with a queer grin on his face that was more angry-like than a pain, ‘It’s no use your grumbling with me! Aloft with you, and make that fore topsail all snug, and set storm staysails, for we’ve got something rougher coming. I’ll settle with you, Master Harry, by-and-by!’”

“You haven’t told me yet about this man, though I’ve read his name in the papers. Who was Black Harry?” asked I.

“Haven’t I told you about him yet? No; then, I’ll tell you all about him now, for he had more to do with the row aboard theGulnarethan anybody else! He was a regular dare-devil of a pocket-a-win, as they are called at Liverpool—a tall, lean, down-east Yankee from Boston, with jet-black hair, and a swarthy face, which made you think he had nigger blood in him and got him his name of ‘Black Harry.’ A powerful man and a good foremast hand; but an all-fired lazy devil about work, and as sulky as a bear when he didn’t get his grub regular. He was no coward though; and no skulker in danger, as some white-livered chaps are who ought to be ashamed to ship as sailors, for he’d venture aloft sometimes when no one else would dare, and was the first man at the weather-earing when it was ‘Reef topsails!’ But he had a temper as skittish as the cap’en’s, and couldn’t stand being swore at. I’ve heard him many a time mutter after the captain had been going on at him. I know I’d not have liked to have said half to him that Captain Jarvis did, for Black Harry looked like a man who would never forget nor forgive a grudge.

“Well, by-and-by the hands came down from aloft; and amongst them Black Harry, who lagged behind the rest, although he had been the first in the foretop going up.

“‘Come here, you lubber!’ said the cap’en to him, singing out aloud as he touched the deck—‘you, I mean, Black Harry. I’ve got a little matter to settle, I think, with you. Who incited the hands to mutiny just now? I don’t forget, Master Harry—I don’t forget!’

“‘Neither do I!’ grumbled Harry below his voice.

“‘What is that, you mutinous dog?’ exclaimed the cap’en, flying into a violent passion again, although he had somewhat calmed down from his former rage—‘Answer me to my teeth, you scoundrel? Take that!’ and he hit a drive full fair in the centre of the forehead, with the butt-end of his revolver, holding it by the barrel, felling Harry to the deck senseless, like a bullock under the poleaxe!

“Some of the crew murmured ‘Shame!’ But the cap’en kept up his authority. ‘Silence there!’ he cried out. ‘Down with you, watch below, if you want to see your bunks to-night, and take that hulking carcass with you, or I’ll throw it overboard!’ And then the men went below, and took poor Black Harry, with them; the vessel was made snug under her jib, storm staysails, and close-reefed mainsail; and Captain Jarvis, who hadn’t been off the deck, except to fetch his revolver that time, once in the twenty-four hours, returned to his cabin to have a bit of sleep, leaving me on the watch; the second officer and boatswain, who acted also as third mate, having also turned in for a caulk and gone down into the steerage.

“The sun, which we couldn’t see, had set long since, before indeed that little misunderstanding had occurred about going aloft; and the moon shone feebly now and then through an occasional opening in the clouds, which had piled up atop of each other so heavy to windward that they were like a pall in the sky.

“There was only myself and the steersman aft, the rest of the watch, which were only five in number altogether, being stowed somewhere under the bulwarks amidships, trying to get an odd wink if the seas that were shipping in as the ship’s bows fell would let them. Not a sound was to be heard save the whistle and screech of the wind through the cordage, and the creak of a block occasionally aloft; and I was looking out at the weather, wondering how soon the next squall would tackle us, when my arms were seized by somebody behind me, who held them down close to my sides, and a gag of a reef-knot or some piece of rope shoved into my mouth, so that I couldn’t cry out.

“‘Mr Marling!’ says a voice, which I recognised at once as Black Harry’s, whispering in my ear, ‘you need not fear nothing, only keep quiet, and no harm will be done to you; but if you tries to make a noise, why, we’ll have to quiet you in a way you won’t like!’

“With that, you may be sure, I was as tranquil as a mouse, while they tied me down to a ring-bolt close by the cabin skylight, so that I couldn’t move; but from my position I could see and hear everything that went on afterwards, although I couldn’t get the gag out of my mouth so as to be able to speak.

“‘Now, men,’ I heard Black Harry then say aloud; ‘now, we’ll pay out that devil below! I wonder how he’ll like his mutinous dogs at close quarters?’ and he laughed a horrible bitter laugh.

“Then I heard them begin to descend the companion ladder into the captain’s cabin.

“They didn’t go far enough! No sooner had Black Harry placed his foot on the first stair, followed by the other mutineers, than there was a flash and a stunning explosion from below. The captain, who had the quick hearing of a hound, must have caught the sound of their tussling with me on the deck, for he was ready for them with his double-barrelled gun. I saw him distinctly by the flash through the skylight, standing at the foot of the companion, while Gripper, the second officer, was hurrying up behind him through the door leading into the steerage where our berths were. Yes, I saw the captain. He had fired one shot, and stood waiting with the other barrel ready.

“‘Come on, you dogs!’ I heard him exclaim as he discharged the gun. ‘There’s one dose of slugs, and I’ve got another handy for you!’

“The men from the sound appeared to shrink back for a second, but the next minute they rushed down in a body; there was a second report of the captain’s gun, and I received, unbeknown to him, poor fellow—for he didn’t intend it, I know—a slug right in my eye here; and for some time I was in such agony that I didn’t know what occurred below, although I heard plenty of shots fired, and the sound of hand-to-hand fighting mingled with oaths, and curses, and cries.

“When I recollected myself again there was Black Harry near me surrounded by only four others, as well as I could see after wiping the blood off my face with part of my arm, which I was able to do by wriggling at my lashings; the rest must have gone under in the scrimmage.

“‘Now, you villain,’ I heard Black Harry say again in a voice full of spite and anger, ‘I’ve got you! Lash him up there in the lee rigging!’ says he to his fellow-murderers; and in a trice I saw the poor cap’en, quite pale and exhausted, fixed like a spread eagle in the mizzen shrouds to leeward. ‘Now, you villain!’ says Black Harry again, cocking one of the captain’s revolvers which he had ready in his hand, ‘you said you would riddle us just now if we didn’t go aloft after treating us like dogs ever since we came on board your cursed ship! Well, Jarvis, you dog—Cap’en Jarvis, I beg your pardon!—I intend to riddle you now!’

“The cap’en didn’t say a word; he only looked at him; but if looks could kill, his would then!

“‘You dog!’ said Black Harry again, after a stop to see if the captain would speak. ‘I’ve got three slugs in my stomach, and you’ve swore three times at me to-day like a dog—that makes six in all; I intend to send six shots through your vile carcass without killing you if I can help it. You knocked me down on the deck with the butt-end of your pistol, and ordered my body to be taken below by the hands, or else you said you’d throw it overboard. For that outrage I’ll take my last revenge, after riddling you like a sieve, by smashing in your skull, and pitching your vile carcass to the sharks—Dog!’

“With that the ruffian fired his first shot with the revolver at his powerless victim. The captain winced slightly, and I saw the bullet had carried off part of one of his ears.

“‘Ha!’ said Black Harry, ‘nervous, are you? Here’s another fillip for you.’

“But at the same moment the storm, which I had seen brewing up to windward, burst over the ship; and a tremendous wave seemed to flatten me down on the deck, the ring-bolt to which I was lashed preventing me from slipping away. When the rush of water had subsided, and I was able to hold up my head once more, my wounded eye smarting worse than ever, I saw that the mizzen and main masts with part of the foremast had been washed clean away with the shrouds, running-gear, and all their hamper, and, of course, the body of the poor captain, Black Harry, and all his companions in crime had been carried off too in the general wreck.

“How long I remained lashed to the deck of the crippled vessel with the waves dashing over me, the sport of the sea and the mark of the weather, I know not. The first thing I recollect after what appeared to be an eternity of torture, was that I found myself on board theSaracen, a screw steamer bound from New York to Southampton, which had sighted theGulnaretossing at the mercy of the wind and waves, and sent a boat to see whether there was anybody alive on board. I was on board, alive though senseless for a time, and brought to after much kindly solicitude; so, too, was little Peter, the cabin-boy, whom the mutineers had tied up in his bunk in the forecastle, and who was also alive, though nearly starved to death. Besides our two selves, there was no other living thing; but the bodies of Gripper, the second officer, Painter, the boatswain, and those of the mutineers who had not been washed overboard, were found floating about in the cabin, all with the marks of bullet and shot wounds and other injuries, to show that they had come by a violent death after a hard struggle.

“When my senses were to the fore again, naturally I informed my salvors of all that had occurred; and as the cargo of theGulnarewas a valuable one, her hull not very much damaged, and the weather calm and favourable, the captain of theSaracen, which had so providentially come across her—and a right good fellow he has been to me!—made up his mind to salvage my old ship if he could.”

“And so he towed her in here at Falmouth, and you made your depositions along with the cabin-boy, Peter, the only survivors of the catastrophe, about the facts of the case, for the benefit of the underwriters and the clearance of your own character?”

“Just so, mister,” said the man with the shade over his eye, who it strikes me from certain circumstances was of American nationality; “and that’s the whole story about ‘Black Harry,’ I guess!”

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